What a load of............

hankies......

This post to some will appear very random and a little odd, but I wanted to share with you my love of the humble hankie. Whilst ironing them (yes I do iron hankies!) it occured to me that I've quite a collection and some are so old and not even worth using!

My earliest memory of having a hankie was in primary school. I had a little brown case I used to take which could only fit my knitted cardigan in and of course my hankie. Unfortunately most of my original ones have either been lost or got too old, but I do have a couple which are not standing the test of time and you can't use if you have bad cold! I have to carry a hankie wherever I go, but not up my sleeve - how many grannies still have their tissue or hankie tucked up their sleeve. Mine used to have her's tucked into her watch!

Anyway here's 2 oldies - faded and holey...

These hankies were bought in Liberty's many years ago and they are still as crisp as the day I first had them

Children print hankies

More floral ones

Last but by no means least, my vintage boxed ones

TTFN

Let me introduce you to my new friend

Tra la..........

I made her yesterday with a view to possibly adding her to the website, and I think she turned out rather well, what do you think? She's very dinky but so cute. I couldn't think of a name, so I asked the boys this morning. Toby grunted and rolled over in his bed (more of that in a mo), and Jack who was full of the joy's of Spring said 'Lucy' so I hereby name my pink critter 'Lucy'.

Getting Toby motivated this morning was like oh I don't know - difficult. I did feel for him and would have loved to have said 'don't worry, stay at home today' but can you imagine Jack's reaction? Anyway, Toby's in the middle of his optional SATs. He's not bothered by them, but he always puts so much effort into everything he does, and then pays the price for it at a later date. Roll on Friday I think.

We went to see Coraline at the weekend. Great film, scary in places and I thought it was quite a 'dark' film but the boys enjoyed it and the detail in it was fab.

Don't ask me why but on Friday evening I decided to make a cushion. I was pooped out after getting orders made up and posted, so I should have just grabbed a glass of wine and bar of chocolate..........but I just fancied making something for our house! It's not technically accurate in places but I can get away by saying it adds to the character! I thought it looked quite sweet on the little green chair.

Another manic week ahead as always so see you later.........

Magical May

Jack was up with the lark this morning. It's hubby's birthday today "Happy Birthday to you, tra la la la la la" so Jack was in full crafty mode making and sticking before he went to school. Unfortunately the pop up balloon card photo doesn't do it justice. I don't know how he does them but he's really good at pop up cards.

Both boys thought daddy would be off work today but alas not. I made him a marmalade cake yesterday which went horribly wrong. Stupid me decided to pour the marmalade syrup onto the cake before getting it out of the cake tin - you can imagine what happened next...............I turned it over, it got stuck to the plate face down, when I tried to lift it up the cake fell apart. However, it does apparently taste nice.

Moving on..........the boys trundled off to school with their lift share so I took a walk round the garden, camera in tow. Despite the fact it's rained heavily, there was something rather magical about the garden this morning. The cloud was low so was making it hazy, the smell of the rain on the plants and the fragrance from the flowers was heavenly. I wish I could bottle it. It was so still and quiet apart from the birds singing - blissful.........

Anyway enjoy the photo's, I can't name the plants as I either don't know what they're called or I can't spell them, ha ha.

Fisher Price, Books, Laura Ashley and all things nice

Hello again, back to a 5 day working week again, but not long till the next - yipee!

I hope everyone had a great weekend. We were out and about in between catching up on my orders, domestic jobs etc etc. I don't know about anyone else but I often go through bouts of insomnia and this weekend happened to be one of those times. I've had about 7 hours in 3 nights - how pants is that? Consequently this morning I'm going to need copious amounts of coffee. Fortunately kind hubby made up a flask of it before he went to work and it's now all gone and not really kicking in..........em.

Anyway onwards and upwards. I thought I'd share with you some of my fab buys over the last couple of weekends. As most of you probably know Laura Ashely has recently had a sale and I indulged in a couple of very reasonable buys.

I can't remember how much they were but these pretty blue wine glasses were 30% off with an extra 10%. I don't need anymore glasses, but quite fancied drinking my weekend tipple out of them!

I rather liked the table mats so bought those too - don't they go well with the oilcloth?

I popped into a charity shop on Saturday and look at the stash of Ladybird books I got - all for £2.00. The ladies in the shop thought I was a little barmy as I was literally jumping and whooping for joy! They also kindly took my name and number to call me if and when anymore come in.

In my quest to learn to crochet, I took one step further and bought a magazine on it with a bonus of a hook and some wool. I will crochet this year!

Yesterday we went to a couple of boot sales, not much on offer, however I did get 2 items I've always wanted so actually not bad then?!

The first is a Fisher Price Jalopy. The clown's hat is chipped but I didn't care - not for a £1!!!!!!!!! How silly am I though - they had lots of other Fisher Price but I didn't get them. Jack was moaning in the background, his flake had fallen out of his ice-cream, Toby was wittering on so it put me off I think (well that's my excuse).

