normal service will resume shortly....

We have had a great Christmas here...happy boys, fab presents, too much food.
The holidays are going by so quickly and we still have guests so I am struggling to get online as much as I'd like, and as for taking pics - I'm getting funny looks when I want to take photos of my presents or my lovely laid table!!!
So normal service will resume soon - I'll probably still be posting about Christmas at Easter!!

But I just want to mention CK before I go.....I was looking forward to the online sale after receiving a mini sale catalogue....so here comes the moan....when I went online things were different prices (higher) to the catalogue I received and all the Christmas things were still full price...why?? It was the 27th of December!! I live a trillion miles from a CK shop or outlet and although I received some fabulous Cath goodies as gifts, I was hoping for some post christmas treats too....... looks like Laura Ashley will get my christmas money - at least when they have a sale they do it properly!!!

Happy Christmas

Well I'm just about there.....big boys have gone to their dads, 2 little boys are asleep (post poorly tiredness!!) and I am sat watching Sunday nights Casualty on sky+ eating my bodyweight in chocolate!!
Tomorrow I shall start the cooking, and take the boys to the christingle service in the afternoon, but Christmas has arrived chez dollop! Time for relaxing and celebrating our family xx
So I shall wish everybody a Happy Christmas - thats you my new bloggy friends - and I hope to be back posting soon with lots of Christmas celebratory pics :)

tree #2

As I mentioned before Mr Meany (aka my husband to be!!) wouldn't buy me a 2nd Christmas tree for my dining room as he had spent more than he planned to on our main one....well....yesterday B&Q reduced all their remaining trees (£5 for the same one we bought last week!!) so I brought home a £3 bargain...

And this morning I was finally able to get my children type decs out and put them on the tree.I let the boys decorate(well boy, the eldest, sorry I'm just not the kind of momma who can relax with 20 trillion ornaments on one branch lol!!).

If I had paid full whack for the tree I'd have been a bit disappointed as it has a naked bit in the middle which we have tried to disguise.

I love my decs on this tree, homemade by some boy or other :), their Babys 1st Christmas baubles, decorations with their names on - if anyone knows where I can get one that says Reuben please let me know!!

And Noddy crackers - how festive :)

An Award

From Caroline at Lace Hearts.

Thank You very much.

The lovely Lacey also needs another thank you...for sending me a gift.

There is only 1 thing better than pressies through the post, and thats unexpected pressies through the post :)

I have another of Carolines fabric buckets - this time in dotty and gingham pastels. Its gorgeous.

I shall certainly put it too good use xxx

(Now I know I'm supposed to pass on the award to others but everybody I read deserves it and my bloglist on the side is just a drop in the ocean of what I read!!! ) (

O Christmas Tree...

The other half nipped out on Saturday afternoon to purchase my trees, and came back with the most marvellous specimen and a sulky face!

He had taken our 3 year old with him, who hadn't really wanted to go out, so went to B&Q and in his haste, having to deal with the extreme windy rainy weather conditions and stress of having a whining child with him ( welcome to my world!!) he picked up a £30 non drop beeyootiful number.

Well, Ihave now been spoilt, and I have told him to put a pound in a pot every week next year so I can have the same tree again as it is gorgeous....however he was so in shock at having paid £30 (last years was half that!) that he refused to buy my smaller second tree for the dining room. I will have to pop out this week and 'accidentally' bring one home!! The big meany lol!!

I love my tree.

I don't 'do' the co-ordinated symmetrical decorated look, as you can see :) - edit to add now its on camera it looks bare.....must see what I can do about that ;)

Today has been grungy weather so as soon as there is something resembling natural light I'll take some more pics, and show you my pretties :)

So bring on christmas.....I am ready for the festivities now, we have pressies under the tree, the other half won't put mine under the tree until Christmas Eve late evening, when he is in the room to supervise me....this is my instruction as I can't help myself!! I love a surprise, I absolutely hate knowing what I will be given as a gift but I am worse than my children. I just have to squeeze and poke and guess (I'm pretty good at the guessing bit too ;)!!!)

Here are the pics of my (almost) finished hallway. I say almost as the curtain needs hanging, I need to put up pictures and I need to but a shelf of some description for above the pew. I've decided instead of buying something just because the decorating is finished I will wait. From experience I know this will save me money as well as months of 'why did I buy that' ing!!

