Wednesday, April 2, 2014

We're On The Move

Blogger & I have parted.

Its been a 4 year love affair over 2 blogs.

But the time has come to go self hosted.

I have exported this blog's contents to my new host.

Thanks to everyone who has supported my Blogger journey.


We can now be found at:




Hope you can come and visit us x







Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Is This A Sign Of Things To Come?

Last week I traded tweets with The 40 Year Old about children and make up.  Bella had written a blog post after her Daughter had asked her about make up and why she wears it.  I personally don't wear make up every day and can quite easily leave the house with out it.  I have sensitive skin and I have spent hundreds, if not thousands on make up and have yet to find a range I can wear every day without wanting to scratch my face off.  I don't leave to come out with blemishes as a result, the make up dries my skin and makes me itch.

Naturally the Girl want to try make up.  I am forever going in her room and retrieving my make up which I have apparently given her.  Strange thing is I can never remember giving it to her her.  HHHmmmm!  My Mother didn't wear much make up either for the exact same reason and being on the strict side it was an absolute no no for me.  Most things that other teenagers did were no no for me.

Although I am told I am strict with them I am nowhere near as bad as my parents were with me.  The Girl at 10 does have some eye shadow, a blusher and lip gloss that I apply when she is going somewhere special.  It certainly is not worn for school.  

Sometimes she tries to apply it herself....

Let me introduce Coco The Clown to you:



Some how I don't think this will be that last time I say 'wash that muck off your face'. 

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

The Boy's Room Colour Palette

Last year I purchased some yarn to crochet The Girl a blanket for her bedroom.  When we (finally) get a 'proper' house here both The Boy and Girl are wanting a change of colour from the old rooms.  The Girl's was naturally pink with a little lilac thrown in and The Boy was blue.  After much searching online for a colour palette for The Boy we took inspiration from Pigtails lovely crochet blanket. 

Colour combo

I decided to go with the same pattern and yarn as I am using for the girl and narrowed the colours down to these six:

   
                             Off White (17)                                   Light Turquoise (02)                

     
                              Opal Green (11)                                        Petrol (48)

   
 Light Grey (23)                                    Light Ice Blue (29)

Both of us were really happy with these colours but I had also promised a handmade quilt.  Searching over the past few months we have settled on these woodland fabrics:

Enchanted Forest Fabric Bundle

Problem was the colours we have chosen for the crochet blanket are not quite right.  I went back to the colour chart for this range of yarn and dropped the opal green and light blue replacing them with a pistachio green and dark turquoise.

  
   

Enchanted Forest Fabric Bundle  Enchanted Forest Fabric Bundle  Enchanted Forest Fabric Bundle
Enchanted Forest Fabric Bundle  Enchanted Forest Fabric Bundle  Enchanted Forest Fabric Bundle
The fabric can be found here and the yarn here.

All I need to do now is save up some pennies but I'm hoping that I'll have some of the light grey left from The Girl's blanket so am holding off on getting the yarn until I finish her blanket. Oh and it's not like I need any more WIPs!

This post is part of my 50 by 50 year 1 review.
50 goals which I hope to complete during my 40's.

Grown Up Stuff
24) Turn new house in to a home
  • Crafty
  • 46)Crochet 10 blankets
  • 50) Make a quilt

Monday, March 17, 2014

The Week That Was

The past few weeks have been a little quite on here.  The last week in February was our half term and we went away for the week back to The Midlands where we had oodles of fun family time.  To be honest I think I over did things and when we came back home my health suffered a little.  I don't know where you have heard of The Spoon Theory but as someone who has a number of chronic illness I can agree that this is very true.  Lets just say I ran out of spoons and have paid the price these past 2 weeks.

The first week I was just tired and slept quite a bit then last week was a bit of a disaster.  At the beginning of the week I was unwell and spent a number of days lying down as that was the best position to be in the least amount of pain (Note - I sad least not pain free).  By Friday I was feeling a little better and need to catch up with 'life'.  By this I mean washing up, cleaning, hoovering, washing, fun stuff, work.  You know...Life! The 'Life' that had been put on hold the past two weeks.

