A Home In The Highlands

WIP Wednesday (22nd February 2012)

2012-02-22T19:02:00.003+02:00

The last few weeks of sewing seems to have involved a lot of unpicking! At times like these I repeat in my head the mantra "unpicking is part of the sewing process" (I read that in a book somewhere, not sure which one!) but I do hate the weeks that end with projects further behind than when it started.

Still, the worst is behind me! The New Wave quilt top is finished. I just need to put aside a couple of hours to clean the kitchen floor, and then get on my hands and knees and baste it. (Oh for a longarm quilter!)

After reaching a bit of an impasse with my Triple Dresden I removed the mosaic border I had added, and have now attached the binding, which I will hand sew over the next couple of evenings. I really really need to put this quilt to bed, as I have been ~~working on it~~ fiddling with it for far too long.

So with lots of quilts reaching a conclusion I have been thinking about what to work on next. I've seen a lot of pieced letters on quilts on Flickr and I really like the look of them. There are a couple of weddings and births due amongst our friends this year and word quilts would make brilliant presents, so I bought the book Word Play Quilts (which is excellent) and I played around with piecing some letters yesterday. Not perfect yet as you can see from that slightly stunted "L" !

Being a bit of a tidy person, I am loving the neatness that comes with finishing projects and it's spurred me on to have a bit of a clear out of my fabric stash and my quilting books. I listed a couple on Amazon's marketplace this morning and sold one within 2 hours! So now I will have the space and the funds for books I actually use...

For the third cutest dog on Facebook

2012-02-18T16:18:00.004+02:00

A while back I entered Bella (aka Little Dog) into a competition on a Facebook group to find the cutest small dog. Despite some stiff competition, her sad puppy dog eyes clearly won the judges over, and she was awarded third place. The prize was a "goody bag" and seeing as she had only come third, I kept my expectations of what we'd receive quite low. But yesterday this arrived in the post...

I was excited before I even opened it. Wouldn't you be?

And then look at these wonderful goodies from the Little Pooch bakery!

Aren't they lovely? FAR too good for any dog I know! And look, there are personalised doggy cupcakes and doggy cookies too.

And the prize-winning Third Cutest Dog On Facebook got to eat it all herself... and there's no doubt she knew exactly who that cake was for!

In fact that cake must have really hit the spot because after she ate it, she sneaked off and went rumaging in my bag and found a yoghurt topped cereal bar (the icing on the cake is made from yoghurt) and ran off with it - Only the rustling of the wrapper gave her away. She's clearly getting ideas beyond her station...

Thank you Lisa, what a wonderful prize!

What I actually do...

2012-02-15T20:38:00.003+02:00

If you've spent any time on Facebook over the last few days chances are you will have spotted a poster like this popping up on one of your friend's timelines. They've been everywhere in many different versions, but despite a lot of searching I hadn't seen an Army wife one, so I knocked this up this afternoon. For the benefit of any overseas readers, that group of ladies top left are the Military Wives Choir who I blogged about in November and who have since had a Christmas number one! Maybe I should do a quilting one next...

Theo at 5 months

2012-02-11T15:27:00.001+02:00

Another month has passed in the life of Theo Boy!

He continues to be a very bonnie chap. Sleeping and feeding well and engaging with anyone anywhere who'll give him a smile (he particularly likes the ladies in our local post office!)

He is becoming increasingly aware of the dogs and squeals with delight when he spots them in the mornings. For their part, I have obviously done far too good a job of telling them to stay away from him early on, because most of the time they steer clear of him. However, when they do come close enough to lick his fingers, or for him to touch their fur, a great grin bursts across his face. What will they make of each other, once he becomes mobile?

Theo & his little friend Oscar

He is still growing rapidly and has just grown out of the snowsuit I bought him at Christmas (6 weeks wear!) which means lengthwise he's into 9-12 month clothes, which is the same as our friend's 11 month old baby girl - Gosh!

I'm still dabbling with weaning, but as he's not sitting up properly yet, it's just a taster of purees once a day, which sometimes he wants, and sometimes he doesn't. Like a lot of things I'll be tackling it with more purpose once Jim's got home and I've less on my plate.

And the keen-eyed amongst you may notice he's quite a bit fairer than when he was born! Most of the dark hair he was born with disappeared, and grew back blonde, I wonder if it will last...

WIP Wednesday (8th February 2012)

2012-02-08T20:31:00.001+02:00

Oh hello, it's Wednesday again! This time last week didn't I make some stupid rash promise that by today I'd have one quilt totally finished and the top for the other one complete? Clearly I was thinking about a world where a week has more than 7 days in it, because I have not even touched the Triple Dresden since last Wednesday!

There has been some good progress on the New Wave quilt though and it seems the simpler I go with designs the more I love them, and this is no exception, I'm already trying to think of an excuse to make one for me!

As I mentioned in previous posts the colours in this quilt were all picked to exactly match the interior decor and existing quilts in my parents house, all with the aid of a Kona Colour Chart. I really don't know how (or why) I survived without it. The amount of fabric I ordered online that turned up and was slightly different from what I was expecting, now everything matches perfectly.

I mentioned before that they were hard to get in the UK, but if you are still after one simplysolids.co.uk are stocking them, although they seem to sell very quickly! Not only do I now have one, but my mum and my sister have also bought them. (My husband would say we're a bit like that anyway, if one has something, then the other two have to get it too!)

Anyway, until next week, more inspiring quilting projects to be found by clicking on the link below...

A weird week and some winter soup

2012-02-05T21:42:00.003+02:00

It's been a funny kind of week. On Monday I was on the verge of calling the plumber out in an effort to rid our downstairs loo of the horrible smell that had overtaken it in the proceeding 24 hours, but then I discovered the doggy poo bag in the carrier underneath the buggy, which was stored in the downstairs loo - Yuk!

On Wednesday I was briefly horrified as I struggled to squeeze myself into the skirt I'd ordered, only to take it off and find it was a size 8. (US 4) Two sizes smaller than I usually wear! And yes it was my error, not the company's, I don't know what I was thinking (or not) when I ordered it.

And on yesterday I thought I'd finally lost it, when things started appearing on my Facebook page when I was nowhere near the computer. Only to learn that 600 miles away my father had been playing around with the facebook "like" button on a website and (having no account of his own) had guessed at my password! I don't think he had actually realised it would make something appear on my wall!

But after all of that, I can tick another week off the calendar and congratulate myself on surviving it with my sanity intact. There now remains less than six weeks (all being well) until Jim comes home. I feel a lot like an exhausted marathon runner approaching the final few miles.

But what does all of this have to do with that picture of soup? Well not a lot, except I always like to post with a photo, and more importantly I cooked this today and it is quick, filling and delicious, which just about ticks all the boxes for me at the moment...

Spicy chorizo, tomato and chickpea soup (makes 4 good portions)
(Adapted from this recipe at bbcgoodfood.com)

2 x 400g can of chopped tomatoes.
200g of Chrorizo sausage
300g of cabbage, spinach or celery
A generous sprinkle of dried chilli flakes
2 x 400g tins of chickpeas (drained and rinsed)
1 veg stock cube

Slice the chorizo thickly and then quarter each slice. Fry the chorizo in a little oil for about 5 minutes. Add the two tins of tomatoes and a tin of water to a pot on a medium heat, add the fried chorizo, drained of the fat it will have let out in the frying pan. Add the sliced green vegetables, chilli flakes, chickpeas and stock cube, bring to the boil and cook for about 5 minutes or until the green veg is tender. Eat with some yummy homemade bread.

Food Bloggers Unplugged

2012-02-03T14:04:00.001+02:00

Obviously I must have been blogging a lot about food recently, because I have been tagged by Magnolia Veranda in her food bloggers post!

What or who inspired you to start a blog?

It's so long ago (6 years!) that I honestly can't remember! I was sent to the Falkland Islands with my job with British Forces Broadcasting and I'd sort of heard of these things called blogs and thought it would be an interesting way to keep in touch with friends and family. Now I can't ever imagine not doing it!

Who is your foodie inspiration?

My mother! My husband still tells people in absolute awe all about how "Clare's mother cooks absolutely everything from scratch..." and I can still count the amount of takeaways I've had on one hand. I guess I was just born into a family that loves food and believes in preparing excellent stuff to eat.

Your greatest, batter-splattered food/drink book is?

Richard Bertinet's "Dough". With apologies to regular readers who hear me banging on about bread quite often, I use a recipe from Richard's book at least 3 times a week. My whole family are prolific breadmakers. It's not just that it's cheaper and contains less rubbish (don't start me on the Chorleywood baking process) but it also tastes far better than anything I've ever been able to buy.

Tell us all about the best thing you have ever eaten in another country, where was it, what was it?

Too many! My family had a holiday home in Spain for most of my life so I grew up eating Paella and I still cannot resist the sticky loveliness of paella rice. But more recently I've had grilled octopus on Curium Beach in Cyprus (see below,) Toothfish cheeks in the Falkland Islands and an amazing breakfast at the Red Tree Lodge in Fernie, British Columbia.

Another food blogger's table you'd like to eat at is?

There are so many great bloggers out there, both foodie and non-foodie, I'd find it hard to pick, but there are two or three in the States who would be very high up on my list. Not really anything to do with the food, just that I'd love to see inside their houses!

What is the one kitchen gadget you would ask Santa for this year (money no object of course)?

I'm pretty much sorted for kitchen gadgets, but I do know the husband would love a really expensive coffee machine!

Who taught you to cook?

My mum! She is still teaching me now and I'm 35!

I'm coming to you for dinner, what's your signature dish?

Bread is going to figure quite highly and if we just want a relaxed hassle free evening, I'll probably do lasagne, have it all pre-prepared and chuck it in the oven when you arrive.

What is your guilty food pleasure?

A Mars bar straight from the fridge and cut into pieces, A&W burgers, New York fries and Tim Horton's Boston Cream. I blame two years living in Canada for the last three!

Reveal something about yourself that others would be surprised to learn.

Food related? I've never eaten a kebab (the kind that come from shops) and I was vegetarian for most of my teens!

So now my instructions are to tag five other food bloggers with these questions, who in turn must tag five other food bloggers. Unfortunately I could only think of three, but here they are!

The View From Great Island
Make Do & Eat
Salt & Chocolate

WIP Wednesday (1st February 2012)

2012-02-01T18:51:00.002+02:00

Productivity in my sewing room has been slowed down a LOT this week due to the arrival of some new furniture, which came in bits and had to be assembled by me on the floor... It was chaos! It's the fifth piece of flatpack furniture I have had to assemble whilst the husband has been away (for new readers, he's in Afganistan) and I'm very glad it was the last!

Still at last the guest/day bed is finished and I can get back to quilting!

I have hand sewn the Triple Dresden wall hanging to the Kona raisin backing and added a mosaic border made up of 2 inch squares. I have been working on this quilt for far too long and have got to that dangerous point where I keep going on and off the design...

So this week I just need to FINISH it and then worry about whether I like it afterwards... Bad news is as soon as it's done, I need to fix the quilt hanger to the wall... A husband would be so handy right now!!

With the end in sight for the Triple Dresden I have made some progress with the New Wave Quilt...

This is the quilt I am making for my parents sofa to match these two existing quilts...

I made loads of progress with the quilt top last night, sewing all the coloured strips together and then I stopped and read the instructions and realised I had to add the sashing first, so then spent the rest of the evening unpicking stitches in front of the TV! My own fault entirely...

Next week I should hopefully have one finished quilt and one finished quilt top and then it will be time to start considering new projects. I have been looking at pixel quilts (of photographic images) a lot and debating whether one of those might be next. Very fiddly and a lot of work, but that doesn't put me off!

Until then, as it's the end of the month, here's some of the things that have been inspiring me on Flickr in January...

1. New fish baby log cabin detail, 2. Pixel quilt March 2011, 3. A Quilt for Jake, 4. opening package!, 5. fabric map in progress, 6. "Love the Beach", 7. woodland happiness~ mini dresden plate, 8. Untitled, 9. Tufet, 10. Here we go ... Step 1, 11. Sofacorner june 2010, 12. Blue Sofa Patchwork, 13. 365 Project 2011, 14. Chloe's Quilt, 15. tumbler quilt [finished], 16. newwavequilt

And as it's Wednesday, I'm once again linking up with all the other quilters as pat of Freshly Pieced's WIP Wednesday...

I am a bad crafter...

2012-01-27T01:01:00.003+02:00

I was going to post yesterday for WIP Wednesday, but somehow Wednesday and Thursday passed and I've not stopped for long enough to write about my limited quilting progress.

It is a good complaint, but there has been a lot of other stuff going on for the last few weeks. Stuff that doesn't make for interesting blog posts...

I have spent far too long on my hands and knees assembling flatpack furniture, as we have, for the first time since we married, got rid of all our military issue furniture and will now be paying slightly reduced rent as a result (hurray!) I've also been making a lot of soup based on the excellent whatever-is-in-the-fridge vegetable soup recipe here and of course bread to go with it too. Most recently tomato, basil, parmesan and garlic rolls (Freestyling from Richard Bertinet's Dough book) I made 16 of these rolls, went upstairs for 5 minutes while they were proving and came back to find I only had 12 left... Thanks very much dogs.

So anyway, most of the furniture is now assembled, I have a freezer full of food and I may just be able to get back to quilting soon. And in the meantime there's about 50 days left until the husband is home and the Scottish winter is still amazingly sunny, dry and mild.

Hope life is being kind to you too.

PS - For any book fans out there, I am also currently devouring a brilliant new book called The Light Between Oceans by LM Stedman. It's released in April, but stick it on your wishlists now as it's going to be one of the must reads of the year...

Theo at 4 and a 1/2 months...

2012-01-19T23:34:00.003+02:00

I've been a bit absent from the blog for the last couple of weeks while I've settled back in to life in Scotland after the Christmas break so time for a much overdue catch-up.

Wonderfully we are now over halfway through Jim's deployment and with the evenings getting lighter and the Scottish winter staying unseasonably mild, I'm feeling pretty positive about getting through the second half of the tour. However being distracted from this space has meant it's been 6 weeks since I posted any baby photos and I know I'll regret not keeping track of Theo's development later, so I best get it down in a post...

Over the Christmas break Theo got his first two teeth, which was a bit of a surprise as they popped up without much warning and only a bit of increased dribbling and putting fingers in his mouth! Taking this as my cue, I've started introducing him to solids with just a little baby porridge each day. I must say I'm reluctant to leave milk behind though, it is so quick, simple and clean in comparison!

Theo is now weighing just over 16 pounds, nearly twice his birth weight and representing a pretty steady weight gain of half a pound a week. No sign of him sitting up on his own yet, so we've bought him a beanbag which he enjoys as a change from being on the playmat. I know bumbo seats are extremely popular at this age, but with apologies to my friends who all have them (sorry!) I have to admit I just cannot stand the look of them, so T will have to do without!

Our two trips down south to see family mean that Theo has now taken 4 flights in the first 4 months of his life, with at least another two more to come before his first birthday - although thank heavens Jim will be back for those. None of the flights themselves have been particularly difficult, it's just the length of time involved in traveling to the airport, checking in and flying, combined with maneuvering a luggage trolly and buggy through the airport on my own that hasn't been particularly brilliant. Though lots of complete strangers have offered to help which has been a plus!

It really is amazing how much T's changed over the last few months. He was a pretty dependent demanding baby when Jim left in October and we as new parents were still struggling to find our feet and get him into a routine, and now he's a cheeky funny interactive individual. I cannot wait to see what his daddy makes of him when he gets back!

But apart from that, life continues to potter along. The deployment has certainly been good for me as my social circle up here has extended quite significantly since I've been on my own. Dog walks are becoming more sociable (and therefore less stressful), I talk to my neighbours more and I've met other local crafters.

It has been an uphill slog at points, but that saying about whatever doesn't kill you... is definitely true!

WIP Wednesday (11th Jan 2012)

2012-01-11T20:51:00.000+02:00

First WIP Wednesday of the year and I'm going to use this one to kickstart my quilting after a month long break, and also to talk about my love of Kona solids...

Last month I bought myself a Christmas present of a Kona colour chart. I'd been put off buying one because they are (1) Really hard to find in the UK and (2) Quite pricey. However when it arrived I realised exactly why they charge what they do for them! It's huge (each fold-out side is A4) and all those colours are not printed on to the card, but are actual fabric swatches!

It's been a revelation and I am so glad I bought it. I do most of my fabric shopping online and matching fabrics as been nigh on impossible, but now I can do it precisely. First job with the colour card was to match the fabric at the centre of my triple dresden to a Kona solid, which I did exactly, it's Kona Raisin!

So, I'll be getting on with this later in the week...

