Anyone fancy a musical?

Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome! as they say.

At this time of year I love to sit down, with some sewing or crochet, and watch a musical. As there's nothing better for lifting the spirits than Judy belting out a song! Well it works for me! Obviously it helps if you are watching alone or with immediate family or very close friends that way it isn't too embarrassing when you just have to join in with the singing!

As Judy Garland is my favourite actress, my favourite musical has to be 'Meet me in St. Louis' and how great would it be to live in 5135 Kensington Avenue. I'm hoping to make a version of this house in 1/12 th scale one day when I have the time!

Now what else do I like there's

My Fair Lady, I saw this a couple of years ago at Plymouth Pavilions and it was a superb performance. West Side Story full of great songs as is Fiddler on the Roof and all ones which my mum bought me up on.

And then the more modern ones like Dirty Dancing, Ghost, Fame and Grease, well I say more modern but I heard on the TV this morning that the UK release of Grease was 30 years ago, can you believe that! I was very young when it was released but it doesn't seem like 30 years!

Rocky Horror picture show I haven't seen this one live but Jodie and her drama class did a condensed version of about 20 mins, when she was in Yr7, it was very funny.

A musical that you may not of seen or even heard of is 'Taboo' being a huge Boy George fan I had to buy this one and I love it, the soundtrack is just excellent but like I said I am a fan and a child of the 80's lol. It probably wouldn't be to everyones taste but if you loved the 80's you should give it a go. Boy George is playing at the hall for Cornwall next month and I would so love to go and see him but it would mean being out from 6pm till 12 am and will be too long to leave Lily, sob!

Anyway I digress my children have also been force fed musicals throughout their lives they used to love watching 'The Sound of Music' two and half hours of peace and quiet bliss! They also know all the words to Bugsy Malone and loved it when we saw it at Sterts open air theatre about 5 years ago. And then there's little orphan Annie, again such great songs, Jodie played Pepper in Luxulyan amateur dramatics production of this a couple of years ago an excellent performance even if I do say so myself. My mum would have been so delighted and proud of her.

And of course I mustn't forgot my second favourite Oliver it doesn't matter how often I watch this I never tire of it and can play all the songs on my clarinet not that the clarinet comes out of it's box very often it petrifies my dog lol!.

Now as I said Judy Garland is my favourite actress so who's my favourite actor here's a clue.

Jonny Depp, of course this has nothing to do with his looks purely his talent, honest! I bought Sweeny Todd last weekend but will watch it this weekend and see how good his singing is, not tonight though as Russell Brand is on mmmmmmmmmm.
So what's your favourite musical or do you loathe them all?

This week ....

My lovely new cake plate and server, which I bought in Bude.

We've been playing at the beach. We have sunshine again, at last, so we took Lily over to Daymer bay for a few hours at the weekend.

I forgot my camera so had to borrow a photo.

We've also been baking

cheese scones

Rock buns

Lily's gingerbread men

gingerbread butterflies and rabbits.

I've been promising Lily that we would make these for ages, after reading her the story of the gingerbread boy. It's very hard trying to use tubes of icing with a 2 year old!

Flower

I've also done some more sewing an elephant, aptly named Flower and also a dog called Spot, of course! Both patterns from an old Harmony toy booklet.

Spot

Some more things from Sew Pretty Christmas Homestyle, I've had a delivery of some Tilda fabric so I had to try them out!

Birds and boot.

Apples.

Baboushkas with iffy faces!

Cutting and sticking lol, I pasted scrapbook paper onto MDF letters, I haven't quite finished these as they need to be varnished and trimmed propely yet.

Painting I managed to get the plate rack for 75p in a little Aladdins cave that I found in Bude! So at last I will have somewhere to put all the large plates that I keep buying. This weekend we'll be painting the tongue and groove that you can see behind the shelves.

Oh and I harvested my potatoes, now this will impress you this is the total result of this years potato growing!

Lol! When Jamie Oliver put them in gro bags they didn't turn out like this! That is a very small bowl btw.

While we're on the subject my Jerusalem artichoke is doing well, it's about 8 foot now. I had planted 4, only one grew but hey this was an attempt to annoy my neighbour!

Look at that blue sky, taken yesterday!

Yesterday as we were baking my dog was making strange noises, I turned to see her with a mole hanging out of her mouth. I managed to get it off her and put it back outside but I think it had probably died of shock, bless.

This is not the actual mole.

I will leave you with the fact that it is 'talk like a pirate' day today! I have just been informed of this little gem by my 18 yr old font of knowledge and wisdom, in a pirate way of course. See what I have to live with lol.

Sewing, baking and of course thrift.

The last of the Summer's sweet peas.

Firstly I must say hi to Summerfete, my swap partner for the camper van swap, which has to be finished for the 4th October ish and I haven't a clue yet what I'm going to make!

