Stylish Blogger

The lovely Pene, Gill & Hannah passed this on to me with a challenge to share another 7 facts about myself with all my friends in the blogging community. I love reading these as I am just so nosey so it seems only fair that I share my facts too, so here goes:

1. I am the proud mum to two gerbils (aka the Giblets). The kids whined and against my better judgement we got them two gerbils last month. I was not terribly keen but I must say they are cute little critters, they are hard to photograph as they are so fast. We have found the cat looking at them and licking her lips … watch this space!

2 I have an outrageous temper. It rarely ever surfaces properly (these days) and many people can’t believe it as I am usually rather even tempered, but when I am pushed I go off like a bomb and can clear a two mile radius with my insane rage ~ are you scared now?

photo from: historyplace.com
3. I’m a terrible reader. I used to demolish books but since I got into crafting more this last year or so, I can’t find time to read and only read at bedtime. This is the pile of books at my bedside and I am currently part way through all of them! It’s disgraceful really but I am like a butterfly flitting from one thing to the next all the time. 4. I love magazines! I went for a long time not buying any; I would borrow them from the library or do without. Back when I was reading I would resent paying a few quid for a magazine when it would buy me a book instead, but I’m back in the magazine zone again. To be fair I do read them to death and with the crochet, knitting and sewing magazines I go back through them time and time again. My favourites are Simply Knitting, Ideal Home, Your Home & Country Living.

5. I attract nutters. Not sure what it is about me but if I am stood somewhere or sat on a seat in public you can guarantee someone (often crazy) will come and talk to me and tell me their life story or just generally creep me out!

photo: Gary Larson's Far Side taken from http://revkevhamilton.blogspot.com/2010/09/wow-that-was-weird.html

6. I hate peanut butter, it smells like sick!

7. I have a thing for tea, I can drink tea till the cows come home. Earl Grey, Lady Grey, everyday Yorkshire Tea, Lemon tea, Nettle tea ~ you name it I will drink it (this is a very apt recent gift from my lovely friend Nic ~ thanks lovely x).

So there you have it another few pieces of me. I have to pass this on, but again, if you fancy taking up the mantle please feel free to, I will not actually tag you as I know some of you don't like it, but it's open to all.

~ ♥ Back Soon ♥ ~

Versatile Blogger Award

I have recently received another award (get me, I feel like Katherine Hepburn... I wish I looked like her too) from the rather talented Jacey of Coffee 'n' Crochet ~ thanks very much honey!

To receive this award there are 3 things you have to do;

1. Say a big thank you to the person who sent you it: Thanks lovely lady :)

2. Reveal 7 Interesting facts about yourself. If I keep doing these you will know me better than I know myself, I am not terribly interesting but here we go:

1. I am a movie fan, I have hundreds of DVDs scattered about the house and buy films all the time.
I have a pile of movies that I circulate through on a regular basis and I watch movies sometimes in 10 parts as and when I get the time, they are the backlight to my daily life. I like a wide array of movies and the last few movies I watched this week were; Harvey (for the 1,000th time), The something, something, something Dark Side, Dead Man's Shoes and A Christmas Story (in September I know, but I love this film). I do however rarely go to the cinema, it is not easy with 4 kids and its blooming uncomfortable and expensive, and I hate that plebs sit near me and talk and eat with their mouths open and it just drives me insane and I can't enjoy the film, oh I am such an old woman! Ohh I once had a fight at the cinema (on my birthday!) with a man who sat on me and then poured Nacho's and Cheese and Pepsi over me. The cinema apologised on his behalf, gave me loads of free tickets and offered to pay for my dry cleaning and the police had a polite word with him. I must learn to keep my mouth shut though :)

2. I am a scatterbrain and have to write everything down.
I carry a huge handbag with two notebooks for current lists of stuff and long term stuff I need to remember. I wonder sometimes if I have early onset dementia, it does run in my maternal family. At work each day I keep a notebook by me all the time and write everything down and each day things that have not been addressed I have to copy over to tomorrow's page so I don't forget. People at work know not to ring me on my mobile as I always tell them to confirm by email a I WILL forget.

