from the bottom of the garden

We have a section of the garden devoted to raised beds. Not my doing - the work of the people here before us. Anyway, I'm afraid I haven't made best use of them. One holds half a dozen giant sunflowers, a mass of sweet peas and cornflowers. Plus a handful of sugar snap peas and dahlias waiting to bloom. And a lot of weeds.

 Here are the boys doing their planting months ago. And here is a selection picked today. The tomatoes are from the greenhouse. Which I water when I remember. Which is not enough considering the heatwave we have been having.

slip cover

We have a good quality sofa we bought before we had the boys. It is goldy-cream at one time in its life, now sporting lots of stains. I didn't want to dump it so have been looking at various options to recover it. And ... drum roll ... TA DA!

It wasn't the easiest thing to choose fabric/ agree with husband/ stop procrastinating/ cut fabric/ piece together. But we are thrilled. And I'm just a bit proud of my efforts.

We went here. There were some beautiful designer fabrics at £6.99 a metre. Plus amazing linens... very tempting. You have to go with an open mind as to what might work. There are rooms and rooms of fabrics - many incredibly good quality. We both loved the 100% wool tweed but need washable cotton. I was sooo tempted with a Liberty bottle green large scale design - but had to let it go as the colour was wrong. (At £6.99 I will probably be thinking about it for years!) Do you do that? Think back to what might have been.... 

We combined the Designers Guild wavy print with this bold woven stripe. I cut out generous pieces using the current cushions and base before prewashing everything. There are various guides online if you want to do your own slipcover. I found I needed extra fabric so I could line up the pattern - and would probably go for a solid cover to save that complication.

 We visited Stockwood Discovery Centre with some great friends this week. And a very talented man drew the boys. Fab! £2 well spent.

the zoo zoo zoo, how about you you you?

 Wow, a beautiful day at Whipsnade Zoo. We took a deep breath and renewed the membership... and had a thoroughly good time. Lots of children, the warm sunshine, and ice cream. What more could anyone want?

Olympic Fever

Wow, it has been an exciting games for us! Everything feels so close and relevant ... with GB doing so well. (It is best not to say too much about Australia! I did wear my green and gold on Saturday - hastily sewed a rosette). The four of us went to Earls Court and saw Men's volleyball with GB V Poland in one match. A great atmosphere.

I also delivered the boys to Keith and they watched football at Wembley Stadium... really once-in-a-lifetime opportunities abound this summer. And we are loving the action on TV.

Are you enjoying London 2012?

flamstead scarecrow festival

It is nearly that time of year again...

we have a large amount of newspaper, glue and mess all over the kitchen table as we have just started our scarecrow for the annual festival. It is our first year in the village and the boys have chosen a very child-friendly theme. No clues, yet.

Click here for the village link and more information.

roald dahl museum

Around 30 minutes from us, in Great Missenden, is the Roald Dahl Museum. All 5 of us went yesterday and enjoyed it for the 2nd time. The boys sat in the writer's chair, listened to a storyteller, and LOVED creating their own animation with plastic dinosaurs.

 It shows us what a great, interactive museum could be. Along with plenty of inspiration and writing tools for the authors of the future. Story bags, a craft room, fridges with hundreds of magnetic words. We were in our element!e

We haven't read Matilda together yet... but I would love the musical to be our Christmas/ birthday treat for the boys.

Gus is two!

I have been incredibly tardy with the blogging. Again.

The lovely iphone which I use for photos at the moment has stalled. In that it phones and messages ok... but refuses to send photos for me. And I have not been using the camera for a while. I am a little embarrassed by my lack of technology-knowledge! I have reset the phone a couple of times (after interesting conversations with someone in India), and visited a vodafone store. No luck as yet. I will keep trying.

Anyway - here is another photo to share of the gorgeous Gus. And his oh-so-proud big brothers.

We went quite light on gifts. He has a new stroller and baby doll (thank you to good friends for the latter). A lovely hard book about Jonah. A wooden zigzag car run. A talking and singing soft dog (!) And a super balance bike like this from Granny and Pop.