My other find was a children's wheelbarrow. The man selling it seemed rather embarrassed to charge me £2.00 especially as it's rusty in places - all the better I said!!
Lastly! - Rachel over at Contented is doing a seaside swap so if you fancy it, pop over to her blog.

Keep on smiling......

I do have to despair at the male species sometimes. They have an ability to forget on more than one occasion, can't see what's right in front of them and can only achieve one task at a time and any more than that, the world then crashes down etc etc etc etc.

The male in question happens to be my 9yr old, and maybe I should make allowances for that fact that he is a child. My excuse is that I'm doing him a favour for his later years.

It started yesterday - he had to go to school with a couple of extra items - football boots, and his cooking ingredients for his yummy lunch they were doing. He also had to do a class assembly and should have taken in all his bits and pieces which he forgot (he hadn't told me so I couldn't remind him).

At the end of the day, I picked them up and we had to run out of school as Jack had football which starts at 3.30 over the other side of town so always a rush. Get into the car, drive off and I said to Toby - do you have your football boots 'No', do you have the ingredient containers 'No', have you got your water bottle 'No'. The only thing he remembered to bring out was himself - doh.........There was no time to turn round and get them all so on we went to football. End of Wednesday.

This morning Toby got dressed and the trousers he put on were too big. Never mind I said, just turn the top of the trousers over. His other numerous pairs of trousers were spinning round in the washing machine. I apparently should have washed them lastnight according to him - hellooooo. I did let that comment go. As he has a cold I told him to put a pack of tissues in his pocket.

I then went downstairs and saw that the washing machine had finished so quickly got a pair of trousers out and started to tumble dry them. Went back upstairs to finish getting ready, told Toby to take the ones he had on off which he did. He then went downstairs to wait for the tumble dryer to finish, meanwhile he had left his MP3 blaring upstairs. By this point my blood was beginning to boil.

Anyway, I got the trousers out of the tumble dryer, sent Jack upstairs to get the pack of tissues from Toby's original trouser pocket. (I hope you are all keeping up!!!!). He couldn't find them, Toby then went upstairs - he couldn't find them either. Despite being told to put them in his pocket, he had put them down somewhere in his room and then they somehow vanished..........

He has the ability to work out complex maths problems in his head (I have to use a calculator to make sure he's got the answer right!!) but yet simple tasks seem to overwhelm him.

Oddly enough, as soon as I returned from dropping them off at school I found them - they were lying in full view on his bookcase. I rest my case.

So that's that really. I may come back in another life as a knitted teddy. Tra la la.

Bank Holiday round up

Hello - hope everyone is keeping well and enjoyed their bank holiday.

I'm very naughty as I always forget to take my camera out with me, but I gave myself the day off on Sunday and we went to the local country park (again!) with some friends. It was cooler than the previous time but yet again we managed to get sunburnt!

The boys have such a great time, and we took buckets and spades along as there is a man made beach which is always good fun. We did also take the kitchen sink or what felt like it - picnic, alcohol, coffee, change of clothes, towels, sun cream, magazines, toys, jumpers, jackets........sometimes you end up taking just as much for a day out as you would if you were going on holiday for a week!

To round the day off, we went to the local pub for a meal, sat outside and watched the children play. 9 hours later they still had energy!! and weren't quite ready to go home - bizarre!

Over the weekend Mel from Country in the Town and Alex from Pink feather paradise were kind enough to give me an award - thank you so much ladies!

I have to pass it on to 10 other lovely blogs and there is so much choice, so here we go -

Cowboys and Custard

Josie-Mary

Emily Pickle

Dolly Dollop

Happy Loves Rosie

Mary Poppins

Our New life in the Country

Sew on and sew on

A bun can dance

Bobo Bun

I haven't forgotten to share the photo's of my Laura Ashley goodies - I just haven't got round to taking them yet.........Have a great afternoon

Magazine projects

I don't normally buy magazines, but feel I can justify them if they've got lots of useful projects in, be it craft/cooking etc.

A while ago I bought Crafts Beautiful where there were so many pretty ideas to implement, I decided to subscribe to it. This month in particular there are some fab projects to do.

The first are some ideas for Father's day. I really like the gift tag which has used the paper Union Jack chains you can buy. Simple but effective.

The next is quite a nice idea for children - some Union Jack handpainted mugs and egg cups. Buy some plain white mugs and decorate them using special ceramic paint and voila!

On the same page is a bag which I fell completely in love with - again staying with the Union Jack theme but using floral fabrics - divine.

Definitely some projects to add to the ever growing list. Does anyone else have a project list of things you really want to make and do, but find other events dictate? Might have to have a re-think on the work/life balance.

Enjoy the 3 days whatever you're planning.

PS - Got some great Laura Ashley bargains this morning. Up to 50% off with an additional 10%!!!! - will share those items with you next week.