Busy Week & The Best Jumper in the World.

So other than yesterday's shopping trip I must confess I have been buying clothes elsewhere too. Last weekend I spent the whole of Saturday afternoon gardening, quite frankly I was knackered but as there is still so much to do out there I had planned to garden on Sunday too. So I was secretly very grateful when it was cold and showery all day, so I had the excuse to come back indoors.
I decided to sort through one of my wardrobes instead which created the bag of stuff I took to the charity shop yesterday and also a pile to list on Ebay.
I do find the downside of this is that I keep going on to Ebay to check how my items are doing and then end up browsing and buying!

The two things that have arrived so far are :

This cute floral dress which sadly turned out to have a huge hole in it, thankfully I was able to fix it and it's a place where the mend isn't too obvious.

Loved this checked jumper! Another thing to wear with my beloved flanel trousers. :-)

Tuesday I was out for lunch with my friends who I used to travel into work with on the train. It was lovely to catch up and thankfully the restaurant wasn't busy because we ended up spending over 3 hours in there yapping!

Wednesday Himself whisked me off to the cinema to see 'John Carter'.

I know it is meant to have bombed at the box office but it was actually a lot better than I expected. It was over long, and I suspect in a different director's hands it could have been spectacular, but it was good despite this. I think this will end up being the kind of Disney film that is on tv every Easter/Christmas and thoroughly enjoyed family viewing at that. 

Thursday I was out for the £5 pizza deal at 'Fire and Stone' with my friends Soo and Melissa. I had a 'Melbourne' which had brie, butternut squash and pumpkin seeds on it, YUM! The restaurant was absolutely heaving and we got hoofed out just before 7pm as our table had another booking.
We headed up the road to 'The Grapes' which is known to all as the 'pre-theatre pub', basically because it is directly opposite the New Theatre!

It has just reopened after being taken over by Bath Ales. It's a listed building with lovely original wood panelling so I was interested to see what had been done inside. It all looked very nice but very sadly there was absolutely no atmosphere anymore at all. Also the ceiling was once covered in old play bills from the theatre going back many decades, these were a wonderful feature in my view and have now been removed leaving a plain white ceiling instead :-(
Hopefully the pub will bed in and get some sort of atmosphere back.

So to Friday.

I hotfooted it down to Debenhams in my lunch hour as they had started their sale and I also had a voucher to spend. Of course I spent my voucher and then some, this is me after all! It was all in the sale though so I don't feel too guilty.

First up a Henry Holland heart print playsuit that has already been cut and pinned to become a dress. I don't do playsuits, far too much hassle when you need to pee! 

carrying on the heart theme a cute blouse.

Another Henry Holland item. A lovely navy and cream jumper.

Finally I was browsing the other consessions when I found THE jumper on the sale rail in Warehouse. I did squee out loud when I saw it. Thankfully there was nobody near me when I did lol.

Behold my new best jumper in the whole world.

 

The Female is More Deadly Than the Male.......

Especially when it comes to hunting down a bargain!

Today dawned glorious and I hit the town with my Mum and my sister.

       See the steely determination in the eye?This is the face of a woman ready to shop!

After my sister had opened her belated birthday pressies and much squealing from all, we headed into town.
 Now my Mum doesn't go shopping much these days, lord only knows why!?!, but there it is, it's a mystery to me and my sis. Slightly frightening too, I mean will I lose my love for the bargain one day too??

 *shudders*

However she has trained us well, to the point where I think she was sligjhtly overwhelmed by seeing the two hardened bargain hunters she has sired in action.

To put it bluntly WE SHOPPED.

I had lugged a huge bag of stuff down to the charity shops to appease the charity shop gods so we all found a bargain or 6. I don't have pictures of her purchases but Gabs won the 'most bargains bought' crown hands down, talk about a woman on a mission!
We did do real shops too, (I bought bird food and toothpaste!) before heading home footsore and victorious to caramel cupcakes and pink fizz. :-)    

Here are my purchases.......

Nautical style jumper £4, VERY happy with this, nautical is my most comfortable look :-)

 Cute black dress for work.

 Pearl Lowe dress, new with tags £8 = result!

Polka dot dress, new with tags £6. Sorry looks a bit shapless but that is the waist ties undone and hanging down at the sides, another 'for work' purchase.

I just liked this and it was £2 so why not?

Big glass dish reduced to £1.25. It has 3 compartments so I plan to store hair clips in it. The green necklace was 49p and the earrings were my only full price purchases of the day. Coming in at £4.99, £2.99 and £2.

