Not many sleeps now.

In fact so few that I thought I better start making a check list.

* Cards written and posted. CHECK
* Presents that need posting posted. CHECK
* All Santa's presents bought. CHECK
* Xmas Cake baked and marinated in lots of brandy. CHECK
* Trees erected and decorated. CHECK
* Snowflakes made and hung. CHECK

* Paper chains made and hung. CHECK



Still to do.

* Finish Santa's wrapping.
* Ice the Xmas Cake.
* Buy Xmas dinner bits and bobs.
* Buy Boxing day buffet bits and bobs for my pal and her wee son coming round.

Oh and some 'friends' say I have to make myself a Xmas jumper!! Hmmm not sure about that one.


Plus I'm sure there are other things that my brain is currently chosing to let me forget but will no doubt remind me in a last minute panic.
But I'm not going to panic I'm going to enjoy this Christmas with it just being me and my girls. Their Dad is working abroad until January and this year it is my brother's turn to have Mother for Xmas and New Year. :D
All a recipe for a relaxed, happy and stress free holidays me thinks.

We made snow

And while we're on the subject of cold things, I thought you might like to see what my bedroom window looked like during this cold snap.

Mother Nature's ice poles. :)
Keep warm, there's still a lot of winter to get through yet. x

Friday night gig

Big one and I went to see Thirty Seconds to Mars
This is the lead singer..

a Mr Jared Leto.

You may or may not recognise him from films such as

Chapter 27
Fight Club
Girl, Interrupted
American Psycho
Panic Room
Lord of War
Mr Nobody

Or the TV series

My So-Called Life

No?

Ok he has dated (allegedly)...

Cameron Diaz
Paris Hilton
Britney Spears
Lindsay Lohan
Scarlett Johansson

Anyway it doesn't matter really. The gig was great, well to be honest the first support act, Funeral Party, were a bit pants - god only knows what they were singing about as the music was louder than the singer and only about five people in the audience worked up the energy to clap between songs. Me and my new pit friend, Chris actually cheered when they announced they were going to sing their last song. Ooops! :)

But then...

Enter Shakri came on



And they totally rocked! They looked like total chavs/neds but their music proved the old don't judge a book by it's cover.

Then the main act came on. Now I'd got myself all excited about seeing Mr Leto in the flesh and in the flesh we did see! He very kindly took his top off even if it was minus a million degrees outside. But I actually had my eyes more on a certain drummer boy. I've always been the girl easily swayed by a man that can beat a skin and sway me he did with just a kilt, several tattoos and the best kit(drum) I've ever seen.



Yep I prefer the big brother. :D His little brother is Jared.

I did have to giggle with big one though when Jared was being all tough and we're against the system man, as I said to big one....he's old enough to be your Dad!(Technically he's 3 years younger than her Dad but we won't split hairs.)

Mind you he's only a year younger than me and where was I? In the pit with the best of them. :D

More swoonage.... oh and big bruv is the same age as me ;)


Oh did I mention it took me over 2 hours to dig the car and drive out of all the snow?

Still snowing!

That was a shocker eh? Not!!

Anyway I think we've covered the whole snow thing before so I'll move on to something else more interesting.


Now while it's like this outside.

My back garden and yes the bottom of the slide is indeed buried in snow.

And your front and back door are about as effective as this.

An idea may be to take this...

and this...

And make this...

The jury is still out as to the colours but to be honest beggars can't be choosers. I bought the curtains many many moons ago and had made some bags out of the red pair so it was just a case of cobbling together what I had left to make them long enough. Yes I know they're too long at the bottom but that is because the draught at the bottom of the door is vicious.

So they may not be the best curtains in the world but for just now they're the best I've got. :D

How's everyone else baring up in the cold?

Snow Days

Now I live in Scotland so snow is not unusual but to be honest snow in November is. We don't tend to get this much, this early.

We've had snow since Tuesday, I see the rest of the country is starting to catch up and snow has even landed right down at the bottom of the UK.

Are we entering the start of the new Ice Age? Some theorists seem to think we're due one so who knows!



View of back garden with no flash


These are a few pics from my back door and front door this evening. Thank god I went shopping today so I don't have to go trudging through it to the local shop for a wee while.


Footprints courtesy of the Monster after he decided to brave it to go for a much needed pee.

