Month: August 2017

A family visit

At the start of the summer holidays we had a visit from my Mum, Dad, niece and nephew. It actually seems like a really long time ago now but I didn’t want to let it pass undocumented. They arrived on a Saturday lunch time to glorious weather so we made the most of it by spending the afternoon in the garden. The following day we got up early and went out to our local bakery/cafe for a German breakfast consisting of bread rolls, croissants, cheese, salami and ham. Yum yum. Rich, Little Miss and I go fairly often and it is always a highlight of my Mum and Dads visits here. Sunday was all about the food as later that day we went to the Libori. The Libori is a yearly festival with fairground rides, stalls to buy all sorts of bits and bobs that you never knew you needed until you saw them and lots of food and drink stalls. As with most German festivals it’s really just another reason for lots of people to get together and have a good old drink if I’m honest, not that that is a bad thing! Little Miss went on the carousel and then I took my parents and niece and nephew on to the big wheel while  Rich looked after her as she point blank refused to join us despite lots of persuasive tactics. The big wheel isn’t really a ride as such, it’s a little bit like a teeny tiny version of the London eye, it moves around very slowly and gives you a great view over Paderborn. When we got to the top my Mum, who usually doesn’t scare easily, got rather clammy hands and clung on for dear life. She was rather glad to get off it and let her shaking legs recover! After that we had the obligatory German bratwurst and pommes followed by yummy garlic mushrooms. I was a bit rubbish and took very few pictures but if you want to read more about the Libori festival and see some pictures click here.

Unfortunately Monday and Tuesday were very wet miserable days and so we did a bit of shopping and pottering around.

As Wednesday turned out to be another grey day threatening rain, I decided it was the perfect opportunity to pay a visit to my favourite ceramic studio. Unfortunately lots of other people had the same idea and because it was so busy (alongside the fact that I took a restless 3 1/2 year old who can’t sit still for more than 10 minutes, along with me) it wasn’t quite the usual relaxing experience. Nevertheless, everybody enjoyed themselves and came away happy with what they had decorated and with eager anticipation of the finished glazed product. My nephew painted a ‘crazy eyed hungover squirrel!’, my niece sponged a lovely pot with stars for her Mum, my Mum used the bubble blowing technique and some peel off hearts and stars to decorate a pot for her craft room and my Dad was rather pleased with his mug which he painted over peel off stars.

 

 

Now, I had envisaged helping little miss to decorate a plate or a bowl which she could use for her breakfast on a daily basis but as soon as she saw the aeroplane money box she was adamant that she was making a pink aeroplane and there was absolutely no dissuading her!

 

Little Miss’ reaction to her aeroplanewas absolutely lovely. She was so excited when we went to pick it up and she saw that it was so shiny.

When we got it home and she was given  some ‘pennies’ to put in it, her excitement was just priceless. It now has pride of place in our kitchen for all to see! I didn’t make anything this time as I needed to be free to help everyone else at it was their first time, plus I had to keep little Miss on task and stop her from bouncing around the walls and causing havoc! I have since been back and will post pictures just as soon as I pick up the finished article after glazing, eek I’m sooo excited!

Thankfully by the Thursday of my parents visit the weather had improved enough for a walk into Bad Lippspringe and a visit to our local ice cream parlour for waffles and ice cream, yum yum!

On Friday Mum persuaded us to go back into town to revisit the parts of the Libori that we didn’t get to see on our first visit. I was a little bit grumpy about going back as I didn’t relish the idea of walking around the stalls again (over the years I have been to the Libori numerous times so it’s not really that exciting for me any more) but I’m glad we did as I found  a lovely present for a good friend of mine with a special birthday coming up later this year.

All in all it was a lovely visit and as usual went by far too quickly. It was my niece and nephews first visit to Germany and they went home full of news about what a great time they’d had and are eager to come back again. We’d love to have them to visit again but next time I may have to hide the monopoly or set a time limit on the game as I will never get back the 3 evenings I spent being slowly and painfully bankrupted by my nephew!!

