Blandings, like Sundays I remember

I have been watching too much TV recently, but I do have to say that Sundays are for Blandings! I am in fits of laughter and in awe of an all star cast.

I do have to say that this show makes me think of Sundays when I was little, and what the BBC are known for-excellent programme for the whole family!

London...again

The Husband and I are looking at booking a little mini break for October. The plan is that, seeing as its our five year anniversary, we will actually DO something to celebrate. I went to London when I was 21 and loved every minute of it. The city is so beautiful and being a history lover there was plenty for me to do. I still look back at the pictures I took of lamp-posts and buses as the whole place was so exciting for me. (Now that I am…..erm….older, and most certainly wiser, I’m sure I won’t do such a silly thing this time round!)


I fell in love with London before I visited, I fell in love again for the Royal wedding, again for the Olympics, and for all the beautiful things I’ve read and looked at in between. Just because these particular events are over, there is hardly a shortage of events in London. The city encapsulates every buzzword you can think of. I would love to go at Christmas, Spring or Summer, however I will be going this year in October.

Because October isn’t quite the time for a Christmas buzz there isn’t anything that instantly springs to mind to visit, however that’s where my crazy planning streak comes into its own!

I would love for us to head off to London to make it like our little ‘event’, it will be our ‘thing’ where we make a fuss of ourselves (seeing as we work pretty darn hard the rest of the year). I’m already looking at restaurants and bars which will be conveniently located around the city. I love the idea of just popping into cosy bar with a little nook or sashaying into a chic room with high ceilings that is light and airy.

So for now I am looking online, I am compiling my lists and after showing all of this to TH I will then head off and do my own things anyway! I can’t wait to start sharing my plans with you.

November is…

November is for hot pots and slow cookers, it is for roasts after long walks and good warm filling soups. November is for looking out of the window and seeing harsh frost and rain.

November is for Remembrance Day, Guy Fawkes Night, and when I will stir up the Christmas cake. For me it is also when the girls in the family are heading to Edinburgh for some Christmas shopping.

November is for wearing two coats and scarves, big hats and boots for stomping around the countryside to tire the dog and stay warm. It is for jumpers. Jumpers of cable knit and snug soft materials. It is for finding sparkle for parties. Glittering and sequined garments which will shimmer and dazzle in the fairy lights.

November is for being surrounded by books, cushions and mugs of hot cocoa.

 It is for visits to the library and books bags overflowing with recently requested items full of ideas for Christmas bakes and makes.

November is for throws and eiderdowns, porridge for breakfast and travel mugs for the long journey to work. 

November is for long nights spent watching period dramas, for playing scrabble and finding Christmas movies at the weekend with warm fresh popcorn.  November is for squirreling away presents and hiding them in a new location each and every weekend.

Finding the Reading Corner

I have spent an awful lot of time recently reading cosily snuggled up burrowed into my bed. I’ve had a stinking cold which has built up steadily until it burst forth in a spate of coughing and sneezing, refusing to be held back any longer by lemsip. The cold has taken hold, and the only way to deal with it now is time.

I’ve got through a good many books that I have already read and love dearly. I have read for the first time a couple of books as well. None are highbrow; all are very easy and sentimental in prose. However I have to say that these are the best medicine. Not only the books in themselves, but the time taken to read them. The plans made to curl up to fit under a blanket. To push cushions all around me and settle down within them. The plans already made to make time, to put a slow roast in the oven, to light the candles and lamps, to take the phone off the hook…

I always seem to get a cold at this time of year, but I think a great many of us do seeing that we persevere with the light and summery clothes in a determined bid to make the most of any light or warmth. I have personally been pushed into the garden by seeing the mess left behind after gales that rip, tear and wreck anything in their path. The dying blooms hang dull and limp. The once beautiful harvest of cutting flowers swing from being dry and ready to pop their tiny seeds into the soil or damp and slimy deeply in need of being cut down and dug in.

None of the garden is fully under control, but that is for another post. There is time for that later, and in any case it simply must be done at a later date. I can not do it now and that is something the garden will just have to understand.