Then I was able to turn my attention to a new quilt. My parents have two quilts on their sofa and want a third (it's a BIG sofa!) Using the colour card I matched colours from both quilts and their curtains and I'm going to use them to make Oh Fransson's New Wave quilt. This is what I have so far...

For any Kona solids fanatics out there, that's School Bus, Sage, Blue & Pond. The orange does look a little random in that pile, but I also have Paprika and Lemon on order... It'll all make sense in the end... I hope!

And one last thing, another quilting purchase. Have you seen the Gypsy Grippers that you can buy to hold your ruler steady? I thought they were great, but (certainly round our way) kind of pricey, until my brilliant dad pointed out that a double dent puller would do the same thing! It was a FIFTH of the price! You could also use a bath support handle which are slightly smaller and less industrial looking...

As always I'm linking up today with other quilters via Freshly Pieced...

A year of reading

2011-12-31T17:33:00.000+02:00

I've nearly completed my first full year of my photo a day project and along with documenting everyday events, I've also kept track of every book I've read this year...

There were good books and bad books amongst my selections this year. Some which were published years ago and which I've only just got round to reading, and others (like The Land Of Decoration which I've just started) which aren't published for another couple of months.

If you're looking for some good reads for the new year, may I humbly recommend a few of my favourites from the last 12 months...

The Glass Castle - Jeanette Walls : The true story of the author's unconventional, poverty-stricken upbringing at the hands of their deeply dysfunctional parents. Eye-opening and page-turning, but not depressing. Both this and The Help were recommendations on another blog I follow.

The Help - Kathryn Stockett : African American maids working in white households in America's deep south during the early 1960s. Recently made into a film.

Fire Season - Philip Connors : Something different! An autobiographical tale of 10 summers spent at a remote outpost in the Gila National Forest. I got a preview copy of this as part of the Amazon Vine program and would have been unlikely to have discovered it on my own.

No Great Mischief - Alistair McLeod : The first of my Atlantic Canada books to read before our trip in April. Part set in the Scottish Highlands and part set in Cape Breton. It's beautifully written and incredibly poignant.

Unsurprisingly my husband thought it a wise idea to buy me a Kindle for Christmas. I've still got seven paperback books to read before I can switch formats, but I'm intrigued to discover how I'm going to find reading on it. A wise friend told me that everyone hates the idea of them until they try one!

Christmas quilt

2011-12-30T22:31:00.002+02:00

With all the festivities out of the way, it's time to share my "secret" Christmas quilt project with you...

Last year I made a quilt as a Christmas present for my then 8 year-old niece Millie. I wasn't entirely convinced an 8 year-old would really appreciate a quilt, but she loved it, so much so she announced in November this year that the "number one thing" on her Christmas list this year was another quilt!

To be honest, I was part delighted and part horrified. I could have done without the pressure of a small person really wanting a quilt for Christmas when I was having enough trouble juggling dogs and baby on my own while Jim was away! However I got there in the end (hurrah!) mostly thanks to the brilliant quilt design book Dare To Be Square.

If I'd had a month more time for the project, I would have made the owl quilt in the book, but for simplicity's sake I opted for the wiener dog design with an added border. At the beginning of December I hadn't even cut a single square of fabric, but once I started the quilt top came together in one weekend.

And here's the (now 9 year-old) girl herself opening the present on Christmas Day. I'd wrapped it up quite tightly so I think she was quite surprised when the small package gave way to reveal her longed for present!

In that photo above she's swinging her arms in happiness. Do you remember swinging your arms in happiness on Christmas day as a child?!

And one final thing to finish the year. I am honoured that my applique circles quilt from earlier this year has been featured on the excellent Quilt Story blog. Click on the link below to visit the site...

Christmas treats

2011-12-23T18:58:00.001+02:00

Forget the presents! Isn't one of the best things about Christmas eating all the wonderful food? And doubly so if you're not the one cooking!

I'm at home on the south coast of England for a few weeks enjoying longer daylight hours, time with family and filling myself up with my mother's cooking (I've eaten two of these chocolate eclairs already today!) I hope wherever you are you are also enjoying festive treats and spending time with the people that are important to you.

Things may be quieter than usual here for a bit (and elsewhere in blogland I suspect!) but do pop back after the big day when I'll have some photos of the secret Christmas project quilt to share, until then Happy Christmas!

Giveaway Winners

2011-12-17T13:42:00.001+02:00

After an amazing 190 entries for the Blog Hop Party Giveaway I can now announce the winners....

First prize of the kitty clutch and keyrings was comment 182...

CMEH in Austin, Texas...

And I also have a second prize of two keyrings for number 183 (Who'd believe it 182 & 183!)...

Comment 183 was Kess...

Thank you everyone for taking part it has been lovely hearing from all of you. I hope the winners enjoy their prizes and that you all pop back and check in with the blog occasionally.

My lovely Harris Tweed bag

2011-12-16T13:47:00.001+02:00

Look what I got in the post yesterday!

I'm not usually the kind of girl who gets excited about bags, but this is no ordinary bag, it's a Harris Tweed bag!

For those of you who aren't familiar with this very Scottish fabric, Harris Tweed is handwoven in the Outer Hebrides. Its famous for being the fabric that Miss Marple's suits were made from and is a favourite of Vivienne Westwood (whose logo looks a little similar) and as you can see from my bag, Harris Tweed isn't all browns and greens anymore, they've released some really beautiful modern cloths in recent years...

I've wanted a Harris Tweed bag for ages and I eventually got round to ordering one in October, but then had to wait two months for just the right shade of tweed to be available. My bag was eventually made by a lady on the Isle Of Lewis, which is off the north-west coast of Scotland. You can see how remote that is on the Google map below...

And the disasters keep coming...

2011-12-13T14:36:00.000+02:00

Shortly after Jim was deployed I was warned by fellow wives that the moment your husband leaves things start going wrong. Previously reliable appliances pack up, well organised systems fall apart and dogs or children start misbehaving.

Jim has been away for seven weeks now, and so far I've been caught in a snowstorm with a buggy that refused to collapse, had our diesel car towed after I filled it with unleaded petrol, and been forced to traipse through the woods in the dark looking for our two dogs after they ran off from the dog walker. In fact the one reoccurring theme is that anything I've done to try and make my life easier has consistently ended in disaster, so really I should not be surprised by what happened last night...

But first the back story.... A couple of weeks ago I made an off-hand comment to Jim that what I'd really like was to able to come downstairs after putting Theo to bed, and once in a while have a meal ready for me. I quickly forgot I'd mentioned it, but incredibly a couple of days later I had this delivered...

A box of "posh" freshly prepared frozen meals, ordered online in Afghanistan, and couriered overnight from Herefordshire! I filled our freezer, and delighted in the knowledge that there would now be one night a week when I wouldn't have to cook.

Last night was one of those nights, so I went to the freezer in the garage to take my pick from my bounty of frozen meals, and instead of wafts of freezing air and sturdy packages of food, I found everything swimming in water. Our previously reliable fridge freezer which had coped with +40c in Cyprus had thrown a wobbly with near freezing temperatures in the garage and packed up. There was no way of telling how long they'd been defrosted and being so far from family there was no way I could risk food poisoning. So one by one I unpacked the freezer and carried the whole lot out to the bin.

A waste of money, a waste of food and a rather personal blow of a ruined gift from my husband. I don't wish to moan but its these small but cumulative incidents that make a deployment so incredibly hard. We are now a third of the way through, and a part of me dreads what disasters may be lying in wait during the next two thirds... Thank heavens I'm heading south to see family at the weekend.

{Giveaway} Blog Hop Party

2011-12-09T11:30:00.000+02:00

For this post I'm joining forces with the Quilting Gallery and taking part in their Blog Hop Party. Over the next 7 days it's your chance to browse around a selection of quilting bloggers and at the same time take part in some great giveaways to win prizes.

Up for grabs on my giveaway I have one prize comprising an envelope clutch and large and small keyrings. I use my clutch for putting my passport, boarding card and purse in when I'm flying, but I know a lot of ladies also use theirs for nappies and wipes - and can you ever have too many keyrings? I think not!

To be in with a chance of winning, all you need to do is leave a comment on this post before December 17th. If you'd like a second entry into the draw you can also like my facebook page and then leave an additional comment to say you have done so.

Please ensure your blogger settings allow me to contact you (this blog post explains more) or that you leave an email address you can be contacted at in your post. The winner will have 72 hours after he draw to claim their prize, or there will be a redraw.

International entries and forces addresses (APO, BFPO etc.) are most welcome. Click on the image below to see a list of over ~~100~~ 230(!) participating blogs and Good Luck!

UPDATE 11/12/11 - I have been blown away with the success of the blog hop party and so in response to your enthusiasm, I have decided that ~~when we reach 100 entries for this giveaway~~, I shall offer a second prize... not sure what yet, but I'll make it good, so keep 'em coming!

---- THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED ----

Theo at 3 months

2011-12-08T17:00:00.000+02:00

Last week Theo turned three months old. Coincidentally this day was also the one month anniversary of Jim's deployment, so we probably both deserve a little recognition for reaching our respective milestones.

Over the last few weeks I have begun to realise (with constant reminders from my mother!) that I am blessed with a very easy baby. I have been following Gina Ford's Contented Little Baby Book since Theo was born and he really relishes his routine, lapping up sleep as though it is going out of fashion. Three and a half hours at lunch and about 13 hours (interrupted by a late feed at 10:30pm) at night. In the mornings I am usually woken first by the dogs <sigh> and then have to wake Theo up at about 8am. His usual reaction to the light being turned on (yes it's still dark at 8am here!) is to turn his head away and bury himself into the mattress - I think he gets this from his father!

With his Cousin Millie and Auntie Jane

He's currently taking 5 feeds of 210ml a day and draining all the bottles. I may have to up the amount slightly (not much more room left in the bottles!) or switch him to hungry milk before he's weaned, something which I very much suspect with occur before the government recommended point of six months! (But I do love being given a rule to break!)

He does have one problem at the moment though, cradle cap. I've tried dedicated shampoo and olive oil, the shampoo does nothing, the olive oil masks it quite well, but nothing more. Any suggestions particularly of the homemade or passed down through the family variety would be most welcome!

And finally did I mention he's a smiler? Anyone, anywhere, anytime, given slight encouragement he'll give you a spectacular grin back, even with an empty tummy or a full nappy. Bless him!

Still here!

2011-12-07T22:24:00.001+02:00

It's been a busy week or so in the Scottish Highlands. The winter snow has arrived, the dogs went missing in the woods and were found four hours later (what is wrong with them!?) and we held our craft sale at the Champagne Breakfast in the mess.

Of course with Jim away I was juggling Theo through the breakfast. He was most happy sitting on the table greeting everybody who came to look at the crafts with a gurgle and a coy smile. If only mornings at home with mummy were this interesting! Which reminds me, even if just for my own records, I must do a three month progress report on the boy before the end of the week... and I have good news too, there was some stock left over from today which will be part of a giveaway on Friday, which in itself is part of an even larger blog hop giveaway which the Quilting Gallery is organising. Already 155 blogs signed up to take part and some amazing freebies up for grabs, so I encourage you to pop back and try your luck over the weekend!

What a difference a year makes...

2011-12-03T21:23:00.001+02:00

2nd December 2010...

2nd December 2011...

I have been doing the photo a day project for the last 15 months. Its not always easy to find something to photograph and sometimes the pictures I take can seem boring and mundane at the time, but become interesting with distance. Now my first year has elapsed I'm finding looking back at events a year ago fascinating. Photos often trigger memories of a day which are far broader than what is captured in the frame.

This time last year we were living in Cyprus. Whilst the UK had snow, we were having a drought. I remember walking round our estate on the dry ground and praying for rain so the grass would grow and the dogs would stop getting the spiky seed pods stuck in their paws and now just look at the difference in the view of the countryside this year - All that greenery!

Last year we were living in houses like the ones you see on the left of the top photo, and despite what Jim's wearing it was actually very cold inside them as they had no central heating and temperatures dropped to single figures at night. This year we're living in a modern house with central heating - so its warmer inside, but definitely colder out.. as you can see from my gloves!

And of course there is another really big change. This time last year I was pregnant just, but still a week away from a positive pregnancy test, so I think the view on the dog walk yesterday would have surprised us both last year!

WIP Wednesday (November 30th)

2011-11-30T16:37:00.001+02:00

Last time I contributed to WIP Wednesday 3 weeks ago I was midway through three quilts and owing to being a little distracted by making things for the local craft fair I am now still midway through three quilts!

In fact I'm actually further behind on one than I was last time I posted. So quick update...

Bow Tie Quilt (my keep me occupied during Jim's deployment project) : No progress, which if you think about it is actually a good sign!

Triple Dresden Plate : Two Dresden plates completed and pieces for the outer plate cut and ready to be sewn (above.) I have also found appropriate fabric for the fussy cut centre. All I need to do now is sew that last plate, back it on Kona Snow and whack a border on... easy... in theory.

Secret Christmas Project : This has been a bit of a disaster. I bought a pattern (for £9, not cheap!) and started work, then discovered that the pattern had some pretty big miscalculations in it. Although I'm capable of working round miscalculations, you tend to buy a pattern so that someone else can do the thinking on your behalf! After lots of frustrated non-sewing, I have now sent it back to the shop I bought it from, and I'll be very interested to see their response! So finding myself back on square one I bought this book...

And I have to say I'm already delighted with it. Simple, quick easy to read patterns and some more simple, but pleasantly time consuming patterns. So my Secret Christmas Project will now be coming from this. Please no one mention the fact that it's December tomorrow, I'm trying not to panic about the fact I haven't even cut a single piece of fabric...

And finally, because it's the last WIP Wednesday of the month, here's a look at some of the (mostly quilting) images that have been inspiring me on Flickr this month...

1. Summer Scrapbook, 2. Wiener Dog, 3. Owl Purse, 4. owls in quilt patterns 2, 5. owl quilt, 6. Finished another bookshelf mini - for a tutorial!, 7. Deer quilt top - Blue, 8. Farmer's Wife Quilt, 9. Rainbow New Wave Quilt, 10. coin quilt, 11. Rugby Stripe for Ben, 12. London Tube Quilt, 13. All or Nothing - Alternate Colorway, 14. Pillow Talk Swap Round 6, 15. Pillow Talk Swap Round 6, 16. DSC01712, 17. Train quilt back, 18. Logan s Train Quilt, 19. 1600 Jolly Rancher!, 20. Color Study: Log Cabin 2 ~ 2007

Blogged as part of Freshly Pieced's WIP Wednesday...

In which I fight with the pram in a snow storm...

2011-11-25T13:56:00.001+02:00

Today begun with the first taste of real Scottish winter weather. At 8:30am it was still struggling to get light and out of nowhere it had begun to snow heavily. More sensible people than me would have taken this as a cue to stay inside and keep warm, but with two energetic dogs to walk, I decided to face the wintery onslaught.

I bundled dogs and baby into the car and drove to Duffus Castle to meet a friend. As has been mentioned on previous occassions, we own a buggy/travel system thing that is far to clever for its own good. It was purchased entirely to accommodate my husband's height and has thus far been used almost entirely by me. In fact such is my loathing for this smartarse bit of expensive equipment that I recently bought from eBay the original cheap buggy that I'd always wanted with the intention of using it when I fly to see my parents.

But this morning because of the snow storm, because of the car journey and because we paid a small fortune for it, I decided to use the Quinny frame with the carseat clipped onto it instead of the simple buggy.

Imagine the scene for a moment. It is hurling down wet snow into a soggy muddy car park in the middle of the Scottish Highlands. Small boy is bundled in multiple blankets to compensate for the fact it is only just above freezing and in an attempt to keep him dry, the carseat has been enclosed in a rain cover. Having walked the dogs, we are now trying to separate the car seat from the frame using two of the four buttons on it. We pull and nothing happens. One of us holds the frame, the other presses the buttons, we pull and nothing happens. Our fingers are going numb and our clothes are soaked through so we try again, and nothing happens. We look at each other bewildered, we study the seat and the frame, we press the other two buttons, nothing happens.

This continues for HALF AN HOUR. Theo sleeps through most of it despite the fact he's actually in the carseat. Eventually we decide we cannot stay out in the snow anymore, so we remove the baby from the seat, and bundle the entire ridiculously large frame and carseat into the back of my car, leave my car in the car park and then drive home in my friends car (baby being held by me in the back) My friend looks after Theo and I then return with another friend to collect my car... Phew!

A couple of hours later, cars are back where they should be, we've changed into dry clothes and warmed ourselves with mugs of tea and a "spare" husband is sent to my aid. By this stage the snow has cleared and the skies have brightened. I open the boot of the car and lift the contraption out onto the drive. "Right" he says rubbing his hands in anticipation of the challenge ahead "which buttons do you need to press?"

