Trousers, Gardening and Magnolia.

What a glorious week it has been weatherwise, sod's law I was back at work and spent most of it buried in the bowels of the library. I did go to a local garden centre on my afternoon off and had a blissful time browsing about. I have also been outside most of today and am now soothing my aches in places I didn't know I had with a large glass of Pinot Grigio *BLISS*
The magnolia in my garden has burst into bloom.

This is not the magnolia in my garden, but the amazing ones in the garden at Worcester College in Oxford. Another thing that brightens my walk to work each day at the moment.
I did say there was a story behind the magnolia in my garden didn't I? My lovely neighbour Doug (84) told me that it was planted by the owner of this chemists shop in town who was the first person to live in this house when it was first built in the 1930's

It was a huge tree which had to be cut down before we moved in. Previous tenants had tried to put a swing in it and broken a big branch which let rot set in. Poor Doug was heartbroken to see such a glorious big tree cut down.

As you can see from the stump it must have been a pretty impressive tree. Anyway when we moved in we had many many MANY issues to sort out with the house due to the previous tenant. (Who I think I would still have to slap incessantly if I ever had the misfortune to meet her in the street, even now, 5 years down the line.) So the garden didn't get my attention for a while. By the time I started to tackle the jungle the magnolia had started to shot from the bottom of the trunk, as you can see from the above picture. I thought they were probably suckers and was going to cut them off but my Dad persuaded me to leave them. Wise man that he is, he thought they could be trained into a decent shrub with a load of TLC. So that is what I did, and 4 years down the line I was rewarded with half a dozen flowers. I don't know who was more thrilled Doug next door or me.

This year it's a sight to behold!   
It also smells delicious outside thanks to these bargainous, end of season hyacinths I got last year.

I garden by my Nan's philosophy 'never give up too soon on anything' and thought I'd risk buying them and they have most certainly rewarded me :-)

So to the trousers mentioned in the title. I bought the first pair for £2. They were too big but I loved the style and the button feature at the front.
As a rule I look like a sack of lard in wide legged trousers. Basically I don't have a waist, so I just look WIDE all the way down, but I have found a couple of pairs whose cut just seems to work for me and these are one of those pairs so something had to be done to make them fit! It was a damn fiddly job, even my Mother (a seamstress by trade) thought I was nuts but here are the results.

I'm not going to show you the inside of the waistband because it's not very pretty but who but me is going to see that? Of course I washed and ironed them before I started working on them DOH. Obviously they now need to be ironed again.

This is the other pair. I bought them for 99p on Ebay. When they arrived, to be blunt they smelt. Turns out they were labelled 'dry clean only' which the seller hadn't listed or I must confess, I wouldn't have bothered to buy them. However on checking the material (polyester/viscose) I decided to risk them on a cool wash and they came out absolutely fine and smelling fresh and lovely. Result! Haven't tried them on yet so they could be sack of lard trousers for all I know. We shall see.
I did pick up a lovely lace dress yesterday but it is cream. I think I shall see what the cut is like and if it fits well I may post a picture on here and get the concensus on colour. My skin tone doesn't do pastels/pale colours so if I love it I may try dyeing it. I'll let you know.

Spring has Sprung and a Saturday Swapshop.

Today I decided to take my camera with me on my walk down to the station. It was such a beautiful day at my favourite time of the year. First up is a lovely tree just around the corner from my house.

I love the blossom on this tree, it always flowers a week or so before any others.

 These tulips are outside the Fire Station. Someone there always plants up the raised beds outside with seasonal flowers.
On the hill down to the station there is a gorgeous 1930's house with a lovely old fashioned garden.

 I love that they have let these primroses self seed themselves. Primroses and violets just mean 'Here's Spring' don't you think?

How can anyone fail to have their heart lifted?

Forgot to say before Himself and I went to a Saturday Swapshop a while ago. You bring items you no longer want along to a local hall and browse round everyone elses items. If you find something you like you can just take it home. The only thing you have to do is have whatever you are taking weighed on the way out so they can show how much material they have stopped going into landfill sites. Himself wanted to go to take some videos and then just leave but I insisted on looking round.

I found this cute little chicken ans well as this lovely spotty jug with just a tiny chip on the lip. Finally a Midwinter jug in perfect condition. Himself found a 12 inch Star Wars figurine of Luke Skywalker so he left happy too!

Putting the Kitsch into Kitchen.

IF YOU DON'T LIKE KITSCH LOOK AWAY NOW!

