Spring stuff...

   Ooops I did it yet again, disappearing off without telling a soul. Naughty me.

squished bears

 Whilst I'm at home making myself poor by visiting eBay far too often (urrrgh hands up who else is sick of the flipping rain?) I thought I'd better stop by and poke my head round the door.
I have been busy with general stuff, visits from 'up north' sister..a sister who likes to walk and walk and walk (and then eat cake just like me) and a little brother who isn't quite so little anymore (dont know where he got his tall gene from) came to stay all the way from Canada.
There's been Stinky boy taking his RAF Airman's test ..and passing!

all new chickypoo pen

 There's been a spot of decorating and lots of repairing stuff (mainly the chicken run as I fell over in it whilst wearing my  pyjamas and spotty wellies, doing a spectacular roll in the mud and snapping off all the posts..Bald bloke found it highly amusing, being covered in chicken poo, I less so) Oh and our chicken run is in the FRONT garden....
Changing the little white car for a more 'manly' slightly bigger black one, (boys and their cars, honestly) I have the most 'manly' vehicle of all but nobody wants him as he leaks on you when it rains, smells like a wet dog  most of the time and has bright orange arches.
  Poor old thing, good job mummy still loves you Beastie truck.

Beastie

 There's been the getting of super-duper new glasses after Bella decided to eat mine.
Bella likes to eat stuff don't you know.  Blind as a bat for 3 months, I was.

geeky chic?

 There's been some injuries, namely from over excited hounds smashing into my calf at about 30 miles an hour. It felt like no pain I had ever felt..ever. Like being punched very, very hard with a red hot bowling ball. Yow! The dogs were fine, incase you were wondering.   I wasn't.

Harry (looking a little bit deranged), Felicity and Patricia (he named them!)

 There's been Birthdaying, corrr I was very, very spoilt this year with lots of unexpected surprises, two new chickens to replace some dear old girlies and a Cath Kidston holdall filled with pretty stuff  and Bald bloke bought me a birdbath. Reeeeesult!!)

Just need a weekend away now

 And lastly there's just been the general dog walking and gardening that I do anyway.

Nothing much very exciting really but I know you like to know, just like I do on your blogs.

Spring is definitely in the air amongst all this rain because I'm getting that nesting urge again. I really do have distinct need to decorate at the moment (lack of the big funds unfortunately stops me) I would love to paint the hall and have new blinds, have those much longed for shutters in the lounge and knock a big hole in the wall to make our teeny lounge bigger. I have so many ideas I have to write them down in a book before I go to bed to stop my head exploding in the night. It's quite interesting looking back through it and thinking "oh I'm glad I didn't do that" or "yes I did that and it worked out OK"
I wallpapered a  couple of walls a several months back and I love wallpaper, really love it, but every time I use it, I have a uncontrollable urge to paint over it a few months later.
About 10 years ago our bedroom originally had Cath Kidston pale green and white teeny polka dot wallpaper, it was really lovely but I got bored with it and painted over it in blue on a whim, much to bald blokes dismay. (that meant different curtains and bedding, you see)
 Then I acquired two rolls of Cath Kidston Paris Rose paper. How I loved this beautiful rosy paper with its nod to the 1950's but I actually prefer the red version if I'm honest.

nope, way toooooo rosy

 I papered the chimney breast in the dining room but once again, not long after,out came the paint. The same thing happened in our bedroom, a couple of  lengths of rosy loveliness and then having just decorated and 'de-boyed' Harry's old room in readiness for my sister coming to stay, I splashed a couple of coats of  my favourite Farrow and Ball blue over Cath and her rosy kitschness.Well, the paintbrushes were out so why not?... CRIMINAL isn't it? Especially as you can no longer get Paris Rose. A new old mirror (99p from eBay..bargain!)  and a shifty round of 'stuff' and I can sleep at ease without the rosiness shouting 'LOOK AT ME!' all the time.

my 99p vintage mirror!

