Day - 152 - Bargains

Since I was still at my computer and I knew instantly what I was going to do... I have taken the photo and posting now before starting my busy day ahead!

I told you that in the last 2 days I have done a little retail therapy, (often do this when I am sad or upset!!) so here are 2 labels from bargain tops that I know I am keeping, the others still have their labels whilst I ponder whether to keep them!

It is cloudy today and I am pleased as I have DHW and cooking to do ready for the weekend as tomorrow I have Xanthe again for the day and her brother has asked for a sleep over with us on Friday night which we shall enjoy.  I musn't forget to pot up the plants I bought yesterday later today

Have a great day everyone xxx

AWOL - Day 150 - MESSY and 151 - GROCERIES

Well have you missed me? I have been here, clicking away but 2 hot, busy and exhausting days when by the time I got to my computer (which keeps crashing...think it's on it's way out !) I just wanted my bed!..sorry

Day 150 - MESSY

Xanthe today and too hot to be indoors and garden is all tidy and didn't feel like having a mess inside or out. LOL!! that was the word for today!! So we went to town by bus and had breakfast and I did some retail therapy and then we came home and got in the car and went to our local hospice Open Garden for lunch and a wander then back to their village for the school run at 3.15.

 I then went to the GP for a check up for 6mths more tabs, BP was fine...thank goodness and home to think about messy. 

The evening was spent ringing Canada to first talk to Sue's friends for the first time since she died and to ask about sending floers for the funeral and then ringing the florist in her tow. I am happy now all that has been sorted.

Well I have done mess around our house and now both the house and garden are straight. I really hate getting my hands messy so found a photo at my last retreat doing 'messy play' with distressing inks. I just had to wear plastic gloves as I hated the mess on my hands LOL!!, note the one finger gingerly holding the paper!!!

 Here is a collage of Xanthe and the open garden we went to.

 Day 151 - GROCERIES
Another sunny day and DH is taking me out for the day. We call these days out together, bonding days!
We went for coffee to a garden centre nr Battle where Peter enjoyed a scone and jam and I found some plants just fell into my basket!

 This garden centre has a wonderful farm shop where they sell delicious upmarket products which I just like to browse!! Well I got my photo(s) for today.

 We then went on towards Eastbourne. The weather was strange, hot, sunny with blue skies inland and the cold sea mist swirling in from the sea so instead of Eastbourne marina for lunch we stopped at one of Peter's Fisheries

We then continued into the town and bought tickets for Chicargo at the Congress Theatre for next week and then more retail therapy a top for me and food for the weekend as we are entertaining Sat night and off to 2 Jubilee functions on Sat and Sun!!
Last night was church housegroup and after watching a recording of Apprentice until 11, too late to post
Off I now go to find out today's word!

Day 149 - TOOLS

Gosh a photo of tools today! Well I have tools for everything. Cleaning, decorating (not that we do that anymore LOL!!), cooking. writing, emailing, printing etc, etc!!

Anyway DH came home today with a new dustpan and brush.... not for indoors but for the garden!!

 Since today has been another garden day again in glorious hot sunshine I chose to take a photo of the tools I have used today, left tonight in the little raised veggie bed for another day!

 Since Anne is always showing us such wonderful photos from her park, thought I would show you the weeds I detest the most that seem to have taken a hold in my garden :(
The garlic bulb which is profuse at the moment and leave a stem or anything behind and it will re produce, I have to tackle this yet!!

 and of course the dandelion which I think will eradicate the wild grass and swamp our gardens in the next few years, Have you ever looked at the roadsides recently? They are in abundance!! I pinch off their heads if they appear before digging them out, this one has been eradicated now before the seeds flew away!!

Day 148 - UNFINISHED

Gosh I could have found a lot of photos of unfinished things in my house, especially embroidery, scrapping projects and albums unfinished LOL! The ironing half done today, board up and the crops I wanted to iron done but the rest of the ironing...unfinished

Anyway we left church early today to finishe tidying up the garden but at the last minute I cut a bush which was hanging over the path and left the clearing up to later, so job, UNFINISHED!!

 Cannot remember if I showed you the plants and toms ready to pot yesterday? Forgive me as yesterday went passed in a bit of a blur :( Anyway they are all done and in situ.

 Our front garden is full of poppies at the moment, just love the show of red colour but when they have flowered the bed looks such a mess so we are thinking of removing them at the end of their flowering and just having a bed of roses, really not sure if I want to lose my poppies now they are flowering!!

Have spoken to Sue's girls in Canada and her funeral is next Sat 2nd June, she would have loved to know it was Jubilee weekend as she was such a royalist. She was born in Cornwall and went to Canada for a year's exchange in 1968 where she met her husband and stayed for the rest of her life.

