Thank you!

While we are still having bad spots with Levi's eyes, God's faithfulness has been amazing and our precious little boy's eyes are doing so much better! To see how bad they were before just click on the "squint" tab below. Im not bright enough to know how to link it in yet - feel free to educate me though ...

85% of the day his eyes are now perfect! When they arent, we simply tell them that Jesus didnt create you like that, eye, so submit to Him and be straight!! Well, its all going well so far. Since we took him for prayer the other night, there has been a wonderful improvement.

Yesterday we played outside in our garden, we have had our first real day of summer weather!

We watched the clouds and spotted planes in the sky!

We were reminded again what a blessing our perfect sight is.

I cant tell you how much happier my little boy is. His head banging has nearly stopped completely. He is now tantruming like a normal nearly two year old, and Im rejoicing!

He has his cheeky little sense of humour back again - as you can see here, imitating daddies laugh..

I have my baby back, so thank you and God bless you as He has us, for your faith filled prayers that have obviously not returned fruitless!

The French Wardrobe Saga

The summary - I bought a french wardrobe (with a matching dressing table, stool and bed-side table) off of ebay recently for the spare room. Mike turned the key the wrong way in the lock and locked us out of our new wardrobe, which had been delivered not even 15mins earlier!

All this ... for a wardrobe...

Here it is, with its top off...

We tried in vain to pick that lock... NOTHING. There was so way in but to take off the back board and with our house (still) upside down , we couldn't find a flat screw driver - anywhere! SO butter knives it was...!

We unscrewed the back off, fixed the lock and then realised there was so way to carry the thing upstairs.

It just had flat sides and flat doors and nowhere at all to grip. SO we decided to unscrew the doors off too, then the top moulding, and the foot moulding.

There where a LOT of screws.

YES those are piano hinges... 40 screws a side... at least...

YES... Im using a butter knife...

While Mike was very gracious about the whole thing, I was definitely more excited, dont you think?

Left with just a shell (after two hours of hacking away at the wardrobe armed with our butter knives) we decided it was time to get that baby upstairs. After wiggling, bending, grunting and removing paster from both the wall and ceiling, we realised there was no way but unscrew the last bit.

Before the footed base came off...

After removing the final screw (now nearly two and a half hours after Mike "broke" the lock) we realised that the finaly four joins were, indeed, glued. Not soft sticky peely glue. NO no - glued together like the very life of its contents depended upon it surviving a hurricane. Really really glued. And it wasnt going to fit. At this point Mike was not loving this wardrobe anymore...

Its currently sitting in my windowless dining/storeroom. FAIL. I cant do upstairs without it...

SO given it will fit the space upstairs SO well, im getting a friend who is a carpenter to REBUILD the cube frame thingy (gosh im so technical!) from pine that we can dismantle to move when necessary- we get to put shelves in YAY! - then we are going to put the footed base onto it, the moulded top and the doors on and then finally we will paint it - and then, maybe, the saga can wind to and end.

Remember the matching dressing table - well, that obviously wont match anymore, so it will need painting too. And the side table *SIGH*. Oh yeah, the stool too... SO much drama, over a wardrobe. SIGH.

SO there is progress. Just not the kinda progress we were hoping for by this point.

T minus 6 weeks until the rooms occupant arrives. Watch this space!

Baker Baker

Im baking cake for 100 people for tomorrow - somehow, at some point, tonight maybe? Im thinking 4 different cakes for 25 people each is probably the way to go. So how do you all feel about one Red Velvet, one Chocolate, one Victoria Sponge and one Orange. I could swap one out for a carrot cake, maybe, but the Chocolate and Red are the b-day boys favourites so they cant go. The Orange Cake is the most divine thing on earth (and may rate pretty highly in heaven too) so its the Vici sponge that might get the cut.

Any advice? Maybe I should just make 5....?

All recipes will hopefully be blogged over the days to come - as with this much baking going on there might not be much progress on the house and home side. At least you all know why!

x

The house part...

