Hair today, gone tommorrow

Yesterday, Ella did something very naughty, imagine my sheer horror to walk in the living room and find her on the floor, surrounded by this....

While I was working in the the other room, she had decided that she wanted a haircut, and used my sewing scissors to hack all her beautiful blonde locks off, and I mean hack, look at this.....

When I rang my husband up in tears, he said he thought that I was going to tell him that Ella had had a terrible accident!
I suppose it's not the end of the world, like he said, well, I know it's not really, but she had such beautiful hair, even strangers quite often used to tell me when we were out together.

(picture of my Dad with Ella before the chop)

I know most children do it at sometime or other, I cut my fringe when I was 5 - rather wonkerly, and my neighbour's daughter cut a bit off the side of her hair, but nothing as severe as this! It's going to be at least a year before it gets back to any thing remotely pretty, I know I sounds a bit shallow, I shouldn't really be encouraging my child that her appearance is that important.

I think secretly she is quite pleased with herself, because now she is going to the hairdressers (which she has been pestering me to go to for the last couple of weeks) and she now has her hair short like a boy (which she keeps saying that she wants as well) Ella-2 Me-nil.
At the moment, having calmed down from my initial rage, and then bursting in tears every half hour or so last night, I'm am now feeling very cross, very sad, and also the inevitable mother's guilt that if I was paying her more attention, instead of working, that it might of never happened.
I suppose I better buy so pretty hats, and hair slides and clips so that she doesn't get mistaken for a boy in drag!

Seasonal Delights

Sorry I haven't been quite update with all of you and your blogs, I'm very busy at the moment, and knee deep in silk curtains, and I can't see an end in sight. I know I said I'd have a giveaway this week, but I haven't finished the prize yet, so can I beg your forgiveness, and ask for an extention please!

I think it's time to come out in the open with what else I'm doing too. Having been inspired by all your wonderful online shops, I have decided to start my own, I've started designing one myself using a very simple online programme, but although it says it has a checkout facility it only works with paypal, and isn't quite what I need, so can I ask if anyone knows of a good, relatively easy, web design prgramme that's Mac compatible, or does anyone know of a reasonably priced web design service?

I will be selling vintage collectables including kitchenalia, eiderdowns, pressed glass, jewellery and bags, alongside vintage inspired gifts handmade by me. Hopefully, this weekend I will be taking photo's of all the stock I've collected and maybe give you a peek next week.

The other weekend, I bought these little beauties from an lady selling her home grown vegetables, completely un-edible, but very pretty.

and in sainsburys whilst picking up a butternut squash, and a festive pumpkin, I came across these cuties, called 'baby munchkin pumpkins' I had to buy them, if just for their name!

Do you think they would be nice stuffed with something and roasted whole? Any recipes you can direct me to?

Yesterday Mum came over to keep an eye on Ella so I could get some uninterrupted work done, and she came bearing a gift, this cute little shelf...

Aren't I lucky! She also walked the dog, paired up all the socks, did some ironing and hung up all the washing! Thanks Mummy xx

This is the Lene Bjerre Oilcloth I bought to make my grandmother a garden kneeler from, I used a little bit to cover a new diary for next year.

I found these pretty Delphiniums at the local market yesterday, I love their vivid blue colour, don't think they're very seasonal though.

Guess what I'm getting for christmas........

I'm so pleased, and am glad it's going to be a gift, because I'm not sure I could justify spending that much on myself in one go!
I know that Steph is lusting after the 'Washed Roses' design but at a huge £200 from the Cath Kidston website, it's just too expensive. But, after some research I happened across this uk based website, Home Vision, that sells the 'Birds' and 'Red Stars' designs for £163.99 and the new 'Washed Roses' for £169.99 with £4.99 p&p which finally convinced me to get one.

Mixed Bag

I've got time to fit in a post, and as the title suggests, this post is an amalgamation of different things I've been meaning to show you.
Last week I was reading Faye's Blog and looking at the wonderful vintage postcards that she managed to bag at a car boot sale, and it reminded me of my one and only vintage postcard that I own that my Dad gave me when I was a teenager.

As you can see, it has my name on it, which is why he bought it when he came across it in an antiques shop, but what is even lovelier is this that the letters are made up of portraits of victorian women.
Unfortunately the writing (in lavender ink!) has faded in places and I find it difficult to make out a few words, so I don't know what it says, but it was posted in 1905 to New Barnet, Herts.

Moving on, here are my new charity shop finds..........

When I saw the glass jar, it reminded me of this from a few months back, and for £1.25 I just had to have it. Next to it is a metre of faux patchwork fabric for 95p.

I also found these sturdy cast aluminium gardening tools, which I thought I could give to my grandmother for christmas along with a handmade gardening holster type thingy or a kneeling cushion similar to this in a pretty oilcloth.

I wanted to show you this plate that my Mum made to comemorate my birth. Before we where born, and up to me going to secondary school she used to be a potter, and she made lots of lovely things for Harvey Nics and The Conran Shop.

Her plates make up most of the crockery on my plate rack and they sit happily along side the usual bits of paper that clutter it up - out of date money off vouchers, old reciepts, a handmade card from my sister, string, vintage tins, a packet of nurofen, some superglue, and the odd photo. She also made the lovely little green polka-dot cup and saucer that I have as my profile picture.

In the next week or so I've decided I'm going to have a giveaway to say thank you to you all, for all the lovely comments you leave me. What I will 'giveaway', I'm not sure yet, but I'll keep you posted. x

Partytime and fun at the farm!

