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

MOTHERING SUNDAY

I hope you all had a loving and happy mothers day. I had a really peaceful and relaxing day . Car boot sale in the morning , which did,nt yield any treasures, but on the way back in the car I was listening to the Aled Jones show on radio two, and he did an interview with Kate mcCann , I was so moved by her, Her pain was so raw and she just seems rather broken and fragile ,I shed a tear for her, if you can listen to her on i player, I defie you not to be moved. When I got home I gave my son an extra big hug, He just had that get off me you mad woman look on his face !! But having said that in partnership with his dad they cooked me a lovely Sunday lunch , while I read the papers , pottered in the garden and caught up on lovely blogs I follow. I also received lovely chocolates,( I am going to have one a day ..) flowers, and the above lovely flowery heaven heart wreath! But the best present was spending time with my family and getting a huge hug and I do love you mum off the fore mentioned teenager! Ahhh... sniff ..