Nothing but Cushions and Cupcakes!

Afternoon All,

Hope you are all fit and well - as weekends go it's not been so bad for the weather has it? Last weekend was my Grand Daughters 7th birthday (where have those years gone to?) and as pennies are tight now her party was arranged on a budget. She wanted a Hawaiian themed party with grass skirts and hula necklaces along with blow up palm trees   - all which were purchased thanks to ebay and a local warehouse.

As I had the Kenwood mixer last year, I said to my daughter that I thought that we could make the cupcakes far cheaper than buying them - so last Saturday saw me baking the cupcakes and then we transported them to my daughters, where my hubby piped them and my daughter decorated them - a joint family effort! (I couldn't pipe them due to the arthritis in my fingers but it appears that my hubby has a talent that he hadn't realised he'd got all these years!) They cost £6.00 to make 36  opposed to the price of a £1.00 per cupcake that my Daughter had been quoted!

The party was a great success with limbo dancing, a disco provided by their i.pod with disco lights and lots of party games

Not a bad job for amateurs!

 

 

This weekend has seen us out in the garden - re staining the decks has started - the top deck is done and we've started down by the summer house and I have made a start on painting the garden furniture - there was one bench that was a dull brown and I have spent most of this weekend repainting it white.

 

 

Plus last year I picked up a pair of curtains from the local charity shop which cost me £4.00 they were very 1980's but were really large - I've wondered what to do with them, so I unpicked one of them a couple of weeks ago - the lining is going to be used on a pair of curtains for the summer house along with the heading tape. At Wyvale's garden centre, a bench pad cost £36.00 so I picked up a sheet of foam, from Dunhelms - that cost me £12.00  and I have used one of the curtains to make a cover for it to sit on the bench in the summer - much more comfortable on the old derriere!

 



This was it before I sewed up the ends - very retro chic don't you think?

I started painting the old brown bench white yesterday and when it started to rain I went inside and used up the rest of the fabric from the one curtain and some old cushion inners  to make  3 cushion's to sit on the bench

I didn't have chance to go down the summer house and fetch the seat pad before the rain started again but for £14.00 all in, I reckon they will look very shabby chic retro cool on my white bench don't you? and I still have another curtain left to cut up and do something with - I shall probably do the same again as we have another 2 benches in the garden which are going to be painted.

I'm also going to order some oil cloth off ebay and make my own bunting to put up in the garden.

Oh well, tea's nearly ready ........ hope you all have a good week

Byeee xxx

What's your era?........

Hello All,

Hope you are all fit and well - the T.V. just lately has been dire and we have taken to putting the radio on from about 8pm onwards most nights and the 2 radio stations that we listen to are Heart and Smooth radio

Carlos on Smooth plays all the old sounds and Heart on a Friday and Saturday play dance and disco classics.

I was born in the mid 50's and I must have been listening to the radio from a young age because when they play the 50's records in 'Call the Midwife' I know most of them........songs like Que Sera Sera by Doris Day (I used to love the Doris Day and Rock Hudson films) Catch a Falling Star by Perry Como and You are my Special Angel by Bobby Helms were played in the series and I knew the words and sung along.

Then there were the 60's - I liked the Beatles, the Who and the Stones when I was young, but wasn't mad about their records, so it's strange that it's now that I really enjoy their music - then later in the 60's I used to listen to radio 1, especially every Sunday night for Alan Freeman to play the charts to hear who was number 1, ( the show before was Sing Something Simple, with the Cliff Adam Singers and it always seemed to go on forever, because at that age, it seemed so boring).

Then as soon  as the charts were finished it was straight over to listen to Radio Luxembourg, in those days I was into the Monkees, the Mama's and Papa's , any Tamla Motown sounds and Reggae was starting to get really popular by then. Sounds like the  Onion Song by Marvin Gaye and Tammy Terrell, the Supremes, the Four Tops, were all my favourites then.

The early 70's were good, the Stylistics, and 3 Degrees, Mud, early Elton John and Barry White the late 70's and early 80's brought UB40, who I've seen (and sung along with)  probably half a dozen times at Birmingham NEC - they are a brilliant 'live' band - Fleetwood Mac is another favourite from that time frame.

