My fire and another award

I realised today as I was lighting my fire that I have never shown you all the final product of all that work. So here we are one glorious fire.


Please excuse the mess but the smalls seem to fail to understand the concept of putting things away properly at the moment so everything is piled by the sides. Oh while I'm showing you the fire you can also see two of the lovely bunches of flowers that I got for my birthday. The ones on the mantlepiece are from him indoors and the ones on the hearth are from my friend L.

Just to remind you of what it looked like once the boiler had been removed and the awful plaster job chipped off.


Oh and this is the kind of thing we get up to with the poor mutts when the days are a bit long.




Can you not see the pleading in this face? "Please take it off now Mum I'm a boy and tiara's are sooo not my thing"


And as I mentioned I got another award from the lovely Alex

A Fabulous Award. Isn't it Fabulous?
Ok now to tag some lovely people.
Twiggy
A lovely blogger and how can I not award someone who owns a pink guitar AND it's her birthday ;)

Fiftiesgirl
Another inspirational blogger and have you seen the fabulous record player they have!

The Devil Makes Work
Woo is an amazing woman and I think she's fab

Kookie
Because she is a wonder with the old crochet needle and one day she is going to come sit by my fire and teach me. :)

I could go on and on with all the fabulous people who's blogs I love so I'm just going to say to everyone who comes visit you are hereby awarded with the fabulous award because you are damn fabulous. ;)

Another sad goodbye and other general blahs

Tony Hart died at the grand age of 83. He was always like a friendly grandpa or uncle who understood how much you loved to draw and would give you hints and tips on how to try out new ideas.




So what else has been happening in the world of Taz. Not a great deal to be honest. Spent pretty much all of yesterday and today asleep. Saturday night I went out. It was supposed to be a belated birthday drink for me and a pre-birthday drink for one of our friends. My best friend phoned me in the afternoon to say she didn't think she'd be going out wasn't feeling up to it, so I didn't rush back from shopping with the kids. But as I was dropping wee one's friend home I got a message saying she was out and hurry up down to the pub. So I had to rush home, jump in the shower and find something that didn't need ironing. Anyway it was a fun night out.
Sunday was a lazy day. ;)
Today I got up, go the smalls off to school, came home made myself a mug of coffee and thought oooh I'm cold I'll just go back to bed and read a bit of my book then get on with my day. Hmmm I woke up about an hour before wee one was due home from school. Ooops. Not sure if it's still the fallout from my ear infection, just the general ugh effect of lack of sun or the fact that the Dr upped my meds and they do tend to wipe me out. Or all of the above. Anyway I've made arrangements to go see a friend for coffee and cake tomorrow so I HAVE to stay awake. Plus if I don't get my butt into gear soon my ironing pile is going to claim a casualty.


Oh but there is a little bit of sunshine on a cloudy day. Being Human is coming back as a proper series and I'm really hoping that despite the change of 2 of the main actors it will still be as great as the pilot promised it to be.

And the winner is...

......Fiona McCrae
Congrats Fee. If you could email me your address I'll get the book out to you asap.

Sorry I'm so late in announcing the winner but eldest small person is having issues with her computer so she's been borrowing my laptop and can I get any time on my own laptop now? Well no!

On the subject of giveaways I won fabric from jellybellyjellybrain's last give away and I received it in the post today. Wow what an amazing pile of fabric. I will pop back with pictures over the weekend so you can all see what a lucky girl I am. Thank you soooo much jbjb

New life and thank yous

Firstly I wanted to say thank you to everyone who read my post yesterday and shared compassion and understanding with me. What an amazing bunch of ladies you all are.
I saw my friends at a school open day this morning. B is coping with each day as it comes, his Dad's funeral is next week and he is already building himself up to try to cope with it. I was grateful to be able to get that talk with him today mind you I could almost feel the air being sucked out of the room by the Stepfords who were surely gasping when I gave him a kiss on the cheek as I left.


And the new life? Well my cousin has had her first baby.

She arrived via c-section and is a healthy weight of 7lb 13oz. We've not heard what the new little one is to be named but I'm so looking forward to seeing a picture of her.

I have just sat here watching rubbish on the tv and stuffed my face with a packet of these.


