Cor. What a week! Isn't the snow great? Doesn't it whip a lot of folk into a frenzy?! Schools close and we all have conversations about how hardy we were as children and about how schools only closed when pipes burst and the heating failed, and the roads become a little dodgy in places so we have to slow down... unless of course, you happen to be a van driver, in which case (and it is probably only a minority of all the great van drivers out there...) the road conditions matter not. As I was tootling home on Friday night, along an A-road that had begun to get a covering of snow despite the traffic, I must have been overtaken by at least 8 vans all going along at 70mph at least despite the conditions! Does it not occur to them that they might be endangering other drivers? No. I guess it doesn't.
I've been trying this week to come up with some new meals for my children. At 3 and 8 they are at that quite fussy stage. Mushrooms and tomatoes are the food of the devil as far as they are concerned, as is anything green...or orange. It makes for either really predictable, boring meal times or very difficult mealtimes! I'm conscious that egg and soldiers or spaghetti and sausages is probably not the most balanced diet and that a little variation...and so far the only variation on these has been soldiers and egg instead of egg and soldiers...and sausages and spaghetti! (Does that count?) Last night I consulted Annabel Karmel and made them burgers using grated apple and peppers chopped so finely they almost disappeared. I thought they were lovely, and was sure the kids would fall for it. The result was it took them 2 hours to eat dinner and lots of bribery! Back to the drawing board.
On the subject of dining, I have had conversations with a couple of friends this week about dining tables. What style to choose? Where to buy? I thought I would do a quick post as a result. As with most things, prices vary considerably with such significant items of furniture. If your budget is a little more limited I do think good old Ikea has a selection of tables to suit most styles. Made.com are also very good for modern and vintage. M&S, John Lewis etc. are the mid range and then there are the others! If you haven't the budget, the expensive sites are worth visiting for ideas as you can normally re create the look for a lot less...
Below are a selection of tables and schemes, modern and traditional and a mix. (Made.com, Ikea, M&S, Habitat and Oka) I quite like the mix of modern and traditional...a wooden table with modern chairs for example.
A great site to log on to if you are considering re decorating or re-styling a room is www.housetohome.co.uk. This is a brilliant website where you can sit and browse 100's of pictures of different room ideas and you can even create your own moodboards! I thoroughly recommend taking a look!
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| Ikea dining table Glivarp £250 |
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| Ikea Ingatorp extendable table £250 |
Marks and Spencer do a similar chair to the ones above in a range of colours at great prices as do www.made.com.
Above - Aspen dining table Habitat £250 
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| Round Orb dining table Oka £890 |
Marks and Spencer (above) - Greenwich and Padstow extendable tables £439 - £639
Above and below - Joseph dining table £249 and Bourbon vintage table £299 www.made.com (really good for funky/retro dining chairs too.)
Kids + vegetables = strife!
ReplyDeleteWill they eat things in a red sauce? When I could be bothered (don't mistake me for the terrifying Annabel, will you?), I grated carrot finely into red sauce and got away with it, but my finest hour was those blocks of chopped frozen spinach: make the sauce thick enough and they will never spot it. Also, you could throw a few skinned chopped fresh tomatoes in without fear of reprisal. That's my best shot, sorry. Eldest (16) still only eats carrots and the only green things she'll touch are green starbursts.