Merry Christmas

So as you can see I have done some wrapping, though there are many more presents awaiting me and I really should be wrapping :)

We have had the most delightful Crib Service at our Parish Church, and look what Miss and Master Poppins wanted to do before they went bed. They wanted to sprinkle our magically sparkly Reindeer food on the lawn, they had so much fun and made a wish, have you made any Christmas wishes.

So he shall be here soon, so here's me wishing you all a healthy, happy, safe and peaceful Christmas.

Sshhhh, if you listen very, very carefully can you hear jingle bells :)

Best wishes

X

Happy Thrifting

Some of my Thrifties...

Two lovely Jars, and a gorgeous little Christmas decoration, you have a little tealight in and the snowmen and Christmas trees all twinkle and light up.

Some Enid Blyton.

Vintage-esque Christmas decorations and a pretty Garland.

A little set of floral photo frames.

And a wonderful Hat Pin/brooch in a very old Bond Street jewellery case.

Happy thrifting!

X

Pretty Swaps

Well I couldn't resist and have unwrapped one of Tilly Roses wonderful gifts she swapped with me. It is a delightful Laura Ashley mug bowl, I call it a mug bowl as I can drink my hot chocolate from it, or indeed as the lovely Tilly Rose had it, brimming to the top with gorgeous Christmas chocolates. The chocolates came with the most delightful CK napkin which I have made into one of my Napkin Cards, I am really enjoying making them. Thank you Tilly Rose, I so look forward to unwrapping more of your gifts :) It is gorgeous and the chocolates are yummy, I wonder if you have unwrapped any of mine to you, the one with bubble wrap is somewhat Christmasy, so you may want to unwrap :)

The postman has been with my lovely SC Cafe Sparkle Swap from the very talented Debbie A beautiful handmade Christmas Card and the most gorgeous handmade sparkly Home Sweet Home magnet.

I love the Home Sweet Home sign magnet.

Gold treasure!

Some yummy goodies and a truly beautiful handmade keyring.

The most adorable handmade Gingerbread Man decoration, lovely pink and blue sparkle buttons, children shall love the little man.

A very sparkly organza bag.

Look at the delights, some gorgeous sparkly snowflakes, beautifully scented smellies for the bathroom and the brilliant Reindeer Food, Ohooo Debbie Thank You so much for your wonderfully sparkly pretties. I love them so Much.

Please go look at Debbie's Blog, she really is inspirational and makes the most adorable cards and pretties.

Someone else who has been sending me pretties is the lovely Little Gem, now she is one delightful little crafter, she makes the most cute and girly pretties. Please have a look at her wonderful Flickr We had a Floraly Girly swap, if you would like to have a look at my swap to her, have a little look at her Flickr.

Here are her delights to me.

So beautifully wrapped and pretty. Two beautifully handmade initials, they really do mean the world to me, and shall look adorable in the children's bedrooms. And the Christmas Decoration, how sweet and lovely and what charming ribbon.

The most prettiest organza bag with something gorgeous in it.

A delightful handmade brooch in the most loveliest material.

Thank you so much Little Gem, and I love the gorgeous handmade Christmas card, I know you know how much I love your pretties X, and there are more for me to unwrap, how lucky am I :)

So, my lovely swaps have really cheered me up as some of you may or may not know we have had Master Poppins in hospital with a chest infection, he is back home, having much TLC, the Christmas festivities have taken a back burner so it has been a delight to unwrap some of my swaps, they have really prettied my days up :)

X

Where Are You Jam Makers?

I love Jam, I could eat Jam sandwiches morning, noon and night. I love strawberry, raspberry, apricot, pear, plum, cherry you name it. So it is with joy in my heart that I, yes little olde me is going to embark on making some. How hard can it be, some sugar some fruit.

Mmmmm well so I thought, pectin, jam sugar, wax discs, jam covers and lids, labels, skimming, processing in a boiling bath, setting ,three saucers in the freezer.

So you see not quite as easy as I thought, I dearly hope I have one or two brilliant jam makers who read and look on me as someone they would love to help get me on the road to making my jam.

