An Evening of Fun

Back in March of this year I read a post on my friend Judy blog.http://justalittlesomethingforyou.blogspot.com The post was about a meal that her church puts on for mum's with young children. I thought this was a great idea and so our Women's Group decided to do something similar. 

In our church we have a lady who owns a book publishing company 

http://www.makebelieveideas.com/ You may have seen her books as she sells them to stores in the UK and USA. She has recently opened up a coffee shop which is geared up for young families. They not only sell great coffee and food but also have lots of toys, books, story times, make your own sandwiches and ice your own cakes sessions for children. I asked if we could  borrow her cafe for our venue. We had a great time, lots of mum's from church came along, they brought friends and family and also Mum's from our Toddler Groups came too. We took the opportunity to advertise the Parenting Courses that we run.We served different lasagne's, beef, chicken, wheat free and vegetable versions. Together with lots of lovely deserts. The evening was a huge hit and I am sure we will repeat it in the future. 

Thanks Judy for the great idea!

Home Again

We are back home from Cornwall and my mother in laws funeral which was lovely and we couldn't have been more blessed with how it all went.

Just before we went I managed to finish the baby quilt I was making.

My daughter and her family returned from their month in USA. My children are all great at choosing gifts and my daughter brought me some lovely treats back. A vintage cake tin and tea towels, corn bread mix which we don't get here in the UK and jam made on the farm where they stayed for part of their trip. There were also a couple of old postcards, one dated 1909 and the other 1915. I found the briefness of the addresses amazing...one was addressed, 

Mrs U Parriott

Bayard

Nebr

If we only put name, town and county on our mail these days it would never reach its destination!

 This photo is of my mother in law, Julia and her husband John. Taken in a restaurant just before she set the menu on fire with the candle!!

You may remember my post

http://finelinenandpurple.blogspot.com/2011/07/more-jam.html

Well it turns out that Julia didn't just have a fall but there was a reason for her collapsing...she had cancer on her brain. She had had two previous bouts of cancer, both of which she had fought successfully but it turns out that she had secondaries and last week she passed away. She was a great mother, mother in law, Grandmother and great grandmother and we all loved her, we loved how she loved us and all those quirky little Irish  characteristics she so often portrayed. 

We prayed that she would have no pain and that the Lord would take her in His time and He did. My husband was able to go and spend a few days with her at her home up until the day she died. Although not able to speak or get out of bed she knew he was with her and responded to his words.

We have the funeral on the 23rd and my husband will be taking the crematorium service. 

While I was going through my family photos to find this one of the two of them I came across the baby photo's below and got a bit carried away.......I am so glad that Julia was able to see her great grandchildren and two weeks before she died she met little Gilby and my daughter in South Africa had to make an unexpected trip for visa purposes and was also able to go and pay her a long overdue visit. God is good!

Joseph on his first visit to UK

Jesse the day he came home, Mummy is just on the phone to me telling me he had arrived, the photo came through on the PC just as I was talking on the phone!

The day before twins were born

Maggie & Primrose

Gilby loving the ride...Maggie not so sure

Photo Shoot

I though I would post some mor eof my sons photo's. These have just come out in the October issue of Harpers Bazaar. He took them in Devon, near where he grew up. Some are on Dartmoor and some on Burgh Island. I love the natural locations of the shots

Please check out this blog post

We were away at the weekend and I will blog about that at a later date. In the mean time please visit my daughters blog and read this amazing story. I had a message from her on my blackberry when she was called from the shelter...she was speaking on the phone, giving instructions to the girls there and then letting me know what was happening. The final message...

Its a boy and he's screaming his head off...Praise the Lord!

http://littlefingersandfrosting.blogspot.com/

Baby Quilt

We have just had a new baby  join our extended family, Levi James has been born to our daughter in laws sister and her husband. Both their sets of parents are good friends of ours too so there is a new grandchild is in the midst! 

Look here to see a post about the families

http://finelinenandpurple.blogspot.com/2009/09/inlaws-day.html

I waited to find out the sex then went through my stash. I had fabric left over from Gilby's quilt and other fabric that goes well together. I used lilac Toile de Jouy for the backing and 100% cotton batting.

I have just recently used the 505 basting spray on a quilt I am making for myself which worked really well but decided not to use it on a baby quilt as I am not sure if it gives off any fumes or not.

I have just booked on a course to learn to use a walking foot in quilting, It sort of went against the grain as I love to hand quilt, but sometimes its just good to get the job done. However, with this little quilt I will get the needle and quilting thread out and enjoy myself putting it all together

Trip to USA

My daughter and her family have taken a trip to USA, they began in Seattle visiting a church there and are now travelling down to SF. So I have taken some photo's from their blog.  At the moment they are staying at Pennington Farms in Oregon. Each year they take a photo of the twins sitting on a hay bale and I think looking at the photo below they will probably be carrying on the tradition with Gilby

Evening Drive

We are blessed with beautiful countryside around where we live. Thursday evening was the first time we had seen blue sky for some time so I went for a drive and took some photo's. Within a few miles I drove through Ashridge, past Ivinghoe Beacon and stopped by Pitstone Windmill

From Ice Cream Scoops to Scoops Ice Cream

Today we went into London to meet our son Ben. It was his birthday last week but he was working so we took him for lunch today. We stopped at Scoops for icecream afterwards

REALLY nice!!!