Christmas Giveaway!

At last!

I don't know why I am so behind with everything at the moment but I am, and this Giveaway to celebrate reaching 150 followers is well overdue.

A few weeks back I purchased some lovely tea towels from All Tea Towels after seeing them mentioned on various other blogs, and decided that one would make a lovely giveaway. I shall be ordering a few more for top up xmas presents  I think, as they have a brilliant selection, they are well priced and good quality, they arrive the next day, free postage, and you can pay by paypal - my kind of xmas shopping! Do check them out!

The lucky winner will win one of these lovely tea towels together with a selection of my handmade Christmas decorations shown in my last post.



To enter, you will need to be a follower and leave a comment saying which tea towel you would like to win.

 You can have a second chance to win by advertising my giveaway on your blog using the giveaway button at the top of this post and on my sidebar.

Please leave a separate comment to say you have done this for your second entry.

And thats it!

There are three tea towels to choose from......

1.  A gorgeous 100% cotton French style tea towel by Ulster Weavers - this is my fav and will be hard to part with!

2.   a lovely country style Christmas Angels tea towel made from 100% linen, again by Ulster Weavers

and finally 3, one that makes me laugh, one of the "tottering-by-gently" series by McCaw Allan made from 100% cotton

"he" contemplates the wine, sniffs it, swirls it, ect ect, whilst "she" just gets on with it - pour it and swig it!!!

So just leave a comment to enter!

Giveaway ends Saturday 10th December -  Good Luck!!

Ghosts of Christmas Past

In the past, at this time of year I have usually been frantically finishing off

handmade decorations and gifts in readiness for Christmas Fairs,

preparing stock and price lists,

making labels and planning my stall set up,

mostly loving it

and partly panicking and asking myself

why did I say I'd do it!

And I am really missing it this year - the fun of planning new things to make during late summer and early autumn,

painting hundreds of wooden hearts and doves and snowflakes for weeks on end, 

hand stitching vintage wool hearts,

making up bunting and gingham hearts

and making scented pine cones and cinnamon stick bundles.

I found what was left of the Christmas fair stock over the last few years

and thought you might like a peep to get you in the mood for all those christmas preparations!

stuffed gingham hearts with jute hangers for the tree

bundles of cinnamon sticks tied with jute and homespun

rusty tin hearts

embroidered vintage wool blanket hearts

numerous painted wooden decorations - these in red and white

white and red

sage green and white

grey and white ( I used to introduce a new colour and motifs each year)

my favourite soft blue and white

blue and red

Christmas bunting

 

vintage tartan tree mini stockings to fill with edible goodies

tea stained ticking doves

vintage wool robin

frankinsense and myrrh scented pine cones

vintage wool blanket hearts with scandinavian inspired embroidery

 vintage tartan hearts with frayed edges and velvet hangers

country style christmas cards

see the xmas recipe background!

and retro style thankyou cards

I do so miss it all - maybe next year?



If anyone is interested in anything here (except pine cones) then please drop me a line

Just a quickie....

to say I've just had the most wonderful time in Paris ......................

virtually, that is.

I came across this wonderful blog this evening whilst waiting for the dinner to cook, and it reminded me what a magical city Paris is, an exciting feast for the senses, and made me yearn to visit again 

and, like Heather, with my daughter this time

and when I go I shall be sure to spend some time on this website and blog before I go, to get the low down on where to go and what to see.


My last trip there was before Bella was born, and I went with my husband one cold November.



We had a wonderful time seeing some of the sights - the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the Musee d' Orsay, Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur and many other wonderful sights, but my outstanding memory of our last visit was of seeing Paris by night, sitting on the open deck of a bateau mouche whilst soft flakes of snow gently fell


it was magic.

image from here

Not a success

Oh dear, judging by the huge number of hits that I've had on my blog over the past two days (especially from the US), yet an unusually tiny number of comments, I guess that either the guest post idea was not greatly liked by my regular readers, or you have all been away for the weekend.

how peaceful and serene this bedroom looks

I fear the former.

love this eclectic mix of cushions and look at that gorgeous blanket!

I am sorry about that.

how cool is that mint green cooker?! and with the pink fridge!

So retro!

I ought to make it clear that no goods or money passed hands, it just seemed a good idea at the time to have someone else write a post with some pretty pics that you might all enjoy as you seemed to like the other interiors post I've done whilst I'm on a bit of an interiors kick (and I thought you might be getting sick of photos of my hall), the company (in the US) get some free advertising (and it is a good website as far as I've seen) , and I don't have to write a post!

how pretty and feminine is this!

(Don't think it would go down well with most hubbys or partners though)

this is so bold, I like the stripey chairs and the blue walls

simpe, but sweet, but I can't help thinking what a pain it would be, forever on my knees with the pasta server batting all the pet toys out from under the cupboards!!

So I'm sorry, dear readers, if it wasn't your cup of tea, I know better now, and I shall be back within a day or two with my Giveaway and a few piccies of what I've been busy painting over the weekend - and for once its not the hall!

what a wonderful riot of colour! I would never be brave enough to have violet windows though!

I hope you all have great weekend, and I hope you enjoyed these

few photos that I've found on my favourite tumblr,

Vintage Home

(I'm on the downstairs computer with no access to my photo files!)

All images from Vintage Home