I do kind of get the gist on how to make the jam, and would love to know:

Can I buy jam sugar from anywhere?

What precisely do I need to sterilise and for how long, we have no dishwasher?

Should I use wax discs if I am having twist lids?

What would be a nice easy fruit to use for a beginner?

Do you skim the foam?


Please help me get out of this jam :)


X

Favourite

Phew!! No more mad dashes to Tesco as I have managed to purchase the Blue Ottoman Rose Cath Kidston designed Tesco Bag, which I have to say is my favourite of all of them. Here are the lovely bags I dashed here there and everywhere to find and definitely brought some colour to my Home Sweet Home.

It has been quite an adventurous summer searching isles for these little CK bags. I know many of you have joined me in the chase, I cannot only grab one when I know there are so many wanting one too, so yes one of my two that I grabbed has been promised to a good home.

If you have these bags, what do you use them for, shopping, have your knitting and crafts in them, laundry, toys, magazines, Mmmmm they have many uses. For me, for now, I enjoy looking at them, whilst deciding how I shall use them :)

X

Lavender Love

I really enjoy making my little scented lavender hearts and pillows and love even more giving them to special friends and family, which is where my lovingly handmade lavender sachet one is going, to a very special cyber friend.

I just love receiving handmade gifts, I really hope the person who receives this likes it!

Take care my lovelies!

X

Love

The universe is wide and wonderful and filled with many stars.
The world is rich and varied and filled with many people.
And amongst its hundreds of towns, and thousands of homes, and millions of people, each of us
is only 'one'.

One small person in a world of millions of other people, in a universe of billions of other worlds.
Knowing this, we each feel very small.
Sometimes we feel lonely and lost, as though nothing we do can ever truly matter.

Each of us wants to be needed.
Each of us wants to be remembered.
Each of us wants to be important in his or her own special way.

There are many different ways to be important in this world.
Some people become farmers and feed the hungry.
And some become teachers and share wisdom and knowledge.

But you can be a shepherd,
Or a shoemaker,
Or a baker,
Or a barber,
Or a captain,
Or a carpenter,
Or a king.
And whatever you are, there is one thing that matters most.

Do you love someone?
And does someone love you?
For the heart is its own world and in that world you are important.

X

Deck The Halls

Do you like brown paper packages, you know the ones Mr. Postman or Lady brings from afar. I do, very much so, especially when they have come from the delightful Kim at Ragged Roses

I love Ragged roses, it really is a wonderful, pretty, heartwarming and moving blog. Kim touches me with her wonderful and dreamy writing. I saw something in her Etsy shop and fell in love. I thought it would be a wonderful little gift for Miss. Poppins to have on her little dressing table in her new attic bedroom. Look at the wonderful way Kim had wrapped my treat!

Oh I just love it!

Have you guessed, yes I ordered one of her beautiful scented Nostalgic Lavender Deck The Halls Sachets. Kim you are very naughty, not only does Miss Poppins have hers, but you popped one in for me too - how very kind! As I smelt the two wonderful sachets I closed my eyes and wandered off to a magical Christmasy land!

X

Only One More To Get

Phew you know, I shall be so glad when I no longer have to keep my eyes on Cath Kidston alert in Tesco. These all singing all dancing bags have practically taken over my life. Friendships have been forged, I have sent a bag or two to friends on the SC cafe who haven't been able to get one, and kindly one, the Classic Floral has been sent to me.

We have had midnight dashes, and confused and bemused replies " My dear it is only a bag "...
Even my ever so precious daughter has got involved in on the act, as soon as her dainty foot steps over the threshold of the infamous store, she makes a dash for it, running the length of a very very long checkout, looking for THOSE bags Mummy loves so much.

