16 Years Ago....

Here's to many, many more happy years....

Hugs,

S x

 

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Wafflings (For Want Of A Better Title!!)....

I have a spare 15 minutes so thought I would do a quick blog post, I really must try and post more regularly.

So, what have I been up to?

Last week I went to visit my dear friend Ashley from Country Rose to meet her gorgeous new baby:

How gorgeous is he? Made me very broody!!

I too the opportunity to take few little gifts over:

After a few false starts I settled on this little stripey cardigan, which is the first ever garment I have knitted that I am happy with!!

The colour way was inspired by the movie Labyrinth - the baby in that wears a lovely red and white striped babygro:

When my boys were little I wanted a babygro like this for them but could never find one....

Of course I couldn't leave Ashley's daughter Rose out and so I made her a little rabbit following a pattern from Mary Janes Tearoom:

I highly recommend these patterns, they are so easy to follow - in fact one of these rabbits was the first pattern I followed after learning to knit.

I made Ashley a little vintage style felt brooch among other things:

I've also found time to knit Milo a festive jumper:

I have been working on my first ever paid embroidery "commission":

And of course there is always time for cake!!:

I always find December tricky, on the one hand I love Christmas but on the other I often find that my anxiety is bad. You may remember I have emetophobia (fear of vomiting).

It is so bad that I had to give up work because I was so fearful of coming into contact with "germs" that might make me ill and as such all these horror stories about bugs are freaking me out!!

I then become so worried about being sick that I start to feel nauseas and then don't know whether its real or my imagination!! The mind is a powerful thing and its not good when, sometimes, it doesn't seem to be on your side!!

So, I'm giving myself lots of "talking to's" and downing the old Rescue Remedy in the hopes of keeping things in check!!

Hugs,

S x

 

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It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas....

I have been completely slack again and let the time between posts slip once again, but here I am and I thought I would show you how I have made Shabby Chic Towers look festive this year.

The first thing to go up was the tree, this year I have been a sheep and gone for the very popular red and white theme and (for the first time ever) no obvious tinsel. In actual fact, it does have tinsel, it's just matt green to hide the wires of the lights plus a bit wound round the very centre of the tree to give some depth:

(It looks quite rubbish here)

I got some really lovely new decorations from Wilkinsons and Poundland:

To the right of the tree you can see the fabulous nativity scene that my Mum knitted for me before I could craft - my Stepdad built the stable and I adore it:

We also have a lovely little shop all lit up for Christmas that Mr G's Mum and Dad treated us to last year:

The local garden centre has a massive display of these every year and I was so chuffed to get one!!

Since we had the conservatory built across the back off the house five years ago we have had two trees - although I love, love, love real trees we gave up on them the year we had to chuck one out on Christmas Eve because it was as bald as a coot!!

The second tree is not quite as tasteful as the first:

(Not sure what is going on with that errant branch!!)

I decorated my sticks with decorations I had made from the Cath Kidston Christmas Decorations book:

I'd read some less than flattering reviews of the book and nearly didn't buy it, but I am glad I did because I thoroughly enjoyed making the little felt decorations:

I also knitted some little hearts using this pattern from Ravelry, though I "cheated" and backed each heart with fleece instead of knitting both sides:

Other favourites that are new this year are my little stag and gingerbread house:

I bought two and I shall leave them out all year round, even though they are glittery....

From Poundland, would you believe?!!

So that is how things look here. I still have lots of Christmas shopping to do, but most will be done online although next week we are going to have our traditional outing to Winchester Christmas Market.

It's our 16th wedding anniversary too next week and we also need to make a trip with the boys to the garden centre to choose a bauble each, I do so love our traditions - I'd love to hear about yours?

Hugs,

S x

PS My absence has been in part due to my anxiety which is often bad this time of year, I think probably due to the added stress of Christmas....

 

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Are you a saver or a splurger?

 

I was pondering recently whether we are in the minority because we don't have any savings speak of. We have a very small disposable income and having been silly with money in our youth have never managed to save up a rainy day fund. We have a very bad habit of relying on the credit card if we need and emergency repair or other mishap sorting.

Every year we say we are going to try and accrue some but we always find it's the case that if we do manage to save a few coppers then something will break so we have to blow the savings on that.

I do wonder whether the ability to save is a genetic trait, either you can or you can't. I'm very much a splurger!! I've always found that money burns a hole in my pocket, I love shopping and always have something on my wish list - very rarely are the items on my list extravagant but there is usually something I am hankering after.

I can't remember ever managing to save up for anything unless you count selling things on eBay until have the amount I need - that's how I raised the money for my iPad.

My sister is exactly the opposite and from a young age she liked nothing more than counting her growing collection of pennies into her red cash tin - she now is very good with money, so it's my opinion that you can probably tell early on whether your children a going to be a saver or a splurger!!

However, I must confess that the advice given to me by the 101 year old lady in the pub on my birthday springs to mind - she said "Let me give you some advice, my dear. Spend your money. Don't save it. Spend it and enjoy. Don't save it like I did. It's no use to me now."

Maybe she had a point....

Hugs,


S x




 

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Mini Makeover....

This weekend we made over a little spot in our (tiny) kitchen that had hitherto been an eyesore.

Ever since I saw Cherry Menlove's gorgeous open white shelves I have hankered after some of my own but the problem was where to put them.

I also really disliked the cooker hood and splashback we had above our range:

We used to have a stainless steel range that matched the hood and splashback, but after that finally gave up the ghost we found this fab Aga-like Leisure range on eBay for the bargain price of £150 and for well over a year I have put up with the mismatch (some kinds of mismatch are NOT good!!)

