We are off 'down South'

We are leaving early tomorrow morning to visit Alan's son and family in Tunbridge Wells. They moved from East Dulwich last year and love it so they are putting their house in London on the market and looking for somewhere permanent in TW. Neither of us have been there before so I am looking forward to it.

I meant to ask on blogs if anyone can recommend places to see but forgot and now its too late.

Paul and Sue Mee are taking us to to Lewes on Friday whilst the children are at school for a grown up day! and I know some people have put on blogs about it but I'll be blowed if I can find them. Still I am assured by others that it is very nice and full of my kinds of shops.

I see the temperature is going to be good this weekend so it should be nice though I dont like the heat with my own hot flushes being so rampant at the moment.
We are staying in a B&B in TW as they only have 2 bedrooms where they are renting, the B&B is just a few mins awayfrom the Pantiles whihc looks fabulous.

Anyway I will have lots of blogs to read when we return - I will try and remember to take pictures.

Time moves on..........

This is me on the left and my friend Norma on the stall I had at Masham!

Last week my son moved back into his house and his lovely wife Vicky moved into a rented house. We are going to see her tomorrow night - it will be awkward but we want to see how she is after several traumatice weeks. Adam is settled as well and feels calm and content.

ON a more cheery note I had a stall at a spring fair in Masham which is about 25 mins from home. There was only one other lady with handmade goods, the rest were fairtrade, bags, jewellery etc. I did very well and sold quite a few things. The best thing one was that Vintage Heart came from Richmond to visit me and it was fantastic to meet her - she is lovely and she bought some bunting and a pot off me. It was an experience - there was tea and coffee and cakes etc and in the morning all the locals came in for their regular Saturday chat and five ladies moved their chairs around the table next to my stall and then proceeded to make a cuppa each last for almost an hour - during that time noone could get near to see my stuff!! They then all got up and came over and started to 'look ' at my stall.

I had a canvas over which I had stretched some lovely 'scottie dog' fabric - one lady said she liked it to her friend and then said I want a pinboard - I said it isn't a pin board - her reply was "so it's not useful then?" I said " Well not particularly" I explained it was fabric over canvas and her reply was " So what is it then?" I said "it's a picture" to which her friend replied " Come on , you can make one of those yourself"!!! As we say in Yorkshire - There's nowt as queer as folk!

I am pleased to say that later on a lady from Solihull (on a coach trip) loved my 'useless picture' and bought it for her daughter she restored my confidence and faith in humanity.

I have packed it all away now but it is ready to transport and I will look out for another 'do' and in the meantime I will make more bunting and some of the pictures I made with vintage fabric and frames and wadding.

Changes afoot

My son and his recently married wife Vicky have seperated - he came home and told us that he did not love her anymore and did not want to be with her. We are devastated for Vicky as Adam was her life and everything she had ever wanted but it is not to be. I just wish he had called it a day before he promised his life to her by getting married. She is lovely and she is totally broken by his decision I just do not know what to say to her. I am not taking sides but cannot help but feel desperately sorry for her. We keep in touch by email and text and have talked a lot about how she feels, she is a broken person and has been very brave.

Adam is living here with us until Vicky finds somewhere to rent ( we think she is fixed up now with a house) and then he will move back. He was already in the process of buying his little house when they got together so it is in his name and he doesnt want to sell yet because of the fixed rate penalty and alomost negative equity at the moment. As he is still married they are both signing a document saying how they split things up and that when he sells the house he will split the profit with her as they have both paid equal money into since moving in together - though he put down the deposit etc. They were only married in August but had been together 3 years. It is so sad, he told my parents tonight - we have been putting off telling them cos of Dad but they were really ok about it.

I am in the meantime sewing lots of things amd making things to sell on a stall at the end of the month in Masham - there is thread everywhere and my head is full of ideas with not enough time to make all the things I want to. There are 12 different types of cushions cut out, gift tags printed, fabric pictures made and bunting to sew up as well as hearts and lavender sachets made of vintage linens.

Little Red Stove

This is the shlef we used the dresser base brackets for because of the weight of all the stuff we actually used the l shaped metal brackets on the top of the shelf and the thick wooden ones for show but only you know..................

We have recently removed a non-working living flame gas fire and had the chimney sealed etc as Bob the Bodger who has caused us so much work since we bought his house had in fact had the fire people round a couple of years before and they warned him not to use the fire as the chimney wasnt sealed etc - but he 'forgot' to tell us obviously - he just elft a note on the day we moved in saying the fire wouldnt stay lit. Anyway the last of our downsizing profit later we have a beautiful red Franco Belge multi fuel stove which is nearly as lovely as the dresser top!!

The heat it puts out is amazing and as we spend a lot of our time on our own as the adults kids living with us are always out it means we only need to heat that room and save some energy money.

This is the surround we took out and they cleaned out the cavity and bricked it up.

Where did February and nearly March go..........

I am just going to get on with writing and hide the lack of presence on the blogging front as usual I am avidly reading them all but then too tired to post one of my own!

These are some beautiful ribbons I have bought from a French website after finding some lovely French ladies' blogs. The picture does not do them justice and the service from the Stephanie was fantastic, each ribbon was wrapped individually in red tissue paper it was such a pleasure opening them all.


I have aso been buying some fabrics lately - the top pink one is an old Laura Ashley it was a single gathered valance and has given me yards of material in a very usable strip for £1.25!
The middle left is finally a purchase from Cath Kidston in Harrogate on Sunday as well as the piece on the bottom right. The shop is a dream isn't it -especially the lovely old quilts used as changing room curtains.

