Vintage,pretty & shabby

My 15 minutes of fame..

2012-01-23T15:40:00.000Z

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://www.theinsidesource.com/article/pretty-shabby-blog

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

2012-01-16T11:16:00.001Z

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....

2011-11-21T15:59:00.011Z

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

2011-10-14T16:03:00.000+01:00

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.

This week's messages on the fridge..

2011-10-11T22:19:00.002+01:00

Fridge love...

mummy love....

Brotherly love...(er-hummm)

Keith Lemon love...

and I just plain love this...

***

Teatowelaholic

2011-10-03T16:28:00.001+01:00

Nothing much interesting has been happening round these parts, just the mundane everyday stuff....like a lovely, lovely gardening customer of mine dying from that awful thing beginning with C... the cooker, boiler (again), tumble dryer and my precious, indispensable and expensive big boys Honda lawnmower packing up after 10 years service,(hence me selling practically my entire wardrobe from when I worked in a shop, on eBay to fund a new one) Dislocating my little finger by having a dog lead wrapped around it when a dog bolted, (corr that hurt!) oh and reversing my truck into the brick wall that stinky boy and bald bloke built and completely buggering it up so much so the whole thing has got to be re-laid....yep,you know, just everyday mundane things like that.....hmmm think I need reviving with more than a cup of tea!

Anyway moving swiftly on to pretty stuff...

One of the many things that I seem to hoard are Tea-towels.

I love tea-towels

Cheap,cheery tea-towels.

Vintage ones, seaside ones

and of course,Cath ones,

I like the fact you can pick one up for under a tenner and it will hang there looking cheery by the sink on the dullest of days.

When we have a proper kitchen (ie; a kitchen bigger than 5'x7') I hope to frame some of them for the wall. I've made cushions out of a couple and even a pillowcase, so that versatile rectangle of drying up cloth does have its uses.

Recently I was asked if I'd like a couple of freebie tea-towels in exchange for a mention...ooh yes pleeeease would I!!

I even got to choose so I picked a Greengate one

and a fab atomic fifties patterned one

which I've never seen the likes of before.

The red Greengate one will be used as a proper tea-towel and the gorgeous 50s abstract one will eventually be made into a cushion...(I think!)

They came from an online shop called
All tea-towels
(click the pink link if you'd like to take a peek yourself)
which I think is a fabulous idea..a shop selling nothing but tea towels in all different styles and best of all, postage to the UK is free and silly cheap to everywhere else (How many times have you seen the perfect thing online only to find the postage costs more than the one you want?)

These are some of my favourites from this fab online shop:

Tunnocks tea cakes!..my favourite kind ...and calorie free if you buy them this way!

Arent they just great?
The 'easy as pie' one is particularly appropriate in this house, I can make boiling an egg a whole new experience...egg explosion anyone ?
There are all sorts of designs to find there from traditional to modern, birds, butterflies, chickens...gravy!.. all sorts.
Thankyou Al, for the fabulous freebie tea-towels and the link to yet another fab online shop which I shall put in my sidebar, I think its just a brilliant idea and no doubt I shall be back for more to add to my stash!
***
I'll hopefully be popping back again in October to introduce you to Colin, the new man in my life...so cheerio for now.

Jolliday

2011-08-31T23:47:00.014+01:00

A couple of weeks ago, Bald bloke and I went off on a jolly to Devon.

Sea and sand (and pebbles) ice creams and rubbish British weather...weh hey! You cant beat the feeling of toes in silky pink sand and the smell of good old vinegar and chips by the seaside.

Ooooh it was so nice spending more than the usual 48 hours a week with the bald bloke, no stinky boys and no cooking! (that, believe me was the biggest highlight as I loathe cooking to the point that I'd rather squeeze lemon juice in my eyes than rustle up a meal for 4)
We did have one very sunny day where we went up coast to the rather quaint Lyme Regis, Sidmouth and a place called Beer and on the rainy days we went to the pictures to see the Inbetweeners which, having a toilet sense of humour and being the owners of two teenage boys, we both found hilarious to the point of tears or mooched about the shops and pretty villages stopping to drink tea and eat cake in twee teashops.
Great stuff. Just wish we had a bit more of the old spondoolies to spend there though as we visited some wonderful antique centres and a museum full of vintage signs and motoring memorabilia that was about to close forever and be sold off.. I only bought a little vintage pot home with me from Devon as I loved the Celadon green colour and the cute little deer and rabbit.I did get my swimsuit though, a spotty red and white 50s style one from ForLuna, which made me more of a butternut squash shape than a baking potato but the 'walk of shame' was not only a quick scuttle from the changing room to the pool.. ohhhhhh nooooo siree, it involved slippery flights of stairs and glass doors that refused to open aswell as the forgotten towels and having to do a swim-suited 'mince' to reception to borrow a pound for the locker.
All in all, a hideous out of pool experience.
Hmm swimming is definitely not my thing..
(but at least I had a gorgeous swimsuit)

We came home to a weeks worth of cleaning and washing, the obligatory broken mug and thirsty chickens
but at least dog-fur covered house was still standing.
BOYS are pesky and stinky creatures I can tell you.

Last week I have had the oldies to stay from over the sea who I haven't seen for a year, it takes a while to get used to seeing your parents after that length of time as strangely you remember them best from your teenage years and still expect them to look like that.
Tomorrow I've got to think up free stuff to do with my bestest buddy.
I think a picnic is called for by the river.

August..you have certainly been a mad busy month!
Now I'm off to list stuff on eBay so that I have more than 89p in the bank for September!... cheerio x

At Last!

2011-07-19T18:13:00.006+01:00

Finally, after many years of searching, many near misses on eBay and many hunts in antique or junk shops to no avail, I have found a pair of Avery sweet shop scales. Luckily they weren't fifty squillion miles away from home (nobody will post these as they weigh an absolute ton) and didn't cost the earth...infact they were quite a bargain and cheaper than my normal boring everyday scales...Yay!
Aren't they just fab? I spent Sunday afternoon dismantling them and cleaning 56 years of sweetie shop grime from them..and how do I know that it's 56 years? As the date of May 8th 1955 is stamped inside.
Now I've just got to fathom out how to get the needle back to zero. Maths was never my strong point!
Don't you just LoVe it when you can tick something off the wish list!

ps. Thankyou so much for your last lovely messages, it was so nice that I hadn't been forgotten and that you don't mind putting up with my waffly, erratic posts! x

Go on say it....

2011-06-27T15:08:00.011+01:00

ABOUT BLOOMIN' TIME you old crow..I hear you shout. Yes, I know, I've been gone an absolute age but you know how it is some days, life comes charging by and sweeps you along at warp speed, (that, and the fact I lost yet another very old kitty which made me a bit sad and I'm not very good at doing anything else when I'm doing sad)
Thanks for the emails asking if I'm dead or alive. I think I'm somewhere inbetween so I'll make this one a big post about nothing in particular as no doubt I'll scoot off again, doing two highly knackering jobs with funny hours dependent on the weather makes you do that sometimes.

::Weird freaky stuff
Now you might think I'm two sandwiches short of a picnic when I tell you this, but this is how it happened so I'll just come right out and tell you.At the height of my feeling down and tearful and thinking that the whole world and it's wife hated me, I had a visitor.
I woke up with a start to find a lady stood by my bed. Just stood there looking at me. Needless to say when you wake up to find someone unexpectedly stood by your bed it freaks you out slightly.I freaked out big time and hid under the covers, waking Pete up with my absolute freaky-outy-ness. Maybe it was a dream, I dont know, but I do know that this strange perfect heart shaped mark appeared on my arm a few days later.

It usually takes a huge whack to bruise me and I haven't bumped into anything heart-shaped or been stung by a horse fly or anything like that. It was just there, not hurting or anything.It stayed for a week and vanished as quickly as it came.(It had faded a bit when we took this photo, believe me, it was a perfect heart!)
Weird and freaky indeed but strangely it did lift my mood, I feel ok again and feel like the world isn't against me, which is why I'm here blogging. Ok that really makes me sound like I'm barking mad, what a way to start a post!!

