Slacking!!

Hello lovelies!!


Gosh I've been a bit slack about blogging this week, not sure what happened there!!


This weeks Friday flowers were stocks:

Unfortunately, they were a disappointment as they were dead by Monday!! My flowers usually last a week, so I shan't be buying stocks again!!

We put the pool up and so we are now guaranteed a rubbish summer!!:

W in his new shades "Because I don't want wrinkles from squinting" and Daisy who jumps in if she thinks she missing something!!

On Sunday we went down to the New Forest to visit my Stepmum, Stepgranny and little brother - we thought the traffic would be terrible but it was just a bit slow near Lyndhurst.

The drive is very pretty:

Stepmum had laid on a lovely BBQ, and Mr G being the only man, naturally took over:

We also had a yummy pud:

Mmmmm, could just eat it now!!

And after lunch Mr G, H, W and my lil' brother had a Nerf battle!!:

Crafting wise I have made a few things, but it's been a bit hot (I. Don't. Do. Heat.) for much:

 Yarn wreath....

Flower for my hair on Jubilee day....

I will have to love you and leave you now as Mr G needs the laptop!!

hugs,

S x

Sweltering and Crafting!!

Phew!! How are you enjoying the heat? Isn't the British weather so mad? Last week I was curled up on the sofa with my quilt and fleecy dressing gown and this week I am roasting and have the fan on!!

I am not good in the heat. Mr G and I once went to Singapore and I spent the whole 10 days moaning about the heat in the manner of Karl Pilkington!!

Yesterday, I made myself a little haven in the garden:

I sat there all day, listening to catch-up TV on my iPad and crocheting granny hearts:

Naturally, they are going to be made into bunting. I used a pattern I found on Ravelry here  if you fancy a go yourself.

We were delighted to see that our peony has at last flowered - we got it off Freecycle three years ago and in previous years it has budded, but they've never opened before now. But, wow they were worth waiting for!!:

I've remembered to take pics of the embroidered cardi, I've finished it - here's Dolly (my duct tape dummy) modelling it for you:

Many thanks to the lovely Cuckoo for the inspiration....

I have also been painting roses on anything that stands still long enough!! The reason I wanted to learn was to be able to paint some roses on my Fugly-To-Fabulous furniture so I tried a few on a cute nest of tables:

And I've made a sign for one of my Instagram friends:

And I did one for us:

I'm toying with the idea of selling these, as I really enjoy making them.

A couple of weeks ago the lovely LissyLou gave me an award:

Unforgivably, I keep forgetting to mention it - I have to answer a 10 questions:

Favourite colour: Pink of course!!

Favourite number: 8

Favourite animal: Horse

Favourite non alcholic drink: Diet Coke, I drink way too much. I'm also partial to a "Muddy Puddle" - OJ + Coke, the name comes from the colour!!

Facebook or Twitter: Facebook, though I've just joined Twitter @shabbychicsarah - please follow me!! I love Instagram best.

Recieving or giving: Oooooh, tricky!! Both!! I love giving something I know the recipient is going to love, but I love, love, love presents too!!

Favourite pattern: Floral, Cath Kidston style, gorgeous!!

Favourite day of the week: Friday, I love the anticipation of the weekend to come.

Favourite flower: Stargazer lilies - I had them in my wedding bouquet and the smell takes me there instantly. I also love wildflowers, and roses, and peonies, and spring flowers, and, and, and....

I'm meant to pass this on, but I really couldn't choose five as I love so many so I am going to be rubbish and politely decline to pass it on!!

hugs,

S x

More Fugly-To-Fabulousness and Other Witterings....

Hello girls!! I trust you have all had a lovely weekend?

I have some more Fugly-To-Fabulous to show you today - we are frantically trying to raise money for our holiday which is only six weeks away and so I was full on with the painting on Friday.

My favourite is this gorgeous 1950's china cabinet - she had a cost of Annie Sloan "Old White":

Isn't she lovely? But gosh she was a pain to paint!! I had to stick my head right in to paint the inside and managed to get my hair covered in paint - luckily the chalk paint washes out so easily!!

There was also a vintage radiogram that we think will make a fab TV stand - this was given a couple of coats of "Old White" and inside was painted with "Duck Egg", I then used dark wax to bring out the carving:

Finally, an orange pine TV stand was given a new lease of life with a coat of "Country Grey" and and "Old White" top:

On Saturday we started the day with mini cinnamon maple whirls following a recipe Coco Rose shared on Instagram (the addiction to that continues!!):

To make them you take a pack of ready to bake croissant dough, open it out flat and crimp the perforated bits together and then give it a light roll with a rolling pin. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with a mixture of brown sugar and cinnamon. Roll up and then cut into little pinwheels.

Bake for 10 minutes and when they are still hot drizzle with a mix of icing sugar, maple syrup and a little milk.

