Summer food and shopping..

Summer Lunch.. thanks April!

April made us a tasty summer lunch using Jordan's bread..

And today I am at Pendeen Market ..x

Three!

Well Colin has taken our four design guys away to Farnborough Air Show so I have had a day in the office with Kate helping man the phones..as we have 3 lines in ..and just me to answer calls today!

Jamie sent me this message with a picture Of three of them....He said its his first selfie too!

Another three.. Zac's friend Sean passed his Oral exams so that's number 3 of the little crew of 4..just Zac left now and his exam is next week.

And my photo is showing the three lots of gel nails Kate did this evening.  My fingers and toes... .and now her toes.. its such a nice thing to have her do.. I was just saying to her that as your children get older you are a bit less physical with them. ...less cuddles and carrying.. and it is kind of a nice closeness to have her tend my nails..

I found this little gem the other day.. Jordan's 4th birthday.. and her cake!

Now she is making the cakes! Lisa is still holding the baby ;-)

Take 2.....playing with mirrors..

I was just thinking about the windows / mirror prompt I set over at Lucky 7s and thought those of you who are following closely might like this one for 'not quite what it seems'

So it's a view from my kitchen window...?

Not quite.. 

It's the view seen in my kitchen mirror so it's all back to front!

Jordan collected her 'A' level art work from college yesterday, a year later. We loved the work she did on the Cathedral in Truro and I may put some of the development images in frames across our living room wall.

I made her let me take this one.. again taken in the mirror.. but had to include a close up of this coffee / ink one..

Catch up.. Spring Views and... Foods!

Spring Sky at St Ives

We snuck a trip to St Ives for lunch and birthday shopping for the SIL yesterday and I got my spring images at the harbour!

Spring View St Ives Harbour

 Then the girls came by after they had been out for Sunday lunch, so they were in their Sunday best! ;-) 




Annabelle was hanging out with us and she is so chilled.. well at least when not out to dinner (hence why she was with us!), 15 months now and just cute!

Mischief in a dress x

Just so 'the Big Sister'

Oh and while I am on catch up.. as ever.. here's the great basket of bread I crave (this one from Jordan's St Just market on Saturday.. I went along for the chat and to see how it went along in case I am called in to help someday)

My Food Heaven

Definitely my Food Hell!

...and to round of the weekend a promise of some decent weather.. ?

More Family stuff..

In our house we don't really do 'Family Heirlooms' but I do have a few items which are from my Mum's house and which are particularly special.

The picture of my Dad aged about 7 is a favourite and I found it a place in my kitchen today..The copper kettle was my Gran's I think and the Sweet dish also hers.. I move it around the kitchen and try to use it rather than making it so special it isn't used or appreciated.

I guess we have had things for over 20 years now so some of our things may become family heirlooms for the children..though I am much less fussy about whether something gets broken or anything these days...not sure if that's an age or generation thing?

Lilly stayed at school this week for Cupcake Decorating class! A perfect after school club!  Maybe she has a connection with Jordan?  Did I mention that Jordan now bakes from my Mum's kitchen in the annexe to our house where Mum lived..? It's really nice as after Mum died Jordan wasn't too keen to go in there but now she feels a great affinity to the place where her Gran showed her how to make mince pies and coffee cake!

Windows : Traditional

 We always had sash windows in our house when I was a kid. I wanted them in my house but when we moved in 17 years ago they were wood and rotting and in some cases they would not open.

So we replaced them.. with PVC ones but they are sash and also open and flip so I can clean the outside from the inside.  they actually look good and from outside they could be wood.. but with so much less maintenance.

Some of you may have seen these pictures before. Kate modelling for Jordan and then Jordan photo shopping a beach scene outside.. I wish it was High Res and I would have it on my wall.

Media: my Craft Heaven

Well here we are .. me, Jordan and Pops, Colin's Dad..here amongst many and varied candles in a power cut. 

We have been promised the worst night of stormy weather with high tides and big squally rain passing through as I write..locally roads have holes in them, broken aged sewers giving way and walkways from Penzance to Newlyn with a gaping hole where the green met the tarmac beside the beach.. A seal was thrown up onto the grass yesterday beside a park bench near Newlyn and the Watering Hole bar beside the beach at Perranporth is threatened with losing the last 5 metres of sandbank being destroyed by the waves tonight.

Kate is working til 7pm and the trains are unreliable as so many delays up by the coast in Devon..so Ross has set off to collect her and buy chips for tea...gluten free for Pops too!

