The one where I nearly pee my pants...

Now, when lady luck shines down on my little patch, she shines brightly.
Not very often do good things happen in this house but they do happen now and again to cheer up our rollercoastering 'plodding along' lives.
I'm often wary that for the good things there's a bad thing lurking round the corner just waiting for it's opportunity to jump out and scare the pants off me..so the good things make me a little nervous..are you with me?

Well, this bank holiday, my sister from up north and her husband came to stay for a long weekend. It's very rare that people stay here, as our house is a tad small but the eldest stinky boy decided a spot of local stinky boys' camping was called for and we, for once, had a spare bed.

My sister and I are very similar even though she's the eldest and I'm the youngest of 4 girls, we have never had a cross word in 41 years...honestly,not ever, so her visits are always the best fun. As I was working on the Saturday all day, we decided on a National trust trip on the Sunday and the Giant Malvern flea fair on the Monday. All exciting stuff.
So on the Sunday after lots of mooching around the garden,sniffing roses and pointing at plants, eating croissants with proper butter in the (still lopsided and unfinished) summerhouse and chatting about my lovely visit to Devon and caravans and the like, we decided on a visit to
Hidcote Manor.Really it was a bit early in the year to appreciate all the beautiful flowers they have there and it was so packed with visitors we even had to wait until someone left to get a space in the car park .
Now big sisters can be a bad influence sometimes, they encourage you to put bids on exciting things you think you'll never in a million years be lucky enough to win. Before we went out for the day,I showed her something on eBay that was only a few miles from us and still at a sensible price. Something my family know I've hankered after for a long time and can bore people rigid over.

" isn't that just typical, pay day is a week away, my truck needs work for its mot and there that is looking at me at the bargain price of £125." I say.

Now the big sis tells me I should put a bid on it as I'll kick myself if the lovely thing goes for that amount and that she will help me out until pay day. There were lots of 'if it's meant to be' moments, the bid was placed and off we went to that beautiful area known as The Cotswolds...
to see pretty, pretty gardens..
Out for a meal (corr we really are splashing out!) and home again, where the said 'eBay thing' was almost forgotten about.....almost.

When I checked, I almost hyperventilated...noooooo it can't be true?

ME?.. the winner?

The owner of a little blue and cream CARAVAN for a mere £132? nooooo...

the VINTAGE one I had seen earlier???

The vintage blue and cream cheeky little 1960's one all ready to be towed behind The Beastie (my old pick-up truck) and only needing a bit of prettifying ???GORDON BENNETT!!!!Yes, when lady luck shines, she definitely shines very brightly!

Breathing

Hello again, sorry about the loooooooong gap between my posts of late, I feel like I can finally breathe again..it's just like we have been holding our breath for one whole month waiting to see what will happen with jobs, the house and all that horrid boring, scary stuff. Then of course there was the snow too, that really threw a spanner in the works...

looks like someone went mad with a foam fire extinguisher!

Pete has just this week, started a job doing something he was doing when we first met 20 years ago and has interviews lined up this month for better ones he'll hopefully be doing in 20 years from now. I can't tell you how many application forms have been filled in and phone calls made.It has been one long nightmare. I've always said it's better to have a couple of strings to your bow so that there's at least another skill to fall back on when you need to...and believe me, as much as he didn't really want to do that job again, he needed to.
Apart from holding my breath and turning blue and my brain trying to escape daily from my head, (and the horrid hospital visits as well) some nice things have been happening too.

I'll let you in on a secret....

My lovely Grannie who passed away last February left me a bit of money and it took nearly a whole year to arrive at my door but boy, was the timing perfect. The mortgage was paid just one day late, the bills were paid and the scary telephone calls I was going to have to make were put off just in the nick of time. It was like she had waited until we really needed it, until we had no more doors to go through and no more answers.She allowed us to breathe again. Big deeeeeep breaths of relief.
I felt sad at the thought of not being able to have something to remember my Grannie by, I have the memories and the photos, but I really would have liked something to look at every day and know that my Grannie had given me the pennies to buy it with. I had known for some time about the money and had months to think of things to spend it on.
I'm not a posh jewelery person, I dont wear a wedding or engagement ring and the necklaces and the rings that I do own are like those huge big chunky ones like Trinny wears (gardeners hands..I'll never be dainty, see) so it got me thinking of other things, a vintage caravan, some some vintage pretties, a trip to the seaside...oooh the possibilities of flittering away pennies on pretty things were almost endless!
Then the shit hit the fan when Pete lost his job and all these fantasies were gone in a flash.

