Wish list - or showing off other peoples great makes!

You know, just in case you want to buy me something for Christmas! Anyone??  All of these are from Etsy and I think you can browse the rest of my favourites if you go to my shop :) And don't forget my birthday is in January :)

I do like Thermos flasks and I do like brooches so this brooch from Olive and Harry combines the two beautifully!

These upcycled pouffes from Remakerie are fabulous and I love the fact that they are made from old jumpers! There are also some very cute bears that would go nicely....... :)

I have been to this very spot in Hawaii and this poster from Loose Petals would look perfect on my wall to remind me of a great holiday.

How pretty is this world map print from Art Pause? It would look great on any wall!

These earrings are pretty and sparkly and not dangly which is how I like my earrings! Get them from Tiny Galaxies.

And because of the spelling of my name I never had any named things when I was a small child (sob!) so I want a bunting necklace now please :) Get one your own from Lucie Ellen.

P.S. It's nearly the end of Blogtoberfest!

New things in my hallway

As well as putting up new shelves in Anyas room at the weekend we hung some pictures in the hallway. One we have had for over a year but the rest came from the big jumble sale in February so again having them up just a mere month after we bought them is good!

I also tidied up the book area which is just underneath these pictures - it looks better now and works which is always good!

The two pink roofed houses next to the big bookcase are perfect for smaller books :) I'd been looking for a house shaped bookcase for a while and knew that these ones would have to come home with me when I spotted them for £2 in a charity shop :)

The book corner! The pink chair used to be mine when I was a little girl and the large cushions are there temporarily until we find a decent rug for that space.

Although we will have to add a lot more pictures soon as we bought a boxful at the auction yesterday!

Blogs I love

I have 221 blogs in my blog reader so I often have lots and lots of blogs waiting to be read but there are always some that I scroll through to read first. You know the ones - lovely images, great words, the life you want to lead, etc :) Here are just some of my favourite blogs* and you might find some new ones to browse or some old favourites too.

Linda Should be Painting

My Cardboard Life

Meet Me at Mikes

A Life in Lists

A Thrifty Mrs

Ric Rac

Kootoyoo

Owlet

Dropstitch

Dottie Angel

CurlyPops

My Paper Crane

Nikkishell

Punky and Me

Soule Mama

And my favourite blog at the moment is

Foxs Lane

*In no order of preference at all - just which ones I happened to click on first! Do tell me in the comments if there are other blogs you think I should check out!

Family pictures recap 2010

Well actually it is more of a girls and me recap as Matt isn't on many photos we have due to working away during the week!

I thought you might be sick of recap posts so there is only one more tomorrow which involves a great use for your leftover Christmas cards :)

Do you like to read in the bath?

And like me, do you keep dropping your bookmark into said bath?? Does said bookmark (be it an actual bookmark,piece of paper, tissue etc) get destroyed? Well fret no more fellow readers in the bath - I have the answer!!

The answer lies with these bookmarks from Alison at Tweed Delights. I ordered some things from her last year and got one of the bookmarks as a thank you gift and it is fabulous! It has been dropped in the bath on numerous occasions (normally to the sound of expletives that I won't repeat here) and every single time, whether it has been dunked for seconds or minutes, it has dried out perfectly. Every time. The tweed has stayed put, the cardboard hasn't bobbled - even the sticker on the back is seemingly resistant to water* Fellow bath readers, rejoice! I have found the answer to soggy pieces of paper and bookmarks!

*Conclusive tests not undertaken - not recommended to be held under water for long periods of time.

Seriously - go and buy things from Alison - she is nice :)

Can you guess what it is yet?

Happy Birthday Rolf Harris - he is 80 today :) I don't care if it is naff or daggy (see I'm up with Australian slang!) but I love Rolf Harris. Watch the below and tell me you don't like him too :)







I can't listen to these at the moment as the sound has gone on my computer :( Hopefully the sound will work for you! Happy Birthday Rolf!

My Place and Yours - Pink

The heavens must have aligned for me post wise this week as the post I had planned yesterday for today was about the tulips I received for Mother Day on Sunday (confused yet?) It works very well for the theme over at Hello Owl for My Place and Yours which is pink.

These are my favourite pink things at the moment - tulips in my bathroom. I have taken a liking to spreading flowers around the house as it brings unexpected colour and scent to the unlikeliest places.

