My First Blogiversary!! (Little Giveaway)....

Today is one year to the day that I started blogging!! 


I was inspired to start my own blog after finding lots of wonderful blogs that I like to read.


I had never really read a blog before until I mentioned on the online horse community forum I  frequented how I loved CK and shabby chic - someone sent me a link to Posy  and it was then that I realised that there were other people out there that love CK, crochet and vintage as much as me who knew?!!


In this first year, after a bit of a shaky start when I felt as though I was talking to myself I have gradually gathered over 200 followers - I am grateful to each and every person who reads and am constantly amazed that anyone is interested in my little life.


I have made friends; taken part in some lovely swaps; learned loads from other blogs and my Bloddies (Cuckoo's word - blog + buddies = Bloddies); won and hosted giveaways; been asked to feature in a home magazine (I declined!!); and generally found a whole new way to engage with people.


So, to celebrate I am offering one of my little crochet votives as a little giveaway:

To enter you need to be a follower and leave a comment below - I will use the random number generator thingy to pick a winner next Tues 17th Jan.

In other news, I love, love, love spring flowers so was delighted to see these whilst shopping in Lidl last week and I couldn't resist especially as they were 4 for a fiver:

I chose pink and blue hyacinths, crocuses and narcissus. Lidl is worth a look for seasonal houseplants as they often have good deals and special offers like these. 

It seems to trick me into thinking spring is nearer than it actually is have these in the house, I loathe the post-Christmas period and can't wait for spring proper.

I was supposed to start my Alpha Course (or as Mr G calls it "God Squad") today and after several encouraging comments and a couple of emails from people who had done it I was rather looking forward to it, however today the curate called to say that every single other person had dropped out.

She has offered to do the course material one on one over 5 weeks (instead of the usual 10) in her home so I am weighing up whether to do that or see if I can find an alternative full Alpha course. 

The problem being I have been wanting to do it for years and have never found a course before that started soon and that was during the day - most of the courses are at night and I just know even if I manage to attend a couple I'll not stay the course if I have to go out in the evening (I like to curl up, stay in and put my nightie on after dinner!!)

Anyway, Mr G has lunch ready (I love that man!!) so I better dash....

hugs,

S x

PS don't forget to comment below for the giveaway!!

The Hills Are Alive....(and Giveaway Result!!)....

....last night I went to see:

My friend L treated me as a surprise (how lovely is that?) - I *love* The Sound Of Music and have actually been reading the book of the real story by Maria Von Trapp so I was delighted when L told me we were going (L didn't know I was reading it - she and I are always doing spooky psychic things).

My Mum threatened to put me off a bit though when she said it would be "like a school play" because it was being done by an Am Dram society - so I was wondering what is was going to be like when we took our seats.

It was WONDERFUL!!!!!!! It couldn't have been any better if it was on the West End.

I blubbed. Managed to keep the actual tears until the end but as Maria, the Captain and the children climbed the mountain silhouetted against the moon it was too much!!

I just love, love, love a musical!!

Now without further ado I shall announce the winner of the giveaway........

Loo xx from Jumbles and Pompoms

Congratulations!! Drop me a line with your address and I'll get it in the post for you.

Hope you all have a luvverly weekend....

hugs,

S x

Bedroom Floors Reveal And A Giveaway!!

The bedroom floors are all done and so I can show you how they look!! We're really pleased with them and after having such scruffy flooring for such a long time it has made such a huge difference to how the house looks.


Our room:

We are so pleased with the white washed laminate - it was from UK Flooring Direct and cost just £7.35 per sq m. It doesn't look any cheaper than the oak laminate we have downstairs which was much more expensive.

I went and painted the wardrobe in the end:

I'm not sure about it!! :0/ - it looks a bit......I dunno.....I'm thinking of putting a bit of CK Rose Sprig wallpaper on the eight panels or something....


The boys room is much better:

Am going to paint their wardrobe & bookcase at some point, not sure what colour as I'm not keen on mine in Old White

Still no CK tiles in the bathroom as the floor is still drying, hopefully they are going down tomorrow.

