An Eventful Day!

 

I am loving the slow starts we have been able to enjoy this week.

I haven't actually had lie ins as such, maybe a few minutes, but have just spent longer over my first cup of tea of the day, spent longer ( than I should have probably!) surfing the web, took longer to get dressed....you get the picture, just generally taking it slow.

I took my usual trip to Lidl and was pleased to see a garden storage box in their middle aisles ( the only aisle Hubby ever goes to when he is in the shop!)

 

It said, "no tools, just click into place"

Well just how hard can it be I thought....yep....THAT hard!!

The Teens and I did our best to be logical, look at the pictures, study each piece carefully....but nope, my blood pressure started to go through the roof, so we decided there was no choice but to leave it for Hubby...well we've got to let him know he has his uses haven't we!

 

 

Teen Two helped me in the garden, doing some much needed weeding...

 

 

....and he had a little helper too!

 

Teen One made some flapjack, inspired by a friend who said they had made some with a
 white chocolate and yogurt topping.

I searched for a recipe online and found this one.
It is delicious!

 

When Hubby came home, needless to say, he didn't need to look at the instructions and in minutes had the unit all put together!

 

It is really roomy and will fit in the bunny hay/woodshavings, which are bulky and take up too much floor space in our already full up garage,

and there is plenty of room for the garden furniture cushions, in the winter and when it rains in summer, they take a long time to dry out so on weeks like this week when we have heavy rain one day followed by days of sunshine, it will be nice to have somewhere to quickly store them.

 

Hubby also put up my new gazebo canopy...it looks sooooo much better!

 

Hubby thinks The Range have used different fabric this time, so hopefully it will last longer than the last one.

 

I busied myself with the usual chores and digging out a suitcase for Teen One, who goes to camp tomorrow....I had thought I got the right one out earlier in the week before I rearranged the little attic storage space, but nope...I had to pull it all out again!!

But the BIG event of the day was going to collect Teen One's car!!!

She drove home (with me as passenger) with no probs.

Being an older car it has some knocks and rattles that are a little disconcerting when you have only driven a new car, but it has passed its MOT and been taken back for one of the noises, but our friend's daughter was assured all was well, so Teen One will no doubt get used to the noises too.

 

Hubby will give it a quick going over to see if there is anything he can do to quieten it.

Its going to be sat on the road for the next week now though, and later next week the "black box" will be fitted.

Do all mums worry this much when their children get their first set of wheels or is it just me?

 

 

"The Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want."



"Oh I Do Like To Live Beside The Seaside..."

 

This morning was a "take it as we find it" morning, with me having a slow start, the Teens having an even slower one, and just some general catching up around the house.

With the sun shining down, we decided to take a walk along the seafront and try out a new fish and chip restaurant.

Our pier has been derelict for several years and in times past was a place to avoid anyway, but some local businessmen have invested millions into it and it is starting to pay off...

 

 

...the interior is tastefully decorated and we felt very comfortable in our booth, admiring the sea views and stylish surroundings

 

 

my portion of fish and chips was generous and very tasty, barely any oil and very fresh, we could see everything being made from our seats.

It was a tad on the high side, £9.99 however that is average nowadays and we were paying for lovely surroundings so as  a treat I didn't mind.

The staff couldn't have tried harder to make us feel at home, it was clear they have been trained to ensure customer satisfaction is achieved.

I hope it keeps us this standard.

 

 

We enjoyed a walk along the pier, its been many years since this was possible

 

 

The sea air and warm breeze was such a contrast to yesterday!

 

 

We considered hiring one of the pedalos, but the queue was rather long so we decided to just carry on walking...

 

 

...enjoying the beautiful wild flowers that have been planted all over the city...

 

 

...taking time to smell the roses in the Rose Garden and then appreciating the simple style of the Japanese Garden...

 

...trying to find the queen bee in the local Natural History Museum...

 

 

 

...and being very grateful for the glass screen that separated us from the thousands of bees in there!

 

 

We learnt that the larger drone bees don't sting...but the worker bee has a tasty barbed sting!

 

 

Great views were to be had from a little manmade hillock, it was also very peaceful...

 

 

But no visit to the seaside is complete without the obligatory stone throwing...

 

 

...and a general chill out listening to the crashing waves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stick To The Made From Scratch!

 

The weather was pretty miserable Wednesday, so the morning starting slowly, a cuppa with some toast and a catch up on some blogs....which always makes me want to dedicate a day to nothing but crafting!

