*So Much Cuteness*

Oh my goodness I don't think I've ever seen such a huge about of cuteness in a compact place before!

I came across this beautiful shop a while go and I just can't get over the amount of absolute adorableness they have there! It is a shops for teens, but lets face it this amount of prettiness can't be wasted on just teens surely?

Oh it all just makes my heart ache with it's super cuteability.

Such a sweet little working place!

Squeal ~ I just love these phones!

Phew ~ now if you can stand anymore cutie-pie sweetness pop on over to the website and take a peek for yourself!

Visit PB Teen *here*

Be warned ~ it is v v cute!

*Cheese & Castles*

Seeing as the weather has took a wonderful turn towards Spring, we thought we would have a day out on Sunday, so off we headed to Hawes in Wensleydale.

We have to take The Buttertubs Pass to get to Hawes which is a wonderful high road set between mountains. It is said that the name of the potholes came from the times when farmers would rest there on their way to market. During hot weather they would lower the butter they had produced into the potholes to keep it cool. I remember visiting the Buttertubs when I was at school and being severely disappointed that I didn't see huge wooden tubs of butter by the side of the road!!!

Anyhoot on we travelled to Hawes which is obviously famous as being the home of Wensleydale cheese. MMmmmm delicious!

It has an old railway with vintage train too, this above is the old railway sign. I do love old signs!



A lovely old steam train.



The Mulberry Bush is one of my favourite shops in Hawes filled to the brim with Emma Bridgewater, Cath Kidston & other adorable goodies! There is also an antiques shop next door and in the window they had a most immaculate old Chopper bike, in a lovely copper! Oooohhh do you all remember the old Chopper's, did you have one? I had one which used to belong to my cousin (I think I was too small when they were totally the rage!) It was a most wonderful purple colour though! I didn't manage to get a photo though as sooo many people were crowded round it all the time!

Look at this little fella, he is a piggie that sits outside a Butchers shop, how cute is he? When we walked back past him again a little toddler was patting him and saying his final goodbyes before having to continue walking down the street.

After a lovely time in Hawes we decided to head back home a different way & tumbled over into Cumbria & I'm so glad we did as we came across this!



This is Pendragon Castle and apparently Pendragon Castle is reputed to have been founded by Uther Pendragon, the father of King Arthur. According to legend, Uther Pendragon and a hundred of his men were killed here when the Saxon invaders poisoned the well.

You can read more about it & see more wonderful photos *here*.

James disappearing into a room in the old castle!

On our journey we had been warned about Red Squirrels and when we stopped at the castle this sign was right outside the wall so of course I had to take a photo of it! How adorable being warned of Red Squirrels!

This old V R postbox was at the other side of the gate to the castle! I do love old postboxes for some reason!

On our way home we went through Barnard Castle which we visit often and so decided to take this quick snap shot to finish our day whilst waiting at the traffic lights!

It was a lovely spring day & I hope that many more lovely days are to come.

*Lovely Love Day*

Did you all have a lovely Valentines Day? Oh I do hope so.
Well this year Valentines Day kind of sneaked up on us two, we normally have lots & lots of fun & gifts planned but this year we didn't, I think we had been working so hard in the weeks before we kind of forgot to plan and it just sneaked up, naughty Valentines Day!

First of all I had a hair dressers appointment, now normally I wouldn't have gone on Valentines Day but my 16 year old niece wanted to come to my hairdressers and wanted me to be there (we both suffer from hair dresser phobia, is there a name for this I wonder ~ but for the last few years I have had a really lovely hair dresser and I love her so thought my niece would too!) So with my niece being at college we made a double appointment for a Saturday and it just happened that my regular 4 weekly chop & trim would fall on Valentines Saturday! Anyhoo, we went and my sister came along for moral support too. It all went well and my niece loved her hair & my lovely hair dresser & my sister loved her too and so asked if she could fit her in also, which she could an hour later due to a cancellation ~ so what do 3 lovely ladies do on a Saturday with an hour to spare, well pop for tea and cakes of course!
So off we trotted for tea & cakes which was lovely. When it was time for my sister to pop back to the hair dresser off I toddled home to my lovely husband!



