Thankyou Ragged Roses

I was very lucky a few weeks ago to win Kim's blog's birthday giveaway. This was one of the first blogs I discovered when I ventured into blogland, probably about a year ago. The parcel
arrived yesterday and certainly brightened up an otherwise very rainy miserable day.

The first package held some really pretty embellishments, a packet of sunflower seeds and 2 beautiful postcards. I have been hankering after some vintage Easter cards so that was a nice surprise.

Next there was a really sweet gingham bag filled with Easter eggs from this moment onwards I had a little munchkin stood on the chair declaring that she was so, so hungry complete with an exagerrated rubbing of the tummy!

And the reason for the huge box was one of Kim's gorgeous ragged tea cosies, which incidently smells divine and has the softest lining I have ever felt! If my fifteen year old had her own teapot she surely would have whisked this one away she deemed it amazing and wouldn't leave it alone.

And do you want to see what happened to Lily's hunger pangs.

The little monkey snuck her hand in as I was taking a photo stole a chocolate egg, unwrapped it and ate it lol!

Thankyou so much Kim you made my day and I loved it all.

Have a great weekend everyone I don't think we'll be going to the beach this week!

The postman knocked twice!

I've had a very busy week, dejunking, cushion making, crocheting, gardening but I'm here at last! I had a surprise parcel on Tuesday my shabby chic cafe 'Cath Kidstonesque swap' from Bloomin Myrtle. On opening the parcel I found the above pic peeking out at me.

A beautifully made drawstring bag and inside this a bundle of pink tissue paper packages tied up with sheer pink polka dot ribbon.

And inside there was a soap in a ceramic soapdish, pink nail clippers, scrunchie, emery boards and two shower gels with roses inside.

Thankyou Elaine for the lovely swap.

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The next day the postman came again with another parcel this time it was a giveaway that I had won from Janie at hedgecombers blogspot another Cornish blog. There was a cute egg shelf that fits in well with my kitchen, two sweet handmade hen egg cosies and two beautiful Cornishware egg cups my first pieces of Cornishware even though I'm Cornish!

If you haven't been to Janie's blog you must go and have a look. I can recommend her flapjacks they really are the best, I made them last week. thankyou for the great giveaway Janie.

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I've also been given some awards first this one from the lovely Angel at shabby angel blog. I was given this a few weeks ago but I forgot, sorry Angel and thankyou.

Then the lemonade award from the lovely Julie at Gingerbread blog go take a visit she is truly the pincushion queen.

And finally these two from the lovely Beki Marie at the ramblings of an everyday mummy

another lovely blog to visit. Thankyou Beki Marie.

Now I must go and do some catching up and baking.

Things I'm loving right now .....

1-Winning, I seem to be having I winning streak at the moment sadly Tracey it's not happening with the lottery lol. First I won these Tracey's giveaway a set of lovely handmade Christmas tags.

And then two forum giveaways some lovely rose patterned fabric from Annie C.

And two crochet/knitting booklets from Miss_Phish.

So that'll give me something to do in the new year!

Thankyou all of you.
I've also won the November prize draw at Debbie's English Treasures, which I'll show as soon as it arrives.
I have my name entered for a giveaway that finishes next week and I really, really want it so I have all my fingers crossed, all I'm saying is it has something to do with monkeys and it's quite hard to type with crossed fingers!

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2 - Swaps, I received my pink forum swap from Pipkin, lots of goodies; Vintage home polka dot placemats, pastel silicone cupcases, 4 fabric napkins, a tablecloth and some lovely bunting with butterflies, which are a perfect match for Lily's room as I'm making curtains and bedding from a lovely Globatex fabric with butterflies on, thankyou Pipkin it's all really lovely.

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3- This Christmas book that I read about on Funky Monkey's blog so of course I had to have it and I'm so glad as it's fantastic as is the Thrift book which I bought at the same time and have my nose stuck in constantly at the moment! I'd recommend both of these.

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4- Vintage Christmas baubles, my lucky find! I got these for 50p a bag in the charity shop, which made me very happy indeed!

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5 - Lily's Christmas snowman plates. We had great fun making these, what child doesn't love a bit of glitter. I found the tutorial here, I didn't have any plain white plates but they look fine with patterned.

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6- Finishing the advent calender on the 'ahem' 7th! There are 3 others though.

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What I'm not loving - Christmas musical toys all playing at once! They may look quite cute but Lily has decided it is great fun to have them all playing so we have 'O, Christmas tree'; 'Merry Christmas Everybody'; Last Christmas'; Let it Snow'; Jingle Bells'; Baby it's cold outside'; Frosty the snowman'; 12 days of Christmas and 'The night before Christmas'. Luckily the musical ornaments haven't got batteries in yet!

And Lily is not loving Santa, he came to the toddler group party yesterday and she wasn't impressed, she got her present and went as far away as possible to open it!

Well I'm going to put my tree up now, I'm very behind this year I haven't written a card or wrapped a present yet. I wonder if the lure of the computer has anything to do with it!

I'll leave with some pics of what I have done - my dresser, kitchen shelf and my Santa family of Russian dolls, which I painted last year.

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
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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.

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