I look at the frame and out of nowhere two extra buttons have appeared. I stare open mouthed at this stupid complicated buggy and wonder how it's possible for buttons to be there one minute and vanish the next. And then very slowly a picture forms in my head of Theo wrapped in blankets, the rain cover wrapped around the frame, the entire Quinny swaddled to within an inch of its life and I realise we didn't press these two buttons because at the time, they were completely obscured from vision.

I press them now and the seat eases effortlessly off the frame. No amount of fumbling over an explanation now seems an adequate way to explain how only hours earlier this had been an unsurmountable challenge for two women. The spare husband fortunately has the decency to try to hide his laughter... a little. I thank him, and go back inside and sheepishly delete the angry letter I had just written to the pram manufacturers.

Wonderful military wives

2011-11-24T14:01:00.001+02:00

I'd be lying if I said that military wives all live together harmoniously all of the time, but recently one group of ladies has stepped into the limelight and united us all in supporting their wonderful work.

For the last three weeks the BBC has been showing a programme called The Choir which has really captured the imagination of the British public. Choirmaster Gareth Malone spent six months working with the partners of service personnel in Chivenor & Plymouth while their husband's were deployed to Afghanistan. The series culminated in a performance at the Remembrance Service at the Royal Albert Hall of a beautiful stirring song written especially for the occasion.

The military community is in the scheme of things quite small, and I think everyone within it must know someone in the choir (we do, we were in Canada with Kerry & Leigh Tingey) so it feels very personal to all of us.

If you are overseas and haven't heard the track yet take a moment to watch the video, I promise you won't be disappointed (but you may cry!) and if you are in the UK please get behind the campaign to get these girls to number one. The single is released on December 19th and you can also like their facebook page and follow them on Twitter.

Up to my neck in it...

2011-11-23T21:45:00.001+02:00

I've been a little absent from this blog recently, and I just wanted to pop in and explain why. A few weeks ago I discovered that our local craft group was having a stall at a Christmas coffee morning this month. They asked if I'd like to sell anything and for a hundred and one reasons I discounted it. I have a quilt to make for Christmas for a small person who says "it is the number one thing on their Christmas list" (the pressure!) a Christmas box to prepare for Jim, the small matter of a baby and two dogs to look after every day and a lot of the time at these kind of sales people aren't prepared to pay the money that handmade goods are worth (which is another debate entirely)

But sometime after deciding I definitely wasn't going to take part, I had a change of heart and thought I could just dabble and do a couple of bits just for fun, completely forgetting that I don't really do dabbling...

So here I am 6 days away from the sale, up to my neck in fabric and sewing. You probably think I'm crazy, BUT there was one very good reason to be doing this that I overlooked and it is this... There is nothing quite so good at making the time pass as a looming deadline!

So excuse me if I'm quiet for a little while, I am (fortunately) not weeping over my absent husband or crossing off the days till he returns on my chuff chart, but rather sweating over fabric combinations and unpicking stitches... The sale is next Wednesday, I shall emerge from my bubble then if not before, and if anything is leftover it shall be going in my Etsy shop, so you lovely people can sample the products of my labour...

Houses with secrets...

2011-11-19T15:11:00.001+02:00

I've been on the south coast for the last two weeks visiting my parents. This part of the country tends to get the best weather in the UK anyway, but for the last few weeks they've had particularly unseasonably warm weather, with highs of 15c and lots of sunshine, perfect weather for winter walks and a good opportunity for me to show you some of the sights at the other end of the country from where I'm normally based.

This morning we headed east along the coast, and took a walk along Selsey seafront. Many of the houses on this stretch hide a fascinating secret. After the First World War when housing stock was in short supply, surplus railway carriages were used as housing. The idea spread in popularity and hundreds ended up along the south coast as holiday homes. The carriages were originally purchased from the Brighton Railway Company for as little as £10 each and sometimes as many as five were used to form accommodation in an H shape layout.

Over time modern facades have grown up around the old trains, but with a keen eye you can still spot signs of their existence. Houses with a single story and wide frontage are nearly always built from carriages and you can still see the original windows and doors amongst the fabric of the new homes.

Some of the houses are pretty rundown...

And others have been beautifully restored to make the most of the original features...

source

Many of them, like the one above, are available as holiday rentals or B&B accommodation and if you want to buy one, these days they'll cost you anything from £250,000 to £500,000 or more. Not quite the cheap housing solution they were intended as, but undoubtedly wonderfully unique homes!

We have a winner!

2011-11-12T17:10:00.001+02:00

Congratulations to Hannah, who wins the Creative Memories software. Hannah said her favourite kit was "October Sun".

If you missed the giveaway, but would still like to buy the software with a $10 discount, copy and paste this code and use it at the checkout...

STMMMS60614

{Giveaway} My Memories Scrapbooking Software

2011-11-10T10:41:00.000+02:00

For all sorts of reasons I don't do a huge amount of giveaways on this blog, so when I do I like to make them something worthwhile. When I had the opportunity to giveaway some digital scrapbooking software, I just knew it would be exactly the kind of thing you guys would love.

Back in the days BQ (before quilting) I spent some dark winter nights in Canada doing non-digital scrapbooking, and the one thing I remember was that it was soooo expensive. In fact when I was putting these pages together with the My Memories Suite I had to keep reminding myself that it really didn't matter if I used one or two more embellishments cause they were only virtual and I wasn't paying per flower.

So how does digital scrapbooking compare to old school scrapbooking? Frustratingly it's every bit as addictive! I started out intending to do one page as an example and kept coming back to do more. The spending won't stop entirely when you go digital, but I think it is a lot cheaper. The initial software is $39.97 which includes all the formats, embellishments and papers I used to put these pages together. You can also add kits which are typically around the $4 - $7 range. I used to spend that on one pack of embellishments, so it seems quite reasonable. You can also make cards and videos with the software, but I had enough to fiddle with just on the pages before I even started on that.

So the good news is if you're tempted to try digital, My Memories Suite have offered one set of their software as a prize for readers of this blog, and a chance for everyone to purchase the software at a discount. Although the prices I have mentioned here are in dollars, it is available to download wherever you are in the world and whatever your currency.

How to take part in this giveaway....

(1) Have a look at MyMemories.com and leave a comment on this post telling me what your favourite digital scrapbooking kit is.
(2) And for one more chance to win either like the Home In The Highlands facebook page, or the My Memories facebook page and leave a second comment on this post telling me you've done that.

So that's two chances to win in total.

Giveaway closes at midday GMT on Saturday 12th November and you will have 72 hours to claim your prize or I will redraw. Please read this post about no-reply bloggers to check your settings won't prevent me from contacting you if you win. Details of how to purchase the software at a discount will be published with news of the winner on Saturday. Good luck!

[update] - A friend has just asked me what you do with the finished virtual pages - Good question! You can export them from the software as jpegs, Photobox do square prints, but you can also format the pages as rectangular to begin with and then put them in a photo book, as you would with normal photos.

WIP Wednesday (9th November 2011)

2011-11-09T17:03:00.000+02:00

This week I have some progress to show on my wall hanging. The first two Dresden plates are now complete, and I'm cutting fabric for a third. Having always been put off making Dresden plates because I thought they were difficult, I was pleasantly surprised by how easily they came together and how much I enjoyed sewing them.

Unfortunately I hadn't really taken into account how much the plate would shrink during sewing though. It's now 17" across and the intention is for the inner part of the quilt to be 24", hence the need for a third larger plate. I'm also planning to fussy cut a design for the centre of the plates, but I'm quite enjoying muddling along and letting this quilt evolve of its own accord...

For the next two weeks I'm down at my parents home on the south coast (600 miles from the Scottish highlands) and amongst other things, I'm getting the chance to indulge with a little shopping at my favourite fabric store, The Eternal Maker.

I've been here for less than 24 hours and already picked up this pile. Far too many projects on the go at the moment really, but isn't that always the way just before Christmas?

Talking of WIP. My parents lovely minimalistic house is starting to look a little less minimalistic since my arrival, although actually my sister (also visiting for the day) is about 50% responsible for this mess... My mum, my sister and I have 7 sewing machines between us.

By the way if you are a crafter, tomorrow I'm hosting a GIVEAWAY on this blog for My Memories digital scrapboooking software - please pop back for a chance to win...

This post is part of WIP Wednesday, click on the button to see other quilting works in progress...

Theo - 2 months (and a bit)

2011-11-07T18:00:00.000+02:00

First of all thank you so much for your comments on the last post. I think I ticked the box of "needing a space to vent" a little earlier than I was planning on this deployment, so I thought to even things out I should also tick the "babies" box too.

Having read this post over at A Jennuine Life, I realised that I really should be using this blog to document Theo's development and although no one likes to be deluged with baby photos, I think there is room for a little monthly update, so this is his slightly late two month progress report...

We are still following Gina Ford's Contented Little Baby routine (loosely) and Theo seems to be quite happy with the amount of sleep he is getting and when in the day he is getting it. In fact from 5 weeks old (he's nearly 10 now) he has slept from 7pm to his late feed at 11pm and then solidly from 11:30pm - 8am. He has a morning nap on the dog walk and has (within the last week) finally got the hang of his two-three hour lunchtime sleep.

He's steadily putting on weight at a rate of about half a pound a week and is now nearly 13lbs and 62cm in length which puts him on the 98th percentile for height (that's his tall daddy's genes) and the 75th for weight. Unsurprisingly all that growing means he's almost out of his 3-6 month trousers already!

He does love his food too and takes 210ml five times a day, but rejects the bottle with an appalled look if I dare offer milk that isn't warm enough! I think we will probably have to consider weaning him early (after 4 months) at this rate.

Entertainment comes mostly from his baby gym (the expensive plastic one I didn't want to buy) but what he enjoys most is a room full of new people, faces and sounds, and as the Tesco disaster proved, as long as there's something to watch, he's a happy chap.

The dogs have had very different reactions to him since he came home. Macy acts as though he doesn't exist, shows no interest in him or his possessions. Bella on the other hand is fascinated and will cautiously approach and sniff around him when he's on the playmat. She has taken a fancy to a small orange monkey which hangs from the play gym and consequently I am constantly finding in obscure places after she has stolen it!

His next milestone will be sitting up, something I am very much looking forward to as it will allow him to use a door bouncer and I'll be able to put him in a backpack on the dog walk and have both hands free.... oh and he'll be taking his first flight tomorrow, wish me luck!

Another traumatic afternoon at Tesco

2011-11-05T22:13:00.003+02:00

Alcohol related therapy

Regular readers of this blog will know that traumatic things happen to me at Tesco and at least partly because of this I generally avoid supermarkets like the plague, but this afternoon I had a very small weekly shop to do (Jim went to Afghanistan earlier in the week) and I also needed to fill the car with fuel before my petrol discount vouchers expired... so I went.

On the way to fill up, I momentarily panicked at the realisation that I had never filled this car up and had no idea what side the fuel cap was on, but fortunately the wise people at Volvo have designed an arrow on the dashboard which points to the side of the car you fill up on - phew! When I eventually got to the front of the queue for the pump another problem presented itself. Our newfangled car has a button which unlocks the fuel cap. Did I know where it was? Did I heck!

I was scrabbling around in the car inadvertently opening the bonnet, switching the hazard lights on, blindly pressing or switching anything that looked ambiguous. I came *this close* to driving off without the fuel.... and how I wish I had!

Eventually I popped the fuel cap open, I put £50 worth of petrol in and I went to close the cap. The cap was strangely difficult to wind in and after it fell out on first attempt I looked at it more closely. Quite closely actually. Close enough to see it had the words "diesel" written on it. In the 15 years I've been driving I've never owned, borrowed or driven a diesel car... except hang on! It turns out I do own a diesel car! How funny! How funny that this diesel car I didn't know I owned is here in this garage next to this pump that I just used to fill it with petrol.... oh b******s!!!!

I would like to pretend at this point that I laughed at my stupidity, efficiently dealt with the problem, kept a stiff upper lip and got on with the day. But no it was a packed Tesco garage, it was a dark Scottish evening, I had a baby with me and as soon as I got to the counter and told them my problem and they said "is there anyone we can call" I thought, my husband's in Afghanistan and I cried.

But moving on from the crying bit... what followed was a few phone calls, a lot of questions I didn't know the answer to (which garage did we buy it from? Did we have breakdown cover?) and some lovely very helpful complete strangers.

It also turns out that you can't move our newfangled car out of "park" without starting the engine and you can't start the engine when you've just put the wrong sort of expensive liquid in it. Brilliant. So now my quite-large-not-at-all-inconspicuous car was grounded in the middle of the Tesco garage on a busy Saturday night and we couldn't do as much as push it out of the way.

In the middle of one of the phone calls with the questions I didn't know the answer to, I noticed a woman of about my age seemed to be patiently waiting to talk to me and because military wives have a sixth sense that allows them to instantly detect another military wife, I knew that (1) she was a military wife and (2) she had worked out that I was a military wife. I got off the phone and she said "I live on the patch (forces slang for housing area) is there anything I can do" Yes, yes and yes!!

So we came home, she gave me tea (how terribly British) and we called out a garage. 45 minutes later the car has been whisked away by a tow truck, Theo was in bed and I had cracked open the alcohol.

Now the ironic things...

(1) Two hours before the Tesco incident I called our insurance company to cancel the policy on our second car, which I have put in storage because there is no way that one person could need two cars for the next 5 months.
(2) I didn't have a peep out of Theo all afternoon, despite being shuffled from car to car and in and out of the Tesco garage - to him it was the most exciting afternoon he has ever had.
(3) After all the drama and the expensive fuel which will be poured away, I forgot to use the petrol discount vouchers in the end any way.... Grrr!

WIP Wednesday (November 2nd)

2011-11-02T10:04:00.000+02:00

Normally I'm strictly a one-quilt-at-a-time girl. I start them, work obsessively, finish and then pack away all the fabric. However with Christmas on the way there are about 100 different projects on the go at the moment and with no husband to reign me in, I confess that things have become a little more chaotic than usual with quilts in progress in several rooms in the house.

My first work in progress is a Christmas present, so frustratingly is going to have to remain under wraps for a couple of months, but I will say this much, it's from a pattern (for I think the first time ever!) it has an animal theme and (most importantly) I love it...

Quilt number two is my go-slow project. A bow tie quilt intended for the bed in the spare room. The idea behind this is (1) to use up scraps and (2) to take a really long time doing it to keep me out of mischief while Jim is in Afghanistan. I've completed 15 squares so far and I need over 100 to finish it, so one way or another you'll be seeing a LOT of this quilt slowly coming together over the winter.

Quilt number three is also new territory, for the first time I'm making a quilt as a wall hanging. The completed quilt will be 35 inches square with a double (or possibly triple) colour wheel Dresden plate at the centre and something else (I'm undecided) around the outside. I'm waiting for more fabric in the mail at the moment which is why it's looking a bit patchy.

The right kind of quilt hanger for the finished quilt (or in fact ANY kind of quilt hanger) has proved difficult to source in the UK, but I did find this woodwork tutorial for a hanger which was exactly like I wanted, so I sent it to my dad and I'm hoping he might whip it up for Christmas. The last thing I asked him to make was a sound-proof booth for a home studio... He likes a challenge!

And finally, a look at some of the (mainly quilting) images that have been inspiring me in the last month on Flickr. I'm going to do this at the end of every month now as part of my WIP Wednesday post, wouldn't you love a sewing room like the one top right?

1. Color Study: Log Cabin 2 ~ 2007, 2. [workinprogress], 3. Pillow Talk {Swap} Received, 4. sewing space 2, 5. The (not so) Scrappy Mug Rug, 6. Zoomy Dresden Plate, 7. Dresden plate mini quilt, 8. [workinprogress], 9. The Pillow Talk { Swap } Round 6, 10. Applique tote bag, 11. bow tie quilt, 12. bow tie quilt, 13. do.Good Stitches--June BLISS circle., 14. go! baby. mini quilt., 15. Laura's Wedding Quilt, 16. 5 x 4 Blocks - Hive 12

This post is part of Freshly Pieced's WIP Wednesday. Click on the button below to see more inspiring quilters.

The clocks go back

2011-10-30T18:30:00.003+02:00

The clocks went back across the UK last night and here in Scotland we are about to experience the flipside to those wonderful long summer days. This far north our days will gradually shrink as we head towards Christmas, until at their shortest, we will only have light between 9:30am and 3pm.

If we lived in our own house I'd throw money at buying an enormous log-burning stove and the best brightest interior lighting money could buy, and then I'd hunker down and embrace winter. Sadly the closest I'm likely to get to any of that in a military quarter is an electric fire and some strip lights...Oh well!