Well as you may have guessed already one of my Valentines gifts this year was this rather fetching Cath Kidston bag & I just love it! It is the Cath Kidston Afgan Flowers Stand Up Tote, it is so pretty I haven't stopped using it since!

After me being out all morning have a girly time of it we thought we should have a trip out some where in the country and so without knowing where we were off we jumped in the car and headed for the country. It was an absolutely beautiful day too, the whole countryside was white covered in snow, so pretty. We decided to stop off at a local market town and do a bit of thrifting which I am so glad we did as we found a lovely old handmade pine coffee table, something I had been looking for for soooooo long and it was a bargain £20 too! So this really brought our day out to a close as I wanted to get home and get it painted immediately!

Ok so not overly romantic for Valentines Day but once at home we popped it in the living room and both got sanding, painting, distressing and then waxing and it was such a lovely way to spend the late afternoon together and it looks so cute now too.
Obviously we had to round the night off with a bit of bubbly which we did whilst eating a huge box of delicious chocolates snuggling on the sofa watching Brief Encounter, that wonderful old black & white romance, one of my favourite films.

In the end and although nothing was planned we had a truly lovely day and I hope you did too ...

*Happy Valentines Day*

Pretty Pink Rose Garland & Love Letters

Aaahhhh love is in the air ....

*Happy Valentines Day everyone*

Hope your beautiful day is filled with love, joy & happiness.

*love & kisses*

*Pretty Thriftiness*

A couple of weeks ago James and I went off on a thrify shopping trip, it was actually for him and not me can you believe it? He wanted some vintage clothes for some paintings he is wanting to work on and so we thought we would hit the charity shops in town in such for some vintage goodies.

We looked and we searched and we looked all over again and could we find any cute vintage clothes from the 50's & 60's & even 70's, could we heck as like! Now horrid 80's & 90's cheap clothes were in abundance, well I say 'cheap' but really how much do charity shops charge for clothing these days ~ it is ridiculous! The lovely cute finds we were after we significantly missing from our shopping trip but all was certainly not lost that day as we both came across some lovely finds in one shop.

James' fab finds were loads of Mills & Boon books in a box which he instantly crouched at and worked his way through, ignoring the shop assistants strange glares aimed his way. Now don't think he is a crazy avid romantic reader or anything what he wanted them for was painting inspiration. The covers of the old Mills & Boon books are so great aren't they, the pictures on the front are just classic and as for the names ... really!!! So he managed to pick up some fab buys from that box but just next that Mills & Boon fest was another box which caught my eye ... my fabulous find were these classic reads ...



After almost fainting at the pretty pretty colours of the books I noticed a card which read 4 for a £1!!!! Really how much of a thrify buy is that, how could I resist!
I quickly worked my way through them and decided upon Tess of The D'Ubervilles, Rebecca, Emma & Jane Eyre.

Ooohhh just look at the purty pale colours of these beauties and all new too!!!
I couldn't believe my thrifty luck with these, so although we didn't find what we actually set out to find we did find some thrifty goodness along the way.
The books are now placed prettily in our dining room as how could I hide these lovely ladies away!
Oh and James managed to buy 8 Mills & Boon Books that day, and has done 2 Mills & Boon inspired paintings already!
A good thrify day of buying in the end me-thinks!

*Have a Cookie, Have a Heart*

I found this really really cute idea over at Martha Stewart.
This super cute wrapping would be just adorable for wrapping home-made goodies for your Valentine wouldn't it? Making something delicious and yummy into something extra special for the love filled day.



Heart-Covered Waxed Paper How-To

Fold a piece of tissue paper in half three times, forming eight layers.
Using a heart-shaped craft punch, cut out hearts.
Cover the surface of an ironing board with paper towels; place a sheet of waxed paper on top. Arrange hearts on waxed paper, and cover with another sheet of waxed paper.
Cover with more paper towels.
Run an iron, set to medium heat, lightly over the layers to set.