In the meantime, I have a little giveaway for you - I am delighted to have reached 200 followers so I have a copy of "Where Women Create"  - I love to nosey round other people's craft rooms so this book is a treat!!:

Aren't these rooms fab? If you'd like to be entered into the draw to win the book you just need to be a follower and leave a comment below - I'll use a random number generator to pick a winner next Friday 14th October....

hugs,

S x 

All Kinds Of Randomness - And A Giveaway Winner!!

(Do you sometimes struggle with what your post title should be? I do, I try and make it something that will grab a readers attention as well as give a preview to the contents of my post, but I think I am usually way off the mark!!)

I had a hobble around the garden, picked myself some flowers and took some pictures to share with you.

I'll start with the sweet pea saga - you may remember me wondering where are my sweet peas? a few weeks ago? Well, as of last week there were still only a couple of buds on the big bank of them and a couple of blooms on the ones in the pot outside the door.

I contacted The National Sweet Pea Society and the chap replied to basically say I was on a hiding to nothing as:

• They shouldn't be in a raised bed
• They shouldn't be in bought compost
• They shouldn't have been bought at B&Q
• They should have had their side shoots pinched out
• They should have been planted out way earlier

Mr G also noticed that they were covered in greenfly and so I Googled what to do and the majority of advice was to spray them with diluted washing-up liquid. So I did - and this is what they look like now:

It fried them!! :0(

I did it on a cloudy day too, so it wasn't as if they were scorched by the sun!! 

They are all dry and crispy but on a brighter note there is no sign of the greenfly!!

Luckily I didn't do my potted ones, although they look a bit tatty at the bottom they are OK:

This is our second year of having flowers (we just had lawn up until last year) and TBH the whole flowerbed is looking a bit crap. I favour the untended, cottagey look but things that are tall have grown at the front, there's big gaps and it's all looking a bit scruffy. Nothing I planted from seed direct to the flowerbed has been a success this year either.

The hollihocks have come back from last year (as did one delphinium, goodness knows where the rest are!!):

Look at Mr Bumblebee!! We have a tiny gap in the path at the front of the house, just below a large buddleia and we think we have a nest (hive?) living in there as we often see bumbles going in the hole.

We have pink ones too (hollihocks not bumblebees!!):

Now on to giveaway news - I used the random number generator and the winner of the Home Sweet Sewn book is:

A Mermaid's Purse - well done!!

I have been really honoured and chuffed to receive a couple of awards, so I'll pop back tomorrow to tell you about them and pass them on. I can't say how much it means to me to receive an award from a fellow blogger - especially as I am in awe of you all!!

Now as for my sciatica - still v. sore. I thought it was marginally better yesterday and gritted my teeth for the short drive to the garden centre but I'm not entirely sure that was a good idea as it's as bad as ever today. The pain has gone from my back and has settled in my leg - it kind of feels like that calf cramp you sometimes get at night - not pleasant.

Mr G did suggest earlier that "I bet your leg is fine now, you're just enjoying being waited on" - and I had to resist the urge to thump him!! Still, I can't complain he has been a star looking after me and the boys.

There's a Hitchcock movie on this afternoon "Dial M For Murder" with Grace Kelly so I am going to settle down in front of that with my knitting....

Hope you have all had a lovely weekend.

hugs,

S x

100th Follower Giveaway and Other News....

In fact as of just now I notice I have 117 followers!! I saw I had nearly 100 a week or so ago and started to think about a giveaway and in the meantime the figure has gone well past!! 


May I take this opportunity to thank you all for reading - in the beginning I was ambivalent about blogging as it felt like I was talking to myself a little, but I soon gathered a little band of followers and regular commenters and I really started to enjoy myself.


Blogging has made me stop and take a little time to enjoy the everyday things in life, take more photos and just enjoy "being". 


The lovely Cuckoo hits the nail on the head when she says "Isn't it lovely how the worst part of that day is now the best because it has become a funny story. That's one of the things I love about blogging. Lately when something is totally going wrong and frustration levels rise I think to myself "Oh this will make a funny blog story" and then things feel less difficult."