But it's not all glum, Scotland can still surprise us! Just when you resign yourself to dark winter days, the weather Gods pull something unexpected out of the bag! We spent this morning on Lossiemouth beach, 6 adults, 4 dogs and 3 babies all enjoying the winter sunshine and fresh air, and then we followed it with a trip to our favourite local tea room, the Harbour Lights for brunch Scottish style... Sausages, bacon, eggs, black pudding and haggis. Now we didn't get that in Cyprus!

Hope you've had a weekend of pleasant surprises?!

What we've been up to...

2011-10-28T21:58:00.000+03:00

Gosh, where has two weeks gone?! We've spent most of the last fortnight getting ready for Jim's imminent departure to Afghanistan. This has meant furthering my quest to find the answer to the great question How Do You Walk Two Dogs & A Baby? After lots of trial and error, there are many answers, not just one. A coupling lead has made local on-lead walks possible, a twice weekly dog walker gives the dogs those odd extra energy-burning afternoon walks that Jim would normal do, and recruiting other wives to do walks together (more babies, more dogs) makes bigger further afield walks a little less daunting...

We've also been spending some time talking about the Big Holiday which will come at the end of all of this. We're planning to head to the east coast of Canada next spring, to see the part of the country we didn't get to when we were living there. I have 5 months to enjoying planning food, accommodation and places to visit, so I would welcome any suggestions of must dos in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick or Prince Edward Island...

I've also been working on a few projects which should keep me out of mischief while I'm home alone over the winter (don't get too excited there's nothing in the Etsy shop yet...) 3 years ago when Jim went to Kenya for six weeks, he bought me a sewing machine to keep me busy and as chance would have it there's a second one on its way for this trip, but more on that in a later post...

And we're preparing to put a family tradition on hold for a while. This evening we're having our last Friday Night Pizza Night with heaps of fresh toppings some wonderful foccacia on the side. Jim will miss his homebaked bread while he's away, there really is nothing to compare to it.

And finally some of us have spent the last fortnight just hanging out in the house and relaxing... It's a hard life being a dog!

Another quilt for Theo!

2011-10-16T21:26:00.000+03:00

How many quilts is too many quilts when you are just seven weeks old?! Personally I think it must be a pretty high number, as there's always somewhere to use them... One for under the play gym, one for over the back of the nursery chair (lovely to run your baby fingers over when you are being burped) one in the pram, another to kick about on in the sewing room (naturally) and a couple of spares for when the others are being washed...

And Theo is an amazingly lucky boy (again) because Fiona, another of our friends whom we lived near in Canada sent us this quilt last week, along with some burp cloths and some gorgeous sewn gifts.

Fiona will probably kill me for mentioning this, but the funniest part of the story is that after hurriedly completing all her sewing and dispatching it to us, she woke up in the middle of the night to realise with absolute horror that she'd forgotten to sew up the bottom of the fabric book pages after she'd turned them in the right way! So a little hand sewing project for mummy too... perfect!

When I consider the multitude of ways in which quilts have become used by our family, I do sometimes wonder what we did before we had them!?

A few good reads...

2011-10-14T00:30:00.000+03:00

First of all, thank you for all the kind messages you sent after the last post they really meant a lot. I found out today about a friend-of-a-friend whose husband has just gone to Afghanistan and who is expecting her first baby in a few weeks, so that was a reality check! At least we have had Theo's first couple of months together as a family...

Today I have decided to add a new page to the blog for books (link is top right.) I've always been a voracious reader and it's the one indulgence I've managed to hang on to since Theo's birth. In fact I've found that by reading when he's feeding, I'm actually getting more time to read than I did before he was born! (But alas less time to sew!)

I've also been part of the Amazon Vine program since January and I've been lucky enough to get my hands on some great pre-release books, most of which I wouldn't have discovered otherwise. So I thought I'd share some of my reading experience with you and perhaps point you in he direction of some good novels. The page is work in progress at the moment, but if you have a book you love, please share your recommendations too...

And finally the titles on the page are linked to the real old-school paper copies of books on Amazon as that's the way I still read them. However after seeing Jim's Kindle today, I think I could be wavering...

A change is coming...

2011-10-11T21:29:00.002+03:00

Just as we are getting used to being a family of three, soon we shall be two again...

I haven't mentioned this before, because to be honest I think I've been in denial, but Jim is off to Afghanistan in a few weeks and shall be away throughout the long Scottish winter and into the spring. I have very mixed feelings about it. I should say first off that I understand totally his desire to go and to do the job he spends so much of his career rehearsing for, and I also know that I've been especially lucky for him not to have done a full deployment till now, but I can't help thinking if only it were over the summer! If only Theo was a bit older! If only it had been before Theo was born and I was still working! If only I wasn't living 500 miles from my family!

But it is what it is! In the meantime (and not to in any way belittle the serious task ahead) it is as though there is a rather enthusiastic Boy Scout preparing for a camping trip in this house. Every day there are new bits of kit being brought home, tried on, washed, or laid out in the spare room ready for packing. There are badges to sew on to bits of uniform (that's my job) and various essential things that keep being purchased, like (I kid you not) a Christmas jumper, copies of GQ and a Kindle.

Of course it's a war zone and a serious job, but don't ever forget the British military are the best in the world at finding light relief in hard times and carting ludicrous luxury items to a combat zone.

And of course the thing most people reading this are probably wondering is, am I scared for his safety? And the answer is... not yet. I am very fortunately not married to someone who is going to be doing one of the incredibly difficult and dangerous jobs in Helmand, so rather ludicrously my big concerns are all domestic, like how I will juggle two dogs and a pram on a daily walk, in the snow, on my own...

Perhaps it is in fact the daily drudge of domesticity that will keep me sane in the end? That and being occupied with a whole load of Christmas presents I need to make in the next two months... So anyway my bloggy friends, if you can, please stand with me on the months ahead, I suspect I shall need a space to vent in the bad times, and some warm comments about photos, babies and sewing in the good...

Artwork for the nursery

2011-10-08T17:15:00.001+03:00

The last bit of the nursery was finally put in place today, and it's got quite a story behind it...

Many years ago I was sent home from primary school with a project to write a poem about a cat. Of course like most children with homework, I asked for adult help, and on this occasion got it from my dad. At the time he was renovating the bathroom in our house, and I have a vivid memory of him concocting this poem for me whilst doing the plumbing (multi-talented chap my father!)

The original poem has long since been lost and when I was looking for ideas to decorate the nursery, I thought it would be a good excuse to rescurrect the poem (which I still had in my head) and perhaps see if I could find an artist to illustrate it.

I found the very talented Jane Eccles on Etsy and she created a beautiful picture for Theo at a very reasonable price. It arrived shortly after he was born, but we had a 5 week wait for it to be framed... Today we at long last got to pick it up, and it now hangs in pride of place above his cot. A little piece of family history to hand down...

The 5 best things I did to help the household budget

2011-10-06T18:17:00.000+03:00

Back in April when I first went on maternity leave, I mentioned that I would be doing my best to embrace the Scottish habit of thriftiness. Six months later I thought I should give you an update and share some of my tips...

(1) A once weekly shop - This was easier for me to embrace than most people, because firstly I hate shopping and secondly we had two years practice when we lived in rural Canada (the supermarket was 40 minutes away!) I now do my weekly shop with Tesco online, I meal plan on a Wednesday, top up the list with anything I have forgotten on a Thursday and get it delivered on a Friday. We have a budget, and if we're under it I add store cupboard items which are on offer. When its delivered I freeze all the meat and spend a couple of minutes looking at expiry dates. We easily save the cost of delivery by cutting out the impulse purchases we would make in store, and it makes weekdays a lot simpler knowing a meal has already been decided upon and that the ingredients are in the fridge.

(2) Getting in the wholesale habit - Tesco's good, but not that good, and some of their stuff is deceptively expensive. I used to think I got a good deal buying dishwasher tablets on "buy one get one free" until I compared the prices with Costco and realised the normal price was 4 times as expensive as Costco, and even on a BOGOF deal, Tesco was still double the price of Costco! We now buy all the household essentials like nappies, loo roll and washing powder in a quarterly Costco shop - You should see our garage!

(3) Doing eBay properly - If it's worth selling, it's worth selling well. If selling clothes is your thing, buy a mannequin to photograph them on. Make sure listings end at evenings or weekends when there's lots of people around to bid. One of the best ways to increase the price you sell for is to offer delivery for everything you possibly can, MyHermes collect from your house and are cheaper than Royal Mail. If you want to weigh things to work out postage costs, buy digital luggage scales and suspend the item in a large Ikea bag. And finally, think outside the box about what to sell, you'd be amazed what people bid on!

(4) Quidco - I joined Quidco a few years ago, but a lot of the time I forgot to go through the site when I was making a purchase. They've got round that problem with a brilliant toolbar you can download for Firefox, which reminds you to claim the cashback on participating sites. Cashback is particularly lucrative for mobile phone contracts and insurance, but even clothes stores offer about 3% back. I now get a nice monthly payment of £5-£10 straight into my bank account.

(5) Amazon Price Tracker - With babies, come a lot of purchases, and when I went to buy our baby monitor, I was annoyed to see the price of it had increased quite significantly since I first researched it. So I went looking for a price tracking tool and found Chintzee. I installed it, looked at the Amazon price history and realised it was currently selling for one of its highest prices, so I waited a few weeks and the price steadily dropped from £70 to £40 and I made a £30 saving on one purchase!

If you've found any easy online money savers, please share in a comment below!

Baby trews!

2011-09-30T22:49:00.000+03:00

I've been making baby trousers again today. The pattern is a free download from Made By Rae and is ridiculously easy and quick to put together. I made the first pair of these before Theo was born, but I've made a couple more after realising how much cheaper they are than store bought clothes. Even Tesco charges £7.50 for a pair of baby trousers, these cost about a third of that to make.

Today's pair are made from brushed cotton, which seems to be strangely hard to buy in the UK (if anyone knows different, please tell me!) I have also made a pair in lightweight cotton and another which are lined for colder weather.

One of the really great things I'm discovering about making clothes for children is that the patterns start very simple and get progressively more complex as the child gets older. After baby pants my next challenge is making dungarees... Boden seems to be the only place you can buy them from and they are £24 a pair (!!) Fabric costs will be about half that to make them, how hard can they be?

WIP Wednesday (28th September)

2011-09-28T21:50:00.002+03:00

I'm not sure if this really counts as a post for Work In Progress Wednesday, as it's actually very much about finished work... but anyway, it's Wednesday, so I shall jump on the bandwagon!

I have finally completed the playmat which I made to go under Theo's baby gym, it's taken me the best part of 10 days just to do the binding, but I guess that's life with a 4 week old!

As those of you reading in the UK will now, we had unseasonably warm weather today - even amazingly in Scotland! So whilst the boy was resting in the Silver Cross, I took the quilt outside to try and photograph it in the daylight.

No sooner had I laid it on the grass than Bella the Beagle appeared, quite obviously delighted that I had laid it out especially for her to sunbathe on...

And when she vacated it, the Big Dog decided she'd try and fit on it...

Now obviously I couldn't throw either of them off it, because Little Dog had a tragic start in life and always manages to convey this with very sad eyes, and a recent trip to the vet revealed that Big Dog is a bit bigger than she should be, so I couldn't give her a complex and tell her to move...

But eventually they shifted and I photographed the quilt...

And finally a word about that play gym! When I posted a photo of the quilt in progress, my wise old (but not really old) friend Gill pointed out that the baby would need quite long arms to reach the toys on my nice wooden play gym. It actually turns out there was a far bigger problem, because as nice as that wooden gym was, it was just dull!

Despite the fact mummy likes wooden toys, Theo is a traitor to my cause! He stubbornly refused to be entertained by the wooden gym, but when it was replaced by an obscenely expensive, hideously plastic one with flashing lights and calipso music, he loved it! <sigh> So now the play mat quilt is going to be spending time under a slightly different play gym to the one I envisaged...

Another lesson learned by the amateur parent! Don't forget more quilts to see by clicking the link below!

What is it with me and pushchairs?

2011-09-26T21:54:00.001+03:00

Jim was back at work today after his rather extended paternity leave, so Theo and I were left to take on life's big challenges as a duo... challenges like a trip to Tesco!

You may recall my post in May where I explained the lengthy process by which my husband chose our pushchair? As it was very much his gadget, he has been in charge of it since, doing the complicated stuff like taking the wheels off (don't ask) and folding the hydraulic frame, while I loaded an unloaded the baby. So as today was our first trip out alone I left nothing to chance, performing an early morning familiarisation exercise with the Quinny on our driveway to ensure I knew how to fold and unfold the frame before we got to Tesco car park... There was no way I was going to be that sucker struggling with a pram in public!

Feeling suitably prepared we set off with a shopping list of 5 items - What could possibly go wrong! Theo was suitably bedazzled by Tesco and stayed quiet around the store, even sitting patiently through "an unexpected item in the bagging area" and something I was buying that required a member of staff to verify I was over 25!? Slightly mistifying as the sum total of my basket was...

(a) live yeast
(b) sunflowers
(c) a baby sleeping bag
(d) series 7 of House on DVD
(e) a jam doughnut

We paid, we left, Theo was still quiet, we had achieved! We got back to the car and I realised I hadn't practiced everything... I had absolutely no idea how to remove the carseat from the Quinny frame once it was attached. I pressed every button I could find, at one point nearly triggering the hydraulic collapsing mechanism with the carseat and the baby still attached. At this point, Theo quite rightly decided to protest (or perhaps call for help?!) ensuring not only was I performing a public display of I'm-a-new-mum-who-can't-fold-the-pushchair, but that everyone in earshot was now watching.

After 10 minutes of faffing, and just as I was seriously considering leaving the car at Tesco and pushing the steadfastly linked trio of carseat, Quinny and Theo home, I somehow pressed the right combination of buttons and released the seat.

Thank heavens I had the doughnut to calm my nerves when we made it home!

A quilt NOT made by me!

2011-09-21T18:01:00.001+03:00

There have been quite a few surprises over the last three weeks since Theo arrived, and one of the nicest ones has been receiving quite so many cards and gifts from family friends, old school mates, colleagues and neighbours.

I really really hadn't had any idea how the birth of a baby produces so much post! I think when you get to your mid-30s you get so used to milestones being marked with greetings from just from your close family, that you never imagine you'd ever see a mantelpiece over run with cards or a postman who is still knocking on your door 3 weeks after the big day.

Yesterday, just as we were starting to believe the flow of post had tailed off, we received two lovely gifts for Theo. The first was a copy of one of my favourite childhood books, The Hungry Caterpillar, and a toy caterpillar that clips on to the pram, and the second was a wonderfully soft and snuggly raggy quilt made by my old friend Kim, who taught me to quilt in Canada.

Kim used to make quilts for all the new arrivals in the village where we lived in Alberta and I often joked I'd have to have a baby whilst we were there just to ensure we got one. Well two years later, Theo may have been a Scottish rather than Canadian baby, but he still got the quilt... lucky boy!

Contented Little Theo...

2011-09-20T22:04:00.000+03:00

Today Theo slept for two and a half hours in the middle of the day.

I went to the supermarket, posted some parcels (whilst husband was at home) cut fabric, sewed strips of binding, finished making a pair of baby trousers, wrote a thank you card, baked a cake and took some photos... and I owe it all to Gina Ford.

Love her or loathe her, Scotland's most famous baby guru, is rapidly becoming this family's favourite baby guru.

This evening for an encore, I shall be attempting to eat my supper with both hands and both items of cutlery, because <whisper it> the boy has been asleep since 7pm!

Gifts from around the world...

2011-09-17T13:41:00.001+03:00

Hello folks! We are still here, just juggling things a little while we get used to life with a new baby in the house, and of course, when you are already busy, life loves to present you with more challenges! So on top of everything that a new baby entails, we've also had a broken washing machine to contend with, and several trips to the vets after Bella the Beagle managed to pierce her eyeball!

Fortunately the washing machine is now fixed (after a fair bit of swearing and cursing!) and despite Bella's injury sounding rather horrific, she has made a full recovery after a quick sedation and lots of eyedrops. We aren't sure exactly how she hurt herself, but it seems likely she got a bit of a thorn in her eye as she was rumaging through undergrowth - It never ceases to amaze me the mischief that dogs can get themselves into!

Theo's last visitor is also staying with us this weekend too, his Aunty Zoe. Zoe is an air stewardess with Etihad and unknown to us has spent the last few months amassing an astonishing collection of gifts for Theo from around the world.

Alongside baby vests from Paris, bibs from Ireland, German wooden toys and Indian tiger rattles, he also has his own set of Australian Ugg boots and a Moroccan baby blanket. What an incredibly lucky baby he is, and what a fascinating collection of gifts he will have to look back on when he is older!

Most impressive of all, Zoe managed to get all of this here with an Easyjet baggage allowance, and still have room for enough clothing for the Scottish weather!

The coming home photos....

