Wednesday, 26 November 2014

I Have Been.......

......Wishing I could have forced myself through the little gap in the back of this snowman so I could have had my photo taken. Probably best I didn't as I wouldn't have looked even half as cute as Little Miss S.


...... On a shopping trip to IKEA with my sister. Wisely we timed our arrival nice and early so we could have a cuppa and a bacon roll before we mooched around the store. Very little was purchased but I was extremely pleased to find a new doormat. Not the most exciting purchase for the home but we had had our previous one for 17 years, it was from PastTimes and had been a wedding present from G's brother. The pattern of three potted geraniums had all but disappeared and I have been on the lookout for a replacement for most of the year. I love the pattern on this one.


......Admiring S's handiwork on her latest Sylvanian t-shirt. Once she had coloured in the little critters she asked if she could draw a heart round them and write on it. Do with it as you please I answered, it's your creation to design and wear. When she had drawn round them she decided it was more of a Christmas bauble shape. I also like the addition of the words Happy Family.



...... Cooking some new meals from a cookbook given to me by my sister which she no longer wanted. So far I have cooked webbed cheese pastamozzarella rosemary chicken thighs and the latest one is ginger chicken. I'm glad to say all were well received.


...... Wearing my new, to me, boots. I have written before about my traffic wardenesque legs and to find a practically brand new pair of boots in a charity shop at the weekend which I could get the zip up on and still feel comfortable was a delight. They were only £3.99  and what made it even lovelier still was when G said he would buy them for me. What a lucky girl.



......Busy on the jigsaw front again. We found this a couple of weeks ago and managed to complete the border fairly easily and then it languished for a week or so before we found the time to go back to it. This was a treat to do, interesting to look at all the names which have disappeared along with the ones still around on our supermarket shelves today.


Tuesday, 18 November 2014

A Very Cherry Christmas

This is the first of a couple of gift ideas I wanted to share with you as you know I like a bit of a theme when it comes to gift giving.
This may be too early a post for some who refuse to start thinking about Christmas until the beginning of December but equally it may help prompt some ideas for others.

As the title of the post suggests it's all items are cherry based.
All of these gifts will be individually wrapped and placed in a gift bag or box for the friend they are intended for and the label will wish her
A Very Cherry Christmas. 
I also plan to sketch of a pair of cherries on the tag and make them nice and sparkly with a healthy dose of green and red glitter.



First item is Carmex Cherry lip balm. Mine came from Superdrug.




Also from Superdrug is a bottle of Cherry and Almond bath creme and a tub of cherry and macademia body butter.



Cherry and strawberry patterned socks from Store 21. The present would work equally as well with all of these items in a strawberry 'flavour' and the gift labelled as A Very Berry Christmas should cherries not float your boat.



Cherry and Vanilla Yankee candle from Tesco.



A small bottle of tangy cherry hand gel from Primark. The friend this gift was bought for is never without a bottle of hand gel in her handbag so this isn't as strange an item to include as you may think!




She is a cider drinker so a bottle of cherry cider will be welcome. Mine was bought from Sainsburys.



Lastly a bag of jelly cherry sweets purchased from Wilkinsons.

Maybe a few of these items popped into a gift bag with the addition of a pretty glittery cherry label could make a good Secret Santa gift too, just a thought.

Monday, 17 November 2014

All the trees are brown

apart from the green fabric ones.


Who doesn't love a helter skelter?
We spotted this in Salisbury on Saturday as we made our way to our lunch date.
It's my mother-in-law's birthday today and we all met up in Salisbury for lunch. 
And very nice it was too.

Tuesday, 11 November 2014

I Have .......

.......... finished this month's book club selection in record time ahead of our next meet up. I found the storyline of Tideline quite disturbing and it made for a very uncomfortable read which is why I wanted to get it read and out the way. 
Saying that it was a good book and I'm sure will provoke much chatter for our group.


........... been in love with Marilyn Monroe since I was a young teenager and have watched many of her films and read stacks of books about her life and untimely death. Earlier this year G and I watched My Week with Marilyn and I have just started to read the book the movie was based on, a birthday gift back in July from G.


.......... received a parcel in the post this week from a fellow blogger. I bought a beautiful crocheted poppy from Mitzi who has been busily working away and raised a fantastic amount of money for the Royal British Legion.



.......... watched something I originally recorded from the TV in September 2013. Quite why it took us so long to watch The Wipers Times I'm not sure. If you didn't see it and it gets repeated then try and watch it, you won't be disappointed. An added bonus for me is that one of the leading actors was Julian Rhind-Tutt, swoon.