::The paper knickers saga

A couple of people have asked how George's nose is after his reconstructive surgery. It's very good thankyou and you can't see the join where they stitched it back together with a bit of his ear...very clever stuff.
It was a bit weird seeing him with a slightly different but very nice 'textbook' nose, no-one else could tell the difference from his pre-accident one but I could because I made it in the first place. Being the right wuss that I am, I must admit I shed a secret tear for the old nose.
We wont go too much into the saga of the surgical paper knickers he was asked to wear but eventually after such a blooming hooha and delaying the surgery he was allowed to wear his own boxer shorts. Vanity? My son? Naaaah.

::The Marmite chair

I bought a gold metal and nylon velvet 1950s chair for £6, took it home sprayed it red and am in the process of covering the seat. It spins round. I love it. Basil loves it too especially when it spins but then he's always been a bit odd..he also like to be hoovered with the vacuum nozzle. Did you spot him in the White Stuff catalogue in his spectacles? Fame has gawn to his head and he finally has his wish of posh princess sachet food..(well there's only two kitties left now so I think they are allowed)
Everyone else thinks this chair is vile. A bit like Marmite..which I can't stand and everyone else in this house loves. Urgh.

::The Rainy day lampshade

I spent ages hunting for a cheap large white linen drum shade for the £4 standard lamp base I renovated ages ago, only to end up covering it on a whim one rainy Sunday afternoon with some fabric I'd saved for a deckchair.
Mmmmm, 1950s painterly lushness how I adore thee..

::Things you thought you hated but have now decided you like

I grew up with things like this, 70s bubble glass and G-plan furniture.Funny how you can change your mind about stuff isn't it?

::Square balls.

Remember my round-but-take-forever-to-clip box balls? well they are now slowly becoming a hedge.
There's been a lot of changes in the garden, the extra cold winter we had killed off a lot of plants front and back so I took the opportunity to change a whole border in the front, taking out large shrubs and replacing with my favourite perennials, it's all still a work in progress but then that's how gardens should be, an ongoing thing.

The first year is always the crappiest as everything tends to be the same height.

I'm far better at doing other peoples gardens than I am my own, if I'm redoing a flower bed for someone, I've got a budget, a colour scheme and a soil type but when it comes to my own plot, well that's another thing altogether. I'm a bit like a kid in a sweet shop when I'm at the garden centre and buy the pretty stuff I love with no-where suitable to put it! oops!

::Chickypoos

It wasn't only our 21 year old cat Winnie, that died, I also lost several of my old ladies this year including lovely old Big Bessy so there are 3 new lovely young chickypoos joining the flock; Florence the Barred Orpington and a Black, feathery legged Cochin/Orpington hybrid who looks like she's got 70s disco flares on and a jacket of the most amazing beetle-black colours, she's called Fanny (after Pete's Granny incase you're wondering who was neither black nor had a pair of 70s disco flares but there you go) and a Lavender Orpington called Beryl. The Barred one is HUGE and still only a baby. They came from a fabulous farm near us that takes chickens in for boarding, they sell beautiful,friendly, healthy birds in immaculate pens (often occupied by an oblivious Bacon the Jack Russel too) a farmhouse looking like it's straight out of Country Living and to die for Shepherds huts, made on the premises to order. Needless to say, I rather like going the 5 minutes down the road for a chicky-fix. (there's a link HERE if you'd like a peek)

::London

Pete HATES London. Only because he has to drive a 44 ton lorry through the hoards of traffic cutting him up at every opportunity and giving him more verbal abuse there than anywhere else he goes to in Great Britain. It makes him grumpy and it makes him sweat alot as there are hundreds of low bridges and narrow streets down there that his Sat Nav always seems to miss and if you come to one of those it means a lot of slow manoeuvrings, hooting, being sworn at and hassle all round.
I on the other hand have rather fond memories of our capital city.We used to live on the London /Essex border so trips to see that huge blue whale in the British museum and the Changing of the Guards were commonplace. I had my 5th birthday at London zoo when Chi-Chi the panda came over from china and it causes a heap of excitement, (poor old Chi-Chi is a stuffed exhibit in the aforementioned museum these days) then there was my 10th birthday at Madame Tussuads and feeding the pigeons in Trafalgar square.My first proper visit to London with Pete was to go to Johnsons on the Kings road for a pair of much hankered after biker boots, a visit to Flip for some 50s American bowling shirts and a milkshake at Eds Easy Diner.
Although I haven't been there for years, I do rather like London.

Don't think my other half will be too impressed with this though when he gets home...
I, on the other hand, love it. A kitschy 1950s London souvenir tablecloth.

::Swimsuits
I am trying to find a swimsuit with a retro look. Not an easy feat when you are shaped like a baking potato...this is the lush list so far:

Laura Ashley

For Luna

Cath Kidston

Ideally I would like to be able to just appear in the water without having to do 'The walk of shame' to the pool, but if you're going to look like a walrus, you may as well look like a walrus with style...

::Mollie Makes

Oooh this is the most fantastic magazine ever in the world, like, EVER. I've canceled my Country Living subscription and subscribed to this one instead.For the first time in months I've actually wanted to make stuff and this is what has inspired me.AND, you get to see in some of our favourite bloggers' gorgeous houses so it's not only making things. Go get it, you really do need it in your life.

So there you go, see..told you, nothing exciting, just some stuff to waffle on about but I thought I'd better show my face sooner rather than later.

Cheerio for now x

Dragonfly Day

2011-04-05T16:00:00.003+01:00

It's Dragonfly Day today!

This is a 1-day international event to raise as much money as possible to help my lovely niece's charity which she set up before she died.

If you can, please donate a small amount through the pink link below or by clicking on Josie's picture. Every single pound is more than appreciated by these children and their families-

You won't miss a couple of quid but your donation will help to brighten the life of a child or young person who has been told their cancer is no longer curative.

I think the video above speaks for itself.

This... is for Josie's 21st Birthday....Thank you x

www.justgiving.com/dragonflyday2011

Round the World ONE DAY Dragonfly Challenge

www.justgiving.com

The winner is.....

2011-03-01T21:29:00.002Z

Well thank-you all very much for entering my give-away (and leaving some really nice messages too x)
I'm so glad you love Zia's lampshade creations as much as me.

The winner, chosen by my random number generator (Harry in the next room) turned out to be

CHERYL

who popped over via a link she found on the Tales from an OC Cottage blog and left a really lovely comment about Karma..

Well it turns out Cheryl, that karma has in turn, visited you and you have won the 'Lovely Day in Paris' lampshade. Congratulations!
Do please get in touch with your email address (you can email me via my profile page) and I will forward it on to Zia so she can get the details she needs to send it off to you.

Today is St.Davids Day, the patron saint of Wales where it is tradition to wear a Daffodil or Leek on the 1st of March....
So I'd just like to say Dymuniadau Gorau ar Ddydd Gwyl Dewi to any Welsh readers
(which I do hope is the right way of saying 'best wishes on St.Davids day!)

I'll be popping back with some more fab giveaways soon, but first my eldest son, George is finally having his car-accident nose sorted out next week so that will be an interesting few days. Part of his ear is being used somehow to repair the damage. He thinks he's going to come out of hospital with a nose looking something like Michael Jackson's or with an ear protruding off the end of it.We have had some rather amusing conversations about it to say the least..At one point we had him really going and actually convinced him that he would be able to hear out his nose.Silly sod!
Cheerio for now x

Light up your life with a GIVEAWAY!

2011-02-04T19:11:00.002Z

OOOH at last...exciting, LOVELY stuff to talk about ... A GIVEAWAY!!!
We love giveaways in blogland now don't we?
So here is something to cheer us all up in that cold inbetweeny bit before the Spring comes.

