HAVE YOUR SELF A MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS

I put my skates on girls ,and glided through the mountain of work that was required to prepare for Christmas , going to bed at two in the morning paint spattered and getting up at 5 o,clock in the morning to put the Christmas trees up did the trick! I want to thank you for all the lovely supportive comments on my last whiny post, I did,nt feel so alone!!! So finally the big day is tomorrow, and I finally feel Chistmassy, the house is decorated ,the food and drink is bought , presents wrapped , cards sent and I have finally finished work so I am ready to cosy in and eat drink and be merry!

I snuggled up in the sitting room yesterday with all my boys and watched Narnia , sipped some red wine ate some choccy and felt that the Christmas spirit had arrived with us...

This is a close up of one of the 10 Christmas tree spotted about the house ,don't faint girls, some are only one foot tall ! My window sill..

Little donkey found a home under the tree along with the other animals..

my little maileg elf..

the angels guarding the fireplace..

I love my stalk of sprouts and D put them in the kitchen window ,the hens look like there eating them!! Do you like my lanterns?

Finally girls my barn room is finishes hurray hurray hurray! All dressed and ready for Christmas at last..

My mantle piece with our little french stove which keeps us warm and snug.. while looking quite stylish..

felty angel is on top of the tree again she has impossibly long legs lucky her!

the stocking are hung and presents all ready under the tree

I made my Cath Kidston streamers..

and Do Do my beloved horse has his mistletoe wreath on and hes ready...

All there is left to do is wish you a very ,very happy Christmas and I am sending a big hug to all my bloggy friends , Linda x x x x

CAN I HAVE CHRISTMAS IN jANUARY PLEASE?!

DO you every feel there,s not enough hours in the day to do every thing you need to do and every thing you want to do? , please tell me you feel a little bit the same as it would be good to know i am not alone in feeling run ragged !! Honestly if Christmas could be re scheduled for mid Jan I would be thrilled . As well as working six long days a week at the moment , Christmas is the busiest time of year at the farm/farm shop /tearooms ,and I make all the food/ gift hampers and I have made 100,s of them( please don't mention bows!) and I am in constant demand from customers as well as doing the 93 other jobs that I do in a day.. at work I am focused and organised .. and then I come home and TRY to to sort home life, sorry to bore you with the flood/barn room saga.. but we( D and I) have been flat out painting ,staining and cleaning to try to get it ready for Christmas , we were up till 2 in the morning yesterday and we are still days off finishing , Scream... as well as trying to sort Christmas on top of all this , on the up side I have written my Christmas cards , but hav,nt bought half the presents I need and i hav,nt , ho and then theres that to do and then theres this to do , any way you get the picture.. so please could you arrange for Christmas to be in January some time I would be indebted for life ,honestly!!I bought this lovey cake stand ( YES you guessed from good old Morrison's for £5)its for my mince pies, ho god there to make..... erm ... buy from work!!! there another thing sorted... phew

A couple of weeks ago I left a optimistic bid on some thing on Ebay and forgot about it as I knew I wouldn't win it because of the miserly amount I had bid or so i thought but Ya ... I won this adorable little 1950,s fella , for 99p , yes I couldn't believe it either...

Hes had a tough life but is still handsome..

and looks rather jaunty with his polka dot bow don't you think? but as it is Christmas I thought of this hymn.. rather fitting don't you think? its one of my favourite Christmas songs , whats yours? the saying keep calm and carry on is so so so apt don't you think at this time of year? loving all you festive posts and love when you leave comments.. xxxxxxx

Little donkey, little donkey
On the dusty road
Got to keep on plodding onwards
With your precious load.

Been a long time, little donkey
Through the winter's night
Don't give up now, little donkey
Bethlehem's in sight.

Chorus
Ring out those bells tonight
Bethlehem, Bethlehem
Follow that star tonight
Bethlehem, Bethlehem.

Little donkey, little donkey
Had a heavy day
Little donkey
Carry Mary safely on her way.

Little donkey, little donkey
On the dusty road
There are wise men waiting for a
Sign to bring them here.

Do not falter, little donkey
There's a star ahead
It will guide you, little donkey
To a cattle shed.

Chorus
Ring out those bells tonight
Bethlehem, Bethlehem
Follow that star tonight
Bethlehem, Bethlehem.

AND THE WINNER IS..........

Hello my lovelies ,how are you all coping with the festive build up? I am so flat out at work ,,that home life sadly is taking second place at the moment! Well I would like to announce that I did one of those random number generate rs and it came up with 7 which is Lissy lou , so congrats and sorry I cant send you all one, Lissy lou could you leave your address viva email, and I will post the Stanley look alike off to you, congrats!!

I have been dropping by your blogs and you all seam in festive full gear , our barn room is edging closer to looking like a room again so may be I will be able to show you my Christmas tree and decorations soon ,cant put them up in other rooms and as they are all full of clutter from barn room ..arhhhh... longer blog soon and I will show you some more of Christmas goodies I bought , ack soooon .. Linda x x

CHRISTMAS TREATS PART 4 + TINY GIVE AWAY

This girls is my last day off before Christmas ,i will be working every day from now until 12 lunch time Christmas eve,,its going to be so hectic.. so today I am trying to potter and organise ,failing badly as here I am chatting to you.. but a girl has to have some fun, so while my spicy red cabbage is baking in the oven (a Delia smith recipe with yes red cabbage ,onion's ,apples, cinnamon and spice,s and its Delicious, !)which is for supper latter Here I am ,well... When I was reading the lovely Anni es blog vintage at the corner house the other day she showed these lovely felt decorations she had bought from Wilkinson's , I instantly fell for the Stanley(Cath Kidstons dog) look alike, so thanks to Anni es tip off I hot footed to Wilkinson's and bought the last ones they had..