2011-09-07T20:57:00.004+03:00

My mum has just sent me copies of some of the photos she took last week when we brought Theo home from the hospital. I love these two shots she got of my sister and I.

They'd both arrived on a flight from down south the night before, so as well as meeting Theo, it was also the first time my sister and I had seen each other for 4 months.

And proving that you can never have too many cameras being used at once, my mum also took this one of us making Theo look his best for his first photoshoot. That big silver disc is just throwing a bit of natural light back on him, not quite as menacing as it looks!

Poor boy has a lifetime of this ahead of him, so he had better get used to it...

Birth... announced

2011-09-06T13:09:00.000+03:00

Theo's birth is announced today in the Daily Telegraph, as my birth before him was also announced 35 years ago.

Over the last few weeks this section of the newspaper has been well read by my family. My mum and I would discuss it daily as we struggled to settle on an option for a girl's name. It was also the Telegraph that first made us aware of the huge number of Isla's that are being born at the moment, so it's nice to think that like us, other prospective parents will also be reading it today.

Birth announcements in newspapers in the UK have fallen out of fashion a little lately, but they are still popular among traditionalists. If you are reading this elsewhere in the world, it would be interesting to know if births are announced in your newspapers too, or if it is (as I suspect) a very British thing...

Day 5

2011-09-04T15:00:00.000+03:00

Wow, what a week it has been - It seems incredible how much the world has changed for us in the last 7 days.

We've had a bumpy first few days (and nights) at home, but today we seemed to have turned a corner and at this precise moment the house is quiet (2 dogs and a baby fast asleep) and tidy. (Why does tidy matter? I don't know.. but somehow order on the outside, reflects growing order on the inside)

My sister and mum have come and gone, their arrival on long ago booked flights ended up being timed to perfection. I am thankful in so many ways for their sharing of knowledge, and the many many practical ways they helped us get on our feet. In my dizzy hormonal state I could all too easily shed a tear of gratitude thinking about the gift of family. No one else can really support you so solidly.

I won't bore you too much with baby photos, but if you are interested, there are plenty more on Flickr in a set which will be regularly added to. We have yet to get one of him and me together, let alone one of the three of us, but we will soon.

Thank you all for your wonderful warm comments on the last post, it is lovely to celebrate his birth with friends old and new, far and wide.

We'll be back soon, in the meantime, have a wonderful weekend!

He's here!

2011-09-01T20:57:00.000+03:00

Theodore "Theo" Stanley Richard Mansell arrived safely on Tuesday 30th August 2011 at 22:05 weighing 8lbs 11oz.

Home from the hospital today and enjoying some family time.

Will be back soon with more photos...

41 weeks + 4 days

2011-08-28T23:19:00.001+03:00

For any of you sitting there thinking "there MUST be baby news from Scotland soon" I thought I'd better check in to let you know.... we are still waiting!

In the middle of a typically damp and cold August bank holiday weekend we haven't had too much to do other than relax and eat good food, so really is it any wonder that the baby is enjoying it far too much to make a move?

Over the last week or so I have been collecting some good stories about poorly thought through baby names. Take Mr & Mrs Hill the parents who named their child "Reef" and were happy with it for many years until they heard his full name called across a room and exchanged horrified looks as they realised they had inadvertently named their child "Refill."

Then there was the nurse who was due to have at baby near Christmas and had settled on the name "Holly" until she shared her decision with her friends who pointed out it made a rather unfortunate pairing with her surname "Cow".

And finally the school teacher who at a parent's evening was asked how "Gooey" was doing in class. Baffled, she racked her brain for a child of that name who she taught, before finally realising the parents had been suffering under the illusion that this was the correct pronunciation for a name the rest of us know as "Guy!"

It's quite a dangerous business this baby naming thing!

But anyway, I shan't be boring you with anecdotes too much longer. I'm going into hospital to be induced tomorrow night, so we should have baby news by midweek... or failing that quilts. Yes, maybe it will just be more quilts!

WIP Wednesday (24th August)

2011-08-24T13:41:00.001+03:00

First off, I'm still here, and still pregnant... 41 weeks along! I've been walking a couple of miles a day, eating pineapple in every form, taking raspberry leaf tablets, bouncing on an exercise ball, and I even ate curry three nights running, and still this baby is going nowhere... Even after I fell down the stairs yesterday (not a scheduled part of the labour inducing plan!)

So tomorrow morning I'll be trying some reflexology to coax things along and on Monday I'm being admitted for an induction. I was so certain there would be some news by now that I even took my sewing machine in for a very long overdue service on Saturday, what a fatal mistake that was, I'm going stir crazy without it!

Still I did manage to finish a couple of things before I handed it over. Firstly the Sherbet Pips crib quilt, which is without a doubt my favourite quilt to date.

The style of quilting is more accidental than planned. For the first time I added some detail to the back of the quilt, but it didn't precisely match with the front, so I needed a style of quilting that wouldn't give that away... Accidental, but I love it!

For those curious about the pre-washing of the batting/wadding, it definitely seems to have made the end result less baggy/crinkly, although whether this is also partly a result of the intensive quilting I'm not sure, I will keep experimenting.

I also tried a non-quilting project, some newborn pants from a free pattern by Made By Rae. This pair were a bit of an experiment with leftover fabric, which is why the fabric doesn't match precisely (apologies to perfectionists!) they are also shown without the elastic added to the waist, which I was waiting for in the post.

I'll definitely be making more once I know how girlie or boyish I can go with my fabric choices. They are INCREDIBLY simple to make, so simple that even a sewer like me who likes to stick to nice two dimensional quilts couldn't muck them up!

Hope you've also had a productive week, here's hoping they'll be baby news to share by next Wednesday!

WIP Wednesday (17th August)

2011-08-17T14:25:00.000+03:00

Hello from Sunny Scotland and a Happy Due Day to me!

No sign of the baby arriving any time soon, so some quilting progress to report this week. Firstly the pink crib quilt which was an embryonic idea this time last week, is now finished.

All of the squares were precut and already in my stash so it came together very quickly. I'm particularly pleased with the way the applique name came out. It'll be going in the post to its new owner today...

Gifted quilts out of the way, I had some time to return to quilts I'm making for our baby and in particular the Sherbet Pips snowball crib quilt.

I've tried a couple of new things with this quilt. Firstly it has a feature panel on the back, making it my first double sided quilt and secondly I have experimented with pre-washing the batting/wadding to lose the shrinkage before quilting. I'm not 100% sold on the crinkly look for all quilts, so it will be interesting to see what the difference in the finished result is.

This one should be completed by the end of today, just some trimming/straightening up to do and the binding to add! I can't wait to get that polka dot fabric sewn on!

Please come back next week to see the result one way or another... You never know, maybe they'll be a baby sleeping under it... And in the meantime click on the logo below to see the other blogs taking part in WIP Wednesday...

Are you a no reply blogger?

2011-08-14T16:54:00.001+03:00

Thank you for all your kind and inspiring replies on my post about girl's names, it has certainly prompted a lot of discussion, and it's also quite reassuring to see the same sort of names repeated.

Now a very quick word about no-reply bloggers! Are you one? Many of you left lovely comments on the last post which I would have liked to reply to personally, but I'm unable to. Have a read of this very informative post on the Pleasant Home blog to find out if you are a no-reply blogger, a few tweaks of your settings could open up a whole new world!

Girl's names - Inspire us!

2011-08-12T13:18:00.001+03:00

Dear Bloggy friends, I need your ideas...

The nursery is ready, the hospital bag is packed and the freezer is full of food - There is just one small problem, we are still wavering on a girl's name. The boy's name is not a problem, but we change our minds daily with girl's names and nothing has really filled either of us with enthusiasm or certainty. We want a name that is solid and traditional, a name that is not too pretty or girlie... or popular!

Perhaps you have a great idea up your sleeve? First of all here are the names already being used by close family, and therefore out of the frame...

Millie, Eva, Tilly, Hannah, Sophie, Zoe, Jane, Frances

And now a list of lovely names rejected because close friends have used them, or one of us has a negative association with them...

Ophelia, Georgia, Harriet, Charlotte, Alexis, Flora, Ellen, Octavia

And finally one other condition. The UK at the moment is filled with children whose names end in the sound "ee", and I'm trying desperately to avoid it, so no Ruby, Emily, Lily or Evie.

Our short list at the moment is Isla (Scottish girl's name meaning island, but in danger of being massively popular), Emma (an early contender, but now not overly inspiring us) and Eliza (to be officially named "Elizabeth" but known as "Eliza")

Have you any ideas, or perhaps just a favourite from our short list? All feedback is welcome... just don't tell suggest we call it Harper Seven!

I'm a winner!

2011-08-11T18:53:00.001+03:00

Much excitement this morning at receiving a special package in the mail...

This wasn't an early birthday present, but the prize that I won on a giveaway on Kelly's blog Handmade At Home - what a fantastic surprise! All beautifully wrapped up and with my name spelled correctly on the card! (Sad that this should be a novelty!)

And now I have a brilliant project to push me outside my quilting comfort-zone - If my sister is reading this, I shall be calling upon your assistance with the zip! (She churns out zipped pouches faster than I make quilts... and that's saying something!)

A big thank you to Kelly for my first ever blogging win. I could definitely get used to these little guilt free treats in the mail, so I must get myself involved in a quilt swap next.

After only 3 months living in Scotland, I may be a bit lacking in local crafty buddies, but the online sewing community most certainly makes up for it!

WIP Wednesday (August 10th)

2011-08-10T13:22:00.004+03:00

I've had a two week break from WIP Wednesday whilst we took time to see some of Scotland's wonderful west coast. If you normally only join me for quilting posts, do have a quick look here and here to get a taster of the stunning scenery. I've lived in the UK for most of my life and really had no clue how beautiful it was.

On the quilting front, after a productive day yesterday, I have completed the snowball baby quilt that I was waiting for a name for. Our neighbour's son Oscar was born on 27th July, whilst we were still on holiday.

If I were to do this one again, I'd do some additional quilting in the middle of the snowballs to keep them from being quite so puffy... but I'm a perfectionist!

I also cracked on with my Sherbet Pips crib quilt, I went for a snowball design again, partly because I've never actually kept a snowball that I've made! It took longer than usual to lay out the design because I wasn't completely enamoured with some of the fabrics in the charm pack - and looking at other completed Sherbet Pips quilts on Flickr it seems most people have had a similar problem and rejected the same designs.... I'm interested to know if anyone else has made anything with Sherbet Pips and if so what you thought?

And lastly I have a third baby quilt to tackle this week! It's for a baby girl born a few days ago. I'm trying only to use stash fabrics for quilts at the moment and to keep the projects simple, so I've dug out this very girly collection...

No idea what I'm doing with them yet! A third snowball would be easy, but not very inspiring to make.... So maybe a half square triangle quilt?

And finally that other significant work in progress... Today I am exactly one week from my due date! So next week could mean three birthdays in this family! Mine on Monday, my husband's on Thursday and perhaps the baby will join us midweek? If not I'll be back again next Wednesday with a WIP update. Until then have a good week!

Bump on the beach

2011-08-05T20:32:00.004+03:00

There are a lot of things we've been planning to do before the baby is born, and with 12 days till the due date, some of them are slowly slipping out of our grasp.

One of the things I thought we might have missed the boat with was some bump photography. The difficulty is when it's your bump, and you are the one who normally takes the photos, it's hard to find someone to hold the camera who also understands what you want.

Luckily my old work colleague Jenny (it's her bottom left) came to visit, and discussing it by chance last night, it became clear she totally understood what photos I was aiming for. Not that that should be a surprise. Jenny has spent 4 years in two different countries working with me on all sorts of creative projects (she's very tolerant!) so she knows how my mind works.

These photos were taken at Hopeman beach again, she even sweet talked my husband into posing, which is something I have far less luck with! You can see a few more of the images on Flickr.

Thank you again Jenny!

Say No To Auto!

2011-08-04T20:26:00.003+03:00

You may remember that one of the things I packed for our west coast trip was a rather large digital photography guide I had been meaning to read for about 18 months. I now wish I hadn't bothered because after slogging through it, I stumbled across this little ebook online.

The huge digital photography guide I had was 408 pages and left me baffled, this ebook is just 18 pages and condenses the basic important stuff into 3 points (Hurray!) Personally I'll go for simple and concise any day!

The bulk of the book is a cheats guide of the manual settings to use when taking portraits in different lights, brilliantly illustrated with example photos. I have already tried a few of the tips and will be turning to this a lot once I have baby photos to take.

Being an ebook, you download it in its 4x6 format and then choose how to make a hard copy, which can be as simple as printing it at home and stapling it together. I chose to print the 4x6 inch pages as photos (using the machine at Tesco) and then used a hole punch and bound it with ribbon. I also laminated mine for extra durability, as I think it's going to get carried around in the camera bag a fair bit.

If you, like me, have a DLSR that you know you can do so much more with, but are stuck in the comfort zone of the auto setting, I thoroughly recommend this as an easy (non scary!) step to significantly better photos - To find out more and purchase/download it, click on the image below. I just wish I lived a bit nearer Kristen so I could do one of her workshops!

West Coast Wonders (part 2)

2011-08-03T19:56:00.000+03:00

A final batch of eye candy for you from the west coast of Scotland. I think you will be incredibly relieved to know that despite the fact the sun shone and the views were stunning, the trip was not always perfect!

Our first four nights were spent at a self-catering cottage on a remote 2000 acre Highland estate, only when we arrived late afternoon did we discover towels were not included with the accommodation and we were a two hour round trip (in the direction we had just come from) from the nearest supermarket. So we swallowed hard and realised we had to go ahead with our only option - use the towels we had brought for the dogs!!

Fortunately they were freshly washed and tumble dried (pampered pooches in our house) but it still felt slightly less than hygenic!

I also managed to soak my only pair of shoes when I stood in a boggy hole on the Isle Of Skye whilst taking a photo and then had to spend half the next day walking around wearing wellies whilst I tried to buy another pair of shoes.

And partly because we packed for typical cooler, damper Scottish weather, and partly because I have totally failed to find any summer maternity shorts that stay up, I spent the majority of the holiday sweltering in a pair of jeans and fantasising about floaty summer skirts!

I'd do it all again in a heart beat though, there is such a lot to see (and photograph) some wonderful fresh seafood and miles of wilderness free from tourists (even in August) If you are planning a trip, you can see details of where the photos were taken by clicking through to Flickr, but here's a brief outline...

Calgary bay, Isle Of Mull
Ardvasar, Isle Of Skye (this is where I stood in a boggy hole!)
Eilean Donan Castle
Crofter's Cottage, Loch Torridon
Isles of Eigg & Rhum seen from the Skye ferry
Stonefield, Isle Of Skye
Silver sands of Morar
Jim walking the dogs at Calgary Bay
View from the Glenuig Inn, Glenuig
Stonefield, Isle Of Skye

And for anyone trying to improve their photography (I count myself in this bracket too!) I'm going to be posting a review of a great little ebook for DSLR users tomorrow, so pop back to find out more...

West Coast Wonders (part 1)

2011-07-31T21:21:00.003+03:00

It's no good... I've wasted far too much time on photos already today... I'm going to have to do this post in two parts!

You hear it said a lot, that the west coast of Scotland is "stunning" and you don't think much more of it, but after spending this week rambling over hills, driving round lochs and hopping across islands, I have to tell you it is all of that and more!

If it had been created as part of a virtual world you'd think it too indulgent. Round every corner there is a loch, or a ruined castle or a view that takes your breath away. Of course it is not perfect, we got VERY lucky with the weather this week and we mostly avoided the midges too. Some people come on holiday to Scotland and just get bitten and rained on - we did not.

So photos from top left then...

Mallaig Harbour
The Silver Sands of Morar
The dogs enjoying their holiday
Two views from and of Castle Tioram
The ferry to the Isle Of Mull
Castle Tioram
Fireside evening drink (yes, even in July)
The original Calgary
Calgary Bay
Tobermory, Isle Of Mull
Loch Lagan
Ardvasar, Isle Of Skye
Jacobite Steam train on the Glenfinnan viaduct, made famous by the Hogwarts Express in Harry Potter

More photos later in the week. In the meantime, shall I put the kettle on? Are you all now booking flights to come and see Scotland?

West coast taster

2011-07-30T20:09:00.004+03:00

We're heading back east tomorrow after a truly amazing few days on the west coast. The scenery and the weather has exceeded every expectation we had, and I have tons of photos to sift through and post on the blog tomorrow, before we head off again for another couple of nights in the Cairngorns.

You can have this photo as a teaser though... fresh seafood for lunch today on the shores of Kishorn Loch. Absolute peace and quiet and brilliant sunshine...

Road trip

2011-07-25T12:54:00.000+03:00

We're off on a Highland road trip this week. Heading west to the inlets and islands of Northern Scotland. It's usually the wetter and more midge infested coastline, but judging by the weather forecast this week, we might just get lucky with the sunshine...

