One lovely new pair of shoes......................................
One lovely new pair of shoes which are now soaking wet and smelling of wee wee!  GREAT!!!

Today we have spent another beautiful day in the garden running between the house and the garden.  Who can believe that we have got such glorious weather so late in September?!
I do truly believe that this is the calm before the storm and that this winter will be another harsh one.  Only this morning at music one of the ladies was telling us that someone she knows has got the long range fishing forecast and they reckon that late October early November will be bitterly cold.  Somehow they can tell what the weather will be doing based on the fish.  Only time will tell, however at the moment it seems a little unbelievable that potentially we could be plunged into the middle of winter in under a month!

What did we see in the garden today?

I think that this is a solitary bee.

Blackberries.  They are still going but are nearing the end of the season.

Ewwww check this whopper out.  A common UK earwig.

A giant spiders web.

Mimi trying to tell the time with a dandelion.

Mimi taking tea in the garden.

We also found some Beech Tree nut shells and saw a very tame little bird in the shrubs which I am struggling to identify.  I originally thought it may have been a tree sparrow but the colours were wrong.  I think it may have been a Dunnock.  Anyway it was very cute and Mimi was very impressed with her find.

A Dunnock

If I am totally honest I am really struggling at work at the moment.  So to keep my spirits up I have been plugging away on a number of little projects.  One of which is my beautiful quilt for Mimi's bed.  I am so proud of my progress.

First panel completed

This is what the end result should look like

Pattern came from Material Obsession

In amongst all of the chaos we also managed to pop to the shops to pick a few bits up and a pocket money visit to Poundland where Mimi got a Peppa Pig Recorder (Not sure what I was thinking off when I brought this!) and some ladybird wings.  One very happy buzzy bee!!!

If I look out in the garden.......What can I see??

I was just thinking the other day about the i-spy books by David Bellamy.  They were great, I had a whole collection.  I used to be able to buy them from the little book club we had when I was at primary school.  Does anyone else remember them?  Anyway I was thinking what a shame it is that something similar doesn't still exist.  For anyone who hasn't got a clue what I am going on about, the i-spy books were nature books with little tick charts of things to look for.

So keeping in a theme I decided it was about time I started to pay more attention to the things around us.  It is so easy when you get a bit older to over look the little things in nature that we see everyday but go unnoticed.

When we were in the garden today clearing away all my end of season courgette plants I really started to notice how many little creatures were running around the garden.

Common Orb Weaver found on the underside of the wheel barrow.

7 spot ladybird.

Common Woodlouse.

Check out how pre-historic a woodlouse is under the magnifying glass.

The other day I was woken up to Mimi shouting woodpecker, woodpecker.  I originally thought that she might be having a bad dream.  However when I got to her bedroom she was hiding behind the curtains shouting woodpecker in the garden.  I was very surprised when I took a look to see the Green Woodpecker sitting there on the lawn.  For a split second I wondered where unearth she had seen/learnt about birds.  Then I remembered it was my dad.  I think it is so cute.  Once a week Mimi goes to my dads for the day, and he takes her on little journeys.  They usually go on the bus to Sandwich to the swings and slides and to see the ducks.  This week they went on the train to Folkestone.  Each time she comes back telling me about the birds she has either seen or heard.

Anyway the long and short of this is that I think it is really important that we slow down and take stock of what is going on around us.  Sometimes it is so easy to let life rush past us, forgetting what is important.

Keeping up with the theme this afternoon when I got in from work, we all went down to the beach to check out the rock pools and to see if we could catch some prawns for tea.  We went down with the idea of catching enough for a prawn curry.

Daddy out in the waves prawning.
Not sure we had the best of nets.

OOOOO check out the prawns.

Not sure there will be enough for a curry!

Lets open it up.  What have you seen this week which you would like to share with us?

Bargain of the week.

Yesterday Mimi and I met up with one of my oldest friends and her little girl.  We went to the Tented Village in Ashford.  This is a retail outlet centre.  It is usually full of a load of old rubbish, however it is a great place to pick up good stuff for Mimi.  And this trip was no exception.

This week right up until the 26th Gap have a 30% off voucher which you just need to print off from their website. This combined with their standard discount meant that I managed to get a whopping 55% off a beautiful coat and a bundle of other bits and bobs for Mimi.  The coat went from £32.00 down to less than £15 - What a bargain!!!!

Mimi trying out her new clothes at the Tented Village.

Every Thursday we go to music for an hour in one of the outlying villages.  Mimi loves it and comes home singing all of her little songs.  Its really quite cute.  We all sit in a big circle and join in.  The class isn't very big - probably about 6-10 children and it is quite structured.  We sing a few songs, learn about a different musical instrument each week which we all get to try and then we finish with sleeping bunnies which seems to be a favourite.

This afternoon Mimi spent some of her time painting with some water colours I had forgotten I had.  She was sitting quite happily in the high chair in the kitchen whilst I was cooking the tea.  I was turned for about a min and when I looked back she had tried to paint herself as a tiger.

I think we will go and get some proper face paints at the weekend.

 She then proceeded to sit Mr Doggy at the table and feed him some of the rabbits lettuce in an upturned Frisbee.