As a quick catch up this is last week as taken from my Instagram feed:



























Shopping deliveries, bedroom ceilings, knitting socks, hospital visits, hot chocolates needed to recover from the needles and scalpels before I can face going home, the pick me up steak meal, beach fun, 3 lots of happy mail and my new yarn getting in knots courtesy of a cat.  So that was my week!  

Looking at these pictures it doesn't really feel like that was my week but how do you photograph illness and discomfort and have an image you want to share?  Do you ever find the images that you share give a different view of your week?

Do you share the really bad, unflattering shots or just keep them for your own viewing?

Do we really share everything online for the whole world to see?  Think this question needs a post all of its own!

Further photos from this week and some explanations can be found on my Instagram Feed.



Linking up with Hannah at Make do and Push for
The week That Was Captured.


Grab button for The Week That Was

Sunday, March 16, 2014

A Long Weekend Of Learning

As I explained here, we are not a family for beach holidays.  We now live by the sea and have a fabulous beach here but when we go away, be it in this country or abroad, we do more of the cultural thing.  I should point out that where live in Wales has numerous cultural and historic adventures to be had.  These are the adventures we had on a long weekend away over the Golden Jubilee Bank Holiday in 2012.

I don't think there are many people who think of music and Liverpool and don't immediately think The Beatles.  Believe it or not The Beatles were on the National Curriculum for Primary School Children and The Boy was completing a term long project about them.  The Boy loved learning about the Beatles and was coming home with facts on a daily basis.  He was so excited when his Grandad told him he had seen them play live in 1963.  This enthusiasm was the reason why I choose Liverpool.

Straight from school on the Friday we hopped on a train and went to Liverpool.  We arrived at our hotel around 6.30 and dropped the cases before going off to explore in the absolute brilliant sunshine.  We were staying at the Albert Dock and this is the view from our hotel room:


Sadly the windows were dirty but in real life the view was much better as unfortunately this photo makes the state of the window look much worse.  Although the windows were not prestine the room itself was lovely.  The warehouse buildings around the dock have been converted in to shops, restuarants and the hotel we were staying in.  The hotel was lovely and they have tried to keep alot of the original features like exposed brick, roof supports and the old iron doors in the corridors.


Right by our hotel was the wheel. 


After much please please please I reluctantly gave in and on we went.   The views over the city were amazing. 











Such a fabulous sunny evening which was sadly not to continue for the rest of our stay.


During the 1980's Albert Dock was considered an eye sore as it was so run down and one option was demolition.  However, instead of being demolished it was converted into shops, restaurants, a hotel and at the time also housed a TV studio from where This Morning was broadcast from.  after a few years, This Morning moved to London and the old studio was turned into a couple of restaurants.  Today Albert Dock is a lively tourist place and the majority of our stay revolved around the Dock.

The view from our room was overlooking the Dock and all its hustle and bustle.  The old buildings gave a lovely backdrop to some photos of The Boy and Girl.












Nestled in the old This Morning Studios is a lovely little diner/restaurant that serves the most amazing milkshakes.  We can a fully recommend the toffee flavour.


Ferry across the Mersery is what we heard playing over the tannoy when we arrived at the ferry terminal!  I don't think you can visit Liverpool and not take a trip on the ferry which is what we did Saturday afternoon.  When I booked our trip on Thursday morning the weather forecast was dry and temperatures of around 18.  One thing the forecast didn't say was high winds which made it feel very cold.  Windy was an understatement!



After a few photos outside we quickly came in for a warm.


As it was half term the ferry company were offering a 2 for 1 deal on the 2 attractions by the other 2 ferry terminals; Spaceport and a German U Boat.  The 50 minute ferry journey cost £17 and an extra £8 got us in to the 2 attractions.  The first port of call was Spaceport at Seacombe, an interactive museum all about space travel and the solar system.  To be honest the kids were not that interested in the space exhibition, however, when we went to the upper floor things were a little different:








There were lots of interactive things to do and the things they loved the most was the sound booth where you speak in to a microphone and your voice was changed to be aliens calling Earth.  They also loved making an alien from Plasticine.



