Monday 28 January 2008

winter sun

It's a bit hectic at the moment, Danny booked a very last minute holiday last week (without telling me!) and so I'm busy packing, checking everything at least 4 times, and tying up loose ends before we leave home on tuesday evening to drop Lily off at Mum and Dad's, stay the night and leave for the airport at 4am wednesday morning, oh the joys of airport check in times!

I will try and get hold of an internet connection while we're away, but in the meantime please forgive me for my lack of communication recently, I will be back home next thursday to visit all of your blogs and catch up with what you've all been up to.

You can still order from the website while I'm away, but unfortunately, I will not be able to dispatch your order until 7th Feb when I get back.

Tuesday 22 January 2008

Reasons to be happy........

My most recent bargain buy...
7 of these beautiful bowls for £1.50!




My first bunch of spring flowers this year...




Turning a selection of vintage embroideries into cushions for the website.....



Being awarded this by Steph @ Curlew Country



Thanks, Steph I'm dead chuffed, and now I'm supposed to tell you 7 weird things about me, so here it goes......

1) I hate just doing a bodge job, whether I'm cooking a meal, decorating, sewing, making a picnic, I like to do everything properly, and get annoyed if I can't. It's all or nothing for me unless I've had a drink, then I'm a bit more chilled out!

2) Despite my slightly perfectionist tendencies, I still have millions of unfinished projects on the go, and I hate hoovering, ironing, and dusting, (I keep telling myself I have better things to do, like blogging, sewing, cooking, shopping, working) I tend to let things build up and have a major blitz every month, I have to be cross to tidy!

3) Although I love magazines, I have never bought a OK, Hello, Heat, or any of the many fortnightly magazines (can't think of any more titles), I'm not remotely interested in how thin, or how much weight a 'celeb' has put on, or what their wedding was like.

4) Before I started blogging, I thought that I was a bit strange, enjoying sewing, charity shops, stroking beautiful fabrics, cooking and baking, but now I found so many new blogging chums who enjoy the same things, and I can share my lastest bargain or project with, thank you!

5) 6 years ago I think everyone who knew me would have never believed I would have had a baby at 20, I was never a great fan of babies and children, and I was always thought of as one of the 'clever' ones. But it was a bit of a surprise when it happened, and although it wasn't the best time in my life to have a child, it was with someone I had a loving relation with, and we were already engaged, so I decided to become a mother, and though it's difficult at times (being a young mother, and having no previous career as such after college) it was probably one of the best decisions I've made.

6) I hate doughnuts filled with jam or custard, although I like the little ones with holes you get freshly made at the seaside.

7)I love and have a very diverse taste in music, and when I was younger I knew the words to all the songs. But after having a baby, my ability to remember lyrics has been stilted, and I often get them wrong when I'm singing along, like my mum does, which make my sister giggle. You truly do lose part of your brain when you have a baby!

Well now it's my turn to nominate 7 other bloggers for the award, so I have to find some of you that haven't already won it.

Katy @ I'm A Ginger Monkey
Mia @ Mias Landliv
Zia @ Ziakoko
Gisela @ Titel
Outi @ White Country
Kelly @ Notes From My Nest
Jo @ French Knots

Friday 18 January 2008

Not a good start (do not read if you have weak stomach)

Today didn't start very nicely.

I came downstairs this morning to find Lily (the dog) vomiting all over the place, and when I phoned Danny (he gets up earlier than me and leaves for work at 6.30) he told me that when he came down in the morning there was a trail of vomit all the way from the back door to the cupboard under the stairs (where he keeps his mucky work clothes) which he had cleared up.
So at 9am, when she was still being sick (no food just slimey yellow bile and specks of blood, yuk!) I decided to ring the vet, (mainly because I was worried that she might have eaten a dead poisoned rat, which she has done before, and I have had a couple of rat sightings in the garden in the last couple of months, and so have the neighbours) the vets told me I should bring her in for an examination, just to be on the safe side.

So I bundle her into the car, with a couple of towels for emergency mopping up, and her looking mournful on the front seat. But when we arrive at the vets she seems to have perked up, wagging her tail at everyone that she sees, and barking at any dogs that growl at her. Vet looks her over and everything looks ok, but he gives her a couple of injections for anti sickness, and some pills to go home with, and gives me a £42 bill, thanks Lily, thats my weekend up the spout!

