prizes, pretties and more girlie stuff

Ok I suppose I could have left this 'til Monday for the 'pretty post' but heck I'll show you today!

These are some of the wonderful goodies I won in Julias giveaway a few weeks ago...I was one lucky lucky girlie!

Pete could hear the squealing in the garden when I opened this perfectly packaged candy-coloured parcel..I was overwhelmed with all the gorgeousness of everything..and not only that..there was LOADS!

a cute vintage patchwork cushion... (that matches perfectly with my recently thrifted 50p pair of candy-stripe pillowcases)

cute little birdie...

cute little fabric flowers...

the cutest mini bunting that will reach halfway round Malvern...(this is just some of it!)

some of those uber cute dishcloths that I have to drive to the other side of Worcester for should I run out...

Cute moo cards...

and CHOCOLATE...

oh that's gone, but not only was it chocolate..it was Green and Blacks Vanilla chocolate..chocolate royalty!..ok that's enough about chocolate as I will start dribling like a dog if I talk about it anymore..and yes.. I was mean and I didn't share it!

See I told you I was a lucky girl!

I like Julia... Lots x

It's around about the end of May that there's enough roses coming into flower for me to cut some for indoors...I love to fill this little Greengate jug with a few blooms..these ones smell like apples..much nicer to wake up to than the smell of socks......Pete.

I can't wait for my little secret arbour to be in Bloom..it's absolutely smothered in buds..it will be a sea of pink pompoms when this rose comes out and I can hide away and read a magazine without being found! (apart from Winnifred..she likes it there too, mainly because the fish food is there aswell) and when the sewing fairy comes back to visit, I can make the cushions for it...Bliss..

Shabby

Oops I forgot about the Monday 'pretty vintage or shabby' post! I had lots of nice things I had planned to take photos of, so I'll have to do them for next week. We've been packing Harry off to Gran Canaria with his 'other' family(his best friend and his parents)lucky thing..its 26 degrees over there and weeing down with rain here(I was being polite there!) I did attempt some sewing today but have been in one of those moods where nothing goes to plan so now there are fabrics everywhere, cotton all over the floor and three half finished lampshades that I should have made on Thursday. Oh poo.

Sewing fairy where are you? please come back!

Anyway.... Shabby. (for Lindsay)

And some different kind of before and after photos...

Take a look at this shabby lot.

BEFORE...

Pasty white faces,balding,skinny,with colourless eyes from a life without daylight and floppy combs from a life without cool fresh air, bruised legs, hock burns,purposely shortened beaks and long nails..all for the luxury of living in a space the size of your computer screen.

I could go on but I think the pictures speak for themselves.

This was Mo's first day of freedom her first feel of grass under her feet. She kept looking up at the sky, I wonder what she made of it all...

AFTER...

Fatter, redder,feathered, able to flap their wings and have a dust bath, eat and drink when they want, enjoy the sunshine.Happy.

Mo 3 months later after a bit of TLC

They are a lovely bunch,friendly,cheeky,each has their own personality and they often come in for a nosey at how the Humans like to live. I do like chickens!

And I do like this lot....... who do the other bit..

The other stinky boys Birthday

Hmmm..what can I say about this crazy one. He's the comedian, has his own language that only I can understand, likes to put on the most bizzare old men masks and go off riding over the hills in them,much to onlookers amusement, adores animals..I mean really adores them and has a heart of gold..(but boy, can he moan sometimes!!) He's up at 6am every morning to walk the dog, do his paper round and feed the creatures.

He also loves vintage stuff and granny blankets but can do a mean 'table top' on the bike that is permanently attached to him.

Happy 15th birthday Harry! xx

or should I say

"Lizzard it's your falala..dont forget to take rodent for a five before you have your llama, Christmas tree "

yup, he'll know just what that means...crazy I tell you!!

I've been tagged!

I've been tagged by the thrifty Mrs and her incredible bargainous blog..so here goes

1.what was I doing 10 years ago?

Working as a window dresser for Beatties in Worcester (now house of Fraser) and working in the evenings as a 'Meeter greeter people seater' in a restaurant (yes really that was the name of the job) living in a brand new Bryant house that I really didn't like..but the front was used for their adverts in glossy magazines.

Had been married a year and had a pair of naughty little boys aged 5 and 6.

2. five things on my to do list today...

make three lampshade covers, 2 out of vintage fabric, 1 gingham

Hoover the fur-balls up (every creature in the vicinity is molting)

Get some rabbit, dog and cat food 4 pints of milk and a loaf of toastie bread.

ummm oh, and collect the eggs and fill up the water hopper for the hens

and lastly pin up my bunting properly that Julia sent me(more about that on another post!)