There are so many talented bloggers out there, it really is inspiring, how rich our lives have become because of the internet don't you think?

My late grandmother would really have embraced this new technology and I can imagine her home being filled with all manner of UFO's as she embarked on the latest craze!

One of my goals yesterday was to identify the herbs in the selection I had bought in Lidl's last week....

 

 

 

...I am fairly confident the small variegated leaf to the right is lemon thyme and the larger leave to the right is oregano, which I learnt is closely related to marjoram.

I found a recipe online for lemon thyme yogurt cake with ginger syrup so may get Teen One to give that a go today.

 

 

I was in a bit of a sorting out mood  and advertised on our local freecycle page a few items,

some vintage toy patterns...

 

 

 

...a spiralizer I bought cheaply last year, which was such a faff to use and wasted so much of the veggie just didn't seem worth the bother. I did keep the wastage and freeze for soups and casseroles, but I decided for all the setting up, washing, faffing and wastage I would prefer to buy a pack at under a pound when I felt the urge.

A local family has often been on the receiving end of my ads and we often joke that I am on a mission to empty my house and fill hers!

She had the above two items yesterday and I then listed a single pink curtain, which bizzarely her daughter had asked her to look out for the other day!

I suggested she just give me a wish list and I see if I have it in the house!

Its  good to know things I have held on to for years but know I will never use are finally going to a good home.

 

 

 

Teen One spent some time making up sweet treats from a Christmas stocking present a year or two ago.

I had actually thought the moulds were much smaller than this and thought she would like to make jewellery with it using polymer clay, but they were way too big for that,

however she had a play ...

 

 

...and created some cute little treats to share out.

 

 

 

We had a friend coming for dinner, so made a lemon meringue pie...it wasn't marvellous on two counts, the pastry was frozen shortcrust.....something I haven't used before, being a made from scratch girl....and I wont be buying this brand again, it was a non descript brand ( not jusrol) and was in the reduced section ( hence my reason for buying it!) but it really wasn't good....almost crispbread in texture!

Not only that, the mile high look I was aiming for failed miserably!

However everyone seemed to enjoy it,  but agreed I should stick to the home made pastry!

 

 

 

Despite the heavy rain all day, there was no sign of a leak in the conservatory.

What a relief we thought, the builder has finally got it sorted.....sadly no.

Late in the evening when the rain was nothing but a light drizzle in the air, down came the familiar drip.

It seems the silicone sealing he did at the weekend was not in the right place or up to the job, and the new bars he bought to replace the original ones will have to be put up, which is a days job sadly.

It is so frustrating that such a small drip is hard to find.

 

 

 

 

Chilling With Friends

 

 

Last night I discovered today was a special day for some friends of ours, their Pearl wedding anniversary.

I had it on my calendar as their 29th not 30th!

I wouldn't normally send a card outside of a special celebration, so was annoyed for not having the opportunity to buy them a little something to mark the occasion.

I wasn't even sure what 30 was, and having googled one of the first links to come up was "Not On The High Street" and the above picture.

What a shame we didn't have time to order anything like that I thought....but then I thought..hang on, we have a printer, card, frames (thanks to my Ikea visit last week!) maybe Teen One could take inspiration from the card and do her own version....

 

 

...which is exactly what she did, all in the space of less than half an hour!

We made some changes to the bottom half and respecting personal information means I don't feel able to share their names and their family member names, but I was really pleased with how it turned out.

With the "dummy" print I even made a card, cutting out their names and date of the wedding.

Its days like that I am glad we have stash of one sort or another in the house!

This morning we hand delivered it and whilst we weren't there when it was opened, their subsequent text showed they were bowled over by the gift.

My friend knew I had got the year wrong last night so she would never have imagined receiving a personalised gift a few hours later!

I suggested Teen One come up with some of her own designs and sell them online, some research is needed first but it might bring in some pennies for her to try and recover some of her insurance money yesterday...although its going to take an awful lot of selling to do that!

 

 

We then headed out to the country to spend the day with family friends and meet their new foster children.

Both are temporary, the little boy was very sweet indeed but we only got to see him for a few minutes as he was off to spend the day with his siblings.

The sixteen year old asylum seeker was very quiet and pleasant.

One can only imagine the turmoil that goes on in these young lives, never in one place very long.

