Rest in Peace Sweet Ethel. Gone to the Great Chicken Coop in the Sky

Hello, today I am the bearer of sad news, Ethel our chicken didn't make it.
 When I went to the coop this morning I could tell she had worsened through the night, she could barely move and once checked over by the vet he discovered that she had lumps inside her and problems with her digestive track, very common with ex battery hens. We're comforted by the fact that she enjoyed 8 months of freedom with her two playmates Betty and Beryl, and that at least now she'll not be in pain and suffering anymore.

When Ethel first came to stay she was shy, scrawny and featherless, but she soon came out of her shell. Ethel enjoyed pottering around the garden, scraping about in the vegetable patch, sunbathing in the summer, and enjoying her new found freedom. With the sun on her back, wind in her tail and banana in her belly her feathers soon grew back and she was happy to finally be rescued.

happier times

My Aunt and Uncle sent these Christmas decorations from America, one for each of the girls.

Ethel by Maayan aged 4 and a half

 The coop will be a quieter place without her, Ethel we will miss you, from  your adoptive parents Gavin & Linda, chicken sisters Betty & Beryl, and cat sister Mary.
Goodbye wee bird xxx

Thank you to Mike the Chicken vet who was very kind this morning.
If you're interested in rescuing ex battery hens and you live in Northern Ireland contact Barbara at Nut House Hen Rescue

Christmas Swap

Hello Everyone!
 How's your Christmas been? I'm still off work and really enjoying the break aside from the usual sniffles and sore throat I get every Christmas, it's been a week of seeing family, enjoying time with friends, munching our way through a pile of chocolate and watching The Sopranos, our latest box set addiction. Bliss!

 Unfortunately someone who's not been having a good Christmas is our little chicken Ethel, we're taking her to see Mike the chicken specialist vet tomorrow, so fingers crossed he'll know how to fix her. She's not eating and has been sleeping and barely moving all day :( I'm hoping she'll pull through, poor girl.

Before Christmas I signed up for Lakota's Christmas Swap, I was paired with the lovely Alison who lives in Franch and writes two blogs Fat Dormouse getting thinner and View from the teapot. The swap rules were.......

• As usual, you should send your swap partner a minimum of three items, a maximum of five. 
• There is a maximum spend of £12 or the equivalent in your local currency.
• At least one item - though more if you can - should be second hand, and  sourced from a charity shop, car boot sale, jumble, estate sale, eBay or similar.
• At least one item should be handmade. If you are not crafty yourself, it's fine to provide a handmade item that someone else has toiled over instead.
• And this time, one item MUST relate to a Christmas carol or song. How you interpret this is up to you!

My parcel arrived and waited under the tree until the big day

Thank you Alison! A beautiful Christmas card and a letter explaining all the gifts

Two cherubs which I've already from a home for, and two tiny salt spoons

handmade cards

A set of handmade Christmas themed coasters and a sparkly book mark, I don't use a kindle so it's perfect! Alison also sent me a vintage postcard of the village where she lives, I've stuck it up on the wall in my craft room.

And the lyrics from the carol that inspired the gift, The Star Carol by John Rutter

It was great fun taking part in The Christmas swop, a great way to meet new bloggers and it's always nice to receive a present in the post! So thank you Lakota and thank you Alison for my presents! xx
Linking up with Lakota over at Faith Hope and Charity Shopping to see what everyone else recieved from their swap partners

Happy New Year to you all! Here's to health, happiness and lots of blogging in 2013 xxxx

Have yourself a Mary little Christmas

And may all your Christmases be white......

Merry Christmas everyone, from me, the big lad, Mary, Betty, Beryl and Ethel xxx

LBD

Hello!
I've been looking forward to wearing and sharing this dress with you, last night was our Christmas party and I finally got to wear my new LBD, long blue dress. In the pre Christmas party run up I had been panicking about what to wear, and then the panic was over after I quickly nipped into a charity and found this beauty. A very 1970's blue lurex dress with lots of sparkle, and a bargain at only £12, my very lovely sister took it in slightly for me and I wore it with a little black and silver belt from Dorothy Perkins. A quick power nap after work, shave, shower, a curl in my hair and a slick of red lippy and I was good to go. I love this dress! 

New belt from good old Dotty Ps

I love how this dress is casual! I wonder was Susan Small a range for small people, I'm only 5ft1

Me before heading out, the angel looks like she's perched on my head!

And a little bit later after making Merry! I'm not doing the YMCA actions!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Mary v The Tree

Tree wins......

So far Mary's tried to climb the tree and has been knocking off and chasing the balls, Christmas is so much fun! Mary's been looking after my Christmas blog swop present from Alison writer of The Fat Dormouse blog

 

The big lad bought this vintage Santa from Ebay for under the tree. Underneath the tree isn't complete without the cottonwool snow.

And to top it all off I made a new angel this year out of some felt and pipe cleaners.

      

 

 

Christmas is GO

Hello!
Today I started to get my Christmas on. Starting with a festive front door makeover. Mum and I had a crafternoon of wreath making. Made from cuts of ivy, holly and fir from her garden and off cuts of Christmas trees I bought from the Christmas market for a pound. I made a wreath last year but I like this years even better and more fun making one with my mum.

For the circle shape, I rolled up some news paper, stuck it together with parcel tape and used thin garden wire wrapped round to attach the greenery,  remember to leave some wire for attching to the door. Then for the fun part...

Mum is camera shy and didn't want to be featured so she is just hand modelling today, we wove our greenery under the wire, then layered it up with, fir, holly, ivy and pine cones...

Ta Dah!

M and D's front door, handmade festive wreath by mumsy

and our front door

Tomorrow  we'll be getting our Christmas on indoors, tree's going up, Mary'll be hanging up her stocking! I love watching her as she first discovers the tree and starts playing with the balls. 
Hope you're all enjoying the festivities xx

Hello New Followers!

