It's been ages!

Or it seems like it anyway! I so miss blogging, it's been almost 6 months since my last entry. So much has happened and i have alot to say but I guess I wont have the time to write everything so I'm gonna try and make it short.

I guess there's always a plus minus in everything just like when I started my job early december, I was excited and happy coz that means I will have extra money to buy vintage things I love, save so I can go on a holiday and/or fix my run down house but the minus sides of it is now i dont have alot of time to do what I love doing such as baking, crafting and sometimes even the house chores got to be put off hence my absence in the blogging world!

It's still abit of a shock for me as i have forgotten working full time 5 days a week from 8am to 5pm, the last time i worked as a full time was probably more than 10 years ago! Anyways, I was sick after just working a month (winter probably didnt help either) then my feet were and still are aching from alot of walking to the train station and to work/home (my only exercise i'm doing) and I haven't eaten properly as work has been manic and stressful.

I am still grateful though as I finally got a job and that our financial issue is getting better now, I am also happy that I lost abit of weight because of it although for the first few months, I can't even relax on the weekends! doing house chores etc but I think i have gotten used to it now and more organized. I can even make simple things on weekends now and still taking photos on my mobile phone which I post on instagram (that's probably the only place I update daily as i don't have to switch on the computer and just snap a pic and post it wherever I am).

The reason why I can blog now is because Im taking a week's off from work coz i have enough holiday hours accrued and another reason is that my 5th wedding anniversay is coming up on the 6th of June! I have so many things to do this week, spring cleaning isn't that exciting but someone got to do it but we're planning to have some outings and of course a romantic dinner!

Anyways, I think i have spent alot of time on the computer as the screen has started to get abit weird (I hope to buy a new laptop soon!), so I'd better switch it off and do abit of crochet before bed time. I'm sorry i still can't visit everyone's blogs but I hope to have time this week to do it and I wish everyone has a lovely weekend! x

Guilty Pleasures

I went out to for a lunch date yesterday at a friend's house in Chichester with some other friends, She made Indonesian food and spoilt us with delicious cakes that she made herself, dark chocolate roulade and white chocolate roulade drizzled with raspberry coulie and lemon drizzled cake, they're insanely delicious, totally Heaven!

I just gotta ask for the recipes! she said she left out the flour when making the roulade and what a difference in the taste! I got home quite late only to receive a disappointing message from my friend who supposed to be the guest in our house next week, to cut a long story short, she changed her plan and will be staying in a Hotel in London and will try to take a train to my place for a day trip to meet me and spend a day with me. I guess disappointment is an understatement but i can't blame her, after all London is a much interesting place for tourists :(

Thankfully I haven't canceled my craft fayre and i still can go to see The Saturdays' concert in Brighton with my friends, so i'm not that upset :) but i guess now i can resume to making more craft things to sell and not worrying about anything else and besides I now like the clean and tidy look of my spare bedroom :)

Tea Break

I got pain on my arms and wrists and so I decided to take a break for a few days from making items to sell on craft fayre but then an email sent me into a panic mode, a friend of mine from Indonesia wanted to come and visit me in December and asked me if she could stay at my house, I of course always welcome friends and family who wanted to come to England to visit me but the problem is the spare bedroom we have right now has been turned into a storage room, boxes piled up and it's so messy and ugly! I wish we live in a bigger house with more rooms or at least have a bigger storage :P

I have no idea what am i going to do coz her arrival is going to clash with my craft fayre and I also forgotten that I have another event to go on the 6th of december, to watch The Saturdays' concert with a group of friends though i didn't feel like going at that time as I don't really know the group but since they forced me into it I paid the ticket to the concert. I can't possibly bring my friend who will be coming all the way from Indonesia to the craft fayre as she has asked if i could show her around London etc and I can't ask her to come to the concert also as I will be tagging along with my other friends who's driving assuming they still sell last minutes tickets. Aaccckkk !

But one thing for sure, I need to clean up the spare bedroom first, not sure where i'm going to store the boxes in there though but i need to make it at least tidy and a lil bit presentable for the guest. I just hope the pain in my arms would go away soon so I can start cleaning, one thing at a time and I need a pot of tea to calm me down and think of the solution.

