Now I'm Really Back!

Ok so it would seem I was a bit premature with annoucing my return last week!


I don't know what has happened during January... there's been good, bad and a bit of inbetween but I'm starting to feel "normal" again!


As if I ever need an excuse I've made a few purchases which I will share with you,


First was ANOTHER book, Crowns & Tiaras: Add a Little Sparkle, Glitter and Glamour to Every Day which I think I've seen on a lot of other bloggers pages so it's obviously popular and I can see why! I don't know if I'll ever be able to make many of the featured crowns but I will try to give some of the simpler ones a go. My friends and I always ensure we get together for birthdays and I think it'd be fun to treat them to a homemade crown that can easily be personalised for them.



And the mug you can see in the picture was a charity shop buy for 65p. It's by Rosanna which is a great brand I love.


I am also now in possession of the Valentines Issue of Romantic Homes... well actually 2! Having subscribed to Romantic Homes in June last year and having not received anything this month I couldn't wait any longer and was pleased to find it on Priscilla's lovely website, Sweet Rememberance and used this as an excuse to add the cute carolers into my shopping basket!




And would you believe it my subscription turned up! But what could be better than 2 copies of this lovely magazine?


And mum has been very good to me, she has treated me to this,



and this,



How lucky am I!

Both items along with my carolers are being safely packed away for my bottom draw.

It's been lovely to catch up with you and I hope to go back to being more frequent with my posts now, thank you also for those of you who left well wishes for me, if ever there's a reason to get back to blogging it's you ladies!

I'm Back!!

Well the winter bug that has been flying around finally caught up with me! I've spent the past few days laid up in bed unable even to get online... that's when you know it's bad!!

I'll do a proper post tomorrow but for now I'm going to enjoy my cup of tea and have a catch up with you blogs!

Best Wishes

Cultural Lives

I have been quiet on blogging this week, largely due to trying to (still!) getting back into the swing of work and tackling my ever growing to do list (and partly a lack of something to say! Who would’ve thought it?)

Thankfully Karla over at Rose Cottage Lane has given me a reason to add a quick post by openly inviting us to tag ourselves and answer 3 questions about our “cultural lives”.

The questions are:

1. What am I reading at the moment?
2. What am I listening to at the moment?
3. What am I watching at the moment?

And my answers….

1. On my journey to and from work I am reading The Wags Diary, a very humorous fictional account of a footballer’s wife’s life. Very tongue in cheek and has made me “LOL” on a couple of occasions. Just what was wanted for grim early mornings on my commute. I also have a book I read at home in bed and this is Girl for all Seasons which I got for Christmas. Essentially a diary giving you information on specific dates/holidays/events throughout the year with suggested reading and watching. I’ve already had blog inspiration from a couple of topics! And I just wanted to mention a book I have just finished reading on Marie Antoinette which you can find here. This was a fantastic read and really interesting and insightful and I would recommend to anyone interested in our favourite French Queen!

2. I’m not actually listening to anything at the moment, I have an ipod but just don’t use it. Travel to work I read and at home I tend to switch the tv on rather than listen to music apart from at Christmas.

3. I’m a TV addict and at the moment current faves are Law & Order and Criminal Minds replacing CSI in my heart!! I also love cookery shows, esp Nigella Lawson which I'm mourning the end of!

Please feel free to tag yourself and let me know if you do so I can come and see your responses!

And the Winner is…..

but wait I need a pretty vintage plant pot first....

... in go the entries,

...in goes the hand,

now i'm ready... AND THE WINNER IS......

Congratulations, Jessi once I have your address I’ll have your Limited Edition Marmite jar on its way to you in plenty of time for Valentine’s Day breakfast... there may even be some special treats thrown in as well!

For those of you who haven't yet discovered Scrappy Jessi's blog you can find her here.

Thank you to everyone that left a comment for me, I haven’t had a chance to get round to all your blogs but I promise I will do over the weekend, I'm looking forward to finding

I also want to give a special mention to Lucy Bloom who showed how lovely people in Blogland are by asking to be excluded from the giveaway as she has already been lucky enough to win some giveaways recently and wanted others to have a better chance. What a nice lady.

