More long stories kept short.....

Hello my dears,

Hope this post finds you all well and happy?

Well, what a week this has been...phewie... I'll be glad to see the back of February I can tell you!

I'll list it to get it over quickly, then on to my thrifty finds from several weeks back that I still haven't got round to showing you 'till now :o)

Ok. here goes.....

It all started a week ago Friday evening....

Friday :The boiler stopped working.

Saturday: british gas came out and said the fan didn't work we need a new one..

Monday 5am : Take son to school to get a coach to the airport as he is off to spain for the week..

Monday am.: They bring the fan but unfortunately it doesn't come with the gaskets so they try and order the gaskets (the bits that stop carbon monoxide escaping intot he air!!) but alas, the gaskets are now obselete as my boiler is over 20 years old at least!

Monday am continued:  Britsh Gas condemn my boiler :o(

The nice man from british gas rings my lovely estate agent lady and tells her he has condemned my boiler (we currently have to rent...)

Monday noon: My landlord rings me up to have a go at me for the boiler breaking. He also has a go at me as the dishwasher broke before Christmas and he had to get us a new one in January, he also had a go as the 'brushes' went in the washing machine in January and he had to replace them. He also had a go as last July time he employed a man to look at the fencing in the garden and the man told him he needed new fencing (it would have lasted a few years yet..) so the landlord bought new fencing.

I did explain to him that I had not done a thing to the boiler etcc, and did it occur to him that the boiler and dishwasher had gone roughly at the same time as they were both as old as the kitchen?!

Then....He asked me if I would like to rent the property direct from him rather than go through the Estate Agent!!

No chance sunshine!!

He's not even supposed to phone me up as the agent had to warn him against it when I first moved in as he was ringing every few days!!

Monday pm: have texted son 13 times now and no response. Even put extra credit on his phone in case he's run out... getting a tad worried as he was supposed to text me when he got to the airport, and when he landed in Spain...

Tuesday am: In response to my now 17texts son texts back..and I quote "yeah I'm ok :o)"  That's it!

Tuesday noonish: I see that Honey hamster is poorly. I take her to the vets, but alas we lose her :o(  This is because it got too cold in the house for her, and in all honesty my dears, i didn't think to give them both extra bedding or anything because we had no heating! I was just trying to keep the girls warm...

Tuesday pm. Me and Mr LTS chicken out of telling the girls about Honey, and hatch a plan to bring in an imposter... We just couldn't deal with the loss at the moment :o(

Wednesday am...I go and get said imposter -Honey mark 2..

Wednesday pm: Big daughter has horrendous seizures at school so ambulance is called.. But the school dealt with it very well..

Thursday through to Saturday: Big daughter is very poorly indeed, but much better now thankyou :o)

Friday am : british gas come round to price up for a boiler. The man that turns up doesn't like my landlord....we will say no more..

Friday pm: Son arrives home from Spain. It was hot and sunny out there, and I am all huffy as he didn't text me.... (OOOooh, mean sulky Mummy.) I wouldn't mind but behind my back the girls had been texting him to tell him to text me as I was worrried that he wasn't having a good time, and he was texting 'em back to say he didn't have time....doh...

Saturday pm: The thermostat goes in the hot water tank. As the tank runs on electric, it has been our only form of hot water all week, and as it's the same age as the boiler etc..it couldn't cope..

Sunday pm: British gas (who do electric as well!) come and replace the thermostat.

This morning..I rang my estate agent to tell about said hot water tank, they tell me that the landlord has made everyone in the office cross by ringing up at least 4 times a day asking silly questions..and reminding them silly things for the boiler replacement men to look out for..

Today noonish.. The nice man from British gas comes round and said that he can put a new boiler in on Wednesday and Thursday..whilst here, my phone rang he quickly says "if that's your landlord please don't tell him I'm here.." LOL

I ask him why and he says he's been ringing him costantly saying things like "what happens if the boiler arrives broken.?"     

Oh my goodness. Well that was my week in *quick* notes LOL :D

If you've got this far, then you are lovely my dearies ;o)

Now, here are some thrifty finds and makes for you to take a gander at ....

I adore this little cup! It's so precious. I've had it a while as I liked it too much to pop straight in my Teapot Lane shop, but I need to make way for other finds soon...

It's Ba ba black sheep from the 60's I think...

And this little pair of pictures are made from plaster! They are from 1961..aren't they so cute?

I found this Biggles book. I don't think it's worth much money, but I so like the picture. I thought someone might like it for 'staging'...

And these two little birdie dishes from Axevale pottery I found on different days and in different shops...

I made this brooch aagggeeesss ago, and still haven't got around to listing it on Little Tiny Stitches!

I made it in the style of my teapots and tags.

And, I've started quilting again! D'you remember I made my eldest daughters quilt last year? Well I've been inspired by a lovely lady in blog land to make some little quilts (just enough sewing to relax me I reckon! ;o)

I'd better not say the lovely lady's name as I haven't asked permission, and she has rather a beautiful blog, and a large blog following!

But you may know who I'm on about?  She is such an inspiration!

I love doing the applique and the embroidery....

This is just a sneeky peek, and I so enjoy doing it :o) I'll show you the whole thing during the week..

Well, that's it for now lovely people. I'm off to get a nice hot shower!

Have a happy week people, and thankyou so much for reading and all your lovely comments. Believe me, they so cheer me up when things get you down!! :o)

Take care now,

Love Donna xxx

 



How we got on....

Evening lovely bloggy people :o)

Hope this post finds you all fine and dandy?

This is just a post to let you all know how we got on yesterday in London.

I've got some lovely thrifty treasures to show you all as well, but I keep forgetting to post them, so I'll show you them later in the week.

Have all yours got half term this week?

Mine have. Isn't it early this year? Who ever heard of half-term during Valentines Day?  I mean how were the children supposed to get their secret cards to each other?  AAaaaaww, a few disppointed children this year I bet...Bless 'em.

Anyway, as usual I digress...

Right. Kings College, London.

After all the tests that my eldest had last October, they still can't pinpoint where her seizures are coming from.  So they want to send her to Belguim.  There she will have something called a spect scan.

This is where someone sits by her all the time, and the second she starts fitting they inject her with a dye.

They then whizz her to the MRI scanner and scan her brain. In theory the dye should show up brighter in the part of her brain where the seizure comes from....

Then we will go back to Kings college, and they'll look at the results from Belguim and if they think they can see where the seizure is coming from they will commence brain surgery....

But we can't go to Belguim until at least late May as they have to get permission from our local NHS Trust, then once that is given, they have to get permission from another area of the Government to take her there......

But the ball is rolling.... So we will wait and see.

That's keeping a very long story short!

Thankyou all for your support and kind words about my daughter. They do mean a lot to me you know!

*****~~~*****

After we had our hospital appointment yesterday, we decide to go and look at a few of the touristy landmarks..

I used to love Kings Road in my younger days.  All the indie shops and cool, trendy people...

Alas, I found it lacking in all these now....much more in favour of mass production I fear.....

I found one shop I liked though ...Good ole' Cath'..

And my youngest daughter legged it down the raod when she spied Accessorize...

Not that we haven't got one in our nearest town or anything ....lol

I loved this old silver double decker...those were the days when you could run and jump on...and off again if you were really naughty! ;o)

'Scuse the bad pictures some of them were taken as we were driving along.

OOoo, you should have seen the Fortnum and Mason store.... The colours on it's frontage were divine, and I loved the musical notes going all the way up the front of the store..

I thought these houses looked pretty with all their pastel fronts...

And this building was called Duke of Yorks Headquarters...

Not sure if it actually is, but it looked impressive anyway, so you got to see it! LOL

And Buckingham Palace.  I always want to paint a huge union jack on Buckingham Palace when I see it!! I'm sure it would make it look more Regal and impressive with red, white and blue blazoned all over the front in a huge flag...Don't you think?  ;o)

And this building I haven't got a clue what its called, but it's at the back of St James Park! I love its roof towers!

And look at these two little chaps doing their jobs...  I did feel for them, they both looked so young...

Harrods is the humungous building on the left...

And this was the .....something Mandarin Hotel, which looked most impressive with the door guys hanging out the front :o)

And I couldn't finish without showing you the first patch of crocus that we found in Battersea Park yesterday....

This picture is for you if you've got to reading this far... :o)

Take care all, and have a great weekend now.

Hopefully I'll get my thrify post up sometime soon, then I even have some makes to show you :o)

Just one day at a time...

Love Donna xx



Well hello lovely bloggers :o)

Hope this post finds you all fine and dandy this cold Friday evening ?

Apologies for not getting out and around to you all the past couple of weeks, but things a been a bit down here at Little Tiny Towers.

Hopefully things will pick up a bit now a few problems have been sorted out, but next wednesday is a BIG DAY for us as we go back up to Kings college London to get the results of all my eldest daughters tests from last October! Remember?

But I'm hoping it won't bring on more stress! So keep your fingers crossed for us my dears won't you?

Anyway, I'm here now, so I shall make the most of it:o)

Guess what?

Go on guess!

Okay, I'll tell you...

We had SNOW last night !!!  WOOOHOOOO!

I got seriously over-excited when it started snowing, and when I was up at 3am this morning, I wanted to go out in it!!

This was our garden at about midnight....

This was 7.30 ish this morning...seee it's going already!

I always love the way that the snow or frost stay on this little tree, it always makes me think of a mountain :o)   (See how many real-life mountains I've seen? lol)

Well, that was my most exciting piece of news!

***~~~***

We had an un-expected visitor to the garden this week too..

No, not Mr Blackbird, he was one of the unfortunate casualties from our visitors visit..

We've recently been having a Kestrel come and visit us :o(

Whilst he is a most handsome bird, it does make me sad to see all the little (and big!) birds flying everywhere in panic.

Mr Kestrel sits on our fence, and picks off the little birds from over next doors garden as they eat from their feeders :o(

Mr Blackbird ended up a casualty as in his panic, he flew straight into out conservatory window. A load of feathers came out of his head which means in this weather he's going to have rather a cold head, as well as a massive headache from the bang he got.

He sat there on the window ledge recovering for about half an hour bless him.....

Alas peoples, Mr Kestrel was a bit too quick to take a picture for you......But I have my eye on him.....

***~~***

I really haven't been up to much you know, other than stressing!  I have several wips...I have lots of thrifted bits still waiting to shine on my Etsy shop shelves, and I have a couple of presents to send out, which I'm sure are going to sprout their own legs if they have to wait any longer!!

***~~~***

But I have got one thrity find from a good few weeks back now.

Whilst visiting one of my local charity shops a while back, I came across this little paperback type book..

Called 'Flower Festivals'....

It's the most charming little work of art I've seen in a while, and I think what's so nice about it, is it's just *so* English and 'olde fashionde'.

It was originally a handmade book from a lady to her friend who was celebrating an anniversary. 

The page above reads :

This book was created for me by my friend Meriel Hodgetts for a special anniversary present.

It is too beautiful to keep to myself, so together we offer it to a wider circle.

May it bring much pleasure to many people is the wish of Marion Cadbury.

I just think is is so delightful and beautiful..

With the most detailed drawings.

There are twelve pages in all, one for each month of the year with the flaura, fauna and little celebratory festival for that month.

What a thoughtful and precious present it must have been to receive!

Have you ever found any books that you think are just so special?

Well, that's it from me this week my dears.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Be you having a mini holiday, (:o)  or snuggling up out of the cold, take care now won't you?

