The Great Outdoors

One of the great benefits of the beast shown above is that we have become 'outdoorsy family'. Our wellies have never had so much use. Weekend mornings that would ordinarily be spent faffing around in the house are now firmly spent in the outdoors whatever the weather, walking the dog.

Brighton has a huge selection of parks and woods and with the South Downs on our doorstep I think it's an amazing place to live with so much countryside and the beach too. These are from a visit to Stanmer Park, where the woods are just coming alive with tiny leaves appearing on the trees and bluebells springing up.

The dog moves at speed, 90% of my photos were of her tail disappearing out of shot.

Woods are a really good place to take kids,  I'm not sure if this is universal, but mine are obsessed with finding the biggest stick and then lugging it around nearly taking out your eyes, the eyes of strangers and their dog's eyes too.

Still it's all jolly, good, healthy stuff after apologising to those strangers, the kids were off in the woods making up adventures. A welcome alternative to trying to trying to get just one more game on the ipad. 

I love that when you get up high in Brighton, you get the view of this beautiful countryside in one direction and the sea in the other. The view of the sea always takes my breath away (not in this awful photo obviosuly, I should have climbed a tree or stood on someone's shoulders).

Of course in the woods, there are terrifying bears to watch out for. With muddy feet, aimed right at your coat.

I hope you all had a lovely weekend, and wishing you a happy week ahead!

Beside the seaside...

I realise that I often run the risk of this being a 'Visit Brighton' blog (I don't need to bother as that already exists). But it a great place to take photos and soak up the sun even on a cold day.

At this time of year, I find the winter suddenly gets to me (usually at the point when I think I have just beaten it). A trip to the beach certainly helped, it was really beautiful, sunny, bright, cold at the weekend, my favourite kind of weather.

Brighton has a big high, constantly shifting shingle beach to cope with the waves. Sometimes it is pushed right to the top of the beach or against the groynes making it impossibly steep to climb up (and great for hiding behind). You can't take 2 steps without having to empty your shoes.

It's very uncomfortable to sit on, but I like it's undulating and ever changing shape. Quite often after a storm you find starfish washed up on the strandline. What's your view; leave them or return them to the sea? I always try and put them back especially if they are way up on the high water line. I'm not sure if this is the right thing to do, but I find them hard to walk past.

The seagulls in Brighton are massive, if you visit with small (or medium-sized) kids, make sure to keep an eye on them or they may be plucked from you and flown out to sea. 

When we first drove to Brighton to find somewhere to live, we got completely lost (as we would many times more - it is a maze of one-way systems designed to confuse and terrify visitors). We drove in through Hove and I was dazzled by the amazing architecture there. This photo doesn't do it justice, but Adelaide Crescent was I think built to rival the Royal Crescent in Bath. There is a chance that I might have made that up.

The beach huts on the seafront have to be a particular colour on the roof and sides. According to the council, 'the shade of green blends with the seascape' how nice. There will of course always be someone who doesn't comply with the rules. That beach hut ended up on ebay for £24. 

That's my Brighton infomercial over for the day. If you need anymore dubious facts about Brighton that may or may not be made up, you know where to come.

Brighton

This Sunday it was free to get into the Brighton Royal Pavillion. Whenever we walk past, the kids always ask to go in, but it's pretty expensive. So this was the perfect chance to explore for free.

 

Unfortunately, the rest of Brighton has the same idea, so we went to the pier instead.

You can just see the remains of the old West Pier in the distance in the photo below. I used to love that pier, it was so beautiful, eclipsing it's brash neighbour, the Palace Pier. When we first moved to Brighton we lived quite near to it and I used to love walking along the beach in the evening and seeing the swallows move around the pier as a huge flock, I think 'murmuration' is the word. Sadly, this was the end of the West Pier.

In that brash pier though, it is brilliant fun to waste someone else's 2p's in a machine that will give you one back for every 10 you put in. And so addictive, all around you, you can hear the sound of machines throwing out money (although I think this is mostly the ones that give you change to feed into them). The kids love it, see the look of addiction/joy on my son's face in the bottom left below, we pretty much had to drag him out.

