I've been working on Ruby's quilt this weekend and would have finished it if the sun hadn't been shining quite so much (I know, such an inconvenience).

We had one of those weekends where everyone was just chilling and doing what they wanted. Our kids and the kids next door spent the weekend hopping from our garden to theirs and back again. We were never quite sure whether we had 6 kids about or none!

Because everyone was happily doing their own thing, I snuck some guiltless time in the attic and pieced together the quilt. I actually thought Ruby would be able to take it to bed last night but that didn't quite happen. It was one of those gorgeous evenings so all activities were temporarily halted when we decided to stroll up the road to our local Pizza Express.

A shared bottle of wine later and children not in bed at a decent hour stopped any further progress being made last night. Since I had nothing pressing to be done this morning I decided to finish what was almost completed so at least tonight Ruby would have it.

Translate that to mean a bribery to get one overtired little girl into bed at a reasonable hour, after her galavanting about far too late the night before.

We had to say 'a bientot' to some very close friends this weekend. Scarily we worked out that Matthew and Jem have been friends for over 25 years. That made us feel far too old - particularly since this was a University friendship - not just old Primary School friends.

Jem and RD are emigrating to Israel - and taking their new gorgeous baby boys with them. They are in Manchester and we are in Leeds, so we don't see them all that often...but it's a damn site nearer than Jerusalem.

I know with the internet we are all so much closer and more in touch than ever before, so hopefully it won't be too difficult to keep in touch. And hopefully we'll visit one day soon.

And in case you were wondering, although you've probably already guessed...I made these placemats for them to have a little bit of us with them until we do. What do you give people who are moving country? They certainly don't want to have to schlep even more belongings than they already are.