WOYWW

Julia is going to love this week's post as I don't have time to write, just a photo!

Today is my first day in my fifties!!

To take a look at some more traditional craft tables go over to Julia's blog and have a nose

Cheerio, got to dash my husband's taking me out to lunch to the pub we had our first date in!

Well It's Here

Well it's here, my last day in my forties! What do I do tomorrow? Change the blog title? Retire from blogging? Add a subtitle? Or just carry on regardless?

I think I'll do the latter.

So it's been quite a year and quite a decade really. This time last year I was going to spend the evening in London and wake up on my birthday in the big smoke. As for the decade? Well, traumatic would be one word to sum it up really.

What has this year brought? 

• Lots of fun on the internet with my 'cyber' friends. 
• The opera at Glyndebourne with a 14 year old boy. 
• Fund raising the only way I know, making cakes. 
• Strange birds in my tree.
• Sending Christmas trees in the post and getting a discussion about it started on radio 2!
• Going to Wigan for the first time in my life
• My oldest friend emigrating to the other side of the world
• Vintage craft fairs
• Visiting relatives from America
• Peacemaking between my mother and Godmother (praise be that's sorted)

I'll leave the bad and sad things which have happened as I try to always be positive.
Right that's it, I'm off to enjoy my last day in my forties.
Fifty? BRING IT ON!

WOYWW

Well here we are again at Wednesday. Do you know what today marks? It is my last 7 days in my forties! Yes this time next week my WOYWW will be covered in gifts, cards, cakes and, well who knows?
Here is my WIP this week:

At the front are three recipes for plum chutney, I will do an amalgam of the three, in other words whichever ingredients I have/don't have! Resting on one recipe is a little red frog which came from a Christmas cracker on Sunday. At the back are the latest ribbon trees which I have made and to the left is a scrap of paper with some very tempting details of a holiday to Malta!
I have had a lovely week with a craft fair on Saturday and my niece, her husband and their son coming for dinner on Sunday. It was bitter sweet as they flew back to San Diego on Monday and we don't know when we will see them again. There were a few tears and a lot of hugs.
I am so busy between now and December the first that I have written a list with something to do on every day!
I'll leave you with a few photos and urge you to take a look around the world via Julia's Blog

             Another party shot, guess which one is me!

A selection of cards and tags

                      Bunting and lavender bags

  My two boys and Corbin, my great nephew. Great? He was awesome

Have a great WOYWW

WOYWW

Here we are again, I've been missing for a couple of weeks and this week's desk isn't crafty but it will be later!

So, at the front we have a cake box containing half of a huge cake which my M-I-L made for my joint birthday party on Saturday. The other half is at my brother's. In the middle is half a bag of goldfish crackers and at the back is a box of toys.
Explanations required?
On Saturday I had a party with my brother, he was 40 last week and I will be 50 in two weeks. My niece, her husband and her little boy came over for the event, hence the goldfish crackers. Yesterday I spent the day with them in Brighton and then they came back to mine for toad in the hole. Although my niece is American and has lived in the states for all but six weeks of her life, she absolutely loves English food and I have to cook all of her favourites whilst she is here.
The box of toys was half of the mess that Corbin and my two boys made while they were here. It was so lovely to see my boys actually playing with real toys rather than their IPhones!
My lovely niece came bearing gifts for us all including a DCWV paper pad for me and these little beauties

Just in case you are wondering, it is a FOUR pound jar of peanut butter and it is amazing on crumpets

OK, I have to go now but don't forget to pop by Julia's blog to travel around the world being nosy.
I'll leave you with a rather amusing shot of me at my party. I believe it was rather late on during my dancing hours!

Missing In Action

Forgive me Father for I have sinned it has been 15 days since my last confession blog post.

Why?

I'll let the pictures tell the story:

                                                       My husband's birthday

                                             Dusting off the vintage china

            Throwing a tea party to raise money for Epilepsy Action

                                                Gratuitous shots of cake

                   Lemon drizzle cake would appear to be the favourite

      The generosity of people whom I've never met overwhelmed me

                               Pukin' Pumpkin & Wizzard Smiley Pumpkin

My Halloween Pussy

                                                               Craft Fair

                                          Turn your computer on its side

                                             Lots of lovely lavender bags

                                               Baby ribbon trees (sold!)

                      Natural History Museum, I needed the toilet!

                 Afternoon tea at a fancy hotel

Am I forgiven?

Normal service will be resumed shortly

WOYWW

Here we are again!
Straight in with my very dull desk this week:

Too busy to craft today but we have evidence of previous activity! An ATG refill  why does it always run out when you're in the middle of something? My cute little reindeer stamp which I have had for years but I love it's simplicity, it suits my style. There is also a jar of orange card and a thank you card. On Sunday a friend came round and placed a large order from me! Whoop I am so excited. She said it's the sort of thing she would usually go to the shops for and she would rather spend it with me and get something different! One of the things she wants is 8 bottles of herb oil! My Mum's friend gave me the herbs last time so I have asked her for some more, the orange curd and thank you card is for her, to say, well thanks! I'm leaving the card blank so she can use it.
The orange curd was an experiment with left overs from another experiment:

This experiment is Orangecello as an alternative to Limoncello. I already have a customer for this as she has finished the blackberry vodka!
Right I'm off to visit a few desks before I have to go out.
Join me at Julia's, won't you?

Fiddly Friday

I have managed to post a few more times this week under my made up titles!

Thrifty Thursday

We have the most amazing charity shop in Worthing, it raises money for DEBRA a little known charity. The reason why it is so amazing is that they style it so beautifully. The guy studied art and design and has done window dressing. I will be stealing one of his ideas for Christmas. He had naked umbrellas, if you understand what I mean, and strung fairy lights through them. He then hung them from the ceiling to create the most beautiful effect.
I always like to pop in there to see what they have. This week I managed to buy these little beauties for the princely sum of 50p

The hanky will make the most beautiful lavender bag as it is made of crepe rather than cotton. The glass jar is just perfect for my raspberry vinegar that I made in the summer. When I make jams, vinegars, oils, chutneys and flavoured alcohols there is always a quantity left which I put into random pots and jars for myself. I keep the new jars and bottles to sell but I like to be able to say that I have tried all of my produce so I can tell my customers the truth about it.

Another bargain buy recently was from a jumble sale,, my first ever adult experience of one

Tiny little jars which were formerly spice jars but now hold my small buttons, all colour coded. My husband couldn't understand why I spent so long sorting them out! I told him that when somebody asks me to make a blue button heart, I'll be able to do it a lot quicker. His reply? 'How often do you get asked that?' 'Oh, you'd be surprised!'

Finally, Fiddly Friday

I started off the day thinking I would make lavender bags and bunting, however I made the fatal mistake of checking Facebook before I started and ended up making this:

It started off we me trying to make my own bags out of paper as I'd seen on a blog but decided it was better to use pre-made kraft bags. I have ordered 50 bags at 12p each so watch this space for more!

These are the rejects

Take care and have a great weekend, I managed to phone my Mum to ask her a favour and ended up with an invite for Sunday dinner. Excellent!