My First White Christmas

It was rather exciting this Christmas; the first one with snow! And not just any snow- due to His Lordship having a touch of the Northern about him, we travelled up on Christmas eve to the wonderful winter magic kingdom that is Southport. Southport with a fresh dump of the white stuff.

Merry Christmas

Hi y'all, just a quick post to say 'Merry Christmas' as I catch the train up north to spend time with my 'out'laws. I'll post soon with fun and frugal things to do the week after Christmas (err, dump old clothes at charity shop, buy new ones in sales/with Chrimbo money? No, I promise at least err, one idea better than that...although the traditional way is traditional for a reason!).


[Glitterfy.com - *Glitter Words*]

Norwich in the snow!

Brrr. Just back from digging out my car, if it snows again tonight there will be a wailing and a gnashing of teeth, not to mention swearing.

In a rare case of sensibility, we went by train to Norwich this weekend. This was the view out of the train window... wintery!

Would You Like A Carrier Bag With That?

This isn't an eco-post, this is a post about my soon-to-be, fabulous (yet budget- PremierInn special offer, natch) pre-Christmas weekend in Norwich. The title is a tribute to the serving lady at the student supermarket at 'The UEA' in the mid 90s.

Thanks to Happy Frog and I!

Woop! I won something! This never happens...  lots of thanks to The Happy Frog and I, for hosting their poetry-book givaway on their blog.

Pop by their lilypad and check them out...

YESTERDAY GIRL: A Notoriously Good Giveaway

YESTERDAY GIRL: A Notoriously Good Giveaway: "Red BakeLike Alarm Clock £10.00 I am so thrilled to announce that in honour of having {almost} 400 fabulous followers, and of it being..."

It's not hand-me-down, it's 'vintage-cool'...

As we are on the topic of fun and frugal weekends staying in (the new going out, given the temperature and credit crunch) let's have a little thought on interiors. Did I say interiors- let's face it, I meant my flat. Yep, I do this blog because I am (as many a teacher/boss/stranger-in-the-street has complained) a greedy old validation-seeking show off. And note the use of 'my'. I'm a married woman, yes, what's mine is his. But I still get to call it mine. M'kay?

A good friend of mine once described the flat as 'arty' and 'vintage-cool' and enquired how long it took to get that 'look', at which caused me to snort and get San Miguel up my nose in a rather posh bistro in Suffolk. My flat is as it is because of what I call 'make lemonade' theory. But in this case, life gave me G-Plan and a beige sofa. The reason why my flat is full of vintage gems is that my Gran and Aunty-Nan (great aunt, but I think the name works) were upwardly mobile and houseproud, and my parents had a lock-up round the back of my Grandmother's garden flat. Over the years, sadly, as relatives moved to nursing homes and passed away, the lock-up garage filled with vintage furnishings, all perfectly protected from the dust and damp.




Who knows what lies within?



There's No Place Like Home, There's No Place Like Home...

I will be posting on my weekend's pursuits soon... unfortunately little things (work, eating, sleeping, car in garage, hellish public transport, messy flat) got in the way yesterday. But bear with me, after being utterly knackered out, a little fairy lightbulb of an idea pinged into life above my head. This weekend, I shall be mostly preparing at home, for celebrating at home (well, the outlaws' outpost in the frozen north- a lovely place full of cider, cheese and bracing walks along the Lancashire coast). It fits frugal, it fits things-to-do. Plus, it's warm and I can do it in my PJs.

Formby Beach In Winter- Brr!

Retro Chick Crimbo Giveaway!

Win some stuff from RetroChick's wonderful blog (which you should follow anyway if you like shopping, vintage or pretty much anything fun and cool)...

http://www.retrochick.co.uk/2010/12/06/the-christmas-stocking-giveaway/#comment-9752

Penny Dreadful Vintage: 50s Vintage Supermodel: Suzy Parker

A post from Penny Dreadful's fabulous blog, on a fabulous style icon. I love vintage magazines... they make excellent reading, fascinating and amusing in equal measure...

Penny Dreadful Vintage: 50s Vintage Supermodel: Suzy Parker: "This post has been a long time in coming. I first came across the 50s model Suzy Parker when I was putting together the posts on Funny Face..."

If this is Santa, I've been rotten naughty all year.

OK, there was no chance of anything other than a home-based evening of craft/homemaker type entertainment after struggling to get home. But that was OK: it was the 1st of December and all. I managed to catch Homebase (glam or what?) to purchase my new 'married couple' tree. Let me explain; for some reason, I have harboured the belief that only proper married couples have 5-7ft trees- singletons and boyfriends/girlfriends have tabletop ones. So this year is the first year I qualify for a 6 footer (ooeerr). Unfortunately I couldn't manage a 6 footer on the ice, so we went with 5 foot of green plastic goodness, adorned with a combination of handcrafted, carefully selected baubles and tacky s**te. Check it out...



Handcrafted Vintage-Style Bauble (from some craft market or other circa 05)



Midweek Crimbo Madness!

It's Wednesday! It's ff-ing fffrreezing! It's the 1st of December! This means all means one thing to me: CRIMBO MADNESS. I do try not to (no, actually I don't) but every year I revel in the run-up to Christmas, embracing it in a slightly-over-familiar-no-respect-for-personal-space manner. Advent is just the start of another adventure...

This weekend's gonna be a cheap days out fest- check out these two humdingers: