The days before Christmas.......

Are a little bit different this year! I am going through the motions,shopping,cleaning,cooking,decorating,but I feel like I am doing it all on autopilot,I am not excited,I am weary,my workload has been heavy these past weeks and I am ready for a few days respite.We are having my Mum here for Christmas...her first without my Dad,the very thought of which actually gives me chest pains,but I will make it a good day! I will delight in my girls opening their gifts at an ungodly hour,I shall don my sparkliest earings ,eat chocolates before lunch(possibly for breakfast)I shall wear my favourite Christmas pinny and make my Mother sit in the kitchen and drink sparkling wine whilst I cook the most delicious feast,I will listen to the Queens speech and stifle my inner anarchist,I will start to imagine my sitting room without the Christmas tree which half blocks the tv,I will silently swear to myself that gluttony is the most heinous of sins and therefore I shall drink litres of water for the next week and eat frugally,I shall laugh and probably cry too at the Royle family Christmas special ! I so love Caroline Ahernes writing! anyone see 'The fattest man in Britain'? I wept like a baby! and finally...it will be over,very soon it will be another year,Gosh how I have changed this past year,what a journey! I have had to deal with hubbys unemployment,losing my Dad,me finding a day job...and yet...I am still standing,next year will be better,I know this.

Arent I doing good Dad? xx

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas........

Yesterday morning,much to the delight of a very excited little girl,we hunted down the perfect Christmas tree,the smell of pine needles is surely the very essence of Christmas! eventually after a teeny struggle getting the darn thing insitu,we were ready! nibbles on hand,home alone on DVD and a little festive drinky poo and boxes of decorations deftly retrieved from the garage by a slightly stressed Husband,we were ready to roll!

So off we went,tinsel in hand and decorated Chez King with all manner of sparkly kitsch! not for me you see are the colour co-ordinated Christmas Trees often seen in windows around these here parts,Oh no.I realised long ago it is no fun at all for a child to decorate with only two shades of baubles,carefully chosen to match the colour scheme.It is just thrilling to see Lucy retrieving a rather glitzy vintage Santa we bought for pennies,whilst out thrifting many moons ago,or to rediscover the homemade Angel,carefully crafted at School,even though her Halo has slipped a little,and the tinsel! Tinsel,who knew a few metres of silver tinsel could invoke such joy!

Of course I may not be gushing about it quite this much in a weeks time when I am constantly sweeping up pine needles! but for now,welll yes!.......Its beginning to look a LOT like Christmas!

Housebound.....and loving it!

I am at present,shall we say 'indisposed' albeit temporarily,due to the fact that just over a week ago I underwent a little 'surgery' I was told by my consultant that the down time after the procedure would be two weeks,so here i am confined to barracks and now that the worst is over I am actually enjoying it!( mind you this time last week had you offered me a gun I would have shot myself) But there is something very liberating about being stuck indoors,I have not been taking Lucy to school,her lovely big sister has been doing the honours,I have been unable to work and my brain has sort of slowed down! i could get used to this,I putter around the house all morning,I make lists of what needs to be done,I make tea in a teapot,as opposed to a quick teabag in a cup jobbie,I am catching up on my reading,watching 'The darling buds of may' every afternoon on tv and tomorrow I have 'Brideshead revisited' lined up on dvd! You know life has been so hectic for me this year that I sort of fell out of love with my home for a while,I just had so many other things going on that I forgot how much joy I derive from being in this humble little abode,but this past week when I have been forced into doing nothing much,I have rekindled the romance,I have cleaned and polished,vaccumed and waxed,lit candles and scented the rooms with cinnamon and orange oils,all done,I hasten to add,at a most leisurely pace.Back to work on Thursday i am afraid,once again I need to venture out into the real world and make a living,but Oh how much I shall look forward to coming home!

Love after love......

The time will come when,with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving at your own door,
in your own mirror,
and each will smile at the others welcome,

And say,sit here,eat.
You will love again the stranger who was yourself.
Give wine.Give bread.Give back your heart to itself,
to the stranger who has loved you all your life,
whom you ignored for another,who knows you by heart.

Take down the letters from the bookshelf,
the photographs,the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror,
Sit.Feast on your life.

I am reading 'The Time travelers wife' this poem is at the very beginning of the book,I read the poem and loved it instantly,I am probably one of the few people who have not seen the movie,but the book is amazing and I am relishing every page,it is one of those books that reminds me of the absolute power of clever writing,and the reason why a good book is as essential to my wellbeing,as is a decent meal.

Read it and weep.

Keeping busy....

Do you ever have one of those days,or one of those weeks in my case,where there just does not seem to be enough hours in the day? sure you do! but today,I did what works best for me,I made a list which included watching ' The Holiday' (above) Lovely! whilst wrapping some orders from my website,I also tackled a little project,see below;

Tell me honestly,can you tell it is made from a childs Marks and spencers school dress?(99p from a charity shop,bargain!)I also managed to flick a duster around,do some laundry and get some shopping for my Mother.

Superwoman or what?

The flotsam and jetsam......

It is unfortunately the most difficult of tasks for me to declutter my home,I fear that my hopeless addiction to buying...well basically anything that catches my eye,will be the undoing of me,I have read all those life laundry books,I know that if I do not rid myself of the clutter in my home then I can never truly have an uncluttered mind,I have dabbled with Feng shui and yes my yin and yang are probably all to Hell because instead of a clear walkway in the entrance to my home,there is infact a range of footwear to rival any shoe shop known to mankind,strewn along the hallway.And yet,is it not part of me this mad frippery that adorns my living space? is it wrong to find absolute joy in a battered old piece of enamelware bought for pennies,or to drape polka dot bunting where I see fit?


As for the books...Mother of God there is just no hope for me in that department! and yes,the eagle eyes amongst you will notice I even have duplicates of some vintage hardbacks,why? incase I lose one? highly unlikely really isnt it? but I love them.....



Its not harming anyone,this vintage-buying-disorder-thing,I blame it on the fact that I once had a shop and had to keep buying stock,however I no longer have the shop as we all know,just a little bitty website and I really do need to downsize a little......




But perhaps not this weekend.....before Christmas...huge clearout,I promise!

Happy Halloween!

It is rather unusually here in the bleak North,a glorious mild,sunny Autumn day,I am hoping the temperature remains kindly for tonight,when as usual we shall participate in a spot of 'trick or treating' I remember last Halloween being absolutely frozen to the bone! so fingers crossed.
Whatever you have planned for this eve of all Hallows,I hope it involves eating delicious nibbles,a glass of something cheering and lots of fun!

Be afraid.....be very afraid!