Brighton now has it's own big wheel on the seafront. I haven't been on it myself, it went up really quickly before Christmas, one day there was a quarter wheel, then a half, then a full circle.

I used instagram on my husband's iPhone to take these photos, it makes me yearn to join the rest of the population and buy one, just so I can use this app. It was a bit hard today as it was really bright at times (hence the first photo looking like it was taken at night) but the filters are so clever and make an average photo look wonderful. Anyone else use it?

I hope you have had a lovely Sunday,

Kate
x

Brighton shops

The cake display in Choccywoccydoodah

A few highlights from our trip to Brighton this morning. There is a road in Brighton that seems to be attracting lots of chocolate shops. But the mother of all chocolate shops is Choccywoccydoodah. If you visit Brighton, you must see it. The shop is pretty small, but has the most amazing creations like the cakes in their window.

Cable and cotton

This shop looked really pretty. Not sure about the concept though; you create a string of lights by choosing the colour balls. It did look lovely though, and I have always been one to judge a book by it's cover.

The sweet shop Fizziwigg's always has the most amazing displays. Note the clawing hands of my children in the next photo.

sweet zombies

 

And of course the pier.

Hope you are having a happy weekend,

Kate
x

Clay, pixel blocks and bandages

 cool bandage huh? I did egg the nurse on a bit...

Whilst I wouldn't say that we had grand plans for this bank holiday weekend, there is so much going on in Brighton this weekend, I felt sure we could find something fun to do. But one ill-fated trip to the park, a foot vs slide mishap and a couple of hours in the wonderful Brighton A&E  finds me house bound with my beloved and bandaged girl.

a master craftsman at work

So, this would seem like and excellent excuse to get a bit of crafting done. I saw somewhere on the interweb a tutorial involving clay, cookie cutters and shells. And seeing as we have a lot of shells from our holiday and clay is brilliant fun I made a mental note to try it out. I picked up some no fire clay today and got out the cookie cutters which have definitely been used more for craft than cookies. Anyway, I don't need cookie cutters now that I have the best ever cookie recipe.

a doorbell maybe, she is a very creative crafter

This activity didn't pass as much time as I would have hoped. Maybe I should have tied one hand behind their backs to slow them down a bit. That seems a bit cruel for a child already bandaged though. I'm sure they looked rather more spectacular on that lost tutorial, but it was fun, and when they have air dried in 4 years time, we'll paint them.

somewhere under those shells is a star

Another thing I have been meaning to blog about for ages is Pixel Blocks. My husband brought some back from a trip to the US, I've struggled to find a link for the UK but they did have them on Firebox at one point. They are amazing, like 3D Lego blocks that you can connect in all directions, have a look at the link for an explanation. The kids love them as do I. They come with a book of ideas, but my daughter is old enough to make up her own stuff now.

This is not modelled on me, 
I have short hair and 4 fingers on each hand

Apparently they are popular amongst geeky designer types, and you can create amazing stuff out of them, 2D or 3D. Take a look at the Flickr group.

a dog, obviously

I'd recommend them for 4 years + my (4 year old) son loves them, great for fine motor skills and general concentration. When it rained last week we made zoo animals. (Don't get me wrong, we also watched telly and bickered).

 a panda, and next, a honey badger (this is a joke)

Here's a close up...

you want them don't you?

So, my bank holiday weekend so far, I'm hoping the remainder is less eventful.

Under a stormy sky

It seems like this black cloud has anchored itself over Brighton at the moment. But after a weekend of spending a little too much time inside, on Sunday, we decided it was time to venture out.

With a end of year school reports and 5 metre swimming badges to celebrate, we headed to Scoop and Crumb, for hot dogs and ice cream. The basis of any balanced diet.

You almost don't have space for the ice cream after a hot dog, but in the tradition of having a stomach for main and another for pudding, we managed to squeeze in a sundae.

