Christmas Mags

I'm building up quite a nice little collection of Christmas editions of the magazines I don't normally buy the rest of the year.

They are hard to resist when the covers look so festive and full of interesting articles, gift and decorating inspirations and recipes galore.

I am so looking forward to enjoying them over a couple of quiet, indulgent hours.

Especially this one which was a gift from Clare. The ever lovelyMrs Summerfete came over to visit us last week bringing me this fabulous magazine and sweets for all. We had a good old chat, ate cake, drank tea and before all that we even managed a quick flit around the local charity shops.

I'm off to bed to make a start on the Country Living one which was delivered today!

October Scavenger Hunt

This month's hunt is late and incomplete but it's here which is more than can be said for July, August and September.

Something eerie, the sign above a beer pump, Spotted this whilst we were enjoying a refreshing drink after our 6 mile walk in Shawford.


A river. The River Itchen which we walked along side of on part of our 6 mile walk.

Candlelit and pumpkin together! One of the pumpkins we had lit on our windowsill on Hallowe'en.

Heritage. Salisbury Cathedral.

Golden. The horn of a unicorn from one of the troupes of Morris men we saw in Reading last weekend.

Crunchy leaves, the park in Reading was littered with them, in a good way.

Black cat, the sign on a pub just down from Salisbury train station.

Only 7 photos for 8 catergories, lets hope I can do better this month.

Behind Again

It seems to me that for the past couple of months I keep getting behind on writing blog posts and then doing a big catch up. This is another of those. Oh well, better late than never I suppose. My scavenger hunt for October will also be late (surprise, surprise) and I haven't managed to get them all either.

So last week was half term. Monday was spent with my sister for her birhtday, Tuesday G and the children went to Salisbury and Wednesday morning we spent indoors playing Just Dance on the Wii. I do enjoy that. In the afternoon we went to the local duck pond and fed the ducks, walked through mud and puddles and the children ran around for a while too which always pleases me to see.



I became slightly obsessed with taking photos of all the different berries but won't bore you with all of them, just these blackberries

and these 'traffic light' ones.

Thursday was miserable weather wise and was spent indoors. T was off colour all week as he hadn't gone to school on the last day of term and we all got a bit grouchy with each other, so let's move swiftly on to Friday when we did our annual Hallowe'en trail through a country park. Which we followed with a trip to the garden centre to have a look at their Christmas decorations and enjoy a hot chocolate in the newly opened restaurant. Very nice indeed, will definitely be going back there again.

On Saturday G and I had ANOTHER night away! Get us, 2 in one month! It won't happen again now for AGES. This one had been arranged a while ago. Friends of ours are nearing the end of the adoption assessment process and felt a bit of hands on experience would be good. So they offered, we accpeted and off we toddled to Reading. Neither of us had visited this town before and G was in charge of booking a hotel and found a good deal so that's why we ended up there.

We wandered around the town centre for a couple of hours and during this time came across a meeting of a few troupes of Morris Men which we stood and watched for a while. I love the sound of all the bells and the wood when they knock the sticks together. There is probably a more technical name for that!

G's back was starting to give him a bit of pain so he went back to the hotel and I carried on looking around. I could have stood in front of the John Lewis window for ages, it looked so festive.

The next morning we took a different route back to the station and found a lovely restored Victorain style park

which had this magnificent lion in the middle.

We also found the town hall and art gallery building which is stunning.

Really I should have done a bit of research into Reading before we headed off but as I explained in the last post I have been preoccupied with work, more than I realised, plus T had another MRI scan on Monday morning. I know his doctor says they are just routine but I can't help worrying all the same. Well it's part of the job description isn't it?!

Monday afternoon saw me sat on the floor tracing and cutting out bat shapes from black card and then sellotaping small chocolate bars and fizzy sweets inside and then folding the bat wings over and securing with another piece of sellotape. Talk about leaving it to the last minute. I saw this idea ages ago on Pinterest, but they got done. I made 35 of these. In total I had nearly 80 trick or treat callers. Thankfully I had other sweets but in the end I did run out and had to put on a sign on the door to say 'sorry sweets all gone.'

