The lampshade in our dining area broke ages ago .... like a year ago!! And we have just had a bulb hanging there since. I had seen a lovely one in B&Q that I wanted but it was out of stock and when I looked online it seemed to have been discontinued :( I had done a few searches online and whenever I was in B&Q would have a look and see if there was anything else I like, but nothing as much as the one that I had seen before. Then a few weeks ago I found it, on eBay for only £2!!! ........ but I missed the end of the auction ... luckily they re-listed it, £2 or make an offer. I offered £5 ... they came back with a counter offer of £8 ... now as I knew that it had been listed once already and not sold I decided that I was in with a chance to win it cheaper ... so I bid instead ... £5 as my max bid and guess what, I won it for £2!!! There was £10 postage and packing, but still a total bargain of £12 for the light I loved!!


When it arrived they hadn't included the bar that attaches it to the ceiling, luckily Steve managed to adapt the one we had up there with a longer screw to fit, but they did include the bulbs which was lovely of them!


When I first got it out of the box I was slightly concerned it was too big and would hang too low as our ceilings are not very high, but its fine!


I love it and am so pleased I managed to find one the same style I wanted even if its a slightly bigger version of it.


So you may have seen a few weeks ago I joined Slimming World. I always had lots of lovely fruit to eat as Steve loves his fruit. I am more of a vegetable girl, but I have been trying to up my fruit intake and found that we needed another fruit bowl, so I managed to find this lovely pink glass one on eBay for £2.99. It is in perfect condition and goes so well with my other pink glass that I have been collecting over the years.


Have you found any bargains this month or bought any treasures?

Billy has a farm set and we have been collecting lovely animals for him ... but a farm can always grow and when we saw this for £10 on Facebook we couldn't resist getting it!


There were some animals with it, but I passed them on to Steve's mum so she would have some when he goes over to visit, but the buildings are lovely and such a bargain at £10!

After going to Wonderwool Wales last weekend, I felt inspired to dig out some weaving that has been on a frame loom for (cough) probably years!! (head in hands!)

I had planned on doing an owl in a tree picture ... you can see here, 2 posts of work in progress ... planning my project and working on the project ... however, I wasn't happy with how it was working out so I undid a lot and just decided to do a pattern. Unfortunately in undoing a chunk of it, it thinned the warp threads on the loom and some of them broke ... this meant that I just had to finish where it was up to and take it off the loom ... so here it is!!


I managed to find a stick in the hen pen that was pretty straight and the right size to use at the top.


My favourite bit is the maroon stripes at the top as the colours are so lovely together.


I did a few macrame knots at the bottom and added some beads ...


It is a funny little bit of weaving and not at all how I had originally planned, but the colours go nicely in our living room and I like it! :)

Yesterday we went to Wonderwool Wales. I have been a few times now over the years and have loved it each time!!

Here is my stash of goodies ...

I spent more than I had planned ;)

I bought a new pin loom and some weaving sticks. Some lovely olive green rope for Macrame, some gorgeous rainbow wool and a tiny weaving frame!

This morning I decided to put off starting the week by doing a little bit of weaving on the tiny frame!

It came with some merino yarn, but I have also added some odd bits of wool that went well.

You can keep the weaving on the frame, but I decided to take it so I can use it again.

I have hung it in my hall, where I have a few odd bits and bobs hanging  :)


These lovely little frames are available from The Wool Couture Company, check out their website as they have some lovely bits! The Macrame cord was from there too!

I thought it would be a fun 'get to know you post' to do some then and now questions ...
so here goes ...

1. When you were a child, what was your favourite colour? pink
2. What is your favourite colour now? dark maroon and soft green
3. When you were a child what was your favourite animal/bird? elephants
4 What is your favourite animal/bird now? dogs
5. What did you want to be when you grew up? zoo keeper (looking after elephants)
6 What's your dream job? something that means something and makes a difference
7. What was your favourite book as a child? Beauty and the Beast
8. What is your favourite book/series now? this is hard ... too many ...
9. What did you collect as a child? elephants and fun novelty erasers 
10. Do you have any collections now? essential oils and too much wool!
11. Who was your best friend as a child? Melanie
12. Who is your best friend? I have a couple of best friends but I would have to say Steve now
13. What were you scared of as a child? lots of things
14. What are your fears now? for my family
15. What did you think your life would be like when you were a child? I thought I would get married young, have lots of kids, travel the world teaching them as we went!
16. Is your life how you imagined? no! But what I have now is very precious
17. What was your favourite thing to do on a Saturday when you were little? probably be making something.
18. How do you like to spend your weekends? as quietly as possible!
19. Was your hair long or short for most of your childhood? mostly long
20. How long is your hair now? long

I am sure you are sick of snow photos by now, but I wanted to share a few of ours. I meant to post them earlier, but my dad's been ill in hospital so this week seems to have got away from me!

