Long time and sad news

As a lot of my friends will know we lost my father in law to cancer at the beginning of May, I stopped the blog when he became ill as Martin needed me and I didn't have the inclination to post, luckily Brians pain lasted only 12 days, not so for my friend Julie who passed away this morning after a huge battle against breast cancer and then secondary breast cancer. This news is still very raw to me I only found out an hour ago but, I need to do this and try to make other women aware that its secondary breast cancer that kills more women each year than breast cancer itself. At the beginning of this year Julie asked me to help make people more aware of this as she knew about our Breakthrough Breast Cancer work on its a creative world and because of family commitments and life in general I didn't get round to it and then left IACW.
Julie was a very brave very strong woman, she never let her primary cancer get her down, and earlier this year she had a reconstruction of her boob and she was elated, she had beaten it, but then came the news only weeks later that she had the secondary, it was in her bones and left lung. Julie told me not long after that that there is no cure for the secondary cancer all they can do is releive your pain, she told me that she would be happy if she got five years, she didn't get much more than five months.
I am still crying and reeling from this news, RIP Julie xxx

Good Bye for now

I am temporarily closing my blog for family reasons. Thank you for understanding.

Trish xxx

A Thank You, a Cake and a Cushion

First of all I must say thank you to Kate from Emily Pickle Material Addict for the gorgeous T shirt she sent me for Grace, last week Kate had blogged about some t shirts she had done for sale in her Folksy Store one had a small hole (and it is tiny!!!) and kate was not happy about selling it, but offered it to anyone who wanted it on her blog, si I put my hand up and asked, I felt very cheeky, but I am so glad I did, both Grace and I love the T shirt, its just perfect for her.

I think I will be keeping an eye on Kates shop and maybe buying another for her too, thank you again Kate.

Today I am just pottering around the house and garden, I have sown some poppy seeds, 2 packs, both free from magazines, ironed some HAMA beads for the kids, made a banana cake from a recipe from my lovely friend Becca, I have made it loads of times and its lovely. If anyone wants the recipe let me know in the comments and I will put it on the blog at some point, I add walnuts to my version, I think it helps make it a bit firmer.

I have also made something for William that I have wanted to do for ages, but just never got round to, he has badgered me for days to get it done so today I did, a Union Flag cushion cover for his room, it goes lovely with the paper chain and HAMA bead flag he also has in there, its becoming a theme in his room I think.

Just looking at the pics, I may cut a star from some blue fabric and put it in the centre of the cushion, it might look a bit more finished than as I feel maybe it isn't.

Oh well, the hoover is calling me, I really need to get vacuumed upstairs today so I supose I had better get on with it.

Thanks for visiting

Trish xxx

Happy Birthday Gracie

Today is Graces 6th Birthday, 6 years ago today Martin was due to start work at his new job but ended up phoning in and asking for a week off, where have those 6 years gone???

This is the cake I spent hours attempting yesterday, this one is the second one, the first ended up in the bin as it was a total disaster, I tried a new recipe, I will not be using it again!!!

The cake is PINK!!!! but Grace doesn't know this yet as we haven't cut it, just blew out the candles before Martin went off to work this morning. Can you see the sparkly pink top? it is edible cake glitter, I got it from here after reading about it on Karlas blog its so gorgeous to look at and really sparkles in the light, I will be making more cakes just to use the glitter, I will also put it on ice cream and anything else I can find that needs glittering up.

This was just a quickie today, thanks for visiting

Trish xxx

Black Eyes and a Birthday

What a week, it has been my last week at my current relief job at a local infant school, I have covered every school day since the beginning of November and yesterday was my last day there, I am still on the books for cover but not on a semi permanent basis now, well I had to go in in the morning to help present the prizes for the Easter Bonnet competition that us dinner ladies do every year, so we did all this and went back to our little place at the back of the hall behind all the kids, staff and parents, the head was thanking the parents for coming and asked for a couple more minutes of their time when I heard my name called along with another lady who is a part time secretary as we were both leaving, we were both presented with lovely flowers from the kids and staff at the school, I was not expecting anything at all and was very supprised and extremely happy and blubbed a little too. At lunchtime I went back in to do my last shift and the girls I work with and the kitchen girls had bought me another bunch of flowers and some chocolates too (more blubbing!!!) What a lovely thing for them to all do as I am only relief, it made my day.

