My Darling Daughter turns 11

I know we all say it about our kids, but really, how on earth did Henrietta get to 11 so quickly.  She is turning into a wonderful, caring, kind girl, who thinks of everyone before herself (something her teacher is trying to change - Mrs Wilson thinks Henrietta needs to start thinking of herself as number one, at least some of the time anyway).

Happy Birthday my darling, we love you more than you will ever know xxx

OOP'S

This 'Im going to blog more often' lark hasn't exactly started yet.
I seem to be so busy with general 'life' stuff, blogging is way down on the To Do List at the moment.

I have very good reasons for being away from blogland.  First my darling boy Charlie who suffers from childhood arthritis.  2 months ago, we discovered he had lost vision in one eye, it has been a scary time for the whole family, and even now, I cant accept what has happened.  The vision loss is a result of his illness, and we have been making many trips to various hospitals.  He underwent a major operation on his eye to insert a Shunt Tube, but as yet we haven't seen any results, and the consultant is keeping rather quiet.

Secondly, we are doing up our 'other' house.  It seems so long since we started major works on it, but the light at the end of the very long tunnel seems to be getting brighter by the day.  We may even be finished in time for Christmas.  The garden however will have to wait until next Spring.  Photos to follow.

School holidays are now upon us.  We are visiting grandparents on the south coast next week.  Should be a nice break from the norm.

Happy Half Term everyone, and I promise (well, sort of), to be blogging abit more often.

Love
Amanda x

Summer Holidays v Christmas

Well the school holidays are in full swing.  Lots of visits to the park, swimming pool, ice cream eating - you get the idea.

We are off on our jolly hols next Friday.  Yep this time next week, we will be landing in The South of France.  We all need this holiday.  Charlie needs some sun on his pale and skinny body.  He is still having lots of treatment for his childhood arthritis, and more to come when we get back.  Neil needs to get away from it all, especially work and the house.  The house, which we are doing up in stages seems to be taking longer than planned.  Hopefully I will be able to show you pictures on our return.

Posts keep popping up on Facebook about how many weeks there are till Christmas.  Oh heck, I better get my skates on and start sewing some of these little beauties.  I will be adding personalised handstamped tags this year.  I will post these on my Facebook page beginning of September, for those of you who are extra organised with their Christmas shopping xxxx

Gardening Galore

At last, my wonderful grapevine has produced bunches and bunches of grapes this year.  What to do with them - haven't a clue.

There must be bottles upon bottles of wine on that vine of mine, but how to get it from the plant into the bottle is way beyond me.

I hear Sainsbury's do a nice selection of wine, just might pop in for a look - so much easier, and far less messy!

Birthday Wishes

Firstly, sorry its been months since I have blogged.  We are doing up a house in the next village, and all my time seems to be taken up with painting, cleaning and waiting around for contractors.

Im hoping to be back blogging soon.  You may have noticed that I have changed my blog name to Stripes and Stars, this is because my little business is under this name, so I thought I would tie it all in together.

OK, secondly a very big Birthday Wish to our house rabbit Reggie, who is 5 today - love you Reggie...x