".........because Nanny misses Bently"

Out of the mouths of babes......

My DD's and I had our belated coffee morning on Thursday and they gave me their lovely Mother's Day presents. I was extremely touched when my DD2 told me that when she went to buy my card her youngest DD, who's just turned 4 said she must buy me this lovely card, "because Nanny misses Bently", how's that for sensativity. And what a thoughtful present, just right for all the trips we can now make in our third age. I love those flamingos.

My DD1 bought me a beautiful early morning tea cup from the V&A designer collection, inspired by William Morris wallpaper, and of course my favourite chocs, all presented in this delightful bag.



And DD 3 bought me a lovely breakfast of Earl Grey tea and toasted tea cake and jam, what a lucky Mummy I am.

We do miss our lovely old dog it's true, and at the moment with our trips out we seem to see nothing but dog walkers, but I think in our hearts we both know that we have to give it time before we commit to another family member to care for, but it doesn't make the hole any smaller.

For now though I think I have plenty of things to keep me busy and our trips to the seaside have been wonderfully inspiring for my new course.

Here's a few more inspiration pics from our travels.



You can see where I took this here



And this is what they look like in closeup, definitely one for the texture file.

Mother's away

I wasn't home for Mother's Day this year, instead I was chilling out at , yes you've guessed, at the "Seaside". Well where better to do some creative research.
However, the bush telegraph must have done it's job and I received these gorgeous flowers and divine little chocs yesterday from my DS.





I shall be off for coffee my DD's on Thursday so I think I've got the best of all worlds.

We went to Littlehampton, which for those of you who don't know it, is on the South coast and is about an hour's drive from us.
My quest for beech inspiration proved fruitful , with these super beech huts all laid out in charming crescents.



And how about this for some mad beech sculpture, it's a cafe!!



I was trying to capture the rhythm of the waves going in and out, but this was the best I could do, still it's a nice pattern shot.



And here's a fish recipe for you, I thought this was pretty clever, there were at least 2 others with different recipes.



We were finally treated to this wonderful sunset before we went home.



And before that I had the chance for some sketching, so not a bad day, all in all.



For those of you who were kind enough to say you'd be interested in following my progress on the diploma, I've put up my first post here.

I'm gradually finding my old routines again and want to get back into regular contributions on the blog scene, so please be patient as I try to find moments in this new regime to surf around and comment on your blogs, in the meantime thanks to all those who've stayed with me and commented on my erratic posts, it's much appreciated.

News and catching up

Thank you to all who sent my OH birthday wishes, it was much appreciated.

We've been incredibly busy getting used to our new life in semiretirement, my OH only works one day a week now, so we've been enjoying the novelty of going out mid week as well as the w/e, so not much time for 'at home' creative stuff. Still I'm sure we'll calm down when we get used to it and the novelty's worn off.

We had a lovely w\e in Kent a couple of weeks ago and took one of our Grandsons along too, so here's a few pics of us enjoying retirement.


I just loved the colours of these beech huts, which have now become quite significant, as I'll explain later.


Our grandson fishing for clams, and nearly getting a soaking.


Us enjoying a quiet w/e at Bognor


And a bit of beech sculpture


The end of a very happy day

And now to a bit of creative stuff. It was DD1's birthday last month and she said she wanted something handmade, so after much thought I decided to make a jewellery roll for her w/e's away, thanks to Kathy's great instructions.





It was quite a hit, so I think there'll be a few more in the pipeline as well as one for me.

And finally to the Big News, I've signed up to do my C&G Diploma embroidery with Sian Martin at her online textile school, Distant Stitch. I've just received my first module where I've been asked to choose a theme for the duration of the course and have decided on 'the seaside'. I'm really excited to be working from my own inspirational source this time. I've set up a separate blog which I'll link to so you can follow my progress if you want to.
I can't wait to have something to blog about.

Another 60th Birthday

Last weekend saw my DH reach the same milestone as me, his 60th birthday.

In true family tradition our children hired a cottage in the New Forest that was big enough to accommodate our dynasty of 20!



We were welcomed with an amazing banner made by DD1 and her family.



