A Quandry.....

Well, here we are in Euro 2012 and I find myself in a bit of a mither.  Who do I shout for?

Via

Or

Via

I mean really who is a girl to choose ...

My Ruffle Beach Bag

Well, its not often that I blog twice in one day.   But as I've just finished this, I need to show you.  It started life out as a cloth Lidl bag - a bit ugly and only for emergency use.  You know, when there are no bags in the car boot because they are all in the kitchen drawer.  


The girlies came back from their dad's with some new 3/4 trousers (from the market - so cheapies) that their Aunty had bought them.  There was no way they were EVER going to wear them, so into the charity box they went.  Then, I came across this tutorial and had a lightbulb moment.


The bright summer colours put me in mind of a beach bag, and as I find it really hard to source material here - and it is so expensive to order from overseas.  I decided to have a go.  Resulting in....

As this is my first ever real effort at sewing anything, I am really pleased with how it's turned out.  Especially as I also taught myself to plait with four strands.  Google it - there'll be a tute that works for you.

Girlie #1 hates it obviously -sighs.

So, it WILL be accompanying us on every single trip to the beach.  Especially when we go with friends!!

And here it is again loaded up with two big beach towels and plenty of room to spare.


Next sewing project is going to be some quilting, if I can just pluck up the courage to make the first cut into the material - oops.

Tempus fugit...

And it's another whole month since I've blogged again! You would've thought that with having the girlies away at their dad's it would give me more time.  It appears that the opposite is true though.

I have however been a very busy bee, tackling jobs that I wouldn't usually have the time for whilst they are here.  All the hunreds of books I removed my book case - they were double and triple stacked have been sorted and I have kept those that I would definitely read again.  The excess are all going to be car booted when we've finishd clearing out the toy room.  So, not only did I get rid of the detritus, I also arranged the keepers into rainbow order!  Look how pretty.

I also made myself a headboard, from some old picket fence posts and painted it.

And a close up, really pleased with how it turned out, and I'll be able to change the colour as I please.

I just need to get some paint now for the bedroom walls, I'm thinking of a nice light bluey grey, something along these lines

Going for a bit of a beachy theme I think.  Shame the wardrobe and chests of drawers are all to new and nice to paint up.  What do you think?

Next up was this old chest of drawers, that has lived many years in the shed, mostly use for keeping tools and crap junk in

 

 
 They don't look too bad from this pic, but up close they are quite scratched and a bit ropey
 

So far these have been rubbed down and undercoated and are awaiting their top coat, of which I am in two minds - eek.  My first thought was white surround and rainbow drawers, but the girlies aren't too impressed with this idea - they think it's babyish :(  And I will probably go with a dark (Grecian) blue instead.

On top of all this, I started my spring cleaning and going aginst the norm I started in my bedroom.  Well, the sitting room has just been repainted so it's really only washing the sofa covers there, and I decided to put myself first for once.  The kitchen has been done too - just the infernal windows to clean and next up are the girls bedrooms - once I pluck up the courage to get in there!!!

So, I have beeen very busy, just not blogging. 

Silent Sunday

The new coat

of paint was finished last weekend - hooray.  Just look at the difference.  Must admit that the new paint has got a shine, so the old ceiling looks a lot worse in the photo than it was in real life.

 Here are some pictures of the nearly completed room.  Painted and with most of the furniture put back in place.  It still needs ornamenting or dressing though, which bit by bit we are getting done.

You'd have thought I'd manage to close the loo door now wouldn't you.  Doh!!!

 You can see what awful light I have in my sitting room, so the photos are not what I'd like them to be!!!  Did you notice, I don't have any windows.  Only doors.


And now some before and afters, so that you can see the difference.

 I'm really please with how it's turned out.  It's brightened it right up, but doesn't feel cold.  I've gotten rid of the old kitchen light that was hanging in one end of the lounge, just need to find something to hang at the other end now.  

I'm liking it all a bit emptier and won't be returning all the books to the book case, nor all the pictures and vases etc we had dotted about.  I don't have a mantelpiece, which I quite miss for decorating at Christmas time, so am thinking of putting a big chunky shelf above the TV.  The world's biggest and ugliest desk is still in situ, but I also have a cunning plan for that too.  Would make life easier if I had a fat wallet, and could just go rushing off to buy these things at once, but as they are fond of saying around here poco a poco

Linking up to 

His and Hers Painting Guide

Well, in my 20+ years of home ownership, I have learnt something NEW.  Apparently there are two ways to go about painting or redecorating - who knew?!

I have always been of the camp - buy paint, move crap from room to be painted, and cover any big heavy crap furniture.

 
Apply paint and with a damp rag wipe away any bits of paint that that mistakenly attach themselves to plug outlets door frames etc.  This I am now informed is the wrong way.

The right way involves P.R.E.P.A.R.A.T.I.O.N.  It would appear, that to paint properly one has to prepare.  Hence I spent many hours of my life (that I will never get back) yesterday wrapping said outlets, door frames etc in masking tape.

I did try to explain that due to previous paint applications, this might not be the most time effective way of painting - but hey - you've got to pick your battles.

Previous Painting Effort - That escaped the Rag!!!

 Watch this space for the new colour reveal.

Out With The Old

I've been a very busy girl today, this morning my sitting room looked like this 

 

 

And this afternoon it looks like this...

All ready to go out buy paint, painters tape, drop cloths and it's In With The New.

