The exciting and the downright mundane: an update

Hi!  I went MIA for a while there, right?  I've been SO busy.  Last time I blogged it was warm and sunny.  It's now cold and grey, and we've put the clocks back!  Sheesh.  I so hope I still have some blog friends who might read my ramblings.  I've been popping by reading everyone else's but just never have the time to comment (or, let's be honest, the inclination to… It's always a right faff commenting via blogger on my iPad).

So much has happened and I promise to blog more regularly again so that I can keep my posts relatively short.  This, however, will be epic.

Brace yourself.

Cosy kitchen.  Still working up the strength to chop up the world's largest butternut squash. 

Ellie, my new little niece, continues to be a delight and I am pleased to report that her Auntie Nicki was the first to make her properly giggle.  Seems she likes the cha cha.  Her mum, sister and grandmother have all tried their hardest to get a similar explosion of giggles from her but have failed miserably.  This makes me feel very smug.  Particularly as I have always been terrified around babies.  Izzie (my eldest niece) was not a cuddly baby and this did not help my phobia.  Ellie makes me almost broody.  She is a smiling, quiet and content little baby and she likes nothing more than a cuddle.  She also likes my singing (I know!), which makes me love her even more.  (I am currently singing, on repeat, 'Cauliflowers fluffy and cabbages green'… thanks to niece's harvest festival.  Too cool, I know.)

I had the day off work on Friday to take Izzie swimming.  There's a fun children's pool at my local Virgin Active and I knew she'd like it there.   We only spent an hour in the pool and I felt like I'd been through the wringer.  She was constantly splashing me, chasing me, racing me and once even (accidentally, I hope) gave me a sharp knee in the jawbone as she over-exuberantly practiced her backstroke legs.  By the time my sister left at 4pm I was exhausted.  How do parents do it, each and every day? It baffles me.  Big respect.  That said, days spent with Izzie are amongst my favourite.  She's funny, loving and so very bright.  I had to stop myself sniggering when she told me at the pool that it was 'a thrill, Auntie Nicki'.

Scissor fob pattern from The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery.

I've been crafting my little fingers off with every spare moment and have made myself a lush little selection of spooky sewing notions.  Stitching witches, monsters and pumpkin faces on these long dark evenings has given me much joy!  I have also been working on a few bags and home accessories for a new venture with my lovely friend Claire.  We hope to launch the shop at homebird and belle later in November, just in time to sell a few Christmas decorations.  We will also sell a few bits and bobs that fellow crafters might like.  We are starting very small as we both have full-time jobs but it's a way to justify our fabric purchases and share our favourite things so we're happy right now.  We're blogging fairly regularly too and have already uploaded the first of some delicious recipes so please do stop by!

Speaking of full-time jobs, I start a new one at the beginning of December.  Still with the same organisation but I'll be working in a different department.  It's a step up for me and I expect it to be challenging and verrrrry busy!  I'm looking forward to a change.  Thankfully, I will still be in contact with my current line manager.  He has been my favourite boss of all (albeit the most demanding and challenging; he has such high standards!).  And I'm not just saying that because he might stumble across my blog!  I've worked for him for six years and learnt such a lot, I feel well prepared to move into another role.  Exciting times.

In other [less exciting but no less important] news, I have had my ear syringed, blitzed my bathroom cupboards (unearthing 4 brand news pots of my fave L'Occitane body cream - yay!) and developed an unhealthy obsession with hazelnut lattes.  I have also bought four new winter dresses, fallen in love with my mother-in-law's new Westie pup and sliced my thumb open on a plastic tub of fresh pasta sauce (serve me right for taking the lazy option).

You're all up to date!  ;)

I'll be back soon - thanks for reading.  Have a super lovely week.

Love

Nicki

x

Weekend Edition: Iced Chai, Blueberry Muffins and Susie Watson

When it's warm out, I like to have the back door wide open the whole time I'm in the kitchen.  I especially like to prop the door open if it's warm and rainy - I find it relaxing listening to the rain.  As soon as the door is open, Lizzie makes a beeline for her watchpoint at the gate.  She spends most of her time outside right in that spot.  Standing or sitting.  Sometimes barking but mostly just sitting quietly, watching the world go by. Andrew had gone out to pick up coffees for us this morning and she was waiting patiently for him to come home.  

