Shopping

I'm a woman, so I'm a shopper, I like it or not :)

We all are making some shopping from time to time - clothes, food, books, games, gifts... lots of things :) and we all used online shopping at least once in our lives :)

Hand up if you never shop online!

I know online shopping taking away face to face chatting with seller, chance to try things before buying,but that how  it's works.

Shopping webs giving us a chance to find items we're looking for and we have problems with finding it, so more and more things we are buying this way.

If we like handmade stuff, we can check webs selling handmade items.

To be honest with you I like handmade pieces  and even if I'm crafter and can make stuff for myself I'm still buying pieces I like :)

My last buy - gorgeous earrings with dragons from Genevieve from https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/CreationsGEBO.

Genevieve is from Quebec, Canada and she's very crafty person. In her shop offer you can find earrings, rings and necklaces - beautiful pieces!

Here my new earrings from her shop - received by post today (very fast delivery).

Just love them :) 

If you like handmade items check:

https://www.etsy.com/

or

https://folksy.com/

You can find handmade also on Ebay and Amazon :)

Pirates, jewellery...

Passing week was full of work, fun and thinking...

Cooking plans changed a bit cause my partner catch cold and requested cream-soup one more time in this week :) No extra costs, cause had everything needed at home :)

I was thinking what we could eat during our next week (including Easter) plus where to take Dom for him to have some fun during his Easter holiday. Cooking plans already in place :) Some of activities for Dom planned too - we are going for Easter Egg hunt to our fave community centre and next week we will go to Hancock Museum to meet Gruffalo :) If weather will be good we'll play in the garden, have a walk to the park, port or beach :)

Yesterday we took Dom to Tynemouth to see Pirate Maze... and we had great time :)

Jack Sparrow :)

Daddy, is it safe to sleep with gun? 

This rum is mine!!!

Hmmm... Hope his not cold...

Dom had lots of fun walking pirates plank with Daddy and looking for stamps for his treasure map. He found them all and received a Treasure - choco coins :)

During the week I found a bit of time to play with beads. Made some new pieces for my shop and something for myself. Also back to my old project and even tried something new.

New bracelets for girls - early teens - already in my etsy shop offer :)

Something for me - deep purple with a hint of silver :)

First time with asymmetrical jewellery...

Back to old :) Very long and gipsy earrings. I think sari silk looks better on this project then ribbon I used previously, but this is just my opinion :)

And this is all for today for me to write... Hope my grammar not killing, never was good with it :)

Cooking, saving, tasting?

Last weekend we agreed with my man that we need to do something to keep our dinners tasty and variable with not spending fortune on them and have a chance to delicately push Dom to eating more.

So... we sat and planned our dinners for whole week ahead. We bought most of ingredients during weekend with just few left till they'll be needed.

I have to say - we are sticking with our plan so far and to be honest with you I'm not buying more then bread, fresh fruits and juice in my current day-to -day shopping.

Till today we had:
* meat goulash with mashed potatoes & sliced cornichons
*veggie cream soup with cheesy&garlicky toasties
*lecso (my version of traditional Hungarian stew )
*lemon&garlic chicken with herby rice ( new recipe )
*Pea, ricotta & ham pasties

After tasting we decided that our l&g chicken need some little changes - less lemon juice and maybe more garlic.

Still in plan we have:
*jacket potatoes with cottage cheese with spring onions
* mixed bean patties with big colourful salad.

Dom is rather picky so far... He didn't touch goulash or lecso, ate cheesy toasties, handmade buns (added as extra to lecso :), lots of boiled rice ( tried chicken, but wasn't impressed), ate biscuits made from pasties dough ( he cut them out with cookie cutters) with extra ham on his plate.

Hope he'll be less fussy some time soon, cause he's starting full time school in September and will be eating dinners there. Fingers crossed for that :)

Around the UK part 2 :)

We really like our trips around the UK. So many places to see :)

At the moment we are not travelling too far cause Dom going crazy if we are too long in the bus... hmmm maybe train will change that :)

We still remember our trip to Lake District - middle of October 2006 - amazing weather, like in mid of Summer - around 20 degrees...

From the bus

another view from the bus

Windermere Lake :)

We were in Chester - nice place even when raining :)

Beautiful monument  - you can find it in Chester Cathedral

In the front of Cathedral.

Hopefully some day soon we will show Beamish to our boy - amazing place - time just stopped there.

Just like in movies...

Trains - something for Dom :)

He will love it - I'm sure :) We did :)

We took so many photos when travelling, we still taking a lot, and we have many more trips to make and so many thing and places to show to our boy. We hope he will like travelling as much as we do.

Dinosaur day?

Looks like today was Dinosaur Day for Dom :)

At nursery they had stories about dinosaurs and Dom was naming dinosaurs - now ladies there know that T-Rex is his fave :)
He back home with beautiful red paper long-necked dinosaur :)

And at home surprise was waiting for him - two pack of cards with dinosaurs sent to him by etsy friend from USA - Lynn you are a star!!! Thanks a lot!

You all should see his face when we opened packs :) 

Dom's second round with dino cards :)

Here few of them... Very nice pictures :)

We'll try to teach him some new names with these cards for sure :)

Baking Club and plans for Easter

Foggy week.... Just little bit of sun... Hope that will change for better for weekend.