I did however have enough left for one thing and it only came to me whilst staring out the window across the garden whilst wondering how we would ever have got out of this mess if it hadn't been for her thinking of us and the perfect timing that made it all be ok.

summer 2008

The rose arbour at the bottom of the garden had completely got out of hand, huge 15' whips of evil thorny lengths were dangling half way across the neighbours garden and it became so big that it had broken through the roof of the arbour, the fence and the wooden rail that it rested on.It became somewhere we no longer sat under without getting scratched or bits landing on you from above. Beautiful as it was with its little pompoms of pink and white, it was just too big for the space. Such a shame, but this garden is always evolving, so out it came.The poor, now rotten arbour that Pete had built came with it and made some very welcome firewood.


I am now the proud owner of a summerhouse.
Put up by Harry and Pete on the coldest day ever inbetween flurries of yet more snow (I made tea and supervised the doings)

Harry in his mad hat and his Dad's boots

It was something Grannie always had at each house, something we often got told off for mucking about in, or spinning around in the case of the Victorian one at her beautiful Manor House and something she had once bought as a present for my mum too.

It still needs quite a lot more work, we will 'vintagey-fy' it and put proper slate tiles on the roof like we did with the chicken house, paint it green and cream and I have a garage full of spare furniture to decorate it with.The garden will be rejigged, the awkward to cut hedge has gone, the pond will be moved and a trellis-topped (and honeysuckle covered) wall will be built out of old bricks (by Stinky George if he ever stirs from that permanent teenage sleep) but at the moment in the constant rain, it all looks rather awful and very muddy.
I can't wait. Roll on Spring, roll on Summer.
I'll sit there with my cup of tea,with no doubt a few creatures around me listening to radio 2 on my Roberts radio in my vintagey-fied summerhouse with its bunting up and be in utter bliss.

Thankyou Grannie. Thankyou so much.

hit the decks

weh-hey the sun came out... it's time to hit the decks!
These are two of my four revamped deckchairs,the 'newer-old ones'..a housewarming present from Pete's mother 19 years ago. I remember she couldn't get over the fact we wanted old fashioned wooden deckchairs instead of a metal padded garden recliner!
Handily the deckchairs doubled up as our first chairs for the lounge too..ahh those were the days.


They are a bit 'Cath' so if your not a fan look away now ..


Ta-da!
The boys managed to get the original red and white stripey fabric covered in oil (they were probably used as a convenient hand towel whilst repairing bikes in the garage..which is just the sort of thing teenage boys do) So it was time for a change.
A staple-gun, spare paint, one and a half metres of cheap, heavy duty, spotty fabric (no, not Ms.Kidston's) and a few minutes sewing in a straight line..the best kind of sewing!


I did however, like the impatient numpty that I am, manage to staple the fabric on the blue one to the wrong side of the bottom bar, so guess what I'll be doing in five minutes time...

See the big new cushion? well being a bit behind the times here in middle England, we had a new store open called Homesense which I no doubt guess you all shop in already and I'm just the dimwit who had never heard of them.
Amongst the trinkets and lamps and lovely things,they had a proper Jan Constantine cushion in there for £35 instead of £73.
A big union jack blue one.A rather lovely big union jack blue one.
Just the one left.I nearly peed my pants.

Domestic bartering ensued.
Pete gets a bit more tattoo than I hoped he would and I got a proper JC cushion.
Oh well it's his arm after all.And yes it is lovely and soft and hand embroidered!

I'll show you the other two deckchairs another time, they have the original scruffy 1950's paint which I love.
Cheerio for now x

A rare day out..

