24th September - 14th October

I've not been around much as things have been busy plus S was off school for one day not well, G had a birthday and then I managed to catch a bug which had been doing the rounds at work.

So from the past few weeks I have been 

Wearing - brooches to go along with the theme of the day. 

There was the Coca-Cola can for Crush a Can Day

and this strawberry for Strawberry Cream Pie Day.

Reading - the next book from the Maisie Dobbs series. This is the one I have enjoyed least so far. I have the next couple on my book shelf and the later ones are on my Christmas wish list. G is aware!

Enjoying - messing about with a fake felt beard for Lumberjack Day

My mum and sisters were coming over and so I asked them to wear their best check shirt and we each had our photo taken whilst modelling the beard.

A few days before hand it had been Elephant Appreciation Day so we went out in the garden and played the Elephant Game. 

Watching - talented people at the theatre. My birthday present to my friend T was tickets to see Women In Power. It's a new production, a collaboration by some very well known women and we were thoroughly entertained by the fabulous cast who acted, sung, played instruments and danced non stop for 90 minutes. 
The second trip was with G and some friends to see Austentatious. Each night the performance is different as each performance is improvised by the cast. They had us in stitches and I would thoroughly recommend going to see them if you ever get the chance.

Loving - that Rocky is settling in so well and finding his own favourite places. This was where he liked to settle down a few weeks ago. Lately he has made the top of the freezer his own, he likes to keep and eye on us and he is quite close to where we store his food!

Buying - little china treats from TK Maxx. I went in to look at the Halloween offerings and was very restrained and just bought one little bowl. 
Just the right size for chocolate based treats.
I was unable to resist adding to my mug collection with this slightly wibbly wobbly one. With the stars and Joy decoration it does have a festive flavour but, I will admit now that it hasn't been stashed away to be used later, it's been used daily since purchase as a little Joy everyday is a good thing I think.

Doing - a jigsaw. I found this one whilst having a tidy up. I think it was one of G's stocking filler gifts.

It's made up of 250 pieces and so G and I raced through it in no time at all and it's now sat in a bag ready for the charity shop.

The theme is sweets from the 1970s and although there were lots of things we recognised there were also quite a few we didn't.

Visiting - an exhibition named We March On all about the history of Southampton Football Club. I'm not footie fan but I still found it all very interesting. The Saints are G' team and so we went to see this on his birthday.

Wondering - if this is really what I look like? To mark World Egg Day a plan was hatched(!) between me and my colleagues that we would each decorate an egg in our likeness. Due to being unwell last week I completely forgot about it until a colleague sent me a picture of hers the night before we were due to take them in. I was feeling tired and not at all in the crafting mood but felt like I should make the effort. I'm glad I did, we all had a giggle and it made our Friday a quite eggscellent day.

Other Stuff

G has been bitten by the wood construction bug.

I showed him a picture on Pinterest of a wooden pallet converted into a planter and within an hour he had created one from a pallet we had in the garden.

Can you see the sink?

Our bathroom is slowly being decorated and updated and we saved the old sink to use as a mini pond in the garden.

From old bits of pieces of fencing a neighbour was chucking out G has made this little shelter for his bike. The long stick on the left was bought back home by T years ago after we all went out for a walk and it's lovely it's been incorporated in the design.

There is another new fence.

This one is 3 quarters of the way down the garden and is screening bottom section of the garden.

We have two of these garden storage boxes, which you can make out through the slats in the fence, but this forms a nicer barrier between the grassed and graveled parts of the garden.

It's not just the back garden G has been busy, he has also built a fence along the wall in the front garden to corral all our bins together.

So as you can see we've been busy at home, but there has still been the odd jaunt out.

Love the original art work used to advertise a church fete we popped along.

Reminiscent of the old railway posters.

We had a lovely walk to the church and came home with two jigsaws

Two books read, both which has been on my bookshelf for the longest time. I've never read a Mavis Cheek book which I didn't enjoy.

This one of Katie Fforde's was more enjoyable than the last couple of her I've read and I think it may be because it's not such a recent publication.

A £1.00 sale rail at a charity shop turned up trumps for me with this top which will be perfect for work come the cooler weather. It's sheer so will need a t-shirt underneath and so will we good for layering.

S and I went to Cambridge for her annual eye check up. All is well.
We got caught up in severe delays from Waterloo on the way home and didn't get in until 11.45 which made for a very long day indeed.

G was working until 10pm on the longest day. 
We lit candles, sipped Bailey's and gazed at the stars.

On Saturday we went to Eastleigh Unwrapped. We've been going to this free arts festival for a few years now and it's always a great day out.
Our highlight this year was the Happy Feet show of 100 dances in 100 minutes.
Participation was entirely necessary when you had Elvis leading the conga!

Not the best photo as G took it from a distance but here are S and me doing the macarena.

A new addition to my dresser is this jug I bought whilst we were out on Saturday.
It has an Emma Bridgewater look to it and looks fab with my EB heart cup and saucer, but there aren't any markings on the bottom so I have no idea where it originally came from.

12 Days.....

...... have passed since my last post.