Whilst Andrew was running errands, I set to work making a batch of giant blueberry muffins.  I have been craving them (with a hot, strong, coffee) all week long.  I tuned into Steve Wright's Love Songs on Radio Two and warbled along to Whitney and ELO as I sieved, whisked and stirred.  I used the recipe from The Grand Central Baking Book and it was good!  I added a little more sugar to the mix just because I like sweet muffins - they were delish.  The house smelled amazing as they baked and Andrew arrived with our coffee just as they hit the perfect eating temperature.  We sat on the swing seat in the yard together, with Lizzie at our feet, chatting about nothing in particular and enjoying the sunshine.  (Ok, that last bit was a lie.  I was chatting and Andrew was semi-listening.  As usual.)

We went to Marlow yesterday.  Late to the party, I know, but I have become obsessed with Susie Watson pottery and textiles.  Obsessed.  I had read that the shop in Marlow was kitted out like a traditional house and I fancied a looksee.  Not only that, Andrew and I both like to go out at the weekends on mini road trips wherever possible, exploring different towns or countryside and trying out new eateries.  We set off super-early and picked up a Starbucks for the journey.  I felt kind of swanky in my new long white cotton dress but within seconds of being handed my chai latte, it was in my lap.  The barista (stupid word) hadn't put the lid on properly.  Thank gawd the drink was cold because although the ice cubes were a bit of a shock, a hot drink would have been a whole other kettle of soldiers.  I was calm about the frock (now see-through and a kind of dip-dyed pale beige) but we raced home for me to change, threw the dress *straight* into the washing machine (oh hello, Postie, don't mind me here in the kitchen in my control pants and granny shoes) and I couldn't bring myself to leave the house until I was certain the dress was OK.  (It was.)  We finally got to Marlow for lunchtime, headed for the cafe that had been recommended and promptly found ourselves eating mediocre quiche in a mediocre cafe which served unattractively large slices of cucumber and plastic sachets of salad cream.  

The day was saved by a very pleasant wander through the park and along the river followed by a little sit-down at a game of cricket as we ate ginormous waffle cones of Mr Whippy with flakes and chocolate sauce.  I came home happy with a big bag full of pastel crockery and linens, a posy of flowers and frizzy hair (it rained).  We will definitely go again.  Marlow is a lovely town. There are other cafes and restaurants I'm keen to try, as well as requiring several visits back to empty Susie Watson of pink polka dot goods.  

I've been sewing today, making little wrist pincushions that Claireybelle and I hope to sell at homebird & belle.  (So exciting.  News on that for another day.)  Lizzie sat in an armchair in my sewing room looking impossibly cute and didn't bat an eyelid at my swearing or the excessive sex grunts from Orange Is The New Black on my Mac as I worked. 

Finally, our perfectly ordinary dinner of breaded chicken with salad and new potatoes was made perfectly extraordinary by the presence of salty, buttery, homegrown, freshly dug potatoes. OMGosh. So delicious.  If there is one thing you do next year, I would so encourage you to grow your own.  We have got all kinds of veg growing in pots outside and they are all coming along superbly, so far.  The pair of us are embarrassingly inept in the garden, too, so if we can do it anyone can! 

Have a great week.

Love

Nicki 

x 

10/10 Happy

What do we really need in order to be happy?  I have been thinking about it a lot lately and have been pondering my dreams and aspirations.

Over the last couple of years quite a few people have asked me how happy I am.  When I've told them the truth - 10/10 - they have all been genuinely surprised.  No one seems to believe that ordinary people with ordinary problems can be 10/10 happy.  When I've asked those people, in response, how happy they are, I've been shocked at their answers too.  The lowest answers were 5 and 6 out of 10.  The average has been around 8 out of 10.  Every one of the people I've chatted to has, in my eyes, a really lovely life and a lot to be thankful for.  How, then, can they only be 6/10 happy?

