my new kenwood love

i have been after a food mixer for ages but when we looked at the prices of the new kitchenaid mixers, and the new kenwood mixers we were horrified and decided that we would wait for a bit. 

then we saw this retro beauty. i love it more than the new ones. it works great and i am amazed at how much it can do. so far i have the dough hook, balloon whisk and k beater (for cakes). if i wanted i could get a mincer, coffee grinder and  liquidiser amongst many other things. not sure if i am going to save up for the sausage filler or pasta maker. anyway i just thought i would share its orange loveliness with you all.

 

ambika x

Rainy days

There is a constant drizzle and hazy fog which has now been with us for a few days. So today we did a wet day after school art project. Wallpaper lining paper was spread across the full length of the table and every medium i could find in my cupboard was found. paint, glitter, glitter glue, magazines, scissors, pens, and crayons all went into creating this scene from our town. (it's the jubilee street party which has not yet happened) 

this is francisco and sookie being lifted up by balloons

this is trematon castle

the only issue now is what do i do with it?

moments to savour

these days seem to race by in a flurry of activity, especially since my sweet boy has started school. sometimes i feel as though i hardly have time to take a breath let alone remember  and enjoy these moments with my little ones. and i so want to remember. a long bank holiday weekend was a good reminder to just slow down and relax. and that's just what we did. the pretty much constant rain didn't worry us one bit. we snuggled for a little longer in bed in the mornings, made it up as we went along and snuggled some more with lots of giggles thrown in for good measure.

 ps the sunny pictures are from the week before, when we had one day without rain!

 hope your weekend was relaxing too,

 sarada xx

a new venture, and a new adventure

my friend alison and i are both in more or less the same situation. we both have one child who is in school during the day, we both want to work, but neither of us are prepared to compromise with breakfast and after school clubs. basically we want to spend as much time with our young children as possible while still earning a little money. This over the last year has proved harder than i thought, so i am looking at our new venture as an exciting adventure, i can't wait to see where it goes.

we have started producing our own natural soaps. Below is a small selection of the soaps we have produced for our first stall at our local mayfair next weekend.

if you want to see more of our soaps have a look at our recently created facebook page and if you think it's good  please "like" us. feels very odd saying this but we are trying to get the word out every which way we can. very soon we will be selling them online. thanks for looking

ambika x

making and waiting

after a wonderful easter spent away with family we are adjusting to familiar routines and spending a lot of time indoors as it's been raining so much. the allotment will certainly appreciate it, and there is something lovely about coming indoors from heavy rain and getting all cosy. i made these two bears for recent birthdays and i keep checking out the windows to see if the ornamental cherry tree at the back of us is in bloom yet. it won't be long till its cheery pink blossom appears.

sarada xx

one walk

every morning i do the school run and then take sookie up to the fields for her morning walk. i never grow tired of this place and feel so lucky that we have all of this on our door step.


she's good company our little pup. she trots along next to me, stopping when i stop and discovering all the wonders of the outside world.











i often look at her when we get home fast asleep in her basket and totally understand where the phrase it's a dogs life comes from.

ambika

a good start

it's always good to start the day with a little drawing time outside, even if all you want to draw on is everything apart from the paper that mummy has laid out in front of you. and pulling the lids off and on is so much fun. stan had to wear an easter bonnet for a special parade and breakfast this morning before the start of school and we somehow managed to get there early even though we are usually late. i taped some daffodils from the allotment onto his sun hat. we decided against donating our hot cross buns for communal use as the baby had managed to chew them into crumbs through the plastic wrapping, so we sat there and ate them ourselves. and there wasn't a parade so we said goodbye to my school boy and back home we went to wait in for the electrician. and now i am so glad school is out. that means we can have a snuggle in bed tomorrow morning and get to the serious business of reading winnie the pooh. and we are away visiting family for a few days too, it will be lovely.

sarada xx