Love Donna xx

Thursday Thrift

Hello lovely bloggers :o)

Hope this post finds you all fine and dandy this Wednesday evening!

Oh Lordy! I didn't think I was going to get on here this week! I've been trying to get stuff done left, right and centre, and I've had Mr LTS hogging the computer all week too, I've been having to say "Can I just get on there when you've finished doing that bit?"  Honestly, now I know how the children felt before they got their own laptops...Hmmmm, there's an idea! ;o)

Anyway, I'd best get on with showing you my favourite thrify find this week..

Lookee here...

I found this little beauty pushed to the back under the table in my local charity shop..

I pulled her out, and .......

Oh, she was all intact!    She had this horrible pink ribbon stuff around her middle, and I couldn't work out why until I removed it, and realised that she had a blue middle, so they'd put the ribbon on to hide the blue when they painted the top pink too!

She's a beauty though..  I just need to get the grubby pink off, and work out what to do on the top..

But just look at her fabulous fabric interior...

I keep having to look at how pretty it is!

 

I found some vintage cottons too, still boxed..

And I had to get this bias binding, I mean just look at the packaging!!

I had a few more finds, but as they're going in my Teapot Lane Emporium they will gradually be posted on my other blog too.

I've actually finished my knitted (cough) teapot cosy! Well, no actually that's a lie (LOL) I've finished the main body, I just need to decorate it now, so when I've done the decorating I shall post a show and tell :o)

Well, that's about it for me this morning. I hope you all have a great weekend. I shall be doing a snow dance or two as we have a few wintery showers on their way so they say, I don't mind if they just stop over my house :o)

Take care lovely people,

Love Donna xx



Thrifts, makes and a spot of bovver :)

Well, Good afternoon lovely bloggy friends! 
How are you this fine, sunny but chilly Monday?  Hmm?  World treating you ok is it?

Most things are ok here at Little Tiny Towers!   Things are settling down after the stress of Christmas and the New Year.... Takes a while though doesn't it?
I've still been knitting away. Persevering as it were LOL

The only thing I've actually finished is a new knitted pouch that I keep in my handbag at all times with my eldest daughters emergency medication in and a syringe to administer it..

I have previously always had crocheted ones, as I prefer the yarny feel than fabric.

I must say though, I think I prefer my knitted one...

I think I have a kinda love/hate relationship with knitting (Goodness I keep on about it don't I? LOL)

I mean I love, love, love the fabric that stocking stitch produces. I love looking at the little tiny stitches (no pun intended) that the needles produce. But I find the 'getting there' bit tedious in the extreme!!

Honestly, it took me hours to produce that pouch above!

If I'd had a hook in my hand, it would have been about 20 minutes!

Still, as I say, I'm carrying on, and hoping I get faster ;0)

~~**~~

Now, I thought you may like to hear this conversation I had with my darling husband..

It may ring a few bells with a few of you ;O)

Just picture this.....

There's me coming in the front door with my hands full of thrifty finds..

The Mr says to me "What on earth have you got there?"

Me "Oh just look at these two beautiful lamps I got in the charity shop! They were only £2.99".

The Mr " £2.99? What the pair?"

Me " No, each, aren't they just gorgeous?"

The Mr " What on earth did you buy that old crap for? You'll electricute yourself!"

Me "They're not crap, they're reproduction lamps, and they've even been safety checked!"

The Mr "Where? Let me have a look at them".

Me " Can't you just see why I had to get them? Little Miss will love them and one of them will be ideal for her bedroom!"

At this point he takes them off me, and puts them on the dining room table...

He then plugs 'em in and hey presto they work....

The Mr "Reproduction you say?"

Me "Yep, aren't they gorgous" (again)

"Look at the lines and the simple way the leaves are standing, and those lovely pink roses"

The Mr "Well, if you like that type of thing.."

Me "Oh I do! You know I do"

The Mr " Reproduction? Well, you'd think they would just reproduce the good bits. Why on earth have they reproduced that crappy coloured lead as well? !!"

