22nd - 28th October

This week I have been

Dancing - to the Bay City Rollers.

Well these days the only original Roller in the band is lead singer Les McKeown.

I went to see them on S A T U R D A Y night (if you know their songs you'll know why I spelled it that way!) with my sisters, it was part of their birthday gift to me.

I had an amazing time.

To be dancing away to all my favourite songs whilst Les McKeown was on stage singing them was just the best.

I was lucky enough to find this fabulous transfer on E-bay which made just the most perfect t-shirt.

Making - a new necklace. This was an illustration from the front of a vintage sewing pattern. I just love her hairstyle.

Wearing - it was Pumpkin Day on Friday and so there was only one choice of brooch.

Eating - to carry on with the pumpkin theme I made us pumpkin pancakes for breakfast. S wasn't keen but G and I enjoyed ours with yogurt, fruit and a drizzle of maple syrup. Delicious and really filling.

Reading - a Christmas book. Saturday afternoon I was in the mood for something festive. I had a few books on my shelf to choose from and went for this one as it looked like a short read. It certainly was as I finished it on Sunday afternoon. By this time I had been out and bought myself another new Christmas mug, it was only 50p from a charity shop so how could I have resisted?

Watching - The Bishop's Wife. It was Elsa Lanchester's birthday on 28th October which provided us with the perfect opportunity for another viewing of this superb movie.


Celebrating - my sister's birthday on 24th. She knew about two of the items of clothing as she had chosen those herself but everything else was a surprise. As you probably remember we spend £10 and all items must come from a car boot or charity shop.
All of these items come to £9.97 in total.
The mug, Gisela Graham mini heart dish and the cupcake decoration were all £1 each. The coaster, cushion cover and paper decorations were 50p each.

This long length grey and pink cardi which originally came from New Look was £1 and was one of the things C has picked out.

The hand made top on the left was one of my favourite buys for her, it reminded me of a gingerbread house! This was £1.

The plain grey jumper was the second item she had chosen and was 50p.

The red glass dish was 50p.

The snowflake jumper was £1, the book was 10p, the jug was 50p and the white deer brooch was new and 87p.

In The Pink

When I was planning my schedule of April days I decided I would give myself a little time off over the Easter weekend.

Thursday was another easy brooch day to mark the date in 1886 when John Pemberton brewed the first batch of the drink which would become known the world over as Coca Cola.

Having taken Friday off it was then onto some heavy construction work on Saturday.
Pink wafer biscuits and icing sugar were pressed into action to help us build our own version of the Eiffel Tower. This was to celebrate the date when after more than 2 years of building work Paris' famous landmark was complete.

Easter Sunday I took myself off for a walk over the bridge to St Mary's church.
As I mentioned a post or two ago I have been researching my family tree.
I decided to start with my dad's family and the earliest relatives I can find are George and Sarah both of whom were born in the late 1790's. 
They had a son George, who in turn had a son named Henry.
Henry had a son name Albert and his son William was my grandad.
I found out that Sarah was buried on 01/04/1838 and so I decided to go and leave some flowers for her. The church which stands today is not the one she would have known as that one fell into disrepair.
It would seem so many of my relatives lived and worked in this area of the city and so by leaving the flowers I wasn't only remembering Sarah but all those whose lives I am slowly uncovering.

If you read yesterday's post about the chocolate mousse then you'll know that we had my family over on Monday for food and games.
With G's help I was able to recreate the Pinterest plastic umbrella and pom pom idea as a little April showers display above the buffet lunch I had set out.
I was really pleased with the way it turned out.

Loving It

I always have lots of bits and bobs with hearts on decorating the dining room mantle for the month February.

 At the start of the week I added to the decorations with a paper garland strung across the dresser.

I bought a book of differently patterned papers from The Works, cut out hearts from the three prettiest ones and threaded them onto a length of red ribbon.

G and I don't exchange cards and presents on Valentine's day but I wanted to make a little gesture.
I bought a little net bag of chocolate hearts and ladybirds and popped them onto this heart shaped plate with a stamped note saying 'happy valentines day my little love bugs' for G and S to share.

This evening T is coming round to stay with S so G and I can go to to the theatre to see The Shadow Factory. 
Look at us going out on a school night, very much looking forward to it though.

Hip Hip Hooray

it's Hedgehog Day!

Two accessories to wear today.
A little felt brooch which I stitched myself especially for today

and a hedgehog scarf which was part of my secret Santa gift from someone in G's family just this last Christmas. 

A W O L

It's been a busy old week around here and if I have taken one thing from it then that is I need to be really tip top on the organisational front regarding my daily activity and subsequent blogging.

