Website news and a telling off

There is new stock listed on the website today.

Lovely patchwork 'pouffe' in fab condition!

Vintage nursing chair with gorgeous rose tapestry seat.

Selection of vintage in-trays for your desk.

Yardley roses soap dish.

And vintage Sanderson cushion covers plus much more...

There are also a few more bits and pieces at very reasonable prices here.

Debbie has quite rightly ticked me off for not passing on the tag from my last post (I always forget) so I hereby inflict, er, sorry I mean pass this on to the following:

Hen, Mary and Andrea. Apologies to you all!

A tag...and a bag

I've been tagged by Debbie to reveal to you lucky (!) people six quirky/strange facts about myself, so here goes. I hope these are quirky and/or strange enough for you Debbie. But I doubt it!



1. I have a qualification in Interior Design but I've never used it professionally, so if anybody's interested....!

2. One of my decoupage pieces was once published in a book. This book. And they didn't even pay me. Just sent me the book. And it's not even a very good book.

3. I have a pathological aversion to feet but once seriously considered becoming a chiropodist...as they say, go figure! Actually, it's just human feet, apart from babies feet which are quite nice. Animal feet; I love. I have no hang-ups about them.

4. When I was ten a nice young chap very kindly removed several teeth for me...using a see-saw. He was a friend of my friends brother, Tina Green. (Tina, where are you now?! ) I never liked the see-saw. I must have known something like this was waiting to happen to me. I was more of a slide and swings kinda girl. Anyway he was giving Tina 'the bumps' and told me to get on and have a go. I agreed but only if he didn't give me the 'bumps' and you can guess the rest. I went up in the air, the see-saw went down and we met somewhere in the middle. More specifically, my jaw met the wrought iron handle from which my white knuckles had to be prised. When I turned up at home with a handkerchief over my mouth my mother removed it and immediately had to sit down on the back step feeling faint because I looked like I'd been in a car accident. One tooth came clean out at the scene of the crime (as it became known) root and all. I still have it! And the worst part of this story is that my two front upper teeth were my second teeth that had just come through. I wore a denture for fourteen years (a very bad one) until a nice dentist took pity on me and I had a very expensive six part bridge fitted. I used to dislike going to the dentist with a passion but after all the hours I spent having fittings and temporary crowns (they fell out if I opened my mouth) not to mention having my teeth filed down - I got over it.

5. I am such a stickler for grammar and punctuation that it takes me hours (and I do mean hours) to write these posts. It's not been helped by the fact that I recently read (and absolutely loved) Eats, shoots and leaves. That book was written for me! I have re-discovered the semi-colon...and I love it! I also realised (happily) that I have retained a lot more information from school than I thought I had. Which is good. I also refuse to trust spell-checkers, preferring my own ability and the good old Oxford English Dict. I'd thoroughly recommend Eats, shoots and leaves by the way. It's funny and educational!

6. Now it's getting hard. Erm....I can't swim, but I love water and I'm a cancerian. Will that do? It'll have to!

I've just realised they're not very strange or quirky at all...cripes, I must be very dull. Something that isn't dull is my new bag. Do you like it? I think it's raaaather snazzy. It was made by my very talented friend Hen to match my winter coat. Where on earth do you get brown velvet ric rac for heavens sake? I never knew such a thing existed!

And now I'm going off at a complete tangent to have a bit of a rant so forgive me. I just read this very morning that the powers that be at the BBC have deemed it necessary to produce a new adaptation of Little Dorrit. Why????????????? Leave it alone! This is one of my favourite books so I do have very strong opinions about it. If you want to see this wonderful story superlatively brought to the screen, go buy this version which cannot and I emphasise cannot be bettered. It is sublime. It is being released on dvd to coincide with this new version I guess and is available to pre-order. Hmmmm, I think that may go down on my Christmas wish list...

(darn, the link won't work but it's available at amazon)

And finally, just because it's the sweetest thing I've seen in a good long while and actually bought a tear to my eye, I wanted to share this picture with you. My husband sent it to me this week.

It's a rescued ex-battery girl that someone at an animal shelter knitted a little jersey for because of course they usually have very few feathers. Maybe I'll get Betty one for when the moult starts!

To illustrate just how sad I am when it comes to spelling/punctuation (see above) I realised I had used 'bought' instead of 'brought' and have spent all day flapping about it until I could get to the computer and correct it. Do you think there's a clinic somewhere...?

Big skies, biscuits and Betty...

I'm sitting here munching on one of these scrummy fork biscuits and patting myself on the back (metaphorically speaking) for landing such a lovely husband ~ for 'tis he made these. A doesn't do a lot of cooking, and even less baking, being the busy executive-about-town that he is (heehee) but when he puts his mind to it, he's just as good as moi. Well. almost. I don't want him getting big-headed.

I have been tagged by Steph to share the view from my kitchen window. I have a window and french windows in my kitchen so will show you both. I hope this isn't cheating.

This is what I can see from the kitchen window above the sink.

