new additions

I may look like my mum, but I inherited my Dad's body shape. It's down to him I have these short chunky legs.
I find it difficult buying boots because it can be a trial squeezing my ample calves into them. So I was pleased as punch on Wednesday when I was doing my charity shop shift to find a pair of barely worn black boots which fitted me like a glove. Mine for £2.00.



I also found this top on the £1.00 rail.

This is destined for my sister's Christmas present box which is filling up nicely. I thought the colours were a bit Cath-esque. My sister's lounge is green and pink with hints of blue so it'll be perfect.

rummage and a ramble

I went to my first jumble sale for ages on Saturday morning. I was quite excited at the prospect of having a good rummage and managed to buy a couple of tops and 3 new skirts. This green one is my favourite. Perfect autumn colour I reckon.
After I had finished my bargain buying we set off for Salisbury and spent a very nice afternoon catching up with G's family.



On Sunday we knew we had a few things to do at home, but we also wanted to make sure we got out for a walk too so I checked the large bundle of leaflets I have accumulated which provide me with ideas for where we can locally and we chose a local nature park on the outskirts of town.

It was great for exploring, the children ran off ahead to see what could we found. This horizontally twisted tree trunk caught our eye.

There were still plenty of blackberries to be had

and lots of holly with the berries turning red.

Walking over this bridge led us out the other side of the copse where we found

a playground complete with a dinosaur

and gym equipment.

Back into the copse where we found a duck pond. The ducks immediately swam over to us and then lost interest when they realised we didn't have any bread for them. We also happened across these brown eyed beauties.

And this little minibeast was sunning itself on the fence. When it was flying around it's wings glinted a dazzling blue in the sunlight.

Back home we spent a little time playing on the Wii. I was compeltely hopeless at some kind of fencing game, which caused a great amount of laughing all round. S on the other hand was superb and her opponents were soon dismissed.

So I retired to the kitchen and left the experts to it and made a meal from this month's issue of Good Food magazine. French onion sausage hotpot. Apparently it tasted delicious.

this week I

:took T to the orthodonist to see if he was ready to have braces fitted. Not yet another 6 months to wait.

:went to TK Maxx to buy a chopping board. Bought a chopping board and the little bird tea light holder and PEACE bricks.

:didn't go to my weekly Zumba class as I was too shattered by 7.45pm to think about doing something so energetic.

:went to work on Tuesday to find out all sorts of major changes are underway and the office is full with feelings of uncertainty and concerned colleagues.

:did my weekly stint in the charity shop and only bought 3 things for myself. The shop has just had a re-fit and was very busy so I was limited in my looking around time!

:bought a new car and have enjoyed driving it. Thanks for the comments on the colour.

:met a friend at the art gallery to see writers of influence-shakespeare-j.k.-rowling touring exhibition which was fabulous. We also managed to squeeze in time for tea and cake!

:took T along to the first open evening of 3 to check out prospective senior schools.

:have had very little time to blog or read blogs, must try harder.

A green one

The deal has been done.
I drove our old red Vauxhall Astra on it's last journey with us so it could be exchanged for a green Peugeot 307.
The difference is amazing. This car is half the age of our old one and the controls are so much lighter and more sensitive, it'll take a couple of trips to get used to.
I was sad to see our old car go.
My dad helped us choose it and it's done it's job (mostly) very well over the 4 and a half years we had it.
I do like the colour of this one new though!

weekend

I can't believe it's Monday already. The weekend sped by and I don't feel like we did much or got anything accomplished. Saturday morning S had a party to go to. It was a 'Spa Soiree' and she had to go dressed in PJ'sand slippers. A roomful of girls painting glittery nail varnish over their toes, craft makes with lots of glittery and to top it off glittery hairspray. She loved it! G went off to London to the O2 for the Ozfest and arrvied home very tired but very happy in the early hours of Sunday after listening to, amongt others, Korn and Ozzy Osbourne.

