Shopping with a conscience

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I recently read a recommendation for the above book ‘Over dressed’ by Elizabeth L. Cline and found it in my local library.  It is an excellent read and one that reinforced my own thoughts about our consumer society.  I do try and shop conscientiously, I do look for where an item has been made to ascertain the possible working conditions in which it has been produced and I will seek out items made in the UK.  I’m delighted that our new kitchen units were all produced in the UK as was the new bedroom furniture we bought last year, with the recent economic difficulties we have to support our British businesses   I have tried to be proactive on my stance, writing to my favourite shops for their policies on working practices and fair wages and commenting on their products. For example,  I recently wrote to Cath Kidston a brand which sells itself as quintessentially English yet all its clothing was made in China.  As much as I love their prints and products I cannot comfortably buy their clothes now, such a shame but I’m happy to live to my principles.  This attitude to clothing means that I am making fewer purchases and my wardrobe is more streamlined.  In a society which has become more throwaway and we only wear on average 20% of our wardrobes I like to think I am making more sensible choices.

At times it can be difficult to buy goods I’m happy with, especially clothes and consequently I have become more interested in vintage for a variety of reasons, quality, materials, recycling etc..  I’m yet to find a hidden clothing gem but did find this beautiful, British made  vintage clutch bag in mint condition in a charity shop for £3.  I used it for the first time at a Christmas party on Friday and it made me feel fabulous.  I had gone for a 60s inspired look, fab eye make up, a black tunic embellished with a little sparkle and the fantastic bag.

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Next year my challenge is to include more vintage and hopefully start to make my own simple clothing. I made a skirt in Home Ec when I was 12, have I the same skills 30 years later?

Christmas Tree

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Today I went to our county town for a car service and a few bits of Christmas shopping.  Walking back to the garage, I passed this amazing tree outside an old peoples’ home.  My photography skills don’t do it justice but it is a tree covered in knitted woolly squares with pom poms hanging down.  I love that the residents have been creative in making something to brighten their grounds.  I thought it was wonderful and such an original, fun idea.

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas ….

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This week, we have started to decorate the house for Christmas.  For me its not simply about the tree so the decorating will take a few days as I do window displays, tableaux etc.  However, the tree is up and it is a beautiful real tree chosen by Mr S and gleefully decorated by us all.  Today’s post is just to illustrate the stories behind some of my favourite decorations, dressing the tree is a reminder of our story and our joy at being a family.

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Our first decoration is a Swarovski star from 2003, the year of our wedding, its beautiful and the light shimmers and sparkles through it.  2003 was a wonderful year, we started the year on a dream holiday in Australia and married in Rome in the Summer, it was also my 30th birthday and a year full of hope, excitement and anticipation.

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For many years, I found Christmas really difficult, its a celebration for children and we desperately wanted our own family.  During these years, Christmas was spent quietly at home or abroad on holiday.  This Swarovski crystal angel is so important to me, its our little angel, our baby boy in heaven who is loved so much and always in our hearts and thoughts.  I always shed a tear putting this up, so I do it on my own when I can have a few minutes to reflect.

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Whilst you cannot read the bauble clearly, it reads Happy Christmas 2010, the year all our dreams came true and we became a family.  Joy and Love are placed around the bauble to remind us of the gifts our children have brought to us.

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These knitted decorations are also from 2010, I loved getting ready for Christmas this year and my style changed from one of elegant stars and angels to bright and fun characters.  Christmas in our house is bright, bold and fun now.

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Whilst we embrace the fun and excitement of Christmas, I strongly believe that we should also respect and honour the true Christmas story.  We have a very simple Nativity scene, I ‘inherited’ it from Mum and Dad who bought in one year on holiday, I loved it so much it was gifted to me after lots of hints.  Its simplicity is what appeals so much.  I have a full nativity scene on my wooden Advent calendar but this is my favourite.  The angels remind me of our annual trip to the Cologne Christmas market, I taught German to just one class but this was suffice to get me on the trip as a leader, the best school trip of the year.   Traditionally the angels are hand crafted and unique and I would buy one every year for my decorations.

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Finally here is this year’s new decoration, I like to add one decoration a year and with this year’s first visit to Disney, this was my special purchase.  Its bright, glittery and fun, perfect for us and reminds us of a very special family time.

I love that our Christmas tree tells the story of our family.  It is complemented by the children’s’ beautiful home made decorations and each year a little more history is added.

Paddington

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Charming Promo Poster for David Heyman's 'Padding

Its rare that we go to see a film on opening weekend, our nearest multiplex cinema is a 40 mile round trip so we have to be very excited to make such plans.  Today was one of those films that we were all keen to see and wishing to have a quiet relaxed weekend before all the Christmas parties and events sprinkle the diary, it was the perfect timing.