I love...

I have fallen in love, no really....actual love! 

The Husband loves it too....we want it.....we need it......we love it!
(Dear Summerhouse fairy,
Ive not always been super well behaved, but i promise i can be, and will be from this....no, wait, this moment on if you let me buy this one teeny tiny little thing.
lots of love,
Daisy's family!x)

I love...

My CK bag.. Oh bag, how i love thee....um, kinda don't know what else to say that sounds remotely romantic.  I only ever did The Merchant of Venice at school and then we jumped onto the poetry section of English and Communication class and the next thing i knew i was all about Philip Larkin!
Well, i may not know a thing about romantic prose, but i do know that bag-i love you.

And you know what else?  Husband, i love you too...you know me and you picked up on the hints!!  Have a wonderfully romantic weekend, if not full of rose petals and chocolate covered strawberries, then holding hands in the park and a scrumptious supper! 
Do things that are special to you...not Hallmark, cuddle your dog, cuddle your child, cuddle someone....or something you love!!!  We've had a rather poorly pup, so she is being looked after and molly coddled much more than normal...bless her!

I love....

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4

I found this book at a house clearence The Husband and I helped with a little while ago.  I read it...i read it quickly, and then i had to read all of the subsequent books.  Its amazing and i love it, i love it so, so much.  Its one of those books that you wish the characters were real and you could go and meet them.  Unfortunately i didnt read the books in order, and im not sure if i can go back so quickly and correct that mistake.  I loved reading Bridget Jones, so i guess im pretty sold on the whole diary format of books and ive just finnished Diary of a Nobody which is really good too...but quite frankly, nobody can compete with my Adrian Mole!

I love.....

I love........

Jam & Jerusalem

A wonderful tale of a small village

If you've missed it heres a good little round up of what you've missed. 

Aren't Mondays Heavenly?

One Born Every Minute...heavenly!!  Makes me cry...and laugh.  Makes me wonder if i really do only picture being a Mother as someone who gives birth....makes me picture how I'd be (SCREAMER), but its a lovely show!  I was accepted into the Midwifery course at Robert Gordon's University when i was 19.  I had been applying since i was 16 and kept updating all records.  There is a massive waiting list to get into this course as its one of the only ones in the UK where its not a Post Grad course after nursing, so people that wish to be Midwifes only do the Midwifery aspects...anyway...i got into the course, i made the friends, bought the books and then FREAKED OUT.

After a little think i realised i probably wouldn't be able to handle the course.  Don't get me wrong, i can study and get my head down, but i didn't think id be able to handle the emotional aspects of the course.  I don't think i could do a job where no matter what you do, no matter how hard you try and pray....sometimes it just goes down a route no one ever thought, or expected it to go.  So i packed up and headed to full time employment until i got into the University of Aberdeen to do Politics and International Relations.  Well, after one term i knocked on the Politic lecturers/advisers door and said no more did i want to study those subjects.  I was only going to do History (what sort of job did i think id get?)  I loved searching about for sources so much i thought that a career as a Librarian would be the way forward.  I hope I'm still in a career where i can help people, but i hardly think there will be a channel 4 show on my job!!  I think i enjoy this show much more this year as last year we really wanted a baby and it was a bit sad to watch it, but i just couldn't stop.  If i were ever to feel sad after watching this (mostly just weepy from seeing all the new families) i would then turn over to....GLEE!

Makes me sing along and laugh an awful lot! 

Squeeze joy out of everything you can, laugh and sing when you can, read during the day and go to the cinema by yourself.  Do what makes you happy.  Abandon things which make you sad, embrace things that can scare you, push yourself and achieve all the things you believe are worth you time.

Have a great week!



I love....

I love.....

