Thursday 7 June 2012

Birthday shenanigans and printing workshops....

Last week was my birthday, which I managed to spread over the long Jubilee week end without even meaning to, honest!

So I started off with a nice day in Walthamstow shopping with the girlies and bought some lovely material for my friends wedding. I'm making the table runners and her theme is 'English countryside' so I got these below, it was a bit of a gamble as when you're there you just have to go for it as it may be gone by the next week! Luckily she loved it too and i'm hoping I have some left over to keep for myself!  Plus I also got some birthday treats, lots of summer dresses which i'm itching to wear but with this rain I might have to team them with thermals and wellies!




We went for pie and mash at Manze (one of my favourite places). You can't go to the East End and not have pie and mash! I gave the baby her first taster and here she is perfecting her cheeky cockney look, she even laughs like Catherine Tate's nan.....

  

Then the following night I got taken to PizzaEast in the Tea Building by Paul which was lovely, proper italian pizza's with real Italian ham and cheeses. Definitely recommend it to anyone who's in the area and loves wood fired pizza's or just loves good food!

  

Then on the Saturday we went to our Street Party for the Jubilee, all the family clad in red jumpers!! We have amazing neighbours who like to party so there was a children's entertainer, bouncy castle, DJ, party games, tug of war, fancy dress and tonnes of food and drink! Shame I forgot to take more pics.

  

 Then on Sunday we drove to Ockenden Manor in Sussex for Paul's friends wedding, after leaving baby with granny and grandad, for an indulgent adults only night away....

  
in a four poster bed, that wasn't made for really tall men!!

Then to top it off I came back to have a lovely Turkish meal at Alaya's in Hornchurch with the family. Again another place I would really recommend, food was great, service was amazing especially as....
  

they brought out a cake covered with cream, sprinkles and candles, got the whole restaurant to sing Happy Birthday and then gave me a birthday tipple of my choice!! The food was that good we even asked for a doggy bag as we didn't want to leave it : )

On Monday we're off on our first family holiday with Eloise and the rest of the Church clan to Norfolk. Fingers crossed the sun comes out!
 
When we get back i'm going to be running some lino printing workshops at The Brentwood Road's Summer Craft Fair. I'll be offering some kits, so you get to either print from pre-cut designs or design and cut your own lino and print them onto some lovely papers and a greetings card all using the printing press. I'll be taking my most popular prints and cards too for those that just want some retail therapy. There's going to be other workshops on the day too, I heard there's one for lazy fashion designers which sounds like lots of fun. So pop along and say hello and  join in some of the fun on offer.
Kirsten x