3. five snacks I enjoy...

oh dear maybe that should be five I don't!!

CHOCOLATE..the route of all evil invented by a man to bribe women with..has to be white or Galaxy, but if I'm desperate I'll eat any (not dark though... bleugh!)
Cherry tomatoes..I eat loads of them everyday..have to be firm else they make me feel sick when they pop.

houmous with red pepper on a toasted wholegrain seeded bagel ..just having one now for lunch.

Cheese..I love cheese..not the ones with blue in but any other.I heard that Johnny Vegas lost weight by giving up cheese..think I may need to follow his advice.

last one I suppose is american muffins.I like a muffin.

4.Things I would do if I were a millionaire...

Rescue loads of chickens from the battery farms..I would have fields and fields of happy chickens.

buy the entire contents of the Cath Kidston catalogue

donate lots and lots and lots of it to charity,especially those close to my heart.

Send all my blogging buddies a nice gift.

Have the honeymoon we never had..in fact have a holiday it's been 10 years since we had one.

Visit my mum and dad who live in France to see their old house there that i havent seen yet and my brother in Toronto to see my nephew that I haven't met and visit my sister in Thailand.

Nip and tuck here and there.New nose.

Nice old house,new old car. Sorted.

5.Places I've lived...

Theydon Bois, Essex.

Kirby Muxloe, Leicestershire.

Leicester Forest East.

Loughborough, Leicestershire.

Birmingham.

Halesowen, West Midlands.

Worcester.

Malvern.

I did spend some time in Switzerland too which was amazing..Not for very long though but long enough to go to school for a bit out there.

and in a puff of smoke Sairers air of mystery vanished..this is 'moi' a few years back!

(had to change that photo from before it was driving me mad..I really hate my nose and that's all I could see.. nose and chins!!!!)

Right ..next 6 victims!....oh theres so many to choose from !

Hayley at Happylovesrosie

Lindsay at Raindrops to roses

Claire at Serendipity loves new york (but I know shes a bit busy)

Louise at Home is where the heart is.

Natalie at Summer by the sea

Deborah at This vintage life

I'll get round to leaving a message on their blogs and doing the links in a bit,but I really must go and do the things on my to do list!

oops I've now just realised I've tagged Natalie who's already tagged!

Vintage,pretty or shabby?

I've decided once a week, on a Monday (if I remember to!) to blog about something either vintage, pretty or shabby, after all that is why I started this blog!

I've been terribly *lazy/disorganised/scatty/sad/busy/stressed out (*delete as applicable) this week in leaving return messages on blogs that have visited me or I have visited..oh the shame!..anyway thankyou as always for your messages, and I will get round to visiting new blogs as well as old favourites..hmm hope that didn't sound a little pompous..it wasnt meant to!

The sad bit, if you are wondering was losing my dear old hen Mavis..she of the bosomy eggs,to old age. My first rescued hen, she outlived many to the ripe old age of 4 (this is a good age for an ex battery hen) Bless you Mave, you were a real sweetie.x

right, lets get down to business..vintage pretty or shabby?

eeny meany miny mo...

VINTAGE.

ok lets raid the posh vintage china cabinet!

This is an old Edwardian oak bookcase that I painted originally blue then green.I prefered it blue but I think if I paint it once more the drawers may never open ever again. All the china in here is vintage and thrifted, mostly at boot sales and the occasional charity shop..I'm not bothered about perfection..it shows it's been well used in the past to me, so most of these things have crazing or cracks and nothing was really expensive.

I love the colours used from the 1930s and 40s...very spring like and the flowers are always so pretty..foxgloves,roses, pansies or buttercups. In times that must have been hard during the war,to have the table laid for tea with a pretty hand embroidered cloth adorned with pretty china like this must surely have brought a smile to any housewives face.

By the way you'll be pleased to know after my rant about packaging..the whole lot was recycled to post Harrys bike that he sold on eBay.It does seem Amazon are very erratic with their packaging..books arrive in a cardboard sleeve..usually with a bashed corner and then you get so much packaging for a mug it's ridiculous.It wouldn't have broken if an elephant happened to be passing and accidentaly stepped on it.(you never know in Malvern) The White company are bad for that too. I had a box for a lampshade that was sooo massive I could actually get the dog in it..yes we did try..he was ok about it. A treat just happened to fall in the box..and he is after all, a labrador retriever :0)

"I'll get in it.. but only if you give me another treat"

I'm having a rant

Amazon ....you should be ashamed of yourselves.

All this packing for 2 mugs and 2 side plates.

This is just two boxes worth of padding.It nearly touches the light fitting!

(and the mugs were double packed in another box with even more bubble wrap)

Disgusting.