Like the foxy /Airedale/lake land terrier best ,but thought the cat and dashhhound were too sweet to leave behind. The Stanley isn't particularly Christmassy so you can display him all year round...so sweet don't you think?

So if you would like one please leave a comment and i will draw a name out and send him on his way to you, its only a tiny give away , I will do the draw on Tues the 14 th Dec,at 7 o'clock , Remember a dog isn't just for Christmas so promise you wont dump him at Battersea dogs home in the new year... , meet you at the computer screen tomorrow girls!!!

CHRITMAS TREATS PART THREE....

When I was doing my Christmas present sweep on Sunday.. I found these as well as the bowls in Morrison's, I spotted them and stopped in my tracks , love at first sight ,swish they went into the trolley.. two lovely Christmas tins for £4, YIPPEE!

I opened them yesterday and discover not two but three tins, and the surprise one was a red spotty one, lovely ,lovely, lovely, the biggest one is a bout 9 in across, and they are so jolly ,and a great bargain price..... so a not too guilty pleasure, what do you think girls? Same time same place tomorrow, Linda x x

CHRISTMAS TREATS PART TWO

I seam to have a recurring rein deer theme at the moment! these are lovely little deers from Tesco ,think they are made of wood and as the label says a bargain £1 for ten, they will look great on my tree .... when I eventually get to put it up in February!!!! Do you like them? Part three of my Christmas delights tomorrow, glad so many of you liked the bowls I sense a mini stamped to Morrison's coming on amongst you !!! I am off to watch Kirsty and Phils perfect Christmas now , are you watching this? back soon Linda x x

FATHER CHRISTMAS HAS ARRIVED.. HO HO HO

Its 19 days to Christmas girls and look who got it wrong and turned up at where I work on Saturday,he landed in the field and said he would hang around till Christmas eve..

What do you think of the reindeer's, they are made from bales of hay, and make a jolly , great festive welcome for all our customers ,

This is my college , he couldn't resist a little ride on Rudolph ,but told me to be quick with the photo,s as his baubles were getting cold!!! Yesterday was my day off work and as I know I only have one more day off work un till Christmas I had to get my self very organised and do one big Christmas present buying swoop on the shops.I must admit as my barn room/dining room is still in chaos and far from finished after my flood, even though every thing is All Christmas at work, at home I feel a bit up in the air about it as the barn room is where we have our big Christmas tree etc, and I cant begin to decorate as its still a building site.......her ump.. D promises it will be ready for Christmas Cant wait to start decorating so hope he comes up trumps!!!,. so.. so So I hit the shops at 10,o'clock and with only one coffee pit stop had worked my way through my pressie buying list , by 3,o'clock I had 95% of the presents I needed to buy, so felt I deserved a treat and when I spotted these in Morrison's when I dropped in to advance buy a few Christmas edibles ,when I saw them I knew they would be coming home with me, they were only £4, and Would be lovely to hold Christmas nibbles etc.

In fact I treated my self to quite a few Christmas lovelies and thought I would show you one thing a day all this week.. have a peek tomorrow and see what made me part with my money ... again!! keep warm and safe and I hope the Christmas spirit is upon you, Linda x x

IN THE BLEAK MID WINTER....

BERRR... Things are getting worse here in the Yorkshire dales we have about sixteen inches of snow in places...Yesterday I nearly got stranded at work ,the farm sent a four wheel drive down to get me again, and after been there for about an hour after a very scary drive the police closed the main road to the farm and put barriers across.....so with a shovel in the back we set off for home, a very white knuckle drive back i can tell you.. even in crawler gear we had to plough through the snow as it was six inch on the road, so more at home days..,. fergal and flora are wishing they were great Danes with long legs as there little hairy ones cant cope with the depth of the snow

Fergal was entombed in the snow and i had to keep lifting him up because he couldn't breath!!

Flora looking like a little mole as she tunneled through it,
shes wearing her dreaded coat,but boy did she need it..

This is D and Nat snow boarding and skiing down tenter bank , called so as back in Georgian times lengths of linen that was woven and dyed and dried on lines on this bank

they are really enjoying there snow days off.. and spent ages whizzing down the hill

just showing the front of the cottage again as you can see from the last one the snow is nearly up to the window sill.. much deeper than last time .. hope it doesn't creep any higher.. ill begin to feel like a snow queen , well ish..

So girls I have been using my unexpected free time wisely, I have repainted my kitchen walls, completely spring cleaned the sitting room, and arranged plasters , and work men to finally come and start on my flood damaged dinning room so fingers crossed for me I may get it sorted for Christmas, could you cross your legs for me as well as i need loads of luck!!
But I also have managed a few long phone calls to girl Friends that i usually don't get time for and i have started adding touches of Christmas ...

Though I would show one of the first antique thing I ever bought, i got it in a antique shop in Angelsey when we lived there, I instantly fell for it, ho so high Victorian, its a print that was given away with the times news paper in 1895 , apparently you saved tokens then got it, it says so on the print and its in a really nice rose wood frame, 25 years ago it cost me £5 and i still love its Christmas card image...

I also bought some lovely Christmas spice pot pourri, and a little bottle of oil to keep refreshing it ,bit by bit christmas is sneaking in. love it .. , so hope you are all warm and safe and enjoying your forced confinement and managing to entertaining your self's , don't know how long I will be off as the road to work is still closed, but the free time is doing me good, and the a snow queen needs a clean sparkling palace/cottage and at this rate I will be able to remove the black cross /unclean sign from the front door!!! back soon girls , Linda x x