If you find yourself in Brighton, it's a great place for kids or grown ups and it's right next to the beach and pier.

We walked off our considerable lunch through town, stopping to enjoy the South London Jazz Orchestra who happened to be playing in the Pavillion Gardens. Our son was unable to stop himself dancing to the jazz. It was was of those moments you want to take a snap shot of and remember forever. Fortunately I had my camera, so I filmed it AND took a photo. I have a rubbish memory anyway.

I must have taken a hundred photos of Brighton Pavillion, but I still couldn't help myself from taking another, the silhouette is amazing against the sky.

Is there anything more dangerous than a young child with an umbrella? The only consolation was that pranging unsuspecting pedestrians took their minds off the long walk back.

We always stop off at the scrambling wall. As usual the kids were in their crocs, probably the least practical shoes ever for climbing in. How I wish I had invented crocs.

And wherever you are in Brighton, you will always find a massive seagull somewhere with it's beady eye on you. It's worth watching out for them, and if you are eating something or walking with a small dog or child, hang on tight.

Charley Harper Exhibition in Brighton

Nothing makes my heart sing more than the news that there will be a Charley Harper exhibition, in Brighton, I can't wait!

It's at one of my favourite shops on the seafront Castor + Pollux where there have previously been Angie Lewin and Rob Ryan exhibitions - my 3 favourite artists.

The reveal...

Finally after a long, long weekend of sewing, I finished my dress late on Monday night and handed it in at the end of my pattern cutting course last night. It's not the best photo, and my attempts to photograph my tired and grumpy self in it were hopeless. I will try and post another when I get it back from being assessed, with me in it.

Am I pleased with the dress? yes and no. I am really pleased with the way it is made, the neckline which was tricky, but the rest was fairly straightforward, it just all took a lot longer than I expected. However, I did take my time, and as a result I enjoyed it more than usual. The blind-stitched hem that I did by hand is a particular joy to me. It looks like one on a dress I bought from Jigsaw a few years back for a wedding, and that makes me feel quite proud.

I loved sewing with the voile, it's such a beautiful fabric to wear. I will definitely make something else from it, especially now I know how to work with it, the French seams and smaller needle turned out well. As did stay stitching the curves to stop any stretch.

I can see problems with the fit, the top and neckline look as I'd hoped, but the idea of having the dress gathering at the waist didn't really work out. There isn't enough gather for it to look pleated and the extra volume I created means that the fit wasn't as snug as I'd hoped from the bust down. I wonder if it was even possible, and maybe I should have created a separate top and skirt. But it is complete, my first garment, designed and made by me. My first evening course completed.

I would definitely recommend an evening course in pattern cutting or anything else for that matter. I really enjoyed the weekly escape to do my own thing, just for me, learning a new skill and meeting new people. Ordinarily being placed in the middle of a group of complete strangers most of whom were 10 years my junior wouldn't be my idea of fun, but guess what - it was! I was quite sad to leave the sewing room last night for the last time.

What next? it will be nice to free up some of my precious spare time, sew at my own pace, start a few new sewing projects that I can finish in less time. I'm collecting pictures of (mostly) dresses as inspiration for when I do decide to have a go at another pattern. As I am no clothes designer, I need an idea to work from, designing a dress from scratch was definitely the hardest part of the course for me.

Is any one else thinking of doing a course? do let me know. I am lucky in Brighton, there are so many to choose from, screen printing is in the back of my mind, maybe in the Autumn...

Snowy days and days...

And still it snows in Brighton. On a trip to the supermarket earlier to get the essentials, bread, milk, courgette, etc my husband said it was like an apocalypse, panic buying, huge queues, I'm glad I wasn't there. Thankfully we have our supplies now, all except the courgette, which was no where to be found in a crisis. I read on another blog about 'french toast alerts' issued ahead of snow, as the shops run out of bread, eggs and milk. It's very Brighton to also run out of courgette.

Fear not though, the post office is still open and all M is for make orders are being sent off and winging their way to you as we speak.