Aren't they beautiful, I have popped some daffs from my garden in with them too.

Yesterday morning we were at Graces school waiting to go in, and as usual William was off playing with his mates that have younger brothers or sisters at the school, I was chatting (what a suprise) when William came up to me with his hand over his eye, saying he had got bumped, I took his hand away and nearly passed out!!!!! the biggest swollen eye ever!!!! it had come up in seconds, I quickly got him into the school and got an ice pack for him, we walked over to his school, I spoke to his teacher and we both agreed that maybe he should stay off for the morning at least, so off we went to my work then back home for calpol and nurofen and a HUGE cup of tea for me, at lunchtime he came into work with me and helped by giving out stickers and generally helping. He decided that he wanted to go into school for the afternoon as they were having a Roman Feast as part of the topic they are doing this term, so I let him go in, I am glad I did as he enjoyed himself and the swelling had gone down a fair bit by then too. This morning he looks like he had been bopped by Ricky Hatton!!! a beautiful bruiser.

It is Graces 6th Birthday on Tuesday, so we had her party today as a lot of her friends are going away for the Easter break. I took a picture of her in front of my lovely flowers cuddling her favourite (so far) pressie, unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the party as I was running around like a headless chicken, we had it at home and made Easter bookmarks from kits from Baker Ross, it was great fun and she enjoyed every minute. I am making her a cake for her birthday and William is helping, I will make sure I get pics of that.

Well, thats it for today, I still have a fair amount of cleaning up to do!!! thanks for stopping by

Trish xxx

Easter Fun and fluffyness

Its been over a week since I blogged, that makes me sound as if I am in therapy!!! I have been busy working, gardening, selling excess avon and trying to find a new job for when my temp position finishes this Friday, I have also been helping the kids to make their easter projects for school too, Grace had to make an easter bonnet and William had to do something creative with a hard boiled egg, so we had fun with these on Sunday and here are the results of their hard work.

I cut the card and stapled it together for her, but Grace did all the sticking and glittering, it was supposed to look like a broken egg shell, but looks more like a crown, but what the heck, its pretty, she did a marvelous job.

Here is Ramesegg the First!!!!! we had three choices of name and hubby chose the one he liked best. William is fascinated by Ancient Egypt and wants to be an Archeologist when he grows up, has done for about 3 years and is only 8, so one hard boiled egg, 2 metres of white ribbon, 2 chenille pipecleaners and one bucket full (well not quite but it seamed like it) of PVA later here he is. I think he looks fab, one of the rules was that part of the egg had to show, which is why we left the eye bit open and William drew on the eyes.

After seeing Caz's post on Its a Creative World last week I had to go shopping for this book, I found it on Amazon at a reasonable price and its fab, I will definately be trying some of these squares when I have finished the basic blanket I am doing right now, there is one throw in there that I want to try for Graces bed, its all pretty and girly looking.

While on the subject of crochet I have been trying to find a pattern for a tea cosy that I can understand and do the stitches for, but to no avail so far, but I did find a very easy knitting pattern for one, which I printed off and tried using some very fluffy yarn that I had, I love it, although it does look like some strange green furry creature had eaten my tea pot, but I don't care, it keeps the pot warm and makes me smile when I walk in the kitchen.

Do you see what I mean about the furry creature LOL!!! It only took me 2 evenings to do this one so its very quick and easy, but the yarn made me all itchy and sneezy while I was knitting, the next one will not be fluffy!!! The lovely Felicity from JoshyandBelle has offered to root out a tea cosy crochet pattern and pop it on her blog for me after me commenting on her lovely knitted one, so hopefully I will be able to crochet one too.