Paddington was one of those books and television programmes which I fondly remember as a child and its charm and wit were beautifully transferred to this film.  Its a timeless film which could be set in any decade, but it had a magical quality, I loved the scenes in the antique shop and around London a mix of fantasy and fairy tale against the city setting.  The children loved the slapstick but for me it was the beauty of the themes which made the film.  Its about belonging, with poignant references to World War 2 child evacuees and the importance of being and loving as a family.  It felt so relevant to our family life and a few tears did fall in the darkness of the cinema.

This story was such a part of my childhood that I reminisced with the children of when Granfer would take me to find Paddington Bear at Paddington station.  I remember the Paddington so well, a very large plush Paddington Bar in a glass case and I loved it.  I’ve since been on the Internet and cannot find an image anyway, its so frustrating when you can remember something so clearly in your head but cannot find any evidence on the net.  Now, there is a statue at Paddington station and whilst it looks lovely, for me  it doesn’t have the same charm and style of the 1970/80s model.

Being in the moment

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The children have been asking for some play doh playtime all this week.  Its been a busy week with sickness, a ballet recital, school trips and just the daily ‘busyness’ of life so such an activity was difficult to fit in but I had promised that we would get creative at the weekend.  The pleas were still being made this morning, so after hair cuts and football, we settled down to our play doh afternoon. Now, it would be easy just to prep up the activity and leave the children to play whilst I tried to tackle some of my never ending to do list, but something in me felt the need to be in the moment to be playing, listening and creating with the children.  They are growing up so quickly and its these moments I’ll remember and look back fondly on in the years to come, I want the children to remember me as Mum who was there, did stuff and laughed with them.

Poppies

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Today is Remembrance Sunday and I feel strongly about honouring and remembering our armed services who have served in conflict around the world.  This afternoon, I took the children to the annual Remembrance Day parade in town, it was a wet afternoon but there was an impressive crowd of all ages.  It was a simple parade, an old WW2 vehicle leading, enabling some of the more infirm veterans to participate, a pipe band providing the music, a group of veterans proudly parading in their uniforms and medals, local dignitaries and public service organisations and then current soldiers from a local garrison.  We watched the parade, which paraded first to the parish church for a short service and then to the war memorial for the wreath laying ceremony.   During the service, I took the children to the war memorial which already had a number of wreaths around it despite the official ceremony not having taken place.  I wanted to show the children the memorial up close, Little Man had been talking about soldiers names and I wanted to see if we could find a soldier who shared his name on the memorial, unfortunately it was simply initials for the first names so we weren’t able to but we did find multiple entries for some family names, it was quite emotional discussing with the children that these men may have been brothers, cousins etc..

Finding a soldier with your name or birthday was always an activity we used to do when as a French teacher, I helped to run  school trips to Normandy.  The rows of graves at the Commonwealth cemeteries was so powerful and we liked to think that this activity helped our students have a special link with a fallen soldier, rather than be overwhelmed by the sight of all the graves.

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There has been much in the news of the art installation, Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red at the Tower of London, where in the moat they have planted more than 880,000 ceramic poppies to represent the Commonwealth dead of WW1.  I have not been able to visit it but it is stunning and such a powerful and emotive memorial.  I have purchased one of the ceramic poppies, which will raise money for armed forces charities and am looking forward to displaying it in our home.  We will remember them…

Halloween

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I have read a number of recent blog posts and commentary arguing that Halloween was never as ‘big’ as it is now, however I differ to this thinking as I remember Halloween being an important part of my childhood, perhaps a little less commercial, for example costumes were fashioned from existing clothes but still a time of fun and treats.  This could be down to my Celtic connections, Halloween was always celebrated, bobbing for apples and 50p pieces, jumping up to the syrup pudding and getting dressed up, always followed the next day by the Holy Day of Obligation Mass.  We were often in Scotland at my grandparents for Halloween as it coincided with half term and so its a time of year I always associate with them.  Sadly, my lovely Gramps died on Halloween when I was 18 and fifteen years later I was back in Scotland for the half term week for my Grandma’s funeral.  That week has also been a busy time for family birthdays so there were often lots of cousins and family up with my grandparents too, happy childhood memories.

Halloween is also a significant date in my life, not only did I lose my Gramps on the date when I was 18, a wise, kind and loving man but on Halloween when I was 25, I met my husband.  I like the symmetry of these two men ‘sharing’ a date as they have so many shared characteristics,  love, kindness, family values and responsibility.  Sixteen years ago Halloween was a miserable, wet and cold Saturday night and I was out in town with a friend to see a band, the sort of night you wouldn’t go out in but we wanted to see the band, it was only a gig in a pub and they never made it big!  When we left the pub we ran to the nearest club for a dance and a few more drinks and there on the dance floor I met my husband, I even remember the song playing, Daydream Believer by the Monkees.  Whilst our wedding anniversary is important, Halloween always has a little more significance, its our day!