One of my favourite shops to mooch in when I'm re-decorating is Zia's fabulous lampshade shop,

The Old Lamp Shed

I would love to be able to make lampshades like these below, but alas I cannot so it's lovely to be able to say I know a lady that can.

Her designs were recently featured in a Cath Kidston catalogue and her attention to detail is lovely, little trims and ribbons that co-ordinate beautifully with the fabrics.

Zia has very kindly offered one lucky person a lampshade from her shop to the value of £40..
yep you heard right..completely and utterly FREE.

How Fab is that?
The hardest part is picking a favourite as I love most of her designs, check out the secret message lamps which are really ingenious (I ought to get one saying 'stop snoring you old toad,you're keeping me awake' maybe that'll brainwash the men in this house!)

So anyway, how about...

a Cath Kidston one?

or a Frenchy one?

A girlie one?(from the made to order range)

or a blokey one?

a retro one?

or maybe a posh one?

All you have to do is pop over to The old lamp shed, have a mooch through Zia's creations,(I've only shown you a few designs here) pick which one you would love to own (up to £40 in value) and leave a message on this post saying just that " I'd love this one... in this... size please."

You don't have to have a blog as you can leave a message under anonymous (but just to save any confusion you may want to add your initials at the bottom of the message as we'll need to get in touch with you if you win!)

Then at 8pm on Tuesday March 1st, I'll pick a winner at random.

So there you go, you'll have plenty of time to choose a favourite, you might even pick up a bargain whilst your over there mooching as some lampshades have up to 50% off at the mo.

Best of luck!

Zia has asked me to mention that overseas entrants are welcome but can only choose up to a 12" sized shade for this particular giveaway.

(all photos courtesy of www.theoldlampshed.co.uk)

Vintage Dogs and going AWOL

2011-01-23T12:48:00.001Z

Why the long face, Red?

You may have noticed I skipped over of December, Christmas, New Year and most and January too, for good reason though, this blog was becoming more and more depressing and I became embarrassed to add yet more gloom to it, even though that's just our life and that's how it goes sometimes, you get on with it and do the best you can with a situation until the next one comes along.
as you know, our situations tend to come along a bit like buses, none for a while then several one after the other. It's a bit of a pain.
Not long after we had to have Maude put to sleep, we came home and found her sister Ethel had died of a heart attack.

It was a bit of a shock to say the least and very sad too.Two cats in 5 weeks. I have a house of depressed animals now, it's made all of the remaining ones act most peculiar.
Then Pete got put on a 4 day week until March which we could really have done without (hmmm Mr.Stobbart doesn't show you things like that on his cringy TV program where he swans around with his 1980's comedian's mullet in his helicopter betting a mans week's wages on a horse..cringe cringe and double cringe)
Then I had to tell Pete on Christmas Eve that his friend had died, not only a friend but the brother of his best friend who was killed on a motorbike several years ago. Double tragedy for his lovely parents.It was seeing them that really broke Pete's heart. We have also had some trouble with our dear eldest son, who also seems to get himself into situations one after the other. Pest.
So I do hope this belated Happy New Year means just that for all of you and all of us..

That's that then..onto other stuff...

Bunty

Buster

As you may know I have a bit of a thing for vintage looking Terriers.Especially those on wheels.
There's Buster who you have already met and his sister Bunty who lives outside in the summer house along with many others scattered about the house, which you can read about HERE. So you can imagine why I was drawn to this little chap;

I found this little brooch in a gift shop in Totnes when the old bald bloke and I went down to Devon back in October.Many minutes were spent in the shop umming and ahhing and cooing over this one item.I bet the nice lady owner wanted to hit me with a broom when I finally walked away without it.

I kicked myself on the way home as I didn't buy it at the time as it was rather expensive.Luckily thanks to the wonders of t'internet, I managed to find the lady who makes them and a diddy dog on wheels brooch found it's way to my house.
Don't you think its just so cute? A cute dog on cute wheels in a cute box..Luverly

At the moment we are busy giving the house a lick of much needed paint whilst Pete is on a four day week but as with most old houses one job turns into 500 and it seems to be taking forever. It doesn't help that half the leftover paint in the garage froze and went off so we have to do it as and when funds allow (which isn't very often at the moment!) flitting from one job to the next and then back again. I'm meant to be making blinds that I was meant to making this time last year and lampshades too and ... I think I need to make a list else I'll be procrastinating all day.. yet again
I've also been busy helping a chap out walking dogs lately, it's nice but very tiring. I did 30 in one day not so long ago.Utter madness I can tell you but it was great fun in the snow. I need to learn to do that big whistle thing that men seem to be born with the ability to do (one that doesn't require you to stick your fingers in your mouth because obviously the down side of walking dogs is the collecting of poo thing..mmm lovely) One dog is called 'Alan'. It cracks me up and I can't manage to call him across a busy park without it sounding quite ridiculous! "AAAAAAAAALUN"
cheerio for now x

Wardrobe Waffle

2010-11-04T14:00:00.008Z

Hello again ..remember me?
Well that was a whole big heap of gloom and doom now wasn't it?
Thank-you SO very much for all your lovely messages and emails about losing my much missed kitty Maude (she had quite sudden kidney failure) and waving goodbye to Florence too.They were really lovely and more appreciated than you'll ever know. x
(Lovely Lisa in Oregon..don't worry Basil and his buddies are doing just fine, as you can see from these photos they have been having lots of cat conferences putting the feline world to rights)

mind you, all hell broke loose after Ethel dared to stretch out a kindly paw to her mother!

It all became a bit too much to bear to be honest so I spent some time in my spotty wellies wading in self pity and lots of tears..there were lots and lots of those...I was a little bit broken hearted I can tell you. I also had to leave my job in the little shop for various reasons which I wont go into, so Pete and I went away for a while to Devon for some blustery blue sky days to blow away the stresses and clear my head before I end up getting carted away by the men in white coats.

Well 'Old Flo' has gone to her new home, not far from here up in the hills. The chap was really pleased with her and will tow her behind his 1958 Landrover. He promised to email me photos of her renovation, so if he does, I'll let you see. He was thinking of painting the lower half of her in a pale 1960's turquoise-teal blue which funnily is the colour I was thinking of too. Great minds think alike hey?

(this was the curtaining I had bought for her..Hen I think you have some of this fabric too?)
I must admit I had a lump in my throat when she trundled off up the lane giving me a crafty wink with her half hearted brake lights.
The nice little bit of profit helped take away a bit of the pain though, pity £300 quid of it had to pay towards for the pointless damage done to my little car but hey ho,I suppose that's life (well, my often pants life anyway!)

Last month,as Florence's farewell treat to us, Pete and I went to Shakespeare country, namely Stratford-upon-Avon, for a drive out and a mooch about the shops and a properly British, award winning cream tea.The best cup of tea ever actually, they had a six page menu just for the different types!

I managed to find myself some pretty clothes to buy whilst we were there.Normally I struggle with clothes shopping as I can never find things I like, they always seem to show the bits I want to hide or I'm worried about looking like some old piece of mutton dressed up like a spring lamb.
Years ago the stinky boys wrote to Trinny and Susannah to try and cheer me up with a new wardrobe of girlie stuff..( I'd got a bit lost in the wardrobe stakes having put on quite a bit of weight and suddenly not fitting in my vintage clothes and favourite Levis) Whilst clearing out yet another stash of 'stuff' I came across it again:

I found the letter and there was no way on this earth I would stand in that 360 degree mirrored cupboard in my bestest big knickers for all the world to see... or have Trinny poking my tits (or 'giblets' for that matter)...nope, nooooooo way so even though it was very sweet of them, it never got posted. How sad is this bit.."she buys party shoes but never goes to parties"
cheeky buggers!!
I was quite impressed with George's handwriting though!

