My Sunday Photo

Time for this week's Silent Sunday photo. We spent this weekend in Loughborough with good friends. We had a great time eating, drinking, chatting and laughing, while our combined 6 daughters played happily.

On our way home today, we stopped at the steam railway at Quorn. It's such a lovely railway and the station is kept beautifully, just as it would have looked in the 1940's. Evie and I had a lovely time exploring, while a Daddy and Lola stayed in the car (Lola was asleep and Daddy had mild concussion after whacking his head on a low beam the day before!)

Definitely worth a little trip if you're in the area - the cafe was so lovely and atmospheric. Just like a step back in time!

 

 

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Sheridan UK launch and a lovely day in London

A couple of weeks ago, I was lucky enough to be invited down to London, to attend the press launch of the forthcoming autumn range from Sheridan UK.

I jumped at the chance to go along to this launch, for a number of reasons. First, my absolute favourite bed linen is from Sheridan. It's years old, but is still every bit as beautiful as the day I bought it. Second, I thought I might learn something about how to get a quality nights sleep, which is obviously very important to everyone, most of all parents! And finally, but by no means least important, I really wanted to spend some time in a posh hotel, being treated with lovely food and wine and generally having a blast. Sheridan certainly didn't disappoint on any of those things!

So I dropped the girls off at nursery and got the train down to London, treating myself to a coffee and a snack on the way! It's a while since I travelled down to London on my own, but I kind of miss the commute in a way. Easy to say when you're not doing it every day I suppose!

My train journey was made all the more pleasant because I met a lovely lady called Celia, and her sister who was visiting from Canada. Celia and I chatted away for the whole journey, very probably annoying the rest of the passengers! Celia and her sister had a fun-packed day ahead of them and Celia, if you're reading this, I hope you really enjoyed Wicked! What a change, to sit and chat to a stranger on a train. Most commuters avoid eye contact at all cost, burying their nose in their newspaper. Maybe it was because Celia and I were both travelling for pleasure, rather than commuting, that we were able to strike up a conversation, but it really think that commuting for work too, would be so much nicer if travellers struck up conversations with each other.

Anyway, enough of that. The launch was at the stunning Cafe Royal Hotel, on Regents Street. What a beautiful location. I was greeted by a doorman at the entrance, followed by porters at both entrance and exit of the lift. Now that's service - not even having to press the lift button yourself!

Once at the Sheridan suite, I was immediately welcomed with a glass of wine and a manicure. Lovely, this is the life! I sat watching the hustle and bustle of Piccadilly Circus below, whilst having my nails painted a lovely pistachio green colour. I even got to take the rest of the bottle home with me!

Just look how excited I look. Anyone would think I've never had a manicure before!

A mooch around the suite revealed numerous bathrooms and bedrooms, all kitted out in the absolutely stunning bed, bath and loungewear ranges from Sheridan. Here are just a few of my favourites:

The kids range is just beautiful. Really lovely quality and not too childish. I would gladly have any item from that range for myself and love it (ok, maybe not the sleep sacks!)

The loungewear just looked sooooo comfortable. It's lounge/sleep wear, but is absolutely nice enough to wear out of the house. If I owned this lovely soft waterfall cardigan, you might see me in it every day!

This was my absolute favourite of the bedding range. It's silk, and feels amazing, but I was also told that silk sheets and more specifically, pillow cases, are really good for your hair. They really help to calm some frizziness, as there's less friction between your hair and the pillow, when you're moving your head in your sleep. Well, who knew?? Certainly not me, but I could do with all the help I can get, to banish the frizz, so silk pillows are definitely on my wish list.

Speaking of wish list, I met a lovely man, Paul, from Quilts of Denmark, who supply the pillows and duvets to Sheridan. Now, I would not have expected to find a conversation about duvets and pillows to be interesting, but actually, there's a lot to learn. I learnt some really interesting things about how your bedding can help your sleep, but you 'll have to wait for another blog post for that. This one's about Sheridan!

After my mooch around, I was invited into the living area of the suite, for nibbles and canapés. Oh my goodness, the food was amazing!

I even bought a little bag of old school sweets home for the girls. Who remembers flying saucers??

A great benefit I hadn't expected from this event was the chance to meet some other bloggers and have a good natter. Some of these ladies were just as new as me in the blogging world, so it was really lovely to chat with them.

If all this decadence has left you wanting more, let me show you some more images of the new ranges for Sheridan in 2014 ..... Because they really are lovely!

