Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot!!

Hello my lovelies!!

How are you enjoying this weather? What's the betting it will vanish as soon as the kids break up for the holidays and we'll be back to the usual British "summer"?

I have spent most of the week here:

On my sun lounger by the "pool" - its been too hot to do anything and so the garden and housework has gone to pot while I lay in the shade trying not to melt.

I. Don't. Do. Heat.

A few years ago I went to Singapore with Mr G who was on business and I spent virtually the whole 10 days complaining about the heat. Mr G says I was like the female version of Karl Pilkington.

But I've managed to do a little crafting in the shade - I can't show you yet though as its for a swap.

Ridiculously I have also cast on a winter cardigan for myself, I figured if I didn't start now there's no way it would be finished in time!!

I searched the www high and low for the perfect cardigan - I'm very hot blooded and rarely wear a coat so I wanted something to wear instead. I had a picture of exactly what I wanted in my head, something empire line (since that flatters my ample curves) and long. So after days of searching I picked the closest pattern I could find - this one from from Etsy:

Since it takes 20 balls of wool this could have been a costly project but I managed to get some bargainous yarn - Patons Fusion from Kemps Wool Shop at 79p a ball!! I chose a blue/green mix and its working out in quite wide faded stripes (no pic yet!!)

Now to go off at a tangent....

A couple of weeks ago I had an x-ray as I have been having hip pain and the results show I have "moderate arthritis" in both hips. Of course the "treatment" for this is (once again - it's a doctors go to cure for everything a fatty has!!) to lose weight.

I'm trying. I've managed to lose 11lbs slowly. It's hard. I'm greedy and love food.

My weight does worry me. I am made to feel by society, the media and people around me that as a fat person I am a ticking time bomb.

But dare I say that it is a myth that if you are not losing weight then healthy eating/habits are not benefitting you.

The blog Dances With Fat has an excellent blog post that discusses a study that has shown that healthy habits (not smoking/eating 5 a day/moderate alcohol/exercising regularly) make healthy people REGARDLESS of the persons weight.

The study concludes "Healthy lifestyle habits are associated with a significant decrease in mortality regardless of baseline body mass index."

So, I am trying to focus on making healthy choices which will benefit me and if I lose weight than that is a bonus.

I'll get off my soapbox now.

I'm learning to draw, but that'll take a whole post of its own so I'll love you and leave you....

Hugs,

S x

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

The Secret Of A Great Night In....

With the triple dip recession as it is staying in is definitely the new going out so I was delighted to be given £50 by Money Supermarket to have the ultimate night in.

After giving it a little thought we decided that the best way to have a good night in is with good food and good company and so it was arranged that we would have a dinner party with our oldest friend:

D and I met at school when we were 15. I was the new girl and she asked if I wanted to be her friend. After that we were inseparable and she was the one that approached Mr G and did the whole my-friend-fancies-you thing!!

D hosted the evening at her home as she has a little boy:

We had a wonderful meal of chicken goujons, followed by chilli with guacamole, nachos, refried beans and all the lovely Mexican trimmings and then D's wonderful triple chocolate brownie:

Of course it was all washed down by the odd cheeky cider:

Mr G demonstrating a balanced diet....

Of course there was plenty of free flowing laughter and we even got out some old photo albums!!

You don't have to spend a fortune to have a great night in:

• Invite your favourite people, even if you haven't seen them in a while
• Consider a theme night - Mexican; Chinese; Italian and choose food/drink accordingly
• Have a cocktail night - each guest brings ingredient and you spend the evening sampling new drinks!. Make sure to book a taxi and have food to soak it up!!
• Consider having a murder mystery dinner party - each person plays a character and you theme the food - they are fabulous fun!!
• Games nights in general are always fun, especially if you have a few little prizes

A lovely time was had by all and I thoroughly urge you to dust off your address book and reconnect with your old friends - it really is true what Baz Luhrmann says in The Sunscreen Song:

"Understand that friends come and go, but for the precious few you

should hold onto. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and

lifestyle because the older you get, the more you need the people you

knew when you were young."

Hugs,

S x

 

Posted with Blogsy

Brown Paper Packages Tied Up With String - The Shabby Oak....

Hello all, I hope you're well and have enjoyed the sunny weekend?

