Take one sheet............

What else can you do on a cold afternoon apart from grab a sheet and make a tent? For once my two little darlings were not trying to kill each other and played beautifully for about an hour! With the help of a few chairs, a sheet, ALL the cushions and blankets in the house and a bagel with Nutella spread (a new discovery, unhealth I know but truly delicious!) peace fell on the VH household. I did try sitting in there with them, trying to recapture the excitement I felt as a child after building a den, but to be honest it was a bit hot, so I left them to it! Bliss.........

The lovely Catherine at mollycupcakes awarded me this last week.........

I'm very flattered, thank you so much Catherine. If you haven't visited Catherine's blog you must! She sells the most gorgeous painted kitchen accessories and hearts. I can vouch for their gorgeousness having placed an order before Christmas. The only problem is that the wooden spoon is so lovely I can't quite bring myself to use it!

I'm supposed to pass this award on but I can't choose only seven of you, so consider yourselves all included, a cop out I know!

This morning was supposed to be the day I finally started sewing again. Andrea and I have a very busy couple of months coming up, including the biggest fair we've ever done, so I should be creating. However I feel a bit grotty today so I dropped the children off, came back, made a cuppa and sat down for a few mins blogging. Two hours later I'm still here! I think I'm a person who works better with a deadline, it's just that I leave everything until the week before and then give myself a nervous breakdown trying to do it all!

Thought I'd leave you with a couple more gratuitous house shots, I can't put just one picture on so here we go........

Our bedroom fireplace with the disembodied head, she should really be on a wall somewhere but I quite like her in there.

The top of one of our dressers in the kitchen. I love the kitten money box, bought for 50p from the car boot sale, haven't got round to putting any pennies in it yet! The picture behind is Jack's "dream house". Notice it's all alone at the top of a hill, just like his mum he craves his own space and loves his own company, sometimes difficult in our very noisy house!

Right, enough procrastinating. I have and hour and a half to create something before I have to collect Kit, hang on though is that the phone I hear..........................?

Quirky..........

It occurred to me today as I was scrubbing behind the toilet seat with a toothbrush (just one of the many joys of having a 7 year old with a none-too-accurate aim) that there are many bits of this house that exist for no apparent reason but mean a lot to all of us who live here.

For example in our bathroom we have this.........

Don't ask me why he's wearing a cycling hat but I think he suits it, don't you?

When we bought this house we loved the fact that one of the previous owners had cobbled together any old pieces of wood to box in pipes, create cupboards etc. This is one of his masterpieces.........

It covers water pipes running from the top floor of the house and sort of looks like a mantlepiece stuck on the wall for no apparent reason. I can't explain why we like it, I'm sure to some people it looks faintly ridiculous, but then, so is life!

This sits on the shelf on the top floor. Ian gave it to me for our first Valentines together and it's just so cute I had to frame it, needless to say nearly 12 years and 2 children down the line, Feb 14th isn't quite the same!

Jack's room yields all sorts of treasures..............

..................including shells, stones and bits of feathers stuck into white tack (don't ask me why?)

Hanging next to Kit's dressing table is a teddy that Jack made in Year 2 at school, aptly named "fat tummy" by his beloved sister, much to his disgust.

Finally, perched on the living room bookshelves is my little birdie. It took me ages to find a shape suitably bird-like for my Christmas decorations. Most of them looked strangely fishy. Finally I managed to come up with this one and they were one of my best sellers, so I'm rather fond of this little one.

So there you go, just a few of the weird and wonderful things to be found in this house, I'm sure a few more will pop up along the way. See you all soon..........

Out of the mouths of babes...........

Yesterday evening, whilst snuggling into my rather ample, "oooh go on pass another chocolate brazil nut", post Christmas tum number one son remarked :

"Aaaah, pleasantly chubby" !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think it was meant to be a compliment!

Pass me another hot cross bun please, real butter not olive oil spread if you don't mind!...............

Bicycles, books and blankets.........

There seem to be three obsessions going on in this house. Wherever I go I'm faced with piles of books, blankets in a heap, or bikes. I've just removed one of the aforementioned bikes from our bedroom where it was lounging against the fireplace, not an attractive addition to the decor to my mind. At the last count we had about 10 bikes in this household, bearing in mind we live in a terraced house and have no garage and a pretty small garden, that's a lot of bikes to conceal! To Ian they're a thing of beauty, to me they're an obstacle (apart from my gorgeous "Cameo" of course!) and I can regularly be heard muttering after catching my ankle on one of them.