I love this range. If you've been reading this blog a while, you'll know about my obsession with anything bird or deer related. This set would be just perfect for our little Lola.

How cool is this swinging bed??

And just in case you thought rope swing beds were just for girls .....

Lastly, these are for my lovely blogging friend, Lucy. She loves a bit of mustard and blue!

While we are talking about Lucy, she has just been short listed for a Loved by Parents blogging award. She us super excited by this, as am I, as her friend, and both she and I would be really grateful if you took a moment to click here and vote for her blog, Mrs Bishop's Bakes and Banter.

While you're doing the clickies, click on one of the little buttons on the right to follow my blog updates. You can follow me on Instagram and Twitter too, my username is @Wannyrow. Then you will be sure not to miss the post about sleep and Quilts of Denmark!

Bye for now x

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Crabbing in Southwold

This weekend, we took a mini-trip with our caravan, for a spot of one of the 3-year old's favourite activities: crabbing.

We headed off first thing on Saturday morning (well, 9am, which was as 'first thing' as we could manage, considering mummy had been out on the wine the night before!) and arrived at Southwold Camping & Caravan Park, just after 11. It's a basic site, council run, nestled in between the beach and the harbour, with Southwold a 15 minute stroll away along the beach (or 20 minutes along the road, if like us, you've got a buggy to push.

We had a lovely stroll in to Southwold, despite the drizzle, and checked out lots of beautiful buildings and very tempting foodie shops, cafés and pubs. We couldn't bring ourselves to walk past the delicious smells coming from Mills & Sons Butchers, in Market Place, so treated ourselves to two hot carvery rolls, one beef, one pork, with all the trimmings, to go with the picnic we had bought with us from home. A picnic blanket, spread on a bench, overlooking the sea from the cliffs, provided the perfect picnic spot. The carvery rolls did not disappoint at all, and I would strongly urge you to try one, if you get the opportunity.

Hungry children silenced, we strolled back in to town, did a bit of charity shop bargain hunting, and then found a lovely little craft fair, in a church hall, where we had a pot of tea for two, in lovely vintage china, with a glass of squash for each child and a twix for them to share, and change from £1!

Less bargainous, but even more lovely, was the stop we made later, at the Adnams Brewery shop and cafe. That shop is an absolute foodie heaven, full of treats and unusual kitchen supplies. Tea gadgets, beautiful wooden serving boards and an enamel Adnams jug, that the hubby took a shine to.

The cafe is really lovely. There are circular booths, lined with copper, that look like you are sitting inside a great big beer vat. For nicer weather, there is plenty of seating in a lovely courtyard outside, too.

We had a latte for me, Adnams beer for the hubby, and a great big scone with jam and cream, for the girls (I include me here, obviously) to share. This one of the things I will miss most, in a months time, when I go gluten-free for life.

Another stroll around Southwold to work off some calories, and of course a stop at the Railway Shop, and then the rain started up again, so we headed back to the campsite. With a few stops for beachy fun, holiday home dreaming and beach hut admiration, along the way.

As for the campsite, Southwold Camping & Caravan Site is a council-run site and as such, is pretty basic. The toilet and washing facilities were clean enough, despite the wet and muddy weather, but couldn't be described as modern or stylish. I was impressed with the booking system on the website. Although the site itself again looks pretty basic, you can view the pitches, search by what you want (electric, close to beach etc) and choose your pitch online. We chose to forgo electricity and hard standing pitch, in favour of being closer to the beach footpath. In future though, I think we will go for one of the hard standing pitches, which are closer to the washrooms and only a few extra metres from the path.

The campsite was pretty quiet this weekend (not surprisingly, given the weather!) but looking at the markings for pitches, I imagine it must get pretty packed in the summer. The pitches seem fairly squashed in together, which will make it somewhere to pitch and sleep, but not really spend much more time. The opposite to the Mill Farm site we stayed at last week. The site is ideally situated for the beach, harbour, ferry to Walberswick and a short stroll from Southwold centre though, so we will definitely be back.

High on our agenda for the next visit, is lunch at the Sole Bay Fish Company - an amazing seafood restaurant, right in amongst the working fisherman's huts, at Southwold harbour

I had a nosey inside and the food looked and smelled incredible. It's all freshly caught seafood, right from Southwold, and you bring your own bread and wine!