 I just might wallpaper the inside of the wardrobe doors with the leftovers though, we'll see.
Now I know I must turn away and not be seduced by pretty wallpapers. I'm a plain and simple paint person and that's all there is to it. However I did see some fabulous pink 70s wallpaper on a trip to Tewkesbury recently and it keeps popping into my head niggling at me like a Labrador wanting it's dinner. Hmmmmm, I wonder..

cheerio for now x

Bella, Bunting and the Bucket List....

Thanks for all the Bella and Colin love on the last post. x

Bella actually belongs to George which means I get called 'Granny'....can't say I'm too chuffed about that! Colin is still as mad as ever, he flew right down the garden the other day, crash landing in a bush so it looks like I'll be getting the scissors out to clip his wing feathers again soon.
See, I told you he was a bit of a berk.
Bella (or 'The Belly' as she is known, typical Labrador- stomach on legs) is learning all the good habits from my lovely old black Labrador, Red, who is in turn learning a few naughty habits from his new little sister. You should here the racket Colin makes when they play together in the garden, who new Turkeys made such good referees?

Bella and Red

I quite like having another girl around, it means 'Granny' gets to buy pretty Cath Kidston flowery dog beds and leads and butterfly shaped pink dog toys!

Anyway,I'm trying my hardest to get into the Christmassy spirit thing.

It feels a bit weird to be thinking about Christmas just yet, I feel like this year has just flown by, the weather has got me out of sorts too, one minute it's mild and I'm wearing a t-shirt to garden in and the next it's blowing a gale..last year at this time we were deep in snow! I know it will creep up on me far too quickly, I'll be disorganised and probably skint as usual..especially as we have just had to have a new all singing all dancing economical combi boiler fitted...yikes (I'm sat here sweating cobs and now realise just how bad our old boiler was, I think I need to adjust something to make the house cooler! phewwww )

dotcomgiftshop

Recently I got sent some of this gorgeous Christmas Bunting from the DotComGiftShop 
If you dont know this website already, click the pink link you will discover a whole heap of kitsch and pretty loveliness at your fingertips...Christmas or otherwise. Now I can't wait to string them up. Jolly little houses and snow scenes, I think they have the same sort of look as a certain Mrs Kidston.
I'm going to get some kitsch flocked reindeer lights this year too as they are just my cup of tea..kitsch and 50s looking but without the dodgy vintage wiring!


















I think a certain Bald bloke would like a cup of tea in this mug

and I'm so in love with this framed doggy print.

It was always my job to go to the post Office when I was younger to purchase the 13p dog licence when it used to be 'required by law'.

That'll definitely be on my wish list...pretty please Father Christmas!

Pete and I have been away 'oop north' again for our annual trip to Northumberland to see amazing fireworks, puppy worship (two of my sisters have puppies too) drink far to much frothy coffee and eat waaaay too much cake, oh and to tick something off my Bucket List.

I'm very lucky to have a great family, who mean everything to me.
I adore my 3 sisters and my little brother who I just don't see often enough.

photo:Google

My brother-in-law whom I've known since I was 4, ( he and my eldest sister were childhood sweethearts) treated me to something I've wanted to experience in a long time, an Opera.

photo:Google

OOOOOH posh stuff!! It was at the amazing Newcastle Theatre Grand , a beautiful Victorian place which has recently had a 5 million pound facelift (pity about the new chairs though, they had to be THE most uncomfortable chairs ever in the world..fidget, fidget, fidget)

I went to see Puccini's Madama Butterfly.

 photo: Google

Set in the 1940's, in the hills above Nagasaki, it was beautiful, very moving and you don't need to be fluent in Italian to understand the story of Lieutenant Pinkerton of the US Navy the and his 15 year old Geisha bride to be. The singing was incredible and the parts you recognised musically gave you goosebumps.
Wonderful stuff.
Big TICK of the list that one.

Of course when 'oop north', there is the obligatory shopping to do, especially in the Roman village of Corbridge which has Dickensian streets of stone houses and shops with Christmas windows that might even make old Scrooge smile. I spent some hard earned pennies in one of my most favourite shops.. RE
Giant paper snowflakes to hang in the big window in the dining room, architectural shop letters that will eventually light up and various other bits and bobs came home with us.

