All caught up...for now ;-)

Just had a phone call from DH: Where are you?
I am at home! Where are you?
At your work waiting to pick you up!

Good job my communication is better for my assignments!

I can't believe the score of my last assignment - I never performed like this at school, and I didn't even know I was really this interested in Business Studies. I realise that pride becomes before a fall, this isn't pride - it is shock!! No pressure for the next one!!

I have been busy making too - gooseberry jam. I am told by "him who knows" that apparently it is very good. The plan was to save it for autumn/winter, one of those cold miserable grey day when you need a reminder of summer - oh well, at least it is being appreciated.

DD bought herself some peonies as she loves them, so I thought I would share a photo of one of them in their full gorgeousness.

A quick snap of some of my pots :-)

And finally a photo of my street this evening. Children being taught their cycling proficiency - how summery.

And very, very finally.......it's my b'day Friday and we have 2 days of excitement and picnics planned. I am not entirely sure what we are doing, but am very excited!!

Have a nice weekend x

grumble, grumble

off work with a bad back (muscles are failing to relax - hhmm, wonder why!), I have been working on my assignment due in next Monday (well I want to get it in asap, so I know it is there, as I have a new computer, and Windows 2007 might not be compatible with the system of sending assignments, and although I have made it compatible I won't believe it is there until I see it...and breath!!). Anyway sitting here tapping away, missing the good weather, back aching, I think I have almost finished this one, when writing the Executive Summary I see that my assignment doesn't quite pull together, I seem to have chosen to study one problem but the solution is resolving another I have only just touched on - BLOODY HELL!!!! just when I thought I had it, it looks as if I am going to have to rewrite it....AND I SPENT ALL OF YESTERDAY AND SO FAR TODAY ON IT!!! For goodness sakes!!! I am going to walk away, catch my breath and do some crochet, but I know it will be playing on my mind.......I will revisit tonight otherwise I won't sleep properly.
AND my days off are Saturday/Sunday this week, but now I will probably swap them for the 2 days I have had off sick, so I don't lose any pay..........grumble, grumble!!

can't keep up.....

I am keeping with blogs I follow, and sometimes even commenting, but I am finding it difficult to blog at the mo!
This last week was sooooo busy at work, one of those weeks when you know what is going to happen, so you plan accordingly then circumstances decide to send a few curve balls - hey ho, nothing major and we got through it!
So DH and I decide to book a night away at a local hotel, a change of scenery, a bed without cat fur, and space for DD to have a friend round. I found a really good deal on t'internet. 4* hotel, about 5 miles out of town, an old elizabethan building that Will apparently used to frequent, and all at a last minute price. Fab! Yesterday was my day off, so I got up early and cleaned the house, and DH managed to get home from work early. It started raining, so no chance to wear a summer skirt, it had gone chilly too. We went to M&S to get our carpet picnic and fizzy for watching the football with, in the privacy of our cat hair free bedroom. It started to rain harder (this really should have been a sign)......the carpet in the rooom was stained, there were no staff in the bar, and breakfast this morning???? we had to sit in the bar with other guests, waiting for tables to become free in the breakfast restaurant despite 6 tables not being laid for service!!! I have come home feeling like I have a 24 hour thing really crappy, so am hoping to shake it off soon.We went to the Little Chef for breakfast which was fantastic, great service, great food and fab staff....would we go to this hotel again? No! Are we on to try another hotel soon? Yes......we have been spoilt, a couple of years ago we stayed in a Hyatt for a night - fabulous :-) but rather pricey....I think we will start saving. Despite the hotel being crap though we had a lovely time, just me and him, no cats, no chickens and a change of scenery, a real little mini-break. Back to work tomorrow - back to posting properly (with photos!!) sometime soon x

The Archers...

I miss a couple of episodes and then the shocking storyline of the year happens.....I won't spoil it if you don't know....but goodness me, I would never have seen that one coming!

Monday, Monday...

Only a couple more days off before I go back to work - sigh! I love work when I am there, but do find it hard to go back after a week or so off.

Anyway, DD has painted our bird table in an attempt to lure them to us. She chose summery ice-cream colours. It looks lovely, but the birds are yet to appreciate it. A while ago I posted about the 10 or so bird feeders I had hung - they didn't work either. We have loads of birds round here, the little blighters are more than happy to wake me up at 4am, but they won't use the feeders!!!! But the latest attempt is very pretty :-)

And here is the view they have from their feeding post. Not too bad, I am sure a lot of other birds would be very grateful for their surroundings!!

DD and I are off for hair cuts, then we will come back and make cakes - hooray!!

Have a lovely day, hopefully you can avoid the rain.