Thanks for reading! x

New Girl

Hello! Hope you're having a great weekend!
Man I've missed this! This is how I relax! And I feel like I haven't had a minute recently, you know the feeling when there's so much going on, you can't sleep, you're wrecked and it all gets a bit mad? So it's nice to just sit down, chill out and have a wee ramble here, before it all starts again!
I couldn't believe my luck when I found this beauty a couple of weeks ago in the charity shop, my new girl, sultry 60's senorita. She's up there with my favourite charity shop finds EVER! Her new home on our film posters from the 60's wall, she looks like it was always meant to be. Love her!

Mary Reflects

"May you have the gladness of Christmas which is hope;
The spirit of Christmas which is peace;
The heart of Christmas which is love."
-   Ada V. Hendricks

The Collector

Hello!
Can't believe it's December 1st! Not many weekends before Christmas left I thought it would be a good idea to brave the Belfast high street today and get some pressies, maddness! I had to rush back to the car before the parking meter ran out! and after having looked through my purchases I've ended up with well not much really, though I do feel a little more Christmassy after that quick jaunt in town, the hussle and bussle, everyone half frozen walking around like zombies on speed, yes, I think I'll take my friends advice and start shopping online.
Back home now in the safety of the living room, and snuggled up on the sofa reading my book The Collector by John Fowles. The main character Frederick collects butterflies and takes photographs of them. I'm sucked into this book here's the blurb 'Withdrawn, uneducated and unloved, Frederick collects butterflies and takes photographs. A chance pools win enables him to capture the art student Miranda and keep her in the cellar of the Sussex house he has bought with the windfall. The situation is seen first from the collector's point of view: he thinks the chloroform pad no more vicios than his butterfly net, and patiently waits for the barriers of class and taste that inhibit their love to break down the limbo of their isolation. She, the creator, desperate for her freedom, tries to understand him but cannot banish her contempt for everything anti-life that he stands for'
And on a lighter note here is my deer collection, Christmas decoration deer is the latest addiction, a freindly charity shop helper gave it to me for free.

Hope you're all a having a lovely weekend, I'm off to kidnap mary and keep her in my craft room xx

Mary by Maayan

Hello!
A couple of weekends ago, we had some special visitors. my friend and her little girl Maayan. Maayan's been so eager to meet Mary, but as usual Mary was being elusive and had skipped off to the hot press as soon as she'd heard us come into the house. Mayann kindly drew Mary a picture for her cubby hole and it's stuck on the wall so she can admire it. I think she's got the likeness down to a tea

Mary by Maayan aged 4 and a half

Hope you're all having a good week! xx

The Style Fair

Hello,
Feet up, pizza devoured, Simon and Garfunkel on the record player, the perfect way to end a busy day. Today myself and Bob set up Hey! Home Wrecker stall at The Style Fair in The Hilton. Stupidly I thought it might be a good idea to buy one of those big round tins of Roses for the punters, but we ended up scoffing most of the sweets ourselves, bad! Bob got roped in as helper and I had her running around Belfast getting my messages, a great help she was too! We had a fun day, even if we didn't sell very much, friends called in to say Hi and it was nice to meet and chat to new people. Tired though I was when I got home I decided to do a little Hey! Home Wrecker facebook page, here's the link Hey! Home Wrecker Facebook so that's a blog, a facebook, intstagram! What ever next?? Twitter? Nooo!

It's BOB! She's back! and ready to rumble, BIG thanks for helping today!

Hope you're all having a fun weekend x

Making Time

Hello lovelies! I'm HOME!!!
Hope you've had a good week.
Is there something on your charity shop wish list you've been hoping to find for forever? Ours was a sunburst clock...I've seen ones in vintage shops before but I always hoped I'd be lucky enough to find one in a charity shop. The search was over when I spied this hanging, lost , looking for a new home on the wall of Oxfam last weekend. Not sure if it was working the nice guy in the shop decided to give it us for half price! So we got it for a fiver! The clock was made in West Germany and England. The battery shape must have changed since it was designed and we can't get it working but I still love it. In the words of Marwood (Withnail and I) "Even a stopped clock gives the right time twice a day. And for once I'm inclined to believe that Withnail is right. We are indeed drifting into the arena of the unwell. Making an enemy of our own future. What we need is harmony, fresh air, stuff like that"

 I need to find a clock fixer, until then it's always going to be 8.47
 Marwood "What are you doing?"
Withnail " Making time"
This weekend I'm making time to catch up with what's going on in blogland, having a stall at The Style Fair, working on some new bird pictures and watching Breaking Bad! It's good to be home!

 Check out my Instagram friend Em's new blog, I love her style and recycled furniture The painted Little Mouse
Have a lovely weekend everyone xx

Twisted Vintage

Hello lovely lovely people! 
Long time no blog, I've been swept up in a Breaking Bad viewathon, I'll be back to normal routine soon, promoise, we're nearing the end of season 4, what to watch next? Will anything ever be as good? All good box set recommendations welcome. In other news my best buddy Bob is back from her amazing adventure in Morocco, it's great to have her home and to catch up on all her experiences! Welcome home Bob! I can't wait to go thrifting with you!

With the recent lack of blogging there's just so much to share, so I'll start with this...Gorgeous mid century furniture in the heart of Belfast, ears prick up! Head to the top of the Refound Building 7 Wellington place and prepare to step back in time. If I could live in a shop I'd choose this one, Twisted Vintage, I'm in love! Check out their blog It's All Gone Vintage Darling and Twisted Vintage 

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Belfast is fast becoming the vintage loving city I always hoped it would be!

Hope you're all a having a lovely Sunday xx