Window box

We've been somewhere different today.

A day trip to Emsworth.

Out in the fresh air for a 3.7 mile walk and blew away some cobwebs.

I will do a proper post tomorrow, this evening I feel too tired (although pleasantly so) to concentrate on doing it justice.

I shall use the last photo I took as my photo a day challenge day 5's prompt, 'not mine.'

This trough of flowers was sat on a ledge at the train station.

It was planted by the local Brownies.

It is very simply done with violas, pansies and geraniums but is so pretty in it's simplicity.

I'd be more than happy it if were sat on my window ledge at home.

Combinations

Again I will start the post with a photo from the photo a day prompt which is 'good together'.

Tea and biscuits.

Enough said.

Some other things which I think are good together are two presents for two friends who had birthdays a couple of weeks apart recently.
I love stationery, you can never have too much, it's always handy and it's the kind of present I love. It looks pretty and is useful too.

The first present was a set of bird patterned notelets from Sainsburys and a set of sticky notes from Matalan. To see what I put inside the tin bought from ebay, you need to scroll down this post a bit further.
A bought a pack of different coloured pens from Wilkinsons and popped the creamy one in with this gift

and the pinky one with this gift along with two further buys from Wilkinsons, the things to do book and flower shaped paper clips. The writing set came from The Works and the tin was from the same seller on ebay.
I thought these would be perfect for keeping stamps inside but

I popped a Malteser bunny inside each one with a little note for the recipient, so who knows what they may end being used for.

My final good combination is this little gingham jam jar jacket I made, after being inspired by one posted on Instagram by the lady who runs polka dots and petticoats, for my mum for Mother's day

which made the perfect little home for her daffodils.

Button It

Day 3's prompt was shapes. 

I immediately thought about the contents of my button tin when I saw this and a quick rummage produced this assortment.

All lovers of Dr Who will know what I mean if I say today has been designated Fish Fingers and Custard day. You'll just have to believe me when I say I cooked fish fingers for my family tonight as the camera was on charge and so there is no evidence. The plan was to follow that with cake and custard but instead of baking a cake this morning I met a friend for coffee. Never mind the thought was there!

Day 2

Today's prompt for the photo a day challenge is 'in my hand' and not long ago I hung up this new tea towel which had been in my hands for longer than I would have liked!

A bit of an unusual design for a tea towel I thought but pretty even so.

From the days of the year website we learn it's Children's Book Day as it is Hans Christian Andersen's birthday. 
T has never been a reader which saddened me as I have always loved books and I always hoped my children would develop their own love for them.
Of course we did read to him when he was younger. How many times I had to read Bob the Builder stories, this was his favourite character when he was 3 years old and we first became a family. He still has quite a pile of the Famous 5 adventure stories which he G read to him at bedtime when he was a little older.
He then progressed to listening to stories on tape and CD at bedtime, things such as Dr Who and Stormbreaker.

Although not an avid reader S does enjoy settling down with a book now and then. This is her current read, JW has always been popular with both children due to Tracy Beaker.
S also has her own little collection of stories on tape too, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Tilly Beany have been listened to more times than I can count.

One of my favourite books when I was young was Little Old Mrs Pepperpot and I was thrilled to bits to find the exact same copy as I had back then at a car boot sale last year. S is now discovering her too.

1st April

I need to get back into the photo taking habit and so I thought I would try and join in with fat mum slim's photo a day challenge. 

Today's prompt was 'something purple' and I decided to go with a ribbon wrapped bead from one of my bracelets.

Another website which I thought may provide a bit of inspiration is daysoftheyear.com.
According to the website today is Batman day and to mark that I downloaded some free printables and without further ado here is Cat Woman, Batman and The Joker.

Stanley Dog Cushion

One of the teacher's at work is due to go on maternity leave next week.

She was S's teacher in Year 2 and during that time we had a few conversations about our shared love of all things produced by Ms Kidston.

When an email was sent out to us all a couple of weeks ago announcing a baby shower to be held just before half term I knew I wanted to make a little something but seeing as my craft skills are quite basic I wasn't sure what. 

With the help of a CK booklet, which was given away in the Telegraph newspaper a couple of years ago, I decided to use the Stanley pattern and stitch him to a cushion cover.

I bought the cushion and it's cover from Store21 and used a selection of felt and fabrics from my limited craft supplies to bring him to life.

For my first attempt I am absolutely delighted with the way he looks. 

I hope he'll be loved in his new home.

Chichester

The main train station in our City is at the start of 6 weekends of engineering works. This means that some destinations which are normally a change of train and longer journey time away can now be reached more easily and from our local station 10 minutes walk away.

G wanted to go to Chichester as he had never been. I used to go there Christmas shopping with my mum and sisters. We would alternate one year going to Salisbury with Chichester the next but it's probably been 10 years since my last visit.

Just look at the blue sky above the Chichester Cross.

The cross cuts across the four main roads in the city centre and decided to turn left into East Street where we saw this clock. Anyone for a paste sandwich? Shippams was founded in Chichester, never knew that.
As we headed further and further down this route we noticed there were lots of people walking in the opposite direction and the reason why became clear when we spied a car boot sale being held in a car park. Of course we nipped in for a nose round, my buys feature at the end of the post.

After a little light browsing we stopped off at M&S to buy some sandwiches and made our way to the Cathedral. This was our view as we ate lunch.

You can't keep a 9 year old sat down for too long on a sunny day and once lunch was eaten S was up and playing with the skip ball she had bought in the Poundshop. You can't see it very clearly in the photo but she has her tongue poking out to help with the concentration!

We walked along the Cloisters admiring the workmanship and the beauty of the wood

We saw this very modern looking gargoyle which I have since found out is modelled on a recent Dean of Chichester.

Another wonderful shot of the blue sky from the opposite to where we sat

and this was the view to my right

and to my left.

Outside the west front is a statue of Richard of Chichester.

From here we walked down to Priory Park where S spent some time in the children's playground. The park is set in a really lovely spot and a small cafe was under construction. Maybe we'll return in the school hols for a visit.

I spied a Susie Watson shop on our way back to the station and lingered by the window long enough to take this photo and say I would like one of everything should anyone need to know!

Here are 2 of my 3 buys from the car boot. The other is a set of measuring cups for my sister which were proving really difficult to photo so I gave up. This top is for her. I think she'll probably wear it with a long sleeve top underneath. I would have liked it for me for sadly it is too small. This was 50p and will form part of her birthday present in October. 

This top is for me. Stripes are my second love next to polka dots and I like the pink and grey combo. I paid a pound for this one. Happy days.