Fortunately the cottage had been an old Estate bothy and the huge Victorian greenhouse had been converted into an enormous dining room, just perfect for all of us to have wonderful family meals.





The children had great fun making a den in the large garden as well as playing football, as we now have enough grandchildren to make up our own team :-)



Being right in the heart of the Forest we had plenty of opportunity for lovely walks and for my DH to play on his improvised seesaw. I always said that inside every man there's a five year old boy trying to get out.



On Saturday evening our DD3 gave a lovely reading from a 'this is your life' book that she compiled for her Dad with many hilarious anecdotes, some of which had been long forgotten and lovingly remembered. And of course a lovely tribute to a wonderful Father and husband.



Later that evening we let off some Chinese lanterns that our SIL 1 had got specially for the occasion and we all made our wishes as we sent them into the sky.



On Sunday, my DH's birthday, we had a traditional Sunday lunch and afterwards had the Birthday cake, his favourite chocolate gateaux.



And our youngest grandchild seemed to think it was his favourite too when he stuffed the biggest piece of chocolate icing in his mouth that he could manage.



And finally to his present. Of course it couldn't possibly have been anything else, as he's such a keen carp fisherman, it had to be the best and the biggest bed chair on the market :-)





So all in all it was a wonderful weekend, my DH said it was the best birthday he's ever had, so not a bad way to start your third age.

It was a great privilege to once again be treated to an amazing weekend by our wonderful children and their partners, we're both very proud of them and feel extremely blessed to have such a wonderful family.

Christmas and beyond

I can't believe it's been nearly a month since I posted, but then again that Christmas thing does seem to take over.

I suddenly got very busy making things with my latest new toy, which seems to have taken up a lot of my time since I bought it, the embroidery unit that is.



I made little bags for all the grown up girls in the family with computerised designs on them while I discovered some of the machine's previously hidden secrets. It took me 7 designs and much help and encouragement from the Bernina Central forum but at last I achieved a near perfect stitched design. Unfortunately I was in such a rush to wrap the Christmas presents I forgot to take pics, so no creative stuff from me this post.

Christmas was a wonderful family affair this year with a lovely Christmas day meal hosted by DD3 in her new house. No detail was overlooked in the lunch preparation, we all had beautiful place settings and even personal favors.





Of course us girls set to with the veg prep and used the the time for a good catch up.


L-R DD3 our DIL and me.

Meanwhile the men were on baby watch.



Or maybe not, "........now if she just lets go I'll be off then"



We had a great day and it was lovely not to have the responsibility of lunch, thanks to all who made it possible.


Granddad, youngest GS and big brother and Nanny, all shattered after a hectic day.

Boxing Day was busy too with a lovely party hosted by DD2, and we had a great Christmas tea with DD3 on the day before Christmas Eve, so the only cooking I did was on Christmas Eve for our DS and our lovely DIL.

And so to the snow, hmmmm......... it's getting extremely tedious now and seems to have prolonged that horrible flat feeling you get when Christmas is over. I can't seem to shake myself out of creative lethargy, I feel 'winter tired'.

But it has to be said, when the sun's on it, it really does look like a magical wonderland. Here's some pics of the forest around our home, where we've been marooned for a week.

















Happy New year to everyone, hope it 's a successful and creative one.

Crafty stuff and socks

We had our annual craft Fayre at My DH's work place on Tuesday, so I was quite busy getting my contribution ready for it all last week.

I belong to the knitting group and our challenge was to make miniature stockings just big enough for a chocolate. I managed 4, which doesn't sound very many, but they take about 2 hrs each by the time you've sewn them up and made the hanger.



For my own table I made a patchwork cushion with the patchwork packs that I've been selling on my Etsy shop.





It worked well as I sold 3 packs when people realised that they could make a whole cushion front with the 25 squares, relatively easily, and it was nice to see them get excited about having a simple, pleasing textile project to get their teeth into.

I also made a couple of small FME pieces, having been inspired by the Talking Threads program that's been on Sky TV recently.


Too much watching Meerkat Manor on TV



And a couple more pieces went off for Chrismas presents too, which was nice.





At last!! I finished my socks!!