Thursday 31 July 2014

Owlfit of the Week

I LOVE these Maxomorra pyjamas! Maxomorra are a Scandinavian brand known for their bold prints and I'm quite a sucker for apples!  I like the close fit on them and the cuffs around the ankles, and Little Owl just looks so snuggly in them!

Luckily I don't have to travel to Sweden to buy them as the lovely Little Sunflowers stock them!  If you haven't discovered Little Sunflowers yet then you really should take a look.  They stock a wide range of beautiful brands, mainly from the UK and Scandinavia and have brilliant customer service.  They offer a discount off of your first order and I was really excited to receive and email from them this week offering a discount off of my next order which is lucky really as the new Maxomorra stock has just arrived! 


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Family Fever

Tuesday 29 July 2014

Too Close for Comfort

Travel broadens your mind and opens yourself to new experiences.  As a whole this is very positive, but it also exposes you to risks and more than that, makes real of the news stories you hear of distant lands.

This photo was taken in New York on 10th September 2001. Yup. You can just make out the towers.  Less than 24 hours later and the world was a very different place.  Several days later, as I sat teary eyed on Eurostar, returning to good old Blighty, I listen to a family discussing the incident that had happened in a far off land.

My travels in India make news of events there seem so much more real to me than, say Malaysia, a country and a region that I haven't been to.  However, nothing brings that home more than when something happens in places I have been, or places my loved ones had been.  The coordinated attacks in Mumbai, November 2008 were too close for comfort.  The Taj Mahal hotel was under siege for days.  This is the same hotel where I had sent my parents for a few days on their own to experience Mumbai before flying home just a few months earlier. A place where I thought they would be safe.

I vividly remember standing in the kitchen at one of my Rangers house's looking at the photos in the paper. I had taken my Rangers to India the year before and as well as landing in Mumbai, we spent a night there and did a bit of sight seeing including the Taj Mahal hotel.  I turned the page to see an image of bodies lying on the ground inside Victoria Terminus station.  I looked at my Ranger and said "that was the station we arrived at". It was a station I had used several times myself.

Its not just terrorist attacks though - do you remember the hot air balloon that crashed in Egypt last year? Probably not, unless like me you had taken that flight.

And its not just international travel that has these risks.  I remember one Christmas in the 80s, my mum agonising over whether we should go to London to see the lights with all the IRA threats. My GCSE geography trip to Canary Wharf had to be altered as the IRA had detonated a bomb there just weeks before. As it was, a bomb was found in Trafalgar Square on the day we went.

More recently, the 7/7 bombings happened a year after I stopped working in London. One of the victims had been the head of my department.  A real person that I knew.

The news these past weeks have been full of flight MH17 that was shot down over the Ukraine.  First reports were full of this being another Malaysian Airways flight disappearing, but soon that changed as it was realised that that was just an unfortunate coincidence.

The real issue is why was that airline flying over a warzone? Apparently because that's what they do. They feel safe 6 miles up.  Malaysia Airways weren't the only airline to be taking that flight path, there were others Lufthansa amongst them. Lufthansa who I flew to Pune with in January.

Little Owl and I flew over Ukraine.

In January.

It could have been our plane.

It wasn't, and for that I am very grateful.

But it does mean when I look at the images, and listen to the news, it makes it real to me. More real than I would like.

Travel broadens your mind and opens yourself to new experiences.  As a whole this is very positive, but it also exposes you to risks and more than that, makes real of the news stories you hear of distant lands.

Monday 28 July 2014

Cross Monday Week 19

Loads of progress this week!  I'm nearly half way across the second section too which is exciting but I'm going to have to keep this pace up or I might loose heart repeating myself over the next few weeks.  I am now back on track to complete this section by week 26, 15th September, and if I can keep up the pace I have done this last week then I might even finish earlier.


 




Thursday 24 July 2014

Owlfit of the Week

This Sunday was Pirate Day in Hastings, an annual event of which we are quite proud of.  The good folk of Hastings hold the Guinness World Record for The Largest Gathering of Pirates, which they last won in 2012 (this was the second time they achieved it),  despite the best efforts of those Pesky Pirates of Penzance!
Little Owl was part of that record breaking event, wearing a beautiful pirate vest and bib which were a gift from her Fairly Odd Mother.  Last year we went for the stripey vest and denim shorts look.  So what did Little Owl wear this year...
This is Little Owl's pirate costume for 2014!  The shorts are from H&M and have been featured before.  The top is a hand-me-down from Next, it has some sequins and fine detailing on it so Little Owl wore it back to front for her pirate look!  Little Owl could still fit into the bib that she wore to her first pirate day two years ago,  and the mini tri-corn made another appearance too!







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Wednesday 23 July 2014

Cherry Picking

Little Owl has her own Cherry Tree!  Well nearly... as a baptism gift, her Grandma rents one from a nearby farm.  We get regular emails throughout the year, telling us how things are progressing.  In the spring we are invited to the Blossom weekend where we get to see all the trees full of blossom, as well as enjoying a hog roast!  The newsletters become more frequent in the summer as the different varieties of trees are ready to be picked.  We were given a 10 day window in which to pick our cherries, but warned that heavy rain might mean the cherries split, in which case we should go as early as possible within that slot.  

