BubbaChic

A Day in the Country

Me, Mum and the kiddies headed up to the Wiltshire Countryside today to visit Cally, Robin, Beth and Henry - whilst Jason and Oz were in London being given some corporate love whilst watching the Red Bull Air Race

We had a wonderfully relaxing day - with a fantastic full-on English roast dinner and got to spend some quality time with some truely quality people (we love you guys!)

Maddy playing in the garden...with *shock* the sun out??!!

Joshua and Beth the Springer Spaniel

Joshua in the garden

The Family at play

Down at the farm

Today Mum and I took the kids to Longdown Dairy Farm where the kiddies got to experience the sights and smells of a working farm in the Hampshire Countryside.

                                                                              

Meeting the ducklings

Feeding the goats

 

More hungry goats

Maddy getting some air

A rare moment of Joshy standing on the trampoline

Milking the cows

Jetlag on the Beach

Both the children, and adults are still struggling with jetlag and wanting to sleep/eat at strange times - so this afternoon we headed to the beach to wake us all up....it worked...and the after-beach ice cream went down very well too.

Joshy, Beach huts and the Solent

Maddy and Little Lamb

Family fun - including Joshy-chasing

Ice Cream by the Sea

Illness and travelling

Not a good combination! After a weekend of the whole family going down with a crazy and really horrible virus, we managed to get it together to pack and get on a plane back to England on Tuesday.

Maddy was great, slept and played the entire way - Joshua was BAD...cried and fussed the whole way! (not good on a night flight!!) We have managed to get through the first day, really sleepy and slightly delirious and having had a good nights sleep we are now ready to see some friends and family and start enjoying our holidays!

Will post some pickies when the kiddies get up!

A Hard Day's Night

You know when you have one of those nights with the kiddies, where beds are stripped down and changed, carpets spot cleaned and eventually at least one child ends up in your bedroom...that you know will inevitably lead into one of those days?...that was us today.

A very unsettled night, containing lots of sickness and changing of bedding, lead into the day starting with 2 loads of washing done by 7am and tired kiddies by 8am.

Having gotten through the day - (and this evening with some tag-team parenting with Jay, giving me the 30 minutes of alone-time that I needed before the night-time rituals began) and now gotten through the forth load of washing! I am on wind-down and whilst my mind is hugely motivated to craft until dawn, the body is unable...unable to do much in fact, except drink a glass of vino and sink into the couch...which is just where I am headed now.

Here are a few photos from the day - Joshua's new game and my view of it - Mummy as a bridge.

and Maddy crashed out on the sofa at 6pm

The Quilt Saga

I am not a patient seamstress....I like to start projects that I can see results and hence motivate me to continue - so when a couple of months ago, I started sewing my first quilt - a quilt for Maddy's room, I swore I would never do another...fast forward 2 months and here I am again making another quilt...for Maddy?!

There is a long story behind the first quilt and its unpopularity with a certain little Madam!! which I will share soon.

So this is quilt No.2 for Maddy and I am loving the colors and the fabrics - but not loving the unpicking which is just what I was doing here in a moment of calm in the house whilst the kiddies were playing.

So not alot of sewing happened here today, just unpicking...oh and shopping...check out the Sublime Stitching embroideries I actually managed to get hold of...in a shop...here in Tulsa??!! The shop - Dwelling Spaces is in a particularly funky part of Tulsa that I have not been to before…however, having stumbled across this wonderful shop today – I am sure to be heading back there very often! The lady who owns the shop is wonderful, very friendly...it also contains hand crafted goodies from local artists, I would love to go visit there, minus children sometime soon to have a good look!

Date Night...

So after a morning or nausea, lethargy and hot sweats for me (no idea why?) and a morning of pooping for Joshy (poor little thing) Maddy and I headed out tonight for a date night with diego.

