July you are going so fast

July, you are 11 days old already, slow down.  Life has been busy here in Granny's World, we have some new additions.  Meet the girls, they have been here just over a week and finally settling down. Scruffy is leading them into bad habits and they have already managed to escape their part of the garden and are foraying into the flower garden!!

I have been busy knitting as usual.  Every time I think I can start on my cardigan I get another request.  I finished Jess' cardigan, made 2 hats for a friend of Rachel's.  Made a purchase of some Drops cotton from Wool Warehouse, some needed for a cardigan for Gus, the rest will go into stash.

My next project is a Rabbit for Gus, and then Rufus has asked for a cushion with a dog on it!! All exciting stuff.  There are 2 baby girls still to knit for, so life is busy.

The girls and I had their birthday shopping trip with young Gus on Saturday.  We had a lovely lunch out at Bills and managed to get the girls some new clothes.  Pops spent the day looking after the boys, so a good day all round.

Someone was getting bored

Smiley boy

That's it for today.  Hopefully summer will get here eventually.........

Mirror mirror on the wall

you are the cruelest of them all.  Fitting rooms, don't you just hate them.  All those mirrors and bright lights, showing up all those lumps, bumps and wobbly bits!!  I need to drop at least 10lbs.

On Friday I got to enjoy one of my Christmas presents - I spent a day in London with my youngest. We had a great day out, - coffee, shopping, lunch, shopping, tea, shopping, drinks and dinner, then theatre.  What's not to like.  Well apart from the shopping, I'm not good at it. Once however, I got into the groove so to speak, it wasn't so bad; I came away with 2 pairs of cropped chinos, 2 pairs of light cotton trousers, 5 tops and 3 pairs of shoes!!

Our day started with a train down to London, first stop was coffee then on to Spitalfields Market, followed by a tube ride and walk to Borough Market, where we partook of a Kangaroo Burger for lunch.  Not bad, but wouldn't be in a hurry to try it again.  A walk along the embankment in the rain to I Knit London, which was a bit of a disappointment, but I won't go into that.  Back on the tube to Oxford Street.  Quick dash into Primark for cheap t-shirts to cut up for a rug - daughter's project.  Next stop M & S where we had tea and cake, to fortify us before heading to the spring clothing range .  As mentioned, after a second walk round I was bullied into the fitting rooms with an armful of clothes, and hey presto, my purse was suddenly a lot lighter!!  I'm pleased with my purchases, and to be honest once the aforementioned weight comes off they will look better.

Next stop was Soho, where we stopped for drinks at Zebranos, happy hour, 2 glasses of wine for the price of one.  Good natter, then off for some dinner before the show.  Our show was the Ladykillers, the stage production of an old Ealing Comedy.  Very funny.  I love going to the theatre and really should do it more often. It was a great and thoughtful present which we both got to enjoy.

As it was Rufus Friday, Peter bravely offered to look after the little man on his own, and he also had an enjoyable day.  Even managed a mucky nappy, but then I guess he had no choice.  He did however, forget to take the camera, so no photos I'm afraid.  Fortunately though he and his mum are coming to stay tomorrow for a couple of days as the builders are taking out the boiler and they will have no heating/hot water.  So I will make sure that the camera is charged and ready.

The rest of the weekend has been spent quietly knitting.  I have finally finished the Ten Stitch - hurrah.  Photos of that to follow.  It did however end up using 2400 grams of stashed yarn, so that has made a bit of a dent in the stash.

Deck the halls

This year we have got two trees to dress.  One for the garden room and the other for the house.  We went with a real tree for the garden room - its been a while since we bought a real tree and the prices were quite shocking!!  Anyway, we spent all afternoon on Saturday putting up garlands, wiring pine cones and making wreaths.  The tree was dressed Sunday morning, supervised by my young nephew Charlie; he and his mum kindly came to the rescue with a part for our central heating system.  Not nice waking to a cold house on Sunday morning.  Thanks guys.

Not sure if the garden room needs more decoration, but I guess once I get some foliage from the garden it will look a bit more festive.

Mince pies, the first batch of the season, and this afternoon the tree for the house.

Most of my present shopping is done, cards written and posted.  The village cards still to deliver, wrapping to do.  Visiting arranged, so I guess I'm on track.  How are you doing? 

How do they do it

Yesterday we did our quarterly visit to Ikea/Costco/Green Lanes. 

Ikea is where we have breakfast, bacon rolls and coffee, before strolling round.  We always seem to end up going against the flow of people, not sure how, guess we just don't read the signs. Bought ourselves a new duvet set, and various other bits and bobs

After Ikea we popped into Mothercare, then on to Costco.  Managed to resist the multi packs of danish pastries,  but came out with a trolley load of goodies, though nothing really unhealthy.

Then onto Green Lanes for a late lunch - this is where we ask the question every time, "how do they get the meat so tender". We always have a meal at a Turkish restuarant called Gokyuzu, same meal and drink each visit.  We daren't choose anything else off the menu for fear of disappointment, so it's a large Lamb Kebab, a can of Fanta followed by Turkish tea.  The lamb is amazing, always so tender, hardly requires any chewing!! The kebab comes with a large mixed salad, cacik, pittas and rice, and usually a grilled long green pepper which on occasion has been known to blow your head off.  Its such a reasonable meal - £24.00 for the 2 of us.  There are loads on restuarants along Green Lanes but we just can't bring ourselves to change.