Our plan for today is a trip to a local attraction which has free entry for everyone in fancy dress.  We went a couple of years ago and it was brilliant, stunning costumes and lots of Halloween treats with a great atmosphere.  We have our Halloween picnic ready.  Before we leave we will pop over to the neighbours to show them our costumes, I’m a witch, Little Miss a gothic bride, her choice following the Phantom House at Disney and Little Man is Frankenstein.  When Daddy gets home from work tonight we’ll play some traditional Halloween games, it just isn’t Halloween without apple bobbing!

Halloween Baking

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As tomorrow I’m planning on taking the children out for the day, today was the day to prepare for Halloween.  We’ve decorated the kitchen, recycling old costumes as decorations, carved the pumpkin and done the baking for tomorrow’s themed lunch.  Above in the photo is some of our baking.  We’ve made orange flavoured pumpkin cake pops, covered in orange chocolate, bat biscuits sprayed with a silver sheen and ghost and mummy cheese biscuits.  I’m proud to say that this is our work, the children were enthusiastic bakers and are becoming much more independent in their work, they were in charge of measuring, mixing and rolling the ingredients.  The finished products may not be perfect but there is so much love,enthusiasm and work gone into making them.

I really enjoyed making the cake pops this morning, my first attempt.  The moulds are brilliant and the cakes were excellent.  I found it more difficult with the coating as it was a specialist ingredient and I need a few more trials.  However I have many ideas bubbling for Christmas baking using the pops.  I had bought an edible ink pen, however this wasn’t as effective as I had hoped and whilst probably better on icing it did not work well on the cake pop coating or the cheese biscuits where I was trying to draw on bandages and facial features.  I like to note down these reflections to remind me for the next time.

In addition to the baked goods above, our lunch tomorrow will include a few more treats, sandwiches in the shape of ghosts, wrapped sausages in bread with tomato sauce as bloodied fingers and ghost bananas and pumpkin satsumas, I love a theme!

Rushing Through Life

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I came across this quote on my guilty pleasure of Pinterest last week.  It made me pause and reflect on my own life, putting into words how I’ve been feeling recently.  I am so lucky to have a loving husband, two amazing children, a part time job which I love and materially all I need.  Yet I feel I have been missing my passion, vitality and spirit.  I looked in the mirror last week to see a grey face staring back, lines appearing and looking tired.  I am not vain but it was a shock to see myself ageing.  I also had a lot of diary entries last week and felt that at times  I was simply there in body rather than spirit.  Last week was a week I look forward to annually as by a quirk of my working life I have 4 days off work whilst the children are at school.  However my days ended full of appointments and rather than getting the opportunity to do some creative things, purchase some festive material for Christmas stockings and buntings, I was meeting education psychologists to ensure one of our littlies gets all the support they need in school, fighting the education authority’s refusal to do a special needs assessment, supporting a prospective adopter by meeting and offering advice, objecting to another planning application on a neighbour’s house which would invade our privacy etc ..  The result of all these appointments was that  I was so drained I felt ill and just wanted to curl up in bed and sleep.  Whilst I did not work, I felt I was physically and mentally recovering from such a demanding period at school.    My work life balance is not in equilibrium at present and I am not the person I want to be.  I want to be the caring and supportive wife, loving and fun Mum, home maker, fit and healthy, creative and vibrant, sparkling woman I know is the real me.  My challenge is to rediscover her so everyone benefits.

 

@Bristol – Science at its Best

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This weekend we spent the weekend with our parents.  Firstly there is the diplomacy to manage to ensure that each family sees the children for the same amount of time, we counter this by staying at both families with the children swapping houses on each night.  Saturday morning was spent with Grandad and Saturday afternoon with Grandma and Granfer and then all together on Sunday morning, its a logistical challenge with lots of driving between the houses, but hopefully a solution which pleases all.

On this visit we were able to visit the interactive Science museum in the centre of Bristol @Bristol.  Its somewhere I’ve wanted to visit for a long time and the children now seem to be at an age when they can make the most of the facilities the museum offers.  The children are at a great age and I am really looking forward to doing more activities with them, each age just makes the children more entertaining, interesting and fantastic company.

The museum was brilliant, everything was interactive and I learnt so much.  The museum has different themes, the body, the solar system, an exhibition on food, simple physics as well as demonstrations, little shows etc.. I had so many favourite activities, freeze your shadow was amazing, looking at my veins pumping blood fascinating, checking my vital statistics and learning that my resting heart beat is good was reassuring and a go at making a short animation which was emailed back to me made me feel quite creative.  My parents and the children loved the museum too and it was lovely to see them explaining all to the children like they used to with me.  I think they too have been patiently waiting to visit the museum to explore and learn.  It is the type of museum you just don’t want to leave and when you do, you are already planning the next trip.