This two week Easter school holiday has felt more like the six week summer break.

It seems like such a long time ago S was last at school.

Not that she agrees with me of course!

So what have we been up to.

With my family over on Easter Monday we found a way to mark Chocolate Mousse day, Wednesday 4th was Vitamin C Day and easy to work celebrate with my daily glass of orange juice at breakfast time and then Thursday 5th was a fail.

I wanted to bake some biscuits for Star Trek first contact day but as we know school hols do have a tendency to cause plans to go awry and so this didn't happen.

Friday 6th was Tartan Day.

 I have been combing the charity shops for months hoping to find for a skirt suitable to wear, but all I could find were this type or worse (for me at least) tiny mini skirts.

In the end I went with changing into my PJs at the earliest opportunity!

.

Saturday 7th was a very important day in our home.
It was S Day. 
A little day out was planned but S woke with a sore throat and other cold symptoms brewing.
So the sensible thing was to put the original day out plans on hold and instead we stayed much more local and went out for a spot of lunch instead.
No photo of S from that day but here she is a week later feeling much better.

Sunday 8th was the slightly unusual Draw a Picture of a Bird Day.

So we did just that.

From left to right we have S's owl with huge hypnotic eyes, my grumpy looking chick and G's most excellent (non specific breed) bird.

G and I were also busy at the weekend completing another jigsaw.

This time it was Vintage transportation.

In the bottom right hand corner is a double decker bus, it's a shame the flash has blocked it out.

The coronation of Henry V took place on 9th April 1413. 
Many centuries ago Southampton was surrounded by walls to defend the town from would be invaders. We made a trip to Westgate which once led directly to the quay and through here in 1415 some of Henry V's army marched on their way to the battle of Agincourt.

10th April was Sibling's Day It just so happened that T was round to see us that evening and I asked both he and S if I could take a photo of the together, explaining the significance of date.
Both refused for the same reason. Neither were happy about how their hair was looking!
What are they like.
Instead I shall post a photo from when those things weren't an issue!

For years Dan Maskell was the voice of Wimbledon and 11th April was the date he was born.
Before I went off to work G and I did something simple and a little silly for this day.

S came to meet me after I had finished work as we had a couple of return to school purchases to make and in the shopping centre we came across a display of eggs which had been decorated my local primary schools.
This rabbit was my favourite.

The reaction you get from people when you mention Marmite, as in love it or loathe it and not much in between, was repeated whenever I mentioned that Thursday 12th was Liquorice Day.
I happen to love it and so was very happy to partake in celebrating with a sherbet fountain and it's (much smaller than they used to be) liquorice stick dipper.

Friday 13th was Scrabble Day. With G on a late shift and S out at dance there was no-one at home to have a game with so that day passed me by for the time being.

I decided to cheat a little when it came to 14th and 15th April and have one event mark both days and yesterday on a walk into town we detoured past two buildings which played their part in the event.

Admiralty House housed the Post Office headquarters and this building is situated not far from where RMS Titanic set sail from Southampton on 10th April. I've never seen the movie Titainc but I understand this building features in it.

Titanic struck the iceberg on 14th April and sank 2 hours and 40 minutes later in the early hours of 15th April.

Further along the same road is Canute Chambers where the White Star company had their offices.

As the plaque explains it was here that local people came to wait for information regarding their loved ones as many inhabitants of our City were employed working on board this ship.

Friday to Sunday

What better way to relax into the weekend than with a bowl of crisps and a couple of tubs of dip to mark Chip and Dip Day

G and I spent a huge chunk of Saturday starting and finishing this jigsaw. It's 750 pieces and we got the edge assembled in just a few minutes. Parts were very easy to piece together and others were a nightmare, pretty standard for a jigsaw really but once we had started we were determined to complete it in one sitting. My sister gave it to me during the week and said there was one piece missing, in fact there ended up being two pieces missing. I shall donate it to the charity shop next time I have a bag of items to take and leave it up to them if they want to sell it or bin it.
None of this has anything to do with Saturday's activity though which was National Tree Planting Day in Uganda.
For this I chose to send a donation to Tree Aid which helps communities in Africa.

Silly glasses were at the ready this afternoon for our tribute to Elton John on his 71st birthday.

To round off I thought I would share G and S's evening meal as they both loved it.
It's another recipe from the free Co-op magazine, this one is called Cheeseburger Pasta and it can be seen online here.
The recipe states it serves 6 so I only cooked 150g pasta instead of the recommended 250g. 
The quantity made gave G and S a good sized portion each with leftovers. I thought G may like to take this to work tomorrow but S liked it so much she had some of it!

Sorting.....

....... edge pieces from the middle pieces.

My sister gave me this very festive jigsaw for Christmas.

I'm looking forward to making a proper start on it at the weekend.

....... out the first aid box. That round wicker box on the left is where we keep our first aid supplies. Granted it's not the most interesting job but one which certainly needed doing judging by the amount of out of date items it contained.
It will need replenishing as now it mostly contains plasters and indigestion tablets.

..... through the gift bags full of presents and making sure T and S send out thank yous to the appropriate people for the appropriate gifts.

