Jubilations, celebrations and exasperations

One can only say that it has been a Truly great weekend. I have watched most of the coverage from the comfort of my sofa and the bits I didn't manage to see, I have recorded so I will look forward to catching up with that very soon.






It seems like I am a week behind with everything at the moment, only catching up with The Chelsea Flower show on Friday!
Jubilations aside Mr. H booked a full week off work so we could spend some time together and the plan was to go camping in Derbyshire for a couple of days, thanks to the not so great British weather we decided to abandon the trip and wait until the sun decides to show it's face again so that will probably be around the 12th of........NEVER!!!



Despite the disappointment we have still managed to enjoy our time off so far and little H has a camping trip with scouts at the weekend so it's not all bad.

Iv'e managed to squeeze in a bit of making whilst been sat on one's backside watching the Jubilee and will be taking the fruits of my labour along to the next vintage/craft fair at St Mary's on the 16th June, so if you are in or around Sheffield then pop in for a mooch, I can highly recommend it!





I think granny squares have to be my all time favourite thing to crochet, quick,easy and so very versatile!





bunting is so hard to photograph in all its glory.

Iv'e also been on the hunt for treasure and managed to pick up a few bits and bobs over the last few weeks I usually have a hard time in deciding which bits I'm going to keep and which bits I will take along to the fair to find a new home but this latest haul is mine..... ALL MINE!

I don't know what kind of person would take this to a charity shop but obviously they are either deranged or just have no concept of Cath but I kid you not this is what I found in my local charity shop today for only two (yes you heard correctly) English pounds.



The box has never even been opened.

and it's not the first bit of C.K I have discovered in recent times, prior to this amazing discovery I have found a necklace and earring set still in its original packaging and never been used and a set of 12 place mats again still packaged and never been used. *speechless

This lovely stool picked up from the local Thursday morning flea market.
Unfortunately I had to cart it through town, then into work, up to the twelfth floor and through the main staff dining area then all the way back down again and through town then onto the bus to get it home. I think it was worth the effort though as it looks right at home in my teeny, tiny kitchen.

A few more Enid Blyton's for the collection from our local monthly car boot.




One of my favourite Ladybird books from childhood (oh no I feel another collection coming on!) this came from the same lady as the Enid Blyton's, I think it was 10p



This cute little glass and cottage pomander, just need to replace the ribbon as it was a bit grotty.




Sunshine yellow knitting needles from another local charity shop.






The little Whitby boat was picked up for £1 and will be added to the collection.




The Woods ware gravy boat was another bargain at 50p, this will be used as part of our everyday crockery.

So all in all some great finds and I am very happy with my lot.

This week has also seen the return of the sewing machine to the dining room table, as some of you know this piece of machinery is not what you could call a friend, the mere sight of it makes me nervous as I know it will only cause me stress and heartache the minute I put my trembling foot on the pedal (not sure if your foot can tremble but you know what I mean!)
Even sewing straight lines causes me grief so why on earth I promised to make Mr. H some pyjama bottoms I'll never know.
I did attempt a skirt last year which is wearable but only just and I also had a bash at a shell top which was supposed to take a couple of hours but in fact took me a week and isn't even finished yet!
So I'm going to count to ten and take a deep breath and venture into the dining room
I may be some time......................................

Car Booty

My first car boot of the year and what a haul.
To be honest I wasn't really expecting to find much as it was only a small one held at a care home that I pass on my way to work, and it's in quite a run down area of the city.
You can imagine my excitement when I saw these.

What's more, I only had to part with £5 for the lot!

Bitten by the bug I asked Mr. H if he fancied popping down to Hillsborough to a few of the local charity shops just to see if there where any other bits and bobs just waiting to be snapped up.
I think the promise of a sausage roll clinched the deal and 15 minutes later he was stuffing his face and as for me, well I was stuffing my bag with this little lot (much better for the waistline!)

a gorgeous pair of barkcloth curtains in perfect condition and quite a good size, also spotted next to the curtains was the pretty crochet blanket made from lovely soft wool, which I think has been made for a pram but also a perfect size for keeping my ageing knees cozy!
I'm a sucker for a wooden coat hanger so I was more than happy to hand over the 10p asking price!
Last but not least the blue and white striped pillowcase, another absolute bargain at 50p

You think that would be enough treasure for one day, but NO there's plenty more where that came from................

