Spoilsports .....

Phew ..... can't say I am sorry to see the end of half term week and I will be so glad to get back to 'normal' (whatever that is) next week.

We started the week with this

 which led to some really reluctant ladies venturing out

By Thursday it had all disappeared as quickly as it arrived .... I love the first day of snow but once the deadly ice and dirty slush appear I've had enough.

I have had a quieter than usual half term with minded children but have had the additions of my daughter and her family moving in with us.  The musical rooms game has come to a conclusion and we are all settled in our new sleeping quarters.  The children have what had become my sewing room, daughter and partner have our room so they are next door to the children and we have moved downstairs.  Method in my madness there too as I won't be the first port of call when they wake up on a morning!

Absolutely no crafting done whatsoever for a fortnight but to be honest I don't have the energy at the moment and I am trying to get my head around where I have put everything in the move around.

Loads of de-cluttering done with bags going to the charity shop, lots of freecyclers collecting more bags and almost £700 raised in Fleabay sales.  Which leads me onto the spoilspsorts title.  This morning we went over to Hitchin for some shopping and my rotten spoilsport daughters wouldn't let me go into the charity shops!  How very dare they ;-)

I did however sneak this one in which was on a stall in the market square

We ordered a cake for the 30th birthday of the first born who is coming down from Scotland in two weeks time and I will share some photos of that then.

I am hoping to pop down to Hexton tomorrow to do a stock take and take some new stock and I really must start thinking about what I will take to the Northampton Vintage & Handmade Fair in 3 weeks time.

Hope those of you with littlies have got through half term with your sanity intact and I will be listening for that big sigh on Monday morning at 9 am when they are all safely in school again. 

Have a good weekend x

What a week ....

What a busy week it was last week .... I am a registered childminder for my sins and as it was half term my house was rather noisy and hectic.  Of course Halloween was the theme with spooky decorations adorning the room, pumpkin carving, crafting, some of our favourite films including Hocus Pocus, orange playdough to model with and ending the week with a visit to a local discovery centre whose theme was ...... you guessed it Halloween!  

Stockwood Park in Luton .... gorgeous autumn colours and you can just about see a fluffy tailed creature foraging in the leaves at the base of the tree.

For the past 12 months I have just been doing my before/after school care for two reasons ..... one being the demands of the powers that be which imposes so many requirements for under fives that the paperwork involved totally detracts from actually caring for the children.  The second reason is that I am just getting too long in the tooth and 10 hour days really took it out of me last week.  Yes 10 hours, as the first family arrive just before 8.00 am and don't depart until just after 6.00 pm

So you can imagine I was really looking forward to the weekend with Saturday all to myself and I could hear another auction calling me.  An early start was necessary as there was only an hours viewing before the auction started at 9.30.  It is a lovely drive meandering through the three counties of Herts, Beds and Bucks, the sun was rising and I had an old favourite reggae/blue beat CD playing full blast as I tootled along.  My early teens just caught the end of the skinhead era and the start of the smoothies .... no not a fruit based drink ..... smart Trevira suits, shiny loafer shoes, Ben Sherman Shirts and Crombie coats and the backing track to this era was Toots & the Maytals, Desmond Dekker, Harry J Allstars, Bob & Marcia, Prince Buster et al.

through the Chiltern Hills past Whipsnade Zoo and in the distance a glimpse of the famous chalk lion on the hillside ..... carved during WW2 as a warning to the enemy that this was a zoo and shouldn't be bombed.

On to Ivinghoe with the beacon on my left as I drove by ...... we did climb this years ago but it is very steep and I couldn't manage it these days!

A little but further on is Pitstone windmill standing quite alone in the middle of a field

Over the Grand Union Canal at Bulbourne and into Tring

Despite marking off loads of juicy lots in the catalogue I came away empty handed.  In contrast to last week's bargains the bidding here was getting out of hand with mixed boxes of china/glass going for £30/40 plus commission and one lady seemed to be buying everything up single handed.  Bidding starts here at £8 so with commission of £1.44 to add onto that you are talking almost a tenner a lot at least ..... a couple of years ago I could get box loads for around £10/15 and being the ever conscious skinflint I gave up bidding and came home.  Time to find some smaller lesser known auctions methinks!

I did manage to grab an extra hours sleep on Sunday after the clock change and I'd promised Ellie I would take her car booting.  She is getting a dab hand at this now and digs around for her favourite Roald Dahl and Jacqueline Wilson books then stings me for a Caramel Cream Frappucino in Starbucks!  We have a new Poundland in Hitchin and we are both addicted already ..... she is the stationery queen .... a girl can never have too many pads and pencils in her opinion.  We made a quick visit to Letchworth and on the way home saw three of these little chaps on the grass verges .... black squirrels are quite a common sight in Letchworth and I have seen some in the churchyard in Hitchin.

 

Back to school today so some serious crafting to be done for the rest of this week .... watch this space!

Half term Halloween Party

It's half term week and we always like to have a little fun and have a Halloween Party.  The pumpkin is cut and the tealights are lit. 

The table is set and the party food is ready ...... we have ghostly meringues, witches fingers, snot cubes, spooky gingerbread biscuits, swamp slime jelly, eyeballs, bat sandwiches, witches brew

and of course our resident small spooky person all dolled up and ready to party

Now we are all partied out after lots of dancing and games

Half Term

Things are looking up - the snow has gone and it's half term holidays - shame the timing wasn't a little later and don't get me wrong I love the snow when it first comes down. Everything looks so clean and pretty but the past week of slush and black ice has been horrible. I have four of my after school club staying all day this week. I have been a registered childminder for 5 years and unofficial carer of small people for the past 27 years. My eldest hits his 27th birthday in a couple of weeks and my youngest reaches the grand old age of 21. There are two more in between - one is the father to my Charlie and my other daughter is a midwife so we are never too far away from babies and children.

We spent this morning sorting through all my papercraft bits and pieces and making collages - glitter, sparkly bits and scraps of fabric and paper stuck everywhere. Following lunch we chilled and watched Willy Wonka (the original - as much as I love Johnny Depp he just looks like a pervy Michael Jackson in the re-make) and it has been board games this afternoon. We are having an early Pancake Day as a trial run for next week coz making pancakes for six children plus the grown ups keeps me tied to the griddle for quite a while!! A busy day but I like to keep everybody occupied as it makes life much easier all round - there is nothing worse than bored 8 year olds. I would love to post some photos but am unable to because of child protection issues - although I have parental permission to take photos they cannot be used on the internet.

All this business has curtailed my bargain hunting quests this week but look what I found at the weekend - a lovely glass cake dome (£2), a pair of pretty floral cornucopia vases (£1), Painted Furniture book (75p), two beautiful white linen table cloths plus hand sewn Willow pattern embroidered tray cloth, napkins and teapot cover (the whole lot for £2). I then came over all queer and actually paid shop price at Waterstones for this lovely book by Emma Hardy called Sewing in No Time - it has some lovely projects so I thought I would treat myself. Can't wait till the weekend when I will be off again.