Happy Birthday Tara and catching up.

Edited on Thursday 4th to add that Tara has just passed her driving test, first time too! She hadn't even told us she had a test, she likes to keep us on our toes! She's obviously chuffed to bits and told me that she high fived the instructor! Well done Tara!

I am here at last after nearly two weeks without posting and it was Tara's birthday on Sunday, which is when I should have done this post. And the reason for the delay - decorating! Why oh why do I decide to decorate the lounge just before Christmas? Here's a sneeky peak, it is close up, I'll show more when it's finished. I've just wallpapered one wall, the first time I've used wallpaper in 20 years.

And this is my new light fitting, as you can see I haven't trimmed the paper yet.

Because of this I haven't even had time to get my Christmas decorations up yet. But Lily has made a snowman at toddler group. I think he's looking a bit sad as he has no other snowmen to play with!

Time is catching up with me and taking over. See I'm not superwoman lol re my last post, the secret is I get up early 6.30 or earlier, today it was 5. Jodie sorts herself out in the mornings and Lily has taken to staying in bed until 9 ish, I hear her wake up about 7 and then she climbs into my bed and goes back to sleep for a couple of hours. So I do a lot in that time, I also don't drive so I'm stuck at home during the week, the nearest shops are a 15 minute drive away so no gallavanting around for me! All this means I get lots of time to sew etc. It's a hard life!

*******************************

Anyway HAPPY 19th BIRTHDAY TARA. That's her at the top of this post with the blinking tattoo on her shoulder.
What do you think a 19 year old would do for her birthday .............. go to see Madagascar 2 at the cinema of course. This is right up Tara's street. She also went clubbing on Friday night and again on Monday night of course just to make sure that she celebrated enough! And as she also had to work, cooking roast dinners at the pub, on her birthday we have to have her birthday tea today. It has to be a 'choosy tea' i.e. party food, my children have always called it a choosy as you can choose what to eat. This is how she dressed for work on Sunday, she's the Leprachaun, she made everyone else dress up too!

***************************

Little Gem received her sparkle swap from me, I sent a pink flower pen, some glitter candles, a silver tealight holder and glitter tealight, a bag of vanilla scented sparkles, a sparkly crochet flower brooch and a pink sparkly heart.

I've finished my Chrismas decoration swap for Monique - Thyme and Lavender, but will post the photos when I know that she has received it.

*********************

I must show you this shaving mug that I ordered from Debbie's English Treasures, their customer service is excellent, the parcel was wrapped in lovely floral paper and inside it was wrapped in pink tissue paper with polka dot ribbon and handmade tags.

Then there was a little thankyou for ordering gift inside, again this was all wrapped in tissue and lace with a handmade tag.

It contained ribbons, lace and handmade labels.

I will definately be ordering from them again for those of you who don't know Debbie you can find her here.

**************************

And on the thrifting front I did whizz aound a car boot on Saturday, I say whizz as it was absolutely freezing, which was quite good as the prices were cheap they all wanted to go home! Everything I bought was either 50p or under.

I've been tagged 4 times in the past fortnight so I'll do the first couple now and the others next time.

Firstly 7 Favourite Albums tag from Sandie -Dancing on a blade of grass.

THE RULES 1. Post your list of the seven best albums, the seven bloggers you will tag, a copy of these rules, and a link back here. 2. Each person tagged will put a URL to their Blogger Album Project post along with a list of the seven best albums in the comment section here.3. Feel free to post the “I Contributed to the Blogger Album Project” Award Graphic (found here) on your sidebar.4. Post a link back to the blogger who tagged you.

It's quite hard to narrow it down to just seven as I like a very wide range of music except for country and western. So here goes all these make me happy, my list of feelgood albums.

1- Insomnia -Faithless.

2- Viva La Vida - Coldplay.

3- Best of Mpeople.

4- Sweet Escape - Gwen Stefani.

5- Hits - The very best of Erasure.

6- Ultimate Dirty Dancing.

7- Staring at the sea the singles - The Cure.