Blankets are another key feature of this house. I can't resist them and the children seem to be following suit. Kit even has a serious blanket routine at bedtime, where no less that one duvet, one eiderdown and three blankets have to be tucked round her in the same order every night.

This is my latest little bargain, had to have it for the car. It's one of those gorgeous soft blankets, and red polka dot to boot!

Finally, books........All of us love books, they are in every room in this house. We have so many that I worry that one day I'll come home to find the house sunk into the ground under the sheer weight! I love the vintage Enid Blytons in Jack's room almost as much as he does (although Beano is beginning to take over!). Some of them are rescued from Mum and Dad's garage, but I've had to replace most of mine from childhood because most of our toys and books were passed onto our many cousins.

The books we keep on the living room bookshelves include Ian's beloved "Biggles" collection and all the books passed down by his Dad who was a professor of law. Needless to say I'm not often to be found reading "Employment Laws of Scotland" but they mean a lot to us and remind Ian of his Dad who's no longer here.

So there you go, what little obsessions do you have I wonder?.................

Bliss...................

An empty house, a cup of tea, a large (very) piece of cake, the latest copy of Country Living, a warm blanket and a comfy chair, what more could you ask for??..........

Note to self, buy at least 2 packets of magnetic letters in future! Anyhow, happy new year to all you out there in blogland! It's been a while (again!) since my last post, must get into better habits this year.

I hope you all had the Christmas you wished for. Ours was noisy, busy but not as frantic this year. We spent a lot of time together, about 10 days in all and we were still speaking at the end of it, a minor miracle! It was a wonderful Christmas and we brought in the new year playing Pictionary and Articulate, laughing at my dad's artistic skills and the new words introduced to us by the teenagers, plus I did a bit of middle aged lusting after Take That (Howard in particular) at midnight!

Christmas Eve we all ventured to a local church for the crib service, needless to say we were late, and went in the wrong door having to walk past a very large congregation. We even managed to persuade my 17 year old nephew to join us, and it was lovely family event.

The weather was the usual Christmas affair, plenty of grey skies and rain, but we looked out of the window one day to be greeted by this, there is something about a rainbow which is really special, don't know why but I think we all love them.

Yesterday was D-day for eight walls in our street. Before Christmas a row of us decided that we would like to replace our mismatching walls and hedges with the railings that would originally have been here. After much organisation by one of our neighbours Frank (a lawyer and therefore very well organised!) we finally demolished the walls yesterday. What a day it was!

Ian battled through a horrible cold to demolish ours, which turned out to be very well built, if the ugliest in the street. Helen and I supplied bacon sarnies, tea and cakes. Our new neighbour Lynn made the most delicious soup for lunch which we ate in our kitchen. Eight hours later we were still there! Various people would disappear and come back bearing wine, the bottles this morning bear testament to the alcohol consumption! No wonder my head was thumping when I went to bed!

It was a brilliant day, it made us realise how fortunate we are to live in this neighbourhood. When we decided to move here there were a few raised eyebrows and comments amongst some of our friends. Our street is opposite a large council estate with a reputation it really doesn't deserve. This meant that we could afford a much bigger house than those in the supposedly "better" areas. It was the best move we ever made. Ok, financially we could have made more elsewhere but here we have fantastic neighbours, a lot of whom have been here for 30 plus years. There is a real sense of community, people buy here because they want a home, not a pension. Yesterday proved that even more to me, we all sat around and chatted for hours and have made a pledge to have these get-togethers once a month from now on. What a great way to start the new year!

By the way, I came downstairs in peace and quiet to do a bit of blogging. For once my battling children decided to play in Jack's room. Great I thought, I'll disappear and write my post in silence. Ha! Two minutes later, here they are behind me fighting over a piece of string and singing "The Skye Boat Song" - at least Jack is, Kit is just putting words together that make no sense, much to Jack's annoyance. Children - who'd have 'em??!!...............

Happy, happy Christmas!