I am convinced that we are slowly being brainwashed into thinking that we need 'more' of everything in order to be happy.  More money, more sleep, more spare time, more friends, more holidays…. And so it goes on.  I think that the media is largely responsible for people's concept of happiness.  It also occurs to me that people just interpret the question 'how happy are you?' in different ways.

To  me, happiness is a spiritual thing.  It has very little to do with anything that I own and is not materially affected by my problems or the anxiety that I occasionally suffer with.  When I'm asked how happy I am my answer is always consistent because I don't consider how happy I am that particular day, I answer with my gut feeling of how happy I am, in general, with my life.  And that's 10/10.

So, I thought I'd share just a few of the things that make me feel happy.  Ten things that make me feel 10/10 happy.

1.  Breathing in fresh air.  Noticing how warm or cool it feels on my skin, whether it smells of dairy farms or car exhausts, and allowing my lungs to fill.

2.  Sunlight.  Whether it's blinding sunshine on a hot summer day or a small patch of sunlight on the kitchen floor, it never fails to lift my heart.

3.  The way my dog's mouth relaxes when she sleeps to reveal a row of tiny white front teeth.  She looks like she's smiling in her dreams.

4.  The taste of my first coffee of the day. Always brought to my bedside by my husband (wearing pants and socks - sexy!) every single day.

5.  Peace and quiet.  I make sure that I have a few minutes alone every day just to be quiet and calm. Sometimes I use that time to knit or sew.  Other times I just sit.  It is vitally important to my wellbeing.

6.  Flowers.  Wild flowers, spectacular blooms, supermarket bouquets or weeds… I love them all and always have a jug of something in the kitchen.  It is an extra special treat for me to have a posy of flowers by the bed.

7.  Laughing.  I have a proper big laugh every single day.  I find Andrew hilarious, my stepson is funny and I seem to have chosen my friends on their ability to make me laugh.  I often laugh at myself even if I'm crying or sulking.  I have a close family and we have always laughed together; mum and dad still do.

8.  Nature and wildlife.  I love animals but am especially fascinated by wildlife and pondlife.  I love watching the birds from our conservatory.  I love to see rabbits, hedgehogs, foxes and game on my walks around the fields with Andrew and Lizzie.  I am a huge fan of Chris Packham and Bill Oddie; they would be on my fantasy dinner guest list.

9.  Stretching.  I love a good stretch and used to practice yoga for an hour every day.  I've let it slip in the past few years and I'm just getting back into it now, using free videos online from Do Yoga With Me (thanks for the recommendation from A Beach Cottage).

10.   Hugging.  I am a really tactile person and often feel compelled to hug even strangers.  I realise that a lot of people don't like their personal space to be invaded so I manage to keep control of it but, man, I hug the life out of Andrew and my family - especially my gorgeous little niece.

I know that my list might sound trite but these are genuinely the things that give me most joy in life.  I acknowledge that I am a very accomplished shopper and collector of random things, which obviously gives me pleasure too, but this is a compilation of the stuff that makes my soul properly happy.

Now, with all that said, I've got to press on because Cabbages and Roses are releasing a couple of new dresses tonight and I cannot miss it!  Ha! #iloveshallowstufftoo

Have a great weekend. 

Love

Nicki 

x

PS The photos throughout this post are from our visit to Coton Manor in Northamptonshire last weekend.  If you live anywhere nearby I would definitely recommend a visit.  It incorporates so many of my favourite, happy, things and is stunning at this time of year.

Out and About: Cowslip Christmas Fair

Hello hello!  

Man, it's been a few weeks since I wrote that self-indulgent, whinge-fest, hasn't it.  You will, I hope, be pleased to hear that I bounced back very quickly and settled right back into my cosy, happy, little bubble.  The photo above is me, obviously, on a recent dark morning, looking as tired as I felt and delighting in this stars/stripes combo.  I tried to do one of those selfies that Vanessa (Coco Rose) et al do... You know, just a snapshot of my torso with my arm showing my cup in front of my top.  Well, I would like tips on how to do those pictures without the lady bumps stealing the show.  It feels as though I can't quite get the camera far enough away from my body.  Tips anyone?  So anyway, I just took a plain old photo of my boat race!