Anyway..this pretty top I found at Stratford, has little birdies and fish on it, it looks lovely with that blue and green swallows necklace Pete bought me back in April. And a first for me, a couple of woolly berets to match my bargain found-in-the-sale Spring coat.(even though its now Autumn!)I confess to feeling a bit of a berk in a hat, like I'm wandering around with a large sign on my head saying 'lookey here folks at the size of my enormous bonce' but I'm sure I'll get used to wearing them.

I can't understand why I haven't been in White Stuff before last year.. I've never walked into a clothing shop and loved so many things, nearly all the styles are right for (hiding) my shape but also, most unfortunately, very wrong for my budget.
One thing I have discovered a love of again recently is leggings.
I wore them in the very early 80's with tulip-shaped wiggle dresses or ra-ra skirts and big turban-like bows in my hair and a strange fashion of black plimsolls with 'fall-down socks'..(remember those? they were like white surgical stockings without elastic at the top) Later I went on to the black phase much to my parents horror..loving The Cure, black hair,black clothes, black lipstick and studded punk belts before trundling off to Art college in another style..my old-man mac, stripey tights and Doctor Martin's with my trademark bright red lipstick. Art college is where I found a new best buddy and the next wardrobe phase..the 1950s..an era I still adore but my 26 inch waist has had quite a few more inches added and everything is heading south lately..it doesn't quite cut the mustard when you're 41 and a half, I'm more Hattie Jacques than Diana Dors these days!

lovely curvy Hattie

Luckily for me I have a husband who prefers the 'extra padding', it's just me and the rest of society who doesn't! Well,anyway,I know the rule of wearing things a second time round, but I braved leggings on the approval of both the stinky boys' rather gorgeous girlfriends and have fallen in love with them all over again, this time though with biker boots and tunic dresses. Dresses and skirts are something I haven't worn in donkeys years, probably since my wedding in fact.I didn't possess either...
I love this eclectic look for the Autumn; (not sure what the tea cup is all about though) I was a little bit indulgent and that lovely leafy tunic and some fairisle wrist warmers came home too.

There is nothing like a bit of retail therapy to cheer you up is there?
You do get to that point of wondering whether you're too old for some clothes though, it takes me ages to deliberate over things.. but I'm not ready for my blue rinse just yet so I think I might like to grow old just a little disgracefully..

Clothing is such a personal thing but I do love peeking at what's in other people's wardrobes...It must be the long past dream of being a wardrobe mistress in me.

Is there anything you've indulged in or discovered a love of again lately, I'd love to know?

Maude

2010-09-09T21:18:00.004+01:00

My beautiful girl,

the gentlest of souls

with fur as soft as silk,

Sleep soundly my lovely Maudey, you will be missed sweet little kitty x
1998-2010

A letter

2010-09-01T17:59:00.009+01:00

Dear sir
(man upstairs/creator of the universe)

I wish to make a complaint.

You see I'm having a bit of a bad time at the mo and I thought by the age of 41 things might have got just a little bit easier. I was promised that life begins at 40 and instead it seems to be falling apart at the seams slightly, like an old pair of well worn knickers.

I kept my promise to work hard and be nice to people and love all those creatures that come my way (although foxy is at the bottom of the list along with those spiders with the hairy knees that come out the plughole) So I am hoping in return you may do something for me..

Firstly, I would like you to send a large bolt of lightning down upon the person who did the damage to my lovely little new car. I thought that it was a tad spiteful to pull off the wing mirror and dent and scratch the door whilst walking past on Monday night and I really dont want to have to sell Florence to fund the £300 insurance excess, not after you helped me with finding her after all these years. I have grown quite fond of her and have just purchased some lovely 1950s fabric for her curtains.It would be a shame not to be able to use it, now wouldn't it?

Could you also see to my truck battery please? We have fiddled and twiddled with it and now it's making me a bit behind with my gardening and a little bit cross if I'm honest.

Thank-you for keeping the fox away, the poorly girls are now better and for making Mr Stobart understand about the stolen orange juice saga, even though Pete has been the brunt of many "looking well..must be all that vitamin C you've had recently " jokes.
Thanks also for letting me keep my sense of humour through all of this, I dont know what I would have done if you took it away.

I will, with baited breath,await your response.
your faithful servant,
Sairer x

P.s. I'm still waiting for a bum like Kylie's but I imagine you get a few requests, so I'm happy to wait a little longer, oh and it's the SATURDAY lottery we play..just incase you forgot. x

4th September edited to say;
Florence is for sale on EBAY if you are interested :0(

ooh lets have a bit of bluegrass...

Nature lessons...

2010-08-16T18:56:00.013+01:00

::Human Nature::

Monday.
There happens to be some lovely people around these days.
In the shop where I work, a customer visiting from Scotland came in to purchase a birthday card and had left his money in the cash-point, he was pretty gutted, but I said that round here we're quite an honest bunch and he may find someone had handed it in at the bank.They indeed had, it made his day and in his words had 'restored his faith in human nature'

Wednesday.
My truck did not want to start. At all. Not a bean from the old beast. Turns out the battery was flat as a pancake and two of my lovely neighbours helped me sort it all out and charge it up and make me feel a bit less of a dumb blonde. Next week I'm learning to change a wheel...

Thursday.
After what happened last night, I think I really do have the best neighbours. I'm very lucky indeed.

Saturday.
Parcels.Oooh how I LOVE parcels.

There really are some nice people in the world, especially blogworld. A lovely lady called Ella made me this beautiful, beautiful cushion.Crochet is something I just cannot master, I end up casting on like knitting, but ask me to cast on to knit and I wouldn't have a clue! So when this lovely lady asked if she could make me a cushion for Florence, I leapt at the chance and as you can see it is just gorgeous.GORGEOUS.

Cheered me up no end that did.

Gave me one of those lump in your throat things at the niceness of a stranger, but really cheered me up.

::Mother nature::

Wednesday.
I do so love my hens and my cats and the old black dopey hound.
Far too much for my own good.
I spoil them and talk to them and just sit and watch them somedays, wasting precious time I shouldn't be wasting really.

Wednesday turned into a very bad day.

That pesky fox came back for his chicken dinner.
I was late putting the hens in,sorting out my truck, trying to cook some tea,answer the phone and feed the other animals when I heard the most awful commotion in the hen run. I knew instantly what it was ,the noise will haunt me for a long time. I ran barefoot across the garden to find feathers everywhere, silent hens in a state of shock lying across the ground and one poor girl crying out in pain.I panicked, I couldn't see properly as the light was fading and they are in the darkest part of the garden,under the big conker tree.
I was devastated, wracked with guilt and crying and there was no-one home to give me a hand.

My lovely neighbour came to her door in her dressing gown to find me in floods of tears clutching an injured hen in a teatowel. They were brilliant, I sat in her immaculate lounge with the chicken still in a teatowel, whilst her husband collected up my poor remaining girls,checked who was alive, who wasn't and put them safely away.The burnt tea went in the bin and a hot sweet cup of tea was made.I wasn't looking forward to the following morning.

Thursday.
The big clear up. Not nice.The injured girlie has a badly bruised neck but surprisingly survived the night.Hand feeding her is keeping her going but I'm not so sure I'm doing the right thing..should I do the decent thing or let mother nature take it's course?
Betty, my oldest hen refuses to open her eyes and Bessie has lost the majority of her tail feathers and refuses to move and big Elsie looks positively ragged.
Dolly and Violet unfortunately didn't make it.

I'm down to 5 and a half hens now, it all looks a little empty in the hen run.

Mother nature created a devious creature with the Fox.
Such a beautiful looking animal with such cruel ways. Sneaky ways.
A fox will destroy a flock in minutes and only take one for dinner.This foxy didn't get the chance for dinner and left over the 6 foot fence empty handed.Oblivious to the few seconds of chaos and the resulting horror.
I've no doubt he'll be back again so I'm off to shut them in extra early..

