Superstars....

My friend in work has 2 little boys and asked me to make her a Superstars Board, so they get rewards for being good.

I have been working on this over the last 2 days and finished it this afternoon.......

The stars have Velcro on the back and have things like "Brush my teeth" and "Put away my toys" on them. When the boys do one of these tasks they get to put the star on the board.

If they get so many stars in a day there are books in the pouches at the front that they collect little sticker stars - after so many of these stars they get a treat!!!!

Sounds complicated but its not - I'm just rubbish at explaining!!!

What do you think?

xxx

Jingle bells............

OMG!!!!!

Its almost Christmas and I am beyond excited!!!!

Christmas has to be my most favourite time of the year and I wish it wasn't over so fast. I've done all my Christmas shopping apart from Deakons stocking fillers and I have the next few weekends packed full of Christmassy treats!!

Next weekend we are off to Christmas at Tredegar House. I get a complimentary Family ticket for volunteering on Halloween so we go every year. Its amazing. They decorate the house all Christmassy and there is mulled wine and mince pies. The kids get to have a treat off Santa too.

Then on Christmas Eve we are off to the Pantomime. Its Cinderella this year. Its the perfect way to spend Christmas Eve night - gets everyone in the festive mood (plus it keeps the kids quiet for an few hours!!!)

But the weekend in between those too we are off to Cardiff to celebrate a 30th Birthday and its going to be a night off cocktails and drunkenness!!! Happy Days!!!

Hope you are all ready for Christmas too................

xxxxxxx

Halloween swap goodies...

I'm a day late but I'd like to share pics of my Halloween swap with the lovely Amanda at Vintage Hobby House - you can view her blog and see what treats I sent her here

Apologies for the photos, It was quite dark when the postman came and so I had to use the flash!!!

Fab handmade witches boot

Funky fabric

I ate this for breakfast!!!!

Candles

Tags

Homemade wax tarts

Thank you, Amanda...I loved it all.

Sad thing, though, my surprise Giveaway gift was never received by the winner :( but I am replacing it with a Christmasy surprise instead...It should be with you soon, Susan xxxx

I'll leave you with a photo of me working at the Halloween tour at Tredegar House....I made a teenager cry, oooops!!!

P.S Happy Birthday to my fab Dad

xxxxx

Cwtchy warm...

I love the start of winter.

I love having the heating on, being cwtched in a blanket on the sofa watching movies.

I love wearing scarves, hats and mittens.

And I absolutely love my Pyjamas!!!

The best thing, though, is a nice hot bowl of soup on a cold day....warms you right up.

This soup is my favourite. Its is yum scrummy!!!

What do you love about winter?

xxxx

P.S....................My Christmas Swap attempt is going terrible........please join if you can!!!  

Incey Wincey Spider............

I have discovered that my garden has become a giant spider web! After attempting to hang out the washing and getting a face-full of web I counted the ones that were in my path to the end washing line pole......They just seemed to be hanging in mid air!!!!!

6 giant ones!!! 

I have a slight fear of the 8 legged critters but managed to get a photo of 2 of them....the others were dangling procariously close to my head so I stayed clear of them!!!

Creepy!!!!

And the Halloween giveaway winner is.......

Sue of Crafts@Home!!!!

Congratulations!!!!

If you can email me your address, your surprise gift will be with you before Halloween!!!!

xxxxx

Halloween giveaway.........

Halloween is just a month away and I love it!!! Every year I volunteer at the Tredegar House Halloween event and become one of the "scary people" that lurk the hallways ready to scare people who dare to come around!!!

Last year I was a zombie nurse!!!

My sister is the scary skull person!!!!!

My friend is the evil clown!!!!

Its so much fun and this year I will be donning my outfit again and preparing to frighten the masses!!!

So, to celebrate spook night I am having a surprise giveaway!!!!

If you would like to enter then please leave me a comment below!! Simples!!

