*He Arrived!*

The little baby boy we have all been waiting for finally arrived on Sunday 25th January at 12.10am, a healthy 8lbs 11ozs ~ I am finally a Great Aunt at the very young age of 34!
Mummy & baby are doing well and are now at home.
He is a little cutie pie from the photos I've seen & I just can't wait to meet him!

*Hurummphh*

It has been one of those days today, I feel a little odd you know those days where you just don't know what to do?

I'm waiting ... you know those days when you feel that all your doing is waiting ...

I am waiting, we are going out for a meal tonight with a friend and his family for his birthday and so I am waiting for that as he lives away and so we don't get to see him too often, but most of all I'm waiting constantly for news about my neice. She is in labour now after having a day of waiting to be induced as her contractions didn't arrive after her waters broke and now we are waiting for baby boy to be born.

I have washed the sofa covers, I have dried the sofa covers ... I have checked the e-mails, I have washed the blanket that hangs on one arm of the sofa, I have dried the blanket ... I have checked the e-mails, I have done housework including the bathroom, I have checked the e-mails, & really how much spam do I really need in one day ... I've had lunch, I'm waiting to get all dressed up for tonight, I've popped the sofa covers back on, I have painted my toenails, I've checked my e-mail and got more spam, I've polished my finger nails with a little kit my sister in law got me from America, and yes I've checked my e-mail ... oooohhhh an e-mail ding dong ... another update just now ... she is doing well and is really calm ~ good.

I wish we didn't live so far away so we didn't have to wait to see baby boy when he finally makes his appearance into the world and so once he does arrive I will have to wait to see him ... ooohhh this waiting, this mood not helped by my lack of sleep for the last few night I'm guessing ~ I was looking for new furniture & nice homethings on the internet at 4.30am this morning... ding dong ... just more spam!

(N.B the number of times I've checked my e-mail has been greatly under estimated in the above ~ oh and how great does it feel when you wash the sofa covers? Lovely!)

*Silver Hearts & Gossiping*

Do you think it is unlucky that I have these hearts still hung up?
The problem is this, I have had them for years and they were bought as Christmas decorations and so I had them up this Christmas in the dining room, (I haven't had them up for years though!) but this year they looked so lovely in the dining room, I did pop some silver ribbon on them as the hangers on them weren't as nice as the ribbon and I loved the look of them so much that I wanted to keep them up and so I did!

As you can see one is hung on the mirror in the dining room along with a cream garland ~ I do *love* these garlands from my shop, I just think they are so pretty and look so lovely everywhere they are placed.



Here is the other one hanging from a door knob in the dining room.
Now as Twelfth Night has well and truly come and gone, do you think it is unlucky to have them still hanging or does it not count if they look fabulous??? I must admit I'm not normally one for superstition and I do generally take our festive decorations down on the 2nd of January so there is never any worry on that matter, although this year we actually took them down after having a big family New Year lunch at my parents and before going for a family tea-party at my sisters!!! I just can't have them hanging around once the new year has started, I like things all fresh and clean, don't you?
Anyhoo the point is do you think they look pretty too and would you have kept them up or are you too superstitious?

***

Now before I go I must apologise for the lack of blogging lately, but lots has been going on here!
I've been busy working on a new project which I will reveal in a later post, James has been busy painting as always but has been kind enough to help me with my new project (thank you!) ~ oh & on the subject of that lovely husband of mine, I know a couple of you know he is an artist but for those that don't well yes he is and the painting of the pink telephone some of you admired in my last post is one of his, which was a commissioned by a nice couple who have a few of his paintings for their daughter for a Christmas gift (how nice is that?), so thank you for the lovely comments you left. These retro phone paintings are *so* popular but of course my favourite ones are the pink ones! I must be the proud wife that I am and let you in on more of his work this year on the blog, so watch out and let me know if my proud wife routine gets a little boring won't you!?!

Our friend who has meningitis who you all have sent kind comments & e-mails about finally came out of his coma, but is still very very poorly. He will be in Intensive Care for a lot longer yet, and as we found out today when we visited him it will take a year for his recovery, so please keep him in your thoughts and prayers.

And finally in even better news, my niece's waters have broke today and so that little baby boy she has been growing will be here very very soon and so I'm incredibly close to being a great aunt! *Eeek*

*Calling Number 13 ...*

Painting by James Paterson

First of all thank you so much to everyone who entered the giveaway competition, but unfortunately there can be only one winner ....

the random number generator chose number 13 and so the winner is ...

*Victoria from Vintage Tea*

Well done girly girl. I hope you like your goodies!

Sorry to everyone who entered and didn't win, I really wish I had a prize for you all.

Thank you so much again for joining in on the little giveaway, and well done to Victoria.

Your goodies will be on the way to you very soon!

*200 Posts & so a giveaway ...*

*Squeal* Yes that's right here I am at 200 posts ~ crazy isn't it!?!

I won't blurb on about how much I love doing the blog (although you know I do) and how much I love you all who visit, shop, read & leave me funny, adorable & ever so wonderful messsages, as you already know that right? I've mentioned it all before so I won't go on & on ... but what I will go on to is the tiny giveaway which is a teeny way just to say thank you to all the lovely people I have met through Vintage Amethyst ... so the little prize is this pink bathroom set above which consists of one pink toilet roll holder, one pink soap dish & one pink hook!

