A Bit of Birthday Bunting

Linking up with Maxabella for the Weekend Rewind.

You know how when you get an idea in your head and it's a REALLY GOOD IDEA??

Then it grows and grows and ends up taking over your life and the world and ALL your spare time and it feels like it's NEVER going to end ...

Or is that just me ...

Anyhow, I had this REALLY GOOD IDEA!!

It's Miss Macs 15th Birthday today - I know, my baby is 15!!!  How the hell did THAT happen?

Turn your back for ONE SECOND and they go and grow up on you!

Here is my beautiful girl:

Gorgeous!

Anyway, having never got around to blogging about 'Battleship Grey on a Budget' where I was planning on telling you all about decorating her room in silver and turquoise she  recently decided that she wanted to go for a vintage Union Jack look - after ALL my HARD WORK!!

I totally sympathise with Emma Kates dilemma (and do pop over and check out her blog - a very talented lady and lovely with it!).

So, bearing in mind that there is no way I'm totally redecorating her room and, given the list of things she already wanted for her Birthday I decided to get my craft on and make some bunting.

Because, as 'someone' said:

'Bunting is to hipster parents interior designing the living shnizzle out of their kid's bedroom what, well, what a baton is to a conductor, what a mullet is to a bogan.  It is the HEART AND SOUL of hip parenting style'


And I am obviously the living embodiment of a hipster parent - although fast getting to the hip replacement point ...

I KNOW Slapdash - I TOLD you we was twins!!! - for a little Slapdashery Haberdashery see here and be inspired!

And that's obviously where I should have stopped ...  But didn't ....

I found these hearts in Chaplins - love that place - 60p each would you believe!!  They were plain wood (but of course I started to decorated them BEFORE taking a photo!).

Then I found THIS scrappy old heart in a charity shop for 99p so I bought that too.

And turned it into this:

THEN, because I really didn't have enough to do with only two days to go, I thought I'd have a go at making her a memory box from THIS:

A bit of crafting paper, a bit of cutting stuff out, lots of lovely glue and a bit of carefully positioned ribbon to cover up the crappy joins and voila! Not too shabby even if I DO say so myself.

Actually, I'm having fun and who knows where it may end.

Now all I have to do is make a shit load of cakes and she is SORTED!

Join me - join Slapdash Mama - Join Emma Kate.

Together we can take over the world and festoon it with bunting!

Rubbish Tuesday

I happened across this meme by Roan at Rubbish by Roan, I love photos, I love old and interesting things, I love combining them all.

As Roan says:

'The idea is to post a photograph of anything old and/or deteriorating i.e. house, barn, outbuilding, something rusty, antiques, interesting junk, or something in pristine condition, but just plain old.'

I took this photo last week at the Bakelite Museum in Williton, Somerset which is jam packed full of old and interesting things.  I have played a little with the photo as you can see and love the way the light catches it.

Lazy Days and Mondays

Rewinding with Maxabella

Deep red jewel like raspberry jam, fluffy, crumbly scones, thick, oozing clotted cream.

Fragrant, steaming, bone china teapots, silver teaspoons worn thin with age.

Yesterday was wrapped in gossamer, everything diffused, the light like distilled sunflowers and life so slowed you could almost hear the grass growing.

Bee's lazily buzzing, sun gently shining, birds softly singing.

As the sun set the whole sky glowed and tinted the world rose.

I've tried to find a way to tell you but I can't begin to put the magic of yesterday into words so I'll let these photos do it for me.

The Sunny Side Of The Street

This morning I walked to work in brilliant sunshine, there wasn't a cloud in the sky and the warm sun on my bare arms was a promise of the summer to come.

In front of me a couple bundled up as though it were still mid winter crossed the road to the side in the shade and I wondered, why would you DO that?  We have had some beautiful days but they seem to be few and far between at the moment.  Why wouldn't you want to wring every last ounce out of the sun whilst it's shining?

It's been a trying few weeks hence the silence on the blog.  Several difficult situations have arisen and consequently I've been feeling a little low.

Primarily, I was burgled a week ago.  I'm not going to dwell on it too much.  It's left a nasty taste in my mouth but there are some positives.

The police have been absolutely amazing!  So often I hear stories where people feel our police force have failed them.  Well, all I can say is that my experience has been that they have exceeded my expectations by a long way.

For some reason the burglars didn't go upstairs for which I am eternally grateful.  Having someone ransack my bedroom or Miss Mac's room would have been heartbreaking for both of us.

There was no real physical damage done, drawers were pulled out but nothing was broken.

No one was hurt.

So yep, all in all, things could have been so much worse.

Some money was taken but they left the DVD player despite having pulled it out it was left on the floor, presumably once they had found some cash it looked less appealing to them.

Sadly the money wasn't mine, it belonged to the park group for which I am treasure but again, it could have been worse, I'd just made a payment in cash a few days before so there was less money in the cash tin than there had been.  It's a loss that I can cover with a little belt tightening.

The biggest loss is the briefcase they took.  I guess because it has a combination lock they thought it might hold something valuable.  Well it does, but not to them.  We have the AGM of the park group next week and the briefcase contains all the books and paperwork.  I'd only taken it out to do the final accounts in preparation for the AGM.  I don't even have anything electronically as our accounts are so basic that I keep a simple paper record and transfer it onto a spreadsheet each year to present to the committee and to give a copy to the Secretary. It's not insurmountable, most of the money is banked and safe, I can, with the help of others on the committee put together something resembling accounts and I know exactly how much money is missing.

Having your home violated in this way is horrible.  I've had plenty of sleepless nights since and according to SD, the nights where I do sleep are filled with restlessness and tears.  I've been short tempered and snappy and I've baked enough to feed an army.  Baking is something I always fall back on in times of stress, it clears my mind and soothes my soul but I'm running out of people to ply with cakes and crumbles and homemade bread and soup.  On the plus side, at least I'm not eating it all myself!

This morning made me think.

I can wallow in this and, to be honest, I have for a while but it changes nothing.  This wasn't personal, it was an opportunist.  All of the above is true, it could have been SO much worse.  I am a little more cautious, I don't feel completely comfortable in my own home right now, I am wary every time I unlock my front door wondering what I will find and it is going to take a little time for those feelings to pass.

I could walk in the shade, dwell on the bad things, wrap myself up in despondency and gloom or ...

I can hold my face up to the sun.  Be happy for the many, many good things in my life.  Put the bad things down to experience and move on.

So that's what I'm going to do because I choose to walk on the sunny side of the street.