View from the front door. Pretty isn't it?



Wherever you are stay safe and warm. x

Queen of Procrastination

Do you remember me posting about working in my pals shop in May? And I knitted something up that a certain someone thought was a cover for their gin bottle? :)

Well I finally sewed it together today. Yes that's right 6 months later.


Big one is very pleased as now she can stop wrapping the hotty botty up in a towel. Bad Mother Award to me.
But I'm quite pleased with how it turned out, I'm thinking of adding some embellishments. Maybe even knocking up a few more and seeing if I can sell them.....maybe.

So what else did I do today. Well I wrapped up warm and took myself off to the charity shop. I don't know if you've seen the news but my part of the world is a bit white at the moment.

This was the garden just before the huge flakes started coming down again. The smalls were very disappointed this morning when I phoned the school snow closure line (yes we have things like that in Scotland) and only the kids who took the bus in from surrounding villages were off. They are hoping the snow keeps falling and their school gets closed tomorrow. LOL

Anyway I toddled off to the charity shop as I've not been down there for a while and look what i found.

The cutest snail. Yes I know I have odd tastes in my knick knacks, what with hands, heads, mushrooms and the like. But look at that face.

Right off to make a hot drink, it's blinking cold tonight isn't it?

Ummm hello

Did we or did we not just put our clocks forward an hour to British Summer time?
Is it or is it not supposed to be Spring?
Then why did I wake up to snow and howling gales today?
Oh and did I mention no electricity. The lines went down in the early hours of the morning so that meant no heat and more importantly no alarm clocks and we had to have big one down the road for 8.45am to get her on the mini bus as she's off to the Isle of Wight on a Scouting Rally. Fortunately we made it in time, none of us showered or even fed but we did it. :) Their troop is the only Scottish troop going so they'll be flying the flag for Scotland while they're there. There is a full range of activities so no doubt come next week we will be collecting very tired kids off that bus.


I'll be phoning my Mum tomorrow to make sure she's ok as I see from this evenings news the North Wales coast line is taking a battering from the sea my nephew sent me a link of face book and the according the pictures from the local news part of the sea road has been ripped up, houses are flooded but not in my mum's immediate area thankfully.



So frustrating, its not until you're without something that you realise how much you rely on it. Thankfully we got our power on by mid morning so wee one and I snuggled down under a blanket and watched a dvd before her Dad came to whisk her away for the evening. That's probably another reason I'm feeling sorry for myself, one baby on her way to far away land Isle of Wight and wee one off to her Dad's house. Me home alone needing a cuddle.

That's my moan over :)

The Hairy Biker show was brilliant, unfortunately I didn't get chosen to go up on the stage and eat their food but they certainly didn't come across as a miserable pair so I'm assuming my pal got that wrong. ;) I'll do a proper post all about it next time.

Well here it is

2010. A whole new year full of promise. Happy New Year to you all. I hope you saw the new year in with more cheer than I did. I'm currently coughing lots and my poor chest is so sore. I should have been working a day shift New Years Eve but as I'd spent most of the previous night awake coughing hard my Mother and wee one took the decision that I was NOT going into work. Just as well as I slept for pretty much the rest of the day. I just know my name will have been mud for phoning in sick the morning of my shift but I am soooo fed up of my job just now that I'm past caring.

I've actually come to the decision that once I've had my week's leave (the week after next) I'm handing my notice in. I really don't earn enough for all the hours I do to put up with all the rubbish I have to. It's minimum wage and maximum stress. A friend told me that me being ill and worrying about there being no one to cover my shift was the manager's problem and not mine. I actually laughed, then coughed for several minutes, as that is pretty much the main problem. There is no manager. It is a family run pub and it all seems to be done on a wing and a prayer. I work 4 day shifts a week, not finishing till at least 6pm at night. My tag team partner then takes over from me and does the opposite shifts. Then the rest of the shifts..... well whoever the boss can get to fill the spaces seems to do it and they just seem to do what they feel like doing while they're there. Me and my ttp do all the cleaning, stocking, ordering etc etc etc.

Sorry I'm just moaning. I've been there 3 years now and have just burnt myself out I think.

I need to take some time out and spent it with my small people, see my friends, deep clean the house and spend some time just catching a breath.

