A mixed bag

It's been raining, raining, raining today so no chance of going to a car boot. I didn't mind too much and decided to take the opportunity to dash to a few shops instead. End of term is looming and I want to get the kids teachers something nice and non-teachery. I took Boy with me, I don't often get to spend any time with him by himself lately but now BabyBoy is older he can be left with Man for a short while. Boy had transferred his Headteacher's Award sticker that he earned on Friday (for writing a good story) from his uniform to his t-shirt today and was very unsubtly indicating that he had done well for himself and quite fancied a reward! I'm a complete pushover where the kids are concerned (don't tell them that though) and we stopped off for hot chocolate (him), latte (me) and cake even though we had just bought these lovelies from the Farmers Market.Aren't they beautiful? I couldn't resist! They are made by Sweet Annalise and they tasted absolutely fantastic. I got a vanilla buttercream one for Girl, chocolate with Cointreau for me and Boy and Man had white chocolate and strawberry. Once it came to serving them up Girl was quite adamant that she wanted a chocolate one so I had to haggle with her about sharing mine and I share hers. I know there was only a teeny amount of alcohol in the icing but she went totally loopy and was on about being able to 'smell ponies'. Oops.

Despite me thinking there were no longer any toyshops in Stafford I found the Co-op Department Store had a toy section upstairs where he managed to wheedle a Lego set out of me and I got Girl a couple of dinosaurs to add to her precious collection. All of them are called 'Triceratop-tops' and 'T-rex' whether they are one or not. She was even trying to get me to breastfeed her T-Rex the other day in the bath. Er, definitely not with those teeth!

Speaking of teeth BoyBaby has gained his first two this week, he's been a slight bit grumpy but otherwise has managed really well. He has also managed to sit up unaided a couple of times and looks a very grown up boy at the moment. Because of this his time in his crib is on a tight limit if we want to avoid any more baby-meets-floor type situations. To get his big cot set up it means taking down our stupid and ugly fitted wardrobes which are crammed full of stuff, most of which I had forgotten I had. Man's idea of getting the job done was to empty all the things onto our bed then proceed to take the wardrobe apart. In the true style of the DIY bodgers who lived here before us it was held together with almost nothing and some of it fell on Man's head. We then ran out of time, the kids needed to go to bed, and all the things have now been dumped back where the wardrobe was but without the luxury of being able to shut the doors on it. I have mentioned before my tendency towards clutter and any mass amount of moving the clutter about stresses me out like nobody's business. I just don't know what to do with it all, I really don't.Lastly, a pic I took of my little cat. This week she has been bringing in poor half dead creatures for us and I really wish she wouldn't! One bird even had to be taken to the vet as I didn't know what else to do. It was in a bad way but I'm not brave enough to end their suffering myself. She is such a lovely cat though. As much as I pretend she is mine she really likes Girl the most. She has the loudest miaow ever and even though she is tiny compared to the other cats in the street they are terrified of her! She came in soaking wet this evening. It's like she forgets to go and find somewhere to shelter if there is something more interesting to look at. I think i will have to reserve her a towel, she loved being wrapped up and dried. Oh and she also has lost the fancy collar I got for her.

TTYL

Week of Happy - Thursday......

.........Friday, Saturday and erm, Sunday! Well the daily post thing didn't go too well did it?! Blimey it's been hot, I haven't felt like doing anything except lying about complaining about the heat, having lots of showers and changing my clothes every 5 minutes. I'm not one of those people who can waft around, glowing delicately in the sun. BoyBaby doesn't fare well in it either, poor thing.

There have still been things to make me happy though. The kids have had their school reports and I'm so proud of them. Boy is doing ok, just a little slack on the presentation side of things and Girl has come on leaps and bounds. It was lovely to read that they have enjoyed having her in nursery just as much as she has loved going. It won't be too long till she is in school all day, she hardly seems big enough! She certainly has the energy though.
The weather finally calmed down a bit today and we headed out to a car boot, a different one to usual as it seems to be the same sellers every week at the regular place and I fancied a change. Oh how I wish we hadn't bothered, it was scary to be honest. The place just seemed to have a very funny atmosphere and the things were very poor quality and overpriced. I did find one stall where everything seemed to be 5p and I picked up a crochet granny square tea cosy. Can't argue for that price and especially after someones hard work has gone into it. I also got a couple of pieces of material, £1 each. We called it a day and went back to our usual place even though it had gone 10am. It was still nice and busy and I found a few more things to buy. I got a wooden box (no pic yet) that needs a little work, for £2 . I've put the shoes in it for now as I'm tired of falling over them. I got the tin in the picture for 50p too.
I also got this fab bedside table to go on Man's side of the bed. The stallholder was asking £10 but i managed to get him down to £5. I also bought some spray paint to go over the gold bits, I'm not overly keen on them. I got on with getting it painted this afternoon but should have bought a second can of paint, they are very small and it wasn't quite enough to get it done. The paint seller will be there next week so I can stock up then, I just hope they have the same colour. I got a pair of marble lamp bases for £1 that just need shades.

I also added a couple more bevelled mirrors to my collection. Man doesn't even comment on them now! He knows it's pointless. I have given up asking about the endless computers he brings home. All in all a successful day!
And this is my freebie vintage wastepaper basket from the other week. It was grubby but I have given it a very good clean and i just totally love it.

Week of Happy - Wednesday

I didn't get the chance to update yesterday, I was busy baking for the second meeting of our new knitting group. We have gone from four of us last time to a fab ELEVEN this week. Great stuff. We have a blog - Cannock Crafties which I have made nice and colourful!