Let me tell you they were GORGEOUS and lasted about 2 minutes after the photo was taken.

In the afternoon we had a mooch to Petersfield as I wanted to have a look at a Kobo which is WHSmiths version of the Kindle - earlier in the week (in the early hours when I couldn't sleep!!) I bought a Kindle that was offered as a Buy It Now on eBay.

I checked the sellers feedback - she had 47 giving her 100% and so went ahead thinking I had got myself a super bargain.

The following morning I got a message from eBay telling me the seller had been slung off and I was not to pay for the item - but I already had!! I emailed the seller several times - I was hoping it was eBay being over zealous and them actually being genuine which has happened to me before with a smaller item. But no reply.

So now I have to wait for Paypal to refund me - which they will in their own good time.

I want the eReader for our holidays and so after looking at the Kobo I decided to go ahead - it was reduced to £49.99 so quite a bit less than a Kindle.

Of course, when we returned home I had an email from the Kindle seller saying (in very bad English) it is on its way - I will believe it when I see it but if it does arrive I will just sell the one I like the least.

So far I am loving the Kobo - I have always been anti-ereader as I love books, one of my favourite shops in Petersfield is a smelly old bookshop that is a real rabbit warren but as we are going away for two weeks with limited baggage allowance it seemed a no brainer.

Naturally, I have made a cover for it:

Cath Kidston fabric, vintage linen and vintage glass button

One side effect of the Kobo is I am knackered today because I was up until gone 2.00am reading - I have succumbed to the hype and have downloaded Fifty Shades Of Grey - ahem...... 

Hope you all have a lovely week....

hugs,

S x

Vintage Market....

Hello my lovelies!! 

What have we been up to? Well, on Sunday there was a vintage market run by Love Southsea in Old Portsmouth. We live about 10 miles north of the city so we decided to go down and have a look.

I insisted that H and W come along too. Now they old enough to be left for a couple of hours during the day the temptation is to forgo all the complaining about them having to come off their respective gadgetry and go on our own. However, I think it is way too soon to stop doing things together as a family and so on this occasion I put my foot down.

Fortunately, we managed to get out with minimal complaints. We parked at Spice Quay:

H, looking *really* tall; W and Mr G....

First of all we sat on the beach to eat our picnic:

We had a lovely view of Portsmouth Harbour:

 And before long we had some company:

We had thought that it would be cold down on the seafront, but leaning against the wall with the sun (yes, I know, the SUN!!) shining on us was really warm:

After lunch it was time for a mooch around the vintage market:

Apologies for quality - phone pic!!

The market was, IMO, more of a handmade market as there was only one stall selling actual vintage items, but it was nice nonetheless and naturally I made a few purchases:

Afterwards we had a walk along the sea wall and when we got to the big hilly bits we had to stop for some rolling:

It was much steeper than it looks here!!

Even though, at my age, I should know better I had a go. I am pleased to say there is no photographic evidence but for the whole 10 seconds it took to roll from top to bottom I was wishing it was over - it was like getting repeatedly beaten up as you rolled and I landed dizzy, scuffed and covered in grass stains. 

Of course, I then insisted Mr G have a go!!

It transpires that persons of 40 years or thereabouts should not roll down steep banks as he didn't enjoy it much either!!

On the crafting front, I have been continuing with my embroidered cardi and I had a go at wet felting:

I have since tried to machine embroider some grass onto it, but after getting a third of it done my machine decided it just Didn't Want To Play so I'll have to come back to that another day.

Oooh, and look at this *beauty* we found for me to paint:

I really want to keep it but have No Room so I will have to rehome it when its done....

Hope you're all well....

hugs,

S x

On the 

Garden, Cats and This & That....

Hello all, have you finally got some sunshine in your neck of the woods? I remarked to Mr G "There's a funny yellow ball in the sky" yesterday when we awoke to a sunny day.


I forgot to show you my sweetpeas, that I planted out (during a short pause in the rain) last week. 


I didn't have anywhere to put them as my dahlias have gone in the bed the sweet peas were in last year, so when I was at my Mum's I asked of she had anything going spare I could plant them in and low and behold she only had a fab butler sink she said I could have:

It took Mum, Stepdad and me to get it in the car it was so heavy!! But I'm so pleased with it and it fits perfectly on the horrid manhole cover outside the conservatory.


I'm hoping my sweet peas do better than they did last year when they grew halfway up the canes, didn't flower, got covered in greenfly and I killed them with washing-up liquid solution!!


This year I have grown them from seed rather than buy plants from B&Q (which the man from the British Sweet Pea Association whom I contacted after being disappointed said not to buy) so I'm hoping they'll do better.


I also have eight dahlia's I've planted out and I hope they do as well as the three I had last year, which kept with a permanent vase of flowers from July-October.