...... as I repack the Christmas decorations into their storage boxes. Not everything has gone back in the loft. I've already got one carrier bag full of odds and ends from around the house which needs to be donated to the charity shop.


........ S's wardrobe, with her help, which resulted in a black bin liner of clothes which also need to go the way of the charity shop. I may try and keep a list of the amount that leaves the house destined as either a charity shop donation or for the textile recycling bank, for no other reason than my own curiosity.

Mostly a Mess

Finally our little home is looking a lot tidier.
Why is it that when one room is being decorated it affects the whole house?
Yesterday was spent putting S's room back together.
In order for that to happen new furniture was needed which was why last Friday G and S met me from work and we went for a spot of late night shopping in IKEA.
A new bed, wardrobe, chest of drawers and shelving unit were purchased and delivered the following day. I did make a couple of other purchases which you could argue weren't strictly necessary but let me tell you that once home again and sat with a cuppa, a couple of those cinnamon rolls certainly went down well.
Also coming home with us was one of their gingerbread house kits, the construction of which has become a favourite festive activity for S.

So this week has pretty much been taken up with S's room in one way or another. The sorting of the contents has resulted in umpteen bags of clothes, books and toys being donated to the charity shop. I've made three trips in all. There was painting to do and of course furniture assembly to complete and then everything had to be put into it's new home after which there was the chaos in the other rooms where items had been stored to deal. Fun, fun, fun!
The room isn't 100% finished, new curtains and bedding need to be chosen and S would like a full length mirror on one of the walls, plus there are hooks to be hung, but it's looking good.
It's difficult to get a good photo but you can get a good idea of the new wall colour from this photo. We spotted the lampshade at the car boot last weekend. S has a real thing for owls and the colour match for her room was perfect and so I was more than happy to part with the £2 asking price.

Down here in the south the weather has been remarkably mild and so I've been lucky enough to still be able to eat my lunch in the park each working day. It's been such a treat sitting in the sun admiring the golden colours of autumn all around me and then kicking up the carpet of leaves as I walk back to work again.

Another small thing which has made me happy this week is cracking open my first bottle of winter spice washing up liquid. I wrote about my love for this last year and I know there are plenty of others out there who share the winter spice love.

One evening when we couldn't face anything to do with decorating we decided to watch a movie instead and plumped for The Trouble With Harry which I had bought a while ago on the recommendation it would be a good one to watch in autumn because it's set in the autumn of a beautiful sun filled Vermont countryside. It's an off beat comedy, not what you would normally expect from Alfred Hitchcock, but it was very funny and just what we needed.

My Mucha jigsaw has been completed. She was tricky to do but she was well worth it as I think she's beautiful. I'll break her up in a day or so and then she'll be donated to the charity shop for someone else to enjoy and I'll start another.

Celebration and Season

Jeepers creepers if I thought the week before G's birthday went quickly this latest one went at double quick speed.

Which can mean only one thing, it's time for another news round up.

Lets wind back to 8th and G's 50th.

As planned it was lunch out with family, all very relaxed and jolly good fun and then back to ours where we were joined by friends.

Lots of cake was consumed and this magnificent creation was the hands down favourite.

It was made by our friend M with help from his young son and daughter.

Do you like the cheeky banner?

I bought a make your own slogan kit from Poundland.

As soon as I saw it I knew what I wanted it to say.

G had already had his gift from me (our trip to NY back in April) but he did have a present from the children.

They gave him a chimenea with some mega marshmallows for toasting.

The day following his birthday G asked me what I wanted to do. I answered that as it was his birthday weekend it was for him to choose. He choose to do nothing. He wanted to chill out and listen to music, so he did.
I pottered and did some of my jigsaw, she's beautiful but oh there are so many shades of brown.

Monday I went into town and met with my friend I.
I wore my new favourite autumn outfit. I think the colours are very seasonal. The dress was a £1 buy from the car boot and I think the cardi came as a gift from my sister. I may also be wearing a new necklace. A buttony necklace for 75p was too much for this jewellery magpie to resist.

Talking of autumn, whilst in town that day I found out we now have a branch of Flying Tiger. I picked up a couple of things including these pumpkins. Got to have a bit of seasonal decoration going on indoors.

Carrying on with the birthday celebrations G and I had a night out together on Tuesday. We went to see a trio called the Lounge Kittens, who sing rock and metal songs but in a three part harmony Andrews sister style, but with way more sass. G is the rock and metal love but I loved them and if you want a listen, here's a link. 
Their support act was a chap called Jay Foreman who sang his own comedy songs which were very funny and very clever, especially this London Underground one.

G spent this past Saturday in London. His birthday treat from his sister was a trip to the theatre to see Sunny Afternoon, the story of the Kinks. He said it was brilliant. Apart from the fact a chap who was sat behind them was clearly drunk and talked throughout the first half, when G politely asked him to stop he was rude and then proceeded to eat a bag of crisps extremely loudly. Thankfully he was asked to leave during the interval. 

Of course there has been other non birthday stuff going on during the evenings. 
Evenings which are now darker so much earlier but the plus side of that is we get to put on pretty, twinkly lights.