Sue

Just to let people know, my dear friend Sue passed away yesterday  aged 67.

Here is a collage of the 2 of us from collage days 1963, my 1st wedding 1967, together with our babies 1977, and the other 2 taken on trips to stay with Sue in Harrison Hot springs nr Vancouver BC

 This collage are some of many photos taken in Oct 2010 before she could no longer go out the following month. Some precious moments to remember.

She really fought this dreadful illness for years and had always wished to see her youngest daughter married this coming August, sadly but thankfully she is at peace and no longer in pain.

Day 147 - CLEANLINESS

Before I go into the garden for the day, I decided to tackle today's word photo!

I have plenty of products for cleaning the house, myself and even the outside paths LOL!! Well they do say "cleanliness is next to godliness"!!

This expression though does not appear in the Bible and cleanliness has no connection with godliness. I looked this expression up and it is an archaic proverb found in Babylonian and Hebrew tracts. It probably originated when the jews were concerned with the concepts of 'clean' and 'unclean'!

Day 146 - BORING

I definitley didn't have a boring day. The day started really early with DGS brought to us at 7.15am for breakfast and then the school run! I then went to a different garden centre for the 2nd day running and ended up having my breakfast there sitting in this glorious sunshine. back home I pottered all day outside in the sunshine potting up some of the plants and DH did the pm school run for Zac.

 Then came the bad news. I hardly go on FB but at teatime I decided to see what friends and family had been up too. There was a message for me from my friend's daughter in Canada telling me on Wednesday they had taken my friend into the hospice and she probably only has a matter of a few days left.
I went last Oct/Nov to see her and look after her so one of the daughters could go back home  for a few weeks. It was a very special time for both of us, a time I will cherish.
The day finished upbeat with our monthly meal with friends in a pub. The evening was so balmy I wore a sundress as if we were on a Mediterranean island!
I have a long list of things I find boring...any kind of sport, housework, ironing, walking especially hills (where you spend all the time looking down to where to put your foot next!!), food shopping and putting it away at home,and paperwork. Here is my photo for today, church hall hiring paperwork, I am the hall booking secretary!! This has been sitting on my desk all week waiting for me to generate invoices and payment sheets. Must do it on Saturday!!

Day 145 - SOFT

I have finally got the day right again!!Today's word was SOFT and immediately I thought about material things that are soft but decided to go for a person who is soft. The dictionary says

-  lacking in hardness. yielding under pressure, malleable. 

Well that is my lovely DH especially with the grown up children and even more so with the grandchildren.

Not often with me though!!

Here he is with Xanthe and myself, the photo taken by Xanthe's brother Zachary at Easter time

 The photo below is one of my favourites with Xanthe and DH. I am sure I have shown this one before but I just love it!!

 Sorry I haven't been blog hopping but my laptop keeps crashing so haven't been on it much!
 We had after an SOS phone call at 7.15 this morning, we had Xanthe again for the morning. We went to a garden centre for some plants for tubs and hanging baskets.
Have you all had a hot day? We have and we have eaten outside for the past 2 days and tonight I was still in the garden at 8.30pm!

Day 144 - ARTIFICIAL

As soon as I saw the word for today I knew that I would take this photo! I am not a lover of artificial flowers but have a vase in the bathroom and this vase in our hall. I have had this one a long time and still haven't grown tired of it yet!

Well I have posted early today. the sun is shining and the sky is a cloudless blue too! Off to WI at SW now then shopping in town and bowls teas pm followed by housegroup tonight, a busy day ahead!

Day 143 - RESTFUL and Xanthe

Today was anything but restful as Tuesdays are Xanthe day! What a gorgeous hot day it turned out to be and quite a shock too. Xanthe arrived in thick tights and boots, we tried no tights but couldn't get her boots on so she stayed like this all day, no hat or sun cream but tights and boots LOL!! She found the water squirter in the lounge which we have to try and stop Mae scratching the new carpet, this kept her amused all morning in the garden after breakfast and shopping.

 Here I am soaking up the sun whilst she played water squirting at herself and the plants

 This is my restful 10mins picture for today!

Forgot to say that an engineer came today from 'Switchover' scheme for over 75's (Peter not me!!) with a topbox and set us all up. We can now record 2 programmes and watch a 3rd on our TV freeview, pause, start and rewind live TV..... what fun we will have tonight. Our VCR/DVD player will now be upstairs to record and watch. Far too many TV's etc for 2 peeps but we do like our TV programmes!

Day 142 _ ORNAMENT and scrapping

Here is my ornament, a new one last year for my kitchen to go with my duck/hen collection which I got in Germany on our Baltic Cruise.