Life has, once again, slowly slip slided into utter chaos. We have had all our major furniture deliveries, and my gorgeous french wardrobe is literally ONE INCH too big to get up the stairs! It has made its new (temporary?) home in the diningroom (which is feeling like a one day, next year project...) and as a result Im still seriously lacking in storage for the spare room.

I have approximately 4 garbage bags FULL of baby clothes and sweet things that I am not longer willing to hold onto (unless someone is harbouring a lion/witch wardrobe in their garage and wants to pass it on to me so that I can start using Narnia as a storage space?) an additional 4 bags full of linen and much chaos in between...I mean, seriously, the pile is PERSON hight.... BUT the new drawers are here - so at some point (hopefully soon) we can pack into them and clean some space! I would show you pics of it now but its SO bad that I can only show you the before shots once I have the afters! Its not that I fear you will judge me, because even with your best intentions, let me tell you , you will - it just that I am the queen of chaos. I see hope and potential where other people only see rubbish, and there is a little way to go before Im ready to show you all what I have been quite literally just closing the door on.

The nursery is coming along splendidly - when I have a minute to pick up Levi's strewn wardrobe (he now insists on wading through his cupboard and looking at everything before we are allowed to dress him) I will take some progress pics, and update you with the new plans.

Life has take over once again so progress on the "house part" is a little slow. But it WILL come - I promise!

Lining up some future recipe blogs - any requests?

Love and Blessings - with a yawn!

And then he looked me straight in the eye...

We are people of Faith - at least we try to be. We do our best to take God's word at face value. To settle it as truth in our hearts. To believe for things most people in the world would want us committed for. I wish I had greater faith than I do some days. I wish that my faith was more consistent across the different areas of my life. I wish that I could trust God with a childlike faith, with no shadow of doubt that He WILL heal, not just that He can.

Last weekend we had special friends round for a cup of coffee. Levi woke up just a minute before they were about to leave and they offered to pray for him. For those of you who dont know about his eye issues, see the "squint" label - not sure how to link it in yet... We laid hands on him and prayed for his eyes to return to the way they where created, in the image of Christ. While is eyes were not perfectly straight, there was a remarkable improvement.

In the week that has past he has had good days and worse days with his squint. It has, at times, been better than it has been for the past six weeks. At other times it has been obviously worse. His head rubbing is less pronounced and his tantrums arent kicking off with heartbreaking head banging nearly as much - even though he has been running a fever for days and not sleeping well (molars coming through, I think) so in his current state I would expect him to be excessively miserable and at his worst. We believe that God has started a work in his little eyes and body and we are trusting for a completion of it! How wonderful it will be if we dont have to use the referral to the eye hospital!

Yesterday he had been running a fever since lunch time that paracetamol would not bring down, so I did the unthinkable (feel free to gasp and shake your head at me...) I let him out into the rain and 12deg C weather in his wellie boots and brollie to cool him down. I have no idea where he found his dummy (he should only have them at naps, and even then only while he is teething) but off he went, dummy in, brollie up for a wonder. He was out there for about half an hour and at some point while cooking lunch I decided I could not miss the opportunity to capture it, so I snuck out with my camera. PS - the cold did bring his fever right back down, and I think it was kinder than a cold bath!

PS **White linen trousers and rain soaked lawn are not a great combo... woops! Anyway - I took a bunch of pics and got them onto my computer this morning, to find all of the pics of him looking straight at the camera!! He has not done this in months now! We are going to a meeting with a man gifted in healings tomorrow night - please pray that his little body is filled with the Holy Spirit and that his eyes are healed!

Appreciate you prayers and emails!

Love and Blessings

Vanilla Cupcakes, in no way plain...