We arrived at the orchard, gave Little Owl's name and were taken to our tree.  They hooked up the net next to our tree and we were left to gather our crop!  Little Owl had a great time picking the cherries she could reach, emptying our pots into a larger box and giving them back to us.  Although cherry trees aren't very tall, it was a good job we had Grandmadad with us to reach the top ones!
We got a bumper crop this year so will be freezing most of them, but not until we have made our cherry brandy ready for the bonfire season to start!


Country Kids from Coombe Mill Family Farm Holidays Cornwall

Monday 21 July 2014

Cross Monday Week 18


Week 18.  Progress but not much.  Am thinking I'm going to really struggle to get this section done by mid-September, which means this whole project could take much longer than the 18 months I predicted!  In the hope of getting things back on track, I'm going to attempt to stitch a whole thread every day for the next week - so be sure to pop back next week to see the progress!

Thursday 17 July 2014

Owlfit of the Week

Little Owl has been out and about enjoying the sun this week and this playsuit from Monsoon has been perfect!  I don't know how, but I have only just discovered the fantastic children's clothes in Monsoon's range.  I think I always thought they only did posh frocks and that maybe they were a bit pricey but this gorgeous playsuit was only £18.  I'm also really impressed with the quality.  The playsuit does up under the legs which makes it easy for changing nappies or toilet visits.  The poppers feel very sturdy and they are also discreetly hidden behind a fold in the fabric.


The sunnies are also from Monsoon and Little Owl really loves them (and so do I!).  And just in case you aren't a regular reader of Owlfit of the Week, her gorgeous sandals are from Livie and Luca.


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Family Fever

Tuesday 15 July 2014

Water Painting

Little Owl loves to paint.

But its messy.

She doesn't care what she paints.

But she loves to dip the brush in the paint.

And then use up the paint on the brush.

And start all over again.

She mixes the colours.

And gets paint everywhere!

This is why I have only let her paint at home a couple of times.

Mainly I wait until she is at a group


Where someone else can help clear up.

Then a friend of mine shared this ingenious idea!

Water painting!

Outdoors in the sunshine!


Its brilliant.

Little Owl loves it.

She can paint as much as she likes.

We don't run out of water.

And the sunshine dries it off so she can't paint things again and again!

Little Owl loved doing hand prints

And foot prints too!

It doesn't even matter if she paints her face!

Water painting is our new favourite thing to do!

Country Kids from Coombe Mill Family Farm Holidays Cornwall

Monday 14 July 2014

Cross Monday Week 17

Progress is slow but steady at the moment.  Papa Owl has been away which usually gives me extra time to stitch, but the world cup has meant a lack of decent telly to watch which essential to stitching!  The plant I am working on at the moment has three flowers on, you can see I have completed the first.  Unlike the bottom section, where I worked from the outside in, this time I am stitching from left to right.  This does pose the risk that I might get bored once I have passed half way, however  I am still hoping to finish this section before my target date of 15th September!

The good news is that I have finished exam marking so hopefully I can get my head back into blogging - been struggling to compose just one sentence some evenings!


Thursday 10 July 2014

Owlfit of the Week

I like to think of this Owlfit as Little Owl's surfette beach outfit!  Its a bit of a mis-mash but I love it!  The hat you have seen before and is from H&M as are the shorts - although really they are trousers aged 12 months!  

The t-shirt is from Me&i and features different coloured peace buses.  I really love this t-shirt - I'm a fan of yellow anyway but with the retro buses (which look remarkably similar to a certain popular campervan) and the brown trim round the neck this is just super cool.  However, I have noticed that if I don't pair it up with something obviously girly, then people do mistake Little Owl for a boy!  Hence the pink hoody which was a hand-me-down.  It isn't something I would have bought but actually I think it compliments this outfit beautifully.
And then we have the Livie and Luca sandals! 

With the recent hot weather, Little Owl has been living in these.  As well as looking beautiful, they are super practical too.  They are sturdy enough for Little Owl to go on the beach, or to climb up muddy banks, and although I was a little precious about them when I first got them, they really can handle getting dirty or even wet without showing any signs of wear!  If you haven't already tried Livie and Luca then do so - although I warn you - once you have bought a pair - there's no going back!

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Family Fever

Monday 7 July 2014

Cross Monday Week 16

I'm really pleased with progress this week.  I've had a couple of evenings this week where I closed the laptop and just watched telly and stitched.  It was lovely and it means that I have completed a whole tree that was rather complicated (it has 4 colours in it).

I have also made the effort to use up the threads that I had hanging loose.  Some were used on the tree but this has also meant that the red chain on the left hand side has filled out a bit, the vine that makes the top of this section has begun to grow too, as well as a plant beginning to sprout out of one of the central pots.  I've actually really enjoyed working like this and so will continue for at least the time being.  

Papa Owl is away for a couple of nights this week so I hope to have some good progress to show next week too!








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