Well, it's only been three years I'm sorry to say but better late than never, how are you all? fit, well and raring to go after a wonderful Christmas? We have been marooned in Cumbria for the festive week which has been a happy accident and the strangest of experiences but if you expect the unexpected what do you expect...if you see what I mean!

Have you ever met two overexcited teenagers from Beijing on the top of a massive hill? no well it can be very entertaining, they really made me laugh shrieking into the wind and Steve trying to take their photograph.

Of course no visit is complete without the Windermere boat trip, the jetties just above the water and no ladies loo as the floor had collapsed!! As you can see the sun shone and we were all in a good mood which made up for the previous grey dreary day, but hey, it's all good no cooking was required and an Agatha Christie on the telly!

more soon

merry Christmas to everyone 

jennyxx  

Great excitement in the Slade/Smith families... Tanya's waters have gone so we will all have an anxious wait all day seeing how quickly she progresses...eek! Steve is on a stag weekend in Skipton on a barge {!}so bad timing  grandpa!!! will keep you all posted jennyx

Right then!

 Okay, so this is where we take up where we left off, so pour a cup of tea, in a vintage cup-of course!                                   
 I really love blogging and try to write every other day but sometimes real life happens and that's just about it!

so, please forgive me as I haven't even been commenting on anybody's blog either so anything could have happened and I don't know about it! I haven't forgotten you all or anything and when baby Chloe is born next week I promise all will be back to normal,  the strange thing is there isn't even a lot to catch up on I just feel as if there has been no space for the me that blogs at the moment, does that make sense? am I bonkers? but I'm sure' me ' is out there waiting  for her chance to make a comeback! loads of love , jennyx

Bargains!

If you love a bargain you might want to give our bag a bargain a onceover this week with NINE new offers on there waiting to tanatalise you including £10 off this brilliant statement wall clock! Sorry I haven't had much time  for blogging this week I had an urgent tea cosy to knit! it was also the Waterstones book club tonight  which is very grown up indeedy, it was great and I enjoyed discussing 'The Help'.Next month we are discussing 'The Poisonwood Bible' ooh er, craft club tomorrow night then dog sitting on friday, meanwhile the pile of laundry grows to epic proportions!!! (again!) night night!

Shall we eat outside?

 It's a lovely day today, tra la la! I'm so happy, the sun is out and it's my day off! let's eat outside!!

 One of the best things about setting up an outside dinner is the use of melamine plates, great big chunky plastic goblets and other indestuctable  items of kitchenware, it is forgiveable because it is outside, so if you have a whoopsie moment, no problem the crockery just bounces! get yourself a dog to eat anything you drop and you have a self cleaning. minimum of fuss get together! I think this will be my plan for Easter, an afternoon tea and a family bake off with silly prizes for the least effort (already know whose name is on that one!) and other silly titles.

 Only snag with eating outside is that you are confronted with all the shortcomings of your garden, whoops, did I forget to weed? give me trees, bluebells, shrubs anything but a mixed border! my ongoing battle of wits with Colonel squirrel of the Red House platoon  has reached new peaks of sneakydom,  where are my agapanthus? eh, Mr Tufty? stop looking so cute washing your whiskers on my fence!!

Have a great day !

home at last!

 Well, here I am home after my York minibreak, a quick one nighter with Theo and Rachel catching up and helping Rachel look for her lost Cath Kidston purse, eek! don't you just hate that gut wrenching feeling when you know it's gone?

 But York was lovely with all the daffs out , I have really appreciated the flowers this spring so far, every lovely bloom is like a promise that better things are on their way, the temperature was also lovely in York, about 15c and it felt like summer to me!    

