Happy Jubilee!

Wow - what a lovely Jubilee weekend that was! We spent it with family and friends - lots of good food, fun times for the children playing with their cousins, and, I might say, lots of great viewing on the box in the coverage of the official celebrations. Several days on, I am still on a bit of a high from it all, with plenty of great images of the royal family and celebrations etched in my mind, and, it has to be said, I am feeling rather proud to be British.

Having little children, particularly a couple of whom attend school, always makes special occasions extra fun. The girls had been coming home asking things like, "Mummy, why did God save the Queen?", and humming the national anthem.

My middle girl and I got all patriotic with our artwork one afternoon. It was only when I went into school with her the next morning to do a spot of baking (Jubilee themed, of course), that I saw the theme that week was painting Union Jacks, and realised the little monkey could have done the exact same thing at school, had she wanted to. Guess she just likes painting with her mummy!

School threw a party, and so we made cakes a plenty. I cheated a bit on the decorating, and used the same tubes of ready made icing I'd bought in for the pre school cake making - just as well really, as my decorating skills aren't that much more sophisticated than those of a small child, and it meant I could make cakes with my home helpers happily occupied `helping' me by sticking stars on crowns.

As it was still Me Made May during the lead up to the Jubilee weekend, I got my red, white and blue themed handmade skirt out and wore it to school. I was so proud of this skirt when I first made it two years ago - and it's a bit daft to think I'd not worn it in all that time, probably just because, well, I'm not sure why, really!

Definitely the most fun thing in the run up to the Jubilee was going to a flower workshop, run by the lovely Sara Sayer - a local florist, who runs special one off workshops from her home. I'd first met Sara at the Sock Monkey Workshop, and we got talking flowers, and that's how I ended up going along to a workshop with her.

I loved it!

I'd been feeling pretty ropey all day, and not particularly in the mood for going out, let alone trying my hand at something I'd never done before. But a couple of hours later, I emerged from Sara's house proud as punch over my lovely arrangement. She is very talented at what she does, and has a way of putting you at your ease and making you feel welcome (admittedly, the offer of a glass of wine helped!) - it was really good fun, and strangely relaxing to do something I have no clue about. If you're local to Bedford, and fancy having a go, then get in touch, and I can pass the details on to you.

And finally, a snap of my pyjamas - well, they fit the colour theme of this post, and I wore them whilst camping over the Jubilee weekend. Actually, they have sparked a bit of interest in the possibility of a pyjama workshop. So, if you are a lady who is tall enough to struggle to find pyjamas long enough to fit you, or, in fact just dream of being able to make your own in a variety of pretty prints of your choosing, watch this space. It might be something for the Autumn. Maybe.

Yes, you heard right, though. Camping. With three small children, during a weekend of torrential rain. And there's another story and a half...