My yarn arrived in time, fab service from McA Direct especially with the postage being free with orders over £10. I'll definitely use them again.

Far, far too hot yesterday so I'm having a lazy day today and I'm not going to feel guilty about it!

Week of Happy - Tuesday

Today I have bought yarn! I saw this pattern a couple of weeks ago in the new kids online knit mag Petite Purls and knew I just had to make BoyBaby a Pembroke. I was slightly disappointed to say the least when the yarn I wanted (the Dream in Color Classy used in the pattern) sold out and I couldn't find any more anywhere and it took me ages to find something else I'd be happy with. I decided on some Rowan Pure Wool Aran in the colour in the pic, which I ordered today from McADirect. It has been dispatched already so with a little bit of luck and postman dust it will be here in time for knitting group tomorrow. Of course it took me ages to choose, as usual! I wasn't born knowing how to make up my mind. BoyBaby is fair with blonde hair and blue eyes and my usual bold colour choices don't suit him as much as they suited Boy and Girl. I'm begrudgingly admitting he looks good in pale blue and buying him a few things in that colour.

Ah yes, knitting group. We have a few new recruits and I'm relly looking forward to tomorrows meet! We're in the process of making a blog and some posters to splash about the place to attract more people in.

TTYL

Week of happy - Monday

I've been a horrible, horrible bad tempered person these past few days (poor Man!) so I'm going to play the Pollyanna Glad Game and focus on the nicer things and see if I can get a post done every day and snap myself out of it.

So for today, the postman bought me this

which I think will become my new knitting bag. It's really lovely. Man sort of spluttered when I told him I got it for £15 off, said he couldn't believe it was worth more than £15 in the first place! To be honest I don't think it is worth it at full price but in the sales it's fine.

I made some fab fairy cakes with cherries in, made using this recipe but halved and they were delicious! I should have been making baby food but I really couldn't be bothered. I will have to get onto that tomorrow.

TTYL

I've had better weeks

This week has been awful. It started so well, last weekend I went to a couple of really good boot sales. The one we arrived at pretty late and I missed out on seeing all of it. Boybaby was very grizzly and I ended up sat in the car with him. I did however get this lovely bedside table for the bargainous price of £4. The lady said had she painted it she would have been asking a lot more but I'm glad she didn't, I really like it the colour it is. It will need redoing sometime in the future but for now I'm happy to clean it up and use it.
Last Sundays boot sale got me some green pinstripe wallpaper for 25p that is just right to line the inside of the cupboard where it is a bit grubby. I also got a very fab vintage wastepaper basket for free, it was left in the place people take all their unsold things to be burnt and I spotted it as we were leaving. I haven't got a pic but will take one.

Then once we got home is when my week took a turn for the worse. My poor little baby had an accident and we ended up in hospital for a couple of days, he is fine it was just a little bump but I think with some of the stories in the press that they have to make sure that nothing is amiss. I felt terrible enough as it was but having my parenting scrutinised in such restrictive circumstances was truly stressful. I missed my other kids so much and was desperate to come home. I've been in a bit of a daze the rest of the week and haven't prepared properly for the couple of special occasions that we've had. Yesterday was our 9th wedding anniversary and today was Man's birthday. I feel awful that I didn't have chance to get the things I wanted to. I did make him a cake but I wasn't overjoyed with it.

Oh well onwards and upwards.

TTYL

I've done a Kirstie

and found myself a mirror out of a skip! I saw a lady clearing away her unsold items at the car boot today and swooped in and got it back out once she had gone. It's not a particularly exciting mirror admittedly but I'm sure something can be done with it.
Here is a pic of my recent car boot buys. I didn't get them all today as I mainly got things for the kids that are too boring to photograph though I did get the Woman's Weekly cut and sew dolls. I have some of these already kindly sent to me on a giveaway but there is a male one that I haven't seen before, he's very funky. The little jug at the front is so cute, I love the design. I was so taken with it I failed to realise the handle has a crack all the way through. I don't seem to have much luck with crockery at the moment! It will have to be for decoration only.

The enamel teapot is my favourite colour. Girl is very taken with it as we have recently created a game with it. She is very attached to her toys. See her dinosaur there at the front? She insisted that 'Terrydactil' had to have his picture taken too. She has a very strange taste in toys, her My Little Ponies are often to be found in The Mystery Machine alongside Scooby and his friends or riding around in the Batmobile. I think that's what comes of having a brother. Anyway she tries to sneak her toys into nursery where they aren't supposed to be taken so one day in desperation I asked her to put them in my 'magic' teapot. Before she got home I put a sweet in there and she was so happy to get something back that she readily puts her toys in there now.

I couldn't decide if I wanted the picture of the cat. I spotted it on my first look around but wasn't sure if the cat was cuddling the tiny bunny between it's paws or was ready to eat it! I explained my dilemma to the seller and we had a good banter about how a picture can be interpreted in different ways. As a very squeamish vegetarian I wasn't keen on the idea of bunny murder. We decided that the cat was giving him a love and I handed over my 50p. I do enjoy having a chat with the sellers, I think it adds to the experience of collecting new things. I thought the worst thing about being a cat owner is them bringing dead stuff in. I was wrong, it's worse when they bring in things that are still alive and are still battering them around. I had a very feisty mouse bouncing around my kitchen this evening. It was trying it's hardest to get away and I was doing my best to assist, much to the disgust of my youngest cat. I hope it managed to get far enough away from her.