Teen One and the Teen spent some time playing table tennis then Find It and Teen One managed to get the tip of the penny to show in the new game we recently bought.

 

 

They then made a friendship bracelet using these wheels, which are very effective and easy to use...

 

 

 

...The Teen was very pleased with her work...

 

 

 

...as was Teen One, with her daisy pattern.

 

 

The poor weather meant we had to abandon the planned BBQ and country walk, so it was some screen time with Teen Two whilst Teen One and I went for a drive in her new car....she did very well and we cant wait to be able to bring it home later this week.

 

 

Wherever animals are found, so is Teen Two...

 

 

 

...with Percy the hedgehog being one of the more unusual pets we get to see!

 

 

 

My friend and I drank tea, nattered, did a crossword and of course some knitting...

 

 

...my friend was making an aviator hat for her grandchild...who is almost 2...

...hmmm....something seems to have gone awry with the tension...it fitted Teen Two perfectly!!!

We did have to laugh, the little six year old had seen her knitting it yesterday and said

"Please can you NOT knit me one of those please?"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another Milestone For Teen One

 

This morning was my usual Monday morning, and after visiting my Recycled Teenager, doing the shopping, laundry and a light lunch, the Teens and I headed off to church to do a bit more sorting of the store room.

Its starting to come together and we hit on the idea of buying those cheap document wallets to store all the templates/cut outs used for craft work and then kept in a lever arch file....takes up so much less space (before they were piled up on a shelf and were always muddled up) and so much easier to look through.

We have an old piano at church, which hasn't been played for years, we have an organist who only plays the organ and Teen One isn't confident enough to play in public, so it has been decided to pass the piano on to somewhere where it will be used

This company will collect for free if it meets their criteria, so I took photo's today ( leaving my camera there by mistake) and have emailed asking for their opinion.

 

 

The sun came out unexpectedly whilst we were at church and the heat got to us a bit, so I treated the Teens to their second frappe of the summer ( me too of course!)

We sat and overlooked the sea, enjoying the view and chatting about nothing in particular, just making the most of not having to clock watch.

 

 

When we finally arrived home, the Postie had been, and Teen One's Pass Plus certificate had arrived!

This meant we were now able to buy some car insurance for the car our friend has generously given her!!

Talk about another milestone, it was very surreal seeing all her personal details entered into the price comparison sites, I really am not sure I am ready for this stage!

For anyone out there wondering how much it is going to cost their teenage (or should I say, under 25) child for their first years insurance...think BIG!

Even with Pass Plus, and several other things in her favour, after a few searches, we went with More Than, at a tad over.....

 

 

 

£1000!!

Add onto that breakdown and recovery for just under £100...

Tax at £150...

...it was a big hit on her savings!

Thankfully she hasn't touched her student living costs loan so was able to pay for the whole year in one whack, making it cheaper than instalments.

Having a black box is a given nowadays, and we will receive instructions on where to have it fitted in the next few days.

Hubby and I are insured to drive it, which will be very handy to have a third car for MOT/poorly car days.

As it happens, we are going to spend the day with my friend tomorrow and meet her new foster children ( one only temporary) so Teen One will be able to have a test drive on the road, instead of up and down our friends drive.

Teen One isn't quite brave enough to drive it all the way home alone on her first outing, so we wont be able to bring it home with us, that will have to wait until Hubby is available to take the three of us out and then me be able to go with her.

 

 

As part of our lunch contributions, we are taking along some jam jar puds.

Teen Two has been making them, orange jelly with a Jaffa cake for layer one, then mandarins, butterscotch angel delight, custard and finally we will add whipped cream and a Jaffa cake to top it off with.

 

The Teens have been helping out around the house this afternoon, Teen Two helped with the laundry and sorting out what could be recycled from the rubbish we brought home from church, Teen One made the dinner.

Being a stay at home mum has meant its not been so easy to assign regular tasks, as most things are already done when they come home, but having spent time in friends homes and seeing how their teens respond to being asked to do a particular chore, I am very thankful that my own Teens never grumble at being asked to do something, they just get on with it with no argy bargy or attitude...now they may inwardly groan of course....who wouldn't I guess!

 

Hubby has come home with the determination to replace some corroded screws under the car....a simple job...not costing a lot material wise....but boy is it turning into a tricky task!!

I am keeping my head low and staying well out of the way!

Those garage mechanics sure earn their £50per hour rates!