I was also lucky enough to receive something in the post today, a book I ordered from Amazon,

I have only managed to have a quick look but I am very happy and this is just the book I was looking for to help kick start some crafting ideas!

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend,

Spot the Difference

These Father Christmas’ caught my attention before Christmas and were a very reasonable £5 each but I knew they would be going in the sale and seen as I don’t actually have the home to display them I thought it would be a frivolous purchase and thought if I am meant to have them then I’d be able to get them reduced.

Alas my visits to various branches were fruitless, the only ones I found were covered in sticky polystyrene and I decided it wasn’t meant to be…. until now!

Popping into the store yesterday I spotted 2 of them hidden in a corner…. Grabbing them with excitement I took them to the counter where I noticed one was missing his bobble from his Santa’s hat.

I told the sales assistant I would just take the one in tact but when she offered him to me for 50p I couldn’t leave him behind! I’m sure I can fashion a pom pom for his hat from something!

Why am I showing you a photo of 3 paper wallets?

Well hopefully they are going to become something like this....

This is taken from Mary Engelbreit's Home Companion October/November 07 edition and I'm hoping to something similar for my friends who are coming to Las Vegas with me.

Today is the last day for my Giveaway so please leave your comments here. I won't be pulling names from the hat until approx 6pm tomorrow so I will include any comments left up until that point and I think I might even be able to add some extras into the winners package.

I'll leave you with an article in today's evening paper about the limited edition jar of Marmite I'm offering!

Grandmothers….

Yesterday I went to visit my Nan so I thought I’d share with you one of her wedding photos,



My nan has a large box filled with photos at her house which I’m always asking her to show me. Unfortunately she won’t let me take any of them as she likes to have them close by.

I love old photo’s of my family although unfortunately we don’t have many from my mothers side, how sad she herself has never seen what her parents looked like “young”.

One happy find from home was an old video which was made containing all the old cine film from my dad’s childhood, it even includes images from my parents wedding (you can imagine how comical it looks when they’re dancing as it has no sound!).

A friend is helping me transfer these to DVD and then I’ll be able to give copies to my family as gifts.

Please remember last day to leave a comment for my giveaway is tomorrow (Thursday). Please leave your comments here to be included. I will be pulling a name from the hat Friday evening!

Productive Sunday

I'm very pleased today that motivation has finally struck and I have been able to bring some order to my bedroom. I don't know if it's post-Christmas blues but I just haven't been able to bring myself to do anything since returning to work on Wednesday.



My room was still in that stage where it's tidy but in a piles in corners that still need to be organised, so onto the bed it all went and was finally stored away.



How do you ladies begin your tidying? I have to make my bed first and then pile everything on there, it stops me being able to stop and sit down and let's me start with a clean floor and means once the rooms



I think I was inspired to tidy today by Tracey at Notes from a Cottage Industry, her post about her Snow Day featured a photo of a lamp on top of a pile of books and it inspired me to do the same,



I love my Shabby Chic books by Rachel Ashwell and I prefer to have them on hand to browse through and this gives me the perfect opportunity to!



Even better once my tidying was done I was able to do some crafting. I had some photo's from my friends daughters birthday last month and when I saw the fairy cake topper sitting on the side at her home I knew I could do something with it. (sorry the photo is so dark!)

I shall be dropping it round to her one night this week, I hope she & her daughter like it!

Also if you haven't done so already please remember to leave a comment for my giveaway here. I know some of you haven't had marmite before so I thought I would give you some info on how I use it.

I enjoy it most spread on toast and for those of you that follow Weight Watchers I can tell you it has 0 points! Another popular treat is with cheese on toast, Starbucks even do a Cheese & Marmite panini in the UK now! And if you like an extra kick to your gravy add a spoonful!

I'm off now to prepare myself for my first week back at work... AAARRRGGHHH!

Viva Las Vegas!

Ladies I'm VERY excited....

I have my holidays for 2008 all booked and in a few short months I will be visiting LAS VEGAS!

