Monday 25 February 2013

A Thank you and a Recap

I had a birthday recently and received lots of lovely gifts thank you very much. Have not been keeping up with the blogging recently so might not have posted as many pics of the lovely things given but I know that I've taken pictures.

This weekend these lovelies in lovely paper arrived in the post. Hello Martha! Hello Oprah!
Thank you NJ!


And whilst this all looks lovely



I am taking my lead form Oprah and March is 40 Drawers!

(Haven't quite finished the computer de clutter but nearly, about three quarters of the way to being happy and just two big things to finish, the story and getting the printer working)

But during the day I can start on my stores, so here is 1/40 drawers.

BEFORE




This has easily looked like this for a couple of years. Shame on me.



This is a huge curtain that I bought years ago it needs minor repair in one corner and it has a place to hang but I worry that the cat will claw it, or worse wee on it so I haven't put it up.
I don't think I've been waiting for her to die and I think I should just risk it as she might ignore that fine detail that she could get her nails into.



A bag of linens, there are a couple of things in here that I will never part with but tell me FMH, what do I do with them. No to cushions and patchwork throws.
Maybe I can make a nightie?



Two scarves knitted and crochet for the girls and never finished and a length of pink knitting felted that's 14 years old and I am not sure what to do with it.



Grey stripey smock that makes me look preg and does nothing for me. Dark grey stripey that does lots for me but is over worn. Multi stripe TOAST pj's that are split in the rear and split every time I repair and put them on. White with broken stripe tunic that looks like I should be painting in St. Ives but doesn't make me look like that when I put it on.
The dark grey doesn't make the cut.



One of G's and my shrunken jumper along with shrunken socks, a gift from FMH when I just had T six years ago. They get to stay but only if I turn them into a bear of some sorts by the end of the week.


Couple of jumpers, some fabric, bag of lavender from the garden, some sewing kits that just won't get started. All for the pile of stuff that has to go.



Fabric for a box of scraps that will make it into a sale.
The girls have been clearing their toys by the bucket load and there is a huge pile of things for a car boot.

AFTER



It's not neat but it is reduced by half and that is a start.

The lavender made it back in, maybe it will keep the insects away and what do you do with crappy kaleidoscopes that have pretty patterns on the outside because letting go of a pattern can really be a problem.

Meanwhile what do you make of this as a past time?





 Off to make dinner and nurse a cold AND I picked up a cold sore on the school run, beautiful.

CM

Wednesday 13 February 2013

Poor P

P never asks she just goes in and takes and despite reprimanding continues to root around for things that don't belong to her.
I can't lock everything away.
I suppose it serves as a reminder that I actually own a dark pink lipstick.


 
I was clearing toys etc away and P dragged out a new pair of shoes that I've bought for T that will hopefully fit next Autumn.

They are tied together with elastic.

She shouldn't be poking around.



Annoyingly she was taking out what was neat and tidy.




Imagine what happens next.



Ping!



She will learn nothing from this.
Poor thing.

She asked for plasters for her eyeballs.

She got a cuddle.
Poor thing.
Then she had a 2 hour nap on the sofa.

Poor me, she will be awake for hours!

CM

Tuesday 12 February 2013

That Birthday List

Still in the first month of clearing the decks and prepping for 'Life begins at forty', I have managed to clear the desk top on the computer, delete or fob off to friends unwanted bookmarks, and have made a start on deleting thousands of unwanted emails.

Not to mention unsubscribing to newsletters that are really not relevant.
No thank you Selvedge and LK Bennett etc.

Last night I picked up this book.




I bought this in Liberty when the book shop existed on the ground floor on the corner of
Carnaby Street.
I think I was probably with my mum and I might have been about fourteen and I remember the book was £4.95. I loved it.
I think I wanted to use it as a sketch book but was too scared and the pages are really shiny so when I finally got round to using it I was nearly twenty and I stuck my recipes in instead.





Some of these recipes I cut out from NOW magazine when it first hit the shelves, I am sure it was the first celebrity magazine and it cost 65p and it used to have these really easy recipes at the back.
Never made any of them except lemon drizzle that was rubbish and pineapple upside down cake which is excellent.

I want to get this book out of my life because it just hangs round my neck like another thing not achieved. If I just chuck it I will be thinking about it in twenty years because that is the person I am.

I gathered a few appealing pages and hit the supermarket.

I needed to bake something in the new oven. It was a disaster, G tried to tell me not to blame the oven but I don't think he meant it that way but it is still out there.



I hate the bloody oven, it's a professional and I am not. Those are spelt strawberry muffins, splet four is £3.50 a bag and the oven is so hot that they are solid on the outside and just ok on the inside.



And they stick to the wrapper like glue.

I am a bit teary, I want to offer to do a coffee morning at our local church to help raise funds for it's redevelopment and I can't even make a success of a muffin.

Boo Hoo


The watercress soup was more of a result but that was cooked on the hob so it doesn't count.

I have invited a couple of mums for tea tomorrow after the school run and my lovely cousin is dropping by in the afternoon. I feel deflated.

I think I am in one of those moods where nothing is going to be right.
I hate days like these.

