NORMAL SERVICE HAS ALMOST RESUMED....

Well I have really enjoyed being a needed mum, doting nanny, head chef and laundrymaid, but it is quite exhausting and so kinda nice to return to something like normality.

It means I can get some sewing done, start on the house projects and catch up with all the lovely bloggers who bother to read this stuff and not only that send me some great (and often very witty) comments. I am sorry that I have not answered many individually of late, but I do read them all and hope that I will return to my good habits again very soon. (Only regarding replies you understand...I can't be good all the time!!)

I was intending to share some delicious recipes with you today, but on Saturday I received  my parcel in Lucey's Button Swap from Jenny at the Red House
I couldn't therefore let it pass without showing it to you, so the receipes will wait.

What a terrific haul, Thank you so much Jenny, I love it all and the buttons will come in very handy.  I can't believe that you also included a fridge magnet from Becky at Dots and Spots as well. I already have one which my daughter bought me and I do love her work.
Jenny has been struggling with her arm, having had surgery and it seems a great deal of pain, so I am doubly grateful that she went ahead and completed the swap.
Thank you again.

I will be back later in the week to share those receipes including a wicked cheesecake.....so be prepared to forget your diets......

TTFN

Jenny xx

PS I would like to introduce you all to a new blogger who I am sure will keep you in stitches, but no doubt show me up for the boring old wrinkly I am. She has not written her first post yet, so I am waiting with baited breath. Find her at www.giddygirlsworld.blogspot.com No words but some lovely pictures!!

FAN FARE TA RA TA RA!!!! ........Charlie has arrived.......

No not Prince Charlie....though I'm sure he is to his proud mum and dad,

no I wish to announce the safe arrival of our

Charlie 

(2nd Grandson)

Mum and baby doing fine.

Charlie weighed in at 9lb 1oz, has dark brown hair and blue green eyes, just like daddy. 

Big brother Alfie has been a star

He has been staying with us and he has been no trouble at all, even at bedtime! All down to his super mum and dad who have made a wonderful job of bringing him up.

We love them all to bits

Thanks for allowing me a bit of boasting!!

TTFN

Jenny xx

VERY EXCITED...but a little anxious!!

Tomorrow our 2nd grandson will be delivered and though we are thrilled and very excited as a mum you can understand why I am still a bit anxious.
I have therefore been keeping myself very busy..

There is a huge stew slow cooking in the oven as all the expectant family will be dining here this evening because grandson no.1 will be staying with us for a few days while mummy is in hospital and they can then put him to bed themselves as I'm sure leaving him will be a real wrench.

His little room is about ready, Victorian pine bed, bespoke mattress (as it's only 6 foot long, so we couldn't buy one ready made), new bedding and a few toys to make it more like home. Still a bit to do but I think he will like it. It was his bedroom when they lived with us, but his previous furniture has gone to his new home...

I have also been making leek and potato soup for my lunch from this recipe...

....believe me this is one of the best cookery books for simplicity, straight forward ingredients and tasty recipes I have used for a long time....

..now I love to cook but sometimes the whole preparation thing puts me off. I am not a chef and have never yet accomplished the rapid chopping that they seem to do while still leaving fingers in one piece. But I have my trusty gadget....had it years, can't remember when I bought it..the Braun multimix...

This amazing little machine saves getting out the food processor and chops raw carrot, peppers onion etc. in seconds. It also grinds granulated sugar to icing sugar and even grinds whole nutmegs....

Another gadget, bought on a whim I must admit at a Good Food Show many moons ago is my Daily hand blender. I was eyeing up the Bamix but at the time it was way out of my price bracket and they were demonstrating the Daily (at under half the price) and it really did seem to work just as well. Well I can tell you many years later it still blends my soups beautifully, minces up meat for pate and makes wonderful mousse from skimmed milk, so for once 'you only get what you pay for' appears to not be quite true.

So as I finally sit down to lunch on my soup and home made bread, I am racking my brain for something else to occupy me and my mind....perhaps I could start cutting out those new curtains......

(beautiful scented roses from the garden...)

Bon Appetit

I will be back to show off our newcomer soon...

TTFN

Jenny xx

PS Have you seen the film Julie and Julia...Meryl Streep...great if you like to cook and a really lovely feel good movie....

NOT HARD TO FILL AN EMPTY SPACE......

