a little bit of this and that...

This week has been super busy as we've decided to put our little house on the market. At the moment we live in a rural area but are thinking of making the move back to the coast, which is where we used to live and about 30 miles from here. The housing market is very slow at the moment but we're in no hurry, so we'll see what happens...

Apart from that bit of news, this week has been a good mail week as I finally got
around to buying this lovely book.



I also bought these cute vintage buttons on ebay - partly because I liked the card they came on, so will have to think of something to do with them!




Eventually after managing to get all my ingredients together, I finally got around to making this granola which really is delicious and made such a comforting smell as it was roasted in the oven. Who knew home-made granola would be so tasty and easy to make? I am now a convert, especially as it works out cheaper and nicer than buying store bought.


Finally: I have been playing around with paper cutting, something which I've looked at before but never done. I was actually doing this whilst I waited for the estate agent to come and value the house, instead of rushing around plumping cushions and other such things you should do when someone is coming to value your home! The only problem, is that I didn't really plan what I wanted to do, so it's just happening organically which basically means I'm just merrily cutting bits out at random and hoping that it holds together! Please note the lovely paper I am cutting which is brown parcel wrapping which came folded in a pack - hence the creases! If I'd been really clever, they would have been the pieces I would have cut out- hmmm - perhaps a little planning wouldn't have gone amiss! Hope you all have a lovely weekend!

continuing the love theme...

After our low key celebrations of Valentines Day, it was time for the love theme to continue this week, as it was our wedding anniversary on the 16th. Married for 13 years now - which on one hand seems a lifetime, (in fact just a little over a third of my life) but in other ways seems a mere blink of an eye. We celebrated in our understated way, with a trip to the beach and a walk along the coast.



There's something so nice about a trip to the beach in Winter don't you think?



Especially when there are no other people about and the sun decides to come out just when you least expect it.




A lunch of fish and chips followed, with a return home to cups of tea and macarons. I finally managed to track down some macarons and was a teensy bit underwhelmed by them but I guess that's what happens when you have this idea of what they would taste like from just looking at photos! No matter, we still had a lovely day with gifts, cards and best of all, just enjoying the simple pleasures of the day...

a little love...

Back in January, (it seems so long ago now) I got a new mobile. My last one was a flip open one so the screen was protected but not this one. I meant to make/buy etc a case for it but in reality all I did was keep making sure there was something soft wrapped around it, (like a scarf *lol*) when it was in my bag, so I thought it was about time I showed it a little love...



I found myself some material that I'd never got around to using yet...



and made myself a little bird stencil from freezer paper. I've now realised how easy this is and will no doubt be making use of the freezer paper that has been sitting on my desk for the last few months! Added a little free hand embroidery and voila...



I'm sure my phone loves me more for it...



It didn't even take that long - I'm not sure why I didn't get around to doing this earlier...

Talking of love, I hope you all had a lovely Valentines Day. We don't make that big a deal of it as our wedding anniversary is on the 16th February but I did get some roses which is kind of sweet, especially as the first roses I ever got from Mr C.Sunday ended up going in the bin, as we met someplace - he turned up with roses, I didn't have a bag, he did and to cut a long story short I forgot to take them home and by the time he discovered them the next day they were a little worse for wear! Still I think that's forgotten now!





But the best part of valentines day was going for a dog walk and seeing this guy...Is it just me or is love everywhere?...

sunshine, snow and bread...

The weekend brought more snow which was especially nice, as there was lots of sun also, so we took advantage of it by going for a walk in the hills near where we live.







Sadly the next day was snowy and grey, which wasn't as nice - so it ended up being one of those stay at home days. I meant to make this but realised not only had I forgotten the vanilla essence but I didn't have enough honey either...mhmmmm. So it was back to the store bought for breakfast...



Though I do plan on making the home made granola later in the week and I did make some bread instead, so all was not lost.





I love the smell of home baked bread - it's just too easy to eat!


We had a nice lunch and then the rest of the day was just spent chilling out and being thankful for the heat which we have this week!





All in all, a perfect weekend...

on not taking things for granted...

This past weekend brought with it dull and grey weather - the kind that makes you restless and want to blow away the cobwebs, so we headed off to the coast with our dog. When we got there it was rather more bracing than anticipated but in a good way - that you can really only appreciate, if you are wrapped up warm and snug, as it was so cold!





After our walk we felt refreshed and were glad we'd made the effort to get some fresh coastal air, even if it was freezing.

The next day, (Monday) we woke up to snow, which was lovely except our heating wasn't on. After much gnashing of teeth I went to the boiler, which happens to be outside, to see if I could relight the pilot light but no joy. Then we discovered we didn't have any gas - I mean - how do you not have gas? I tried phoning the gas company to be told that their office didn't open until 8am grrrrrr - this was at 6.30am so in the end I just went to work.
The journey took longer than usual and I hadn't been at work for more than half an hour when my other half phoned, to say that because of bad weather there was no work - so my boss let me leave in case I got stranded with the weather - so we ended up going all the way back home. When we got home we then discovered that the whole of the village I live in was without gas, so no heat and no hot water on the coldest day of the year so far...

We did have a nice walk though with our dog. The countryside always looks so pretty when it snows...









Once back inside, it was a case of getting the log fire going and keeping warm and making food on a camping stove - quite cozy really.

Yesterday (Tue - I'm now writing this on Wed as my internet got cut off as I was doing this yesterday!)when I got home after work most of the snow had gone and then at about 6.45pm they came to turn my gas back on, (as everyone in the village all one thousand and forty houses had to have their meters turned off individually by a gas engineer) - I could have hugged the engineer as it was pretty cold by this point. Oh the bliss of having central heating again so lovely - until at 7.15pm we had a power cut with no electricity - so no heat, hot water, light and internet etc...until it came back on at 11pm. It was quite nice to have candlelight - though it's always nice if you have a choice in these things!



So I'm feeling pretty thankful about all the things it's so easy to take for granted, especially as some people in the place I live are still without gas. Sometimes you only really appreciate these things when you've gone without...