Jordan is writing labels for tomorrow's market using her calligraphy set; I think she likes the peacefulness of the candle lit kitchen with no whirring fridge or dishwasher..the only noise being Pops rummaging in the torch box to match good torches with working batteries!..accompanied by his odd reprise of Roy Orbisson's Only the Lonely...She has an ink bottle with scratchy pen and is now decorating a China teacup..whilst, she tells me, quietly panicking that if the power is not back on in the morning will she be able to bake for Thursday's markets.

In the sitting room the fire is glowing Red but the life of the room is on hold..no TV or corner lights..

It has been a mad couple of days. We had large boughs of the fir tree out the front removed as it seems the tree is leaning towards the road..and in the yard concrete wagons and heavy plant arriving to put right a 20 tonne load which didn't quite set just how we ordered. Imagine constant rain and pressure washing for 10 hours yesterday and almost the same this afternoon.. A baptism of fire for our lovely builder who has taken on our new smooth floor as his first big job!

And this is me.. blogging and depleting my mobile battery to tell my pals and Zac of our adventure as he has his own crossing to Hawaii to think of. . The last 15 day trip of the long 4 months he has been away..

..so I am off to preserve battery..my own Craft Heaven pic can wait til tomorrow. .meanwhile here is Jordan's. .

9pm..and power is back on..All is well..AND I didn't have to cook tea!

December Daily : Day 11

Jordan is making a whole village full of Gingerbread Houses between now and Christmas...

have a look at her Facebook page : CornishCakesAndBakes

Time flies! Picture heavy post!

I feel so bad for not joining into the challenge I set, I had so much to say about jobs and things and this week I love B&W pictures, Lynne's prompt was so clever.
i have added in some of my pics and hope they link in okay.

But we have just had a really busy time of it. I can't quite put my finger on what we have been doing but here I am two weeks later and no posts with news since 18th..

Soooo.. Kate got her GCSE results!  She did good.  My main aim was for her to get the C or above in Maths & English so she wouldn't have to slog away at these again once she starts the beauty course.  Well there was that B for maths in the bag last November so I was hopeful and sure enough she made the English a C and the box is ticked.   She got B equivalents in double dance and then a bunch of Cs in Science, Textiles and Childcare.  

I am a happy bunny, she had some teen angst (read boyfriend troubles) all through the exams so it must have been her coursework which pulled her through (not like in our day when it meant you had to 'pass' exams and wrote til your arm ached essays for about three hours at a time)

She is fun.. the other day she was saying that we should have a mother / daughter tattoo! So I go along and chat about it, no intention really...but as we left for her results i threw into conversation that the tattoo was a Go if she got an A .. now you have to realise I know how much she studies and my skin is safe!But she did get an A* in one piece of Childcare, I think coursework, but for me it shows that if she ever did want to turn on the exam ability then she does have it.

For now though she has 4 different jobs.. working at the Chinese, the Chippy, an Avon round and a few nights at the Indian which is next to the Chinese.. anyone in her town will definitely look twice when she pops up at the next eatery! She has a good work ethic and will never go without, I am content.

..these pictures of her prom day really do look different in B&W.. I had to use the 'overexposed' edit on my phone so it makes them quite extreme!






We have had the girls over quite a bit, April does a great job entertaining them, home made play dough, gardening, little sleeping beds for Joey the cat (who they were both terrified of a couple of months ago!)

Jordan has done her bit, she is baking Auntie!  Lyla is turning very funny while Lilly is quite mature and takes the big sister (disapproving sometimes) role quiet seriously!







We have eaten outside quite a bit and the kitchen is close (we had a bit of a glitch with the adjustment needing a fresh eye ) and Col just needs to do the plumbing in for me..






oh and here is an alternative August Mount View.. I was down there one evening and they floodlit the castle so this is another sad phone shot!

Just to keep it posted and up to date.. this is the local paper bit about Jordan and her pals..note that she has already inherited the Jones trait of 'relevant information / BS' as her A in Fine Art was an AS and she left out mention of her less satisfying English!  She will go far in sales and blarney xxxx


Lastly these shots of Col & his dad with Annabelle one evening when we had the girls over.. again a not great effect mode on my phone as I have no PC indoors to tweak pics on at the moment!

.. definitely a different viewpoint when you look at the two pictures Lynne x

Still here.. I can sing a Rainbow!

I was thinking that maybe the soapbox moment below sapped all my blogging energy as I have been absent the past 7 or 8 days, just a little busy, weary and not a lot to tell.. so that's okay isn't it?  I still keep an eye on the updates from almost everyone but it was only now I got here.. thought it best to write something before the new week's challenge begins!