Well if the shops will have all the eggs out already what's a girl to do!
Remember the giveaway for the CK book finished at midnight and I will be announcing the lucky winner tomorrow.
x

Things that make you go back

Yesterday we got some sad news, one of our friends father died. He had not been well for a long time but even if you know it's coming the pain of losing someone sucks. In fact sucks is too lame a word for it.
2004 was our sucky year. April was the month my mother in law died suddenly, she was 59 and her death was a big shock. By the July we were just getting ourselves back on to our feet and the kids were coming to terms with losing their first grandparent then the bottom fell out of my world. My beloved Dad, my big strong as an ox Dad, my big bear of a Dad, my hero suffered a fatal heart attack. One minute he was there and then he was gone. Even now I can remember the searing pain of being told he was dead. It has taken me a long time to get to a point of accepting the fact that I will never see him again. Now I can look at photos of him and smile at the memories each photo brings but it's been a long journey. One that truthfully I'm still on, maybe it's one that I will always be on but hopefully there will be less obstacles on my way. My beautiful small people have had a lot deal with so early on in their lives. They were especially close to my Dad and I did spend time worrying about them forgetting him but I need not of worried. Even though wee one was only just coming up to her 4th birthday when he died and big one 9 the bond they had formed with him has been on going and his memory lives on in them.
I miss so many things like being able to pick up the phone and ask for his advice (I know he could have given me so much advice about my getting chickens as he used to keep them), making cakes and knowing that they would all be gone in quick time with him about, knowing that no matter how crazy my mother was driving us both we both knew we only had to look at each other for someone to understand. So many reasons to miss him but I am always grateful that he was my Dad.

Phew if you got to the end of that well done. I didn't realise how much I was holding that in. Apparently keeping things in is a trait I inherited from my Dad or so my fiery mother and brother tell me :D

Charity shops rock and my obsession with books

Well I really couldn't face another day of housework today. Bad me. So I took myself off to the nearest town to have a charity shop wander and to pick up an 18th and a 16th birthday card. With most people having a clear out over the Xmas holidays you can sometimes find some interesting bits and pieces but not this trip. :( Maybe the credit crunch is keeping people from parting with anything or people are just waiting for a good spring clean. What I did find though was lots and lots of wonderful books. Yep 4 bag fulls of books later and very sore hands from carrying them and I was ready to make my way home and try and find a spare inch of space on the bookshelf for them. Not much hope of that our bookshelves are positively bulging, I even have piles of books on the floor. Perhaps I need another sort out of my books and send some of the ones that I've already read or will never read back to the charity shops. Or maybe I should have a go at making something like this

or


Oh I do love my books. Reading a book is a great way to spend time all to yourself no matter what time of year it is. I've read books snuggled up on the sofa with a blanket and a hot drink, I've read books lying on the beach squidging the sand between my toes, I've read books thousands of feet up in the air (in an airplane obviously) I've read books on a boat, in a train, at work, in parks yep I've read pretty much everywhere. Did I ever tell you I was a bookworm?



And while we're on the subject of books there is still time to enter my birthday give away I will leave it open until midnight UK time and will draw it straight away. It's ok I don't go to bed early.
The winner will be announced on Friday 16th January.

Right now where did I put my book....

Just like buses

I've never had an award before but today I got 3. 2009's not shaping up too bad really is it? :D

The lovely Alex gave me my first award. And I am blushing at the lovely things she said about my blog.


Marie Antoinette Award
a real person, a real award

Here are the Rules for the Award:

1. Please put the logo on your blog
2. Place a link to the person from whom you received the award
3. Nominate at least 7 or more blogs
4. Put the links of those blogs on your blog
5. Leave a message on their blogs to tell them.

Ok so to nominate 7 or more people now. This is the long bit it takes me an age to work out how to do the linky thing.
Ok so here goes.

1. Kookaloo-starr

One of my first blogger friends and she always inspires me with her amazing craftiness.

2. ZombieCazz

Another great craftster and a fellow N East-er. I originally met Cazz on the Neeps forum many moons ago.

3. The Devil Makes Work

An inspiring young lady who enjoys lots of the same things as me.

4. ShabbyChick

Another lovely blog and blogger and she makes such cute things.

5. JustFee

Cute kittys, great fashion and she crafts. :)

6. Dinosaurtoes

The creator of some gorgeous goodies go see and salivate.

7. Twiggypeasticks

More crafty goodness and she has the same childhood memory as me. Playing in Mum's button tin.

If there is anyone else who I visit or visits me and you would like this award please just give me a shout.

And awards 2 and 3




They were given by the lovely April to all of her followers.


Here are the "rules" for sharing these awards with eight other bloggers:


* These blogs are exceedingly charming.
* These kind bloggers aim to be friends.
* They are not interested in self-aggrandizement.
* Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated.

Please give more attention to these kind writers.
When you pass the award along please include these guidelines.
I am to choose eight friends to share this with....

but I like April's idea and am instead giving it to all of my followers. All
12 of you. Wow I can't believe I've got so many people who think my wee blog is worth keeping an eye on. Thank you so much and I hope you keep enjoying the journey with me.