Wales Family Vaca

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...

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

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

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

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

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

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

Naama Bay.  Red Sea.  Sainai Peninsula. 

a walk on the moor (think wuthering heights)

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

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!