Yesterday we did do one thing which was interesting. We went to a couple of homes near us which were open as part of the transition southampton groups open weekend. Finding out what others have done to their homes and having a chat and sharing experiences and info with them and other guests was great. At one home we were given homemade scones and rowan jam and hawthorn jam to try with them. T very thoughtfully suggested we send postcards to those we visited to say thank you for having us.
So even though that part of the day was good it was sandwiched between trips to car sales places as we need to buy a new (to us) car. Oh it's so boring, but necessary. I hope we find something soon and so we can do something more entertaining with our free time.

Eco garden part 2

Apart from the garden ideas, which I'm glad others have found just as interesting, there were plenty of other things on display.
Greeting you on entrance were these enormous pigs made from plastic. We all wanted to be able to have one of the smaller ones come home with us, not sure how we would've managed that one the train though! Each one was in fact a piggy money bank, complete with slot in it's back. They were part of the B&Q exhibit which was all about how we can do things around the home to help the environment which could in turn help us to save money.

S loved this water display, her hands were freezng cold after she spent ages playing with it.

These sheep are fab too helping to display the message on making sure your loft is properly insulated.

Extolling the virtues of line drying clothes and not resorting to a tumble dryer.

This statue is stood by the side exit of Marlborough House which then led onto

Clarence House. No idea if any royals were in residence on Sunday. This is where the garden ideas were on show.

Now I'm not entirely sure what this children's ark was about as I didn't get to read all the info about it, but I do know it's been touring around the country and it looks very jolly with all it's brightly painted paintwork.

S had been given the mascot doll, named Olivia, from her Rainsbows group for the week and so she came along for the visit too. Up on the ark's first floor there was a craft area and here in a workshop run by a couple of very nice girls from Traid, S got to make herself a little brooch with some felt, ricrac and a button. I was itching to make something too but it was busy and it was a session for the children!

S got a second craft session in the Marks and Spencer exhibition. They were giving out their organic cotton bags with the lovely Twiggy on which you could then go and decorate with pens and sticky shapes. In this, very bad, photo you can see the one Twiggy made herself. As it was busy I bought my bag home to decorate.

Outside the ark were a row of bikes which you could hop on to to help generate power.

T did his bit in a very relaxed fashion!

I thought this house made out of pallets was an ingenious idea.

Although I didn't eat one of these I thought they looked very nice indeed sat in their glass jars.

No garden party, eco or otherwise, would be complete without bunting and there was this gorgeous Union Jack patterned one hanging up at the tea and coffee stands

and even some printed onto the fabric trying to disguise the hoardings and such like.

On Sunday there was an Eco car rally happening outside the garden party and there were a few pieces such as this made from recycled car parts around.

We didn't spend much time looking at the cars, just a perusal as we wandered along on our way to the entrance, BUT there was someone there who I found much more interesting than cars. Kevin McCloud! G said when his voice come over the loud speaker I dashed off in it's direction like a lovelorn teenager! An pleasant unexpected bonus to what was a wonderful day out with my little family.

Eco Garden Party

We had a really great family day out yesterday. We travelled up to London to go to the start garden party which is being held in some very exclusive gardens. Those of Clarence, Marlborough and Lancaster House.
It is a project co-ordinated by a charity of Prince Charles and it's aim is to make us all aware of how to can do things to help the environment.
I was really taken with all the innovative ideas shown for 'growing your own' and came away feeling quite inspired.
This idea is from the Allotment Society (I think) and shows that not a lot of room is needed to be able to grow your own. The ladder allotment makes use of vertical space. Lots of other displays used this idea too.



Love the wellies planted up in this one.

A dustbin full of lavender, tree branches used as supports for tomatoes,

an interesting potting table complete with kitchen sink,

herbs grow in cut up plastic bottles,

I had to smile when I saw the stepladder as I got one for our garden (from Freecycle, very eco-friendy) this summer!

Chilli's grown in lengths of plastic guttering.

Love this pond in an old bath.

Here holes have been cut into an old door to house yogurt pots and then these are used for growing salad leaves.

The front

The back

A different use for a wheelbarrow.

I love the idea of making use of items that may otherwise have just been dumped, using them for growing food to eat and also making the garden look interesting too.

Shortbread

All.Butter.Mocha.Shortbread.
Need I say more?