Happy Holidays: Part II

The following day saw us meeting up with my sister and her family at Gyllnyvese Beach near Falmouth. 

I've loved this beach since childhood.  It's not a wonderful beach for sand but it's unmatched for rock pooling potential!!  I did my GCSE coursework based on the biodiversity within the differing zones of the reef so am a tad passionate about it.







It was a day where time passes without noticing - when you're in complete 'flow'.  Happy.

That rocky reef was the start of my journey to study conservation management at uni.  It was the kick start of recognising the magnificent wonder of the world God created.  Yes, those rock pools hold much wonder to me!

Each year, I've tried to share this simple joy with my babes - and this year, was the year I was rewarded with excitement, wonder, squeals of delight and much hopping on rocks.  Yep, a joyous moment.  Little B especially enjoyed it proclaiming "I'm a great fisherman I am.  I caught that fast fish!"

 

We found an amazing abundance of marine life - 5 cushion star fish, multiple brittle star fish, a small sea urchin, a large blenny, plenty of crabs and shrimps and a few differing types of fish I didn't know the names of!!

Beyond the rock pools my littlies joined their big cousins in play on the beach.  They wore their hand me down wetsuits and R tried body boarding for the first time.  Simple joys...

My fondest memory from this day though was laying head to head in a funny splayed triangle sieving the fine shingle looking for 'treasures'.  An hour of complete focus.  We found sea glass, shells worn like sharks teeth, tiny shells and a cowlrie.  I smiled as R found it - they're hard to find, quite rare really.  As children we camped a lot with my parents and if we harassed them, they'd send us to the beach to find a 'meal ticket' for that night's tea.  A meal ticket was always a cowlrie, and we'd search for hours til we found one.  Tricks of the parenthood trade ;o)  It's so funny how these little things stay with you.

It' funny that my most memorable moment of the day doesn't need a photograph to prompt it.  We were all fully present and in the moment.  But we still have their treasure.  R & B created a beautiful display with it once we returned to Granny's house.

 

We made the most of this day - beach volleyball, rock pooling, wave jumping, beach sieving and ended with a BBQ.

 

Great Fun.

 

J9 x

Happy Holidays: Part I

My childhood home is nestled in a tiny village at the bottom of a valley in mid Cornwall.  I didn't appreciate it's location as a teenager but now I adore it!  We return and visit my mum relatively frequently for weekend visits (especially since my father passed away) and to catch up with my siblings who all still live in Cornwall with their families.  We'd love to return to Cornwall to live but work opportunities and house prices have meant that this is currently beyond us.  So, we visit and spend as much time with my mother and family in my beloved home county as we can.

 

 

Recently, we stayed with my mother for a different type of visit.  We were welcomed home to HOLIDAY!!!  We were determined to do holiday things - to prioritise us as a family and to enjoy some simple, quality time in nature's beauty.  We planned in a day to help my mum with house hold tasks that she can no longer manage and packed the other days with; beach combing,

wave jumping,

 

 zip wiring

 

and recognising gratefully the wonder of the world around us.

As a family we're easily pleased; a bit of water, no heavy rain and a pain relieved mum is all we need to have fun.  Due to my lack of mobility we always select beaches based on ease of access and those that are relatively unknown - so they're not ridiculously busy in high season.

Our first visit was Carne beach on the Roseland Peninsula.  As we arrived the heavens opened, so in true Brit fashion we picniced in our car.  On cue the rain stopped and we found a lovely spot by the rocks, sheltered from the rather blustery conditions.  The sand is clean but has a greyish hue due to all the kaolin and china clay mining that's gone on in the surrounding area.

Our perseverance was rewarded as the weather continued to improve throughout the afternoon.

We hunted for shells - and found only 23 limpet shells across the entire beach (a pretty awful offering). 








We had been warned about Weaver Fish being around the area so the littlies wore crocs in the water whilst jumping the waves.

 We found amazing patterns in the form of a jellyfish:

 

 

I guess our first beach day was an unexpected bonus, as the weather was predicted to be awful.  It wasn't actually as grey as the pictures suggest... though you can see in the two pictures below the shift in weather during the afternoon!



 

 

I actually prefer the rolling waves on the north coast but given that it's high season, the children aren't really strong swimmers yet and there was a major surf contest on we stuck to the South coast and it was still good for the soul.  The sound of the waves pounding in alone makes my heart happy.

 

 

We had lots of fun and the children got lots more confident in the water - this time they had loaned wetsuits from their cousins so could spend hours splashing around - never ending fun in their eyes - and never ending fun to watch them!!

