A Weekend Retreat ::

This weekend, I headed off into the countryside where I found myself staying in a cabin on a farm surrounded by the most wonderful ladies.

 

The weekend was a celebration of the birthday of Joanne (Not So Granny), we walked, we ate, we drunk gin and we crocheted lots.

It was the perfect medicine for the events of the previous weeks. I came away feeling so calm and relaxed and inspired.

We stayed in the Damson Cabin at The Hatch booked through Canopy and Stars and I cannot recommend it highly enough. It was such a beautiful location with everything we needed for a weekend, we didn't leave the farm once.

A weekend away from everything in the company of such beautiful, inspiring ladies was magical indeed.

Weekending ::

A little bit of our weekend, in pictures in a mini movie ::

Monday Mini Movies :: March 15th from vicki brown on Vimeo.

Weekending ::

What a gloriously sunny weekend it was. It really feels like spring is here. It was so warm on Saturday we didn't even need our coats and I've even begun to hang washing on the line, pure bliss.

Due to the wonderful weather we spent a lot of time out and about this weekend, Saturday I took the babies to the library followed by lunch at Milo's favourite Smokey Joe's. Then on to meet Johnny at the barbers for haircuts for the boys.

Sunday morning we headed out early for the cinema, where we watched Planes, Fire and Rescue. You know, it was actually a lot better than I was expecting, I'm not a huge fan of those movies, though that may be due to the million and three times I've had the pleasure of watching the original Cars movie.
Followed by lunch at the fabulous Mexican place we've been meaning to visit for ages. It was so good and so reasonable too

I went for a run with Bex in the afternoon. It was super tough, I'm not sure why, but oh my it was. We've both been under the weather for various reasons the last few weeks and been missing runs here and there so I expect that may have something to do with it. I'm still keen to keep going though, partly because when we're not desperately trying to catch out breath it's lovely to see Bex and have a little gossip.

I've been joining in with Xanthe Berekely over on Instagram for #mondayminimovies inspired by the creating time capsules course. Making a little movie of our weekend to share on Monday. I'm really enjoying it, it's inspiring me to capture the little moments of our weekend and put it together in to a little 15 second clip. Here is this weeks ::


Monday Mini Movies :: March 7th from vicki brown on Vimeo.

Weekending ::

A little bit of our weekend in pictures.

Mostly a quiet one, with lots of crochet, cuddles with the babies and good food.

Weekending ::

We had another pretty lazy weekend this week. Friday night saw our local cricket clubs big firework display. As the cricket pitch is literally at the end of our road, we stayed home and watched from our doorstep with some of our neighbours. I had great plans of mulled cider, toffee apples and popcorn, but I also got it into my head that the display was Saturday night not Friday, so instead we ordered pizza and made do with left over halloween treats.

On Saturday Milo and I went out to lunch then made up for it's absence the previous evening, by making popcorn and mulled cider (apple juice) in the evening. The rest of the day was mostly Lego and watching the Simpsons.

Sunday Milo decided we should start our Christmas shopping, I'm not entirely sure why, but off we popped into town. We didn't get a lot done but we made a start. I also got Milo a gorgeous new hoodie, which he positively hates, as can be seen in the photo below. Though he has assured me he'll wear it if makes me happy!

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend and have a fabulous week.

Weekending ::

It feels like we had a long weekend this week, because Friday seems to have added itself on to the beginning there. As it was half term, Halloween and the mr took the afternoon off work, Friday definitely merged itself into our weekend.
Milo had his best friend stay over on Thursday night for the first time. He's been to others for sleepovers but never had one here before so as you can imagine there was much excitement and not much sleeping. Friday morning I prepared ghostly pancakes for the sleep deprived monsters! I thought they were fab (super simple too, I just made a ghostly shape with the batter and added currants for the eyes and mouth). Cries of 'errr what's the black stuff' were shouted in unison when they were presented and then they both proceeded to remove the eyes and mouths, but it's the thought that counts right?!
Friday afternoon Milo had a Halloween party to attend. So he got to don his 'man eating spider' costume a little early. Not wanting Effie to feel left out I whipped her up a little ghost costume in the morning. The party was great fun. Milo had a fabulous time, lots of halloween inspired party games and sweets!