♥♥♥♥♥

Life has been ace these last few weeks.  My new job seems to have finally bedded in and I'm out and about, keeping very busy and learning lots about parts of the organisation that were out of my remit previously.  In the last few weeks I've been to St Albans (my office base but it's 50 miles away), Manchester and Edinburgh for work and I'm driving to Leeds tomorrow for a whole day of risk training. 

Last weekend, I was at Cowslip for the Christmas Fair with some lovely friends and my lovely mum and sister.  It was well worth the long, late night drive to North Cornwall and every bit as gorgeous and inspiring as I'd hoped.  Cowslip is a working farm in an idyllic location with a delightful fabric shop and lush workrooms for the sewing classes they hold.  There is also a cafe on site with the most delicious menu - I think they hold cooking classes there too.

A view across the farmland and misty valley from outside the fabric shop at Cowslip.

Anyway, the Christmas Fair was held in a few of the barns and outhouses at the farm.  All decorated wonderfully with fairy lights, wooden reindeer, Christmas trees and hundreds of gorgeous quilts.  So inspiring and such a delight to wander round.  

There were quilts draped over every available surface.  Even the twiggy reindeer weren't safe!

I put a few solid hours into building my fabric stash and rewarded my hard labour with plenty of mulled apple cider, coffee and cake.  Tough, but you just gotta put the work in!  

This little wooden box of fabric makes me very happy indeed.  Stripes, spots and checks.

I have come home with the yarn for two new knitting projects and yarn from Suzie Johnson (The Wool Sanctuary).  I also scooped up lots of redwork patterns as Mandy Shaw had a fantastic stall there.  

I got started on some little redwork patterns straight away.

Mandy's stall was, of course, lush.  The Christmas quilts and toys that she had on display were amazing and a huge Christmas tree that almost reached the ceiling was chock-full of red and white decorations and bunting.  And we all know how much I love red and white.  Just gorgeous. 

Mandy Shaw's stall:  too many lovely things to look at

This weekend is the last time before Christmas that I'll have time to properly relax and do nothing so although I got up early, I sat around in my PJs til lunchtime, knitting and watching Gilmore Girls.  Then, at half past two (!) I had an hour-long bubble bath using every last drop of hot water in the house and started a new Penny Vincenzi novel.  It was bliss!  Afterwards, I put on make-up and some clean PJs and have been pottering around.  Some chocolate tiffin has been made, the kitchen has been cleaned and my craft room is as tidy and fragrant as can be.  It has been such a perfect day.  

Have a great week everyone. 

Much love and thanks for reading.

Nicki

x

PS Thanks for all of your comments, I read and appreciated all of them.  I do understand that sometimes we all overshare and, of course, that's what I was doing by moaning about my personal issues here in my little corner of the interweb.  Heck, we all need to offload somewhere.  

I wanted to make the point (to a person in my real life who I know secretly reads my blog) that when you write something on the internet it can be seen by anyone and is live for many years.  So at least make sure it is true! 

Still Loving Red

My love affair with red refuses to abate.  I wrote 18 months ago about how much I was loving the colour red here and since then my house and wardrobe have filled with the colour.  Remember that bag?  (OMG I was so much thinner 18 months ago... Eep! I appear to have been loving the chocolate bars since then, too.)

Now we are in the frenzied run up to Christmas, there is a lot of red and white in the shops and this makes me very happy indeed!

Checks, stripes and spots.  Oooh.

I've bought a few things at Sainsbury's this week.  The decorations have been on sale at a third off so I've been able to buy twice as much.  (Maths has never been my strong point.)  Little lanterns and Christmas Spice candles have been sneaked into the shopping trolley and hidden behind loaves of bread or cartons of milk.

Yesterday, Andrew and I nipped out for a bit of Christmas shopping.  I was in my element - Ikea has loads of gorgeous decorations, lights and wrapping paraphernalia.  It was also surprisingly quiet there.  Bonus.  There was a set of mini gift bags complete with number stickers to make a gorgeous tree-hanging advent calendar.  I'd rather like Andrew to buy them and fill each bag with small Tiffany sparkles but I know that's expecting too much.  Ha!

