Posy

Fairy lights and Fairy cakes

Hi everyone, Alice blogging today!

Well now that it's half term i've had alot of things planned. Unfortunatly all my fun begins tomorrow (Thursday) so these past few days have been very dull and boring for me. It doesn't help the fact it's been terrible rain!!

I was so bored yesterday that i decided to go to Sainsburys with my mum. We walked through the cooking ingredients aisle, and I thought it would be a good idea to make some fairy cakes; so mum and I bought the ingredients (you'll never see mum in the kitchen as she says she has many other things she wants to do that the finished result will actually last longer than 5 seconds!).

Today as you've probably guessed i've been spending the past hour making cakes!

It's been alright apart from the fact Mum and I have both got headaches, Mum's got it worse than me, so i thought it would be a nice idea to do a blog for a change.

So here i am making my cakes, with the fairy lights of course. Quite a bad picture of me unfortunatey; but Lucy took it, so as her sister, I will blame her!

Finally my cakes were done, and they came out.....well.....they could've been better!

The worst part remains, which is doing the washing up afterwards!! Oh well I better do it now so i don't have to do it later.

Hopefully i'll speak soon and thank you for reading,

Bye xxxxxxxxxxxx

Waiting

Outside chairs remain empty.

Pictures remain not hung. Frames unpainted.

A certain pussycat claims a certain quilt as his own.

Printer's tray not dusted.

 

Typical British Bank Holiday Monday weather.

And why, you may ask, such inactivity?  I have one of my 3 day migraines - well I'm hoping it will be just 3 days, but who knows.  I'll be back, maybe tomorrow, should be tomorrow, please be tomorrow!

New Day, New Lamp

Don't you just love this view? You do? That's great because I do too. It's the view from the Saturday morning car boot I go to (I'm sorry that recently this blog is just about what I find at car boot sales, but the season will soon be over so bear with me!) and it always revives my tired, end-of-week spirit. In fact the photo doesn't really do the view justice. It is looking south-west across to the South Hams, such a beautiful part of Devon. Just by standing on top of that hill every week I feel my stresses melt away and I can breathe more easily. I return home later and blather on to Anth about the friendly atmosphere and the lovely, wide, open space. It always seems to be sunny too and that always helps. Anyway, today's favourite find (and it was hidden away and I walked past it twice!) is this cute lamp base, not sure about the shade but it's all I had.

Lamp off..

Lamp on..

Lamp good!

Tagged

I've been tagged by Cindy of Quainthandmade blog so here goes:

 

What were you doing 10 years ago?

I was living here in the same house married to Anth, being a stay-at-home mummy.

What are 5 things on my to-do list today?

Check paint samples with the pale yellow chair in 'Cheap Chic' page 48 my 'maybe tomorrow' project.

Listen to 'What are you looking for?' by the Sick Puppies which is this week's best song. I've recently bought their album Dressed Up As Life and love some of the tracks.

Watch The Apprentice at 9pm.

Water my garden.

Cuddle my lovely husband.

Snacks I enjoy

Almond Croissants (particularly the ones in Costa Coffee)

Sweet popcorn (at the cinema)

Total Greek Yoghurt with Honey

Cadburys Flake Cones

Most crisps

(Jeepers, no wonder I've got weight to lose!)

Things I would do if I was a billionaire

Give it away

Places I have lived before

Shaftesbury, Torquay, Paris, Torpoint, London, Glasgow, Wellington

6 people I want to know more about

Chris Martin

Cath Kidston

My grandmother

My children

(changing it to places I would like to know i.e visit!)

Lucinda Chambers' kitchen

Atlanta Bartlett's home Foster House

 

Surprising myself

Well here it is. The quilt. The family call it the hideous quilt. A quilt that not so long ago would have made me quite queasy with it's sickly yellow colour. But not now; now I am strangely drawn to it.  I found it on Sunday at my favourite car boot thrown in a pile of soiled (love that word!) bedding. It is the one place at the car boot sale that makes me feel uneasy - house clearances.  I find it so sad to see odd shoes, photos, pieces of someone's life just strewn over the ground. People rummage through the unwanted stuff, trampling over it.  Over in the corner is a large piles of blankets, duvet covers, sheets, towels and sometimes I will have a look to see if there is anything I can save. On Sunday I spied this quilt, so totally not me..until now! The 'new' flea market me who is trying her hardest not to be so 'safe'. There is something I really like about it, though that sentiment isn't shared with the rest of the family.

But it has been perfect for this cold spell we've been having - so I can have the french door open but feel warm and cosy under my sunshiny, yellow, rose quilt.