Inspired by a local coffee house, I'm going to make a cushion out of (yet another) tea towel, this time from a vintage French map of Britain.
If only you could smell these gorgeous French soaps!

Perfect colours for our 1930s bathroom.

They have some really great, quirky stuff there, far more than on the website.

Unfortunately,November also saw both my stinky boys loose their jobs, so we have been a bit pre-occupied here, I worry myself silly about things and if I'm not careful I get a bout of Shingles or the dreaded Migraines. This month its been the latter. Great.
December is lurking around the corner which as you know,is one of my less favoured months, already we have hospital visits lined up, (lifting heavy mowers into trucks does you no favours ladies!...get doing those pelvic floor exercises!!) and the dentist found something odd in bald blokes mouth which requires a biopsy.Scary stuff. Keep your fingers crossed for him pretty please...he's my rock. x

Cheerio for now x

p.s
Xxx's....for Lynn for her lovely Harry....

This week's messages on the fridge..

Fridge love...

mummy love....

Brotherly love...(er-hummm)

Keith Lemon love...

and I just plain love this...

***

Go on say it....

ABOUT BLOOMIN' TIME you old crow..I hear you shout. Yes, I know, I've been gone an absolute age but you know how it is some days, life comes charging by and sweeps you along at warp speed, (that, and the fact I lost yet another very old kitty which made me a bit sad and I'm not very good at doing anything else when I'm doing sad)
Thanks for the emails asking if I'm dead or alive. I think I'm somewhere inbetween so I'll make this one a big post about nothing in particular as no doubt I'll scoot off again, doing two highly knackering jobs with funny hours dependent on the weather makes you do that sometimes.

::Weird freaky stuff
Now you might think I'm two sandwiches short of a picnic when I tell you this, but this is how it happened so I'll just come right out and tell you.At the height of my feeling down and tearful and thinking that the whole world and it's wife hated me, I had a visitor.
I woke up with a start to find a lady stood by my bed. Just stood there looking at me. Needless to say when you wake up to find someone unexpectedly stood by your bed it freaks you out slightly.I freaked out big time and hid under the covers, waking Pete up with my absolute freaky-outy-ness. Maybe it was a dream, I dont know, but I do know that this strange perfect heart shaped mark appeared on my arm a few days later.

It usually takes a huge whack to bruise me and I haven't bumped into anything heart-shaped or been stung by a horse fly or anything like that. It was just there, not hurting or anything.It stayed for a week and vanished as quickly as it came.(It had faded a bit when we took this photo, believe me, it was a perfect heart!)
Weird and freaky indeed but strangely it did lift my mood, I feel ok again and feel like the world isn't against me, which is why I'm here blogging. Ok that really makes me sound like I'm barking mad, what a way to start a post!!

::The paper knickers saga

A couple of people have asked how George's nose is after his reconstructive surgery. It's very good thankyou and you can't see the join where they stitched it back together with a bit of his ear...very clever stuff.
It was a bit weird seeing him with a slightly different but very nice 'textbook' nose, no-one else could tell the difference from his pre-accident one but I could because I made it in the first place. Being the right wuss that I am, I must admit I shed a secret tear for the old nose.
We wont go too much into the saga of the surgical paper knickers he was asked to wear but eventually after such a blooming hooha and delaying the surgery he was allowed to wear his own boxer shorts. Vanity? My son? Naaaah.


::The Marmite chair

I bought a gold metal and nylon velvet 1950s chair for £6, took it home sprayed it red and am in the process of covering the seat. It spins round. I love it. Basil loves it too especially when it spins but then he's always been a bit odd..he also like to be hoovered with the vacuum nozzle. Did you spot him in the White Stuff catalogue in his spectacles? Fame has gawn to his head and he finally has his wish of posh princess sachet food..(well there's only two kitties left now so I think they are allowed)
Everyone else thinks this chair is vile. A bit like Marmite..which I can't stand and everyone else in this house loves. Urgh.


::The Rainy day lampshade

I spent ages hunting for a cheap large white linen drum shade for the £4 standard lamp base I renovated ages ago, only to end up covering it on a whim one rainy Sunday afternoon with some fabric I'd saved for a deckchair.
Mmmmm, 1950s painterly lushness how I adore thee..