Basically, on the horizon about six miles away as the crow flies is the sea. There's not really much between us and it. The picture below is a bit further to the right. The hedge line is the road and the cottage to the right of the picture is my nearest neighbour on the opposite side.
I do know how lucky I am to be able to look out at this every day and never take it for granted. I actually spend far too long gazing at it! It and the garden are the two reasons we bought this house. Oh, alright. The price helped.

This is the view down the garden from the french windows. It is a very expensive view. When we moved in the only window that looked out on the garden was the spare bedroom. Hmmm. So, three years ago we had a new kitchen and utility room built and from the french windows I can see the whole of the garden which I love. I was going to take down the washing line and props and wind up the hose but as these are always out that wouldn't be true to life.

This is looking slightly over to the left. Broken lupins ~ again. Were we the only ones to get atrocious wind yesterday? The garden looks like a tornado has hit.


Betty always has to get herself in the picture.

I feel I should perhaps explain about Betty. We're not the sort of people who cruelly keep one chicken on it's own for the sake of it. We started out with two - Miss Babs and Miss Berta (Acorn Antiques for anybody who doesn't remember)

Babs was Betty's breed (leghorn hybrid) and Berta was a Rhode Island Red hybrid. She had beautiful blue feathers. We lost Babs very soon after bringing them home. I won't go into that now. So we got Betty as company for Berta, by this time Bertie. To cut a long story short we lost Bertie early last year. She got ill and nobody seemed able to help (I mean Vets) All chicken keepers learn to self-diagnose and treat and there's no wonder when you put one in front of a vet and see their reaction. I can't write much about Bertie as it still upsets me too much. She was the most adorable little creature I have ever had the good fortune to share my home with. But where Betty is virtually bomb-proof, Bertie was very sensitive. She would rather be in the house with us than outside and would stop eating if we went away. In short she was a constant worry but I wouldn't swap the short time I had with her for anything. We thought about getting another chicken to keep Betty company but she does seem fine on her own and is used to being handled (I even give her a little kiss ~ I can't believe I've admitted that!) and loves coming in the house so she doen't lack for company.
Although I would love a garden full, I won't be having any more chickens until I can find a vet that really does know about domestic ones. So if anyone knows a good one in Lincolnshire give me a shout...

I would love to see the view from these lovely ladies kitchen windows:

a different era,

funkymonkey

and A thrifty Mrs

The car boots were rained off again this weekend so we spent a few hours wandering around one of our favourite antique hunting grounds. I treated myself to this teeny tiny Barbola mirror. I just couldn't resist as I have never found one this small (about 3.5" tall) although I've collected them for years. It's damaged and the glass isn't great but who cares?

I've been tagged...

by Sairer so here you are...



What was I doing ten years ago?



Living with (but not yet married to) A in Mansfield, Notts and selling lingerie (I think) Doing crafts in my spare time and selling at fairs. I was living in a wonderful 1930's semi with all it's original features that we restored but awful neighbours. One of the reasons we moved...



Five things on my 'to do' list today..



Weigh and pack some old tat for Ebay tomorrow.

Plant out some leeks, caulis and broccoli my Dad gave me last week. It's thrown it down for two days so great timing!

Housework - Ironing, hoovering, cleaning bathroom (does that count as one thing?)

'Burn' some cd's for playing in my 'new' car (not new but new for me!) Never put the originals in the car since A had his car stolen with all his fave cd's - including most of his Led Zep collection. Very bad.

Watch Brief Encounter. A is away on business so I can indulge in the Rachmaninov and weep in peace. I got the DVD for 10p at the car boot!



Five snacks I enjoy...



Only four..Houmus and rice cakes. Or oatcakes. I've never tried it on a bagel Sairer.

Nuts. That is peanuts (unshelled) cashews, pinenuts.

A nice strawberry yoghurt

A slice of bread or toast and ...no, not butter, only flora I'm afraid.

They're the ones I allow myself. What I would like to eat is a different matter! G & B choc, homemade cakes & biscuits, Kettles chips, salted peanuts.



Things I would do if I were a millionaire...



Move. To a big old country house (but not too big) it would have to be untouched ie: not 'modernised', my most hated word in the english language!! Flagstone floors, old range, inglenook, sash windows, stable door, ancient wiring, dodgy roof, no heating...hmmm. A few acres for all the rescued chickens, geese, ducks, donkeys, goats, greyhounds and cats. I could afford personal tuition for learning to swim, ride and play the piano. Employ a cleaner. Collect classic Jaguars and Aston Martins. Spend my days buying antiques, reading, listening to music and my hobby would be restoring period houses (properly) and renting them out. That way nobody could come along and ruin them. Buy a holiday home in Vermont. Or Cape Cod. Heck, I'm a millionaire, I'll buy both! Give away lots to charity - mostly animal ones. Sort the family out (that sounds like I'm going to hit them!)



Places I've lived...



Mansfield

Derbyshire

London (various)

Guildford

Philadelphia

Lincolnshire

These are the main ones. There's lots more but they were mostly for a limited time. I was a Nanny for many years and did a lot of temping.



If you've stuck through all that rambling...well done! I'm not passing on this tag because everybody I wanted to tag has already been..well, tagged. And now the sun has come out so I'm off to plant that veg...