NOTE: I made the crocheted squares garland, The teapot is handpainted and bought it from BHs, The teacup is from Old Foley and the cute bird both from charity shop that I bought awhile back that i was going to use to make a teacup candle but i dont think i have the time to make it now *Big Sigh*.

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Sweetology101

At a friend's House

Yesterday, a friend of mine picked me up to have lunch at her house, truth to tell that i've been eyeing her apple tree for awhile now to ask a few :) and saw lots of the apples have fallen to the ground in her back garden, some reds and some green but she said it's cooking apples and so glad she offered if i wanted to pick them since she has had enough of making apple crumbles and still there are more apples that it would be a waste to just let them fall down so armed with a ladder to reach the higher ones I picked some :)

I've been wanting to make an apple chutney and found a recipe from Jamie Oliver which I wanted to try and make it this saturday, wish me luck!

I also love her garden, with a small allotment where she grows carrots, tomatoes etc separately from the flower beds, she gave me some flower seeds as well to bring home, too bad the pear tree next to the apple tree only got a few pears on it but we picked one and it tasted yummy though i'm not too keen on pears :)

That's her with her daughter Natasha, the sweet little girl always love taking pics with my camera but thought i should take her pic for a change, it's nice to hang out with friends especially when she also cooked yummy lunch :)

another friend of ours dropped by as well with her little boy who loves playing bubbles and always smiles whenever i took his pics.

I've been busy looking for cheap sewing machine as hubby gave me a budget *boo* for my birthday gift and while we were browsing through catalogues in my friend's back garden, saw one at argos for just £60, so we'll see! off to check out my lovely ladies' blogs now! x

Cheeky Weather

I know we shouldn't rely on weather forecast too much coz they said it wont be raining on Saturday, so Out into the garden hubby and I went to do a lil BBQ, he had spread out the charcoal on the pit when the rain started to fall! it was quite a downpour but lasted only for a minute then the sun came out, i already envisioned to set up the garden table with food for my photography so i told him, maybe it's just a bluff :) he relented and started again slowly...it was fine for at least half an hour, brought out the chicken satay and was going to do the marinated chicken when it starts to drizzle, hubby was cursing, so in the end, we ended up using the grill in the oven and had our meals inside :p

it's like being played by the rain, one minute it's raining, the next it's stopped again and again! hubby says we could try again next weekend. I made chicken satay with spicy peanut sauce for starters, Marinated chicken wings with potato salad that we made and fruits for desserts, I made a small quantity of Pimms with lemonade and fruits thrown in for drinks. in the end we spent the weekend indoor and I'm back with crocheting my granny squares accompanied with lots and lots of tea while watching midsomer murders.

Hope everyone's weekend is so much better than us! Till next time...Goodnite! :)

I ♥ Fabrics

Just want to share that It's All About The Fabric is having a cute fabric giveaway, She's also have a new website where you can sell and buy all things fabric at The Fabric Market Place. Go and check it out!

I've been wanting to buy more fabrics as my stock is running out but i'll wait till hubby's pay day or who knows i'll win the giveaway at her blog :) anyways, just a short update from me, I got a cold today and runny nose (boohoo). A friend of mine was so kind as to take me to the Job Centre in town and was lucky enough to find a few vacancy near there so i popped in to ask for application form then went back and filled it in and she drove me back to submit the forms *fingers crossed*. It's been raining on and off, though i had my umbrella with me, I still got abit wet especially when hubby and I went for grocery shopping last nite at sainsburys and had to push the shopping cart to the car hence i got wet and now i have runny nose and headaches.

I'm feeling abit miserable but i was having so much fun playing with my friend's new house guest yesterday, his name is Dylan and he'll be staying at my friend's house for 3 weeks while his owners away for a holiday.

..and coz of that, the cat that often came to my house for food and fuss went sulking, she's probably smell the dog on me but only for a short time :)

Wet Weekend

It's been raining on and off since saturday, I've been forced to stay indoor, not that i'm complaining, i love rain :) and we dont have any plan to go out anyway, just cuddle up watching The Mentalist, new series of Camelot and the Sorcerer's apprentice on TV.

Everytime, i tried to sneak in to the computer room between adverts, hubby was quick to distract me and basically changed into a 5 year old who doesnt want to be left by himself *sigh* no peace of getting online on weekends for me. I did manage to make a second frame from paper to accompany the one that i made last week :)

The Jute twine around it was abit messy though as i was in a hurry and i used alphabet stamps for the words, aren't i sappy? hehe.

