Stitchathon

Alas there have been no thrifty finds of late so any photos of your recently aquired treasures would be greatly appreciated as you know how I need my thrifty fix!
Thank you Miss Beatrix for the pyrex post it truly lifted my spirits!

Iv'e been keeping myself out of trouble by doing a spot LOT of sewing.
I started the stitching marathon at the start of last week when I decided I was going to put my camper blanket to one side

Threading in ends is never an enjoyable experience

As soon as I saw this in Cath's new book I was certain I could make a better job of it , I think it's the poor quality of the felt that I was disappointed with. Lucky for me I have a large massive stash of lovely soft felt.

here is my version

these also caught my eye and will be used as gift tags on Christmas presents for people who I know will appreciate my craftiness.

Iv'e blurred out the initials on the tags just in case they are reading!

It seemed a shame to stop there being as I was on such a roll so out came
fa la la felt and before I could stop myself I had made these.

They are for a lovely friend who also happens to be little H's Godmother (I hope isn't reading this!)

They will be carefully wrapped and put into her Christmas stocking along with this.

I have made a few other bits and bobs which I will be giving as gifts so for the moment I will keep them under wraps!


in between all this hand stitching I knew I needed a new apron for work so out came the dreaded machine and in about 2 hours I managed to cobble together something resembling an apron.
A couple of hours is pretty good going for me so I was feeling pretty pleased with myself and a few buttons hand stitched on here and there, I was more than happy with the finished result, sadly no photo at the moment as the apron is currently in the washing machine...lets just hope it survives!

Hopefully by the end of this week I will have completed another Christmassy project for my etsy shop ......so many projects so little time

Special delivery

Our Postie is a very nice chap at the best of times but even more so when he pushes treasures like these through the letterbox.
First to arrive this week

My copy of Country Living Magazine. I keep threatening to cancel my subscription but somehow never seem to have the heart to go through with it. (I did however sell a small mountain of old copies at a car boot recently)

along with the magazine was a very special envelope containing these

So excited as I have never been before and I love Harrogate.
mr. H decided we should make a weekend of it so we are staying overnight here.
We've stayed before and really enjoyed it and it's only a couple of minutes walk away from Harlow Carr so that will be Saturday sorted.

Then Tuesday a lovely little package arrived

beautiful fabric from Sew La La with a few little buttons thrown in for good measure, I will definitely be popping back very soon.


Wednesday morning I collected these from my local sorting office.

I must say the book is not quite up to Cath's usual standard but I love it nontheless and I can't wait to get cracking on Stanley and the little deer, however I will be using my own lovely soft felt rather than the cheapy acrylic stuff that came with the book (I will be putting some of this lovely felt in my Etsy shop very soon)

I love the diary and have already started adding the birthdays and can't wait to start using it.

Sadly by Thursday the only thing gracing my door mat on my return home from work was a bank statement and a takeaway menu for a rather dodgy looking kebab shop!

No thrifty finds again this week as I have been doing full time hours at work but I'll leave you with this, a little something I picked up for 10p from the jumble sale a few weeks ago that I'd forgotten to show you

a gorgeous candlestick that claims to be a present from Skegness.

Have a great weekend
: )

What I did last week

Crikey I'm supposed to be on holiday, surely that means relaxing with a magazine or two, or maybe a little bit of hooky time or perhaps putting my feet up with not so little H and watching a film....alas this has not been the case and last week I was busier than ever (this week also seems to be heading in the same direction)

On Tuesday we celebrated little H's 12th birthday and as usual the sun shone, he didn't want a party at home this year and his football plans went slightly awry when only seven people confirmed due to being on their summer holidays (oh dear not enough to make two teams) so we had to cancel. Instead we had cream tea and ice creams with grandma in the botanical gardens and he bought a scooter he'd had his eye on so he was a happy chappie.

The cake was a bit of a rush and usually I put much more effort in but it tasted truly scrumptious, especially the day after when the marshmallows went all soft and gooey.


Wednesday I tootled over to Swinton to paint a friend's bathroom. I love a bit of decorating whereas she doesn't and it only took a few hours so it wasn't too bad and she loved it.
As for Thursday well I had been planning to pop down Meadowhell (as we locals call it) to the opening of Cath Kidston. I had been anticipating this day for weeks and had it all planned, I was going to get there early as I was predicting a queue, I was going to take a leisurely stroll around child/man child free and soak up the atmosphere and maybe make a little purchase or two BUT........... in a crazy moment of madness I decided I would clear out the spare room instead... WHAT WAS I THINKING?!!!

