Start to Christmas

The traditional start to the Christmas festivities in our house begins when the 'Christmas First Box' (as I've labelled it(!!) comes down from the loft.  Its the box which contains the advent calendar, the Christmas CD's, and Christmas cards.  This year Jamie and Mike put up the advent calendar and so the countdown began. 

Jamie Organising the Advent Calendar after Cubs

We love our advent calendar which we have now used year after year after year and it is always a joy to get it down and set it up.  We buy little treats for Jamie to get every day, the traditional chocolate pennies (or Euros are they seem to be now!!) or little Christmas chocolate treats.  He loves it and Mike and I don't get a look in.  I love the advent calendar because we start the Christmas period with a strong reminder about what the season is all about, not the presents, the over indulgence, food, wine etc, and not even the TV specials but about the birth of a very special baby.  I think it sets a great tone for the rest of the month.

Mike and Jamie, Binnie has spotted the chocolate (but none for her it's bad for her!!)

We didn't really have to wait long either in December for the weather to become very wintry, here is a picture of Mike doing what he said he would never do which is walk Binnie in her pink coat.  You can see that we had had our first fall of snow.  It was to get a lot worse. 

Mike walking Binnie in her PINK coat



Our park looks amazing in the first snow, the pond already frozen solid



Ciao

Sue
XX
Reading challenge 15/16 - currently reading Twilight by Stephanie Meyer

And For The Rest of the Week

We still have snow, its fun to start with but as it continues, it is getting less so! Here is a still from video of Binnie playing in the snow in the garden. She was having fun but was finding it difficult to get to her usual look out spot on the treehouse.

She did make it up there eventually .....

and now she can check out her little kingdom and make sure all is well!!

Jamie and I were watching a film when we kept hearing a thud thud and at first I thought nothing of it, but eventually decided to check it out. I thought it was snow starting to thaw and fall off the garden furniture, but after it continued I explored a little further and found someone was throwing snowballs at the back of the house. As Jamie's room is at this side I was a little concerned as we know that silliness can often lead to 'accidents', I checked it out further and found that snowballs were being thrown at the house from a nearby house. This is a picture of remnants a couple of days later.

This is a picture of the retarded moron (used here in its definition of underdeveloped mentally - which he clearly is) who was throwing the snowballs. It has been reported to the police as I have a strong belief in naming and shaming - although I should think shame is an unknown emotion to this creature.

On a brighter note one of the things the cold weather does bring is some interesting and unusual photo opportunities and here is one of my hanging baskets covered in fairly large icicles, it did look amazing and took quite a few days before it thawed and disappeared completely. It was something I hadn't noticed in previous bad weather, but I guess the weather hadn't gone on as long as this patch had.

And here is a small conifer which was frozen, the picture here doesn't do it justice but it looked amazing. I just hope it survives for the summer after all this bad treatment!

At least having so much college work means I haven't had to venture too far and the bad weather makes it easier to stay in.

Ciao

Sue

XX

Reading challenge 10/16 - currently reading Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkhaban (which has disappeared (?) and I am now reading Songbird by Josephine Cox.

And For the Rest of the Week

Well - the next few days could be summed up in 1 word - SNOW!!!!!! and lots of it. College was closed, school was closed and everything almost came to a standstill. So as we didn't have to go out anywhere at least we didn't have to worry about trying to get about in it and just enjoyed it!!

Jamie and I headed out for a walk with Binnie in the snow, we didn't get too far before it started snowing again - here Jamie is being snowed on!

Binnie wasn't liking it much by this point, the snow was almost up to her tummy!

She looks warm in her coat, but the snow packed into her pads and she didn't like it after a few minutes so with the snow getting heavier and Binnie struggling to walk in it we headed home.

An 'arty' shot of the cornus covered in snow.

Our local park looks wonderful in the snow, it was starting to snow quite heavily by this point so we decided to turn around and head home.

Here school is closed, the snow was still pristine everywhere, no-one was venturing out too far.

I am well wrapped up and even though we had only just set off was getting covered in snow.

When we got home and put Binnie inside to warm up - we had the obligatory snowball fight - the cars provided lots of ammunition!!

