Attic delights

At the weekend I climbed into the attic on the hunt for some Miss Read books - I had read about them on someones post (can't remember who - sorry!). It inspired me to get mine out and read them again. Unfortunately I didn't unearth any amongst all the clutter - however I did discover some treasures which quite frankly I had forgotten about!

The first is a sweet vintage sewing machine called Little Betty, in it's original box with all the tools - and it works! One to have out on display I think.

The second were some Enid Blyton books, I thought all of mine had disappeared over the years so to find some bought squeals of delight. Goodness knows what the rest of the family were thinking! I have recently been trying to build up another collection of Enid Blyton books so these can be added into the mix.

The other set of books I found were these sweet children's stories. I can't remember who or when they were bought, but nevertheless a true delight. The pictures are just fab.

It just goes to show what 10 minutes in an attic can unearth. Who needs car boot sales (well some of the time!). Hopefully the next time I go up there I might find some Fisher Price goodies - I doubt it, but I can live in hope!

A bit of this and a bit of that

Morning all - and what a quick week that was! I'm quite glad as it wasn't too successful which is a shame. Most of it involved fighting my corner one way or another, with various issues, some of which were school ones, not particularly bad but nevertheless they had to be dealt with.

What doesn't sit comfortably with me is constantly dealing with uncertainties and the unknown. It is a fact that most children come home from school and you're never quite know what goes on. It's not helped by not seeing or speaking to the teachers from one parents evening to another. You end up putting 2 + 2 together and getting 597 (in my case!), which doesn't make for an enjoyable time.

This all sounds quite vague and would be easier if I said the whole story but it's too long! but sorry for the blurb.

Anyway onto more enjoyable things - I thought I'd share with you some of my activities for the weekend.

The first is to line my dresser shelves with some oilcloth I recently purchased. Unfortunately the photo doesn't do the powder blue colour any justice. Hubby thinks it's a waste of time as you can't actually see the shelves due to all the 'rubbish' on them! When has that stopped us ladies from doing anything? He has got the point but we'll move on.........

The second is to prick out the seeds. I think I've gone overboard some what, so I've got a bit of a task. The cress which is so easy to grow looks like it's dead, em...The kitchen herbs definitely need doing.

Outside in the little greenhouse is a tomato plant and some runner beans which I bought as little plants - cheating I know - shhh, some wildflowers, lots of pumpkin seeds, and a variety of other flowers.



So all in all quite time consuming but a worthwhile job. Later on I might partake in some cake baking along with a good old glass of red this evening to round off the day.


Enjoy the weekend fellow bloggers!

What's on yours...........?

I have a very pretty Laura Ashley duck egg blue gingham memo board in my 'work room' and hubby quite brutally pointed out that it was full of junk and of no use...........how dare he!

The bottom line is that he's absolutely right but heh, my work room, my rules! It's mostly filled with repro vintage postcards which I love, a vintage boys pullover knitting pattern and other various bits of paraphernalia - if you have one, what's on yours? Excuse the photo, rather wonky and no I haven't been at the alcohol again!

I know it's not long ago since 'I' decorated our bedroom, and yes, I'm tempted to pick up the paintbrush again and paint our en suite. Purely because I bought some but bunting from Laura Ashley and thought it would look nice in the bathroom. This means I have to paint the room, well that's not strictly true but it does give me an excuse. Hubby just groans and thinks 'here we go again'.

More fabric came this morning, again from Ebay. Unfortunately the photo just doesn't do it justice. The polka dot fabric is such a lovely colour blue and so soft. The other 'strawberry' fabric is linen. I'm looking forward to making something out of those, but they'll have to sit on my shelf for now.

Topsey Turvey

Here we are again, back to Monday. It was somewhat of a struggle this morning with the boys, school uniform, new shoes (with laces!) etc etc, but the first school run has been done and is out of the way.........

I'm so sorry but we've been out all weekend and I had some great photo opportunities, but forgot to take my camera so you'll just have to imagine the photos!

On Saturday we took the boys to the SS Great Britain in Bristol which is so well done and I'm not surprised they've won awards but it really is great for children. Once we had had our fill with that, I thought it would be nice to walk along the water and watch the boats, then walk up to the market where there are some second hand shops - well........what an absolute disaster. The boys for some unknown reason decided to play up. I won't bore you with the details but the 'red mist' cut in and I thought it best to shorten our day and go home...............That's where I remained, in silence for the rest of the day, oh dear.

I did however manage to find some great ladybird books to add to my collection

Now yesterday was a completely different story. We met up with some friends to have a picnic at a local country park where they have a man-made beach, play area etc, all within reach of the picnic tables so us adults could sit and have mature conversation! and keep an eye on the 4 boys.

