Wednesday 23 October 2013

Autumn Creations




Our poor neglected garden is still doing us proud, and producing marvelous specimens like these.  They aren't oversized courgettes (honest) but two lovely marrows.  We had them for lunch last weekend, stuffed with tasty sausagemeat, mushrooms, peppars and olives, followed by a yummy crumble, made from of our modest bramley harvest.  This special lunch was shared with our friends and their two children, we haven't had them over since our building work began.  It was soo nice to be able to all sit comfortabley in our new room (get used to hearing about the new room a lot, it has made a huge impact on our quality of life!), and best of all have a good catch up with some lovely friends.  they have two boys, one the same age as ours(3ish), and a younger boy who is nearly one.  He was just walking and had no built in fear of anything hazardous, i'd forgotten how much you have to watch them, and thankfully his Mum noticed when he was choking on a marble, or making a bee line for the hot stove, our house is just a giant deathtrap to a little one that age.  We had a great afternoon, which ended abruptly when the general 3-4pm meltdown occurred, this seems to be the witching hour from all children from birth to hopefully not much longer for us. 



I have been on a creative spree of late, before another load of work arrived, demanding my proffesional head be put on.  A Mum from Pre-school has invited me to have a pitch at her child's school Christmas Fair.  So i set to making a few fresh bits and bobs to tempt people for the festive  season.  I raided my stash of cloth, and decided to try out a new shaped bagI was really pleased with the first attempt, the crazy orange daisy bag below.


So i have whipped up a few more, in lovely retro cloths.  I have lined them all with some lovely unbleached calico, and included an inside pocket for all those bits that get lost in the chaos of a good sized bag.  I must admit to wanting to keep them all but i will be strong and think of the pennies(fingers crossed).

A rather marvellous London Cab with its winter coat on!


Look its them off the Sewing Bee!
It hasn't all been work, work, work though.  I managed to get to the Knitting and Stitching Fair at Ally Pally the other weekend.  My good friend and I headed off in the early hours to the big smoke, and had a thoroughly lovely day.  We were both quite restrained in our purchases, buying a few treats, and as has become our tradition, stopped on the way home for an Ikea fix and a tea of their fine if equine meatballs.  More of my purchases another time!

Another make for the Christmas fair!


Friday 4 October 2013

Mixed Bag

It has been a busy few weeks at Chez Lulumama.  September is over and i only managed three posts last month, I have kind of lost my way a bit.  The first few weeks of September shot by, maybe it is because Master W has started going to pre-school for his full 15 hours a week.  Our 'days off' are kept busy meeting up with friends.   I spend a lot of time with two lovely ladies and their little ones,  we all met at our NCT classes and have met up regularly since.  Our Thursday meet ups have become sacred, to the point where we arrange everything around them.  We alternate between houses, so it at least forces me to do some cleaning every 3 weeks!  Along with lots of other friends i have made since becoming a Mummy, my two pals have helped me through some difficult times.  So to anyone reading this who is expecting , i would say go to an antenatal class/bumps and babes group, friends are your most important piece of 'equipment'.

We have gathered all safely in, although the pear harvest was gathered a bit late and mushyness set in before i could use them all up.  Today's Pear, Hazelnut and Chocolate cake became Apple, Hazelnut and...etc as the first fruit I selected fell apart in my hands.


We have had some visitors recently, a delightful pair of young Guinea Pigs called Pancake and Pea.  Below is a blurry shot of Pea on my son's knee, he is a bit blase about animals, but he got rather fond of this pair.  They have now returned home, and we miss them and their funny little noises!



The other excitement in September was a special camping trip to The 39th Henham Steam Rally, in Henham Park near Southwold(where they hold The Latitude Festival-but with a slightly different crowd!).  It all began on Thursday afternoon when one of my friend's husband and cousin loaded the roller they help with  onto a lowloader to go off to the fair,  right outside my house.  Three excited toddlers(and us) watched as it slid dramatically off the loading ramps, as you can see it was very wet and apparently has no grip in the wet.  It was very exciting seeing 10+tonnes of metal nearly come to a sticky end.  They expertly stopped it all ending in disaster and got it on in the end.  We took the littlies  camping at Henham when they were still tiny and they loved it.  So along with two aforementioned friends we made camp in a lovely area of the estate.  There was a sweet little wood behind the tents, which our three and all the children on site it seemed, made their own camp.  They had a whale of a time messing about with sticks and gathering giant pine cones.



Then of course there is the main attraction of the event-everything steam driven.  From the shiny phut-phutting traction engines and rollers, to the steam powered funfair, Henham has it all!  We spent all of Saturday wandering around looking, smelling and riding on the various attractions.

Even dogs like a bit of smoke and steam!!
In the evening we took the two boys off to the Funfair for some noisy  fun.  My friend's little boy was amazingly brave and enjoyed a ride on the big wheel.
He doesn't look madly happy here, but he did love it, and even went back on the next day for another go.  It was great to see the fair with all its bright lights and gaudy colours, the big showman's engine and steam powered Gallopers were very popular with our little ones.
The weather over the weekend was amazing, it was very warm on the Sunday, it felt more like June than September.  We did a bit more exploring on the last day, and watched some of the events in the main arena, the tortoise race and grand parade were fantastic.  Our two boys however were a little overwhelmed and both fell asleep during this.  Despite over 20 engines tooting their whistles they stayed fast asleep!  We headed off home with cries of "I don't want to go home" coming from the backseat, but we reassured him that we would return next year!