All sorts!

Well my last few posts have been about specific things really but around all of those things the general day to day stuff is continuing so I feel the need to just blog about all the things I have left out of the last few posts, in a kind of 'catch-up' way.

They are in no specific order so I will start with today. Today I finished work until the 8th January. I love the Christmas break for so many reasons but mainly because its a bit of a serious re-charge. As its Christmas I don't feel obliged to do that much and the nest don't care what we do, even if its not much as they have their new things to keep them entertained too. Work today was great, and my amazing team had me on the verge of tears at one point! They are fab! Why? because they are thoughtful, hard working, they have a bond (despite their minor niggles day to day), they are happy and they get the job done. I always buy them all a bottle of wine for Christmas, and whilst it was a surprise the first year, I know that although they would never expect it now, they know I will. They deserve it too, for all the reasons above. This year, they bought me a gift too. There are 12 of them in the main team, and they secretly put together a series of comedy photo's (one of them for each month) and bought me a calendar with them all in. Its brilliant, and I have already shown it to lots of other colleagues that love it too. They each have one too which is even more brilliant.

Today was a really nice day at work too, involving lots of wishing others a happy Christmas, a kind of student Carol/dance thing at the end of the day, followed by a bit of an informal staff thing in reception to end it all. Oh, and I also got a big box of chocolates from work too. (The healthy eating will be re-started in the new year I think - 18 bottles of wine arriving tomorrow too which isn't going to help!)

So, aside from today, I have lots of other things to tell you. I made this recently...

I did mention it a couple of posts ago but I promised to show you the final thing. I still fancy making a slightly bigger one too though.

The students held a handmade market recently and I purchased these...

Cartfef means 'Home' in Welsh. Their theme this year is home hence there were lots of things like this, and also stuff with cups of tea etc on. 

Child #2 and I always do a Christmas Jigsaw and this year I bought us a new one as we have been repeating the same one for three years now!...

I couldn't wait any longer so we started this on Saturday evening...its ace as I get some quality time with child #2 although a little helper came and joined for a short while too this year...

 

So, until my final stock arrives (which may be at the post office right now!) I am unable to put my first Felicity Stitches kit up for sale so I will wait until then to show you it. In the meantime I have been knitting (existing project which I should complete by the end of the year). I have also been reviewing my cookery books to pick out a suitable Julie & Julia project book. I am quite excited by the thought of learning new cookery skills and trying some foods I might otherwise shy away from like STILTON!...bring it on! So I think this is the book...

Its got all sorts in it from basic stuff to entertaining type things. Wish me luck! So from now on it will be known as the Vivod & Sarah Brown Project!  I might begin the project over the next few days, in the meantime I have created a page with all the recipes which I will update as I cook them all. You can view this here Vivod & Julie Brown Project.

I think that's it for now. It was all a bit random but that's life!  See you soon.

Julie and Julia?

This is the second post today and must be a record for me?!

Its just a quick post to consult with you all!

Right...at work...we have a 'Book man''. I love these little book companies because I love books, and they are sooooo cheap! Anyway, amongst other books I purchased this...

Its a brilliant book that cost me £5 (not as much of a bargain as the quilting book that cost me £3 though!)

Anyway...its been sat on the dining room table for over a week and today, on my cleaning and tidying mission, I finally took it into the kitchen to put it away. Now, I did have a quick look through it and thought about writing down some ingredients and going to Morrisons but I didn't. It was then that I stopped and looked at all the other cookery books I have and sighed!

Look at them all...

!!!

Hmmmm! I reckon I have made about 20-30 recipes from these in total. I have my favourites, and once I find them I stick to them! 

Well...I love a new project for a new year (this years was suppose to be a knitted tea cosy for each month. I got to May and then the 'Felicity Stitches' thing happened and so the tea cosies stopped!) so I was thinking today that maybe I should do a bit of Julie & Julia. Not with anything as adventurous as the French cookery book but with one of my many books sat here on my kitchen worktop. 

If you haven't heard of Julie & Julia its a story (true, I believe) about a woman, called Julie Powell, who works her way through the famous cookery book (524 recipes) by Julia Child called Mastering the Art of French Cookery. Julie Powell wrote memoirs about her experience, I would use the Vivod blog obviously.