Well, thats it for now, thanks for visiting

Trish xxx

Flowers, Veggies and a Poorly Boy

My garden is starting to come to life, the bluebells should be out soon, the leaves are all there ready and waiting for those beautiful blue flowers to bloom, the daffs are out and looking sunny and cheerful, I picked a few on Sunday to put in a jug and the scent as you walk in the room is amazing, much more than from shop bought ones (well the ones I have ever bought from the shops)




The seedlings I planted just over a week ago are coming up nicely, well, some are, so far 3 cucumber seeds have sprouted, 8 tomato seeds (four different varieties) and 1 sweetpea, I am hoping that more of the sweetpeas sprout soon, I have a wall in the garden that needs brightening up and they are just the ticket I think. This is our third year of veggie growing, it has only been tomatos and carrots before though, this year we have the greenhouse (a fab freecycle find last year) and our raised bed, it is 8'x4' and we are planning all sorts for it, just hope we can fit it all in!!! I also have some early potatoes which are chitting nicely on the kitchen windowsill which will go in some spud tubs, I have two at the mo but want to get a couple more of them as growing spuds in tubs seems to be a lot easier than growing them in the ground and they don't take up space that can be used for other yummy veg like carrots, cauli, beans and peas. The toms, cucumber, chilli and peppers will be growing in the greenhouse, I really can't wait to start getting it all out in the plot and the greenhouse, and neither can the kids.

Talking of kids, last week Grace was very poorly with a nasty tummy bug, we kept William away from her as he had a cubs sleepover on Saturday/Sunday and was so excited about going, luckily it seemed to work and off he went and had a wonderful time and earned three more badges (which mommy still has to sew on!!!). He came home on Sunday lunchtime full of stories and excitement then all of a sudden, or so it seemed, he dropped, he had a good long sleep on the sofa and we thought he was just very tired, when he gets this tired we have to watch him as in October when we visited Dad in France he collapsed, it was very scarey at the time, but we have been told by the doctor that it was just a mix of excitement, tiredness and heat, so I was a little worried, but he woke up and seemed ok, still tired but nothing else, then Sunday night it started, he had the same tummy bug, so he is off school this week. He seems a little better today, but I will keep him home again tomorrow to be on the safe side. Mind you, looking at this pic which I took this morning, he doesn't look too ill LOL.

Thanks for stopping by

Trish xxx

More grannys and a view *EDITED*

I have been busy working on my granny squares and now have 21 done, not sure how many I will do, I think I will get a load more done then play and see if its big enough, I have really enjoyed getting back into crochet, its nice and relaxing to do while watching telly of an evening.


I think they look all bright and full of gorgeousness and can't wait to get it finished and on my boring brown sofa to help brighten it up a bit.

I also have a picture of the view from my kitchen sink as Posy did a couple of weeks ago, its not the prettiest of views right now, but one the fushia has bloomed again and the greenhouse and veg bed are full of lovely edible goodies it will look better. On the window sill are my propagators full of seeds for the garden and greenhouse, I have planted tomatoes (3 varieties) chillis, peppers, cucumber and some sweetpeas so far, I also have some spuds chitting which will hopefully be ready to go in my big spud tubs in about 4 weeks, the Good Life here I come!!!

Edited as I forgot the pic from the kitchen window LOL!!!

Trish xxx

Crochet..................

.............is very addictive!!!! I had forgotten how addictive actually, its all the fault of Lace Hearts and (because I have just found her blog) Attic24 as well as quite a few of the girls on the Shabby Chic forum!!! I found the pattern for the flowers on Attic24s blog, had a practise on some old (bright green) wool then went shopping for more lovely yarn to make more which I turned into bunting of a sort for my mantlepiece, I think they look quite pretty there.

I have also done one granny square (so far) for a blanket I want for the sofa and a cushion cover, well the front of a cushion cover really which is like a giant granny square.


I had a bash at making a three layered flower too, using the pattern from Attic24 again but adding to it, I am pleased with how it has turned out and may make more as corsages or just to pop around the place looking pretty. The next crochet thingy I want to have a go at is the ripple stitch but as yet I haven't found a pattern/tutorial that I understand.

