Appledore - so what happened?

Here are some of the highlights of our lovely holiday....

I spent some lovely quality time with family, especially Mr O

As you may well know, we recently became an Aunty and Uncle again so we were so happy to be able to spend a whole week with our niece and nephew and being able to gain some lovely memories as well as getting to know some other family members better.

We fell in love with a shop/cafe called Johns. - I will be doing a post on it soon - so keep your eyes peeled!

We ate lots of Hockings Icecream

This is like the most yummiest and scrummiest ice cream EVER. Mrs O the 1st and I ate a few sneaky icecreams, but enjoyed them as we ate them!

We spent hours upon hours crabbing. 

Mr O was obsessed with crabbing. As soon as we got there on the first day, before he did anything else he went straight to the Quay and went crabbing. We spent many hours crabbing. Lots of fun. 

Mr O & I took our nephew to do some pottery / painting. 

On researching on places to go before we went away, I found this brilliant place called the Hubba Cafe. All items were 50p and it was run by adults with learning difficulties. Alongside that was the place to do pottery. The whole place was lovely and had my favourite shabby chic feel to it.

Have a look HERE at their advert - I can't find a website for them. :(

We went shopping - of course! 

We went to the Atlantic Village which is a big shopping outlet centre. We didn't buy much as I did set myself the challenge to only buy local products whilst we were away (minus the trip to Asda & Sainsburys - we know how to roll!!)

Collected lots of shells

I decided to help me with a new project for the September crafting month I decided to collect lots of shells from the beach in the week.

I came accross lots of shell crafts and I think I have decided to do something like the following:

We fed the seagulls

At the end of the day after crabbing we had the fun of throwing the fish heads and meat to the seagulls and watching them fight for the food. At the end of meals we would throw the scraps out off the balcony and watch the seagulls dive in and catch them.

We wandered down the little quaint streets of Appledore

We visited Tapley Manor

I will do a better blog on this - coming soon - but it had lovely gardens all full of history.
Check out my Irish white legs!
There was also this lovely little shell hut where it was decorated all with shells - don't worry, I won't try to re-create it! But look at the cute little heart shining through.

Did some exercise with Felicity 

During our time in Appledore, Mr O & I spent some quality time with our niece and nephew as I said above. One day we took Felicity out for a walk but with her wrapped around my neck in a sling. It was hard work in the end as you don't realise how heavy they are!!

Made a scrummy apple and pear crumble

We all took it in turns to cook meals. Tuesday night was our turn. Mr O took charge of the main meal and then I took charge of dessert. I decided to make a simple pear and apple crumble with a cinamon topping. As we had very limited kitchen essentials we had to improvise. A saucepan became a mixing bowl and instead of using scales I just had to guess the quantities.

We went to an art exhibition - more to come....

Saw lots of boats

As we were right on the quay, we saw lots of boats, including this RNLI boat. I will do a post and accompanying video for this in due course.

And lastly, we got stuck behind lots of caravans!

Check out my videos on youtube with kinda daily vlogs from the holiday.
Click HERE to see Day 1 video

Did any of you go on holiday? If so, where did you go?

Love, Mrs O x

Fun day Friday

Hello! Happy weekend people!

 

So yesterday was another of my 'working days off'. And at the moment I have decided to fill them with new things that I haven't been to or done etc. Last week I went to some new shops, bought some new items and decorated a cake for the first time. This week I decided to visit a new farm shop.

 

I had heard all about this farm shop form some people at work so, being a Mrs Owen (seems to be a thing that Mrs Os like farm shops...) I decided to check it out. It turned out to be only round the corner from my home. As you can see below the produce were massive!! I spent less than what I would do from my local supermarket on the items and the produce was lovely and fresh - I cooked with it that night - and the boys loved the carrots! For example, I paid 20p for each garlic - how very cheap - and 70p for the avocados. How very cheap indeed!!

However whilst cooking, my usual problem that I have when chopping onions occurred. Take a look at the before and after....

 

And one last picture to leave you all with:

 

This is my mad obsession about vaccum packing items! This below is our winter duvet. I finally got round to buying a new bag as I couldn't find the one I took it out of (which I then found when I went to put this one away). Isn't it amazing to think that this is a kingsized duvet inside of here?!!

Do any of you find that your local farm shops are cheaper?

 

Do any of you have any cures when chopping onions to stop any crying?!....

 

Good luck to all my TMS friends - hope you all have a lovely week.

 

Lots of Love, Mrs O xxx