You may remember last year we were lucky enough to be given some free tickets to the Malvern Spring gardening show by a lovely neighbour.I was only watching Gardeners world and thinking how good it looked again last night and a pity that our nice neighbours had moved, when stinky George produced an envelope with two tickets in for the show." from 'thingy' " he says, "who used to live next door, they called round yesterday" (they have since moved to a new house but still own the house next door)
WHOOPEE !
So off Pete and I trundled in my old truck to visit the show only 10 minutes from our home.
There was definately a bit of a vintage/reclamation theme going on this year if you ask me, maybe I'm wrong,but there were more sellers with antique gardinalia and vintage garden bits and bobs and more lovely show gardens featuring old tools and vintage sheds than last year.Lots of alliums, which I always admire, and plenty of themed colourful gardens, I love the combination of dusky dark leaves and vivid oranges that seemed to be used this year...(sorry,the photos are a bit blurry,oops!)

but then again, I love purple flowers and circles used in the garden too, whether its alliums or box balls..or stone balls!But you can't beat a bit of vintage in my eyes, I just love this cute potting shed, with it's old tin signs and antique tools..This lovely greenhouse was just my cup of tea too!I did manage to get some nice old bits and bobs, only a few plants as I thought they were a bit pricey to be honest.Some much needed planters for my lollipop Bays; which have been crammed into their original pots for far too long and fell over if you sneezed near them! an old enamel bucket in the most delicious shade of blue and some Camassias to plant in them, this bargain of a big galvanised trough (£7!) which will weather down nicelyand yet another bargain item, a rusty metal obelisk for my clematis to climb up.It certainly pays to make an offer to the sellers, especially on the last day! last but not least I had to visit The Allotment shop again where I found this little packet of replica gardening ephemera.. It's just fab! I have no idea what I'll do with it all yet, but what a cute and interesting collection of vintage papers, pamphlets,cigarette cards, posters and seed packets.There's all sorts of bits and bobs in there!

You may like to check out the company that makes them...

www.mempackcompany.com

(I think I might get the seaside holiday one aswell)
So anyway that was a rare day out for us and a really good one, so for now, if you'll excuse me I have some balls of my own to trim...(box ones of course)

Pretty...Stonehouse cottage gardens (and a pretty shop!)

Usually for our Anniversary,Pete and I go to an open garden or house somewhere ...we are definately not your roses and a romantic meal type..a cup of tea and some yummy cake does for me and we would rather spend money on something nice for the house than on expensive cards.(more on nice housey things later)

I'm sure I'm not alone..well I hope I'm not or you'll think I'm really mean!!

This year we went to

Stonehouse Cottage gardens and nursery

It's not very far from us in Malvern, near Kidderminster and for £3 it's certainly worth a look...

You may have seen it featured in a magazine.I first saw it in 'The English Garden' but I think more recently it was in Country living (or Country homes?) It's a walled garden with towers and follies, all hand built by the current owners out of reclaimed bricks..

You can climb up the very narrow spiral steps in one tower (a bit scary to say the least) and take a peek out over the three quarters of an acre gardens...

...which are truly beautiful..and very English.

They are not overly immaculate gardens,the roses needed deadheading and the lawn edges and hedges needed a trim, but when you think just one lady looks after all this by herself and runs a nursery selling all the plants from the garden,they are pretty amazing. (My photographs really don't do it justice)

We were the only people there (apart from the owners friendly Collies after a bit of fuss) and timed the weather perfectly as we had blue skies and sunshine..lovely!

Afterwards I dragged Pete off to Hereford (in the pouring rain!) for some retail therapy..I'm sure the Child benefit is meant to be spent on things like school shoes ,food or actual children..but hey-ho never mind..I'm sure the stinky boys will appreciate all my new goodies :0)

We went specifically to Hereford to go to one shop...

Berry Red

the most fantastic little place tucked away down an alley.

Our wedding anniversary gift to ourselves, little teeny love birds in a tin (ok this is about as soppy as we get!)
A new address book

( which must have taken me 15 minutes to decide between the 3 different ones..Pete has the patience of a saint!)

A pretty Greengate beaker for the bathroom.. which matches the new mat I got last week!
I love Greengate things..