I am a fully signed up lover of kitsch, it has been a long battle in my life but I have finally given in and embraced it wholeheartedly! I have always loved Art Deco and other classic pieces but my inner kitsch queen refused to lie down and be tamed. I work on the theory that life is too short and there is a lot to be sad about so what harm in having things that make you smile and lighten your day just by looking at them?
I think that comes to the fore most in my kitchen. Odd really as I am no domestic goddess. My brother was front of the queue when they handed out the cooking gene in our family. Having said that I'm not a bad cook, just not a confident one. The only things I like cooking are cakes, no coincidence there as they are one of my favourite things to eat lol.
So with this and Amy's wonderful posts in mind behold my Kitschen!

 The sign on the door, very important to establish what people can expect from a room!

My pinboard. This started life as a useful place to put things like appointment cards etc. It has ended up covered in pictures and headlines clipped out of newspapers/magazines with no room left for important things like appointment cards etc. *cough*
Now as we are renting the kitchen decor is not my choice by any means. The only thing I was allowed to do was paint the room yellow ' as long as it wasn't too bright' To that end I have covered alot of the horrible manky old cupborad fronts.

Here is a collection of postcards we have been sent and again ones that make me laugh.

Horrible cracked white tile splashback hidden by bright colourful plates.

Every good kitchen needs love and elephants. Well did you really think there would be a room in my house without elephants?  Oh and my Snoopy storage (sweet) jar that I have had since I was 7.

Silly pictures and you can just made out my tin collection on top of the units in the background. This is the beam I plan to hang my snowman bunting off.........when I ever get round to making it!

This strawberries sign was a christmas present from my dear friend Soo. It rests on top of my cookery books.

 There is a definite egg theme to my kitchen, it's an in joke between Himself and me. I think that is enough, seriously there is more ! But I dare not overload your poor eyes with too much in one go, and besides my brunch is ready. Dippy boiled egss and soldiers! What else?

Enjoying the Sun or a Week off Work.

It is just SO nice not to be at work. It's when you stop that you realise just how tired and stressed you actually are. The weekend went by without me achieving any of the things I had planned too. In truth I spent pretty much all of Sunday in bed reading, or watching Marple on TV when I wasn't buried in a book. I can't remember the last time I have done that and it was blissful.

I did have a plan for my week off, oh yes no aimless lounging around for me *cough*

On Monday I had to do the post office and the bank. Boo.
To make up for that horror I browsed the charity shops.

I bought myself this lovely headscarf and a couple of things for my Etsy shop. I actually wasn't expecting to find anything as I had only been in them all a few days before so I came home a happy bunny. So much so I felt purposeful enough to tackle the worst of my wardrobes when I got in.
I was brutal!
Well for me anyway lol. I have already listed stuff on Ebay and given a bag full of things to my Mum for her Age Concern nearly new sale, I have to do that or things just migrate back.
Anyway I can now close the wardrobe doors. Hmm wonder how long that will last.......
 
 Tuesday was all about the garden, and bleeding knackered I was too I can tell you! I'm kind of horrified at how tired I have been. I had to force myself to keep going after about an hour out there which is unknown. I knew we have been frantic busy at work but I wasn't really aware of how much it's been taking it out of me, gardening has always been my escape so it's hard to not have the energy or inclination to get out there. Having said that I did manage to get done most of what I had planned to do. It's a miracle the lawn still looks green the amount of moss I raked out of it. Of course just as I had finished my neighbour announces he has an electric scarifier I could have borrowed! Oh well, my waistline could do with the exercise (scoffs a handful of Mars Planets as she types)

Wednesday the plan was to get my CV in order and start refreshing on my cataloguing training. I did manage to read about 10 pages of the 150 page book on cataloguing I had been given and that was it. I was yawning so much I thought a break and a cup of tea were in order.

So I went in the kitchen and made a cake.

Peach upside down cake. It was meant to be a sandwich cake but I couldn't find my tins so I improvised with a brownie tray! Himself said it smelt funny but he's mental like that. It tasted lovely especially with whipped cream. YUM!

I put up my flying ducks. Himself finally admitted he was never going to do it (I have been waiting since November) So I bought picture hooks in town and did it myself.
Oh that's right, I went into town again. I thought a bit of fresh air might help the brain cells and I had to post my sister's birthday card too. There were quite a few sales on and before I knew it about 2 hours had passed,

I got this very lovely red bag for £3.99 from a charity shop. It was in the window I swear, I don't have a daily charity shop habit!

