A Brewer's Wife For Me

Good morning.  I hope you all had a lovely weekend.  Weekends just seem to go too quickly, don't you agree.  This weekend me and James started off on a new venture.  We started our very own blog together.

With James being a brewer, he loves his beers and can often be heard suggesting we go to the pub for a drink.  Me being a non drinker can sometimes be some what reluctant to go along.  I like to visit pubs for the atmosphere, for lovely surroundings, I guess that is the female in me.  I look for detail in the decorating, and the plants and flowers in the beer garden, the surroundings.

Being a blogger I love following new blogs and looking for things that are of interest to me.  I have a selection of craft blogs, floristry blogs, gardening blogs, baking and cooking blogs, home blogs and just general life blogs that I follow, they all seem to have a target audience.  I haven't targeted my own blog to any particular audience, but I know it is mainly females that read it, you are all interested in the same things as me.  Crafts, homemaking, etc. you know the deal. 

What me and James wanted was a blog that would be of interest to everyone.  The female crafter and homemaker and the male interested in beer and visiting pubs, we are hoping to capture that in our new blog A Brewer's Wife For Me.

Image sourced from Google images.

Please pop by and say hello.  Let us know what you think, your comments and suggestions are welcome.  We hope you enjoy it.

Love Gem x x x x

An Update From Instagram

I am still loving Instagram.  I haven't been taking many pictures myself but have still been on there daily, looking at what everyone else has been posting.  It is just so easy to dip in and out of and I love scrolling through my roll of photos everyone has been posting, they all look so pretty.

New pillow cases on the bed, Greenwich sunset, my cross stitch progress, James' beer pump clip, and another, a wicker picnic basket from the Great Eastern Market and a bag of macaroons - both a present from James, bedside table with a cold (all recovered now), watching Smash - love that programme.

So not much presence over the past couple of weeks, I'm hoping that will soon change, I have today downloaded a new photo app with some amazing features, very excited about using it :)

Hope you have all had a lovely weekend, and best wishes for the week ahead.

Love Gem x x x x

Let The Sunshine.

After a glorious day full of sunshine I felt it only fitting to post about an award I was recently given by my lovely friend Gemma over at Musings Of A Gem.  If you have not yet read her blog, please pop by and say hi.  She is a wonderful person who I had the pleasure of meeting earlier this year.  We have so much in common and I'm sure she is someone I will be in touch with for many years to come.  Thank you Gemma x x.

 
Now for your chance to learn some more about me, however I'm sure you will probably know most of this about me already.

1). Favourite Colour?  Pink, baby pink or dusky pink, more recently I have been swaying to dusky pink, it is just so pretty and has a real warm and romantic feel to it.

2).  Favourite Number?  I have often pondered on this question in the past and do you know what, I still don't have one.

3). Favourite Animal?  Cats.  In particular my own cat Molly.

4). Favourite Non-Alcoholic Drink? hot drink would be hot chocolate, cold drink would be either Rose Lemonade or Coca Cola.

5).Do I Prefer Facebook or Twitter?  I'm not into Twitter at all, if I'm honest I don't really intend to.  I get sucked into things pretty quickly and already have far too many things to occupy my time without anything else.  To answer the question I would say Facebook, however I would pick Blogger or Pinterest over Facebook any day :)

6). What Is My Passion?  This is a good question.  I'm passionate about a lot of things but my true passion is being happy I'm not sure if that answers the question.

7). Do I prefer Giving Or Receiving.  I really can't answer this one, I like them both just the same.  The excitement of receiving a gift from someone but also the pleasure in choosing a gift for someone else and seeing the joy they get from it.  

8).Favourite Patterns?  Floral and Polka Dots

Floral bed cover with polka dot hot water bottle

9). Favourite Day Of The Week?  Saturday.  The start of the weekend and you know that at the end of it you still have another day of it left unless it's a bank holiday, the you still have two days left.

10). Favourite Flower.  I have a few.  Daisies, more precise Gerbera Daisies, Peonies and pink roses.

Now to pass this award onto 5 fellow bloggers.

I would like to pass this onto:

• Redhead Reverie
• Miss Sew & So
• Treasures From The Cherry Tree
• Homebird
• Madelief

There are so many great blogs to have chosen to of passed this award onto but these five are a great read.  They could bring some sunshine into your day whatever the weather outside your window, so thanks ladies for brightening up my days x x

Love Gem x x x x 

An Evening In Greenwich

Me and James recently drove into London.  We parked up on the Isle of Dogs and walked along the river to Greenwich.