I've packed the SLR and a digital photography guide which I'm long overdue reading, along with clothing for every weather possible and my medical notes... just in case. Still three weeks to go and first babies are never on time, right?!

I hope to get the chance to post later in the week, until then have a peek at some of the Scottish west coast images that have been inspiring me this week on Flickr and keep your fingers crossed for some blue skies!

WIP Wednesday (July 20th)

2011-07-20T16:36:00.003+03:00

Hopping around the WIP Blogs last week, I have come to the conclusion I am something of a crafting oddity never having more than two quilts on the go, I hope this doesn't mean I'll be lead astray...

So this week's quilt is my Drunkard's Path. The top is finished and I've got as far as the basting, but I am now waiting on the delivery of a free motion presser foot for my sewing machine. In theory my machine (a Pfaff Expression 3.0) does a beautiful stippling, but I've always been too much of a coward to try it, however this quilt is small enough to experiment with... I just hope it doesn't all end in tears...

You may recall that the larger baby quilt I made a few weeks ago was supposed to be a play mat? Well that plan's been scrapped, because as I was sewing this one it evolved into something that looked extremely like a play mat and in fact once I'd actually got the baby gym out of the box (you'd think I'd have done that before I made the first one, right?) I realised that the size and colours match it perfectly...

So the circle quilt is now going to be a more general cot quilt, which might just leave me free to indulge myself with one final pre-baby quilt. I saw this in a sewing book...

And it made me realise I can totally justify a little 20 x 24 inch crib quilt made with Moda's Sherbet Pips?

And after that, I'm torn between three projects, my choices are...

(1) Join the Summer Sampler Series and hope inspiration strikes me about what to do with all the finished blocks at the end!

(2) Make the Charming Stars quilt from the Moda Bakeshop in a Kingsize and possibly get it longarm quilted?

(3) Use my Robert Kaufmann solid charm packs to make something like this or this. But not actually quite sure for what purpose!

Please leave a comment with your vote, I need all the help I can get!

Visiting Beagle

2011-07-19T20:00:00.001+03:00

We've had an extra Beagle in the house today. I'm a sucker for saving a dog from a long day stuck at home alone, so when her owner's dog walker let her down, I said we'd look after her. The plan was not to walk any of the three dogs until the husband came home from work in the afternoon, but the hounds were having none of that!

So instead I went out in the rain with the bump, and 3 dogs on leads that got continually twisted round each other. Did they come back and then spend the rest of the day quietly resting? Did they heck...

Do not be fooled by those cute puppy dog eyes, after a day of emptied bins, barking at workmen and rearranging our possessions, this dog has made me realise how well trained our two really are!

Our Sunday breakfast

2011-07-17T20:18:00.002+03:00

A couple of weeks ago husband and I celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary. Those of you who have already been-there-done-that, may recall that the fourth anniversary is the particularly uninspiring combination of fruit or flowers (traditional) or appliances (modern). Despite husband's proclamations that an Apple iPad was the perfect gift on both counts (so not happening!) I eventually settled on buying him a coffee machine for the office, and in return I got a waffle iron.

We picked up the waffle habit when we lived in Canada and just assumed on returning to the UK we'd be able to buy them in the frozen food section, but not so! Waffles apparently only exist in the UK in potato form or in restaurants, so an entire country's population is missing out on one of the best breakfasts around.

We're currently working our way through a waffle recipe book. This morning's mix was Belgian waffles which are moister and denser than the classic batter mix. They went down extremely well not just with us, but with visiting adults and children, and when you serve them up with bowls of fresh summer fruits, you can almost kid yourself it's a really healthy breakfast...

English Madeleines

2011-07-14T17:51:00.000+03:00

It's funny what you wake up in the morning feeling inspired to do! I haven't made Madeleines since I was a child, but we have some visitors coming today and for some reason I decided they'd be the perfect cakes to make.

A little bit of Googling for inspiration revealed my interpretation of Madeleines was very different to most people's, and I now know that what I made are actually known as "English Madeleines", and are very different from the American kind.

I couldn't find a recipe anywhere, so bluffed my way partly from memory, partly from an adapted Victoria Sponge recipe and the results were great! (and my mother who has an official Madeleine recipe confirmed later it's nearly exactly the same as this)

If you fancy making these you'll need some dariole moulds, but if you aren't particular about the shape of the cakes, muffin trays or whatever you have to hand would probably do you just as well. This quantity filled 9 dariole moulds.

125g butter
125g sugar
2 eggs
125g self raising flour
Couple of drops of vanilla essence
1 tablespoon hot water

Cream the butter and sugar, add both eggs and vanilla essence with a tablespoon of flour, mix well, then fold in the remaining flour. Divide between the well greased moulds filling them 3/4 full.

Bake at 180c for about 15 minutes or until the cakes are firm and golden.

Let the cakes cool in their tins and then turn on to a cooling rack. Trim the rounded tops, so that each end of the cake is flat. Resist the urge to eat all the trimmings, save yourself for the finished result!

Turn cakes upside down on newly cut (wider) end. Using a skewer, coat the cakes in about 6 tablespoons of strawberry jam which you have warmed over the hob. (I ran out of strawberry jam halfway through and used apricot too, and it was just as good) then coat in desicated coconut and finally top with half a glace cherry.

And voila, the ultimate, slightly retro English tea cake!

I'd love to know if anyone makes their own!

WIP Wednesday

2011-07-13T16:29:00.004+03:00

After seeing so many inspiring quilting bloggers taking part in Work In Progress Wednesday, I have decided to jump in and get involved. If nothing else it should keep me on the straight and narrow with blogging and quilting when the baby arrives.

I have two quilts in progress this week (I'm making up for lost time earlier this year!) the first is a baby quilt for our neighbour. She's due in about 10 days and I wanted to get the top of the quilt ready as we have a few visitors over the next fortnight who are bound to distract from sewing.

The plan is to applique the baby's name on the quilt top once he or she is born and then finish up the quilting and binding over a couple of days. The fabric in this is ALL from my stash. Having been struck by inspiration, I laid out the pattern late one night and was delighted when I realised I could do a balanced design that used up all the colours. Only after I had sewn it all and stepped back, did I actually count the colours and realise there are 4 of each pattern, so I could have done something much simpler! The perils on quilting late at night!

The second quilt is an applique ~~drunken path~~ drunkard's pathway (thanks Lindsay!) design, made from the leftovers of my It's A Hoot charm packs. I'm mainly making this because I wanted to try out the design and experiment with a grey background. It'll probably end up as yet another (crib size) baby quilt for us, but you can't have too many right?

And if you're in need of quilting inspiration this week, hop on over to WIP Wednesday for heaps of ideas.

Elgin cathedral

2011-07-13T14:48:00.003+03:00

It's a glorious day here in Scotland today, so I've been out to Elgin Cathedral and climbed the tower to get a view of the city. I'm actually quite delighted I can still climb a cathedral tower at 35 weeks pregnant, so I'm making the most of it.

The sunshine and fresh air was lovely, but the harsh shadows were not conducive to taking good photos, however I am rather pleased with this one which was taken inside one of the cathedral buildings - They don't make ceilings like that anymore!

We have another set of visitors arriving tomorrow, so I'm hoping the sunshine lasts for a few days while we do some exploring.

Applique circles quilt

2011-07-08T17:52:00.002+03:00

Two quilts in two weeks? There's no stopping me!

This is the first of many quilts I'll be making for our baby who is due next month. I'm loving being able to work on small quilts AND keep them. Before I found out I was pregnant I'd run out of excuses to make a quilt in anything but a superking size for us, but they'll hopefully be lots of excuses to make mini quilts over the next few years.

This quilt is exactly a yard square and is intended to be used as a play mat with a baby gym. The fabric I used is from Moda's It's A Hoot range. I'm slowly learning that there tends to be a bit of a lag between me buying fabric and actually using it for a project, by which stage the yardage has often sold out.

I learned my lesson this time and bought two packs of charm squares and yardage as soon as I saw it on sale. I had a few reservations that the colours were a bit girlie (we don't know what we're having) but when mixed together I think it looks sufficiently unisex....

I had a new tool to play with when I did the binding for this quilt. Previously I have always used this method to finish attaching the binding. It produces great results, but is fiddlely to do. Then when I was searching youtube for quilting tutorial videos for my sister, I found this video which recommends using a binding tool to achieve exactly the same finish. After finally tracking a UK store down that sold them and waiting for the stock to arrive, I can confidently say I won't be going back to the old method!

I also bought myself a copy of Block Party- The Modern Quilting Bee. I have been wanting to get involved with or organise a quilting bee for ages and there are some great ideas and patterns in the book. I'm just trying to decide whether it would be insanity to start a bee with a new baby on the way, or whether it would actually be a rather nice manageable size quilting project - what do you think and would anyone be interested in joining the fun?

Work in progress

2011-07-07T21:18:00.000+03:00

I thought I'd share with you a sneak peak of what I have been working on this week. This is my first circles quilt and the first quilt in a very long while which I'll actually be keeping

I've got as far as the hand sewing of the binding, so there should be some photos of the finished article in the next few days...

By the way if you like my 'Stay Calm.." poster, it's a free download from this lovely lady.

Light evenings

2011-07-02T14:11:00.001+03:00

The absolute best thing about summers in the Scottish Highlands are the light evenings.

At the moment sun is setting at about 10:30pm (a full two and a half hours later than Cyprus) and light again at 4am. The hours in between are not true darkness either, there is always a rather eerie distant glow on the horizon.

It means that when the weather is good, there are wonderful opportunities for late night walks through the deserted countryside. Last night we took the dogs to Duffus Castle. It was about 9:30pm when I took these photos, the sky was blue, and apart from one other couple, we had the place to ourselves.

And an unexpected bonus! It turns out that if you have dogs that are prone to running off and not returning, all you need to do is stick them in the grounds of a castle surrounded by a deep moat and their escape plans are thwarted - Ha!

Happy Canada Day!

2011-07-01T07:00:00.009+03:00

We are not Canadian, but at least once a year we like to pretend we are.

We spent the first two years of our married life living in Alberta and also own a Canadian dog... Clearly this is reason enough to jump on the bandwagon and celebrate a nation other than our own's national day.

Every year we like to baffle a new selection of neighbours with a patriotic flag display and liberal distribution of maple flavoured treats. In Cyprus we still had some of our old BATUS colleagues to help authenticate our celebrations, but this year we are lone lunatics in the middle of the Scottish Highlands.

I'd like to think that should we ever decide to move countries, points will be awarded on our immigration application for the diligence we have shown celebrating the nation's birthday, as well as the (frankly ludicrous) number of Canadian flags we own and the gallons of maple syrup we consume each year.

Talking of which, maple syrup is also quite obviously an obligatory ingredient in anything you choose to bake to mark Canada Day. This year I picked banana and maple syrup muffins, topped with a rush order of toothpick Canadian Flags. You don't have to be as tenuously Canadian as we are to enjoy them, so if you have the time and the ingredients I urge you to give the recipe a try, as my Canadian friends would say, it's awesome.

Margaret's quilt

2011-06-29T20:45:00.001+03:00

After too many distractions, my first quilt of this year is finished. As I hinted in an earlier post there is a bit of a story attached to the making of this quilt.

I have made it for my HypnoBirthing coach, Margaret. Many years ago, before I had even met my husband, somewhere online, or in the papers, I came across the idea of hypnotherapy being used in natural birthing and I decided when my time came, I too would use it.

Many years and countries have passed us by since I first heard of it and with each new posting I have researched where the courses were available locally, just in case. Sometimes great distances would have been involved, sometimes the prices were high, but always there was a way we could have made it work - just. But our baby knew a thing or two, and it decided to wait till we got to Scotland, just 10 minutes down the road from a HypnoBirthing coach, before it would be born.

Margaret is a retired midwife with a great gift for making people feel at ease. The midwifery team locally know her well and fully support her method of teaching and everyone I have met who knows her, responds with a great deal of enthusiasm when her name is mentioned.

Where my official care has been a little haphazard (partly due to moving countries, partly due to the modern NHS) Margaret has provided some old-school consistency of care. We've had 5 classes with her (and another couple) and will have another one shortly before the baby is due. I have also asked, and I am hoping, that she will also be able to attend the birth.

I won't know for some weeks if the HypnoBirthing will deliver the calm easy birth that it promises, but I do know that I have enjoyed every minute of the course and that we are both better informed and more confident for having attended it, so this quilt is just a small way of saying thank you.

Now the quilt-related info...

This is a single size quilt, made with Moda Arcadia charm squares and cream cotton, in half square triangles and it's bordered with Ecru linen. It's actually exactly the same fabric and squares as this quilt, I have just arranged the blocks in a different way. I have a circle quilt I'm working on next, but I think I'll be coming back to half square triangles for the quilt after next, they are so verstaile and easy to work with.

Summer... at last.

2011-06-28T16:38:00.002+03:00

Yesterday my new home and I had a little bit of a falling out...

While nearly the whole of the UK was basking in sunshine, in Northern Scotland it poured with rain... all day.

And although there is more to life than good weather, it's hard not to be a little glum when it feels like everyone else is enjoying a party you haven't been invited to.

The radio, the newspapers and facebook were full of stories of people enjoying the sunshine further south, while we looked out of the windows and only saw grey skies and deepening puddles.

In London it was 30c and on the Moray Firth it topped out at 15c.

But this morning something magical happened. My husband awoke me with the words "It's a beautiful day outside" and he wasn't (as I thought initially) being ironic! The skies were blue, the temperature had risen and Scotland was having a day of summer!

I grabbed the camera and headed down to the beautiful beach at Hopeman, just along the coast from us. The sea was shimmering in the sunlight, the beach was deserted and dotted along the shore was a brilliant rainbow of beach huts.

A few hours of sunshine and Scotland and I are friends once more!

Doggy update

2011-06-27T14:24:00.008+03:00

A few weeks ago I told you the story of the dog behaviourist who visited us to try and sort out a problem we were having with our pups. Since arriving in Scotland we have been able to give the dogs a great deal more freedom off the lead, but we were increasingly finding they would run off at great speed with no regard for us, and then it would take us up to an hour to get them back.

The dog behaviourist recommended trying to reclaim our position as head of the pack by making the dogs make eye contact with us before they take their food, and by walking through the door first. She also told us to monitor the dog's excitement levels, only letting them off the lead when they were calm and to change direction when we were walking, recalling the dogs as we did so.

A lot of this advice was useful and effective, even if it did result in a lot of very teenage like behaviour from our Big Dog, who was the ring leader, and did not want to reliquish her position as boss of the pack! She started refusing to come in from the garden, destroyed one of our sofa cushions and sat around the house sighing a lot! As a final measure we also bought a remote control pressured air collar which has been brilliantly effective and both dogs quickly worked out to return to us when they hear it beep and before we have to squirt them with air.

All the training and the collar means I can now happily take both dogs for a fairly stress free walk without worrying about them ending up in the middle of a main road (as they did a few weeks ago) but there was one small problem... When we walk them on the beach, we can't use the collar in case it gets wet, but with their behaviour so much improved, last week we thought we'd risk it...

At first there were no problems, they ran around diving into the sea and climbing up the sand dunes, burning off lots of energy and returning to us frequently...

And then suddenly the madness took hold of Big Dog! She realised she was free, and that ahead of her lay miles and miles of sandy coastline, so she started running and she didn't stop...

We thought she was still in the dunes, so paced backwards and forwards calling for her. Eventually after an hour with no success, we had no choice but to come home. A fretful couple of hours hours later, we had a phonecall from a man who had been out looking for his own lost dogs and had discovered Macy, FIVE MILES down the coast in the middle of a (thankfully inactive) rifle range!!

She was apparently quite reluctant to be coaxed into the man's Land Rover and even less impressed when I turned up at his house to collect her. In her opinion she had been having a rather brilliant time until we all showed up to spoil her fun.

None of this is really entirely surprising when you consider Big Dog spent the first 3 months of her life living in a stable on a rural Albertan farm, while her mother spent her days running freely over the Canadian prairie... We have learned a lot about dogs since that day 3 years ago when we were blinded by her cute fluffy good looks...

...And clearly we have a bit more training still to do!

PS - Blogger has been having a few problems since I changed the URL of this blog at the beginning of the month. The only way I can see to get round it is to stop following the blog, and then reselect "follow" on the top right of this page, you should then get the new posts appearing in your reading list.

Some Scottish sights...

2011-06-26T12:19:00.001+03:00

No photos of a finished quilt yet, I have been distracted this week by visitors and runaway dogs! I think the runaway dog story probably deserves a post entirely of it's own, so I'll save that tale for later, but still lots to tell...