Oh look, there's my feet again, though shoeless this time. And before I go I must thank you for all your lovely comments which, like the quilt, bring sunshiny warmth to my day. 

My Creative Endeavors

Yay, I actually did some sewing this weekend and oddly to easy myself into it I chose to make one of the most fiddliest/impractical things (size wise) I could. Mmm a blonde moment if ever there was one. Yeah, I made a bedspread in the discontinued Cath Kidston's Blue Rose Bouquet I found nearly 18 months ago. Tut tut, I'm naughty keeping it that long unused, but at least it's on our bed now though it is minus the wide crochet lace down the sides.  That's still to do.

I also found an old Embroidery Anglais trim that fits the lampshade of my 'kindness' lamp perfectly. I'm pleased because it looked kind of boring just being white though I don't want it to look, pretty, pretty which Embroidery Anglais has a habit of doing.

And it was new shoes time this week. I usually live in boots in winter and flip-flops in summer but I bought some cute, canvas pumps, complete with a small bow, I love bows. What do you think of my 'arty' shoe picture?

I was trying to make the photo look casual with my legs nonchalantly crossed, but I ended up looking one legged and rather silly! Alice walked in and panicked that the neighbours would see me - I didn't like to tell her that they probably see much worse in this house and me taking photos of my shoes, again, doesn't compare perhaps with me winding fairy lights around our banisters in the middle of May; or(and this was commented on) me attacking freshly painted furniture with hammers/sandpaper/and nails; or as Lucy has just said, hanging my hideous quilts on the washing line and taking pictures of them. Huh, I will show you tomorrow the quilt in question. Hideous..well it could be borderline I think.

No, our neighbours are lovely but definitely the sort of 'normal' people that keep fairy lights for Christmas. Mmm Christmas, I'm already counting weeks..see you tomorrow!

The week gone by

I can't believe it's been a whole week since I've last posted.  Tut tut, hope you haven't noticed.  I've been a busy bee. A very, very busy bee with an 18 year old son but more about that later. Well...do you like it?  My wall of flowers. I'm thrilled with it especially when every picture has been bought from a car boot or charity shop and cost from 25p to £3; oh with the exception of one that sweet Amanda sent me as a gift. Thank you, Amanda!

It is a work in progress as I'm expecting to add to it.  I did repaint a lot of the frames, and I'm glad I did as they all sort of 'blend' together now. 

Summer arrived last weekend with gloriously sunny weather which brought out many, many sellers at my regular car boot sales - in fact almost too many! I found some treasures though, one being this..

..a sweet nativity picture which seems to mean I must be officially collecting anything with a Mary theme. (You know when I was a little girl my dream was to play Mary in our Sunday School's nativity play but I was always an angel, year after year. It still stings!!)

Oh before I forget Kathy has asked about the little Barbola mirror.

I found it at a jumble sale and bought it for a £1.  Only problem is that it is missing it's mirror so I have temporarily placed another mirror against it (even though it's too big) and am on active look-out for a smaller one.  And finally, there was celebration in the Goble household on Wednesday as our firstborn turned 18.  But being a grown up boy of 18 does not mean you're too old for kisses from your mother...even if you are taller than her!

That Friday Feeling

Ooh, it's been a long week. A week when I've had to work full time..oh the horror! And Tom had to go to court about his mugging. He was brilliant, I was so proud of how he handled the situation and the person was found guilty. It was a stressful experience for us all but it's finished now and it's Friday. The sun is trying to shine and the weather forecast for the weekend looks good, my pots, well my buckets are beginning to burst forth with flowers and my 'new' collection is looking blooming too.  These pictures have been found at my recent car boots as I'm trying to create a wall of flowers in the sitting room. I did want only embroidered pictures but think I might extend it to paintings too.  So, now I'm trying to decided if I should paint the frames of the 2 tiny oil paintings..hmm. Anyway, I will show you when it's all up, which hopefully should be this weekend.  I say 'should be' because the house is outrageously messy and it will take some time to get things in order...better get going - have a super weekend.

Just a quickie

There is no photo accompanying this post on the grounds of decency.  Yup, I had a couple of incidents today at school that caused a bit of a kerfuffle.  At sometime during the morning I had to leave class and use the toilet.  I then realised that I needed to make a quick phone call and was standing in the staff room, phone in hand when I heard my name being shouted rather urgently, "Jane!"  I looked up and saw a colleague frantically gesturing to my behind..yeah you guessed it..I had my skirt tucked into my knickers and tights! I quickly adjusted myself and thought what a lucky escape the children in my class had- not to mention giving anyone on the way back to the class room an eyeful!