First of all before - or inbetween!(before was inherited lemon and blue 1980's wallpaper) Last Christmas, whilst the loft conversion was being done we decided to get the walls skimmed while the plasterers were in the house....so thats nearly a year with pink plaster on the walls. **cue lots of sympathy**

And for some reason, this is the only pic of the hallway pre being done...which doesn't show you much - apart from the dark spindles and staircases and bare wood cupboards (built 2 christmases ago!!).

And now, lots of white paint, 2 rolls of Cath Kidston Antique Rose paper and some beige carpet later.

Ta Da!!

A tiffany lamp on the built in shelves, and something you may recognise Mary Poppins :)

The light fittings were from Next. I wanted chandeliers but the height was an issue as the other half is 6ft 2 and didn't fancy clonking his head every time he walked through - to be honest I probably wouldn't have let this minor detail stop me getting chandeliers had the coat cupboard not been able to open out!!

Like I say still bits to make it more homely, but I'm loving it. The CK paper still makes me swoon when I walk through the hall!!

And here it is with its Christmas finery on.... (baubles from lidl hung with gingham ribbon and bunting was extravagantly from Laura Ashley)

christmas decs part 1

Lounge Fireplace

There isn't much new on here - just the Noel letters, and the vintage postcards were bought through the year so this is the first outing for them too!

Dining Room Fireplace

I have noticed one of the boys cutesy snow shakers has sneaked onto my fire surround!! I shall have to take pics at night - it looks so much better!!

Sunday Post - Cosy Night In!

You can tell its Christmas as the postie is delivering on a Sunday, and he brought something just for little old me yesterday, a 'cosy night in' parcel from the lovely Caroline at Lace Hearts.

It was just like Christmas! I waited until there were no big or small boys around so I could enjoy........

And I did!! Thank You so much Caroline, I am really thrilled with my goodies(please excuse the not so great photo!)

I got a gorgeous mug (which looks like a wooly jumper and my 11 year old has decided is perfect for his hot choc with cream and marshmallows!), with my favourite...shortbread biscuits. Some cute notecards, a fab Marian Keyes book (one of my faves...and its short stories too - perfect for my full head and short attention span at this time of year lol!!), a cute Christmas candle and one of Lacey's famous fabric buckets.

I can't begin to tell you how desperate I was for Caroline to make me one of these (I very nearly asked her...twice!!!), so thank you again for a really lovely swap. Xx And thanks to Mel for organising it (whens the next one!!!)

Apart from opening pressies this weekend, I made a start on putting up the trimmings...I am from the less is more school of decorating for Christmas, so I haven't gone mad!! Trees are not yet purchased, they will have to wait until next weekend, we ran out of time.

When I went through the boxes of Christmas decs, I realised that I had sorted out last year and condensed them down to the ones I put out....so glad I did that, it made life easier. But I had a box of cute santa ornaments and similar that over the years the boys have chosen for me when they have been out with my mum....now, I didn't want to put these out on MY mantels(harsh I know!) so they are now on the playroom mantel with my new knitted nativity!!

(mantel - mantle???neither look right!!!)

Mary and Joseph immortalised in stiches!! I'd love to say I knitted these myself (as when I got the pattern was my intention...!)but it was quicker and less painful for my mother in law to knit them for me!!

I'm hoping for more time for blog posting this week - I have some pics of my new hallway to share...and more pics of my Christmas decs (bit more tasteful than the playroom ones!!)

countdown

Well its the second of the busiest month of the year already.

Our Advent calendars are up, the 3year old and I have lovely traditional, open a door, get a festive pic type calendars...the 2 big boys nearly got nothing, I forgot to buy their chocolate non christmassy type advent calendars and when I went to Tesco yesterday they had a choice between Ben 10 (who??), Hannah Montana or High School Musical...if they were 9 year old girls we would have been sorted. So they got a pack of choccy coins each to put in a vintage (well, a few years old anyhow!) fabric calendar. They are happy, but I did feel slightly inadequate in the festive aisle whilst looking!!

We also have this tree - it was from Avon about 13 years ago - mum had it at her house for the big boys when they were little boys to open, it also winds up and sings at you....she kindly passed it on to us when she moved away. They still fight over who opens the drawer and pops on the mini decoration...bless!!

