Category: Family life
Easters Hols..
This is the last full day of term. Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaay! Time for books to be put aside and real life to start. These are a few of the projects on the list…
(All details Pinterest)
Now we play!
Laters, Kate x
Front door x
After 14 years of council-style reinforced glass the front door finally got it’s makeover on Friday.
The before picture! Complete with piece of paper stuck on with door number scribbled on it. Attractive.
The finished design by Nikki (click for her details) was beautifully based on the doors we have between the kitchen/diner and the sitting room.
The result is a delight, especially when the sun pours through and creates rainbows on the walls.
Above we’ve gone for simplicity of plain glass and the number to let in as much light as possible.
The added bonus was that Keith-the-amazing-stained-glass-man turned up in his pre-war Singer car! How supper cool?
A charming success in every way!
Laters, Kate x
LOL x
I wish I’d seen this when mine were tiny….though it still has resonance today.
Enjoy the weekend
Laterz, Kate x
Underworld x
Our urban weekend, with many of the pictures taken by Bella.
Laters, Kate x
Wood Craft x
It’s half term so we’ve been busy doing very little. One thing we have achieved is a bit of stick weaving…a strangely satisfying art form…first you need to find a good selection on Y-shaped sticks = outside jaunt.
Then wrap each side of the Y.
To do this you tie the string on, then create a loop at the back.
Then bring the other end through the loop and pull tight.
Continue till both sides are done.
We measured two arm lengths of string for the next bit. (This is Bella doing her Christ the Redeemer impression)
Using a large darning needle (new it would come in useful) weave between the two sides to create the horizontal lines.
Ta-dah!
Finally weave wool in V shapes vertically from one side to the next. This is Bella’s finished creation.
Being an adult, I wanted mine tighter…therefore it’s still a work in progress…
Surprisingly satisfying.
Laters, Kate x
Snow Babies..
I’ve read that personalities can be divided into two camps – cowboys and farmers. The cowboys are the restless ones, always roaming and seeking new pastures whilst the farmers solidly plough the same field over and over again. Our ski holiday embraced everything cowboy: Constantly on the go, incredible scenery, crisp air, the smell of wood smoke, peace (piste…and pissed as well) as well as a true sense of wonder.
A fusion of manmade and natural – an icicle chandelier.
We were in La Rosiere on the French side of the Aosta valley, ski-able into Italy. And by all accounts, were lucky to have snow.
They were using snow cannons when we first arrived, but as the runs were in full sun it still made for great conditions. And then it snowed.
I’ve never seen this before – three rainbows, one on top of the other, made by the sun refracting through ice crystals in the air.
It always amazes me how slopes look flat in pictures!
We decided Charlie is really a secret snowboarder!
And what did I wear?? John’s old two-piece from the eighties! Maybe not quite pure vintage swagger, but on a ski slope..the joy is no-one cares!
And now I suppose it’s time to return to farming…and wrestling with the Einstein quote that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
The silver lining is our holiday proved that perfectly decent wheels can aways be reinvented..
Laters, Kate x
Christmas x
The chandelier is decorated. Tick.
New mirror inserted. Tick.
Large star in kitchen? Tick.
Christmas tree? Done. Finally got the damn lights to work.
Elves? Here. Every day. When we remember..normally in bed at midnight..
Christmas to do list? Still long – buy presents, wrap presents, hunt holly, find mistletoe, find stockings, clean chimneys, make gingerbread houses, ice cake, plant carrots. It’s still reading like something the sorcerer would leave for his apprentice except without the hope of any magic. So what am I going to do today? I’m going to add a bright pink trim to the side of our kilim stair carpet.
Just because I can.
Laters, Kate x
Christmas Fair x
It sort of reached peak Christmas in the Bentley household at the end of last week – a festive mishmash of hosting meals for many, nights out and the culmination of 4 weeks of creative playdates with Bella and 4 friends to help produce stock to sell at the School Christmas Fair. The idea was simple – to show them the cost and effort it takes to turn raw ingerdients into real money.
But it played into my love as well – to me, sitting around a table making is what Christmas is all about.
We had an amazing amount and variety of stock. Spot the pompom Christmas puds? An excellent seller!
And we virtualy sold out – before costs, the girls made £395 on the day! Not to be sniffed at.
Damn. They might want to do it again…
Laters, Kate x
Mwaohahahaaaaaaaa!
We embraced the chaos of Halloween last night..so much so I have very few pictures, hence this is a montage produced from various sources with thanks to all who had their fingers – severed or otherwise – on the button!
Until next year!
Laters, Kate x
Hastings..2016
It was pure fluke we arranged a holiday in Hastings at the exact time of their 1066 celebrations to mark 950 years since the famous battle which changed English history.
The enactment put on by English Heritage was epic, both in terms of scale and quality: The sheer attention to detail was a joy to behold with every costume cared for down to the last buttonhole.
Running up to the battlefield was a row of shops to supply us and any soldiers with their daily needs: boar hides, leather satchels, knives, jewellery, bone needles, hand loomed blankets, buckles and beer all hewn and authentically made so that seeing enactors interacting genuinely felt like a step back in time.
On either side of the battlefield were the camps of the Normans and Saxons, true living and breathing hives of activity.
From cooking food and tending livestock to weaving and making music.
The day was packed with individual events, including a falconry show. This is the closest I’ve ever got to a real golden eagle.
And so the battle began..
(The irony of the jester watching on..)
It was fabulous!
Laters, Kate x
Maison Bentley Style 