All the C's!

Todays post is one which includes all the C's...

Charity Shopping ;0)
I was thrilled to go on a thrifty mooch with a good friend yesterday.  Charity shopping with company is my idea of fun.  What's even better is that we have such differing tastes that neither of us want the same things!  It's quite funny, each of us hold up things to the other and then curl our noses and both burst out laughing!  We both came away with a few things - so very different from the other's collection of treasures.... So my hoard this time:

Some star baskets... these were a bargain £1.50.  I want to spray these white and put them on my Christmas mantelpiece standing up like this.  I love sets of 3 stars of reducing sizes and this will be an affordable way to get that look!

 

A gorgeous vintage floral tray and glass bottomed trinkets with floral embroidered lids - I love them and they are soooo my kinda thing.  I was very happy to find them and although £15 I've decided to label them my Christmas present to myself!!

 

This little fellow was a mere £1.  I love him and he'll make his way into my Christmas decorating.

 

Around 6 months ago I bought another single book end with a girly type bambi deer on it.  Now my cute stag has a partner!

Chutney - my last batch for this year!  Hooray!  This one is mainly tomato and courgette based (thanks to Grandpa for supplying the HuGE courgette / marrow!)  It's called Mediterranean Chutney and is not one I've made before.  I had the ingredients though (mainly from relative's gardens) and so had to give it a whirl!!

The very colourful raw ingredients (I'm glad I've finished cutting onions in large numbers for another year!)

 

It's always amazing how much the ingredients reduce down...

 

All ready for labelling & getting creative with the decorative lids!!

Crumble - apple crumble in fact!  I used the very last of the apples from my mum's trees for a crumble for our pudding this evening.  There'll definately be two happy boys in this house tonight!  I'll warm it in the oven at tea time and it'll brown a bit more then but already it looks yummy!

Crochet
I'm so pleased with my progress on the crochet learning front.  A friend lent me this book.

It was fabulous in getting me over the confusion I was experiencing in following different patterns. I really needed straight forward instructions to boost my confidence!  So I've managed to crochet these:

and these from the wonderful Lucy of Attic24.

 

The pale green, cream and blue are the colours of my lounge so I was thinking they could stay up all year round!!  The bright colours I love the most though.  They are wonderful jewel like tones and look nicer in reality than I have been able to photograph I'm afraid. 

 

 

I'm not going to do 2 sided baubles as per this pattern though.  To keep them a little more frugal I'm crocheting one side according to the pattern and then use felt and embroidery to finish off the back and hide some of the workings.  I think that'll work and I'll show you them when they're properly finished!  I'll then get twice the number of baubles out of the yarn.  I'm loving these though so can see me whipping a few up for presents.

But my favourite C?  Christmas!!  Getting a bit excited now.  Well, a bit is a little of an understatement actually.  I can't wait to start decorating but we have some lovely guests staying this weekend.  Normally, the decorations go up on the first weekend in December in our house.  I've set aside all next weekend though to do it.  It's a full family affair and decorating the tree especially is one of my favourite things of Christmas time.  My gorgeous children get so giddy over my collection of decorations as they pull them from the boxes (in another lifetime pre children I collected interesting baubles as a passion) and also as they remember their own homemade versions. 

I LoVE it.  I'm really proud of them and their enjoyment in doing things rather than having things.  I have to admit I have to let go of my need for the perfect tree and instead let them share the joy of hanging the decorations themselves where they choose.  I'm getting better at that.  Instead I revel in their excitement and exclamations.  That's the magic of Christmas time for me. 

I have a couple of crafty Christmassy things underway but will show you them when they're finished!  Welcome to my new followers and to all the visitors to my little blog.  I hope you have a lovely time starting to decorate your homes and that you are beginning to enjoy the essence of the season.

J9 x

The wonderful Annette from My Rose Valley is having a fabulous giveaway - pop on over and take a look at her colourful and creative blog!

Today I'm linking up with these fabulous parties!

Happy Simple & Sweet Fridays

Home Sweet Home

A Return to Loveliness

Share your Cup Thursday
Sunny Simple Sunday
Thrifty Things Friday

 

And some Creativity of the 'Grown Up' Sort

This is what I've been up to over the past couple of weeks on the homemade front:

More Chutney - Fiery Bengal - yummy.

Raw ingredients...

 

And the cooking chutney...

 

And it made a good few jars for the Homemade Hampers I'm putting together for Christmas presents:

Crochet Progress - I'm loving making granny squares and have been so inspired across blogland.  But I have to say - I didn't realise how much it would 'eat' up the yarn.  Not an inexpensive homespun make...  I was aiming for a gorgeous big blanket like this .  But I think I can't justify the yarn, so I'll alter my plan and enjoy fashioning these into cushion covers.

 

Some Furniture Upcycling  to come - I find this a really enjoyable bit of homemaking!!  I love breathing new life into tired and jaded bits of history.... plus more of those legs I so love!

I don't think I'll get to these this side of Christmas - well maybe that tray - I have visions of breakfast in bed with this beauty!  Some naughty purchases from the charity shop that I had to smuggle into the house! ;0)

So although I've been on morphine and steroids (due to a rheumatoid flare) and feeling much under the weather, on reflection I have achieved some home loving over the past week.  That makes me happy.  I've taken things slowly while the children have been at school - but they've still gotten done. 