Will help T finish her homework and then put the girls to bed and have a pepper tea and lots of water as I ate a can of stuffed vine leaves yesterday and I won't be doing that again!

CM


Monday 11 February 2013

Haircuts

P has had her hair trimmed before but really it was only because Auntie George cut T's and he pretended to cut hers to make her happy.

Only this month for the first time in three years I have started to regularly comb what grows on top of her head.
The fringe however is long and G said it needed to be cut and that what he did this eve after dinner.

She thought that was a good idea too.





She doesn't like water near her face though


but she does love her daddy



and then it was done!


Mmmmmm




Is she going to be one of those girls who messes with their hair when they get back from the hairdressers, I can't be doing with that.

Anyway it looks great because she is fast asleep in her bed, out like a light, till the morning.

Cuppa in hand off to bed.


CM

Tuesday 5 February 2013

Getting Ready for Forty.

I had a long chat with my oldest friend in the winter around her birthday last year.

She had been talking about not wanting to live her forties as she had done in her thirties.
Of course she is of great wisdom to me and everything I write now is her idea.

She didn't want to turn forty and get on with it she wanted to prep for it at 39 by improving her life by learning 40 new recipes, walking daily for 40 minutes, chucking out 40 items of clothing etc.
Some things will be quick and some will take the year.

What a bloody good idea, I am so doing that and so is my mum who also turns an elegant number this June.
The list of things to do could be endless and as you can imagine mine is and will probably be completely unachievable!

I am starting with the iMac.
(I honestly had to check that)
I don't know enough about the thing, the printer doesn't work and I use about 10% of it's capabilities, I have story ideas that need resolving,  pictures stored who knows where and I haven't deleted an email in years. I'd like to do some graphic/illustration work

When I worked in the NHS my files were spotless it is not the same case in iPhoto and I can easily make up the list if I have problems reaching the target.

I started yesterday and the desktop is clear and today I'm making my way through the hundred's of bookmarks I've collected.


I found these in the sidebar they are from the very early 1940's.






I've often had romantic ideas of living in the 1940's be it swing dancing in lovely tea dresses or grafting in denim on Walton's Mountain but looking closely at these slides I think I had ignored how really hard life must have been.





There are more to look at. The descriptions are short and very interesting. Find them here

I am going to press delete!
But there are lots of other things to share.

P has just gone and stuck something up her nose again. I think I am going to take her to A&E just to teach her a lesson.

CM

Monday 4 February 2013

Happy Birthday

G bought me what I asked for.
A light bulb for my bedside lamp which he switched on this morning and you know what, it's goes up there with the best present ever.

He also got me one of those mustaches on a stick.
Yonks ago I read the whole blog of a couple of crafters who made wooden mustaches on sticks and they had chosen these mustaches from very old photos of very old pictures.
I wonder did the global interest in mustaches come from their loft in Portland........who knows.

Then they stated making bow ties from vintage plad and look whats happening there.

You can see their most beautiful blog here







So with all this great mucking about we were a little late for the gate but that doesn't really matter.
So here is Happy Birthday to the Homestead, thank you for the 14,000 plus page hits and
Happy Birthday to me.

It's going to be a great year and the light is now back on xxxxx

CM

Sunday 3 February 2013

Over The Last Week

Some anxiety happened to me this past week which I can catch up on at another time but it's made me unable to focus on the usual stuff and posting bits here.

So just some photos.



Big nose came down with FMH and we went for a lovely walk last Saturday. She bought mittens and a scented candle along with spring flowers which I've carried round with me because the smell was so lovely.






First bit of sun for the year.
I think I put a wash out on the line even though you can see the snow up on them hills.




T is doing London at school, this is the Great Fire and for some reason I think it's amazing and she can do so much better.
I think it's because I said to her, whats this? Great Fire of London. Of course it is!

Grandpa had a birthday and P wanted 'Apunzel' on the card which T drew for her and then she coloured in and again I think she did really well too.




During the week I did the most stupid thing. I headed out on the school run an hour early. AArrrhgh!
Never mind P needed some air so we took a stroll round the parks.





Veggie eating is still going really well, in fact I mistook and cocktail sausage for a mini cheddar the other day and spat it out rather than vomit. It wouldn't go down.
Loving creme fraiche with lemon parsley and pickles and then put on pretty much everything!




Do you ever get into uncomfortable pj's?

I bought a large pair of cotton lovelies for T but they twist in her sleep and annoy her.

She came into our bed after a nightmare in the early hours of this morning and when we had wrapped the dream round a rock, tied the paper with string and then thrown into the ocean for it to get lodged in with all the other bad dreams and cringe worthy memories never to surface again she started to route round the dresser for one of my T shirts all whilst using the torch setting on the iphone.




If she gets uncomfortable she finds a T shirt and wears it as a nightie this is an old thermal vest of mine and she has tied a knot in the straps. I thought she did really well, again!
I took a load of photos most of them rubbish at 06:30.

This picture I love but G was not happy, this is the image that he dreads, she looks 17 and it could be her Facebook page.
He is going to need a straight jacket and a sedative when she starts going out.

Tomorrow I will age again and this blog will be two years old!
Where did this year go?
Good thing I've got blog because my memory is rubbish.


Meet back here tomorrow

CM