2015 Bucket List.

I have not really made any New Years Resolutions for a few years, so I thought 2015 may be the time to start. I will write a Bucket List of a few things I would like to do this year…… and see how many I can cross off. Sounds like a plan!

Learn how to use my new camera properly. I’m terrible at skimming over instructions and not using things to their full potential.

Photograph that elusive kingfisher. I see them so often, it drives me mad that I still don’t have any photographic proof. Patience….and my new camera should help this year!

Pack my beautiful vintage suitcase for a mini break with the other half. Poor old thing ( suitcase that is 😉 ) hasn’t been anywhere yet.

Eat healthier and yes lose weight.  The past year ( I blame my penchant for tea rooms and cake , and blogging about tea rooms and cake) I have gained over a stone. Not funny when your a shorty and the wrong side of forty. sob. 😦

Make a meal from produce bought on roadside stalls/honesty boxes/farms. Might be something to try if we go camping.

Go glamping! Never mind Camping. Might be nice to go upmarket for a change. Could take Vintage suitcase….

Decorate the spare room. Its a very uninspiring box room at the moment and is used for drying laundry/general dumping ground.Maybe we can
turn it into a beach hut. 🙂

Visit London.Its been a while.

Watch an outdoor screening of a film.

Read twelve books. I hardly read anymore so I think one book per month would be quite a challenge.Any recommendations?

Wish me luck. What would be on your Bucket List?

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Liebster Award :-D

So I am a very lucky blogger indeed as I have been awarded a Liebster Award by the lovely ‘ Girl In Brogues’ herself, Saskia. The award is really all about getting to know some of your fave bloggers.:) The idea is to answer a mini questionaire written by whoever nominated you, then nominate a few blogs you follow to answer your own set of questions. I would just like to thank the wonderful Josie and also the lovely Lisa for doing the honor of giving me this award in the past. I’m sorry I never got round to posting about it until now. Pure laziness on my part!

Anyway here are Saskia’s questions and my answers. 🙂

1. What did you want to be when you were a kid? ~ I wanted to work in a library and I wanted to write. So having this blog is like a dream come true. 🙂
2. If you were in a police movie, who would be your crime-fighting partner? ~ I’m thinking Sealy Booth from Bones. Ha I loved that actor in Buffy the Vampire Slayer too.
3. What are your favourite flowers? ~ I love most flowers. At the moment I’m loving dahlias, if they could speak they would say ‘Autumns round the corner, but summers still here’.
4. What is your favourite catchphrase? ~ Naughty but Nice!
5. Pick a TV programme – Who Do You Think You Are?, Eastenders or Broadchurch? Broadchurch. ~ I’m not a soap fan but I love a good drama. When Broadchurch was on, I was seriously addicted.
6. Describe your perfect evening gown. ~ I’m not really an evening gown type of person. Anything long swamps me as i’m so short.
7. What are you better at, fibbing or breaking bad news? ~ I’m really bad at both!
8. You have to pick an outrageous outfit to wear for Halloween – what would it be? ~ With my mad mop, I’m thinking Cousin It. 🙂
9. Pick another blogger and tell us why you love them. ~ Goodness there are so many. I shall pick Mary from Adventures with the blonde coyote as I love reading about her travels around America in her teardrop caravan with her two dogs.
10. What’s your breakfast cereal? ~ When i’m being good its special K with added blueberries but most of the time its coco pops. 🙂
11. Who’s your favourite TV chef? ~ Simon Rimmer on Sunday Brunch.

I love blueberries with my cereal. 🙂

And now I would like to award the Liebster Award to the following bloggers and leave ten questions for you guys to hopefully answer.Yes you guys…or girls and one guy!

Nina from London-Edinburgh.
Emily from Emily’s Vintage World.
Andy from City Jackdaw.
Kit from The Eagle and other bikes.
Cathy from Red Rose Style.

1. Whats the last boxset you watched?
2. Are you a cat or a dog person?
3. Lakeside or seashore?
4. What do you like to do to wind down?
5. Do you have a sweet tooth?
6. What was your favorite book as a child?
7. Audrey Hepburn or Marilyn Monroe?
8. Which Festival would you really like to go to?
9. What is your favorite season?
10. Where in the world would your holiday home be?

I love both. 🙂

I am excited to see peoples answers. 😀 .Thanks again for my award. I shall take my leave and take a bow. 😀

A Magical Christmas Memory.

Does anyone out there remember ever seeing Santa? The real bona fida Santa Claus I mean!

