Ridgeway Cottage anyhow

If you get the right weather and there's something rather exciting going on, anywhere can look totally fabulous. Yesterday we went to The Big Sky Kite Festival at Margate and with the glorious autumn sun, shimmering blue skies and the most amazing kites I've ever seen dancing in the sky, it was the perfect family day out. None can deny that there is a somewhat run down element to Margate but it is also has a certain sense of style and old seaside town chic that I love. The new Turner Contemporary Art Gallery has transformed the town into a place that my husband is now happy to take me and with continued promise of regeneration, especially for the dilapidated Dreamland, I'm rather optimistic about it's future. The buildings along the main sands seafront are truly ugly with a total eye sore block of flats but there are the most flamboyant Victorian cast iron fish street lamps. It truly is a mix of the good, the bad and the ugly in design. The kites were amazing. ...

Ever since our yellow day, I have been quite taken with yellow and am really quite delighted that mustard is one of this autumns new colour trends. I do love autumn colours and I do love shopping. I particularly like the change from summer to autumn because of the reintroduction of knitwear, scarves, hats, gloves and leg warmers. I do in fact already have some mustard lacy patterned leg warmers and have my eye on a matching beret and fingerless gloves. It is mostly the colour that counts though and at the moment my new favourite colour is mustard. The colder, darker nights definitely inspire a bit of crocheting, so I have been making some crocheted bracelets in mustard today. I was considering a "how to crochet a bracelet" tutorial but found the photos and explanation a little tricky. So here are a couple of pictures I got a bangle for 5p from a charity shop, some mustard yarn and a 3 1/4mm crochet hook. The stitch is basically a double crochet stitch (American sin...

Really, what is going on with the weather and where did that wind come from? Throughout the summer, there has just been a slight and pleasant breeze and then as soon as September arrives and it's time for back to school and work, the weather switches from scorching sun to blowing a gale in a matter of minutes. There is already a splattering of autumn leaves and cycling into a head wind is extremely hard work. For the second time this week, I have had to tie in my chrysanthemums and they are getting a real battering from the blustery showers. Just this afternoon, on the way home from school, we got so drenched that I made Josie and her friend a hot chocolate and now there is barely a cloud in the sky. I do quite like autumn though especially when the chrysanthemums look so glorious.

I've had quite a good weekend, tidying up and getting organised after my first full week back in the school and work routine. Charlie's first day at school went well and he loved the army camouflage PE bag I made him. When I researched some ideas for menu planners, I discovered that I am not the only one who fears that "what's for tea?" question. It really has started to make me feel sick even just going to the supermarket, but I think that I have found the solution. I made a list of all the tried and tested meals that my family have enjoyed in the past along with some quick and easy recipes. I stuck some old musical score on the back of a cereal packet and printed off some labels with the meals on. Last year I started using Mod Podge and it is still my favourite craft glue. It was the perfect finish touch to the front of the cards. Then I glued a piece of magnetic strip to the back. To make the days of the week stand out slightly, I used my dymo labelli...

As a mum and a teacher, the first couple of weeks of September are a mass of things I need to remember and get organised and this year, my little Charlie is off to school. I've been sewing up labels and buying school things for weeks and now I need to get my own work head on in order to juggle the whole working mum business. I love and embrace all technology, notebooks, lists and reminders. I would dearly love to be hyper organised but never quite seem to pull it off. Josie will probably never forgive me for sending her to school in reception without her teddy for the teddy bears picnic but this year, I feel I finally actually know how much school lunches cost. My husband has put up so more coat hooks at the bottom of the stairs to hang school coats. So here's my list for this week Take important documents into work and then return them to the original place and not leave them in a bag where they have been for several months, waiting to get taken into work Write a menu (by t...

Following the successful completion of blogging every single day, without fail, in August, I thought I might write myself a "to do" list for this month. There is definitely something about writing things down that helps them turn from fleeting thoughts into achievements. Having been so badly organised in the garden / allotment for the last few Autumns due to sad and difficult times, I am going to make a serious effort this year. Collect and save seeds (sweet pea, nigella, sunflowers, parsnip, leek and fennel) Plant out spring cabbages and winter kale Pickle more nasturtium seeds (really deliciously hot and peppery) Make some raspberry jam Freeze rhubarb and runner beans Buy a few late chrysanthemums for the garden Make some tomato chutney Plant paperwhite narcissus Make some sloe gin Tidy up the potting shed