I really can't explain my actions other than I couldn't bear to walk past it and see the pile of stuff gradually making it's way through the door ( I kid you not) onto the landing. I would normally just close the door and ignore it for a few more days but as the stuff was now creeping toward the landing and blocking the doorway I couldn't even do that.
There was only one thing for it...... I rolled up my sleeves and got stuck in.
So Cath was put on hold for a couple more days and Mr. H breathed a sigh of relief.

This was taken during the big tidy up just as I was beginning to lose the will to live.


I'm still not totally happy with end result as there is still too much furniture in there but for the moment its clean and tidy and everything is in it's place.

As some of you know, we recently lost two of our three hens, first Bob then Hirsty so poor old Dame Judi was left bereft and pining, so on Saturday we decided to get her a mate with a view to getting three more when we return from our hols. Although we would have preferred to get more battery rescue hens we decided to steer clear for now as they can come with so many problems and cause too much heartache as we have found out to our cost : (

So here she is......Bobby our new girl.

I think maybe Bruce is in luuuuurve!


Our sad experiences haven't deterred us from hen keeping as they are so much fun and really rewarding but for now it as certainly put us off taking in battery rescue hens which is such a shame, maybe when we are more experienced.

Yesterday Mr. H and I celebrated our Wedding Anniversary, yes we have been married seven whole years and although it's very lovely to be married, seven years is nothing really when you consider we have been together for twenty five years *GULP!
When I say celebrated what I actually mean is we did our usual Sunday thing......Car booting, so actually not celebrating at all really!
I don't mind as we are saving our hard earned pennies at the moment as we go on our hols in a couple of weeks and as usual the camper a.k.a the money pit has had to have some work done, as anyone who has an old vehicle knows, what starts off as a little job turns into a rather large job resulting in being a few hundred pounds worse off : (

By the way how amazing was the opening Ceremony for the Olympic Games.

I have never been more proud to be British...apart from William and Kate's wedding obviously!!!

: )

When Cath comes to town

Ooooh I'm so excited I could crush a grape!
Why I hear you cry......well I'll tell you. It's because Cath is coming to Sheffield (not Cath herself- obviously) well Meadowhall to be precise but that's fine as it's only ten minutes away from where I live.

We did have a little taster last week when the tour bus rolled up for the day.

I jumped on the tram after work and managed to catch it just before it left.
The bus was packed with gorgeousness and it took every ounce of willpower I had (and the fact it was a week before pay day)

I was really really good and only made two teeny tiny purchases.

a patch for our picnic blanket £2


and this which will hang in the camper £1

this was a little freebie

I spent a good twenty minutes chin wagging with the lovely girls and they insisted I had my picture taken (they really did honest). So here it is the first and most definitely the last photo you are ever likely to see of me on here.

I'm convinced I don't take a good photo and always look a bit ropey but Iv'e recently come to the conclusion that I am actually a bit ropey and it's nothing to do with the photographer/dodgy camera more the subject matter!

Anyhows I digress, the lovely girls (I didn't even ask their names- how very rude of me) were very interested to hear about my previous job in the convent and my ramblings on here and ended up encouraging me to apply for a job at the new Meadowhall shop. Can you imagine me working at Cath Kidston, I would be handing my wages back over the counter quicker than you could say 'spotty messenger bag'!!!

While i'm on the subject of Cath, i picked up this little tin from the car boot at the weekend for 50p. I think it should have been part of a set but sadly the others were nowhere to be seen.

also spotted this Johnson Bros plate which will be making it's way to the next vintage fair. The photo makes it look washed out but it's actually a really lovely shade of green.

Hope you are all enjoying the sunshine .....although it seems to be in hiding here in Sheffield this morning.

: )

How Time Flies

In the blink of an eye the school holidays are over and my birthday jaunt is just another happy memory.
I received lots of lovely cards, including this one from my gorgeous husband.

I also had some fantastic prezzies from family and friends and quite a few pennies which I'm thinking about spending on this little beauty.

Source: cathkidston.co.uk via Nicky on Pinterest

We visited some lovely places during the two days, and sampled tea and cake in most of them!

My boys admiring Titus Salt in Roberts Park, Saltaire

also spotted this in Saltaire and just had to snap it, childish I know!

Platform at Haworth train station


the perfect end to a perfect week was Noel Gallagher at Sheffield Arena last night, who I have to say was absolutely A-M-A-Z-I-N-G just like I knew he would be. God Bless you Noel Gallagher and your High Flying Birds.

Hope you all had a fun filled weekend x