Then the 90's another of my favourite time for music, the prat (first husband) had departed so I used to go out most weekends to pubs and clubs (the children were teenagers by then and out doing their own thing) and I loved the 90's dance sounds like  Ricky Martin, the Spice Girls, Will Smith, Culture Beat, Snap, Micheal Jackson, Mark Morrison, Madonna and Boyzone. Anything with a beat that I could get up and bop to was fine by me and that's why I love to listen to the dance and disco classics on a Friday and Saturday night on Heart.

Back then in the 90's I used to go with a friend to learn tap dancing on Wednesday night, salsa on a Thursday and line dancing on Friday night - then out to a disco on a Saturday - I was working full time and in my 40's by then so it was no wonder that I was shattered by Sunday - tap was the hardest to learn it used to kill me, it was so energetic and such a good work out  - but we'd go from dancing to sounds from the 40's on a Wednesday to Ricky Martin on a Thursday! I used to love the music for line dancing because it was that little bit more slower than the other 2 nights so I would have enough breathe left in me to sing along to the country records, as I tried to follow the line in front of me!

Since the 90's I've quite lost it with what's in the charts now - half the time you can't hear what the words are - I like Adele but really give me the old sounds to listen to any day. Something I know the words to and can sing along to. Just like Carlos plays on his show each night.

So my favourite era.............well the 60's just comes a very close second to the 90's - so what's yours?

There won't be any dance and disco classics tonight - the American Masters (golf) is on all night and that's one sport that I will happily sit and watch

Have a good week

Byeee

How much wool, do you have?..........

Afternoon All,

Hasn't it been so nice to see the sun this weekend - still cold though, but at least it's been nice enough to dry the washing outside.

I went back to work this week and if I'm honest it was nice to be back - the lads are a good bunch on the whole, who you can have a laugh and a joke with and who you know will get the job done- there's just a couple who can be 'challenging' but then it wouldn't do if we were all the same.

So back into the swing - it did seem strange though cause when I was first taken poorly, I was doing the commute in the dark but now it's light and it's so nice to not have to go backwards and forwards in the dark, so even if it is still cold at least we don't have the dark mornings and early evenings.

Plus it looks like we're going to be having some volunteers coming into the service - to help them get back into 'work' and the encouragement for me is that I can do a recognised qualification  in 'mentoring'- something that I really would like to do - the majority of the volunteers were young woman who have been stay at home mums and who want to get out and earn their own money, never having had a job before in the past - so if they're up for having a go - then I'm up for helping them too.

Just to show that I didn't sit doing nothing whilst I was off - I finished off an UFO - my first double sized patchwork quilt (never again- it was so heavy to work with) - it's not brilliant but it does add some weight to the bed and will keep us warm. The first night I put it on the bed my Hubby said 'Good God - I need a can opener to turn over! (it's so heavy) I also made the sham pillow cases to match

Sorry but I'm no photographer! I'm no patchwork quilt maker neither!

 

I spent yesterday morning sorting out all the wool that I have stashed away - I didn't realise that I had so much. As I have two Granddaughters there's a lot of it, that's pink, that's been brought over the years and put away. I do have another Grandchild on the way, so I've been buying white, lemon and green wool recently - but I do seem to have acquired quite a lot and if this new Grandchild is a boy then I just know that the compulsion to knit with some blue wool for a change will take over so there could be more added to that pile..........er think I might need a bigger storage box! 

 Then I started to sort out all the fabrics, that I have that I want to use to make some 'shabby chic' cushion covers and again I filled a big storage box and this isn't all the fabric that I have - there's a cupboard full in the summer house

 

But eventually it was all sorted and I now know where everything is and I don't have to go searching when I need to find something.

Then I set to and put all the crocheting UFO's along with the different hooks into one bag and the 2 knitting UFO's in another bag......so all tidy and sorted but I do think I need to use up some of the wool and fabric I have before purchasing any more.

Just on a topical note for the moment - old backstabbing  big conk Milliband has been going on about how unfair the 'bedroom' tax is on benefit claimants,well on the other side of the coin, someone I know, turns into work everyday without fail, with a smile on his face...... his job?........... he drives a lorry and removes fly tipping, he mauls wet dirty filthy mattresses  and heavy dirty 3 piece suites on to his lorry and then takes them to the tip - then he'll go and clean a bin room out, moving bags of maggot infested rubbish that rats have run over, again putting them into his lorry before going to the tip - a really dirty job - but when that lad gets home, he has to see his teenage daughters, sharing a small bedroom - how can it be 'fair' for someone like him, to work as hard as he does and then not have enough bedrooms for his family and a benefit claimant (regardless of why they claim benefit)  have a spare bedroom and not have to pay for that luxury.

