There are bargins and there are LSP's Bargins...

Anyone who knows us knows how we love a bargain, I am currently doing Christmas shopping.(yes really)  Now is the ideal time as you will find loads of items down to 70% off, Today i bought 5 knitted hats for £5 a saving of £36.00.  I am quite happy to trawl the shops hunting down the best deals my LSP (long suffering partner) likes to hunt down bargains on the Internet!

Today however LSP;s bargain to end all bargains was delivered.

Pens!!!!

not 10 pens, or 20 pens or even 50 pens,

not even 100 pens, but

200 pens..............

Glitter pens, gell pens, highlighter pens, fragrant pens, blue pens, black pens, red pens etc,etc.

They will become, Christmas pressie's, birthday pressie's for the next few years........

well done LSP!!

1st Birthday.......

This time last year I was part of a miracle,

I watched my little sister give birth to her daughter. I cannot describe the magic, wonder and fear that I felt.

I can remember all the horrid bits as well, the screaming, the pain, the fear, I think the difference is that we choose not to think about the icky bits!

The hours of comforting and reassurance, the rubbing of her back and holding her hand. The talking calmly and telling her she could do this and would do this!

It was one of the most wondrous experiences of my life when I saw my niece for the first time.

Mine were the first eyes she saw, as I saw her come out. I will never forget how she looked when she was first born, so different from now.

She had such a wise and intense face, a very old face for one who was just born.

The dark hair and wrinkled brow and her eyes, her lovely eyes then so intense now so cheeky and full of fun!

I fell in love with her the moment I saw her, I just had this intense need to want to take care of her and make sure that nothing horrible ever happened to her.

I can only imagine what her parents felt, I was privileged to be a part of that wondrous miracle.

What has been just as amazing has been seeing the transformations that have happened in the year since, I have seen this gorgeous baby become a little girl, a precocious toddler, who has her own mind and desires.

Another miracle has been the transformation of seeing my little sister become a mother, overnight her priorities in life changed. She was suddenly responsible for another person, a person who will be dependant on her in some way for the rest of her life.

There is no harder, bigger or more important job in the world than to be a good parent. whether your children are born to you or whether you become a step parent or adopt. Parenting is a wonderful experience which is both rewarding and challenging.

My niece is very lucky, she has 2 parents and lots of other relatives who adore her and will be there for her as she grows older.  Our lives are richer, for just having her in them!

Happy Birthday .........

OCD???

I do not accept that I have OCD, I think I am perfectly normal!!

Other people, my family included have commented on some of my "traits". This includes my ability to spot if an ornament has moved even slightly and then correct it. (that's normal isn't it?)

One area I love to have tidy is the food cupboard, I dream of an old fashioned pantry like my granny used to have. (this one courtesy of Country Living)

Ours is not as pretty as the one above but is practical,

Before I show you the picture, I must tell you about a domestic abuse course I was once on. The course used video clips to highlight different forms of abuse. One clip was from the film sleeping with the enemy, where the cans in the cupboard are all lining up the same way. I surely was not the only person to think that is perfectly reasonable (no not the violence) but being able to see whats in your cupboard.

When we paint the kitchen I will give the interior a bit of a revamp, I will paint the walls and I want to line the shelves with some oilcloth. Here it is in its pre decorated state.

Gosh, looking at it in a picture it looks a bit messy!

Different items have designated shelves and I have gone as far as putting little labels on the door to remind people of what goes on what shelf  (yes it all has to face the front). OCD, what OCD.........

12 hours on a typical Sunday.......

I thought it might be nice to photograph mine and LSP's day.

So here we are this is 12 hours on a typical Sunday (no icky bits)

Lie in today so we do not need to get up till 8am.

I will spare you the shower and getting dressed!!!

The Labrador decides to help wash the floor!! hmm I wonder what time it is?

Yes its doggy breakfast time!!


Now its time to take YD (Youngest Daughter) to work.

After dropping her off it is now time for our breakfast!!

I know its wrong.......but so nice on a Sunday morning it fills that time between dropping off YD and the opening of .....

No big shop today, just a few essentials for the day ahead.......

Bones for the dogs, magazines for my nan, nuts for the birds, chicken for dinner, wine for cooking (only £2 a bottle) and we had ran out of bread and fruit!!

Petrol station on a Sunday morning......... necessary if you want to complete the day!

ok now off for an hour of torture........At the gym....

It was a difficult hour, lots of sweating so much so a 2nd shower was in order. Now for a change of pace. 

The flowers in the shopping trolley were for my parents,

The earth is because the moles have set up home in the churchyard, need to get some grass seed.

well time to go now

Off to see my Nan and to tell her about the Ritz, pass on the magazines and have a cup of tea,

Lunch time... (lunch on the run)

ok now we have refuelled off to do some geocaching!

Geocaches are boxes hidden all over the world and you get the co-ordinates to try and find them. Go to www.geocaching.com to find out more! we had picked up a travelbug in Austria and it needed moving on.

Can you see it???