I got to thinking about what we could do to prettify this area of the kitchen - this involved laying in bed at night hatching all manner of plans - 99% of which are rubbish in the light of day - and decided we should remove the hood (we never use it as its not connected to the outdoors and just "extracts" back into the room) and build some sort of unit or shelves.

Then came the persuasion of Mr G.

It took weeks.

And in the end I had to put my foot down.

So on Saturday I marched him to the wallpaper shop, we chose paper and on our return the hood came down and the paper went up:

Already looking soooooo much better!!

The conversion of Mr G to all things floral, vintage and shabby chic was proved complete when he came up with the idea to paper the back of the plate rack.

On Sunday, off we trotted to B&Q where - following a brief hiatus for a row over fairy lights - we got the material for the shelves.

Mr G got down to one of mans most hated tasks - erecting shelves:

I was beyond excited!! I danced about waiting for the moment when I could fill them with pretty things:

I've ordered new Cath Kidston labels for the flour jars!!

We're sooooo pleased with how they have turned out - Mr G went as far as to say it's his favourite makeover to date - which is high praise indeed considering he was against doing anything in that area.

I still dislike the stainless splashback and will now work on getting Mr G to tile over it - resistance is futile.....

Hugs,

S x




 

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Ooopsy, Vanished There For A Bit....

Hello, my lovelies!! I haven't vanished off the face of the earth, just somewhat lost my blogging mojo a bit. Like many of the other Instagram addicts I've met, the instantness (is that a word?) of IG does mean one is less inclined to blog.

But, I must not neglect my little space on the web and I pledge to post at least once a week from now on.

So, what have I been up to?

On Monday it was Mr G's (41st) birthday and so last weekend we ventured off sans children to Lyncombe Lodge Hotel in Churchill, North Somerset. I had booked it via a KGB deal an it was just £69 for two nights.

We set off on Friday after the children had gone to school and headed to Frome where we had a lovely lunch in the Garden Cafe and a mooch around the shops:

We had a walk up the pretty Catherine's Hill, home to vintage, yarn and fabric shops - I felt bit bad as it was Mr G's birthday weekend yet we kept going in all the kinds of shops I adore. He was very sweet though and insisted I look in every shop I wanted to.

All was not lost though as at the top of the hill we found a model shop so we had a good mooch around that - it was literally floor to ceiling with Airfix kits and as Mr G had loved them as a child there was much tripping down memory lane.

After a lovely little potter we headed off to the hotel which was about a half hour away according to the sat nav.

It was a very scenic drive but as we approached the end of the route the surroundings were getting more and more built up and as the hotel was meant to be in the middle of nowhere I was getting confused. Soon, the sat nav man declared "you have reached your destination" whilst we were in the middle of what appeared to be a council estate!!

"This can't be right" I said and decided to double check the postcode I had entered.

Oh.

Dear.

I had put in BA5 instead of BS5 and we were in Bath!!

I entered the correct postcode and it revealed we were now 50 minutes from the hotel!! Mr G took it with very good grace - as always - one of the many things I adore about him is his laidbackness (?) I have memories of my Dad's dreadful rants when Mum cocked up the navigating - he used say "Get the map out" and we'd all cringe!!

So, after another scenic drive we arrived at our hotel, which was indeed, in the middle of woods and very rural:

We checked in and were shown to our room:

My first comment was "Wouldn't the bed look fab with a coat of Annie Sloan paint and some Cath Kidston drapes?"!! Mr G was unimpressed to discover I had packed my knitting on a "dirty weekend"!!

On Saturday we headed into Wells which is such a pretty town, and had a look around the shops. And we ate our way around the market:

We went through an archway at the end to be greeted with a beautiful cathedral:

Look at that sky!! That's with no filter - we were very lucky with the weather....

We took a moment to step inside:

And I lit a candle for my Dad:

After lunch (organic sausages in rolls with onions, yum) we headed off to call in to my dear friend Cuckoo from Tales From Cuckoo Land. I had emailed her for recommendations of places to visit because I knew she lived in the area and when it transpired how close we'd be she invited us to pop in.

I wasn't going to push it with Mr G as it was, again, something for me on his birthday weekend but he was more than happy for us to go over for a cuppa.

We were greeted with open arms - Cuckoo and her family made us feel soooooo welcome. She has the most beautiful warm, homely house and I could have literally spent the whole weekend sat in front of the real fire in Cuckoos sewing room (which is so beautiful I was open-jawed and completely forgot to take a picture).

Cuckoo is another person I have met through blogging whom I feel I have known in a previous life, and I came away with a huge girl crush:

Saturday night Mr G and I ventured out for pizza, I ate way too much and my anxiety induced nausea threatened to get the better of me but with the help of a cheeky Valium I managed to keep it at a manageable level and not spoil the whole evening. We retired to bed to watch Prison Break on Lovefilm - very rock 'n roll.

After we checked out on Snday we headed home via Shepton Mallet as it was the Antique and Collectors Fair (oops that's another thing for me - I will say I kept telling him to Google for motorbike shops or any other boy things he fancied but he said he wasn't fussed).

On Monday (Mr G's actual birthday) we had lunch in our favourite pub

The birthday boy himself....

They do the most amazing homemade pies

Thanks for reading, I've not much else to report but I will do another post shortly to show you my latest crafty doings....

Hugs,

S x

 

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