.......... been enjoying wearing my new (to me) red shoes. A local church held an autumn fayre a couple of weekends ago and I paid £2.00 for these. I have since found something very similar on line for £45.00 so I'm pleased with that bargain.
 And they are very comfy.




.......... picked up the latest free magazine from the Co-op and decided we need to try the chocolate mince pies. I'm not a huge fan of mince pies but surely with the addition of chocolate these have got to be a winner?

Thursday, 6 November 2014

Activites

As well as being preoccupied with leaving one job and starting another and all the other things which were happening which kept me away from blogging we were busy doing some fun things too.
One Sunday me, G and S went for a little explore in a copse we have driven past umpteen times but never investigated.
We were delighted to find an oversized chair



and table. G is 6ft 5'' so that should give some idea of how big these two items of furniture are.



When I was little this whole area was trees and fields but has since been built on with a relatively new housing estate, it must be handy if you live there now having this copse on your doorstep. A green space to go and stretch your legs in and do a spot of squirrel spotting, we saw loads of them scampering around.



This is just one of the jigsaws we've completed recently. On the days when getting outside isn't an option a jigsaw is a good indoor activity.



Not an activity but an event from September, my nephew's 21st birthday. 
What to buy was a mystery. 
Pinterest provided the solution.
I bought a black umbrella from the local 99p shop and packaged up £1 and £2 coins totalling £21 in pieces of paper and attached them to the umbrella with lengths of cotton. I then wrote on a tag Save for a Rainy Day. 
He was a bit bemused when I gave him his gift but pretty pleased with it once the penny dropped.



S and I have been to our first ballet performance, we went to see Coppelia.
It was billed as the ideal family introduction to ballet and it was indeed perfect. The ballet is in three acts and during each intermission we discussed what had been happening in the story. It took a lot of concentrating for S and I think her attention would have wandered with anything more in depth. The costumes were beautiful and the grace and elegance, not to mention strength, of the dancers made it a spectacular experience.
We had booked the tickets months ago and originally we planned it would be me, G and S who would be going. 
G didn't join us in the end because he took T to Norwich instead.
The end of October is his brother L's birthday.
T, G, L's adopted mum and T's birth siblings met up at the crematorium as they wanted to take L some flowers. T had been wrought with anxiety about the visit for a couple of weeks beforehand but G described the day as being filled with a few tears and lots of laughter as everyone supported each other.



Last week being half term meant it was time for our annual trip to the country park for their Halloween trail. T didn't join us this year as he has been volunteering in a charity shop on a Sunday afternoon for the past few weeks and he offered to do extra shifts whilst he was off. S bought a friend along with her and neither of them liked the huge spider hiding in one of the trees!




Tuesday, 4 November 2014

The Reindeer Are Creeping In

I've made one or tow of Christmas related purchases in the week or so and well it just seems such a shame to put them away for a few weeks when they'll be out soon anyway.
A white wooden reindeer decorated with red polka dots and a jaunty gingham bow, love this the most


and a new cushion in the style of a vintage Christmas card. Just right for snuggly winter evenings.



Sunday, 2 November 2014

Birthday Goodies

Being a Sunday we would normally try and pop to the local car boot, but not today, the rain put paid to that.
This means I don't have any new bargains buys to share so instead I thought I would show some old ones. 
These were accumulated over the year for my sister C's birthday in October.
Also given but not included here is a new Cath Kidston mug (£1.50) and a black jacket (20p).

The purple jacket was £1.00 as was the stripy jumper and the green enamel bowl which my sister is going to use as a planter in the garden.
The measuring cups were £1.50, never used still in their box.



Grey t-shirt 50p, book 30p and vintage postcard of Errol Flynn £1.00. My sister has a bit of a thing for him and I was so pleased to have found thisin a charity shop in Salisbury.
The Home & Garden tin was 50p and will also be used as a planter in the garden. The fabric letter 'C' was 50p and this was spotted by the children at a car boot back in the summer. The grey woollen waistcoat is my favourite buy. It's a Fat Face one, it still had the tags attached and was only £1.00.


Thank you for all the lovely messages left on my post yesterday. It's good to be back and I'm making my way round visiting everyone and catching up on all your news and adventures.

Saturday, 1 November 2014

So Wrong


Vegetables which definitely belong on a pizza are peppers and mushrooms.
Vegetables which definitely don't belong on a pizza are Brussels sprouts and cabbage.
Fact.

Hello there!
Well that wasn't supposed to happen.
My blogging has been a little erratic for the majority of 2014 but I didn't intend to miss out a whole month.
I will need to do (yet another) catch up post but am hoping that normal blogging with soon resume.
I've missed being here.
Fact.