the laughing songbird

the big M

2012-02-09T07:30:00.004-06:00

So, I'm a mother. That's still weird to say. But it means that in a very short period of time I have become overwhelmed by an indescribable amount of love for a tiny creature, occasionally speak in a strange high pitched voice, use terms like "bott-bott" for bottom (why??), am unfazed by poop and other previously repulsive bodily fluids (so much so that I have actually gone back to bed at 3am knowing there was a drop of poop on the duvet and didn't give a rat's you know what), get annoyed when loud cars drive by because they might wake the baby and often do (bleeeeping bleep bleep bleeeeep), get highly distressed when Maya wont go down for a nap and then look at pictures of her when she's sleeping because I can't wait for her to wake up, melt into fits of tears when she smiles at me, and generally think about her all of the time. It's great:)

I'm not sure if other moms would agree with this but I often feel that motherhood is like being bipolar--one day everything goes perfectly and you have so much confidence in yourself and your baby is happy and you're feeling on top of the world and the next day any small thing could set you off like you realize how exhausted you are and can't remember the last time you took a shower and the baby wont take a nap and you feel like a terrible mother. Maybe it's just me? On the bad days it's important to have a baby daddy who brings chocolate home from work and reminds you that your baby is happy and healthy and that he thinks you're doing great. Good or bad, it's the most beautiful, challenging, fulfilling thing I've ever done. The best job ever. When I peek into Maya's crib every morning and see her sweet little face smiling up at me I wonder why I didn't do this before.

She's Here!!

2011-12-23T16:19:00.005-06:00

Our sweet girl, Maya Hope, arrived two and a half weeks early on December 14 at 7:35pm weighing in at 5 pounds and 12 ounces and measuring 19 inches! We are so happy and excited to share this first special Christmas with her as a family of 3. She is a sweet happy baby and has made our world complete. We are totally in love.

Happy holidays!!

35 weeks

2011-11-26T13:55:00.020-06:00

Here I am at 35 weeks, a ticking time bomb. When I was about 18 weeks I promised a late pregnancy update. Well here it is...

-Being 8 months pregnant really improves the way you feel about your body, retrospectively. I now look at pictures of myself before I was pregnant and remember thinking I needed to lose a few and just laugh. HAHAHA, what a fool. NOW I'm fat. If I can get that body back I will be so happy. If.

-Moving is incredibly and laughably difficult. Which is cruel because of the number of times I have to get up to pee in the middle of the night. Sam often gets a good laugh out of watching me rock my way off the couch with the assistance of the coffee table and book shelf. Gone are the days of daintily easing my ace into a sitting position, now I just release the catch and collapse onto a seat. Timber.

-The belly can get in the way sometimes. I may as well wash the dishes in my bathing suit.

-The little sweet pea I'm sharing my body with is really good company throughout the day. It's like having a little friend in my pocket, with me wherever I go. She likes to wake me up every morning with a few love taps and maybe a somersault. I think I'll miss it when she's not in there anymore. But sometimes it can be a little, shall we say, distracting. Such as when she does bicycle kicks to my bladder during an important phone call, or practices her highly advanced kickboxing skills when I'm driving. I guess she has a sense of humor already.

-My poor poor ankles, where did they go?! And my feet, what did they do to deserve becoming Yeti-fied? I thought they were joking about your feet swelling in the last few weeks.

-There are so many nice people out there with kind and encouraging things to say about having a baby. Last night at dinner a lady at the table next to us leaned over and asked how "imminent" I am, and said that I was glowing. If you want to make a pregger's day tell them they look good, because it sure doesn't feel like it. Aaand I'm pretty sure I was just sweating but I still really appreciated the kind words.

-I didn't see it coming, but my maternity clothes have even become tight. What the. I never thought I'd even grow into them but now they're snug? Excuse me, this is unacceptable.

-The big push is quickly approaching. What's going to happen? How long is it going to take? Will I even survive? It's crazy to have no idea how it's all going to go down. Whenever I have voiced this opinion to other women who have had babies they say that if you knew what was going to happen you probably wouldn't get pregnant. Oh thanks, that's so reassuring. But believe it or not, I'm not scared. It's not like there's anything I can do, except pray.

-I find myself going into the baby's room a lot more these days feeling like there's stuff I should be doing in there, but usually I just end up looking at her little outfits and imagining a sweet little tiny baby in them and it's kind of overwhelming how excited that makes me.

-I feel really sorry for Sam. He has been so good to me these past 8 months, so patient, so kind. I feel bad he has had to live with this large, irrational version of myself for so long. The other night we were sitting on the couch before I went to dinner with friends and I was kind of moaning about how miserable I feel sometimes and I know I'm pathetic and blah blah blah. And Sam said, do you realize the last three things you said to me just now were "I feel so fat. Look at my huge ankles. Please don't eat all my chocolate while I'm gone tonight." Which is ridiculous and made me laugh hysterically.

-Besides being totally irrational I'm also a complete emotional sap, which is a trait I've always been terrified of acquiring. I cried on Thanksgiving Day when I had to go to work, I shed a tear when my favorite bakery didn't have any donuts left, I wept a little during the birthing scene of the latest Twilight movie (for good reason hey), and I even teared up while making my packing list for the hospital. Somehow writing down "must get breastpads" what too much for me to bear.

-Everyone tells you to expect to have really stupid arguments with your spouse when your baby is first born--usually in the middle of the night. But in my experience, the tension and arguments begin a little earlier, say, when you have outgrown your side of the bed and your husband has recently developed a snoring habit; "Babe, could you move over a little? And roll onto your side? And go get me a cookie and a glass of water?" Tension. Or when you get home from work really irritated by how many people needed your help (the nerve!) and you have to have ice cream or you're going to possibly commit murder but the ice cream is missing. Argument.

-To summarize: In the last month you are are large, uncomfortable, hungry, tired and freaky. But the best part is that it's almost over and you will then have a sweet little baby all your own. Which is quite possibly freakier. But still, I can actually see now that I will miss being pregnant, it's been such a weird and interesting experience, and very sweet and memorable too. I have really enjoyed it and I can't wait to see the outcome--our baby girl.

dahlias

2011-10-25T13:05:00.006-05:00

There is a garden in Dunster called the Dream Garden that is full of dahlias of all sizes, shapes and colors. The last time we visited I finally remembered to take my camera...

warmer days

2011-10-05T04:26:00.008-05:00

English weather is so predictably unpredictable. Just as soon as we got our shed stocked with logs and started looking forward to cozy evenings by the fire sipping hot chocolate and eating pumpkin pie it gets hot for the first time since April. During the past two weeks people have been wearing flip flops, taking their shirts off, eating on their patios and going to the beach. Even the plants have started blooming again. So Sam and I took the opportunity to get some color on our pasty selves and hit the beach as well.

(beached whale at 27 weeks)

But not to worry, they are already predicting hail and snow for some areas later this week so soup is back on the menu...

cooler days

2011-09-19T04:58:00.003-05:00

Cooler days? Who am I kidding? It's been like this since April. Our summer this year was in what was technically springtime and was just 2 weeks of weather that was in the 70s and one of those weeks we were in Thailand. But I'm excited it's fallish because it just feels different somehow but really it's just the same as summer except that I have an overwhelming impulse to collect pine cones. In honor of the beginning of fall I made a pumpkin pie this weekend and it was delish. I am also looking forward to start making some of our favorite soups like roasted butternut squash, carrot and corriander (aka cilantro), broccoli cheese and leek and potato. Yum. What are some other good soups? Any seasonal favorites that I should add to my soup list?

21 weeks

2011-09-01T04:07:00.009-05:00

Here I am at 21 weeks (I'm 23 now, just a little behind with my posts), this was the day that we found out we are having a baby girl! We are both so excited!! Now comes the hard part, choosing a name.

It's really hard to choose a name for your child. It's probably so bad that I'd advise people not to get pregnant because of it. I'm serious. There's so many decisions. First of all you have to agree. Secondly, it can't be the name of anyone you know--and just think of how many people you know. I suppose it can be the name of someone you know if you're willing to take that risk. It would be great to use a family name but how to pick which side of the family? And what if all your favorites have already been taken by other people in your family? It can't be something that rhymes with anything bad or that could generate a mean nick name. You want to pick something semi-unique so that your kid isn't one of 18 children with the same name in her class, but not so unique that it's obvious you're trying too hard. Will the initials spell something weird? Will her initials spell something weird once she's married? Then of course you have to deal with those special people in your life who ask you not to use the name they have chosen for their child--you know who I mean, that friend who isn't even dating but has her kids names picked out? And of course you might want it to mean something. So there may be a really great name that you love but when you look up the meaning and it's something like "hypocrite" or "slothful one" you think maybe not. You might have a really sweet name picked out but when you tell people they react weirdly or not as you expected so you wonder if it's the name or if they just have gas. But this shouldn't really matter because it's your baby so it's should be a name that you love, but it's such a big responsibility that if there's something bad about the name that you haven't realized yet you really do want someone to tell you. Perhaps most importantly, it has to be a name you can imagine yourself shouting across the playground at the top of your lungs when your kid is pulling another kids hair or putting sand down her pants. Am I missing anything?

We have a couple of names picked out, a top two, but so far have not made a formal announcement of the one we have chosen, because we haven't chosen yet. It's still up in the air...

Blackburn

2011-09-01T03:33:00.005-05:00

A couple of weeks ago we went to see Sam's football (aka soccer) team play up in Blackburn which is way up north. He has supported the Blackburn Rovers since he was a wee lad and hadn't been to see them in years and years. So it was very exciting. I was looking forward to the fights but it was pretty tame except for a big fat man and a little short man who got annoyed with each other in the row in front of us because Blackburn were losing and the big fat man said something rude and called them all mean names and the little short man said if he couldn't say something nice to not say anything at all so the big fat guy called the little short guy an even ruder name and the little short guy's girlfriend had to restrain him from punching the big fat guy and I was a little disappointed, because like I said, I went for the fights. But it was pretty fun! A lot of the fans stand up chanting and taunting the opposition during the whole game which was strangely familiar and heartwarming, my fellow Aggies might know what I mean by that.

Here are some little hood rats before the game. I got told off by Sam for laughing at their northern accents.

That's me eating a cheese and onion pie (see I told you I was a pie eater) and a giant pile of chips (aka french fries). YUM, I like football:)

The teams warming up.

Sadly Blackburn didn't win but it was still really fun just to be there in person and feel all the excitement and tension. It was a good day.

bump alert

2011-07-25T14:36:00.008-05:00

The bump is officially here y'all. I really debated whether or not to post any pictures of my expanding body but as I've already put a picture of my uterus on the blog I figured why not. As you can see, I'm well on my way to becoming a whale. I asked Sam to make me look skinny in this picture but he obviously ignored me. It's amazing because I've only gained two pounds so far, how is this possible? I am constantly eating. You know how Bradd Pitt always has food in his hand in the Ocean's movies? That's me. I have a mini pantry in my purse--I'm never more than 2 feet away from an assortment of snacks. I guess it's all down to how your metabolism speeds up when you're preggo, I just wish it would stay that way when I'm not so I could continue being such a pie eater and only gain 2 pounds in 4 months.

4 months! Yikes. Let's see, what have I learned in these past 18 weeks:

-First and foremost, it's really unfair that pregnant women aren't supposed to drink. This is the time in your life when a gin and tonic would come in handy the most. Instead you get to go home from a stressful week at work and kick back with a nice glass of cranberry juice. Hot dog.

-There are a whole slew of gross and unexpected pregnancy sympotms that no one tells you about before you're with child. I would have known had I added "What to Expect When You're Expecting" to my reading list prior to when I was expecting but why the heck would I do that? So it all came as a bit of a shock. But I wont go into details because I think my Dad reads this blog.

-I appologize to all of my friends and acquaintances who I previously thought were being wimps when they complained about morning sickness. It really is That Bad. And it's not just in the morning. They should really change that term to "24/7 sickness" or "you will lose the will to live before this is over sickness".

-Everyone and their mom (literally) knows a horrifying labor and delivery story that either happened to them and/or their mom (literally) and they will tell it to you in unnecessarily graphic detail and then say "But don't worry, that wont happen to you". It's probably good for you to hear these stories though so you can prepare yourself for all of the eventualities.

-If you are pregnant and skimming through your copy of "What to Expect When You're Expecting" skip the section on episiotomies. It's for the best.

-I've not really spent much time thinking about a "birth plan" and I secretly snigger whenever I hear that term because so far I've not heard of a single person who's birth plan panned out. But I have made a rough draft of my own: GET THE BABY OUT.

-I'm incredibly blessed to have Sam through this process, he has been amazing. He's picked up the slack in the cooking, cleaning and buying me snacks departments and even rubs my feet when I get home from work. He also reads up about how the baby is developing each week and tells me things like "Did you know the baby has fingerprints now?" I'm clearly spoiled and also probably undeserving, but then again I am hosting his child inside of my body. If only I could figure out a way for him to be the one to give blood when we visit the midwife.

-You receive a lot of advice when people find out you're pregnant, whether it's friends or family or the woman behind the lottery ticket counter at Tesco. And almost all of it will be contradicting.

-There's a heck of a lot of baby equipment out there, I haven't figured out a single thing about that yet.

