Zippered toiletry bag (Mens)

So men are hard to buy for and even tougher to make for.

We have a lot of men in our family -  2 sons, 2 dads, 2 nephews, 7 brothers. 

Sons and nephews get the prize for being the easiest of the male variety to come up with ideas for, brothers come in last. 

I found this ticking style oilcloth on our hols - it was my spending money treat and using the tutorial from Prudent baby  I made this.

It was my first time sewing with oilcloth and though it's not perfect I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out especially as I couldn't find my zipper foot and proceeded ahead away. I found these hints from moogsmum really useful especially the hint about putting masking tape under the presser foot.

 

Lined it with some more ticking - bargain from Stephan's. 

Yep the writing on the back is upside down (design statement ?!)

Anyway, Nathan said it passes the 'manly enough' test and so brothers look away at some point over the next year one will probably be coming your way :)

On the first day of 'the holidays' my true loves gave to me...

.. the need for some adventure :)

We set off (totally unprepared in hind sight; poor choice of shoes - sandals, white pumps, nettles and mud aren't a great combination! No drink and man did I need one; didn't tell anyone where we were going - the what ifs at one point did spin round my head!) to explore part of the Wolsey Way. We've only lived here nearly 6 years and never walked along this part of the river :)

There were some lovely shaded parts where the trees go right down to the river, at one point Ben randomly threw his straw hat in and I had to cling onto branches to stop myself from slipping down the bank into the water myself - cheers son :)

Joseph found a trusty stick and like an avid explorer smote back the long grass and nettles, as he led the way. At one point he declared that we had entered the 'dark side of the force' - lol! Later on in the day Ben is a whispered voice as he looked me directly in the eye told me ' you... are Darth Vader' These boys crack me up :) I did get upgraded to Han moments later and Daddy became DV. Ben announced himself as 'Luc eyewalker' and Joseph is Rex. Joseph does similar castings though I get to be Princess Laia or Senator Armadarla, Nathan is Captain Solo, Ben is Luke and he is Rex.

Ben is getting so much better at walking longer distances now though he wasn't to happy about all the nettles 'ouch, ouch, ouch' with each step. He was happy when two muddy puddles came along and disobediently he splodged right through them.

I love the colours of this time of year the yellow of the crops, next to the green of the trees and blue of the sky. Being surronded by the seasons spiritually uplifts me and is one of the many reasons why I love where we live.

Safely home, hosed down and in Ben's case stripped!

Total exhibitionist!

Joseph went for a mammoth nap (love to see my boy sleeping, he looks like an angel)

FHE involved some serious trampolining.

Great first day of the school holidays 

PS. Thank you sun for turning up, stick around as long as you like :)

Lavender bags

Using the lavender I'd dried from the garden last year, I made some lavender bags as thank you gifts for the teacher and assistants in Joseph's nursery.

Tied them in brown paper and string and they were good to go. Just hope they like the smell of lavender :)

As parents we're really grateful that Joseph has had such a lovely environment to go to as he starts his educational life. He's had his off days and down right bad days but over the past five terms he has really grown up and they had nothing but praise for the way he's developed. In particular, they love to hear him sing, he sings with gusto and is heard above the rest. Mrs R said she hopes he won't lose this enthusiasm for singing as he gets older.

Classic Joseph cheeeeeeeeeese photo :)

Boys n their cars

Final day, we took the boys to Beaulieu Motor Museum. Boys heaven I would suggest (the older version too). Though boys' heaven doesn't necessarily bring out heavenly behaviour. 

Having peeled Ben off the toy car-filled gift shop floor which was right by the entrance, we entered the main museum. Three cars into the exhibition was Ben's one true car love 'HERBIE!'. He literally couldn't contain his delight, he bounced up and down, tried to climb up onto the ledge to get closer. We then spent remaining time in the museum trying to stop him from running back to 'HERBIE'   

Joseph and Nathan enjoyed the Bond exhibition (50 vehicles celebrating 50 years of film)

Ben told me that this was my car..

this was his...

this was Daddy's...

and this was Joseph's (Joseph was not happy about this. He wanted one with guns on it)

Second in Ben's affections was the Delorean. This was the car Nathan recalled seeing when he came as a boy.

On leaving the main building we had to walk past ....HERBIE. The boy did not wan to leave HERBIE let's just put it that way!