On another note, my mother in law never ceases to amaze me in her belief of me not killing another plants, she keeps giving me plants! I do hope I wont kill them this time but im pessimistic :) I hope everyone's weekends are more sunnier and more fun than me :)

I'll be sneaking again to visit other people's blogs on the next adverts, i have to type this very quickly! I miss everyone's posts *sobs*.

is it that time of the month already?

We went to Sainsburys for weekly grocery shopping yesterday and as usual, we picked up hubby's mom and helped her with her shopping as well. Finally I can wear summer dresses as the sun is shining and the weather is warming!

..what i didn't know was that my period came early *eeekss* so went to get the period pads in one of the isle and saw this!

I know i'm pathetic, they give a free tin box when you buy one pack of "Always" period pads wuahahahaha. okay serious now...I saw in my previous post that the twigs i painted last winter looks abit bare in the photo, so I decided to use transparent wrapping paper to make little cherry blossoms.

it looks nicer now that the twigs got little flowers on them, I'm happy with it :)

Full Report

...well sorta, anyway.

I've been taken ill, had cold and toothache, went to dentist and had fillings in my tooth but the dentist said one of my wisdom tooth had to be taken out *shudders* in another appointment. I also have allergy, i found out years ago that i'm allergic to pain killers, anything that contains paracetamol in it is a no-no for me, my face would swell up like a balloon or i'll get itchy all over my body, so yes i had to endure the pain if i had headaches but two years ago the doctor gave me another type of painkiller which contains no paracetamol, it's called codein, it's fine at first and i'm so grateful for that but last week i took it coz the toothache caused me so much agony and something happened, i got nauseated, dizziness and well...stomach cramp, so i stopped taking it, hence my 5 days of agony to endure all of those.

But i'm better now..I'm so touched by those who are so concerned and left me a sweet and lovely email and comment, thank you!

My husband's parents gave us two tickets a week ago to a theatre show called "The Spirit of Dance" and it was today and we almost didnt go as hubby was worried that i'm still fragile *his own words* and coz the weather is back to chilly and very windy but I told him that i'll be fine, besides it's a waste of the tickets that the in-laws have paid for £40 a pair!!

well, it's supposed to be our wedding anniversary gift from them anyways, so off we went to town at the sea front where the Dome theatre located, too bad it's not allowed to take pics inside, we enjoyed the irish dance performance and a mix of jazzy as well as ballet althought i did hinted at first i wanted to see the wizard of Oz show but i was too late, they dont perform in my town anymore, but i enjoyed seeing the dance and the singing.

I'm sorry i haven't been checking everyone's blogs and i do miss blogging! so I hope i'll be able to blog again as usual and visit other blogs tomorrow! off now to sleep.

C'est la vie

...and when I thought i've gotten over my moodiness, M.O.T's bill sunk me further into a well of sorrow, the car's suspension and tyres need to be replaced which costs over a thousand pounds, there goes my plan to visit my family in my hometown, Indonesia this summer which we have saved for a few years! i've been homesick these couple of years and tried my best to be patient and to find a job with no luck. Such is life!

on top of that, i've been trying not to get involved in a drama between my two indonesian friends here but somehow i was dragged in involuntarily just because i was in one of my friend's car at that time, really i dont need more drama in my life, i've got enough probs. I won't bore you with the details.

Anyways, I recieved this month's catalogue today from Cath Kidston which kinda distract me from thinking of my probs for a few moments.

I was planning also to buy a few stuff from CK this month but now i guess it will stay in my wish list and I don't know when I'll be able to buy them :(

I did however managed to do something that makes me calm, I decoupaged my little bird house using CK's paper. I bought the bird house last month from TK Maxx for £3 and you can see the post here

Okay, sorry about the ramblings but I just wanted to get it out of my chest and I'm glad that i have a blog to rant and rave :)

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Not In Sync

My day started with a slide down the stairs this morning, just woke up and put on the wrong slipper which was a stolen item from a hotel that we stayed in Indonesia 4 years ago (talk about karma), bruised my arm and thigh as I had to grab the railing to stop me from sliding further down.

