Happy Birthday Harry!!

Our first born is 15 years old today:

H has had money for his gift and as such is richer than us (which isn't hard!!) In the box is a selection of junky sweetie treats as otherwise he wouldn't have had anything to open.

This afternoon H and Daddy (love that we're still Mummy & Daddy!!) went to spend a bit of his money on a new hard drive for H's PC and H got a KFC for his lunch. Next week we're going to The Warner Brothers Studios to tour the Harry Potter sets so that's the proper treat.

This afternoon I baked Mary Berry's chocolate obsession cake:

I will regretfully not be showing the finished article as although delicious the cakes have proven unmanageably crumbly and I have had to polyfilla them together with chocolate buttercream. Pretty they ain't!!

Crafty-wise I have been drawing more sketches and after our neighbour gave me a large canvas she was about to take to the tip W requested I do a picture Ezio from Assassins Creed!!:

Despite being a bit out of proportion W was chuffed with it!!

A dear friend got married last Friday (will do a separate post about that) so I have been crocheting a little garter for her:

Whipping up one of my home embroidery portraits as a wedding gift:

I added the address as finishing touch to this one but have blocked it out for privacy hence the grey blob!!

And making both a red petticoat (photo of that to come in next post) and a red anemone fascinator:

We have more celebrations to come next week as our youngest W becomes a teenager on Sunday!!

Hope you're all well, thanks for reading....

Hugs,

S x

 

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The Stuff Of Life....

Hello my lovelies!!

Yet again I've let things slide and it's been ages since I blogged, it'd probably be more organised to group things into a couple of posts, but I'm going to just dive right in and tell you what we have been up to lately.

For the first time in her seven years I was "allowed" to have my niece Little E for the day (BIL is very protective of his little girl). We went to Staunton Country Park (somewhere I hadn't been since the boys were little) and had a lovely day despite a little drizzle late on:

With my oldest friends little boy (who is such a sweetie he makes me terribly broody!!).....

Safe to say I think we wore Little E out:

There has also been rather a lot of cake - Mr G always asks me to bake at the weekend, but usually by the time we've done the chores/sorted out the horses I can't be bothered. Last Saturday however, Mr G went out for the morning on his motorbike and I was at a loose end and so he came home to this:

We had an impromtu cake picnic in the garden (I also made coffee & walnut cupcakes):

That evening my Sis and her family came for a BBQ and there was more cake!!:

Sunday "breakfast":

I've really been enjoying seeing to the horses in this lovely weather, everything at the stables has spring into life and am currently only feeding my old boy Crofter (he's 32). He's part sheep I'm sure as he has the thickest winter coat - by the time it's all shed it'll be about time for him to start growing it again!!:

TC was looking particularly gorgeous this week, despite having a sore foot (he's had an abscess):

I've taken up the pencil in an attempt to learn to draw better and have been doodling a bit - I always loved to draw as a child but have never been any good at it (I got an F for my Art GCSE!!):

I've been out shopping a couple of times with my oldest friend D and got a lovely new phone case from Paperchase:

And I also found some lovely old treasures:

I have a collection of the Art Deco mirrors going up the wall on the stairs - this little one is my eleventh!! Mr G currently has five to hang as I've been lucky finding them recently (helped by D as she picked up two for me in a charity shop!!)

Yesterday's boot sale is at a lovely spot on the seafront on Hayling Island (where Mr G and I met and grew up)

It's every Wednesday throughout the year and I thoroughly recommend it.

So, that's what we have been up to really, along with the more mundane stuff of life.

Hopes you're all very well....

Hugs,

Sarah x

 

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Movie Night....

Saturday night in the Shabby Chic Sarah household is movie night - we like to have something yummy to eat and drink and settle in to watch a movie or two.

Last night it was a horror, Mr G and I love a horror movie - when we were kids we went through virtually every scary film in the video shop (remember videos? The first one I remember had a VHS and a Betamax section it was that long ago!!)

Of course these days you don't even have to leave the house to rent a film with the various places you can instantly stream movies - a concept that would have blown the minds of 15 yr old Sarah and Mr G as we trotted off to Blockbuster!!
As the only girl in the house I more often than night have to sit through boys movies - however I am currently campaigning for the boys to let me watch Les Miserables online, what do you think my chances are?!!
Hope you're all well....
Hugs,
S x

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Lovers Of Light....

Last year we bought a proper DSLR camera (a Canon EOS 550D) which I love, but with the advent of such good quality cameras in ones mobile phone I must confess it has rather taken a back seat lately.

