Posties Been!!!

I am such a lucky girl, the postie lady came yesterday with not one but two parcels for me, one was some lovely Prima Flower bottles for me to pretty up and a birthday pressie (which I have been very good and not opened yet, although I want to) from Jo and the other was my shabby Chic Forum swap from the lovely Mary Poppins. She has spoilt me, look at all my pretties.

I got, Four candles (or Fork handles *giggle*), a gorgeous Emma Bridgewater scented candle in a miniture mug.

Lots of Choccys and some candy canes for the kids, a mulled wine spice kit.

And a lovely Christmas Plaque, which is in pride of place hanging in my shelf unit, so thank you again Mary hun, I love it all.

Well, on Friday night me and the kids went to The Lowry in Salford Quays to see The Wizard of Oz, it was our Brownies Christmas trip, so I had 6 kids to lok after in all and they all behaved beautifully and were totally enthralled (as was I) by it. The effects were amazing and the Wicked Witch of the West was played by Lorna Luft, Judy Garlands daughter. My two enjoyed it thoroughly but were very tired when we got home just after 11pm!!! the latest they have ever been to bed.

I started to get all our Christmas decorations up yesterday, the kitchen is done as are the kids bedrooms, the dining room and living room are virtually finished, just a couple of tweaks, I will try and get some pics later.

Trish xxx

Posh Glasses

About a week ago we learned that Grace needs glasses, her left eye is very poor. When she had her eye test at 3 she struggled with the left one, we were told at the time that they would call her back another day to try again as she was probably tired. Well, life went on and I totally forgot about it, until this summer when Grace started complaining about blurriness, I phoned and got an appointment for September, she had her test and we were told that she would be best off having a glasses test, October was the rough guide to how long we would wait, well, last week she went, she had to have drops in her eyes that stung madly to open the pupil up enough for the lady to see into the back of her eye, obviously we were given a prescription, so took her straight to the optitions to choose some, well, she chose the most gorgeous pair of Barbie ones, in Barbie pink too of course. We picked them up last night and she is the belle of the ball now!!! she looks beautiful in them and loves them loads (she keeps cleaning them too, but I am sure that will wear off soon)

No craftiness or bargains this time, but I will get pics of my shelves, now they are finished and up, done soon and also some Christmas decoration ones.

Trish xxx

Advent Calendar and Toothless Grins!!!!!

A couple of weeks ago I went to the Sheffield Crop run by Jo and we made advent calendars using baking tins, magnets and bits and bobs from our stash, this is my effort.



I had great fun making this, using loads of bits and bobs that I thought would languish in my craft stash forever!!! Its still not fully finished, I want to get some holly punch outs round some of the edges just to fill a bit more space (hate leaving space lol) The kids have always had an advent calendar each, but this year I will have one too!!!! am getting a little over excited about Christmas now.

And now for something completely different (said in true python fashion) my two toothless kids, 3 teeth out in just over a week, the toothfairy is now officially skint!!! Grace has always had one tooth missing (she only had nineteen) its there but not ever come through, so it may well come now, so at the mo she has 17 teeth William has (at long last) lost the tooth that has been moving for a couple of months, his other top one is on its way out too, anyone want to loan the toothfairy a quid???
Trish xxx

I have been playing......

.....with paper and fabric this week, I have made 14 fabric, lavender stuffed hearts for a sale I am doing tonight at brownies and one I am doing in Winchester next weekend with my sister along with dishcloths and jewllery bookmarks.


I hope I can sell them all, mind you they do smell lovely so if they don't sell I am sure I can find a home for them somewhaere in the house.

I have also been playing with paper, lace, ribbon, sparkly bits and glue decorating a couple of bottles that have been lying around waiting for something to be done to them, they had candle sand in them originally and I didn't want to just throw them away and last night I just got loads of bits and bobs out and played.

The printed image is from The graphics fairy she has a new downloadable image every day. I don't think it is quite finished yet, but am not sure what it needs, but i know it needs something. Now I need to decide what to fill the bottle with, if anything.

Thank you for stopping by.

Trish xxx

Gorgeous Shabby Chic Swap

The theme for the October swap on the Shabby Chic forum was 'PINK' and the lovely Viv sent me a fabby gorgeous parcel of goodies, sorry about the photo quality but had to take it indoors and couldn't seem to get the light right.

I got a lovely pink apron, love pinnies, I have 3 full ones and 2 half ones now, a beautifully smelly candle and a notebook and funky pink pencil too, I think Grace might pinch the pencil mind!!! Thank you again Viv xxx

I am using the notebook to write down all my grocery expenditure (blimey thats a big old word for me this week) for each month starting with this month. We are doing a monthly grocery challenge over on Shabby Chic, I have given myself a target of £350 this month and am writing each total down as I come back from shopping and breaking it down into weeks too, so far the total is just over £30, I am hoping that this will make me realise how much I actually spend on crap each month and be able to keep within a decent budget because, to be totally honest I have no idea how much I spend on food, I just spend it!!! shocking really!!!

