Holiday 2009

I've been away from blogging for a while and really have no excuse other than I dont knw where the days keep disappearing.
Whilst I've been gone lots of things have happened.

I had my **th birthday - lovely day out with pub lunch and auction browse and I bought a Retro Roberts Radio that I've been wanting for about five years with my birthday money.

Mothers day - a gorgeous necklace chosen by Miss T and breakfast in bed from Master T.

A couple of trips into village but no great finds in charity shops, food shopping, cooking, cleaning , lots of ebaying...........................

And we've booked Holiday 2009 - we thought we probably wouldnt get away this year but after hearing lots of tragic stories - we decided to make the most of our time here and not keep putting things off. The children are growing so quickly - I know we probably only have a few more years when they will want to come with us.

We normally go with Canvas - they are like Eurocamp but we find them much cheaper.

We are going to France - the Loire and two sites not far from Paris then travelling up through Belgium to get to Holland. We are having three weeks in total, have upgraded the mobile home to their third option and booked the overnight ferry from Rotterdam with a cabin so we can get some sleep. Wow expensive I hear you mutter..... Now for the good bit. For the four of us, including all upgrades and ferries it is going to cost:








678 pound !!!!


We had thought about going on a narrowboat holiday for a week in this country but the cheapest we could get one in June was over 800.
These are some picture of the sites we are visiting - would be great if some of you could come too.

Shopping Tip - Oilcloth 6.99 metre

I have just been reading about Silkie Sues bargain oilcloth in a shop in Bristol and told her about our local shop that I'm off to have a look round tomorrow.

I know a lot of you will have heard of Dunelm - they are really common up here in the Midlands but I know they are fairly sporadic in the south.

I went on to their website to check out the price of the oilcloth that I want to buy and found that they have started online shopping !!!

Their oilcloth is amazing - there is a choice of 5 colours in the polka dot and its only 6.99 a metre - bit different to CK.

They also do other amazing fabrics and home accessories so pop over and have a look.

I'm not on commission- honest !

Good Things, Not so good things

Just popped in to catch up with you all. It took me an hour to read through all the blogs I follow so forgive me if I haven't left many comments.

This is my new bag that I had last week. About a month ago we went to our local auction house to have a look at their items for the next sale.

Hubby who loves fishing has been wanting some polarised sunglasses for ages and called me over to look at a box full of sunglasses in which he had found one pair of polarised.

They were the same glasses he had seen for 15 pounds.

We couldn't attend the auction so we well actually he - left a commission bid of a tenner - the lady said we would be notified by the end of the week if we had been successful.


The week came and went and hubby was disappointed not to win. A couple of days ago we had an invoice through the post from the auction house to say we owed them four pounds plus commission & vat - another 88p for said box of sunglasses.

Apparently they had overlooked notifying us - I'm not really surprised - its hardly worth the phone call for that price is it?

We had to dash to get them with hubby in a great state of excitement. He went in and fetched the box and we sat in the car looking through our treasure.

We had his polarised glasses, about ten pairs of Posh Spice glasses which Miss T has distributed amongst her friends, a Disney Cars Bag (brand new in packaging), about ten pairs of Bob The Builder glasses, Bratz and Disney Princess glasses, folding storage containers, two toiletry bags, several joke shop items, dog collar - all still brand new - and then the treasure at the bottom - this lovely Union Jack bag still tagged from Accessorize !!!! Was I a happy girl.

So the moral of the story is just cause it says its a box of sunglasses it doesn't mean there aren't treasures lurking. We are off to browse the auction again tomorrow and I will be the one emptying the contents of boxes onto the floor to see just what is in there !!



I've managed to fit a little bit of crafting in - I made this Union Jack pin cushion with matching needle case and this flower needle case.

I'm not sure which I prefer - they are for an upcoming project that I have on the go.




























That the good things taken care of. The not so good was when hubby went to feed his girls this morning (our 6 chickens) one of the Bantys called Violet was dead in the nesting box.
They are only four so it was a bit of a shock especially as she had shown no signs of ill health.
Hubby managed to bury her before he got upset, Master T had a little weep but Miss T was inconsolable tonight.

Its the first time she has experienced death - luckily we haven't lost any relatives since she has been old enough to understand and this is the first pet death.
She loves animals and used to sit on her swing with the chicken on her lap going back and forth - all the chickens seem to really enjoy it.
I talked to her about the happy life she had as a free range chicken and that at least she died peacefully in her sleep.

I've thought about suggesting she paint a pebble to use as a little marker of the grave - maybe with some flowers or Violet on. She is ten and I remember that it was around this age that I became aware of death and was terrified of going to sleep - I don't want it to turn into the same nightmare for her.

