France - Part 3

The reason we chose the property that we stayed in last week was mainly because Archie didn't want to share a pool, with anyone, no not one single person. Thankfully they made full use of it and even swam at night.

It also had fishing nearby. Something the boys (big and small) were very happy about.

We also went to the local Municipal lake that was great to swim in and had a sandy beach (!) and even had a sandy volleyball court. {Apparently I'm the worst player ... ever ... although I reckon I was the only one who could actually serve properly}. 

Ed doesn't 'do' sandcastles he does sea creatures disappearing into the water.

France - Part 2

The owners' dogs made us feel very welcome and adopted us for the week.

You can tell I was on holiday there is no way our dog would be allowed on the sofa.
Oh and the stain is just "wet bottom of boy after swimming"!

The property next door, where the owners lived, was incredibly beautiful but more astounding was walking through a gap in the hedge of our garden and seeing these gates,

which lead up to this HUGE chateau.

It apparently 'housed' German prisoners during World War II.

France - Part 1

We had a wonderful holiday last week in France and stayed in the most amazing house/converted barn.

 

There were lovely doors everywhere,

and lovely windows too.

Summer Holidays - Week 5

We've been in France all week  .... ooooh la la .... home tomorrow.

Proper post on our adventures next week.

My Mum's Garden

My Mum really does have the most beautiful garden.

If you'd like to see more photos {actually better photos in sunlight when the garden was in peak condition} go over to my sister's blog entry from early July.

Baby Shower

When a customer asked if I could do a pink and blue large personalised bunting for a baby shower I decided to create a whole new product instead of just adding it as another choice to my personalised bunting.

A job on my To Do List is to sort out my notonthehighstreet page and one thing I should decide is how many choices I will have for each product. My personalised bunting started out with just two but now has six choices. How many different options should I have for each product???

Do you think this is a good idea to create different products or is it better to give options?

Slightly frustratingly I did all this for a customer who replied and said "It's PERFECT!!!!! Thank you so much:)" and I've not heard a peep since! I wonder what has happened to her .... maybe she's suddenly lost her memory and will wake up one day and realise that she never replied or ordered from that lovely Daisyley {some hope}.

If anyone is going to a baby shower for someone called Mrs Butler I'll sell it to you for half price!


Update. Lovely customer had just been busy and did get back to me and did buy it. Hush my mouth for not having faith in customers - it is me who should just be a bit more patient!

Summer Holidays - Week 4

Well this will be a quick post because the boys have been at Tennis Camp all week and I've been working and doing housework!

It's always great when I send the boys off to do an activity and they come back and say "it was great" "it is so much fun" and watching them I think they've actually learnt something too .... incredible.

Of course Archie needed a shock absorber ... uhhh why?

And a new grip!

The weather has been pretty good for them sunny but not too hot and only a bit of rain. They already knew most of the leaders and they had lots of friends doing the course too so it was a great week for them.

Oh and last Sunday we went to see Horrid Henry mainly because we are related to the actor who plays Henry ... well I say related ... very very tenuously. He's my mum's cousin's grandson so that is kind of related isn't it? Anyway regardless of the connection the boys really loved it and it was nice to go with Granny.

Oh What Lovely Plums

No doubt if I was Anne Wheaton I would use these lovely plums to make some alcoholic concoction or, if I was my mum, I would stew them and have them with cream for pudding.

Or I could just wander past them every now and then and eat them as they are, juicy and delicious, until they disappear (or go manky).

#riotraffle

Following the riots last week Zoe from Zoe & Drew felt inspired to help all those small retailers who, through no fault of their own, have been affected. So she has come up with the fantastic idea to have a raffle, read her blog about it here.

It is such a great idea and, for those of us not affected but who can sympathise with those that are, it is an easy way for us all to help.

Zoe now has over 80 people involved which is incredible and I've no doubt that there will be some amazing prizes.

I have offered Zoe a raffle prize, although I wasn't sure what to give so I hope it is OK. In the end I thought whoever won the prize could use some Happy Birthday Bunting and stripy straws??

I wish Zoe the best of luck with her #riotraffle - you can follow her on twitter @zoeandandrew or @riotraffle for all the latest news.

Summer Holidays - Week 3

As I was catching up with work this week the boys have had a bit of a home week. Not that they have minded because they have had friends over or gone to friends so there has been a lot of toing and froing.