So I now have only one more to get, the Blue Ottoman Rose, and as I have Multi Floral, Blue Spot, Stripe in the Vertical, Stripe in the Horizontal, Classic Floral, Ottoman Rose, Christmas, and the Blue Floral. Something else I have also been collecting are the Natwest Wade Piggybanks, I have been getting these for my son, as I really do think they are quite sweet and very nostalgic! So far I have Maxwell, Annabel, and Baby Woody, I would really like to have Sir Nathaniel and Lady Hilary, but I don't think the purse can stretch to Cousin Wesley just yet!! :)

So if any of you have been getting the Cath Kidston Tesco bags, I would love to know which one is your favourite?

X

Little Holiday

So as the building work plods on at Home sweet home a little holiday was very much needed in the Poppins' household. How lucky were we that some lovely relatives of ours telephoned and asked if we would like to have a little time off from the dust, the banging, the not having any real decent cooking facilities, or showering facilities, and would we like to have some time in their caravan in Caton near Lancaster. Mmmmmmmm yes please we replied quickly and off we went to pack our bags.

So the day came and off we went singing silly songs and telling funny jokes in the car.

We turned up at the caravan, now not your ordinary caravan I hasten to add. When I was a little girl the caravans I holidayed in looked a little different, our caravan that we were to stay in for our little holiday was positively palatial.

What a treat to sleep in the adult room, a room that when I was little one could only peek into every now and again, what a pretty room, I felt very grown up.



Maybe I am unusual in that I am always thinking of shops and shopping :) I really can't help it so when we decided to take a little journey to Kirkby Lonsdale, and when I should have been thinking of the beautiful scenery and the joys of walking along pretty pathways I was of course thinking of pretty shops and what if any little beauties I could find.

Well have a look at what I indeedy found.




A beautiful beautiful shop called Parma Violet Well I had fallen in love, I was ohhhhing and ahhing and squealing. I felt like I had fallen into one of my favourite Blogs, there were so many things in the shop that reminded me of here, vintage wooden letters, printing blocks, CK, Emma Bridgewater, pretty eiderdowns, vintage toys, lovely books oh I could go on and on, I was like a little girl in the sweetest of candy shops :) Would you like to see what sweeties she bought.

The very much longed for, Claire you I know understand my feelings on these, now you have to get some they are soooooooo cute :) Cowboy jim jams.


Pretty pins and buttons tins, and a delightful floral pincushion.


Two minutes Darling Husband I promise, 15 minutes had gone and I knew there was something else there that I had to buy, and then I saw these. I have been wanting these for my children for so long and had not been able to find a the colours I wanted and b the right size. Yippppeeee found the perfect pairs at Parma Violet.



Some all stars for my little stars :)
Thank you Julie at Parma Violet, I so enjoyed meeting you, your wonderful assistant M and of course the cute and cuddly Bunty. You have a delightful shop and made a girl very happy. Thank you for allowing me to take a couple of photographs, if any of you Bloggers are in the Kirkby Lonsdale area please go take a look at Parma Violet, its lovely.

Darling Husband curbed my spending and decided not to be so generous with my next shopping spree and gave me the challenge of spending a pound, yes a pound, well I have sometimes been called the pound queen as I have bought some lovely beauties for no more than a pound. Now what have you bought for a pound and loved.

At Kirkby Lonsdale there is the most beautiful church St. Mary's, I love churches and really find them very peaceful, I lit a candle for baby Joshua and then we went for a walk to the Church Brow, it is called Ruskin's view, " The valley of the Lune is the loveliest in England and therefore in the world, a true Holy Land " John Ruskin. It really was a truly magical view. Too beautiful for me to take the time from it to take a photograph.



Weren't we lucky with the weather, look how blue the sky was and how happy the cows look, I like happy cows :)



Yes we had a little rain but as the caravan was so clean and tidy no dust and it had a kitchen and a shower, I was so happy and the rain was happy rain. Thank you J and K for the lovely time, your Caravan is truly beautiful. :)
Back at Home Sweet Home and the dust has not lifted but my spirit has a little from a lovely little holiday with my lovely special family.

Oh I found something for a pound, here what do you think, a pound well spent Mmmm.




