Oh Yeah!

Don't you just love it when you find exactly what you're looking for! We had a good rummage around the record fair in the Oh yeah centre yesterday, if you missed yesterdays fair it's back on the 22nd of September again. I had it in mind I wanted to find The Tornados, because I'm obsessed with Telstar and after searching most of the stalls the big lad came up trumps and found it, Yeah!! Happy customers : )

Feet up, record on....and relax

Have a super Sunday everyone xx

Last weekend.....

Last weekend the big lad and I celebrated our thirthy second birthday, he's my older man, but only by 2 days. I can't quite believe that I'm 32 it doesn't seem that long ago that I was 22! But I guess it's true what they say that time flies when you're having fun.

There was cake, actually there were two cakes, the problem with our birthdays being so close together is that we're left eating cake for days....And there were surprises......

The big lad surprised me with the two crazy cat figurines I'd been watching on ebay! The cat collection continues to grow at pace! He usually tells me off about bringing stuff like this home but here he is encouraging it! Haha!
I got lots of other lovely presents but most of them deserve a blog post of their own so I'll keep you posted..
In  the afternoon we took a mooch around the new Mac Gallery.....

Bizarre, Table and four chairs...now I know how Alice in Wonderland must have felt

A fun birthday weekend was had by all, older...yes, wiser...not so sure!
Hope you're having a lovely weekend xx

Friday Flowers

And.......relax
You can't beat that feeling of stepping off the plane, back on home soil. The drive home from the airport, the sun shining, the Mourne mountains in the distance, the green fields, cruising into the city, and all the familiar sites... Love it! The best thing about going away with work is coming back home! And to celebrate my homecoming a treat for me, flowers....flowers, flowers everywhere! The flowers are from Lidl and so are some of my vases, I've been saving my jars and they make the perfect vase...

 All set for the weekend, have a great one xx

Mini Monday morning makeover

If you can't see your collections then what's the point in collecting? Especially when it comes to jewellery or brooches if they're out on display you're more likely to wear them than if they were tucked away in a box. My lamp shade was lacking a bit of sparkle, pinned on my brooches and easy as you like my lamp gets a makeover and I can see all my brooches, pretty and practical.....maybe I'll start wearing some of them now!!

A few new additions : )

It's been a lovely birthday weekend but now it's back to porridge...in fact I've a flight to catch and here I am blogging...MUST FLY!! Have a great week everyone xx
And next weekend if you're in Belfast and you like vinyl, the record fair returns to The Oh Yeah Belfast Centre

Cat Clothes in Dorothy Perkins

Good old Dotty Ps bringing us not one, not two but a choice of three tops to suit all cat lady tastes....

I would chose this pussybow blouse for the professional cat lady, it says smart but I love cats!

or maybe this sleeveless style perfectly light for the summer, I like this one the most...

or this t shirt , for everyday cat lady style!

I'll keep my eyes peeled for more cat fashion on the highstreet : )
Hope you're all having a fun Sunday xx

A couple of weeks later....

Hi, this my follow up on our big house move three years ago, these photos must have been taken exactly around this time because it's my birthday tomorrow and the big lad had bought me the flowers on the fireplace. It's funny looking at the house then and comparing to what it is like now, there's been quite A LOT of new additions in the last three years but I'll do a three years later post I'm sure! Lets be honest who doesn't having a nose at other peoples houses! Something I used to love doing before we moved was looking through the Property News website....My dream house.... a three storey period property, with original features, stripped wooden floors, a sunny garden and a cherry blossom tree...a girl can dream :)

Hope you're all having a fun filled Saturday xx

Berry nice

I go away for 1 week, sign into my blog and discover the new blogger layout! And a lot of reading to catch up on!
In my absence there's been some growing going on...I've been out to check on the veggie patch...There are green shoots, the rocket's rocketing the spring onions are springing up, the carrot seedlings are showing there heads and we have the beginnings of three strawberries. There's something so rewarding about watching what you've planted grow.

Three strawberries, one for me, one for the big lad, and one for Mary...

Last weekend, me and two of my oldest buddies met up for a mooch in Belfast, and I bought this cute handmade strawberry brooch from BEADYLICIOUS who had a stall in the Fashion Souk at the In shops, I love it!

And while on the strawberry theme..I found this berry nice tapestry in a charity shop for £3, a latest edition to craft corner..

WOO HOO It's Friday, it's the big lads birthday, it's a sunny day, what more could you ask for! Hope you all have a fab Friday xx

Another sunny afternoon

Mary catching some rays from the comfort of our bed....bliss

The In Shops are closing!

KEEP BELFAST RETRO.....