Sorry the photo quality is a bit pants in that last pic!!!

mmmmm, now onto Februarys Grocery Challenge, well, I overspent by over £30, but never mind, I am back on track and hope that this month I can be good and only spend my budget, I suppose though, in all fairness (does that sound like and excuse???) I did buy loads of meat from the butcher and made up a good few meals for the freezer so some of that could really be carried over to this month (mm it is an excuse really).

thanks for stopping by

Trish xxx

Sewing again

I have started to feel a little more crafty recently (hoooraaahhhh) this morning I have made a patchwork cushion cover using This tutorial as also seen on Lace Hearts and I love it I will admit to buying some red fabrics to boost up my limited supply of reds to make this, but I am sure they will come in handy for other things too.

It looks very pretty on my sofa. I also stitched some fabric samples onto a plain canvas shopping bag, it has been sitting (pinned) in a drawer for months and I found it this morning while sorting out the fabric for the cushion cover, so thats another UFO finished.

I am so happy to be making stuff again, finishing off the greenhouse and digging our new veg patch may have had something to do with my need to be creative too.

I keep forgetting to update on how I am doing with the grocery challenge, well January we came in under budget by about £38, but this month we may be slightly over our £310 budget as we have already spent £261 and have a week to go, but we will see.

Trish xxx

Flowers and Pretties

Its been so long since I was able to find any yummy bargains in the local charity shops, they have put up their prices considerably lately and although I know its charity and am helping when I spend, I really want to keep the cost down, well this week I found 2 beautiful bargains, beautiful rose brooches, I have a few brooches, never wear them, just leave them looking pretty in a pretty bowl in my bedroom.

My love started about 5 years ago when my Step mom bought me a lovely Black brooch made by a Russian lady who lived local to her, and since then I have picked them up in car boot sales and charity shops and a couple from ebay that weren't to pricey too, and my darling sister bought me the green leaf one as part of my birthday charity shop box.

They are not all in this pic as I have used some on some crafting items too.

Well enough of the brooches, look at my orchid, my darling sister (again) bought this for me last year and not long after it came home most of the flowers dropped and I eneded up with a bare stalk, sis told me not to worry more would grow and showed me how to look after it and lo and behold, I have two new beautiful flowers, they are certainly cheering me up on these cold days.

So pretty especially since my indoor daffs and hyacinth have faded.

Trish xxx

Snow!!!

I took these pics from the kitchen and dining room windows yesterday about 3.30pm, it got a fair bit deeper after that but some has melted overnight.

It looks so pretty. I had to go out to deliver Avon last night, I hate driving when it starts icing over, scarey, but, it wasn't too bad, I got it all done. I have William off sick with toncillitis and am not sending Grace in today as there is no way I am driving and its too far to walk with my poorly boy (3miles there and back) My school is closed, so no work for me today, I think a chill out pyjama day is in order.

I was given this award a couple of weeks ago by Dancing on a Blade of Grass, thank you Sandie.

“The authors say that blogs who receive this award are exceedingly charming. This blog invests in proximity in space, time and relationships. These kind bloggers aim to find and be new friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandisement. Our hope is that when ribbons of these awards are cut, even more friendships will be propagated. Please give your kind attention to these writers.”

I am supposed to pass this on to 8 other blogs, but it seems all the blogs are now taken!!! so if you don't have this award please take it and enjoy

Enjoy the snow but keep warm and safe

Trish xxx

Cub Scout

William started cubs just before Christmas and was invested a couple of weeks ago and we all went to see it, I was so proud of him, he stood tall and spoke his promise loud and clear. Sorry about the blurriness in the last pic.

Well, today its blowing a hooley out there so I think it may jusy have to be a pyjama day, I really don't feel like going out in that. I may try my hand at one of the patchwork cushions that Lace Hearts has made, the original tutorial is here, it looks fairly easy and fun to do and as I have an entire drawer full of scraps of pretty fabric I should be able to make at least one if not more.

In November I started to do the Grocery Shopping Challenge on the Shabby Chic forum and was pleased that I came in £10 under my budget of £350 for the month, December fell by the wayside somewhat, but this month I have done it again and looks like I am back on track and at least £20 under my new budget of £340 as I have been making more 'freezer' foods and stretching food out more by adding more veg and not buying so many ready foods like pizzas. Fingers crossed I can keep it up, its amazing when you start writing down all your receipt totals to see how much you have actually spent (eye opening too).

Right, thats it for today

Trish xxx