I also got this very cute sweater in New Look. I mooched, I bought a new concealer, some packing tape, some bird food and 2 for the price of 1 Battenburg cakes for Himself. It truely is amazing the things you can find to buy and the time you can waste when you put your mind to it.
I was back in the house about 20 minutes all ready to knuckle down to some work when my parents arrived. By the time they left, I needed to make dinner and then by the time we had eaten etc.
Oh well I thought, I'll do it tomorrow.
I'm sure you have guessed that the fact I am blogging here and not beavering away at the table means I haven't got anything done today either. I did read a few more pages of  the cataloguing workbook. It made more sense but I realise I'm going to have to do it in short bursts, I also realise what made me decide not to pursue that career option in the first place. However as workwise I'm up the proverbial creek with no paddle I'm going to have to persevere, it's a useful string to the bow and all that.

So today I have sorted out my paperwork, credit card & bank statements, sorted out all my 'stuff' in the front bedroom, dusted, hoovered, sorted out my fabric, listed some more things on Ebay and cleaned a stained handbag. I'm pleased I've been so productive but I'm aware it's all been avoidance tactics.
I DID check out the university job pages and I did see something quite interesting, but as I can't access that page from home it will have to wait until Monday. So maybe I will leave the CV until then, 2 birds with one stone and all that.....

Charity Shopping? Don't mind if I do.

Usually I have plans for my half day but today I didn't, so I decided to head home from the station via the charity shops in town. I have to say I'm glad that I did
I ended up buying something in each of the shops I went into!

First up this unusual black necklace, it's a bit dirty but it will clean easily enough.

Next this cute little wicker basket. I think I will line it and put my hair accessories in it.

I then found this black velvet dress. It's probably too short for me to wear as a dress  but it was a bit grubby and looked like it had lost a fight with a feather boa so I decied to de-fluff it and wash it before trying it on!
I have been trying to get away from wearing so much black, old rock chick habits die hard! However it was a great bargain and I loved the gathered bust, very flattering for those of us not so well graced in the bossom department.

In complete contrast I then found this cute summer dress. Sadly I'm pretty sure I won't be the one wearing it, yellow is not a great colour on me. I bought it with my sister in mind because yellow looks fabulous with her colouring. :-)

On top of  these my Mum brought more goodies for me. A load more buttons,

some very dirty like this cutie, how I wish there were more than one of him.

A carrier bag of vintage patterns and just look at the bag! How excited was I?
but best was this little packet among the buttons, genuine kirby grips in thier original wrapper!!

Result.

A Highland Adventure?

Last month Himself came home and announced he had booked the week of Easter off work as holiday. Due to the royal wedding you get 5 days off but only have to book 3 which is a result in his eyes. Now Himself booking leave is nothing short of a miracle, he just never does whereas I could have my holiday allowance 3 times over and still want more! 
So not only did he book time off work he announced we should go away, seriously, it was a good job I was sitting down at the time!?!
Himself does not like to go away. If we ever go anywhere it is because I have arranged it all and sweet talked him into it, of course he always has a wonderful time when we do go away but......

So the plan is to have a few days in Newcastle and a few days in Edinburgh. Contrary to how it may come across in my blog. Himself is actually a card carrying Geordie, having been born in Newcastle and grown up in County Durham. So even though his parents now live in Kent and that is where we met, he is northern through and through which basically means he goes out in the middle of winter in short sleeves.
Whilst I love Newcastle, and it is 'going away' it's not exactly unknown or new. Himself knows the city back to front, has friends and family there and we have visited many times.

Edinburgh however I am *thrilled* about. I have been wanting to go back there ever since my first, and so far only, visit 10 years ago. That time I went with a friend from America who didn't want to walk anywhere and would only eat at McDonalds and I still managed to fall in love with the city.
As you can imagine I booked the same week off  forthwith and started to do a little research into hotels etc.
Weeks passed and every now and then I said 'we ought to book tickets/hotels etc' and Himself would say 'Yes we must'  until finally last night we sat down to do just that.

As Sam would say in Quantum Leap 'Oh boy'

TRAVEL
Now I travel to work by train every day, I KNOW that Cross Country Trains going to Edinburgh stop at Oxford but according to the internet we had 2 choices:
1. Go to Birmingham, wait a ridiculously long time before getting on a train that takes 8 more hours to get to Scotland!!
or
2. Go to London and catch a train from Kings Cross to Edinburgh.
Even the Cross Country Trains own website sent us via London and up to Scotland on another companies train no less.
So we looked at going to Newcastle first, again the trains go through Oxofrd and we have used them loads before, but the internet was adamant we must go to London first!
Also Newcastle to Edinburgh = £30 each
Edinburgh to Newcastle = £9 each
It's enough to make a grown woman weep and drive a grown man to beer.
We finally ended up getting tickets from Edinburgh to Newcastle and Newcastle to Oxford. Actually getting to Edinburgh in the first place I will sort at Oxford train station by buying a ticket from a real person.

