Festive fun!

Oh my goodness, I think it's time I posted again isn't it? How long has it been? I really did lose my blogging mojo there for a while but having just spent one of the most fantastic days on Saturday with my family I thought it was worth recording it here on 'Summer Blue' not only for me to look back on in the future, but to share the Christmas festivities with you all.

Now, I must admit during these cold winter months driving up to 3 hours in the dark on a Friday night, carrying all our belongings in the pitch black and pouring rain from our parking space to the cottage, then opening the door to a cold home doesn't quite hold the same appeal as it did back in the summer!! With the warmer, lighter nights during the summer, we were able to stop off at the beach on the way to the cottage and the longer days meant that our weekends were more fun filled and action packed (There is only so much you can do with a 3 & 5 year old in the pouring rain). However days like Saturday make me so glad that we are able to have this luxury in our lives and I am very grateful to my lovely husband for providing the cottage for us to enjoy and create memories.

Last Saturday, Kingsbridge Celebrated Christmas, not just with a craft market and a few carols, oh no it was an all day, full on extravaganza. A day full of Christmas experiences for all to enjoy whatever age you may be.

It all started at 11am and continued through to 7pm. Fore Street was closed to traffic and the street was lined with stalls selling everything from;

Beautiful locally produced homemade chocolates,

Mouth watering chutneys,

Homemade jams,

Wheelbarrows full of Holly and stalls selling wreaths ready for hanging...

Scrummy cakes making it hard to resist,

A Vintage Citroen van selling crepes and cappuccinos,

The shop windows were decorated for the festive season. Look at the lovely vintage sleigh and ice skates.

The shop owners made an enormous effort to dress as Pantomime characters; meet the 'Queen of Hearts'.

As did the locals, all hoping for the £250 prize fund.

Everywhere we walked we were treated to musical delights, all adding to an incredible atmosphere,

If I closed my eyes I could have mistaken this talented man for Sinatra...Rat Pack at it's best...

'Diamonds are a girls best friend' was being sung as this picture was taken.....

Even the Calypso band marching through the streets, made it hard to walk on by and not stop for a dance!!

These guys were fabulous, lovely mellow songs to ease us all into the afternoon.

I loved to see the shrimps standing there soaking it all up, they just didn't want to leave.

Even Mr SB got into the spirit of things when he suddenly found himself assisting; "One wheel Sam" on his unicycle! I think it was the bright red jacket that did it! I think next year he'll stick to something a little less conspicuous!

Street entertainers kept the children amused and left them wondering; "Are Reindeer legs really that long?!!

We spent a fun afternoon escaping the rain by decorating Christmas decorations in the Arts Cafe, ready to be kiln dried and hung on our tree.

Not only were the shrimps delighted to stumble across the 'Big Guy' but they also got to ring his bell!

It made 'little shrimps' day when she came across baby Jesus, whom she is obsessed with at the moment. We were waiting to see him accompanied by Mary & Joseph coming through the streets on a Donkey, but they were held up somewhere...probably stopped off for a quick drink at the local Inn!

Later in the afternoon, the Exhibition Hall echoed to the tunes of the fabulous 'Kingsmen' Barbershop Chorus singing Christmas carols. There were so many people I couldn't get close enough to take a picture!

We finished our day by joining in the carol procession throughout the town, ending in the town square to be met by the Silverband. Standing there looking at our little girls singing; 'Away in a Manger' made me feel proud to be part of such a wonderful community........... It was a wonderful day full to bursting with fabulous memories. Thank you Kingsbridge, if it's OK with you we'll be back next year?

Ness...

"Beacon to Fashionistas"
"Edgy, sexy and now"
"Chic and ageless"

"Individual and fun"

Ladies, ladies, ladies, what more can I say?..... You'll find my new all time favourite store online at http://www.nessbypost.com/ or in Scotland at one of the four stand alone stores. You may also have seen Ness clothing and accessories in one of the 500 stockists across the rest of the UK and if you're one of the lucky few, you may have a store somewhere near you soon. I certainly am keeping my fingers crossed that they'll open a store in Bath.

Founders Adrienne and Gordon MacAuley started the business in 1996 in a bid to; "Steer tartan away from the highlands" and they sure as hell have managed to steer it into my wardrobe, although saying that it probably wouldn't be too difficult seeing as I love to shop!!

