My Life's Ingredients

Because we’re around the girls 24/7, we don’t really realise that they actually grow much, and when we measure them on the height chart, we still think they’re not in the right “height range” (they can still wear 18-24 mths clothing). However, when it comes to visiting places and them doing things they weren’t able the last time we were there, that’s when I realise that they’re actually “growing up”. Today we went to see my friend Cat (another twin mum) to borrow her Mei Tai’s as I decided that we won’t be able to take carrier backpacks with us to Germany (too bulky, and the one we borrowed from another twin mum has been sold on). Cat had her 3.5 year old twins in the Mei Tai’s while in Paris, so I thought that should be still ok for the Hobbits in December – but wanted to try them while we’re on a family break in the Borders. The next stop was Almond Valley Heritage Farm . I’ve got an annual membership (Hobbits still go free), but haven’t been in quite a while due to the weather an...

You know the feeling, you planned everything for a nice craft day, just have to go for a quick shop with a pal to Costco who kindly takes you inside as you don’t have a card. You grumpily give up on one item you really, really want for one or the other reason (in my case the Authentic Asia Won Ton Soup – we don’t have enough space for 5 tubs of it, and it only comes in 6 tub size). Then you try to get something crafty without going overboard price-wise, you don’t see the right colours/yarn weight so you don’t buy it and proudly (that you haven’t spent more money) drive straight home, despite ideas of quickly popping to Subway or somewhere else for a takeout lunch. You put away the shopping, shuffle stuff a bit around, and then *BAM* …. You realise that there is lots of out of date stuff, so you remove that from the cupboards, move for similar items on to the pantry and in between you prepare food to go into the slow cooker for dinner. You realise you don’t have one ingredient, so you ...

Or at least I think that’s the most difficult item on my list, after a lot of investigating. In Scotland there are TONS of wind generators like those below. Lots of people are against them, they are demonstrating against them, but I actually find them calming, when there are not too many really. And they are more pleasing to the eye (mine at least) than the above ground gas pipes I’ve seen in East Germany when I was a kid (similar to the kind still out there in the USA). Anyway, despite lots of them around, I really wanted to get a photo of a proper windmill for the Photo Scavenger Hunt 2013. Those are surprisingly hard to find in Scotland, all of them seem to be transformed into Camera Obscuras or similar, like this one in Drumfries. And I missed the one at Wimbledon Common as suggested by my friend Sharon while we were down in London end of July. That one actually looks beautiful! Now… what is a woman to do who’s on a mission? She contacts her fellow geocachers, who are pr...

Just trying to see what I’ve done so far in 1 post instead of hunting around … couple of photos will change for the final round-up!   1. Open air market (Not a full market, but a stall selling bread and cakes at Kew Garden Station) 2. Theatre for performing arts (not a movie theatre) (Edinburgh Festival Theatre) 3. City Hall, Capitol or other similar civic building 4. Airplane (Our plane to get to London) 5. A sunset (the best I could come up with so far) 6. Someone or something taking a nap (My girls) 7. A sign that is intentionally or unintentionally funny (Maple Walnut ice cream apparently may contain other nuts?!?!) 8. A tower (Water Tower & Chimney at Kew Garden) (Watchtower at St. Cuthbert’s graveyard defending against grave robbing) 9. A photo with someone or something that is clearly out of place or doesn't belong (A traffic cone on top of a statue – not that uncommon in Edinburgh) 10. A bench that is outside (wooden bench outside at the courtyard at the inlaws) 11....

…. Now, that was hard to put down. I thought I LOVE crafts. LOVE scrapbooking, card making, quilting, knitting, crochet … and yet in the last year or so I seem to constantly procrastinate instead of actually DO the crafts. Looking for “excuses” for not doing them it seems … housework a good example. My declaration on FB and the blog for today was that it’s CRAFT day. Well… with getting a wash on, cleaning the kitchen floor, hanging up the wash, put on the dishwasher, tidy the living room, go to the Post Office, go to the Library, go to the gym (which had been already scored off the list as not possible due to not enough sleep – interrupted by Hobbits early morning), go for a meal with friends and then watch the Socks. So … what crafty things have I done so far today? I spent 20 mins in the craft room/study/box (in the truest sense of the word) room searching for some embellishments for my latest Chinese Whisper layout. And couldn’t find any (so resorting to stamps this time). I’ve...

Well… when it comes to crafts I don’t have much time for due to the girls demanding my attention during daytimes and me being just flat out tired/cannot be bothered (oh oh!) in the evenings. Effectively I only have Tuesdays to do crafts for long when the girls are at the grandparents for the day and a sleepover.  And that’s usually the day I catch up with housework… Despite all this I’ve decided to sign up to 2 swaps at our local crop group (in addition to the monthly layout Chinese Whisper we’re running at the moment – the only thing I get scrapped at the moment) – a Christmas tag swap (15 tags) and a “Merry Christmas Bunting” swap – each person is doing 14 triangles with a certain letter (mine is “E”) in certain colours (fortunately most are doing the traditional gold/green/red, but we have a couple more modern Christmas colours , too). Can I make it? I just HAVE to. So this Tuesday I just declare a CRAFT DAY – with maybe some washes on and cleaning the kitchen floor, but tha...

Last full day of my Mutti’s visit, and despite the weather being not the best (overcast, very windy) we decided to take the girls to Portobello Beach (my mum LOVES walking along the promenade, having a wee cappuccino at a wee cafe overlooking the sea). When we arrived it was still quite windy, and the sun wasn’t really out much, but after the first couple of moments (taking shoes & socks off, walking the loooong way to the water – tide was out), we actually got some sun! A lot of those little “beasties” about … beached already, or still drifting in the swell.  Way back when I was a child I was told that jellyfish would come to the shore when there’s a storm (that’s the Mediterranean jellyfish at least) – not sure if there’s a different reason for British ones? I also tried to figure out what kind of jellyfish it is, I think it’s a “blue jellyfish”, but if not, maybe someone wants to correct me? After a while the Hobbits got a bit fed up with the water, sand and shells...