Tag: treasures

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dear diary :: breakfast berries amongst other things

I spent a bit too long yesterday preparing and posting my plans for November but it is not a bad way to start the month by deciding on a plan of action; but by doing that I was late starting the day and I find a late start always spells disaster as you never quite catch up with yourself and feel a bit behind all day.

And behind I was….so very little actually got done especially as I remembered I had to ring my daughter about little Sweeties upcoming 1st birthday arrangements and then my brother to tell him about our plans for the day and issue an invite to join us. My brother is not on Facebook like the rest of the family so he is always out of the loop and sometimes I only remember at the last minute that I need to phone him to update him on any family plans we have made.

When I eventually had breakfast I pureed the yellow sticker raspberries I bought from Sainsbury’s at only 49p (a saving of £1.51p), which I thought really good value, to have on my yoghurt; I wish I had bought more. The left over puree we had later after tea with some ice cream and flakes of dark chocolate. It is not often we have a pudding or dessert so it was a nice, simple treat – if not a bit cold for the time of year.

The weather did not improve enough for me to do the planters outside and by the time I came back from my neighbours it was getting dark so I only managed an hour of sewing before the light went altogether.

So today I am aiming to do the things I was going to do yesterday and hopefully I will have no interuptions.

On the way up to Scotland we called at Booth’s supermarket in Penrith for my yearly Christmas book – not that I order anything from them, they are too far away, but the photographs are lovely and they include one or two very nice recipes inside.

I also relented and bought 3 Christmas magazines (yes, I did say three) I couldn’t choose between them – one has a nice selection of Christmas stamps, which will come in handy for printing cards and tags – it is a cheap way of buying them when they come free with a magazine. The other two -Make it Christmas and Mindful Christmas have some lovely creative ideas and although I don’t often copy anything exactly it does give me ideas to do my own. I should feel bad about spending so much money on them but I’m not going to; since leaving work last year and my monthly pay check I have had very few treats.

Whilst on the way home we stopped for a browse around Castle Douglas – the shops there are mainly independant and have a lovely variety of things I never see down here. I bought a wooden vegetable brush to replace an old plastic one that has seen better days and this cute tiny Christmas tin – I bought a second one to fill with something for Little L for her stocking at Christmas.

Must go now if I am going to get anything done today. I have watercress and pea soup ready prepared for lunch and a lentil shepherds pie for tea so I should get a full day at getting down my task list. Meanwhile DH will be painting in the pantry again.

Have a lovely day everyone and welcome to my new followers and new commenters. x

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crEAting Christmas ~ day 18

So much to do and so little time  – maybe that is better than so little to do and so much time?   I often find if I have time I will fill it with something and Christmas is no different.  Just when I think oh yes I am nearly done you can guarantee I will be off on another project – just fitting one more thing in.  I can’t say it has been any different this year but I do get carried away with all the Christmas making and baking and never feel I have done enough.

Anyway to the Advent task on day 18 – this was one of my favourites a bit of repurposing.

Christmas stocking

A while ago I sorted through a bag of vintage table linens and crotched doyleys that I acquired when my mum moved out of our family home a few years ago.  They had been passed on to her from my grandma.   I washed and pressed the ones I wanted to keep and took some to charity, but there was one or two that had bad stains on them that I couldn’t remove.  I kept them and began thinking of what I might do with them as I loved the fabric.

One of the items I kept was a small round tablecloth that you would put over a little side table.  The fabric is a white Jacquard linen – the type you will have seen old-fashioned napkins made of – edged with some cotton lace which may or may not be hand-made.  Because of the stain it was no use as a cloth anymore so I thought about what I might do with it.

Then recently I saw it in the drawer with my sewing bits and had an idea.  I decided to make little Sweetie, my new granddaughter, a little Christmas stocking for her first Christmas.  I only had a few hours to make it so it is not my best sewing and the beading is a bit wobbly but my daughter likes things to look homemade so it won’t be a problem.

So now little Sweetie has something that once belonged to her great, great grandma to keep.Christmas stockingBut you will need to keep it a secret until Christmas Eve (and her real name too!)

Only a few more days to go now so I hope I can complete my Advent activities posts in time.  Apologies again that I am out of sync with the actual days – but you can’t have everything – life has a way of taking over sometimes.  x

 

 

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homestEAd ~ rEAdy…stEAdy…decorate

After sorting out a few things at home yesterday it was time to go back to my daughter’s house across town to continue helping them get their house in order.

When I say in order I am not referring to a bit of tidying or cleaning – no, by order I mean the complete works – decorating, finishing off half completed jobs and revamping not to mention the outside of the house, painting the front door and window sills, laying turf and putting down gravel.  Then there is the shed (needs a coat of paint) and the garage (ditto).

So welcome to Where the journey takes me 2 – Painters, Decorators, Odd Jobbers and Landscape Gardeners Limited.

My daughter has a small house but in the eight years they have lived there they have only finished the two bedrooms and put in a new bathroom.  We offered to help them sort the rest of the house out ready to put on the market at some future date and to make it a nicer environment for them to live in until then.

About 3 years ago they removed the dividing wall between the tiny kitchen and the dining room to make one large space and all the cabinets, worktops and the laminate floor were put in place.  It just needed decorating and the dishwasher installing which DH and SIL were responsible for doing and was finished just before our holiday.

At last they have a fully functioning kitchen and dining room and it is looking much more like a usable space.  In the dining area they have a dining suite that belonged to my mum and dad, it was one of the first pieces of furniture that they saved up to buy when they got married.

The suite is an original vintage 1950’s  – The sideboard design was first shown at the Festival of Britain, 1951 and there is one permanently displayed at the V&A.  It is mahogany with Bombay rosewood veneered doors that feature a striking double helix pattern cut to reveal white birch beneath.  It was designed by David Booth, made by Gordon Russell of Broadway and sold in Heal’s of London – although I believe my mum and dad bought it from Robert Brothers department store in Sheffield.  We have lovingly cleaned and polished it and this little family treasure looks really quite nice in its new home.

My role in this makeover (when not polishing furniture and making cups of tea) is as the landscape gardener – before our holiday I removed many old woody shrubs that had grown far too large for the space and extended the lawn – not the best time to lay turf with the hot weather but it has survived and is looking green and ready for cutting.

They have quite a few Hydrangeas which adds a nice bit of colour to the garden along with these lovely yellow flowers.  The name escapes me, I have never grown them but they do have a really long flowering time.

Tomorrow if the weather holds I will be preparing another area of the garden to lay gravel and make a seating area.  The ground is so hard now I am having to break it up with the pick.

It has been a lot of hard work, some days we have been there until 8 o’clock at night and we were glad of the break when we went on holiday.  It took a lot of ‘getting back into it’ today first day back on the job – I estimate it will take us another three weeks to complete everything if we are lucky.

I hope everyone is enjoying the rain and a rest from all the watering.

Back soon x

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