My (not) misspent Life

A Perfectly Kept House is the sign of a Misspent Life

I bought this book with some of my birthday money :) I haven't opened it yet but I think I will spend a little time today browsing it's pages. I seem to have a thing for these type of quotes!

Happy Tuesday!

Two thrifty finds

We were in full on thrifty mode last weekend as it was the annual huge jumble sale where my parents live and on the Saturday you can fill a black bin bag full of stuff for £3. Bargain huh? I'm not showing you those finds today (imagine fabric, books, bric a brac and clothes) as they are still going through the washer/sink so I will show you some things I spotted on the Friday instead. The sale is on for a few days and Friday is half price day so we always go and have a look round and see if there is anything there that we like that we think someone else will grab on the Saturday. I'm fairly lucky in that no one else seems to have my taste in clothes so the granny dresses and skirts are normally still there! Anyway, Matt got a whole load of jumpers and I grabbed a small plastic orange deer (no pics as I can't find him at the moment!) Matt was looking through the books when he spotted this tray and he knew it had to come home with us!

The only problem though was that he wasn't for sale! He belonged to a lady in the kitchen (they feed and water the volunteers) and it was her favourite tray. However she said if we really wanted it and would give £4 to the charity for it then we could have it. So I handed over my £4 and it was ours!

Then we went round the charity shops in town and I spotted this lady teapot and cup. She is a granny knitting! How perfect is that? Anyway, I spotted her and nearly didn't look as I thought she would be expensive but was surprised to see she was only 75p. Yes really!! So she too came home with us!

We got many more bargains on the Saturday but as I say they are drying around the house/in piles to be put away and I can't be bothered to sort/look for them at the moment! Happy Saturday!

My Creative Space - finishing off

In-between cleaning toilets, putting away clothes and generally sorting for the in-laws popping over later I am trying to finish off some work. I have 4 chickens waiting to be packaged and the tray of stuff below to finish and pack.

Gift tags to glue and lots of mini envelopes to fold and stick!

Better get cracking then really hadn't I? For more Creative Spaces check over here.

Plants vs Zombies

Have you heard of this game? My sister's boyfriend bought it for her for Christmas and she then introduced our dad to it. We were over at Mum and Dads at the weekend and he showed it to us - it's fab!

This is a screenshot of the game - the plants are valiantly defending the house against a zombie attack. You plant the plants and create a barrier - the plants shoot things at the zombies too and kill them. Anyway, the whole reason for this post is a photograph I took this morning which we thought was very amusing but you need to know of the game to find it funny hence the rambling bit first!

Zombie duck

Plant vs Zombie duck

I thought it was amusing anyway :)

I need more sprinkles.....

My children haven't yet learnt that less is more - sometimes anyway!

Can you see by the one in the middle why I need more sprinkles? At least it kept the girls entertained for an hour this morning and it used up some of the chocolate coins we still have from Christmas :)

Books, books, glorious books!

Wonderful, wonderful idea :) And books are fabulous!

Real life

Just in case you think this blog is ever in danger of becoming selective with the photographs used ( although why you would think that I have no idea!) here is one that was taken on the 20th January to show you a bit of perspective.

This is the view of our bedroom as you come up the mini set of stairs from the half landing. Ok the clothes on the bed have now been put away (soon to be replaced with new ones I'm sure) and the bedding is different but the same view would be had now if you wandered up those stairs. Exactly the same view and yes that does mean that the Christmas tree and box(es) of decorations are still there on the 10th Feb. I do have an excuse but it will just sound flimsy so lets just call me slovenly and be done with it ok :)

My Creative Space - notebooks

I've turned this little patch of carpet in the front room into a notebook making station for the day :) I have 11 to make for shop orders* and I'm going to try and make some extra for my shops too.

Here are two I've made - I love the covers :)

*At the time of writing I only have 3 more to make for orders and then I making for the shop!

New chair and a messy room

I went shopping with my sister the other day in Lancaster and we went to an antiques place recommended by Rachelle at Ted and Agnes. It was HUGE and fabulous. I spotted some knitted swirl cushions on a chair and was attracted by their bright colours. However as I put them back I noticed the chair that they were on and the fact that it was only £10. Hmmmmmm thought I! And the label said it was comfy so I moved all the cushions off and tried it. Indeed it was comfy and the colour was nice too. So to cut a long story short - I bought it!

The lovely mossy green colour isn't captured here well (stupid winter sunshine!) but rest assured, it's nicer in real life. The doggy cushion is from the very talented Vintage Pleasure and it goes perfectly well with my new chair :) Matt seems to have claimed the chair as his but that could be because I'm busy making stock for shops and have taken over the whole of the sofa and as the next photo shows, much of the floor too!!

In my aim to keep it real I haven't even moved the messy blue bin from out of shot in the bottom right! Keeping it real people :)

My Place and Yours - outside

I'm joining in with My Place and Yours again this week and the theme is 'Outside'

Atmospheric no?

Elvis the snowman - see his quiff under his hat?

Proud snowmen makers - Matt was taking the photo :)

Sledging fun! We don't have a sledge so we used green garden waste bags. The girls (and I) thought it was great fun!

Join in over here.

A crafty mishap

I'm making some baby quilts at the moment but I really don't like binding quilts so I'm using a different method - basically making a sandwich by sewing the fabrics together back to back to form a kind of pillowcase with a layer of wool blanket in the middle that is then turned the right way round.

So far so good - waiting to be turned the right way round.

Can you see the mistake? I put the wool batting in the middle the wrong way round and when I've come to turn it the right way round the batting is now the back piece! Ooooops! Kind of a big mistake but the blanket is quite nice. Should I use the blanket as the backing anyway or unpick it and re-sew? I can't decide!

Otley Courthouse

There is a new place you can see my work :) Otley Courthouse in, strangely enough, in Otley! The lovely Bec from Do You Punctuate? took some photos for me as I didn't take my camera!

My chickens and gift tags will only be there for February so if you like what you see in the photos then get there quick! My stuff may be back there in the future but I will (of course!) let you know :)