While I was out taking photos in the garden Bear escaped:

He's meant to be a house cat, but he is also a Houdini and escapes from the cat run everytime we put the cats out in it. He loves to have a pootle round the garden and it causes a bit of dilemma in that he so loves to out in the fresh air, yet we said these cats would be house cats after we lost Gizmo, one of our Tonkinese to a RTA when he was just over a year old.


We live in a very quiet cul-de-sac, and our garden is surrounded on all sides by other gardens, but Gizmo made friends with another neighbourhood cat (Morph, a Bengal who was actually ours until he rehomed himself with the family on the corner!!) and they would go out of the cul-de-sac and cross the road, which although not busy can be a bit of a rat run.


So, do you let cats have a free and full life with the risk that it may be cut short? Or do you ensure a long life for them but without any freedom? It's a toughie.


On the crafting front I have been making more signs:

I really enjoy doing these and am pleased how it turned out, I've put it above the door in the kitchen.


I've also been practising my roses, still not happy with them though:

Fortunately, my friend C who runs Horton Heath Ceramics has kindly offered to teach me the "one stroke" method of painting roses in return for a blogging lesson - I do love a bit of old-fashioned bartering!!


So, that's all the news I have for now - tomorrow we are off to a vintage market in Southsea so I shall be back to tell you all about that.


hugs,


S x


PS I am trying to reply to all comments as they come in but some of you are set as "no reply" which means I am unable to contact you. You can change it in your settings if you would like a reply when you leave comments. Alternatively, you can contact me via email using the "contact" tab above in my header....

More Fugly-To-Fabulous, Cath Kidston Goodies & Other Wafflings....

Hello my gorgeous ladies - are you having a nice bank holiday weekend? As usual the weather is vile but what else is new?

On Friday I finished a pair of bar stools that my Stepdad had given me:

They were plain white and I gave them a coat of Annie Sloan Duck Egg and then had an attempt at hand-painting some cabbage roses on the back before sanding them quite heavily. I need to practice those roses!!

Grandma and Granddad took the boys out on Saturday afternoon and they said they were happy to stay when they returned so Mr G and I could go out on a "date". 

We are so rock and roll though that we decided to go out in the afternoon too - we knew come 7.00pm we would just want our PJ's and the telly!!

So we went to Gun Wharf Quays to see "The Cabin In The Woods" - it was the best time to go as the cinema was virtually empty. The movie was excellent, if you like scary films I highly recommend it to you.

Of course, no trip to Gun Wharf would be complete without a trip to the Cath Kidston outlet - it gets all the end of line/sale stock and there is at least 30% of everything. I got a few goodies:

The cute UJ windmills were from The Works two for £1.00 (but they only had three left!!) I also got some CK lace stripe oilcloth; a photo frame; hankie and a pen tin.

On the way home Mr G bought me tulips (from Lidl!!):

Yesterday we had housework to do (boo hiss) and I took the opportunity to sort out my sewing room which was a tip.

Before:

(Instagram pic!!)

After:

I swapped my old cheapy polka dot vinyl cloth (which I melted with the iron!!) for my fancy Cath Kidston Oilcloth - I've ordered a transparent cutting mat as the green one is all stained and yucky (plus green looks rubbish!!)

In other news, you may have noticed that last week I privately accepted my first ad (for Hunters At Home) in my side bar. Since then my blog has been accepted into the BlogHer Publishing Network which place (pre-approved by me) ads and you get paid a few pence per page view - I wondered what your thoughts on ads on blogs are?

Personally, as long as the blog posts for the most part remain personal and real then I don't mind ads on blogs I visit - what I dislike are blogs which have posts which  are entirely about this product or that service and nothing about the person who writes the blog. 

I love blogs like mine I guess, where you are invited into the authors life to share what *they* have been doing - ads in sidebars don't bother me as long as I love the blog content.

I'd love to know your thoughts, while getting a few bob to buy myself a coffee now and again would be nice, I wouldn't want to alienate my lovely readers....

Hugs,

S x

Triple Chocolate Cookies - Mmmmmmm!!

Hello all!!

We were recently delighted to be asked to review Domino's Triple Chocolate Cookies – as you know here at Shabby Chic HQ we are fans of baked goods!!

The new flavour are dark chocolate cookies loaded with dark, milk and white chocolate chips – they come warm and are £3.25 for a box of four.

The cookies smelled wonderful as soon as we got them, just like home baking. Each cookie was average biscuit size but generously thick and they were packed with choc chips:

In fact, they were more like chocolate chunks!! I had mine with my favourite cinnamon latte:

The cookie had exactly the right amount of crunch/gooey ratio – and were being served warm were a real treat:

To be honest they were so nice you could easily slip a couple of boxes onto a baking sheet and pass them off as your own!! Mary Berry eat your heart out!!

H and W, being growing lads, particularly enjoyed them:

All-in-all, we would all highly recommend them – they are great with a coffee or a cuppa but would also be a lovely dessert with some ice-cream.

Yum yum!!