-Maternity bras. My boobs got big quick and I needed to do something about it. I went into a shop that was recommended by my sisters in law and had no idea where to start. Maternity bras are similar to those worn by women in their 70s and 80s. They're ugly, they're big and they're ugly. So I asked the woman working in the bra section (who just so happened to be in her 70s or 80s) to recommend a few and she kindly brought me a selection of ugly large ugly bras and then proceeded to grope and adjust my boobs inside of them until she found some that she approved of. I didn't really end up having much say in this whole process, I just wanted to get out of there. And really, the ones I ended up getting weren't that bad, and my boobs are a lot happier now. But I did make Sam promise he wouldn't leave me before I showed them to him.

-If you live in England and you are seeing a midwife for your antenatal care she will most likely ask you if you are interested in having a home birth. If you are like me you will snort and say something like, "Do I look totally insane to you?" I think it's great that some people are into that sort of thing, but when I imagine myself actually squeezing a human being out of my body it's in a hospital bed with trained medical professionals nearby and the option to be medicated if I so choose, not lying on a tarp in my living room with Sam boiling water and tearing sheets. We have light colored carpet.

-It's easy to get distracted by the many details and worries that surround becoming a parent, so it's important to set aside some time each day to spend talking to your baby and praying for it and imagining all those lovely things you will do together as a family. It's really an incredibly special time and it's going by so fast. It's amazing how much love I feel for a little creature that's the size of an avacado. Mmmm avacados...

So there you go, what I've learned about being pregnant in 18 weeks. I'll write another list later on. And of course I have no idea what will be on that list at this point, probably stuff like how to get yourself out of bed when you're a beached whale and what to clothe yourself with when you're a beached whale. Until then...

a walk in the country

2011-07-25T14:08:00.010-05:00

I never get tired of going for walks around here, and the scenery is always changing. We had a really nice warm weekend so we went for a "wee stretch of the leg" as my Aunt Mary would say. These pics are from the 45 minute loop we like to do from our house through the farms that surround our village. Enjoy.

This handsome fellow is a highland calf.

On top of Withycombe Hill is an old orchard, had we brought a bag with us we would have had apple pie for dessert that night.

in the last couple of months...

2011-07-14T13:47:00.008-05:00

Our niece was born.

We went to a wedding.

Our other niece won the fancy dress contest at her first gymkhana.

I've been bringing strange combinations of things home from the grocery store (this was actually a happy accident--I have been looking for dill pickles forever and lo and behold, they can be found in the Polish food section at your local Tesco. The fact that ice cream also sounded good on this day and that I happen to be pregnant are mere coincidences.)

A garden is growing. Sadly this is not ours but Sam's parents, however, we do benefit from a lovely organic veg box delivered on a weekly basis:)

I got to see my Mom and we spent a hot sunny day by the sea in Devon.

Friends came to visit!! Leah and I lived a lifelong dream of ours, having tea in England together, which we have been practicing for since we were 10.

It's been a good couple of months!

our latest creation

2011-06-25T06:40:00.002-05:00

Heyo! We're going to be parents! Parents to a human being!

This explains my 2 month break from blog life--I have had an extremely lower than normal tolerance for things I don't feel like doing, and all I feel like doing is sleeping. Things are better now that I'm in my second trimester, I'm able to stay off the couch for hours at a time without collapsing.

We're so excited! In fact, excited is an understatement, there really aren't words to describe all of the emotions I am feeling. It's such a big adventure, the biggest and happiest we have been on so far. When we saw the baby for the first time during our scan it was like being suffocated with uncontrollable love, I just couldn't believe I was actually seeing our tiny baby. We watched the baby bounce around and move its little arms and legs, and we could see the heart beating--this little flutter of life. All my fear and anxiety about being a parent just dissolved as I realized how perfect it is. We will figure out the rest as we go. It's such a miracle that Sam and I have made our own little baby, our own little home brew:)

Two months ago when we were waiting to see what the test result would say I realized that I was thinking "please please please let it be positive", and in that moment when it did say positive the universe did a somersault and we entered into an entirely new dimension. We entered it laughing, which is always a good way to begin something terrifying, exciting and new.

featured

2011-06-24T09:46:00.004-05:00

My Etsy Shop has been featured on What Katie Does.

She's written a post featuring Vintage UK Etsy sellers, there's lots of cool stuff on there!

Check it out!

throw us a bone mother nature

2011-06-17T10:30:00.002-05:00

Yes, those temps are in fahrenheit. Yes, that is the forecast for the next three days in the location in which I live which is in the Northern Hemisphere. Yes, I'm still dressing optimistically in flip flops--it is summer after all.

the royal wedding

2011-04-29T12:52:00.001-05:00

Check out my royal wedding post on the Domestic Goddess's blog here.

and the wedding of the year award goes to....

2011-04-21T07:26:00.007-05:00

Sam and I have just returned from spending almost two weeks in Koh Samui, Thailand to celebrate my sweet friend Emily's wedding. It was such a great celebration, as weddings always are when you know that the happy couple were made for each other. We had a blast making new friends, drinking jackie Chang (beer), soaking up the sun, wandering around the island and attending the wedding of the year. Coming home we had that post trip depression let down that often happens after you know you've just returned from one of the best trips of your life. **Sigh** But the beauty of it is that we made some awesome new friends and have 800 fantastic pictures to bring back the memories year after year:)

We watched the sun rise on Koh Samui Monday morning when we left, and as we drove toward Somerset on the M3 we watched the sun set that same day--20 hours later.

Some photographic highlights of the trip:

we went to Wells today

2011-03-12T14:59:00.008-06:00

Going to Wells gave me the exciting opportunity to use Paint to make the amazing map below, I haven't used Paint since I was 10, it's great fun, I'm bringing it back. Anyway, Wells is located in Somerset (only about an hour or so from us) and is the smallest city in England with a population of 10,000, and has city status only because it has a cathedral. The cathedral was built between 1175 and 1490 but the original church was established on that site in 705. The West Front contains one of the largest galleries of medieval sculpture in the world. It is beautiful. Wells is tiny but has the feel of a city. We had fun walking around the city center and taking pictures of small doors.

On the way to Wells we went through a really nice little village called Langport, there's nothing really worth going there for but it was cute, as all villages are to be honest. We also drove through a village called Compton Dundun which is just a ridiculous name and fun to say over and over again which of course we did the rest of the way to Wells. In Compton Dundun we saw a little old man hosing down his driveway and a girl with very drastically parted hair wearing leggings sitting on the wall near a bus station. So that pretty much tells you how exciting of a place it is.

Here I am standing in a miniature doorway. I love these doors, we took 7 pictures just like this today.

Here is the tomb of someone, I'm sorry to say I didn't take note of the name. But this reminded me of Lord of the Rings--the scene where Aragorn is dead and Arwen, who of course is immortal, weeps as his tomb forevermore. It also reminds me of Harry Potter when Dumbledore dies.

This is a picture of Vicars Close which is claimed to be the oldest purely residential street with its buildings intact in all of Europe. And people actually live in these houses, I know because I saw some weird Pokemon toys out in one of the gardens. It was originally built for Bishop Ralph of Shrewsbury and I believe that people associated with the church used to live there such as priests and the Vicars Choral.

I've written some really wordy posts recently so I hope this eye candy makes up for it.

10 Things I Love About England

2011-03-11T12:00:00.004-06:00

I realize I give England a hard time sometimes, I tease it a bit about some of its strange "attributes". What can I say? Cynicism about a place is one of the most common side effects of homesickness. When I’m feeling insecure and a little freaked it helps me feel better when I say things like “What the bleep is this deal with bank tellers trying to sell me mobile phone insurance every time I go into the bank to pay my credit card bill? And why the bleep can’t they SORT MY ACCOUNT OUT SO I CAN BLEEPING PAY MY CREDIT CARD BILL ONLINE??????” See, it’s a way for me to shift the focus of misery off of myself and onto some silly blond girl with 6 brain cells. I know it’s not fair, I know it’s wrong. But anyone who has lived abroad for any extended period of time will tell you this is completely normal mental behaviour. The truth is that I’d probably get annoyed with a bank teller anywhere in the world, this is not something special or unique about England. Another truth is that England really isn’t so bad at all, in fact, I love England, I’m still a little giddy that I get to live here. So since I’m feeling particularly generous on this Friday morning I’m going to make a little top ten shout out list (in no particular order) to those wonderful things that makes England the magnificently beautiful place that it is…

1. Pubs. Hands down the best part about England. Where you will feel and experience the essence of British life through chatting with the locals, taking in the atmosphere, drinking a pint of glorious beer by a hot crackling wood fire, trading gossip with the barman, and enjoying the company of good people

2. English People. What’s most remarkable about the English people I know is that their greatest resource is their own character. Their historical record of endurance and perseverance regardless of the circumstances or consequences has set them apart as a race that exudes a rare kind of permanence. Not a grim or stoic kind but one based on justice and a sense of fair play and tempered with cheerful, joyful and often creative confidence. Such people known intimately make great friends (and spouses:)).

3. The Scenery. Hello, I still get tears in my eyes sometimes just driving through our village. How can such spectacular places exist, and how did I get so lucky to get to live in one??

4. The Soaps. English television can be so shockingly bad that it is actually deliciously good. I don’t know how that’s even possible but it is; watch one episode of Eastenders and you’ll understand. I’m not even ashamed to admit that I haven’t missed an episode since I moved here. Seriously, that’s not an exaggeration. And we didn’t even have a tv until 2 months ago, so I often had to go to great lengths to catch up on the happenings in Albert Square.

5. No ATM fees. I know it’s a small thing, but I really appreciate that I can use any bank’s ATM machine to get cash out and not have to pay a fee. It makes me want to get money out more often and spend it just because it seems free. Hmm, I think I might have just unlocked one of the secrets of English consumerism.

6. Holidays. I get 20 personal days off per year (I get two more next year :)), 8 public holidays, 5 paid sick days (cough cough, what? How did I get to Mallorca? I’m joking!!) and because of the remarkably relaxed work ethic in these parts I get a few half days and full days off from time to time just because. Which is why such terms as POETS day exist--which means Piss Off Early Tomorrow’s Saturday, and at my office we like to abide by that rule pretty much every day. Also, I only work 37.5 hours per week, and by work I mean appear to work. Just kidding. Really, I do work. Sometimes. So lets see, that’s like roughly 35 days off per year. Give or take. Oh yeah, and this year we get an extra day off for the Royal wedding, HOLLER!!

7. Maternity Leave. Woah woah woah, hold your horses. Mom, put the babies r us catalog down. I’m not saying this is something I’ll necessarily benefit from, but if I do happen to be fortunate enough (read: crazy enough) to have babies here I will get a year of maternity leave and will get paid for 9 of those months. Per baby. So I’m thinking how about I have 10 babies in a row and then by the time that’s over it’ll be just about time for me to retire. I know this logic probably appears to be flawed, but with a good team of nannies anything is possible.

8. Pasties, crumpets, parsnips and rhubarb. The best additions to my diet since moving here.

9. History and culture. Each and every place, from the smallest village to the biggest city has some connection to an important historical event, or has the oldest church pew or a pub where a famous outlaw was shot or a hill where a king stopped to do a wee while taking in the view. You can’t walk 10 feet in any direction without seeing something old and significant as far as history is concerned. Which is why England is such a good place for day tripping, you don’t even have to have a destination in mind, just get in the car with a few snacks and drive and wherever you stop you’ll be glad you did.

10. The buildings. I’ve mentioned how our house has oodles of character, as do pretty much all houses in this country. I love love love gazing at the houses and buildings in England, from the crooked little thatched cottages to the mile long rows of terraced houses. I can’t even begin to describe my obsession with chimney pots and wooden beams. Creaky wooden floors? Mmmm! Wee little Hobbit sized doors with a knob in the middle? Yes! Tiny iron gates that open into delightfully colourful patio gardens? YES PLEASE!! Crooked walls? Asymmetrical rooms? Leaded windows with 17th century ironmongery? Stop! It’s too much!

So there you have it people, my top ten list of English loves. But wait, there’s more! I didn’t even mention cream teas, Exmoor Gold, the public right of way system, the national parks, castles, our proximity to the coast, British Airways or English accents. The wonderful things about England are so much greater than annoying bank tellers or the lack of public restrooms. It is a place that inspires and delights, it is rich and lovely and good, and by remembering these things I’m able to stave off homesickness when it occasionally strikes. I love it here.

Life in the UK: Heaven or Hell?

2011-02-27T12:40:00.005-06:00

Among the many happy things about living in England, along with getting a settlement visa, learning to drive, and passing a driving test, in the next few months I also have the great privilege of taking the British Citizenship Test, also known as the Life in the UK Test. Let me just tell you a little bit about this examination. There is a study guide that you can purchase in order to have an idea what questions to expect, the actual test is comprised of 24 questions and must be completed within 45 minutes, you must make an appointment to take it at least 7 days in advance at one of the official testing centers, it costs roughly £34 to take, and once you pass it you then may apply to stay in the country. The test is in English and is done on a computer, so if you don't speak English then sorry, you have to pass a language course to prove that you have learned English before you can take it. All that to say, once you pass the citizenship test you don't even become a citizen. No no no, that's like 5 more years and about as many thousand pounds down the line. And that's probably why so many people just come here illegally and live happily ever after. Anyway, here is a short blurb from the official testing website:

Becoming a British citizen or deciding to settle permanently in this country is an important event in your life. If you are applying for naturalisation as a British citizen or for indefinite leave to remain, you will need to show that you know about life in the UK.

