My little town gets it's own VINTAGE FAIR!!

Who'd have believed it eh?!

My beloved Macclesfield done good.

A Make Do and Mend Vintage Fair

has landed in my hometown,

and what a lovely day out it was too.

I had such a great time that I'm contemplating,

or maybe that should be dreaming,

of having a stall of my own one day!

Anyroad...

...as I wandered round I took lots of photos for you.

Take a peep.

There were lots of clothes that I would have

LOVED!!!

But alas... the boobies said Noooooooo!

Hee hee.

Hope you enjoyed our day out together.

Love Claire. x

Share a little FREE vintage love!

Now some of you may already know

I'm a massive fan of FREECYCLE

One man's rubbish is another man's treasure etc.

So after finding new homes for all of my junk,

imagine my delight when I saw

'OFFERED:Very old sewing machine'

Feeling slightly giddy I went to collect my treasure!

...and here she is!

I just had to share her with you.

A friend has just opened a clothes shop

so I have offered 'Mrs Jones' to be

a bit of an ornament in her window,

to compliment the vintage style of clothing

she is selling. 

I thought she's far too lovely to be hidden away.

One day I shall make something on her,

but for now, I think being a bit of

'Eye Candy' for the likes of us

suits her down to the ground.

I hope you're enjoying her too...

I'm not too sure, but the lady who gave her to me

seemed to think she was from the 1920's.

If you know different I'd love to know.

Thankfully, she came with the instruction booklet!

Plus all the little attatchments to all these

fancy little jobs.

...and when not in use,

she goes off to sleep in her own wooden box.

Thanks for letting me share her...

Love  Claire. x

Did you miss me?

 

Eh guess what?!

It'll be Christmas at this rate!

Hee hee!!!

The year is whizzing by

so fast, I've hardly said a word to you all

in ages, but I'm sure you'll forgive me.

Lots of folk start booking or at least thinking

of holidays at this time of year,

and I'm no exception.

So, after lots of longing,

and Ahhhing, I decided to take the plunge!

'What with?'

I hear you cry.

Well if I said I'd bought one of these...

...would you believe me??!

Well I have!

Only a little bit bigger, but not much.

Please excuse the photographs of her,

this was the day she arrived and

it was about -70 degrees and she'd

literally just been dumped on the drive.

After lots of longing and wanting of

a vintage caravan, I had a long hard think about

my situation.  Could I realistically restore and maintain

the little gems I've seen on here.

The answer, unfortunately, was no, I couldn't.

Plus the prices for fully restored beautys are creeping

upwards these days.

So that brought me to a very cold day and the boys

and I are viewing 'Sindy'.

Well we had a fantastic time, we made

the tables into beds and back again,

And we cooked imaginary food,

in imaginary pots and pans from the

cupboard, and helped ourselves to

invisable food from the fridge.

After her safety check and delivery

(I don't even have a tow bar fitted!)

I gathered all the seat cushions up

and brought them inside the house.

After a little make over with some muchas cheapas

fabric and a few Ebay bargains

I can start to picture us off on our holidays in her.

Did you spot that gorgeous CK cowboy fabric?!

I think Sindy will look every bit a 'Cool Caravan'

by the time I've finished with her.

I hope you'll enjoy the journey

from this to, eventually,

that fun packed Summer that I mentioned

in my last post.

Stay with us for the ride why don't you?

You'll be most welcome.

Love Claire. x

P.S. I hope you recognised me,

a bit of redecoration has been going on here.



Swallows and Amazons

Happy New Year folks

etc etc...

I'm not really one for New Year

and settled myself down for an evening of

tea and Christmas leftovers.

My cyber friends soon put pay to THAT!

We had such a giggle, so I'd just like to

thank you.

Well, 2010 started one way for me

and finished on a completely different level.

I'm not going to go into details but I was

very happy at either end of the year and all the

inbetweenie bits too.

Anyhow, that's enough of that.

Who else is looking forward to Spring?

Is that a daft question?

Well it's all about new beginnings

and after a cold and dark Winter

it's welcome relief for anyone.

Do you know what I'm looking forward to?

THE SUMMER HOLIDAYS!!!

Ha ha, I'm back at work tomorrow

for the first time since

15th December!

Oh I love my job, hee hee.

But really, I just can't wait,

if it's not frosty or snowy or Christmas

then I'm through with Winter

hurry up Summer

Lots of Summer wholesome adventures for my boys hopefully,

all in the style of this...

Have you ever read it?

Remember this post?

Well.....

I happen to have nearly-almost bought one!!!  eek!

I can't tell you anymore on the subject just yet

and it's not really all that vintagey,

but hopefully he shall become the home of

many many exciting adventures

for my gruesome twosome this Summer.

Watch this space,

as soon as I dare, I'll let you see

him/her.

Love Claire. x

'Mummy, is this Narnia?'

With a poorly Finn snuggly in the warm,

Jacob became a lumberjack for the day

and we brought home our Christmas tree.