I recently read someone's personal blurb on their blog, that described them as "the kinda gal who thinks vanilla is a waste of ice cream". While I tend to agree that "vanilla" in the commercial sense of the word is sapped of all its heavenly goodness, I think it's such a shame that the flavour has unjustly been shelved as plain, boring and a last resort. Vanilla, in its true form, will satisfy an apatite for something rich, sweet and indulgent - would I dare say "even more than chocolate"? WOOPS - it just slipped out!

I made these (from the first click of my mixer motor to the last dollop of icing) in 30 mins, that includes the cleaning up (into the dishwasher anyway...) and while I admit that getting them done in such a wee wink has taken some practice, 45mins should see you well and truly done and dusted. I was in a bit of a hurry as I had friends for tea and, as such, neglected to take pics of the whole process. I did however manage to snag a few of the finished result.

Start with the frosting, as it takes a bit of time to cool in between mixing. It sounds a little crazy but its so worth making.

Preheat the oven to 180C, pop 12 cup cake cases into a muffin pan.

Whisk 2tbs flour and 1/2 cup milk in a small pot. Stir with the whisk over a medium heat until it forms a THICK paste. Spatula out into a glass bowl and cool in the fridge or freezer. You cant use it until its cooler than room temperature, so the fridge is a good bet (freezer if you have cupcake in the over already when you remember you haven't started the icing - me, do that? Never!). Get started on the cup cakes while it cools.

Cream together 70g of butter and 1/4C castor sugar until they are light and fluffy. Add 1 egg and 1 egg yolk and beat until combined. Then add 1C flour, 1tbls cornflour , 1 tsp of baking powder, 1/2C milk and 1tsp of vanilla essence. Beat on a slow speed until combined. Divide between 12 fairy cases or 9 muffin cases (fill to just under half of each paper case - do not over fill or you wont be able to soak them easily) and bake for 12-15 minutes until golden and the tops spring back when touched.

While they are baking, bring 1/2C sugar and 1/2C water to the boil to form a sugar syrup, to soak your cakes with. Remove from the heat and stir in 5ml vanilla essence. This is optional, but I really feel its worth the extra effort. When your cupcakes come out of the oven, spoon your sugar syrup over the sponges, and set them aside on a rack to cool.

While your cupcakes are cooling cream 75g butter and 75g of CASTOR sugar in your mixer until its VERY soft and light. Yes, castor sugar in icing... Add 5mls of vanilla bean paste, or vanilla essence if you cant get hold of the paste to the creamed butter and sugar and beat again. Now add your cooled flour paste (which should be below room temperature, but not frozen!) and beat on high for 45seconds to a minute until it resembles whipped cream. Spread generously over your cooled cupcakes.

For a little something extra sprinkle them with some vanilla sugar - although these humble little pies are perfect, just as they are. No extravagant decor required (unless of course you want to...) I'd be surprised if they hung enough long enough for you to get that far!

Goodluck!

Please note that this is a halved recipe, perfect for just having a couple of friends to tea. If you have any trouble with any part of it, drop me a mail and I will check it again! I will make these again soon and be sure to take pictures of all the steps this time. Also, if you would like the FULL recipe for 2 dozen cupcakes, please leave a comment below and I will either post it up or email it to you!

The Sweetest Thing

I could go into immeasurable detail about the very long story behind this beautiful gift from one of my very best friends. A story that made both her and I laugh until we nearly wet ourselves. In fact, Im tempted. But I'll resist. Somethings are just best kept sweetest by not diluting them in relating the event.

Either way, the product of our little journey arrived beautifully boxed, and has offered me boundless joy - ever compacted by the very nearly unrelated story behind them. Every time I see them I not only remember what a blessing my sweet friend is, but I remember watching her laughing so hard on skype when I told her what had happened, even though she had no working microphone on her computer.

What a joy they have been to me. Arent they exquisite?