I have underlined the most curious part of that phrase. It's curious because here is a brief sampling of questions on the test:

-How many parliamentary constituencies are there in the UK?

-In which year did women get the right to divorce their husbands?

-In which two places does the European parliament meet?

-What is the number of young people in the UK aged 19 and younger?

-What is the percentage of peoplein the UK who claim to be Muslim?

-How soon is the information from a public census available for public search?

-How many hours per week are children aged 13-16 allowed to work?

-Where is the Scouse dialect spoken?

-Where does Father Christmas come from?

That's right, you probably thought I put that one about Santa Claus in there as a joke, but it is, in fact, one of the 2,000 possible questions you might be asked to show that you know about life in the UK on the 2011 version of the test. What Santa Clause (who last I heard is not even real, what?) has to do with a person's immigration status is completely beyond my comprehension--maybe I don't know as much about life in the UK as I thought I did. Some people might argue that knowing the answers to the above questions would have absolutely no affect whatsoever on my ability to participate fully in this society, and I have to say that I would agree with those people 100%. It makes no sense.

So I've decided to design my very own test, it consists of a few requirements and a few questions. It's a much simpler streamlined version which I think the Queen and also the Home Office should consider using in place of the Citizenship one. Below are a few examples of things a person immigrating to the UK might need to know.

Requirements:

-Can you make and drink milky tea?

-If you are under 25 can you drive at over 75 mph on a one lane road? If you are over 75 can you drive at under 25 mph on a six lane road?

-Can you describe what a combine harvester looks like?

Questions:

-What beverage is consumed more per capita, ale or water? (Ale)

-How far over should 16 year old girls part their hair to one side? (1" above ear)

-What is the nationally recognized proper outfit to wear on a day out in town? (grey tracksuit)

-What type of shoes have laces, are commonly paired with the above outfit and are not associated with any sort of physical activty? (white trainers)

-When is the appropriate time of day to drink a cup of tea? (upon waking up, getting to work, mid-morning, late morning, lunch time, mid afternoon, late afternoon, upon arriving home from work and before bed, and any other time that you come inside from being outside)

-What is football? (Soccer)

-What topic is talked about more, the weather or politics? (the weather)

-If you're in a pub and you order a bowl of chips what are you going to get? (Fries)

-How long does it take your towel to dry after showering and hanging it on the back of the bathroom door? (5-8 days)

-How many different types of rainy days are there? (as many as you are capable of complaining about)

-Which British program is widely considered to cover the most important of life topics, EastEnders or Prime Ministers Questions? (EastEnders)

So there you have it. My version of the Life in the UK test much more appropriately reflects daily life in the UK and is actually based on relevant topics that are reasonably important to know. The official test is more like a boring game of trivial pursuit. For the record, I don't know any of the answers to the first set of questions, obviously. I've been living here for a year and a half without even knowing how many children or muslims there are in this country--insanity!! How have I survived? The only one I do know for sure is the Father Christmas one, which is definitely the North Pole... or is it...

coffee table

2011-01-16T13:35:00.003-06:00

A few months ago we got fed up with our boring coffee table which was a cheapo fake wood temporary fix that we bought soon after moving in so we'd have something to eat off of. We looked around at lots of options such as some nice rustic farmhouse style tables, storage ottomans and even thought about making our own from scratch, but in the end we went for the upholstery option. By following this tutorial we turned our bad looking coffee table into something that we're proud of. All we did was paint it white, drill some holes and secure the foam, batting and fabric with a heck of a lot of staples. Getting the buttons through was probably the hardest part because the table top is made from two pieces of wood and is hollow in the middle, making it a bit tricky to get a needle through both holes, but it really wasn't that bad at all. It's firm enough to set your coffee on and soft enough to rest your feet. Sadly, I don't have a good before pic of it, probably because it was something I avoided with my lens as well as my eyes. This was seriously the easiest makeover project, and took us two evenings after work to complete. I like the fact that we can easily switch the fabric and buttons if we ever want a change.

Today

2010-12-20T03:04:00.003-06:00

This is what our house looks like today, isn't it cute? We have had more record breaking snowfall here in South West England, which is great for enjoying cozy days snowed in by the fire. We just hope that Mother Nature sorts herself out by Wednesday so we can drive up to London for our flight to Houston on Thursday. It looks like we should be okay, but it's a bit concerning for the obvious reason that if I don't get Mexican food soon I'll most likely wither away and perish. But since there's nothing we can do about it and since I can't get into work today and since we have plenty of sloe gin in the house, Sam and I are going to enjoy the snow day. We will probably also spend the day helping people get their cars unstuck outside our house which is what Sam is going right now...

P.S. This is my 100th post.

mi cocina

2010-12-15T06:42:00.006-06:00

For those of you who don't know, mi cocina means my kitchen in Spanish. It's also the name of one of the best Mexican food places in College Station, Texas, and I wish I hadn't even thought of that because I'm starving right now. I'll probably feel grouchy for the rest of the day.

Anyway, I realized that I never posted pictures of the kitchen after it turned red. The redness of the kitchen came about back when Sam and I were in our local home improvement store buying supplies for our banish-the-wallpaper project which I believe took place during most of May of this year. We were choosing paint for the hallway and I really wanted a nice shade of light sage-y green to spice things up and Sam wanted white because that's the colo[u]r walls should be. Toward the end of this discussion, when I realized I was most likely defeated, I defiantly said something like , "Fine, but this just means I'm going to paint the kitchen red," which in my mind was a bit of a crazy thing to suggest--so crazy that it would convince Sam to let me have my way with the sage-y green hallway. To my surprise he said something like, "That's a great idea, I think that would look really good." And that is how we found ourselves painting the kitchen red before we had even finished the hallway. When I put the first coat up I had my doubts, it's a deeply saturated red--think blood. But we have light coming from three directions in that room so it's actually quite bright and cheery in there, and I apologize that these photos really don't do it much justice.

I really like our kitchen (in spite of the shocking back splash tiles which I haven't saved up enough money to replace yet) because we have lovely solid wood cabinets which must have been pricey (thank you very much previous owners) and because it's huge compared to most kitchens you find in England--especially cottages of this size. We have tons of storage space, and I like being able to have our table in there. If only our bathroom would take a hint from this space and not be such a dire, wretched little hole. But I digress.

Please also note our new refrigerator, complete with a freezer, which we lived without for over a year. Can you even believe that? Although it was probably good for my waist line, now we have no excuse not to buy ice cream.

And just in case you forgot what it used to look like, here it is in Magnolia.

I kind of like it this way too. Uh oh. Oh well, I always knew I'd probably paint it a different color some day. I'm crazy like that, I like change and I like it often. Anyway, the white/natural look is in these days, which I think would really emphasize our lovely cabinets. But first I think we'll banish that linoleum...

I also have big plans for that table and those chairs.

a heartbreakingly beautiful walk

2010-12-05T03:37:00.005-06:00

The day after Thanksgiving (which is celebrated on the Saturday after by our family here) we went for a nice long walk to try and burn off some of that pie. And because it happened to snow and it was too beautiful to miss. I couldn't take enough pictures. I am thankful I get to live here and have walks like this in my back yard.

the £6 couch makeover that took 8 months

2010-10-11T00:01:00.000-05:00

Way back in March I posted this post with the picture below as a preview of a project I had started.
It all began with the picture below. This picture is of our first meal in our house the day after we moved in. Please note the sofa, it is approximately 20 years old and had belonged to Sam's parents, then later his sister who gave it to us when they were remodeling their house which was conveniently around the time we were getting married and moving into ours. It's a massive comfy couch, the only problem was that it was absolutely ______ fill in the blank. I can't say the words I truly feel because I don't want to offend anyone.

BEFORE

AFTER

And by after I mean 8 months after I started I finally finished. What happened was we were in Ikea looking at duvet covers and blankets and saw some huge cotton "throws" and I realized they would be the perfect material to cover the couch. And at £2 per throw it was a bargain. We got three and it was more than enough material. So when we got home that night I began the process of covering the cushions and scratching my head as to what to do with the rest of it. After a couple of days I had all the pieces cut and most of it sewn together but just never made the finishing touches of hemming the sides or securing the front "flap" if you will. Unfortunately I can't explain how I did it because there was no method or pattern, I just pinned the fabric over the couch and then took it off and sewed it. I had to put it on and take it off to adjust it quite a bit, and just kind of worked little by little until it fit. It's basically just a slip cover.

Ye Olde Country Lanes

2010-09-27T13:27:00.005-05:00

Welcome to the new Ye Olde series on the Laughing Songbird. I'm calling it a series because I plan on writing posts about many of the endearing and iconic elements that are associated with life in England. Don't get your hopes up too high though; while it is a series I can't promise any kind of regularity in the posts.

I begin today with Ye Olde Country Lanes, for I have a hate hate relationship with them. I have had several unsympathetic responses to some of my earlier posts about the horrors of driving in this country, so here I would like to provide photographic evidence of the perils that exist in real life on English roads on a daily basis.

Consider the photo below. At first glance it appears to be a lovely peaceful little road where there are bound to be serene spots to pull over and enjoy a picnic by a gurgling brook. While that assumption is 100% true, it is also a paved road of death. When approaching blind corners like these it is recommended that you go into the lowest gear possible and inch around the corner at no more than 1/2 mile per hour as you may very well encounter a tractor, an intoxicated farmer in a land rover, a little old lady who cannot physically stop or reverse her car, or worst of all; a foreign driver who doesn't realize cars might be coming in the opposite direction and therefore are driving at 70 mph admiring the scenery. If you have an accident on country lanes such as these it is automatically 50% your fault. No one can be bothered to figure out what really happened, it's simply split down the middle to save time. Best not to get in accidents.

Here you can see my arch nemesis, the dreaded tractor trailer combo. This beast does not reverse, even if another tractor trailer combo is coming in the opposite direction. In fact, that never happens because before they go out they send up smoke signals to alert other tractor drivers to stay off the road for the next 6.5 hours while they drive 2 miles up to the north fields. I heard somewhere that the last time two tractors met both drivers got out and walked away from them just like that, leaving time and rust to deal with the situation. No kidding. So it really stinks when you come upon one because you will be reversing for miles until you reach a lay-by. A lay-by is a passing point, scroll down to see one in real life.

You can pretty much see from this picture how much of the road my little tin can of a car takes up on its own. In the left of the picture is a lay-by. In fact, it is the same lay-by in which I stalled repeatedly in the days before my driving test. To read that story click here.
Below is another hedge lined country road. When they come along with giant beastly tanks to cut the hedges back you have to be careful because it is common to puncture your tires on thorns that have been cut from the hedges and left on the road. If that happens, send a smoke signal as some of these roads aren't driven down for days at a time.

Here is another one of my least favorite combos--the tractor with the thingy that cuts stuff on the back. The thingy that cuts stuff on the back has sharp prongs that stick out and are excellent car scratching mechanisms--you are pretty much guaranteed having to get a new paint job if you pass one of these puppies. As you can see from this picture, we came up to the tractor at an ideal time because it was able to pull into a lay-by and let us pass. And it was extra lucky because there was a gateway on our side of the road so we were able to pass and not have to get a new paint job. I live for magical situations like this.
Here is yet another hideous combo--the tractor with a trailer to carry an optional additional trailer. These are long and slow and are prone to not being able to make it around sharp corners. When that happens you better hope you have a packed lunch with you.
And here is one last photo illustrating the narrowness of these roads. I am super upset because I didn't get a picture of a tractor pulling a trailer loaded with hay bales. Those things are the size of two story houses and sway like a sail boat at sea during a mighty gale. I never got a picture of them because usually when I encounter them I have to reverse home and change my pants--there's no opportunity for picture taking.
**Disclaimer** All of these photos were taken by me while Sam was driving. I don't shoot and drive. Also, these were all taken on one 4 mile trip from our house to Sam's parents'.

Wales Family Vaca

2010-09-13T15:27:00.005-05:00

We went with Sam's side of the family to South Wales and stayed on the Gower Peninsula for our family vacation this year, and it was pretty spectacular for a cold, rainy place! The beaches are incredibly vast and pristine, and even on the hot sunny days we had they weren't crowded. This is Rhossili which is 3 miles long and the best surfing beach in Britain:

The walk to 3 Cliffs Bay is outstanding; you walk over sand dunes, cross a stream, pass the ruins of a castle, walk along a boardwalk...

And end up here:

Another massive, gorgeous beach where there are lots of caves and tidal pools to explore--and even some herds of cows that come down to the water from the fields nearby!

don't laugh...

2010-09-06T14:00:00.006-05:00

I've been obsessing over this shower curtain from Target for quite some time:

I love it, and can't get it out of my mind. Unfortunately for me, however, I live in a land without Target--I know, sometimes I just don't know how I survive either. So while it's perfect for me (ahem, for us, because Sam's decorating opinions matter too, and luckily for him he likes this one), and it's really a reasonable price, I have had a hard time sealing the deal and ordering it because when I add on shipping to my parents, and then calculate how much it will then cost my mom to ship it over the pond to me, it's kind of a lot of effort to go through for a shower curtain (although I don't think twice when putting in a request for hot tamales). Anyway. I had a weekend to myself at home recently and the idea came to me that I could make my own tree shower curtain--yes, yes I could... So I did...

