Weekend in Derbyshire - Part Two

I woke up really early in our tent on the Sunday. It had stopped raining thankfully, but we still had to take our tent down wet, which was annoying. We ended up taking it to my mum's to dry out in her garage. We went back to the cottages. They were these ones at Far Ditch Farm in Chelmorton and I would utterly recommend them for a break. You can hire them all or just one or two. They're really well equipped and have been recently done. There's tons of bathrooms and they're nice and quiet. Definitely recommend!

Some people had already left, and through the day more and more people left. By the end there was me and Lee, Amy and Mike, and Ste. We made sure everything was clean and in the right place before leaving. 

Before that though we did some zine making. Amy had asked me to take supplies and then we decided to make a collaborative zine with everyone making one page. We also drew round the hands and feet of each of the kids which will be great to look back in years to come when they're much bigger! 

We ate leftover chilli for lunch which was nice too. It was a cheerful day and I was so happy to spend such lovely time with Amy and everyone else. 

Here's my Monday photos:

I was extremely feeling the effects of the night before

Gorgeous Eve and her equally gorgeous mum Lizzie

The date on these is wrong, the top one should say 2010, but aren't they cute? Gru had made enough for everyone and we coloured them in

Bubble machine!

Daisy seemed to like the bubbles

Mike eating alllll the cake!

Ste is usually in charge of keeping the fire going while we're camping, so he made this page for the zine

Amy's organisational skills are exceptional, we all mocked her for this folder she had made and everything in it, but it did keep everything running smoothly.

And finally here's Bryn and Daisy chatting to each other :)

Weekend in Derbyshire - Part One

The last weekend in July saw us in Derbyshire. My friend Amy, who you'll remember from previous camping trips, has planned a trip every year since 2010, so this was the tenth one! But she's just had a baby (Daisy, who is gorgeous) so didn't want to go camping. So instead she booked a huge house for 20+ people and several babies. We were too late to get a room, so Lee and I did actually end up camping quite nearby and driving each day to the house. It was just as well, because it was absolutely chucking it down most of the day and camping wouldn't have been very fun - I was happy to have a house to sit in at least!

So Lee and I set out on Saturday afternoon and went to Buxton to our campsite. It was nice, quite peaceful, cheap enough. We then went into Buxton for something to eat. We went to a Greek restaurant and it was really nice, I had really lovely spanokopita. Afterwards we drove round Buxton for a bit before going back to the tent and going to sleep.

On Sunday we arrived at Amy's cottage at around 10.30am. It was actually three cottages with interlocking doors - a small one, a slightly bigger one, and one with a big open plan living and dining room. There were tons of people, most of whom I've met before through Amy and on previous trips. Breakfast was going on so Lee and I made ourselves some veggie bacon sandwiches.

Everything was pretty chill all day. I cuddled baby Bryn while his parents played pool, and I cuddled baby Daisy a few times too. Lee played pool. We sat chatting and reading and drinking. In the evening different people made chilli and nachos and rice and salsa and guacamole, it was so good! Really delicious food. Then Lee and I made chocolate sauces - one vegan, one with dairy cream - to go over ice cream.

Then Amy's brother Ste had made a huge pass the parcel where in each layer you either had to wear something or imbibe something. We played it before in Shell Island six years ago. I had to drink some awful frogspawn-like drink and some neat Bacardi. It's a fun game. Lee, bless him, didn't want to play (he doesn't drink anyway) so he tidied up most of the kitchen which was really good of him.

We ended up leaving around half past midnight, we got chatting to my friend Gillian and her husband Tom (I met Gillian and Amy in 2000 at sixth form college, along with our other friends Ailsa and Michelle.... I love them all dearly!) so didn't want to leave. It was okay though, the site wasn't very busy as it was Sunday night so we didn't feel too bad about driving back on so late.

Here's my photos from Sunday:

Gorgeous baby Bryn, he didn't know me but was happy to be left with me (the best way babies can be!)

The pool table

Emma made this gorgeous vegan cake to celebrate

Marc and Ste and Elise (Bryn's mum) playing some kind of board game

Gorgeous baby Daisy

Hazel and co making salsa

Emma making nachos

This was the baby cottage

Gillian and Daisy

And this is Gillian's little one, Lily

Tom chucking Lily in the air

Bryn doing serious business of reading caravan magazines

A very serious game of Catan going on (I think?)

Lily and her daddy dancing

Chilli! I had the veggie one, obviously

Loading up with chilli

Torsten

More cuties, including Daisy's mum Amy

Daisy is just about learning to suck her thumb!

And finally - the pass the parcel, and the test tubes of liquid in the background...

Films of the Month - July

I watched fourteen films in July, which seems about average for me. Here's what I saw:

Sarah and I went to the cinema to see Yesterday. We had wanted to see Rocketman but it wasn't showing, but we wanted to get together so went to see this instead. It's quite good, quite cute, but I think they could have done more with the premise

Sarah recommended this film to me, about two men who fall in love in a concentration camp. It's quite good. Trigger warning for suicide. 

I love music biopics and I'd had this one, about Hank Williams, recommended to me. It's really good, Tom Hiddleston is excellent

I had been meaning to rewatch Dumplin' and got round to it eventually. I think I got more out of it the second time around.

I was looking for God's Own Country on Netflix but it's not there anymore, but this was recommended instead. It's about two boys who fall in love at an Irish boarding school; one of them is the rugby team's star player. I liked it, it's cute queer cinema.