Koeksisters

I have been wanting to make these beauties for years, but their reputation of being tricky to get just right has put me off - I'm not one to take on a challenge I don't feel confident I can overcome. I didnt just want them to nice, they needed to be perfect. I like them crispy on the outside and completely soaked on the inside.. they must not be doughy! So with all of this in mind, I called my mum for the recipe I have been reading over and tempted by it since I was in junior school. Yes - my obsession goes back that far.

Gifts and Goodies for Fetes and Fairs - published in 1989, probably the same year my mum bought it. I have made lots of the crafts from it over the years, the mustard sauce recipe is great (I intend on making it for our christmas hampers this year) and I have always read and reread the koeksister page. I have never acted on it. Until now...

This weekend while on skype to Mum and my sister in the US, I begged Mum to give me the recipe. She references this particular book for me so regularly that Im now on the hunt for a copy of my own, just to give her a break! I dont know that she has actually even made anything from the book herself to be honest. Anyway.

After making these, I can confidently say that if you take the time necessary (an afternoon would be good) and if you can rope in a second pair of hands (Mike to the rescue), with the right tools and adequate time and preparation you should have no trouble getting great results.

This recipe makes 50 medium koeksisters, or 70-100 mini koeksisters. I have adapted it quite a bit from the original as we dont need 400... and their syrup recipe was a little too thin.

Helpful equipment: Large pot for syrup, can be washed and used for frying later. 2 medium bowls for syrup mix, pref not plastic as syrup will be really hot at first. A slotted spoon for fishing out pastries. A pair of tongs to turn pastries and moving them while hot as coals. A sugar thermometer to check your oil temp (helpful, not essential). Paper towel, a cooking rack, greaseproof paper and a sink of hot soapy water to wash your hands in - if you lick your fingers you will feel so SO sick. Just take my advice on that one.

THE SYRUP

Ideally made the day before ... but life's not always ideal, is it?

Place 1.5kg of white sugar into the biggest pot you have. At this point, I realised I dont have any very big pots - must rectify this asap.

Add 1L of water, and 250ml of golden syrup. Yes, that much. And this is just the start...

Add 1tbsp of ginger powder, if you dont find it abhorrent. And by that I mean, put it in unless you absolutely can not stand it. It really comes through so subtley you wont even know its there, but it does make a difference! Also add 12ml of cream of tartar.

At this junction let me draw your attention aside to my spice draw...

I keep coming to find my spices have opened themselves and are having a party in the draw together. I was perplexed as to how this was happening until yesterday, when I watched Levi open the draw, stick his little hand up and over like and ellie trunk and grab a bottle. He took it out, loosened the lid, and put it back. Enough said.

Stir the mix over a medium heat until it starts to bubble. When it starts to bubble, stop stirring and leave it to boil for ten to fifteen minutes. Keep and eye on it, as if it gets too hot it bubbles over. You dont want to be cleaning that. Ask Mike.

When its done, divide the syrup evenly between two bowls. Cool to room temperature and then rest in the fridge until ice cold - preferably overnight. I didnt do this, I dont have the patience to bake over days... So I popped mine in the freezer to speed things up!

THE DOUGH

Mix 500ml of water with 50mls of condensed milk to make a sweet milk mix, then take a rest and eat the remaining 200mls with a spoon, or your finger if you insist! Rub 75g of butter into 750g of flour, sieved with 25ml of baking powder plus 7ml of salt and then stir in only 400ml of the milk mix to make a dough. If it is too dry, add a little more milk mix. Rather add in milk mix little by little that have to add flour to pull a sticky dough together as this could mess with the quantities of the other ingredients.

Once it looks like this, knead it for a few minutes and then leave in a bowl, covered with a clean, damp cloth for and hour or two. Here again I cheated, only left it for 40 mins max! Woops..

Roll it out on a well floured surface to 5mm think and cut into 10x1cm strips. For easier cooking and soaking later, cut them to 7x .75cm strips for mini koeksisters. They nearly double in size when you deep fry them.