With that most hectic month of the year creeping ever closer (yay!) I shall need to step it up a bit, making sure I allow time for that all I want to do.

I left you on Tuesday when it was Pickle Day so we shall pick up with Wednesday and the fact it was Anni-Frid Lyngstad's birthday.

I ask you, who doesn't enjoy a bit of ABBA every now and again.

As long as it is not in the form of the movie Mamma Mia, oh my goodness I never want to have to see that again!

We have had some great fun here when warbling along to ABBA on the Sing Star game. 

One of my favourite ABBA songs is Ring Ring and so I went with wearing my dial phone brooch.

Thursday was Button Day. A month or so ago I selected some buttons for a little project with Button Day in mind. I made them into a bracelet for S.
Incredibly easy to make I shall be making one for myself for sure.

I had been looking forward to Friday and Homemade Bread Day.
My plan was to do some prep for it on Thursday as I had friend coming to visit Friday evening. We hadn't seen each other since my birthday in July so with so much catching up to do there wouldn't be a huge amount of time for bread making.
Instead Thursday evening was spent out catching up with another friend who I hadn't seen since May. If he isn't busy with work he's on holiday and when he was last free I couldn't make it due to G's shifts.
It has taken an age to find a date we were both free so when the chance presented itself on Thursday we grabbed it.

Yesterday was Mickey Mouse day. 
Again my plan for the day didn't materialise. I was going to download some sort of template for us to pose with, but for one reason and another it didn't happen.
S had a good day. She had her friend D for a sleepover on Friday and in the morning then took themselves off into town for window shopping, followed by lunch and then the cinema. G went to work.
I had a lovely day. First thing I took myself off to Homebase to buy a new Christmas tree and unexpectedly found a perfect present for my sisters from the children.
Once home there were household jobs to do then I went and picked up my mum and bought her back here for lunch. We then wandered round to the local church hall for their Christmas fete. We always manage to find a few bits and pieces and this year didn't disappoint either.

Today is the birthday of the wonderful Meg Ryan. 
I love When Harry Met Sally and this would be my first choice for watching but a while ago I found a movie called The Women for 50p in a charity shop and thought I would give that a go instead. 
It was ok but it could have been so much better.
It has gone inside the bag along with my latest batch of donations to the charity shop.

I'd like to think I will do better this week.

Batch of Bunnies and a Beef Stew

I have deviated from my original plan for today.

We were going to watch the Amy Adams movie Leap Year, chosen not only because it's perfect for a Sunday afternoon but also because Matthew Goode is her co-star.  

Instead I have chosen 2 other things.

The first is in relation to tennis.

Bunny Austin is a name you hear mentioned each year when Wimbledon rolls around.

He was a British tennis player during the 1920s and 1930's.

His real name was Henry Wilfred Austin and he was born on 20th August 1906 and died on his 94th birthday on 20th August 2000.

Today I am wearing one of the bunny brooches I made back at Easter time pinned to (as Wimbledon rules decree) a white cardigan.

It's also given me the perfect excuse to show the gifts one of my sister's gave me for my birthday a month ago now, they are all bunny themed.
The mug and tea bag holder have been in almost daily use since she gave them to me. I love the bunny shaped dish, not only for it's pale blue colour but also for it's polka dot decoration.

The second choice relates to food for G and S's evening meal.

In about half an hour I shall be dishing up Hungarian Goulash as 20th August is a national holiday for Hungarians.

Tigers and Lipstick

Not a combination you see every day.

International Tiger Day just had to be something we recognised. 

You see ever since we became a family this has been one of the nicknames we have had for our T.

 He shares his name with the Frosties Tiger and when, a couple of years ago, I found this glass I just had to buy it to pop in T's Christmas stocking as a bit of fun.

So it was the perfect receptacle for my breakfast orange juice.

To stay with the tiger theme I went for orange and black in my choice of clothing today. A black shift dress with an orange cardigan to keep out the chill of another cooler day's weather.

I don't wear makeup and so wearing lipstick was out. Instead I went for the easy option of a piece of fun jewellery in the shape of a brooch.

I haven't done any cross stitch for a while and I enjoyed whipping up this quick and easy lip motif. I am either going to turn it into a card or use it as a gift tag for a friend at work who goes nowhere without first making sure her lippy is looking good!

Wonder Woman in Warminster

For day 3 of my challenge I am marking the birthday of the original 1970s  Wonder Woman the actress Lynda Carter.

I had an idea of something I wanted to make and once I had sourced some ribbon I began looking for an online tutorial.

I wanted to make a rosette like this one so I could wear it pinned to a jacket or cardigan, but I couldn't find any instructions.