I have almost, nearly, officially finished my Christmas shopping....I am waiting for 4 amazon deliveries, and need to pick up a wooden train set from Argos tonight - then apart from something for my dad and maybe the other half....thats me done. Its half wrapped so I will finish the rest of the wrapping at the weekend. It'll feel good to be done as I still have a birthday to go before the main event :)

I am debating when to put up my tree...we have a real one (well 2 ), so I don't like it up too early otherwise by the 25th it looks a bit sad!! I thought this weekend, thinking the 6th or 7th its borderline 'too early' but acceptable...but I don't think I'm quite festive enough yet. So perhaps I'll make a start on the decorating but leave the tree til next weekend?? My thinking is that if I slowly put away day to day pretties to replace with Christmas pretties..it'll be an easier job. I can also then go through and get rid of the decorations I don't use...each year I think I'll sort it when I put away and it never happens!!

I've peeled and pickled a sack of small onions this morning...but I'm thinking its perhaps a bit late in the day for boxing day?! Still lots of lovely pickles for 2009 :) - what a crappy job that is!!! Last years onions were peeled sat at a table following my discharge from hospital with pregnancy complications...I must have been bored senseless cos I don't recall it being such a hideous task!!!!

There I am saying I don't feel festive enough and the snow has started falling here in East Anglia... if I didn't have to go and do a school run I could get excited lol!!!

eleven

For William......

We had a birthday last week, my second son (he doesn't like being described as number2 strangely lol!!!) was 11.

My diddy (his smaller brother couldn't say William, now he can but we all still call him diddy!!)is growing up quick...he is the quietest and least 'needy' of all my boys and tends to get forgotten. Which is not as sad as it sounds - he loves it as it means we forget he is on one of his games consoles..again!! I suppose in larger families this is what happens, he who shouts loudest and all that!!!

Dids has the most amazing skill......gaming......he can complete games within the same day of getting them - it isn't necessarily a skill I am that chuffed about, lol, but we've all got to be good at something!!!

And now he is 11... the lovliest son and brother anyone could wish for. And remember diddy dewdrop...even though mummy shouts at you to get off your wii, because its a school night and you really shouldn't have sneaked back on it.....she loves you tons XxxX

And the winner is.................

A very sniffly snotty small boy picked a name out of the bowl................

but then got camera shy........well Mr Tumble came on cbeebies to be more correct!!

Well done Second Wind!!! (second wind who hasn't updated her blog for yages :) does angel know lol!!!!)

If you get your address to me, I'll pop it in the post for you.

Thank You everyone for some fabulous ideas for wedding favours, and great links too.

I am totally puzzled as to what I will do still.

We are not having a sit down hoo ha (well we are for 9 people after our actual ceremony on the Friday), but I still wanted favours on my tables at our party on the Saturday.

I love love love the idea of gingerbread men for the children, and this could work (as long as I don't have to find the time to make them!), Laura (happy birthday btw!) suggests icing the Tesco gingerbread men, which I think is a definate possibility!

As for the grown ups favours...I'll get back to you in the New Year when I will be in serious wedding mode!! But sweeties seem to be a repeat suggestion, and I have found someone on ebay (US) who will personalise ribbon to tie them up....or is that a bit narcissistic????(yes I did need to check the spelling on that big for Monday morning word!!)

ooh its a nightmare having my head filled with such trivialities!!!

And I thought the dress would be the problem (actually not a problem at all, but the shoes could be!!)

More Christmas Preparations....

So as we edge closer to the festivities, I don't feel quite as organised as I did a month ago!!

I have some more pressies left to wrap and a few to buy, but I'm practically done. I had planned to make loads of decorations, more handmade gifts, but its not to be.

I even bought this in order to plan the festivities. But my time management at the minute is ...well, poor to say the least!! And the organiser hasn't made it off the books to read pile yet!

So I shall say again, what I said last year - it'll be different next year the baby will be bigger. no more building work at home, etc etc. Truth is, I will just have to manage my time better. Follow my progress here, next year lol!!!

So although I have no handmade tree decorations and haven't made as many handmade gifts as I'd have liked, (and I still have 10kilos of pickling onions to peel!!) I have made some pretty parcels. (well by my standards - last year folk were lucky their pressies weren't in Tesco bags lol!!)

I've used brown paper and ribbon on lots of parcels ,I bought some cheap tree decs from Tesco- the presents were £1.50 and the reindeers a pound , some skinny silky ribbon and found the Ikea paper string lurking in a craft drawer.

So this is what I played this afternoon, while the baby emptied a whole pack of baby wipes :0 !!

These are bottles of Baileys for my childminders, tissue and florist cellophane with the Tesco present trimmings. (If I looked after other peoples kids - I'd need alcohol for sure lol!!)

