Floor Finished .. and Cards Up ...

Hello there ....

just a few pic's of the finished floor .... some of you asked.

We worked like crazy today getting all finished and the furniture back in.

 All is peace and calm ... and I've enjoyed a little candlelight.

 Hubby P worked his little socks off sealing the slate tiles with linseed oil and then polishing them ... it was a bit smelly (the linseed oil) .. but the smell has gone now.

 You can see how the oil brings up all the colours and patterns in the slate.

 Whilst we were at it I had a good sort through the bookshelves ... I'm sure they breed .. where do they all come from?

Anyway we have a boxful to go to the car boot .. and all the 'keepers' are neatly stacked (and dusted).

The other day I bought a nice mixed bunch of holly, bay and other greenery ... from some friends at the car boot ...

I made a simple arrangement just to sit on the side. 

This is as close as I will get to a Christmas tree ... just a simple bit of greenery... pretty.

 In the midst of all this Hubby P kindly lugged all the geodes into the bathroom and gave them a good wash in the shower .... being all tiny crystals they don't half attract and hold the dust ... I've found a shower is the best way to clean them.

 I had a nice time playing about with them ... rearranging them.

 The flooring looks a bit dark in the photo .. 

the dark grey does show off my pink silk rug .... I got this rug the other week .. its a bit used .. a bit loved .. and perhaps a bit faded .. bit like me ....

But I love this rug.

Even the old mule chest got a good polishing ... Hubby P on a mission with the polishing cloth.

He knows I treasure this mule chest ... its been in the family for 60 odd years and has a real tale to tell ...

but that's for another day.

xx

Crazy Upsidedown House ... and Lovely Vintage-y Lady...

Hello there .... 

its an awful night here .. the wind is whipping the trees and howling around the cottage ... I'm so thankful to be sat by a crackling fire.

I think we can say winter is here.

Actually I am sat here ....

 the house it totally upside down around me ..

 We are having a new floor fitted ... lovely huge slate tiles ... a bit like the old fashioned flagged floors ... its looking just fabulous ... 

Its all fitted now ... just needs Hubby P to set to and seal it with oil and polish it up ... very good with a polishing cloth .. Hubby P ...needs a strong arm .. or so I tell him...

In the mean time the furniture is piled 'as and where' ...

and of course it means we will...

 (thats the Royal We ..as in Hubby P) ...have to at least 'touch up' with the paint ...

Lots to do before Christmas!

Being so 'upside down' of course really restricted me from doing much ....

 But I found this little lady on Sunday .. a little battered .. and worse for wear (bit like I feel at 4.30 sat outside a carboot sale on a sunday morning)... she was crushed under a pile of stuff...

 'all 25p' ...

I noticed her crumpled dress ... it was that ...you know ...old .. vintage-y colour.

 I plucked her out of the heap of modern junk ... paid my 25p ... and took her away home ... to see if I could save her.

Under her skirts she is hiding lots of wirework ... she is/was a pretty little lamp.

The wire work was very crushed but all the workings were there ... so today I set about trying to bring her back to her pretty self.

.

 I started with something easy ... she had a little parasol .. the fabric is very faded .. but I like it for all that.

 I reattached it on to its frame ... and found some lace to jazz it up a bit.

 All parasols need to be lacy .. frilly and over the top I feel!

 I repaired her dress ... again lots of frothy lace .. she's a frothy frilly kinda girl!

And I straightened out her nether regions ... I just need Hubby P to work his magic under her skirts ....(now .. now!) ... with a light bulb and electric plug etc.

And she's one pretty lady.

I touched up her paintwork a little .... a girl needs a bit of 'slap' before she leaves the house.

(  'Slap' ... make up/cosmetics for those of you in other parts of the world).

Her body is made of a kind of plaster .. so I would imagine she would easily get knocked about and scratched ... but she has made it this far .. and hopefully I have given her a bit longer.

It kept me occupied and from under the feet of the builder ...

funnily enough it doesn't make the job happen any faster if I stand and watch ...

although the cheese scones I baked seem to spur things on ...

So not Christmas Card or a sprig of Holly anywhere yet ...

why is it Christmas comes at the same time every year ..

 yet we always seem to be rushed off our feet ... getting ready for the day.

Hope your preparations are going well ...

xx

Good Old Soap ...Grannies Pinny and Memories ...

Hello there ...

What is it about this time of year ....it always starts us off thinking of yesteryear ... the whys and wherefores .. what .. who .. and why..

what happened to such and such..

the memories.

Even the everyday ... things we live with can get us thinking.

I've got a thing about soap .. yes I know ... 'Another Thing'!

But I love soaps ... especially the old chunky sort ...

