Is it second Christmas ?

We had a fabulous day today, we went to the very posh David Lloyd Health club, courtesy of a family day ticket, given to us by our DD1. It was amazing, swimming in a heated outdoor pool in the winter was the most wonderful experience, especially as the sun was out.

My DH spent half the time in the incredible gymn, while I spent 2 and a half hours of complete indulgence, swimming, outdoor spa, sauna, and just laying around in the relaxing rooms.

To comlete our day we pooped into our DD1 to drop off a birthday card for GD1 and were invited to dinner.......hooray another escape from cooking. And what a lovely meal, briased venison with parsnip and potato mash, broccoli and red wine gravy. With coffee ice cream for afters, are we spoilt or what !

But it didn't end there our DD went shopping and bought back yet another Chritsmas present for each of us, and this one was for me Amaretti biscuits in a gorgeous pot, which I'm sure you'll guess what that'll be perfect for, yes pecils and paint brushes.

And just look who's sniffed out the biscuits......well they're all mine Millie.

Thank you so much for such a gorgeous day, it was a real treat.

Chilling out

We had a lovely day just chilling out, after a very wet walk, when we both got soaked.

Getting back to cooking dinner came as a bit of a shock today, but luckily my DH stepped in and saved the day, while I took on the challenge of breaking in the new easel .........

Could I have chosen a more difficult challenge? still it was nice to be working on an easel after about 5 years.

Wonder how I can avoid cooking tomorrow....hmm!

Christmas dinner number 3

We had a lovely day with our DD3 and her family, just relaxing, eating good food and drinking mulled wine by the fire.

We had our Christmas dinner in the evening with all the trimmings.....

A beautiful starter.........

Followed by roast lamb expertly carved by our SIL

And not forgetting my lovely presents from DD3 and her family and the party with DD2 on boxing day.

We had our last Christmas guest to lunch today which was super, so now we're relaxing back home enjoying being cosy and warm while the wind rushes around our flat and through the trees in the garden.

A big thanks to all who made this Christmas such a special one.  

Boxing Day bash

Food, glorious food........

We had a lovely family get together yesterday and in true tradition it was a food fest. Our DD2 was the host and she created the most extraordinary culinary delights...

And the ultimate triumph, this splendid pork pie.



Thank you Hannah for hosting such a lovely family doo :-)

Christmas dinner 2

Sausage rolls cooked....

Fabulous present from my thoughtful DH

I've never had a proper easle before, and this one folds up so if I'm really brave I can use 'en plein air' on our travels.

And so to DD1's Christmas dinner number 2

Someone is already very excited.......

And mummy achived the perfect Christmas dinner with all the trimmings....... Well done!

And where was daddy you might ask

No not really in the dog house, more accurately in the shed looking for all those important bits for new bikes, and other stuff essential for new toys in between making impressive models in lego.

And more presents.......

Just love this vintage bag, and the tea was the perfect panacea for over eating, and as for the socks.......perfect.

Thanks to all for a lovely day.

Advent Day 24

I think I'm loosing track of the days, but today is definitely Christmas Eve, so it must be the 24th

Happy Christmas to all family and friends.

The card was made by our second to youngest grandson, whose 4, don't you just love the expressions on their faces.

Advent Day 22

Feeling just a tad spoilt...... Just been to my DD3's local gymn, which has a pool, spa, sauna and steam room, a courtesy visit while we house sit for them, it was heaven, a full hour of realaxation.

And the look we found in the cupboard.....

So we are.....

Thank you guys :-)

Advent day 22

More visiting old friends and and lovely catch ups, that's what Christmas is all about.

And there's this little ball of mischief, she sat at the top of the stairs watching me trying to sketch her and then she wanted to come in close and play with the pencil, so I ended up following her downstairs and she stayed still just long enough for me to catch her drinking.

Good parctice at 5 second sketches.

Advent day 21

We're off on our travels again, this time to cat sit this mum and daughter duo and enjoy the log fire of course.

Advent Day 20

Unexpected day out.....

Our DD2 sent me a text message at 7.30am suggesting that we meet up with her for lunch today in Guildford, as I was still in bed enjoying my morning cuppa, I had to get a move on to get showered, glad rags on and face on, in time to catch the 10.30 bus, well it takes time these days to make a semi transformation.

We met up in the rain after having waited 35 minutes for the bus to pick us up, but that was all forgotten once we settled into a lovely warm vibrant restaurant and were served a delicious lunch.

Afterwards we did some shopping and went our separate ways, it was such a lovely get together exchanging all our news, so looking forward to Boxing Day when we all meet up again.

On the way home we stopped off at Godalming which looked so pretty with it's Christmas lights all twinkling.

This is known locally as the Pepper Pot, it's a very quaint market town and still a favourite after more than 40 years.

