Oh silly silly me.

Well, Grandma took the beautiful boy off to his favourite part of the coast for their annual seaside holiday together ... (this is one of our old photos of the boating pond ) ...

...leaving me to spend time in my workroom; sewing and developing ideas. Or so I thought!

Oh the best laid plans of mums... First a friend had a childcare crisis so I had two lovely little visitors who were much happier in the garden; so I set them to work on the crab apple harvest!
They were delighted to be doing such an important job and we filled a huge bucket! That'll be next weeks work cut out then; cooking, straining, bottling! (Lottie some of these are heading your way!)
Work over, there were sack barrow rides - never has the rusty old sack barrow seen such glamorous shoesies!
The only time I made it into the workroom I decided to re-frame the tiny hearts sampler. I have removed the rick-rack trim and added a cream mount. Somehow the dark border was killing all the colours and I hadn't been happy about it. The alterations worked and I'm far happier with it now. Whilst re-stretching and framing, I was reminded how I love the back of a piece of work, so many hidden stitches!
Before I knew it, the beautiful boy was home (hurrah!) and I had spent the week cleaning, shopping, cooking and making up guest beds for a suddenly expanding celebration!
You know how it goes; one minute you're having Grandpa over for a birthday tea, the next the weather promises to be fair and extended family are gathering to celebrate something rather special! There was cake...
and lots of yummy favourites to eat as well as a monster barbecue.
As grandpa is a renowned Aviation Historian, the beautiful boy wore his aeroplanes shirt in honour of the occasion!
The sun was remarkably beautiful, shining well into the evening. Cousins of all ages played, aunts and uncles caught up on news, big cousins shared family gossip, and how many little ones are hiding in the laurel den?
Once the neighbours' children decided to join in I rather lost count... and whilst I don't usually share pictures of our darling little man, this sleepy little chap is testament to a lovely day, I'm off to join him!
Somewhere in the midst of all this I did manage to make my first Etsy listings. New things are in the pipeline, but as we are into the last week of the holidays it may all have to wait a little bit longer. Somehow the homework is not all done, the scrapbook has become an epic and hubby is home for the week so we can all enjoy the last days of summer together. Thank-you all for stopping by. I love to read your comments and I'll be back soon! t.x