Sometimes I feel like a barometer... Headaches when pressure is going up and down... moody and tired when see no sun... sleepy during the day and totally not during night time.. crazy isn't it?

Ah, well... getting old I think :)

On Tuesday Dom had his first day in Baking Club at nursery and I think he enjoyed it, cause 'talked' a lot after I picked him up :)

They were making Gruffalo Crumble - hmmmm tasty :)

There were also tasting veggies and dips - I'm not surprised he dislike hummus ( all things with texture of mash potatoes has no chance with him, he's just not touching it).

His files from first Club day contains recipes for Gruffalo Crumble and fruity salsa - we will practice both for sure :) I'm curious what they'll try next time.

For me this week except not specially nice weather is good - had bit more time for myself :), added vintage style cards to my etsy shop offer, thinking about trying new cake for Easter :), planning what we will do with Dom during his Easter break, which is not easy, cause have no idea what weather will be around that time...

I hope for a bit of sunshine, then I can take him for walk to park or on the beach or just go for bus trip somewhere :) I want him to enjoy weather and maybe we will have a chance to see more blooming plants and more animals :)

Snowdrops near Seaton Delaval Hall

Bird between Blyth dunes

Last week...

Last week was some kind of busy...

I was at doctors to find out I don't need antibiotics any more - happy me :)
Then I add Dom's name to new Baking and Cooking Club at nursery - first day tomorrow :)

On Friday I made new earrings - for myself :)

Also received my crafty mag with beautiful fairy stamps, which I decided to use for vintage style birthday cards - made two so far during weekend :)

Dom paint some new masterpieces :) Four on Friday and two on Sunday :) Busy boy :)

He loves lots of colours on his paintings :)

We had nice Saturday - with some walk on the beach - Dom tried to be away from water as much as possible - smart, cause water is really cold at this time of year.

Sunday gave us sunny weather, so we took Dom to Seaton Delaval Hall ( he never was there before).

Beautiful building

Dom was amazed, he wanted snaps everywhere :)

Sun clock in gardens :)

Back of the garden with Hall in view :)

Dom, huge tree and daffodils :)

Contemplating stone frog in the pond :)

After little picnic in the gardens and decision we'll back to Seaton Delaval Hall during Summer we took our way back home. Could be easy with catching bus - 15 minutes or so and we could be home, but we wanted to use so nice day and we walk home - 4 miles mostly through sand dunes between Seaton Sluice and Blyth :) We were shattered but happy :)

Beautiful view isn't it?

Dom was choosing the way :)

We saw there some amazing singers - here one of them :)

Now we are waiting for another so nice weekend, cause we prefer to be outside then stuck at home. Fingers crossed weather will be good for us.

Bead soup necklace and T-Rex :)

We had crazy Friday... Not much sleep cause Dom was sick... My poor boy...

We tried to have more sleep last night, but... that was just our wish.. :)

Dom drank lots of water, ate just a bit, but felt much better then on Friday evening and today he is old himself :)

So... yesterday when Dom was playing with Daddy I took few bracelets I made ages ago, like this one:

My first and last crochet bracelet so far...

I recycled beads from 4 bracelets , then connected them with copper eyepins and jump rings, added lobster clasp and tassel made with sari silk and copper cone and the result is long layering necklace which can be also wear as wrapping/layering bracelet - 5 nice wraps for wrist size 7 - so not my wrist, cause mine is size 6 :)

Necklace

or bracelet :)

I'm sure you are thinking now: 'What she meant by T-Rex in post title?' :) 

Answer for it: We were on a walk before midday today. Bought some bread and pickles and wanted to go near river for a bit... Dom decided differently :) We finished in other shop ( Aldi store ), and he found box with T-Rex :) Toy for 7+ when his even not 4 yet :) but try to say 'no' - melodramatic scene as sure as rain in England :) 

We knew one thing - he will need help cause this toy set is: Dig, discover and assemble thing :) 

We spend 2 hours crashing  'block of earth' made from mix of plaster, sand and pumice, then cleaning and assembling T-Rex for Dom :) That was hard job - no jokes.

I'll help you Daddy!

This is a job for my dump truck :)

I'll keep it for you Daddy!

Look, T-Rex bones!

Just a bit of cleaning in water :)

My T-Rex!!!

Hard to call it toy for boy of his age, but Dom was impressed. We are hoping he'll not find similar 'toy' any time soon :)

Vintage Easter card

I love vintage/shabby chic style cards, but never try make one.

So today, when playing with tag puncher and stamps with Dom, he loves using puncher :) , I decided that I'll give a go :) .

I stamped image and sentiment in chocolate brown on cream card and add some delicate colouring on image.

Then I was in proper dilemma with papers and ribbons :)

After some thinking, inking, distressing and sticking papers together...

Right side of card

Left bottom corner

Left top corner

Full view :) 

I used light pinky floral paper, piece of pink paper, and yellowish paper as layering for stamp and sentiment. I inked and distressed rants of each piece of paper to gain 'old look' effect :)

I think card looks nice - but pic is bit too dark...