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