Mushroom dishes for Soo!

*the next bit is for Soo because she reads this blog*

Before you say anything these are a present. You can't see the price, so don't even ask! Do you want me to bring them out with me on Saturday??

Now I know I said my Mum doesn't shop much any more but she hasn't lost her touch. Before Gabs and I had even seen this my mother had it away to the till! We both would have bought it first had we had the chance!  

                                                   Still got it Mum, still got it.....

 

                                        The face of a tired but victorious shopper.

Spring has Sprung.

Firstly I must apologise to all of you in the U.K for the terrible cold miserable weather on Friday last week, that was my fault. After the glorious warm sunny weather we had had the rest of the week, I recklessly wore a lovely apple green summer dress to work and so jinxed the weather for one and all.
 I hope it makes you feel better to know I was freaking freezing!! All day!

My Parents came over on Saturday for a slightly early Mother's Day. We ate a very yummy lunch which I must confess I ran round Marks the day before buying, and then went to a local garden centre for a little plant based shopping.
Yes all my current spending has been on things for the garden which is allowable I think.

     Compost for repotting weevil infested tubs (goddamn weevils are the bane of my gardening life) and getting my tomato seeds planted up (still not done yet!).

Pansies and Polyanthus for the newly replanted tubs.

and new pots for my Azaleas.

Now some gratuitous garden shots........

The magnolia has even more blossom this year :-)

and Pumba seems to like sitting among the daffodils.

Finally you know how they say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery? Look what I spotted in my next door but one neighbour's garden.*cue slightly fuzzy paparazzi style shot*

recognise those crows from anywhere??

oh yes, that's right, they are the exact same one's I have in my garden.

Gardening, Ladybirds and Elephants.

This weekend has been really rather gorgeous weatherwise so I knew I would probably end up in the garden for some, if not all of it. My parents gave us a flying visit on Friday night and finally brought over the patio cleaner that we had asked to borrow this time last year !?!
Bless, my Dad is very forgetful and as I am too, he kept forgetting to bring it over when they visited and I kept forgetting to ask! We got there in the end *cough*

Anyway we had a very lazy Saturday morning and then got down to the hard work of clearing everything off the patio which is huge and washing it down.

Before......

During...... (I bet you can guess from the above which of us was using the jetwasher at the time and which of us was tidying the planters?)

 After....It's still wet in this shot so will dry a little lighter still.
All in all we were very happy with the results. Now I just have to coincide with one of my Mum's visits to a garden centre so I can get some compost and new pots before I finally arrange things how I want them out there. :-)

Today I started to tidy the flowerbeds and rake some of the seemingly endless moss from the lawn, and quite frankly, I'm bleeding knackered and stiff as a board now. When did gardening become such hard work??
I suspect the answer to that is that I didn't spend anywhere near the time I should have out there last year so it has all runaway with me somewhat, bah. Here are some spring flowers bursting through two of the beds that are in dire need of attention.

Oh the shame!

Moving swiftly on.

Whilst I was out there I couldn't help but notice there seemed to be the most ridiculous amount of ladybirds everywhere. Is it just our garden they have taken refuge in or have any of you seen loads too? It seemed rather fitting as I bought myself this rather lovely Henry Holland top last week, in the sale of course!

  I know my Mother is going to explode when she sees it. Ladybirds are one of her things, she adores anything to do with them. I did check but they didn't do the top in her size, not sure she will believe me though.....

Finally ELEPHANTS!!

I bought these brooches on Ebay a while ago and keep forgetting to take a picture of them.

 Not sure about the viking ship but these came as a job lot for £3. I will clean them all up and probably keep the thistle, but the boat can go into the next charity bag.

Is it possible to have too many elephant brooches do you think?

Feeling Mellow Yellow in Bargain Booty.

An outift post from moi? now there's something you don't see every day!
Today was another interview day at work so when it comes to clothes, smart comfortable was the order of the day, the perfect opportunity to wear my bargainous from the sales Henry Holland blouse, I love Henry Holland but rarely feel I can justify the price, so sales are the way to go.

worn with my most favourite grey flannel trousers, I wear these to death  and am now starting to worry that I will actually wear them out......They were also a sales buy last year.

I decided to give my yellow brogues their first outing, thanks to Land Girl 1980 for the 'quick! brogues in the sales' tip :-)

The only thing I bought full price (yes even the undies were in the sales at M&S, and no you aren't going to see them.) were my earrings.

Whoo could I resist??