A Tune for Tuesday ...

I decided to have a bit of fun and introduce what I am calling 'A Tune for Tuesday' to Buttercup Days.

Music has always played a big role in my life. My dad shaped my taste of music with his vinyl collection of late 60's and 70's music. We would often spend an evening or Sunday afternoon as a family playing LP's. In the kitchen my mum would have the radio on throughout the day and I would hear the hits of the time on Capital or Radio2. I clearly remember getting my first radio/cassette player and recording my favourite tunes each week from the Top 40 Chart show - pressing 'Play' + 'Record' together. No matter what your technique the sudden starts and raw ends that held each song were very much of the technology of their time and never really bothered us. Years later, music is still played in my home from the point of waking until bedtime. David has a vinyl collection to rival many of Brighton's independent record shops. So it looks like my 'growing up with music' will certainly pass down another generation. I think that is a good thing.

So 'A Tune for Tuesday' is born (now I've the pressure to come up with something every week!). My selection of tunes will be varied. Don't be put off on the first listen - it could be something completely different next week. There is likely to be a common theme running throughout; songs that have that nostalgic glow to them. Some may want to make you sing or dance, some might take you back somewhere for 3 minutes ... either way I find most music is best played loud, so turn up the volume a little. To kick off 'A Tune for Tuesday' I have unearthed this song. Listening to it can only be describe as having honey poured in your ears .... listen and you might see what I mean.

Extended Family ...

I love a happy occasion and I love any excuse to bake. Yesterday we all went to the engagement party of David's niece Lucy and her fiance Dom. It was the first time both Lucy's and Dom's families met.
We had a lovely afternoon; a fun one that without anyone really noticing spread into the evening ... time has a habit of doing that when you're in good company. I baked and took along a cake to celebrate the engagement. It was a 'Chocolate Guinness Cake' topped with a cream cheese and white chocolate frosting. Appropriate I thought as Dom's family are from Ireland. It seemed to go down well ... I've been asked to make the wedding cake.

Now We Are Six .... well almost

Several times, on a daily basis, Lily is informing me of how many days to her birthday and how many days to her party. This countdown has been in full-flow for a good two weeks or so now and we've still almost that much time to go again to we get there.

I have however, probably added fuel-to-the-fire by having started preparations for her party. I pride myself on being organised - I have lists (and in some cases notebooks) to catalogue the various projects and daily tasks I have in my life. Lists keep me sane.

So the party. Well, we are having it at home. I've yet to venture holding one of Lily's parties outside of the home, although the day after each years party I swear that next year we're hiring a hall or that Lily can pick a few select friends to have a dinner out with. She's not having it and to be honest neither am I. I love the idea of young children having their parties at home, just as we used to. Their expectations are relatively small; a party bag, games, pass-the-parcel, dancing and cake.

I relish any chance to get creative, and my children's parties are good opportunities in which to do so. 

I enjoy the run up, the preparation, much in the same way I love the run up to Christmas. I set myself a goal to try make each years party individual, fun and memorable. I'm sure in a few years time, Lily will be begging me not to get 'so involved' and that she would rather just go out and have pizza with her friends, so I shall therefore, as they say, make hay whilst the sun shines. This year my (rather loose) theme is bright colour and pattern with a wink-and-a-nod to children's parties of the 1970's. It will be a crafty homemade affair through and through. I've made a start on making some fabric cone party hats for each of the guests and I've got fabric for my party bags cut and ready to sow.

Now the countdown really has begun. The invitations have gone out. The invitation design came about through my recent obsession with the wonderful Ed Emberley Picture Pie books. It's a rather therapeutic way to spend an evening or two, cutting and sticking these simple shapes. I hope that these invitations have gone some way to setting a taste of what is to come.

Bread & Stuff ...

In our house, with the odd exception such as Christmas Day, we tend to eat our dinner in the evening as our last meal of the day. It was much like that for me as a child too, but I distinctly remember having 'tea' some days, probably at the weekend or during school holidays. I refer to 'tea' as the meal one would have at the end of the day if the main meal had been taken at lunchtime.

The 'tea' that remains clearest in my memory was 'Bread & Stuff'. It was a simple but comforting fayre that could be put together in a jiffy. You'd need to sit and serve this at a dining table. In the centre goes your loaf of bread (white unsliced bought from the bakers), then add all your savoury options to the table, Cheddar Cheese, Pickle, Pickled Onions, Marmite, Peanut Butter and Fish Paste (yes fish paste, but remember I'm going back some 30 years). Next your sweet options - all flavours of Jam, Golden Syrup, Treacle, Chocolate Spread and (set) Honey. The rules were simple - you start savoury and end sweet. 

