Oh I do like to be beside the seaside!

Well ... we finally made it to the campsite!!

After my in-laws fixed the problem with the caravan they towed us up to a lovely, quiet camp site in Hunmanby, East Yorkshire ....

Here is our little home for the week ....

We had day trips to our favourite coastal places: Bridlington, Filey and Scarborough ... the weather was beautiful - perfect for coastal walks.

Of course, a trip to Scarborough means a trip to the wonderful Harbour Bar ... and Knickerbocker Glories!! Mmm mmmm!!

We also spent time snoozing, knitting, drinking tea and eating yummy tea loaf from Betty's Cafe in York!

Here we are on the beach in Filey! I'm the short dumpy one! Ha Ha Ha

What a shame that we had to come back to London and go back to work!

Thank you for all your lovely comments while I have been away ... don't forget that there is still time to enter my 200th post giveaway!

I have been catching up with all your wonderful blogs, and have even been given a blog award by Deborah at Fondant Kiss!! I will blog about that later in the week!

Victoria Plum is ...

... still stuck in Hull. We should hopefully find out later on if the problem with the tow bar on my inlaws car can be rectified ... if not we will be heading back to Plum House tomorrow and to work on Wednesday .... boo!

Today we are heading to York for a trip to my favourite place, Betty's Cafe, for lovely tea and cakes.

Rather than moping around today - I will be counting my blessings that we were not hoping to fly anywhere ....

Don't Forget ...

One final post while my inlaws are sorting out a slight hitch* with the caravan they are going to be towing to the seaside for us!!

Don't forget to enter my 200th post giveaway!!

See you in a week!!

* slight hitch means that we are still at my inlaws two hours later ... waiting for the RAC van and the prospect of spending our weeks holiday in the caravan in their garden and not on the lovely East Yorkshire coast ... but, I suppose it could be worse and we could have been one of the poor holidaymakers waiting for the ash cloud to disperse ... a week in Hull is not so bad.

15% off at Cath!

15% off at Cath Kidston ... just for today!!

Baby Plum's First Concert!

On Sunday night me and Mr Plum, met up with my brother and his girlfriend and a dear family friend for dinner. Our friend is called Diane Ponzio and she is an amazing singer/songwriter ... before heading off for pizza, we had a personal rendition of her lovely song "Be My Lighthouse" ... it was Baby Plum's first experience of live music ... and she loved it! You can download "Be My Lighthouse" (via Amazon for 79p) by clicking here

Spoilt Rotten and giveaway winner!

One of my oldest friends came round for lunch yesterday ... we used to regularly meet up for cheese and wine after work but I had to cancel our last trip as I was suffering from morning sickness ... and hadn't reached the 12 week point ... and couldn't think of a viable excuse to get out of eating lots of (now, sadly banned for a while!) un-pasteurized cheese!

It was this friend who began my addiction to Philosophy's "Amazing Grace" range ... and she turned up with some lovely 'mum to be" pampering goodies from the Little Me Organics range ... mmmmm As soon as she had left to begin her trip back up to North London, I jumped in the bath and had a lovely relaxing soak. I am spoilt by my lovely friends.

And after a rather dreary day at work, I headed to the pool for a refreshing swim and to sort my muddled head out and got home to find that I had won my first ever giveaway!! Woohooo! You have NO IDEA how much this has cheered me up! The giveaway was over at Fondant Kiss ... have a look at her blog - it's lovely and perfect for a miserable Monday!

Fabric Addict Swap, My 200th Post Giveaway and other sunny weekend stuff ...

I have just signed up to Crafty Helen's First Swap! It's a Fabric Addict swap ... perfect!

Wasn't it a glorious day yesterday? I had to work in the morning, but that was okay because I could see the beautiful blue sky out of the window and by 1pm I was on my way to Covent Garden to meet Mr Plum at the London Transport Museum for the Suburbia exhibition. Mr Plum was, typically, 30 minutes late and incommunicado for that period ... so I managed to find myself a free curb in the Piazza and sat reading my new book The Resourceful Mum's Handbook (full of thrifty tips for not getting sucked into all the maternity and baby "must haves"), and listening to the nearby buskers!

The exhibition itself was okay. We had already spent a day at the museum itself, so didn't bother looking at the main exhibits again, and am glad that we had a 2 for 1 voucher. We found that we had already seen many of the Suburbia exhibits before, mainly because we have read about them, watched programmes about it, and attended a couple of lectures at the museum earlier this year. I am glad that we went though! If you haven't been to the Transport Museum and find yourself in London - I would definitely recommend it.

Under 16s are FREE and adults should make use of the National Rail 2 for 1 offer!

After that (and a piece of cake and cup of tea) we headed up to my FAVOURITE department store ... JOHN LEWIS!!! I was planning to get some wool so that I could start crocheting a blanket - but was overwhelmed by the choice of colours couldn't remember what I had in my yarn stash at home. So came away empty handed!

We popped to the Nursery Department and had another look at prams. Living in London and not being able to drive has had to influence our choice as I need to be able to get the pram off and on buses etc easily. Some friends had offered us their old pram for free - but unfortunately it was like a mini-tank and was not really practical for our needs. So we have chosen this one:

We had decided on this one even before we found it in purple!! Baby Plum in a Plum pram! It's nice and nippy and perfect for getting out and about!

