Saturday 28 September 2013

FMS Photo a Day - August

I was just organising my photos on my laptop and it occurred to me that I hadn't uploaded my Fat Mum Slim photo a day August photos. I think I've done pretty well, I've attempted to do this a few times and forgot after a couple of days so this is definitely an improvement for me. There are a few days missing though, mainly at the end of the month when I came back from holiday and didn't do much other than washing, ironing and catching up on work, not particularly inspiring. So here are my August photos..

 1. Something beginning with N - a new notebook & a nectarine
 2. Incomplete - There are several animals missing in this photo
 3. Skyline - sunset
4. Fresh - fruit at a market
 5. Early - our flight to Amsterdam was SO early
6. This means a lot to me - an eternity ring from my Mum
 8. Peekaboo - poking her head over the covers
9. 2 o'clock - and the best lock screen ever
 10. Beverage - Horlicks before bed
11. I love doing this - knitting and reading in the sun
 12. Macro - hydrangeas
15. The Best - Springsteen & Clarence shaking their booties
 16. Cooking - cornflake crispie cakes
17. Exercise - on Claudia, obviously
 19. Lost - leaves on my succulent
21. Slow - my blanket is taking forever to knit (because I'm so slow)
 22. A room - my bedroom
23. Yellow - flowers
 24. In the background - my home screen
25. Culture - an old car
 26. Entrance - to the Amsterdam Museum
27. 10 minutes from home - from our home on holiday anyway
28. Corridor - in the hotel we stayed in
FMSphotoaday August challenge

I haven't done the September challenge but am looking forward to giving it a go again in October. 

If you've done it or a similar photo a day challenge please give me a link, I'd love to see your photos.

Sarah
xx

Monday 23 September 2013

Lately

I can't believe we're almost at the end of September already. Although part of me is enjoying the last few bits of summer, I'm also looking forward to seeing the back of this month. I'm starting to yearn for crisp autumn days, snuggly knits and beautiful trees. This month has been trying to say the least, I'm pretty sure I've gained a few wrinkles and grey hairs. Last week I was driving out of work, putting my window down to soak up the warm weather and the motor died. This would have been pretty simple had my engine not played silly buggers while at the garage, just in time to fail its M.O.T! Yeah, cheers Betsy! Once that was sorted things got even better with a health scare in the family, thankfully it was just that, a scare, but the it's safe to say the week of worrying has resulted in some major exhaustion. 
On a more positive note I've had some pretty successful trips to the charity shops. I love these knitting needles so much and only 50p a pair. I'm hoping to get a full set in different colours. I've also found some amazing vintage fabrics, I'm hoping to turn some of them into dresses and others into cushions or something homely, once I've cracked this sewing machine malarky properly anyway. By the way if anyone fancies donating an hour or so of their time to give me a lesson I will love you forever and pay you in cake!! My final find was this Sadler apple sauce jar, my collection of these ugly faced jars is coming along nicely now.


I've also bought a couple of winter jumpers. I know, I know it's September but I'm not even sorry to have bought a christmas jumper, plus the snowman's nose is just amazing. I used my nectar points to get the fox jumper from Sainsburys, it's seriously snuggly so I'm looking forward to wearing my lovely free jumper when the weather cools down.
 
I've really been enjoying my walks to and from work lately. I seem to waste a good few minutes everyday just watching the birds bobbing along and going crazy when the 'bird man' comes to feed them at the same time every day.


I've had some great cuddles with Rich's furry friends over the past few weeks. Lilly the Dog is as full of love as ever, I'm sure she was destined to be a lap dog but sadly she's just a bit too heavy. 

 

On Thursday Rich text me with some really sad news. Eric aka the King had sadly been hit by a speeding car and is no longer with us. He was the grumpiest cat I have ever met, a loner who hated any affection, but he was one of a kind and I will miss him hogging the end of the bed and dodging my countless attempts at trying to stroke him without him flinching away. RIP Eric the cat, I miss you already!


Sarah
xx

Friday 20 September 2013

Amsterdam - The Markets

One of the main reasons I wanted to go to Amsterdam was the markets, largely because I bloody love a bargain! Unfortunately by not going over a weekend we missed out on the giant Flea market, but made up for it by spending a few hours at the Waterlopien, Bloemenmarkt and the Albert Cuyp Market

The Bloemenmarkt was a lot more commercial than I was expecting but impressive none the less. Each stand was crammed with people ordering tulips to be sent 'home', picking up souvenirs or just admiring the vast colours in every direction that you happened to look in. If you wanted a wooden tulip, fridge magnet or ceramic house, it was all here to be bought and treasured, and we did - we got everyone a fridge magnet, including ourselves.    