Zac was home last weekend, he finished college early Thursday and had enough time to make the drive worth it and get three days at home, also he got to visit and see his new niece... awwwhh.. she is doing great, and so are the girls, still boisterous, bossy and bundles of energy, but that's children isn't it! 

We will have her over for a proper ophotoshoot tomorrow as Dad is off paintballing (new dad speak for complete-mental-replenishment-from-new-fatherhood!)

Saturday evening us two, Zac & Jordan went to PIzza Express in St Ives, calling for a gorgeous berry cocktail at the Hub first.. mmm, well that was just me, it's not really a 'man drink' (well not one a man would confess to anyway!)  I had a large wine with the meal and we had a real nice time.. but boy, I peaked way too soon, home by 9.30 and I was so so tired as we settled down to watch a film in front the fire... what a lightweight!

I did take this nice picture of the fire, which we have swapped using (damp) wood in for coal and it looks so yummy and we can even get it to stay 'in' overnight!

I was thinking this would make a good INDIGO for the rainbow colours challenge set by Janice this week over here! at Lucky Snapping.

I have really enjoyed seeing everyone's offerings and even learning a bit about the colour indigo off Wikipaedia... useless fact coming up.... Indigo, Orange and Violet are the only three colours named after 'something'.. Indigo is a dye by all accounts, I reckon we see it most in the dye on the inside of denim jeans.. ahah

Oh and in the week Col was away and I got down to a bit of crafting.. I finished a layout I started back in our December Just Scrapbooking class. We went back to basics and had a few challenges, one of the sketches I chose was this one, and you can see it.. just about.. in the layout below!

It was Jordan's 18th and she has swapped it out of the frame which used to have her 16th birthday layout, with a now un-friendly friend in it., good job your Dad always stays your Dad so she can keep the Coming of Age picture up for years! ;-)

I used a school achievement medal for ARt and some misic and also a pic of the plate for her dessert.. all the things she loves.. oh and then there is Dom! ;-)

I bought the Merry Christmas 2012 tags in the sale, they are great date reminders and I was organised enough to have the house Christmassed a good deal in time for her birthday last year so that day is our kind of day to start celebrating!

Happy 18th JB ...Love you xxxx

So.. today was scrapbooking over at Newlyn, we had some lovely messy time with gesso, inks and paints, all with a lose theme of board games, April came too and I think we switched her onto art journalling again.. result!...........

...........but more on that later this week.. for now this is a medley of my favourite colours of the rainbow images, I love how they are all features of nature and how colours in nature are rarely definitely one colour, but that the morph, as does a rainbow, through the whole spectrum....and I couldn't leave out Lilly in her rainbow dress could I? xxx 

This week's challenge..

...from LuckySnapping is happening over here!  Lynne has set us a nice thought provoking prompt for the week :

“There are 3 things that a child can teach an adult

To be happy for no reason

To be always be busy doing something

And to know how to demand – with all one’s might- what one wants” ~ Paulo Coelho

My questions to you

What makes you happy? Are you ever happy for no reason? Why?

What are you busy doing this week?

What do you want, wish for? Are you good at demanding what you want like children do?

So I asked my family, an amusing bunch and this is what they said :

What makes me happy?..When you have fed all your family and someone else does the dishes.

 Am I ever happy for no reason? Yes...

Why?... Generally because you have had three or more ports!

Thanks guys, but I cannot disagree.. more sensible thought out offerings will come as the week goes by!

.................................................

This is the view I had as I left my bedroom and looked out to the front garden this morning.. a sweet frosting of snow!  Later the view from my kitchen towards the yard, where my new extension will be ..sooooon!  (the builder is coming to see us Wednesday.. yay!)  

and this is the view out of my front door.. April who has joined the blogging crew, taking her revised 'snow' January view..

Work today and Lyla stayed home as poor Lisa lives about 5 miles higher than us, the snow was thicker and the roads are all downhill, so they enjoyed an extra weekend day. (btw the girls have been brilliant with Annabelle, Lilly even watched a whole film sitting holding her.. awhhh)

Col & I had a great surprise which was being kept from us.. Jordan got her braces off her teeth.. after almost three years of treatment, revealing and removing hidden teeth.. oh what a fabulous job they did.. .. ..... she hates today's picture as she says she looks spaced out, but hey, look at those pearly whites and I think she looks like my niece Jana, her cousin and I haven't seen that before!