**This is the part where you're not supposed to laugh**

Before I say anything else, let me just say that I realize this looks like something a kindergardener would produce in art class. I simply used a brown permanent marker (which was trying to die) to draw a tree onto our £1 gross "fabric" shower curtain. It's obviously not a fantastic outcome, and I'm still pretty desperate to have the real thing, but it gave me the idea that it would be really cool to draw all kinds of things on £1 "fabric" shower curtains. Like stripes, or words even, or cool geometric designs--the sky's the limit really. And this one will have to do until Christmas when I get the real tree shower curtain of my dreams as a gift:) Just kidding. But seriously.

bathroom improvements

2010-08-21T09:11:00.006-05:00

This is not the bathroom of my dreams, it's the bathroom of my reality, so I have to make the best of it. We recently found an old mirror at a car boot sale for £5 that I sanded down and repainted, it weighs about 30 pounds because of the glass. I have been trying to find some shelves for our bathroom above the toilet pretty much ever since we moved in, and everything is either boring, expensive or impossible to find. I wanted to put up two old wooden wine crates but they fall under the "impossible to find" category. So I spent 2 whole days at work last week on the internet looking for a suitable alternative (as you do), and then when I was driving home one day the answer came to me. We bought two of these bins from Ikea a few months ago and they have just been on our bookshelf not really doing much. They are the perfect solution; they're not plain old shelves and they're items we already own--score! The best part was that it gave Sam another chance to use his power drill to make more holes in our 134 year old plaster walls, which is always an enjoyable experience for him:) Anyway, here you go, it's not really a completed product but it's miles better than before.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

cabinet memo board

2010-08-21T08:56:00.005-05:00

Today I copied a super idea that I got from Ashli at Maillardville Manor who got the idea from here. I found it was actually cheaper to buy a bulletin board--all I had to do was take the frame off (to use for something else??) and cut the cork down to size. Then I covered it with some fabric and put it up on the inside of one of our cabinet doors like so:

Now I just need to figure out a good way to organize all of our spices...

a little apron for a little person

2010-08-19T16:12:00.003-05:00

I made this little apron for my niece who turns two next week. It will be the perfect accessory for the awesome kitchen set she's getting!!

how to water your plants from afar

2010-08-19T16:03:00.004-05:00

Now I know what you're thinking and you're right, I live in England, it rains here all of the time why would I ever bother watering? But tomato plants are needy little things, so I want to leave them with an extra boost of water while we are in Wales next week. All you need is a plastic bottle, a nail and a hammer to poke a hole through the cap and you've got yourself an automatic water drip.

harvesting and picking

2010-08-08T05:26:00.004-05:00

runner beans

purple and baby carrot

peas (not sure what kind but you eat the shell and they are beautiful)

cherry tomatoes

Sam digging up our potatoes, yes he is wearing his slippers--that's how we roll.

Potatoes

Our first wild berry pick of the season and we got enough blackberries and blueberries for a whole pie. It was DELICIOUS, and I was so excited to eat it I didn't take a picture.

we went to Egypt and it was hot

2010-08-06T01:38:00.005-05:00

Naama Bay. Red Sea. Sainai Peninsula.

a walk on the moor (think wuthering heights)

2010-07-23T09:20:00.007-05:00

We are so fortunate here to be able to go for long long walks across many terrains without ever getting in the car. England has a wonderful public right of way system where you can cross fields and farms quite freely. It's exquisite. One day, not too long ago, we left our little cottage on foot, walked down a lane past a stream, through many fields filled with sheep and cows and up over the moor... when suddenly... we saw this...

You don't have to go to Scotland to see Highland Cattle. These big guys are bred to be able to live in windy, misty rugged places and don't mind eating plants that other animals turn their noses up at. And they are enormous. Animals who live on the moors are a bit wilder than most, indeed, there are wild ponies up here.
They are also very curious and came up for a closer look at us which scared the crap out of me.

I love these pictures where you can barely see the trees through the mist into the deep dark woods. Very spooky. I creep myself out big time when I'm walking by myself. Remember that scene from Anne of Green Gables when she's walking through the woods by herself and a crow cries and she freaks out? I have lived that, no joke.

This is gorse, which is a type of evergreen shrub. It's said to bloom in the kissing season--which of course is all of the time. It's dang prickly, but I love it. And in the spring time it smells like coconut, weird I know!

flowers

2010-07-06T15:23:00.002-05:00

I made a startling discovery the other day while checking the weather--the days are already getting shorter! The sun is setting a couple of minutes earlier every day. But never mind, I'm going to enjoy summer while it lasts!

our tiny little garden

2010-06-26T05:34:00.013-05:00

Our patio and deck looked pretty sad when we first moved in...

But now it's a comfy place to sit, eat and be inspired. There is a stream that runs behind the wall in the left of the photo below, and we are able to pull water out to water our plants and also lower a basket down to chill our beers (it's much faster than the fridge). And there's lots of birds making nests all over the place that we get to watch and listen to.

These are some buds on our runner bean plants that are about to open up. Soon we'll have beans coming out of our ears.

These little white flowers will become peas--in fact, since this photo was taken a few days ago we have even been able to eat some! Everything is happening so fast now.

This is one of our dwarf French bean plants, not sure what to expect from these guys, but they're flowering now which is a great sign!

Tomatoes!

Now if they would just turn red.

Gardening requires a vast amount of patience. Which, of course, I lack. It has been very hard to wait for things to happen, but it is so much fun to watch! I wish I could set up some time lapse photography cameras by every single bean, carrot and tomato and watch every second of it!

so I passed my driving test...

2010-06-16T04:05:00.006-05:00

I haven't been making a big deal about this (in blog form) in the past few months because, quite frankly, I couldn't be bothered. It was always such a dumb thing to have to think about. Here is a timeline, however, of my recent UK driving important events (it would be fair to also call these events "incidents"):

March 25-First driving lesson with my instructor who told me that I was obviously an experienced driver but would more than likely fail my driving test.

March 31-Second driving lesson with my instructor, this time in his car, which I stalled immediately upon pulling out of the parking lot and almost crashed into a truck in a roundabout. On this occasion I was close to tears/murder.

April 16-Rescheduled a lesson with my instructor because my mom was visiting and I would have rather eaten horse crap anyway. He told me on this occasion that he did not recommend cancelling any other lessons as I only had 9 weeks until my exam and that he highly doubted one lesson a week would suffice anyway.

April 20-Took and passed the written portion of the driving test and got 50 out of 50 questions correct. Began wondering what the B.F.D. was.

April 21-Had another lesson with my instructor in which I rubbed in his face that I passed the theory test with flying colo[u]rs and was feeling confident. He taught me how to parallel park and then I fired him. He said he was very concerned about my ability to pass as I didn't "demonstrate all of the manerisms the examiners look for." I told him to kiss my bottom basically, but in a nice way.

May 6-Picked up my bro-in-law from the train station and drove him home. He said I didn't make him nervous, which is apparently a big deal for some reason. I felt my confidence rising even more.

June 3-Paid my future children's inheritance when I picked up the car from the shop where it had an inspection which took 6 days becaue the catalytic converter had to be replaced. Drove to my in-laws for a bbq and met a car as I was going up hill on a one lane road. Stalled 6 times and couldn't get the car out of the mud. Screamed as more cars pulled up behind me and I still couldn't get out. Finally thought to reverse down the hill and then go forward, proceeded to my in laws, told Sam it was his fault and then drank a six pack.

June 12-Sam came into town with me to practice my manouvers. Confidence low, frustration high. The big day was quickly approaching...

June 14-THE BIG DAY. Couldn't sleep, couldn't eat, went to the toilet 78 times in 4 hours and then it was finally time to head to the testing center. Met the examiner, he was nice, I did fine except for reversing around a corner which I did very badly, wondered what manerisms I was forgetting to display, and then I PASSED. Easily. Oh happy day! So relieved and feel like it was really the only reasonable option anyway.

Through all of this I have made some observations about the whole learning to drive system here and have some suggestiont to make to Mr. Drivers License Guy:

Reversing around a corner is dangerous, why not just go around the block? Why would you even teach this as an option to new drivers?

Instead of spending hours teaching new drivers to parallel park, reverse into a parking space and reverse around a corner, why not teach them practical things like how to go through a McDonalds drive through, or how to know when you really are about to run out of gas and not to depend solely on the empty light.

Instead of learning how to engage your dipped rear fog lights and how to properly adjust your head rest, teach them to recognize the correct size of coffe cups that will fit in their cup holders. Will a Starbucks Venti fit or will you have to settle for a Grande? This is HIGHLY IMPORTANT. One wrong move and there's coffee everywhere which is much more dangerous than forgetting to check your left hand mirror as you're exiting a roundabout to see if some cyclist is dumb enough to try and pass you.

The correct answer to "How would you top up your battery acid?" and "Where would you put brake fluid?" is acually "Ask my husband" not "With distilled water" and "In the dang brake fluid tank."

It has been proven that it's much safer to drink a large non fat caramel macchiato with whip while driving than to risk not getting enough caffeine in the morning. Making a phone call while driving is, in fact, imperative if that phone call is to remind your husband to stop by the store before it closes because you're out of wine.

Most importantly, they should not mess with people's minds by telling them they don't stand a chance of passing just because they are trying to make more money. I hope that I pass my instructor one day soon so I can engage my full beams and "dazzle" him. I might also show him another one of my favorite manerisms, which is commonly refered to as "the middle finger."

Instructors and examiners have a lot they could learn from me if only they weren't so stuck up. It all seems so obvious doesn't it? But I'm telling you, they just don't get me!

A Few Garden Pics

2010-05-25T14:59:00.003-05:00

I took these pictures last weekend, everything is twice as big now.

Gardening is so magical. You put a seed in the ground and it turns into something you can eat. Wow! We have planted:

-Potatoes

-3 different kinds of Tomatoes

-Lots of different lettuces

-Bell peppers

-Butternut squash

-2 kinds of runner beans

-French beans

-Peas

-2 kinds of carrots

-Onions

-Garlic

-Every kind of herb I can get my hands on

We have a tiny patio but have planted lots of stuff in pots and tubs, it really is amazing how much you can grow in just a tiny space! I would use all of our window sills too but I'm not allowed to go to the garden center for a while. Sam is pretty sure when everything is in full swing there wont be enough room for us to sit outside. He's probably right--I don't have a clue what I'm doing:)

After

2010-05-23T16:03:00.005-05:00

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Before: (before taking the wallpaper off)

After: (We still need to stain the banister)

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Before:

The guest room is way too messy to show the whole thing.

A little village anecdote: On Saturday while we were out washing the car, I went to turn it around in the farm yard down the street so we could wash the other side, and a little old man waved me down. He asked me if I live in the yellow house. And I said yes. And he said that he was born there 76 years ago. He asked if we still have the little room out the back and I told him he really must come over and see for himself. I'm hoping he stops by soon because I'm completely intrigued and can't wait to ask him lots and lots of questions.

During

2010-05-23T14:44:00.007-05:00

It was a dusty horrible job involving a lot of sanding and hole filling and re-sanding. Painting and stripping. Stripping and painting. Our vacuum cleaner broke because it just couldn't take it anymore. So Sam swept the carpet when it became too much to bear. After four weeks, we are officially done, but before we reveal the after pictures, we want to share some of the durings...

The stress caused Sam to go grey prematurely.

Here you can see some holes we filled in the hall downstairs:

Remember that big gaping hole with horse hair sticking out? Look at it once Sam attacked it with plaster repair! See that beam in the bottom of the picture? Scroll down a bit to see how it looks now...

More holes filled:

The guest room without 5 layers of wall paper or foam or foil, but before being painted.

We sanded down this beam that was previously hidden beneath the wallpaper underneath the banister. It's very very nice. We also decided it was silly to paint over the nice wood beneath the beam so we stripped it and sanded it to add a little extra somethin somethin to the stair case.
Here is Sam melting the paint away. We had to cover the smoke detectors so they would stop shrieking. An interesting discovery we made during this time was that whoever installed the smoke detectors did so in a way that we cannot get the cover off to remove the batteries--they're too close to the wall. Which left us scratching our heads and wondering how we will ever replace the batteries... But anywho.

Nice eh?

Here you can see the almost finished product.

So it begins...

2010-05-01T03:06:00.007-05:00

When wallpaper gets wet you kind of have to take it off. The stairway, spare room and hallway between our living room, kitchen, bathroom, stairway and conservatory have been wallpapered this really horrible wood chip wallpaper. It's gotten wet in a lot of places, and moldy in others, and was peeling and hanging of the walls in some areas, so on Wednesday night I finally decided it was time to get that crap off.

Here's Sam in the stairway looking at what we have started with excitement. Do you see that bag next to him on the floor? It's never left his side, he's very concerned about keeping things clean and stops to sweep and vacuum every 30 minutes evening. Which I of course appreciate:)
This is a close up of what I mean by wood chip. It's basically two layers of paper with saw dust between it. You can see at the top of the picture where the top layer hasn't been peeled off yet--that's what it looked like everywhere. It's horrible stuff.
Under the banister here we were surprised to find a board screwed into the wall, and wondered if it was possible that it was where someone had chosen to hide a large pot of gold.
But no, it was actually where they chose to hide this big gaping hole.

If you look closely at the dark spot in the middle of this picture you will see horse hair from the 1800's which they used to use as a binding agent in plaster.

Moving along into our little hallway, the wallpaper has already been removed to reveal a nice mint colored paint. Mmm, mint chocolate chip ice cream...