I could go on.

***********************

I've also been tagged about homemaking by Sharie from view to the hill

A - Z of Homemaking
A is for Aprons - yes/no? If yes, what’s your favourite?

Yes but very rarely worn they look nice hanging up! Cath Kidstonesque.
B is for Baking - favourite thing to bake?
Cakes and biscuits.
C is for Clothesline - do you have one?

I have 2 a long one and a rotary.
D is for Doughnuts - have you ever made them?

Yes I have a doughnut maker.
E is for Every Day - one homemaking task you do every day.

Clean the bathroom and kitchen.
F is for Freezer - do you have a separate deep freeze?

Yes an upright one and I'm about to buy a chest one aswell as I need more freezer space.

G is for Garbage Disposal Unit - do you have one?

Only a dog.
H is for Handbook - what’s your favourite homemaking resource?

Internet.
I is for Ironing - love or hate it?

hate it but it has to be done.
J is for Junk Draw - yes/no? If yes, where is it?

Yes in the kitchen.
K is for Kitchen - colour and decorating scheme?

White units, black worktops, green dresser, bit of red, some pastels alot of vintage china.
L is for Love - what’s your favourite part of homemaking?
Cooking.

M is for mop - do you have one?
Kind of, I have a Bissel floor cleaner that cleans hard floors as well as carpets.

N is for Nylons - machine or hand wash?

Rarely wear but everything goes in the machine.
O is for Oven - do you use a window or open the oven door to check?

Window as long as you can see through it!
P is for Pizza - what do you put on yours?

Pepparami or ham and pineapple.
Q is for quiet - what do you do during the day when you get a quiet moment?

I wish!
R is for Recipe Card Box - yes/no? If yes, what does it look like?

I have lots of notebooks books that I write recipes in.
S is Style of House - what style is your house?

Sadly it is a 1960's terrace, which is all we can afford in the area that we live in. Shabby chic, country style as far removed from minimalist as you can get! It has 3 bedrooms, bathroom, lounge, kitchen/dining room, extra kitchen, utility room and downstairs loo, very small gardens front and back but we are surrounded by countryside and the moors.
T is for Tablecloths - do you use them?

Yes occasionally, I have lots of vintage ones.
U is for Under The Kitchen Sink - organised or toxic wasteland?

New kitchen so quite organised at the moment.
V is for Vacuum - how many times a week?

Everyday downstairs, twice a week upstairs.
W is for Wash - how many loads of washing do you do each week?

At least 5.
X’s - Do you keep a daily list of things to do that you cross off?

Sometimes when I'm being efficient.
Y is for Yard - who does what?

I do most things as I'm at home all day except for chopping wood for the fire, my axe skills aren't too good!
Zzzz’s - what’s the last homemaking task you do before bed in the evening?

Straighten cushions and flush the loo.

Gosh that was a mammoth task!
Help yourself if you fancy doing either of these tags.

I couldn't resist buying this at the weekend but do you think any of it will be adhered too?

As I write this they are saying, on the news, that it's snowing. There's none here if you have any please blow some this way, Lily is at that age where she thinks snow and Christmas come hand in hand.

Rose fest, tagged and winnings

I've been awol, from the computer, for a while as Lily has had a virus, so it's been a few days of vomiting, diarrhoea, high temperature and hardly any sleep. So no time for me to go online, she is better now though so I'm trying to catch up!

When she was ill this wonderful plaque arrived for her. I won this in a giveaway hosted by tcalamity, I was able to choose a plaque from her website so chose one for Lily's room. Lily will be moving into Jemma's old room, hopefully very soon, but at the moment Jemma's 3ft corn snake is in there! We are desperately trying to rehome it as she is unable to keep pets in the apartment that she lives in.

Now for the rose fest.

Firstly I finally managed to get hold of a green and red rose CK bag, this was after visiting numerous Tescos, all over Cornwall.

