Wednesday, 22 July 2009

Guess what we have been doing?

....no prizes for this one though as if you read the blog regularly then you will know that I couldn't pass up this opportunity!!

Goodwill was huge and there really was too much stuff to choose from and the one at the top has a bag sale on - fill a carrier bag for $5! Not too shabby at all!

And just to prove that these soup cups get everywhere in the world!!

And smug browser me! And I couldn't believe the prices - I got a skirt for 25c - that's about 15p!!!!! And being me I got lots of granny style bright clothes which I'm sure you will see soon enough :)

Tuesday, 21 July 2009

Sweet Home.........

....... Can you guess where we are?

And yes - it is beautiful so far

Monday, 20 July 2009

Giveaway

This is now my 600 and somethingth post and I had intended to do a giveaway at 500 but never got round to it so I am doing one now :)

First up is this copy of Marie Claire Idees - I inadvertently got 2 copies of this so one can be yours!

This photograph inside made me swoon - isn't it fab?

You will also get these Hansel and Gretel recycled envelopes - along with a couple more sets :)

And because I am feeling generous I will also include one of these chicken pincushions - you choose the colour! I'll also throw in some gift tags for you too.

All you need to do is leave a comment on this post and I will draw the winner on Wednesday 29th July. Oh and I will post worldwide so please do enter if you live overseas :)

Sunday, 19 July 2009

Artwork up

Some of the artwork I bought in the charity shop the other day made it up onto the walls! Organised!

One of the embroidered pictures up on the wall. The huge piece below is an indenture from 1838 showing the purchase of some land. I can't remember the exact details and I can't read the handwriting well enough to go and look at it now! We got it from a local auction.

The other embroidered piece up on the wall along with a family tree for Matt's side of the family and a copy of a line drawing of Matt's maternal grandfather.

And although I didn't buy this the other day I thought I would show it to you anyway. It's an oil painting of The Houses of Parliament with Big Ben that we bought at a car boot sale for £5 when we lived down south. We only had £7 left and we thought it would be way over budget but it wasn't!

The artwork is only a temporary thing in the dining room as when I was putting the pictures up I found damp so they will all have to come down when we re-do the dining room. It will be done after the front room though which also has damp - and the kitchen and utility room. Oh the fun of living in a 120 year old house!

Saturday, 18 July 2009

My own Ali Baba!

This is what greeted me (with much cackling and laughter!) 5 minutes after I said we needed to put the washing into it to take upstairs :) Bless!

Friday, 17 July 2009

Charity shop finds

When coming back from a crafty meeting yesterday Bumble got into a parking space all by himself and made me go charity shop shopping - honestly!! He's a persuasive camper van that Bumble :)

The first thing I bought was this dress for Anya for £1 - she loves it and it is in the washing machine as I type!

I also spotted these flick books for 50p each. I used to love these as a child and the girls liked them too.

I also bought some new artwork for the dining room. The photographs don't do these pictures justice - they are beautifully embroidered onto some sort of silk.

Just look at the work that has gone into this one - a bargain at £30 I think.

And this one was only £5 - it needs cleaning and I'm going to see if I can do that soon. I think all the pictures came from the same person as the donater number (for claiming tax back) was the same for all 3 pictures. There were lots more but I these were my favourites.

Not bad for less than an hour's enforced shopping trip :)

Thursday, 16 July 2009

American day

Every couple of months they have a culture day in nursery and reception at Anya's school. Yesterday was America day which really translated as Cowboy and Indian (Native American) day :)

I made this dress Tuesday evening after remembering that I had this fabric tucked away that has teepees, canoes, bison and bears all over it. I made it large so that I didn't have to faff with buttons or zips and I plaited some fabric strips together to make a belt. I also fringed the bottom of the dress to make it swing and move when Anya walks.

And here she is with her Indian girl mask. We frequent Buffalo Grill when we go to France and the waiters are taken with 2 polite English girls saying merci a lot so they get lots of free gifts like these masks :)

Wednesday, 15 July 2009

This is always what you want to see...

.....when you come back downstairs and refresh your Twitter account to see what has been going on in the world.

A bloody great big red box that says account suspended! Am not sure why but they should be resolving it soon :)

Sports Day

The sun shined which is a rare enough occurrence in Burnley as it is but on sports day - wow!

Sports day in Nursery and Reception is more games and activities than actual sports.

Yes Anya is wearing her tights under her shorts - she wore them to school and I assumed that school would just put her in pumps but no!

Tossing the beanbag into the bucket.

Waiting her turn for scoring a goal.

And Tara enjoying the day :) If you want to see more photographs of the day then you can check out my Flickr here - there are 2 or 3 pages I think!

Tuesday, 14 July 2009

Teacher presents

As an ex-primary school teacher I always like to make presents that will actually be used by the teachers we give them to! Here is what Anya made for her teachers.

Notebooks from Paperchase, drawings by Anya. I also included some fancy mechanical pencils but the photograph didn't come out.

Here they are all wrapped up ready to give out - complete with Swirlyarts tags of course!