Now comes the folding part. Did you ever make those woven paper chains as a kid at christmas time? Well, this is supposedly called plaiting, but given ive decided that there arent going to be three pieces of dough per koeksister (who want to put in that much work, really?) I cant call it that, so I will call it folding. My recipe, my choice.

Move your strip of dough onto a well floured surface.

Rather than starting with two pieces and sticking them together at a 90deg angle, I start with one, and fold in the angle, as above. If there is a quicker way of doing something, trust the mum of two under twos to figure it out...

Fold your bottom piece over the corner to the right.

Fold the top piece over the bottom piece.

Right strip back over to the left.

Bottom strip back over the top. I guess you get the idea now. Carry on folding until you run out of dough.

Pinch the loose ends together.

Carry on folding strips until you have used up as much of the dough as you can be bothered to.

THE DEEP FRY

I never expected that I would ever, ever deep fat fry ANYTHING in my life. Alas, I lay this expectation aside and heated up 1L of oil to between 180-190 deg C in a medium saucepan. I used a sugar thermometer to keep track of the oil temperature. It was invaluable. That said, im not pro with deep fat frying. SO, apparently you have reached the right oil temperature when a blob of dough rises to the top in 10 seconds when dropped into the hot oil. If its too hot, the outsides burn before the insides cook, if its too cool they just take forever. Use the dough you haven't been bothered to fold rolled into little sausages to test. Start at a lower heat and work your way up until they go golden in about 3-4 mins. Turn them over half way through to be golden on both sides.

I used a cast iron pot to keep an even temperature. Or maybe because the oil got too hot in the other pot and i needed to cool it down by transferring it. You will never know....

(imagine a picture of koeksisters in syrup here... I forgot to take one. Once you have made these and experienced the "rush" of the syruping process, you'll know why. Woops)

Remove them with tongs once they are browned and drain for a second on some kitchen towel. By a second I mean, a second (hence no pic of this step). Then pick them up (once again with tongs, bearing in mind they have just come out of 190 deg oil!) and drop them into your ice cold syrup. Keep them submerged in the syrup for two minutes before lifting out onto a cooling rack (with wax paper under it to catch the draining syrup). Keep your bowl of syrup in a bowl of ice to keep it cold, and keep the second one in the freezer. Alternate between bowls of syrup regularly to ensure your syrup stays nice and cold.

Its helpful to have one pair of hands for the frying, and one for the dipping and draining or it might get a bit overwhelming. You need to work quickly to get the koeksisters into the syrup and keep them there for their minutes. The hot pastry contracts when dipped into the ice cold syrup, creating a vacuum as its cooled that sucks in the syrup. This is why its SO important to have hot pastries, and cold syrup!

Leave them to cool completely before transferring to an airtight container in the fridge. From what I understand these guys have a significant shelf life if stored at a low temperature (a month or so?) but if you intend on holding on the the for that long, they are suitable for home freezing.

They are delicious. A delight to make - a real get stuck in project - and even better to eat.

The Hardest Day

As a mother I obviously want nothing more than the very best for my babies. I would give up my life if it meant theirs would be spared. I would do absolutely anything to protect them. So when my big baby developed a problem with his eye and started squinting and zoning in and out, just over a month ago, we rushed him off to be checked. After CT scans, Oncologists and a number of hospital visits we established that the cause was, as they put it, not sinister. RELIEF. We were referred to the Opthalmologist and given an appointment an agonising six weeks later. That appointment date finally arrived last friday.

The worst his eyes got at the start, week 1

I was very nervous about this appointment - we had waited so long for it - and as his eye just seemed to be getting worse every day I was just so relieved and excited that finally they could do something to help him. Glasses, a patch, therapy, something. Anything. He hadnt given me a straight look in weeks, he just didnt look like himself. I could finally expect a resolve.