Where are you now Chad? Get your ass over here and explain yourself.

And now for the spare room, which held the most surprises. I peeled back a little wallpaper and what did I find?

More wallpaper!

It's cute:) Kinda makes you dizzy though...

But wait, there's more! There are actually 4 layers of wallpaper, 1 layer of styrofoam (??!!??!?!) and a layer of tin foil just to make things interesting.

Tin foil? Really? I'm sure there is a good, rational, totally understandable, bad reason for this and I intend to find out what it is.

Now what do we do? .....

Birthday Bags for My New Sisters

2010-03-27T04:14:00.004-05:00

Two sisters-in-law. Two birthdays. Two bags...

The Kezia Bag:

The Olivia Bag:

Bought the fabric at Hobby Lobby when I was home a couple weeks ago. Wish I had bought more. I so wish we had Hobby Lobbys here (Lobbies?) and also Target. I went to target 5 times when I was in Texas. I was there for 7 days.

My Button Monogram Pillow / Driving Lessons Part 2

2010-03-27T03:48:00.004-05:00

Here is my version of what Sarah made in the tutorial below. I did not put a zipper on because I was enjoying myself, and I didn't want to ruin that:) It has an envelope closure instead. I made this from the pillowcase that came with the duvet that I used to make my curtains.

DRIVING UPDATE:

So I had my first driving lesson. The instructor is a guy who is friends with one of my coworkers so he was in the office before the lesson and they were all teasing me and even made fun of my Ugg boots--something about being able to drive with dead puppies on my feet. Ha. Ha. He's an okay guy really.

Anyway, I drove around for about 30 minutes, reversed around a corner and parallel parked. He said I drive like someone who has been driving for a long time and that I would have failed if it had been the test. Awesome. I don't check my mirrors enough, "They must be checked every 15-20 seconds and every time you put your foot on the brake" (I totally made my self dizzy trying to do it that often on my drive home that night--NOT SAFE). And I follow cars too closely, "You must be able to see the tires on the tarmac." He was excited to tell me there is nothing I need to change about the way I steer--oh yippie skippie! But that I'm not supposed to use all of the gears because it is not environmentally friendly driving and they take points off for that, and also you are not supposed to wave a thanks to anyone who lets you into traffic or stops to let you by because they could sue you for some reason that he did not adequately explain to me and I was pretty much ready to get out of the car by then anyway. Whatever. Just give me my flipping license and no one gets hurt.

Driving Lessons Part I (of what I hope is a series with not very many parts)

2010-03-24T08:57:00.017-05:00

The day I turned 16 was the greatest day of my youth. I went to the DPS to get my license on the morning of my birthday and ever since have thoroughly enjoyed the freedom of being able to drive. Until I moved to England. The first few months of my life here were wrought with traumatizing near death experiences as I learned to drive a manual for the first time on the other side of the car on the other side of the road. And because we live where we do, this often occured on tiny one lane roads surrounded by hedges and blind turns where I suddenly found myself nose to nose with a tractor and had to back up up hill for 3 miles until there was a place wide enough to pass. Needless to say, I often broke down (in the mental sense) and Sam had to take over as I cried and shouted obsenities to no one in particular and cursed my bad luck for falling in love with an adorable English boy.

Because of some strange law in this country, a foreigner is able to drive on their previous license from their mother land for 12 months. By the time those 12 months are up you are expected to have taken and passed a theory test, hazard perception test and a practical test. If you fail to take these tests, or fail the tests themselves, you are demoted to the status of a 17 year old (15 to those of you in the States) which is the age at which you may obtain your provisional license. All that to say, I am now in the process of learning how to drive. I never expected, at the age of 26, to be taking my very first driving lessons with an instructor. And if I don't pass all of this nonsense I will be on a provisional license and wont be able to drive by myself for 6 months. Hahaha. All I can really do is laugh about this because it's too terrible to bear otherwise.

I'll be honest with you, I'm not too worried about the theory test. Having 11 years of driving experience, and 7 months of experience driving here, I pretty much get what you're supposed to do. If a granny is crossing the road you slow down and/or stop. You go the speed limit. You check your mirrors. Duh. It's just the bizarre wording here that scares me. I need to know the difference between zebra, pelican, toucan and puffin crossings--what's the deal with all these references to exotic wildlife in a country where the most exciting native animal is the hedgehog? There are about 1 billion signs to memorize, but again, no big deal, I can do that. It's the actual driving test that I'm worried about. I can't yet say that I'm an expert with a stick shift--but put me in an automatic and I can multitask like no other. I drive about an hour and a half each day to work and back, but I still get nervous at some busier roundabouts and my hill starts could more appropriately be called hill stalls. It's not that bad actually, I'm giving myself a hard time here, but it really is nerve wracking and more than a little shameful that I am once again among the ranks of high school students even though I have never been in an accident or caught speeding in my life.

So it begins tomorrow. My first driving lesson is at 12:30 during my lunch break... wish me luck.

It's beginning to look a lot like spring time!

2010-03-22T08:29:00.003-05:00

I went home to Texas for a week two weeks ago, and when I returned to England it was a totally transformed place! Daffodils are blooming, there are buds everywhere, it's warmer, there's no need to take a coat with you everyday (although an umbrella is highly recommended) and the air is fresh and hopeful. Winter is just about over! I don't see my breath anymore when I wake up in the morning! Here are just a few pictures from around here that will brighten any day...

Ah... wasn't that refreshing? Flowers and veggies and strawberries--lots of things to look forward to in the next few weeks and months. I'm a big fan of English spring time.

Before I left for a week I started a very exciting project that I am completely thrilled about. I'm not quite finished, but let me just tell you, it's AMAZING. I can't wait to show you:) Here's a sneak peak:

Button Monogram Pillow Tutorial

2010-02-27T01:33:00.006-06:00

Here it is, the tutorial you've all been waiting for. Take it away Sarah...

On a recent trip to my local thrift store, appropriately named Nifty Thrift, I struck ~~gold~~ pink. I pulled up in front of the outdoor clearance rack, and this full length silk dress was staring me in the face.

After making this pillow, I had in mind to make a pink one for my eldest niece. Even on sale, the silk fabric I used for the first pillow ran about $12/yard. Total cost for this lovely pink dress.....50 cents!

After freshening up the dress with a spin through the wash, I decided to try it on. Funny enough, it fit perfectly! However, since I didn't have any plans to go as Barbie next Halloween, I decided to stick with my original plan and use the fabric for a pillow case. Here's how you can make your very own button monogram pillow.

What you'll need:

-12" x 16" pillow form

-17" x 13" fabric, 2 pieces

-60" (5 feet) of 1/2" pom pom trim

-12-14" invisible zipper

-invisible zipper foot for sewing machine

-assorted buttons

-Iron

Wash, dry, and iron your fabric before beginning. Start by cutting two pieces of fabric, 17" x 13" each. Keep in mind the width of your trim. This is roughly the amount of seam allowance you will need for each side. For example, if the base of your trim is 1/2" wide, you will need a 1/2" seam allowance on each side of your fabric. If the width of your trim is smaller, you will want to cut your fabric a bit smaller so that your pillow case fits snugly.

Next, pin the trim to the right side of one piece of fabric, pom poms facing in.

Using a basting stitch, sew the trim to the fabric. This will help keep it in place when you sew the two pieces of fabric together.

Pin your fabric, right sides together, making sure the trim is tucked in. You want to sew as close to the inside edge of the trim as possible (the edge nearest the pom poms). For our trim, we will want to sew about 1/2" in from the edge, around three sides of the pillow. IMPORTANT: Do not sew both long edges, one will be left open for the invisible zipper. Make sure to back tack at the beginning and end of your seam (To back tack, sew forward a few stitches, backward a few stitches, and then forward again, continuing with your seam. This will prevent your seam from unraveling.)

Snip both corners of your pillow so they look clean when turned right side out. Turn your pillow right side out and make sure your trim looks nice and neat.

To add the invisible zipper you will need a clothes iron and invisible zipper foot. The invisible zipper will come with installation instructions. Follow these exactly! If this is your first time to install an invisible zipper, you may want to practice first. The instructions are a little confusing the first time through.

Once you've added your zipper, you're ready to add your buttons! Using chalk (or a disappearing marking pen) trace your letter onto the front of your pillow. This will be your guide when adding the buttons. Sew the buttons on by hand. I like to tie off my thread after every few buttons. That way if I want to go back and move a button, I'm not undoing the entire letter. Make sure to use buttons in a variety of shapes and sizes, and layer them throughout your letter. I ordered my buttons in bulk off of Ebay for a few dollars.

Insert your pillow form, zip your zipper (if you can find it after the amazing job you did at making it invisible) and enjoy your personalized pillow!

**For more projects like this one visit Sarah's blog.

Meet Sarah!

2010-02-25T02:49:00.005-06:00

Sarah is a dear friend of mine, as well as a fellow blogger and crafter. She works full time as an epidemiologist but still finds time to be a fantastic wife, renovate her home, and make these insanely cute felted animals:

You can follow Sarah’s blog ournestingground.blogspot.com where she shares lots of DIYs and decorating advice—and lots of funny real life anecdotes in between! You will also get the chance to experience the insights and humor of her husband Zach who is hilarious and also a very talented DIYer. Visit Sarah’s Etsy shop MinnieMillery to see all of her sweet felted creatures, as well as some other handmade items and vintage treasures.

When did you start making things by hand?

I'm sure my mom has a box full of macaroni art and finger paintings from my preschool years, but I would say that I first got interested in art around age 8 or 9, when my mom enrolled me in an oil painting class. I remember I was the only child in the class, and had a painting book with nothing but animals in it. My first painting was of a raccoon. It wasn't until after college that I became more interested in sewing and needlecrafting. Maybe getting married brought out the domestic side of me, or maybe it was buying our first house and wanting to create things to make it a home. Whatever the reason, making things by hand definitely helps me unwind after spending all day in front of a computer at work.

Where did you first get the idea for your felted animals?

A couple years ago I had no idea what needle felting was. I came across a feature in Radiant magazine and loved the little birds by Lauren Bradshaw. At the time, I thought they were just stitched together from felt. Then I starting seeing more and more needle felted pieces on places like Etsy, and shared them with my husband Zach. Thoughtful husband that he is, he bought me a needle felting kit for Christmas one year. After practicing with basic shapes, I started making animals. I use the same basic shapes for most of my animals, however my favorite animals to make right now are bears.

What was the toughest update you’ve made to your house so far?

Removing the popcorn ceiling! Although this job doesn't require a lot of skill, it's very messy and physically demanding. We tackled this project after we had moved in, which added to the difficulty. With 8 rooms (plus closets) across two stories, we were eating popcorn for months.Fixing the broken toilet waste pipe in the foundation of our half bath comes in as a close second.

Which was the most satisfactory?

When the last trace of popcorn was gone from our ceilings, we had quite a celebration. We jumped up and down, sang songs, and gave high fives. But I think one of the best transformations was our half bathroom. We pretty much gutted the space, replacing all the old fixtures and lighting. We added a classic pedestal sink, white bead board, and painted the walls sage green. It's a small space, but one of our favorites!

Give us your best tip or piece of advice when it comes to tackling a big project in your home.

Don't be afraid to make mistakes! Zach has definitely helped encourage me in this area....he doesn't call me Safety Sarah for nothing.

I am so excited to announce that Sarah has sent me an amazing tutorial that I will be posting very soon, so be sure and stop by to check it out in the next couple of days--it's a good one!

Thank you Sarah!!!

Endearing Cottage Architectural Oddities

2010-02-21T15:34:00.007-06:00

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but our house is over 122 years old, across the street from a church built in 1212, in a village that has existed for over 1,000 years. I repeat, over 1,000 years. This is staggering considering the US has only been a country for about 234 years. It wasn't until after we moved in that I found out our house used to be a butchers shop (sometimes I think I wake up to moooo-ing), then it was the village post office before World War 1, and after that it was purely residential. All this to say, they built houses differently back in the good old days: walls aren't straight but are curvy, rooms aren't symmetrical, and the house itself is a wedge shape--wider at one side and tapering out at the other. I love it. I call it my Dr. Seuss house. It has been updated quite a bit, but there are still wonderful features that remind me that I'm living in a little piece of history. I am also thankful to the couple who lived here before us, and did a lot of the renovations, for their attention to detail and careful restoration.

To the left of our log burner there is a little bread oven. In the old days when you had a fire going you would basically make your bread dough and it would rise in the bread oven next to the fire.

We have these great old wooden bedroom doors upstairs with old hardware. Love.

Exposed beams. We have a few of these scattered about.

This isn't old but I like it and hate it. This is our closet.

Our stairway, like our house, is wide at one end and narrow at the other.

You can see how thick the walls are in this picture. Here is our lovely stable door.

Wiiiide windowsills. Great for house plants.

The Day of Love

2010-02-19T01:55:00.010-06:00

For our first V Day as a married couple Sam built me a table (well put it together).

And I built him a lemon meringue pie.

Isn't it great how well the two went together? I say went because that's what the pie did.

I am so fortunate to be married to a very romantic person who planned a fancy 4 course picnic in the car (it's dang cold still) at a beautiful spot overlooking Wales with candles, wine, music and blankets. And when it got dark we lit some big lanterns and watched them float away over the hills. So sweet. So perfect.