This weekend I was bitterly disappointed to have to take back my much coveted purple tartan wellingtons. I'd been eagerly awaiting the delivery of a brand spanking new pair of size 5's in a local shop in Devon. They'd sold out online within a very short space of time and in the style of; 'Rosie' the Cath Kidston sweater (which by the way has rarely left my back since its purchase), I just HAD to have them.

When I arrived at the cottage on Friday the fact that it was pouring with rain didn't deter me from hot footing it down the hill to see if they were in the shop window. I of course used the dogs as an excuse (dog walks are a great way of getting a little window shopping in), even if I did have to drag them kicking and whimpering down the road...Mabel, a little like myself, doesn't really 'do' rain and certainly doesn't appreciate the rain making her hair go frizzy...

Anyway, back to the Wellingtons......there they were in all their glory....a beautiful specimen of a wellington...oh and Purple.....my favourite colour of the moment..... How on earth was I going to manage to wait until Saturday morning to hand over my pennies and walk away with my purple tartan wellies?

I did...manage it I mean.....my shopping addiction hasn't quite reached the realms of; 'Smash and Grab' just yet! I was easily swayed with the promise of a glass of white wine and a take away. Such a cheap date, my husband thought when he met me.....obviously thinking that I'd also make a cheap wife (cheap in the sense; I won't spend money, may I add)...blimey was he wrong with a capitol 'W'........... Especially since I've discovered Ness!

Well, you know me, by 10am the next morning there they were on my feet strolling around the cottage.......until...........I can hardly bring myself to say it.......I realised they DIDN'T FIT....Obviously I had tried them on in the shop but short of admiring these stunners, I must confess to not really doing a great deal of walking in them, well you don't do you? Now my feet are tiny (size 4 in shoes, 5 in wellingtons), but one thing they certainly aren't is dainty! Years of dancing when younger has given me an instep not dissimilar to Mount Kilimanjaro and I think that living in flip flops and Ugg boots have splaying my feet for England, meaning that trying to squeeze my feet into anything restricting is nigh on impossible.

I'd love to show you the purple wellies but I forgot my camera this weekend so you'll have to make do with a website picture of them in black....Not my choice of colour but obvioulsy that of style queen in Ugly Betty; Ashley Jensen.

The pink Wellingtons are lovely as well, look how pretty they look with the matching bag;

I can't just leave it at that though, I really must share all the pretties, so I'll show you some of the website shots just to tempt you all a little on your way for a little virtual window shopping!
(http://www.nessbypost.com/)...

Isn't this a lovely coat? and can you spot the Cath Kidston style 'Stanley' dog in the window made out of my favourite wellingtons?

Now this lovely wallet is down on my Christmas list...with the matching bag of course in the style on the right in the above shop window.

Loving this jacket and hat together...I'll take it all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A girl can never have enough fabric corsages to brighten up an outfit, especially at £4.95. Lovely little Christmas presents.

Bag anyone? There are so many styles to chose from, go take a peek........... Loving the skirt as well. Shame I haven't the legs to carry it off.

I shall finish tempting you all with this little fellow in my favourite purple tartan.....Isn't he cute? Of course I haven't shown him to give any of you 'crafty' bloggers any ideas ;-)

Happy Shopping....................................

Bigbury on Sea....

What is it about beaches in the Autumn/Winter? There is something so magical about dressing up in hats and scarves and blowing the cobwebs away. Of course the fact that I prefer beaches in the Winter has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I can hide beneath layer upon layer and not have to expose an inch of flesh ..........

Blimey, look at me here with the shrimps on Sunday, I'm almost in disguise! Apart from one nose, two hands and a few double chins the rest of me was firmly hidden away so not to scare anyone out for their Sunday morning stroll!!!, ! Just how I like it, In fact if it wasn't for the fact that salt water plays havoc with my hair (sweetie), then I'd be more than happy to let the shrimps pile me high with seaweed and fade quietly into the background of rock pools.

The location for our walk along the beach last weekend was Bigbury-on-Sea. The Island is home to the magnificent Burgh Island art deco hotel built in 1929 and extended in the 1930's. The hotel is truly stunning with beautifully decorated rooms such as these....

Isn't it beautiful? No wonder Agatha Christie used Burgh Island and its hotel as an inspirational setting for; And then there were none, as well as the Hercule Poirot mystery; Evil under the sun.

If you haven't been here before you must visit if you get the chance...when the tide is out you are able to walk across to Burgh Island and explore. When it's in, you can take this wonderful sea tractor; a monster isn't it?

