Weekly Wot Nots.

Good afternoon. 

Hoping to get most of this post done and then a couple of jobs before "Da da da da da da da, da da da da da, da da"  - bring it on, Sequin Central!

Most of this post is a catch up of stuff from the week, nothing too exciting but life can't be a "glitter" ball all the time! See what I did there?!

At the suggestion of you know who over at DIFOIW I have started some apple cider vinegar with some of the apples I was gifted.

The jar is a large at least 4 litre Kilner, probably more actually, and I have it sitting in the cellar room, which Jon is talking about starting work on very soon. Eeek!

I love Autumn!! My decorations are up! I normally just put things in the kitchen and the living room. This is the front kitchen window, very happy with this - I just love the colours. The book in the background is a Pretty Nostalgic issue which talks about Windfall recipes.

I took the berry and leaf sprig from the garden, the Gerberas in the terracotta pot are in a plastic bag with water in and I have used twine from my craft things along with a couple of the pots I bought from the vintage shop in Aber. The pumpkin was a really suitable size for the basket from Morrisons at 95p I think.

I always like to put something on top of the microwave to brighten it up. I found these fab gourds in Lidl at 99p I think and I can't bring myself to actually use them as food! The image is from another of my Pretty Nostalgic books being held open by some of the pegs I found in the quirky shop in Borth.

In the living room I keep this tea set out a lot of the time as the colour seems to go with lots of seasons. The books are my Beatrix Potter Squirel Nutkin, the old faithful The Magic Apple Tree by Susan Hill and A Country Diary Of An Edwardian Lady - all showing lovely Autumnal images.

On Friday I had a new neighbour and a friend round for cofffee and was very pleased to have these lovely roses on the table.

This week I have unfortunately finished something...

... my yummy fridge pickles I made with our own cucumbers. They were delicious and I may even make some when cucumbers are on super cheap at Lidl as I enjoyed them so much!

We have had a good day in Aber today, makes a change to just going in the food shopping them coming home - bit of a treat really but were also buying extra school trousers and sweaters for the the boys and a few other bits and pieces, and I bought this little lot!

I have a good diet in general but I really do have so much trouble with my joints at the moment Jon says I am grumpy at times and I just need a bit of get up and go now and then so will give these a try - must be my age!!! Jon calls it my permafrost (peri-menopause!) which always makes us both laugh!

We are heading out to the garden in the morning to sort out the area for the fruit trees and get a grasp on some of that cheeky bamboo that has come up in just a couple of places; will share before and afters later in the week.

Hope you are all having a lovely weekend and, as ever, I'll be keeping up to date with stuff going on out there in Blogland.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

Ready For My Boys.

I really hope my boys will be home today. Just in case they are, along the lines of I knew you were coming so I baked a cake, I have been baking!

Harry put his order in for scones before they boys went away and I spied another recipe from one of my Pretty Nostalgic magazines which is currently decorating my baking bench. This is a great part of the magazine for decorations as this feature has covered everything from what you see here to haberdashery, which I have in my craft room, all the seasons and celebrations plus many other useful subjects.

 And here are the yummy goodies which I hope I will see my boys wrapping their chops around this afternoon! I just love the contrast of the cherries and the icing, very nursery tea-esque.

Harry requested jam and cream so that is waiting in the fridge for him.

Time For Tea!

For a while I've wanted to to work on a project to cheer up a rather boring tray from Ikea which I use when we have a pot of tea or coffee. I had a great idea the other day to use a page from a special book/magazine I have. I think I have mentioned in the past that I used to subscribe to something called Pretty Nostalgic but the cost changed and was a bit too much for me along with my old faithful, Country Living.

The best way to describe it is Make Do And Mend, Waste Not Want Not and everything else in between at that time in the past, plus take a peek at their website. So even though I don't get regular copies of it now I have all the editions before the price change plus a 12x12 inch book they brought out. I have used some of the issues in decorations around the house a lot and the large book is fantastic for inspiring my love of the past. Some of the pages have been and are great for papercrafting and other pages, when I get round to it, will be wonderful when framed.

Back to the project. Here is the tray before I started. I forgot to photograph the main page I am using for the project!

I figured I could cover the edges of the tray which is just a bit bigger than 12x12 with sheet music; I LOVE using that on projects. I did that and then placed the main piece of paper on the tray and began to paint with the PVA glue.

The elephants have gone and will be replaced with something much more suitable. I've never used PVA glue in a project like this and its taking a bit longer to dry than I thought so I decided to put it near the fire and that sped it up a bit although it caused a couple of creases.

And here is the final result. 

I have to say I'm really chuffed with how it has come out and will enjoy my tea or coffee much more now!

Lou.x

Oh so grateful!

First of all I'd like to say thank you for all the lovely things everyone has said since the house properly became ours. Very grateful for the support during the stressful times and kind words now all is well.

I should have posted this yesterday but there was a bit of celebrating to be done. Hubs brought me two lovely bunches of flowers.

My celebrations began with a sneaky Irish Cream and a mince pie....

then in the evening we made the most of the Christmas drinks sideboard, particularly keen on this part of the house decorations especially the cocktail feature from Pretty Nostalgic I have used as a decoration.

We finally broke open the bubbly to celebrate the house being ours - I am going to stop going on about it now, promise. 

Probably will be a couple more posts but just in case not may I wish all my Welsh blogging friends Nadolig Llawen and Merry Christmas to everybody. 

Lou.xx