Shopping

As I mentioned before, Claire has a week's holiday this week. We decided to take a trip up to Ikea today as Jon was going to be at home and we could take his car (it's bigger!). We picked Mum up on the way and were there shortly after they opened. As you can see in the above photo, the clouds had gathered by the time we arrived and it was threatening rain.

Claire and Mum

It was also quite chilly but we had decided not to take jackets in with us - brrrrr!!! We spent a couple of hours walking round the displays before stopping for some lunch and then going on to the Market Place and to collect our larger items. I've been wanting an Expedit bookcase to put some of my scrapbooking supplies in and today, finally got it. Also picked up a few of the CD towers for Hugh and Emily. Fortunately, we managed to get it all in the back of the car (seats down and through the middle of the seats).

Now it's all sitting in the room in boxes, waiting for me to assemble ;) I didn't have the energy to do it tonight. I believe Dad has built Mum's little cabinet and has offered to give me a hand tomorrow if I need it - Jon will be back at work (much to his relief! hehe) And a bit of storage never goes wrong.

Off to relax for a while before heading up to bed.

xx

Happy Birthday, Mum!

WARNING: Lots of photos in this post so I'll try and keep the writing to a minimum ;) Today is my Mum's **th birthday, and she looks jolly good for her age! Yesterday she had family round for tea and cakes in celebration. As always, she put on a lovely spread which was enjoyed by everyone. Jon did the honours, lighting the candles. I did notice that Mum kept the number of candles down to make it easier blowing them out - what a spoil sport ;)

Tyler enjoyed watching her doing the deed regardless of how many candles there were!

Emily and Claire with their cousin, Faith.

My sister, Kay.

My brother, Iain.

Iain's wife Louise and son, Max, in the background.

Emily and Faith getting some food.

Tyler and I had great fun playing with his digger :)

Today Mum and I went and did our weekly grocery shopping in the morning as usual but at lunch time, Claire and I took Mum and Dad to Prezzo's for lunch. Prezzo's is a local Italian restaurant that we love going to and today was no different.

Mum

Dad

Mum and Claire

Claire

In other news, I finally finished the quilt. Once I'd finished sewing on the binding, I decided the border was a bit plain so I did a bit more quilting. Fortunately, once I'd finished that I was happy with the end result.

And last night it was put to good use!

xx

Saturday's story

A good start to the day was not having to get up at 7am. I wasn't much later - about 7.30am but it makes all the difference knowing you don't have to get up! I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way ;)

I did a bit more sewing this morning and started a new project. Hope to be finished with some of it tomorrow. I only have the hand sewing round the binding on the quilt to do - which shouldn't take long. I've enjoyed sewing again and am already thinking about my next project.

At lunch time we went and picked up Emily's friend Fleur so that the two of them could walk around town together. My baby is growing up and I now drop her and a friend off in town to do their thing while I go and do whatever I need to do and then go and have a coffee until they're ready to go home again. I like that she's becoming more independent but it also feels strange - she's my youngest!

When I dropped Fleur off, Emily was invited to stay there for little while until Fleur's mum went to work at 4pm. I came home and worked on my sewing a bit more while the light was decent. I find once it starts getting darker I battle with seeing properly (old age I guess, lol!!!)

Just after Emily got home the ice cream van came round - first time in 2009. Jon went out and got us each a 99 Flake cone, it feels like Spring!! I, naturally, wanted to take photos to mark the occassion ;) and Emily had a good laugh at me trying to take photos with my big camera - while holding my ice cream in one hand!! I didn't post the last two, didn't think you'd want to see her tonsils haha!

Jon has been out in the garden today. Slug pellets have been put round the plants, the grass has been cut again and the borders neatened up. Feels good!!

Tomorrow it's birthday tea and cake round at Mum and Dad's for Mum's birthday on Monday. I'm sure I'll manage to get a few photos then too.

Hope you're having a good weekend too.

xx

Sometimes life gets in the way

I know it's been a little while since I last posted but life seems to have got in the way of me sitting down to write. Likewise, I owe people emails and haven't got round to them either - sorry, will try harder! Following on from the last post, Jon got offered the job he had had the interview for and starts on Monday. Needless to say we are very grateful that everything went well and he is back in work again. The wonderful weather didn't stay and since then we've had heavy rain, hail on a few occassions and at times a taste of the wonderful sunshine once more. It's really unpredictable so when we do go out it's best to be prepared for any weather. Last weekend Emily went to a sleepover at her friend Emily's house. It was a little reunion for a few of the girls from their Junior School as they are no longer in the same class and one is at a different school. Emily wasn't sure how much sleep she'd get but it wasn't as bad as we thought it might be and they had a lovely time. This photo was taken the morning after as the girls were going home again. My Emily is on the end on the right. We have a few birthdays this month and I decided to make some cards on Monday afternoon. This first card was for Emily's friend Emily's little brother who turned 7 yesterday. I'm all about simple at the moment - makes life much easier ;) The second card was for Hugh's girlfriend Sarah

Sarah's birthday was also yesterday and she came up last night. Once she'd opened her presents she had to come and blow out the candles on Colin the caterpillar cake (why did M&S name him?).

Yay, time to eat cake!

I still don't know what that face was about!

Hugh and Sarah will have been going out for three years in June. We all love Sarah and she's one of the family now.

I have also been working on the quilt when I get a chance. I'd quilted the main body and needed to pull through the ends and tie and finish them off. The lighting in our lounge is not brilliant, and neither is my eyesight, so I decided to sit in the bay window at the front where the lighting is much better and I could see what I was doing. I brought over a cushion to make it more comfortable and settled in for the duration. I must have looked quite strange sitting in the window (red light district in Amsterdam springs to mind - haha!!) and Jon certainly had a good laugh when he got home a bit later on. I did, however, get that part finished and now I've got to trim off the excess wadding and do the binding. I'm looking forward to seeing the finished article now. Tom decided the cushion in the window was an excellent idea and seems to have claimed it as his spot. He can now lie and watch the world go by in comfort!

We have a couple of things planned for this weekend and I am looking forward to not having to get up too early either morning as Claire is going on holiday from today until the 16th :) Have a great weekend everyone.

xx