On Friday we took our first boat trip on Scotland's famous Loch Ness and saw the ruins of Urquhart Castle. It's by this ruin that the majority of Loch Ness monster sightings occur, but sadly Nessie didn't come out to play for us on this particular day, maybe next time...

This trip happened to be Bella the Beagle's first time on a boat, and she decided to use the opportunity to make friends with a family of German tourists... All those sad puppy dog eyes and cute looks, it was really quite shameless!

Yesterday we stayed closer to home and walked along the old railway track between Elgin & Lossiemouth. The track was ripped out 45 years ago, but there is still 5 miles of dead straight deserted gravel pathway that takes us from our home to the coast.

The track was closed as a result of a massive overhaul of the UK's railways in the 1960s. Over a period of 10 years about 4,000 miles of track and 3,000 stations were closed across Britain to cut costs. There are abandoned tracks like these all over the British Isles in various states of decay. It's quite eerie that this one looks like the sleepers and track were only removed yesterday.

When we arrived in Lossiemouth we were treated to a military parade in honour of Armed Forces Day. We vaguely knew that the parade was coming through the town, but not that they would be marching right past the table we were having lunch at...

And then my old friends the Red Arrows did a display over the Moray Firth for us. This must be about the thirtieth time I have seen them this year. The skies weren't as blue as Cyprus, but I did manage to inject some colour into the photo, thanks to some spectators!

Our visitors have left today and so we have a bundle of washing and housework to get on with, then tomorrow it's on with the quilt binding.... Some results this week I promise!

Quilting update...

2011-06-17T16:26:00.000+03:00

If you found this blog last year, in the midst of my flurry of productivity with quilt making you are probably starting to wonder what's happened to all the quilt making this year? 2011 has not (so far) been a fruitful year for me, partly due to the fact that I was without my machine for 3 months while it was in transit between Cyprus and Scotland, but things are changing. I currently have two quilts at various stages of production and I thought I'd give you a sneak peak of the completed top of one of them today.

This particular quilt should be finished next week, but it should have been finished today. However instead of having the busy week I intended I spent most of Sunday turning my sewing room upside down looking for 40 or so charm squares I needed to complete it and which had vanished into thin air overnight.

Eventually I concluded the only thing that could possibly have happened to them, was that my husband had swept them up with his clothes, packed them and driven them 500 miles south with him earlier that morning. Can you imagine how ridiculous I felt when I made the phone call to him and tentatively suggested he checked his luggage? He offered every suggestion going, from pregnancy brain (just don't!) to them being "on the bed" (I'd been looking for 3 hours!) but grudgingly agreed to check his bag when he reached his destination.

And would you believe it, he DID have them! Don't even ask me how it was possible to take them by accident. He claims they were "stuck to his shirt"! But as a result, I am now running 2 or 3 days behind... Next week I'll show you the finished article (if husband doesn't repeat his trick) and tell you the story about the lovely lady it is intended for...

Croissant heaven

2011-06-15T19:16:00.004+03:00

This morning I woke up with a cold, not just any cold, but a cold which comes in addition to the pregnancy rhinitus I've had since Christmas. Despite it's lengthy duration, I've weathered the rhinitus fairly well, but getting a cold on top of it really feels like a kick in the teeth (was there no one else available to have it on my behalf just this once?) HOWEVER, the day was saved because I also woke up with croissant dough proving in the fridge.

So several hours, some repeated dough folding and 20 minutes in the oven later, I had 8 pan au chocolat and 8 croissants cooling on racks in the kitchen, and this dear readers, is one of those moments I am glad I blog! Because this week it is just me home alone, and there really is only so much standing around and saying "wow" that a girl can do on her own, and I'm just SO impressed that these actually worked! Don't they look great?

The million dollar question of course is how many have I eaten? ;-) Well, in a remarkable show of restraint I have only had two and the rest will be frozen till the weekend, when I know a certain tall husband who will be very happy to have a couple for his breakfast on Saturday...

PS - For a link to the baking book, see below. These croissants (and all the bread) are made from scratch starting just with the raw ingredients of flour and live yeast.

Friday night, pizza night

2011-06-10T20:11:00.001+03:00

We're cooking pizzas in this house tonight, something which is rapidly becoming a Friday night tradition. I use the dough base recipe (and entire bread making philosophy!) from this fantastic book, and all the toppings are made from scratch.

It seems appropriate to mention what is one of my family's best loved cookery books, again this week, as it's the 50th anniversary of the Chorleywood Bread Process, the post-war invention which gave us bread with a long shelf life... and lots of additives. I can't say we always eat homemade bread (though my mother constantly has a freezer stocked with it) but even making it once a week is a good start.

Luckily, one of the great joys about moving on from our original 1950s kitchen in Cyprus, to something a little more modern in Scotland, is we now have an oven which gets up to temperature (I could bore you for hours on the traumas of cooking Christmas dinner in our oven in Cyprus, but I suspect neither of us has the time...) and so finally we have a kitchen in which you can cook.

Next week, Jim's away for the week, giving me ample time to experiment with some recipes, without worrying about producing a square meal for supper. So I'm going to move on to Richard Bertinet's second book and try croissants and pain au chocolat. The bar has already been set a little high on this challenge as my sister has successfully used the recipes before, and has an awesome photo of the results to boot!

Whatever you are up to this weekend, in the kitchen or elsewhere, hope you have a good one!

In which we meet the canine behaviourist...

2011-06-06T13:51:00.000+03:00

A few days after the dogs ran off into the woods, a copy of our local magazine dropped through the letterbox containing an advert for a canine behaviourist. For a one off fee our local Dog Whisperer promised to spend several hours assessing our pack and leave us with the solutions to all our problems. - it sounded like the answer to our prayers!

So yesterday morning the Mansell pack met the local human Alpha Female, Joanne. Our main concern was to achieve more control over the dogs when they were off-lead, but the trainer immediately spotted other related issues like "guarding the den" and a lack of respect from Big Dog for the humans in the house (Oops!)

The first exercise was making the dogs give us eye contact before we feed them. We had wrongly believed getting them to sit was good enough, but as Joanne pointed out sitting was about training, eye contact was about canine respect to the Alpha in the pack!

Then we tackled a dog walk. Close to us we have a particularly exciting wood, full of rabbits, deer, pheasants and hundreds of tempting smells. As we approach it on a walk, the dogs get progressively more excited, at which point we let them off the lead and then spend half an hour trying to get them back.

Joanne taught us that when a dog's level of excitement reaches a 8 or a 9, you cannot communicate with them, so our job was to approach the wood calmly, which involved a lot of turning and retracing our steps. Amazingly we DID get through the woods without losing either of the dogs (for the first time!) and they actually seemed to enjoy the challenge of concentrating on us and having a new task.

Back home we also learned how we will introduce the baby into the house (something I confess we hadn't thought as far as!) and how to stop them barking at people passing the bottom of the garden. Three and a half hours later, dogs and humans were all utterly exhausted, and you could have heard a pin drop on Sunday afternoon as everyone slept off the mental and physical stimulation of the morning!

It was left to me to do the first walk of the new regime this morning. The dogs were on short leads walking behind me, until I let them off, where once again we did a lot of turning round and retracing our steps, something which surprisingly the dogs seemed to think was a brilliant game. So all in all, a much calmer, much more enjoyable walk for everyone. Let's hope we can stick with it!

Interestingly our next door neighbour has one dog who very aggressively "guards the den", to the extent that she'll only let her dogs out when ours are inside. I'm wondering if I could and should pass the Behaviourist's business card on to her, or whether like a lot of people she's more comfortable living with her problem than finding a solution! What do you think?

The curse of a tall husband

2011-05-31T13:29:00.002+03:00

Yesterday we spent Bank Holiday Monday in Aberdeen on a quest to purchase a stroller for the impending August arrival. As I have mentioned in an earlier post, my plan was to buy something cheap and compact to compliment the great hulk of metal that is the vintage Silver Cross pram.

My apathy towards shopping is such that I would have been quite happy to read a few reviews, make the purchase online and live with the consequences, but I am married to a man who is 6ft 4in and living in a world where baby equipment is on the whole, designed for people nearly a foot shorter, so we were going to need to inspect our options in the flesh.

We set off for the Aberdeen branch of John Lewis with two very different agendas for our stroller. Mine could roughly be summed up as (1) Cheap (2) Compact (3) In stock. Whilst husband's read (1) High handlebars (2) Not easy to kick (3) Nice tyres.

We arrived at the shop not entirely unprepared. I had made the husband do his own research, and I had done a recce of the John Lewis store in Southampton, where they had narrowed our choices to two very nice sub-£250 strollers.

Presenting our dilemma to the Scottish shop assistant, she brought out these same two pushchairs for consideration. I was delighted, in theory all I had to do was wait while husband pushed them round the store, made his choice, and we could be out of the department in 20 minutes.

First up for a test drive was the Maclaren Techno XT, whose handles extended by about 4 inches. He surveyed its wheels suspiciously before declaring it unsuitable for walks in the wood, but nonetheless obligingly set off on a circuit of the department. A couple of minutes later the Maclaren returned to its space on the shop floor, its wheels now bearing the scars of repeated contact with husband's shoes.We shifted our focus to the second stroller...

Option two was the Baby Jogger. Three wheeled, with proper off-roading tyres and a really nifty one-handed folding mechanism. Husband looked impressed and declared the stroller's designer "a genius". He set off again around the department, and the assistant and I waited with baited breath, but his face when he returned rapidly deflated my optimism. Once again it was getting in the way when he walked, but he hadn't entirely written it off.

He asked the assistant how to lay the seat flat. She obligingly sprung into action releasing a fabric cord which projected the top of the seat a foot backwards towards husband's knees. He looked worried. "How often do babies lie flat?" he asked. "When they're sleeping!" I said hopefully. Assistant and I exchanged looks. "Most of the time when they are young." She replied more honestly.

Absorbing this, husband took off again on a more determined lap of the shop floor, now rhythmically pummeling the area where the baby's head would be with his knees. It was clear, this wasn't going to work...

Then slowly and almost imperceptibly the shop assistant moved in, leading husband away from the compact strollers and towards designer pram territory. Briefly I saw his hand linger on the handles of the £800 Bugaboo, as he pushed it backwards and forwards in its parking space. I held my breath, but before I could squeal "It's the price of a car!" he moved on.

Eventually they stopped at an area of the shop floor reserved for mid-price baby carriages, a big leap from our Maclaren stroller, but distant cousins of their designer friends. From the melee of hoods and wheels the shop assistant pulled out a Quinny Buzz 3. Out of the clutter I could see now a minimalistic baby seat perched on top of a tri-wheeled metal frame, with excellent ground clearance and a luxurious handlebar extension. With obvious glee, husband eased it out to its maximum height. Like ~~Little Red Riding Hood~~ Goldilocks (thanks sis!), this third option was just right.

I looked back at the Baby Jogger, so neat, so cheap, so compact, and realised it was designed perfectly for my life, but not for ours. Best laid plans were crumbling...

An hour later we left the store, the new owners of a stroller the wrong side of the practical and cheap divide, a car seat (discounted by 40%) some monstrous car seat base, and a bottle warmer. Somewhere along the way our intended spend had doubled and the first shock to the system of parenthood was complete.

PS - A reminder the URL of this blog will be changing tomorrow to mansellsonthemove.blogspot.com. If you are a follower you don't need to do anything, Blogger will keep track of the new address for you automatically, but if you have it bookmarked, please update your details.

Dysoning the dog

2011-05-28T20:03:00.003+03:00

Have you seen the attachment you can buy to groom your dog with your vacuum? We bought one a couple of weeks ago when we moved house, and tried it out on the Big Dog for the first time today. After a bit of a false start, she got used to it very quickly... until she got bored and walked off!

Free movies

2011-05-26T10:50:00.000+03:00

I mentioned there would be some thriftiness on this blog, so I thought I'd share with you the story of how we got paid to watch movies this month.

Husband and I are big film fans and between sending our TV off with the removals in Cyprus and getting our belongings sorted in Scotland we'd built up a bit of a backlog of films we wanted to see, including Due Date, The Social Network & The Kings Speech. Our normal practice would be to buy the films on DVD without a second thought, but more often than not we only ever watch them once, before operating a generous free rental service for our friends. So I decided to see just how cheaply we could watch them if we bothered to shop around.

I didn't have to look far. LoveFilm was doing a free 30 day trial of their rental service, and even better by signing up through my credit card I received £10 cashback too! The good news is there's now an even better offer available now for anyone in the UK. If you pay for one month's rental through LoveFilm (cheapest package is £5.99) you'll get 60 days of rentals and £25 cashback through Quidco. If you want free movies and free money, click here, the offer is open till Sunday.

Mad dogs and crazy weather

2011-05-24T23:10:00.006+03:00

We've had an attack of the canine crazies amongst our pets over the last few days. On Sunday they both caught sight of something in the woods and took off at speed towards a main road. Jim caught up with Macy on the hard shoulder (with cars brake lights flashing and horns going!) but there was no sign of the Beagle and after much calling and searching we had to return home without her, only to discover some lovely person had spotted her and returned her to our house already.

We thought it was just our dogs, but since Sunday morning we've met more and more people who've had similar problems. My parents immaculately well-behaved Border Terrier took off after some sheep in a field, forcing my father to climb over a barbed wire fence to retrieve him, whilst the spaniel belonging to our neighbours seems to have suddenly lost the skill of recall and has run off several times and ignored their pleas for her to return.

One person has put forward a theory... Might it be that the dogs are being driven crazy by the gale force winds we've been having over the last few days? It certainly seemed to bring out the wild animal in them at the beach this evening, as we watched them leaping over the waves that were crashing in on the shore. Or is it something else entirely? Does anyone else have any any suggestions...

The old-fashioned purchase...

2011-05-20T12:53:00.000+03:00

Over the last few weeks when I have learned that when it comes to vintage prams, there are two types of people. There are those who consider them beautiful classic pieces of design, and those who think them ridiculous and impractical. As you may have guessed from the photo of my recent purchase, I fall into the former group.

When it comes to baby purchases, I have to say that few things inspired me less than the thought of spending several hundred pounds on a rapidly depreciating, Chinese made, plastic travel system.

I'd always liked Silver Cross prams, but thought they'd be out of my price range (new ones are £1000) and that the impracticalites would out weigh their usefulness, but when I started looking at our options for baby carriages, it rapidly became clear they had a lot of advantages.

● They hold their value (in fact with a bit of restoration work you can even make a profit)
● Their higher than average handles are brilliant for tall parents
● They're built like tanks, making it hard for a dog to knock them over
● They can be used for more than one child at a time
● Being 40 years old they are better for the environment than a plastic pram with a short-shelf life

When we found out where we were living, it also became clear that during the week I would be doing a lot of walking locally on roads. So I had a cursory glance at eBay to see if I stood any chance of finding a vintage Silver Cross for under £150 and to cut a very long story short, with the help of some sniping software I bagged this beauty for £129.

I am under no illusions that its an all terrain, all occasion pram, so we will also be using a sling and later a stroller, but I do love it, and I'll let you know just how impractical or otherwise it turns out to be...

Clutter and lots of it...

2011-05-19T14:22:00.000+03:00

Our boxes from storage arrived yesterday. Typically I waited in all day, only for them to arrive at 6pm, which meant a very late night after we start opening boxes and discovering photo albums!

We'd spent the night before, challenging each other to name as many things as we could that had gone into storage four years ago. We recalled the big items, but forgot many of the small ones.

When the boxes did eventually arrive, we discovered we'd outgrown (in some cases literally) most of our possessions. I did laugh when I discovered one very large box labelled as "empty DVD boxes and German books/CDs" also contained a book called "Clear Your Clutter With Feng Shui".

What we could never have envisaged when we packed the boxes, is how much our lives and the world around us would have changed by the time we opened them again. We left Germany convinced we'd have a two year stint in Canada and return for the rest of Jim's career, after all it has been the home of the British military for the last 70 years. So we packed boxes with German parking permits, electricals with European plugs, and a variety of language books, and then last year everything changed when the British government announced a withdrawl of British troops from the country, a move which means we are unlikely to ever return.

We also packed technology that was on its way out in 2007 and is now next to useless. Analaogue TVs, minidisc players, VHS cassettes and bulky stereo separates. Of course there have been some big changes in our lives too. We weren't married when we packed up our things and it shows! The tiny George Foreman I had in storage was replaced by a six person one last year, and what was Jim's fridge in his mess room is now only good for storing alcohol!

So today the declutter begins, the local charity shops are going to do well out of us!

Some Scottish thriftiness

2011-05-17T12:28:00.000+03:00

Those of you who have been following this blog for a while will be aware that this is going to be a year of big changes for our family. As well as our move from the Mediterranean to Scotland, we also have our first non-furry addition to the family due in August!