::Things you thought you hated but have now decided you like

I grew up with things like this, 70s bubble glass and G-plan furniture.Funny how you can change your mind about stuff isn't it?

::Square balls.

Remember my round-but-take-forever-to-clip box balls? well they are now slowly becoming a hedge.
There's been a lot of changes in the garden, the extra cold winter we had killed off a lot of plants front and back so I took the opportunity to change a whole border in the front, taking out large shrubs and replacing with my favourite perennials, it's all still a work in progress but then that's how gardens should be, an ongoing thing.

The first year is always the crappiest as everything tends to be the same height.


I'm far better at doing other peoples gardens than I am my own, if I'm redoing a flower bed for someone, I've got a budget, a colour scheme and a soil type but when it comes to my own plot, well that's another thing altogether. I'm a bit like a kid in a sweet shop when I'm at the garden centre and buy the pretty stuff I love with no-where suitable to put it! oops!

::Chickypoos

It wasn't only our 21 year old cat Winnie, that died, I also lost several of my old ladies this year including lovely old Big Bessy so there are 3 new lovely young chickypoos joining the flock; Florence the Barred Orpington and a Black, feathery legged Cochin/Orpington hybrid who looks like she's got 70s disco flares on and a jacket of the most amazing beetle-black colours, she's called Fanny (after Pete's Granny incase you're wondering who was neither black nor had a pair of 70s disco flares but there you go) and a Lavender Orpington called Beryl. The Barred one is HUGE and still only a baby. They came from a fabulous farm near us that takes chickens in for boarding, they sell beautiful,friendly, healthy birds in immaculate pens (often occupied by an oblivious Bacon the Jack Russel too) a farmhouse looking like it's straight out of Country Living and to die for Shepherds huts, made on the premises to order. Needless to say, I rather like going the 5 minutes down the road for a chicky-fix. (there's a link HERE if you'd like a peek)

::London

Pete HATES London. Only because he has to drive a 44 ton lorry through the hoards of traffic cutting him up at every opportunity and giving him more verbal abuse there than anywhere else he goes to in Great Britain. It makes him grumpy and it makes him sweat alot as there are hundreds of low bridges and narrow streets down there that his Sat Nav always seems to miss and if you come to one of those it means a lot of slow manoeuvrings, hooting, being sworn at and hassle all round.
I on the other hand have rather fond memories of our capital city.We used to live on the London /Essex border so trips to see that huge blue whale in the British museum and the Changing of the Guards were commonplace. I had my 5th birthday at London zoo when Chi-Chi the panda came over from china and it causes a heap of excitement, (poor old Chi-Chi is a stuffed exhibit in the aforementioned museum these days) then there was my 10th birthday at Madame Tussuads and feeding the pigeons in Trafalgar square.My first proper visit to London with Pete was to go to Johnsons on the Kings road for a pair of much hankered after biker boots, a visit to Flip for some 50s American bowling shirts and a milkshake at Eds Easy Diner.
Although I haven't been there for years, I do rather like London.

Don't think my other half will be too impressed with this though when he gets home...
I, on the other hand, love it. A kitschy 1950s London souvenir tablecloth.

::Swimsuits
I am trying to find a swimsuit with a retro look. Not an easy feat when you are shaped like a baking potato...this is the lush list so far:

Laura Ashley

For Luna

Cath Kidston

Ideally I would like to be able to just appear in the water without having to do 'The walk of shame' to the pool, but if you're going to look like a walrus, you may as well look like a walrus with style...

::Mollie Makes

Oooh this is the most fantastic magazine ever in the world, like, EVER. I've canceled my Country Living subscription and subscribed to this one instead.For the first time in months I've actually wanted to make stuff and this is what has inspired me.AND, you get to see in some of our favourite bloggers' gorgeous houses so it's not only making things. Go get it, you really do need it in your life.


So there you go, see..told you, nothing exciting, just some stuff to waffle on about but I thought I'd better show my face sooner rather than later.

Cheerio for now x