I have started a new job this week too, I have at least 3 months work at a local school as a relief midday supervisor, am enjoying it so far, the girls I work with are as mad as hatters (I am fitting in quite well) and good fun, I am just finding it hard to fit everything in I want/need to do. My evenings are filled with knitting dishcloths, making jewellery and Christmas decorations ready for 2 craft fairs I have coming up soon, the time seesm to have crept up on me, but it is relaxing.

Thanks for stopping by

Trish xxx

Back from our Hols!!!

We got back from my Dads in France at 1am Tuesday morning after being on the road/sea for 22.5 hours!!!! we were pooped. I thought I would share a few pics of the holiday with you as I have no bargains or crafts to show right now.

This was taken in the drive of Dads house, William brought Barnaby bear home from school so he could go with us to France, William has written a few things in a journal for Barnaby to take back to school with him.mmmmm, William being brave/silly climbing to the top of this rather high climbing thingy!!!

What a poser my daughter is lol.

One of our evening walks with dad and the dogs.

Last, but by no means least a beautiful sunset looking out over Dads.

I will be back soon with more bargains (hopefully) and crafty stuff, thanks for popping by

Trish xxx

Christmas on IACW

I know it might feel a little early for the 'C' word but today Di and I did a Christmas Bunting project on IACW mine was made from a cornflake box and lots of pretties, and Di made 2 fantastic fabric ones. I had fun with this project and plan to do a smaller one to hang from the pegs under my shelves in the hall.

We have a month full of ideas for Christmas so have a look everyday 'cause there is bound to be something for everyone :)

I have been making lots of dishcloths to sell at our Brownie Christmas sale evening which is coming up in a couple of weeks, I must get some bookmarks and small jewellery bits made up too, I am off to Sheffield tomorrow to the monthly crop (haven't been in about 4 months) so will get the jewellery done there.

Trish xxx

More Shelves to paint and a bargain

Hello :) 2 posts in one week!!! Well I did promise to show my charity shop bargain, a gorgeous diary, unused (which helps) and only £1.60, its a perpetual diary, there are no dates at all and there is a week to each double page, its so pretty and I love it.

My other bargain of the week was found in a shop that had closed and the lady who owned the flat upstairs was doing a house clearance in there, she has recently moved to Italy and wanted to get rid of all her old junk, I bought a few things from her, a couple of glass candlesticks (yes more I have 14 now) a TG Green blue and white stripe mustard pot and a few toys for the kids, but this really took my eye!!! I asked the price and she told me £25, so I ummed and ahhed and said I would ask my hubby, well I walked or drove past it every day, then Friday I decided I wanted it, I walked in and asked would they take £20 and they said yes, so I paid and brought home my gorgeous new shelves that were begging to be tarted up and put up on my dining room wall.

Thank you for popping by, back again soon

Trish xxx

I am feeling crafty again!!!

The last few weeks I have started to feel a little more like crafting again, I had a bit of a tough time at the start of this year and my crafting took a back seat, but having recently have a few combined posts as well as my own on IACW I have got back into the swing of things. I used to scrapbook on a regular basis, but haven't really done much since the end of last year, but I have done my first proper LO of this year.

I really enjoyed scrapping again, the subject helped too. The other 'make' I have done for a combined post was a wall hanging, I use the term wall hanging loosely as its only small, but it hangs in my hall on a row of pegs that one of my wonderful friends bought us as a wedding gift under my cream shelf unit.

I am doing another combined post with Di on 17th October, so please pop over and have a look as we are starting our Christmas craft monht from 16th until 16th November.

I bagged a bargain at the charity shop on Tuesday too, I will take pics tomorrow.

see you soon

Trish xxx

Bargains and Knitting

I have bagged myself a fab bargain this week, well I think so anyway, a trip to the local charity shops proved fruitful this week. The local hospice shop is sometimes the best place in town for my bargains and thats where I got my lovely pinny, I am sure it is vintage fabric, but how long ago it was made I don't know as it feels like new and it was the grand total of £3.00

You can just see one of my new cushion covers peeking out from under it, I made two last week and they really do brighten up the sofa.

Now, onto my knitting, I am not the best knitter in the world but have wanted to have a go at knitted dishcloths for a while, well this week I ordered and recieved two balls of dishcloth cotton and a pair of knitting needles, so I got to work almost straight away and the result is these.....

Two dishcloths, I haven't used them yet but I have heard that people using handmade dishcloths like these never go back to mass produced ones, so we shall see how I get on with them.

Thanks for stopping by, take care

Trish xxx

More Blackberries

Long time no blog!!! well not that long, but nearly 2 weeks. Firstly I would like to thank you all for the lovely comments on my last post about our wedding, you helped to make my day xxx

On Sunday afternoon we went up the lane blackberry picking again, got a good 3.5lbs this time and some were real juicers, so I saved about 1lb for pies and used the rest to make jam, blackberry and apple, it turned out lovely (even if I do say so myself) got 7.5 jars and now 3 pies too, 2 in the freezer and one, nearly gone with hot custard last night!!! YUM!!!