Honestly folks, what could I say? He is kinda right, but how do I explain what I love about them?

Or do you all agree with him ? LOL

(Just so's you know, the little Miss loved them too :o))

***~~~***

Unfortunately we only have views of houses round here, but the sun rise the other morning was so beautiful I just had to show you. ..

***~~~***

OOoo, I forgot....I'm half way through knitting a tea cozy now... LOL :o)

I'll show you when I'm finished.. :o)

***~~~***

As you may remember, I've been planning a new Etsy shop.

Well, I actually got around to opening one yesterday. I've yet to stack the shelves though, as I haven't finished photographing them, but here's the first brooch I made....

It was my practice one...

I've made a few more now which should be in my new shop later in the week..

I've had a real problem starting my new blog though. I wanted to make a new blog to log all my makes, and new shop inventry etc., but for some reason I'm having a spot of bovver with blogger. He won't let me design the blog? It's just all going weird. I've done a practise post, so it'll let me post, but not let me decorate. Oh well, maybe I'll have to put some stuff on here for now.

We'll have to see....

Anyway, that's it for me this week lovely people. 

I hope you all have a fab week, and the sun shines for you all.

I'll be back in the week to tell you all when I've stacked my new shelves!!!

Have a great week, and take care all,

 Love Donna xx

P.s. Don't forget to do your snow dances this week! I am so missing our real cold weather and the snow!! 



Books and thrifting

Well, Happy New Year Bloggy friends!

Hope it's been a good one for you all so far :o)

We've had quite a stressful week, so I've just taken an hour out -me time- to catch up on my post writing, and do a bit of sewing.

I'm still on track for new makes and a re-vamp of my Etsy shop, it just might take me a bit longer than I planned, but that can't be helped :o)

We went for a lovely walk yesterday in that bit of sunshine we had.

We followed a path that used to be an old railway line. Theres a few of these around our area.

Goodness knows why that let them get into disrepair, and then get rid of them. Public transport isn't too hot around here, and a few trains would be a Godsend!

This was some poor persons garden with a tree down in it from the storms last week!

Here's a picture of the river Stour. Totally swollen from the storms till, and raging along..

And below is Ringwood, and old market town which I have to say looked really pretty over Christmas this year. But alas, everytime we visited in the evening, my camera was safe at home...

I found a few thrifty bits over Christmas.

Heres are some very pretty candle holders. Ilove having candles on, and these were just so bright and pretty I couldn't resist them for £2.

And I found this little old (well tiny) sewing machine. It has no markings on it what-so-ever. I thought it might be one of those 'Vulcan' sewing machines, but it isn't.

And I couldn't find one like it, so any ideas would be greatly received :o)

I've also been looking through this gorgeous new book I got for a New Years present..

It really is one of the best making books I've seen...

the colours in it are divine...

And I would never of thought of knitting (not that my knitting is too hot!) or crocheting an apron, but I bet with the right yarn, it's gorgouse!

It has crochet in it too...  I've seen throws like this in blogland already, so people must have got this book quite a bit before me :o)

And socks . Ms Brocket knits the most divine socks!

I love this simple pattern style on these cushions..

And these cute little vintage style flowers are so pretty..

I'm definitely going to try and make some of these little beauties for my new brooches...

Lovely colour everywhere..

All in all, a very good book. Not just beautiful to look at, but really lovely patterns, and totally stress free things to make.  :o)

I've been card making again too...

And this was the sight that faced me when the Mister picked up the Christmas tree to take it outside!

How comes there were that many needles on it left to fall ?   LOL

Well, that's it for today folks. Hope you all have a splendid week dearies.

Take care now, and wrap up warm.

Love Donna xx

The photos below are especially for Vicki and Georgia.

They are from my sewing book from 1946.

The ladies in the book always look so glamourous! Even though they're just drawn.

They just have such style :o)

Have a good week all :o)  xx