Well it's been a long time! I have been lurking and checking in with you all whenever I've had a spare minute and it's been fun watching you all preparing for Christmas. There seems to be a common theme running through all the blogs I read, NONE of us are ready for Christmas!

How did it get to 7 days before the big day?? Last I knew it was the beginning of November and all of a sudden Christmas is upon us, HELP!

Since I last posted, an eternity ago it seems, lots has happened. The craft business is going from strength to strength, it took off better than we could ever have hoped, thanks to some well timed fairs and parties. Not that it's all been plain sailing, we had one totally disastrous fair that we know never to do again, but you learn from experience and although it was a bit depressing at the time, the next one was the best we've ever done, which boosted our confidence and our Christmas shopping fund! It seems from reading other crafters' blogs that we've all had our fair share of c*****y fairs, with the usual "you could make that" muttered to friends and looks of dismay when you tell people the price - how rude people can be!

We've had tremendous support from partners, husbands, children, neighbours and friends, really unbelievable, without them we couldn't have got through the past two months. The last order was finished last night so I can breath a huge sigh of relief, put anything I didn't sell on the Christmas tree and open the wine (again) - Hurrah! Andrea and I treated ourselves to a trip to Bicester Village (without children!) as a reward and spent a few happy hours shopping (there's even a Cath Kidston discount shop there!).

Christmas preparations are now well and truly under way in this house, there seems to be a bit of a bird theme going on! My family arrive on Sunday for about 10 days so we need to de-clutter in a big way! This house will be bulging at the seams, but I can't wait. I love Christmas and I love having family around, there will be plenty of chocolate, nuts, turkey and alchohol consumed - once I've been food shopping that is! There are lists everywhere, things that need finishing, wrapping or buying. The basement bedrooms have been cleared, we're still waiting for the building work to be done after the floods, but they will be prettified for Christmas in order to put up the 6 extra people.

We must be the only family with a special "Beano" bauble, courtesy of Jack! I've taken about 263 photos of the tree and they're all terrible so I've settled for a close up of one of our homemade decorations.

Thanks to everyone who sent get well wishes to Mum. Her operation went well, nothing nasty was found and she's well on her way to a full recovery. As usual she kept the full extent of the problem to herself until after the op, but she's well and looking forward to Christmas, making her famous sausage rolls in huge quantities for her grandchildren. It's an enormous relief and means that we can look forward to next year with excitement instead of worry.

It's been a great year on the whole, we've had some fab holidays with good friends and family, watched our children grow and change, laughed, cried, talked, danced, argued and shouted (and shouted again - if only our kitchen walls could talk!) a lot, picnicked with grandparents, and made some difficult choices which have turned out to be the best decisions and made us much happier in the end. A typical year in any family I would think!

I hope you all have a lovely Christmas and a fantastic 2008. Enjoy, try to relax, and spoil yourselves a bit, and no running off with Santa - his work/life balance is not good! My thoughts are with all of you who've lost someone this year, gather those that matter around you, close the door, light the fire and enjoy each other.

As a postscript I just had to show a couple of photos of some of the lovely things I've received from a couple of you lovely folk out there..........

Firstly, ages ago I won "Little Pinkie" over at Suzie Sews and he now lives proudly on the old coffee grinder (out of grubbly little fingers reach!). How cute is he - don't know why I've decided it's a he, it seems that all our soft toys whether they be pink, green or yellow are boys! The coffee grinder was a "must-have" purchase after our Featherdown Farm hol, the kids love grinding the beans, great, as long as you're not desperate for the next caffeine hit! Anyway, thanks a million Suzie, here he is at last!

Next I received my Christmas order this morning from the lovely Catherine over at Molly Cupcakes, with a few little extras thrown in. I can't wait to give Kitty the baking set in her favourite colour, or to use the red spoon. All of her stuff is just lovely, you have to visit! I had the great pleasure of meeting her when she came to collect a vintage ironing board I had for sale, and she is as lovely in real life as on her blog!

Phew! Well done if you're still with me! All that needs to be said now is HAPPY, HAPPY CHRISTMAS, see you in 2008!.................

Busy, busy, busy...........

Too many books methinks!..................

Hello everyone, thanks for all the lovely comments left on my last post. I think there may be a few fellow bloggers staying at a Featherdown farm next year - maybe I should ask for commission!