Will close on September 30th

xxx

Summer Holidays....

This Summer Holiday we have been on some fabulous trips. 

As you know we went to Legoland and Devon and just recently we went to Wookey Hole, Noahs Ark Zoo Farm and Slimbridge.....all fab.

Deakon has had a very adventurous school break!!!

Here are some photos of our trips....

Deakon and cousin Emmy at Noah Ark Farm

Me and Deakon in the Wookey Hole caves!!

Deak at Slimbridge

Time for a nice rest before I go back to work on Tuesday :(

xxxx

Oh I do like to be beside the seaside.....

This week has been a busy one! 

On Monday and Tuesday we took Deakon and his friend Cory to Legoland. Well! Talk about busy! It was packed on the Monday and we only got on 2 rides but luckily it wasn't so busy on the Tuesday and we ended up getting on most of them....It was good fun!!

After that we drove home (about 2 1/2 hours drive) and on Wednesday morning we drove to Devon!! I was pooped....driving is tiring!!

We met my parents at a lovely cottage in Woodbury, which is near Exmouth. Beautiful place, I loved it there.

We went to the beaches at Budleigh Salterton, Exmouth and Lyme Regis and went shopping in Exeter.

Deakon

Me and my Mum

And we had a treat at Lyme Regis when the RAF Falcons did a parachute display above the beach and then landed right in front of us!!!

Thanks Mum and Dad for a fabulous holiday. 

xxxxxx

The Big 10!!...

On Tuesday my little baby Doodlebug will be 10!!!! Where has the time gone!!!

As we will be in Legoland at the time we had a lovely family BBQ today, it was fabulous!

Deak had his present off us early as his Aunt chipped in aswell and it was nice to open it with her there. He got a scooter, called a JD Bug, which is apparently the trendiest scooter you can get ( but I'm not cool enough to understand this!!)

He was very happy and spent the rest of the day in the street, whilst the rest of us enjoyed the grub!!!

My brother in law is the one of the grass pulling the stupid face!!

Happy Birthday, Deakon. Love you loads

xxxxxxxxx

Heartfelt apology.....

I would like to apologise to 3 lovely bloggers for the delay in posting giveaways and swaps. 

I have been so busy with work and preparing for my interview that I haven't posted them out. Naughty BuTtOnZ!

But.......now I have the job I am very much less stressed and will be hitting that post office this week!!!!!

I would like to share photos of the fabulous swaps I have received.

The first being the Midsummer swap.......

Fabulous handmade items by the lovely Bee

Loved them all, thank you so much and again sorry for the delay with yours.

Also....the fabric swap........

This was sent by the lovely Melinda.......again apologies for the delay in receiving yours.

I am soooooo lucky to be part of such fabulous swaps and I promise to be better at the posting next time!!

Also, Clare, over at Polly Dolly, your giveaway will be on its way this week.

Thank you for your patience, lovely ladies

xxxxx

Blogger break!.....

Just a quick apology for being AWOL for the past week or so...............been mega busy with work and birthdays. But good news.......I got a secondment senior job at work today so I'm HAPPY!!!!!!!!

I will be posting a proper blog on the weekend and sharing my photos of 2 parcels I received. One for a summer swap and one for a fabric swap.....both marvelous!!!!

xxxxxxxxx

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

Polly Dolly!!!

Well done!! Please send me your address details and I will get your suprise win sent to you!

So exciting!!

P.S Happy Fathers Day to all you fabulous Dads......especially mine.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

*****Secret Giveaway!......*****

I have decided to do a little suprise giveaway! 

Just because!

To enter, just leave me a comment below....the winner will be drawn on Sunday 19th

Have a lovely week

xxxxx

All my muscles ache!

Yesterday was one heck of a day!

Me and Deak helped my sister in law move house! Well! I was amazed at how much stuff she had in her flat, which was up 4 flights of stairs so lugging all that stuff down the stairs and into the van was tough. 