All you have to do is just leave a little message on this post and you will be entered into the draw, oh and don't forget to tell everyone you know too! I will leave it open for one week and so will close on Friday 16th January.

Thank you to everyone who visits the blog & the shop and manages to make me smile & giggle everyday.

*Heart Wreath & Wee Willie Winky Candle Holder*

Just a couple of new items for the *shop*

First of all this large wonderfully rustic twiggy heart wreath with little gingham bow.
Lovely for a country style home hung on the wall or propped up on shelves or a dresser.
These can be found *here* and are priced at £10 each



And also just new are these adorable little 'Wee Willie Winky' candle stick holders.
It is a cute heart shape too!
These can be found *here* and cost £4.50 each.

***

Eeek, this is my 199th post on the blog so that means of course my next post will be the big 200!
So to celebrate obviously a giveaway is in order so pop back soon for a chance to win some goodies!

*A Winters Day Walk*

Well in hope to shift some of those terrible gained pounds over the festive period we took ourselves off for a winter walk yesterday.



We headed off to a nearby village for a lovely Sunday riverside walk. We started our walk by these Roman Bridge remains and then headed down to the river.



There wasn't many people about walking at all really which was nice, we passed an older couple walking back just after we had set off but the only other people we saw were fishermen at intervals along the riverbank. You can just about see on on the right hand side of the photo above.


This is the other side of the river where another village lies and you may just be able to see steps and a bench down to the river from the one of the houses at the top, although the houses can't be seen so just imagine how large their gardens are! The one on the right hand side of the photo was lovely as it was more flat and so more use-able. How lovely it must be to sit out here on a summers evening overlooking the river. Wonderfully tranquil.



We normally walk on the otherside of the river which is where this other village lies, here you can see the village church and a house on the right which is absolutely beautiful close up and they seem to have this paddock at the bottom near to the river where they keep 2 donkeys which of course we always like to stop and say hello to when we are over that side.



On this side though we passed by a farm and saw 2 lovely horses and travelled through the field of roaming sheep, this one took a particular interest in us for some reason!



On we went with our travels ... the rather strange man in the photo is of course my husband James with his hood up and hands in pockets, yes it was rather cold!



We then crossed over into some woodland, still following the river and passing a couple more fishermen.

Our journey came to an end though as a stream met the river and a fence on our right stopped us going upwards and so we had to turn back but not before noticing these 2 little fellas hiding behind a tree and trotting in and out of the stream!



We were absolutely delighted by them, just look how cute they are. They were quite shy of us stood by the fence to their little delightful paddock but slowly the red one wandered closer.





Just look how cute he was, I could have took him home with us and James did make the suggestion that we should!
What a lovely end to our walk we thought and as James said 'next time we will have to bring some carrots with us'!
So after this little encounter we turned around and set off back the way we came.
Until we were back at the little steps that started out our wonderful winters day walk.

*Cute Gifts ~ Lucky Me!*

I thought I would share with you some of my cute Christmas gifts that I received.
Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K.Rowling was one of my gifts from my husband, I really wanted this! *yay*



Above is a really adorable dotty teapot from my sister which came in it's own cute box, how fab! I just love it don't you?



She also was lovely enough to get me these Cath Kidston bags too, as we don't have a Tesco and so missed out on them! So yay for sisters!!!! She was very naughty and bought me lots of other lovely pressies too!



This was a lovely Shabby Chic style key cupboard that I received from my lovely mummy, she was incredibly naughty because of the amount of gifts she bought us, we both received lots and lots and she is really a very naughty mummy indeedy!



I really wanted Miss Read books as I just love her books and so my mum had asked for a list of the ones I needed and so I received all these books from her too! I am soooooo pleased, and I'm on reading the top one Farther Afield at the moment.

I just love tea as I don't drink coffee and never had done so really a perfect gift for me is a pretty tea gift set which this one is one of the lovely pressies I received from my other sister! I haven't opened it yet as I just love looking at gifts sets like this. I remember last year I received a few tea themed gift sets and just loved them all!

Another really cute gift from my mum was this cupcake and muffin recipe book, and it is a standing one too, perfect for baking! It is absolutely full of amazingly delicious looking recipes, although I am on a diet now as yes I did over do it over the festive period (way too much!!!!) so I will share some of the recipes with you but I will only be posting a piccy of the recipe page as I really can't be cooking all these wonderful goodies at the moment!!!

I really was a lucky girl as I received so many lovely gifts, lots of clothes, perfume, Gilmore Girls Season 7 on DVD (eeek I love this show!) 2 pairs of boots ~ one of which is a really cute pair of pink walking boots for our country side & riverside walks! A pair of cute shoes, really snug slippers (which haven't left my feet since Christmas) lots of smellies, I took a bath in White Chocolate Latte bubble bath last night (ooooohh yummy!) oh and far too many boxes of delicious biscuits & chocolates, which of course had to be sampled hence the diet and lots lots more super duper goodies!

Thank you everyone for all your wonderful gifts I loved them all.

I really was sooooo lucky this Christmas, I must have been such a good girl last year! Tee hee!