Then again, on another side of the coin (this coins got lots of sides hasn't it?) why should any British benefit claimant have to give up their homes because they can't afford a spare bedroom for an immigrant family, who have never paid into the system, to have that home.

Old 'lets jump on the band wagon' Clegg came up with his first and only good idea last week - lets charge immigrants to come into this country. At last! yes lets charge the idle buggers to come here - I think it should be around the £500,000 mark plus get them to sign an agreement that they won't claim for benefits, housing, or the NHS for a minimum of 20 years. That would stop the flow here overnight!  Just goes to prove that politicians can have good ideas sometimes - pity that it's only once every 20 years.

Oh well teas nearly cooked lets hope this weather continues and it just gets warmer and warmer - Cornwall 5 weeks on Saturday - not that I'm counting

Have a good week, all

Byeee

Some one very special..........

Afternoon All,

Well I'm still here at home after 2 months off work but hoping  going to go back on 2nd April - I've logged on from home most days to keep up with the work and my emails and have been into the office a couple of times this week - so I'm hoping that it won't be too much of a shock to the system when I do start back.

My Son and Daughter in Law are expecting their first  baby in August, so I've kept busy doing some crocheting blankets and now I've started some knitting for 'Horatio' as my son calls his wife's little bump.

We've waited a long time for this little one to come along and he /she is a very special baby - I was extremely fortunate to be able to go with my Daughter in Law J to her 20 week scan - it's just marvellous what you can see on those scans - it looked like the little chappie was raising his hand to us at one point, in a wave and then it looked as if he was about to suck his thumb. Just brilliant!

 

 

 

I said in one of my last posts that I'd had a new car - it's a Toyota Urban Cruiser - it's brilliant because you sit quite high in it and yet it's not a gas guzzling 4 x 4 - far from it - it's brilliant on the petrol - I'm actually saving money now on my petrol plus it makes it much easier on my knees getting in and out of it.

 

 

Not the best of photo's I'm afraid plus it does need a clean - but I feel so much more safer as I come through J10 of the M6. usually listening to this

Tusk from Fleetwood Mac - it's got a brilliant sound system too - plus I can use my mobile phone  (hands free - all done through voice activation!)  through the sound system - that will be so handy next year when my Hubby retires - I'll be able to phone ahead as I'm getting of the motorway to say "Put the kettle on Dear"

Have a good if snowy  weekend everyone

Byeeee

 

 



Old age = second childhood!

Hasn't it been so nice to see the sun shinning for the last couple of days - I have even managed to put washing out in the garden to dry.

One of the down sides of having an issue with your my immune system is that  I have suffered a number of lesions on my legs, which were nasty and weeping but have now dried up and scabbed over - it's just like when you was a child and had fell over in the playground and you ended up with a grazed knee   - that's just what they look like now!

They keep itching so they are obviously getting better but each time I do scratch - I can hear my Mom saying (like she used to when I was little)

"Your leg will drop off if you pick at that scab"

I used to think no it won't........will it?

I think I said the same thing to my own 3 children too!

Anyway to make me feel a little better I've been had had my roots done and my hair cut and then I tootled off to Boots and treated myself to some new No 7 make-up - something I haven't done in a long, long time. Then I went onto M & S and brought myself 2 new tops ready for our holidays (11 weeks on Saturday - not that I'm counting!)

I had a Kindle Fire last weekend with some of my Christmas money and have got to say how pleased I am with it - it downloads a book so fast it's brilliant.

But why oh why do I keep calling it my Pringle and not Kindle?!

I really must be hitting old age and my second childhood - can't get my words out right!!

I then went up to the hospital to go in for yet another blood test (this will be my 5th in less than a couple of weeks) and couldn't get onto the car park, there were so many cars on there  - so I gave up and will go again tomorrow.

Well - hope that you got to see some of the sunshine today - Roll on Spring

Byee

Tuesday moans

Afternoon All,

Well I'm still here off work and at home - nearly 4 weeks now and  I'm still having issues with my immune system and now a kidney infection!