I was the white-van-lady, first time ever driving a van, and I quite enjoyed it!! 

We started at 10am and got home at 10.45pm................long day.

It was only us 2 women until 5pm (apart from Deak who was the door-opener!) and then her mum and boyfriend came to help after work, it was nice to have a little breather!!!

But we got it completed and now she is in a lovely new house with a fab garden and I'm looking forward to the day she says she is all unpacked and we can go round for Fajitas!!! Yum!

All I can say today is that I am so sore I can barely move! All my muscles ache, I'm off to have a long hot bath to try and soothe the pain!!!

Ooooh and when I popped home for lunch yesterday I had a fabulous parcel waiting for me from the lovely Ali over at Magic Making Hands

Summer swap parcel

Gorgeous stuff.....................I was ooohing and aaaahing opening each one!!

a lovely handmade heart, 

needles, 

handmade pin holder book, 

handmade flower brooch,

tape measure, 

box of buttons/thread/ribbon, 

pegs with cute handmade decorations on the top, 

a handmade covered notebook and pencil

and some yummy chocolate!!!!!!

I love it all, Ali, Thank you so much and I will be posting yours shortly (sorry for the delay x)

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

A treat....just for me!

This weekend I bought myself a little treat.....

A Yankee Candle!!!

Its something I've always wanted but couldnt really justify paying for it but I saw one and thought "what the hell!!"

Now, I know some people buy these all the time but £12 is a luxury buy for me! - especially for a candle but they smell divine and the jar is pretty cute too!!!

Also on the weekend Fudgey had his nails trimmed! They were pretty long but after his bunny manipedi he is all neat and tidy!!!!

Lazy bunny!!!!

My little WW2 Evacuee...

Deakons class, this term, are learning about the WW2. Deakon loves it, finds it really fascinating and will read books about it and watch it on the History Channel. (Doesn't take after me there!)

Last week they were asked to dress up as evacuees and were told to take to school a simple packed lunch - fruit, piece of chocolate, biscuit/cake and jam/spam sandwiches. Also to pack some PJ's and a teddy.

Well, he looked fab!! So I took a picture and used my fancy phone to make it look old!!

Voila!

Happy weekend everyone

xxx

Time to announce a winner...

My little Doodlebug helped me pick out a winner of my first ever Giveaway!

He folded all the names and stuck them in his Dads new hat, then closed his eyes, swirled his hand around and picked out a name!

and the winner is.........................

Congratulations LissyLou!!!!

If you send me your address I will send out your winnings!!

Thanks to everyone who took part, I am so chuffed at the response but sad I cant give you all a prize. Still, gives me an excuse to do another one soon!!!

xx

Tea, biscuits and a good book...

I embraced my last day off work by lazing about! Bliss.

I made a pot of tea and sat in my little conservatory and read my book - which I finished completely in one afternoon!!

Tea, biscuits...............

....and a good book!

My Mum and Dad also came round in the morning and I made a cream tea breakfast - scones with Cornish clotted cream and jam....was yummy! Mum cut me some Lilac from the tree in her garden too, I love flowers and would fill my whole house with them if I could!!!

Dont forget there is still time to enter my Giveaway and also pop along to Jenny's blog - she has a fabulous giveaway too.

xx

***~Giveaway~***

 

 

 

 

 

I know I'm 7 followers off 50 but I'm going to start my giveaway now as I just can't wait any longer!!! My first giveaway, woohoo!!!

So if you would like join in then please leave a comment below. If you want to tweet/facebook about this giveaway or mention me in your blog too then that would me lovely!!!

The giveaway is a fabric heart, handmade by me, a cupcake recipe book full of yummy ideas, some seeds to grow beautiful flowers, a mixture of fabrics, some ribbon and a cute little zip pouch.

The closing date will be Sunday May the 8th.

Thanks for being fabulous followers

Xxxx