Wednesday's wonders

 I had a pretty uneventful meeting with my consultant, he has decided to not back me for a home birth but wants me in a local birthing unit instead. I'm still planning to attempted a home birth even after his lovely tales of my uterus splitting and my baby suffering from my foolishness. But at least it's over and done with now.
 On our way back from the appointment OH detoured us skillfully into our local Waitrose where it happened to be reduction time. We picked up 2 treacle tarts for 40p, a pack of Pain au Chocolat for 45p and a lovely looking fruit loaf for 39p. So tomorrow I can look forward to a yummy breakfast and some tasty elevenses and afternoon snacks. This baby is finally giving me an appetite and I find myself constantly grazing.

  An earlier visit in the day to the local free book shop found me these beauty's. An old Readers Digest Atlas perfect for some upcoming crafty projects. A vintage book called " The pebbles on the beach by Clarence Ellis", it is all about different types of stones you can find on the seafront and how to find, collect and organise them. It's quite nerdy but fascinating. An old Penguin book about the seashore, it's full of wonderful full page illustrations that are just begging to be used creatively, if I can find the will power to cut it up!!!

 And the forth books is called Super ABC Book. It looks pretty vintage to me and my untrained eye, and is full of wonderful illustrations like the ones in the photo above.

 It has cute little comic strip style storys and counting rhymes that are almost to cute!

I'm really tempted to copy out some of the illustrations, like this piggy, and use them as embroidery patterns on pillows and bedsheets for DD and bumps room.

 My plans this evening are to eat some delicious treacle tart and try some craft ideas out using my new atlas.
 x x x

Car Boot sale 2

 So today was our second car boot in 2 days. I'm feeling the burn this afternoon I can assure you, but it has cleared out so much junk and made us just over £100 all together. This morning was overcast with a very cold wind so DD spend most her time in the car with one or the other of us pretending to drive, and waving to random people passing by.

 As the morning went on it got quite busy but as you can see the sky remained very heavy.

 Peppa Pig toy - £1

 Not many bargains to be found this morning but we did manage to snaffle this Peppa pig learning toy, it makes all kinds of noises on each of the different modes and DD was enthralled for hours with it

2 Jodi Picoult book - £1 each  Penguin book - 50p

The Picoult books are to put away for our holiday, I love her easy to read style and they will be perfect for the beach and long lazy evenings. The penguin book is part of the That's not my ..... series. We have several in the series already and DD really enjoys them.

TellyTubby toy - 10p Peppa Pig figures - 25p each

 And finally 3 little toys for the little sweetie. She spotted Po all by herself on one of our many walks around the other stalls. The Peppa's were spotted by Daddy and you can imagine just how well they have gone down with DD. They are the perfect size for throwing in her backpack for days out, clever daddy.

 My plans for the afternoon are to have a nap, finished the last few bits on the cross stitch from yesterday and start planning my entry for The summer of colour 2012. Tomorrow we are having a Jubilee trip out with nanny and grandad to the beach and then building a den for Finding Fun.
Busy busy busy.
x x x

Car boot goodies for May

 Firstly I will show you a freebie, almost brand new Timberland boots! My mum picked them up for me the other day and passed them on. A quick peek on the website tells me that someone probably paid around £120 for these and then barely used them.

 Kung Fu Panda stuffy - 50p  Charlie and Lola book - 50p

 DD and I have been watching Kung Fu Panda 2 a lot lately thanks to Sky on demand so I was quite pleased to find this panda toy. He was lovingly cuddled and carried for the duration of the car boot sale.
 The book will be added to our C&L collection. We have 3 books now all thrifted from boot sales and charity shops. I'm always keeping my eyes open for more as they can be pretty expensive to find new.

 Peppa Pig stuffy - 20p Number game - 20p

Peppa pig is DD new love, we are planning to get her a DVD when we next food shop. At the moment she watches episodes on YouTube but they are only 5 minutes long and your constantly having to put on the next one.
 The number game will be a great educational tool to use with our home school lessons.

P

 Arsenal shirt - £1  I'm the boss PJ's - 50p   Peppa pig top - £1

Football shirts in big sizes are our nighties of choice for DD. They are perfect for this hot sticky weather as they are breathable, light and also wash in a jiffy. The PJ's will be put away for the cooler weather as they are quite thick Cotton. The Peppa pig shirt will be worn to death!

 3 cross stitch card kits - £1

 A little something to keep me entertained at nap time and in the evenings. I deliberately went for Xmas designs as I have plans to craft a lot of gifts this year. As I am getting bigger and bigger now (27 weeks yikes) and moving less and less I have plenty of sitting time to fill with useful things.

Selection of Blu Ray movies and DVD's - up to £2 each

We love our movies in TFHMH. So a car boot sale is a great opportunity to pick them up cheap. Once we have watched them we decided if we want to keep them a while and watch them again or put them in our shop for resale. Most of them end up in the shop for sale making it a money neutral hobby.

 I hope you enjoyed looking at what we brought yesterday. I would also like to say a big Hello to my two newest likers!!! and to all of the 189 people who have looked at my blog in the past 2 days. Your all making me feel really popular and motivated.

 x x x

Busy afternoon

 Yesterday afternoon we had glorious weather, and it really soaked into my skin and got me moving! First off was DD's lesson for the day which was the letter A. We also referenced yesterdays lesson which was squares by decorating the letter A with squares I cut out from scrap paper. I was really impressed with DD's attention span today as we sat down for a good 20 minutes to complete these two projects without complaints or wandering off. We are only on day 3 of trying this scheme and already I feel she is gaining from it. Our reward for making the pictures above was a malted milk biscuit each, because the weeks theme is cows and they have little cows stamped on them. Tomorrows lesson is the number one which she will be starting with Daddy while I am at my knitting group.