CUTE.

We have also taken to dressing up all the time and pretending to be a princess.  She is becoming quite obsessed with it.

Check out this crazy baby.

We have had a bit of a weird week.  I managed to work myself up in to a bit of a frenzy over work, which as usual turned out to be nothing much.

Mimi does not seem to like playschool and poor Mike is having to leave her in tears.  I think it must be a phase she is going through as she did the same with me when I left her with my Dad in the week.

As usual it poured with rain on Tuesday evening for my bus duty.  I don't think it is boding well for the year as I have done two so far and both days it has rained!

However Wednesday the weather improved and we had a lovely couple of days at home.  We made cakes (and a huge mess). 

The end result.  Don't they look great.

Then we took our lunch down to the beach for a picnic.  I hope that there are some more days like this before Winter arrives.  The sea was beautifully calm and the sun was shinning.  

We also managed to get over to see J & H and his gorgeous new sister G.  She is just so cute.

We had some friends over for dinner on Friday night.  I was really excited as I had decided to cook a Green Thai Curry which I knew they like and is also one of my favourite meals.  Unfortunately I had a bit of a dippy moment and didn't bother weighing out the curry paste.  I guestimated and used about 3 times the amount of required paste.  Hence as you can imagine the lovely curry that I had so wanted was edible but only just.  I would like to blame my mad moment on too much alcohol but that wasn't the case.   

Additionally I think I must be getting old.  I think I have been in denial that I am still in my youth when actually I am in my 30's.  I honestly didn't drink very much, but boy I felt rough yesterday.

Check out the clouds this morning when we got up at 6.30am!  Aren't they just amazing.  We don't often see clouds this big.  We looked it up on the met office website and it was miles away.  Well over Ostend. 

Daddy just made pancakes for Mimi's breakfast - this is always a preferred choice given a chance.  However I am not sure Mike washed the pan out properly before cooking them as they had taken on a distinctive curry flavour.  Poor baby!

An action packed week.

This week has seen:

• Mimi's first week at pre-school
• My first full week back to work after the summer holidays
• The completion of our blackboard wall in the kitchen
• A trip to London on the train with Mimi
• Me spend WAY too much money on various things such as makeup, shoes, boots.  All necessary items.

This week Mimi started at the little pre-school in the village. She is going to go Monday and Friday mornings.  When I got home from work on Monday I asked her how playschool went and all she could say was "I cried, big tears, in my eyes".  Mike had to hang around for a while.  Each time he went towards the door she would apparently grab him.  However by Friday she seemed happier and came home with some pictures.

The lovely ladies from the group rang me to tell me that Mimi was ok and was playing with the playdoh.  However as a teacher at a secondary school where mobile phones are banned I found it difficult to speak to the nice lady on the end of the  phones as the kids were all shouting "Miss your'e not supposed to have phones in lessons".  

I was a little upset that I missed Mimi's first day at playschool. 

My first week back at work has already provided me with shed loads of marking, performance management, tracking and endless meetings.  Somewhere I am supposed to find time to plan my lessons!  Why is it when you work part time you end up working almost as hard as a full time member of staff but on less money?

My days have changed from Tues, Weds, Thurs to Mon, Tues, Fri.  I was a little bit unsure about these new days as I now no longer have a 4 day weekend, however I think I prefer the changes as I feel like I have a midweek weekend. 

We popped over for tea to Mikes parents in the week and Mimi was allowed to go up into their folly.  Don't you all just wish you grew up in a house with a folly.  I would have been in my element. 

Then on Friday evening we had my Mum, Dad and youngest brother up for dinner which was very pleasant and highly amusing.  Sometimes I wonder if a comedy should be made about some of the conversations that go on in my family. 

Amazingly the blackberries are still going so we popped out to collect some more and had blackberry and apple crumble with extra thick cream for desert. Yum!

A couple of weeks ago I was walking though our kitchen when I decided to do something about the wall of photos that were really starting to bug me.  Over time we have accumulated a large selection of photos which had been put upon the wall using Blue-Tack.  As most people know Blue-Tack either sticks forever and leaves a blue grease mark or it continuously looses it's stick.  This is what had happened with my photos, I was constantly re-sticking them and they were annoying me as all the edges had curved and looked generally messy.

BEFORE

I remembered that ages ago I had brought some magnetic black board paint for a project I was planning on doing at school.  A project that never materialised - hence the paint was still sitting on the shelf in the garage.

I carefully removed all of the photos and cleaned the wall, I then masking taped off the area and got to work with the paint.  It took 3 coats and several days to complete as I had to fit it in when Mimi was sleeping.

OUR LOVELY NEW BLACKBOARD WALL.

I am really pleased with the outcome, it has given us a great place to keep our shopping list which we can all add to as I was always writing one and loosing it and Mimi can draw on it.

So that we were able to add some of our favourite pictures and letters/notes I then made some groovy magnets using buttons.  Only problem is that the magnetics need to be quite strong as the magnetic strips I tried to make using washi tape wouldn't hold.  I got the idea for the Washi tape from How about an Orange. 