We got back on the ferry for the 10 minute sail to Birkenhead. 



By the ferry terminal was a German U Boat from WWII.  To be honest we were a little disappointed with this and I was glad that it had been a 2 for 1 entrance fee.  If Submarines are your thing this would possible be worth a visit. 



The ferry only runs every hour and as the attraction only took 15 minutes before the kids were asking to go I thought we would walk up in to the square in Birkenhead.  When we came out of the terminal there was a tram sat there.  The Boy wanted to go for a ride on it and for £2.40 we all took a 8 minute ride on the tram to the transport museum. 



Still with some time to spare we popped in a local cafe and had a hot chocolate to warm us up.  At the ferry terminal there was an old red telephone box.  Both of them had never seen one of these and we just had to pose for photos:



We then got back on the ferry to Pier Head terminal.  Sadly it was still grey and very windy.


We started out Beatles experience with visiting The Beatles Story which was next to our hotel.  It was reasonably priced and gave us entry to 2 exhibitions for the day plus the following day.









The second part of The Beatles story was based 5 minutes away by the Mersey Ferry Terminal.  This included an exhibition of photographs and also a 4D film. 



The kids loved the interactive film which we had to see twice.  The first time we were on the front row and The Girl could see the screen perfectly fine as there was nobody in front.  However, she was too short and missed out on the interactive parts of the film.  The second time we went we sat her on a booster seat and this time the sprays of water got her in the face instead of going over her head like they did the first time.  If The Boy and I were getting wet it was only fair she did!

Monday saw the next part of our Beatles adventure when we went on the magical mystery tour.






After visiting Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields, George's and Paul's Home we drove in to Liverpool City Centre to go to the Cavern Club.  The tour also drives past John & Ringo's childhood homes, their managers house and old school but you do not get off the coach at this places.




Around Albert Dock there are a number of Museums.  These include Tate Liverpool, Maritime Museum and Museum of Liverpool.  During our visit we paid a visit to all 3 of them.  I did not think the kids would like the Tate too much and after half an hour they were asking to go.  I personally would have liked to spend a little more time there but to be honest I think they are a little too young to appreciate what the gallery had to offer.

The common thread to The Boy's remarks were 'how is xxx art?' whilst looking at for example some blocks of wood placed on the floor.  On a couple of occasions I struggled to answer this question myself.   Some of the modern art to me really isn't art and I just don't get it.  I'm quite sure a lot of people would look at my scrapbooks and say the same.  Art really is a personal things and what one person likes another will feel different about.


On Sunday afternoon we went to the Maritime Museum.  They were holding a series of events during half term and we spent nearly 4 hours there.  As 2012 was 100 years since the Titanic disaster there was a large Titanic exhibition at the museum due to the Boats links with Liverpool.







Considering we had paid to visit the two ferry attractions and spent less than an hour in total, the maritime museum was fantastic with free entry.  Both had tons of questions for the staff and were genuinely interested in everything they saw. 




Tuesday morning we visited the Museum of Liverpool a new attraction that only opened the year before.  The museum was very interaction and there are video shows on The Beatles and Liverpool and Everton football clubs.  There was also a great karaoke booth which they loved which is something I can't say my ears enjoyed.



The kids loved the Solider display and had fun trying on various military helmets.



Apart from UK modern history and culture what did we learn?  Many adventures can be had for free, it just takes a little planning to find these activities.


This post is an entry for Britmums Visit Wales #Wales4Kids Family Holiday Challenge.
Wales is the perfect place for a fun filled family break.

Living in Wales, we can vouch for this and if you want to learn more about this fabulous part of the UK go and explore the Visit Wales website or @VisitWales on Twitter.

Some of our Welsh adventures can be found here and our Welsh Bucket List here.

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