For this trip, we settled on fish and chips from this lovely shop (listed in the Independent's 50 best fish & chip shops) just a few huts along the harbour

You can eat inside, in bad weather, but the rain had stopped for a bit and the weather had brightened a bit, so who can resist fish & chips outside by the sea? Especially when they are freshly caught and cooked and you've got a bottle of wine with you!

A little walk further along the harbour, past all kinds of unusual and very picturesque (but fully working) huts, lies a truly lovely harbour pub, aptly named The Harbour Inn. Great local ale, very friendly service, dogs and children welcome and delicious food. We shared a yummy knickerbocker glory, made with cherries in kirsch, because we were already full of fish & chips, but the food we saw others eating looked and smelled (and sounded, judging by their appreciative noises) delicious.

The next morning, after waiting for the rain to stop (which it didn't) we walked the five minutes from the site to the harbour and took the little row-boat ferry, over to Walberswick.

Walberswick is well known for its crabbing, and was home of the British Open Crabbing Championships.

It is also home to more chocolate-box perfect houses, quaint tea-rooms and The Black Dog Deli, which we can report serves delicious fresh coffee, hot chocolate and croissants.

The last treat of the weekend, after another trip on the ferry and packing up ready for home, was ice cream from Beaches and Cream on Queen Street, Southwold. Evie and I had been checking out the array of delicious flavours the day before, and we weren't leaving without a taste. Their ice cream is amazing. Between us, we tried; chocolate, vanilla, pecan and maple syrup, amaretto, and salted caramel. They were all delicious. And, even better, there's a file next to the counter, containing full ingredient and allergy information on each flavour. So, although I won't be able to have the amaretto flavour again, or the delicious waffle cones, I will still be happy with a scoop of that scrummy salted caramel! What better reason to head back to Southwold as soon as possible?

 

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Mother's Day day trip

It's been a bit quiet on this here blog this week, hasn't it? Sorry about that. I did write a post. A bit of a rant on my current position in limbo-land with regard to my Coeliac status. It took me ages to write - trying to say what I felt, but without being too whingy, and then it disappeared. All gone with no trace of it having existed. I haven't had the willpower to write it again yet, but I might, soon, just in case you're interested!

Other than that, I have spent every spare second this week sewing away, ready for my first craft stall on Thursday. It's been a mine field of what to make, how much, what to charge, how to display, etc etc and has been pretty all-consuming this week. I have taken solace in reading about some other bloggers' craft fair experiences though, so I'll add my own report to the mix after Thursday!

For now, I'm just having a quick cuppa before getting back to the sewing machine and thought I'd share some pictures from our lovely day out last Sunday. It was my Mother's Day treat, as we are busy tomorrow. I had no idea what was in store for us, other than that we were heading west, and we had a picnic with us.

For those of you that know me IRL (that's for Janet, since I had never noticed the term before this week!), or have read the blog a while, you'll know that my daughters each have an Irish middle name, one meaning 'little bird' and the other 'little deer'. So because this was my Mother's Day treat, my lovely husband looked for something along that theme. As a result, we ended up at Prinknash Bird and Deer Park. What a really lovely place to spend some time.

The daffodils were in full bloom and looking amazing.

The animals were all really friendly and looked very happy and well cared for.

I fell in love with this little dude.

A Kookaburra. There were two of them, but this one spent lots of time watching us, cocking his head to the side, looking really quizzical. Such a little character. I could have watched him all day!

Check out the cutest little chicken coop ever! When I get chickens (someday) I will have to egg them a beautiful abode like this.

The peacocks were tame enough to eat out of our hands. So amazing to be able to get so close to them!

And is this the most beautiful willow tree you've ever seen?

There were plenty of kooky little places to explore. These beautiful caravans can be hired for parties. If we lived closer, I would so be having Evie's next birthday party here!

This goat trying to get over the stile just reminded me of the billy goats gruff!

 

Another beautiful caravan available to hire.

It took about 2 hours to get there from Bedford. There were lots of lovely picnicking spots, and a nice cafe for a cream tea afterwards. Well worth a visit. We will definitely be back later in the year to see the miniature donkeys, who were still in their winter home last week.

Right, back to the sewing. Here's a sneak peak of some of the things I've been making. I'll show you lots more pics when I'm done.

I've had company of course, the whole time!

That's not much help!

You can help me though, dear readers. What do you like to see (and buy!!) at a craft fair? Any ideas for me?

 

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