 

 The sort that our grandmothers would have used on a daily basis for all the cleaning jobs ... from floors to dishes to the children's hair.

As you can see I have some on the windowsill in the kitchen that I use ... I wash my hands with it and dab my scourer on it to rub stubborn stains on pans ...or whatever.

 I just love these old boxes of soap ... just fab ...

Perfection .. of course .. what more needs to be said!

 And this pink one is just wonderful .... it even smells healthy ....goodness knows whats in it.

The soap is always there on the windowsill ... so why start musing on soap ...?

well I found a couple of little pinny's.

 Just like Gran use to wear ... the pull over your head ... like a dress .. and tie well around your ample figure ... all good stout cotton....

they all use to wear them ... ladies of a certain age ... it was like a uniform...

 This particular one even has its label on saying Made in Lancashire ... I grew up in Lancashire and the towns were mill towns .. producing cotton and all manor of cotton products...

and as it states here 'Sterling cloth'.

Many a morning the fresh bright colours could be seen wrapped about a stout matron nipping to the corner shop for her fags ...

 

 I remember walking to my friends house .. she lived in town ... amongst the rows of terraced houses built originally for the workers of the mills...as we dawdled through the cobbled streets many a Mum would be outside with a bucket and scrubbing brush .. sprucing up the front of the house ... and in that bucket lurked a bar of the hard soap.

Windowsills .. doors and steps would be scrubbed and sluiced down. Not many 'donkey stoned' the front step when I was a child .. that had mostly died out .. but still the houseproud ladies scrubbed off the grime of a industrial Lancashire town.

 

 And I loved this little label .. you just wouldn't get this nowadays would you!

Of course its just a passing piece of treasure .. nice to have a while ... nice to have the memories ... but it will go to a new home to make its own memories ... its on ebay .. its new owner awaits.

 Whats brought back the memories for you this week ... happy ones I hope?

xx

Christmas Wreath .... Thrifty Snippet...

Hello there ...

hope all your festive preparations are going well.

I've sort of got in the mood ...

The Sunday car boot sale was in a somewhat festive mood ... lots of stallholders selling cards and wrapping paper.. nice baskets of christmasssy type plants .. and lots of lovely Christmas wreaths.

 

Now I like a nice wreath to hang on the gate ... I'm not a big one for decorations ... usually just a bit of greenery in the house.

So I went to inspect the wreaths for sale ... I nearly had a fit ...now Hubby P says I'm just a skin flint ... a miserly sorta woman ... and that 'in the real world' people do pay these kinds of prices ..

'these prices' being £14 for a wreath.

Well ... £14 .. blimey .. I can buy a lot of shopping for that ...

£14 .. for something that will be thrown away in a couple of weeks!

I walked away from the wreaths...

 A few stalls on and a young couple were selling these preformed wreath bases ... 50p ... now that's more like it.

More my kinda price...

 So today I found my sectors and made a nice cuppa and set to ...

 Had a nosey around the garden ...

This little Holly bush could stand a trim ... it sits atop an old cat called Tom .. thus Toms holly.

 The silvery pennies of the Honesty were glittering in a little bit of sunshine.... I had a few of these.

 At the front of the house is the most enormous Rosemary bush ... certainly in need of a trim ... and will add a lovely scent to the wreath.

 I started with a few branches of a hedgerow fir tree .. and simply made a hole in the base and pushed the greenery in.

I think the preformed ring thingy was  designed to have stuff stuck to it really ... it was made of a dense hard stuff .. not very mossy .. or even florists foamy stuff.

But its only got to last a couple of weeks ... and it looks okay.

I found a few artificial red flowers and bits from previous Christmas arrangements ... this is why we always do keep boxes of 'stuff' in the stash cupboard ...

'A Girl never knows when she may want to make a wreath! '

So maybe it looks a bit 'loose' ... a bit rough and ready .. but it brings a bit of colour to the grey and chilly days.

And it didn't cost £14 ... 

I hazard to guess what a real Christmas tree costs these days ...

I think I shall be 'dragging in a bit of a twig' again ...as my children use to call my artistic endeavours with greenery from the garden and a few vintage baubles.

So what have you been up to .... have you invested hard earned cash in a lovely wreath ... the ones I saw were very lovely.

Take care ... keep warm xx

 

Pretty Finds and Warming Goodness....

Hello there ...

Just thought I would share a little prettiness with you ... 

a little bit of vintage loveliness I found in the summer.

Remember Summer?

 

 How is this for a stunning piece of work ... it must have taken hours and hours of stitching ..

 and such beautiful stitching...

 A young couple were selling off bits and bobs from their grandparents home ... and this was stuffed in an old bag ... I wish now I had asked more about it .. but at the time they just said they didn't know .. it was just 'stuff' to them.

