Schools out...

This is how I feel today- this teacher is pooped and will be back with a proper blog post tomorrow. For now I will leave you with the amusing clip above and below a picture of the amazing gifts from my little class today. I was over whelmed by the generosity of the parents.

A storm coming??

I was going to update you on my crochet blanket I have been making over the last couple of months for my bedroom once I decorate;

However, when I went out to get a drink I discovered that the sky out the back is looking very unusual. Very vivid colours, it makes me wonder if there is a storm coming...

The photos don't do it justice the colours are a red, almost purple. I do love looking at the sky in different weathers it can be absolutely fascinating,

A birthday present.

It was my niece's birthday on Sunday. She asked me if I could make her a quilt as her present. She wanted it to have purple, flowers and fairies on it.
I got busy collecting fabrics and looking at ones I already have in the house to see what I could do. I decided I wanted to be a little playful and created random blocks of fabric for this quilt. My niece is very playful and I feel this suits her personality.
Here are some of the blocks I made;

I didn't get any of the fairy fabric! I could only find one little fat quarter of fairy fabric so I hope that she doesn't mind that.

Once all of the blocks were stitched together Stephanie helped me to lay them out into a design she was happy with;

Then it was all stitched together;

I just need to buy the backing material (I had to forget something didn't I!) Then I can get it all stitched together. Oh did I mention the time constraints- I am travelling up North to deliver this on Saturday. I am working until Thursday so no time pressure at all. LOL

Now I need to think of things I can make as Christening presents. I have three nieces/nephews being Crhistened over the August bank holiday so I need to get on with this. I have a new born baby boy, a 6 month old baby girl and a 7 year old girl to make for. Ideas on a  postcard!

Easy food

We are still eating up the food out of the freezer. Life has been very busy so quick and simple meals all round. Plus the warm weather means I don't want to be standing in a hot kitchen anyway. Last night the children ate at their dad's so I was just cooking for me. I made pasta salad with mackerel. The vegtables came from the garden. The mackerel had a reduced label on it for 50p and the pasta was a little froma  30p value bag. So a very cheap meal. It was very tasty. I have some of the pasta salad left so I will have that tonight with a couple of the eggs my sister gave me.

I then followed a recipe given to me by a colleague. We made this with the children in school on our recent celebration of French Day it was delicious so I brought the recipe home. I love how simple it is to make.

It tastes delicious.

Another run

Today I set off with many members of my running club to run the Newham 10k.

SOme of us who ran in the green wave.
It was a run around the Olympic park, finishing on the Olympic track. The atmosphere was amazing there were many bands playing music along the way and when you were near the Olympic stadium there was music playing. There was a shower on route as well- it was so hot today the shower was very much appreciated. It was like a bus shelter with a water spray inside it, I've never experienced it on a run before, so refreshing! Just after 9km you enter the Olympic park- you run in the tunnels under the stadium I could imagine all the athletes warming up under there 4 years ago as I was running and then all of a sudden you see light and you are out on the track where the worlds most amazing runners raced- it was phenomenal to think I was running in their foot steps (albeit at a somewhat slower pace). I slowed down to try and take a selfie whilst on the track;

I couldn't actually see the screen of my phone so that's all you can see of me! haha

Some pics of the stadium from just beyond the finish line.

Outside the stadium

The run was a very twisty turny run, and over 12000 participants so not a PB race. That said I was only 1min off of my 10pb time.

I really want to run next year and to enter the family race with Stephanie. This running doesn't mix very well with money saving! But such amazing experiences, I will have to think on it.

Love it!!!

Family

So tonight I was going to post about other things but then I got a message from my niece. And her baby was born at 6:08pm, a gorgeous little boy. He lives 260 miles away so I will be going visiting in a fortnight once school breaks up. I now have  6 nieces,  7 nephews and 2 great nephews (and another great niece/nephew on the way!)


What a blessing my huge family are, I'm a lucky girly.

Walkies

The dog goes home today so Stephanie and I decided that we would take her for one last walk. We went out to a local recreation field which leads to a woods, through to the beach and back home. It is a walk I have not completed since I was younger. I wasn't entirely sure if it was still possible to follow the river all the way along, we found out that it is. Along the way we met my cousin who lives up the road he decided that he was going to come too. He seemed to have as much fun playing with Stephanie along the way as she did.

A lovely circular walk rougly 3.5 miles altogether from my house. There were more sights along the way but we were so busy chatting/ playing as we walked that I forgot to take photographs. Maybe next time! Much of the walk was along the saxon shore way. I think I may explore more of this over the summer. It is 160 miles long and much of it goes around the peninsular which I live on so exploring it would be easy enough.

Where are your favourite places to explore where you live? If a visitor came by where would you recommend them to visit?