 Now some of the LO's I have finished these last few days
These 2 are our class LO's This one was March

 and this was April's. Both LO's used Bo Bunny papers and photos of DGS- Zac

 These past few days I have been trying to do 3 CJ's that were sent to me last week. The CJ should have finished in February but didn't!
Here are 2 pages for a Beatle album called A Hard Day's night

Another for 2 boys called Our Dad

and the last one was about the Family pets thay have had

This morning I went to our church craft club. Here is the lady who runs it with Angela who is covering a cushion

Here is my free embroidery that I am doing

Day 141 - MINIMALIST

Where did today go to? After church this morning a preped dinner, then DH had a bowls match and I went to my craft room and tackled the first of 3 CJ's that I received last week. I have finished one and it is all packed up to post tomorrow, 2 more to do this week!! Tonight we chilled out and watched TV so I have only just got online to blog at bedtime!!

As I saw the word for today I immediately thought, I do not do 'minimal'!! I always pack for 'just in case'. Hate the weight restrictions for baggage when flying and a car on holiday is always full. For the Lakes a few weeks ago I had 6 assortment of coats and jackets just for myself and 6 pairs of shoes, yet only wore my walking shoes, a couple of prs in the evenings and one jacket and sleeveless fleece!!

I hate scrapping with 'white space' and live in clutter in my office and all work tops in the kitchen and bedroom are full of things I need! Tidy but busy.

Finally I realised that at the moment our lounge walls and hall walls are bare (though not for long as we decide which pictures to put back!!)

So here are 2 photos for minimalist

 and here is the old wall showing some of the pictures  before the decorating. I took this photo to remember where they all went! They are mainly paintings and photos from places we have visited on holidays, I am missing them not being on the walls at the moment! The other end of the wall has photo collages of the family growing up every few years, they like seeing them!

It is late tonight so apologies to you all whose blogs I go to, will pop in later tomorrow...promise xx

Day 140 - INTERIOR

Here is today's photo. I had intended to take a photo of the inside of the craft shop I visited today but in the excitement to see all the stash...I forgot LOL!!

So on my way home I took the interior of the car so these are my feet and legs!!

 Well where did I go and what did I buy you are all thinking!! But before I get there let's start with the beginning of my day
I had planned to have a 'girly' day with my friend Carol.  DH had planned to go fishing but then last night changed his mind...as men do!!
We had our usual cooked breakfast courtesy of DH on Sat mornings, then postie arrived with a pizza box, Sarah's Card kit with yummy stash, soon to finish in July :( Here is this month's kit, Pink Paislee - Priairie Hill.

 So off to The Craft Barn at Lingfield we went and here are the papers and stash I bought

 We fell into the coffee shop next door which is called The Browsers shop so..yes you can guess there were books and cards etc and..... here are 4 books I bought for the total of £1.60!!

 and some cards I needed for birthday and anniversary and a sympathy card too :(

A fab girlie day out and now home alone til 10pm as my footie DH is watching some of the footie finals at his friend's house and eating there tonight. Have opened a bottle of wine and cooking a SW curry dish which he would hate!

Day 139 - FLOWER

I thought I had no flowers in our garden and didn't want again to look into my photo archives, then I remembered that the lilac tree was in full flower so here is a flower from our garden today. It was taken in drizzly rain as you can see from the leaves

 These are some flowers I bought this week for the house, I usually buy flowers every week with my shopping, they have all opened except one which is still in bud! very unusual!

 Today the Olympic flame arrived in Cornwall and I am doing monthly a record of 2012 in photos and scrapping so took some photos off the TV and I have made a collage of the photos for my blog today.

It has been a really miserable day, I scrapped this morning with Carol and need to upload the LO's  that we both did from classes we had missed in March and April. PM Peter's bowls match was cancelled so he watched a recording of Lewis whilst I sorted kits and papers from my scrapping paper cupboard.

Day 138 - GROUP

Thought I would introduce you to all our family in one group today as my day 138 photo! It was taken 2 years ago as we celebrated our Silver Wedding Ann.

I have named them all. My sons are Mark and Iain. Iain's partener is Perdita and their children are Zac and Xanthe. Peter's children are Alun married to Sara and their children Tom and Mat and Jo and her children Amie and Lewis 

 Well it is lovely today and not too cold either but I am still in my dressing gown LOL!!
I have spent the morning learning something new. I am tech phobic but try to keep up and so today I tried to get some camera photos taken yesterday onto my laptop but the phone card is too tiny to put in my laptop  and I had no leads...then I remembered the word bluetooth so I found it on my computer and then on my phone, finally 2 hrs later connected them both and voila! Here are the photos from my camera taken by Zac and by me. You certainly learn something new each day don't you!!