I did buy a truck-load of stuff myself though.  This is my dining table as we speak:

Andrew thinks it looks a mess and is practically begging me to tidy it away now.  To me, it looks beautiful!  I want to keep it all there as long as possible.  I'd cleared a small space on the table and was having a coffee in my [red and white, natch] Starbucks mug post dog walk when I felt the urge to photograph it all.  There are gift bags, polka dot bells, candles, lanterns, hanging decorations, napkins (just seen in the far left-hand corner) cupcake wrappers.  These are fabric gingham napkins from John Lewis, but I also bought a few packs of red and white striped paper napkins from Ikea which I like very much, too.

The two toadstool hanging decorations are from one of my favourite online shops, The Corner House.  I follow the shop owners, Clara and Clare, on Instagram and wish almost every day that I lived close enough to pop into their shop.  They'd be sick of me within a week.

John Lewis came up trumps with toadstool goodies too, of course.

I adore these tea lights and plan to pop them in tall jam jars with rustic twine and twigs wound around the top.  I will have to be brave to light them - they're too cute to burn.  Ha!

John Lewis was very busy so we called it a day and stopped at Olney on the way home for tea and cake.  Olney is one of the closest towns to me (apart from Northampton, which is pants for shopping and strolling) and it's my favourite.  The architecture is beautiful, the shops are just gorgeous and the whole place has a nice feel to it.  The shops are decked out for Christmas now and dusk was falling as we walked back to the car so we could see fairy lights twinkling in windows all around us.  It was a truly lush day, finished off with a bag of chips and rum and coke by the fire.

♥

Hope everyone has had a nice weekend too. 

Lotsa love.

Nicki 

A Slow and Steady Summer

The good weather has been a long time coming and I am so ready for it.  We all are, I know.  It has been lovely to throw open the windows and encourage a light, fragrant breeze to blow through the house.  Drink wine so cold that condensation forms on the glass.  To lay in bed at night listening to farm machinery in the nearby fields.

We are taking it easy this summer, spending a great deal of time thinking, talking and planning.  Discussing what's really important to us.  Taking stock of our lives and working out what actually makes us happy.  August is always quiet for us and this year, more than any other, we have welcomed that period of slowing down.

There has been plenty of opportunity to sit in a comfortable chair to stitch or crochet in the evenings.

I have been inspired (as usual!) by Vanessa and have started to crochet a new blanket.

A gorgeous new set of bamboo crochet hooks from Lisa Pocklington at getsmitten.com

This one's for the bedroom.  I am making the 'Something Pretty' square, the pattern for which has been published on the ever-so-lush Millie Makes blog.  I wasn't aware of Millie Makes until Vanessa pointed us in that direction and I'm so glad she did.  So much gorgeousness in one place.

I started this blanket the very day that Vanessa posted about it.  I'd had a little stash of Rowan 'Pure Life' organic cotton sitting in a basket for a while and planned to use it for a tea cosy that Cuckoo shared on her blog last year.  Just hadn't got round to it yet.  But - as soon as I saw this puffy floral square I fell in love and immediately knew that the chalky pink and cool cream organic cotton would be perfect for such a pretty pattern.   Happily (or maybe not) the yarn has been discontinued now and I was able to top up my stash for half the usual price.  Happy me!

Stash of squares by my bedside.  Slowly growing! 

Each square seems to take an age to complete but the finished result is worth it.  I am using the pink and green cotton to make the flowers and edging the whole thing in cream.  The colours will look beautiful on our bed, if I have the patience to make the blanket big enough.  If not, I will use it as a lap blanket for one of the armchairs in my craft room.

I've created a craft space in the top room at home.  I'll show you properly sometime but I love it! 

Few of us are faithful/committed/disciplined enough to stick with one project at the time and I am simultaneously working on a large-ish piece of cross stitch that will be framed and hung on the wall in our living room.  It's the first time I've used even weave fabric and I'm delighted with how it is coming along, even if I do have to squint at my work more than usual!