At the park the boys got to have a hands on experience.  Unfortunately Ben was too small to have a go on one that moved (more peeling off floor required)

The two inches of height Joseph has over Ben meant that he was just about able to operate the push car around the track. There was a funny moment when he refused to move any further as he deemed the non-working miniature traffic lights to be on red. When assured they weren't working he proceeded with caution round  to the finish line then cheered 'I WON!' 

A ride on the monorail...

and finally a decent photo of Nathan and I and it was time to go home.

I feel really blessed to have been able to go away, take sometime away, enjoy new and beautiful surrondings and be with my favourite people. 

Same again next year please - with a space for one more but we're going to need a roof box.

Shell Bay

With typical July 2012 weather restored on Thursday, it was back to putting on British resilience and heading out determined for fun and adventure inspite of it.

Destination - Studland Bay (specifically Shell Bay).

Perfect for - the eating of sand...

paddling ( the sea was surprising warm-ish?)...

enjoying views of a nearly deserted sandy beach (I love how Joseph hoists up his shorts to avoid getting them wet, by this point he had fallen into the sea at least a couple of times!)...

more paddling (I love how Ben is totally not bothered about getting his shorts wet!)...

time for quiet reflection...

... declarations of love written in the sand :)...

views of Old Harry's Rocks...

... and 'carries' from Daddy when little legs were tired.

Durdle Door Delight

Tuesday was a day for swimming, lego buying, lego building and more swimming for Nathan at Splash down, 2 hours of uninterrupted slide riding bliss.

Wednesday the sun made a come back and after I had a hour or so for uninterrupted browsing and a little buying around Wareham,  we went to enjoy some of the delights of the Purbeck region and it totally delivered.

Durdle Door - a natural delight. 

On the other side of the cliff was the Man o'war beach which as it offered more shelter from the strong breeze was where we had our picnic and a couple of hours...

                                               
                                                           rock throwing (of course)..

 and relaxing :)

A great day rounded off with a scone, jam and clotted cream :)

More holiday highlights and a ' why I blog' moment

'Mud glorious mud' enjoyed on our Gruffalo trail in Moors Valley Park.

Nathan has nicknamed this pose made by Ben so often - 'Ben's default position.' ( I love it and have to ask myself at what age must I try and encourage him to stop sucking his thumb.. not 3 surely?)

Helping(?) Dad make a house for the mouse from the Gruffalo.


 I'm not entirely sure how much of my breathe was spent asking Joseph not to use sticks as guns over the holiday but it certainly was wasted! 


I won't shoot people Mummy just Clinkers, they're droids Mummy'

We were really impressed by how well Joseph remembered parts of the Gruffalo which helped us complete the trail.

On Monday we moved location from Shorefields Park nr Milford on Sea to Sanford Holiday Park nr Poole. As check in wasn't until 4, we went to explore part of the Purbeck coast. Lulworth Cove is somewhere I've wanted to go as soon as we booked the holiday back in January. It makes a perfect shell shape. It was lovely, a shingle and rocky beach, down a steep path with a stream running down and surrounded by hills. 


 I love the smells of the beach, salt, sea, seaweed. This one reminded me a little of Flamborough Head (will have to take a trip there soon)

More opportunity for rock throwing.

It's still fun no matter what age you are!

 There were great views of the cove and beyond from the top of the surronding hills.

Why I blog moment came as we were enjoying ice cream. Note in the photo below that the man behind Ben has Mango sorbet on his trousers. Joseph in his helpful, forward nature also noticed the dripping mango sorbet and events went as follows;

Joseph: 'Oh your ice cream is dripping on you trousers!'

Before innocent man has chance to get a tissue Joseph is helpfully (?) wiping (rubbing in) the mango sorbet off the man's trousers with his hand. Man's wife comes out of shop to retrieve Mango sorbet Man has been holding for her and brushes past Joseph, only to get some of his 'Twister' ice cream on her trousers.

Joseph : ' oh you, got my ice cream on your trousers' 

Before innocent women can get a tissue, Joseph begins wiping (rubbing in) the ice cream off the seat of her pants with his hand. 

Nathan and I trying desperately to swallow laughter. At this point I'm in desperate need of toilet.

And just because we've not had a 'look how messy Ben can be' photo for a while here's one of him after a piece of liquorice!