Life has been very hectic here for the past few weeks, and this weekend in particular. I must apologise for not replying to all of your comments, but they are truly appreciated. Over the past couple of weeks I have made a decision that in the lead up to Christmas I'll have to scale down my blogging habits a little. I've just received an order from a small shop nearby for lots of my stuff and whilst I'm thrilled to bits I'm starting to panic a bit. Andrea and I have lots of fairs lined up before Christmas and because all my things are handmade they are pretty labour intensive and have to be squeezed into the rest of my life. Andrea is now employed as my sales director! It's thanks to her that the shop placed an order, I'd never have had the courage to go in and sell myself!

Time therefore is very precious to me now and I'm constantly aware that this is Kitty's last year before school so I want to spend as much time with her as possible. As all you fellow crafters out there know it's so difficult to fit everything in and I don't want my children to suffer as a result. So I have decided to have a small break from blogging for the next few weeks to give me time to fulfil my orders and get ready for Christmas.

We also received the news that my mum will be having a major operation before Christmas, which follows weeks of anxiety. Everything looks like it will be ok, but I need to be able to be with her if necessary.

I've really enjoyed all my blogging time so far and I have made some lovely blogging pals so I do intend to come back and regularly pop in to visit my faves. Thanks to everyone who's made me so welcome and for all your positive comments. The whole blogging experience has been so rewarding!

Now to weekend news. Andrea turned 40 last week and Saturday night was a 70's disco night to celebrate. What a fantastic party, we danced all night long - don't know how in those platform boots! Everybody had a fantastic time, there were vol-au-vonts and profiteroles galore, it was fab! Happy birthday old trout, you're a great friend and your coffee cake is to die for! Andrea's the one in the middle and Maureen is on the right, another great friend.................

Even Kitty got in on the wig action...............

After going to bed at 2.30am and having my morning call by Kit at 6.30am we stumbled off to the Cheltenham Literature Festival with both children. Yet again we booked them in to see their favourite authors and totally forgot to book anything for ourselves. We've now made a pact that next year we WILL be more organised, every year I kick myself because I miss lots of great shows. I did see Neil "Drop the Dead Donkey" Pearson from a distance (lovely blue eyes) but that doesn't really count!

Finally, I had some lovely post this weekend. My order from Elfie and Me arrived and I have to tell you the cards and badges are every bit as gorgeous as they look on her website. Thanks Claire, I'll be visiting again soon!

Next came a parcel all the way from Marie in Canada. She was giving away freebies of her rose cream. It's absolutely scrumptious! You have to order some, the smell is divine! Thanks Marie, it was a very generous offer!

I'll end with a picture of a typical Friday morning scene here (or at a friends' house). Nearly every Friday some of our old NCT group meet up for tea, cakes and a chat. We've all known each other since our children were born and it's always great to catch up on gossip, children and life in general. Our children don't get to see each other too often but when they do they're always pleased to see each other. Long may it continue!

See you all soon...............

Absolutely amazing!..........

What more can I say? What a fantastic holiday! If you enjoy camping, like we do this is the ultimate in luxurious camping. It was a total break from normal life, no tv, computers, phones, news or distractions, just the four of us and a canvas house.

The tents were such a great place to stay, they were a child's dream. Our two slept in the cupboard bed, snuggled under Jack's new eiderdown. Every morning Ian got up first and lit the stove to warm the tent and make sure I had my cup of Yorkshire tea (knowing what a dragon I am before that first cuppa!). We ate by candlelight and oil lamp every evening with nothing but the sound of the crackling fire and owls hooting.



We were the only ones staying over the weekend, probably because it was October and nobody else was so foolhardy, but we had the best weather. The sun shone every day, we went to the beach, visited St Michael's Mount, ate crab sandwiches looking out over the ocean at the Lizard peninsula and played chess, scrabble and trivial pursuit every day.

The children whiled away the hours throwing pebbles into the sea (it always amazes me how long that occupies them!), they read, ran about in the fields and never once complained of boredom. We didn't want to come home!

It made me realise how much excess we have in our daily lives, and how little we actually need to get by, although I would draw the line at getting rid of the washing machine! It was a great "get away from it all" holiday and I would highly recommend it to anyone.............