I thought the best way was to let the photos tell the story...

The Christmas Tree Farm.

How about this one Mummy?

This one?

So many to choose from!

I think Jacob really did think it was Narnia.

Running and running and running!

So much running around to be done by boy and by dog.

Is this an ordinary sized dog amongst baby Christmas trees,

or are we being invaded by the giant dogs of another planet?

Still running, maybe just as well, to keep warm there Jacob.

Basil can't decide which tree tastes the best.

They all look so scrummy with their good dollop of 'frosting' on.

Glistening and twinkling,

looking like this, it's a shame to bring them indoors

and hang decorations on them at all!

Mother Nature knows best of course.

Right then Mum...

so you've definitely decided on this one?

All done!

Phew...it's hard work this lumberjacking lark!

What a tight squeeze...

But we managed it,

hooray!

There he is,

in all his splender!

Meet  'BRUCE, the SPRUCE!'

Albeit missing a few decorated gingerbread hearts,

but they're in the oven as I type,

making my house smell delish.

Hope you all enjoyed

Christmas Tree shopping

with us, we reckon we came home with a beauty!

Hope to post before the big day

but if I don't manage it I'd like to wish everyone

A Huge BIG MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

(although I may just have to post a piccie of 'The Cake' etc

before I scoff it all...nom nom nom!!!)

Love Claire. xxx



The best way to spread Christmas cheer...

Is singing loud for all to hear!

ELF

We shall never tire of this film in our house.

We're becoming all Christmassy but

STILL HAVE NO TREE!

It's still growing in a snowy field at the moment

and we're off to collect it tommorow.

Not sure who is the biggest kid,

me or the boys, hee hee!

Anyhow,

before I get on to what I want to show you

things must be told to all my bloggy friends out there.

First the good news...

Thank you for everyone who wished Basil well for his

ahem, 'little op'

this went ahead problem free.  Phew!

Now the sad news,

I'm very sorry to tell you

that Daisy, my little red hen,

had been poorly for so long and has

flown up to the big chicken coop in the sky.

I made the choice that for a hen to be taken to the

vets for treatment was too stressful for my little old lady.

She had a good few last weeks with her little chums

to snuggly up with and always greeted me with little clucks

and enjoyed her Marmite on toast every morning.

But she slipped away one night last week. 

...sniff.

Anyroad!!!  What am I doing being all glum

when it's Christmas time eh?!

How very dare me ;o)

So, here I am sharing some snaps of

my trip into town today for the

Manchester Christmas Markets

and a bit of shopping thrown in too.

I hope you enjoy them.

A singing moose!

St. Anne's Square.

Christmas jumpers and reindeers...

albeit just the skins(!) but both very cuddly.

Huge twirly whirly thingbob.

Obligatory hat photo.

Twinkling tree.

The wheel.

Then in to Selfridges...

A very expensive bike.

£3745!

The reason being is still a bit of a mystery,

but it's 'maker' may have something to do with it.

A bit of CK love going on.

...and some more love.  Yummy.

A quick wizz around here.

Then off to gaze in awe at the beautiful fairground.

Magical!

So, there we have it!

A quick catch up,

and a lovely day out shared.

I've been enjoying playing around with my photos on

PIKNIK

Hoping you won't mind, but I'm loving the effects this end.

Now if I don't see you before

(I hope I do)

let me wish you all a

VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS

Love Claire. X



It is now, OFFICIALLY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

I'm not sure about you, but

I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!!

I've even managed to 'turn' some

BAH HUMBUG TYPES

(you know who you are! Hee hee)

 this year, by convincing some of my pals

that it really is the 'season to be jolly!'

PLUS, it's all what you make of it

and who cares if there's no coffers in the pot?

What if you have only a diddy turkey and

some poundshop Christmas crackers?

Anyhow,

This post is actually supposed to be about

ADVENT

...and how I refuse to buy my boys

chocolate advent calenders!

We have an Advent Candle,

I hope you like it,

and also a traditional Nativity scene calender.

I love the way we have to guess each morning

what picture is behind the door.

A drum?  A Robin?  A bauble?  A Doll?

Anyhow, this morning we had a little donkey.

Completely off the subject now,

have you all enjoyed the snow?

As you can imagine, in our house,

it snows and the excitement levels go off the scale!

One new boy into the mix this year has had his

very first taste (literally!) of this magical white stuff!

He skips along with not a worry in the world,

with his favourite 2 boys,

and looks after us in the cuddles department!

BUT!

Tomorrow he's going to spend the day with

Gareth, his favourite vet...

Tomorrow is operation day for Basil!

I've taken the plunge and decided now's the time for him to

'Go for the Chop!'

He obviously knows nothing of this

but I'm terrified!

He's my new little baby and is the best company ever.

I hope and pray he'll be safe and come home to me

in one piece, albeit, missing a couple of bits!

I'll keep you all updated, thanks for reading.

Love From

x x x