As a rule I don't drink during the week, but will have a glass of wine on Friday and Saturday. Yesterday was different, the sun was out, it was warm, enjoyable company and 2 bottles of wine later.................(that was between 2 of us!). The men had a beer each. I do feel rather ashamed at consuming that amount of alcohol during the day, but it was over 6 hours and we felt fine - giggly maybe but all our faculties were intact.

The boys really enjoyed themselves, paddling in the water, building sandcastles, eating ice-cream and generally doing what children should be doing. By the time we got home hubby and I were sunburnt - can you believe it? Hubby always goes brown rather than red, but even he was red - ha ha. I just look like a lobster and not helped today by wearing a fuscia pink top - doh.

Better press on, lots of jobs to do.

TTFN.

Knitting and Kirsty's Homemade Home

I hope you all saw Kirsty's Homemade Home programme last night - wasn't it great?!

How sweet was the knitted writing and the little knitted house which appeared before the ads? It was such an inspiring programme and what I liked was the tutorials and hints and tips on making a house a home. I think I'm going to try the envelope cushion cover today. I've linked to the website which has the tutorial and other useful information.

I love bargain hunting, but I think I'd draw the line at 'skipping'. Hubby said he would love to do that - typical male, but what she said was so true - why pay for it if you could get it for free.

I was completely green with envy at the size of her fantastic range - she must enjoy cooking.

Roll on next week's programme.

Anyway, as the weather is pants today I thought I'd get busy making things for our home today rather than everyone else's! Already sewn up some hearts to stuff with lavender, going to give the envelope cushion a whirl and then pursue with my knitted throw I've started to make. Only done 1 square so far, so got lots still to do, but never mind I've got the rest of the year to complete it - ha ha.

Back to the school routine next week - yuck. I'm already getting into a cold sweat about it. Heh Ho. Have a good weekend and speak to you all next week!

"The best day ever"

Were the words from my 2 little herberts today. We went out this morning to our local farm where they've got lots of activities, tractor rides etc. The weather started off raining, damp, windy and cold, but nevertheless we braved the elements all wrapped up.

Much to my pleasure we were the first to arrive so the boys played in the tunnel of hay bales which is good fun but you have to take torches so you can see where you are going. I didn't take a photo unfortunately.

Then we went onto the tractor ride to hunt for the Easter bunny who was tired after a heavy weekend but he was still out and about! We 'chased' him in our tractor and trailer, he was on a quad bike. We finally caught him and all the children had to get off and chase him round the field for sweets - how fab is that!

Back to the farm where the boys held a duckling, bottle fed a lamb, played on some pedal tractors, did some crafting, sticking and colouring, into the willow maze where we got lost and it was chucking down with rain! Sat down for lunch of chips, sausage roll and beans, back outside for more playing in the park, a walk through the fields then back home for hot squash and homemade cookies!

It doesn't get any better than that!

Back to it.......

Hope everyone had a good Easter and had their fill of Easter eggs. I think we'll be eating ours for a while yet. Yesterday I found some chocolate coins from Christmas........they can go in the bin!


We popped to a car boot sale on Saturday and I feel quite annoyed with myself as I saw a whole box of knitting needles and didn't enquire about them - doh! I did however have my eyes on a whole stack of small terracotta pots which I thought would be ideal for my seeds. I asked how much they were and the seller said I could have the whole lot for £1.00! I didn't argue as I got 60 of them!


I also got a carrier bag full of buttons for £3.00 so not a bad buy all in all.


If you remember a little while ago I had bought some great CK 'London' fabric. Well I put some of it to use - some heart heat mats. I've used a contrasting fabric on the reverse, put some cotton batting in the middle and lightly filled it with ground cloves to give a lovely fragrance. I've put them on the website, but if anyone wants to buy one, let me know. They're £4.99 each.

Pay it forward.............................!

Sorry but another post! I'm following Alex from Pink Feather Paradise and the 'Pay it Forward' gift.

For those who don't know, it goes like this - the first three people to leave a comment will receive a hand made gift from me! The only thing you have to do is participate and carry on the gift giving to three more people...as soon as you have left a comment do a "pay it forward post" on your blog and continue the giving.

Don't forget to let me know how to get in contact with you so I can send you a gift - how exciting!

My Cath Kidston delights

Hello all and I hope you're enjoying the little break so far! The weather has been a bit of a let down but heh ho!

As you know we went to Bicester yesterday and I was so excited about going to the CK shop and even more so as it was an outlet! I was slightly shocked by the queues to get into Bicester Village and the fact that the carpark was full and there were lots of men in yellow jackets directing traffic. We arrived 10 minutes after it opened! I don't do crowds or queues so my stress levels were rising but I kept trying to think of all the lovely goodies I was going to buy.