Sadly I didn't take too many photos of Albert Cupy Market because I was too busy eyeing everything up. Honestly, it's not wonder the Deutsche are so healthy when they have fresh fruit and veg available everyday at such good prices, the UK really does have it all wrong but that's another grumble for another day. There were stalls after stalls of fresh produce, fish, meat, nuts and seeds, clothes but most importantly, fabrics and bicycle accessories. I was in absolute heaven and immediately wished we'd taken separate suitcases instead of cramming into one so I could have filled mine with fabrics and goodies for Claudia. I was good though and settled on a red spot pannier bag for a mere 10 euros and two seat covers for 7 euros, no wet bum for me this winter!!


I mentioned before that we went into the cheese shops a lot, well probably twice a day when we felt a bit peckish but seriously, look at all these different types of cheese? The green pesto and garlic were my favourites, I'm pretty sure I could have eaten a whole cheese block in one go! It was great though, the staff were friendly, full of cheese related info and knew all the restrictions for what could and couldn't be taken home on the plane, oh to have had room in our suitcase! Mmm cheese!


The Waterlopien market was just as amazing, but I'll bore you about that in another post!!

Sarah
xx

Monday 16 September 2013

Amsterdam Day 1

So Amsterdam has been and gone, and two weeks later I still have the post holiday blues ha! I can safely say it was everything I expected and a whole lot more. It's taken me this long to go through my hundreds (I get snap happy) of photos, and I've finally narrowed them down & divided them up into a few posts. 
So anyway, Amsterdam, we were looking around online for city break offers and stumbled across the gem that was our holiday on Expedia. We'd priced up flights and hotels separately, weighed up the price differences from flying from Exeter or Bristol, along with how frequently they went and at what times, and then hit the package holiday websites. Our only criteria was to stay somewhere nice and central, and during the week to avoid the weekend madness (and planes full young men en route to the red light district and brown cafes, ha). To both my delight and disgust we stumbled across a deal for 3 nights at the Mercure Arthur Frommer hotel, and flights leaving at 6.45am on the Monday and returning at 9.30pm on the Thursday from Bristol, which meant 4 full days too, for £204 each - lovely jubbly! To save a few more pennies we booked a spot at Goblin Combe car park, an independent car park on the edge of the air port, which saved us £16 than if we'd parked at Bristol air port, and essentially paid for the petrol to get there and back. 


The hotel was really great. Because we arrived early we couldn't check in but were able to drop our suitcase off and collect it later, which we could also do when we checked out. The location was perfect, a 2 minute walk from the tram stop which comes directly from Central station, and a 5 minute walk to the bars and restaurants. Our room had a comfy double bed, TV, wardrobe, mini bar, safe, shower room (isn't the sink amazing!!) and separate toilet, it was cosy but perfect for what we needed. We then set off exploring and gathering our bearings. One thing I loved was that the city is totally flat so you can walk for miles without getting too worn out, just wear comfy shoes and be weary of blisters!

I love the architecture SO much!

The Amsterdam Museum

I love this photo of Rich getting told off for taking a photo of the Scream guy without paying, ha!
Every time we came past this street chess set there were different people playing, countless people watching, and some epic facial expressions by the players!

We spent most of the day walking around, drooling over houses and popping into the cheese shops for free sample or ten, well we actually did that everyday but hey! Rich had never been to a Hard Rock Cafe before so we took that as an opportunity to have a drink and rest our feet, we'd been up since 3am after all and I am no morning person. Despite going all the way to Amsterdam we ended up being served by a Scottish guy who was really chatty and gave us some helpful info and free drinks, winner! That evening I got a long awaited Wok to Walk, the best noodles ever!!! before being dragged to a sports bar for the Man Utd game, yep a football widow even on holiday, Rich watched the game and I read the guide book and made lists, many lists of things to see and do all ready for day two...

Sarah
xx






Thursday 12 September 2013

A week of sunsets

This past week we've been so lucky to have the most beautiful sunsets almost every night. The pinks/oranges/yellows/blues are incredible and it's been no surprise that Instagram has been full of photos of them, so I thought I'd share a few of my photos with you.

 

Part of me really doesn't want what's left of summer to end, but the other part can't wait for the colours of autumn and getting out my snuggly clothes, I have missed my winter knits.

Sarah
xx