More good things and pretty stuff

' Tranquility garden'

Karma is being kind. Good things have been happening of late, the first being that our nice newest neighbours whos cat I looked after last week, came round with some spare complimentary tickets to the Malvern Spring Gardening Show. I had only been watching it on Gardeners world saying it looked really good this year (I last went about five years ago)but couldn't justify paying out nearly 30 quid just to get in..you want to spent at least that on all the goodies on offer!!
Needless to say I was over the moon.It's our little slice of fame in Malvern and being a gardener everyone expects me to have been and tell them all about it.


Our favourite garden at the show,lots of little rooms leading into each other,follies and gremlins! Gorgeous.

Well I shall be telling them how fab it was! The show gardens were really great.There were so many lovely stalls and gadgets,I didn't know where to start first.I always home in on the vintage tools and garden salvage stalls, I love old watering cans and my milk churn came from the show before. Not quite what you would expect to find at a garden show, but I came away with these little beauties..everyone was ignoring the pretty little French lined basket,

and gorgeous tapestry..so I got myself a couple of real bargains after a bit of cheeky haggling!

There was also a stall selling kitcheny things so I got these enamel bits too, the string tin was £2.50 and the bucket a fiver!!

I did get a plant too, one I saw last time at the show that had just been introduced but had sold out straight away, so I was able to get my unusual burgundy flowered Lysimachia 'Beaujolais' this time.I also bought a very boring but essential Australian gadget to help me strim nettles easier (oh the excitement!)

When you work around gardens all the time you become a bit blase when it comes to looking at garden centres and plants for sale, I go to them often, get what I need at the best price and go, so the other pretty stuff and show gardens are what I'm more interested in!
Everyone asks your opinion on plants/weeds and pest control at every opportunity too..(it must be how doctors feel at parties!)..If I had a pound for everytime I was asked how to stop cats pooing in your garden I would be a rich woman! So sometimes it's nice to switch off to it and just have a mooch at everyone else's hard work.
Well I'm sunburnt as it was a gorgeous hot day, my feet ache like crazy but it was a really nice and unexpected treat to be able to go, so I will leave you with some pretty photos....enjoy! (they should enlarge if you click on them)

This wisteria smelt divine!

loved this menacing chap in his bubbling well

We both loved this ingenius little waterfall coming down either side of the steps to the pool at the bottom.How about this for a way to recycle old bike wheels!
This was clever, but a lot of people didn't get it..one side was a police station in the 60s and the other side, one today.The 60s side had rows of bedding plants and an old Morris Minor..I heard someone say.."well that's nothing special we had our garden like that"....hmm I think that was the point lol!

a little slice of the mediterrean.. all grown in sand.

and the entire crowd wanted to dip their toes in here..It was such a hot day!

Ps. I'm not sure whether it was talking about cats pooing or my use of the word 'pants' that has generated an advert on my googleAds for 'used pants' how bizarre!...do people actually buy parcels of used pants? I must have lived a sheltered life..I'm intrigued..please do let me know if you click on it as I'm not allowed to!!

Good things and Stanley

Thanks to a nice lady called Mair, I'm now the proud owner of a Cath Kidston Stanley! Yay!

Where would you like to live Stanley? will the dresser do for now?

I'VE GOT A STANLEY!!!

Can you tell I'm over excited? lol

Thankyou so much Mair, for letting me know where I could find him...

Isn't the weather divine? well I hope you are having these glorious Spring days too, I had my breakfast outside with this chap this morning...Basil. The cats go all lovey-dovey when it gets warmer, then they go all grumpy when it gets too hot!

I see someones found my new chair!

This is Winnie, she's about 16 and is my brothers cat, she's living out her old age with us as my brother lives in Canada now.

Winnie likes to sleep.A lot.

This huge Horse chestnut tree grows in our front garden,its so big I couldn't fit it in the photo! I love the candelabra flowers that come in April or May...each one turns into a conker and in October we are overwhelmed by them,there are millions of them!

The hens need crash helmets as their house is under the tree, every now and then you hear a squark as a conker drops from above. Maybe I should buy them some toy action-man helmets from ebay..what a sight that would be!!! Hens in helmets

Well as you can imagine not a lot grows well in the front garden so it is mostly shrubs, with a splash of colour in late summer from my 'hot' flower bed nearer the house.

Every spring,one of the hens goes broody.This year it's Dollys turn, She hides everyones elses eggs as soon as they lay them and fluffs up to twice her size when you open the box to collect them..she's a lovely hen, really friendly.. such a shame, I would love to hatch some chicks but I couldn't risk having a cockerel again and having to rehome him...not after Merlin!