We got parked and got out. For those who have been to the States, it really reminded me a lot of their outlets (apart from the fact it was chucking down with rain here!).

I'll cut to the chase - the shop was fab and lots of lovely tempting items. As you can see I bought a few things! and I really did have to hold back on so many......I would imagine their stock varies somewhat so it's a good job we don't leave too near. Even the decor is great. I had to keep going round so I didn't miss everything! I got 2 little cushions, a set of 4 napkins, a sweet crochet doll egg cosy, bath mat (spotty of course!), tea-towel, and oven gloves.

I apologise about the quality of the photo. I was sampling some wine in the supermarket so will blame it on that!

I'm going to spend time later putting them out yipee! but first I'm going to settle down with a cup of coffee, homemade Easter muffin and the latest issue of Country Living magazine. It doesn't get better!

Happy Easter.

Am I addicted............?????

To Union Jacks and spotty/dotty items???? You my recall on previous posts my purchases of various spotty items, along with my love of the ever popular Union Jacks.

I can't seem to get enough of them and always jump on anything I see. These are the latest -

The lovely padded hangers came from TK Maxx and I thought they were a bargain at £3.99.

The other 2 beauties came from our trip out last Saturday. We took the boys to the National Waterways museum in Gloucester near the docks which they loved as there were lots of hands on activities for them. As it was some sort of special day we managed to get in for free, which was even better!

Whilst we were there I quickly popped into the soldiers museum shop which was near by - I know it's not very girly but I spied, yes you guessed it a Union Jack tea-towel. There are many out there at the moment which are quite expensive and I got this one for £2.99. I also got some great postcards which I'll show you on another post.

The cupcake flags came from a lovely shop in Stroud.

I did think it hadn't been a busy week, but with our trip out, a visit to see Monsters v Aliens at the cinema, meeting friends at a local country park, seed sewing, mowing the lawn and other general domestic duties, baking endless cakes, Jack's tooth falling out, hair cut, almost finishing my orders.....,anniversary, blogging! it's no surprise I feel pooped.

We're off to Bicester tomorrow not to do all the premium outlet bit (but I may have a look) but there happens to be a CK outlet store there so I may have to stumble in to see what they've got. It'll be rude not to go in surely?

Heart swap delight

I participated in my first swap a little while ago which was organised by Molly Cupcakes and I was paired up with the lovely Em from Sew Recycled I picked up my goodies this morning from the Post Office and I was like a child in a sweet shop, it was so exciting to open. Even the boys were excited!

Here's the goodies before I frantically opened them...........

and look what I got...............

The floral heart has lavender in it and the smell was glorious. I'm going to sit and enjoy looking at them for the time being!

Joules pressies

Was I lucky girl or what yesterday. It's our wedding anniversary next week and hubby surprised me by buying not 1 but 2 Joules goodies - I'm sure you'll all love them. Normally we don't bother now (14yrs on!) and I'm feeling really guilty as I haven't bought him anything.


To keep you guessing you'll have to scroll down............







and down...............







and down....................






keep going......................






it's worth the wait!..........................







Tra la..........how fab are they!

I might just have to sit and look at them for a while before putting them to use!

See you next week.

Don't you just love this fabric

I got this fantastic CK fabric off Ebay this week and was completely ecstatic when I opened it up. It's duck egg blue and really represents everything iconic in London. If you can see on the bus, it's even got a CK advert - brilliant!

Not sure what I'm going to make with it yet, but you'll all be the first to know when I do! Meanwhile I'll sit and drool over it whilst it's sitting on my fabric shelf.

Aren't some fabrics just wonderful to have all sitting nicely on a shelf, a bit like freshly laundered bedding. It must be great to be a fabric designer.

See you soon.

One thing leads to another

Isn't it amazing that you can start off one job and before you know it you've moved onto several different jobs, having forgotten about the first..........that's what happened yesterday.

I went into the loft to sort out some stuff for the charity bag. That lead to sorting out the boy's certificates, pictures, and other works of 'art'. Then I found some clothes which Toby had and will now fit Jack so got those out and washed them. I then came across a whole bag of Easter decorations which I had completely forgotten about. Over the last few weeks I've been buying a few bits as I wasn't able to find what I had and thought they had got lost. You can imagine my delight when I found them! It all turned out rather well in the end.

Got a 'slight' day off today as my mum's coming over and we're going out for the morning. I'm not very good with allowing myself down time and I'm already feeling guilty at the prospect of leaving lots of unfinished work till this afternoon. Nevertheless I'm sure I'll feel better for it later!

Better crack on now before she comes!