Also, Oscar's cricket camp was cancelled but it was OK because he was desperate to go over and do corn cart with his cousin which tied in nicely with me helping mum clear out her shed. We didn't really chuck out much, just moved things around a bit but it did look clearer after we'd finished. I also discovered that my mum has a serious "keeping cardboard boxes" problem .... !

I came home with a few things of course.

Little half pint milk bottle.

  

Rosette.

Sheep bunting?!?

Is it just me feeling that summer has suddenly completely disappeared? Everywhere feels and looks and smells Autumnal .... don't like it at all ... it's only the middle of August for goodness sake.

Milk

Given the events of this week i.e., the riots I find this post rather comforting like a nice cup of tea because Harmony and Rosie wrote something that made The Philosophy of Lists write something that made me write something. I expect a lot of people have been sitting down with a cup of tea made with a splash of milk watching the news this week or checking up on friends to make sure they are OK and suggesting they meet up for a coffee soon. Oh and I really liked that one of the hash tags re the riots was #operationcupoftea.

Anyway the reason for this post is that last week the List Writer wrote a wonderful post on the subject of Milk. I went to leave a comment but realised that the comment would go on forever so here is my milk post :-)

Growing up on a dairy farm I have always loved milk. We would be sent up to the parlour with the milk churn and were told not to skim the milk off the top because that would take the cream but of course as the littlest I could never quite reach far enough down. I also remember, walking back down the yard to the house, we would try and swing the churn round 360 degrees without spilling any ... why?

Ahhh yes and break times at primary school - warm, pasteurised milk out of a carton which to me tasted very different to the unpasteurised, fresh, cold milk I was having at home.

When dad gave up cows the only milk that mum could buy that came anywhere close to what we were used to was Jersey Gold Top - mmmmm. I haven't had any for years but I reckon it would taste just like drinking double cream now.

I'm hoping that my lifetime of milk drinking will mean I have very strong bones in old age and I've always given the boys milk at tea time but I haven't quite passed on this love - Oscar loves milk and will happily, like me, guzzle a whole pint of milk but Archie whose Godfather is a dairy farmer ... ahem ... is not so keen.

I am lucky that we have a milkman (occasionally heard but rarely seen) and every couple of days he leaves me four pints of milk (silver top). I love the fact that it needs to be shaken before you have it and I really do believe it tastes different to carton supermarket milk.

Daisyley Goes International

I'm now accepting international orders ...

I'm not sure why I didn't do it before? I think I was put off by the nothonthehighstreet postage prices and I thought it was far too complicated and expensive, but when I got an email from noths last week saying they had rejigged their international delivery charges I decided to give it a go.

I'm so pleased I did, as it really isn't complicated at all, especially as I have to go to the post office every day anyway. So just in one week I've had to post to Ireland and Russia .... yes some of my personalised bunting has gone to Moscow. I just love it - Russia ;-)

And it makes me smile to see International delivery available on my product pages {as I've said before I am easily pleased}.

Does this mean I can put on my web page Lindsell London Moscow .... ?

Summer Holidays - Week 2

Phew it was hot at the beginning of the week.

Glad we got down to the beach. Frinton this time at a lovely hut called Jabba The Hut :-) there was much activity from the children with cricket, races, swimming, crabbing, etc., whilst the two godmothers sat in deckchairs chatting for hours .... and hours!

And on Wednesday the hose and waterslide were much in demand ...

Rainy days have meant friends over and cinema trips with other friends.

Must be a good sign that it feels like the boys have been on holiday for ages - love it.

Garden in August

I love runner beans. They are one of the things I always ask Ed to grow because you just can't buy runner beans from a shop, no no no, you have to grow them.

Ed came up with a decorative and really very sensible solution for growing them this year enabling the picker to walk through a tunnel of beans {sigh .... lovely}. This is what they looked like in June.

And this is what they look like in August. Good job we never get tired of runner beans and now the job of picking them is really easy - perfect.

In other gardening news I realised that the garden in August is purpley blue.

"It's not unusual ... "

Tom Jones

Picnic

Sunshine

What more could you want for a Saturday night out?

We had a great night out at Audley End on Saturday. Tom Jones is a legend!