 

I'll be back soon to tell of our other beachy days!

 

J9 x

Bristol Hot Air Balloon Beauty

I am behind on my blogging due to recent holiday and time away from the internet!!  As part of the reason I do this blog is to use this as a journal for future reference, I'm going to get up to date gradually, but blog in chronological order.  Please bear with me - in a couple of weeks I'll be back to my normal nonsense ;0)

On 6th August (before the  Hot Air Balloon Fiesta commenced in Bristol on the Friday) we were meandering along Bristol Harbourside accompanying my husband in to his Office, when we were treated to a visual display beyond all expectation.

It was a gorgeously still morning, and at 7:30 am Bristol was fairly quiet compared to its normally buzzing environment.  We were walking alongside the river and enjoying a different perpective to our normal rural view.  The children had wanted to see where daddy worked all day.  We agreed, as they have such curiosity in where he goes to and comes home from each working day. 

The skies were clear and crisp.  The air tingled your cheeks due to the slight chill remaining, the air still needing the warmth of the sun once it had risen fully above the skyline.

Then suddenly we turned a corner .....



My eyes were automatically drawn upwards as we saw the hot air balloons floating through the sky.

But the spectacle was made even more beautiful by the serene reflections in the water.

It was truly breathtaking to hear the roar of the burners amidst the otherwise quiet harbourside. To take in the contrast between the yachts, warehouse buildings, river and the sky with all it contained. 

To catch a brief moment in time where Bristol Harbourside life was completely reflected in nature - as if in a mirror.

Adding to this glorious scene was the SS Great Britain .  It was a glorious sight to behold and the littlies were beyond excited.  What a rare treat! 

 

 

 

 

What a beautiful start to the day.  We enjoyed our early morning visit to Bristol.  I'm not sure that this can be matched on the next occasion we visit!!

 

J9 x

Back to my Cornish roots

We're unpacked and rested, having tackled over a week down in my home county!  I really can't believe how the time has flown.  We stayed with my mum in my childhood home and did "holiday" things and visited family and friends.  The weather was mostly on our side and we caught up with my family down at seaside locations...

I love Cornwall and I got my much needed fix of blue seas and rock pools.... beach combing for drift wood, sea glass and unusual shells and generally enjoying time with my little family.

Hubby is off for two whole weeks so we enjoyed a super excited start to our family time down by the beautiful Cornish coast.  Since we've been back I've been in a whirlwind of catching up on some boring jobs at home followed by family visits from the other side of the family so have barely had a minute to draw breath. 

I'm aiming to start blogging about my time away at some point next week and will catch up on all the missed blog updates on all I follow then!!  Thanks for the comments Penny and Trills - I look forward to catching up on your blogs later next week when I don't have to skulk off (like I am now with Ben's parents visiting!!)  ;o)

I have lots of things to share and have made progress on my granny squares so watch this space!!

J9 x

Cath Kidston Style Chair Makeover?!

As a lover of most things vintage and 'those' french looking furniture legs, when I spied these at the charity shop I was helpless to resist.  I could instantly envisage a lovely shabby chic upcycling... I was with a friend at the time who didn't share my enthusiasm but I was not to be deterred!

These are 1940's beauties (it says so underneath the seats!):

I bought the set with a table and a sideboard for a very reasonable price - plus, with the added bonus that funds go to the hospice and the environment benefits in my recycling I can easily convince myself that the purchase was completely and utterly necessary.....

I LoVE painted furniture - I LoVED it before it was classed as vintage cool.  It's just my personal preference.  So despite these being nice walnut and in relatively good condition for their age, I'm not a fan of dark wood so with a couple coats of paint and a cath kidston style seat replacement the following can be revealed in my first blog - ta da!!

I painted each chair in eggshells of varying pastel blues and greens - they're not as differing shades as I might have liked, but I used the paint we had in the shed so can't complain!!  The idea was to create a mis matched tonal upcycle (sorry about the quality of the photo below - I was interrupting some serious hot wheels play and couldn't clear the area properly!!). 

I was inspired to paint them different colours from a previous Cath Kidston photoshoot in a magazine, although the red and yellow would stand out ridiculously in my house so opted for the more muted ice cream shades. Original image found here.



The old chair fabric was removed and I stapled some lovely Cath Kidston oilcloth over the seats and reinserted the newly prettified bases.

