Vintage Finds

A couple of days ago we popped into one of the local charity shops as I was looking for some mismatched china cups & saucers to use for making teacup candles.

 

I found some perfect cups & saucers for my candles (moe about them in a future Make it Monday post I think) but I also got a few other lovely wee bargains for myself.

 

 

I loved the colours and shape of this wee jug and it cost me only 30p!

 

 

I think it will be perfect for serving cream with puddings. Or maybe some chocolate or butterscotch sauce!

 

 

 

 

Another 30p bargain was this glass milk jug.

 

 

 

And perhaps my favourite purchase (although it's a close call between this and the blue jug) was this matching milk and sugar bowl. They only set me back £1.50!

 

 

 

But I wasn't the only one making some vintage purchases.

 

James (13) saw this camera and loved it. It was only £2 so wasn't exactly going to use up all of his holiday money. It's so retro and pretty cool.

 

 

He loves the fact that he can see how it all works and has been online looking for film to put in it, as well as the little flash bulbs that went on the top.

 

So now we are all set - Who would like to come round for an old fashioned afternoon tea? James can even take some vintage style photos of the occasion!

 

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{Almost} Wordless Wednesday

The same beach as in yesterday's post, this time at 8pm, with a mist out at sea.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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More walks to the beach

Well, when you are surrounded by sand and sea then why not go as often as you can?!

 

While the temperatures up here haven't quite hit the sweltering heights that the rest of the UK is having, it's not so bad. After all with a red headed husband who needs factor 50 sun cream for more than 10 minutes in the sun, and only one of the four boys with skin that enjoys sunshine, this will do us just nicely.

 

Come along and join us on one of our walks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

David, the boy with more than enough football strips, is rather proud of another one he has inherited from his uncle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This little sandy beach is a 5 - 10 minute walk from my parents' house.

 

 

 

It's a great place to collect shells and smooth stones.

 

 

 

 

Why, yes, I did enjoy a spot of crochet whilst the boys played around. It was all rather civilised!

(Roscoe has a tendency to run off if he spies anything remotely exciting, so as none of us fancy running after a fast terrier we keep him safely on his lead!)

 

 

 

 

 

There are also plenty rock pools for nature enthusiasts like Calum to explore. You can just see him in the middle of the photo below.

 

 

 

On the way to and from the shore is the machair (pronounced like it looks, with a Scottish 'ch' sound). The machair is the moorland on the islands and has the most beautiful smell. At this time of year it is full of beautiful flowers like these.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And then it's up the road back to Granny and Shen's house.

 

Thanks for coming along!

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Make it Monday - David's Eton Mess

 

 

David (7) likes to help out in the kitchen. He especially loves to help out if there are puddings or cakes involved!

 

Yesterday he wanted to help me make the pudding for our Sunday lunch and since it was such an easy pudding he was able to do it all himself.

 

Eton Mess is quite a popular dessert but this is our own version of it and I thought I would share it, although it's hardly a recipe. All you have to do is mix all of the ingredients together and serve! Don't make it more than a few hours before serving though as you don't want it to lose it's crunch.

 

The following recipe will feed about 4 - we made double - and quantities are only a rough guideline. Add more or less, depending on what you have and what you like.

 

Mix together:

300ml cream, softly whipped (not too thick or it's not a good texture with everything mixed in)

A punnet of fresh strawberries, halved or quartered (raspberries are equally yummy in this, or even both!)

About 100g mini marshmallows

Half a share sized packet of maltesers (whole, not crushed)

About 6 meringues, crushed.

 

After mixing everything together and sharing between the dishes, David topped each dish with a little more crushed meringue and some crumbled Cadburys Flake.

 

And there you have it, a super easy pudding for a summer's day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Things I'm Loving...

 

I've been trying to write this post for the last couple of days but my photos weren't uploading. Better late than never though!

 

Last week we came up to my parents' for a few weeks holiday and have been taking things easy for the first few days.

