22nd - 28th October

This week I have been

Dancing - to the Bay City Rollers.

Well these days the only original Roller in the band is lead singer Les McKeown.

I went to see them on S A T U R D A Y night (if you know their songs you'll know why I spelled it that way!) with my sisters, it was part of their birthday gift to me.

I had an amazing time.

To be dancing away to all my favourite songs whilst Les McKeown was on stage singing them was just the best.

I was lucky enough to find this fabulous transfer on E-bay which made just the most perfect t-shirt.

Making - a new necklace. This was an illustration from the front of a vintage sewing pattern. I just love her hairstyle.

Wearing - it was Pumpkin Day on Friday and so there was only one choice of brooch.

Eating - to carry on with the pumpkin theme I made us pumpkin pancakes for breakfast. S wasn't keen but G and I enjoyed ours with yogurt, fruit and a drizzle of maple syrup. Delicious and really filling.

Reading - a Christmas book. Saturday afternoon I was in the mood for something festive. I had a few books on my shelf to choose from and went for this one as it looked like a short read. It certainly was as I finished it on Sunday afternoon. By this time I had been out and bought myself another new Christmas mug, it was only 50p from a charity shop so how could I have resisted?

Watching - The Bishop's Wife. It was Elsa Lanchester's birthday on 28th October which provided us with the perfect opportunity for another viewing of this superb movie.


Celebrating - my sister's birthday on 24th. She knew about two of the items of clothing as she had chosen those herself but everything else was a surprise. As you probably remember we spend £10 and all items must come from a car boot or charity shop.
All of these items come to £9.97 in total.
The mug, Gisela Graham mini heart dish and the cupcake decoration were all £1 each. The coaster, cushion cover and paper decorations were 50p each.

This long length grey and pink cardi which originally came from New Look was £1 and was one of the things C has picked out.

The hand made top on the left was one of my favourite buys for her, it reminded me of a gingerbread house! This was £1.

The plain grey jumper was the second item she had chosen and was 50p.

The red glass dish was 50p.

The snowflake jumper was £1, the book was 10p, the jug was 50p and the white deer brooch was new and 87p.

50p Finds

Sunday morning would normally mean a trip to the car boot.

Not today though, instead we took the train to Brockenhurst for a lovely long walk in the New Forest and I'll share a post about that another day.

For today I thought I would share my four favourite 50p finds from the two car boots we have visited so far.

These have got to be the best buy not just for this year but best buy ever.

A brand new pair of brown boots.

The lady selling them had had an op on her foot and so wasn't able to wear them.

I am a big fan of Sainsbury's clothing and already have many items from their Tu range in my wardrobe. I now have another in the shape of this longer length button down shirt.

A waterproof watermelon design shopping bag.

I really should count the number of scarfs I own! I do have loads but then I do wear them all the time and how could I pass up the opportunity of this large dotty one in a lovely neutral tone.

I think I've done pretty well so far, don't you?

May: Bought, Read, Watched

Let's start off with the things I bought for 30p each at the jumble sale earlier this month.

I've worn this skirt to work once already.

 It's lovely and light and summery.

This lightweight knit top is actually more of a peacock blue than the photo shows and has a shimmery thread to it which you can just about make out.
Again this was bought with work in mind has already been worn there once.

Next up is a dress from the car boot.

This was 50p.

Yet another purchase intended for work and again being cotton it's light and with the slightly drop waist really comfy.

This cardi isn't as skew-whiff as it looks hanging from the front of my wardrobe!

It's a lovely deep green and a very welcome addition to my ever expanding cardigan collection.

This was a purchase from my local branch of Barnardo's where everything cost £1.99.

As the price tag shows, this star patterned shirt also came to me via Barnardo's.
And as photo shows it was brand new, still having it's original price tag attached.

I hope it's a while before I get to wear this grey jumper. It's long and baggy and has some pretty buttons along the neck line. Originally from M&S, it was mine for 50p from the car boot.

Only two books read this month.#First up was The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets.

A quick and easy read set in London and the Wiltshire area in the 1950s and featuring some interesting characters.

Johnnie Ray is mentioned quite a lot which led me to listening to his songs on youtube for an entertaining half hour.

I can't remember where G bought this for me. It was a while ago and it was in a charity shop is all I can dredge up from my memory.

It reads like an autobiography and over 150 pages it charts the years of WW2 as experienced by a young girl and her family.