 We had a quick trip to Ikea doing a reccy for my kitchen sink as the kitchen improvements are gaining a bit of pace! but it's so nice to get home for a lovely cup of tea with hubby and look at the washing I put out two days ago and noone has brought in!!!!!

have a lovely evening...

juicy pears

 I don't know what is the matter with me I can't stop going to the gym and eating juicy pears! is the sap rising? is it a full moooon? ha ha the oldies are goodies! what the blooming heck is going on???  A week off work I hear you say? well, yes as a matter of fact! a whole week of  cleaning reading, ironing going to the gym ,sorting out  lazing about... bliss

 but all that ends today... it's Steve's birthday, yay! and it is a family tradition that chaining me to the kitchen for hours on end to produce food for millions of people is a suitable way for everyone to celebrate including a pre dinner trip to the local pub, just to rub it in ! just as well really if I'm honest, gin and tonics are fatal to my masterchef timings and legendary sobbings 'where did it all go wrong?' I have even had to defrost the freezer to get the joint of beef out that was stuck! ha ha curse you Mildred the cow!

 of course the secret to big family dinners is going out  sticking to what you're good at, but unfortunately cheese on toast isn't grand enough, so the traditional sunday dinner it is, except Mildred is rather large and the margin of error is equally large, however I have been known to stick undercooked beef in the microwave before now and it was fine so what's to worry about? pudding...

 I absolutely resent piddling about with desserts that disappear in about thirty seconds so I take my hat off to the young chap called Piers St John Worthington Minor of the upper fourth or something similar who, as the story goes, dropped the pavlova at his public school, shock horror, scooped it up off the floor (classy) and served it as Eton mess! well done lad ( he's now something big in hedge funds!)

But what I really , really want to do is sit and dream endlessly at this lovely porch belonging to Donna Flower! sigh....have a lovely day! 

Post Mothers Day Rest!

 Isn't it just lovely when you get a little thought from your children and even a card and maybe some flowers! I have to report full marks this year from my lot (26,24,22 and 20, but still my babies!) We have also found out that Tim will be having a baby GIRL in May so that is really exciting for us all and especially little Phoebe. The weather was idyllic yesterday so a long doggy walk was vital and took the place of a trip to the gym which I was regretting slightly later on after afternoon tea at the Raven Hall for all the grandmas and then carvery at the local Brewers Fayre for the younger set! but heh ho! do I really care about calories when I can look back on a lovely day with all my family, the only exception being a missing Theo and Rachel who had to work (but I'm going to see them this week -you'd better start tidying now! haha) Just awaiting the arrival of tornado Monty who I am dog sitting for the day whilst the nursery is being plastered at Tim and Tanyas' fingers crossed there haven'y been any foxes in the garden if you know what I mean!!!!

Craft Club Makes

 You may remember from previous posts that I run a craft club once a month at Bespoke Country 'after hours' in the shop. We usually have about six  to eight super keen crafters that are raring to go and keep me on my toes. They usually manage at least three projects in the two hours and I usually have to keep one up my sleeve just in case! we always manage to squeeze in tea, cake a chat and 'show and tell' usually with our cameras or sometimes (like next month) we have a friendly competition ( the best easter wreath will win a gift voucher to spend in the shop!) I suddenly thought the other day you might like to see some of the bits and pieces we make. We used floral tissue paper last week to decoupage some green plastic pots and they came out really well, see piccy above, everyone enjoyed the gluey bit and I must admit it was very therapeutic! just need a primula or little daffs plant now.

 We made these raggy rings at christmas. My intention was to set them off and then do other projects but they all got the bit in between their teeth and knotted fabric like there was no tomorrow! Some have made them as hearts for valentines day ( it's only on a coat hanger so you can do whatever shape you want and is a great way to reduce your stash of  fabric you've gone off!) it is only a base as well so you can add bits, hmmm, maybe easter bits!

 These dear little pots I picked up for 10p knowing I could do something at craft club with them and lo and behold yo yos with buttons went down very well, Suzanne made several at home for tealight place settings at a girl's supper party! as you can see I am keeping Miss Bee's bead clips in mine! I'm having a hankering to make a cushion covered in yo yos I think I'll need about 50 so will start doing it as a telly project when I've finished knitting Simon. my cowl!

oops should have rotated  before adding!!!!