So then I did manage to watch God's Own Country. Again. It's one of my favourite films!

Netflix were heavily trailing this film, about the Irish famine in the 1840s. I liked it, it's very dark and depressing, but I would recommend it

I have had Alice in Wonderland on my Disney watch list for ages, I have never seen it before. It's so weird! I liked it though

Netflix was trailing this, too. It's about black kids who manage to travel in time. I thought it didn't live up to the promise, which wasn't the fault of the actors at all, it was just quite confusing towards the end

Vue in Leeds were showing Jaws on the big screen so Lee and I met up with Sam and Jodie to watch it. It was great to see in the cinema, I got loads out of it that I've never noticed before. I don't like the jump scares but it is a fantastic film.

Le and I hadn't seen Dogma in absolutely forever. We both love it, we used to watch it quite regularly. I know it has flaws, but I do love it.

I don't know why I was thinking about The Commitments, but it's an excellent film. Lee and I watched it together. I LOVE Maria Doyle Kennedy so it's always a pleasure to see her.

Walk the Line is my favourite music biopic but I hadn't seen it in ages so settled down on a rainy Sunday afternoon to watch it. Joaquin and Reese are both perfect. I cry every time.

And finally, I didn't know they had made a film based on the Ramona books, so I hadn't seen it. Someone mentioned it on Twitter. There's a lot from the books packed in, and Ramona is portrayed beautifully. I really liked it! Plus John Corbett is very easy on the eye (Aidan was always my favourite in Sex and the City...)

A New Crochet Blanket For Me

I recently finished a crochet blanket that is for me! I wanted to make another of the blankets I made for Lee for Christmas 2017, which is called A Spicier Life. I enjoyed it so much the first time around that I wanted to make one for me. I actually bought all the yarn for this back in last autumn. I chose them based on a photo of wildflowers, although I'm not sure that translates into the blanket itself! I do love the colours though. I gave each colour a letter and followed the pattern; I didn't know what colour combinations would come up but I liked that random aspect to it. I don't think there were any colour combinations that I really disliked.

I started this blanket last October and made just over a third of it. Then for some reason I just put it down and didn't pick it up again. I was cross stitching quite a lot over the winter, then I made a blanket for my friend Amy, then I was doing something else again. However, at the beginning of June I picked it up again, determined to get it finished. It was extremely ridiculous to pick it up just as the heatwave started, because having a heavy blanket over you isn't ideal! But I did crochet when we went camping which was nice, and at home I rested it on my desk when it was hot.

I made a mistake about halfway through, and didn't realise until I had done thirteen more rows. That was one Monday at my craft club, and when I realise I sulked about it all week. I knew I had to pull the stitches out - I had managed to drop around 23, and the blanket veered in awfully - but I really didn't want to. Eventually on Friday I made Lee pull out the rows and I started again. It was fine in the end, but annoying!

I finished it last week, at the end of July. I changed some of the colours in the border, because I wanted to use my favourite colours in the border and end with Parma Violet, which is one of my favourite Stylecraft yarns. I had bought this ceramic heart button at a craft fair back in November with this project in mind, so I sewed it on and then I was all done!

I absolutely love it, it's so colourful and bright, and I can't wait to use it over the winter and for camping!

It's about five feet long and three feet wide, and made up of at least twenty thousand stitches

There are some lovely colour combos here

The ceramic button 

Don't you love it?!

Night Out in Huddersfield

In July Sam and Steph and I went out in Huddersfield for the night. We've done it two years preciously and it's always a nice night out with a lot of drink and fun. We'd had the date in the diary for ages and decided to go to TJ Thai and Japanese restaurant for something to eat. Sam was at work so we decided we'd meet up at Vox for a drink first.

I like Vox, they play indie music and have a bunch of different cocktails. We had three in there as it was quiet and we were chatting. Then we went to TJ, which I've not been to before. They've got quite a lot of vegetarian choices, so I went for vegetable gyoza and then tofu massaman curry with coconut rice. We each had a glass of plum wine as I'd liked it before, except this time it was more red in colour than the one before. The curry was absolutely AMAZING, it was so rich and spicy and delicious. I'll have to try to make it myself as I really liked it.

After food we went to Zephyr which is just a couple of doors up from Vox. We went there last year and sat on the mezzanine level which was nice, if a bit hot. We had two cocktails in there. They were playing 90s/00s pop punk which was SO much fun.

Then we went to the Cherry Tree and sat downstairs and had some pitchers of cocktails and got silly drunk. It was a lot of fun and I know we'll be doing the same thing next year!

I have decided this summer to try to bare my legs a bit more. It's hot and I need to cool down a bit, so I'm going to try to just not care what my legs look like. This dress is from Yours, I've had it ages but don't wear it very often. It is a bit short at the front but has a dipped hem at the back. I love the colour. I wore a underskirt underneath which makes me feel a bit less self-conscious about having my legs bare. It's an ongoing thing so let's see how I get on!

I've been having some skin problems on my eyelids and face, so I kept my make up simple with a little bit of powder, some brown mascara, and a nude lip crayon

Cocktails in Vox

And again - mine was a Boston Cooler and it was delicious

Really nice gyoza

Then one of the best curries I've EVER had, mmmm

I took this of all of us in Zephyr, it's a lovely photo I think

Selfie in the Wetherspoons toilet. My cardigan always fall off my arms, sorry. I do love the colour and pattern of this dress!

And finally here's Ivy at midnight when I got home, telling me off for being out so long!