When I got it home and looked it over I got all excited and planned to repair it ... you can see I went over it and stuck white labels on the worn bits... to get an overall view of the damage. I think it had perhaps been on a bed and the sunlight has weakened the fabric in places.

Anyway that was as far as I had got ... its sat in the bottom of the cupboard ... I have decided (finally today!) ... I really have not the time to devote to it ... so its time to move it on. 

Someone ... somewhere will do a great job .. 

repair it or turn it into cushions or something lovely ...

 lots of talented people out there ... 

I've put it on ebay ... its a site that is quite far reaching ... hopefully I will be able to re home it.

Life has been a bit busy ... just trying to make a living at the moment .. everything slows down at this time of year .. we just have to keep ticking over and do what we can to bring in a few pounds...

so busy bee's.

So I have just got around to sorting my A Food order...

 Washed all my nice jars and filled them up with the dried stuff ...

store cupboard is nice and full.

 Do you like my nice new salt pot ... well its not pot its enamel ware ... I do so love enamel ware...

 I found the salt pot at the car boot sale (of course) and its ideal ... just the job to hold my yummy sea salt .... I know too much salt is bad for you ... but I do love it sprinkled on my soup.

I got some of this soya mince (it was cheap) .. I thought I could add it to a little minced beef to help make it go further .. or to lentil dishes etc.

I don't think there is much taste to it ... but its protein and will be useful as a standby and bulk-y uppy stuff.

Anyone used this soya mince? 

A bag of this too .. seemed a good idea ... cheap and cheerful.

I thought I could use it a bit like seasoning ..

The other day when the oven was on I put a large casserole dish of dried soup mix (lentils beans peas pearl barley etc) with a bit of onion and some oxo stock in, to slowly cook. 

 It filled the oven space and gave me a big pot of 'soup base' ..

this a I put into smaller plastic boxes and put in the freezer. I can take one out (defrost it) and add to some leftovers to make a quick soup .... or just add some of this soup mix. 

I haven't tried it yet ... but I'm sure it will add a bit of a savoury something to a lot of dishes.

So that's been my week ... more logs to be delivered tomorrow ... nicely stocked up for over the colder weeks.

Take care ... keep warm xx

Approved Foods .... again!

Hello there ... just very quick post ... 
busy days here ....

Just to say really ... have a quick look at AF ... I've gone mad and placed another order.
They have in a load of Community Organic store cupboard staples ... oatmeal.. sea salt (yummy) ... nuts... pearl barley ... soup mix .. rice etc etc .. all sorts of great cupboard standbys.

Winters a commin ... fill ya boots!

Be back soon as I get a few spare minutes...

Take care xx

Peas and More Peas ... But Such Good Value!

Hello there ...

beginning of another week ... where do the days go to ..

A nice young mad delivered my Approved Food order today ...

and carried right into the house ... how great is that ..

its all so easy.

 There perhaps wasn't a great many items as other times .. but of course the weight was in the tins and sack of flour and I only spent £25 all in.

Huge tins of mushy peas ... and just £1 each.

 Whilst I was putting it away it gave me chance to sort out the cupboards .... fill up the everyday jars ... rotate stocks and get a grip of just what I have got ... which happens to be ...lots of curry 'mix in paste-y' things.

So lots of curries on the horizon ...

Now at the moment we have a problem with a 'visitor'  ... I think he has clogs on and lives in the roof space. We have never had mice in the house before ... and to be honest .. this is bigger than a mouse.

How.. why or where .. we don't know .. but they (water board) were doing work on the drains in the road last week .. so maybe they have disturbed something then ....

Hubby P has gone into full battle mode ... the house is wired up like a don't know what ... 

the cat ..

well she's sleeping like a baby ....not a bit interested ... not her problem!

Luckily all foodstuffs are kept in jars and tins .. and I managed to get the big sack of flour in the green enamel bread bin.

I tackled one of the tins of peas .... they are just fine ... mushy peas ... whats to say!

As you can see I had 4 plastic pots handy so I lined them with freezer bags ... filled them .. put them in the freezer. Tomorrow I will take them out of the plastic pots (so I can use the pots again .. the 'blocks' of peas will stack nicely in the freezer.

The remainder of the peas .. well some we had with our gammon for tea and the rest went into a big pot of soup. 

 The flour looks good  .. lets hope so since I bought a whole great sack of it.

I made a soda bread for Hubby P ... we've yet to try it ...

it looks nice and rustic ...

and smells good and wholesome ..

Just what our warrior needs ... 

I do hope our visitor leaves before it comes to a showdown ...

But needs must .. we can have vermin in the house.

Take care xx