Just looking at these photos, has reminded me, that I need to remove the standard lamp, the lampshades and the clock.  The boy needs to help me with the big unit down the bottom, as it weighs a ton.  I am going to go for a lighter shade of wall this time, as this room is quite dark during the winter months.  A warm creamy colour, not too yellowy is what I'm after.  Well I think so anyway.  The ceiling will be white again and the floor will stay how it is too.

I'd quite like to have a re-arrange of the furniture, but not sure how else I can do it.  

Obviously, nothing has to stay, and I'd like to get rid of the biggest, ugliest desk in the world.  The old kitchen spotlights at the currently TV end of the sitting room are on the bin list too.

Any ideas anyone?

Limoncello

A recent glut of lemons, found me looking for something new to make.  It didn't take me long to discover a recipe for Limoncello.  I started off with a cheap bottle of Vodka, some lemons and a preserving jar.

I very carefully peeled only the yellow from the skin of the lemons.

Popped it into the jar

And glugged the bottle of Vodka over the top

It went into a cool dark place for two weeks

And came out a lovely yellow colour.  I then removed the lemon peel, added a vanilla pod and about 250 mils of sugar syrup

This was placed back in the cupboard for a further 2 weeks, strained, bottled, refrigerated and enjoyed!

Of course, with the freshly peeled lemons, I just had to knock up a quick Lemon Meringue Pie

Would've been rude not to really wouldn't it?

¿My Girlies or Mis Hijas?

This week I'm linking up again with Windmill Fields Expat Blog Hop. 

This weeks subject is Parenting: bringing up a multilingual- mulitcultural family. 

Well, we arrived here on April 16 and got the house as live able as we possibly could, the girlies were only 1 and 3  so I wasn't particularly worried about finding a school for them.  My knowledge of the Spanish language was limited to 12 hours of one on one classes - so pretty non existent.  I knew that I wanted to get my children into the normal education system and didn't want to go down the International school route.  For one the nearest school was a 45 minute drive away, and I also wanted them to have local friends.

Prior to coming here, we had embraced both Dora the Explorer and the BBC's Muzzy in a big way, so Spanish wasn't completely alien to them.  However, the thought of them starting school without any language was a bit alien to me. I endeavoured to find them a playgroup or nursery, where they could get a grounding in the language before they started school.  The first "Guardaria" I came across left me reeling in horror, accustomed as I was to British standards.  It was basically a room full of 0-3 year olds, left to their own devices.  Not for me. 

Luckily whilst shopping at one of the nearest Hypermarkets, I spotted on the other side of the road an "Escuela Infantil".  Joy of joys, they had an English teacher too, and if I could come back in an hour, she could see me!

After a tour of the baby room, the middle room and the big kids room I was ecstatic, this was more what I was used to.  They were duly enrolled and started two days a week on the first of June.  Girlie #1 (3) attended June and July - August of course they were shut! - and Girlie #2 did a whole year extra, which was increased to 3 days a week once her sister was in the "big" school.  Here, I later discovered that they could actually start "proper" school at age 3 - oh the shock.  This although not obligatory, was considered the norm, as it was both cheap child care and meant that if your child went for these 3 years, they would be at the same level as their peers.

They have both done incredibly well at school, and so far I've not had any reports from their teachers as to their lack of vocabulary or language skills.  They are now 11 and 13.

At home, we've always spoken English, and generally watch television in English.  Although the odd Spanglish word or sentence does get thrown in now and again.  Some words just sound better in the "other" language.  As their speech was competent, I didn't pressurise them with too much extra homework in English.  At 5 years old, Girlie #1 decided she would like to learn to read in English and retrieved Peter Rabbit from the bookcase.  She started

"peh - teh - rr"

"Ah, that's not exactly correct, in English, P and E together is 'pea'"

"pea - tea - rr"

"Oh dear, the word is actually Peter, let me think about this one and we'll come back to reading English another day!"

So, thinking about how I learned to read, I hurriedly "Amazoned" some ladybird, Peter and Jane books and we started again.

They are now fluent in the two languages, prefer to watch television and films in English, but read in Spanish.  However, they wouldn't miss out on a trip to the cinema with their friends.

Girlie #1, now she is in the "Instituto" doesn't like speaking to me in English in front of her friends, and prefers me to speak in Spanish too.  They come home with hilarious tales of mispronunciation by their Spanish English teachers.   Which has convinced Girlie #1 to become an English teacher - that and the long summer holidays!  She actually told me last night - Yes, I'm going to show them the light!!!

I'm also a little concerned of the portrayal of Sir Francis Drake and Sir Walter Raleigh as Pirates!!!  I mean they were god fearing sea captains and favourites of royalty!!!


There also seems to be a bit of debate about who actually won The Battle of Gravelines in 1588 too!

Culturally we flit between the two, adopting the customs that we like the best and fit in best with our lives.  We don't go to bullfights, but love the processions of the Moros and Christanos.  We will eat Cottage Pie one day and Paella the next.  I love taking my girlies out in the evenings - and occasionally 'til sunrise, but school days they are in bed "early".  We eat a big traditional Christmas Day lunch, but go to welcome the Three Kings too.

Basically, we try to fit right in with whatever is on offer and take each day as it comes.

I'm also pleased to say, that when they swear, it's all in Spanish too.  I'm obviously not such a potty mouth as I thought!