Christmas Swap

Hello there, remember me??!

I've hardly spent anytime online these past couple of weeks and so I am way behind with blogging and reading what everyone is getting up to. I hope to catch up over the next couple of days, both with what we've been up to and also popping by the lovely blogs I follow too.

The reason for my post today is to say a huge thank you to Michelle for the totally fabulous swap parcel she sent me.

I don't enter many swaps as I'm not much good at crafty stuff but this one organised by Lakota over at http://faithhopeandcharityshopping.blogspot.com/ was more up my street. So a big thank you also to Lakota for organising. The swap had to be a maximum of 5 items, one had to be a Christmas dec, one had to be handmade and at least one had to be a thrifted item.

I opened the card from Michelle first, isn't it good.

This is how my parcels looked before I unwrapped them, so pretty in their gold paper and colourful ribbons.



And here they are all unwrapped. A fab set of lip balms, a sachet of hot chocolate and some chocolates which obviously had to be sample immediately, a crocheted angel for our tree, a scarf in beautiful muted colours and the most gorgeous little notebook.



Here is a close up of the cover. Isn't it just one of the sweetest things you've ever seen?

Thank you again Michelle, I really loved it all.

Here are the goodies I sent Michelle. We actually posted our parcels last Wednesday and I know Michelle received hers ok. My postman tried to deliver mine when I was out so I had to wait nearly an extra week before it was collected from the Post Office. Well worth the wait though!

I sent Michelle a set of notebooks, a snowflake decoration, a set of nail varnishes, a handmade keyring and a purple scarf/wrap. Plus a little chocolate something for her two children.

Feeling very festive here!

November Scavenger Hunt

A couple of these are very last minute (hence very dodgy picture quality) and there are 3 I failed on. No lucky charm, stairs or silhouette.

And there should probably be no self portrait either, due to dodgy looking blogger!

So let's do that scary one first shall we?

So without further ado, here is me with all my chins!

Warmth. A cut out collage I put together a couple of months ago.

Something purple. A corsage from one of my jackets.


Polka dots. There are so so many things to chose from here at home, but I thought I would go with this wrapping paper I bought recently for Christmas.



A poppy. One of S's hair toggles.

Something I have made. A cross stitch bear waiting for his second eye to be french knotted on!



A memorial. This is part of the local Millennium garden which really needs a blog post of it's own. There are paving bricks engraved with the names of local people who were lost or survived the Titanic disaster.




Comfort food. This on toast. With tea.

Something that lights up. This little handbag on my keyring is a light, very handy it is too.

Present Ideas

Last year I shared a couple of ideas I had had for themed Christmas presents. For those who were here then you may remember the 'pepper and chilli' gift and the 'lemon and honey' one I did for two of our friends.

Here are two I'm pleased with this year.

First up is for our friend S. A travel toiletries bag, love the illustration, which fits neatly in with

the cover of this book about the antics of air stewardesses. Thanks to Caroline over at http://whatshappeningatmyhouse.wordpress.com/ who blogged about this book.

Then to finish off this gift we bought a set of travel size smellies, a luggage tag and a tin of boiled sweets which I didn't notice until afterwards are made by a company named 'Sky Candy'. Hopefully all will be useful when she goes off on her holiday next year.


For G's mum, sister, niece and his brother's partner I have collected items to go inside Ikea glass jars which will have pretty labels added to them saying 'warm winter wishes' or some such thing. Each one contains a packet of snowman tissues, a pair of festive patterned socks, winterberry hand cream, Christmas lip balm and two sachets of hot chocolate. These will be their gifts from the children.

Thrifty Thursday

Goodness me it doesn't seem 5 minutes since I did last week's Thrifty Thursday post. The weeks are galloping past.

This week I have bought home with me this GORGEOUS polar bear. I love his little woolly scarf! He is actually a money box but I don't think I'm going to be using him for that. He cost me £1.50.

A new top, like I need another one, but in my defence I HAD to buy this. It's Boden and it was £1.00. I'm sure you understand.

I've been in town again today. Coffee with a friend and more Christmas shopping. This evening I'm out for a meal with friends I used to work with. I'm glad it's nearly the weekend.

Dress up day

The main project theme at school this half term for S is the Titanic disaster.

Today was dress up day when the children had to go in in costume.

S was told she was to be a 1st class passenger. Her outfit was a dress I found in the charity shop last week, the shoes and sliver cardi she already had and the gloves and tiara came from her dressing up box.

How glam!

A Full Day

There was lots to do yesterday. In the morning I dropped T off as he was meeting up with a couple of friends and dropped S at local school for a choir rehearsal. She was only going to be there for an hour so I took a wander around the park on the opposite side of the road.

Still glimpses of colour to be found,

I love this leaf in mid colour turn,





and the way the dew was sparkling in the sunshine on this leaf.

Can you spot the squirrel who kept peeping round this tree trunk at me?

Early afternoon S and I wandered round to a Christmas fair at one of the local churches. This is normally a really bustling affair with lots of goodies on offer and things to do for the children, but was a bit lacking in all aspects this time.

Late afternoon I took the children out to Eastleigh for their Christmas light switching on event. It's been a couple of years since we went. They had lots going on all day and when we went before we had a really fab day.

We took our place on the street to wait for the parade and when I realised we had stopped by Iceland, I nipped in and bought a box of these Christmas tree shaped ice cream lollies for us to enjoy.



We all liked these shiny Father Christmas balloons.



The charity I volunteer for also has a branch in Eastleigh and this was part of their window display.

After the parade we walked up to the park, along with the rest of the hundreds of other people there, and watched a brilliant fireworks display.

A busy and fun day.

Thrifty Thursday

After I had finished at the chiropractor's yesterday I went and did a couple of hours of my usual weekly shift at the charity shop. Walking and moving around was the best thing for me to be doing and I didn't want to let the other volunteers down.

We were really busy. Lots of people buying lots of things. Some things were going out on the shelves and being bought soon afterwards. I lost count of the times someone wanted something from the window display which had been decked out with Christmas items.

I bought a few things too, no surprise there then! A couple of DVD's and CD's for pressies plus these plastic containers. Not sure where they'll end up and what they'll have in them but for 10p each I had to get them.

I hadn't noticed this top during the previous couple of weeks it must have been on the rail, but it caught my eye yesterday. It's a size 12 and I wasn't sure it would fit but as it had been reduced down to £1.25 I thought it would be worth trying on to check. Fit it did it'll be fab over jeans.

Lastly this book for £1.00. My mum doesn't read much but mentioned a while ago she would be quite interested in reading Fern's autobiography so I was pleased when I spotted this on the shelf.

Thanks for the messages about my back. I'm feeling much more flexible today. Ice packs are my new fashion accessory. Back to the stretching exercises, not that I should have stopped them really I suppose.