I know I lead a busy life and this does hinder certain projects I undertake but I have to eat! This may also mean that I actually eat a little better, and in turn, so will the nest.  Being a peskatarian, I may need to adapt some recipes unless I go for a fish recipe book or a vegetarian one, but thats ok.

So what do you reckon? New year, new recipes? I feel quite excited already!

New beginnings

Wow its been cold here. I'm not built for winter...I was a summer baby born on one of the hottest days of that year apparently! I don't mind winter in general but I think the point at which I stop enjoying it is around 4 or 5 degrees...less than this and I prefer not to leave the house. Snow just isn't funny. The only reason I like winter is that there are far more reasons to knit and I can wear lots of layers of clothing and add scarves, gloves, hats or snuggle up under home made blankets. Spring, Summer and Autumn, however, are just far nicer...I like to be able to feel my ears, nose and feet when I go out for a walk!

Of course, the only reason I like winter at all is because it contains Christmas. I can't believe its only a week or so away. I am nearly done with the gift buying now, just a couple more to get. Then I just need to finish the wrapping, post some gifts to Kent, hand some out next week at work and then I am done. I am impressed at my eldest this year. For the first time she has planned ahead, earn't pocket money and told me not to give it to her so she won't spend it, and is today off to Chester to buy some presents. She's so thoughtful and selfless sometimes. 

Child #1 is also 'favourite child of the week' (I don't really do this but I like to say it and wind them up a little) because she bought home a school progress report yesterday that proved she has really turned things around at school since year 8. In year 8 she didn't really understand that school was there to help her and consequently ended up in most teachers bad books. Year 9 was then tough...she did see that she was in the wrong but had to build up her reputation again. This year most teachers love her...she's clever, she pays attention, she's mature and she's kind. Child #2...well...she's in year 8 and anything her sister can do...she can do better...enough said!! Hopefully she too will soon realise that this isn't the best way to get through school!

So what else have we been up to then recently? I collected these last weekend...

I do like the girl's efforts quite a lot, especially the trainer that child #2 worked so hard on. That mug that I did is now at work and proving to be the best coffee mug in the world...ever! I love it. 

Last weekend I also sewed together a little Owl cushion kit that I bought at the knitting and stitching show. I need to buy some stuffing to finish it off...child #2 has already claimed it for her room. That's ok...I like the pattern but the not the fabric so I shall make another, slightly larger, for downstairs, from other fabric. I will show you later.

The thing that has been taking up most of my time at home, for some weeks now, is very very very nearly ready. It's a little business venture called 'Felicity Stitches'. It was an idea that I played for a couple of months back in the spring when I came home from Wonder Wool Wales. I decided that I wanted to sell kits of some sort after watching people, myself included, spending the day buying other peoples kits and thinking 'I could do that better'. I was going to go with knitting kits to begin with, and then maybe crochet kits. At the same time I was busy completing my Emily Peacock cushion kits too. Now I don't think I can do better kits than Emily Peacock, but they could be as good. So this is the path that Felicity Stitches is currently on...tapestry kits.

I have produced 1 kit. It has taken months. What I didn't appreciate was how complicated and time consuming starting a business was. I didn't expect to be spending a few hours of my life looking at samples of different clear plastic bags and trying to decide if bag A was better than bag B, or bag C,D etc etc. Its the little things like that that have taken up weeks of my life. The actual production of the first cushion only took about a month...everything else has taken far longer!  So, anyway, in some ways it has been really fun and really rewarding. I am now only a couple of steps away from launching the first kit online.  There is still lots of other things to do, like finish the website, produce a few more kits etc etc but once the rest of my stock arrives and I have had a few more pictures taken I can finally launch the first kit, via Etsy! How exciting.

I'll show you the kit shortly - it deserves a post all of it's own. Partly because of the effort put it but it's also special for sentimental reasons too. 

For now I have to go and restore organisation within Vivod. Starting a business has taken its toll on the house to say the least!!  Back soon.

Mumford and Sons - Manchester Arena

Ok, so 'be back tomorrow' actually translates into 'see you in a few days' when I'm busy. I will come back soon and tell you about the other things we have been up to but I have been too busy to blog over the last couple of days. The busier I am, the more I have to blog, but the less time I have to do it...its a real catch 22!