See you soon x

PS ANY advice about getting birds onto feeders would be very welcomed, thanks x

Lovely weekend

As ever I forgot my camera. We always seem to be heading out and on the road before I realise I haven't got it. You would have thought I would have learnt by now......

We headed out to a big carboot this morning, DH and I really have the bug now. This was a huge one, we couldn't believe the size of it. It took us about 2 hours to walk round, and what did we buy??? Well, I bought nothing, and DH bought 3 books from the very last stall. He has spirited them away, but I think one of them was an Eagle annual....again, hidden away too quickly to take any photos. On reflection I think we both felt that this one was too big, or maybe we caught it on a bad day. It was full of stuff that I got the impression that you didn't ask where it came from, piles and piles of kids clothes, and stalls full of kids toys...oh and lots of bottles of domestos - so very disappointing, and I am at work next weekend so won't get to another for a fortnight. I also pop onto other blogs and see lovely items that people have unearthed for pennies - sigh! So if anyone has any tips as to where/how we are going on, I would love to know.....

We wandered into town this afternoon to see the delights of sunny Stratford , and I went to say hello to this lovely family, Sew Special Bears. I had spotted on the blog that they were coming to Stratford to exhibit at a Bear Fair, and I felt it would have been rude not to have said hello. Her bears are absolutely gorgeous, I don't know how she is able to part with them. It was great to meet up, say hello, and put a face to a blog. Hopefully we will meet up again in Chipping Sodbury at one of the 2 Vintage Fairs later on this year. If not, there is always the bear fair again, this time next year.

Hope you had a good journey home x

When we were in town I picked up a copy of this months Homes and Antiques.

Look who is featured:

Happy loves Rosie

How exciting! To have your home chosen for a magazine feature. The article is great and the photos fab - lovely article. This edition will be a keepers (as they say in films!!). I can never throw away my magazines away. I will be found one day dead, buried under piles of magazines........lol

Something else that we have been up to is starting to make some elderflower cordial

here is my bucket of blossom. We walked miles to get it, there wasn't much were I chose to go (we have seen load since), and a lot of it isn't quite open yet. I think next weekend will be perfect but we are both working then, so I wanted to get some going. It is smelling good, all I need to do now is to source some citric acid. We also plan to pop out one evening this week to harvest some more.

The recipe is from here   

Enjoy the rest of your weekend x

I am in love....

.....with my fabby new computer. I am still getting to grips with it, so bear with me, but for now I will leave you with a photo of the dinner chefs, who cook dinner when I am studying.

79% for my first assignment, so they must be cooking something right.

Enjoy your evening x

Apology!!!

When I said better late than never yesterday, I meant my posting NOT receiving my parcel

DD asked me to point this out as she felt my post was ambiguous, which I certainly never intended.

Good enough to eat swap

Better later than never, here are the photos of my fab package from sewjustinesew

I'm afraid to say that I didn't get a photo of anything wrapped, DD and I just tore into it. I was excited to receive a beautiful parcel, and DD had been sitting at home looking at it all day waiting for me to come back to give her the go-ahead.

Justine spent so much time hand-making such wonderful things for me. I will admit to wussing out of making anything for her as I had seen the quality of her things on her blog, and I know the quality of mine, so I took an easier option and picked up some fab hand-made items for her. I was absolutely delighted with what I found for her, and I hope she is too (and compared to what I would have produced...well.....enough said).

So in the piccie above there is a beautiful hand-made card, a fridge magnet, a little note book which is now living in my CK bag (where else??) and some lovely buttons covered in cupcake fabric. I think these need to go onto a brooch :-)

2 lollies and a pack of milk chocolate beanies, sadly now all gone, but they were very nice!

A lovely soap (I just love the embellishment - I would never have thought of that!), and some yummy hand cream. In the background you can see the cupcake paper my parcel was lovingly wrapped in. And everything is lying in and on the tissue paper and ribbons that each gift was wrapped in.

A hand crafted book mark which is already in use on my OU books, and a scrummy pin cushion.

"A coffee cozy for my favourite take-out!"

How fab is this????? I am off next week, so this will get a few trips out I am sure. Look at the fabrics and the work that has gone into this. I absolutely love it.

And, look at this pot holder and tea towel - far too nice to use!!

Justine, thank you so much. I am absolutely overwhelmed with the gifts you sent me. I feel like it is christmas in the middle of summer.

Thank you so much for your generosity and creativity x

Let me tell you how wonderful...

this lady is! sewjustinesew

Today I recceived the most fabulous parcel from her for the "Good Enough to Eat Swap".

What a gorgeous box to be sent - thank you so much.

I haven't got any time at the mo to do it justice, but I wanted to say a huge heartfelt thank you to a very generous person, and let you allknow how lucky you will be to ever have Justine as a swap partner.

photos and gushing descriptions will follow later this week x