Jamie is having lots of fun, but the snow was getting heavier and we got cold, so it was inside for some hot chocolate.

Ciao

Sue

XX

Reading challenge 10/16 - currently reading Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkhaban

Sunday 13th September

A family Sunday with lots going on but nothing going on if you know what I mean, one of those days we spent just pottering around with this and that! Here are some piccies of what was going on. Mike and Jamie were making a Star Wars Lego ship, which (fingers crossed) should be finished tomorrow. Binnie decided she wanted a big cuddle of Mike and was having one even if he didn't. Here he is finally caught on camera giving her a kiss, he protests that he doesn't like her, but you make your mind up!

She certainly looks quite content sat on his shoulder,

and here she is practically asleep!

Whilst Mike and Jamie were dong the Lego, I was clearing and sorting out my flower arranging stuff, which seems to have taken over! I am storing some of it in Jamie's tree house, as in the coming months I know I am going to need access to it (there is a big announcement coming - and that is a hint - more to be revealed as the week goes on!) Below are some of my plastic trays. I thought if I keep a folder of pictures of what I have I will be able to know exactly what I want from the box I keep them in - that's the theory anyway!

This is 1 of 2 frames my neighbour made for me for the Bucks Show competition, I used the arched one in the end, but this will be kept for future use, or to be borrowed by one of my flower arranging chums. All together the two cost about £10 so I think they have been a total bargain.

Here's the arched one.

More of my plastic containers

and a box full of them.

Here are my candle cups and a couple of larger bases and the compo which I use for pedestal arrangements. But seeing the pedestal used in church, I think I may get one of those in due course too.

I have been trying to catch up with all of my emails and I have only 4 left to deal with, which is almost unheard of for me. I have probably bombarded everyone today with emails and now their inboxes will be full instead of mine. But I am working on clearing my desk, inbox and making sure all my floristry stuff is in order over this coming week, and that I get the housework sorted too. I want to start next week with a lovely clean desk, house and slate!

Yesterday I popped into Winslow, where the lady who has brought the shop to the crop (!) was selling off a lot of her stock, v cheap, so despite being on a scrap crap diet (!) I splurged out all of £6.50 on the following, with Jamie adding a couple of bits into it too!

Some My Mind Eye and Teresea Collins - I like this one because it has a rock star type look about it.

Basic Grey, K & Co US States which we thought we may be able to use for a project at school (well eventually) and some doodlebug, into black and white at the moment.

A Basic Grey for me, and a couple that Jamie took a shine to, at 5p a sheet couldn't grumble.

Some more basic grey, I love these colours, these are really me colours. I already used some of these pattern in layouts and so have replaced some which I know I will use again.

A sunflower stamp, I can't resist sunflowers and a lady in a cloche hat, good for ATC's, inchies, twinchies etc.

I like borders, so the stamp (which is double sided) will be useful and the Italy stamps we are storing up for a possible school project, or a trip to Italy and the alphabet is American Crafts so all good items and only 50p each, a total bargain. I had looked at the dates for Ally Pally but I'm not going to be able to make that date other priorities. Now all I need is to get some scrapbooking done.

Ciao

Sue

XX

Reading challenge 8/16 - currently reading Lovers and Players by Jackie Collins
Jamie's Reading challenge 7/12 - currently reading Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull by James Luceno
SLYMI - 1/52

Tuesday 23rd June

Trying to catch up on all my jobs at the moment, there always seems to be something to do, but almost caught up on the washing and ironing especially as the weather has been so good. I hate ironing!

Binnie had to go to the vets for her check up - thankfully she is doing really really well and her stitches and wound are healing up very nicely. I seem to have lost my impetus for my walking too at the moment, so I really need to get back on top of that too. Perhaps I should set myself a fitness challenge, perhaps a 'Greatest Loser' style week!

I've bought a 'temporary' set of drawers to keep some of my scrapbooking bits in as they seem to be taking over the office (crafting space, writing/blogging space and 101 others things too!) at the moment, so I need to put them together and clear some space - maybe then I can get down to some scrapbooking at the weekend too. Is it just us, or does everyone have a serious lack of storage space?