Karen x

 

Feeling lucky

When I’m out running I often think how lucky I am to live where I do, within 5 minutes I can be in the countryside surrounded by greenery and visually pleasing landscapes. Within just a 10 minute walk there is a field of flowers  where you can go along, cut your own flowers and put the money in an ‘honesty’ box.

I’ve often run past it but had never actually been before so, on Sunday,  we decided to take a stroll and pick some flowers.

What a beautiful place, there is something really peaceful about being surrounded by flowers, especially sunflowers, they are so bright and cheery, how can that shot of yellow sunshine not brighten up your day?

Little Miss loved choosing her two (which Daddy dutifully cut for her) and took the responsibility of carrying them carefully home very seriously.

Once home she also helped to fill a jug, cut the stems to size and arrange them. They now have pride of place in my hall and make me smile each time I go past.

Maybe next week we’ll go back and pick some Gladioli.

What makes you feel lucky to live where you do?

Karen X

Something to show

I am one of those people who likes to have something to show for their time, perhaps that’s why I like crafting so much. I’m always looking at where my time has gone and asking myself what I’ve achieved so it has irked me somewhat recently that I just don’t seem to have much to show for my efforts. I’m fairly near completion of 2 crochet blankets but they seem to be growing so so slowly and I have a number of other projects that I just haven’t got round to finishing (or in some cases starting) just yet.

Yesterday however, this little beauty turned up in the post and reminded me that although I don’t have a lot of crafty makes to show recently, I have actually been doing something constructive with my time.

Over the last 10 and a bit months I have been taking part in a ‘virtual challenge’ where I had to cover the 1084 miles between lands end and John o’groats by running/ walking/cycling. It worked out at 3 miles a day over a year and despite being behind earlier in the year I managed to finish ahead of time. I’m also in training for the Berlin marathon on 24th September (4 and a bit weeks to go…eek!), raising money for Macmillan.

I’m not sure quite why I keep putting myself through these challenges but it may have something to do with the shiny medals, I think I may be getting a little bit addicted to them!

Karen x

Paying my respects

Recently I seem to have had a bit of a writers block when it comes to writing blog posts. Usually ideas for blog posts just come to me, often ‘written’ in my head when I’m running or showering. For the last couple of months I’ve thought a lot about posting  but the content just hasn’t felt right and the words haven’t flowed. I’ve had lots of ideas but perhaps that’s the problem, too much tumbling around in my head, stopping me from actually getting on with something productive.

Unfortunately I haven’t indulged in a great deal of crafting in recent weeks as life just seems to have taken over. In the first week of the summer holidays my parents visited, bringing with them my niece and nephew, followed by a week of pottering at home and preparing for our 2 week caravanning holiday which we got back from a few days ago. I’ve got lots of pictures to show and news to share from both the visit and our holiday but I shall leave that for a later post.

The reason for me writing today is that I wanted to pay my respects to a lady who sadly passed early this morning, my Great Auntie Vera. Whilst it has been many years since I saw her, due to living so far away, I do think of her from time to time. When I was a little girl Auntie Vera used to come and visit occasionally and on our visits to Leicester we always used to pop in to see her on the way to stay at my grandparents. When she first retired she used to do a lot of sewing and I remember owning several nightdresses sewn by her. To be brutally honest I remember them to be made of a hot and itchy nylon and being a tad uncomfortable as they always used to ride up and twist around when I wriggled around in bed. They were hand made though and I remember appreciating that fact even at a young age, I was fascinated that someone could make an item of clothing themselves without having to buy it from a shop. My eldest sister went to stay with her a few times and was shown how to use the sewing machine and also how to hand sew a doll. I remember being a little jealous but I was too young at that time. As she got older, she stopped sewing and took up jigsaws as her main hobby. I remember she always had one set up on her dining room table and I relished being allowed to put in a few pieces on our visits. Sadly it has been a number of years since she did jigsaws as her physical health and mind began to deteriorate until finally giving up the fight a few days ago at the grand old age of 94. I’m sure that some of my interest in both crafting and jigsaws came from her influence and I shall remember her fondly.

R.I.P Auntie Vera X X