Spring Is In The Air

Hello there :)

I am pleased to say that I am starting to get a little 'spring' in my step now March is here. I love how the nights start to get lighter, the clocks go forward soon and my creative mojo begins to gets into full steam. I have quite a few crafty/diy projects lined up around the house so now I'm finally feeling motivated to get going on them.

These pretty daffodils certainly bring a little sunshine into the home.

Of course, there always has to be some pretty pink delights too.

February of course had it's special moments, like valentines day. I do believe one should be sharing that love every day, not just the one but it is nice getting a treat on the special day. I had seen this Michael Kors bracelet a while ago, and a certain someone handed it over on Valentine's Day wrapped up all prettily.

He's definitely a keeper ;)

We spent the day with relatives on the day itself and popped to Beetham in Cumbria. We had lunch in the Old Beetham Post Office, which, at the top of some steps at the back, has the most delightful little shabby chic tea room.

I knew straight away I'd love it. Service was great, the food delicious and the surroundings so relaxing and pretty. I wish I'd taken more photographs inside, as it is so quaint.

Who could resist a pretty pink drink?

And the hot chocolate was yummy.

We sat on the big table by the cute little window.

And I couldn't help admiring their lovely dresser with all sorts of lovely food treats on.

Soon it was pudding time, my favourite time of any meal. How could I choose from this delicious selection of home-made cakes, all so very tempting.

In the end I went for the home-made brownies with fresh cream, definitely a good choice. After a lovely lunch we had a little walk around and visited the church, which was really pretty. Can you spy Master Poppins hiding in this photograph of the beautiful church.

                

I seized the moment and whilst the teenager was willing to have a photograph taken with her old 'ma, quickly grabbed someone to take it. There were many 'work in progress' photographs taken!

Eventually, we managed to compose ourselves.

She was about half the height of me when I started this blog and now she is officially taller than me. After our short walk, it was off to a garden centre for a little mooch.

Lots of things tempting me, but I was a good girl and just window shopped.

Once the mooching was done it was time for ice-cream and so took a drive to Arnside. It was a lovely afternoon, and the scenery was beautiful, which Master P here is admiring. 

Soon it was time to be heading home, on the way back I remembered pancake day was coming up so picked up some ingredients - (I always forget till last minute so took the opportunity whilst I remembered). We had great fun flipping our pancakes and think we must have had a good 3 pancakes each. Always lemon, a little butter and a sprinkling of sugar wins in this house. 

A blog post of mine wouldn't be the same without a little share of some shopping bits and bobs, and as usual home bargains was my go to store to find some treats. I have purchased some of these lovely and useful jumbo bags from there before, and seeing these new designs grabbed some. Perfect for laundry, storage, holidays all sorts. A real bargain at less than a couple of pounds each. 

Being an old romantic, I couldn't resist this romantic sign.

Drinking tea and eating cakes is indeed one of my most enjoyable hobbies.

There's always time to squeeze a little sewing in, and I enjoyed making these pretty lavender personalised hearts, what lovely names.

And if only my children's initial T-shirts came in bigger sizes I'd definitely be wearing this one ;) 

Right, time to grab that paint brush, these little diy projects around the home aren't going to get done by themselves, lets hope that sun keeps shinning, nearly time to get the flip flops out. YAY!!

X

What A Hoppy Easter We Had!

We had such a lovely time spent with the family over Easter and so I thought I'd share some of our highlights. The first highlight has to be the fun we had in the garden during our Easter egg hunt.

Happily the children were in a sharing mood regarding the delicious chocs!

We were sent some great Easter inspiration from Waitrose that really tuned into the imagination of everyone and the actual Easter game was such fun to play. We tweaked it a bit to make the questions a little harder for any older ones joining in and a certain little chap seemed to come out with a stash full of eggs and chocolate prizes. In fact we still have eggs from Easter so the game is being re-enacted even after Easter. 

After all that chocolate eating, a good walk was required and so we made uses of some special beach time togetherness, which, with the lovely weather we had was just lovely.

 

 Miss. Poppins couldn't resist seeing what was out at sea.

With the perfect weather for some great views, a definite highlight for the children was to take a slightly different mode of transport. As for (chicken) me, I stood with my feet firmly on the ground, and walking was my preferred mode of transport.  

