Skeletons, Hedgehogs and a Pop Up

It was a crazy, busy week around here last week. It was the end of

autumn term, lots of school stuff going on and then Saturday was

my husband's pop up restaurant at the city farm cafe. Exciting, scary

and very, very busy. I'm so glad we got through it all and now we have

 another week ahead of us and it's half-term. Yay! No school runs or homework, no plans really. We'll just take each day as it comes and 

see what we'll feel like doing. I'm really all for not doing much and

 taking it very easy this week.

But first a little look back at the best bits of last week. The quieter,

slower moments when I've had a chance to breath, enjoy and 

appreciate the simple, lovely things around me.

:::One morning while the girls were at school and nursery I made 

double chocolate cookies. I do enjoy my time alone at home now.
There is always housework to do but there's also a fair bit of making
and pottering which, for me, is always a pleasant way to spend a morning or afternoon at home.

:::I made a skeleton costume for Markie. Well, the bottom half of it.
After pirates and mini beasts last school year, it's all about skeletons
this time and as usual the term ended with a special dress up day.

I found a glow-in-the-dark skeleton t-shirt and got her plain black
leggings which I appliqued with felt bone shapes. I know I could have
just bought a ready made Halloween outfit from the shops but I do
like making these things. I enjoyed stitching those appliques and
there's always the extra joy when she likes what I've made her and
she did!

:::It was also Arts Week and Lulu was keen to show me what she had
made at school. Cue a walk outside to gather some leaves and doing
 my best hedgehog drawing. Then there was gluing and sticking
and a bit of colouring in.

 Ta dah! Lulu's autumn-inspired artwork. It was fun and easy and kept
her occupied for awhile. Love a pink faced, leaf covered hedgehog,
don't you?!


:::Thursday morning my husband and I went for a walk at Yorkshire Sculpture Park after dropping the girls off at school. It was lovely to
see the park at this time of year and also to have that time together.

We talked about Saturday and all the stuff we had to do to get everything
ready. There was A LOT to do but talking things through and making
lists helped us get our heads round everything and made it all just
a little bit less daunting. It was a lovely autumn morning to be
outdoors and I'm glad we went there for our walk.


:::I had a good play with washi tapes and these bottles on Friday afternoon followed by some flower arranging.

Someone once said flowers are sort of like a smile and it's true.
Add to that some washi tapes and I was in colour-filled bliss for
about an hour. These were our table decorations and it was a job
I was pleased to do and would certainly love to do again next time.


:::After lots and lots of organizing and preparing, our pop up restaurant
adventure finally happened on Saturday night and I am so pleased to say that it was a success! Hurray!

This really was my husband's idea and it's what he'd love to do
as a job one day. Neither of us has done anything like this before
and it was very stressful and scary but I'm glad we've done it.  We've learned a lot from the experience. We're also lucky to have found a venue at the farm cafe and people who've been supportive from the start.
They've already invited us back and we're already planning for the
next evening in November. Our hope has always been to make this
into a monthly event and it looks like it is going to happen. Yay!!


Thank you for all your lovely comments about my crocheted
bear. I haven't started on the new one yet, still can't decide over
a cat or a fox.

 Hope your weekend was fun and half term is going well.
Enjoy the rest of your week!

A fine day out

After two days of cold and rainy weather, the sun finally came out

 today, the last day of this Bank Holiday weekend, and he had his hat on!

It was too nice a day to just stay at home so off we went to the sculpture park to enjoy the sunshine and fresh air. We always love coming here

and I think the park looks even lovelier at this time of year. The whole

landscape looked so green and fresh. It was a pleasure to be out and

about there today.

The current Henry Moore exhibition is brilliant. But there were also our

old favourites like Barbara Hepworth's  'Family of Man' and Sophie

Ryder's Lady-Hare 'Sitting'. We were delighted to see the 'Galloping

Horse' is still there galloping away. 

In the time that we were there we did a fair bit of walking, had loads
 of fresh air and enjoyed all the fantastic artworks we saw. I think it's 

been a Bank Holiday Monday well spent. We went home tired,
 but happily so.

Lovely Happy Things

The girls and I made chocolate tiffin for the first time last
weekend. They had so much fun bashing the rich tea biscuits
to smithereens, even I enjoyed it too.

This super easy, no bake treat is so yummy we just have to make
them again for their party this weekend. Hurray!



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I received a parcel in the post last week and was so excited
when I found these magazines inside.

A friend of mine has sent them for my birthday and I'm so thrilled.
 They're packed full of sweet and beautiful makes, they'll be a wonderful
 source of crafty ideas and inspiration for many, many years.



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I found Lulu happily drawing and colouring the other day and
was quite surprised to see how she's turned an old freezer tray
into a little crayon holder.

It made me laugh but I was also very impressed. I think
she'll be giving me tips on recycling and repurposing soon
and I wouldn't mind it at all!


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I love this storage jar that my mother-in-law got for me from the YSP 
shop. It's from the French design company Atomic Soda.

I think it's gorgeous and I'm just happy to have something like this.
(The bowls and mugs are equally fantastic--you can have a look here.)
And yes, my mother-in-law is lovely. I'm so lucky!





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It's the girls' birthdays this weekend and on Sunday we'll
have a party. I've gathered all the party things that we already have
and we'll be reusing many of them. I made this mini bunting last year.
I've added the stripey straws to make it look nicer and now that's
Lulu's cake topper sorted.

We'll be using these paper buntings too. They're made with
patterned paper that were craft magazine freebies. All we need
to do now is to string them together and hang them. Easy peasy.

We just hope the weather will play nice this weekend. Tomorrow
we're off to the zoo. Can't wait!





Have a lovely weekend too!
See you soon!

Rainy Day Out

We went to Yorkshire Sculpture Park on Saturday morning. 

It wasn't the best day for an outdoorsy family day out but we still went

anyway. We were hoping that the rain would let up after awhile and

 luckily it did! There was another heavy downpour as soon as we got
there but only for a few minutes and after that the rain stayed away
for a couple of hours,  just long enough for us to have a wander
 around with my parents-in-law and see some of the new open air
 exhibits.

We started off at the Bothy gardens then meandered down
to the hillside to one of my favourites in the park, Barbara Hepworth's
'Family of Man', where the girls played a little game of hide and seek
with GrandDad. It was the perfect day for jumping on muddy
puddles and they did a lot of that and running around.

The whole time there were dark clouds threatening more
rain so instead of going further down to the lake we went to the
Underground Gallery and then back to the YSP Centre for a
bit of cake, juice and coffee. We sat in the balcony looking out
to a beautiful landscape dotted with Henry Moore sculptures
and grazing sheep. Even in such awful weather it was still
a fantastic view.

After a little rest we had a quick look round the shop
(so many lovely things!), admired Rob Ryan's original papercut
celebrating the Yorkshire landscape, cycling and the upcoming
Tour de France leg in Yorkshire (nearly £10,000!) and then made
our way down to the chapel to see an exhibition by the
Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. 

The Chinese government has recently confiscated Ai Weiwei's
passport and he can only collaborate with the park through emails
 for this exhibition, making every piece even more meaningful
and remarkable.

It started to rain soon after this but by then we were already
about to leave so we were lucky again. We'd like to come back
for another visit this summer and see more of the park. We're lucky
that we're only half an hour's drive away from this wonderful outdoor
art gallery and we really should come more often, hopefully on a
much sunnier and warmer day than this. But I'm glad we came.
It was still a lovely family day out despite the rain.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope your weekend was lovely and
not too rainy. See you soon!