Next post I promise to be a bit jollier with some pretty stuff. x

A testing time (with added expletives)

2010-07-15T18:02:00.026+01:00

Hello again, I guess you all get by now that I nearly peed my pants when I won that caravan then?(totally irrelevant silly cat photo of Basil in his 3D specs)

Blimey I'm getting more and more rubbish at this blogging lark these days and I wont even get started on my message skills..(lovespangle the reply to your eiderdown query is underneath your message on that 5 million eiderdowns post, I couldn't reply to you any other way!) oh and hello to all these new people that have suddenly found me on here! Also, I'm so sorry to the lady who sent me an email about the underground map cushions, I appear to have lost it somehow but they are teatowels I bought from an online London gift shop for a couple of quid..Google should help with finding those, if not Rockett St George has a rather fabulous underground map ready made one..(ooh I love that website)(photo borrowed from google)

Harry has the green one and it's really,really lovely (if a weeny bit expensive)

Right, it has been one of 'those' months..yep I knew it was too good to be true..I did say though didn't I? really I'm a size 10 underneath ..it's just the layers of thick skin I seem to have developed that makes me the mahoosive size I really am.Harry's naughty ginger bunny got taken by a fox one evening.Poor old Eddie, he was a nice bunny and we had had him for quite some years. I used to stroke his nose every morning which I really miss doing.It makes me sad to think of it as he was so friendly he would have no doubt gone up to the fox to say hello. The Fox has been snooping about since so we are extra vigilant in case he fancies a chicken dinner.Apparently the stinky boys need to 'mark' our territory to deter them..ewww!
Recently, quite out the blue and for no apparent reason,my debit card kept being declined,not funny when you have a weeks shopping bagged up in your trolley at the supermarket or you need petrol and your husband works away all week. Turned out some w*nker had cloned it and was swanning around using my name spending my hard earned spondoolies on wallpaper (£249 worth) and various other extravagant items all over the world totalling over £800. Luckily my bank had spotted it before I had and recognised that my identity had been stolen and I didn't lose any money.They blocked all the fraudulent activity as well as mine.Now we are getting strange phone calls instead from foreign sounding people that put the phone down when you start questioning them.ARRRGH.They obviously still have some of our details like our phone number and my kids names who they keep asking for.I wish they would just bugger off and leave us alone.
To top that thrilling week off I had to go in for a hideously painful biopsy which hurt so much this time it made me cry, the nurses thought I was going to pass out as I think I went rather pale afterwards.Harry and his girlfriend came with me to the hospital, just incase I couldn't drive home. He made me cringe with embarrassment as he asked in a very loud voice in the waiting area 'Mum have you just had a Chlamydia test?' I think that was the only 'girl thing' he could think of at the time!! Erm, no Harry I haven't!
It's times like these that I really miss Pete being around.Sometimes only a nice big man-hug will do to make things seem better. Teenage boys look at you as if your demented if you ask for a hug and tell you to 'stop being such a girl'. They just loiter a bit longer than usual to see if you're ok and make cups of tea. Tea solves everything in 'girlie world' (then they leave all the washing up for you)

Then...yes, there is more.. both the truck and Pete's car failed their MOT's within a week of each other..my truck which is normally fine, needed £500 worth of bodywork doing which the nice chap kindly let me pay for in installments, Pete's piece of sh*t Peugeot which is 12 years younger than my pickup truck has failed each year, it rattles and smokes and this time was the last straw. It really has been an sh*tty awful car and you wouldn't think it to look at as he kept it immaculate. So for our 13th wedding anniversary after doing lots of sums and umming and ahhing we did something rather scary, we bought a new car. A little pearly white sporty looking new car with less than 4000 miles on the clock and £35 a year road tax. I'm not really a fan of new cars but I'm quite taken with this one.It looks quite cheeky. Hopefully it's a reliable one. I'm especially impressed on how far you can go with just £10 of petrol! I dont think the boys were too impressed though. I was told it was 'ok, but a bit gay'. Strange how that word has changed meanings over the decades from meaning 'pretty or pleasant' in my parents generation to 'rubbish' in my childrens' via homosexuality in mine, a lady I used to garden for used to tell me I had a 'gay face' I was never quite sure how I should have reacted to that but seeing as she was well into her 80s I took it as a compliment! Anyway, I'm sure though I can live with the fact that my new car is a bit 'gay' even though it's probably very politically incorrect to say so.(no offence meant and I do tell them it's inappropriate to use that word for that meaning before you all hunt me down with dogs and pointy sticks)

The two stinky boys had some sad news too, when one of their young buddies was killed in a very tragic motorbike accident.If you live in Worcester or Malvern you may have read about it in the papers. I think it is every mothers nightmare to lose a child so suddenly.Pete and I have both lost best friends at a young age and it was sad to see them feeling the same way we did all those years ago.(another irrelevant Basil photo)

Last night I felt really unsettled, Wednesday evenings always seem to be horrid, we both seem to get 'middle week syndrome' but this one was particularly bad as I was tearful, irritable and comfort eating like it was my last day on Earth, I hadn't a clue why but I didn't go to sleep until after 3am but was woken up with a phone call early in the morning. Pete had had his lorry trailer broken into and some of the contents stolen, he woke up at 2am to find a Van pulled up along side and a gang armed with knives,slashing the side to get at the pallets of..wait for it...orange juice... inside. Stupidly he tried to get out of the cab to see what was going on, all bleary eyed and half a sleep after 15 hours of driving from one end of the country to the other.The gang saw him and tried to get at him in his cab, luckily they didn't as they would have wanted to make sure he couldn't get to the panic button they are fitted with and gawd knows what they would have done to him..six armed men against one. Scary stuff. The worse thing is that it's a sackable offence if your lorry is broken into, they have to get to a proper truck stop before they run out of driving time and the one he got to was full up so he was turned away. He's worried sick, so I hope Mr. Stobart understands his predicament. I guess you become tuned in to each other after 20 years and maybe that was why I felt like I did..who knows.Poor old Pete.
I'll be glad when he gets home on Friday.It's been a very long week indeed..

So, anyway, would you like to see inside 'Florence'..my vintage caravan?
There is quite a bit of painting to be done, some rewiring, a new floor, the glass replaced on the toilet window and all the soft furnishings, so it won't be even attempted for ages, we've got a whole list of other jobs to do first..(namely finishing that summerhouse, which Pete has now dismantled, leveled the base and put back together again..yay!)
There were all sorts of bits and bobs in it, loads of brand new cushions which all didn't match and weren't to our taste, infact everything you see in these 'before' photos came with her..

YIKES!!

needless to say,lots went to the charity shop and the poo stained porta-loo (urgh) went to the skip. After a clean and a clear out she looked just a weeny bit better..for now

The cute yellow frosted glasses were lying in the drawers, I think they are called 'sherbert' glasses or something.

She even had the original 1960s awning in a cupboard, as well as these odd bits and bobs;

A full first aid case, a working retro clock and a box of robin starch from the 1960s.The Bush radio was unfortunately well beyond repair.
There were also some strange framed modern prints of spacemen landing on the moon, so I'm guessing 'Our Flo' must be as old as me!
The recent paint job is really ropey, someone has practically troweled the varnish and paint on inside and out, we will just sand down and paint the inside all white to start with with add some nice little lights and some pretty floral curtains or maybe some gingham curtains or even some retro curtains! I can't decide.
I'd also rather like some bright coloured Formica worktops and a checkered floor. Still, I mustn't complain, It's just a few little jobs and for what we paid for her, she's pretty much ok otherwise.