The blossom was out in bloom!

Castles were visited.

And on sunny days we just really enjoyed cups of tea in the garden and some rest and relaxation.

The Easter break was swiftly coming to end, and it was soon back to it, school uniforms to get ready, routines to get back into and lots of spring cleaning to get done. We are in the midst of a rather big spring clean, and in fact I have been rather proud of the de-cluttering I have accomplished. Much of my sentimentality has been forgotten and taken over for the need of space, clean lines and sometimes the 'clutter' can in fact for me have a suffocating effect and in turn prove to be a negative. So, its out with the old and hopefully not too much of in with the new. 

 I'm even attempting to sort through my Cath Kidston stash....the pretties that were given as prezzies are definitely staying, but everything else is going to be sold to make a little pocket money. Now for me, who is the queen of hoarding pretty things, that is quite a move! 

 

 Wish me luck!

X

Please Tell Me Spring Shall Soon Be Here....

Thank you so much for all your wonderful and heartfelt comments on my previous post, so kind of you to take the time to drop me a line. You have indeed inspired me to share my RL stuff with you more often.

I don't know about you, but I find these first two months of the year rather difficult, the exciting lead up to Christmas has passed, the dark nights, the cold, the what feels like the long uphill struggle to Spring.... I kind of loose my enthusiasm for anything really. I am even walking past the CSs without going in, not a bad thing really when you think of the money I shall have saved. Though when I saw a little something in one particular window, I had to pop in a buy it and at 50p was hardly going to leave me broke.

A cute little Spring Pea wall plaque. I thought the perfect little thing to put on the wall to help me think about upcoming spring.





Well then a few days later in another CS, I saw something that took my eye, and my pretty wall plaque soon had a lovely mate.





Well of course, I think you can guess where this little story is heading. Two soon became four, again all bought from CS's, all on different occasions, could I be getting myself a little collection here I thought. I especially liked the little key holder one.





Three more visits to the CS's and here is where my little collection is at. All previously purchased from M&S as they have their original sticker on the back, and rather sweet don't you think. I am looking forward to putting them somewhere nice, to help remind me spring shall nearly be here....





Of course the best thing for me about these cold months is yummy hot chocolate. I like Green And Black's with a couple or 7 of M&S's Swiss delicate biccies.





And then a nice comfortable read, curled up with a ( of course ) crochet blankie. Mr. Poppins kindly treated me to one of THE crochet magazines, as I, like many others couldn't find it anywhere. I had almost given up ever being able to find one. I am so glad he found a secret stash of them, he also got a couple more, seems people may not be as into crochet as much as I thought near where I live. I can now happily send one on as a gift to a lovely lady.

I am no good at it really, crochet that is, but at 99p the magazine was a must for me and may help me improve who knows. Some more lovely reading material was kindly provided by the library, goes a treat with the hot chocolate and biscuits. Actually the SEW DARN CUTE book was as purchase, I like to buy the books I know I shall get many reading hours out of, and this one is Ohooo so cute :)





Due to this lack of enthusiasm of mine my crafty side has not been as fruitful as I had hoped, so I am doing my best to crack on with some little projects. One of which is for a new little baby boy, my favourite, I love crafting for littlies :) I have also put my name provisionally down to do a couple more craft fairs, so if I definately go ahead, I shall have to crack on, and find that mojo under my bed. What I am enjoying is knitting. I am having fun with that, and think my fingers maybe more ept at it than the crochet. I have enjoyed learning the stitches, and made myself a cute little scarf with blocks of colour, did find the change over of different colours a little tricky. Maybe if I am feeling brave enough I shall show you one day ;)


Good news, we finally have the Ikea Norden dining table up in the kitchen. After months of it being in its original packaging, was so nice to see it up and being used. It is surprisingly robust, and can extend to over 200 cms, so for me a real all in family table. Of course, it always gets covered with a sweet table cloth too, so is pretty to look at as well.


I am also loving our newly purchased 6 Chapel Chairs You may remember I couldn't decide whether to go with the light or the dark set. Even though I prefer predominately light interior furniture, I thought the dark elm wood would be a lovely contrast against my what shall soon be, light bright background. Being of a fickle nature, I do sometimes wonder if I have made the right choice choosing the dark ones. Apologies on the unsanded and unpainted floorboards in the photograph, on our to do list





Though when I saw a little word carved out on the top of one of the chairs, well I knew I had made the right choice, how sweet. I wonder who carved it out it all those years ago, and like to think there was a romantic reason for it.