Okay, back to the table. I am so pumped about that. The first day it's over 40 degrees F we are having a bbq for sure. I can't wait for the long summer days of England to enjoy sitting outside surrounded by all of the beautiful flowers that I'm determined to grow. Come over and enjoy it with us!

Cockney Rhyming

2010-02-17T08:13:00.005-06:00

A couple of weeks ago I promised a post on Cockney Rhyme. Here it is. Basically rhyming slang is where a word is replaced with a rhyming word so frog and toad=road and apples and pears=stairs. No one knows where rhyming slang originally began because variations of it exist in most languages. Rhyming slang is known as Cockney rhyme here in the United Kingdom since it is usually associated with Cockney speech from the East End of London and is believed to date back to the 1840s. Apparently you are a Cockney if you are born within earshot of the Bow Bells, however, the church of Mary-le-Bow was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666 so there you go.

As I don't live in London I don't hear an awful lot, but when ever I don't understand what people are talking about I assume they are putting this Cockney Rhyme to use. Some common rhymes:

Ham and cheesey = Easy
Chevy Chase = Face
Uncle Ned = Head
Saucepan Lid = Kid
Chicken and Rice = Nice
Almond Rocks = Socks
Man on the Moon = Spoon
Cain and Able = Table
Bat and Wicket = Ticket
Trouble and Strife = Wife
Donkey's Ears = Years

So you might hear exchanges such as:

-"How was your driving test?" "Ham and cheesey."
-"Where are you going?" "Home to the trouble and strife."
-"Chicken and rice almond rocks" --just kidding, never heard that one before, but it would be funny.

My favorite one by far is Scooby Doo = Clue. Sam uses this one a lot. I ask him a question like "What are you making me for dinner tonight?" and he says, "I haven't got a Scooby."

There you go, Cockney Rhyme in a straw hut kiss and tell.

IN OTHER NEWS:
I have an exciting interview with one of my favorite artists to post in the next few days, so stay tuned for that along with an exclusive tutorial that will rock your world.

after pictures of a little stool

2010-02-13T06:43:00.006-06:00

I picked up this little foot stool for £2 at a car boot sale in the fall. At the time the legs were stained dark brown, and the top was covered with a orangey/puke colored velvet material. The man I bought it from said it was quite a special stool because all of his grandchildren had sat and played on it when they were young. I loved it, and love it even more now that it's a bit more my style.

check out this massive doily

2010-02-12T04:20:00.002-06:00

Is that amazing or what? It was created by Ladies and Gentlemen, and it looks like they may be doing a DIY tutorial of it in their book this fall...

Doors

2010-02-11T15:44:00.004-06:00

I love doors. Here are a few pictures that I took of some doors in the little village of Dunster. Believe it or not, these were all on the same street. Aren't they great?

Animal-Lovers and Anti-Hunting Activists Avert Your Eyes Please (you have been warned)

2010-02-10T15:25:00.005-06:00

It has been established that I live in a strange place the country. While I love it and have accepted it, there are still things that happen that are alarming. Take last Saturday night for example:

Sam and I were at the in-laws having a meal and a game of Trivial Pursuit, I'd had a couple glasses of wine, it was the weekend, everything was grand. I was in a comfortable place, with people I trust laughing and being merry. Then I had to go to the bathroom. The downstairs bathroom is through the utility room which is through the kitchen, and I always close the door to the utility room to keep the heat in. I used to always turn on the light because I'm a huge baby, but when I've had a drink and I'm feeling brave I leave it off and scoot through to the bathroom. This was where I made a very grave mistake on Saturday. I came out of the bathroom when I was finished, and was reaching for the door latch when I grabbed something strange. Something unusual. This:

Which was when I started and stumbled forward with my face buried into a "coat" which was actually this:

As I fumbled for the light switch, and when I finally turned it on found myself eye to eye with this:

Which was when my knees buckled and I stifled a scream of terror.

I'm from Texas y'all, I have accepted that people hunt, it doesn't even bother me that much anymore. And since being here I have seen my fair share of pheasants hanging out in people's utility rooms/kitchens/front porches. It was just the last thing I expected to put my face on on Saturday. Needless to say, Sam and his parents laughed at me.

The Curtains???

2010-02-07T07:01:00.011-06:00

One of my favorite scenes from Monty Python and the Holy Grail is when the king is up in the Prince's room and they're looking out the window, and the king said, "One day all of this will be yours." and the prince said, "The curtains?" and the king said something like, "No you idiot, the kingdom." and the prince said, "I don't want to be king... I want to SING!" and then started singing and the king got exasperated and something else happened and the prince ends up falling out of the window. Anyway, I have always loved the part where the prince said "The curtains?" in an English accent, and I can't say those two words together without doing it just like that. Ever. So here is how I made the curtains? for our bedroom:

It all started a few weeks ago when I bought some curtains that were on sale, and upon bringing them home realized that I didn't actually want to spend that much. So I returned them and went in search of a suitable alternative. I found a duvet cover that was just the ticket, because it was the same color as the ones I had purchased, and it also meant that I could make them look the way I want. It was tremendously simple because it was a twin size duvet cover, and was the perfect size to fit our window, and all I had to do was to cut it down the middle and sew up the seams. Then I folded the top part of each panel over by 5" and cut pieces of Pottery Barn ribbon that I had kept from some of our wedding gifts, and made little tabs to sew onto the back part of the curtains? like so:

I sewed a seam an inch from the top to form a ruffle while also catching the top of each tab.

Then I sewed a seam at the bottom to close the "flap" while also catching the bottom of each tab. This way there is the option to put the curtain rod through the flap or through the tabs, get it?

In this photo I have put the rod through the tabs, and it gives it a very nice gathering effect.

And this is what it looks like from the back.

And here is the window.

This is what our bedroom looked like when we moved in. We had curtains that were hand me downs, and served their purpose beautifully but totally clashed with everything. Always a very temporary fix. We took off the curtain track that was up there and put up a curtain rod that we got from Sam's sister when they were remodeling their home. We painted the rod white as well and installed it this past week.

Since we moved in we have painted the dressers and distressed them (there is one on the other side of the bed too), painted the wardrobe (the big thing in the right hand side of the picture) and painted the walls grey. I really am so happy with how it looks now with the curtains?!!!!

This is how the bedroom looked this morning after I finished and hung the curtains? I'm quite pleased. We plan on hanging pictures eventually, as soon as I bring some back with me after my trip home in March.

Living in the Projects

2010-02-06T05:35:00.007-06:00

Sam and I are definitely living in the projects these days. I mean, there are projects in progress everywhere around here. There are lot of things we want to do to our little house to make it our own, and now that we both have incomes they're starting to happen. It sure is messy though. Sam came down stairs this morning (where I was covering some boring lamp shades) and said, "THERE ARE TOOLS EVERYWHERE!!!" Which I thought was funny, coming from a man. But there are--pretty much on every surface. I'm hoping to post some pics soon of the little things we have gotten done, but I've been really bad about taking before pictures, so you wont be able to appreciate the vast improvements we've made. This weekend we are organizing our spare room, downsizing a desk, painting and hanging a curtain rod, making and hanging curtains, cutting back our outdoor plants and cleaning off the deck of all dead leaves and dirt, and getting rid of the last of the mold that we have had such a problem with (this involves bleaching, sanding and repainting things). I am rewarding Sam for all of his hard work by allowing him going with him to watch a Rugby game.

Going back to the mold problem (mould if you're English), we have had to get creative. I have done lots of research and have found some handy ways of preventing mold. Our closet is the main problem area, so now we keep our shoes in plastic bins, and have purchased this:

Which you can buy here, and it really does make a difference in our little closet. Basically it is a porcelain "egg" with absorbing crystals inside of it--the same stuff that you find in those little packets in shoe boxes, and when the little sensors on the sides go from blue to pink you pop it in the microwave (or if you're like us, in the oven) and it makes the moisture inside of it evaporate and it's ready to go again. The egg is made for small spaces, so we also invested in a dehumidifier which is expensive but totally worth it because it gets so much moisture out of the air. We run it about 2 or 3 times a week for an hour or so and get about a cup of water each time--THATS HOW DAMP IT IS Y'ALL.

Happy Birthday Mom!

2010-02-04T03:59:00.004-06:00

Love you and can't wait to see you in a month!!

Giveaway

2010-02-03T07:19:00.004-06:00

Go to Natalie Jost's blog at Olive Manna to vote for this very sweet giveaway. In honor of Valentines Day she asks that you post a romantic story when you leave a comment.

Common English Words Defined

2010-02-02T06:14:00.005-06:00

This post is inspired by some nasty emails I have received lately, in response to some of my emails, which have been auto "corrected" by my UK version of Outlook. Hence such changes have occurred against my will: labor-->labour, neighbor-->neighbour, color-->colour. Basically, I have some family and friends who have accused me of becoming Englishized and being a poser, or one of those obnoxious American people who try to become Europeans (the audacity), and I hereby say IT'S NOT MY FAULT. I am also here to say that I get made fun of on both sides of the pond. There are a surprising number of words that are not the same--I am trying to speak their language here but sometimes I forget.

A list of commonly used English words that differ from American in alphabetical order (more or less):

Advert--commercial
Biro--ball point pen
Bobby--police officer
Brekkie--breakfast
Estate car--station wagon
Git--scumbag
Grotty--dirty
High Street--shopping area
Hoover--vacuum
Jacket potato--baked potato
Jumper--pullover sweater
Kitchen roll--paper towels
Loo roll--toilet paper
manky-rough, dirty, nasty
minger--someone who is unattractive
Nutter--insane person
One the Piss--drinking heavily
Orientate--orient
Pikey--Irish traveler, aka Gypsie
Ping--email
Plait--braid
Plonker--fool, silly person
Press up--push up
Push chair--forward facing baby carriage
Sellotape--tape
Skint--broke
Snog--kiss
Toff--member of the upper class
Uni--college
Wing mirrors--side mirrors
Wobbly-freak out, have a hissy fit
Wonky--not straight
Yob--young troublemaker

So you see, there are a lot of differnces. Please don't have a wobbly if you get a ping from me with wonky words in it because I'm still trying to orientate myself, and this is not the same English as I learnt at uni, I'm not a plonker innit.

Stay tuned for tomorrows/next weeks post: Cockney Rhyme and Other English Anomalies...

My Little Kumquat Tree

2010-01-27T15:09:00.005-06:00

How exciting is that? I had the day off of work yesterday because the servers were down (and no I did not sabotage them, although now that I know I'll get the day off...) so I treated myself to a little trip to the garden center to pay a visit to the miniature fruit trees that I've been lusting after for a few weeks now, and lo and behold, this little beauty was on sale!

Things I want to do with my kumquats:

Lambs

2010-01-27T14:45:00.004-06:00

Until I moved to this part of the world, I knew nothing about animals. And I still don't. So I get excited when I get to see what actually happens in barns. We went to see some sweet little lambs last weekend, and even though there wasn't any birthing action (much to my dismay/relief), it was a fully satisfying experience just to see the babies:)

So here's how it all goes down: All the ewes are out in a field, then a ram enters the field with a harness strapped under its belly. This harness has dye on it--imagine a big marker. So when he "jumps on the ewe," bing bada boom, and there's a mark left on the back of the ewe (see Fig. 1). Mr. Farmer changes the color of the dye strapped to the ram each week so that that he is able to know when the ewe will lamb by the color on her back. Sometimes there's a sneaky rendezvous and a lamb is born earlier than expected. 145 days later the ewe should be ready to lamb, and so if it's cold they bring them into a shed or barn and wait for the little lamb/lambs to arrive. The lambs and ewes in these pictures are still in sheds because it's pretty cold, so when they are a couple of weeks old they will be strong enough to be out in the fields getting nice and fat until they meet Mr. Butcher. I never said this story had a happy ending. But ANYWAY, they're darn cute and soft and delicious. What? Sorry Mom, I meant for this to be an informational and warm and fuzzy narrative, but really, I'm just telling the truth.

Fig. 1

I have always lived under the impression that sheep with horns were male. So when I saw a massive big "ram" with huge horns standing by one of the sheds, I walked up to it and gave it a nudge and wink and said, "Well done there old man, way to go. You must be really proud of yourself." But then Sam informed me that it was a she and was next in line to give birth. I guess sheep can have hormone imbalances too.

One last little tidbit; my little niece who is 1 year old already has a pony, and now she also gets to have a lamb of her choosing. Totally not fair. Kids in the country have it all.

Greetings

2010-01-24T03:27:00.003-06:00

The holidays have come and gone, and now it's almost February. It has been incredibly cold here, one of the longest cold snaps in the history of the UK--below freezing for over a month. Now that it's a little bit warmer I have been eyeing my sun dresses and shorts, and have to remind myself that it's still January.

It's lambing season for some farmers here in the West Country, and I hope to post some good action shots soon (don't worry, I'll keep them below PG-13) as we are going to visit Sam's brother-in-law's farm to see how it all goes down. I've been told I have good lambing hands, and that kind of makes me nervous, especially for the sheep. It's fun to see tiny balls of fur in the fields now on my way to work, they are so dang cute.

We had quite a bit of snow in the past three weeks, and it caused a shocking amount of chaos, comparable to the insanity that can be seen whenever there is a freeze in Houston and the whole city shuts down. To be fair, we live in the country so there aren't a lot of options as far as roads go. The road into our village was salted, but it was still hard to get around. I had two days off of work and Sam had 4, so we got lots of sledding in which was great fun.