X

Quality Time

Whilst I have been here at my Mums with Master Poppins, I have learned so much how important he is to me. Of Course Miss. Poppins means the world to me too, but you see I have had bonding issues with Master Poppins, only natural I have been told considering what we went through. I have found that when I had him I could not allow myself to properly bond with him, in case we would lose him.

It has taken two years and some fantastic and enjoyable quality time spent with him to fully understand him, to deeply connect and bond with him and for the first time in a long while, look deep into his eyes and know that he is here to stay.



So here he is at the beach thoroughly enjoying himself, he and I had so much fun, picking shells, getting our feet wet, splashing, and generally having some quality time.




So thank you my sweet little boy for understanding Mummy and for letting her take her time to get to know you, I have loved you from the day, Valentines Day, 2006 when I knew I was excpecting you and you make me and Daddy and your Big Sister proud every day.





X

Lets Pick A Winner

Are you all excited, you could very nearly be the lovely owner of some pretty Emma Bridgewater. Righteo off to find a two year old to pick a winner, good luck my friends....




Thank you to all of you for your lovely comments here and at the SC Cafe, I greatly enjoyed reading what your favourite flower is and thank you for taking the time to leave a comment. I wish you could all win but as we so greatly know there can only be one winner.

The winner of Mrs. Poppins' giveaway is....





The delightful Trish at Trixie's Trinkets.

I wanted to share with you also some dressing table sets have bought, I hope you like them, if you have anything similar please let me know, I have been hoping to see some of the dressing table glasswear for a long time, and today I saw two of them, in excellent condition, and so pretty don't you think....




They were from a Charity Shop very close to my heart, The Heart Foundation, Master Poppins has a heart condition, Pulmonary Stenosis, he had a cardiac ballooning when he was three months old, and he hasn't been to the Childrens Hospital for over a year so things are looking really good and he is as healthy as any boistrous two year old I know.





I also bought a this floral pretty.





Mmmmmmm I don't know what you are thinking, but methinks I now have too many lovelies to put in my lovely new home.... 


X

Emma Bridgewater Giveaway

I would like to join the giveaway party please. I think it is such a nice thing to do and is such a joy to giveaway and bring happiness to people. Would you like to own something very special, very pretty yes, then here we have it, my giveaway



The most gorgeous little Polka Dot Tiny Tea Cup Candle by the wonderfully talented Emma Bridgewater. It is all wrapped up pretty with ribbon and is brand new. Please leave a comment, being the nosy person that I am I would dearly like to know what your favourite flower is.

Mine is a Daisy, no other flower moves me like a daisy, I adore the tiny white petals, "he loves me, he loves me not " and the bright yellow, reminds me of the sun, making Daisy chains, what could be greater fun and the most special reason why I love the Daisy is a secret too special to tell.

Names shall be put in a pretty little hat on 17th september, let your blogging friends know and good luck to you all.

Overseas Welcome

X

Giveaway now closed, winner has been selected.

Emma Bridgewater

Thank you so much for all your lovely comments, I do feel truly blessed to have had such a special son, I only wish he could have been with us a little longer.

Oh what a rainy, rainy day have you ever seen so much rain. I quite like the sound of rain it reminds me of caravan holidays when I was little, you know that pelting sound of the rain on the roof. What I needed today was to find some gorgeous Emma Bridgewater at a good price.

Whayyyyyyy look what I found, Emma Bridgewater beauties at 75%, yes 75% off the RRP, now you bloggers who enjoy the gorgeousness of Emma Bridgwater know what a bargain I have had. If you have a birthday coming up and you would normally get a present off me, here take a sneak preview of what you could get.









I allowed myself a couple of treats from my little haul, and I am so pleased to have saved so much money.

I have to say a big thank you to Mr. Poppins for my delightful Birthday present, a beautiful art deco cabinet, it is also a writing bureau and I love it, and can't wait to fill it with all my lovelies.



Thank you Darling Husband, I love you so much, you are such a wonderful, caring man who makes me laugh many times a day, I appreciate everything you do for me and the children and I truly know how lucky I am to have you in my life. And more importantly, you let me indulge my love of all things floral, and you don't mind sleeping on flowery pillows.

X