There’s this memory that has stayed with me through the years and every Christmas time I puzzle over it and think…..
did that really happen?

As a child I grew up on a farm. Weather seemed to be alot harsher and colder back then so during the winter Dad would go round the fields dropping off sheep lick blocks and barrels of treacle to suplement our livestocks diet. Yes barrels of treacle! When a new barrel was opened my sister and I were allowed a dollop each of the sweet black sticky stuff.:)

Anyway one such occasion we were out with Dad in the fields. There was hard frost on the ground and the sky was white and heavy with the promise of snow. We had nearly finished our rounds as Dad said something like “Look up now and You’ll see Father Christmas” …… and sure enough there was Santa and his sleigh pulled by reindeer rushing through the winter sky above us.

I remember telling Mum.I remember telling my school friends. I was convinced I had seen Father Christmas and Dad had too. 🙂

Even looking back now its hard to feel sceptical. Perhaps I dream’t it. Perhaps there was something in that treacle! Dad is no longer with us and my younger sister can’t remember but When I happened to mention it to Mum recently she said “Well you were with your Dad so I imagine it did happen”. So I will smile and keep it as a precious magical Christmas memory. 🙂

Facing 40 !!

EEEEEEEK In less than a month I shall be 40. How did this happen. How did it get here so fast?? O-oh the Big 40 ! Life begins at 40! And all that jazz. So i’m trying to put a positive spin on it by looking forward to some exciting celebrations. I shall be having a night out round town, a family meal , an evening away ( don’t know where , its a surprise! ) and a Mad Hatters style~ ish Tea Party. Im v excited about all these things……but i’l probably be pretending I’m 30.Not 40 !

Actually thinking back 30 was a bit scary too. In my twenties I was out having fun, going out every weekend, working in a bar and meeting tons of different people. And then you hit thirty and most of your friends are eventually finding ‘the one’,getting married, having kids etc. Big stuff is expected of you in your 30s. So at least at 40 your life is sorted….well, kind of. 🙂

A Long Time Ago I was Thirty !

My life is pretty much going great at the mo. I’m lucky enough to have fab family and friends and my boyfriend Wil.I have a house that is morgage free ( I must have been the only teenager i knew to take out a morgage ~~ strange child! ) and I’ve got into blogging and doing craft fairs these past couple of years. Yes I have a slight obsession with teacups but I think that shows a certain level of sophistication. Tee Hee ! 🙂 So my thirties have been mostly good. I am in a Happy place. Maybe my 40s will be even better !

Have you any big birthdays coming up? How do you feel about them?

Who Inspires you?

Wow this is a difficult topic. There are so many people I know who I find really inspiring for different reasons. Confidence, Strength, Generousity, Creativity,Get up and Go~ some of the many qualities I admire are found amongst my own lovely friends and family. Here are some of the wonderful people I find simply inspirational.:)

My Mum~mum bought up my sister,brother and I single handed after Dad died which must have been really hard.She has always been there for us all through our ups and downs.

My SisterYvonne is my little sister and she has two adorable kids and has ran her own successful business for years.She has now been brave enough to aim for a different kind of work life and packed up her family for pastures new. I admire her for what she has achieved already…..and for what she will achieve in the future.

Becky I’ve mentioned my friend Becky in a previous post.She is warm and generous and always listens and gives excellent advice. I will say with Becky , you are always in capable hands~ even though she has been in imense pain with her own hands after a fall for nearly two years now.

Johanna is a friend who I always admired for being a beautiful person inside and out…and admire even more now for the fact that she teaches part time and takes care of her two lovely children, one of who’m has autism.

Fi my mate Fi is one of those persuesive people who can get people to do absolutely anything.Her organization skills are legendery…and inspirational!

Jacko and Jo Wow this couple ( good friends of ours) were always unfazed by what life threw at them….even when it threw the worse kind of curve ball- cancer. I wish that optimism had seen them through but it was not to be. Jo battles on looking after their little boys, raising money for cancer research and trying to live her life. She is for sure the bravest person I know.

My Lovely Boyfriend I have to mention my other half.He inspire’s me in many ways but especialy by being an amazing multi-tasker. He must have been born a woman in a previous life!

My Craft Fair Friends I have been lucky enough to meet some awesome and gifted people through doing local craft fairs.Especially Tracy and Lisa who are just so creative with wonderfully generous spirits.

LOu Lou is an old school friend who lives an awesome life in Canada. She was fabulously brave moving away from home and setting up a new life and new career as an occupational therapist.She hangs off rock faces and skis down mountains and is now a canadian citizen. Oh and despite having had two serious ski accidents in the past few years she has battled to walk again….and ski again. How inspirational is that! The picture in this post is of Lou and I at Crystal Cove,Tofino, Vancouver Island.