And if that wasn't good enough I am also booked to visit Los Angeles in October. I cannot wait to visit the Rose Bowl Flea Market and Rachel Ashwell's Santa Monica store!!

LA & Vegas are to cities on my must visit list and I thought best to get them out the way this year before I'm tied to mortgage! I cannot tell you how excited I am!

And you can imagine how happy I was when investigating Las Vegas on Tripadvisor and finding details of antique malls to visit - you know where I'll be!

If any of you in blogland have any tips or must see's for my trips please let me know.

I'm off to start packing.... or is too soon?

PS Don't forget to scroll down and leave a comment for my giveaway!

My First Giveaway!

I'm so pleased to have found such wonderful blogs over the past few months and am looking forward to spending 2008 in your company and as such thought it time to offer a small giveaway.

I'm offering a Limited Edition Jar of Marmite exclusive to Selfridges for Valentine's Day . On a trip to their food hall last night I couldn't resist picking up a few jars as a LOVER of Marmite. It's even got a "touch of champagne" in it!



The jar says "I Love You" and "For My Lovely Marmite Lover" - what a humorous gift this would make for your Valentine this year!


All you need to do is leave a comment on this post by Thursday 10th January (I will pick the winner on Friday 11th January) telling me what you love that others hate in the spirit of Marmite's "You either love it or hate it" slogan. You can even tell me whether you Love or Hate Marmite!


Something I love which everyone else seems to hate (they think they taste of soap!) are American Twizzlers,

I adore them. My first trip to NY many years ago I brought a huge tub from the Hershey store, my friend I travelled with said she awoke every morning to me noisly eating them - yes I'll eat them for breakfast, lunch or dinner!

***For those not sure what marmite is please read here for info***

Welcome to 2008

Well here 2008 is, I'm not a great lover of New Years Eve but there's something about New Years Day, new beginnings and the feeling that anything is possible! Unfortunately my new zest for life is marred by that "Back to Work" feeling... positive thoughts though, only 3 days to get through before the weekend!

I welcomed my first morning of 2008 with a crispy bacon sandwich from mum,

Mum has made a start of gathering Christmas decor together in readiness to pack away tomorrow,

I tidied our spare room which was covered in giftwrap, ribbons, tags so that it can be kept for another year although we still have many plain rolls of wrap which will be used for birthday's.

As promised here are some gifts I thought I'd share with you, there appeared to be a French theme to my gifts this year,

These stamps are one of my favourite gifts, I can't wait to start using them!

Some sheet music to use in crafting....

Lot's of books.... I will probably spend 2008 quoting various paragraphs from "A Girl for all Seasons". It's a fabulous idea, the book literally goes through the whole year with chapters like "Muse of the Month" (January's is Jane Austen), lot's of information on events, ideas and inspiration. I decided to read a chapter per month so it was relevant but I've already made a start on February as I've found it so enjoyable and I've already been given some blog and crafting inspiration!

Selfridges is my favourite shop so mum thought it appropriate I found about it's history!

Antonement wasn't a film I found amazing but it certainly intrigued and gripped me (maybe that was the vintage decor!) and if a film is based on a book I haven't read I always want to then get a copy of the book to compare! One film I do certainly love is Practical Magic and I can't wait to disappear into the pages on my journies to work!

And no book selection would be without some cookbooks. My brother knowing I love anything to do with America and cooking hit the jackpot selecting me the 1950s cookbook! I can't wait to start making some dishes from their pages as with the cheesecake book. I made my first cheesecake back in the Summer and it was a big hit, I followed this with an even more popular Mars cheesecake so now it seems everyone is waiting for my next creation and I certainly think I have enough ideas now!

DVDs which have already been watched whilst sitting in my pj's,

And no girl should be without perfume at Christmas,

And before I leave you I had to share this lovely lady I picked up from my favourite charity shop the Sunday before Christmas, isn't she cute?

She just smiled up at me and I couldn't leave her behind!

I've put it off long enough so now it's time to prepare myself for work and bed and await the sound of the alarm tomorrow am!