A Random Assortment of French Loveliness

1. In the village of Aigre for a festival in May each shop in the village had the portrait of the shop owner painted on their window.  Apparently some were removed as soon as a polite amount of time had been observed...  This one was my favourite.
2. Yep this was my sat nav, and do you know what?  This and a map got me there just fine thank you.
3. Max the dog.  A new addition to my aunt and uncle's household, he made light work of the squeaky toys I bought him, he's a strong little beast but cute as a button.
4. Naff-o birthday cake made for my brother's birthday.  Nom nom.
5. Super hot evenings playing cards by candle light, on this particular night we waited for a thunderstorm to roll in, it arrived around midnight and was quite a show.
6. Decorations for my dad's birthday.
7. Yay!  Neon plastic cups!
8. Everything ready for our celebration meal, we cruelly made dad wait for his present until after dinner, after which he scuttled off to play with his new iPad.  He is a very happy 70 year old, in fact we haven't heard a peep out of him since.
9. Cake, lots of it.  Sadly I couldn't eat this one but MozzyMr enjoyed it.

Allotment Geekery

Sunday at the allotment, the butternut squashes have gone in...

the strawberries are flowering...

the lavender is on it's way...

the peas seem to be liking their new home and have started to produce pods already...

carrots!

too many tomatoes...

...and finally kites and shadows.  MozzyMr and I were suffering after a Birthday celebration at the Double Locks for friend Charlotte.  Too many ciders made us a bit broken, so we crawled to the allotment in the hope it might be restorative, a bit of sun and digging sorted me right out not sure about MozzyMr he seems to want to eat all the cake and sleep in his armchair.

MozzyMr's handmade Birthday

MozzyMr got a little bit older recently.  Birthday's aren't really his thing, and this year he seemed to be taking a particularly disgruntled view of the big day so I wanted to make him something that might crack a smile when he opened it.  Hence the pug.  He's loved the Pedigree Chum advert where the dogs wear human dentures, his favourite was the pug but they cut it from the recent adverts so I thought I would make him an embroidery of it with sparkly thread for the teeth (classy).

It did make him laugh, but I think some of his laughter was because I'd actually bothered to make something so weird.  Secretly I'm quite pleased with it, it's the first embroidery-type thing I've ever made and it has turned out quite neat.

So on his actual birthday we drove up to Birmingham to see our Brummie chums, and the lovely Bon had made him this:

A sock creature (made from socks forcably "donated" from her Husband's sock drawer) that MozzyMr has named Leonard (I think, might be Lionel).  Leonard (Lionel) sits in Mozzy's chair in the living room and commentates throughout every TV programme we watch.  He likes Neighbours but not Home and Away and thinks You've Been Framed is barbaric, Leonard (Lionel) is unsure of the cat and plays dead when she's around, just in case.

Last but not least...

A birthday isn't a birthday without chocolate, especially knitted chocolate!  This little selection box was created by MozzyMa: knitting genius.  MozzyMr loves a knitted novelty item (we have knitted helicopters, chips, peas, invisible grandmothers, doughnuts, liquorice all sorts, roses, daisies and a knitted Waluigi) I think for his next birthday I might have to get him a display case for it all!



Another photographer in the family?

At the weekend MozzyMr and I travelled up North to Lichfield to celebrate our Jim's birthday.  Everyone was there to celebrate including our lovely nieces.  Little big niece was sadly poorly and not on her usual good form, Little small niece was full of smiles and had lots of fun with my camera.  To begin with we had lots of photos with fingers over the lens but then she really got the hang of things.  Here are a selection of her photographs, I think you'll agree she's got some real potential I hope it is something she explores further (she's only 4!).

I love that she went off and took photos of the toys she loves, she also got the best portraits of the family including this one of MozzyMr.

Birthday prizes!

We have been celebrating mum's birthday this week, a little early as her actual birthday is the first week of January but as my brother goes home today it was the last opportunity we had to celebrate together.  So after the rich fruit cakes, mince pies, and cream I thought I would make Nigella Lawson's Lemon Syrup Cake as it's really zesty and fresh.

Birthday cards were made using the stamps MozzyMr gave me for Christmas, and presents were wrapped using the fab tape measure sticky tape I found in Totnes on our jaunt there late night shopping.  Brown and turquoise was the card/gift wrap theme. 

Following a meal out we relocated back to Plymouth where we sat around drinking port, did a crossword and watched films, nice and chilled, the perfect way to celebrate. 

Lucky Girl

So this week I turned thirty.  It is an understatement indeed to say I wasn't happy about it, there were tears, there was grumpiness, there was moping about, but equally there were craft projects, there was a Mario Kart themed party and there was cider.

Nice surprises from family:

Last minute but very great Mario Kart themed costumes:

(Back row): Shy Guy, Toad, Bullet Bill

(Front row): Waluigi, Birdo, Princess Peach

Luigi cake:

and then came the tidy up *sigh*:

So after all the moodiness what has turning thirty meant? (Lets bullet point!):

• An excuse to be daft, who doesn't love crafting silly costumes out of paper mache?
• An excuse to eat cake for breakfast
• An opportunity to be spoilt
• I can pretend to be wiser (strokes chin and looks thoughtfully out of the window)
• I can handle my drink better than when I was younger (clearing up after Mario party is a testament to the fact that my friends can too)
• I can own a shopping trolley, I can take it around a car boot sale with me and I don't care, weeeeee!

Big thanks to everyone who made my birthday great x