3. I am a huge Alan Bennett fan.

I love all of his work and have a special fondness for his monologues and his work with Thora Hird. I know he is gay and has a life partner but I could spend the rest of my days with this man, I adore his dulcet Yorkshire tones. I have listened to his talking heads monologues so often I know them all verbatim, my favourites being A Cream Cracker Under the Settee, The Last of the Sun, Waiting for the Telegram and A Chip in the Sugar.


4. I love the Radio, especially Radio 4.
For years now I have never missed an episode of the Archers, I am an Archers Addict! I love Womens Hour too and podcast this each day. I don't watch much TV really, I do like some of the soaps, but that's about it.



5. When I was a little kid we lived in a Sheltered Accommodation Block for the elderley a my Mum was the warden. It consisted of a huge building housing about 60 self contained flats. It was locked all the time and as such I had the run of the place. All my friends were between 60 - 98 and they were the people that shaped my life.
I visited my favourite friends every day, it was like having dozens of grandma's and grandpa's, my best friend was Hilda, she fed me Jam Sandwiches and let me play with her treasures. I remember at Easter my brother and I would get about 40 or so easter eggs each!

6. I have very few friends.All through my life I have had one or two close friends rather than a huge gaggle of friends around me. I am not a social animal, and can't abide having a house full of visitors, I prefer a few select friends who I really care about. I have one best friend who I love and lots and my Hubbie and Boys, then we have quite a small family and a couple of other friends and that's enough for me! I can't abide false people and false 'friends' so I choose not to have them around me. As I am getting older I am much less tolerant of everything, I am a grumpy old woman at 36! Oh p.s. I love Calvin and Hobbes (the comic strip above).

7. I love poetry and have a poem for most occasions. Again my tastes are wide and varied but some of my favourites are;
Flowers ~ Wendy Cope
Sonnet 116 ~ William Shakespeare
Sonnet From the Portuguese XLIII ~ Elizabeth barrett Browning
The Road Not Taken ~ Robert Frost
The Lady of Shalott ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson
Sudden Light ~ Dante Gabriel Rosetti
Remember ~ Christina Georgina Rosetti

So there you have it another few pieces of me. Again, I have to pass this on, but again, if you fancy taking up the mantle please feel free to, I will not actually tag you as I know some of you don't like it, but it's open to all.

All images courtesty of google images.

~ ♥ Back Soon ♥ ~

Your'e Going Places Baby

"You're going places, baby" award from Bethany (thanks honey x).
The rules are simple. Recipients simply have to state where they think they'll be in ten years.

This is not an easy question, and I was intrigued to be asked it as I had really not given it any thought at all. I am happy now, I am the happiest I have ever been, I have wonderful happy kids, a wonderful husband who I adore and who adores me and a job I don't hate (can't say I love it at the minute!).
In terms of our family in 10 years time our littlest ones will be 21 (OMG, that's scary), what is even more scary is that the oldest ones will be almost 26, and I could be a granny by then!!!!!!!
I guess my hubbie and I will be looking to make ourselves a different kind of life with grown up kids.

With that in mind in ten years time . I hope to:

• Be healthy ~ I have been feeling a bit unwell recently and it makes you more aware of your mortality I guess, I need to get more sleep and excercise if I am to stay healthy.

image: google images (moviemart.in)

• Be a good mother to my grown up kids (yikes) ~ not sure how this will pan out but I am hoping to be the sort of Mother they can come to if they need me, but someone who does not live in their pockets and try to cling on.





image: Google Images (tvscoop.tv)

• Be doing less hours at work ~ this is an important one, we spend so much of our lives at work and I don't want to make as much money as I can before I die, I want to live and enjoy this precious short life whilst I can, so once the kids are old enough to support themselves this is something we are keen to do.

image: google images (blog.cyclope-series.com)

• Be spending more time relaxing/ crafting ~ this is something I can do when I am not working as much.
  image: google images
  
  
• Be living somewhere different ~ I love Northumberland and have lived here for 8 years now but I originate from Durham, and Durham always pulls at me. I am gypsy at heart though and have never really felt at home anywhere, this is the closest I have come and the longest I have lived anywhere. I am 36 now and have lived in 14 different houses.