A Woodsware 'Jasmine' coffee pot to add to our everyday crockery , a lovely green glass vase with painted flowers and a Hunstanton pepper pot also to add to our little collection...................but this by far has got to be one of the cutest things I have ever seen!

O.k it may need a little scrub with the old toothbrush before I would ever let an egg within an inch of it but I couldn't resist buying it.

Returning home with an empty purse but wearing a massive smile I asked Mr H if he fancied helping me out with something......................

Hope you are having fun : )

I ♥ The Lakes

Just back from a lovely weekend in the lake district.
My mum and I hopped on a train Friday morning bound for Kirby Stephen (Actually it was bound for Leeds where we had to change to another train bound for Kirby Stephen, but thats a minor detail!)
The weather was beautiful and the journey was a pleasure, although my mum was convinced someone was going to nick our luggage and she would never cope without her hair straighteners all weekend. My mum is so much more glamourous than me, her toiletry bag alone weighed more than my little trolley case! (only kidding mum if your'e reading this)

A snap taken from the train sadly I can't remember where we were at the time, far too busy drinking tea and chatting!

I forgot to take a snap of the Station at Kirby so I borrowed this from the internet.

It was here we were met by our friend who had so kindly invited us to stay with her for the weekend, this is the second time we have visited so I knew I was in for a real treat, her cottage is absolutely gorgeous and I would love to share it with you but it somehow doesn't feel respectful to plaster photos of someone else's home all over the world wide web. Instead I will share some of the views from the cottage.

these were taken from my bedroom window.

These are views of a small part of the huge garden and beyond.

From the station we had a lovely tour around enjoying the scenery ending up in Windermere for a quick mooch around Lakeland and refuelling on hot chocolate and toasted teacakes (I am an official member of the toasted teacake brigade!)

we then tootled off to Bowness for an hour which was suprisingly quiet considering it was still school holidays.

Always on the lookout for a charity shop bargain I managed to pick up these little beauties.

Saturday was freezing but it didn't stop us doing a bit of fell walking.
This is taken looking down to Ullswater.

luckily we didn't have to climb, as you can drive part of the way up and walk across the top.
A very large black cloud hovered directly over us so we decided it was time to beat a hasty retreat back to the car. Although I consider myself an outdoorsy type of girl, I'm not convinced I'm cut out for fell walking, I appreciate that it's very beautiful but at the same time it can be very bleak and unless the sun is shining it can be very depressing, and much to my disapointment there wasn't an ice cream van in sight!

Just before we headed off the the village hall for the quiz night we took this gorgeous fella for walkies.

just a short walk to the bottom of the lane you come to this, the local village church sadly it could be in danger of closure due to the very small congregation.

.

As we were heading for home on Sunday there was just enough time to squeeze in another walk to Brough Castle. I have done this walk before so I knew our efforts would be rewarded with an ice cream from the lovely ice cream parlour on the farm next door.

Before we knew it, it was time to say our goodbyes and head off for home, the train back to leeds was packed so we had the luggage issue all over again but this time it was the worry of mum's bag getting crushed under the mountain of student rucksacks and breaking her hair dryer....OH MUM you are priceless!
We were greeted at Meadowhall station by the lovely Mr. H and the blue eyed boy who I had missed so much.
The icing on the cake was a gorgeous chilli made by the husband while watching gardeners world in my p.j's........ ROCK AND ROLL!!!

Just in case you were wondering team "Him and us" came 7th out of 10 for our efforts in the quiz night, managing to score the highest in the music round with 20 points out of 24, so we left the village hall with our heads held high!

hope you all had a great weekend : )