Instead I cobbled something together and as it turned out much larger than I had planned I pinned it to the handle of my bag.

Today is the first day of the summer school holiday for S.
What a start it has been. Her friend A was being taken to Chessington by her aunt and uncle as a birthday treat. She was allowed to take a friend along and it was S she chose to accompany her. Off they went at just after 8 this morning. They came home 11 hours later having had a wonderful day.

G was off today and with S out and busy we looked at going out somewhere ourselves. G was on the case and he suggested Warminster.

Normally when we go somewhere I like to do a little bit of research beforehand. As it was G who came up with the destination I thought I'd go with no preconceptions about Warminster and just see what it had to offer.
What it had in abundance was beautiful old buildings. We noticed a couple of them had blue information plaques and had I done some research beforehand I would have found this trail which would have been interesting to do.
Lesson learned.

On the road into Warminster from Salisbury there were a few buildings which were in need of a bit of TLC and if they had that it would make that end of town look so much more easier on the eye.

G was pleased to discover a vinyl record shop and came home with a few goodies. If Warminster was nearer I would consider going back to explore further as what we did see provided me with plenty of pretty features to snap.

Clicking on this link will show you a much better photo than the one I took of this stunning sculpture of a young girl sat on a stack of corn sacks on the site of what was once one of the largest corn markets in the country.

I will have to look online and see if the town hold any events which may be of interest to us and which could entice us back again. I know G would like another look around the record shop!

Herds of Reindeer

I'm ending the year here with reindeer.

Try saying that later on this evening when a few glasses of new year cheer have been downed.

First up are the wrapped reindeer chocolate bars which I made for all my work colleagues and took in on the last working day. When I say all I must admit I did forget one or two and thankfully had a couple of spares but there are still more to take in as some people were off until the New Year. 

The idea came from this pin.

Thieytook far longer than I bargained for but luckily S was at a loose end and agreed to help me with the sticky dot noses and she even did a bit of the name stamping too. 

It was all so worth the effort to see people smile when I handed them over.

My second herd I had planned on making with S but she didn't want to partake. I do miss our Decembers of advent activities and so I think I shall have to spend some time coming up with a few ideas with which to keep me busy next year.
Who knew that fairy cakes, chocolate icing, red smarties and bars of curly wurly could look so cute.

On this last day of 2016 I want to wish everyone who visits us here at Jumble and Jelly a very happy, healthy and peaceful 2017. 
Thanks for popping by and I look forward to sharing the next 365 days with you.

Four Steps to Happiness

1. Go to The Range and buy a pack of mistletoe craft embellishments.

2. Once back home find the craft glue and the stash of brooch backs (how did that safety pin get in there?!).

3. Glue brooch back to mistletoe.
4. Do happy dance at thought of wearing new brooch in December, or possibly November if you feel you just can't wait that long.

Edible Easter Flowers

This is how S and I spent half an hour on Easter Sunday.

Digestive biscuits, icing and a bag of M&Ms were transformed into colourful, pretty flowers.

Bunny Wreath

I do like a quick and easy craft project.
I was looking on my Easter Pinterest board for something which I could make for decorating our front door.
I bought a styrofoam wreath from a local craft shop, glued on a pair of bunny ears and then wrapped round 2 fluffy scarfs both of which were purchased from a branch of Poundland.
The original idea came from mrs b's hive and a step by step guide for making hers can be found by clicking on the link. 

It's A Marshmallow World

February is always a busy month.

No sooner than it arrives than we seem to be nearing it's end.

Of course we started off with Shrove Tuesday and pancakes.

Although ours happened a few days later than planned, we eventually got them at the weekend.

Last year on Ballet Day S and I made paper ballerinas, this year she and her friend L made edible ones from an idea on Pinterest.

Marshmallows have also been used in another bake. This was a really quick and easy tray bake and as the website says it would be perfect for Bonfire Night, served warm from the oven with ice cream.

There has also been Chinese New Year to celebrate with paper lanterns and delicious food

and when they were taken down the Valentine's decorations went up. When Kezzie sent me my lovely brooch she also very kindly included confetti sized birds and hearts.  I glued these onto a couple of lengths of red ribbon and hung one from the food cupboard in the dining room

and the other from the saucepan rack in the kitchen. Tiny but very sweet embellishments.

Half term has been quiet. T was away at the start. He went on a school trip to Madrid and has come back with a head full of cold and been living in his dressing gown ever since.
S and I have been to town so she could spend a Waterstones voucher and yesterday we met my mum and sisters for a coffee and chat. Apart from that she has been busy doing S type things which involve notepaper, felt tip pens and sellotape. 
As long as they're happy that's good enough for me.