Lotus Flower

A bit of simple mindless hand sewing

Wonderfully relaxing.

A quick and easy project.

Draw, design, find fabric from stash

Sew.

Done.

HAPPY

Choices

Busy, busy, making choices for the new home. One thing invariably seems to lead to another. All lovely and of course, there's nothing I love more than a bit of shopping. But this is all to tight deadlines and it all matters, so much you know. It's stuff we'll be living with for years to come, so there are some pressures involved.

Currently tiles occupy much of my waking and sleeping moments. The top pic shows the style that I want, lots of white, broken with a little bit of mosaic. The middle shows some of the colours I am choosing. The bottom the decision whether it should be square tiles or oblong (see what I mean, I thought I had it sussed at deciding colours, then I realised I had shapes to choose too). M is very laid back about all of it (aren't blokes always) and mostly replies with "hmmm" "nice" "whatever you think" (in fact I think he just uses these three responses in rotation, no matter what the question!) which means it's all down to me. Good, because I am quite picky and I know what I like, but a bit of responsibility too. Exciting. Scary. Fun. Daunting. Busy busy. Need to remember to sleep sometimes/ preferably without dreaming of tiles or kitchens.

Chai

Those who know me, know I don't drink coffee very often, generally only after a meal out (which is as rare as hen's teeth in these parts), and never at home. Instead I drink chai whenever I can find a place that serves it while I'm out, and tea at home. I've got a few chai teabags for drinking at home, and I love DragonTea Indian Chai, but it's not always easy to get hold of, in fact, I only know of one stockist locally, and sometimes I'm just not able to get there often enough to keep my supplies going (even though I do tend to clear them out of their stock each time I go!!) I've tried some of the other brands but just don't like their blends, even the yogi tea one, despite loving most of their other varieties.

Then it struck me recently that I have loose tea at home and all the spices that make up a chai, and even a milk frothing option on the coffee machine, that meant I could manufacture my own chai if I put my mind to it. So I have it a go, and it was So! Good!! I can't believe I didn't try it before.

So now my mornings have a little ritual. I do some chores after getting in from the school run, then I take some time to mix my blend, let it steep in my dear little teapot for one, and whilst that happens read a passage from my favourite book of the moment "Meditations from the Mat" (Ralph Gates and Katrina Kennison), which has an essay a day to contemplate. Then I pour my chai, flavour it with a little agave nectar and savour each and every drop.

Pure heaven.

PS For those who are local, and fancy trying a chai latte, I can highly, highly recommend Boston Tea Party's chai in Exeter. It's fantastic, and still remains my Treat of the Week

Craft Corner

For Christmas I was fortunate enough to be the lucky recipient of a sewing machine. I've umm and ahhed for years whether to get one or not, on the basis that I thought I would use it, that I would enjoy experimenting and that it would take my making to another level. At the same time, I've not used one since Needlework at school (which I hated) and I had concerns that it would end up being a white elephant in the corner of the room. In the end, I went for it, not least because it's likely that I'm going to need to be sewing some new curtains amongst other things when we move.

And I utterly, totally love it. I can't lay claim to doing anything particularly difficult or complicated with it *yet*. I hope in time that I will grow in knowledge, courage and ability, but for now I am just loving playing with it. I've made myself a simple skirt, which I utterly adore (although I did feel very funny going out in it the first time and spent all afternoon asking M to reassure me that it wasn't obvious to all and sundry that it was a home made item and that I didn't look silly. Both he and my mother assured me that was not the case, and since she's not one not to point out when there is anything less than perfect, I assume that it passes muster).