I think i'll be sore tomorrow but i had put on some tiger balm. I then got a text message from my friend asking if i wanted to go for a picnic down the beach with her daughter and she'll pick me up around 11. I had my coffee, watched tv and I swore when i saw the clock at that precise moment it showed 9am so i had a lot of time to prepare what i'm going to bring food wise, I even thought of making cupcakes! but a few mins later a text came in again saying she's on the way to pick me up! I was rushing my butt off to prepare everything in 10mins as she's living close by! When I got in her car, i told her she's early! but she said it's already 11am!

Well anyway, We had a nice relaxing picnic for about 3 hours which i spent most of the time dozing off on the picnic blanket.

Anyways, I made vintage easter eggs yesterday from plastic easter eggs that i bought at £1 shop in town, took out the candy inside the eggs, slab lots of glue and printed out vintage paper from Graphics Fairy and cut them into small pieces overlapping each other to cover the whole egg.

I used laces and tied it with jute twine on the egg too. It's a sticky project coz i had to use lots of glue and each time i pasted a piece of paper i had to wash my hand when they started to stick on my hand rather than on the egg :)

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a Cat without a name

As promised, i'm posting some photos of a cat and a little story about her.

About 2 years ago, when My husband, his parents and I were having a barbeque lunch in our backyard, a cat suddenly appeared out of our next door back yard, no name tag and seems to want some food from us, abit skittish at first but after a few hands that offered her some pieces of meat, she became abit more friendly, since then she appeared every lunch time in my backyard and I always ready to give her some cheese or leftover meals we had until one day she decided to also appear in dinner time outside my kitchen door and then when i offered her to come inside the house and feed her inside, she doesn't like to stay long though inside but instead love to sit outside the kitchen door or at the back gate, just sat there for hours which got me thinking maybe she's a stray cat but hubby thought to ask the neighbors if they had this cat which none of them said they had, so a year later on a winter day, she was still there waiting for me to feed her and she spent more times inside when it's raining or snowing.

She is now sometimes spent some nights in our home, she became quite fat now that one day my husband said while looking at her sleeping, "she's a ball of fur, she become so fat now that you can roll her if she can't walk anymore", of course he's joking, he always calls her furball, i was asked once what to call her, i told my husband, I don't want to name her because if i did, I'd be more attached to her than before and since I'm very sensitive and had once many pets that either some left me coz they died or I had to leave them behind coz I had to move to England and cant afford to bring them here and that's heartbreaking for me, I hate having pets coz i know they will die and leave me, and also I remember a quote from one of my all time movie "Breakfast at Tiffanys":

Holly Golightly says: He's all right! Aren't you, cat? Poor cat! Poor slob! Poor slob without a name! The way I see it I haven't got the right to give him one. We don't belong to each other. We just took up one day by the river. I don't want to own anything until I find a place where me and things go together. I'm not sure where that is but I know what it is like. It's like Tiffany's.

..anyways, on Christmas day, The cat was given christmas gifts from us and she seems to love it, well more like she loves playing with the ribbon on the gift though :)

I do love taking pictures of her, coz she's beautiful but last year she was banned to enter the house by my husband coz she spread her fleas onto the carpet and me coz i have a very sensitive skin and the fleas somehow love to bite me as well, it's weird that they dont like my husband's skin though, I had to clean the carpet, vaccuum them everyday and put some flea repellant to the cat and myself, hard work but finally the cat can be allowed inside again, coz I begged hubby for that.

So she's back sleeping with us, I remember some days when I was lonely at home alone while my husband was working and I got so homesick and I cried, she jumped onto my lap and nudged me to give her a fuss and looked at me with those beautiful big eyes as if to say "there, there, I'm here with you so don't cry". She is one who doesnt like to sit on people's lap, even with my husband she's always giving distance and easily skittish whenever strangers or my parents in law came to visit, she's very independent and I guess it's a blessing that she chose to stay with us however not often and chose to give us her loyalty by visiting us and sometimes I think she understands me. I love her and I know it's too late now to distance myself from her coz some days I can't wait to go home to feed her or worrying if she has eaten or not whenever i was away with friends :)

Sorry for the long entry, there are so many photos of her that I can't possibly put all of them but maybe next time...Have a great Weekend!