I got an award!! :0) So, Ten Facts About Me....

"Lost In Blue" over at wiredtomyworld.blogspot.com has very kindly given me a Kreativ Blogger award - my first ever award and I am trilled to bits!!

I now have to list 10 random facts about me and then pass the award on - so here goes:

1. I have had long hair for almost 34 years. The one and only time I had short hair was in 1977 - I was five and wanted it cut like "Purdy" from the Avengers

Then the next morning when I saw my little sister having her hair put in bunches I cried!! I grew my hair and it has been long ever since - it's currently to my waist.

2. I sleep a lot. I love napping and need a minimum 10 hours a night to feel human.

3. I am emetophobic (have a fear of vomiting) - this is a result of my last pregnancy when I was sick for the whole 38 weeks and needed 9 admissions to hospital for rehydration. My phobia is so bad I have been in The Priory to try and tackle it. It didn't work.

4. I have one tattoo, on my foot:

The stargazer lilies and ivy were part of my wedding flowers and the stamens in the tattoo form "H" and "W" for my boys. The orchid was my Dad's favourite flower. I got the tattoo in 2009, a couple of months after Dad died :0(

5. I'm not very good at swimming. I was 11 before I learnt. I DETEST going underwater or even getting my face wet and I can only do breast stroke.

6. I have webbed feet (which makes fact 5 seem even dafter!!)

7. I am very anxious, particularly about health. I struggle with worries about getting ill everyday and have to try and remember to live in the moment and not worry about "what if". It's easier said than done.

8. I love cupcakes but my only attempt at making them was a disaster, I just couldn't get the icing stiff enough despite adding a whole box of icing sugar. However, it's H's birthday on Friday and he has requested cupcakes so I want to make something like this:

(from Pinterest)

9. I fall over a lot. In fact I fell over today at the stables and have skinned my knee, my elbow and broken my Croc. Mr Grumpy says it's because my feet are too small for my body!! 

10. I don't do high heels. Not since I gave up work. I love the look of them and wish I could be like my sister who is never seen in anything less than 3" but they cripple me before I leave the house and if my feet hurt I am very grumpy. I wear Crocs/flip flops in summer and Uggs in winter.

Phew!! That was trickier than I thought!!

I'd like to pass this award onto:

Gem at Treasures From The Cherry Tree

Ashley at Jellybean's Odds and Ends

Anne at Ungardened Moments

Cuckoo at Tales from Cuckooland

The above blogs are some of my favourites and well worth checking out!!

S x

25 Things That Are Good For The Soul....

1. A happy, healthy family


2. Cupcakes

(from Pinterest)

3. A hot bath and a good book

4. A purring cat

Jasper

5. The smell of baking

6. A whole day with nothing much to do

7. The laughter of your children

8. Flowers - especially those cut from your own garden

9. Bluebell woods

10. Laughing until you cry

11. Crochet

12. Chocolate (naturally)

13. Doing a good deed

14. Horse kisses

Me and TC

15. Random acts of kindness

16. Weepy movies

One of my fave weepy movies

17. Cuddles

18. A glass of something cold on a hot day

19. A fabulous view 

20. Seeing your best friend for the first time in 10 years

21. Riding your horse on a sunny day

22. Seeing your niece as obsessed with horses as you

23. A good meal cooked by someone else

24. Dancing

25. The love of your life

Mr Grumpy - we've been together since we were 15

Tell me, what's good for your soul?

S x

Noteworthy Things....

Five Noteworthy (to me anyway) Things That Have Happened In The Last 24 Hours....

• The bluebells in our front garden are blooming - I love bluebells and every year make sure we walk in the woods to see the carpets of them. Then a few years ago a few clumps appeared out of nowhere in our garden.

• Jasper (pictured above) who is a housecat, escaped from his garden pen and refused to be caught. He skipped around the neighbours gardens and when I finally managed to get hold of him, he sunk his claws in my shoulder, I dropped him and he trotted off thinking he was the cats pyjamas.

• Bear also escaped but he allowed us to catch him straight away as he can't resist the chance of a cuddle.