After seeing one doctor who checked his vision in both eyes and did some other tests, she excitedly informed me that his 3D vision was still very much intact and that it was so good that we had picked up on this early. It meant that in all likelihood with appropriate treatment it would be completely reversable. The risk with a squint is that the brain can start blocking messages from the offending eye, which in turn and lead to a loss of 3D vision, which is what helps us as humans to perceive depth in our surroundings and eventually, possibly even a total loss of sight. Picking it up so fast was good news for him. In went some drops to dialate his pupils for the consultant to check his eyes in half an hours time, and out we went for a half hour walk to allow for them to take effect.

Once back at the waiting room we waited an agonising 75mins, watching other children running in and out of his office for their regular check ups. They each took around 10-15 minutes. We waiting for what seemed and age, then eventually they called his name.

After looking at him for no more than two minutes right up in his face (his squint is very bad and most evident when he is given space, and looks at you across a room) the doctor annouces that as there is nothing wrong with his vision and therefore he will not need any immediate treatment. We should come back in four months time to see how he is progessing. I was speechless. I asked the only thing I could think of, could his head banging that has started of late along with mammoth tantrums and being very clumsy with his body be caused by headaches or be related to his eye problem? The only answer I got was "He's a boy!"...

The best his eyes get these days, week 6

A mixture of shock, sorrow and rage left me speechless to the point that I stood up and just did as he said as he asked me to "take this paper to the desk and make your appointment". I cried the whole way to the car. My poor baby was going to see in his second birthday unable to see properly. People are going to carry on asking me questions about it, telling me how much worse it was getting, like somehow I dont already know. Stragers will countinue to make pitying remarks in the street - yes, even in England! And there is nothing I can do to fix him, nothing I can do to help him. And, it would seem, there is nothing the NHS is willing to do to fix him either.

We are going to get a referal to see a private specialist this week. Im praying that he will have SOMETHING to tell us, other than to just leave him - especially after the risks of leaving this kind of condition untreated have been so clearly expressed to us.

MikeDreamy did call the rubbish doctor we saw on friday, later that afternoon after I discussed with him the results of our long awaited appointment. The doc said he'd taken some measurements (when, I have NO idea!?) and he would review them in FOUR MONTHS time. Not weeks. Months. As his vision is not the cause of the squint and they dont know what is, instead of trying to find out, we are supposed to wait.

So please, if you think of us in the coming weeks, a small prayer to The Father would not go amiss. Im exhausted from worry and not being able to fix my baby . Yet another reminder that he is not my own, but rather a son of God. We are trusting that through miracle or medicine his eyes will be healed and we appreciate any prayers you are willing to offer up.

Love and Blessings

Another First

When trying to get your babies to sleep in a new place, it always helps if they are tired when you put them down. Really tired. So, with this in mind and my plans to put them both down for their afternoon nap at the same time in the nursery together for the first time ever, I decided that this morning was a morning for a trip to the animal farm!

After much running around, petting some fury friends and playing in the playground we returned home for some lunch - and then to bed they went.

Clean bums, in their little beds. Asher, sleeping in the big cot for the first time. Levi sleeping with someone else in the room for the first time since he did the big move to his big boy cot. I expected at least a little bit of a delay in them falling asleep. For Levi to notice and care that he had company, or for Ash to realise that he was falling asleep in a new place, in a new bed, with his big brother just there. Alas, these milestones in their little lives seem to have passed unnoticed. The things that, as a mother, you plan for and anticipate - like time *tick tock* they just pass on by.

And so, another day - another first for each of my babies as they grow into little boys. Its their first day of sharing a bedroom. My heartstings feel as hard tugged as Im sure they will when they spend their last night sharing a bedroom, before Levi heads off to university or to where ever his life leads him. I can feel the bittersweet joy, even now, of my little boys becoming young men, all too soon.

I wish I could just pause for a second, to take it all in. Their sweaty little foreheads while they sleep, and in chorus sing their little baby snores. Their sweet smelling breaths and pink flushed cheeks. All of it. With every first we have, we come one step closer to every last... and time just goes too quickly.

Delivery day!