You know I started this year saying 2013 was going to be a great year - I should have kept quiet - oh well it can only get better. (hopefully)

I did try to go back to work after I'd had the first week off,  but only managed a morning before my ankles all swelled and I didn't think that I'd be able to drive back up the motorway and home again and I've been signed off by the Doctor for the last 3 weeks. But hopefully I'll be back at work next week, after I've seen the consultant .

The day after I tried to go back to work,  there was a young lady in the news who had successfully brought a case to court as she had been expected to work 2 weeks in Pound Land, stacking shelves,  to be able to continue to receive her unemployment benefit.

Now I have never in my life claimed unemployment benefit (if it comes to that - I've never claimed any kind of benefit!) I could have - when the children were little and the first prat of a husband refused to go out to work, but I didn't -  I got up of my backside and got myself a number of part time jobs which meant that I went out to work every single day of the week (weekends included)  - it meant I paid the mortgage and the bills and fed the kids, later on I got myself a full time job and there I've been for the last 23 years. I presently pay over £400 per month in tax and national insurance -  so that this young woman can receive her benefits and then whinge because she's been asked to work 2 weeks

Is it me or have I got it all wrong??? 

Then this week there's been much in the press about a single woman with 11 children being given a brand new purpose built house by her local social housing group. This woman is also on benefits, (has been for most of her working life I believe)  but can afford a horse (or her unemployed daughter can) and flying lessons for the young man in her life at the moment!

I'm sure that the government and the do-gooders in this country think that working people have IDIOT firmly written on our foreheads! cause lets face it that's what we're taken for.

Now I know that I am cynical hard hearted person - I have very little sympathy with people who I don't believe deserve help.

For me - the sooner that the government stops paying so much in benefits to people who have never paid into the system the better - benefits should only be a short term stop gap whilst people get back into work. The benefit system shouldn't be there for healthy people to claim for life.  

Something needs to be done - we're already seen as the soft touch for the eastern Europeans to come here and claim benefits.

Obviously for born and bred British people who suffer genuine ill health of any kind  then  we should look after our own.

Because believe me that woman hasn't had 11 children because she believes that she can give those children  the best in life and loads of love and encouragement - she's had them because more children equals more cash in her hand to spend how she wishes - it gives her choices. (You know what always amazes me? - there's never a father on the scene is there? you know....to pay to keep their own offspring!)

As for that new house - I'd stake my next years pay that given a month and it will be an absolute tip! with nothing but more expence for the housing group to put right. 

Is it me?? I can't see anything wrong in expecting healthy people to give something back and do a couple of weeks work (at the very least) to be able to continue to receive their benefits . People who do go out to work - work 48 weeks of the year - they're only being asked to do 2 weeks for goodness sake!

 My grandparents all worked, my parents worked and my children all work - I've been brought up to be a worker not a shirker. Perhaps I've had it all wrong all these years

Byee

Happy days to come........

 



 

Afternoon All,

 

One of the better things of being off work, on sick leave,  meant that I could go on the computer at 9 o'clock on Thursday morning and purchase a ticket to go and see Fleetwood Mac at the LG Arena in September. It's cost an arm and a leg for the ticket but sooooo worth it - I've loved Fleetwood Mac for years and who knows how many more times, that they will tour, (they're in their 60's now) so I took my chance, paid my money and that's it now...... I'm going to see them.

 

I've also recently  had a new car, it's a Toyota Cruiser (it's slightly higher and looks more robust than the old one, but it's not a gas guzzling 4 x4) , it's a proper motorway car and I feel so much safer manoeuvring through Junction 9 and 10 of the M6 every night!

 

Plus we were lucky with the Sun Holiday and we have a week (well Monday to Friday)  booked at the beginning of October, for St Agnes, in Cornwall - we've paid the extra money and upgraded the accommodation and we're taking Daisy and Tillie (our dogs with us) as they will be OK by then for going on the beaches in Cornwall. (Can't take dogs on some beaches in Cornwall until 1st October)

 

Plus I was looking on the Internet and found a beautiful little chalet in Hayle, which looks straight onto the beach and across St Ives Bay, for a full week in May. It was a reasonable cost and we managed to book it.

 

It's got a balcony, just built for whiling away the hours with a glass of wine in hand and a good book to read!  - we're already counting the weeks down to that one (13 weeks next Saturday!)

 

We also have some further good news (but I'll save that for another day)

 

Till then - here's Steve Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac singing a beautiful song

 



Byeee xxx