This date night has been an eagerly awaited one in our household – having been booked months ago. Not only was it booked months ago – but I also went to the extremes of marking in my diary the date and time of when tickets for the show were released, so that I could call early (anal huh?!) So, you’d think with all the planning that was involved, I would have managed to get my rather-ample ass into gear and make Maddy a little outfit for this special night….not so.

Said outfit was started at 1pm today when the kiddos went down for a nap – and I had 1 hour to complete it before having to head off to an appointment. I stuck with something comfy for Mads (she doesn’t seem to share my love of her in tailored little vintage dresses!) and something which I thought I had a chance of getting finished. It had Maddy’s seal of approval straight away, which was my no.1 priority and more to the point – she has no idea as to the stressed-eric her mummy had become in the creation of it.

The show was brilliant! I felt like I could burst into tears when I first saw Mads face light up when she saw Diego on the stage, it was so cute...she then got a little fearful and overwhelmed by the noise of the crowd and sat on my lap for the whole of the first half (which I didn't mind one little bit - its not very often these days I get a 30 minute cuddle with my first-born) but when the second half started and Dora appeared, she was lost in the story and more than happy to sing, clap, jump, dance and shout with all the other little people.

All in all a wonderful night and I know it will be a night that one little girl will be wanting to talk about for weeks to come...

Matchy Matchy Monday

So...I have a confession.......I love wearing maching stuff with Maddy as much as she loves it, it just makes me smile!

Please excuse the sullen and bored look on Mads face - she'd had enough of being photographed!

Mads outfit is just a strip skirt I did a few weeks ago and mine is an Amy Butler Barcelona Pattern which I adore.

What better way is there to brighten up a monday filled with boring appointments, I ask you!

A day of thrifting, playing and sewing!

Had a wonderfully fulfilling today - both as a mother and a shopper! After a wonderful start to the day with breakfast in our favorite restaurant at 8am, Josh and I dropped Maddy and Jay back at the house and went out for a few hours of flea markets and thrift shops!

I picked up the most amazing bargain of my whole life! A Pottery Barn Kids Rug for Maddy's room - this monster of a rug is just beautiful and is a whopping 8x10 feet (No chance of taking it back to England with us - I think thats the dimensions of our whole house!) I have been searching for a rug for Maddy's room for months and months - our little angel seems to manage to always spill her juice on her bedroom floor - and add this to the other less savory things that have ended up on the carpet when she has been poorly - I desperately needed a rug to cover her floor (especially in a rented house!)

So I saw this heavenly creature a few days ago in a thrift store and left it there - came home and searched on the net how much it would have been new - when I discovered Pottery Barn Kids was no inadequate make and it would have been $600 I promptly went back and got it today (when they also knocked off another 25% of an already bargain price - I think it was just my lucky day!) So anyways, enough ramblings!

I have also had a bit of an inspiring few hours of sewing whilst the kids were napping/in bed..I managed to get done loads of gifts including a baby set for a very special girls first birthday - note the cute little vintage apron!

Some scarves for gifts and a crayon roll for Maddy for the plane on an imminent trip back to England.

A sock monkey set for Joshy

And most importantly - a realization that I never knew, before having children, how much one little action (that of Joshua bobbing up and down whilst hearing music) could warm your heart until you thought you were going to burst...and sharing that moment with Maddy who also saw Joshy dancing and giggled her little heart out...My babes and my hubby light my life more than I can ever describe.

Floppy No More...

Hooray!! After an hour of unpicking the floppy bag last night and almost 3 hours of sewing today - the  bag is now finished and ready to be given to Maddy's preschool teacher tomorrow - here is a picky....plus another bag that I sewed up for the same wonderful Lady (she needed two gifts)

And here are a few more photos from tonight - we went out for a walk after dinner as the kiddies hadn't been outside all day because of storms and rain today and it was just kinda cool having that time with them, strolling through our estate and taking advantage of lovely weather this evening.

Daddy and his Hatchlings

Maddy and Josh holding hands

and Me and Mads putting the world to rights! (bloomin' heck...is that what I really look like from behind!!!!!)