In preparation for this, I am beginning maternity leave from work this month. Like so many women of my generation, it's going to be a massive change, for the last 15 years I have been used to earning my own money, and contributing 50/50 to everything in our marriage, and suddenly, quite terrifyingly, that is going to be taken away.

Not only will I not be earning anything significant from my current job, but by nature of the fact I am on maternity leave, I am not allowed to earn money from other freelance sources either. So being prevented from bringing money in, I have decided to launch myself headlong into managing money that goes out. A skill that used to be called (and taught at school as) Home Economics!

This has meant a few long overdue changes for us already. Where as in Cyprus we lurched from day to day making plans for the evening meal in a phonecall at lunchtime, I am now switching to an online weekly shop and meal planner, and the husband, who was the main cook, has been (almost entirely) kicked out of the kitchen.

I've seriously reduced my monthly expenditure on my personal weakness, books, by becoming a reviewer for Amazon Vine and joining our local library, I've installed the brilliant Quidco toolbar for Firefox which now means we get cashback on almost everything we buy, and I have a few other tricks up our sleeve for money saving gadgets in the home, and using internet offers to our full advantage.

My plan is not to cut back on everything in a joyless fashion, but to be more canny and waste less, aspirations I think we should embrace at any income level. So along with some crafting, photos and baby talk, this blog is also going to feature some very Scottish thriftiness over the next couple of years... Beginning this week with some freebies I am actually being paid to receive, and a wonderful old-fashioned purchase which is arriving tomorrow. But more on that in a few days...

New name, new look....

2011-05-16T23:07:00.002+03:00

It had to happen.... the blog has got a new name to reflect our new location! (and the funny thing is our new street really does look a bit like the blog banner!)

Thanks to Danielle for her great work on the graphics, I will also be changing the blog URL at the end of the month to mansellsonthemove.blogspot.com. If you are a follower you don't need to do anything, Blogger will keep track of the new address for you automatically, but if you have it bookmarked, be prepared that the old address will not work after June 1st - Don't worry I'll give you lots of reminders!

In the meantime, hope you like the new look, I'll be back with another post later in the week.

The first week

2011-05-13T22:08:00.003+03:00

My first full week in Scotland is already complete! As with all postings our new home has come complete with its own set of demands on our pockets and at times it has felt impossible to leave the house without spending a minimum of a couple of hundred pounds.

Our shopping list this week has included a fridge/freezer, a tumble drier, 16 lampshades, three boxes of picture hooks, a bathroom cabinet, shelving for the garage, a ladder, covers for the garden furniture, a kitchen bin, stocking a larder again from scratch, and a hundred small items I'd already struggle to name.

No two military quarters are the same, or come equipped with the same stuff, so what is supplied with one, is an expense waiting to happen in the next. I'm sure after about 20 years we'll have everything we could possibly need, but at the moment each move still comes with a few nasty surprises!

It's a good job there have been a few cheap thrills this week too! Like signing up to our lovely local library which is right on the edge of a park, and hires CDs and DVDs as well as books, and discovering miles of good dog walks through the picturesque Quarrel Wood which is minutes from our house. One of the great perks of Scotland in the summer is the longer than average days. At the moment it gets dark nearly an hour later here than on the south coast, so we've been having some lovely evening walks and very late suppers!

On Monday Jim starts his new job, and though I haven't quite got my head round it, I won't be joining him! My maternity leave starts at the end of the month and I've used my annual leave to bridge the gap between leaving Cyprus and its start, so until August I am a lady of leisure with the beautiful Scottish countryside to explore and plenty of crafting projects to keep me busy - not too much of a hardship I'm hoping!

PS - If you are interested to see our house, I am opening up the permission on my Flickr set over the weekend so anyone can view, but will restrict it to friends and family again on Monday. Feel free to have a peak...

Settling in to Scotland...

2011-05-08T22:36:00.004+03:00

After two months in limbo, we have finally all arrived in Scotland!

Jim and the dogs drove up arriving midweek and I flew up on Friday. I had deliberately booked a flight which arrived mid-afternoon so that I would get my first glimpse of our new house in daylight, but Gatwick airport had other plans! I arrived at midday for my 2pm flight, and to cut a VERY long story short, we eventually took off at 9pm after a flight cancellation, several delays and armed police boarding the aircraft to remove drunken passengers!

So my first glimpse of the house was actually through very tired eyes at midnight!

On the journey from Aberdeen airport to the house, I kept reminding myself not to make judgments about our new home as it wouldn't look its best with packing boxes and bare bulbs, BUT despite this I had only good first impressions.

Our new home has everything our old house in Cyprus lacked... a modern kitchen, a garden full of grass, an en suite bathroom, neutral coloured carpets and best of all no Cyprus dust! Even the washing machine and dishwasher work better now they are plumbed into modern plumbing.

We are spending this week unpacking boxes and exploring the local area. This morning we visited Lossiemouth beach which is about 5 miles from us (photo above and below) and the dogs absolutely loved it... I wonder what goes through a little Beagle's mind, when just a fortnight ago all she had ever known was Cyprus...

Happy Dogs

2011-05-01T12:43:00.000+03:00

Just a couple more photos I couldn't resist posting....Two dogs enjoying the sunshine. Photos by my sister Jane.

Enjoying England

2011-04-30T19:07:00.005+03:00

We are home!

Dogs and humans arrived back in the UK safely from Cyprus last Sunday night. We collected Macy & Bella from Gatwick the following morning and although the first 20 minutes - with Bella clearly very frightened - was a little traumatic for us, everything that has followed has made their few hours of air travel worthwhile.

This week, they have experienced many miles of running off the lead in the English countryside, through farms (Jim's family's) and across beaches (West Wittering) topped off with a warmth and friendliness from strangers that they have never really experienced. Sitting outside shops or on park benches, old ladies and children have approached them to chat and stroke their heads - a world away from the attitude of locals in Cyprus.

They also got to meet the other two family dogs who are both Border Terriers and by some miracle we actually managed to restrain them all for a photograph together with my niece and nephew.

Tomorrow they start another voyage - this time by car. Over two and a half days they will travel 12 hours up to the Scottish Highlands. This time I have no concerns about their welfare for the journey, both dogs love the car and Macy has actually been climbing into the boot this week for an afternoon doze, so I am confident they'll get along fine. I'll fly up and join everyone in the new house next Friday and the blog will be getting a mini overhaul and a new name....

Sunny Cyprus?

2011-04-21T19:44:00.001+03:00

We have now entered the final chapter of our Cyprus posting, a few nights in a hotel before we fly back to the UK on Sunday. Amidst the chaos of the last few weeks the Easter weekend has been something of a target for us, the end of April is usually hot and consistently sunny and we imagined ourselves enjoying a couple of days on a sun lounger topping up our tan before we return to the UK.

I suspect this couple relaxing by our hotel pool today had similar plans - who would have known that while the UK basked in April sunshine, Cyprus would be struggling with rain and unseasonably cold temperatures? Still at least console ourselves that we haven't paid to fly all the way here to experience it!

So with three days to go, we've now both finished work, handed back our quarter (after 5 long long days cleaning it to meet military specifications) and posted our final excess baggage to the UK. The dogs are in kennels till they fly on Sunday night and we are trying to decide whether its kinder to leave them there, or to visit them tomorrow and take them for a long walk... but then put them back in their pens just as they think they might be going home! Fellow dog owners what do you think?

Red Arrows 2011

2011-04-16T09:28:00.000+03:00

For the last few weeks the Red Arrows have been doing their annual pre-season practice in the skies above RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus. Their schedule has coincided with my morning commute and so every day my 20 minute drive to work along the coast has been accompanied by their display... Frankly it's a miracle that I haven't driven into anything whilst watching!

Next week the Reds are off to Greece to continue their training and so before they went they did a display for the military community in the grounds of the Akrotiri hospital. It was a beautiful day with a backdrop of the Mediterranean sea and even though it was probably the twentieth time this month I have seen them in action it was every bit as spine tingling as the first time.

Living and working with the Red Arrows you are supposed to at least attempt to be nonchalant about them, but I've fallen for them hook line and sinker this year, and yesterday's display has affirmed what I think will be a lifelong admiration for the team. A signed print will even be going up on the wall in Scotland, much to the dismay of my Army husband!

More photos here and last year's display here

2011-04-11T16:00:00.003+03:00

Madame Beagle makes herself at home on a pile of curtains waiting to be laundered!

Thank you all for your kind comments on the last post, it was fun to drop the news in without warning and see who was paying attention! I think Jenny summed it up perfectly when she said "so much newness coming your way." There are indeed lots of new things to look forward to with the move. We now have an address of our house and thanks to streetview and a friend-of-a-friend we have seen photos of the exterior of our new home and some of the interior on the ground floor too.

It will be quite a different house to the one we currently have in Cyprus. There is a standing joke in the military that the RAF have the best quarters, and if ever there was evidence of this, it is now! We will be moving from a 3 bed un-modernised semi-detached 1950s Army house, to a 4 bed detached 1990s RAF house with such exciting luxuries as an en suite shower room and a utility room! There's no denying it has less character than where we live now, but I think that will suit me just fine for a couple of years!

This week is our last full week in the Cyprus house, we move into a hotel next Tuesday and then leave the island on Easter Sunday. I can't deny that the last three weeks without any of our possessions have been particularly trying, but on the plus side I have read an awful lot of books - in fact an average of about two a week. It was enough for me to briefly consider buying a Kindle, but I surprised myself when I finally saw one in the flesh and found I quite strongly disliked it.

However if you are looking for a good read (virtual or physical!) I am now in a good position to recommend a couple! Firstly a bit of an undiscovered gem, Greyhound by Steffan Piper, which is the story of an 11 year old boy sent on a 4 day Greyhound bus trip to live with his grandparents, and secondly the book I'm currently reading (and dreading finishing) The Glass Castle by Jeannette Wallswhich is another incredible story of childhood.

I'll post again before we leave (one of these days I might even get round to posting the photos of the north of the island!) and will also soon reveal the new name of the blog, which clearly cannot stay as 'Little Island In The Med' for too much longer!

Some news...

2011-03-31T19:32:00.004+03:00

It's been a stupidly chaotic week here in Cyprus - We are now 3 weeks into our 7 weeks without belongings (discovering more and more things we need, and are missing by the day!) and just when I thought I'd seen enough rearranged furniture and boxes, they decided to repaint my office! Maybe it's because I'm a Leo, but it's hard not to feel a little feline about all this disruption... The suitcases are out, things are being moved, my world is ending! I think the dogs feel it too, and who can blame them!

I also spent the middle of the week sneezing my head off, then exhausted my supply of books I had kept out to last me till we leave, the hot water system packed up in the house first producing nothing but hot, then producing nothing but cold before finally being fixed, and at the end of it all, we spent this morning in the local hospital....

But don't panic, we have good news at the end of this crazy week! The hospital trip was for my 20 week scan! It's time to let the cat out of the bag...We are expecting a baby in August, and despite the moving, the boxes, the house falling to bits and all the rest of the chaos, all is all progressing very well and I have been exceptionally lucky to have been healthy throughout the pregnancy...so far!

There are two little bits of trivia that make this baby's impending arrival interesting. Firstly, in this family humans and hounds alike have all been born in their own individual country and that trend will continue. Husband was born in Bahrain, me in England, Big Dog in Canada, Small Dog in Cyprus, and the baby will of course be born in Scotland...

Secondly the husband and I have birthdays 3 days apart and by some incredible timing (people ask if we planned it!!) the baby is due right in the middle of them... It'll be interesting to see if it manages to arrive on time!

So why the photo of a banana smoothie? Well firstly I hate to post without a picture (and the scan ones from this morning were pretty dreadful) but also we spent a wonderful afternoon at our local beach bar yesterday right on the waterfront, lapping up the early summer sunshine... and that was my oasis of calm this week. I hope whatever your week has been like, you found one too...

Up north!

2011-03-27T19:35:00.000+03:00

This weekend we finally, after 18 months of talking about it, took the 2 hour journey to the North of the island. It's not laziness that has kept us away, partly it's been Jim being on call for the last 9 months and partly it's been our reluctance to leave the dogs in kennels, but we realised we couldn't leave the island without crossing the border, so with limited weekends left we finally went for it.

First of all I should say that if you are unfamiliar with why Cyprus is divided, click here. Even after 37 years, tensions between the two are such that I think it would be near impossible to spend 18 months living in either the north or south and to not have a slightly unbalanced perception of what the other side was like, and I hold my hands up and say I had a lot of pre-conceived ideas, all of which were shattered the moment we entered the Turkish territory.

We stayed in the little village of Bellapais, in the foothills of the Troodos mountains (which are much closer to the coast on the north side) looking down towards the well known resort of Kyrenia/Girne. The weather was good and we spent a fair bit of time driving along the coast taking in the amazing views, stopping at the historic port for lunch and then taking a tour of the Bellapis monastery.

The North and the South definitely 'feel' very different, but it is still surreal to cross a border in the middle of a small island. Our return journey was stranger still, whilst the whole of Europe moved their clocks forward one hour last night, for reasons to bizarre to begin to explain, Northern Cyprus had decided to delay it till tonight. So as we returned home and crossed the border back to the south today we had to put our clocks forward to be in sync with the south!

More photos to follow later in the week, do hope your weekends are going well!

A late Cyprus snowfall

2011-03-14T18:36:00.001+02:00

Last week, we had a very late, very large dump of snow in the Troodos mountains. You could actually see it quite clearly from my office down at sea level.

So yesterday we decided to take the dogs up into the mountains for a play in the snow. It had been a stressful week for everyone and with only a few of our possessions left in the house, we all needed to get out and have a change of scene.

What we hadn't bargained for was that on a beautiful sunny day, half the island were also going to be doing the same thing. About 45 minutes into our drive, on a road that is normally empty, we ran into traffic. A LOT of traffic...

The Cypriots go a little mad when it snows, and when you take into account there were only two (midweek) snow days in the mountains last winter, you can start to understand why.

As we continued our journey towards the peak, cars were abandoned at the side of the road, kids were building snowmen on the verges and the traffic was at a standstill. We sat in the queue for about an hour before we gave up, turned round and found a spot to park the car just off the main road, but even relatively low in the hills, we were still rewarded with a beautiful wintery scene.

And despite the fact it was +10c at this altitude, there was still some pretty deep snow, which delighted dogs and humans alike...

Hope you also had a good weekend!

This moving business....

2011-03-13T16:20:00.003+02:00

Now that the chaos has passed, I thought I'd do a post explaining a few things about how a military move works...

First of all, in the British Army you generally move to a new job every two years, but people do often leave posts early on promotion, or if a position is axed.

Most forces families spend an entire career moving around locations within Germany and the UK, we are the exception. Our next house will be our 5th home in 4 countries in less than 4 years of marriage - even by military standards that's a lot!

We do get a degree of choice about where we go, but the 'posting preference form' serving personnel fill in is also known as the "dream sheet" because it's rare to actually get one of your top job choices. Our last three postings have all been near the bottom of the list, and as such have been a complete surprise!

When we move we are given a shipping allowance based on the size of our family and the place we are posted to. Inside mainland Europe, the allowance is about ~~80 cubic metres~~ 67 cubic metres, which is a house full of possessions. Further afield like Canada or Cyprus it is much less, currently just 10.6 cubic metres for the two of us. When they collected our removals on Friday we were 4.5 cubic metres over our allowance, and we will be charged for that...

Regardless of the location you are posted to the military gives you the option of having your quarter furnished. Naively when I first took on a house (as a single civilian working for BFBS) I agreed to take it furnished not realising how bad the furniture would be. 5 years later I am very familiar with the MODs nylon covered sofas, 1970s plywood dressers and rock hard beds and so we recklessly use up part of our allowance (2 cubic metres!) moving a bed around the world with us!

Unlike a move within the UK, when you are posted between countries it takes time for your possessions to reach their destination, during this time you live with a couple of suitcases of belongings and a thing called a Get You In/Out Kit, which contains basic kitchen equipment and bedding.

And finally nothing comes from free... There's an odd myth that persists that military quarters are free to live in, not only are they not free, but when we are based overseas we have to pay a sum in lieu of UK council tax on top of our rent! Rent on houses is scaled according to their condition, a house like the one we are currently in, with no central heating and kitchen and bathrooms which haven't been updated for 50 years, are cheaper than more modern houses.

In the thick of it...

2011-03-11T15:32:00.000+02:00

Just a brief explanation for my absense from the blog. Today is removals day in Cyprus, we are waving goodbye to all but a few suitcases of our belongings for the next two months. I have briefly taken myself away from the chaos while the crew load the van, we've no TV or radio, but thank heavesn we still have internet! The dogs have been banished to the garden since we started this 7 hours ago and are not impressed!

It's only 18 months since we last packed up our home and it's always stressful... I'll check in again with a full update when calm has returned!