Today has been a little like Christmas. Because I seem to have very expensive taste (not on purpose, just so happens if you give me two options I tend to like the more expensive one!) and am accustomed to having to meet my particular requirements on a tight budget (although MikeDreamy is always very generous with me and my "needs") I have become an avid ebayer and bargain hunter.

I hate to pay a penny more than I absolutely have to, for anything. That doesnt mean I want the cheapest crib, or the plainest linen. What it really means is that I want to pay the very best price for the exact thing I want... I have no problem buying used furniture, table linens, mirrors etc. But when I set my heart on the exact thing I want, I will stop at nothing to get a discount. This may have started out of necessity, when I had only my budget to work with and there was simply no room at all to add to it. These days, even if there was is room to say steal from the living room budget to give to the nursery, I still need that bargain!

For this reason I have an hyperactive ebay account. If you have never used ebay, I highly recommend you give it a go - just dont blame ME for the consequences!!! Lets not get me started on ebay though, it deserves a whole post - or a dedicated blog maybe- of its own.

When it came to redoing the nursery (see my very first post on this blog) I decided I wanted really good quality cots that where going to last the boys a number of years, so the cotbed design was a natural choice. I chose a few designs that I liked and then got started on trying to find not one, but TWO of a cot that I liked at a rocking price. I managed, after a bit of haggling and praying, to secure two cot beds and one luxury cot bed mattress (I already have one for the other cot) all brand new for less that the full RRP of one of the cots. That includes the delivery charge! It does, however, mean that the two cots are each being delivered from different suppliers (they each only had one available on discount) on two different days, one of which happened to be today. I have also bought two sets of cot linen (bumpers and quilts) from a discontinued Cath Kidston range (well the range isn't discontinued, but for some reason the nursery linens are?) which are also coming from two different places, one of which arrived today. YAY!

The moral of the story for today is that you should never feel you cant have something you like, because you feel its out of your reach financially. Chances are there is something very similar (or if you are lucky the exact thing you want!) available to achieve the look you have fallen for, at a much better price than the store catalogue leads you to believe. Maybe what you find is preloved or needs a lick of paint to bring it back to life, and it means you spend a day or two in to sign for the packages (its not a babiesrus service after all!) but if you are wise about choosing key pieces for your rooms you can fill in the blanks with bargains and compromises and get the look you are after. Most times it even works out better than the whole store package - your room can be unique, have its own character and the best part is you have fun along the way!

Check out www.ebay.com and www.ikea.com or your local charity store for some great bargains!

Love and blessings.

My last diningroom

My new diningroom is going to be the biggest challenge of the house. It (very sadly) has no window. It was our compromise room when we found this house - and a big compromise compared to my last which had massive french doors out onto the patio and was just an arch away from the kitchen, and a door a away from storage heaven (my utility room - another sacrifice, in this house I have lost it completely - although I have gained a small playroom which is arguably invaluable). This picture was take at christmas just passed, and while is was not the normal layout of the room, it makes me happy to see my favourite things (including my decorations) on display. This was taken on my iPhone so the quality isnt great but you get the idea.

So if anyone on here has ideas for decorating a room with no window, please follow and leave lots of comments when we get there!

For those of you wondering what all the photo issues are, we are converting the house from Windows to Apple and Im not fully clued up on it yet! Just need to find all my pics and get them onto the new computer!

Hopefully these teething issues will soon pass and it will be plain sailing from here on out!

Please bear with me

OK, so.. I have FINALLY figured out (or been shown by my man) how to upload pics. So now I just have to find the ones I need and I will upload them soon - maybe this evening even!

LOVE

Dan

What have I done!

Im in love with Cath Kidston's Cowboy pattern. I cant stop thinking about it. I have fallen in love with the baby bag. The changing mat. All of it. And after restraining myself all day I took a lil peek at her website only to discover that she does WALL STICKERS TO!!!!

Just thought i'd vent.