That's another bit about blogging that I've found very powerful - you consider much more closely tasks of the everyday and recognise those little achievements - even if they are quite mundane and routine they become something to celebrate!!

J9 x

Today I'm linking up with these fabulous parties!

Happy Simple & Sweet Fridays

Home Sweet Home

A Return to Loveliness

Share your Cup Thursday

Katherine's Corner

Creativity of the Kiddie Kind

This was a weekend where we hunkered down in our home.  The winds blew madly up on our hill and the rain fell (hard) and there was little inclination to go out and get the usual 'breath of fresh air'!!

With weekends at home comes the littlies yearning for a creative outlet.  I love that they love to create.  It doesn't really matter what we do.  We're just sat around the table, chattering and creating. 

Mess gets made.

Piles of art finished, drying pieces of art are left overnight before being completed the next day. 


We made Hamma bead Christmas decorations -

And R and I made teacup candles for the first time (what a revelation as to how easy they are - these need topping up and trimming but you get the idea!!)

Lots of colouring

R did a little bit of independent sewing - her idea to develop

And some ink marbling

What could be better?

Well maybe add in some of this....

And this.....

It's amazing what you can pack into a weekend at home.  It was all at a leisurely pace too and the TV only went on on Sunday, which the kids finished with a family film like this....  oh they love a den.

 

Heaven.

J9 x

Today I'm linking up with these fab parties for the first time!!

Wow Us Wednesday

Heart & Home

Raising Homemakers
Sunny Simple Sunday

I'm also entering the Fabulous Joole's Generous Giveaway - please do take a moment to check out her wonderful blog Sew Sweet Violet!

Halloween & Bonfire Night Catch Up

No matter how I try, I still fall behind with blogging about the Simple Things we do as a family.  The idea of creating this blog was to partly fulfil a creative need in me and also to provide a journal of our family life.  But often that life just gets in the way!! ;o)

I'm not going to fill this post with lots of gushing descriptions of how spent a wonderful time intricately carving our pumpkins, or enjoyed the wonder of Guy Fawkes night and the splendid firework display we attended. 

Nope. I'll let the photos do the talking.

My blue eyed boys...  and Billy's Happy Pumpkin ('cos scarey isn't nice mummy').

The concentration....

My owl and floral effort...






 


 R's scarey face...


 























The ooooohs and aaaaahhs...

Burning of the Guy...

Happy November people! (And for those that celebrate it - Happy Thanksgiving).  I do wish us Brits celebrated Thanksgiving...  It's such a good and positive sentiment.

Finally I'd like to thank all the lovely people that have visited and left comments on my blog recently.  I have to say I've been blogging for 6 months now, and whilst I don't measure it's success on numbers - it is nice to have some interaction with like minded people!!  Thank you and welcome!!

J9 x

This week I'm linking up with these lovely blog parties!!

Simple & Sweet Friday

Weekend Whatever

An Obsession with Squirrels?

It is strange to say.... that yes, at present I am a bit obsessed.  I think I've been influenced by the autumn displays so many have in their posts across blogland.  As such, I've been further inspired to create little pockets of autumn in my own home. 

Photos inside my home do not take well.  I do try, but I don't have the right lighting to fully project these images on screen and they seem a little dull - but I shall endeavour to give you a flavour.

I found this lovely nut cracker at the Charity Shop recently.  I'm not sure anyone in our family are nut lovers but I couldn't leave him on the shelf.

In the same visit I brought this beauty home.  I LoVE him. 

He is of course a Sylvac ornament of our native Red Squirrel that only lives in parts of the UK now.  The Grey Squirrel was introduced to this country historically from North America and almost forced our native squirrel to extinction.  Although isolated to different parts of the UK - mainly the islands of Anglesey and Brownsea this type of squirrel has been successfully reintroduced and is thriving.  If you wish, you can find out more about the Red Squirrel here.

Many people will disagree with me on a conservation basis but I do enjoy seeing the mischievous Grey Squirrel in our woodlands. 

Of course I'd love to see red squirrels too but that is beyond my control.  Today, to get a burst of fresh air and interact a bit with nature we took ourselves down to a park close to the sea front, which is a typically Victorian recreational space; with paths, lawns, fountain and woodland.  You can imagine times before us when the rich people living in the gorgeous mansion houses surrounding the park, took in the sea air for medicinal purposes!!

There were amazing colours

And fabulous shapes formed from the trunks of this large tree:

We went to interact with the squirrels and for the children to beat their personal records for scooting the route around the park!! 

After energy was expended it was fascinating to watch the squirrels increase in trust as we sat patiently and offered them monkey nuts. 

The children were surrounded with 5-7 squirrels by the end of an hour.  This was the first time we'd done this since the children were toddlers and I was astonished by how enthralled they became. 

We merrily spent the morning watching the different squirrels and their reactions to us.  I was perched on a bench whilst the others were in the midst of the action on the floor!  One squirrel became incredibly trusting of little B...

Another would take the nuts off and bury them for a later snack!  The excitement in the children's faces was a joy to see.

I have to say I did leave this rather large squirrel on the shelf at the Charity Shop yesterday!! 

Hopefully that means I've got my fix of the squirrel type this year - I think he'd eaten a few too many nuts!

J9 x

I'm linking up with these fabulous parties
  A Favourite Thing
Pink Saturday
Weekly Top Shot