I'm trying to wean myself off Cath Kidston at the moment, I loved it when it was something new and quirky back in the early 90s but now it seems like the world and his wife owns a bit, it all seems to have become a bit cheesy and mass produced.
That little original 1950s fabric washbag in the photo below is one such design that was tweaked and re-introduced by Miss K 40 years later.
Currently I'm going cold turkey, but it isn't working very well as I bought that scouty looking campfire/caravan badge blanket recently especially for Florence. Oops.As proof of why you should never throw anything out, I've found I'm drawn again to the things I liked 20+ years ago, 1950s things again and it was funny that I was only thinking how I'd like to hang an old swimming costume on a vintage Butlins coat hanger in the bathroom..I have some serious bathingsuit love at the moment...these two are recent finds to add to my old collection

and I was also thinking how I'd like to get some of my 1950s fabrics out the loft to sew some more funky atomic cushions when the most fabulous magazine fell onto my doormat with just such articles..
I'm absolutely loving Homes & Antiques magazine at the mo, I've been buying it for quite a few years and it just gets better and better each month (they are the fourth people to have asked me to do a housey feature thing but the house is really too unfinished at the moment..but how flattering is that?!!)Righty oh , I best go..especially after such an eventful bunch of tales I've left you with.. blimey what a misery guts I must sound but I'm quite a cheery person in real life -honest!
Hope you all at least have a good month!!x

The one where I nearly pee my pants...

2010-06-06T19:12:00.003+01:00

Now, when lady luck shines down on my little patch, she shines brightly.
Not very often do good things happen in this house but they do happen now and again to cheer up our rollercoastering 'plodding along' lives.
I'm often wary that for the good things there's a bad thing lurking round the corner just waiting for it's opportunity to jump out and scare the pants off me..so the good things make me a little nervous..are you with me?

Well, this bank holiday, my sister from up north and her husband came to stay for a long weekend. It's very rare that people stay here, as our house is a tad small but the eldest stinky boy decided a spot of local stinky boys' camping was called for and we, for once, had a spare bed.

My sister and I are very similar even though she's the eldest and I'm the youngest of 4 girls, we have never had a cross word in 41 years...honestly,not ever, so her visits are always the best fun. As I was working on the Saturday all day, we decided on a National trust trip on the Sunday and the Giant Malvern flea fair on the Monday. All exciting stuff.
So on the Sunday after lots of mooching around the garden,sniffing roses and pointing at plants, eating croissants with proper butter in the (still lopsided and unfinished) summerhouse and chatting about my lovely visit to Devon and caravans and the like, we decided on a visit to
Hidcote Manor.Really it was a bit early in the year to appreciate all the beautiful flowers they have there and it was so packed with visitors we even had to wait until someone left to get a space in the car park .
Now big sisters can be a bad influence sometimes, they encourage you to put bids on exciting things you think you'll never in a million years be lucky enough to win. Before we went out for the day,I showed her something on eBay that was only a few miles from us and still at a sensible price. Something my family know I've hankered after for a long time and can bore people rigid over.

" isn't that just typical, pay day is a week away, my truck needs work for its mot and there that is looking at me at the bargain price of £125." I say.

Now the big sis tells me I should put a bid on it as I'll kick myself if the lovely thing goes for that amount and that she will help me out until pay day. There were lots of 'if it's meant to be' moments, the bid was placed and off we went to that beautiful area known as The Cotswolds...
to see pretty, pretty gardens..
Out for a meal (corr we really are splashing out!) and home again, where the said 'eBay thing' was almost forgotten about.....almost.

When I checked, I almost hyperventilated...noooooo it can't be true?

ME?.. the winner?

The owner of a little blue and cream CARAVAN for a mere £132? nooooo...

the VINTAGE one I had seen earlier???

The vintage blue and cream cheeky little 1960's one all ready to be towed behind The Beastie (my old pick-up truck) and only needing a bit of prettifying ???GORDON BENNETT!!!!Yes, when lady luck shines, she definitely shines very brightly!

little birdies

2010-05-07T18:02:00.013+01:00

I'm sneaking back in hoping you didn't notice I was gone for so long ..and I'm also doing a little jig today (well a very strange kind of jig as I have just spent 4 long hours weeding between some block paving and now have a very stiff back) I have in my possession freeeeeeeeee tickets to the Malvern Spring gardening show again...Yay!
It's a good beginning to May as April was a pretty dire month to be honest.
It started of nicely with a trip to Woodstock, a 40th birthday present from my 3 sisters and brother last year that I never got to take because of George's accident. Just me and Pete and a swanky boutique hotel in the Cotswolds, posh nosh, pretty shops and gorgeous weather...lovely.We'll ignore the fact I had one of my 3 day migraines and spent the weekend doped up to the eyeballs with painkillers, feeling sick.(They annoyingly seem to pop up whenever I do anything different to my normal routine or travel anywhere for more than an hour)

Those naughty ducks had to go to a new home in the end.I was finding the 3 inches of sloppy mud that covered every available inch of my front garden just too much to bear, the chickens cats and dog were even depressed by it all as well as me. You couldn't walk on the garden and the hen run was swimming in ankle deep sloppy mud.I just wasn't prepared for their arrival really, I wanted to save them from slaughter but didn't really have the right duck house or pond or garden for them.They also ate everything in sight, including what the hens normally eat in a month, they could put away in a week.So Hilda, Stan and Lily have gone to a nice lady with a smallholding to swim on her pond on the one condition they were not for eating. I feel so sad that I let them down.Poor duckies.

Last week I looked after my neighbour's chickens for him whilst he was away for 10 days.
Posh, pedigree chickens in their posh plastic cube Eglu. The first night, the posh, naughty chickens would not go to bed and got in a flap because I really wanted them to go in so no mean foxes would come off the park and eat them.I've never known hens that like being out after dark.We spent a good half hour going round and round the pen, I got in a flap, they got in a flap, one escaped out the larger pen into the garden and another one flew up ,landed badly and broke it's leg. I was MORTIFIED. All this drama on the first day of looking after them. I had to crawl into the smaller Eglu pen to get her out which was not an easy task with a bum like mine to fit through the door.Phone calls to various emergency vets ensued but they didn't 'deal with' chickens and eventually our own vet told me what to do until the morning.
The poor little mite was put to sleep first thing.

There's also been the drama of my lovely mother in law who has spent 4 long weeks in hospital, very poorly indeed. All very worrying stuff.
No I wasnt keen on April, not at all.

So, on to the Birdies...
To distract myself from all these traumas, this month I've been finding pretty things to spend my hard earned block-paving weeding pennies on. Pretty little birdy type things (believe me after 4 hours on your hands and knees weeding with cramp in your hands, you need to treat yourself to something nice once in a while)The brass ones above cost me a couple of quid, ready to be sprayed 'Dottie Angel ' style. I cant decide on the colour though at the moment, so I'll just spray them with primer until I feel some inspiration.
I really love Daniella's online store, Acorn and Will, where I mooched about for ages and purchased some delightful vintage 1950's birdy brooches and that gorgeous cushion that was on the cover of Homes and Antiques.(I'd been hankering after that one for ages but knew it would go in a flash when it appeared in H&A) I did get a bit carried away with the birdy brooches, but who wouldn't when it comes to all those delicious vintage colours to choose from?
This gorgeous necklace was from White Stuff, (a dangerous place to visit unless you have very deep pockets!) well it was from Pete actually, for my birthday back in April. As well as the silver birds,It has beads in my my two most favourite colours, that lovely vintage green and a soft turquoisy blue.
I LOVE it. And so do most people who come into the shop where I work for 2 days a week when I wear it!

This mug was a pressie from the youngest stinky boy's girlfriend, I have a few of these now..thanks to Waitrose and at only £2 I dont feel guilty in purchasing yet more mugs.(like shoes and bags...ummm, and cushions, a girl can never have enough mugs) It's those lovely vintagey looking swallows that make them slightly nicer than ordinary.

And then there are the real birdies, the little Blue Tits chose the sensible bird house and not the caravan in the end.My goodness they have been busy in and out all day, pinching moss from the pots and feathers from the hens to make it home sweet home, I just hope the five sets of beady eyes (well 4 and a half as 19 year old skinny Winnie is now rather blind) that watch them daily going about their business are really just watching with interest and not secretly planning some birdy-like feast. I've told them they are all pensioners now and should know better.

