ITS LOVE

On Thursday evening I arrived home from work feeling utterly exhausted, jaded and very lack luster, looking forward to flopping in a chair ,watching the news and having a cuppa,before tackling domestic UN bliss, nothing special planned as Knackered.. in the hall way as I entered was a big parcel, as I had not ordered any thing , thought D had ordered yet more moter bike bits.. grrr... but no the parcel was addressed to me.. So started to unwrap it and look what was in side.. ya,oooo . D and Nat had bid on eBay for this gorgeous boy for my Birthday (not till 24 Th June). Isn't it funny how all of a sudden a day can be transformed by one thing! I LOVE HIM, 1950,s and in great vintage condition. If you have been reading my blog for a while you know I have been lusting after one of thees terriers, so thank you very much D and Nat, I have adopted one!






I am thinking about making him a neckerchief ,I might buy a piece of Stanley fabric from cath kidstons to make it with or may be just a gingham red/white one? what do you think?
Cant believe I have finally got one of these , hes living in the sitting room at moment ,cant stop admiring him, Nat the teenager , keeps asking whats with all the old scrappy toys mum?? He never really thought I had the plot in the first place to loose!!



I don't know what to call him I want a great 30s/ 40s,/50s name for him , I would love you all to help me name him, so please send suggestions in , I quite like Bertie ,but named my little china one that,,so come on and help me... i will announce which name I decide on in a while!!

This is his little sister that i liberated from the Internet dogs home called EBay last week (UN be known to D) I think she need a name also.. again suggestions... is she not sweet,? 1950,s again ..

Here she is sniffing the Lilacs..

luckily she gets on with her new big brother..



My real (Sh.. don't let the other two know there not)dogie Fergal is not impressed and isn't going to share his bonios! The look on his face is pricless!

I would like to share theses flowers with all you fabby blog friends who took time to leave lovely and interesting comments on my last few posts, I so appreciate and love getting to know you all and I adore visiting your blogs, and catching up with your much more interesting lives than mine!!! love to you all... and hope your all having a great bank holiday....sympathy please ,I only have today off and worked yesterday and will be tomorrow ,but managed 1 car boot today (yes I know i am slipping from from my usual 23!!) Disappointing CB ,thought would be huge but not, got a couple of things, lean vintage pickings, EBay has a lot to answer for! ERM yes well.......


This is Kevin (really) he is one of my work colleges, he is 4 and came from Austria,(so talks with an Austrian accent!!) He shares the fields with lots of other exotic animals, and this is the view from my "office" window... any guesses to where I work..? to narrow it down I have not run off and joined a circus.... (YET!!) can you guess???

SUNSHINE MAKES ME SMILE!

How are you all? good I hope, hasn't the hot weather been fantastic ? nothing seems as bad when the Sunshine's does it! I spent lots of time in my garden this weekend, we ate nearly all our meals AL-fresco, and so enjoyed it, even the teenager emerged from his pit of a bedroom and braved the sunshine!
Thought I would show you a little glimpse of my garden,I am going to do a longer post on it,but in the mean time, its a terraced garden reached by 25 steep steps, and our garden is higher than our roof! hilly Richmond for you.! My garden is in lots of little segments, and I have lots of structure in it with box hedging ,softened by cottage garden plants, lots of different lavenders too, I also have lots of stone cats all over the garden ( I collect them, ho what a surprise!), I don't like ones that are too cutie looking, so try to get the quite real looking ones when I can .. This is my sweet Malachy eyeing up his stone look a likes!( above)this was part of our 20 Th wedding present, Who said romance was dead!!!
part of my garden, photo was taken 10 days ago and can,t believe how much the plants have shot up since. I have created beds with hazel low trellises around them , an idea i borrowed from the lovely Monty Don... love box hedges and yew.. my yews are 3 years old and have used 4 as center pieces in the beds , they wont grow quick enough ,i want to make them into cones, I feed them and talk to them. ho yes, but they are lolly gagging!!!









The Saturday before last We had a little trip to York , The teenager went his way to trendy clothes shops and music stores, D went off to outdoor shops and I went strait to Mrs Kidstons emporium!! I had my 15 % off voucher from Easy Living magazine, and I was determined to treat my self, boy was it busy in the shop, There seemed to be half of Japan in there and one Japaneses lady was buying 10 bags, 10, yes 10 bags all different , and she told the assisant all for her, bag envy!!! I treated my self to this lovely set of two little cases adorned with the lovely Stanley on, so sweet and with my 15 % off only £13 .30, not bad I thought. We all met up for lunch when we all had our different retail experiences , and D said in a Rather shocked but relieved voice , ..only the one Cath Kidston carrier bag ?...



thought I would share this week ends car boot finds,


Lovely hummel style boy figure,so kitch, sweet little vintage work basket, vintage fox terrier tin , 30,s oak cottage picture, enamel jug , 30,s Scottie and bone brooch, flowery tin and this great book, all in the detail by Caroline Cliffton Mogg,







I fell on this tin to add to my collection and it was only 50p..