Evening all

For any of you that follow my posts, you will know that my daughter's family have just moved out into their new home. It feels very odd to have the house to ourselves, and for it to feel so big and empty.  Of course it is neither, A reasonable size, but with a few rooms that are definitely shall we say currently looking very minimal. However that will not be for long as the following piccies of some of my recent finds will prove. I have already installed new beds in the 2 bedrooms they have vacated and am about to gut what was their first floor sitting room to turn it into my new sewing room. I will post about the progress of those later, but in the meantime here is my recent haul (not bought all at once I might add) CS, CB and fair finds.......

Utility china

sauce boat to go with my Sylvac dishes...

Hubby bought me the chicken because it reminded him of Kellogg's adverts...to go with my advertising collection...I must say I agree and have come to love him..(the chicken not the husband..)

a Beswick bunny....just because!...(least I think its Beswick. It looks like Sylvac but has no number on the base!)

a couple of pieces of retro kitchenalia....

my latest love.......he's just so cute....

and a couple of pieces for my DDs new home..retro of course. The pictures aren't great but it was getting late....The most expensive of these was the scales, currently retailing at about £33, for the princely sum of £7.60..good old Ebay

Finally a sneak preview of one of the rooms about to be revamped, its all very exciting like starting again, now wheres that paint pot!!....

Hope you all have a good week and manage to stay anchored in this wind.....

TTFN

Jenny xx

A SAD GOODBYE........

No lovely readers I am not closing my doors, though goodness knows how I manage to keep rabbiting on...but I do.

No, this was our sad goodbye to Northumberland. I have been to many places over the years but this holiday will be remembered as one of the most active, informative and wonderful breaks of them all. Don't get me wrong I love our beautiful Islands and there must be many places I haven't visited that are equally as dramatic and varied, I speak only of my experience.....so far!

Well since my writing can't compare to the rugged beauty of the place this post will again be picture heavy.
Our last two days were spent at Cragside and on a trip to the Farne Isles.....

 

Set in the most dramatic parkland.........

 among towering trees...

stunning Cragside House, the home of Lord Armstrong and his family the Victorian inventor who was the first person in the world to use hydro-electric power to light his house and run things like automatic roasting spits and even lifts! His inventions were many, too many to list here, but I think his biography would be well worth a read. The house was occupied by the same family until it was rescued from decay by the National Trust, at a time when they only occupied the top floor flat. Although the rest of the house was in a dire state, all of the original furnishings and fittings were still there. It means that restored this is now a true example of Victorian taste and indeed ingenuity.

The engine that powered all his amazing devices... including these spits.....

and some of the amazing rooms....of which there are many...well worth a visit....

....and so to our final day, which after a very breezy but sunny week, delighted us by turning the turbulent sea into a mill pond for our trip to the Farne Islands......

...birds...lots of birds.....

...seals.....

The original home of Grace Darling...how bleak is that!.....

....and my beloved puffins......sigh!!....I don't know what it is about them, their cartoon look, their cuteness, but I could watch them all day....
However everything must come to an end as did our holiday and this far too lengthy post, so if you are still with me.....well done for persevering......

Next time I have an abundance of CB and CS finds as well as some little gems picked up at collectibles fairs...so go and get that well deserved drink now.....

TTFN

Jenny xx

NORTHUMBERLAND Cont........

Hi lovely readers
Despite the fear of boring you all rigid here is part 2 of our recent trip to Northumberland.  I have kept it mostly to photographs as I think they tell their own story.

Stunning Bambugh Castle, can't have too many photos of this.....

Imposing Anwick Castle, formal gardens and water features......

and no visit to Anwick would be complete without a visit to Barter Books...and yes I did get a copy of the original poster!....

another day and a ramble from Craster up to Dunstanburgh Castle, wild and fresh with stunning views....

Well I do hope you hung on in there, I have only one more post to do showing the amazing Cragside House, home of Lord Armstrong the victorian inventor and the first place in the world to use hydro-electric power and for me the ' piece de resistance' of the whole trip, my first sight of my beloved puffins.

Have a great week, mine is very strange as after more than 12 years my DD her partner and my grandson have just moved into their new home and DH and I are on our own for, would you believe it, the first time in 44 years!!!  DH is getting very concerned as my 'plans' for the reinvention of our house appear to be growing every day, so that will be something to share in the months, (or should that be years) to come.

TTFN

Jenny xx