The summer house is on hold at the moment as it has decided to sink to the right and the base needs to be sorted out....Great.But!.. my wall is finished and the trellis is not far off either, Ooooh I think I feel a gardening post coming on next time...although Pete and I are off to Exmouth in Devon next weekend, so it may be a while .
DEVON!!!! How exciting..proper seaside with real sand!!!

x

Cool caravans

2010-04-01T13:01:00.005+01:00

Ok, ignore the bit where I said I would be able to blog more often! I've become a professional 'moper'. Moping around with just the hound and the cats for company eating cereal and biscuits...mmmm soooo healthy. I'm a tad lost without that husband of mine,even though we don't say loads to each other really, it's just nice when he's around, there to tell me to stop eating those biscuits and to have something more sensible for tea and I miss mucking about and being utterly silly with him, something that doesn't quite wash with the stinky boys (who are far too wrapped up with girlies to care what the dog looks like in a human outfit or the hilarious cringy 1970s trololol man on Youtube.
So, everything gets put on hold until the weekend..including the summerhouse, the wall, the decorating, the sewing projects..I could go on but that's quite enough about boring old me...
I've been ploughing through my book shelves and I thought you might like to have a peep at this book about a particularly favourite subject of mine...Vintage caravans.
'My cool caravan' has oodles of pictures of them from the 1930s to the 1980s and only a smidging of text..a brief description, a bit of background as to where it came from and it's owner and then some style notes on the other page (my kind of book!) The interiors, which are really inspiring, range from kitsch to retro to being completely original and their owners tend to match their quirky styled holiday homes on wheels perfectly.
It features British caravans, Dutch ones, a VW, a converted horsebox, a boat and a child-sized one that once belonged to the Royals.There is also a whole section dedicated to those fantastic gleaming silver palaces from the States.Even 'Constance' is in there in all her gorgeous retro glory.
This is one of my favourites..They tow it behind a 1940 dodge pick-up. How incredibly COOL.

If I had one criticism.. and there is only one little one, it's that some of the photos are a little bit dark, the rest of it more than makes up for that though.
I've added it to my 'bookshelf' in the sidebar as it's on a good offer at the moment if you're interested...160 pages of pure eye candy to dream and drool over.

Oh and Donna, should you happen to pass by and you didn't know already, your listed top of the list at the back in the sourcebook section!

I never got my long hankered after vintage caravan, but the birdies did;a Christmas pressie last year from my mother in law which I had to wait a whole year for, for it to be back in stock. The blue tits can't decide between the beach-hut or the vintage caravan but they keep checking it out so hopefully they'll go for a bit of kitsch camping in it.
This year we seem to have lots of birds in the garden, they must have realised that the cats are all in double figures now, getting old and lazy and really cant be arsed with all that tweeting and eating nonsense. Long may it last.

28 days later

2010-03-05T22:32:00.015Z

Oops where on earth did February go?Maude

I was supposed to tell you about my mad sister jumping off a tower in Thailand, stinky boy turning 18, Pete's new job and my poor old Dad falling down a hole..oh yes, it's been all systems go in this neck of the woods so I better get started really..

First off my Dad fell down a boat hatch whilst staying in Thailand and broke his shoulder, got septicemia, very nearly popped his clogs and is now stranded in England with my mum at my other sister's house in Corbridge, now unable to get home as he can't drive back to France..poor old thing. So we were all very concerned about him.(I reckon hes milking it now he's on the mend but don't tell him I told you so) Hopefully I'll be heading up north to see them soon.

Jac, who lives in Thailand and is terrified of heights, zip-wired off the Pataya Tower on the 26th of Feb to raise money for Josie's charity..She did it on the 3rd anniversary of Josies death (I can't believe it's been 3 years..seems like only a week ago) She impressed us further by doing it in high heels and linen trousers (well if you're gonna go for it, go in style )!! Crazy lady! Oh and she's recently published her book called A Dragonfly Tale which you can now buy on Amazon, ooh err!

George has turned 18 this month now that is scary.Does this mean I can no longer call him stinky 'boy'? is he now stinky 'man' stinky 'person' or stinky 'bloke'?
He has been looking like he's done ten rounds with Tyson this week after having some very painful surgery on his lip. It's been almost year since that awful accident and he still has to have more operations. Do you know that b*%!$?* taxi driver, who changed his plea after 3 court appearances, finally pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and only got 6 points and a £110 fine.
I cannot tell you how angry the parents of the victims were. George has got six stitches in his mouth at the moment to repair his lip where his teeth went through it and tore a chunk out of his chin, his nose was slightly torn away from his face, broken and the septum damaged so badly that cartilage from his ear needs to be used to fix it again...the force of them hitting the taxi which was doing a u-turn made him end up in the foot-well of his friend's car, even though he was wearing a seatbelt. He also got dropped from his beloved rugby team.The fearless Flanker was finding it all too difficult with his ongoing injuries.

The elderly taxi driver is free to take paying passengers again.

So anyway, a calmer, wiser George lives in this house now, and an 18 year old ..18!!(sorry I mustn't keep on about it) and what did he want for his birthday? DRIVING LESSONS
Pass the Valium please...

And then there's Pete. Poor old Pete who's had the weight of the world on his shoulders for far too long.
He got his job, the one he really wanted with Eddie Stobart and it all worked out OK in the end. He's away alot and when I finally settle into this new routine of him being away all week and not eating biscuits for dinner because there's only me at home most of the time, you might find I blog more often and actually get round to replying to more than 3 of my messages.So if you see a large Eddie Stobart truck called 'Jenna-Louise' on the motorways, it happens to be my Pete driving her (probably looking rather pleased with himself)
Apparently Mr.Stobarts lorries get quite a lot of female attention, so I hear from their latest recruit anyway....
There's even a huge fan club (Harry's rabbit is named Eddie after the famous green and white trucks)
As for the rest of us well, I haven't finished my Summerhouse yet..there's still lots to be done. Crikey they take some painting! But, it has had a new slate roof and a black and white floor laid..twice in fact.I'm so glad you approved of my idea of a Summerhouse. Me and The Hound sat in it the other day, me in my socks, sat on the floor drinking tea and Hound in his doggy feet just sitting and looking out the windows.It was just lovely, the sun streaming through and no-one being able to see us. I can't wait for it to all be done and finished properly and for the summer to arrive...Then there's the ducks..those lovely cute,cheeky little ducks who lay one beautiful pale blue egg for me each morning.. Lovely Lily looking like she should have a blue bonnet and pink shawl like Miss Jemima puddle duck... hmmm yes..lovely adorable ducks...

Just look at my blinking lawn!!!!! arggggh! pests!and my flowerbeds!!! (what's left of them) (sorry about the pants phone photos..cameras on the blink)

Before I go and disappear to eat my biscuit selection accompanied by a large mug of tea for dinner, and get back to reading 'The Lovely Bones' I thought I'd better just say...

Katie Noelle...dont worry I read it just how you intended it..yikes, boys hey?!!
Yaz sang 'the only way is up', Siobhan....ahh the 80's!
Thankyou so much Deborah for my sunshine award, how lovely I must pop by and accept it properly x
and lastly MRS WOO (that's my shouty voice) its about time you came and saw me for a cuppa and dont call me Fudgeflaps!!!!! (it's all to do with my surname ladies..nothing else, I promise)

Cheerio for now xxMiss Daisy

Breathing

2010-01-30T11:59:00.009Z

Hello again, sorry about the loooooooong gap between my posts of late, I feel like I can finally breathe again..it's just like we have been holding our breath for one whole month waiting to see what will happen with jobs, the house and all that horrid boring, scary stuff. Then of course there was the snow too, that really threw a spanner in the works...

looks like someone went mad with a foam fire extinguisher!