Any thoughts or ideas gratefully received.

To end on a happier note - I am so looking forward to checking out the auction tomorrow - hopefully there might be some good lots - its really only bric a brac - but that's what I love.

Well bric a brac, biscuits, George Clooney, buttons, magazines .................

25 Things I Love

Just read Little Gems post and thought I would join in. When I first found out about my EDS I read Sarah Ban Breathnachs gratitude journal and she suggested making a list of your favourite pastimes so that when you feel a bit down you can look at it and do one of them.

Sometimes when you feel low it is so difficult to think about what you could do. So here I go :

1. Browsing charity shops
2. Making fairy cakes and letting Miss T go wild with the decorations
3. Dark nights and getting changed into PJs straight after tea
4. Hubbys lovely cups of tea - with a biscuit usually ginger
5. Any sandwich made by my mum - they always taste better than mine
6. Watching a brilliant film
7. Buying a new magazine
8. Playing Mah Jong on the PC
9. Blogging
10. Receiving a parcel or packet
11. Watching cricket (I know I'm a strange girl)
12. Quiz Nights
13. Emmerdale - I dont watch any other soap but love Emmerdale
14. Freshly washed hair
15. Smell of fabric softener from clothes airing
16. Libraries
17. Sewing bits and bobs, buttons, ribbons etc
18. Books, books, books - historical fiction, crafts, interiors
19. Browsing ebay and getting a bargain
20. Cola bottles or Haribo
21. Old embroidered tablecloths
22. Spring flowers but not purple ones
23. The childrens laughs and sense of humours - they crack me up
24. Cuddles or snuggles as we call them
25. France

The list has just made me realise that there is so much I love 0 i think I could have carried on and on.

Just off to have my cup of tea (with gingernuts of course), browse ebay and then sort out my sewing basket. What a great day !!!

Blogging Parcels and Presents, Fishing and Cooking

I know its a bit of a bizarre title but I tend to save things up and then want to tell you everything.

When the postman knocked this morning instead of just pushing the bills through I started to get excited.

My first parcel I opened was from the lovely Sara from All About Eden. Remember when I asked if anyone had a dorcas pin tin that they would be willing to swap ?? Sara got in touch and kindly found one for me - I am so thrilled, it has gone straight into my CK sewing box before anyone else nabs it.

I also ordered two of her wonderful inspiration packs and boy are they inspirational. They are lovely - beautiful fabrics, with crochet trims, ric rac, buttons - oooooh I'm itching to get started. Thanks Sara - she also popped me a couple of naughty treats in.


My next parcel was from Lisa at Knitty, Vintage & Rosy - she is all the way in Canada and sent me this lovely swap parcel. We organised our own little swap and these are my beautiful goodies. Canadian Home & Country magazine which I am saving for this afternoon when I have changed all the beds. A beautiful embroidered hanky and gorgeous embroidered pillowcase.

I have been a lucky girl today. Blogging and my blogger friends are amazing, I feel very blessed.

The weekend was as busy as I expected so today and yesterday we have been working hard.

As some of you know we home school our 12 yr old and will be home schooling our daughter when she leaves yr 6 in July.

Today Master T has been working on algebra - he is amazing

which is just as well as Maths was probably one of my worst subjects. We still have to figure out number sequences - finding the nth term !!

He asked if he might make some lunch, so off he trotted into the kitchen and this is what he made.

I know it is just a plate of scrambled eggs and toast, but he had done it without any help - he watched me do it the other day - and carried it in so proudly.

I'm hoping that home educating is helping him grow not just academically and its moments like this that help to reassure me.

The boys in the house love fishing and they went off on a fishing trip on Friday.

Hubby had bought some vintage floats off ebay (i do encourage this as it makes my purchases easier to justify !) and was anxious to test them out.

I received a text whilst out with my friend to tell me about the "amazing" bream that hubby had just caught.

Master T normally catches the most fish so Hubby was especially pleased.

When they picked me up they were anxious to get home to load the photos on to the PC so that we could all have a better look at their triumphs off the day.

Master T seemed especially excited about me looking at his amazing catch of the day.

I waited for the photos to load trying to guess what I would be seeing - they did once catch a huge pike that was a national newspapers fish of the week - winning them an expensive fishing reel.

The anticipation was building, the comnputer churned, the photos loaded. I clicked to view the slideshow.............

At this point they fell about laughing - apparently this cheeky little fish decided to take on a worm that was actually bigger than him.

Considering my son is 12 you can see how big this plucky little guy was.

I think he's kind of cute.