We also made rabbits and shapes from foam and whoa,was I well out of my comfort zone! I would be happy to do sewing , crochet, knitting, etc all the time, but it's not about me and some folk love to cut and snip, make cards, and I suppose do proper crafting so we had a 'play' with a big stack of coloured foam! I made a rabbit which I decoupaged and realise now it looks more like a tasmanian devil but it's staying on the easter tree! I must admit we were all a bit hesitant with this new medium but hey! we had a go and can now look forward to next months  club, sewing a little rabbit and making a little wardrobe of clothes led by Suzanne. Can't wait!
so this is just a little taste of what we do and  pictures of what I had lying around the house, if you've got any ideas for us I'd be really pleased to hear from you.

lush meal!

 Well, the big boys were out playing so Louise and I decided to have dinner together and a cosy chat to catch up.' Count on us 'asparagus risotto from M&S was voted the winner ( no proper cooking required! more time to chat!) mmm... it did not disappoint and with a little side dish of sundried ciabatta too. But what's this ? raspberry dessert with its 'don't even bother to count me calories'! how very decadent, Louise you are definately in the naughty corner!

 but oh so nice!

I have been a bit lax with the gym lately, now there's a surprise! the excuse was and honestly this is true, I couldn't find my trousers! lame ? don't I know it, Theo couldn't stop laughing. But the trousers have been found, tomorrow is the start of a new week and the flat tummy quest can start again!! have a lovely sunday I am making cushions this afternoon and will try to remember to take some pictures. I am trying to think positive thoughts whilst drowing in a sea of negativity at the moment... wish me luck! 

I Love Buttons

 Delicious and scrumptious are the only words to describe these buttons. I can't stop drooling over them in the shop and they are in those gorgeous little school milk bottles as well, It's been like working in a sweet shop! I can feel a button project coming on after I've finished my cowl from the Mollie Makes pattern this month, I've named it Simon (geddit?) I may even do  a project from this lovely book...who knows?

 The possibilities are endless where buttons are concerned, what is it about those dear little round bits of plastic that make my heart beat so. My fab cache of buttons from Freegle the other week has come in really handy for my little signs with crochet flowers on. But look at this I spotted on a blog (sorry forgot to tag it)

I just love this idea, a jar stamped onto card and then buttons sewn on with some embellishments to finish, what could be more lovely than this? have a great weekend I'm at work tomorrow and will be sewing cushions on sunday so that's me sorted!

super duper hols

 Well, a four hour flight just flies by when you share a sticker book with a one year old ! Miss Bee gained her HND in stickers of the waybaloo variety with distinction! both ways!

 Here are our two gorgeous girls mummy Hannah and Emilie  just starting to get their tans, such a thankless task when you belong to the ginger minority group!

 and here's Miss Bee modelling her first cossy with a cutie polkadot frill and jelly shoes doesn't she look pleased with herself?

Aah! the blue water ,the sun, the lovely warmth, no, not Scarborough you daft apeth, Grandma Canaria! what a shame all good things come to an end but what lovely memories of a jolly holiday!

Quick experiment!

Can  anyone of you smart technoclever bloggers please check this QR code and tell me if I did it right for Bespoke country? sorry to bother you!!! jennyxx

My reading adventures part 1

 I suddenly realised, apart from abandoning you all for a full week! (will let you in on the secret soon) that I have sadly neglected my reading list widget thingy and as I am a prolific 5 books a week kinda gal, ( any publishers out there want me to proof/review/etc just email ) I should really get you up to date on all things booky in my world at the moment. See above, what a find this was in the crime section at Scarborough Library. I am going through a bit of an Agatha Christie phase, (all my friend Beryl's fault!) and all things twenties at the moment but I have to say 'Dandy' yes, you heard right, is my absolute favourite detective of all time.'The Winter Ground' shows us life as it was for gentrified people with butlers and maids, it is surprisingly endearing and such a bygone world it's so enjoyable to step back in time and follow Dandy as she solves mysteries with her 'friend' Alex much to the consternation of her grumpy old husband! I'm thinking Famous Five for grown up girls! Absolute top recommend!!!

