Weekend activities | A Spoonful of Style

On Saturday night we booked a babysitter and went out to the cinema to see the new Steve Coogan film, Alan Partridge – Alpha Papa. My husband chose the film and while it was quite entertaining, it wasn’t really my cup of tea. But the cinema itself more than made up for it. Just 15 minutes down the road from us, it is part of a small independent chain and is a far cry from the massive Odeon theatres with their overpriced pick and mix and jumbo tubs of popcorn. The theatre itself is quite small with two or three seat sofas and tables to put your drinks and munchies on, and attached to it is a cosy bar where you can buy wine, beer, soft drinks and a large selection of snacks from pizzas and olives to chocolate buttons and retro sweets.

I love England in late August/early September. It is usually sunny, although the evenings are getting darker and nature’s palette is slowly transforming into beautiful red, deep orange and bright yellow. Today we decided to make the most of the long Bank Holiday weekend by heading to Hatchlands Park, a National Trust property and parkland, near Guildford in Surrey where we went for a walk across cows meadows and the children played in the woods.

All that fresh air and exercise left us all feeling famished but luckily we were going to the in-laws for lunch. My mother-in-law is a fantastic cook and had made a lovely roast chicken followed by the most gorgeous (gluten free) apple and blackberry crumble.

A game of croquet in the garden (complete with the requisite squabbles over who was winning and who was cheating).

And finally, today’s all black outfit was one of the £7 H&M dresses I bought at the start of the summer teamed with leggings and patent wedges from Topshop. Hope you all had a great weekend. X

I kicked off the weekend by having three of my girlfriends over for dinner on Friday night (my husband was at home but decided that it was safer to retreat into the living room rather than join in the girly gossip!). We started with some croustades filled with smoked salmon and a chicken and tarragon mixture, followed by Chilli Corn Carne and finished off with my lemon and white chocolate cake. They very kindly brought me some beautiful flowers that have brightened up the house no end. I also got to use my new placemats from Svenskt Tenn which I love but they make me feel a bit nostalgic as the design depicts a map of my hometown of Stockholm .

Feeling rather delicate on Saturday morning, I went for a long overdue haircut and colour and caught up on some celebrity gossip over a cappuccino . On a whim I asked the hairdresser to put some curls in my hair rather than the usual straight blow dry. I really liked it and have now booked in for another blow dry before one of the parties we’re going to next month.

This weekend we finally got some sunny weather so off to the garden centre we went on Sunday to buy some flowers to plant in the pots on the terrace. I’m not green-fingered by any stretch of the imagination, but I actually quite enjoyed it and think they turned out pretty good for a complete novice, even if I do say so myself! Now I just have to make sure they stay alive, and with my track record I know that’s the tricky part.