Here come the girls ............

We finally did it ..... after years of procrastinating (on my husband's part I must add - he could dither for England) we have some hens.

May I introduce at the back Miss Hermione (Speckledy), Miss Babs (Silver Nick), Miss Ginger (Goldline) and Miss Dorcas (Maran Cuvree). We visited a local poultry centre and were helped immensely in choosing these lovely ladies .... they are hybrids and will provide us with a plentiful supply of free range eggs and be friends to the small people that visit our home.

They are now installed in their temporary house till we get the proper one finished this weekend together with a lovely long run for them.

This weekend's booty

Yesterday we went to our first Saturday morning car boot and I was so surprised to get this lovely jug .... I thought the dealers would have spotted it .... it dates to around 1830 and is called Village Church ... if you take a peek at my header photo you can see a platter I have in this design in the centre of the top shelf ... it is a lovely English country scene of a village church, thatched cottage and two countrymen chatting over a gate. It sat on a pile of cheap old china and I recognised it instantly ... the seller only wanted a pound! Although there is some damage it is still worth around £30/40 but it is staying in my collection and now sits in front of my matching platter (which I also got at a car boot a couple of years ago for the princely sum of a fiver - it's worth around £200)

I also found these two Suffolk Pottery storage jars for onions and garlic, a book on curtain making for doll's houses, a Rowan pattern book and a Quilting Book.

Today I found this lovely Royal Albert Old Country Roses cake stand for £3.00 and a pair of Laura Ashley Charlotte (Sweet Pea) curtains and tie-backs in the cornflower blue/pink colourway. The children did well too with a set of Thomas Tank Engine Books, Brio Thomas The Tank train track set, a Megasketcher, new wellies & crocs. Today's boot was very large but somehow there seemed to be an awful lot of overpriced tat .... nevertheless I am delighted with this week's finds.
On the way home the grandchildren conked out (they were on sleepover with me last night and Ellie decided she was going to get everyone up at 6.15 ... Charlie usually stays in bed till around 8.00)


The view from the car boot, we seem to have bright yellow fields of oilseed rape all around us this year ... so glad I don't suffer with hay fever.

Juggling

Pause for thought on this lovely Sunny Sunday

I have noticed that some of the younger members of the blogging community, those with a young family mainly, seem to be having a tough time of it lately. Some words of advice from someone who has been there and got the t-shirt .... stop trying to juggle so many balls at the same time because eventually you will drop one. I went through the same thing when my brood were younger, part time working to put food on the table, university to try and catch up on what I thought I had missed out on (turned out not to be true), looking after the children, household chores, helping at school, running the PSA, on the governing body at school etc etc

One day somebody said to me you are always running around ... and I was .... no time to stop to think .... I then decided to take a step back and re-assess all that was going on in my life and came to the conclusion that I had to lose some of the balls before I dropped them. So I gave up the uni, governorship and scaled back on my involvement with the PSA ... there then seemed more hours in a day and life was not so much of a whirl. If I felt like sitting down and doing nothing I did.

Lecture over ladies, I hope you will take time yourselves for a re-assessment of your lives ... have a great Bank Holiday weekend.

Ellie's Big Night

Ellie's dad was playing in a Cup Final this evening at the Luton Town Ground and she was mascot ..... here she is .... one of the boys .... she is such a character and they all think the world of her .... should have been a boy !!

Sunny Sunday at Delapre Abbey

Today was the day of Delapre Abbey's St George's Day Celebrations in Northampton. They had a craft marquee and I was lucky enough to get a stall ... the sun was shining as we arrived.The Abbey is surrounded by acres of glorious English countryside and we wished we had brought the dog with us ... they were allowed on site and she would have loved it.This is the Abbey courtyard and the Craft Marquee faced the clock tower building .. this area was used later in the day for musical entertainment.It didn't take too long to set up our table as I had been practicing on the kitchen table last night ... this is only the third fair that I have taken part in so am still learning.
This is me all ready to go ... my daughter Laura came along to help and husband too but it was a little cramped behind the table as we had to share with the neighbouring stall run by Linda and Steve .. a lovely couple who we chatted with all day and swapped crafting and life stories ... it was really nice to meet friendly people and made the day go so much quicker. With the current economic climate it seemed that a lot of people were just looking and not spending a great deal but not a bad day overall and a profit was made ... seemed later in the day the good people of Northampton were more interested in offloading their spare cash in the beer tent.

During the afternoon this gorgeous Silver Cross coachbuilt pram arrived in front of our table ... it was the pram that caught my eye, I love them but my daughter wouldn't be seen dead with one (shame). Then I did a double take on the baby ... it is a handmade re-born doll, her name is Georgina and she is so life like it was quite spooky.

Then to top the day ........ yes ladies and gentlemen .... Elvis was in the building ... this young man came on to do two sets during the afternoon and he was really good (considering he probably wasn't even born when the King died .... for those of you who are old enough do you remember where you were at that time? I was tucked up in bed with an old tranny radio under the covers so my dad couldn't hear listening to Tony Prince on Luxembourg 208)

If you see anything on my table that you like please get in touch as I have lots left and will be adding them to my website and blogshop during the coming week. Tara for now.

Paying it forward - the Gift

A BIG BIG thank you to Louise over at Snuggle Shack for my paying it forward gift. A lot of hard work and love has gone into making this lovely felt heart hanger which has a lovely sparkly button (doesn't show too well in my photo), a sweet little crochet flower brooch and a Russian Doll key fob - such tiny little stitches and so neat. Thank you so much. I picked Ellie up from school yesterday and you know what 4 year olds are like, they don't miss anything. What are these nanny she said when she spied them on the table .. I like this and this and this ... I did manage to keep the key fob for myself but the heart is now on her wardrobe door and the brooch on one of her many bags. I thought as a knitter, sewer and crocheter (?) that we were a dying breed and it is so refreshing to learn that there are so many of you young ones keeping the skills going. I wish my girls would take an interest but they don't sadly .. maybe one day

BIGS THANKS ONCE AGAIN XX

This green and pleasant land .....

Although I live in one of the grottiest towns in Bedfordshire I am so lucky to be on the outskirts close to the Hertfordshire border and just a few minutes drive away from this beautiful countryside. This was the view from the pub garden where I sat with my daughters this lunchtime. My son lives in the village mainly because that is where is partner's family are and he is so lucky. I dream of moving to somewhere like this but the house prices are just way beyond me.It has two main roads with lovely individual traditional houses and a few modern ones chucked in here and there. Three pubs have survived (number one son works in the one we visited today so we had personal service and a discount ... lucky us!). There were two others but they have now been converted into dwellings along with an old Methodist Chapel and some old barns. The house pictured below has been on the market for ages at around 900K .. it was derelict and the little cottage to the side was almost falling down and it has a large plot of land at the back which cannot be built on. If my lottery numbers had come up this would be my dream home .. someone has now bought it and has started renovations ... I do hope they don't strip all of the character and install loads of spotlights and stainless steel. I will keep you posted on progress.As we leave the village to drive back home via the country route the pond and the large house are the last things we see. Such peace and tranquility and it is only ten minutes drive to Luton Airport.