I took a quick snap of both T and S before they went out too. T went with friends and S went with G. The mask T wore was really scary, just little holes for his eyes. S was much more excited this year than last and was very keen to get out there.

Finally I must include our 30 minute craft project from last week. Another idea from Pinterest, mummy lights. Empty glass jars wrapped in toilet roll with black card shapes for the faces and tea lights popped inside.. S's is on the left, mine in the middle and T's on the right. We were very pleased with them.

Pre-Occupied

About 6 months ago it was announced that the office I worked in would be closing as part of some government spending cuts. There has been an awful lot of uncertainty surrounding my job. I have been one of the lucky ones and have been redeployed to another office. Leaving the team I have worked with for a long time was quite a sad day. Last week I started at the new office. It's bound to be a bit bumpy at first as I get used to new colleagues and they get used to me, it's been kind of first day of school nerves. The whole change of workplace and people has been one big issue which has been preoccupying my mind this past month or so.

Yesterday I explored the area around my new place of work and found 6 charity shops. A plus point if ever there was one.
A couple of items came home with me, the best buy being this Pyrex dish for £1.99.



It was my sister's birthday on Monday and after she had waded through opening all her presents and before we had a late lunch we had a little browse around a couple of pretty shops. I bought this for my mum and she bought one for me. I just love the little sprig of holly and look forward to when I get to hang it up in our home.

Do you think they grow on trees?

'Look at the fungi growing on the side of that tree,' I said whilst we were out getting some fresh air on a brief stroll this afternoon.
'Looks more like those white crisps from the Chinese takeaway,' said T.
These will now be known to us as prawn cracker mushrooms.

Thrifty Thursday- the Birthday Edition

My youngest sister is 40 next week and today I am wrapping up all the bits and bobs I've bought for her. This is the sister with whom I do the gift exchange where we buy just about everything from jumbles/car boots/charity shops etc.

Pink blanket £1.00, charity shop
Set of 2 dotty tins 25p, charity shop
4 bottles of smellies 95p, charity shop
Pink jug 50p, jumble sale
Felt flower and butterfly brooch 25p, church summer fete
Heart casserole dish £1.99, bought new.
Heart garden stake £1.59, bought new.
The last two will be given to her from the children.


Silver cardi 20p, jumble sale
Book 20p, church summer fete
Bookmark 25p, church summer fete
Notebook 25p, car boot
Monsoon cardi £1.50, charity shop
Butter dish £1.00, charity shop
Bottle stopper 50p, charity shop

Green cardi 50p, car boot

1989 t shirt 50p, car boot

Green star shirt 75p, charity shop

Blue floral top 50p, charity shop

Fat face grey skirt 50p, charity shop.

There is also a green flower pot which I have forgotten to include in the pics. Total, for items from me, with the pot at 49p is £10.09. Just a smidge over our £10.00 budget.

Now to wrestle with the paper and sellotape.

Washing

Just how excited is it acceptable to get about a piece of plastic?
When the weather changes and it's no longer possible to dry washing outside it doesn't take long before I am completely fed up with trying to dry it all inside.
The length of the banister is perfectly suited for hanging the sheets and duvet covers over and a clothes airer we received as a wedding present is in constant use for everything else. The trouble with that is we tend to keep it in our bedroom and where ever it is in the room it's always in the flaming way!
So to try and make use of the empty space and (hopefully) warm air circulating on the landing I bought a retractable indoor washing line. Oh how I love it. It's green, it's curvy and the line is very, very long.
G has attached it to the door frame of S's bedroom and it can be easily removed when the time comes.




This photo is probably one of the best contenders for most boring photo ever taken. Our plastered and unpainted walls with sundry items of washing.

But the washing is dry! Oh the bliss of hanging it up inside the house and having it dry within a few hours. OK it's a little unslightly, but you only see it if you go upstairs and you may have to duck underneath when you get to the top of the stairs, but I love it.

Not sure if that makes me a complete sad case but I don't really care.