Hello dear blog and welcome to 2014!!!!

I see you are very neglected again, tut tut me...who knows I may even visit and update you more this year!

Today,  01.01.14. had a lovely afternoon and evening at mum and dads with Amy, Paul and Mikey. A great roast beef dinner was enjoyed by us all, yum yum! Thanks mum and dad! A few plans for this year, some challenges along the way, things I want to do and need to do, really hope I can achieve it all this year!

Anita
Xxx

Why does he never ever smile?!?!

Hello dear blog,

Wow what a lot a lot of things have happened since I last posted over two and a half years ago but ehy , once again, I am going to try and resurrect you and keep going. Has not been a good year with the loss of my precious baby boy Charlie, a lovely friends wonderful husband, my sister's lovely mother in all and people being poorly and having various problems ... On the good side I have a permanent employed job now and work with lovely people, I have my health and my lovely family, I guess one could not ask for any more really.....would love to change some of the bad and sad things that have happened this year but hey life is for living and thats what I have to do !
Will hopefully be back later in the week to update and sort out this blog header etc... !

Hallo dear blog...... long time no see !!!!!

Well seeing as my dear friend Sandie is doing so well with resurrecting her blog I thought I would give mine a dust off and get posting. Who knows I might even keep up with it this time ..... !

At long last we had some nice weather again yesterday so had quite a good day in the garden. Got more rubbish cleared from the concrete yard bit at the side of the garage, fortunately the rubbish tip was open so we got rid of a trailer full of 'stuff'. Paul dismantled Amy's trampoline that hasnt been used for quite sometime so that will be freecycled and hopefully go on to give some other kids lots of fun , its huge and not much used. I hate getting rid of anything and would rather keep it in the hope that it might get used, well the dogs did actually used to love playing on it ! However it takes up a big chunk of the garden which we dont really have to spare now with the greenhouse and enclosed veg patch, oh and the washing line so I have to be strong and let it go..... Paul pressure washed the yard area as well yesterday and whilst there is still some rubbish to get rid of and stuff is stored there (greenhouse frame, roof box, etc) it is so much better. We have some large plastic crates, a long wooden planter type thing and 2 small raised beds to put in the space to extend our veg growing area this year. Got to keep a look out on Freecycle for some top soil to fill said items ! Am trying to talk Paul in to extending the enclosed veg patch too , which wouldnt be too difficult but it would mean more veg garden and less dog garden , hmmmmm decisions, decisions....... Poor Paul he has enough to do as the yard area will need a fence built round it so as stop Charlie from adopting it as his self service salad bar !

At long last got our little greenhouse sorted out yesterday, sadly we will definately have to replace the plastic cover next year as I have discovered that the plastic has started to perish in a few places, I think it will hold out for this year hopefully with a big of Pauls strong tape. Maybe we will have the spare pennies for decent polycarbonate glazing for the aluminium greenhouse for next year anyway although I am quite attached to my little 6 x 4 plastic one! Mikey insisting on helping me in the greenhouse so Project tidy up took some time as he needed lots of cuddles whilst 'helping'. It looks much clearer in there now with a big bag of stuff moved to the garage and my new staging assembled, theres 8 shelves of staging down one side and the one shelf that came with the greenhouse down the other, so hopefully plenty of seed growing space.
Yesterday I managed to sow loads of seeds :

In the greenhouse - in propogators :

Thyme (Lidl)
Leaf Salad - cos lettuce mix (Speedy Seeds)
Cape Gooseberry - Little Lantern
Chives
Cape Gooseberry - Golden Berry Pineapple
Parsley - curly (Gardenline)
Pak Choi
Cutting Celery
Sprouting Broccoli - Red Arrow (yes I just had to have the Red Arrow one....!)
Parsley - flat leaf (Lidl)
Lemon Coriander
Marjoram - Lidl
Mint - Garden Extras (99p store)
Calabrese - Aquiles F1

On the windowsill indoors :

Tomatoes :
Black Cherry
Berry F1 Hybrid
Tigerella
Totem
Stripped Stuffer - Eden Project
Sweet Million
Green Zebra
Cream Sausage
Green Sausage
Red Zebra

Peppers:
Chili - Pyramid
Big Banana F1 Hybrid

Yep lots of tomatoes I know, but I love all the different colours and types and if they all germinate (unlikely) then I guess I can give some away to friends or make lots of chutney!