This was a first for both of us.  We have had many visits to Greenwich in the past but have never seen the Royal Navy College from this view point before.  It was lovely.

We jumped in the lift and walked under the river using the foot tunnel.

Now have you ever seen a lift like this before?

As soon as we stepped out the first thing we saw was the Cutty Sark.

It looks great now it has all been finished.  We will definitely be going back to have a proper look and see it all inside.

The main reason for our visit was for James to see the HMS Ocean.

It is there as a trial for the Olympics, it will be leaving again before hand but will be returning in time for the games to begin.

What we hadn't bargained on seeing though was this fantastic sunset.  It was breathtaking and the photos really don't do it justice, but I will let you see them to decide for yourselves.

Gorgeous isn't it!  I haven't edited these photos except for cropping them and adding my name to the bottom, the colours you see are exactly what was captured.

It was a lovely evening, one I will remember for a long time from now.

Love Gem x x x x

Instagram

I have found a new obsession.  First it was blogging, then it was Pinterest and now Instagram.  I love it.

Early blossom, stained glass heart, Molly, fairy lights on my bed, Jubilee edition French Fancies, Betty's Tea Room - York, Jubilee edition Twinning's Tea, Jubilee edition Tissues 

It is quick and so easy to use and it has been encouraging me to take photos in public, something I have often been embarrassed about doing before. On top of all that I have discovered some more lovely blogs to follow. 

Molly sleeping, Regents canal - Hackney, my new towel, Ford's in Dagenham, one of my sewing machines, a gift from Tracy, washing on the line, fairy lights on my bed.

I don't usually take photos on my phone, well that is before Instagram.  Now you can't stop me.  I'm clicking away at all sorts of things and it seems so is everyone else that's on it.

Sunshine and clear blue skies after the rain at Chelmsford Cathedral, M&M's, Country Living magazine waiting for me at work, James chilling with Ollie, Ed's Diner, James & Ollie, Big Ben, the Red Lion pub in Leytonstone.

If you want to follow me I am on there as gemscountrylifedream.  I look forward to seeing you there.

Love Gem x x x x

London Calling

I had noticed on the Internet recently about the self portraits and art that was going to be projected onto Buckingham Palace.  I love quirky things like this, things that are a bit different but most of all I love London, I love our country and I love most things British so suggested to James we go to London to see them.  We headed  into London late Saturday afternoon as we thought we would make a whole evening of it.

We started off in Leicester Square with a visit to M&M World London.  I have been to all their other stores.  One in Orlando, one in New York and one in Las Vegas, this is their first European store.  It is massive, although not their biggest store, but still spread across four floors.

My main intention for the visit was to buy some of their flavoured M&M's in particular the coconut flavour, they are delish.  Unfortunately they didn't have any flavours available,  well apart for the standard chocolate and nut flavours so I didn't buy anything but did enjoy wandering around snapping away with my camera.

There were so many different colours available.

They looked lovely all lined up in colour order. (Can M&M's look lovely? Yeah alright then)

I really liked this fella.

And these were brilliant.

After M&M World and before heading off to Buckingham Palace we went to Ed's Diner for dinner.  The food was great, I will definitely be going there again.  I loved the atmosphere and the way the place was decorated, I felt as though I was in a scene from Grease.  

 
It has been years since I have been to Buckingham Palace.  I think the last time was just after Princes Diana died, we went to lay some flowers amongst the thousands already there.  It is a lovely building, and we could see that the Queen was home as the flag was flying high (not very clear in the photo though, sorry).

It was right about then that the doubt started to set in, had we actually got this right? OK had I got this right?  There weren't very many people around and there didn't appear to be any equipment for projecting any images.  James checked it on his phone and his look told me that I had in fact got it wrong :s  It was the previous weekend, so we had missed it by a whole week.  

I was a bit gutted to of missed it, especially as we had been traipsing around in the cold and wet all evening, but at least it had got us out.  It isn't very often we go out of an evening, unless we go out for dinner or to a pub that is.  Lots of photos were taken and it was good quality time alone together, we just have to take the positives from it tee hee whoops.

Honestly though my failure and the weather aside we did have a good evening and that is the important thing right?!  It also gave us both a chance to get lots of shots on Instagram but more about that another time.

Love Gem x x x x