It's been a month of action movies for us.
G has been working his way through the Jack Reacher books written by Lee Child and so we have watched the two adaptations starring Tom Cruise.
To follow that we watched the first three Jason Bourne movies with Matt Damon in the lead role.
Both were chock full of car chases and fist fights, the JB ones slightly more frantic and often filmed in a way which made it harder to follow exactly what was happening.
I reckon we're due something a bit calmer for June!

Cold

I have a cold.

Not surprising really seeing as most of the people I work with have been full of colds these past few weeks, it was bound to get me sooner or later. 

I was very glad to arrive home on Friday and have the weekend stretching out in front of me.

No commitments to be anywhere at anytime but with various possibilities out there if we wanted.

Saturday morning was cold but bright and I felt like a walk in the fresh air would help with my head full of stuffiness.

A Christmas fair was being held at a local plant nursery and so that's where we headed, only stopping for a quick photo opportunity.

G is always on the look out for the Jack Reacher books by Lee Child and was very pleased to find two more to add to his collection. S and I found some pretty earrings but my favourite buy was this pink snowflake Pyrex dish.
I have seen them on Pinterest but never one in the flesh. I only paid a pound for it from a bric a brac stall and was gob smacked to see the them selling online for over £100. It's going to have pride of place on the dresser this Christmas.

Housework, a little spot of present wrapping and then some feet up time followed before we wrapped up warm once again and took ourselves down to the local high street for their annual Christmas event.

This can be a bit of a hit or miss affair, this year's was more the latter but we do like to support local events if we can.

I do like the snowmen which adorned the tops of each of the Christmas trees lining the street.

The heads are made from those plastic topiary balls which have been sprayed white and black.

The charity shop I used to volunteer in many moons ago had stayed open late for the event and so we nipped in and I found this pretty heart decorated spice rack for £1.00, something I've been looking out for.

Even after a goodnight's sleep I was loathe to get up this morning. I felt so lethargic and was all bunged up again.

I laid there thinking of all that I needed to do but instead of getting up and setting to G got up made me breakfast in bed and there we stayed for a while longer to watch one of my favourite movies of all time.

The Bishop's Wife.

If you haven't seen it then you must.

Cary Grant and David Niven.

Enough said. 

After watching the movie I did get up and do the majority of those jobs which I needed to do.

Just at a slower, my head is full of cold pace.

Swaythling to Salisbury

We like the train to take the strain when it's time to go to Salisbury and visit G's family.

We can't travel directly from our local one so we usually drive down the road to Swaythling station. I like this Victorian station complete with it's little patch of garden at the front.

Last time we were there I noticed something new but didn't have my camera, I made sure I had it with me at the weekend though.

Swaythling was the site of the largest Remount Depot in World War I and this horse head and a plaque have been donated in remembrance of the 400,00 horses and mules which passed through the depot.

These horses attached to the perimeter fence are from an art project undertaken by a local secondary school.

Just to the left of the station is a plot of land which has been developed in recent years and named after a local artist - Eric Meadus Close. His drawing of the station is featured on this plaque and you can read more about him here if you wish, it's very informative. Apparently L.S Lowry was a fan of and I'm pleased to say our local art gallery owns some of his works.

Our reason for visiting Salisbury was to take G'S mum and her friend J out to lunch as it was her birthday this week. Very nice it was too and we spent a couple of cosy hours sat in the pub whilst the wind and rain lashed down outside. We had an hour or so to spare before the train and so made a quick dash to a couple of charity shops, passing this old house on the way.
G swears he'd never noticed it before. The plaque by the front door names it as 'The Old Forge.' 

G found a couple of Prog Rock CD's, S found a couple of books and I came home with this holly saucer. It was only 50p and I bought it with the intention of adding it to my sister's bundle of gifts but once home I decided I didn't actually want to part from it and so it's now sat on my mantelpiece.

p.s I may have been playing my Brian Setzer Christmas CD whilst typing this.

Busy Week

There has been a lot going on this week, we've all been busy in various ways.

S has been busy at school.

Last week she came home with a certificate to say she speller of the week for always putting her words in her spelling log

and then to top that she was given the Super Star of the week award for all the effort and hard work she has put in to her work and her name appeared in the school newsletter published on Monday.
What a great start to the school year for S, that deserves a little treat I reckon.