My crafty adventures do not end there!  Andrew bought me a jam-making kit (at my request) for Christmas and I mentioned, in passing, to the post lady (random, I know, but she's a friend now) that I still hadn't used it.  She promptly descended on me early one evening (it was planned!) with two punnets of apricots and a bag of sugar.  This apricot jam was the result:

How much do you think I enjoyed prettying up the jars?  Yep, loads.

It is delicious - I'm thrilled!.  Andrew moaned that he doesn't like apricot jam but then he tasted this.  He has eaten it every morning (of his own accord!) on toast for breakfast and claims he loves it.  Score!

*happy dance* 

Spurred on by my success, I made strawberry jam last week.  Another winner *high five*.  I've well and truly caught the bug - can't wait to make chutneys and pickles.

Tonight, the husband's football team is playing so I'm going to sit and do some more of my cross stitch.  Have a lovely week everyone and thanks for popping by.

Hello to my new followers and thank you for clicking the 'join this blog' button.  I'm getting ever closer to 300 followers which is fab as I am planning a giveaway which includes a beautiful Pip Studio jug!

Love

Nicki 

x

Weekend Preparations

Well, the bunting is finally up chez nous!  I love bunting outside in the summer and have been wanting to hang this for ages but thought it would feel more special if we waited until school was out.  

We have these pretty patchwork flags around our front door (we don't use our front door) but then we also have a long string of more traditional UJ bunting right along the garden fence and some across the front windows.  Earlier in the week I tied some to the little storage barn in our garden too: 

The left-over heart-shaped bunting was used in the kitchen over the doorway to the conservatory.

It was quite funny hanging the bunting yesterday evening.  Although we live in a village our house is on a main road and there is a lot of traffic.  People were tooting their horns and waving as as they went past and a few of the neighbours walking their dogs stopped to have a laugh at our mini domestics as I instructed Andrew on where to bang the nails in.  Picture a very tired Andrew, only just home from work with lightly crumpled shirt and five o'clock shadow.  Me, arms laden with long strings of bunting, bouncing around and desperate to get outside.  He was not impressed with my bossy instructions of 'down a bit, up a bit, straighten that flag out!'.  I'd keep making him stand like a lemon holding the bunting in place whilst I nipped across the road to see how it looked.  His face was a picture.  Good job he can laugh about it. Ha!  (We were lying in bed this morning and through the open window could hear our next-door neighbours hanging their own bunting.  It was a similar scenario with Jane telling Rob to 'up a bit, no - move it this way a bit'.  We had to laugh.)

After getting the bunting just right, I was splitting mint in the garden and remembered the stash of limes in the kitchen so decided it would be a good idea to kick off the Jubilee weekend with a round of mojitos. 

As with all homemade cocktails they were a little on the strong side and by the third I needed a bit of lie down.  Lovely though - mojitos are my favourite.

We have got loads planned for the weekend.  J (stepson) is staying with us and I'm not sure he's entirely chuffed about the Jubilee Jig and Pig at the local farm tonight but we're dragging him along anyway.  He can sit in the corner on his phone with a J2O and laugh at our dancing for a bit - won't hurt him.  He says his 'other parents' won't be celebrating the Jubilee so I think it's good that we'll be forcing our celebrations on him.  Something for him to remember when he's old.  The programme for the rest of the weekend includes a bonfire and fireworks at the pub tomorrow night and a bit of a show put on by the local thespians (I use that term loosely!) on Tuesday night.  It's at the Working Men's Club and tickets are £1.  The old ladies in the village are doing a cheerleading routine to 'Night Fever' and the post lady is doing a sand dance - it will be worth every penny!

Before the fun begins we're off to join a spa this morning.  I can't wait - I went for a trial session on Wednesday evening and it was so nice, a real treat.  After that, we're heading to the garden centre for a few more plants and then I'm going to make a lemon drizzle cake and some Jubilee cupcakes.  I love it when J's here - the cakes in the house last about 5 minutes, tops.  I'm so pleased I have two lovely chaps to bake for. 

Nicki 

x