My month in numbers

What's that?  September's nearly over?  It can't be.  Today?  The last day is today?  What?  So that means I can take part in My Month in Numbers.  I've never joined in this project before, but there's a first time for everything!  Julie Kirk gave me the idea here on her blog 

1 - farewell meal with Jon, 1 family gathering with Paul's cousins and 1 quiz night

2 - trips to the vet with Rachel's dog, 2 meals out with friends, 2 bottles of wine won in a raffle

3 - days in Peak District and 3 friends or relatives having birthdays

5 - times I didn’t win the lottery 

24 - the day Jon moved to Edinburgh

25 - pounds won on the premium bonds

32 - number of years wedding anniversary we celebrated

40 - the number of years I have known the ex school-friends I did the quiz night with

About 16 - the age me and the ex school-friends feel when we get together

50 - number of years wedding anniversary celebrations for Paul's cousin and husband

360 - the number of miles between us and Jon now he's moved to Scotland

A tale of two cushions

or maybe I should have used the title 'How me and Coco fell out this morning'.

Today is my niece's birthday and despite buying her present about a month ago, I suddenly remembered I hadn't wrapped it up until late last night.  My niece is an extremely artistic girl.  Has a degree in Art from Winchester University.  Works as an interior designer.  Presents that she gives are wrapped beautifully, with coordinating ribbons, feathers, beads and bells.  Paper and labels carefully chosen.  Clearly a roll of cheap paper from the 'Open 24 hours Tesco' was not going to be suitable.  So what does a scrapper do in this kind of situation?  She Googles 'how to make a gift box' and comes up with this:

I've never had a go at making fancy boxes before but it was good fun and pretty easy.  All I needed was a 12 x 12 piece of cardstock.  That wasn't going to be a problem was it? :-)

Then I found a piece of patterned paper with cupcakes on it, cut one out, mounted it on a piece of white card, added a gem to the centre and we were good to go.  Much more fun than popping out to Tesco late at night in the rain too!

Anyhow, the story about me and Coco involves the cushion on which I photographed the box this morning.  It's a lovely cushion covered on one side with satin, and the other side with a beautiful long heather coloured fur.  I had photographed the present before taking it round to her house and left the cushion on the bed. So I'm on the phone in the study and I can hear madam prowling around in my bedroom.  It all went quiet and I stupidly assumed she had settled herself down for a mid morning nap.  As I was finishing my call, she poked her head round the study door.  Around her mouth and all over the hair on her chin was beautiful heather coloured fluff.  As I went to investigate further, I noticed she was chewing.  Chewing beautiful heather coloured fluff.  I fished that out of her mouth {yuk} and went into the bedroom.  The cushion is laying on the floor and my bed has a fine covering of heather fluff with a few large clumps by the pillows.  Fortunately she has thinned out the fluff evenly and it's not obvious that some areas have much less than others but needless to say she is not in my good books.

Does she look sorry to you?

Hello Monday

Hello Monday - and today is the day that my son will be saying 'Hello Scotland'.  Cue sad motherly face.
Hello Monday - it's a short week at work as teachers have a CPD day on Friday and support staff (i.e. me) and students don't have to go in. Cue happy face.
Hello Monday - Our friends who moved to Belgium are visiting this area this week and I am out to dinner tonight with the wives from our old group of friends.  Ladies night at a lovely restaurant in town.  Tables of 4 ladies get two courses for £12.50 offer.  Cue happy purse!
Hello Monday - I've been suffering from a very painful back for the last few days.  I am hoping that this week will see the exercises working and being back to 'normal' again.  Cue crossed fingers.
Hello Monday - It's Open Evening at work on Thursday.  There's bound to be tons of extra 'urgent' work coming through the office.  Cue cross face.
Hello Monday - Coco's mum is back from her holiday and is around to resume early morning walkies.  Cue extra time in bed in the morning. 
Hello Monday - I see you've brought chillier weather along with you.  Guess that mean's it's officially Autumn.  Cue warmer clothes!

Scavenger Hunt - the finale

I've said it before, and I'll say it again - I've REALLY enjoyed Rinda's scavenger hunt!  To the extent that I was quite disappointed when I had snapped my last picture.  All I can say is - roll on next year!
This year I made a mini-album with my pictures and to display them all in one place I've created these two collages:

A huge thank you to Rinda  for organising this!

Hello Monday

Hello Monday - I'm a little late this week, it's very nearly Tuesday!
Hello Monday - Once again our family is 'one in, one out'.  Daughter flies out to Spain tomorrow and as soon as she comes home, Son disappears off to the wilds of Scotland
Hello Monday - The end of this week sees the official end of Summer
Hello Monday - A few days left to tweak my post to celebrate Rinda's Scavenger Hunt photos
Hello Monday - Coco is not happy to see the suitcase out again, she's already got her 'Take me with you' face on.
Hello Monday - Celebrity Masterchef is nearing the end, and I still can't decide who I want to win.
Hello Monday - Today there were lots of changes at work.  I'm not sure I like all of them.

How do you say Goodbye in Flemish?*

We've got a little bit of Belgium going on here today.  It's the last Sunday that the four of us will be home together for lunch before our son moves up to Edinburgh.  We asked him where he wanted to go and he chose a relatively new restaurant which has opened in town, Le Belgique 

I love the logo, for some reason it tickles my funny bone, it's got a bit of the Inspector Poirot about it.

I'm trying to pretend to myself that him moving up to Scotland is a bit like when he went to university.  A temporary move and he'll be home for reading week and ends of semesters.  But it isn't.  We all know that whilst the location is only guaranteed for the two weeks of his girlfriend's Masters course, he isn't going to be moving back home again.  But that's right and how things should be and I know he's excited to be finally living with his girlfriend properly.  {And I've already checked the Easyjet website to find prices of flights at half term ;-)}

I think a few pages of photos of his experiences in Tanzania are in order!  I don't need to think about what I will be using for the next layouts I do. 

I can't remember the last time the four of us went out for a meal together, but I know for sure I'll be making the most of this one!  It's going to be a while before it happens again.

*Dag ziens

Wednesday round up

That little Coco is fast becoming a cheeky little whatsit -it's my day off from work today and  I was 'busy' sorting out my scavenger pictures on the computer when I suddenly thought that it had gone quiet and that I wasn't aware of her prowling around.  Looked downstairs for her, but she was nowhere to be seen, so then I came back upstairs and opened the door to my bedroom,  just a little ...

She's brought one of her toys up with her (little white sheep at end of bed), rearranged the cushions and settled herself down for an afternoon nap!
I need to get myself organised to do a bit more scrapbooking but am busy following the decluttering routine.  I didn't have to bother with the time spent 'cleaning the ceiling fan', no need for those in deepest, darkest Hertfordshire!  
So as I had time to spare, I got into cooking mode down in the kitchen.  Currently roasting a joint of pork belly for tonight's tea whilst also cooking a beef casserole for reheating tomorrow.  But I've also started off a batch of raspberry gin which I've never made before.  We spent the afternoon at P's cousin's house on Sunday and his wife makes all manner of fruit based spirit drinks and having tried a few (hic!) I decided that raspberry gin was my favourite.  I normally make a batch of sloe gin ready for Christmas, but last year either it was a bad year for sloes or everyone else picked them before I went out.  So, before the shops could empty themselves of raspberries I decided to try something different.  Then my son asked if I could make a lemon cake - and as he's only got two weeks left at home, how could I say no?  Then I thought that maybe I could make some cupcakes for my daughter ...

Day off?  Feels like I've been pretty busy to me!