This weekend we decided to take Mimi on the train into London for the day.  

We had a fairly good day although I think that because we forget how busy it will be Mimi was confined to the buggy for most of the day so obviously she was getting fretful about it.  We also didn't really have a plan of action.  As adults it's not too traumatic wandering about but I hadn't really thought about the consequences of having a toddler in tow.  I have realised that London is not very child friendly.  I also had never realised how loud the tube is.  We wanted to go to Big Ben as Mimi is obsessed with clocks and the Big Ben at 6, but the weather didn't hold out and now I think about it I am not too sure why we didn't go and take a look.  We did however go to Harrods somewhere I have been meaning to go to for ages. 

On our way up to Picaddily Circus Mimi was excited to see the horses at Marble Arch

We then met my brother and his girlfriend for lunch and an afternoon of wandering around Covent Garden mainly taking in the sights of all the shoe shops much to Mikes annoyance although he wasn't going to say so.  

I brought some cool boots from Duo Boots who measure your calf so that the fit you.  This I find really exciting as I have seriously skinny legs (sorry) and I have never found pair to fit before.  They then post them out within 7 days.  Which is even better as I didn't have to carry them around town for the rest of the day.

When we got home Mimi did her first wee wee on the toilet.  Yippee!!!  Additionally when we were out yesterday I think Mimi is finally getting over the toilet phobia.  Yay I think we have sorted the potty training!!!  

  

blogging

When I first started Mummy & Mimi back at the start of the summer I had no idea how addictive it would become.  I think sitting at my computer at 3.30am is proving my point.

Not only have I become addicted to updating my blog nearly everyday I have become totally obsessed with all the other great blogs I have come across.  Reading all the blogs on my reading list has become a daily ritual along pininterest (another one of my newly acquired obsessions - a whole other post in itself!)

I have recently stumbled across a lifestyle blog Live Creating Yourself.  This beautiful young lady is so full of zest for life and has created a beautiful well written and informing blog.  This is definitely something that I aspire to.  Using google reader as I find it is a great place to keep all of your blog reading together I have just read a post titled "Two years ago, I started a blog".  When you read it, it makes you think wow, all of this in two years!  But it also makes you feel like you can do it too.

When you are young free and single everything is out there for the taking.  Whilst when you get older the same opportunities are there, the choices you have to make become harder.  "Just do what you love"  I know that we should be true to ourselves but once you have children trying to find the time to juggle everything becomes a job in itself.   There does however come a point where you have to have some self belief and I feel that I have started to find this through writing my Mummy & Mimi.

Mummy and Mimi started out after reading a friends post on facebook which is an even more unhealthy habit which I am pleased to say I have kicked since starting my Mummy & Mimi.
I don't really know what I intended to do with my blog.  I think I just wanted to get out there.  Its funny because as I have continued to write my confidence has grown.  My first few posts I kept running past my husband, "what do you think? Is it ok?" and I would get upset if he didn't agree with something I said.  I felt it knocked the wind out of my sails.  So now I go it alone.  Mummy and Mimi originated through my love for my family and my home life, however it has allowed me to drift back towards the things I do truly love which is everything to do with design, interiors, fashion, architecture, textiles, graphics and art to name a few.

I have so many creative ideas they all seem scrambled in my head.  Whilst I would love to leave my job, I know that at the moment it is not an option but starting Mummy and Mimi has allowed me to develop a passion which I thought I had lost.  And I think that when Alaina Kaczmarski from Live Creating Yourself says "You have nothing to worry about. You'll figure this out. Just do what you love."  She is right.  Its time for me to move on, have more faith and I will figure it out.

New school year

This last week saw the return to school after the summer break.  It is amazing how quickly you fall back into the swing of things. In a relatively short space of time you feel like the holidays were a distant memory.

My days have changed so I now don't work on a Wednesday or a Thursday which in a way may be quite good as it will feel like we have two weekends.

Last Thursday we spent  the day at the Zoo with one of our friends and her children and then lunch at this great little place called Mama feelgoods.  We will definitely be going back soon.

Mimi Playing at the park in the Zoo

Friday I had to work until 2.30pm, Mike was really busy with work so Mimi spent the morning over at Mikes parents and I picked her up on the way home.  Isn't it typical we all go back to work and the sun comes out.  

RHDR - The worlds smallest public railway.

Yesterday we were planning on going on the Romney Hythe and Dymchurch Railway but the weather was just so glorious we decided that was something we could do another time and instead went to the beach in the morning.

Then Mike took part in a sailing race which went from the sailing club up to the  Quay in Sandwich.  So we went over in the car to watch him come up the river.

Whilst we were out I experienced my first awfully embarrassing toddler statement.  As we were walking along the tow path towards the park we passed a coloured man, to which Mimi said "Chocolate man" and pointed.  I was just so embarrassed.  I don't think he heard and if he did he didn't turn around.  What do you do in situations like this?

When Mike came in off the water we loaded the boat onto the roof of the car and then I went for a drink with my friend.  We ended up popping into town and having a few more glasses of wine and a lovely Thai meal before walking home in the rain.

Drinks on a lovely calm evening overlooking the pier.