Hello, once again it's been a while!  Time just seems to run away with me at the moment.  I always have good intentions to blog but just never seem to get around to it.  Anyhow, I'm at my keyboard and ready to update you on life in the Gingercat household.

Its been a busy Spring, we decided at Easter to put our house on the market and to see what happens.  It has been very quiet to say the least.   We have had a few viewing but not many.  I don't really think it's because our house is massively overpriced, I just feel the market is absolutely dead right now.

We have looked at a handful of houses and all with the exception of one or two they have been truly awful.  We are seriously thinking about staying put for now and maybe looking to build up into the loft.  I just don't feel that now is the going to be our time to move. 

Daisy has been on her residential year 6 trip with school to the Isle of Wight and had an absolute ball.  She hated the residential trip last year and really didn't want to go this time around.  I am so pleased she had a really positive experience on this year's trip.  I still remember my last year at primary school and our trip to Swanage in Dorset.  It was the first time I had ever stayed away from home and I loved it!  I still remember so many things about the week away and that was 32 years ago now! 

Daisy only has six weeks left at her Primary school, off to her new big school in September.  She seems OK about it at the moment, I'm the one having a few nervous wobbles over her starting.  Here is a picture of her taken last weekend, trying on her outfit for the leavers prom.  She is in the in between stage at the moment clothes wise.  Too big for some children's departments and too small for adults.  We finally found this cream lace dress in Zara in an extra small.  It's a bit big in places but she loves it and it looks lovely on.  There is definitely a gap in the market for party/prom dresses for girls aged between 11 and 14 years old. 

On the home front, I have finally got around to doing some furniture painting.  I bought the paint for Alex's chest of drawers well over a year ago now! This was a pretty tatty looking pine and cream painted chest.  The week Daisy was away, which also happened to be the week the weather turned out beautiful got me in the mood for a spot of DIY.  A couple of coats of Annie Sloan's old white and Louis blue chalky paint, a couple of coats of clear wax, a set of new ceramic knobs and hey presto a greatly improved piece of furniture. 

I have since managed to buy a horrible sun tan orange pine bed side cabinet for the bargain price of £10 in a charity shop and have given that a mini makeover too.  Alex's room is looking so much better for his new improved furniture.  I am considering giving his room a lick of paint before the Summer holidays.  We wallpapered it 18 months ago and it has never looked great.  The paper was a Laura Ashley pale blue star print but we had real trouble with it sticking in places.  It is also very matt and marks really easily.  I figure a bit of sticking down of paper and a lick of paint will make his room look much fresher (I think I will decorate regardless of whether we move or not, even if we do move it's definitely not going to happen overnight).

We enjoyed the Jubilee weekend last week very much.  We decorated the office and front of our house with bunting and spent the weekend celebrating with family over a jubilee lunch and enjoyed a lovely BBQ with friends on bank holiday Monday.   We watched the Thames flotilla celebration and the Jubilee concert on TV.  The Queen is one amazing lady, I don't think I could have endured such a full on four days at the ripe old age of 86!

I entered Laa Laa's Jubilee swap and teamed up with the lovely Pen.  She sent me a whole box full of gorgeous goodies which I did try to photograph, only to find the battery flat on my camera and the SD card had gone AWOL!  I got a lovely hand made pin cushion and needle case, a mini cross stitch kit, cadbury's chocolate, a jubilee coaster, badge, a lovely postcard, a knitted red, white and blue egg cosy and some jubilee pencils (I hope I haven't forgotten anything!).  I was very spoilt.  I tried to send Pen some lovelies too, here is my jubilee patchwork cushion I made for her.  I not sure it will go in any of her rooms but I reckon it would look great on a garden bench, perfect for leaning on when crafting outdoors or for when you enjoy a cuppa in the garden.

An update on our pets, Pepe is fine, still a big fat greedy pudding, Splatty boy is growing up fast, he is a very sweet little cat.  He is now a proper outdoor cat, he comes and goes as he pleases and he loves the freedom. He is definitely a fair weather cat, if it rains he does not want to be outside at all! 

On Saturday we re homed our chickens.  I have loved having them but had started to worry over the space they had.  They were fenced off it the top half of our garden and had eaten all of the grass and vegetation by the start of the Winter.  They had a good size area of wood chip to scratch in but were desperate to get into the rest of the garden or better still fly over to next doors garden. 

I let them into the main part of our garden each day during  the Winter and they destroyed it!  The grass was bold in places and they ate lots of the plants.  During the Spring we started to restock the main part of the garden and grass seeded the lawn so there was no way the chickens were having a free rein after that.  My friend four houses down had kept chickens in her Dad's garden (who happens to live next door to her). He has a massive garden with an old orchard fenced off specifically for the chickens.  She was keen for some new hens (after she lost her girls last year to Mr Fox).  I felt it was only fair to give the girls the space they need and the vegetation they love.  I hope Mr Fox doesn't pay them a visit and that they have lots of happy years scratching and pecking.  They seemed very happy when we took them round on Saturday, instantly they were scratching and eating the grass.  We all agreed it was for the best.  Daisy had lost interest in them but was still a bit sad to see them go. We can go and visit them anytime we like which is a bonus.  I was walking back from the local shop this afternoon and I could hear either Nellie or Henny Penny singing their egg laying song so I will take that as I sign that they have settled well!

I will leave you with a picture of my handsome boy!

Till next time.

Alison

xx