Ipswich Waterfront Craft Fair- October 2010

Hello again...it's been a while..

It's been so long since I last wrote in this blog..a lot has happened over that time..and in some ways not so much! I realise now that you need time and commitment to persevere with a blog when you are working. You need to set time aside...for taking pictures...writing and thinking..

I've just finished this baby quilt for my soon to be(hopefully!)born neice. She was due on Saturday, so at the moment we are all waiting and wondering what each phone message might bring! My sister has mixed feelings, she seems so worried about what life holds after the birth, I'm sure this is natural, it is so scary. But I know she'll be ok, but she seems to need a lot of convincing right now!

Mum and me are hoping to drive to her on Wednesday if baby hasn't arrived as Stu goes down to Frome that day for work.

I really enjoyed my first expereince of making a quilt, once I'd actually made the effort to start it, the process went quickly and strangely loved the sewing of tiny stitches for the bias binding around the edge. It took me 2 nights of sewing into the early hours watching telly, but was quite relaxing...

Mum's semi-surprise 60th birthday tea party..

After a fair few months of preparation, worry, boot sales and charity shops, the culmination of all our planning finally came to fruitition on January 3rd , the date of Mum's 60th tea party, her actual birthday being boxing day. The week leading up to it was carefully planned with mass baking between my shifts at work and I had to relent from our plan to not let mum get involved by asking if she'd mind doing the scones! Jo did some baking up in London, fab brownies and macaroons and even Dad baked a fantastic lemon drizzle cake. On the day, Jo and Stu hired a car and drove down and started setting up the Village Hall we'd hired, while Gwen and myself and Joan got down to making sandwiches.. then it was all hands on deck at the hall..the two lovely ladies above Gwen and Jill, were invaluable in being very practical while I ran around like a headless chicken worrying about the time and not knowing what job to start on next! They also became our 'tealadies' later on..The best bit was seeing all the tables set, all the tea sets we'd collected, tablecloths, cake stands, candlesticks, and all the other little bits..it just looked so lovely..and Jo and Stu had copied photos of mum when she was younger and found some old photo frames which were put on each table...

When people started arriving, it was a bit scary, but it all came together. Jo and Stu, Gwen and Jill, Sue, Joan, Hannah and Rosie all helped brilliantly...the idea of having tea seemed to go down really well, something we hadn't expected..and the consensus as people came in and out of the kitchen to fetch more supplies was that people seemed to be really enjoying it..which was the main thing...Stu had put together a great compilation of songs on his ipod which we played through speakers..and later on we all had a little boogie to some of mum's favourites...'I love it when you call' by The Feeling, 'Suspicious Minds' by Elvis...'Lost in France' by Bonnie Tyler (??!!!!) All in all a very enjoyable night... Happy Birthday Mother...

Lewis..

Welcome to the world Lewis and well done Liv...this little chap arrived 3 days early about 5 hours after I'd left Liv and Myles, spending a nice afternoon in the garden with them. He's gorgeous...

Loving Latitude....

A few pictures from a great weekend at Henham Hall in Southwold, the 3rd year of the Latitude Festival. The picture above is Sigur Ros, probably my highlight of the weekend..as were Elbow, Go-Team, Amadou and Mariam and Grinderman..These pictures were taken by Mr Passey, a housemate and friend of sister Jo..I forgot my camera..I'd never met Jo and Stu's friends from London, but they were lovely and it's the best I've felt in a long while..much needed music and mingling..other highlights were Simon Armitage who was as down to earth as imagined and very funny, Stewart Lee and the milkshakes/smoothies, literally chocolate snacks like jaffa cakes, hob nobs, chocolate orange , strawberry cheesecake blended up with milk and ice cream..superb!..roll on next year...

She laid a good egg...

R.I.P. Meave ...