Since the children returned to school my days off have been filled with necessary appointments, things such as the car MOT, this Monday it was the dentist for a root canal. Nice.
On my return I found the postman had been and in among the boring stuff was something really quite exciting.
A letter from T's school inviting us to an awards evening.
It said T had been nominated to receive an award, although we won't find out what for until the actual event itself in a couple of weeks time.
Intriguing. 

As an added extra to liven up the day even further the toilet became blocked. 
To cut a long, and very yucky, story short the problem turned out to be with the main sewerage pipe. Thankfully after a call to the water company it was confirmed it was one for which they were responsible and we were told an engineer would be sent the next morning.

Next September S starts senior school (can't believe I'm typing those words) and Monday evening me, G and S went to visit the first of three local schools we are considering as they were holding their open evening.
The school is a recently established academy and in a building which is only a couple of years old, everything is very light and spacious and a huge improvement on the facilities previously on the site.

            DVDs bought for 10p each at the car boot on Sunday.

Thankfully Tuesday morning the promised engineer turned up bright and early, the blockage was cleared and the toilet was soon in full working order again.
Phew.

G finished work earlier than normal in the afternoon so he could go and watch S's class assembly. This is probably the last class assembly we'll be attending. There's the Christmas production and probably a leaver's assembly and then that's it.
Strange to think.
Anyway, S's main activity in this assembly was to tell everyone about the sweet potato cookies she had baked as part of their project on Zimbabwe. G said she delivered her speech very clearly and did a great job.

I was having to work until 8pm that evening so was unable to join G and S at the second senior school open evening. 
As this was held at T's current school I didn't mind so much as we already know a great deal about the school, but T had volunteered to help out in one of the Science classrooms and was helping the younger children conduct a very simple experiment. G said he looked quite the part in his white lab coat and was good at communicating with the children.

The final open evening is next week and then a decision will need to be made.

                       pretty floral top, 50p

Wednesday involved another dental visit, but this time it was for S. 
I had to take her to the orthodontist to see if she was ready for the brace the dentist had referred her for.
The answer was a no, we need to go back in a year and she'll be reassessed then. 
Next year when she'll be at senior school.
Oh my.

So that's been our week so far.
School and dental based.

Lately

Let's have a little catch up of things which have been happening chez J&J shall we.


From the kitchen we have produced three things never cooked in there before.
S made sweet potato cookies. She decided to bake these as part of her homework on Zimbabwe from a traditional recipe found online, earning herself some words of admiration from her teacher. Very nice they were too.
I made British style patatas bravas, which earned a mixed reaction. One loved it, one tried it but didn't like it, one refused to eat it. Sound familiar? 
The last new thing on the menu was a whipple-scrumptious fudgemallow delight for Roald Dahl day. Oh my. 

I was very pleased when Friday evening rolled around and I was home with my feet up. It had been a busy week. I really felt like a glass of wine but we didn't have any in. What we did have cooling in the fridge was a Snowball. I had bought them a couple of weeks ago as it was something I had wanted to try. Out came the very infrequently used champagne saucers, the drink was poured and very quickly quaffed. I thought it was delicious. This now begs the question, do I try Advocaat on it's own? Any advice? 

Whilst (kind of) on the subject of glasses I wanted to show one of my latest purchases. 
I had an afternoon out with my sisters at the end of August, it was to spend time together on the anniversary of when we lost our dearest Dad. 
We went to a vintage and antique emporium where I found this little gem. It's now my glass of choice for my morning orange juice.

I've been very organised and sorted out all of C's birthday presents from the stash of items I have accumulated for her. I have a fair amount of things towards her Christmas present and for her birthday in October I think I counted 15 items for our budget of £10. I shall be wrapping them soon and will make sure I photograph them as I go. I have also decided on the gift for my other sister T whose birthday is in November and I'm really pleased with the theme running through it. This candle is part of it and when I have bought all the items I'll share it here.

Last week at book club our read for August was given a thumbs up by all. Black Hills was something a bit different and an enjoyable read but I felt it was about 100 pages too long, I got a bit bored with the two main characters trying to sort out their relationship when you know how it's going to end. Also whenever I looked at the cover I started singing 'Take me Back to the Black Hills, the Black Hills of Dakota, to the beautiful Indian country that I love' from the film Calamity Jane. And as much as I love Doris Day and that movie I was getting fed up with it!
In contrast this month we have The Spinning Heart which is only 160 pages long. Or should that be short. This should mean I have some time to read another of the books G gave me for my birthday. 
I have read the Phryne Fisher one already. G bought me that because we were hooked on watching the TV series on Netflix which was hugely entertaining. My next one will be The Year of Living Danishly.