This one is sick in a bottle (AKA advocaat) for my stepdad - you can't see closely but the ribbon has gold trees on it.

I've made my own tags on the computer by downloading vintage Christmas images and typing the greeting. (I know its not that personal, but I think I'd appreciate the thought that someone could be bothered to type my name into the computer), and the stickers were something ridiculous like 30p in the sale in January and I use them to put on Father Christmas's parcels as last year he thought he'd use different paper for each boy but then he forgot which paper was for which boy - the twonk!!!

Some more parcels - the green paper was from Lidl of all places - its not the best quality but was a pack of 4 rolls for £1.99 and 1 of them I liberated for birthdays as it has no festive references on it!!

These days we do a secret santa for the adults in our family with a £10 spend limit. Here's one of mine (the other was a sushi themed basket that I forgot to photograph) - I used the would I be happy to receive it principle and I would... handmade bag, LA sign and pretty dishcloths.

Speaking of Tesco...(I did mention earlier - you've probably just lost the will with my waffle!)...Look at these NOEL letters, for my lounge fireplace, a bargain, but I can't remember how much - £3 or £4!?!Really need to get my decs out of the loft so I can see what I have and start planning what will go where....but probably not this weekend as I have to go and visit a new baby, a pink baby, my 1st niece.

So, the giveaway may not get drawn until Monday, just in case anybody thinks I've forgotten!

Cool Whip

My big boys are huge Family Guy fans, so obviously by default I get to enjoy it too!! And you know how it is when you find something funny and you end up quoting the catchphrases constantly!! (or is that just us?!)

The video below is our current obsession - I just had to share!!



And (huge whoop whoop ....) I can put videos in my posts now!!

rememberance

Remember

Remember me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go, yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of our future that you plann'd:
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.


From: Goblin Market, The Prince's Progress and Other Poems. Christina Rosetti. London: Macmillan 1879.


This was my Grandads favourite poem .

Today I will remember what he did for this country during WW2.

Today I will remember that he saw things and experienced things, as little more than a boy, that I can only pray my boys never have to experience.



Today I will remember everybody who has fought for our country in our time.

Another magazine post

The last couple of months I haven't been enjoying Country Living how I used too!! Don't get me wrong I had a slightly racing pulse when it plopped on the door mat each month but once opened there has only been the odd thing inside to tickle my pickle :)

But then this came - the December/Christmas issue - and CL has redeemed itself.

I had to go to A&E with the eldest boys facial injury (see last post!!) yesterday teatime so I shoved it in my bag. Every page got an ooh! or a 'look, isn't that gorgeous!!' Surprisingly, 13 year old boys can show some enthusiasm for gorgeous things, especially this...

This was met with a - 'why can't our fireplace look like that!'

(because I haven't got a stylist coming to my house sweetie to clear up the debris of 4 stinky boys xx)

I apologise for another magazine post this month but look at this picture - does anything say Christmas/Winter more than him??

And the winners from the summers 'what you gonna do with an empty Bonne Maman jar' comp were announced....and I love this idea...

I have lots of non Maman jars so I may experiment with this.

There are tons of fabulous Christmas ideas for decoration (love the red hanging stars from John Lewis) and foodie ideas too.

We didn't have long to wait in A&E (the benefits of a dedicated childrens and young persons consultant!) so I had to have an early night with my magazine, so thats the ironing not done again. Oh well priorities eh!!

Oh and his face is fine - nothing broken!

the house in the clouds

We have been here today, for a half term trot up the coast. It was very pretty and very cold!! This is the only photo as both sets of batteries I took with me were flat as a pancake!!!
On the way there...
me: we're going for a drive to see a house thats in the sky
(pause for significant time with puzzled look on 3year old face)
cam: houses don't live in the sky they live on the floor.

On seeing said house....
cam: its not in the sky its just a high house.

Mmm...can see I may not have the easiest time convincing him of the magic of christmas!!!

Even though we've seen it before - us grown ups were impressed lol. The history behind it is here and is very interesting. If you are feeling strong - check out the rental prices!!

House Porn

Today this plopped on my door mat....

After I finished hyperventilating, I noticed that the nice people at CHI had sent me (and I'm sure everybody else) a 2009 calendar full of lush Laura Ashley room set pictures.

My patio is sure to look like this in July!!!

And this will be my lounge in November......

And my back door in January 2010!!

So I'm now going to give the bathrooms a quick flick so I can sit down and enjoy!!