• My dahlias are growing. It's my first time planting them and they look so uninspiring when they come out of their packet - sad little bulby, rooty things. After a few days on the conservatory windowsill tiny, tiny shoots began to appear and now they are growing before our very eyes!! 

• Son#2 (right) has had a friend sleep over and the two of them and Son#1 have been up and down all night. Literally, ALL NIGHT. Letting them have fizzy pop and sweeties before bed was Not A Good Idea.

What noteworthy things have happened to you in the last 24hrs?

S x

PS Happy Good Friday....

A Forgetful Squirrel? And Blogging With Meaning....

First of all, I must show you something.


Hubby got around to cutting the grass and as it had grown rather long he managed to scalp parts of it!! In doing so though, we found several little areas like this:

We have four mature trees in our garden and I think the squirrels that live there must be a little forgetful!! We have a hazel too and the squirrels have been diligently collecting the nuts and storing them for the winter and have then gone and forgotten all about them!!

Blogging With Meaning....

I've been thinking a bit about my blog, and as much as I love to show you around our home and garden and share with you the things I have made, I also want to use my blog to explore "deeper" things. 

Although I love to write I often lack inspiration and so I did a bit of a Google for journalling prompts and found Daydreaming On Paper - this site has daily journalling prompts and it also has an "Inspire Me" button that will randomly generate a prompt for you.

I think this could help my blog have more meaning.

So, in future as well as crafts, shopping, house and home I will try and write more about family, life, love and the universe!!

Why do you blog? I'd love to hear....

S x

To Blog or Not to Blog?

I have been feeling a bit ambivalent about this blog as I have so few followers I have been thinking what's the point if there is no-one to read? But I guess everyone has to start somewhere - it's a bit of a chicken and egg situation.

So, I'll write anyway and maybe I will gradually gather a few more readers!!

What do I have to report? My sewing has been a catalogue of disasters - there was the tea dress I hated I told you about in my previous post and then the net petticoat was a nightmare. After spending several hours pulling net out of the workings of my machine I wish I had never clapped eyes on it!! That's after cutting about 50m of 9" strips!!

I got as far as a two tier layer, tried it on and looked like a ship in full sail anyway!! So now it is hung in the sewing room taunting me with failure everytime I look at it!!

Then I started making view C of this dress out of this fabric:

It was much more of a challenge than the previous garments I have tried, there is three pieces to the bodice, as well as an underbodice and it is all lined .

Anyway, partly due to lack of room in my sewing room I stupidly only cut out the parts for the bodice and have spent a week working on it - it seems to have come together well and I am pleased with it
.
Then I came to cut the skirt and I DON'T HAVE A ENOUGH FABRIC!!  It's supposed to be a circle skirt and due to my size I was going to do a circle and 1/4 and there is only enough for a 3/4 skirt!!!!!

A quick call to Fabricland and they tell me the are completely OUT OF STOCK!!

I was hoping to wear this to a friends wedding on 4th March!!

As a result of these calamities I have given up sewing for a few days in disgust!!

I have been busy being completely inspired by other peoples blogs, particularly (as I believe I said last post) Posy and also Coco Rose Textiles - both are girls after my own heart!! Was it Oscar Wilde that said surround yourself only with things you know to be useful or believe to be beautiful?

Let me show you my own dresser, the top two shelves I of which I love (apologies for the quality, light was fading):



The tea set belonged to hubbys Grandma and the plate on the top shelves with the cherubs belonged to my Nanna. The pretty mugs hanging from hooks came from my friend Lucy.

However, I am not so enamoured with the bottom shelf:

As you can see the TV and XBox doesn't quite fit in with the shabby chic lovliness!! But living in a house with three boys I have to make concessions!!

I have more china:

Some of it is my wedding china, some is from the charity shop and some of it is my lovely Cath Kidston Spray Flowers (I'd love the whole set but we're so slapdash with china it wouldn't last five minutes!!)

As you can see the cats have got in on the act here - on the windowsill is Bear and lounging on the radiator below is Jasper - both are Tonkinese.

This week I have also been busy putting up the stagecoach blinds I made from Cath Kidston fabric:

As you can see we're going to need to do some gardening in the Spring!!

(As I type the blind on the single window has just fallen off!! Blimmin' Velcro!!)

Off to repair it....