The Wreath

2009-12-12T16:12:00.003-06:00

This Christmas I wanted to decorate with things I have found and made myself. This wreath was made from things I have found on walks. It's made from ivy wound into a wreath shape, with fir branches and holly and honey suckle berries woven into it. It makes me appreciate how cool our front door is too.

oh tannenbaum

2009-12-12T10:33:00.006-06:00

Believe it or not, we bought our Christmas tree from the Queen. There is a Crown Estate in Dunster which is a village just down the road from us, and our tree was grown there. So it's literally our Royal Tannenbaum.

My first real tree!!!! (sorry for the blurry pic)

Cozy as.

Thanksgiving and Beyond...

2009-12-12T10:10:00.004-06:00

I had the pleasure of making Thanksgiving dinner for my new family and some friends this year--their very first one! Since I was sort of homesick at the time, and I wanted to do something a bit different, these little guys were part of the feast:

The apple pies were a big hit, but unfortunately the pumpkin one wasn't so good this year. I made it from a whole pumpkin which I've never done before, and it just wasn't quite like Mom's.

Everyone seemed to enjoy it, and discovered the beauty of Thanksgiving. I already have people asking to be invited next year. I do have to mention that my M-I-L made the turkey and it was gorgeous.

We had a hail storm last week which was exciting. It's the closest we've gotten to snow so far.

This is the hail from our kitchen window. Please excuse the blurry pic.

We also finally got a table and chairs last month. It's an old farmhouse style kitchen table, and it has lots of character.

Etsy Update Part 2

2009-11-13T09:04:00.003-06:00

This is a bag I made from the sleeve of an old suit. It's super cute. If you'd like to see more pictures it's listen in my Etsy shop!

Etsy Shop Update

2009-11-13T06:36:00.002-06:00

Rag Rug

2009-11-12T03:17:00.003-06:00

I wanted a little rug to put in front of the sink, I had some t-shirts from the same pile of old clothes that I used to make Sam's bag, so I made this:

It's a rag rug. I remember seeing these a lot when I was little, and I don't mind that it's sort of old fashioned and lop-sided. It's surprisingly comfy for the feet!

Making Apple Butter

2009-11-09T07:34:00.002-06:00

Apple butter is such a misleading name for the delicious spread isn't it? It isn't butter at all, but a glorious topping for biscuits and scones. And pancakes. And toast.

Last week Sam came home with a giant bag of apples that he received from one of his co-workers. The next best thing to actually having an apple tree in your own garden is knowing people who do. I couldn't justify making more than one apple pie (which I only justified making anyway because it was experimentation and research for the Thanksgiving meal I will be making for my first-timer English family members in a couple of weeks), so I had a little thinking session about what else to do with the heap of apples I had left. It didn't take long to settle on apple butter as the correct route to go with these puppies, so I did a little of my usual online research and came up with this method which is a combination of several and a lot less work than some:

-Peel, core and slice the apples (I had about 12 giant ones)

-Put them into a slow-cooker on medium heat overnight

-In the morning add a reasonable amount of sugar, cinnamon, and cloves (about 3/4 cup, 1 TBSP, and 1/2 TBSP respectively, in my case)

-Turn the slow-cooker on low and leave it all day

I would stir the concoction whenever I happened to be in the kitchen, and by morning it was an incredible dark color which only became more rich as I added the spices and let it cook all day.

I also used a non-traditional way of canning them, and I hope it works. I always save jars these days, so I chose a few that had lids and put the jars in the oven at a high temperature for about 20-30 minutes, and boiled the lids. Then once I had filled the jars and put the lids back on I boiled them for an additional 5-10 minutes. I used a set of sterilized silicone tongs to remove and attach things and to save my fingers. I have no idea if this is in any way a good way to jar things, but I figured they are sterilized enough right? Uh...

**By all means, do not follow my canning method if you are at all uncomfortable with it, I am just relaying what I did:)**

Anyway, the apple butter turned out wonderfully, and I'm so glad that I tried it! It's so exciting to make things myself and to learn how things are done. I have been inspired lately by Jimmy Doherty who is a farmer with a tv show on the BBC. His programs are so interesting to watch. He has this new one where he has designed a "food factory" (which is actually just a barn on his property) and he makes all kinds of things that are mass produced and sold in supermarkets, just to see how it's done, like corn flakes, instant coffee and even coca-cola--the sorts of things that you would never ever think of making (and also probably shouldn't). Anyway, it's so cool!

Sam's Bag

2009-11-08T06:02:00.005-06:00

I recently confiscated a bag of old clothes from Sam's parent's house that was about to be sent to a charity shop. Sam has been asking me to make him a new bag to take his school books in to work since the one he has is torn and needs to be taken to someone who knows how to sew leather. We came up with this design from an old pair of Gap corduroy cargo pants!

The big pocket on the front was once the cargo pocket on the side of one pant leg. It's huge and can hold all kinds of stuff like wallet, keys, ipod, phone, calculator and other geeky items like protractors and compasses.
Sam required that the bag be big enough to fit A4 sized papers and books. He is completing a math degree (maths if you're from the UK) so he has lots of workbooks and packets to carry around.
The inner pocket was once the back pocket of the pants, sized down to fit inside of the bag. It's a really good size for pens and pencils and erasers.
The strap was part of Sam's snowboard bag that he never used, and is attached to the bag by two of the belt loops.

I must say that this bag was designed to Sam's specifications, and it was 99% percent his idea--all I did was put it together. I did not know that my husband had a hidden talent as a handbag designer! I will put him to work more often and maybe one day we'll make a business out of it!

Autumn

2009-11-04T06:34:00.005-06:00

Extreme Makeover: Broom Closet Edition

2009-10-27T13:01:00.003-05:00

In our cottage, we have three closets-- a "wardrobe" upstairs, a cupboard/broom closet downstairs and an airing cupboard in our bathroom. So not a lot of storage. We have had to get really creative and very un-feng-shui (stuff under the bed, under the dressers, tools in the kitchen drawers etc.). It doesn't help that now I have a heap of sports supplies to deal with: cricket gear, rugby gear, 2 surf boards, 3 snowboards, and a set of golf clubs. I've never thought of guys having so much stuff as I didn't have any brothers, and my dad's always had a garage for all his stuff;) Anyway, until yesterday, our downstairs closet looked like this:

We have had some really bad luck with rails, because the inner walls of our house are made of a chalk like substance that are about 2 feet thick, and a couple weeks ago the rail in our upstairs closet fell down, leaving a mixing bowl sized crater in the wall. Sam fixed it with his magical powers, but it made me second guess my plan to put a rail up in the closet downstairs. With our forces combined we came up with this:

That shelving unit had a 6th shelf, but it wouldn't fit, and since Sam can cut an incredibly straight line with a hand saw we made it work. It's great! I keep opening the door and looking in at all of the organization. We were able to attach the coat hook because it's attached to the outer wall which had to be drilled through because it's solid stone. There's no happy medium with our walls. **sigh** But I am obsessed with this house so I'll take it. And now we have a beautifully organized closet:)

A Confession

2009-10-25T11:17:00.003-05:00

I cleaned the floors for the first time since we moved in this weekend. What?

When Sam and I were sitting down and talking about budgeting and what we really needed and what we should save for, I offered that there was no urgent need to get any cleaning products at first because cleaning isn't a necessity really. Of course Sam just rolled his eyes and proceeded to buy a washing machine and a vacuum and a whole slew of sprays and wipes, but to my surprise and delight he overlooked the broom/mop aisle, and I did not point that out to him. It has been almost 3 glorious months of not even caring what the hideous linoleum floors in our kitchen, bathroom, hallway and conservatory looked like because we were saving money, and everything else was clean anyway. It's not like cleaning the floors would suddenly make them look nice anyway, because like I said, they're linoleum. BUT THEN, two weeks ago we happened to be picking up some supplies at our local home improvement store, and by pure chance passed a big, flashy display of brooms and mops on sale and I knew then that I was doomed. Sam's eyes lit up and said something about not having cleaned the floors yet and they're "quite grotty at the moment" and I just scuffed my foot against the ground and pouted away to gaze fondly at new tiles. But if you notice, we got the stuff two weeks ago, so I was able to put it off for a reasonably long time still.

I am a pretty clean person, typically, and everything else has been cleaned regularly. I even enjoy it now that it's our home and not my parents house or some crumbly old apartment. I will admit that the floors do look better, they are a much lighter color than they appeared to be before, and it gave the kitchen a new sort of feel and brightness.

Poo

2009-10-21T15:23:00.003-05:00

There's nothing worse than stepping in dog poo. Except for stepping in cow poo. Apparently the same rules do not apply to picking up after your cows as they do to picking up after your dog. But they definitely should.

Speaking of cow poo, when I was at the local college interviewing for a job (that I was not chosen for), I met a history teacher who is a massive fan of the US of A, and who has a rather impressive collection of memorabilia. Including some "genuine cow patties from Texas." I don't want to know how he got those through customs. Or why. But actually I do want to know why, because there is cow crap everywhere around here. Hence the first paragraph of this post.

I live in the country ya'll.

Materialistic Me

2009-10-21T03:49:00.006-05:00

Although I appreciate raindrops on roses and brown paper packages tied up with string, they are not actually a few of my favorite things. My favorite things change often, hey I'm a woman. Since it looks like I wont be doing any shopping anytime in the near future (no job=no disposable income) I will celebrate a few of my favorites now, and perhaps they can become favorites for someone else too.

Cheap Mondays from Urban Outfitters. I'd sleep in these.

Positively Radiant moisturizer by Aveeno with SPF 15.

The Helmer by Ikea, one of the best storage solutions out there in my opinion.

Colorful wool socks knitted by my Auntie M., similar to these--I could use like 100 more pairs (hint hint mom).

Wellies:) A must in England.

**disclaimer: these are things that I actually own, except for the socks and Wellies which are similar. I would never promote something I did not truly love. These products have the Bethany guarantee, which doesn't actually mean much in the real world.

Update: Sam just read this and said "I'm not on there." He also asked if these are things that I want for birthday presents (it's coming up guys, November 16), which just goes to show you that he hasn't noticed that I already have everything I love and desire. Except for an old yellow Mini with rust spots that doesn't go over 40 mph. And is automatic. Or a border collie puppy, but first we'd have to have kids so they can take care of it, but that's totally out of the question.

Last 5's

2009-10-20T16:03:00.006-05:00

Last 5 Books I've Read:

1. The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts by Louis deBernieres

2. The Righteous Men by Sam Bournse

3. The Prometheus Deception by Robert Ludlum

4. The Last Time I Saw My Mother by Arlene J Chai

5. The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb

Last 5 Meals I've Eaten:

1. Chicken tikka masala

2. A southwest risotto (see, I love the stuff)

3. A pork roast with roasted veggies

4. Macaroni made with Gouda cheese and bacon

5. Pizza and Salad

Last 5 Blogs I've Looked at:

1. The Lettered Cottage

2. Black White Yellow

3. Our Nesting Ground

4. Angry Chicken

5. Barack's Teleprompter's Blog

Last 5 Un-Funny Things:

1. The freezer we got for free defrosting

2. Still not having a job

3. Seeing embarrassing pictures of myself dancing on Facebook (they're mildly funny really)

4. Spilling sour cream all over everything in the fridge

5. Changing a disastrous explosive diaper (I have two more days of nannying)

Last 5 Halloween Costumes:

1. Lucifer (As in Satan, not the cat on Cinderella. And also the sexy female version not so much the scary real thing.)

2. A cat (Not as in Lucifer, the cat from Cinderella, but just an ordinary feline)

3. A gothic ballerina

4. A news agent (News Team ASSEMBLE!!!)

5. A cat (Same as number 2. It's like the easiest costume. All you need is ears on a headband.)

Etsy Shop Update

2009-10-17T06:01:00.006-05:00

I have finally updated my Etsy shop with a few things I've made recently (with my lovely new sewing machine!!) and some wonderful vintage finds as well.

Say "YES!" to Risotto

2009-10-15T06:00:00.013-05:00

Getting married has certainly broadened my culinary repertoir. Sam enjoys a range of foods different from what I am used to making, so it's been great to learn new recipes and techniques--my tastebuds also aprpeciate it.

I recenlty started making risottos every other week or so because, dang, they are TASTY. Not to mention warm and comforting and DELICIOUS. I began by doing a little online research, and found that Jamie Oliver really had a good recipe going on. I love Jamie Oliver. I want to own all of his books and also be his best friend because it would be awesome to be invited over for dinner. Anyway. Luckily you can get his recipes online, and instead of copying it all down here I will share the link to his basic risotto recipe. Please please please try it. You can add all kinds of things to this recipe; mushrooms, pesto and pine nuts, artichokes (YUM), asparagus, you name it. Once you get the hang of it it's pretty simple--and I know how much simple meals appeal to the modern chef/cook/housewife/food eater. Let me know how this works out for you and how much you LOVE it.

Here's a picture of Jamie just because he's a genius and he loves gardening and he taught me how to make a risotto so that my husband would stop asking me why we haven't had it for dinner yet. Also because he's cute for a chef. Here's to you Jamie...

Found Treasures

2009-10-14T04:24:00.008-05:00

It is rare for me to go for a walk and not come home with my pockets full of little treasures that I find along the way. It's difficult to pass up a feather, or a clump of colorful berries. The windowsills are quickly becoming cluttered with little things that nature has generously left in my path.