And although our mobile phones do take very good pictures these days, I think that you rarely get that little heart flutter that a truly beautiful shot taken on a "real" camera can create.

I have found inspiration to use my DSLR in a somewhat unlikely place - VELUX (the company that makes roof windows, sun tunnels etc) have created a beautiful short film/slide show Lovers of Light which showcases some of the stunning landscape images they received during their Lovers Of Light photo competition.

The competition was run for several months and in that time VELUX received some 9000 photographs - the Lovers of Light photography competition was designed to celebrate light in its every form and the images are breathtaking and a true inspiration to get to grips with ones "proper" camera!!

So, with bluebell season upon us (rather late due to all this unseasonably cold weather we have been having) I will definitely be taking my big girls camera up to the local copse which every year has the most fantastic display of bluebells, with carpets of them as far as the eye can see.

Hopefully, I will be able to improve upon the photos I have taken in previous years (as the trip to admire the bluebells is naturally an annual tradition) such as this one taken with our old Fuji point and shoot:

The VELUX Lovers Of Light film is set to music and well worth sitting down with a cup of tea to enjoy for five minutes - who knows, maybe you will be inspired to get to know your camera better too....

Hugs,

S x

(Although this is a sponsored post all opinions are my own)

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The Magazine Shoot!!

Some weeks ago I was contacted by a journalist who wondered if I might like to have our house featured in a home magazine. It was the second time since I began blogging that I was asked and this time I said yes.

We have spent the last few weeks doing all those jobs that need doing but you never get around to, plus Mr G had the last week off so we could repaint/touch-up/clean like mad and finally we were ready.

Yesterday the photographer Brett Symes and the stylist Jo for Style At Home arrived to spend the day shooting the house.

Unfortunately, I had to be in some of the photos and like many I detest having my photo taken - I delete nine out of ten I take but Brett (who also shoots weddings) very much put me at my ease and it was a relatively painless affair.

The inclusion of my knitting gave me something to do with my hands and soon I was nattering away while Brett took pictures, occasionally asking me to look up at him:

The letter from the magazine had said that the shoot would last a full day, and as our house is a modest semi we couldn't understand how they were possibly take so long. However, we soon realised why as the attention to detail and time taken to set up each shot is phenomenal.

Each shot was styled very carefully by Jo, the composition checked, adjusted and rechecked several times before each shot and after four and a half hours only the downstairs had been completed:

Jo arranging flowers for the dining table shot....

After seeing what goes into these shoots I will certainly view home magazines (which I love!!) differently and will have fun looking at the shots with a little insight into what goes on behind the scenes.

The photos will be in the October issue of Style At Home (out in September) and I'll be sure to remind you nearer the time!!

Hugs,

S x

 

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A Great Big Catch Up....

Hello my lovelies!!

Yet again time has whizzed past and we find ourselves in May - it seems remarkable considering how cold and unspringlike it has been. This week has been beautiful so far though and the sunshine really lifts the spirits.

So, what have I been up to?

My Mum and little niece Little E had birthdays. We usually take Mum out for the day but as she was just a few weeks post-open heart surgery we just opted for a pub lunch in a lovely little pub set by the sea:

Mum; Sis; Little E; Auntie Betty and Maz (Mum's BFF)

Among other things I made Mum some hand embroidered pillowcases;

And a little brooch:

For Little E I made a topsy-turvey Cinderella doll:

 

I spent a lovely day with Gem of Treasures From The Cherry Tree - there was cake:

Swoon!! I could just eat a piece now....

There has also been a vintage fair that meant I could sport my victory rolls:

Last week Ashley from Country Rose and I spent a few days with the lovely Cuckoo . She welcomed us wholeheartedly into her gorgeous home and it was just lovely to spend time with two of my best bloggy friends, not least because of the wonderful surroundings:

The view from my bedroom....

And yummy food:

There were twice as many cookies as this. Ashley and I ate the lot.

All that coupled with fantastic company meant for a really lovely few days.

This week Mr G is off work and we have been madly doing jobs (hence the decorating paraphernalia in the above pic!!) as we have a home magazine coming to photograph the house for a future issue!!:

We repainted and added wallpaper to one wall in the conservatory. Mr G and I nearly came to blows over the addition of the plates but I won him over:

Mr G and his Dad worked really hard on fitting our new 1930's style garage doors - so much nicer than an up and over:

Painted in Farrow and Ball's "Green Blue"....

We are currently working through a very long "To Do" list so hopefullt when magazine comes next week we will be all shipshape!!

That was a mammoth catch up, if you're still reading, well done!!

Hugs,

S x

 

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