Its a little more fluid than shop bought, but very nice, I have done the recipe on It's a Creative World today, we also have 2 new design team members too Jo and Paula both girls are fab designers and lovely too.
I have been out in the garden this morning, hoeing, raking and planting daffodil bulbs, so can't wait to see them in the spring, they are one of my fave flowers.
Thats it for today, thanks for visiting

Look what I did yesterday

Most people didn't know (sorry to those we didn't tell) but we wanted small and no fuss, We got married yesterday (about time too some might say) We have been together for 10years and have 2 very beautiful children and yesterday we tied the knot.

Us in the registry office, the obligitory signing pic, with the kids and our friends.

Newly married Mr and Mrs

Us and my beautiful sister.

With the kids.

We had a wonderful day, the sun shone and as there were only 9 of us in total it was the most relaxing wedding too. I have edited this post as I forgot to blur the car pic (numpty)

More Charity Bargains

Look what I got yesterday, and fab bargains they were too, we went down into the town were the yearly Victorian Weekend was being held, I got them from an Animal Charity stall, there were quite a few lovely things I would have liked, but as usual I had hubby and the kids with me so had to hold back a little.

The pictures were 50p each, I have already painted the frame of the larger one, it was a very dark wood and did nothing for the print. The plates are so pretty, I must get a better pic at some point, they were 50p for the 2 and the glass candle holder was also 50p, so all that booty cost me all of £2.00. I will be painting the other frame too, but need to get some primer as I think it is some kind of plastic.

We were going to pop to the boot sale this morning, but it has poured down all day, very miserable, so instead, as well as painting the frame I have been preparing myself for back to school tomorrow, making sure everything is ready. The kids have just gone out for a walk with our next door neighbours, I am sure they will have loads of fun and come home soaked to the skin, ready for a lovely warm bath.

Thanks for visiting, take care

Trish xxx

Sneaky Peek and Another Award

I thought I would give a sneaky peak of whats on my post tomorrow on It's a Creative World

You will see more of it and a quickie tutorial tomorrow and its all thanks to Elaine of Bloomin' Myrtle.

I want to thank Caroline of Lace Hearts for this award, thank you hunny. Its a friendship award and I am so pleased (and blessed) to have her as a friend. I will need to think about the others as most of the blogs I would have chosen have already been chosen.

See you soon, thanks for visiting

Trish xxx

Blackberry Picking

The kids and I have been out, up the lane to pick blackberries this morning and look at the haul we got, just over 3lbs of lovely juicy fruit. I am going to make blackberry and apple jam with this little lot.

The postie has been today too with my August swap from Rachelle at Ted and Agnes it is the most gorgeous reversable tote bag in green, I need to go and buy myself some yummy green clothes now lol

Florals

Lots of floral things today, well a couple anyway, first off is the doorstops I have made for myself out or remnants from my local fabric shop, the large floral cost me 50p for a HUGE piece, the green smaller floral which is a Laura Ashley print apparently cost me nothing, the lovely lady in the shop let me have it for free!!! and i have some left over for boots or hearts. I have been asked in the comments what I have filled them with, I have used cheapy rice from tesco, 2kg in the big one and 1kg in the smaller one.

I have been enjoying liking florals again after many years of thinking *yuk* and recently I have bought a few floral prints, in charity shops, for very little money. These two I bought a couple of months ago for 80p each in the most awful frames you have ever seen, I took them out and binned the frames (they were really bad) trimmed them down and they fitted perfectly in these lovely cream IKEA frames. At the moment they are sitting on my large chest of drawers in the dining room, but eventually I want to have a whole wall in the living room of lovely floral prints and paintings.

Lastly, the print I bought today, still in the frame it came with, not sure whether to paint this frame or get another IKEA one (all ideas gratefully recieved) it cost a little more at £1.25 but still a bargain I feel.

I have also bought two of the new Cath Kidston bags from Tesco this week, a gorgeous floral (what a supprise) and a striped one, they are yummy and go perfectly with my spotty one from last time and my gorgeous handmade floral (ooh look floral again) one from Nicole.

Thanks for visiting

Trish xxx

Another Award

I have been so busy with visitors this last four weeks, but they are all gone now so hopefully I will be able to keep up with the blog again.

Elaine has given me an award, its a creative one, so thank you Elaine hunny. I have to pass this award on to others, always a toughy as there are loads of wonderfully creative people out there in blog land.

So, first up will be Di, she does the most wonderful crochet and is as mad as a hatter!!!

the next one will be Ted and Agnes she knits and sews beautifully.

Third, will have to be the lovely Debbie what can't this girl do, she is a scrapbooker, cardmaker makes fab bags and paints furniture like a professional.

I think I will have to stick to three, as am totally stuck now *blush*

It was my turn on the Creative World blog today, this is what I have done, pop over to get the full step by step.