These days when I fancy a little retail therapy I like to browse little independent shops and small boutiques - both when I'm shopping in bricks and mortar stores or online.

As such I am always delighted to find a new shop that sells beautiful items that make my heart go pitter-patter.

I was therefore delighted when The Shabby Oak offered to sponsor a post and sent me some goodies to review which came wrapped up in the best way:

What a gorgeous treat to receive in amongst the bills!!

The Shabby Oak is an independent family run business, selling a range of carefully selected, beautiful gifts, homewares and jewellery. As with my packages all orders are wrapped beautifully to make receiving them a real treat.

Inside my parcel were some really gorgeous treats, my favourite being this lovely Rabbit Jewellery Holder:

These Floral Triple Wall Hooks will look great in my sewing room - gotta love flowers AND birds!!:

One can never have too many photo frames (did you know that lots of photos on display is the sign of a happy home?) and this Antique Heart Frame is a classic:

And also included were a couple of pretty little butterfly clips:

I am delighted with the service and products from The Shabby Oak and will certainly be adding them to my favourites for when I feel the urge for a spot of retail therapy.

Hugs,

Sarah x

PS You can "like" The Shabby Oak on Facebook to keep up with all the news and offers....

 

Posted with Blogsy

Birthdays!!

Hello my lovelies!!

This past week or so has been a week of celebration as H turned 15 on the 17th June:

It amazes me that my baby has gotten so big - time really does fly.

You may notice from the above pictures that the cake is something of a disaster. It was actually one of the worst cakes I've ever made despite it being a Mary Berry recipe and it rising beautifully.

The trouble started when I tried to stack the three layers - the cake was so crumbly it just fell apart and then great hunks got stuck to the palette knife as I tried to ice it. I decided it wouldn't matter as it was bound to taste nice, but in actual fact, after proving impossible to cut (you ended up with a plate of crumbs) it was very dry.

It did become edible when warmed in the microwave and served with ice-cream though, so all was not lost.

Yesterday is was W's thirteenth birthday. So we now have two teenagers in the house, eeeek!!

W had a laptop for his present:

Yesterday afternoon we all went to the cinema to see Man Of Steel - I really enjoyed it not least because of the delectable Mr Cavill - I hadn't been keen to see the movie until I saw a clip on TV from the beginning:

I do like a man with a hairy chest. And a beard.

But I wouldn't say no to the more clean cut version either!!

I've been doing a bit more sketching, this time nudes:

First attempt at hands as you can see!!

I'd like to find an art class to do as I've found that I am really enjoying drawing.

It's not all been fun this week as the 22nd marked the fourth anniversary of my Dad's death :0(

1948-2009

Before I love you and leave you let me give you a heads up on a fab giveaway being hosted by Forties Knitter

- she's giving away tickets to a 1940's Society Night including one nights B&B at The Red Lion at Whittlesford Bridge, Cambridge. Well worth an entry!!

Hugs,

S x

 

Posted with Blogsy

Live, Laugh, Love....

I am delighted to have been asked to review a product for the lovely company Live, Laugh, Love - they are a company specialising in the most beautiful shabby chic, vintage and French style gifts, home accessories and furniture:

I had a look at the lovely website and could have easily spent a fortune as it has the most wonderful mix of goodies, many of which I had not seen before. The owner picked out something she thought I would like and I was thrilled to receive the sweetest glass bottle with a cute bird stopper:

Birds and roses, two of my favourite things....

The bottle would make a lovely gift for a special person as it is something that can be kept forever. It looks really lovely on my shelves among my mismatched china.

Other items I particularly liked were the Chintz Pottery Jugs:

The Barn Star - a trio of these would look fab on a little boys bedroom wall:

This pretty Teacup Box Frame would grace any kitchen wall:

And I couldn't resist showing you this sweet little Bird Trinket Pot - this one is going on my birthday list!!:

All in all Live Laugh Love have a wonderful selection of covetable products at reasonable prices and as well as that you can feel good by buying from a small, independent business.

I urge you to pop along and see Live, Laugh, Love in all it's gorgeousness....

Hugs,

S x

Although this a sponsored post, all opinions expressed are my own.

 

Posted with Blogsy

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

 

Posted with Blogsy

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

 

Posted with Blogsy