Who Inspires You??

This post represents day 30 in the #BEDM challenge. Wow nearly there folks.X

The Greatest Compliment.

The greatest compliment anyone has ever paid me has to be…………asking me to be a god parent. 🙂

I am fortunate enough to be god mother to four beautiful girls. I’m not a maternal person and have never wanted children of my own so I feel very lucky to be complimented in this way. My eldest god daughter Mady is almost sixteen now and my youngest Bronte is nearly two. Lydia is three and Imogen (who is also my niece) is three in July.

Imogen last year.

Arwen,Mady and I back in 2008.

Lydia and Bronte.

I am very honored to have been chosen as god mother to such lovely girls. What an amazing Compliment!

This post represents day 23 in the Blog Every Day In May challenge.

Thirteen year old me…

1987 was the year I spent most of aged 13. I was a shy and awkward teenager.Short with the worlds most horrendous hair cut ( sorry I am not going to put a photo up ~ it looks like a mullet!) and to make matters worse I had to wear a brace on my teeth…..and I had fangs. So you see I looked like a boyish midget vampire.I was not exactly photogenic! Though maybe I could have been cast in The Lost Boys.lol.x

I grew up on a farm. As a child this was idyllic and I have very happy memories. As a teenager I spent most of my time pining for escape. My friends lived in a nearby town ( which didn’t seem nearby to my 13 year old self, there being no buses.) and as I recall I spent a lot of my time on the phone to them.Our telephone was in the farm house pantry.Yes if you wanted to chat to friends you had to sit on a cold stone slab , surrounded by pickled eggs and slabs of meat.If it was put there to keep our calls short, It didn’t work. My sis and I would brave the chill and chat endlessly to our friends on that old fashioned avocado green rotary phone.

Being farmers daughters we grew very attached to the animals.Probably to attached. With our cousins who lived next door we would hide kittens and pups from our dads and granddad, whose idea of controlling the ever increasing population was to drown them in the water troughs in the yard.:( At 13 I was desperately trying to find homes for the endless supplies of baby animals among’st my school friends.It didn’t occur to Granddad especially, that simple operations at the vets would solve the problem. Farmers are very frugal ( tight arses! ) with their money.

At 13 I went abroad for the first time .Ok it was only the second year trip to Le touquet in Northern France.But it was somewhere totally different to our camping holidays in Scotland. Happy memories of ordering crepes au chocolat in cafe’s, playing french cricket,sipping orangina,rides in a french fun fair and shopping for our own food in a gigantic hypermarche. These were all new experiences for a country bumpkin like me! Photo’s I still have from the trip show me wearing pink ski pants, a reversible mickey mouse sweater and a denim jacket.Was that actually the fashion back in 1987?

Did I have any luck with boys aged 13?? Well that is a resounding no! I did have a big crush on a boy two years above me at school which lasted until he left in the fifth year. Lunch breaks were spent strolling arm in arm with my mates round the perimeter of the school. We always strolled the opposite way to him and his group of friends so we could accidently on purpose bump into them. I was much to shy to speak when my so called friends would push me into him and laugh and run away. Sigh. The highlight of our ‘non relationship’ was when he asked me if he could borrow my calculator for a maths exam……and he had to write his initials inside the cover in liquid paper. Swoon.

I think my other crush was Rick Astley.( Cheezy!) ‘Never Gonna Give You UP’ was a massive number one hit that year you know. 🙂

Yes at 13 I admit I was in love with Mr Astley. lol 🙂

What were you like at 13?

This post represents day 22 in the #BEDM challenge.

Dream Jobs.

The Topic on the Rosalilium #BEDM challenge today is ‘Your Dream Job’.

Well If I had been asked this at school I would have said either a journalist or a librarian.I loved English and my head was constantly in a book.In fact I clearly remember saying to my pals that I didn’t want to be stuck working in a supermarket all my life. Hmmm What Happened?

Actually my job does suit me really well.Its secure (as jobs go these days) and pretty stress free. I work with a decent bunch of people and I don’t need to think about it at all once my shift is over. But of course it definitely isn’t my dream job. Neither are my original dream jobs. Being a journalist would not fit my writing skills ( I have the pace of a snail, I wouldn’t meet any deadlines….) and though I love libraries I seem to have fallen out of love with reading lately….apart from reading blogs that is! So here are a few jobs I can dream about.

