A Walk In The Park

Just look at that sky ...

Let's go to the park ...

Such joy, it's peppered with signs of Spring ...

Oh to feel the sun on my face ...

The river is still freezing cold ...

Aaagh, don't go in the mud Bertie ...

Thanks!

Sorry Mum ...

Time to go home.

Ooh look, a parcel from Cath ...

How kind!!!  ;-)

Giveaway draw results later this afternoon and perhaps a peek into the parcel!

Hx

The Loveliest Day!

Isn't it quite wonderful what a little sunshine and vitamin D can do for the spirits?

This morning, it was a choice between busying myself at home with the sun shining through my slightly murky windows and showing up every single crumb, crud and dust mite or taking myself off to one of our nearby little towns (with SIX charity shops within half a mile of each other) and pottering.

Hmmm, frankly not a difficult decision!

Not as fruitful as some days, I did bag myself a couple of thrifty finds ...

Can you see the little etched daisies on the glasses?  So pretty.

And my favourites, for just 30p each ...

These antimacassars were a bit murky but I had a feeling they would come up beautifully clean after a hot wash ... and they did!

I treated myself to some primulas and hyacinths ...

and some munchies ...

I am totally addicted to pumpkin seeds at the moment and the blondies adore cheese straws!

Now, talking of food, I wanted to use up yesterday's roast beef for supper so I made rissoles.

It's so easy, blend together your leftover beef, a small onion, a red or green pepper, a chilli, fresh parsley, 2 cloves of garlic, a large egg, a handful of breadcrumbs and salt and pepper, in a food processor ...

  Form into patties and coat with seasoned flour ...

and then fry in very hot olive oil for 5 minutes each side.  Serve with watercress drizzled with extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice and a little salt and spoon over plain yoghurt ...

Delicious!

I wonder what tomorrow holds?  The moon looks huge and almost full.  They do say that people with green eyes (that's me) get slightly wanton when there's a full moon ...

Aooooooowwwwww ...

Hx

PS. Don't forget my pink and spotty giveaway ...

Night night x

Predominantly Pink Polka Dot Giveaway!

Guess what ...

a week today, I will have been blogging for exactly three months and I

LOVE LOVE LOVE it!

Being able to vent my own creative gubbins is such fun but what I didn't expect was how many friendly, interesting, articulate, kind, talented and generally quite gorgeous people like you ... yes, you ... I'd meet!

So, to celebrate my mini anniversary, I thought it would be fun to host a mini giveaway!

My theme, I have decided, is polka dots (and predominantly pink ones at that), so I've put together a little group of bits ...

From time to time I make plaques and fridge magnets to sell at craft fairs so I've included one of my hanging plaques, a self-adhesive door plaque ...

and one of my spotty wooden heart fridge magnets ...

You will also receive a sachet of Cath Kidston bath salts, some pink Smarties, plus a little pair of buttony earrings (for pierced ears) and a hair grip (for untamed locks) ...

together with any other little pink and spotty treats I can find.

All you have to do is become a follower of my blog if you're not already and leave a comment.

I'll randomly select one person next Thursday lunchtime, 4th March.

Simples.

Tee hee.  What fun.

Hx

Sniff, Sniff, Atishoo ...

... Bleurgh!!!

Half term week has been one long yucky stinky pooey cold.

It started with blondie son then hopped across to blondie daughter, she kindly shared it with me and now handsome hubby has a sore throat.

Note - the glass contains red wine and not echinacea which should, of course, be taken in moderation!!

We couldn't not do pancakes on Tuesday though ...

Neither could we avoid the snow ...

Flowers always cheer me up ...

... so does spending an afternoon playing with paints, with blondie daughter ...

My Mum bought us some hyacinths last weekend for our anniversary and they were just about to burst into flower ...

Blondie daughter preferred doing a still life ...

We had a little birthday lunch for Mum in the week ...

I've been dying to show you the card we bought her ...

Just brilliant!  Does it strike a chord with any of you?!  One day I'll tell you about the coat I bought off eBay which turned up in a black bag and had clearly been involved in some sort of fire ..!

Off to blow my nose again and fetch blondie son from ANOTHER party.

Keep smiling.

Hx

My Name Is Peach ... Please Take Care Of Me x

Look who I got as part of the Folksy Valentine Swap ...

I absolutely love her!

Her name is Peach and I promise I'll look after her Nat's Nest!

Thank you so much for my other bits too.  Blondie daughter has earmarked the bunny hairslide but Peach is definitely ALL MINE!

Peach wasn't my only lovely surprise yesterday.  Blondie daughter went to a pottery painting birthday party and made this for me ...

It's sooo pretty - all my favourite colours - perfect for my morning tea.

She even painted an 'M' inside for Mummy lest I forget!!!

Ooh, talking of morning tea, what did you have for lunch today?  I had mushrooms on toast with liberal dribblings of lemon juice and grindings of black pepper ...

Yummy ...