Pete has just this week, started a job doing something he was doing when we first met 20 years ago and has interviews lined up this month for better ones he'll hopefully be doing in 20 years from now. I can't tell you how many application forms have been filled in and phone calls made.It has been one long nightmare. I've always said it's better to have a couple of strings to your bow so that there's at least another skill to fall back on when you need to...and believe me, as much as he didn't really want to do that job again, he needed to.
Apart from holding my breath and turning blue and my brain trying to escape daily from my head, (and the horrid hospital visits as well) some nice things have been happening too.

I'll let you in on a secret....

My lovely Grannie who passed away last February left me a bit of money and it took nearly a whole year to arrive at my door but boy, was the timing perfect. The mortgage was paid just one day late, the bills were paid and the scary telephone calls I was going to have to make were put off just in the nick of time. It was like she had waited until we really needed it, until we had no more doors to go through and no more answers.She allowed us to breathe again. Big deeeeeep breaths of relief.
I felt sad at the thought of not being able to have something to remember my Grannie by, I have the memories and the photos, but I really would have liked something to look at every day and know that my Grannie had given me the pennies to buy it with. I had known for some time about the money and had months to think of things to spend it on.
I'm not a posh jewelery person, I dont wear a wedding or engagement ring and the necklaces and the rings that I do own are like those huge big chunky ones like Trinny wears (gardeners hands..I'll never be dainty, see) so it got me thinking of other things, a vintage caravan, some some vintage pretties, a trip to the seaside...oooh the possibilities of flittering away pennies on pretty things were almost endless!
Then the shit hit the fan when Pete lost his job and all these fantasies were gone in a flash.

I did however have enough left for one thing and it only came to me whilst staring out the window across the garden whilst wondering how we would ever have got out of this mess if it hadn't been for her thinking of us and the perfect timing that made it all be ok.

summer 2008

The rose arbour at the bottom of the garden had completely got out of hand, huge 15' whips of evil thorny lengths were dangling half way across the neighbours garden and it became so big that it had broken through the roof of the arbour, the fence and the wooden rail that it rested on.It became somewhere we no longer sat under without getting scratched or bits landing on you from above. Beautiful as it was with its little pompoms of pink and white, it was just too big for the space. Such a shame, but this garden is always evolving, so out it came.The poor, now rotten arbour that Pete had built came with it and made some very welcome firewood.

I am now the proud owner of a summerhouse.
Put up by Harry and Pete on the coldest day ever inbetween flurries of yet more snow (I made tea and supervised the doings)

Harry in his mad hat and his Dad's boots

It was something Grannie always had at each house, something we often got told off for mucking about in, or spinning around in the case of the Victorian one at her beautiful Manor House and something she had once bought as a present for my mum too.

It still needs quite a lot more work, we will 'vintagey-fy' it and put proper slate tiles on the roof like we did with the chicken house, paint it green and cream and I have a garage full of spare furniture to decorate it with.The garden will be rejigged, the awkward to cut hedge has gone, the pond will be moved and a trellis-topped (and honeysuckle covered) wall will be built out of old bricks (by Stinky George if he ever stirs from that permanent teenage sleep) but at the moment in the constant rain, it all looks rather awful and very muddy.
I can't wait. Roll on Spring, roll on Summer.
I'll sit there with my cup of tea,with no doubt a few creatures around me listening to radio 2 on my Roberts radio in my vintagey-fied summerhouse with its bunting up and be in utter bliss.

Thankyou Grannie. Thankyou so much.

The good,The bad and the downright lovely...

2010-01-03T17:36:00.012Z

Wooooosh..there it goes, that was the year then, all over and done with for another twelve months.Here's to a good,prosperous and healthy 2010..Happy New Year!!
I'm not a great fan of December, I have to admit. I love the build up and the trimmings and excitement, reading everyone else's blogs and living the season through other's eyes but bad things have a tendancy to happen around this time of year for us so I'm not what you would call the life and soul of any party.
When I was younger my Grandparents both died, my Granny 'Mopsey' on Christmas day then several years later, my Grandpa 'Pop' on Boxing day. I always think of how my Dad kept a brave face all over Christmas, we never knew till later. There have been various other things happen in Decembers past which I wont dredge up, but it is a strange month which I tend to go a bit quiet in.
My parents are in Thailand at the moment, celebrating their Christmas and New Year Thai style with my sister and her family. It's a Christmas holiday they cut short back in 2004 that they are now having good and proper.
Yes, that 2004, that Christmas in paradise, that boxing day Tsunami.
I watched a program the other night that showed the full horror of the Tsunami as caught on peoples cameras. I kept thinking about it again and again, seven members of my family would have been there on that very beach on that very same Boxing day but through a strange twist of fate, came home early because of Josie being ill. Their hotel was totally destroyed by the water. It sends a shiver down your spine.So, Christmas for me, and I know it's a bit gloomy, means I tend to be thinking about those people who may be having a tough time or who are remembering loved ones. I really dislike the commercialism of it all and the endless buy, buy, buy adverts on TV.
Onto some cheerier things now, I had some lovely surprisesrecently, really unexpected ones, firstly I won a competition.. one of those easy peasy 'missing word' ones, I entered on a whim late one night.Never in a million years did I think my name would be drawn out of the hat, but low and behold, those lovely people at Cabbages & Roses sent me £50 worth of Burt's Bees goodies the very next day, all beautifully wrapped in C&R paper and smelling coconut-honey-minty gorgeous.. Needless to say I saved it all for opening on Christmas day..Just look at that cute polka dot bag!!! purrrrrrfect for a polka dot nut like me. Then, my lovely facebook buddy Julie in Sweden (swedishhouse blog) sent me the most gorgeous old Swedish toadstool candleholders.. she knew I was down in the dumps after a particularly miserable facebook post and tagged them with my name in a photo saying these are heading your way! Then as if things couldn't be any lovelier, one of my favourite blogging ladies, Steph sent a lovely parcel of vintagey goodies to cheer me up even more. oh I've missed the Russian cocktail sticks out the photo! they're such pretty colours too.

I can't begin to tell you how lovely it is when someone you are yet to meet does something like that. LOVELY it is...just lovely.
I'm still so behind with everything, right now I'm meant to be making some roman blinds for the dining room as they were next on the 'to do' list (which is currently at least four A4 pages long) I have had the white linen fabric for months but seeing as I can't afford the batons to go in them and they would look like big baggy knickers hanging at my window, maybe it's not such a bad thing. I did manage to finish my patchwork cushion at last and after a lot of deliberating backed it with some Cath kidston fabric I found on eBay that normally only comes in oilcloth items..yes Mel, it's Provence rose! well spotted! (the lady who sells it is in Hong Kong, so it must be where the CK things are made) My mum gave me some money for Christmas and told me I would be in trouble if it was spent on bills or food and wanted to see what I bought with it, real proof of pretty stuff..so, after I had hankered after that patchwork throw at the Malvern flea fair back in September..you know,'the one that got away' and I saw these four vintage placemats on Louise Loves, I knew that they would most certainly fill that void. I hand stitched two pairs of the mats together to make them into cushions, just as Louise suggested,backed with some vintage French linen..oooh 1930's prettiness! The colours seem to be very Spring-like and fresh. I wonder what all the fabrics had been before?I suppose the bad thing is that Pete still hasn't got a proper job, the agency work finished and we are quite literally clutching at straws and living off fresh air (and Quality Street sweeties morning,noon and night) but when you find messages like this on the fridge door, it can't be all that bad... can it?I've got a mad busy week next week with horrid prodding biopsy things going on again..yuk (six months comes round too quickly for my liking) and some very much needed extra days at work so I hope you'll forgive my utter rubbishness at message replying yet again x

ps..my front door is painted in OLIVE by Farrow & Ball!! I forgot to reply to you earlier Claire and Kristina..sorry! xx
I always find their colours come out much lighter than on the chart, so it does look very similar to Cooking apple green!

2009-12-24T17:54:00.004Z

Wishing you all a very jolly ...and a very merry....
Hope you have tons of fun and all you have wished for!!
Sairer xxxx