Ok, so here it goes, as promised, some nice pictures after I shocked you all with the spider close-ups. Pictures of birthday bunting, cupcakes, presents and farm animals all here, so I'm preparing myself for a major photo uploading session armed with a pint of tea, and a birthday cupcake.

So here's the joint effort bunting, I thought it was really pretty, but Danny wasn't impressed when he got in from work on friday, obviously not manly enough for him.

The little door outside the window is the outhouse, that actually takes up most of the garden.

As I mentioned before, I decided to cop out of making cupcakes this year after I saw these in sainsburys, only 99p for 4!

These are some of my favourite presents that Ella got, I found this iron board for ella for £2 at a car boot, and made a new cover for it, because the original one was yellow with lime green spots. The cute vintage style toy iron is from Lapin & Me.

After umming and ahhing, over one of these very expensive toy kitchens, I happened apon this little cutie, from the ELC that folds away, and was only £24 (with my 20% online discount voucher) much more sensible I think!

these cute handmade felt biscuits....

Along with lots of other bits and pieces, Mum and Dad bought Ella these gorgeous boots from the Monsoon Sale Shop in Bicester, I nearly bought her them last autumn, full price, but they got them for only £12, bargain!
I must admit that from these photos, it looks like my daughter is only given girly toys to play with, but she also got some football goals for the garden, it just they don't look quite as pretty.


Anyway, after we all had lunch, then we headed off to Boydells Dairy Farm.

This little one was so keen to gobble up the food that the kids are given, he got stuck trying to wriggle out of the pen

This is Hazel a Red Pole calf

and Milo the Donkey, she's the grand old age of 23! Aren't donkeys lovely

During the summer it can sometimes be a bit crowded, but they close to the public after september, so we had the farm to ourselves. As you can see, the farm was very hands-on for the children, which makes it really fun for them, they also got to have a ride on a donkey and cart, milk a cow, and watch the sheep being milked (the farm makes cheese from ewes milk which is sold in Waitrose) but I haven't put the pictures up because I haven't got permission from all the parents.

So a good time was had by all, hope I haven't bored you all too much. x

There was an old lady who swallowed a fly...

....I don't know why she swallowed the fly. She swallowed the spider to catch the fly, that wriggled, and jiggled, and wiggled inside her, I don't why she swallowed the fly!

I don't know about you, but my house seems to be crawling with spiders at the moment, sorry for those of you that are a bit squeamish, or terrified of these eight legged creatures, PLEASE LOOK NO FURTHER!

I don't mind them that much, I like them better than flies anyway, and this little lady, or should I say big mamma, has taken up residence in the window next to me, beside my newly potted window box, but outside I should add, not inside, that would be really freaky!

She is about 1.5" big, and at the moment she is just a subject of fascination for me and Ella. Although Danny has completely wrecked her web several times while cleaning the windows, everytime, she builds a bigger and better one. Yesterday I saw a large fly get caught in her web, and in no time at all she was bandaging it up in a wide net of silk, a lot different from the thin stuff the web is made out of, then she tucked into dinner!

Today, I also found this sucker in the sink

Two weeks ago, I had a dinner party, when I opened the door to let my guests in we all laughed as a spider dashed in out of the cold, before anyone could even get a foot over the threashold! I thought that it was just a one off, but this tuesday, exactly the same thing happened, with a surprisingly similar looking spider, was it the same one do you think? Has this happened to you? It wasn't even like I had left the door open and it just wandered in, it charged in as soon as I opened the dooor, exactly like the last time, like it had been waiting for me to open it!

Sorry if I've completely put you all off reading my blog ever again, but I promise I'll never post anymore pictures of spiders again!

On a slightly different subject, something that really makes me squeamish! It's Ella's 4th Birthday party on sunday, ARHHH!
I'm doing the kids, and parents lunch, and then we are heading off to our local open farm (Boydells Dairy Farm in Wethersfield, Essex) that makes cheese from ewes milk for Waitroise. They're open to the public during the spring to summer months, and close the last week of september, but they said we can come on sunday, and they will save a lamb for us to feed. The kids get to feed all the animals, and the lambs with a bottle, have a go on the donkey and cart and milk a cow, and the farmer takes us round the farm to visit all the other animals, with a 'talk' that's funny even for the adults, so all fun and games!
It was that or a trip to a play barn, which sounds like sheer hell to me, and they want to charge £10 a head for a load of deep fried junk food!

This time last year my sister Liberty came round the day before to help me out, but the night before we went out for a drink, and we were making cupcakes with a hangover at 7pm the next morning, not the best start to the day.
But this year, I found some very sweet looking cupcakes at sainsburys only 99p for 4, so I've got 24 on order. So that's one less thing I have to worry about.

I put the bunting for the party up today, to see how it fits, I bought a 5 metre length on ebay, because it was very pretty, and frankly it was cheap enough for me think 'sod fiddling about with all that cutting out!' but it really needed a bit extra, so this afternoon, I set about making an extention (at least I didn't have to make it from scratch!) and I'm really quite pleased with the end result, be it a joint effort (photos next week).

Oh, I've just remembered, Lib's (sister) just got a job as 'design assistant' for two episodes of "60 Minute Makeover" well done sis! I think it will be on tv next year, so I'll keep you posted as to when to look out for her.
She started today, and I spoke to her this afternoon, apparently it really does happen in an hour, oh and Terri Dwyer (presenter) got blue paint all over the face and in her eyes when someone was doing a 'jackson pollock-esque' piece of art, with a water pistol, that should be a laugh!

Anyway, wish me luck for sunday, and I'll be back next week with some photos of the 'happy' day xx