So that was our Sunday - some christmas shopping was also achieved so we are getting there. 

the season of mists.....

and mellow fruitfulness - where is the mention of FROST in that.  Yes, frost on Saturday morning, that was a nasty surprise.  Can you believe only 2 weeks ago we were in shorts enjoying the heat!

Another busy weekend -  Friday with my little man

Saturday - town for a bit of shopping - a few bargain, coffee and a beer

Sunday - long walk, gardening, family to a roast dinner - you should have seen my yorkshire puddings

Not liking this cold weather, but its a good reason to light the wood burner in the garden room, its very effective, so effective we ended up in t-shirts and had the door open, obviously all that insulation works....

WIP Wednesday #3

Yes, you guessed it still working on that Ten Stitch in Blue, its coming along, but as I still have lots of gardening to do that is taking over. 

Also, we are on staycation this week so have been gadding about.  Today we did Suffolk, well not all of it but Bury St Edmunds - I fell in Wibbling Wools - 500 grams of King Cole Riot and 200 grams of King Cole Haze. Hubby bought new shoes, shock horror, he hates shopping for clothes/shoes so this was amazing. Lots of lovely soft fruit and veggies from the market, also some Artisan bread and 4 French Lavender plants. Then on to Stowmarket, doubt we will be returning there, not much happening.  We called in to Swiss Farm at Ashbocking to stock up on chicken breasts - they don't appear to have a website so can't give you the link. Heading on to Alder Carr Farm for afternoon tea. I had coffee and walnut cake, yum and hubby had fruit scone, jam and cream.  Alder Carr do amazing ice cream, but we didn't have room in the cool box to bring any home today so had to make do with the tea.  We can buy it locally - Rhubarb and Ginger and Elderflower and Gooseberry are my favourites.

For more WIP's see Tami's Amis blog

Is this fair?

Today we popped into Cambridge. I normally hate going shopping but needs must sometimes.  We were browsing around Marks & Spencer and I saw some trousers I liked. Flicking through the sizes I saw they had no long lengths in any size, just short and regular, which I thought was a bit odd.  Checked a few other styles, same thing, so I went and enquired at the desk to see if they had changed their leg lengths, to be told that they hardly ever get any long lengths for the stores as they are mainly reserved for buying online!!?  What rubbish, do they want everyone to buy on-line thus killing the High Street? Is this discrimination against people with long legs?  Should I send a letter of complaint, or am I wasting my time? I was so cross I was nearly beside myself, took a coffee and a muffin in Cafe Nero before I calmed down.

The upside of the morning was that I did get some really nice short boots in the Clarks shop with 50% off, and some new underwear with some gift vouchers I had for christmas, so all was not lost, but I'm still feeling pretty cross!

Radio 2 Live: Jamie Cullum - Maida Vale at 75

Yes, Friday night saw us at the Jamie Cullum show recording for the Maida Vale at 75 anniversary. We were in the small audience, just 75 pairs of tickets were given away + about a dozen people on the guest list. It was quite exciting being at a live recording, especially when they played in Sally 'Traffic' and the end of the Chris Evans Show, and then the news, then US, lots of clapping and whooping. The recording was just a short interview by Kate Thornton, followed by 4 songs that made up the half hour show. Fortunately for us he hung around for a bit and played some more songs.

Following the recording we went for dinner at a Persian restaurant called Kish on Kilburn High Road, so much food... I just couldn't do it justice, my stomach must have really shrunk. We then went for a drink at a pub just over from our hotel where we were entertained by the clientele..... a group of elderly Irish people who had been in the pub since lunch time, the language was quite ripe and one of the old men looked like he'd clearly wet himself! A young women who was steadily drinking to hide the fact that her 'date' was late, he did finally turn up with lots of apologies! Then there were a couple of sad looking blokes propping up the bar, who were clearly never going to pull, even if they were the last men on earth, so it all proved to be a highly entertaining evening.

Oxford Street beckoned in the morning, headed straight to M&S at Marble Arch, actually didn't get as much as I'd hoped, skirt, jumper, necklace, jeans and a rugby shirt. We did venture into John Lewis where I tried on 'the dress' I'd worn in the photo shoot, somehow it just didn't look the same with hair that looked like my finger had been in a socket (its goes mad when its damp outside), minimal makeup and I just couldn't justify spending the £149 on a dress I have no occasion to wear.

Successful Day

Yesterday was a good day, I had my family home, the girls and I went shopping in the afternoon, and I got the accessories for my MOB outfit. Hopefully I will be a vision in navy and silver/grey! Also purchased a very stylish jacket, not something I would normally have picked out, but having 2 pairs of younger eyes with you when shopping is always good. I wore it last night and felt very good.

We spent a very pleasant evening at Browns for cocktails, just enough to be relaxed but no hangover this morning. Followed by a very good curry, can recommend the Curry Garden on Regent Street, very good food and very friendly waiters. Back on the diet today - though did have a bacon sandwich for breakfast!!!

So this morning, I will be wrapping Peter's birthday presents while he and the youngest daughter cycle into town to pick up the car. They are in training for the Oxford to Cambridge cycle ride -89 miles, bonkers if you ask me. The future Mrs Jones and Tim have just left to finish the patio, but me thinks they will end up kipping on the sofa with the cats!

At lunchtime we will sit on our front wall and watch the annual Yester Year Run, as the weather is good there should be a large turnout, I will look forward to seeing some familar faces.