Lark Rise to Candleford

Sunday nights restored to how they should be

I love...A Christmas Carol

I love, the beautiful book, A Christmas Carol, it is without a doubt my favourite book ever.  Some books come close, as a small child i would read The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe every Christmas time, but it is A Christmas Carol that changed EVERYTHING.  Since my first year at University i have read this book without fail every December.  In the beginning it would be because i wanted to read actual literature, as opposed to a history book which i had to read because the exams followed Christmas break.

But then, then it became a ritual because of the actual love that flows through this book.  The love from the characters, and the love that has been poured into it via generations of readers.  I finished this book earlier today and will now go on to read the other Christmas books.  Hopefully i will be able to have them read before Christmas.  Whenever i adore a book it gets read super, super fast.  I realise that they are for much younger readers than myself but i did read all the Twilight books in four days, which is quite fast for someone with lots of work and chores to do!  If i only quite like a book i normally read it at a normal pace.

Just look at the pictures from many different editions of the book.  The one above is lovely.  The ghost of Christmas present sitting opposite Scrooge, the Fezzywigs at the top, and a sprinkling of holly, ghosts, and Cratchits!  I think my favourite part of the book, or at least up in the top ten, is where the shops are being described when Scrooge is travelling through Christmas Day with the Ghost of Christmas Present.  

 Just look at lovely Bob and tiny Tim walking back from Church!  Bless his long comforter.

Scrooge leaving his premises, i have imagined this a million times. 

A beautiful, beautiful book, one that i hope to read for many years to come.  One that makes me sad to have finished.  One i wish i could dive into.  One i wish i could share with children one day, one i want to share with you all.  I hope your Christmas preparations are going well.

love,Sheila
x

Thank you Mister Postie!

Kindly Mr. Postie arrived today with three scrumptious candles for me!  Mulled Wine, Christmas Cookie and Christmas Eve.  If you know your Yankee Candles you'll know these are really sweet scented candles, my favourite!!  I bought these from the Yankee shop as two of these fragrances are December special offer ones and so had 25% off which made them real bargains, especially as they are all the large ones and will last for ages and ages!

I only took two pictures, i don't know what happened to them, they came out all fuzzy and so I've only put up two pictures as I'm still feeling incredibly sorry for myself.  Ive started burning the mulled wine one now as (even though i cant smell it) i want it to burn to the edges and the house to smell wonderful for when The Husband comes home!  They were really quick picks, which probably explains the general fuzziness of them, and why there are packets of lemsip, a pencil case, and my lavender room spray all in the frame!

Makes sense that seeing as i haven't done any baking i can at least pretend that i have!

Dear Santa....

Dear Santa, I have been exceptionally good this year....

I haven't caused too much mischief....

I didn't stay up too late.....

AND I've kept my room tidy.

Thank you very much Santa...I will leave out an extra large chocolate chunk cookie for you.

Love Sheila

x

I love....Downton Abbey

I love.......... Downton Abbey.

Currently catching up with all past episodes of this amazing period drama-I can't believe I nearly missed it!  Pot of tea, Daisy Dog fresh from a bath and blow dry beside me, and a chocolate flake.  Can't see better than that.
Do what makes you happy this Monday!
Sheila
x

I love Autumn because....

I love Autumn because............

Just when you thought that you had to pack up the summer garden things, you get to keep them out for all those super clear, cold, fresh days.  The fire pit gets lit again, the furniture pulled out, and you remember s’mores.   You find pleasure in collecting conkers, kicking leaves, and lighting lamps.

All the beautiful blankets you collected throughout the year get pulled out of the cupboards and littered around chairs, cosy, snuggley corners and beds.  Popcorn feels a million times more appropriate and pancakes and sausages are the order of the day!  (well, for the weekend at least)

The whirley gig should be taken down, but there always seems like there is more to do inside.  I wont be getting to dry my clothes outside for a long time now.  I will be pulling out the clothes horse from now on!

Everything seems prettier in the soft light.

And you just know all the other houses and the families that care for them are doing the same thing.

 

It's the middle of the week people, we're making slowly to the weekend...I can not wait!  More Haddo adventures and a long walk around the gift shop for some presents I ear marked for people.

Sheila

x