Middle Month

June already and the Summer holidays are only weeks away.

It's also the last month before little H becomes a teenager and we are already experiencing the joys... I'll  leave it there for now!

Blogging is a little hit and miss with me at the moment, I  seem to have the attention span of a goldfish. I think Instagram has to take some responsibility for this as it's an instant fix when blogging seems to take up so much time.

I have every intention to carry on with this blogging malarkey as I do love it but the way things are going , I predict I will continue along the 'every now and again' path.

Aside from the pre teen shenanigans things are tickety and jobs are slowly but surely being crossed off the list

I JUST managed to paper the garden room with the last remaining roll (I kid you not) of Chintz wallpaper  in the country!

It was touch and go as to whether I could eek it out but I made it.

Garden room sounds very grand but in actual fact it's the back half of the garage which we converted to make a room joining the kitchen to the garden, a bit like a conservatory minus the glass!

The Kitchen unit has been painted 

Try not to notice that smudge on the glass!!!

 Iv'e done a few little crafty bits and pieces

A first attempt at bag making, complete with vintage tablecloth lining and pockets!

a few cross stitch bits and bobs for card making

  and one or two car boots have come up trumps.

apologies for the photos, some were taken in the dark and the others could have been edited slightly better.

I promise I will try harder next time!

Oh yes nearly forgot to mention, if you want to check me out on Instagram the link is in my sidebar, its the little camera button above the Pinterest button

Thanks x 

My longest post so far

Brace yourselves girls as I'm guessing this could end up being quite a long post, it might be wise to go and put the kettle on and grab the biscuit tin!
As promised I have finally got around to uploading the photos I took while I was at The button Tin workshop a couple of weeks ago. As predicted they don't really do the place justice so I suggest you pop over to Gemma's site  and check it out for yourselves, or better still if you live close enough hot foot it over to Rotherham and see it in the flesh.
 I hadn't been to Rotherham for years (anyone who is familiar with Rotherham will probably understand why) BUT I was really surprised by how much it had changed and the Imperial building and the surrounding areas were really beautiful, apparantly they have been boarded up for the past twenty years and have only recently been uncovered. For more info and great pictures of the imperial building check out Heart Shaped blog
I will definitely be returning in the very near future as there was a fantastic tea room my friend Adele and stitching partner in crime and I wanted to try but sadly it was closed the day we visited.
Back to The Button Tin I am soooo easily distracted!

The place itself is in the centre of the Imperial building so it's completely enclosed which means you also get to enjoy the outside space in complete privacy. It was so peaceful you wouldn't believe you were in the centre of town.

If you think the outside is special wait until you see the inside.

The tiny space is absolutely packed to the rafters with beautiful vintage items from aprons and haberdashery to sewing baskets and machines, even the practical pieces of equipment like the glue sticks were kept in a pretty tin! (I notice these things!)
I could have happily sat there for the full six hours just looking, everything looked so beautiful.
There are a few of Gemma's items for sale but most of the things you see are the materials she uses either every day for her workshops or for her commissions but Some things are there purely for your viewing pleasure.
When it's not being used for workshops it's Gemma's private studio so you can't just walk in, which I think makes it all the more intriguing and special.

After telling us a little about herself and her work Gemma invited us to rummage through her enormous suitcases (vintage obviously) which were overflowing with fabulous pieces of fabric... as you can imagine I was like a kid let loose in a chocolate factory, I just couldn't decide which fabrics to choose but in the end I went for a green/yellow sort of theme.
Gemma showed us how to make the most beautiful flowers from our chosen fabrics that were actually much more simple to make than they looked. When we had mastered the basic flower technique we got to make them into pieces of jewellery or a hairpiece/fascinator.
I opted for a brooch but to be honest there was plenty of time to make two or three pieces. Most of the girls made rings and brooches and hair clips and a couple of the girls made fascinators.

Gemma served tea mid morning while we carried on stitching then we popped out for lunch. When we returned we had tea again and at 3p.m we had tea and cakes all served on pretty china.

This is the brooch I made, I do like it but I feel it's slightly too large for my liking and I'm not entirely happy with how I stitched it together so I think I'm going to unpick it and make three smaller brooches... what do you think?
I also made a ring and a hair clip.