This little cute brooch is a bone with two Scottie dogs and as in a mixed tin of jewelry, £1...


I really liked the frame as much as the picture on this 30/40,s picture..£ 2.30..



I love love love this !! vintage french enamel water holder, to fix on the wall ,it has a tap that has broke of the bottom and D is going to solder it for me , so french ,so flowery, so yummy!!! OK guess how much? £4.... its quite big ,over 14 inch high, a real bargain I feel ....

These are some pictures from the book all in the detail, I had seen this book in water stones for £19.99 and I was going to treat my self from amazon (£15.99) so my eyes popped out when I saw it on a stall in new condition , swoop.. hugged it too me and didn't even try to hide my excitement at finding it.. the lady very apologetically said she would have to ask £5 for it , as it was quite new, yippee.. what a lovely book try to have a look inside if you get the chance..I have been drooling over the lovely photos....
sorry about quality of this photo, but you get the idea , love the blue and the fab grouping of these pictures,
Lovely candle sticks , and easy to pick these up from boot sales, erm could be another little collection ( must control my self!!)

And why would I like this page ...I wonder!!? enjoy the rest of the of the week and lets all hope this fabby weather continues...

FEELING SHEEPISH!

Well I have survived another week at work, and am pleased to say I am adjusting physically and mentally to the longer hours! this is just a quick post to show you a few pictures I have painted recently , I have been in to art since I was tiny and have spasmodic bursts of painting when inspired!! I have a passion for sheep, there I confess , I find them fascinating and quite lovely. My house is surrounded by them and I often find my self watching them !! When I was at art school I could get one into most works..... our tutor would set us a task and give us one word., such as ..... .isolation...... joy..... bleak.. etc and we had to create a piece of art work that represented the word. I always managed to work a sheep into the pictures !!!
these are mixed media paintings , but mostly I have used water colour........



I spent a lovely peaceful time walking a round the fields amongst the lambs and the sheep last week ,after a while they didn't notice me there and I managed to get so close ,
It was sunny , so peaceful ,just bird song , the odd bleat and the sound of the river swale at the bottom of the hill , just what you need at the end of a hectic week.



This little sweety didn't even wake up


Culloden Tower in the back ground...


these two followed me about and kept posing..ahh...... so so sweet.
Hope you have a restful and lovely week end ,I am going to the usual car boot and maybe to York, watch out Cath kidston... and looking forward to spending some time in my garden.I will try to post some pics of my garden next week . love xx

THE FIRST ISSUE OF COUNTRY LIVING MAGAZINE!

When I got in from work waiting on the hall table was a very welcome sight , my new copy of country living , I think the cover is really gorgeous this month and I noticed its the 25 Th anniversary Of its publication, and I couldn't believe it. my god, where have all those years gone? you see I can so clearly remember buying the very first issue! I thought I would show you it!


This is it , I was living in Angelsey and i remember popping into valley village newsagents/post office and finding this on the shelf, love at first sight... I was so thrilled to find a magazine that echoed my interests and passions, antiques and country style, country issues ,jam making etc, it was like a blast of sunshine, I devoured every page( and have every issue since!)and had to wait three months for the next issue as at first it was going to be quarterly and obviously its popularity demanded a monthly issue






I still love this cover picture...



this was a lovely river side cottage featured in the issue


I think the fashions still relevant, the skirt is very Cath kidston/ Rachel Riley ,don't you think?

Before I started full time work I thought I had better get some jobs out of the way I had been meaning to do and sorting one of my cupboards out was one of them , this is just some of my country livings, I have kept every copy bought over the last 25 years !! D has try ed to chuck some out during some of our past moves ,but wrestled them from him, and they have been saved! I keep all the Christmas issues together ,but the rest are in a big jumble, its amazing to look through the back issues and still find the photography and styling beautiful and still so relevant now, so many fab homes have been featured and I am still inspired and some times made a little envious of gorgeous homes and lovely things featured in the emporium .The features and articles specially on wild life and farming issues really interest me, also craft and skills, what are your favorite things about the magazine? I also subscribe to Coast but still prefer Country living... I can just imagine my poor sons after I have gone to country living heaven having to clear the house of all these magazines, I have seen old peoples houses featured on telly , where they have to clear piles of papers and rubbish before the can get in , that will be me then .....!!!! , at least they could flog the first edition and it may pay for my funeral!!! TE HE...
just thought I would tell you that the magazine Easy living is giving away fab Cath Kidston bags with this months issue, got mine in W h Smiths, had to ask if they had any as non on shelf's( a tip) as selling quick , nice guy brought me one of each design ,so had to buy them both did,nt I ??!!. there really nice and strong,, rush and grab one! have a great week!