What makes a perfect weekend?

I have been struggling a bit over the last couple of weeks. For one reason and another I have been feeling overwrought, overworked, tired and emotional. All part of life's rich tapestry, as they say, but I really needed a good weekend. If asked to plan a perfect weekend, I would probably have to include:-

* celebrating the arrival of Friday by meeting friends and their children after school. Enjoying a large G & T, followed by yummy courgette and mushroom pizza, while our kids find a corner of the restaurant to run wild in, without disturbing anyone else.

* spending Saturday morning at the Farmer's Market with lovely Best Friend and my Beautiful Girl, followed by delicious Irish breakfast at the cafe.

* taking Beautiful Girl to the ballet on Saturday afternoon. (We are so lucky to have one of the best ballet companies in the country in our city and they are currently doing a production of Sleeping Beauty - utterly, gorgeously, breathtakingly beautiful.)

* being woken up on Sunday morning with a card and tissue-paper flowers, all made for me by Beautiful Girl along with tea and toast with honey.

* a long lie-in, followed by an even longer soak in the bath - with a good book, of course.

* spending Sunday afternoon having tea and cakes with my mum and oh-so-pregnant-she's-surely-about-to-burst little sister.

Lucky, lucky me then..... because that's exactly the weekend I got! Hope you had your own version of a Perfect Weekend!

Favourite things #2

I LOVE this Emerson quote and agree with every word.....

"To laugh, often and much, to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children, to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends, to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch...to know even one life breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded!"

Slow but steady....

So goes the progress on my crochet. I managed to accidentally decrease, then increase the stitches on my last "square", so inadvertently made a bow tie. Beautiful Girl has asked me to save it for the groom to wear at her wedding. Am thinking of holding her to it.....

I thought I was being charmingly original when I planted up some snowdrops into a pretty teacup. Then I visited Blogland and discovered that, not only has everyone else had the same idea, but they all had it before me. No matter, it still gives me a little twinge of joy whenever I catch sight of it.

Afternoon tea

Although Lovely Husband and I have never made a huge fuss about Valentine's Day, it does feel really nice to have something to celebrate at this miserable time of year. Am I the only one who feels this winter is n-e-v-e-r-e-n-d-i-n-g? This year we go out for the calorific splurge that constitutes afternoon tea. The fact that we are accompanied by Beautiful Girl and the ceaseless chatter that she keeps up for her every waking moment should make it less romantic. But it really doesn't.

Edited to add: It is an exaggeration to say that Beautiful Girl talks endlessly without stopping. She is actually utterly silent for her daily viewing of "Mary Poppins".

Spoiler alert!

It's a friend's birthday. Actually, it was a friend's birthday last month, but, true to form, I am horrendously late with her present. This friend is one who values the homemade, who understands that something created specifically for you is also a gift of time and of love. Unfortunately for me, however, this friend is also a talented knitter and sewer, who made me a fabulous knitting bag, with my name embroidered on it for my last birthday and I am embarrassed to give her one of my shoddily, uneven attempts at a felt decoration. Plus it takes me several months to knit even the most simple scarf, by which point it'll be summer. Eventually, after a bit of thinking, a bit of Googling, a bit of shopping, a bit of mixing, measuring and stirring and a bit of prettifying labels, I come up with this - Organic Facial Oil and Detoxifying Dead Sea Bath Salts. The facial oil, in particular, smells divine and I quite want to keep it for myself. Which is a Good Thing, I feel, in a present. Hope she likes it.

Apologies to any friend, relative or passing acquaintance of mine - you may well have just seen your next birthday gift!

Out to lunch

Lovely Husband has taken a couple of days off work, after his trip away. While Beautiful Girl is at school, we go out for lunch, just the two of us. The pear and Roquefort salad is delicious; the two-hour, uninterrupted, laughter-filled conversation is even more so.

So excited!

There is much excitement here today. Lovely Husband has been on a work trip to the Middle East and Beautiful Girl and I have missed him terribly. But...he's coming home today! TODAY!! No more sleeps until we see him. We are very giddy.