...and a wire letter tray.I really like these..next time I'm going to get the one that hangs on the wall.

My wonderful mother-in-law bought me the 2 new Cath kidston Tesco bags,they seem to be sold out everywhere and going on eBay for up to £24 (they are £3.50 each) I must admit I have a problem with that..they are after all, for charity and a cancer charity at that, I think the eBay sellers should donate all their profits, imagine what Marie Curie could do with all that extra money..The stripey one at the back is a 99p one from Somerfield..they have three very similar styles to the Cath Kidston ones if your interested!

I must just add this little bit (it has been a bit of a long post, sorry!)....today I'm the proudest mum EVER...my big stinky boy has got a place at college..not on his exam results...on his own merit! He's had such a tough time with school, the last few years have been a bit of a nightmare to say the least and I can't tell you how pleased we are..well done George!! (you do realise you will have to build our extension when you are qualified?!!)

***

Have a great week! x

Faffing about with rooms (again)...and a tag

I've been tagged by Emma at sew recycled to show you the view from my kitchen window...

this is the view from my back kitchen bit window (from the room with no name but it houses the fridge and dresser..)

a little more exciting than this..... the view from my actual kitchen window! although if this was smellyblogging,you would have the lovely scent of my neighbours jasmine wafting through the window.

This is from the dining room window..which will eventually be french doors from the kitchen..our house is built back to front so in theory this should be the front garden..but it isnt!

Unfortunately July is the worst month in my garden..having seen this photo I had a big cut-back and clean-up....by the way,if anyone wants to join in with this tag, please feel free to..!

We've had quite an eventful week with one thing or another..firstly the stinky boy and I had to go to the cottage hospital to see a surgeon.It's a lovely Victorian building on the most beautiful crescent with a green in the middle..so,so pretty.
Unfortunately the surgeon had had a sense of humour bypass and stinky and I had the giggles..especially when drawings of appendages were produced. oh dear.. it made it worse when the Dr. kept asking what the matter was (how embarrassing!)I dont think I'll ever grow up at this rate!
I also had to have my little black hen put to sleep she was a very poorly girlie..then we decided to take the house off the market..we had so many people looking round but no interest at all,people want a house that they can do up from scratch or that's finished and this is neither.It's definately the wrong time to be selling at the mo, so that's it for now..to celebtrate we ripped up the carpet ready to sand the floorboards down and painted the dining room for the 478th time.You know,like you do......it's now ivory instead of blue! And yep, you've guessed it,I still dont like it!! I really think its those blessed wonky Cath kidston curtains that I still havent hemmed! Maybe I should make some roman blinds from vintage Linen but with a red stripe, like in the other stinky boys room..I quite like those.. We've actually now decided to knock through at some point to the teeny kitchen so we have a nice big kitchen to eat in..but I have no idea when the tree at the bottom of the garden that grows money is going to produce..so it may be sometime yet!

The relief of having no-one poking around your house is wonderful..now it can get messy and it doesn't matter..yay!! I hate change and I hate selling houses..so I'm pleased really.

Knowing we are now going to remain poor and overdrawn for the next 22 years,we went off and made a few unessessary purchases from the strange junk shop down the road. You can only get in if you are a size 8 and have a trained monkey on a lead to rootle through the piles and piles of tat.. did find some pretty 1930s china though, scattered around all over the place..there's probably more in there somewhere!the whole lot for £3..

a wooden standard lamp that will be painted cream and a £4 chair for my desk..it was FILTHY and after a thorough clean I realised it was actually red and not brown..even better!

I like the curved shape of the arms, I think I might cover this in a red and white polka-dot oilcloth I have,but I'm a bit undecided still..I find it so hard to keep to one look, I like so many! It all has that funny charity-junk-shop-smell to it..know the one I mean?

Just what is that smell?!!

It's our 11th wedding anniversary tomorrow, (and my mum & dads 5oth) so hopefully I'll be off to somewhere nice to show you on Monday..but don't hold your breath..Pete is about as romantic as a flea..so it may be sanding floorboards instead!

Have a great weekend.. oh and happy 4th July to all our American bloggers! x