***

It really does sound so simple to do doesn't it but looks so adorable.
A lovely idea for giving a little something something to family & friends too this Valentines Day.
Oh that Ms Martha, she really is the queen of all things homely & wonderful isn't she? *sigh*

*Rose Petal Cup Cakes*

I found this lovely cupcake recipe on UKTV Food, Rose Petal Cup cakes ~ perfect for Valentines Day methinks and don't they just look so sweet?

Here is the recipe:

Makes 12

Ingredients

150g softened unsalted Butter
150g caster sugar
3 medium Eggs, at room temperature
150g self-raising flour
1 tbsp rose water
100ml Milk
1 packet instant royal icing
rose petals or silver balls to decorate


Method

1. Preheat the oven to 190C/gas 5. Line a 12-hole muffin tray with papers.
2. Using a wooden spoon, cream together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs, one by one, stirring well between each addition. If the mixture threatens to curdle, add a tablespoon of the flour to stabilise it.
3. Fold in the remaining flour, followed by the rose water.
Next, start adding the milk - you may not need it all. What you want is a batter that will just fall off the spoon if you shake it a little.
4. Spoon the mixture into the muffin papers and bake in the oven until cooked through and golden, about 20 minutes.
Turn out onto a rack to cool.
5. Make up a big batch of royal icing and spoon onto the cakes.
Leave to set before decorating with rose petals or silver balls.

*Randomness*

I've been tagged by Claire from Serendipity loves New York, and the tag was to post a photo from the place you keep your photos and go to the 4th file and then the 4th photo and post that .... so here we are, this picture is actually a painting by our friend Paul Denham. Luckily our 4th folder was his as my husband James designed his website and so we have lots of photos of Paul's and he has his own folder on our computer!
If you want to view more of Paul's work visit his website *here*.

Now I've also been tagged by Tilly Rose to write 6 random things about myself so here goes ...

1. I absolutely love the fairytales Snow White & also Snow White & Rose Red.

2. James and I both went to University in Nottingham & although we are from the same home town this was never really planned when we both applied for colleges, James studied Fine Art and I studied Performing Arts.

3. My dad kindly meaured me the other week (my sister keeps saying I'm shrinking!) and I measure a whopping 5 feet 1 and a half inches although I'm sure I've always been 5 feet 2 inches ~ so perhaps she is right ... although thinking back my dad measured me a few years ago now and I measured 5ft 1 and a half inch then, but I decided he was wrong.

4. When I was little I wanted to be a fashion designer.

5. I love yellow roses & yellow tulips but hate yellow cars for some reason, yellow was my favourite colour as a little girl (imagine all those wonderful yellow clothes I could have designed!) and I always wanted a sunny yellow bedroom as a teenager and then when I went away to Nottingham my mum painted my bedroom a lovely soft yellow colour for when I came home which I loved, but I never use yellow in my home decor or wear yellow clothes now. The word 'yellow' has started to look weird now as I've used it so many times in this sentence!

6. I love the colour combination of turquoise or duck egg blue & red, I think it look so wonderful and always reminds me of fairytales for some reason!

***

I am supposed to pass these tags on to 4 people for the first one and 6 for the second but seeing as I always hate to pass these things on as I never want to leave anyone out I am passing it on to anyone who reads this and wants to participate on their blog.

I also need to say a big thank you & sorry to a few people who have kindly passed bloggy friendship awards on to me and I've never got around to posting them, so huge thank you's go to Catherine at Mollycupcakes, Marie at Dreaming of Wild Roses & Claire again at Serendipity loves New York. Thank you lovely ladies for thinking of me & I'm so sorry for being a naughty blogger! *eek*

*I'm in love ...*

Yes that's right I'm so in love with a gorgeous little man I've only just met ... we visited family at the weekend and finally got to meet my new little great nephew and I just adore him!
He is such a cutie, I am super in love with him and it was so lovely to spend the weekend having cuddles, funny faces & kisses with him, but so sad to leave him behind ~ my mum and I kept planning on trying to pop him in my new Cath Kidston bag and just taking him home with us but unfortunately we did leave him and the last view we saw of him was with his mummy stood at the window waving his tiny hand goodbye to us ... but he is hopefully going to come and visit us this week so we don't have to wait too long to see his chubby little cheeks & button nose again! Yay, I just can't wait!