Hey ... what's that lurking behind the plate?

Ahem ..!

Thank you Fatcatfelt for your lovely comments and blog posting; I'm thrilled to bits that you love the necklace I sent you as part of the Valentine Swap.

Thanks to you too for all the encouragement and tips regarding my crocheting inability in response to my last post!  V For Violet, I can't believe how much you have done since it recently 'clicked' for you!  You're churning out a rainbow of beautiful granny squares like nobody's business!  I need that to be me!  I'm some way off 'clicking' but, teeny breakthrough, my attempts last night did vaguely resemble the picture I was copying!!!  Trust me, if and when I 'click', I shall post a photo on my blog before you can say "foundation chain"!

I bought the prettiest fabric recently and have been fiddling ...

I've made a lavender heart, a hairslide and a couple of brooches.  I can't show you any more than the above because they may form part of upcoming birthday pressies ;-)

I'll leave you with this lovely picture of my papery Narcissus flowers - they may look fragile but they are filling the kitchen with a beautiful heady aroma at the moment ...

Hx

Pssst ...

Look what I posted for blondie daughter today ...

Aah, young love!

To give her her due, its recipient is the same as last year so she's nothing if not loyal at the age of eight!

Unfortunately, I forgot it had a heart-shaped chocolate lollipop in it and placed it on the front passenger seat in my car when the botty warmers were on!!!  Dare say it'll taste the same?!

Talking of which, do you have any plans for Valentines' Day?

Handsome hubby and I will be celebrating our 12th wedding anniversary.  I know, I know, teensy bit cheesy but when Valentines' Day fell on a Saturday in 1998 it felt like it was meant to be!  We now get terribly possessive of 'our day' and antsy about sharing it with everybody else!  However, we will be going out for a romantic Sunday lunch with the smooching masses.  I'll do anything for roast beef and yorkshire pudding ;-)

Incidentally, there's a hole in the market for 'Happy Anniversary To My Valentine' cards - we can't be the only ones!  Any gifted card makers out there?  I'll be your first customer!

I always get handsome hubby two cards; a funny or rude and a soppy or rude.  This is the funny ...

The other one is for our eyes only I'm afraid, tee hee!

Well, I've been a very busy bee today but my mind does tend to wander while I'm a whirlwind of domesticity so I'll leave you with a choice few of those questions I've been pondering ...

How inexpensive do your pillows have to be before you replace them rather than wash and tumble them?  (Think my tumble dryer is about to explode!)

Why do men think that the amount of tummy button fluff they produce is a measure of how manly they are and do they realise quite how creepy women find it?

Will I ever be able to crochet?  I'm an intelligent girl but seem completely incapable of working out how to treble in the fourth chain from the hook? :-{

My little brother is getting married in Poland at the end of July.  What will the weather be like?  Should I be thinking sheer and floaty or minimum exposure and cosy???

Any suggestions would be warmly welcomed.

Hx

Bit Poo ...

I've been a bit of a crafty butterfly this week - flitting from one thing to another; alighting only briefly before moving on to something else.  I don't think I have actually completed any one thing.  Shall I make jools?  Shall I make a plaque?  Shall I fiddle with felt and fabric?  Shall I get my watercolours out?

Nah.

Do you ever go through these phases?

I haven't even managed to complete a blog posting.  I have however been popping in and out of my favourite blogs, leaving the odd message and enjoying all of your creativity and achievements though.

Take today for example ...

I've emptied the dishwasher, washed the school uniforms, fed whoever wanted feeding, delivered and collected blondie son to and from tennis, delivered and collected blondie son from Mega Zone party (yuk, those places are minging - why do they always smell of feet?) and that's about it.

I've taken all my sewing machine 'tools' out, tried to work out what each bit is or does, given up and packed them away again.  I've selected half a dozen items of clothing to sell on eBay, hung them provocatively on hangers to photograph, put two back into my wardrobe because they looked so nice and I might just wear them again after all (!) and then decided I wasn't in the mood.  Poo.

I have managed a couple of purchases this week (naturally).

Another Sascalia print from Etsy (I think I'm addicted) ...

Isn't it gorgeous?

My 4 year old nephew had what was supposed to be a straightforward operation at the beginning of the week.  The poor little soul struggled a bit and ended up in intensive care which was obviously a huge worry but, long story short, he's now home and on the mend.  He's big into dogs at the moment so look what we've bought him ...

It's a Jellycat Cordy Roy dog!!!  He's so soft you can almost scrunch him into a ball!

One thing I have done this week is put together my little package for the Folksy Valentine Heart Swap I'm taking part in hosted by my pal noodleBubble.  It has to include a heart and be handmade.  I know next to nothing about my gift's recipient so I've made her a necklace; hope she likes her jools ...

That's it for now.  A glass of wine and my jimmies are beckoning ;-)

Enjoy your evening.

Hx

PS. Thank you so much for the comments after my last entry - you're lovely you are! x