It was announced on Thursday that the In Shops are closing in June! WWWAAAHHHH!! OK to be fair there's aren't many shops left in the mall, but does it really have close down? There's something comforting about it's crapiness, the eighties primary colours, the smell of fry, the buzz of the tattoo gun, a whiff of incense sticks....it's nostalgic.......So we lost the North Street Arcade a few years ago to a fire and now we're losing the In Shops, we've still got Haymarket Arcade BUT FOR HOW LONG!!??...So all that is left to say is get down and support the remaining traders before they close...... Read some other In shops reviews here

Please Mr In Shops owner DON'T close the In Shops....Pretty PLEASE :(
( Arcades aren't the only cool thing we've lost in the regeneration of Belfast....The original and in my opinion better, Kitchen Bar, and The Lifeboat bar, now apartments and offices...meh)

 On a more positive note I hope you're all having a
 fantabulous weekend xx

Tele mong

Did anyone see The Apprentice last night ?(BBC 1) Lord Sugar set the task of setting up a pop up shop in London selling second hand items. If  I was on the show I would have put myself forward for team leader! Loved this task!! My blood pressure is always sky high watching this show usually shouting at the TV! I don't want to give too much away if you haven't seen it but what one team lacked in artistic vision they made up for in enthusiasm.... and what one team lacked in stock ended up creating a minimalist boutique.......BUT....  there is nothing more off putting than a pushy sales technique!
And  then there's channel 4's Get your house in order it's like two of my favourite type of programmes rolled into one (I'm intrigued by hoarding and love interior design) The presenters set out to clear the hoard and sell it off to make money to spend on redecoration with the idea being if your house looks nice then you won't want to fill it with crap. I say crap but to a hoarder it must be so difficult to part with it. Anyhow, I love Abigail Aherns (the designer on the show) design concepts, I like her brave use of colour, her book A Girl's Guide To Decorating is full of fab ideas to liven up your space and most are budget friendly.
When does 'a collecting habit' turn into hoarding....maybe I shouldn't be bidding on those ebay cat ornaments....

Wet afternoon mini makeover

It was so nice to be off work for a couple of days over Easter, but the weather wasn't great so it was the perfect opportunity to take myself off to my 'craft' room (really just the spare room that has a sewing machine in it) turn on the radio and while away the afternoon making.....

For ages I've been wanting to jazz up this chair, I do love it as it is so didn't want to make any permanent changes to it. Plus Mary uses it as her scratching post so she'd only end up destroying it! (More so)

After our Edinburgh trip I made this little cushion.....

And there she is...a new cover for the seat, and a new cushion, good as new! Mary stay off it!!

The craft room floor even got a treat, a new flowery rug bought from Urban Outfiitters, it was £12, I'd love to buy loads of these are redo our rainbow stairs

I swear time goes quicker when I'm in the craft room, what seems like one hour is actually three! It was my sister's birthday yesterday and we spent the afternoon out for lunch, rummaging in the Charity shops, found some really nice fabric for future projects, now all I need is a rainy afternoon.......well it is Northern Ireland!

Hope you're all having a fab week!

Shopping spy....Urban Outfitters

You can always count on Urban Outfitters to stock some pretty cool homeware bits and bobs (Of course my favorites are cat themed....as always!

Fine Little Day Cat Ttowel

Persian cat salt and pepper shakers

White Cat light

Especially loving the Cat light, delightfully tacky!

Happy Easter Peeps!

 CHOCOLATE FOR BREAKFAST!! WOO HOO!!

A big thankyou to all my Belfast work buddies who bought an Easter bun from me on Thursday! April is fund raising month and I plan to bake and sell lots of buns! My friend Kitty and I have put together a relay team for the Belfast City Marathon...The Freaky Five (So hard to think of a name!) and there's only a few of weeks to go now until the big run...starting to get eggcited (couldn't resist)

Have a super Easter Sunday everyone x

3 years ago.....

Time really does fly! I can't believe that this time three years ago we'd just got the keys to our house in Belfast. We had a week where we were still living in our old house in Bangor and frantically trying to get the new house ready to move into. We roped in friends and family to help with the jobs, their hard work rewarded with Marks and Spencers sandwich platters....yum. We ripped up all the carpets, planned on sanding the downstairs floorboards only to find tiles, ripped off boarders, cleaned, painted walls, painted floors...fun, but hard graft for DIY novices. So three years on, and I'm itching to paint again, Mad Men has alot to answer for! I'm watching the show thinking...would that teal look good in our living room? Moving house was so much fun! Would we do it again? Not for a very long time! Some photos of our first week...