Now this book I felt I should read after seeing all the awards it achieved at the BAFTAS and I wasn't disappointed. A little hard to get used to the writing style of switching to different people's stories and a little bit too neatly tied up at the end but I think I am unusual in the way that I don't mind if you are left hanging in a story as I can use my imagination anyway! Can't wait to see the film now! another recommended read!

Now you might wonder why I have suddenly gone all highbrow all of a sudden when I usually blog about such exciting things as the shape of my feet, etc! well Suzanne Olive and I are going to the first meeting of the book club at Waterstones bookstore in Scarborough on wednesday. Now this is a big deal for me; 1. night out 2. possibility of discount (let's be honest should be number 1). 3. possible grown up conversation with fellow booky people (note to self- must stop saying booky it is NOT grown up) 4. redeem myself as last book club I joined degenerated into wine drinking and streaking each others hair! so you see there's a lot to this book reading lark than meets the eye! ta ta, have a great day!

Laundry day

Today I have decided I am going to clear my laundry room as it is really bugging me.(this is a picture of it when it is tidy!)The weather is finally warm enough to get all the washing dry outside and I have a day off to faff about, I do find there is such a lot of faffing where washing is concerned if you intend to complete the cycle of everything aired and returned to cupboards and drawers. My pet hate is washing on radiators and I can't bear to use a tumble drier (too tight) so sunny days are my holy grail,'strip your beds!' is the early morning call of the lesser spotted laundress and I have toyed with (note only toyed) making my own conditioner, etc. having found numerous thrifty blogging sites of homesteading people in the US who seem to make everything themselves, very noble indeedy! just a step too far for me I'm afraid but I love reading about it, just the same with cook books! I've got 'The kitchen Diaries' by Nigel Slater as I love his cookery programmes and adore his house, but have I tried one of the recipes... no! are you the same?

Zumba cancelled!

yes! can you  believe it? Victoria and I turned up for our zumba session and it had been cancelled. Fortunately another exercise class was offered (free wahay!) and it being the rugby club it was the mens boxercise class, weren't we lucky it wasn't rugby training! well, those poor men they didn't know what had hit them (ha ha ) because of course it is very serious(!) hordes of women laughing, screaming and generally having a laugh doesn't fit in with the macho image at all, Victoria of course had her own take on sparring with a Miranda gallop thrown in! she also decided to hurl abuse at me to make me box harder in true Rocky style but I ended up laughing hysterically! So we can now do jabs , hooks and uppercuts which I'm sure will be as useful as algebra! but I have to say I was sore almost as soon as I got home and this morning I can hardly hold a cup of tea which is obviously a crisis of epic proportions! So the only hooks I will be doing in the future will be crochet hooks! yay! been thinking about that punchline all night, didn't quite work if I'm honest! have a great day and if anyone suggests boxercise don't do it!!!!

An interesting and eventful week!

 Can you believe a week has passed since my last post! I had a lovely email from Ruth saying why haven't you posted? it was so nice that she noticed I had gone a bit quiet.What with the old eye trouble (again, bah!)  it just seemed to drag me down and now of course I have to fit the gym in as well but that isn't doing much for my makeover programme, the  finished look after an hour is not good although the warm glow of 'look at me I've been to the gym' feels rather nice. Anyway, another 'no postie' reason is that Victoria and I went to Birmingham to a trade show to buy fab goodies for our shop where we met the very lovely Nicki Trench on the Ryland Peters and Small stand. Nicki is an author and wrote one of our favourite books in the shop (above) so we were very excited to meet her and even doubly so when she asked us to join her in a little sewing workshop!! just the three of us!

not too sure why she's holding a chicken!

 Well talk about showing yourself up!! all we had to do was make a yo yo, which we all know is not difficult, however I felt like I was taking my very first driving test again where I sat in the car and had some sort of blackout and couldn't even remember how to turn the ignition on! I struggled to put a knot in the thread that's how bad it was and then after sewing all the way round the knot gave way and the whole thing came undone! Victoria, of course, had finished hers in a trice with a toss of her hair and Nicki said hers was the best yo yo she had ever seen, bit over the top I thought, to which Victoria laughed and tossed her hair again!