And here's a few pieces that I've bought over the past couple of weeks, some from charity shops and a car boot. But also some from a jumble sale, that happened to have a very long bric a brac stall. It was the first time that I had been to a jumble sale for about 12 years, I'd forgotten how cheap things were and bought alot of jumble for the fabric, to repurpose.

Rose tea set, gold rimmed.

Plates and curtains

Plant pot and posy.

Small quilt

Fibreglass tray, mats, plate, tray, bowl.

Cups

Pot stand, candlestick, oil lamp, Pyrex.

Raggy doll
*****************

I have been tagged by the lovely Jan from cinnamon cottage to list 7 things about myself, so here we go ....

First the rules are;
1. Link to your tagger and list these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by including links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs.


1- I hate celery and olives, the thought of either makes me urge and I love cheese, it is most definately my downfall and will devour any type as long as it doesn't have celery or olives in!


2- I collect cookery books and have 933 of them, this total rises just about every week.
my most recent ones this week are 'Cherry cake and Ginger Beer' -Jane Brocket and 'The Good Granny Cookbook' - Jane Fernley -Whittingstall.


3- Staying with the book theme, I probably am addicted to books as I have an awful lot of craft books, Christmas books, poetry books, Fairy tales and childrens books, I just cannot resist them! This Saturday being the first one of the month means book fayre day so no doubt I will aquire a few more.


4- My loft is a tip! I say this as I spent most of yesterday up there looking for my box of halloween decorations and I haven't found them. The reason for it being a tip is I have too many books (see 3), half of my kitchen equipment is up there, lots of baby stuff that I can't be bothered to sell yet, Christmas things (see 6), School stuff (see 7) and things to Ebay but I can't be bothered at the mo!


5- I adore Scotland and wish we could move to the Highlands. I was in my element when we came across Wigtown otherwise known as booktown because of it's 20 odd bookshops, heaven! And I love snow and would definately see plenty there.


6- I love Christmas and go overboard decorating all over my house, inside and out with lots of lights. This is so Mr B can complain all year about the electric bill! I usually do this as near as possible to the beginning of December and take it all down on the 12th night.


7- I very nearly qualified as a primary school teacher. I spent 6 or so years training on the job. First as a specialist teacher assistant and then a foundation degree in education. My mum died and that kind of put a spanner in the works, I couldn't cope with having to write essays etc. And then I was pregnant with Lily and I had about a year to go to qualify.

I will have to get back to nominate as I have a lasagne to cook.

*****************

I've been triple tagged!

I've been tagged three times by Angel from Shabby Angel, Sharrie from View to the hill and Clare from Dollydollop.


The rules: Answer 5 questions about myself. At the end of the post tag 5 people and post their names, go to their blog and leave them a comment letting them know they have been tagged and asking them to read my blog for the rules. Let the person who tagged me know when I've posted my answers.

1 -What was I doing 10 years ago?

My children were 4, 8 and 11 years old. The youngest had just started school nd the eldest had gone to comprehensive school as she was the only child in Y6 in the village primary she went on her own, but she was fine. I started to work in a school and was doing English Lit with. the OU.
I was also a school governor so school took up a lot of my time! We also went camping for the first time, which was great.

2- Things on my to do list today.

Take 14 year old daughter to stables for a few hours.
Go shopping take the scenic route via charity shops and car boot!
Go and look at caravan to buy, which we didn't have time to do yesterday.
Paint kitchen/dining room wall and replace furniture.
Take dog for a walk on the moors.

3- Snacks I enjoy.

Cheese, melted cheese on crackers, peppers and hummus, revels, minstrels, jelly babies.

4- Things I would do if I was a millionaire.

Buy a farm, camper van, mercedes convertible, few dogs - shitzu, miniature pug, yorkie.
Houses for my children.
Give some money to charity - SIDS as although I have never been affected by this I think it's a worry for any parent and stroke charity as my mum died of a stroke 3 years ago.

5- Places I've lived.

Quick answer - Cornwall - 2 towns and 1 village.

Tag 5 people

Ted and Agnes
Pacific Robin
Poohs abode
The little snug
Vintage Pleasure