100 Happy Days

I'm late this week….. here's what made me happy

Me & the girls selling our wares at Crikey. Pulling a silly face!

A lazy morning with Popsy

Tea & biscuits with my new Beryl cup & saucer 

Jean won the battle of my lap

A gift from a fellow charity shop manager!

Cuddles after a very long day at work

A rock n roll Friday evening!

There seems to be a lot of cats this week……. they have a knack of making me feel happy!

Crikey!

Saturday saw me heading off to Crikey & for once I wasn't worn out from making!

The organiser very kindly gave us a table for the shop, we had a selection of vintage goodies all boxed up & ready to go

It was at the Exeter Castle, a new venue for Crikey & I can say it worked really well.

Leading up to the building there was plenty of space for vintage cars….. this was my favourite.

You'd never know you were a couple minutes walk from the main hight street

Close up of our table

A big selection of goodies

Thankfully there was less to carry back! 

It was so good to spread the word about the shelter & the great work that goes on there.

I'm loving my job…. let's face it, I'm getting paid to do Crikey!

And of course I had to treat myself!

Woods Ware Jasmine Beryl cups & saucers & a Tupperware tub for my toy eyes.

The cups were a really good price, I've seen them at Crikey for double the price so I'm very happy!

Hold your breath…..

Yep I brought a dress!!

I saw a lady wearing one in the morning & thought how nice it was. I then found this one on the 1/2 price rail in my size!! I nearly didn't get it, there was a few people trying to get it off me but my brother was very firm & I parted with my cash. Now will I be brave enough to wear it?

I'm not sure about the neck detail, it shows off more than I care to show. I won't be able to wear a vest underneath so any ideas?

Today is my day off so I'm making the most of my purchases!

I'm also cracking on with making things

100 Happy Days

What made me happy this week

My parents gave me this picture that my nan had made

No more winter boots!! 4 days later I was back in them :( 

You can't beat the real thing!

Last day of holiday, last day of cuddles 

No make up selfie, me from 1977!

Tickets arrived!

New bag & travel sewing machine

Only 25 days to go!

My Holiday

How come a week off always goes so fast?

It's was a productive week

This is what I did…..

Finished my scarf

Made a fox stole

Started a turban which I finished on my last day….. more photo's to follow

I finally got around to sorting out my bargain charity shop find skirt. It was a size 10 which I had no hope of ever fitting in but I loved the fabric & it had a net petticoat. I chopped the waist band off & added elastic. The petticoat had to go as it really was a size 10! Voila it now fits, it does make me look a  bit tubby so I'm not sure how often I'll wear it

Booking tickets to see this again in May

Finding out I have a space at Crikey……. not selling my wears but goodies from the shop!

It's a great way to raise more money & raise awareness of the shelter 

Happy St Patricks Day

100 Happy Days

This is what made me happy this week

Finishing another book

The tank top fitted!

Finding a Beryl bowl in the bottom of a box of dirty china!

Finishing work for 7 days & enjoying a pint of cider!

Morning cuddles with Popsy

Lunch time drinks in the sun with my friend

Finishing a project 

Finishing another project!

Yes Friday had 2 happy days moments, I seem to be cracking on with my projects lately.

I'm looking forward to wearing my knitted fox stole to the 1940's events this summer. Perfect for someone like me who doesn't want to wear a dead animal around my neck!

Spring Time!

The daffodils are out, the sun is shinning & the Cheltenham festival has started. That can only mean one thing……. my holiday!!!!

This must be the first year when I wasn't chomping at the bit (get it!) to have a break from work…… that's a good sign isn't it?

My deputy is unwell at the moment so my only concern is what I'll be going back to.

Yesterday was my first day off so I had a lazy day with the girls watching Forest Gump & knitting. It doesn't get better than that

Popsy's 1970's soft focus pose! 

Went to get a cup of tea & Jean stole my seat!

Today will be a bit different….. meeting my friend for lunch then spending the afternoon in the pub watching the horse racing….. shhh don't tell my employers!

Hope I win my millions

February Book Review

I only read 2 books in February

A fictionalised account of the Kaiser Wilhelm’s last years in Nazi-occupied Holland.

It is 1940 and the exiled Kaiser is living in Holland, at his palace Huis Doorn.The old German king spends his days chopping logs and musing on what might have been.

When the Nazis invade Holland, the Kaiser’s Dutch staff are replaced by SS guards, led by young, eager Untersturmfuhrer Krebbs, and an unlikely relationship develops between the king and his keeper. While they agree on the rightfulness of German expansion and on holding the country’s Jewish population accountable for all ills, they disagree on the solutions. Krebbs’s growing attraction and love affair with Akki, a Jewish maid in the house, further undermines his belief in Nazism. But as the tides of war roll around them, all three find themselves increasingly compromised and gravely at risk.

This subtle, tender novel borrows heavily from real history and events, but remains a work of superlative, literary fiction.Through Judd’s depiction of the Lear-like Kaiser and the softening of brutal Krebbs, the novel draws unique parallels between Germany at the turn of the 20th century and Hitler’s Germany.

I'm really unsure about this book, it had been on the shelf at work for sometime & as it was a thin book I thought I'd give it ago. It took me a while to get into & I can't say I really enjoyed it. It spent so long building up to what could've be good ending but by which time I'd lost interest! But I  did like the way it mixed fact & fiction. 

Has anyone else read it?

6/10

World's End is the story of Donald Wheal¹s childhood in Chelsea's World's End at the height of the Second World War.

Not for him the privileged bohemian world of Chelsea a few hundred yards away. Descended from rural immigrants, ladies of the night and bare-knuckle fighters, Donald Wheal¹s upbringing took place amidst grimy factories and generating plants, illegal street bookmakers, dog tracks, tenements and street walkers who plied their trade in Piccadilly and Soho.

World's End is the story of how he and his family struggled free from this underclass. It is also an individual history of the Second World War, of a small boy¹s grappling with the bitter separation of evacuation, the return to an already battered London, the wonderland of bomb-damaged houses to play in, and the nights of terror as the Blitz returned.

Now this is my sort of book!

Not the best wartime memoirs I've read but I still really enjoyed it. It makes you think how you would cope if you had to live through war. I can say I'd be pretty rubbish & most of the children who get my bus wouldn't cope either…… & thankfully we won't have too.

If you like this sort of book I would defiantly recommend this one.

9/10

I'm on my 2nd book for March but it's a 700 pager so I think I might only manage 2 again. This will be my 7th book of the year so I think I'm doing ok!