The Pilchard Inn is a sweet little Inn dating back to 1336. In the summer it's one of those places that you have to get across to by about 10.30 in the morning to get an outside table for lunch!!! Once you secure your table next to the sea, you don't dare move from it as before you have so much have lifted one buttock from the bench you are sat on, you will have a family of 4 almost sat on your lap and ordering off the menu...this of course the same family that have been hovering around your table since 10.32am when you were just settling down to order a morning coffee. The other way of securing yourself a table, is to visit in October, like ourselves, when rain is forecast and the idea of sitting out in the open air isn't quite as appealing!

Obviously since I'd dressed our family up in clothes not unfamiliar to those worn during an Arctic expedition, I felt quite happy that we could enjoy the beach without moaning little girls wanting to go back to the car as they were too cold!

I think I may have slightly overdone the whole 'Big Shrimp has just had swine flu lets make sure they're both warm and covered' thing when they started to drip with sweat in front of my very eyes and light up the beach with there Rosy glows....

I love snapping away at the girls as they play on the beach (you may have noticed!!!)...Come on big shrimp, give us your best Pamela Anderson Baywatch pose......

Of course we're the Williams sisters.......

Proud mummy moment as little shrimp writes her name for the first time; so inconsiderate writing it on sand...how on earth am I meant to put that in the scrapbook?.......

Time to leave, peel of the numerous layers of clothes that of course became soaked through by the end of our walk and head back for lunch and a nice warm bath before heading home with our heads full of weekend memories, that is until we go about creating new ones all over again tomorrow.

What life's about......

Sometimes we just need a little reminding......

Loving Rosie.......

Now sometimes being the semi-professional shopper that I am, I see something and just HAVE to have it, so when I fell in love with the over sized sweater that the model was wearing on the front of the latest Cath Kidston magazine, I just had to track one down.....There was no way that I was going to let this little beauty sell out before I could snuggle up in it on a cold autumnal day.

First stop the website....Imagine my heart palpitations when I saw those words next to the stock levels....... S-M being NO followed by M-L; NO.................... How could this be? they've only just come in?! This followed a call where I was told that there was a waiting list for this beauty and they had all been sent out to those on the waiting list leaving a grand total of NIL in stock!!!! Now I was really struggling with keeping my breathing under control...doesn't Cath realise that I HAVE to have one........................NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

With Mr Shrimp working from home today and able to watch the patient, I was relieved for a few hours of my nursemaid routine to hot foot it into our nearest CK store. I arrived 5 minutes before opening but not wanting to look like too much of a desperado, I casually looked around a nearby shop at least long enough to let the staff turn the lights on and get there coats off.....just....

OK, OK, Act casually, start by looking at the bags near the door...now the dresses...now for the sweater.......WHERE THE HELL IS IT????? There must be some mistake, they've got to have it!!!!.................Phew, there's one hanging up behind the till.....As my breath quickens, I try not to break into a sprint in a bid to get to it when..oh god...I spot the dreaded note; "On hold for Mrs X until Thursday lunchtime"...... For a split second I 'almost' considered breezing up to the nearest assistant and announcing that I was Mrs X coming to collect the sweater I'd put by....Could I do it? Could I live with myself? No I couldn't, as much as I really wanted (did I say wanted? I meant needed), this divine Rosy little number I was born with the 'honesty gene' that meant that If I would have done I'd have had to return to the store minutes later to confess to all that I am indeed Mrs Shrimp, and the said sweater could only ever possibly belong to Mrs X!

"Do you have any Rose sweaters in stock that aren't out on display"? I ask hopefully. Well, it was as if I'd asked if everything in the store was 70% off today! They all looked at each other laughing before replying "We wish..... until they get anymore stock in we have been told that we're not allowed to buy any for ourselves and it's causing us much distress as you can imagine, we all want one".................Bugger, now I knew I was in trouble....

Then as I thanked her anyway and began to walk away she added as an aside; "We do have a delivery coming in soon though that should all be unpacked by midday, you're welcome to pop back if you'd like to.................If I'd like to?..............crikey she obviously didn't understand how getting my mitts on said sweater had now become a matter of life or death for me...I wasn't going to sleep at night until I had one. Either that or she was planning to casually lose it amonst the piles of stock until she was allowed to buy it for herself.

I really couldn't be bothered to hang around all morning just to buy a boring old grey sweater, so I went home! Ha, had you going there didn't I? Can you imagine anything less from me, I forced myself to look around all the shops, admiring all the beautiful Christmas decorations that had started arriving in all the stores and at 11.59 and 55 seconds hotfooted it back to the shop full of anticipation that I would indeed be leaving the proud owner of 'Rosie'.