Sadly the day came to an end all too quickly and we said goodbye to the wonderous place that is The Button Tin.

You may remember in my last post I mentioned that Mr. H was collecting something very special..............

well here she is in all her filthy glory.

Obviously she needs a little massive amount of T.L.C not to mention a bloomin good scrub.
Admittedly she's not a Rolls Royce model but for £30 I think she was an absolute steal and will be perfect for housing my growing collection of Woodsware and pyrex.
At the moment I am drawn towards yellow and white but I am open to suggestion so feel free to comment!

I also had a fabulous day at Mary's Marvellous vintage and Craft Market on Saturday and an equally fabulous morning at the car boot yesterday in fact I'm still giddy from just thinking about the haul I brought back home with me. I am just about to take some snaps but the weather is so dark and miserable here in Sheffield I'm not sure it's a good idea.

Mr H spent yesterday repairing the garden gate that the scummy chicken thieves wrecked last week, the plan is to get the roof on the chicken run replaced and get ourselves 3 new girls, the garden is just too quiet without them.

I just want to say thanks to all my lovely friends both bloggy and none bloggy for your lovely comments and for your kindness and understanding.
My mojo is slowly returning and I have lots to look forward to.

Off now to polish off the last piece of my mums delicious carrot cake.

Hope you all had 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.

: )

Treasure Trove

Iv'e managed to get my mitts on few lovely bits and bobs over the last couple of weeks and thought perhaps you would like to have a gander.

Here are some recent car boot finds

a pile of Noddy books

a pretty sewing basket

.....mmmmmmm not too sure about that Barbie pink lining, it looks suspiciously like a dressing gown to me!

a lovely bowl which might be keeper

another bowl, not in great condition but I really loved the colours and for £2 it would have been rude not to!

a giant tea pot which reminded me of the Convent where I used to work so this just had to come home with me and only a £1.........more tea Vicar!

this was discovered while rummaging through a box at the Summer (felt more like Autumn) fair at our local church last Saturday.

a lovely scrap of embroidery which had been badly placed in the most hideous frame but hopefully someday soon it will be transformed into a beautiful cushion.
(already breaking out into a cold sweat at the thought of firing up the Janome)

I also picked up pretty rose picture, a cup minus saucer and a lovely glass cake stand which had never been out of it's original box, I'm no Judith Miller but I'm guessing it's from the 70's, possibly a wedding present, who knows (pics to follow)

This little pot is my latest flea market find.

Still experimenting with instagram but loved how this turned out.


Iv'e been tackling my pile of W.I.P's and finally managed to get this done while watching Inspector Morse on a wet and miserable Sunday afternoon (the one where he died and yes there were tears)

Little H couldn't believe I had patched my jeans and was horrified when he realised I was actually going to venture out of the house in them. He said I was becoming more like Barbara from the Good Life
I got the idea when I first saw it here

Although I have enough unfinished projects to keep me busy for the next ten years I couldn't resist starting another one.
I enjoyed doing the hexie patch so much I thought I'd give this a bash.

I do love a bit of hand stitching while watching the box
It's destined to become yet another cushion because as we all know...one can never have too many cushions!


Well school's nearly out and I for one can't wait.
It's little H's 12th birthday the first week of the holidays and this will be the first time since he was born that we haven't had a huge party for him at home *sad face.
Usually by now all the plans have been made, lists compiled, invitations made and posted out and party bags made and filled..... but not this year, this year he asked if he could do something else *even sadder face.
I knew this day would come but nothing prepares you for the sudden realisation that your sticky fingered, blonde haired blue eyed boy has grown up and morphed into a handsome pre teen with a complete set of adult teeth and squirting deodorant like it's going out of fashion... BLOODY NORA when did that happen?!!!

So he's decided he wants to play footie with his friends, so the pitch has been hired at our local park and a trainer/referee who will supervise take charge of the proceedings has been booked (good luck to him that's all I can say!)
Fingers crossed the weather picks up in time although I won't hold my breath!

I am also looking forward to our summer camping trip. This year we are Southwold bound, somewhere we have never visited before but it looks like just the kind of place we like and a little stop off in Holt on the way there and Cromer on the way back, with a trip to Wiveton Farm and Holkham Beach thrown in for good measure.....now where did I put those waterproofs?!!!