There it is.......

bye bye treavelbug I will blog about you again soon.
Ok so home now time to collect the doggies and go for a walk.

yes the pictures are posed... otherwise the pictures of walkies looks like this...

ah well of home as we bought them a treat in tesco remember!

Time to clean out Tiffany the gerbil.....

Yes she is as evil as she looks (the dinning room was covered in LSP's blood the other night)

 This is her cosy bed she made from shredded paper and huge pieces of cardboard!!

All clean and ready to go!

ok time to fix the dinner....

need to turn this

into this......

to this,

to this

to this,

we also managed washing, changing sheets, tidying, sorting, cleaning, talking none of which are great to photograph! I hope you enjoyed looking at our day !!!

Putting on the Ritz....

Wow what a birthday!

My LSP (long suffering partner) had bought me a voucher for tea at the Ritz for Valentines last year. However we had not been able to book it in until now.

So on the eve of my birthday, we took the train to London.

I had needed to do a quick change in the work loo's (how glam), I had a lovely vintage style dress in blue velvet, with a proper vintage black hat resplendent with hatpin!

This was worn under my black woollen cape and blue clutch bag!!

I had been so excited everyone knew where we were going.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It was everything I was expecting and more, the food was lovely, the service impeccable and the surroundings exquisite. I hope I looked the part.

It was one of the most amazing experiences I have had. ..........I will cherish the memory forever, Thank you LSP.

Its raining again......

I sit here writing this blog listening to the sound of the traffic zooming through the puddles...........

I awoke at 5am as planned, which to be fair was a bit of a surprise as i only went to sleep at 12.30. As i went down stairs in the quiet and dark house i could hear the rain lashing at the windows. As I opened the bathroom window I could see the rain hitting the puddles of standing water and was glad to step into the hot shower. After completing my ablutions I pottered downstairs until 6am when it was time to awake my LSP (long suffering partner). This getting up at the crack of dawn is my idea and LSP has reluctantly agreed to go along with it. However, it was while trying to awake LSP that we remembered one of us was working from home today! After this revelation LSP was no longer required to be awake and did not want to (I wonder why)! now the sensible thing for me to have done would have been to get dressed and then go downstairs and continue pottering, make breakfast and my lunch to take to work with me, sort out the dogs ect! this is the reason for getting up at 5am. It would not be sensible to lay down on the bed and think I will just listen to the radio for another 5 minutes......

Which do you think i was sensible? or not sensible?

yes you guessed it ....................The next thing i know is it is 07.45 and I have 15 minutes to get dressed, pack my bag and get to the bus stop.

Do i just pick a straightforward outfit maybe some pull on trousers Dan a blouse or do i think that it would be a good idea to wear a skirt, tights, long boots with big zips, top with co-ordinating cardie???
Yes many people admired my choice of skirt and the whole ensable! It took 10 minutes to choose and put on, which left me with 5 minutes to sort out everything else.

I  left the house dressed and with a bag! no lunch and not having had any breakfast.

This lead me on to another obstacle, the traffic. i was not attempting to cross the road, merly walk down the pavement without being hit by successive tidal waves as each passing car and lorry caused a wake of water behind them.  To the observer it must have been amusing, I would run a bit the  dart into a gateway as the next car went past then make a run for it again.

It was all going well...........there had been no Jerk's trying to deliberately splash me, no one going ridiculously fast until i was faced with a lorry, I had nowhere to go, I had ran out of pavement, i was as close to the verge as i could be without standing on the fence, the lorry was as far over as he could be whilst remaining on his side of the road, the steady stream of traffic on the opposite side prevented him from getting any further over. His wide girth made it inevitable...

I got splashed, splashed all up the side of my leg I then felt a big sploosh of water landing inside my boot. I squelched my way to the bus  stop and waited for the (thankfully) late bus.

(bit of a diary one tonight, hope you like it, please comment)

I love wallpaper!!

I love wall paper, it has such a personality and gives the house some life and vigour!
I remember the wallpapers of my childhood, lurid pinks, oranges and purples with massive flowers!! this is similar to the one we had in our lounge.

All of our wallpaper comes from Laura Ashley, it is my favourite shop. All of the paints and papers work so well in a period home (even a Victorian one like ours). If TK Maxx and Laura Ashley closed down tomorrow I would save so much money!!!

Laura Ashley is my Sunday morning treat, I cant wait for the new catalog's to come out (will soon be 1st week in feb again) I love to go in and look at the papers, fabric's and stuff! I spend a lot of time looking and waiting.......Waiting..............Waiting...........................................for the sales,

Laura Ashley have 2 big sales a year, both prior to their new catalog coming out, this is when a lot of the wallpaper's go down to 50% off !!! then if you wait some more they will give another 10% off. The danger is that they will sell out of the one you want before the extra 10% well that's the gamble. Today we picked up the paper for the sitting room.

we are being a bit modern and only doing 1 wall! it should be a nice feature wall and add some interest to our sitting room.

Last year we decorated the upstairs now the downstairs....

I will add some real pics as each room is done!! happy blogging!