The bottle are vintage and were bought in a job lot from a local auction house. The little one is only about 2 inches high and held teething powder at one stage. The larger one is from a hotel named The Brierley Hotel but I have no idea what it would have held.

Pretty :)

A lovely sight......

.......that greeted me yesterday. Both girls desperate to read books to Nana and Nana being thrilled that they wanted to :) I love my mum :D

La Pomme Stories

I have admired the work of Apol from La Pomme for a while and I read her blog too. I really like her other shop too La Pomme Sories where she writes beautiful fairy stories and turns them into gorgeous handmade books and cards that are then collaged. I was thrilled the other day to buy one of her fabulous pieces of work - I've tried before and they always sell out very quickly! I bought a Fairy tales for Children zine (there is one left if you are quick) and it is wonderful.

On the cover and in the book itself are pictures drawn by children from the early 1960's interspersed with the fairy tales themselves. The fairy tales are Petit Pierre, Jasmine, Lulu Leloup, Gustave, Loud Witch, The White Owl and Pale Berries. There is also a cute little sewn in bookmark with a charm attatched at the end - you can see the car at the end of the bookmark in the photograph in above.

And the attention to detail is fabulous - this is the back of the zine and features signatures of the children who drew the original pictures in the '60's.

Also included was this pocket fairy tale greetings card. I have featured Apol on Cuteable a few
times before (and who can blame me!) and this was included to say thank you - isn't that brilliant!* I'm not going to use it as a card though - it will be framed to go up with the artwork on my craft room wall!

The fairy tale is about Hale and Hearty Gardeners first Grandaughter and is quite sad and scary - just like traditional fairy tales are. Did you know that Little Red Riding Hood was actually a cautionary tale about going off with strange men (the Wolf) and what would happen if they did? I learnt that when training to be a teacher!

*I just have to say that I don't solicit things from people I feature on Cuteable and I get lots of offers of things to say thank you but I very rarely take them up. Matt thinks I'm mad for not taking the offers but I don't feature people on Cuteable for what I will gain, I feature them because I like to spread the word about gorgeous handmade goodies.

A thifty outfit for a charity shop expedition

The skirt I put on this morning inspired me to go and hunt out more bargains at the charity shops and boy am I glad I did!

Grey/green shoes - a charity shop in Bolton £3
Pink tights - Primark
Blue pleated spotty skirt - 50p from a hospice charity shop in Lancaster last week
Black cardigan - bought about 2 years ago from a charity shop in Skipton I think and it was new with tags still attached
White top - so old I have no idea where it originally came from. Pretty sure charity shop though.

I'm channelling A Cat Of Impossible Colour today although she does colourful tights much better than I do!

I got some great bargains today in the charity shops of Accrington and I'm off to take photographs now. You will have to wait until tomorrow to see the goodies though. I went with Alex - thanks for a great afternoon out chick!!

Fabulous Aceo's!

I am really pleased that I started Aceo Showcase otherwise I would have missed these gorgeous pieces of art from 5erg.

As soon as I had blogged about this Golden Willow Tree I knew I had to have it and would you believe that 3 others fell into my shopping cart at the same time - well at $2 a piece I had to really :)

The silver butterfly was destined to be a present but it is staying in my craft room as it is just beautiful - I can always go back for more! These pieces are all made from spray paint and they really are beautiful in real life - I am so pleased with them! I can heartily recommend the service too and the speedy postage. All in all an excellent purchase. I'm going to look at them again now :)

Mum and Dad's garden

There are lots of things I like about my parents garden but the little creatures/ornaments they have dotted around the place are my favourites - here are some of them.

These ducks are normally painted but my Dad has left them out to weather them a bit - I think it's working!

Grandad the dustman gnome - my Dad is a binman (refuse collector) and when we saw this we had to get it for him. It goes into the greenhouse in the winter and makes his apperance again in the Spring and always in a different part of the garden.

Hedgehog was rescued from a house that was about to be demolished - I think he likes living under the hedge.

This little garden of gnomes also like living under the hedge too - they are joined by three monkeys.

Can you spot the rabbit ears?He is hiding because I think he is shy!

And my favourite is this heart stone that my Dad found and brought home for my mum - ahhhh!