 While DD was having her afternoon nap I also hooked out the patchwork quilt I started working on forever ago and made another 2 stars to add to it. It was lovely to just sit in the open window and sew. I'm hoping to work on this project a little more over the summer and possibly end up with a new quilt for winter, but we shall see how it goes.

And finally I completed another task on my spring clean/before baby to do list and blitzed a bookshelf. I've bagged up 4 carrier bags full of books that I've either read, tried to read and hated or just lost interest in. They will mostly be destined for the charity shop but some I've registered for Book crossing.

After all that I am going to relax with a cup of tea and watch DD have a tea party with her stuffed animals
x x x

Saturday Shopping

  Last night was horrible. Poor DD had night terrors and woke up screaming and almost inconsolable at about 4am. It took forever to calm her down and settle her back to sleep and today I am paying for it. I was planning to have a good mooch around the charity shops but I was just to tired today. So instead I wandered up the road to the local museum to add some books to the Bookcrossing shelf and pick up something new and interesting. I'm going to try Eating Cake by Stella Duffy. I think it was the title that appealed to me.

  Today the museum was also hosting a Unique arts and crafts fair. It's a regular event where local crafters and artists can sell their handcrafted wares. There is lots of wonderful variety and a fantastic showcase of different talents. I wish I'd taken my camera to take some snaps but alas I'd forgotten it. I did however have some change in my pocket and picked up 3 delicious looking chocolate and raspberry scones. They are made by Teresa from Teresa's Cakes who if you are local makes cakes worthy of legend!!!!

 As you can see they certainly meet DD's approval. This picture is of her teasing me with her cake, she holds it out so you can try a bit and then snatches it away at the last minute giggling.

 She also helped Daddy price up some new stock with the pricing gun. Not sure I could bear to sell her for £14.95. To me she is priceless.

 I also picked up 10 lovely cards from Card factory. 10 cards for £1 is a deal I couldn't miss with so many birthdays in our family in the last 4 months of the year. This little lot should keep me going for a little while. As long as I don't forget where I put them!!!

x x x

Thursday happenings.

 -9Today has been quite the day for freebies and bargains! First off at my weekly knitting group I was given 2 gorgeous patterns that are just perfect for DD. I'm hoping to start one as soon as I've finished a birthday scarf for my SIL. I just need to decide on which one to do first lol, decisions decisions.
 Freebie 2 was a voucher via email for a Gordon's G&T at a local pub. Being quite pregnant and not really a drinker anyway I have passed it over to my hubby. He was delighted at the idea of free tipple and we are hoping to redeem it on Saturday after we close the shop.

And finally freebie 3, a nice book to read. I received an email for the first time in ages from Bookcrossing and remembered that our local museum has quite a nice crossing corner. I wandered up with DD and had a browse of the dozen or so titles currently up for grabs and picked up one that appealed to me. If your not familiar with book crossing I really recommend you take a peek at their website and see if anywhere near you has joined in.

After all those free goodies it was time to hit a local charity shop. I picked up this huge pile of children's books for a measly £2 and most of them look brand new!!! A few are going to one side for a friend's son's birthday that's coming up and the rest will be going onto DD's bulging bookshelf. She loves an afternoon story or two and I'm trying to get a book into her bedtime routine as well.
 The cuddly toys were in a bargain basket near the door which DD fell upon the moment we entered. It was perfect because she was nicely distracted while I had a little rummage in the book box, but meant a choice of toddler tantrum or a toy purchase. She's been such a treasure lately that I couldn't resist giving her a little treat.

I also picked up a copy of  Iron me on. I don't know if anyone else has noticed but am nearing the 100 posts mark on my little old blog, and to say thank you to all my readers and followers I am planning a giveaway. So watch this space for an announcement soon.

Merry Christmas for the bump

 Taggie book £1

 I know it's only April but already my thoughts are turning towards Christmas. With our baby due to arrive late August/Early September getting organised for Christmas is a high priority. So I am starting my present stockpile today with this little Taggie book. I picked it up for a meagre £1 in my favourite charity shop, I almost squealed when I spotted the Taggie label. I have been able to find it here on Amazon. It seems that I have nabbed myself a nice bargain.
 I'm putting it aside for bump as s/he will be about 4/5 months when the festivities take place, and this soft light cloth book is just perfect for cuddling, stroking, tugging and chewing. 

 In other news I have finished knitting the arms for my pom pon project and have almost finished the back panel. Hopefully I can reveal my experiments results on Friday or Saturday and get  pattern written up for anyone who is interested.

 x x x x

Bargains galore

Good evening lovely readers. I made a fabulous discovery yesterday. A wonderful scheme called Healthy Planet one of their schemes is Books for free all the books above were from our first visit. The top two are OH's, the Fairy Tales are to read to DD, and the bottom two are all mine mine mine. I'm hoping to try a few things from each of them shortly so watch this space.

2x Cath Kidston tissues £1 - Book for DD 40p -
2X Key rings £2.00 - Vintage pillowcases - 50p

This is my charity shop haul from today. One of the key rings and tissues are for someone for Xmas and will be put away. The book is for DD, and the vintage pillowcases have an undecided fate for now. I hardly ever see vintage pillowcases so these were a wonderful find.

This is my current project, can you believe this chair was in the communal bin shed? I think its beautiful and under the scuffs and dinks I could see some potential shining through. So I brought it indoors..........

... gave it a good sand papering. It took me about an hour but I found it really therapeutic. And then..........
... gave it two coats of Wickes Petal. It not the biggest of painting projects, so I used a tester pot and even after two coats I still have a healthy blob left for touch ups.
My job tomorrow is to give it a light sand down to even out the paint and then a coat of varnish.
Then I can move onto making a nice cushion to finish it off. I promise to keep you posted :)
x x x