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

My 15 minutes of fame..

Whilst I'm hunting around high and low for a hospital letter with an appointment date and time on (Bella has eaten it I'm sure) I thought you might like a peek at this interview I did for US eBay's online magazine 'The inside source' back in October, which was published this month.

My original vintage Pex chicken sign from the USA

http://vintageindie.typepad.com/vintage_indie/2009/01/although-our-kitchen-is-absolutely--tiny-and-really-only-temporary-its-one-of-my-favourite-roomsit-is--split-into-tw.html

I know the photos are a little old now, been and seen sort of thing, but I was quite chuffed That Marni used the whole interview, just adapting my English waffle for US readers.
My wish list on eBay gets longer and longer, I'm sure my house would be cleaner if eBay, blogging and Flikr didn't exist!

What's on your wish list?..eBay or otherwise.

Ooh and I've done this thing with comments so you and I can reply to each other on the actual post..much better!
cheerio for now x

That Christmassy thing

 

I made my first ever Christmas New years cake (with a little help from Delia)

 So off it goes, yet another year whizzing by, taking the craziness of Christmas with it.
I have big plans for this year as I feel I completely wasted the last one. Faffing about,fretting and missing opportunities because of  having the curse of  zero confidence making me not go for a job I really, really would have liked (like, since I was 5 would have liked) arrgh! I could slap myself with a big wet fish sometimes. I should have a degree in procrastinating.

the kitschness tree

Anyway, back to Christmas, I got to choose my own stuff this year, with Pete working away so much it was a case of oooh look what Father Christmas bought me, isn't she he clever knowing exactly what I like?!

My manifesto for 2012, a present from myself!

Everything was covered in pine needles this year too, Harry and I bought what ended up to be the worst tree in the world, 5 minutes before the garden centre closed on the worst, most rainiest day in the wrong car (the little white car instead of the big beasty truck)
Bella ate most of the plastic or wooden baubles at her eye level, producing sparkly, polystyrene dotted poo the following day (she is currently on a mission to eat as many different things as possible, including my spectacles!) Every time we shut the door, drew the curtains, the wind from wagging dogs' tails (and possibly the wind from dogs bottoms for all I know, too) seemed to make a mass of needles drop off it..heaps of  the things! The dogs, cats, presents, floor, us..we all got covered in prickly needles. I even found some in my knickers for goodness sake!
The poor, sad tree was a bunch of brown twigs by New Years Eve.
We have bought a pretend tree for next year in the sale, a bargain at £30 instead of £100 (crikey aren't fake ones expensive?)
I shall really miss the smell of a real tree because to me that is the smell of Christmas. Never mind.

Basil got in touch with his feminine side and helped me wrap presents

Before Christmas, whilst out on a jolly but insisting he wasn't drunk (yeh right, do kids forget we were 19 once?) George tripped off the curb and badly hurt his ankle.He was whisked off to hospital in an ambulance and the first we new of  it was him waking us up at 4am trying to get up the stairs on crutches. His ankle was 3 times its size and bruised up to his knee but wasn't broken like the paramedics thought. He said the pain was worse than when he broke his collarbone...or his hand (3 times)..or his other ankle...or nose or his finger for that matter...and he couldn't put any weight on it at all for 2 weeks. He was due to start a new job fitting solar panels to roofs the following Monday.  Talk about unlucky!!
So once again I have been the 'fetcher of things' for his lordship.

The boys asked for strange things for Christmas, George asked 'Santa' for "a bed that wasn't someone else's or that some granny might have died in"
George doesn't 'get ' the vintage thing.

Okay then, looked like a trip to Ikea for Santa (with George and his crutches in tow). His room has been revamped, it's all grey and white and retro-modern and parents are banned from it. My only imput was the Orla Kiely bedding which really looks rather nice and was very much approved of  by stinky George and stinky, furry pesky Bella.We moved some metal locker cupboards from Harry's old room and swapped the shabby vintage linen blinds for some smart white wooden ones.
  George bought a chair and the bed and Santa bought the side cupboards, funky plastic lampshade and various other bits and bobs. Ikea beds are HUGE..even the little ones are huge!
Are Swedish people all really tall as well as gorgeous?

The ouchy looking outline of Lady Luck

Harry asked for some money towards a tattoo, sounding like a complete hypocrite I begged him not to have one, gave him the lecture of  'its for life'  but he went ahead anyway. He likes vintage things like we do, old cars, pinups and polka dots and often I hear old 50s tunes coming from his ipod. He's 18, doesn't live at home anymore and as much as I protested I didn't really have much of a say in the end.
It's just as scary when your kids grow up y'know...

I was given a lovely woolly pompom hat and scarf from George..

my new woolly hat!(and rather dusty mirrors!)

 and Harry and his girlfriend gave me some lovely vintagey type things like a large green metal number 2 and an I grew up in the 80s CD..he thought it was hilarious that I new the words to most of the songs....bring on the disco!!

Well this month, like probably the rest of the UK, has been incredibly tight money wise, so imagine my utter delight when I won a phone in competition on the radio this morning to have a bill paid....a £99 and 44p bill to be precise!!
I must have sounded like a dithering, dribbling, gibbering wreck, and their pronunciation of my supposedly  German sounding double-barrelled surname was hilarious, still, who cares? They could have called me Mrs Mashed-Potato for all I'm bothered!
A good start to the New Year and hopefully how 2012 will go on.
Pete's mouth is all okay too, yay! Although the lovely Italian mouth specialist actually made me snort with laughter at his demonstration of how the saliva glands work..yep we can see from 4 foot away that bald blokes work properly, hmm, thanks Pete! (she says wiping a shot of saliva from her eyes)

Happy, Happy New year to you all...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....

Unimpressed

Red, Basil and Daisy are completely unimpressed by 'Colin', the crazy acting, odd looking, beeping, peeping, gobbling turkey (yay, I got one at last!!!) he sounds like a futuristic ray gun, "peeeawwwww peep!" until he hears a passing siren or a child crying or a screech of tyres, then he does his proper "gobble gobble" turkey noise.
Colin came from a teeny cottage tucked away in the Forest of Dean. A lovely little old couple kept them because they liked them along with lots of other creatures feathered and furry. I promised not to eat Colin and he came home sat on the back seat with me. We got some very funny looks when we stopped for petrol and he peeped out the window.

He looks like a miniature ostrich who's wearing their intestines as a neck warmer and he acts (endearingly) like a bit of a berk.

The ladies like him and he rather likes them.
Happiness.

However, Daisy has found the highest place in the house and gone on hunger strike and Basil is just plain horrified at the other new arrival at Shabby Towers.
They are completely unimpressed by the new 'thing'

Basil could win the X-factor with all the wailing that's going on.
Red, who at first couldn't even bear to look at the new 'thing', has finally come round to the idea...

and the humans at Shabby towers are all in totally besotted and in love....




.....with Bella.