After arriving home there was just enough time for a bit of supper before heading out trick or treating. We're so lucky to live on a really friendly street with lots of families.

There's always lots of houses taking part and we get together with some of the other boys on the street and they have a great time. I've read a lot this week of people who are really opposed to the whole trick or treating culture. Personally I love it. Having spent every Halloween from age 6-16 in the states for Halloween, it was a big holiday for me growing up. My sister and I dressed up every year and traipsed the streets with hordes of American children, it was so much fun and I felt that sense of community even then.
I understand however that it's not for everyone, as a child the rule was always 'if the porch light is off you don't knock'. It always seemed a pretty strict rule to me, certainly one you didn't break. The rule we give our boys is, 'if it has a pumpkin you can knock'. We never ever knock on doors without. Personally I'm so pleased it's become a bigger thing over here and I hope it stays that way.

On Saturday we headed up to the grand opening of Cheltenham's new toy superstore 'Smyths'. Milo was so excited by this prospect and I don't think he was disappointed! As soon as we walked through the door he came face to face with a huge wall of lego. He shrieked with excitement. It was nice for him to see all the really big sets he's been adding to his Christmas list, in the flesh. He was physically shaking with pure joy on seeing the Simpsons house!
After that a quick pit stop at wholefoods, where Milo consumed at meringue the size of his head before heading home for a supper of Moules Marineres and left over reheated pizza!

Sunday was super quiet for us, I don't think any of us left our pjs all day. The boys worked hard on sorting the lego collection whilst I baked cookies and attempted to sneak a little knitting in here and there.
All in all it was a lovely one.

Weekending ::

This past weekend, Effie met her Grandad (on my side) for the first time and Milo acquired said Grandad's childhood train track.  I think you can probably guess which of those things Milo would declare the most exciting.

I hadn't seen my Dad and his wife since the summer holidays, so it was lovely to see them and have Effie meet yet more of her family. It's been such a joy having all these people come to see us, Milo gets especially excited, spending at least an hour before anyone's arrival asking if he can go wait on the doorstep for them.

We went to Jamie's Italian for lunch. If you're local Cheltenham and haven't been I thoroughly recommend it, for the courtroom seating and dungeon toilets alone. Though the food is pretty good too!

On Sunday we mostly had a lazy one, investigating Milo's new train set, keeping out of the rain, eating popcorn and watching Jurassic Park, which Milo mostly declared 'boring' much to mine and Johnny's dismay.

All in all it was a lovely weekend.

Weekending ::

We had a lovely weekend, trying to get out and make the most of the last couple of days of sunshine before today's storms took over.
Effie is now 2 weeks old, I'm feeling completely recovered, we're pretty settled into our new life and I'm happy enough with feeding to brave doing it outside the comfort of our home, slowly going mad inside the same 4 walls I'm now so eager to get out and about!  So that's exactly what we did.

Saturday we headed out to lunch at Cheltenham's newest eatery Bill's.  We tried it out the first weekend they opened, but weren't massively impressed, however after giving it another go I'd happily say we'll almost certainly be going back again. The food was really good, the risotto I had for my main was especially delicious, I really enjoyed the atmosphere and the staff were really attentive and friendly.

On Saturday we headed down to the Cheltenham Literature Festival site. Being unsure of when the baby would arrive back when the tickets went on sale I held off buying any, then of course once Effie arrived I was much too preoccupied staring at her beautiful face.  Therefore I missed out on tickets for all the wonderful events I was super keen to go to. I guess there's always next year. We still had fun exploring the site and fortunately Milo gets to go up with the school tomorrow to attend one of the children's events.

We had a lovely weekend, today I'm bunkering down, spending the day snuggling with my gorgeous girl and keeping well and truly inside out of the wind and the rain.
Here's to a lovely week to you all.