More gardening and planting planned for today,will hopefully post some photos next time.

Hmmmm well I was going to try and start posting again every day , starting from September 1st ..... seems like I have failed already as it is now 2nd already , failed at the first step eh .... !
Oh well I can keep trying , lets pretend its still 1st September... !

Well whats been going on since I last blogged ages ago... ? We went on holiday to North Devon in the caravan , that was a bit of a wash out really , the weather was quite wet and we chose a nikce site but one that was really waterlogged .... Paul and Amy had had enough by Wednesday and we came home sadly . We did have a nice rest of the week though , we went to Marwell on the Thursday and had a picnic in the New Forest on the Friday , oh and Paul and Amy went to London to the Science and Natural History Museums. Where the rest of August and the supposed 'summer' holidays went I just dont know , time seems to have whizzed by ...

On to today , I took a rare day off and we went out for the day with mum and dad , we stopped off at the Sailors Return for lunch , which was yummy , we all had baguettes which were soooo tasty and arrived along with salad and chips. Then onto Weymouth , we saw a 'pirate' ship , as I called it , coming towards the harbour , so parked up and watched that come in and took some piccies of it doing so, then we went on to Nothe Fort which was really interesting . There was so much to see in the many rooms inside the fort, lots of brilliant displays . Mum and dad kindly treated us to more food, thanks mum and dad , a mug of tea each and cakes .

Today (ish!) I am also restarting Shimelles September class, Learn Something new Every day . I originally registered back in 2006 (sadly didnt complete it then ) and once youve paid you can join in for the class again for free - thanks Shimelle.

Right , I guess thats it for now , as its late and past bedtime ... I wonder how oten I can manage to post this time...?

Dad...

looking a bit serious !

Mrs Photographer

aka my mum !

My beautiful daughter....

Amy... !

Ship coming in ....

Title says it all... !

Another ship photo

And another photo.... !

Weymouth

Lovely old ship coming into Weymouth harbour today

Day out ...

Photo taken within the grounds of Nothe Fort in Weymouth today

Lovelies meeting... ! 03/08/08

Here we are ... myself and Gail , 2members of the UKS Lavender L0velies team ! Piccie taken on a windy August day on Weymouth Beach . It was so lovely to meet you Gail, I do hope you and your family had a great holiday . x

Layout for July week 5 UKS challenge

My first and so far only layout from the Homegrown Summer Survival kit !

Educational Milestones - a Homegrown challenge ... !

Another challenge layout on the Homegrown forum

Homegrown Challenge....

This layout was for a challenge over on the Homegrown forum

Mothers Day Love

Sketch challenge over on the Homegrown forum, used Basic Grey Boxer stash plus a few other odds and ends!

A colourful imagination

Challenge on the Homegrown forum , used some old old stash in this one

u r my sunshine

Super quick layout , using , yes you guessed it .... Homegrowns Spring Survival kit stash !

Yes... another layout using Homegrown stash.... !

Piccie on this layout was from when we went to Wales earlier this year

So Pretty

Stash again from Homegrowns Spring Survival kit, plus a bits from my own stash

Homegrown stash layout ...

Piccie of Charlie down at Ham Common / Rockley beach, Love You is Scraprooms February stamp set.

Pull !

Used mainly Making Memories stash...

Homegrown Stash and Homegrown Steph !

Layout using mainly Homegrown Spring Survival Stash plus some Urban Lily rub ons and fabric K & Co. brads.
Piccie features Steph from Homegrown , taken at the Scrapajack / Homegrown retreat in May.

Homegrown Inspired

Inspired by one of the layouts in the Homegrown Spring Survival PDF's except I did mine the other way round .... Love the Heidi Swapp Heart mirror the photo doesnt do it justice.