It was later in the afternoon when I visited the toilet again.  As I washed my hands I ran through in my head how I could word the whole funny incident for the blog and made sure I had adjusted my skirt. As I quickly left to go back to class the most enormous screech of laughter filled the staffroom and a voice boomed out, "AHHHH, STOP! JANE STOP! JANE!" People came running to see what had happened and fell about laughing. I looked on confused and then saw a looong trail of toilet paper snaking behind me!  I had somehow tucked the end of the roll into my knickers/tights!  What silly girl.

I think the combination of a skirt with a lining and a very strong, twangy elastic waistband on my tights was the problem. Once was OK but twice...what a day!  I'm now off to take them off - well, it's far too warm for tights isn't it?!

All sorts, with much rambling on my part

This is an 'all sorts' post, you know, a post full of bits and pieces - which was a bit like our bank holiday weekend, some good, some bad. Let's get the bad bit over with first...I'm seriously have 'sewer's block' if there could be such a thing!  I'm feeling a touch overwhelmed by life and can't seem to get myself motivated to either; stick at something I've started making or, more importantly, start something new.  It doesn't help that I can never find a space at the dining room table as there always seems to be someone there before me. Household chores are mounting, the children have exams looming and everywhere I look there seems to be piles of stuff.  Stuff, stuff and more stuff. Actually it's more like stuff and dirt and laundry. My car booting didn't result in much too..I'm sure you get the picture. The weather didn't help as most of the weekend was grey. Warmish but grey. Warmish enough to have our first cup of tea at our outside table. Have you noticed my teapot? That was a gift from my father and my husband. I found it in Ludlow and yearned for it but it was too expensive for me to justify buying it even though it goes with my rose tiered cake stands; but it's gorgeous pink rosiness kept creeping into my mind and the family got fed up with me standing in Zani Lady (my favourite Ludlow shop) looking at it..so those 2 wonderful men bought it for me and, which is even more hilarious, agreed to have their photo taken holding it for the blog! The photo looks totally ridiculous with one holding the spout and the other the handle..so it remains 'unposted'. Do I hear a phew?!

Next, I found this box on Amanda's stall in Totnes on Friday.

It is made from vintage cards which have had holes punched into them and then been crocheted together. I love it but prefer some of the pictures on the inside so am considering unpicking it and re-making it with the nicer pictures on the outside. Does anyone know if these type of boxes had a name and does anyone have any ideas how to do the crochet bit?  I'm a bit scared to unpick it but it does bother me that you can't see the best pictures; my favourite is the small side picture of the anemones and yellow rose sprig. Anyway, I'll be interested in your opinion.

And lastly,

I've been meaning to show you my new bedside lamp. I originally bought it last summer in Zani Lady for the girls' room. It needed rewiring and it's taken me all this time to do it. What I love about this lamp is that it is a product of other people's kindness. Firstly, the lady in Zani Lady. Before I bought it I was dithering about whether it could be rewired so she let me take it out of the shop, (without paying,no less) to get an opinion from the electrician up the road. She didn't know me and I thought that was very trusting of her, even though I left her one of my children!  Secondly, when I decided recently that I could wait no longer and I must have it fixed; I was told that there would be a 14 day wait.  A fellow customer overheard and being an electrician, did the necessary rewiring then and there, in the shop - and charged me nothing! And finally, after making a total hash of trying to stick the beaded trim on the shade with double-sided sticky tape - sweet Lisa spent a good 45 minutes during our crochet afternoon sticking it on properly! So, every time I look at it I'm reminded of the kindness of strangers and the very considerable talent and patience of my dear friend..

..and that, my friends is the end of my ramblings...and this was only going to be a short post..!!

The Last Couple of Days

Yesterday

Going to school..'the lanes way.'

Can you see the Cow Parsley starting to froth - just waiting for me to stop the car and pick it! And the Red Campion (which I still call Pink Campion) has just arrived too I noticed; it looks lovely with the bluebells dotted around it. Yes, Spring is here along with it's very changeable weather, sun, torrential rain, strong winds, all in the space of an hour.

Today

Charity Shop finds.

..the blanket, in case you're wondering!  It's not very big, and the squares are actually much smaller than they appear in the photo, but perfect for snuggling on the sofa. Might even try again to put it on Tom's bed though I don't hold out much hope!

And some 70's pillowcases. Very flea market. I'm starting a collection of those bright, floral 70's (?) pillowcases as Lucy actually showed a smidgen of interest in them. So these might grace her bed.

..and lastly a peep at my almost planted up garden.  After many months of neglect and lack of enthusiasm on my part I had a lovely weekend last week getting reacquainted. Let's hope the sun stays around for the next.