HOTELS
So of course the deals I found a few weeks ago are no longer available. Thus started a trawl of the interweb. We had Tripadvisor open to check out hotels. I love that website, so useful. We found a good one in Newcastle pretty quickly and left that window open whilst we looked for one in Edinburgh. What seemed like forever later we finally found a good, decently priced one that was actually in the city centre rather than a million miles outside. We opened the link to book and not only bizarrely did the hotel name change but 7 pop up windows suddenly opened and crashed it all. Himself closed everything and we tried again from scratch, same thing happened. Ok well lets book the Newcastkle hotel then try this one again. Of course that had timed out so we had to start from scratch with that hotel too. Ok, deep breath, start again..........hotel in Newcastle booked. Huzzah.
Ok lets just try and find another hotel in Edinburgh as we are having to start from scratch anyway. More searching etc until we find another one that fits. Go to book and it's an unsecured website, neither of us is happy about putting in details on an unsecured page. Great now what? Ok it's part of a chain so we'll try the company website. Click on the booking page and it's also unsecured!!!
Oh FFS.
Himself resorts to the old fashioned telephone. They are open for telephone bookings from 2pm the next day but it will be more expensive and 'lots of other people use the website'  'I'm sure they do but I'm not prepared to risk it' says Himself.
Over two and a haf hours have passed by now and we are back to the drawing board. Himself stalks off to the shop for beer and I start to see his point about not going away being so much easier!

Old New Glasses and I've Broken the No Shopping Rule AGAIN!

Dear lord above has it has been manic at work this week, seriously, somone or something has put the fear of god up the students because they are ordering books like there is no tomorrow. This means in a nutshell I crawl home each night and collapse in a chair *almost* too weak to make even a cup of tea.
 This is not good, I still have a load of clearing up to do since the new sofa. My sitting room looks like someone has come in and just randomly thrown things all over the floor.....oh wait that would be me wouldn't it.*SIGH*
I made the mess, it's getting me down but I just can't seem to find the energy to clear it, see what I mean about it being not good. It also means I haven't been job hunting this week either, even more not good. Only got until the end of July, so I really need some motivation.

I WAS doing marvelously well with the no shopping in March. I met my parents on my afternoon off and all I bought was 4 teaspoons, (we have some manner of teaspoon mystery going on in our house at the moment, in that they just keep vanishing, very strange.)

and these awesome Hungrey Caterpiller cupcake cases.

This little bit of spring reduced to half price in Sainsburys.

My Mum also brought round a load of buttons for me from one of her ladies at Age Concern. :-) Not sure what I will do with them all mind.

Oh and we did give the lady behind the till in Robert Dyas a laugh. Just as she walked up to serve me my Mum turned to me and said 'Oh! I forgot to bring you that glue for your glass eye' (There was a display for superglue that had caught her attention and reminded her) As you can imagine I got a rather perplexed look until I quickly had to explain she meant the glass eye of my crow garden ornament that had fallen out and not one of my own.

Talking of eyes I finally went to get mine tested on Tuesday. I knew it was long overdue but I also knew my prescription had changed which would mean new specs. As it turns out I got a free eye test because my Dad and Nan both had to have treatment for Glaucoma.
So I rang up my Dad that night and said 'You know in the book Pollyanna she has the Happy Game where in a nutshell you have to find a happy thing out of any situation no matter how bad?'.
He's like 'Mmm'
'Basically Dad when you were in hospital last year and nearly lost your eye, the good thing to come out of it is because of that I got a free eye test!'  
It's good to finally be able to make a joke about what was a horrific few weeks.

Anyway as suspected the short sighted eye has got worse. It was quite a jolt when he covered up the long sighted eye and asked me to read the board and I could not see a damn thing!!?! I hadn't realised it had got quite that bad!
So that eye gets a stronger prescription and the long sighted eye gets a weaker one because it has been working too hard to compensate, poor eye I know the feeling.

Finally to my 3rd of March 'no shopping' fail. Debenhams had their 3 day 25% off event. I have a storecard so I get an extra 10% on top of that. I need new jeans for work and I came out with a coat which I need like a hole in the head! It's leopard print, which is a major weakness, it's furry, which is another and it was already 50% off before adding the 25% off etc.

The flash on my camera has made it look very shiny it's not shiny but it is lovely. Happy fail.