I cannot believe it is this far into the year already, time just seems to be flying past at an alarmingly fast pace. Today was the music festival auditions and hooray Jamie got through, despite his being very nervous. So now it is practice, practice, practice until the day of the festival. He is also busy doing his project on grey squirrels, but thankfully we are not going to be as stressed as last time as he has put a good quantity of work into it already.

I'm finally getting around to reading T is for Trespass, I have held onto this for some time now, but then the next one may be on its way before too long too. I am well behind with all of my fave authors (Cornwell, Kava, Reichs, Slaughter as well as Sue Grafton) at the moment, so need to get stuck into my reading challenge!


Ciao

Sue

XX

Reading challenge 2/16 - currently reading T is for Trespass by Sue Grafton
SLYMI - 1/52

Wednesday 17th June

TLC for Binnie and A Bit More Flower Arranging ....

Binnie is looking much more like her normal self this morning, although much slowed down from her normal speed, and she is taking great care when moving about. Fortunately I haven't had to use the buster collar on her yet as she is showing no interest in her stitches. She has to refrain from jumping up and not dash around in her usual Jack Russell style. Below, one of her favourite places to sit, comfort being the least she expects!

For those who don't know JR's are totally tenacious and have no idea that they are small dogs. They are full of spirit, fun, devilment, curiosity, and can be the cutest things going. She has all of those qualities in abundance. She is pretty well behaved and tends only to bark when provoked, by us playing with her, when she sees a cat (and there are quite a few of those in our neighbourhood) or she hears another dog barking. Sadly she doesn't get on with our cat, Twinkle, who is about 11 (she was a rescue, so we don't know for sure) and Twinkle positively hates her! But then whenever Binnie sees her, she chases her so can you be surprised? I will fill in bits about Twinkle another day. Jamie and Binnie in a usual position, she adores Jamie and considers it her job to make sure he is OK at all times, even when he is playing in the park, she sits on the edge of the sofa and watches him out of the window. She whimpers and whines if she sees him, or thinks he has a problem, I know what he is doing just by listening to her!

I did indulge her and spent a lot of the day giving her some serious TLC on the sofa, I watched Hannibal Rising, which was OK, but nothing special, well not for me - none of the sequels, prequels have lived up to Silence of the Lambs for me. That first experience of Hannibal cannot really be beaten and the ending, "I'm having an old friend for dinner" what a shiver, but what humour!

I did manage to produce another couple of flower arrangements today, while Binnie slept. The first was in a vase, in which an oasis round fitted perfectly and I did a fairly simple line arrangement, using gerbera, at the back I used Bells of Ireland. I have wanted to get my hands on Bells of Ireland to have a go with for quite some time and had not managed to find any until Colombia Road. What I hadn't realised is they have a nasty little prickle on them and caught myself a couple of times whilst arranging them! I added carthamus and brought some bright green sisal to the front to take the lime green right through the arrangement. This one works perfectly on the shelf in the hallway!

The second arrangement, was supposed to be more of a challenge for me, but I found it came together very well and very easily. I arranged the foliage in low groups around a circular base of oasis, there is a space in the centre, which could be filled with, well whatever you want, I was putting a candle in mine. I have used a variety of foliage including ivy and conifer. The main height comes from Bells of Ireland again, I've made sure I trimmed the top leaves to give the tops of the flower a clean look. I've then grouped the other flowers around the arrangement, in 3's, 3 white roses, 3 white peony, 3 white alstro and finally 3 pink lillies. I think this one is super and will be using that design again, certainly at Christmas with some candles and lots of red and gold! And I still have tons of flowers left, so 5 arrangements thus far and counting!

Jamie got his second praise postcard at school today, well done Jamie! Here he is displaying his new postcard still covered in chocolate ice-cream around his mouth, boys! Although I do love the way he just doesn't care, his attitude is so what if I'm dirty I'm OK, I'm having fun, stop fussing mother! In that aspect he is so much like his Daddy, whose attitude is I'm clean and don't smell so what else is needed?

Well done Jamie on your praise postcard!

