Thursday 21 June 2012

Phew

Wowsers

I've been on the go since my last post and haven't had time to round up my mega exciting goings on. I know you have been waiting with baited breath. I better make it a goodun then.

I last posted half way through the jubilee weekend. We had such a lovely time not only spending time with lovely family and friends but also watching the queen do her thing! As you already know I'm a fervent royalist - mostly because of what they do for the country terms of generating money through tourism, promoting us through foreign visits etc...they are probably the best PR we have. No other country has the heritage we have and no other country can celebrate our heritage like we did that weekend. Its not about supporting an out dated class system and celebrating the privileged. Its about celebrating a woman who has given up her life for the service of her country. Whether you are a dinner lady for 60 years or the queen it can't go unnoted. One things for sure, we and our children will never experience a diamond jubilee in our lifetimes again.

We spent the next weekend in Butlins. its the third time we've been and have a brilliant time every time. I often wonder what it'd be like to be a red coat; constantly smiling, being nice to brats and singing and dancing with the full fervour of an American stage school of cheese and jazz hands graduate. We had to drive through the flooded roads of Sussex to get home. The boy was really frightened - so was I but I kept up a happy sing songy voice for at least seven miles and got through it. I heard at Slimming World this week that someone tried to get there the day we left and got stuck five minutes from Butlins in a flooded car for four hours and then had to go home so I'm pleased we got to have our precious family time and that we got home in one piece!

So on coming back I thought I'd better crack on with my first quilt which I will post about in the final tutorial for but here's a glimpse...
I had been wondering what material to use for the back and used my fantastic bargain hunting hoarding skills wandering round Ikea. I have a family rewards card so was able to get a few things cheap before the big sale which started this week. Ok so I didn't need to buy most of it but I took advantage of it. I bought a hot pink double gingham double duvet (with 4 pillowcases no doubt!) for £8. Lets be fair, you can't buy the fabric for that. So I've used that for the back and....

Dear me. Hatty earned her keep this week I can tell thee. The Girl's blind (originally made by my mum when The Boy was in the little room, then I sewed it on to an Ikea roman blind when it fell apart) fell down at the beginning of the week and it looked really dirty. I knew I had a bit of blackout curtain lining in the rag bag so I took the old one apart and reconditioned it and am pretty proud of myself to be honest. I made pains to make it straight and really took my time measuring it and lining up the fabric but alas and alack I just am too slap dash in nature and a wonky seam will out every time! But, it does keep the light out and does go up and down. For how long, is another matter, but it will do the job for now! I'm waiting for some ribbon I ordered to come as I'm making this pillowcase dress for The Girl next.

The sun was out in full force on Saturday and was lovely so after having mummy and The Boy time swimming in the morning (I LOVED having an hour with him on his own. He's growing up so so too too fast and I often feel like he doesn't get anytime with me because The Girl is attached to my hip all the time) we took ourselves off to Walton and Frinton-on-Sea. Well, we didn't account for 100mph winds!
We took it in turns to be human wind breakers for the children! Look at the deserted beach, that was the bonus.
I love it that this is an hour away from us. We are very lucky to live so close to a lovely stretch of coast and we're going to try and explore more of the Essex coastline this year and we always go to Walton, mainly for the pier after a day on the beach.



I love the faded glamour of seaside towns. You can see real architectural gems that hark back to Victorian and even Georgian times and also the garish 1950s kiss me quick style and that's probably my favourite.

If you know of any seaside gems on the Essex or Kent coast, please leave a comment and share it!

Taraa for now. More regular posts from now!
xxx

1 comment:

  1. Love the story, you do have a nice way with words... Have you tried The Romney, Hythe and Dimchurch Railway? the kids (Barry included) will love it, Dimchurch is nice with miles and miles of sandy beach... and at the end of the line is Dungerness (shingle beach)

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