Occasionally I will present a table of Bread & Stuff to my children and they embrace it fully. I am very lucky though, as I can take my Bread & Stuff 'Tea' to another level courtesy of my local baker, Sugardough in Hove. Sugardough is the most adorable little shop just moments away from the seafront. The shop is small, but perfectly formed. It is charming with its traditional yet relaxed interior. Racks of artisan breads and pastries; too-pretty-to-eat dainty cakes sitting on vintage cake stands; tarts and pies seduce all my senses making me want to 'move in' for the morning. The bread is baked daily on the premises (except for Monday's when they are closed), which is a rarity these days. It's wrapped in paper and is nearly always 'still warm'. The staff are welcoming and friendly - they always, without fail, get the door for me as I struggle to maneuver my buggy out of the shop. I favour a crusty Sourdough for my Bread & Stuff 'Tea' and theirs is hard to beat. 

I also adore their individual custard tarts. They make for the perfect self-indulgent treat with a good cup of coffee. I've also found them a very effective baby-sitting currency for my sister-in-law, who like me, appreciates my exceptionally good local baker.

Sugardough can be found at 12 Victoria Terrace, Kingway, Hove, BN3 2WB. Tel. 01273 727227

Smile ...

I don't really plan ahead with what I write on my blog. I'll write about various moments in time I experience that leave some kind of impression that I feel is worthy of putting into words.

On thursday of last week, I found myself watching a television programme in the evening. I hadn't planned to watch it. It was just that I had fallen into that slumber on the sofa where the effort to do the sensible thing and take yourself upstairs to bed is just too greater a challenge, so I find myself becoming engrossed in a programme that just happens to follow the programme I had been watching.

It's the fact that I am still thinking of this programme fours days later, that makes me want to relay what captured me about it. I was watching Famous, Rich and in the Slums, a moving two-part documentary for Comic Relief in which four TV personalities are sent to the slums of Kibera in Africa. Stripped of all their possessions, they were left alone for a week to work and survive in one of the most impoverished places on our planet. The viewer is witness to some terrible things; it doesn't make for comfortable viewing. What really left an impression on me was this man who lived  in the slums with his wife and children. He was a gentle man with a beautiful smile. He made his little money making and selling street food. He had eight children and the youngest was sick. The man was unable to take his son to the doctors as he didn't have the money to - money we would regard as loose change in the western world. He was asked if he thought there was 'any hope of getting out of the poverty' to which he smiled and replied 'no'. 'But you're always smiling' the man was told. His reply? He said that he must smile, he had to. He had children and they need to see him smile so to give them hope.

There is a lesson to be learnt in that isn't there.

A Sick Note ...

It's been a week of high's and low's. It started with a high - my birthday, as documented in my last post, but the next day I came down with a sickness bug and only now am I starting to feel 'normal' again.

I'm very rarely sick. I possess a great ability of avoiding the kids coughs and colds that they bring home from school and playgroup along with their finger paintings and homework and I can steer myself clear of sore throats that David might catch on a commuter train to London. It's probably something in my make-up, I wasn't a sick child either. But every now and then, as with this week, I will buckle-under to something. 

My bug entered my life very suddenly and was quite intense for twenty-four hours which meant having to stay in bed. Oh well, such is life, sounds simple enough .... but the problem is I can't phone in sick to work and neither can David. There's a one year-old to entertain and feed, a five year-old to get to and from school and have supper ready for and a business to run. David managed to reschedule some important meeting for the next day and juggled a bit of work with the kids at home. I had the pressure of less that twenty-four hours to make a recovery. I did it - just. David made his meetings the next day and they all went well. I even managed to take Lily to her school disco on Friday evening. She's been on a promise that I would take her for weeks and we had bought tickets and selected outfits ... there was no way I could of let her down. Being a full-time mum in a self-employed household does not allow for adult illness - I dread to think what we would do if either of us got ill for any length of time.

So today will be spent catching up on the delayed 'to-do-list' and hopefully we'll be up-to-speed for tomorrow and the new week ahead. Onwards and upwards!

A Birthday ...

When I woke this morning, I knew it was going to be a good day because it is my birthday. Birthday's are days that you are spoilt and you allow yourself a bit of slack, even if it is a Tuesday.

My day started early, with two children bouncing on my bed, a cup of tea and an exciting bundle of cards and presents. Any enthusiasm that I woke with, Lily had ten-fold on my behalf. So as soon as I managed to prop myself up on my pillows and had put my contact lenses in, it was a frenzy of cards and present opening.

As ever David, Lily and Arthur gave me the most beautiful, personal presents that I will forever treasure. I have a real weakness for 'collectables for the home', things such as vintage vases and retro ceramics. Over the years David has bought me some beautiful pieces and today he added a gorgeous Bitossi Blu Rimini ceramic cat from The Lollipop Shoppe to my growing collection. Lily and Arthur gave me some beautiful wooden candlestick letters by Studio Yra, a 'L' and an 'A' and a '&' to tie them together nicely. I also have two beautifully painted cards that I love receiving from Lily and Arthur as and when such occasions arise.

Now the day is drawing to a close and I am looking forward to a few glasses of wine and a takeaway supper once the kids are in tucked up in bed and calmness finally enters my day. 

My ceramic cat and my wooden letters now have their new home in my living room and I am enjoying them very much - like the people who gave them to me, they make me smile.