Work in a quirky tearooms rather like the one below. I could happily wait on in a pretty cafe, serving tea and cakes in vintage crockery all day. 🙂

Callooh ! Callay ! in my hometown.

Work in a Vintage shop by the sea, yeah it has to be by the sea of course! I could collect even more tea cups and pretty things and take a stroll along the promenade everyday on my lunch break.

Be employed in a cath Kidston shop. I would spend all day deciding what lovely cath kidston accessories I would buy at the end of my shift.There would not be much of a wage left!

Cath Kidston store front.

Work with animals. I have helped out my sister when she had a boarding kennels and cattery. It is a very lovely job but quite hard work too with all the cleaning and walking of hounds. It certainly keeps you fit and healthy!

Naughty dog clients Sam and Max.Sweeties!

What would be your dream job? xx

Good Traditions.

Today’s topic on the Blog Every day in May challenge is all about traditions!

To be honest I don’t have many of my own traditions.Perhaps I need to make some. Meanwhile I have often gatecrashed other peoples traditions. 🙂

One of the nicest ones was egg rolling down Pendle Hill. Quite a few Easters ago a few of us walked to the top of our local mountain. Ok it is actually a hill. All hills seem like mountains to me.:)
We took with us a picnic….and some hard boiled eggs we had decorated with felt pens.Once we got to the top we ate our sandwiches and attempted to roll our eggs down the slope. As I recall mine didn’t get very far! The tradition of rolling Easter eggs is meant to be symbolic of the rolling away of the rocks from Jesus’s tomb.

Jo and I nearing the top of Pendle Hill.

Suranjan and I with our decorated eggs.

Another Easter custom I have joined in with is our friend Darrell’s Good Friday walk.This one doesn’t have any religious significance. His family have simply planned a long walk every Good Friday for years and years.Over time more and more of their friends have joined them.Often with dogs.And now the walks have been adapted to include prams and push chairs.Its a great family tradition. 🙂

The Good Friday walk usually includes a stop off at a beer garden. 🙂

Ooooh I do recall a tradition I myself like to keep up with.When we go away I always like to buy a Christmas decoration to bring back for the tree. This can be a challenge in the middle of summer. But I usually spot something.In fact on holiday in Sorrento, Italy there was a shop devoted to Christmas, in the middle of July. So I came home with some bright Bon Natalie Bells. I also ask my friends to keep a look out.

What traditions do you like to follow? X

Friends Forever.

Today’s Blog Every Day in May challenge is about Best Friends.I definitely know I am very lucky to have some great friends.They have been there for me through amazing happy times and helped me out emotionally and practically through some dark times.I am blessed indeed. It wasn’t always the case.Years ago at the end of a seven year relationship I found myself feeling distraught,lacking in confidence and well pretty alone actually.It was my all my own fault.Through our relationship I had let all my friendships slide.I hadn’t bothered to cultivate any new ones. I had simply invested all my time in my other half.Which looking back was incredibly unhealthy .My only excuse is that I was young and stupid. As lovely as my family were at this time, they lived miles away and after visiting them for a couple of weeks I found myself back home alone in an empty house surrounded by memories.( sob sob). I did feel rather sorry for myself 😦

Embarassingly, (though actually luckily) my sister Yvonne had informed her best mate Becky about my predicament. She actually told her to befriend me because ” My sister has No Friends of her own “, Cringe! Cringe! Becky though seemed only to happy to take me under her wing. She forced me to start eating again ( break up diets are the best way to lose weight ,mind),tried to teach me to cook and failing that made me loads of freezer meals, listened to my tearful outpourings about my ex( even at god knows what time in the morning ),took me out and about,introduced me to new people,helped me with a post break up makeover and generally helped me regain my confidence so I could get out there again and make new friends and loved ones.Becky is still there for me today.She is absolutely my greatest friend and Yvonne’s too.I have my sister to thank for that. 🙂

My sister, me and our best mate becky.

Over the years I have made sure I have made time for the friends I got back in touch with and the new friends I am lucky enough to have made. Friendship is such an important gift and cannot be taken for granted.

Andy,Anne ,me,Suranjan and Fi at our friend Jo’s wedding.

Tonight will be all the more poignant as we will be out celebrating the life of one of our good friends, Andy who died a year ago from cancer.Andy was one of those happy go lucky individuals who would do anything for anyone. I remember meeting him when I was doing bar work and he was always giving me massive tips ( which I kept giving him back in his change ;0) and he soon became part of a group of mates that I was fortunate enough to have found. I think tonight will be a very good do indeed.:)