Ciao

Sue

XX
Reading challenge 1/16 - currently reading The Stone Rose by Jacqueline Rayner
SLYMI - 1/52

Binnie

Tuesday 16th June - Binnie Has Her Operation

We had to be very organised and out early this morning, as today was a day I hadn't been looking forward to, today Binnie was heading off to the vets to be spayed, and I knew I was going to be very worried about her all day. I've always treated our animals as if they're part of the family, well they are part of the family and I'm incredibly soppy with them and spoil them to bits. Here she is sat on the sofa, looking totally gorgeous, she is such a cutie espcially with the colouring around her eyes. Both ears are down here, but more often than not, she can be found with one ear up and one ear down.

Binnie is a 2 year old Jack Russell and I have to say it was love at first sight on both sides between Binnie and I. When I went to look at some JR's, I wasn't going to have a brown/tan one and I wasn't going to have a girl. Binnie is tan and white and obviously a girl but I just fell for her BIG time! When I was looking at the puppies, they all went mad jumping up and down at the gate (except one which was eating sawdust - I avoided that one!). Then one really cute one which had been jumping up and down went to the back of the kennel sat down and just stared at me. Can I have a look at that one, said I, I picked her up and didn't put her back, in case she got mixed up! She still sits and stares at me when she wants something, feeding, letting out and mostly cuddling. Here is curled up with one of her toys when she was a puppy. As a puppy she would curl up on my chest and sleep, now she is bigger, she stills does it, and I can be found trying to watch my fave TV show around or over the top of her! Spoilt doesn't really come into it!!

She isn't used to be left at the vets, although she has been into kennels a couple of times, it wasn't going to be fun for either of us. We dropped Jamie round at Vicki's (lovely Vicki, who can cheer you up on any morning!), one of Jamie's school friend's Mum who was going to drop Jamie at school along with her daughter Lauren. Anyway we got her over to the vets about 8.20 am, and waited to see the nurse. We did all of the paperwork and chatted over what was going to happen and when we would be able to collect her, I then asked if they could ring when the op was done and just let me know all went well. Then we had to leave her, I held it together pretty well and I was pleased that I did.

I'd decided to head off to my floristry class as usual, something which a year ago I would not have been able to do, I would have sat at home worrying myself silly about it all. So I got stuck into my arrangment at class and waited for a phone call. It was not long in coming (thankfully) and by about 10.45 Mr Burke (who is a brilliant and wonderful vet) had rung Mike to say the op was done, she was ok and she had lifted her head. All she had to do now was come round fully from the anasthetic.

Today at floristry we made an arrangement in a glass with white sisal at the bottom before the oasis was placed and then the two candles were added (mine got a little bent on the way home!). We used the lovely white oasis again which was covered in gypsophilia, stunning white roses, carnations and eustoma (lisianthus) and added the silver thread. This would make a lovely table centre for a wedding or especially for a silver wedding anniversery.

Once I got home I was quite anxious to pick up Binnie as soon as possible, but she was still coming round when we rang at about 1.30pm, we needed to pick her up after about 3.30pm, so after collecting Jamie we headed off to get her. She was very pleased to see us and seemed to be in good spirits considering. She was not herself, in that she was quiet, subdued and very sleepy. Binnie is rarely subdued, in the normal course of things! She snuggled up with me once we got home and was quite happy to sleep for the rest of the day. But she was hungry, very hungry and was happy to clear up any food that was put down for her, which was a very good sign. She was given a special treat of some nice cooked chicken breast. The wound looked very neat and tidy and so fingers crossed it will heal quickly. She has a buster collar too but thus far has not shown any inclination to lick her wound, fingers crossed it goes on that way. Here she is being a little devil, you can see it on her face, she has run off with a bag of crisps, she is such a madam for running off with things!

I did feel a little sad, thinking that we would never be able to have any of her puppies, but as she has had 2 phantom pregnancies it was very much the best decision for her health and realistically, the best decision as if she had a litter I wouldn't have been able to give any of them away, especially if I had got around to giving them names (and I already have names picked out for several other dogs I woudl love). No probably not, so now just to work on Mike for getting the second dog! Below, she just looks so gorgeous! She is loved by all in the house, even Mike, though he would never admit it!

Ciao

Sue

XX
Reading challenge 1/16 - currently reading The Stone Rose by Jacqueline Rayner
SLYMI - 1/52