Clockwise from the top: Sweet corn (picked in a field right above our village. Picking things that aren't yours is called "scrumping", which is synonymous for stealing), pine cones (they're everywhere these days), holly (I know it's early to be decorating for Christmas, but I've never actually seen holly with berries before in the wild), a bowl of hazelnuts (almost ready to be cracked and eaten), miniature pine cones (love these little guys!), a Magpie feather (according to the rhyme, one is for sorrow, but I think one feather is for happiness), orange berries on an interesting stalk (I haven't figured out what these are yet, but they are stunning, and also probably poisonous.) red bowl of acorns (I feel bad pinching these from the squirrels, but I had to have a few for my collection). And there you have it.

UPDATE: Just as I was about to hit the publish button for this post there was a knock on the door and my new guaranteed-to-work-in-the-UK sewing machine arrived thanks to my loving husband Sam! Whoohoo! Now I have an excuse not to do any cleaning!

UPDATE 2: Sam just informed me that holly with berries is actually female holly, male holly is the kind without. You need both in order to have berries. Makes sense right? Female holly has softer not so poky leaves, and male holly is very spiky.

a tale of a sewing machine abroad

2009-09-22T07:06:00.005-05:00

I think I mentioned in my last post about how much free time I have had these days, and I really have nothing new to say about that except that it continues...

Last week, in a moment of desperate energy, I decided it was time to sew a clothes pin holder. We do not own a dryer, and I much prefer it this way. There is something very elemental about hanging your clothes out to dry (with the exception of towels which get a bit crunchy at times, but I have been pleasantly surprised with how well our fabric softener works). Anywho, it dawned on me pretty much right away that a pin bag was an immediate necessity. And so for the first time in the great nation of the United Kingdom, I brought out my beloved sewing machine from the china cabinet, where it has been since the day I arrived, and with an overwhelming sense of anticipation plugged it in... and it blew up. It quite literally POPPED and then did absolutely nothing at all. While I was shaking my head to clear the ringing sound from my ears I took note of two things: 1. My sewing machine obviously does not like the voltage level here or is not dealing well with culture shock very well, and 2. I still needed a clothes pin bag, like ASAP, because I had a load in the washing machine. So in spite of my fury and frustration (and an overwhelming sense of sadness) I hand sewed this clothes pin bag. It works like a charm just as I had hoped, which sort of makes up for the temporary loss of my sewing machine. Here you can see it in action doing exactly what it was created to do. Look at it hanging there proudly in the breeze, it even looks like it's smiling:)

While my sewing machine is being repaired I am very fortunate to get to work with this beauty, on loan from my mother-in-law. It is SO fun to use and has a wonderful old smell and makes the most delightful spinning and whirring sounds.

I have used it to make covers for some pillows we got from IKEA last weekend with some old velvety curtains that belonged to Sam's great-aunt. They are a temporary fix but feel so so nice and were almost free since the pillows themselves cost about 69p each. Sorry about the bad quality of this picture, I have limited resources here and am also quite lazy. But you should be able to see 6 pillows in two wing-back chairs (the one on the left used to belong to the same aunt as the velvety curtains and the one on the right was Sam's grand dad's, I love them both equally and massively).

My next job involves a ladder, some plants, a squeegie and the ability to overcome a fear of heights that has been with me for almost 26 years (i.e. my whole life). Any guesses as to what this might be? Well I'll tell you. I am going to borrow a ladder, lower it down into the stream behind our house crawl down and plant some irises on the opposite bank that we can enjoy next summer, then climb up the ladder and wash the dreadful windows of our conservatory and yank down a bunch of ivy that is trying to come through the roof of our conservatory. And if I still have time I might throw whatever is in our compost bin into the neighbor's yard because they were rude to me last weekend when our guests blocked their auxiliary gate with their car. How horrible of me, I would never do that. Anyway, for a better idea of what I plan to do see exhibit A.

Exhibit A

On the job front: I have been hired on as a nanny for a family who are waiting for their au pair to arrive which they expect to be in the next 5 weeks or so. This is great because the job I am hoping to get at the college in town will begin around the beginning of November. So for the next month I will be taking care of a little boy named Freddie. I also get a Land Rover, gas, insurance and food into the bargain. So it's a bargain. Except for the Land Rover part because these roads are skinny man.

I've had A LOT of time on my hands

2009-09-09T04:46:00.010-05:00

With Sam back at work, and being unemployed myself, I have had almost two full weeks on my own. Even though I am able to drive around on my own now without screaming and swearing (most of the time) I have mostly stayed around the house. It has been a good bonding time for me and the little cottage, it's starting to feel like my own now. It has also been a great time to be out exploring my surroundings--and oh what a joy that's been!

I started off last week by painting the bathroom. There is still some work to be done in that funny little room, but it's work I look forward to.

before

after

I was sick with a stomach flu or food poisoning or cat scratch fever or something last week for 3 days, which was annoying because I haven't been stay-in-bed sick for about 10 years and it just had to strike during a time when I was so excited to be out and about. But by the weekend I was back in action, and went berry picking with my mother in law. Sam and his brother and dad went to play golf, and my m-i-l went along to forage the course. Holy moly did we ever, may arms were sore the next day. We walked along with the men from hole to hole and picked like crazy, each of us exclaiming over how many berries there were. We came away with purple hands and pounds and pounds of berries. We also picked pounds of sloes wich were used to make sloe gin (will be ready in time for Christmas). This whole berry thing is new to me, but there are millions all around so I'm getting loads of practice--it's very addicting. I keep hearing that there are an unusual amount this year, which I am thankful for because it's been so much fun. I have made 3 blackberry crumbles, blackberry and sloe jam, and sloe gin--it's been fun to learn how! And of course the best part, the part that puts a sly grin on my face, is that it's all for FREE!

These are some berries I picked on a short walk around the village.

One of the yummy crumbles about to go in the oven.

Like I said before, I have gone for lots of walks. The weather has been so nice! It's wonderful to discover new walks and paths and little places to sit and read--I've also found some GREAT pic-nic spots:) On my walk yesterday I met an sweet older couple from the village (who told me of some other "lovely" routes) who asked me to "call 'round for tea" which I think is so great! Totally melted my heart. I wanted to follow them home then and there!

This nice view is from up the hill above our village--which you can see in the right of the photo. Such a great spot to sit and take in the magic. You can actually see almost to Bristol up the coast on a clear day, and all the way to Minehead and North Hill to the left. Also, there's Cardiff, Wales across the estuary there...

In other news, we've had our new wood-burning fire place delivered, and hopefully it will be installed really soon. These are commonly used in houses here as opposed to open fires because they generate so much heat. We should be able to heat our entire house with this little stove, and we can even cook on top of in the event of a power outage. I plan to put a kettle on top so I'm ready for when visitors call 'round for tea:)

Not much else to add to this update except that I am enjoying learning about life in the country--the English countryside at that. It's all so exciting and new. Oh, I did have a meeting at the college in town and it looks like I will probably be working there in the next couple of weeks which is great news. Fingers crossed! I am now going to go sit on our deck in the sunshine, listen to the stream trickling by and peel a bunch of apples that we picked over the weekend. They will be boiled, frozen and saved for future apple pies and apple butter! YUM!

In the Past Month

2009-09-03T05:15:00.004-05:00

Sam and I spent a week in Mexico with our friends and family...

Got married...

Spent a week in Texas where we also had a reception...

Packed as much as we could into our allotted luggage and moved to England...

Into this cute little yellow cottage...

Had another reception at the village hall in Luxborough where Sam's parents live...

And honeymooned in the Maldives where we stayed in a bungalow over the water.

It has been the most hectic and enjoyable month of my life! I sometimes forget where I am in the world and the calendar, it looks like it's September now which is CRAZY. We have been busy setting up our home and getting things in order. I have had to register at the doctor, apply for a National Insurance Number, learn to drive on the wrong side of the road, cook using the metric system, and look for a job. It's been great! Sam is back at work now, so I have been looking for jobs and have some very good possibilities right now, just waiting to see how they play out. I have gone for long walks almost every day, and the incredible beauty of my surroundings has only intensified with each breathtaking view I discover. We live in one of the most beautiful places I have ever been too--how lucky! And to top it all off, being married has been even better than I expected, we are having so much fun:)

HP 6

2009-07-13T12:39:00.005-05:00

Seeing it on Thursday. Currently reading the book (for the 3rd time). Drooling on my desk with excitment. Can I hear a WHAT WHAT!!

I GOT IT!

2009-07-02T07:29:00.009-05:00

My visa was approved and issued yesterday. Thanks to the very nice lady I was able to speak with, they moved my application to the front and issued the visa within a few hours. It's so nice to know that I can live in my house with my husband and wont have to do this again... for two more years until I apply for permanent residency. Thank you for your encouragement! If you or someone you know every goes through this process talk to me, I am now an immigration pro:)

YAY!!

My Favorite

2009-06-25T08:52:00.010-05:00

This is one of my all time favorite pictures. It was snapped by my cousin Rachel when she and my two other cousins came to visit me in Taiwan. It's such a beautiful depiction of a typical moment in Taiwan time (that pink person in the background is me taking it all in with glee). There are so many strange and wonderful things going on all at once. I decided to post this after having a conversation (via facebook) with Emily, who I lived in Taiwan with--she is now in Korea teaching. Anyway, we were reminding each other of funny times during our year of traveling, and the one that really mad me laugh was actually something that happened a lot of times during that year. We would be swerving through traffic on our scooter, or waiting at a crosswalk at a big intersection, or trying to make our way through Sunday foot traffic downtown, and one of us would look at the other and say "Geez! There's Asians everywhere!" or "Can you believe how many Asians there are???" or something of that nature. It was funny to us because , of course there were, and also because we were often in a state of shock that we were living and working in such a place. During my time there I found the Taiwanese to be so pleasant and happy, they were very helpful and sincere.

I didn't usually think that we stood out so much, but there were occasions where it was obvious that we did. Like the time Emily and I walked into a random hole-in-the-wall bar and the music literally stopped, everyone stopped talking, and they all turned and looked at us. It was alarming, so we did the only natural thing we could do and went on stage to sing karaoke. The only song they had in English was Jingle Bells and we totally nailed it. People were dancing on the tables and taking pictures with us and asking for our autographs--it was magical. Well not all of that is actually true, but they did buy us drinks and ask for an encore. I was thinking to myself at the time, as I looked over at Emily giving it all she had, that this was one of those moments in life that I will always look back on a smile about. It was so unusual and happy.

So there is my random nostalgic not about Taiwan for this month. I have been back for almost a year, and lately I have been missing it a lot.

Withycombe

2009-06-19T08:46:00.012-05:00

Looking at this picture of the village I hope to call home in the next 6 weeks is helping to keep my hope alive.

And on an interesting side note, the farm accross the street from us and to the right of the church is an asparagus farm! Click here to see their website.

Life's Rich Pageantry

2009-06-16T09:25:00.003-05:00

Isn't it interesting how when one negative thing happens about 10 more negative things happen right afterward? But that doesn't seem to be the case really when positive things happen. It's more like when a good thing happens, then lots of negative things happen to try and cancel out the good thing. Have a I mentioned I'm sort of a pessimist? But I am trying to show that I am being optimistic here. You'll see why in a minute.

See, here's the thing; yesterday I received a call from the consulate (positive thing) and was given a direct line and contact name (very positive) and was told to call at the beginning of July and said contact would help me get my visa processed if she can, and if not will send my passport back but not cancel my application (extremely positive) so that I can attend my own wedding. So yesterday was a good day!! I felt sort of rattled and shaken, like I had just survived a train wreck, but good and thankful too.

Then I chipped my front tooth heaven knows how, and just now I dropped my phone in the toilet at work. Luckily for me I have the reflexes of a cat and snatched it from the toilet bowl in less than a second (although I'm still debating whether or not putting my hand in a public toilet is good or bad yet). It is now sitting on my desk on a hospital bed of paper towels and we are all hoping for the best. Let me just say that I have had this phone for less than two weeks, you see my other one mysteriously died and had to be replaced, and a new battery was purchased and much money was spent. This is all very annoying because I am going to be canceling my phone plan in less than two months when I move (IF I move, if I get my visa....). So am I really going to have to get a new phone again? Really?

During these times of uncertainty it's kind of scary to think, "what next?" so I'm not thinking it. Instead I am concentrating on how it's so funny, the timing of things. Of course I would chip my front tooth 6 weeks before my wedding, of course I would drop my phone in the toilet 6 weeks before cancelling my service. If I didn't then where would my good stories come from? It's like the time I locked my keys in the car along with my phone and wallet and had the incredible [mis]fortune to randomly knock on the door of the only home where they were having a family gathering and was pulled inside to witness their eldest daughter and son-in-law announce that they were going to be grandparents for the first time. I was hugged, cried on, invited back for dinner and kindly driven home to retrieve my extra key! What?! I just wanted to use the phone! Instead of feeling like a dumbass I am almost pleased with myself when these things happen because I can write about them in my journal and remember it all for years to come as the exciting, necessary things that must happen to keep life interesting.

Paris, Barcelona, Menorca

2009-06-14T10:02:00.008-05:00

A long overdue sample of photos from my trip last month. Europe is so easy to photograph.

PARIS

BARCELONA

MENORCA

(this is a photo by my talented sister--too good not to post!)