URGENT HELP REQUIRED!!!

Hi everyone!  I'm really aware of the fact that I need to do a new post - not just to update you on what I have been up to......but also to tell you about the first giveaway I have won!! So I will, very shortly I promise!

But firstly I need some urgent help! At the Children's Centre I work at, we have a little stall -which we set up for different seasons, for the children to play with.  The children have a little till and we add bits like icecreams, deckchair etc in the summer and at the moment it is a garden centre.  I want to make it Christmassy and so thought I could make it into a German Market type stall.  My mum, bless her, is knitting her little fingers off making xmas puds and xmas cake but we cannot find a pattern anywhere for mince pies.................so if anybody could point us in the right direction (online) I would be most grateful!!!  

Thanks all!
-x-

Can't believe it is Monday again tomorrow - but have had a great weekend.

Yesterday, we went to my mother-in-laws via Ikea, Thurrock.  Had to take a star light back and then discovered they had a lot of their xmas bits in a half price sale!! I didnt go mad, but re-bought the light (as original one didnt go together properly)and that had gone down to £6.49 instead of £12.99.  Then got.....

Sorry, this isnt a very good picture - hopefully you can see the vintage type picture on this plant pot. This wasn't in the sale but was only £3ish

 

These packs of postcards were displayed in the room settings and looked really good.  Had already decided I would buy a pack and then saw they had been reduced to 49p for pack of 5!!

 

 These snowflake battery operated lights have suction pads on each light - so am thinking of putting them round a mirror - reduced to £1.79.

Then my mother-in-law suggested visiting Crews Hill, which is near her, in Enfield, North London.  It is a long road filled with garden centres, and a few other large shops.  It was very busy, probably because the weather was so nice, but we finally found parking. We spent over 2 hours there and only went in a pet shop (which even sold dogs!), a shop selling tropical fish(cant think of the name for this type of shop!!) and 2 large garden centres.  The garden centres also had xmas sections, pretty household bits, books, food etc.  I only made one purchase as it was quite expensive - even with my mother-in-law paying £20 towards it as a pressie.

So here it is............

It looks more magical in real life and is quite big!

 

One of the shops even had real reindeer!

And all the shops had old fashioned christmas music playing - it was a really lovely afternoon - with something for all of us.

Then today we went roller skating with the friends we suddenly bumped into again, after approx 8 years - when visiting secondary schools.  Afterwards it was back to theirs for food, drinks and a natter.

Here are a few xmas bits I bought earlier in the week

 Roll on 1st December, so I can start putting all this up - have so much stuff now, will prob take me till Xmas to do it! lol!

Would you have picked her to take home!!

This week we have had Home Front Day at my daughter's primary school.  This is the first year that they decided to bring the museum to the school........with a WWII Home Front bus complete with a 1940's living room, a shop, a bombed out street, air raid shelter and artefacts.  There were also dressed up characters - like a warden who asked my daughter which house number she lived at and then showed her a pile of rubble, telling her that was her house and that she hadn't been seen for days!!  She loved the whole experience and started to get a feel for what it would have been like - and I think getting involved in this way, made it more interesting - rather than just studying from a book.

The children dressed up as evacuees for the day, brought in a typical packed lunch and made and/or brought in artefacts to put together their own 1940's museum.  I went with my dad to look round the museum and it was brilliant.  It's amazing how much stuff is still knocking around from the war - there was lots of interesting bits and that was just from 3 classes of children.  My daughter also wrote and tea-stained a letter that she wrote as if she was an actual evacuee sent to the countryside.

I just wish I could have had a look in the bus too - but they were packing it all up when we went.


So as my title says...............would you have picked her to take home to your safe house in the country??

They are having a VE day party at the end of term, which they have to put together themselves.  So I am going to try to get her a brown knitted cardigan from a charity shop before then, which will look better than the, last minute, cardigan we pulled out of the wardrobe!


Have a good week
-x-

Good start........................not so good end!!

Last Saturday -5th November- we went to my cousins wedding. It took weeks of buying clothes and returning clothes before we finally all had outfits, that fitted and co-ordinated, to wear.  This is a picture of me before we left our house

I don't normally choose dresses (except if it is really hot in the summer) and have probably not worn tights since my wedding 15 years ago!! I'm not joking!  But as soon as I saw this dress with its roses and net underskirts, I just loved it - and when I tried it on I actually felt good in it!


We had a lovely day and evening (although it seemed to go so quickly) and it was lovely catching up with family and having a good ole dance (I dont get out much!)

The happy couple

 My cousin

My two!

My mum and me

(sorry no piccies of hubby - he seemed to take all the photos!!)

The whole ceremony and reception was in Cooling Castle Barn, which was a beautful venue in the countryside of Rochester.  In the evening they had a firework display - although it had started to rain by then.

Now the not so good end...............on the way home in the car, I must have been bitten by some rotten insect.  By the time I got home, my leg was itchy and slightly swollen and by the next morning, angry and red looking!  I had put antibiotic cream on it, as I am always suffering from skin infections, but as the day went on it was getting worse and worse.  So we had to cancel our firework trip to Leeds Castle!!  Luckily we have a minor injuries unit, who gave me anti-biotic capsules straight away.  Im so glad I went, because on Sunday and Monday I could hardly walk (after taking the tablets) so without them I would have been even worse.  I am now almost over it, just left with a bruised leg!!
Definitely a day to remember!!
Have a good weekend
-x-