Advent Day 19

A little bit of nonsense ........

As Millie has now become a permanent fixture I thought she ought to have her portrait done, so here she is having taken up residence on the pencil case as her own bed and pretending to be sunbathing......

The only problem with this arrangement is that when I need to use the pencil case I have to move her, so, much to her disgust she's got a new home.

You might be wondering if the stress of Christmas has finally caught up with me, but sadly no this is just the way my mind works LOL. 

Advent Day 18

Ooops! All that travelling and a combination of no internet and being very busy of course, I've missed a few Advent days.

We had a wonderful few days and on the whole the weather was kind and when it wasn't we just veged out.

We had a great day visiting our friend Carrol in Bristol, ate too much as usual and had a lovely catch up.

We then moved on to Cardiff for a lovely early Christmas with our DS and our DDIL and not forgetting our youngest GS, phew that 's a lot of initials!

I couldn't stand the state of my DS's winter coat any longer and had to do some repairs, which our GS thought was too interesting to miss.

Not so much that he din't have time to down 2 yogurts, followed by some toast.

We had a lovley Christmas dinner together, complete with some amazing handmade stuffing made by our clever DDIL.

And then it was present sharing, and look what I got....

Millie the pincushion will sit on my desk for ever, smiling at me as that's the kind of mouse she is.... and a wonderful felted pencil case, both hand crafted of course.

And more present opening......

On sunday we went for a long walk across the barrage in Cardiff Bay, luckily for us the weather was nice on the way out.

And of course we were so hungry that we had to stop for second breakfast at Craft in the Bay.

Someone looks very smart in their Christmas stripey top and jeans from Nanny and Grandad.

Unfortunately the weather was not so kind on the walk back and we had to shelter along the way, although this tired little chap was nice and dry and warm.

Nanny and Granddad had to have a lazy afternoon in a lovely Marina just past the barrage and after a nice little snoozette and dinner we ventured out to look at the boats all dressed in their Christmas lights.

Just perfect for a sketching subject......

All those lovely colours.

Thank you so much to all our hosts for giving us such a lovely few days away, can't wait for the next round.

Happy Christmas.

 

Advent Day 13

The nomad wagon is set to go.........

well....... despite having a bad dose of frostbite,  hopefully a long drive will help to unbung her frozen taps blinds and anything else I missed on my pre trip check.

Still busy with Christmas prep, but thoroughly enjoying it, so can't offer any other distraction except the daily sketch.

This beautiful leathel thorny acanthus thistle has given me such a challenge, it's way too complicated for a photographic study so I have to settle for rhythmic abstract.

I'm loving making use of my Fabriano pastel journal, bought for me by my DH many years ago and now at last I have time to play in it's wonderful bright thick pages.

   

Advent Day 12

Christmas tree number 2, ours....

Why are Christmas trees so difficult to photograph, I couldn't get a good one last year either.

This year we will be geriatric nomads, visiting long lost friends, children and grandchildren, starting at the end of this week. There will be no Christmas dinner cooking for me, only helping, huray! It works well with a sudden aversion to the kitchen, which seems to have come on with age.

Instead I seem to spend most of my time trying to coax my beautiful sewing machine to do things it wasn't born to do, such as stitching without thread. Luckily for me a very wise person showed me how to trick it :-)

Thank you Kim from the Bernina Central forum.

And finally on this post that I'm pleased to say my children are enjoying, for once they know what Mum is up to, the daily sketch took on a shadowy them today, I seem to be obsessed with the effects of light at the moment.

Appologies for bad spelling I've yet to find the spellchecker on this App.

Advent day 11

Today was a Christams day, lots of present wrapping and putting up the tree and decs.
Sorry can't show the tree it's too dark. Will try tomorrow.

So this evening I awarded myself some digital play,staring with a sketch of shells on pastel paper.

All good fun with Apps that cost pennies and are regularly updated for free....

Advent Day 10

Ready for the party......

My post today should have been yesterday but I had to wait for permission to show you this little person all dressed up for his party yesterday morning. He was particularly pleased with his hair style created by himself and his big brother..... Butter wouldn't melt LOL

 Nanny and Granddad got to take him to his best friend's party where he had a wonderful time, while we went shopping with his brother. We all had a lovely day together while Mum And Dad went to London.

Advent day 9

Nostalgia

I can't believe that in a few weeks time it will be 2 years since we downsized to our new home.

We moved in during a blizzard.....

 And it's beginning to look as if it'll be the same story again this winter, at least we're snug and warm and no longer have to get up at the crack of dawn and brave the elements to go to work.

We no longer have this beautiful 100 year old cedar tree as it had to be removed this year due to a lot a of dead wood, it was a sad day to see it go, and very scary watching the tree surgeons do their job.

Advent day 8

A nice family day, with a spot of
babysitting tomorrow.