We have a meeting coming up with the builders, so hopefully, fingers crossed this new year, we shall be cracking the whip on this home of ours and get on with shabby chicing it up!


Before I go, something for you Ikea Rosali fan's. Whilst I was in Mr. Tesco, I saw these and thought of you, the 12 bowl cover little tops are very much like the Rosali check pattern in my opinion. Well, I couldn't resist could I. Whatever next!





And not forgetting you UJ lovers, I thought of you too when I picked this up this in the January sales, a pretty little UJ clutch bag that also comes with a nice long strap for £4.00. Looks lovely with jeans and Uggs.





X

Spring Pretties....

Ohooo I am so excited methinks Little Miss. Spring is a coming, I am so looking forward to having a lovely cup of tea and cake on the pretty lounger my In laws bought for me for my birthday, half price too, I believe it hasn't been used as haven't really had the weather. Yes I know the cake is not real but one can never have enough storage :)


Well the Wellington's have had their first outing.





And I dressed up with one of my favourite bags too.





And some of my favourite pretties.





Little Man really can't take the pace.








Look atBig Sister's pretty Asda Coat, how sweet don't you think and a bargain £4.00





My what a lovely walk we had :)


Thank you so much for your lovely ideas for my Bonne Mamman jars, I am sure yours all look so sweet with their little treasures.

I have made one into a little special memory jar for Big Sister, it has some very special memories in there, a gorgeous photograph, pretty necklace, her cord clamp Mmmmm pretty, and a pretty flower I wore in my hair when I gave birth to her and some memories that she wanted to have in there too. I think is a really simple idea but very effective and looks lovely in her little attic bedroom sitting next to her little bears.





I am a very sentimental olde fool and probably is why I am somewhat of a hoarder. I treasure my family and friends and especially very kind Mums, and she has been very kind to me.

A lovely wash stand she has given me from her Home for our little Hallway, the Wash stand probably needs some TLC but I love her as she is. As you can see we have yet to paint the hallway :)





You may remember Darling Husband and his delightful Christmas present to me, a gorgeous Heart Shaped Le Creuset Covered Heart Baker, well it had never been used and was sitting looking pretty on our electric, yes electric little range oven. Now I have come to learn that electric ovens and feisty two year olds are not a brilliant idea, hence me hearing a smash and a cheeky looking Little Man, he had turned the oven on, and we had a Do Not Use On Direct Heat issue, the the heat had smashed it in half.





Look what my lovely mum bough back from the Le Creuset outlet shop.





She paid a very good price, much cheaper than the RRP, and touched me so much as she knew I loved it and knew it would have been an expense we couldn't afford, to replace the broken one. Look she even presented me with a little pretty too, I know shall come in so useful as I am well what can I say, rather scatty :)A beautiful EB folder.





Talking of pretties I am loving my little cushions on my bed, I have sooooo many cushions and can never seem to have enough.





I have found some lovely pretties, went shopping with a good friend and look what came home with me.

Some adorable 20p vintage, well 2001-2007 vintage to me, Home Magazines for bedtime reading.





A super Sheriff's Badge that Little Man adores. Well done on making me buy that one friend, he loves it :)





I had seen these at my friend's house looking pretty and she made me buy them too :)





Ohooo don't you think they look pretty.











Couldn't leave her behind.





Ohooo what's in here.





I love photograph frames and loved these I bought a while back, I especially love the Daisy one and the 50p Liberty's one too.





Thank you so much to Little Gem's World for her delightful Home sweet home Hand Towel she sent me, I love it and thanks too to a SC Cafe friend for her gorgeous puffin story book All About The Bullerby Children, she sent for Big Sister as she knows she has a love of reading and thought my daughter may like the book she read as a child the same age as her.





Thank you too for the pretty Provence Book and card Le Temps Jadis gave to me, they are truly lovely I sent her a copy of PH magazine and she so kindly sent me a return gift.








Would you like to know what was in there.





Right Children to feed and magazines to read.


X