House porn!!!!

Its a very contentious subject, some people love it, some people don't see the point of it and some people do not know it exists!

I can think of nothing better than a hot cup of tea, the lighted fire and a copy of my magazine of choice.

My lovely LSP bought me a new subscription to Country Living magazine for my birthday (as well as some other lovely things).

This is my favourite magazine, I love the photography as well as the articles.

It gives me lovely idea's for my rooms and displays.

I adore looking at the pictures of houses and rooms and garden's.

The life's simple pleasures section is a joy, I was so excited when we were in Scotland and visited Cawdor church in the same month that it was in the magazine.

The emporium section, gives me lovely idea's of things to put on my never ending wish list....

Food and drink, what can I say, as you may be aware I am a bit of a foodie, I just love the simple recipe idea's.

Most of all I love the tales from the stone cottage, its so funny, and idyllic maybe to idyllic to be 100% true but enjoyable non the less.

So why is it porn... its that pure pleasure of looking at the images over and over again, the dreaming of having a house, garden or room that looks as pretty as the ones in the magazines. 

A mouse's tale

I looked back through my blogs and realised I had not made anything with my hands for ages.......

So tonight, I pulled out my knitting needles and created something.

I love knitting, sewing and other forms of stitchcraft. The difficulty is that I have carpel tunnel syndrome in both of my wrists. Short wrist movements make my hands lock up and freeze so big projects are out of the question.........

I needed to find something that was small and take no more than an hour.....hmmmm, I knitted a mouse.

 A curious little thing with purple eyes and a very long nose.......

and a cute ear.......

I thought she looked adorable, LSP suggested she become a cat toy!!!!

Well its Friday night, I had a good day at work, I have not brought any work home with me, I have had a lovely curry for tea, now some TV and bed....Have a good weekend everyone!!!

Love Liver ?

Its like marmite, you either love it or hate!

To me Liver is lovely, its cheap, its low calorie, its quick to cook and its good for you!

In true Jamie Oliver style, I ran this up in under 30 minutes and it cost £2.50 for four.

Obviously you only need a small amount of the veg.......

Dip the liver in seasoned floor, and lightly fry, once sealed add sliced onion and leek.

Keep stirring, then once the onions have softened add the tin of butter beans, handfull of pea's, and each of the beans. add 2 cups of water, bring to the boil for 10 minutes.

Add the gravy to thicken and serve.

Enjoy..........

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 !!!