Thus boosted, I went on the prowl for more fabric, having found a marvellous fabric shop near to our house with the most fantastic array of materials. Little Miss Butterfly came with me and fell in love with some cupcake material, which she first spotted in blue. She was most taken with it. BUT then I spotted something on the other side of the shop that was even better. It took some persuasion to make her leave off stroking the blue cupcake material, but when I eventually persuaded her, we found:: Pink Cupcake Material:: 4 year old heaven. An offer to sew her a skirt in pink cupcake material was met with clasped hands, squeals of joy and muchos jumping up and down (in the middle of said fabric shop, we have no shame in getting giddy over lovely things), so fabric was duly purchased and I was then immediately set to work. The result is above. The perfect (so I am told) swirly whirly pink! cupcake! skirt!! Happy Mumma. Happy happy Butterfly Girl.

Wonderful Walk

Mostly when I go out walking I go by myself, or we go for a family walk (me, M and the kiddos). Sometimes, rarely M and I get to go together, but if I want a proper walk then usually I have to go by myself as M is working or looking after the children so that I can.

I don't mind this at all, in fact it is one of the things that I am going to miss the most when I return to work, I love striding out, spending time in the fresh air and being able to let my thoughts meander whereever, or just loosing myself in the beauty of nature.

On this particular day though, I went out with my Dad. We used to do this all the time when I was younger and it was really something that kept us connected through those "teenage" years. We would go off across the moors and talk and walk and never fail to enjoy ourselves. As work and husbands and children have got in the way, we've not done anything like it for years, but have long discussed doing a walk together and now that my time of leisure is coming to an end, we've actually got on and made a proper plan (why is that always the way - we procrastinate until there is a fixed deadline instead of getting on with it!)

We walked from Budleigh Salterton on the coast to Otterton, a small village a couple of miles inland. It wasn't a particularly lovely day, in fact it was drizzly and murky, but having decided to do it, we went ahead, and actually, the weather didn't disturb us at all. My Dad is quite the bird watcher so he was able to point out some of the birds that we saw along the way - we were following the River Otter inland.

Just like old times we walked, talked, discussed the big things, discussed the trival things, had some serious moments, some putting the world to rights moments and some laugh til our bellies hurt moments. We shared recommendations for music and books (my Dad is way cooler than me both in musical taste and gadgets - he's all ipod'd and kindle'd up whereas I'm still stuck in the land of CDs and paperbacks).

As a reward for all our endeavours we stopped for lunch at Otterton Mill, which is a working mill, making its own bread and yummy cakes, but also has a cafe and a fab few art/craft shops. We had soup (tomato and red pepper for me, blue stilton for him) with granary bread. It sounds simple, and it was but it was one of the nicest meals I've had in ages. Everything was of the highest quality, utterly fresh and cooked and flavoured to perfection. I could have eaten it again and again and again!

All in all it was a perfect day and one that I will add to the treasury of wonderful days out that we have shared. I'm so fortunate to have such a wonderful father and I'll always be thankful for days such as this.

Cosy

I've been feeling somewhat overwhelmed of late between house moving and commuting and returning to work and a million and one other things besides. So, on this particularly grey grotty and chilly afternoon, I took a couple of hours out

Lit the fairy lights and the fire

Made some chai

Lit some incense

Put the mp3 onto shuffle and listened to some of my favourite tunes

Read a good book thanks to a recommendation from a lovely friend

It was warm and peaceful and cosy and delightful and just the tonic!!

Icy

We've had it mild compared to everyone else in the country I know, so there are no nice snowy pictures for me to show you as we've not had more than the odd flake or two and none of them have settled. It has still be relentlessly cold and grey and depressing though, and personally I'd rather have snow - at least it's pretty to look at and provides a bit of excitement (although I am sure is a nightmare if you have to travel anywhere in it).

Still, one thing that was very striking on my walk the other day was this curious natural ice sculpture - there was obviously a hose feeding the cattle water trough which I assume must have burst in the night and the resultant ice has frozen in the hedge. It made the most striking modern sculpture, all the more so because there hadn't been a particularly obvious frost that particular morning, so everything else was distinctly non-icy. It reall was quite captivating, but overall, I'm just waiting for spring now, some warmth and some blue skies. Pretty please.