This past week I've been feeling quite gloomy and not sleeping properly, yesterday I was up at 4 a.m. just because I couldn't get to sleep. I think there's a few reasons for this, one being that it still feels quite strange not to go back to work, at school, in September. Even though I left two years ago this year I appear to be missing it more probably because I now help at a toddler group and 8 0f the children have left to go to School. On Tuesday I saw one of them, a really sweet little boy and was talking to him about school. He said he liked it and then I asked what he had done at school that morning, to which he replied that he had been crying because his mum wasn't there. That's when I wished I was still at work to be there for him and all the other little ones. Another reason I suppose has to be the awful summer we've had! Even though I like the different seasons and I really love snow, I do like to have some summer before the winter comes. In saying that the sun did peep out for a while on Sunday which was a welcome relief from the downpours of Friday and Saturday. This picture of Tara was taken on the moors, late on Sunday, just up the road from where we live.

It is also coming up to the 4th anniversary of my mum's death, which I hadn't remembered until I read Petticoat lane's blog yesterday, so perhaps subconciously I had been thinking of this. Anyway I decided a days sewing was called for as I spend half my life doing housework! Lily was quite happy to sit and play with playdough, next to me, so long as I rolled it out for her every now and again.

First I made my version of a flag cushion, I got the not another cushion look off my OH when he came home from work, but I'm loving it!

Then a very quick fleece backed quilt from Sew pretty Christmas homestyle. I haven't quite finished this one yet as it has buttons sewn at the corners of the squares, which is quite tedious to do but at least you can do it while watching tv.

Then this morning I was reminded that I was meant to be making some bunting for a present for one of Jodie's friends, in blue and red. So I've had to spend this morning sewing as well how annoying is that not! I've also started a spotty dog, a floral elephant and an owl but haven't finished them yet.

All the sewing definately helped as I finally managed to sleep last night.

I made a chocolate beetroot cake, which must have been nice as they've ate it all! I didn't tell the kids there was beetroot in it until they had had a piece as they wouldn't have tried it else lol! It's really easy to make:

You need 80z of SR flour, 1oz cocoa powder, 1 tsp Baking powder, 4oz caster sugar, 3oz melted dark chocolate, 3oz melted butter, 4oz raw grated beetroot, 2 beaten eggs.

Method: Sift flour, cocoa & baking powder, stir in sugar, beetroot, melted chocolate, butter and eggs. Turn into tin bake at 180'c for 50 - 60 mins. Then I added some melted milk and white chocolate on top when it was cool.

Now the thrifting:

Quite an unusual conserve pot.

2 rose candlesticks.

I assume this is for putting your boiled eggs in, I love it!

Not more glass candlesticks!

I really must buy some candlesticks!

A cheese dish.

One more pic for my flower picture wall this one is huge and dated 1957, only £2.

If only.....

Also, Sherry at if I could set my soul free is having a month long party at her blog to celebrate her blogiversary and her actual birthday. So pop on over, join in the fun and help her to celebrate. There's a button at the top of this page.

Hi, to anyone who has come over from Sherry's party!

Thrifting in Totnes

I think a little bit of sunshine is called for on this very wet, cold and dreary night. It is blowing a gale and tipping it down with rain here. So I'm sat huddled up with the computer, in my PJ's and drinking green tea. Oh I certainly know how to live it up on Saturday nights lol!

Anyway I remembered that I hadn't blogged about our visit to Totnes. We went there a couple of weeks ago, on a Friday as I had been told that was the best day to go!

Well what a beautiful place and look at that blue sky! We walked along the river path and watched people going out on their boats, I must admit I was walking fairly fast as I was on a mission to find the famous Friday market. The sign said it was at the top of the high street, this high street is definately high, it's uphill all the way, with lots of lovely shops, which I was going to look in on the way down, after hitting the charity shops

Didn't quite work out that way as I got a bit carried away in the market and the charity shops so all three of us and the pushchair couldn't carry anymore, the only thing that was light at that stage was my purse! My fifteen year old who loved the market and the charity shops spent so much that even she said 'lets go home I'm charideed out' lol! So we got some lunch and took it over to the riverbank and sat and ate lunch while Lily shouted 'go away seagull this is my lunch'
I'm so pleased we went there as it such a lovely place and has a very peaceful atmosphere and such a fantastic market.
Just a few of the bits I bought:

I really like this tiny picture on wood.

A couple of plates.

Some florals.

I love this yellow bowl, I don't know why but I'm always buying bowls large and small, usually floral!

My absolute favourite piece a wall plate it should go nicely with all the flower pictures I have for the lounge wall.

This was just a few of the things I also had the 'Tara' teaset from a previous post, some Pyrex, lots of books and a big tub of Duplo. I cannot believe I have never been here before as I only live about an hour and a half away. Never mind Plymouth and Exeter christmas shopping I shall be going to Totnes and Torquay this year as well, Ssh OH doesn't know yet.

So we then went off to enjoy the rest of the day and some more sunshine at Goodrington sands and found, to Lily's joy, a rockpool full of crabs and hermit crabs!

And look at those gorgeous beach huts must add one of those to my wish list!!