It's probably not the wisest thing to do during a credit crunch but we will manage. Me and me small people need some us time and not them coming home to an empty house waiting for Mum to get home in the dark.

So New Years Eve I sat up on the sofa trying to stay awake while the smalls played Just Dance on the Wii - fantastic game! I can't recommend it enough for fun value and exercise, my arms were killing me Christmas Day night.

Christmas Day and New Years Eve the former him indoors was here to spend it with the smalls. I've also had my mother here for nearly 3 weeks now slowly driving me insane. She won't be leaving just yet as it's my 40th birthday next sunday so wants to be here for that too. Just keep smiling Taz, all your washing and ironing keeps magically disappearing!

So that's been the end of 2009 for me. Not one of the best years but certainly one that has given me the kick up the backside that hopefully will propel me into 2010 with determination to make things better. Plus turning the big 40, well they say life begins at 40 don't they?

I don't do resolutions but things I'm hoping for this year are.

• More quality family time.



• Making this house a home.



• Getting my crafting mojo back.



• Living frugally but bountifully.



• Nuture my important friendships.



• Have a holiday even if it's only a weekend in a tent in a field with a campfire.

I have nothing planned for my birthday, sad but true. I did book a party but then decided that I didn't want to spend my birthday at my place of work and paying for a party that I really wasn't bothered about having. Maybe if someone else had organised it for me it would have been fun but there was no chance of that. Ideally I would love to have spent my birthday in New York, I just love New York. But that too is just a pipe dream.

So I'm guessing my birthday will be what it will be. I didn't have anything 'big' for any of my other landmark birthdays so nothing new there then. As long as the small people spend the day with me then I'll be happy.

God I'm a right whinge aren't I? First post of 2010 and I'm moan, moan, moan. Oh did I mention we've had snow, snow, snow and lots more snow? Ok I know you're not shocked, I live in Scotland LOL

I'm baaaaack!

Thanks to everyone who wished me a nice time. It was lovely but boy believe people when they tell you Denmark is expensive!



Despite several of the Danish people (who were lovely) telling us that Danes are kinda closed and private, all the one's we met didn't seem to be. Maybe that's just the effect we have on people. :D


We walked for miles and did the sites.



And tasted the food.
This is a typical brunch. I forgot to place the plate of fresh fruit and pancakes in the shot. Ooops


This is called Danish hash.
Basically it is bits of beef and pork and fried potatoes, served with a fried egg on top and bread on the side.
I don't think I cleared my plate once while we were away. BIG portions. I also had a local kind of stew thing which was gorgeous but didn't take a photo as the restaurant was kind of dark and I wasn't up to frightening all the other diners with the flash on my camera. LOL


All the florists were a riot of colour and I'd have loved to bring so many plants home with me, including a wee lemon tree with huge lemons. All planted up in a normal size plant pot! But I doubt I'd get many lemons up here in Scotland.


And my dear husband kindly made me stand in front of this shop while he took my photo. Can you see why?


Actually I took a photo of him outside a shop earlier in the day but he says that is not for general consumption. Let's just say the name of the shop was the word used for a needle entering your skin only with out the c before the k. ;)

Back tomorrow with pics of my lovely bookmark that I won in Dinosaurtoes giveaway, the gooeyist chocolate cake ever that I made for big one for her birthday and finally the results of the 'what I did with the teapcups' saga.

Fabric frenzy

Another cold snowy day. Look at my poor pansies.
and my barenaked Acer.


But while waiting and waiting for my coalman to arrive and bring me lots of lovely black gold, the postie arrived and look at the goodness she brought me today.

A close up darling...


Eldest small person chose this one, she's wanting to make up some bags so she can raise some spending money for a upcoming school trip.



Honesty how cute is this fabric?

Bring on spring cos I've got the wee birdies!
What's better than a skull fabric or a robot fabric? Well a fabric with both them on of course.


Did we say cute?

I really can't recommend FabricRehab highly enough. They have an amazing collection of fabrics and they are super fast. I ordered this little lot online on Monday and it arrived today - despite all the snow that seems to have ground everything else to a halt. :)

Despite several delays and one train breaking down my Mother arrived safely this evening. She's already emptied the washing that I'd put in on my way out of the door to collect her from the train station. LOL

This is my wee beast Oscar he was standing guard when the snow started.