My beautiful Durham City, image:google images (keithboyarmstong.blogspot.com)

• Have lost a few of stone ~ this is tied in with the healthy bit, I have creaking bits now I am getting older and I know my poor knees are going to suffer for the excess weight I carry (sorry knees). Apart from the obvious health benefits I need to get on track and lose this weight once and for all, I have been fighting with this since I was 12 years old and I don't want to be Fourty, Frumpy and FAT! I am the only one that can do something about it though so I will have to get tough and get stuck in. As mentioned previously I have great get up and go at the start but no staying power, that's the bit I need to crack!

image: Google Images (delish.com)

I quite like these little awards as it gives us a chance to see a little deeper into each other.
You know I don't mind if you ignore this but I open it up to any of you that would like to hold a mirror up to yourselves and let us know what you see in your future!

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Stylish Blogger Award

I have been nominated for a Stylish Blogger award by the very lovely and talented Disco Goth – check out her fab coat creations.

The idea is to tell you five things about myself, that you may not already know,

1) I trained in Forensic Science many years ago with the aim to be a scene of crime officer (SOCO) but I didn’t have the stomach for it as a job and went in to civil engineering instead.

2) I have a missing large toenail on my right foot and in flip flop weather I have been known to glue a false toenail to the skin so that I don’t scare small children.

3) I was born too late, I have a love for all things vintage and would have been most happy sometime in the 1930’s.

4) I am pretty much tee total and don’t drink at all. I hate the feeling of being drunk and hate the feeling the next day. I have not been drunk in many years.

5) I am a true grumpy old woman, and I get mad at bad drivers, especially people who drive and use phones at the same time. My husband is mortified by this and swears I will be the victim of road rage one day when I glare at the wrong person.

I would now like to pass this award on to three others who's blog posts I always look forward to (amongs many others of course); please feel free to ignore it if you don’t partake in awards or if you already have this one, I won’t be offended:

Amanda of Amanda Makes



Lynda of Hookin' with LaaLaa




Hazel of Sewn Up Stuck Down





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First Blog Award

The lovely Nicky at Creative Flourishes nominated me for this award, thank you Nicky!

Here are the rules that came with it:

♥ Thank the person who gave you this award.

♥ Share 7 things about yourself.

♥ Pass the award along to 15 bloggers who you have recently discovered and who you think are fantastic!

♥ Contact the bloggers you've picked and let them know about the award.

So here are 7 facts about me:

1. I am 36 and have been married twice. First time aged 21 at Gretna Green in Scotland and Second (and last) time aged 29 at Langley Castle, Hexham, Northumberland (I am just posting a photo of me as hubbie is blog shy).

2. Up until 2 years ago I was virtually deaf. Since then I have had two stapedectomy operations and can now hear almost normally.

3. I work in Civil Engineering as a Quantity Surveyor and I currently work with my Husband and Best Friend.

4. I love chocolate, any kind of chocolate, if it is coated in chocolate I will eat it. Except dark chocolate which I find to be disgusting. I am currently loving Galaxy Counters (I remember these from the first time round in the 1980’s).

5. I am a qualified Reflexologist.

6. I spent some of my childhood with my uncle and cousins travelling to Appleby Horse Fair in Cumbria in a living wagon.

My brother and I in 1982!

7. I have an irrational fear of Moths and Frogs!

(That's the closest I will come to posting a picture of a frog ~ YUUUUKKKKK).

I will pass this on soon I promise, it’s just difficult to choose who to send it to as I love all the blogs I follow, and I am a bit unsure about how people feel about these awards, I guess they can just ignore them but I feel duty bound to pass them on ~ arghhh my head hurts now!

Back Soon ♥