Anyway, one of the reasons I haven't had time was because of that little event called the MUMFORD AND SONS CONCERT!!!!!

If there is one thing that successfully brings my girls and I together, without fail, its live music. I think we would all pick live music over anything else every time. Yesterday, however, was a little bit more exciting than just any live music. This was about us all experiencing something that we absolutely love everything about.  Words cannot describe how much fun it was, and how great it was to share that with my daughters. 

If you haven't heard of Mumford and Sons they are generally classed as a folk rock band. I can honestly say that I enjoy every single one of their songs. I have my favourites but I never feel the need to skip any, they are all brilliant. This is why yesterday was so special too.

It was child #2's first ever concert too and it was great to be there with her. We got there early so that we could watch the support acts too. These were Post War Years (I quite liked them) and Dawes (an American band - some songs were ok, others were better), and also a comedian/magician called 'Piff the Magic Dragon'. Piff was pretty good to be fair - his humour was similar to Jack Dee's but the fact that he was dressed as a little green dragon, and his funny (but limited) magic was also pretty good, made it even better.

So this was the 'Manchester Arena' (formally called the M.E.N. Arena - this was news to me yesterday - I didn't realise they had renamed it - and spent some of yesterday trying to figure out if the 'Manchester Arena' was somewhere different!) when we got to our seats just before 7pm...

Post War Years were on quite early, after 20 minutes of the dragon. Then Dawes were on at about 8, followed by another Piff session (funnier). Then finally, at 9pm...when the Arena looked more like this...

It was Mumford time! They were fantastic, we laughed, clapped, danced and screamed it was all good. I didn't take many pictures - I didn't really see much point - you can't hear a picture! They did the usual first 90 minutes but the encore was a little different and so lovely. They exited the stage in darkness, made their way past the standing area and onto the little stage at the back of the sound and light engineers.

From the stage...(just about visible here)

To here....so close!

It was here that they proved just how good they are without all the supporting bands and fancy lights etc etc. They sang 2 songs, stood around a single microphone, with a couple of guitars/banjos to support them. They played and sang relatively quietly, and then switched to a cappella for the second song.  Complete talent!

They then made their way back to the stage to perform three more songs, ending with (with their support act joining them) a fantastic version of 'With a little help from my Friends'. It was amazing and well worth the money. None of us wanted it to end, and we played their music all the way home (after managing to find the car - thank heavens for Google navigation!). We got home at 12:40am...and I had to get up at 5:45am to go and collect my youngest...today was a long day!  

Back soon...promise!

The Christmas Tree

I haven't blogged for a week and now I have lots to tell you about. Today I'm going to show you just how Christmassy our house is now looking though.

I LOVE getting the Christmas tree almost as much as I love Christmas itself. Its just brilliant (even with a slight red wine headache!). We always have a real tree, it just wouldn't be the same without a real one. I get ours from the Hawarden Farm Shop. Its not the cheapest place but the trees are beautiful and its only once a year so I try not to think about the cost too much! It always takes a while to pick the right tree - I usually find one straight away but then I have to go and look at lots of others just to make sure they aren't better - really I should just go with my instincts at the start. I don't usually take any of the nest with me because the tree has to travel home in the car and there is only just about enough space left for me in there, let alone anyone else. We'd never agree on the same tree if we went as a family either!

This was the tree tent...it smelt gorgeous in there!

While the guys in there netted the tree and trimmed the trunk etc I got time to browse the Farm Shop. It a good thing that we only go a couple of times a year because it is expensive but it is packed full of the most delicious, and luxurious products, all so well presented...look...

They sell things like chutneys, spices, wines made from various fruits, handmade biscuits, fresh bread, specialist teas and coffees...and cakes, which I couldn't resist!

The drive home wasn't bad considering the 7ft tree in the car was making some aspects tricky (like parallel parking - way more difficult when you can't see anything to the left apart from pine needles).  Getting the tree in the stand was easy...the thing that took so long today was sorting the lights. This was difficult for three reasons...