"We've had around 30 boxes in and haven't unpacked them yet but I'll check the list of stock that's arrived if you'd like me to". What a lovely lady, must be because I told her how lovely she looked in the dress she was wearing! (she did). As I stood there waiting I tried my absolute hardest not to purchase;

.....one Bucket bag - £40,

.....two scarves - £90

........and a new dog bed - £40, therefore convincing myself that if the sweater did for some miracle appear in her hands as she descended the stairs then it would be an absolute bargain as I'd have actually made a saving of £95.00 on what I was 'just about' to buy!

My heart sank as she came down the stairs empty handed shaking her head telling me that they hadn't been sent anymore unfortunately....watching the customer stood in front of her just about to collapse in a weeping heap on the floor drowning in disappointment , her face broke into a broad smile as she casually added..."But I have just found a medium/large in the stock room"............................................................ Well, I could have kissed her there and then...obviously she has now become my all time favourite CK shop assistant replacing the lovely American lady that always looks totally gorgeous in all the clothes and as a sideline busks by Bath Abbey with a voice like an angel (absolutely amazing singer....if she was on x-factor she'd win hands down)....... I feel a little bad with my lack of loyalty but needs must where Rosie sweaters are concerned.

Now I was after a Small/Medium but to be honest I'd have taken elephant size by this stage and just admired it in a drawer. Due to it's over sized/slouchy nature it wasn't a problem anyway, it looked even better on than I'd imagined (hardly looking a smidgen like the model on the magazine cover). I almost refused to take it off and asked her to scan in whilst on me, just in case someone grabbed it from my hands on the way to the till from the changing room.

Determination you see ladies, is the key,..........there was no way on god's earth that I wasn't getting that sweater! Now the hard bit, explaining yet another purchase to Mr Shrimp..I mean he'd hardly not notice it with those beautiful roses staring him in the face.........

Lessons on how to break the news of having just spent £75 on a sweater.

1. Check he's in a good mood (Why what have you bought? will be the reply but don't let that put you off your stride).

2. Think of something quite expensive, i.e a new dining table. (What on earth for? will be his next reaction), don't worry though, it works honestly, I've tried it!!!

3. No, just joking, ONLY a sweater, just thought I'd mention it.

You see, that way he'll be so relieved that you haven't spent hundreds on a dining table he'll be thrilled that you only bought a sweater.

So there you are, one happy lady sat typing away here with the most comfortable, pretty sweater she could ever have dreamed of hanging in her room. Not to everyones' taste I'm sure, but to this lady a dream!

NB. No fellow Cath Kidston shoppers were harmed or trampled on in my quest for 'Rosie'

This little Piggy......

................has been extremely busy since Wednesday night trying his absolute hardest along with myself and Daddy trying to give 'Big Shrimp' as much love and as many cuddles as we can to get her through the Swine Flu that she has somehow caught.

Swine Flu is something that we've all heard about and many of you have experienced and I must say that until I came into direct contact with it, I had no idea just how horrible it is. As a mother, there is nothing worse than seeing your child so ill. I'd do anything to be able to take her temperature of 40 degrees +, her shivers, her aches and pain away. I felt so completely inadequate as a mother when for the first 3/4 days she'd cry out in pain that her headache just wouldn't go away and she couldn't open her eyes or even listen to a little tv........

Then there's the 'Tamiflu'....Of course before giving your child a medicine that is still fairly new you want to make sure that you're doing the right thing. When she became violently sick when taking it (one of the side effects) I started to do some research...I was even more confused...was I making her better or worse by opening those capsules, mixing with Jam and telling her firmly that it would make her feel better soon?!

As I type, she's missing a birthday party that all her little school friends have gone to, a fancy dress party she was so looking forward to and had her costume all ready for and the present bought and wrapped. She's tried SO hard to get better in time, but it's just not happening!! Poor thing misses so many parties with us being away most weekends.

Talking of school, how terrible do I feel that as she was the first confirmed case of Swine Flu within her school. A letter has gone out to all the parents warning them to watch out for symptoms (A standard county council letter)! Blimey shrimp, you've only been there a month and you're causing trouble already! ;-)

So little lady, Mummy demands that you make a full recovery soon......Oh and don't pass it on to your sister.......I need to sleep!!