Now she keeps looking at me, as if to say, 'you know.....I'm feeling rather peckish now'. But I'm not risking it, she's on a 24 fast, I'm sick of clearing up sick today!

I was going to show you some pictures of my lastest thrifted treasures, but I've been held up by a poorly dog, and I need to get back to work, so maybe I get round to it this weekend. Hope you all have a lovely weekend, Jessx

Friday 11 January 2008

Bon Bon Delight


Look what I got for £3.25 in habitat sale last week, it's white glass, and I managed to refrain from buy eight of them, which is my usual quantity for crockery and glassware (the most people I can squash round the table in the dining room), which would have made it less of a frivolous bargain, and more of an extravagant splurge, plus I haven't got any room in the cupboards to keep them in!
When I saw it, I could just imagine it filled with pastel coloured ice cream or french macarons, but I couldn't find any pastel coloured maracons, and ice cream doesn't last long, so bon-bons from the old fashioned sweet shop in town it was. Now everytime I walk pass it, it makes me smile.

Wednesday 2 January 2008

Happy New Year, make it a good one....



Where to start......???

New Years Resolution No.1 - Be a better blogger

Well first up, over december I've been a really crap blogger, only 2 posts!! I can also see that quite a few of you are back up and running after the christmas period, and I've got a lot of catching up to do, reading properly about what you've all been up to and not just skimming and looking at pretty pictures!

I'm feeling a bit reluctant to dip my toe back into normal life, although I'm sure I'll be ok soon, Ella's back to nursery tomorrow and Dan's back to work on monday (I really find it hard to get the normal day-to-day stuff done when Danny is off work during the week, he annoys me, even if he's doing the washing up!)





After a quick glimpse I can see that most of you had a lovely christmas, and so did we. We spent the week at my parents house, from christmas eve to friday, and had a fantastic time, christmas lunch for twenty-two, two turkeys, which my grandmother cooked and brought up to mum's along with her christmas pud, my cousin brought a ham, an aunt brought the cheese, I did trifle, and mum did all the vegetables and trimmings. I managed to get a snap of the dining room before everyone arrived.







We got some lovely presents too including the eagerly awaited "pink trainers" from Father Christmas, and my CK Roberts DAB radio from M&D, favourite station button set to radio 4. (I've said Danny can only use it to listen to talk sport when he has a bath)



I got a CK address book and polka dot purse from my brother, and my sister Libby made me an extra special screen printed tea towel that she designed using a picture of me when I was a little girl, which I absolutely adore. Although I don't think I'll ever use it as a tea towel, maybe I'll make in into a cushion or put it on to a canvas. She also screen printed Ella a set of four tops including this design too. How cute is the print, I think she should go into production!



Like a lot of parents with young children, New Years Eve for us was a stay-in affair, and frankly I think it is probably the worst night of the year to go out, if you can get someone to babysit, then it's expensive, the cab fare is double, you have buy a ticket to get in anywhere, or pay over the odds for your meal, I think the only thing worth doing is having a couple of friends over for dinner, or going round to someone-elses if you can stay the night.
So bottle of wine, film, and nice food was our evening, and I went to bed at 11pm, got woken up at 12 though with all the fireworks, I thought I was in a war zone!

By tuesday, I'd had enough of the tree, it's always a bit in the way, and it was starting to look a bit limp, so after carefully packing away the decs into their box and tucking them in with tissue paper, I dragged the shoe cupboard in from dining room where it had been banished to for the christmas period, and put things back to normal, if a bit more tidier.
I decided to put my new tooled metal candlesticks (another pressie) on it with a few of the vintage glass ones, and then I displayed the white miniature cups and saucers that where supposed to go onto the website this week, but I think that I might keep them now, well for a little bit anyway.



Oh yes, and I bought the white china rose from a charity shop on sunday for £1.50, I think it's handmade looking at the back, but it's beautifully done, it's a bit the like the candle holder ones that you can get at the moment, only no candle holder, completely useless dust collector I know, but pretty.



Goodnight everyone, and tomorrow will I wake to a dusting of snow?? We shall see, hopefully there will be plenty of winter wonderland photo opportunities for us here in the UK, I'm looking forward to seeing what all your cameras have captured.