Bottom left and top right were vintage fabrics bought on Sunday from the Vintage and Reto Fair in Harrogate - quite small as the lady had had several cancellations 'cos it was Mother's Day.

All the rest have been bought of that emporium known as ebay - another reason why posting time on the blog is never enough as I love to search.

Below is the wonderful dresser top my Husband has made me for the bargain dresser base we bought a few months ago. This was originally a base cupboard with a an extra deep solid oak worktop and the other side was panelled with big brackets under the worktop to make a breakfast bar. We took the brackets off and cut the worktop back (we used this piece for a bedroom hearth and a shelf) We got the shade of paint of the people who made the base and off we went - I was foreman and Alan the joiner! I am so pleased with the result and very proud of my clever husband. This is a picture of it before I packed it with vintage china with a close up of my favourite three pieces (off ebay of course) It is not glossy its the sun!

Spot the Lillipeg girls from Lucy Bloom and my Nana's sugar shaker and the bowl I found to match it.

I came down on Sunday morning and the sun was streaming in through the velux window above the dresser and I was in my element finally achieving the look I have wanted for so long we would never have been able to afford the top from the people who made the bottom.

Thanks to Sal's Snippets

Just a quick note to say thank you to Sal for her lovely giveaway. These were photographed when I came in from work last week but first chance to post.

Have been to a lovely felting day today - really enjoyed it. Will take a photo later of my effort which I am so pleased with..........

Have picked up a few bargains before Xmas and read some lovely blogs lately - there are so many clever people out there - also bought my first purchase off Etsy successfully.

Notes from an appalling blogger

Well I can't really call myself a blogging poster but I am still a blogging reader! Its 3 months since my last post which is particularly bad I should think I have been erased from any previous readers of my blog - which I totally deserve. The photos above that even with tuition some time ago from Marmalade Rose I cannot get in the right place! are of Scarborough and my son's wedding in August

I am now officially a mother-in-law which is lovely as I have a smashing daughter-in-law. The wedding day in August was perfection. There were 30 guests and it was intimate, perfect and memorable. The hotel which was Chapters in Stokesley were discreet, professional, well organised and made the dat into one that was better than any of us expected. The food was sublime, very special and well thought out. The weather was OK not fantastic but pleasantly warm, it rained when we were eating inside but got out again when we were mingling they had huge parasols in the garden which meant we were under cover. The next evening they had a 'do' for 100 with a fantastic disco who were also a live Blues Brothers which were as good as the real thing. Vicky danced the night away in her wedding dress and sparkly flat shoes! A great time was had by all.

My Dad is OK at the moment still with us but tires easily. He has gone with the caravan to the War Weekend at Pickering and then they will shut it up for winter. We had a lovely family bbq in September for his birthday and a gathering atmy brothers for Mam's birthday. He loves it when we are all together and thought the wedding was wonderful.

We went to Scarborough for a few days over the Bank holiday and had a lovely time- the weather was good and we walked miles. We are very lucky to live in such a lovely part of the country and it was nice to stay away for a few days especially when the weather was good.

A month ago we had a traumatic time with our daughter. She had been going out with a nice guy and she was very happy and we were cos he seemed lovely. Whilst we were in Scarborough she and he were driven down to Worcester by a car salesman friend of his to buy an Audi TT. We discovered later that he couldnt get the finance to buy it and he persuaded Kate to take it on as they were now 'together' she didnt think she would be granted the loan but she was (we knew nothing if this until later when she told us) and so there she was with a £16.5k loan over 5 years - aaaarrrgghh - Yes its a lot for someone who actually earns £16 per year herself. Anyway a couple of days after getting the car he was never available and started over the next couple of weeks to cool off and started telling her he had been seeing someone else etc - just generally being horrible and she could never drive the car. This is when she told us what had happened and that it actually belonged to her in the finance and the DVLA log book. To cut a long story short when she asked him for it back he siad he would trash it and cancel her from the insurance policy so she got nothing for it and would be left with the loan. In the end we got the police to go round and point out that he was driving her car without her permission. They got the keys and the finance documents off him - he was threatening her within minutes on her phone. We took the car straight to the local Audi dealer and explained the situation - we were anxious to get rid of it before the first payment was take out of her bank. Wegot a trade in of £12k for it and a financial settlement figure of £16,696. So had to find £4,696.

My parents have £3k put aside for the grandchildren to go towards a deposit for a house when they are ready so we persuaded them to let Kate have hers now - we then had to lend her £1,696 to pay the car off completely. As to the ex boyfriend he kept calling her (we advised her to ignore him) and then the nasty texts for three days until she checked her online banking and realised that he had used her card once several weeks ago to top up his phone and of course it kept the details in his phone - he had been topping up his phone (£40) to send her the insulting texts!

At ths point she changed her phone number. All was quiet till he somehow,through someone else got her phone number and it all started again so she had to change her number again andthat was another £35!!

It has been a strong learning curve for Kate she will be paying us off for a long time and her heart has been broken in the process as she had real feelings for this guy...........its hard being young isn't it and you can't be everywhere looking after them especially at 23 but I would love punch this lads eyes out for hurting my daughter so much.

The worst thing is that he has no debt, there were no charges against him and he is swanking around conning other people now. I wanted to write to his Mum and make sure she knew exactly what her son has done but Kate is scared of the recriminations that might follow.....so I have to live with it.

Right I am off to bed now - we have doors on the landing to paint as the bathroom is almost finished and the cushionfloor will be fitted at the same time as the stair carpet (which has been in storage at the shop since last September!) the tiling will be grouted tomorrow by me and the frame around the bath can go on - the panelling there can go on after the cushionfloor goes down - I am sooooo excited.