1. There were 2 sets of lights tangled together to begin with
2. The tree was huge and I'm only 5ft 2" 
3. I was hungover

I got there in the end, no injuries this year either - not even a broken nail! (I usually end up with some kind of tree related injury each year so quite pleased with myself today.)

So this was the finished tree...it was all worth it!

I even managed a few extra lights around the rest of the room too. I love this room at Christmas - possibly because its painted red and green at the moment and therefore looks a bit festive all year anyway. So now I just need to befriend the cat again - the bay window seat is his place - he's nosy and likes to sit there, on the cushion, so that he can see out of the window. He's not impressed with the tree at all!

I'll be back tomorrow to tell you more about my week. See you then.

Spavens Sweet Shop

We had fun yesterday. We all went to Spavens. It is, in my opinion, the best sweet shop ever. It is more than just a sweet shop too. You can paint pottery and other items, and they also serve pancakes and ice cream etc. So, you can just go and buy sweets but when we go, we always do a 'spavens special'. There are two types...a jar (which you then fill with sweets), or pottery painting, followed by a pancake, and an ice cream (you can have slush puppy instead of one of those but we usually don't).  

Yesterday, Child #3 chose to do a jar and fill it with sweets and the rest of use painted pottery. A couple of years ago (I think) the owners converted the shop cellar into this fantastic painting area, accessed via the fairy castle stairs...

It's lovely down there, there are plenty of sofas too for those parents (unlike me) that prefer to sit a watch rather than take part. Parent's always get offered free tea or coffee too (which is served in little tea pots, jugs and cups which have been painted there previously...oh its just so lovely I could quite happily live there!).

This is child #3 eagerly awaiting his jar to paint (the jars are done with paint pens rather than paint and brushes so, thankfully, a bit less messy too)

Child #2 chose a little trainer money box...she was so careful and didn't rush any part of it.

Child #1 chose a penguin, and I chose a mug (you can never have too many coffee mugs!). These were our finished creations which will now get glazed and blasted and come out all bright and shiny. I have to pick them up next Saturday (and will no doubt be tempted by a bag of sweets while I'm there...and then feel guilty as the kids won't be with me, and buy them some too!). I will show you the finished items next week.

I chose something simple so that I could help child #3 fill his jar with sweets while the other two carried on painting. I didn't get pictures of this bit because I cannot multi-task. The jar filling works in this way...children over a certain age can do their own but child #3 is too young and therefore I have to help. They give you a plastic glove and explain which sweets are allowed (pretty much all of them except things like jelly beans (the posh ones) and all the crazy kids things like wham bars and bubble gum tubes etc. I wouldn't like to guess how many jars that leaves to chose from but its got to be in the region of 200. So you just get the tub of sweets off the shelves yourself and, using the glove, pick out sweets and put them in your jar until its full. The staff don't interfere (even when you help wander behind the counter for sweets), they just leave you too it and work around you...its great. This is the jar...(and you can fit loads in if you squash them down and pack it well!)...

So afterwards we all ate pancakes and ice cream, below is child #3 scoffing a pancake with golden syrup, the others had chocolate spread but I stuck with the traditional sugar and lemon...there is no better filling, I don't think. Then we had ice cream...the girls had cookie dough flavour and I had real cherries flavour - it was beyond delicious. I can't remember what #3 had - it was gone to quickly to notice maybe!

Its was a great afternoon, as always, and not very expensive either - the pottery is dependant upon the item (I think ours were all between £8 and £10) but the jars with sweets are only £6 - amazing value for so much fun.

If you are tempted by it yourself now, Spavens is in Mold, North Wales. This is their website...

www.spavenssweetshop.co.uk 

1st Battalion the Royal Welsh

Well work was quite fascinating on Thursday. 1st Battalion the Royal Welsh marched through the campus as part of their homecoming. I think everyone at the college supported it, despite it being freezing outside. I got some pictures for you...

I think what was most apparent to us all was how young the majority of them were. They were the same age as the 'kids' we enrol in September, the students that we do our best to take care of because we feel protective towards them. Yet these men were the same age as many of our students and we send them out to war knowing that some will arrive home in a wooden box. These men are amazing people, and not just the younger ones. 

Welcome home guys.