 But Nicki was lovely and obviously thought sewing for me was some sort of occupational therapy, we had a good old chinwag about books and writing and business and we even got to use some of these super lovely moda fabrics. I think these are my definite favourites at the moment. so have a look at Nicki's blog ( yes she's a blogger as well!)  We also stocked up on Mary Engelbreit sewing books, this is a new one out and will satisfy all the owl mad customers, we love owly things too and can't get enough cards and wrapping paper!

So we had a good time meeting old friends and keeping up to date with trends it even managed to be chocolate free until the very last service station! oh well, c'est la vie!

Valentine Hugs

I was sent this sweet picture from the lovely Carolyn which reminded me to send all my bloggy friends hugs today! so many of us seem to be having february blues ( my eyes are really bad at the moment) I think it's a good idea to be thankful for all the goodwill that travels round the world on a daily basis! so everyone take special care today and instead of putting  everyone else first today (blogging is a bit of me time after all!) do something you really love, however small, that makes you happy! Happy Valentines Day my friends!

snow business like chocolate

 It's snowing, the heating is on, fire crackling, hot chocolate hotting (!) only thing missing is a big bar of Galaxy. Our house is unfortunately unlike the advert where the beautiful girl in a very unflattering pleated skirt remembers putting the chocolate in a secret place.. there is no secret place here ! and if there was one I would have found it!! Magazines, however, I have found to be fat free and amazingly low on calories, although their lack of calories are inversely proportioned to the number of pounds you need to buy the blessed things! so snuggle down with me open the latest Country Living (bought on fourth journey to newsagents) and Womans Weekly craft special ( a special snow related treat!), hang on ! I think I've turned into my Gran!

Woman in Black

Are you going to see 'the Woman in Black'? we have longstanding connections with this masterpiece in Scarborough. Are you sitting comfortably? then I'll begin (it's okay you don't have to sit crosslegged on the floor but try not to suck your thumb!)

Susan Hill was born and brought up in Scarborough and in fact wrote a beautiful children's book about being brought up on South Cliff and playing in the Esplanade Gardens, sadly she no longer lives here but is attending our literature festival this year, hurrah! However, 'The Woman in Black' is a surprisingly short book yet chilling in the extreme in fact we were astounded to see the film was 12A! Many years ago I used to work at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough home to the distinguished playwright Sir Alan Ayckbourn , now don't get too excited I only sold ice creams to supplement the family income but did get the chance to mingle/oggle with/at the artistic and famous . There was a young writer called Stephen Mallatrat who adapted Susan Hill's novel and 'The Woman in Black' play was born. Now this play has gone on to be one of the most long running shows in the West End and has played all over the world, have you seen it? I feel proud to have seen the very first production in the making and I have to say it is astounding how they manage the special effects on stage , unbelievable! funny story about Stephen Mallatrat.. he used to write for Coronation Street as did a lot of the writers at the SJT  and used to work at Sir Alan Ayckbourns house in an office, one day my friend Mike was handmaking some furniture at the house for Sir Alan and switched off the power by mistake, unfortunately Stephen had not backed up his work and the whole episode was lost! oops bad day at work in the extreme don't you think! anyway I digress, can't wait to see the film and it only seems fitting to go back to the SJT to see it. Of course you may not know this but there has been another film made previously but just for tv, it used to be shown regularly on Christmas Eve, a traditional time for ghost stories . I remember being taken as a child to the Castle Museum to listen to the ghost story on ChristmasEve in the Victorian Street and be scared witless! I still have no idea why it's a tradition at Christmas?!! anyway I shall be reviewing the film shortly and would appreciate any views you may have and we'll see what Susan Hill has to say as well! Have a great day (sorry about my picture of the SJT it went walkabout...don't you just hate that!!!)