c'est chouette

just made an etsy treasury full of chouetteness.

then fed my lovely little j by the light of the silvery moon. happiness.

party

there was jelly, and cake, and ice-lollies, and ice-cream and balloons and much excited rushing about. and then, the inevitable mini meltdown, captured here for posterity. 

elephant t-shirt from this etsy shop, we love it. i made the birthday crown. the elephant cake was a joint effort by me and m, i ate rather too many off cuts during its construction, delicious!

and after the party, everyone was tired-y...

three...

...is the magic number. o-o is three! happy birthday sweet cheeks. it seems only yesterday he was the big 0-2, and the day before yesterday that he swam into the world.

come on you blues!

we've had our blueberry bush for ages. every year i've neglected to water the bush and so the berries have withered away. but lo, this year mother nature did the watering (ah the british summer!) and ta-da, here's just a some of the resulting crop...

not so ol' blue eyes has been enjoying them atop his 'full monty' (mixture of all available breakfast cereals).

when we planned the kitchen we imagined that we'd keep the work surfaces clear, with perhaps the exception of an artfully arranged fruit bowl. alas, as you can see the reality is that it is hidden beneath a dense layer of family flotsam and jetsam, there's even a cow grazing on there. sigh.

i scream, you scream...

strawberry and black pepper ice-cream from sarah raven's garden cookbook. hold the black pepper, there's a kiddo about. frickin' delicious.

chaos theory print by john alan birch on etsy.  my dad used to tell us that if it was playing a tune they'd run out.

colour

painting my toe nails. o-o was concerned that i might be planning to leave the cotton wool balls in place.

it seems wee baby j may have the blood of the vikings. grandma's gene is strong.

o-o's been painting the plaster of paris animals we made using the set uncle TK sent.  

wee baby j is calm and quiet in the face of the whirling dervish that is his big bro.

bronze medal!

hurrah! i'm third on the folksy best seller list. let's spread the handmade love, have a look at my f-f-f-fashion on folksy pinboard

i'm deeply unsporty, one terrible sports day i was forced to compete in the SHOT PUTT (there are very few physiques less suited to the event)...however, i've i've been drawn in by the london olympics. i was cheering mo farah on to victory last night (so exciting, how did his wife not go into labour and deliver the twins then and there?! she deserves a gold too) and i had tears in my eyes watching jessica ennis win the heptathalon. go team GB!

thankyou folksy favourites

i've been silent for a while as we've been up north relaxing at my folks' house and then stressing out in the hospital in 'that london' while the docs tried to work out just why wee baby j breathes so darn fast. while i've been away i've had a couple of very welcome features on folksy. the first was this rather lovely sampler which was distributed to buyers and media types. there's my 'dunk' print third row down on the right.

then my shipping forecast and cuppa print was featured in 'the folksy weekly' (you can sign up to receive 'the folksy weekly' here). i'm going to have to print a third edition at this rate! thanks folksy folk...