We didn't go booting this weekend and the weekend before we only went to provide a bit of support to my mum and sister who were there selling so I only had time to have a mini wander and make a couple of purchases. A checked shirt for T and a sequinned top for S.

The lady who was on the pitch next to my sister didn't want to take any of her things home and gave me this length of Christmas fabric which she said is used to hang from a mantle. She said it had originally came from Denmark. I think I may wrap it around the metal base of the tree to hide it's ugly legs.

We were hoping to go on a wildlife walk at a local nature reserve at the weekend but when we got there for the advertised time we found it had already started. Weekends over the next couple of months will probably be a bit quieter as there seem to be less events on as we head into autumn, so it was a little disappointing we had missed this one. 

Bargain Buys

No days out for us this weekend, so no photos to share of places we've visited. 

Well when I say no days out, not for me, G and S anyway.

T went to London with a friend for the Gay Pride event and had a brilliant time.

S ended up spending the afternoon round at her friend L's, messing about and cooling off in their paddling pool.

G and I spent the afternoon in the garden. 

Initially tackling the many jobs which need doing and then doing nothing more strenuous than reading.

However before we knuckled down to the garden jobs we headed out to a sale being held to raise funds for the child bereavement charity Simon Says.

We came away with a real assortment of purchases, G bought a couple of Pink Floyd CD's, S found a couple of tops she liked and although I didn't buy anything for myself I picked up a few items towards my sister's birthday present including this plastic heart shaped basket for 10p.

G didn't fancy going to the car boot on Sunday morning so I arranged to go with my mum and sister. They talked me into buying this top for £1.00. Not really sure why I initially resisted buying it as it's just my kind of thing.

My favourite buy was this scarf, again for £1.00. 

Another purchase for my sister. She saw it and liked it and so I bought it. It was 50p. It's now been packed away until much later in the year.

Today is a day all bloggers should celebrate, it's camera day. Where would we be without them.

Our Easter and S Day

 Today is the day 7 years ago we travelled home together from Norfolk and became a family of 4.
It's known as S Day (T Day is in August) and each year we try and mark the occasion for each child. Due to both G and I having to work today and S going to spend time with a friend we celebrated S Day over the Easter break. It started with a trip to the cinema to see Home, a new animated movie which she really wanted to see. Good family fun movie.
At home in the afternoon we set about prettifying the dining room for Easter, S decorated branches of forsythia with eggs

whilst I hung up our bunny mugs on the dresser.

We had invited my mum and sister over for a roast in the afternoon and to follow I made a hot cross bun treacle tart. I cheated and used ready made pastry but it was very simple to make and the recipe is here if you fancy giving it a go. The perfect accompaniment for a cup of tea I guarantee it.

Saturday was a mooching around the house kind of day and then Sunday we were all off to Salisbury for a family celebration. G's brother will be 60 tomorrow and so we all gathered together for lunch at G's mum's house for a birthday lunch. 
G and I had complied a little quiz about events, people, sport and film from 1955 and after lunch the family divided themselves into two teams and played against each other. I'm happy to report the birthday boy was on the winning team.

Yesterday we popped along to the car boot sale for an hour.
G came home with a couple of singles and an LP and my best buy was this Royal Albert milk and sugar bowl. There was also a smaller sugar bowl, for the coffee set I'm presuming, and for the 3 items I paid £2.00. I checked on-line yesterday and this shape and design are from the 1950's. It's been washed and packed away until December!
Our day was topped off with a Chinese takeaway, another part of our slightly early S Day celebrations.

Another Pinterest inspired spring craft was completed at the weekend.
I have made a wreath for the front door using a ball of lime green fun fur yarn. It looks like lush spring grass. I am really pleased with the way it has turned out. Instructions are here if you want to give it a whirl.

I couldn't end this post without including a photo of S, after all it is her day, but as she has already gone out and I won't see her now until I come home from work this evening I will have to use a photo of her from January.

We are incredibly lucky to have such a beautiful, kind, funny and generous little girl as our daughter.