that was summer 2015 (part 2)

24 August 2015

So this is round two of my summer catch-up posts!

Now that me and my mister share looking after our daughter AND running the shop, we had very little time this summer together (this is a short term thing!). I don't take the camera with me all the time obviously but my mister is always better organised about these things, and he took some photos of trips with the tot to the local beaches, belly boarding and crabbing off the pier...

(prehistoric crabbing line and filthy dress well documented here)

Unfortunately although crabs were caught, they decided the bucket wasn't for them, and released their grip on the tasty prawns and fell back into the sea.

In other news, we went to London for a short work related trip, and decided to all go. (sugary naughties also well documented here).

Littlun here displaying her pigeon on one leg impression.

We parked in front of her favourite London playground...and then took a trip to west end, Nao bought a new tote bag, which we found quite handy at the time...

Before going home, we awoke early and drove to Kempton market. We were quite surprised at the bargains we found there.

The littlun found a toy phone, (although I should say that it's not an original one) but she liked it just the same, so thats fine by me ; )

After phoning Father Christmas to request a Buzz Lightyear, she dragged it through the market at much annoyance of the other people there I'm sure.

My mister bought a funny French bike (which was quite pricey I thought!) but he loves it! He 'commutes' the 100 yards to our shop on it!

Other things we bought...

a homemade wooden town, £20

Tiny bobble hat (free with jacket)

sewing bits and bobs (£2 each)

wooden beads (free with jacket)

toddler jumpers (£1 each)

1940s silk devore dress (£10)

bird prints (can't remember what we paid for these but they weren't cheap!) for our shop display

crab napkin (£1)

post office trunk (£10 or £15 I think?)

corduroy jacket (£10)

Back on the Island, I had a badly timed cold virus type thing which left me feeling like poo for about two weeks (in fact I am still coughing and sniffing as I type this). So I have been the world's most boring mum to our very tolerant toddler. I did manage a few short walks on various beaches though...

A little walk across the boggy terrain of Newtown...

BUT mega chuffed to have bumped into Dame Ellen MacArthur's dog! she is one of my heroes. (Ellen, not the dog I mean)

How ever the peace and tranquility of the place was some what disrupted but a grumpy sleepy screaming tot, so we had to make a quick and slightly embarrassing exit back along the bridge! (that's her British granny with us too btw)

(the perfect angel as soon as there were no people around, gah!!)

So anyways, that's it folks! Hope you all had lovely relaxing and sun drenched summers?? ; )

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that was summer 2015 (part 1)

Crikey, summer has almost said farewell and I can sniff autumn in the air already. Lots of changes have occurred in our normal life due to the opening of our shop, so, we have much less free time than we used to, so my blog has been left to gather dust for the last month or so. This is temporary because obviously August is the prime time for shops on the Isle of Wight, so we will be reducing our opening times for autumn and winter. Also, we may hire staff to cover the shop in the future seeing as it is doing so well sales wise. Anyway, that is info surplus to requirements...here is a catch up of what we have managed to do this summer (mostly during the mondays and tuesday when the shop is closed! ).

Seems like ages ago now, but just before we opened the shop, we went along to the Rhythm Tree festival, in a beautiful part of the Isle of Wight. It was a lovely relaxed and colourful little festival and we all had a lovely day there (we are not normally festival go-ers to be honest).

The wildlife trust had a little corner in the woods where we made a little mud man.

...some other kids stuck them on trees...

The music is from all over the world, and the festival is perfect for kids and chilling out (lots of yoga and meditating going on!).

On a different monday and tuesday, we went to a campsite in Dorset, but it rained quite a bit and we were pretty knackered. We managed to have a good time though, because the tot just beamed the whole time, which is always very rewarding!