goodies from sophie

To give me another little boost, on wednesday I recieved a very pretty package from the lovely Chez Sophie. It came at just the right time :) as the loss of holly has been giving me a fair amount of low moments this week. The package is actually from Sophie's lovely Vintage and Thrifted giveaway, which i was fortunate enough to come third place in!

Everthing was wrapped up so sweetly, it was just like christmas! And there were so many things, i struggled to get everything in one photo!

I recieved a very very pretty little card from sophie :) a lovely vintage tea plate, a little box of buttons and appliques, a gorgeous lace collar (which i need to find a pretty top to put it on!) some lengths of lace and ribbon, some vintage spools of thread, 3 vintage hankies, and some embroidery thread :D

It's such an inspiring gift, I can't wait to use everything in a bunch of projects! Thank you Sophie :D xxx

good times, bad times

Well this week has been a little bit of a roller coaster of emotions for me. On monday morning my poor dog holly was put to sleep. She seemed so healthy up until the day, but when taking her in to the vets, they found she had a heart murmer, shadows on the lung, and several other things :( it's been horrible since, and I'm going to miss her so much.
But on Tuesday, it was mine and Matt's 4th anniversary, and for a bit of a cheer up, he took me out to derby for the day, for a touch of retail therapy. We had a lovely time, and it helped to take my mind off things :) So now is the time to show off what we brought! (be warned, this post is about to get very picture heavy!)

This was the adorable sight I was greeted with when I opened my anniversary present in the morning. Granted it wasn't a suprise as I was with matt when he brought them :P They are called Bonnie and Clyde! And are the cutest oil and vinegar despensers ever!

I wanted them after spotting them in a lovely little shop in Nottingham we found a few weeks ago, where I brought an adorable mug from the same range!!

She's called Lulu, and look! She even has little feet!

Anyway, back on to things we brought on our little day trip :) the first thing was a new doormat! from paperchase!(I know! I don't take much to please :P)

Then we got a new kettle from lakeland! Ours had given up some time ago :P

And I brought the cutest bag I've ever seen too :D and just as an extra bonus, it's huge!!

It has Yes on one side and no on the other! how cute is that :D

It even came with a bag to put it in! I've never had a bag that had a bag to put it in :P

And the lining is just delicious.
That's all the photo's I have of things we brought, although Matt got a new game and a tattoo, and I picked up a few other little bits and bobs for myself :) I do actually have some other photo's to show off from the package I recieved from the lovely Chez Sophie! But I'm going to pop them in a seperate post later on ^_^ xxx

lucky me :)

I have been a terribly lucky girl this week for things coming through my letter box :) but the sweetest thing by far was the gorgeous package I recieved from Alison, at Gingercat :D. Alison was my good enough to eat swap partner :) and what a sweety she is! Here are some of the lovely bits and bobs that were in my package :)

There's a lovely cupcake bath bomb, some fair trade coffee, fair trade earl gray tea, a hand made needle case and hand made pin cushion, some pretty cake toppers, very very pretty paper cases, and a scrummy candle :) I also recieved a lovely card, which is already pinned up on my wall :) a blank cath kidston card for me to send to a friend! And some little chocolates (which are already living in my belly hehe!) And everything was lovingly packed in the cutest cupcake boxes ever :D This is by far the nicest swap package I have ever recieved, and I am so grateful for recieving such a brilliant partner ^_^ Thank you Alison!
But that's not all! Part of the swap was also to include a yummy recipe, and Alison gave me an absolute winner for carrot cupcakes! Here are some I made using her recipe, the paper cases I recieved, and the cake toppers!

Nom Nom Nom Nom Nom :D

another lovely magazine

Another sweet little magazine came through my front door this morning :) advertising a lovely company named plumo. They have some lovely lovely home items, as well as fashion etc. Unfortunately though they are rather expensive! None the less, here are some of my favourite items available on their site :)

fairytale swap!

Ok everyone :D I have decided to host my very first swap! The theme is fairy tales, and i have decided the easiest way to do this, is for each person who signs up to chose a fairytale, that their partner can base a package on. You will have a choice to create a package to the value of either £5 or £10, so that each person may recieve a package to the same value as the one they sent. If anybody is unwilling to send packages abroad then please let me know!
For everyone wishing to take part, please leave a comment containing your name, email address, your chosen fairy tale and your package value :) the deadline for everyone to sign up to this swap will be Sunday the 9th of May. After this I will assign partners to everyone, so you know what package you'll be making :D Also, people are welcome to chose the same fairytale as somebody else :) i'm aware that certain stories will be favourites to lots of you :D
As this is my first swap, i need all the help i can get to encourage people to sign up! If all of my lovely blog friends would be so kind as to spread the word, and pop the button up for me :D xxx
-----EXTRA INFO-----
Just a note to all of you crafters taking part :) it'd be lovely to include hand made items in your package, especially as you can make it as relevant to the story as possible! However, not everybody is a crafter, and so please don't fill your package with £10 or £5 worth of your own items, as this won't be fair on people who have to buy everything for their packages :)
For anybody who needs them, here are some examples of things you could include in your packages :)
-keyrings
-jewellery
-candy (check with your partner if they are able to recieve food items if they live abroad! this has happened to me in the past when posting a package to mexico)
-hand made items, such as toys or art work
-candles
-soaps and smellies
-vintage items, ornaments etc
-paper goods
Anything you can find really that relates to your given story :) As this is the first swap that I have hosted, I'm aware that I may not have included all information required! If anybody has any questions etc then please let me know in your comments :) Once I assign partners to everyone, I will put up a new post with all of the rules again, so that everyone knows what is happening :)

a pretty place

This morning a lovely little catalogue flopped through my letter box (yes, some mail does arrive!) which was just so pretty (and affordable!) that I had to share with you all :) The company is called Cox and Cox, and they sell all manner of items, from craft to decor :) The above image is of their lovely robin's egg soaps, and here are some more of their pretty items!

a lovely french style shelf

An oh-so-cute musical toadstool

Gorgeous storage bags

Pretty gift tags and ribbon

A week day, chalk board, shelf and hook thingy!

A sun canopy!

And the nicest bird table i've seen :)

i hate royal mail!

Ok everyone, brace your selves for a rant! For the past 3 years my relationship with royal mail has been a thin one. It all began when we lived in our first flat, and whenever I had a parcel delivered, the post man would never ever knock on the door, and would just leave a "sorry you were out" card, regardless of whether I was home or not. This meant I would usually have to walk to the sorting office twice a week! In our home now, our postman never shows his face before 2pm, parcels or no! Because of this, I am never home to recieve parcels, and there for have to AGAIN try to get to the sorting office twice a week, which is about 3 miles away. Fortunately this is no longer such a problem since getting my vespa! But today took the biscuit! Today I drove down to the sorting office, armed with my "sorry you were out" card, which stated that the item needed to be signed for. Imagine my suprise when the gentleman behind the counter told me that even though I had the card that proved the parcel wasn't delivered, that their system said I had already recieved the parcel, and it was nowhere to be found. Better still is this is the second week in a row this has happened, meaning I have two parcels missing somewhere out there, and the manager of the sorting office has made no effort what so ever to fix anything! For such a major company that used to be known for its reliability, I can safely say that Royal Mail is a joke, that needs fixing ASAP!!!