These were taken on Friday 2nd March, when we woke up to some pretty crazy snow drifts. We get a lot of snow and often when others don't, but these drifts were crazy! There were patches of not much snow, then drifts as high and deep as a house!

We braved it out into the blizzard like winds ...

Timber of course loved it!

This is actually a lane. There are some houses further down there and I don't think they were dug out for over a week. This lane is where my mother-in-law grew up. When she was about 15 they were snowed in for 16 weeks! It's quite romantic as it's how her and my father-in-law met. He was working for the council and spent weeks digging them out! He often talks about hanging their coats on the top of the telegraph poles!! I can believe it now :)

The gate thing sticking up on the left hand side is actually the back of a tractor trailer that was buried. Opposite that, we climbed over the fence ... our legs sinking in all the way, and we rolled down the other side to get into the field to see the pool!


This is the same lane only in the other direction.


The pool was frozen apart from a little patch in the middle where the swans and ducks were all facing the howling winds, poor things.


This photo doesn't even begin to express how cold and biting the snow and wind was on our faces!


Timber loved every minute though ... he was born for it!




This photo was taken a couple of days later when we snuck down the main road (that was still closed as they hadn't finished clearing it) and this was how deep one of the snow drifts was that they had to dig through.

Have you ever received a gift that made you cry??

I received one yesterday ... It was made for my by my best friend who started making beautiful junk journals about a year ago.

This is the most precious gift and I am still shocked at the time she must have spent on me!















Isn't it perfect for me! Full of lace and woodland loveliness!! I have always loved The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady by Elizabeth Holden. I inherited the books from my Nanny when I was a teenager and its always inspired my book making and journaling!


Tina has a YouTube channel where she shares what she makes. She has done a couple of videos about this journal which I have only watched this morning as I didn't want to spoil the surprise!



If you would like to follow her, she has a Facebook page that she has just started, and if you would like to commission one, every journal is unique and beautiful!

I saw this advert on Facebook the other day ... and thought 'wow,yes ... I want to try those!'


I didn't actually buy them from Facebook as when I came back to find it, I couldn't (I'm not sure this was the same video advert, but it was very similar!), so I bought a couple from eBay ... they were £2.50 each, free postage and packing and arrived this morning!


So what sold me on them? Well I always hate how gross normal washing up sponges become so quickly ... I seem to get through a lot and always think they are just a breeding ground for germs.

I have only use them so far today for washing up and they have worked brilliantly. They can be used as heat proof pan holders, you can boil them to sterilise them, bits of food and dirt don't cling to them.

I googled about silicone:
All silicone is inert, it does not react with other elements or compounds. There are (as yet) no known health hazards of silicone. Silicone is not biodegradable, but it can be recycled easily – where facilities exist. Silicone comes in two grades, food and medical grade silicone.

I don't think that curb side recycling take silicone, but I thinking that they will last for a long time, so less waste in general!

Have you tried them?
What do you think?

Happy New Year everyone!

I may not post here as much as I want, but it's often on my mind, that I want to ... I love this little space, I love how in the past it was a place for me to share, to make friends and to be creative. I know my life is a little different now, busy with a toddler and a home, but I still want to be present here ... maybe a goal for this year?!


I saw this on Facebook this morning and it really hit home ...

You are holding a cup of coffee when someone comes along and bumps into you or shakes your arm, making you spill your coffee everywhere.

Why did you spill the coffee?
'Well because someone bumped into me, of course!'

Wrong answer.
You spilled the coffee because there was coffee in your cup.
Had there been tea in the cup, you would have spilled tea.
Whatever is inside the cup, is what will spill out.

Therefore, when life comes along and shakes you (which WILL happen), whatever is inside you will come out. It's easy to fake it, until you get rattled.

So we have to ask ourselves ... 'what's in my cup?'
When life gets tough, what spills over?
Joy, gratefulness, peace and humility?
Or anger, bitterness, harsh words and reactions?

You choose!

Today let's work towards filling our cups with gratitude, forgiveness, joy, words of affirmation, kindness, gentleness and love for others.

I know I have been very grumpy recently, I have found my reaction to things going wrong is to snap or cry ... I know I am not coping well and I want that to change ... I want to be full of joy again, for my response to every situation to be gratitude, forgiveness, joy, words of affirmation, kindness, gentleness and love for others!

What do you want to change in yourself for 2018??