My Weekend

Well I don't really know where this past week disappeared to! Looking back I think we've just been enjoying the gorgeous weather, hitting the parks and playing in the paddling pool. It's a tough life but someone's gotta do it! ;)

And after all that running around it's been nice to slow down this weekend and I have to say it's been a really great one. I kicked off the weekend on Friday night with an evening in by myself. Mec was out at his work summer party (I think he rolled in at about 1.30am, I'm not really sure, I sleep through anything!) and so once the kids were in bed I made myself a homemade pizza and watched a really interesting documentary film called 112 Weddings. I don't know if you've heard of it, it was recently posted about on the A Cup Of Jo blog, and seeing as I was home alone (Mec would not be into this kind of film, too much talking, not enough explosions!) I thought what better an opportunity to watch it. 

Directed and produced by Doug Block, a documentary filmmaker who has spent the past 20 years filming weddings as a side project to his day job, the film takes a frank (albeit slightly american) look at the institution of marriage, and follows up with a handful of Doug's favourite couples from the past to see where life and marriage has taken them. Being married myself, for a grand total of 8 years now, which is obviously only a dot in the many years I assume and hope I'll be married, I find the topic of marriage really interesting. I love hearing from different couples, older couples, etc about what marriage has taught them, or what the experience has been like for them. It was definitely an interesting film which I enjoyed, and one thing that stuck in my mind was how much having children affects a couple's relationship. No newsflash there though right!! 

Saturday was spent seeing friends - I'm really annoyed with myself for not taking any photos now (what kind of a lazy blogger am I!?) but it was a really lovely day catching up with some old NCT mums and their girls. Spookily, all 6 of us in our NCT group had baby girls and although we've not been great at catching up regularly, to see the girls together once in a while is really special and it's crazy to see how much they have grown up!  

The background sound to this weekend of ours has been the awesome My Head Is An Animal album by Of Monsters And Men. Whilst not a new album, Mec only bought it recently, we've been loving Dirty Paws. If you haven't got it, look it up on the iTunes store, you'll love it!

Today, Sunday, has been a slow kind of day. I had a much need lie in (thanks lovely husband!) and then after lunch decided to bake a fruit pie, as you do! The kids and I went fruit picking this week and we came home with overflowing tubs of raspberries and blackberries. The kids had wanted to pick strawberries but they had been rather over picked this past week I think and were cordoned off. But we were happy with our little harvest and after much consideration I decided a pie would do nicely for the fruits of our labour. 

It was a bit of a lengthy process but as it was my first pie (don't judge me) I wanted to take my time to get it right. I've made a savoury puff pastry lid type pie before, but this was my first shortcrust pie which involved blind baking the base first, etc. It was definitely worth the effort though as my pie turned out better than I expected and we've had two servings with a side of double cream already today - oops! A few pics below, I know it's not rocket science, but with two little ones running around I don't often make time for baking at home, apart from an easy banana bread I make all the time and fairy cakes that I make with the kids. But now I say hooray for home baking! :)

Apples with cinnamon

In go the berries - I don't know why the fruit looks day-glow here!

A couple of leaves to top things off!

If only Mary Berry could see this now!

So, this evening I think we pretty much continued the easy going theme of the day and, following the usual riot of getting the kids to bed, we ate dinner (more pie?!) and watched an episode of Breaking Bad. Also, I may or may not have hopped onto my laptop at some point as I've got my eye on this tee from Chinti and Parker (I seriously love everything on their site, I would wear it all. And with 70% off right now, what can I say, it's a bit like dangling a carrot in front of a donkey!), we'll just have to wait and see.

Stripe Tee with Love print, Chinti and Parker

I hope you've had a good weekend too, here's hoping for another lovely sunny week! x