So a giveaway is in order!! I have a copy of "Home Sweet Sewn" by Alice Butcher & Gillian Farquhar up for grabs:

As well as the lovely tea & egg cosy set there are some lovely things inside to make - look at this apron:

Machine embroidery of your house (I really want to do this one):

Cute heirloom doll:

And lots more!! To enter:

• You must be/become a follower
• Leave a comment below
• A mention of the giveaway on your blog gains another entry

Name out of the hat on Friday wins, simples!!

Before I go and fetch H from school I must show you the cake we (W and I) made yesterday. Mr G and I fancied a plain old-fashioned Victoria sandwich with strawberry jam and whipped cream:

Mr G helpfully pointed out that it wasn't going to win any WI prizes!! 

This is what happens when you underwhip the cream because you hate it too stiff and your husband is too impatient to let the cakes cool properly and persuades you to assemble them forthwith - when your back is turned the top layer slides gracefully off and lands on the table (well, it nearly did we caught it in time and re-positioned it so I could take a pic to show you!!)

It did taste yummy though, despite appearances:

Yummy!!

Hope you have a good weekend....

hugs,

S x

And The Winner Is....

I have used a random number generator and the winner of my giveaway is Sarah @ Modern Country Style!! Well done!!

Many thanks to everyone who entered!!

Yesterday we had this little guy in the conservatory:

At first I thought he must be terrified but he was soon sat up there trying to eat my fake rose garland!!

We opened the French doors and it wasn't long before he found his way out.

He was very sweet and pretty - but I still had to stop myself fretting about superstitions to do with birds coming into houses!!

Hope you have a lovely weekend!!

S x

50 Followers Giveaway!!

You may remember that I promised to do a giveaway when I reached 50 followers? That number was reached this week so today I have details!!

This is what you can win:

Included is:

• A Sizzix Sidekick Starter Kit including the machine & two dies - find out more about this little cutting machine here

• A machine embroidered cupcake panel - now the one above is for illustration purposes only as I haven't actually made the one I'm giving away yet BUT it's going to be bigger (so you can make it into a cushion if you want) and have a green polka dot background.

• A FCUK Polished Sugarscrub body exfoliator which smells gorgeous.

• A fruity pink, slightly sparkly lipgloss.

• All this comes in a fab 100% cotton tote bag emblazoned with a Union Jack - I bought two today, one for you and one for me. I used mine for my shopping and it's really big as well as having long enough straps that you can wear it on your shoulder.

To Enter:

Leave me a comment below. Simples!!

If you want a second chance then do a link from your blog to my giveaway post for another entry.

The giveaway runs for one week until 13th May when I will pull one name out of the hat - make sure I can reach you!!

Ooooh, and I have done a tutorial for you - my very first, so watch this space!!

Hugs,

S x

Giveaway News and More!!

I have reached 50 followers!! I am so chuffed!! And so I shall soon be doing a little giveaway - just need to have a little think and collect some goodies so watch this space!!

Yesterday I picked up Free And Easy Stitch Style by Poppy Treffry from the library (I *love* the library).

I fancied doing a bit of free motion machine embroidery after seeing the lovely Kirstie Allsopp have a go on Kirstie's Homemade Home last year.

Many years ago at school one of my GCSE assignments was machine embroidery - I painted a rose onto silk and then embellished it using the machine. Goodness knows what happened to it - perhaps it's in the loft?

The book:

It has some lovely ideas inside and clear instructions and tips on how to be successful, one of the most important being it doesn't have to be perfect!!:

So using this picture as my inspiration, I had a go:

And this is how it turned out:

I'm quite pleased with it and it was sooooo much fun!! I need to invest in lots of colourful thread though as I only have a limited selection, but I can see myself doing lots more of this.

This morning I collected a lovely basket from a lady on Freegle  who was giving it away. I need it to hold my yarn as Bear is just obsessed with wool!! If it's not shut away he spreads it around the whole house, cartoon style!!:

Don't you just love secondhand stuff? In fact, in our house we have only ever bought two items of furniture brand new - our wardrobe & bed. The rest came from junk shops; eBay; family castoffs or the tip!!

I love painted furniture so the majority of it gets a coat of cream paint, I'll have to take some pictures of our secondhand finds and show you in another post.

Hope you are enjoying the lovely weather, don't forget to check back soon as in the next week I should have details of my very first giveaway!!

S x