The table I painted a cream called "buttermilk" and as I didn't have enough of the same oilcloth I chose another of Cath K's pattern from my stash.  The table does extend but I chose to staple the cloth to the underside as I really wanted to show off the Queen Anne style legs that are the look I soooo love.  I then added a couple applications of clear wax to finish them off.

It's been complete since July and each time I pass it my heart skips a little and I do like to stroke it!! It's my visual dream of how I'd like my whole house to be -  my own spot of Floral Utopia.

So, there we go - my first ta dah!! 

Now I've done this I'll be sharing some more of my creative goings on.  I'm addicted to granny squares now I've mastered them and am loving how portable they are - squares have been made in a number of parks, on a couple of beaches and by the side of a swimming pool so far this week.  Not sure what I'll do with them, but it's fun for now!

Have a good weekend,

J9 x

# Go Team GB

The London 2012 Olympics have completely overtaken TV viewing in our house as I'm sure it has done in many houses across the world.  The hubby is a complete sports fanatic and wanted to create Olympic memories for our kiddies and to inspire them by the achievements of others in a whole raft of competitive sport.

We'd had a number of discussions about how we would go about achieving this, given that like so many, we missed out on tickets to ANY events in the first and second rounds of ticket releases.  He had wanted to take littlies in to London to just enjoy the atmosphere.  I had felt that whilst the idea was nice, the reality would be bustling busy streets with kiddies at handbag height not enjoying an awful lot...  We were at a place of indecision.

Then, fate threw us a wild card.  Through a friend who was no longer able to attend, we acquired some tickets to see the semi-final football match at the Millenium Stadium, Cardiff.  Cardiff is only an hour journey from our home - much closer than a 4 hour trip to London.  Even better, later that week it was revealed that Great Britain had got through to the semi's so would be playing South Korea.  It was meant to be....

R was sooo excited and counted down the sleeps each night.  We arrived at our reserved blue badge space to a fantastically organised system of stewarding.  The volunteers were proactive in speaking to passers by - asking who they were supporting, where we'd travelled from - it was a fantastically friendly atmosphere.

Once we were inside the stadium (in our front row seats!) we all enjoyed the stadium, the kids were fascinated that the "roof" was on, and that they could appear automatically on the big screen, then directly onto the TV.   Then we enjoyed the football - flag waving, mexican waving and shouting galore!

It was FANTASTIC.  I was proud to be British.  Proud to be part of the crowd, completely family friendly; no violence, no swearing - just enjoyable memories in the making.  We could learn a lot from these matches.  It begs the question why this atmosphere can't be normal at pro football events rather than hostile or aggressive?

We left after full time as the children were shattered at a 1:1 score...  The match went on to extra time and GB lost on penalties. So we didn't miss a winning end - and we beat the mass traffic home.  The journey is just over an hour from our home and all but Ben (who was driving) were soundly asleep within minutes.  We've enjoyed many moments over the days on the TV but my favourite by far were in real life.

We saw the Olympic Flame in St. Stephens when it arrived in Cornwall, whilst staying with my mum way back in May.  Then joined in the spirit by cheering Great Britain on at the Semi's in August.

Happy Olympic times.  Well done Team GB and all that have collaborated to put on such an amazing spectacle.  Well done - and thank you!

J9 x

Sunday Stars

I'm not really a superstitious character, but hubby passed me the mag section of a paper today and as I flicked through the pages I stumbled across my stars.

It read:

"It's prime time to start projects and believe in your creative talents". 

With regards to love it said:

"Once you were neighbours, now it gets very romantic".

Well, my now husband and I lived in adjacent semi detached houses at University.  Needless to say our romance led to marriage, kids, happiness... due to celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary later this month.

The former quote I'm choosing to take as a kick up the behind - a much needed push to be a bit more open with my friends and family about this blog and my creative exploits.  It's funny, my family tell me to believe in myself often and I dismiss it shyly.  Yet Mystic Meg writing it in this weeks stars struck a real chord with me!

How is it that some people exude such confidence and self belief, yet others need much reinforcement and support before gaining even a degree of that self esteem?  My confidence took a huge knock from the results of my accident anyway. Now five years on I'm rebuilding my inner self as well as accepting the changes to my physical self.  I've accepted the wheelchair and crutches as tools to help me live life and that's what I choose to do.  I need to live this life...

Well I'm taking a metaphorical pat on the back from dear Meg and looking onwards and upwards....

I'll take courage and follow my path.  My first ta dah will come this week.  I've declared it and therefore, it will happen.

J9 x