This is my 200th post!!! And to celebrate I will be having a giveaway - and like last time, the gift will be a a surprise! If you would like to enter you can do any of the following:

Leave a comment on this post

Become a follower of my blog

Add the button to your blog (make sure you let me know!)

The more things you do ... the more entries you get!! The winning entry will be drawn from a cake tin on 1st May. GOOD LUCK!

Blogland is going giveaway crazy ...

The lovely RosieP turns 50 on Monday and is having a baking themed giveaway to celebrate ... have a look at her lovely blog here

I've got that Friday feeling! And another giveaway ...

Phew ... Friday at last! Why is it that the short weeks always feel the longest? And I have stupidly agreed to work tomorrow to earn some extra pennies for nappies! Ha Ha! Thankfully only working tomorrow morning and then Mr Plum and I will be heading to the Suburbia exhibition at the London Transport Museum. You have to pay to get into the Transport Museum (unlike many of the other large London museums and galleries), but we will be using a National Rail 2 for 1 voucher - these are fab and make a day out in the capital slightly more affordable (otherwise the Transport Museum is £10 each!!) Have you been?

So here I am, feet up at home (I had planned to go for a swim - but am too tired and think that maybe I will try for a Sunday morning swim instead...) catching up with lovely blogs, cats have come home (today they spent the whole day out in the sunshine and came in as soon as I got home!), and a new blog is discovered! Hurrah!

Check out Fondant Kiss who is doing a "New Beginnings" giveaway where the lucky commenter will get this beautiful necklace ... I love to enter giveaways - but never with any success! Oh well .... Not long until my 200th post giveaway!

As Chris Evans would say .... "Happy Fridays Everyone!"

Everyone's Doing Giveaways!

Have a look at Helen's blog ... she is having her first ever giveaway!

The Edible Gardener

Did you watch Alys Fowler's new programme on BBC2 tonight? It was called "The Edible Gardener" and I'm sure you will be able to catch it on i-player if you missed it. The programme accompanies Alys' new book: 'The Edible Gardener - How To Have Your Garden And Eat It'.

It was inspirational - I really must get out into the garden and sow some veg! The Peatini's looked fab! I must remember those when Baby Plum has arrived!!

New Duvet!

The lovely Mr Plum treated me to this fab new duvet set from Tesco instead of an Easter Egg! Very similar to my BHS duvet ... but with more stripes!!

This is a picture from Tesco Direct - not my bed! And it was a bargain at £13.50 for a Kingsize!!

Only 5 posts to go until my 200th post giveaway! Keep reading ...

Crochet, wool plea and a Baby Plum update

I quite often suffer from "hooky envy" ... do you? Especially when reading the fabulous Attic24 or Do You Mind If I Knit? blogs!

I LOVE to knit - but sometimes find it a tad frustrating that it takes so long for the finished product to 'materialise'.

Ever since I went to the Make Lounge, I have wanted to learn how to crochet the lovely granny squares that I often see on other blogs, and found a brilliant little tutorial via the Attic24 blog ... here is what I have done so far! A bit 'rustic' around the edges ... but if I wanted something perfect, I would go and buy it from an overpriced shop! ha ha I think that if I do 35 of these squares it will be the perfect size to keep Baby Plum cosy in her push chair.

I have encountered a smallish problem though! I bought a few balls of Rowan Cashsoft Chunky from a cheapo wool website earlier this year ... and I stupidly only bought one ball of each colour ... and now I have discovered to my horror that Rowan have discontinued their Cashsoft Chunky range (nooooooooo!) Anyway, I have found a few websites that still have some of the grey and light purple ... but the dark purple is nowhere to be found.

This is where I make a cheeky plea!

If anyone has the odd ball of Rowan Cashsoft Chunky in Eggplant (colour 716) hidden away in their yarn stashes, or knows of a haberdashery which still stocks this lovely lovely chunky wool - I will happily pay good money for it!

In the meantime I am going to have a go at crocheting a pretty stripy blanket for Baby Plum ... I have seen a lovely one in Mamas and Papas - but think that £32 is a bit excessive (as long as I can source some lovely, but cheap yarn!)

Me and Mr Plum went for our 20 week anomaly scan on Thursday ... everything was fine (which was a relief, as I tend to worry ...) we also found out that there is a 95% that we are having a little girl! I really didn't mind what sex our baby was, as long as he/she was healthy ... but didn't want to turn down the chance to find out!

Giveaway at Kelly's Blog!

Have a look at Kelly's blog for another wonderful monthly giveaway!

Good Enough To Eat!

I haven't done a swap for a while ... and couldn't resist this one which I spotted on Victoria's blog ....

Spring Greetings

Happy Easter!!

Don't eat too much choc ...

Victoria and Albert In Love

A couple of Sundays ago I watched a very interesting programme on BBC 1 about a new exhibition opening at the Queen's Gallery ... I don't know whether you saw it too?

Well, today I went to the Victoria and Albert: Art In Love exhibition with Mr Plum and my parents. Unfortunately, HRH was at home, so the State Rooms at Buck House were closed ... but we'll be going back (for my third visit!)

The exhibition was brilliant ... beautiful artwork and jewels given to each other, Victoria's drawings of her children and music specially arranged so that Victoria and Albert could duet together ....

I would definitely recommend this exhibition if you find yourself in London over the next couple of months. You can book tickets here