 

To get here is a five hour drive followed by a three hour ferry journey. We tend to pass those three hours as in the photo below!

 

My hubs likes to have a wee nap, which is only fair as he is the one who usually does all of the driving; the boys play on their various gadgets/read magazines/go for walks round the boat with me/have some snacks in the cafe; and I try and grab a spot of crochet time, when the boys are on their gadgets.

 

 

The boys, as well as dad and their uncle, have been spending the long Hebridean evenings playing football as long as they possibly can. Given that even at midnight it isn't completely dark here they could potentially stay out till then but I think 10.30 is the latest they have been out so far!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There has also been some late night rugby.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have also been enjoying simple walks to the shore with Granny & Shen's dog, Roscoe.

 

 

 

 

(That land across the water is another part of the island, not the mainland)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the lovely wild flowers that surround us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The highlight of a Calum's stay so far has been a day out with his best friend, whose dad is also from the island. He went with his friend, his friend's dad and his friend's grandad to their bothy out on the moor. It takes about an hour walking to reach the bothy. They spent the afternoon playing their while the men went fishing on the loch by the bothy. Fresh brown trout were caught for their dinner and a happy but tired Calum was dropped off home later on at night.

 

The rest of the UK has been basking in something of a heat wave since we came up here, and the weather here has been mediocre at best but I think we are proving that we don't need hot sunshine to enjoy our summer - although it would be nice to get some! Besides, we don't come up here for the weather, thankfully!

 

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Wildlife Watchers - Part 2

Remember these little guys?

The boys didn't lose their interest in them at all and every couple of days they were checking to see what stage they were at.

I must admit that I had begun to think that they might never get past the stage of having fat bodies but very little legs and a big tail. It seemed they were stuck like that for ages.

But yesterday there was great excitement when we went to check on them and saw this swimming across the top of the water....

...and this one......

...and about 7 others. 

We watched them try and make their way out of the pond for a while and then noticed that some of their siblings had already made their way out and were beginning to move away from the pond!

Today we can't see any more left but it's so exciting to think that they are successfully off on the next stage of their life cycles.

And remember the nesting box? Well, I didn't get any photos of the occupants because frankly I'm just not patient enough to sit with a camera to catch a shot of the little birds rushing in and out of it, but we did hear plenty of the baby birds!

About a month ago we noticed the two bluetits were flying in and out of the box almost constantly. Calum stood with his ear to the box and discovered you could hear a faint cheep cheeping coming from inside. After about a week we could hear the cheeping without being right by the box and then a few days later we could hear it from the other side of the garden! We could always tell when one of the parent birds had gone in as the cheeping got much louder as the little ones demanded their food - hmmm, sounds a bit familiar!

Like the frogs, the bluetits have also moved on to the next stage of their lives now but it was certainly a very successful Spring for the wildlife watchers in this house!

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Summer to do list

The boys that are at school all finished up for the summer earlier this week - hooray!

Now, much as I am a great believer in letting them enjoy the freedom of these carefree days of summer, I also realise that leaving four boys entirely to their own devices for nearly two months is a bit of a recipe for disaster! I don't want to spend our summer breaking up arguments, see boys plugged into electronic gadgets for hours on end or hear the dreaded cry of 'I'm bored' too often!

With that in mind, I asked the boys to help me draw up a list of things we want to try and do this summer. Most of the things on our list are free, or very minimal in cost, and can be achieved by various ages. We typed up our list and have made it into a sharable document for anyone else who wants to join in with us! You can download our printable list here.

There are some things that we have left off our list that may seem like obvious summer choices - go swimming, play ball games, visit family, go to the beach, go fruit picking etc. The reason we left them off is because these are things we always do in the summer, and many times too, so we didn't think they needed to be on the list as we will do them anyway!

I've added a new tab at the top of the blog where I will keep track of what we have accomplished from the list. Plus, I'm hoping to check in with a post once a week of what we have done.

Right, let's get started!

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