Kindness, magic, faith and a spot of laughter!

Hippy Happy Friday!

I think that the crazy as a loon fairy has been fluttering about in our home lately! Oh yes, that little fairy has definitely been visiting.

 I did this one yesterday, my latest little fairy, not looking particularily crazy, but a fairy nonetheless! The little creature hasn't been living with me long enough yet... give it time!

In the past when we have decided to move house, I start out by looking at potential properties on rightmove, and then usually get daydreams of a particular house stuck firmly in my head. It is a kin to falling in love, you just can't stop thinking of the object of your affection, and basically long to get your mitts on the blighter!

Well, this time, I have spotted a house that I really, really, (think!) I want to live in. I say think, because I actually haven't been to view it.  The fact of the matter is... that it is not even up for sale!  Yes, you heard that right,  NOT FOR SALE!  Put that together with the fact that we are not even up for sale yet either, and the fact that even if we were and we had a buyer, there is no reason to believe that said object of my affections would even be up for sale when we are, or even for years!   I know, the crazy fairy has me smitten with its's madness!

 One of my applique cross stitch designs, very simple... like the creator of it!

It is a sweet old cottagey type house, with original stained glass windows and the sweetest 1920's original front door! We have walked past it several times now, and no, sorry, I haven't got a photo, as I may well be arrested soon for stalking a house anyway, without standing at the front of it wildly snapping pictures as well!  It needs a lot of work (well, from the outside, it looks so!), It has a good sized garden (good old google bird's eye view maps!) So, we could still grow some of this.....

 Some of our veggies grownig happily in the veggie plot! 

And this.......

Ahhhh, Aubergines!

And these.....

Oh pretty flowers!  Such beauty!

I love a cottage garden, wild and full of wildlife, mysterious and magical. Oooh err and slightly rambling like me!

YES! I do, do , DO  believe in magic, I believe that what ever we can imagine is utterly and completely possible! SO,  I have been doing a spot of cosmic ordering! George says that if we end up living there, he will have me burnt at the stake for being a witch!

Talking of George, ha ha ha,  he did make me laugh yesterday morning! George, I am telling you, you are so funny! You ought to be bottled up and sold as a tonic!

I woke up and noticed that it was 8.30am, so I nudged George and said "GEORGE! Its 8.30!" He opened one eye and replied "SO!". I gave him a shake " GEORGE! Its 8.30!" He wasn't too happy, in fact he was coming accross a tad grumpy here. Another nudge, a shove in the ribs, another "GEE-ORGE"......reply- "WHAT????" he was not happy....he squints at me irritated and says.." ITS SATURDAY FOR GAWDS SAKE"  ...... "Errr, no George," I reply  "its Thursday!" ... Silence....then.... "ITS THURSDAY???!!!".   Ha ha ha, I have never seen him jump out of bed so quick..."BLOODY HELL!, Why didn't you tell me"  He says as he scurries around getting ready for work!!!

Now another, yes another big thank you, for a big huge dollop of  kindness! Look what the postman delivered yesterday!
 Kay! You are such a love,  it was wonderful  surprise! This is what I love about kindness! Kindness can lift your spirits, cheer you, make you feel cared for and loved. Kindness is infectious like a smile it sends out ripples of good feeling, and makes the world a nicer place to live in. Kay, made this lovely hanging for me, and recently did a post featuring this (you can read the post here).

 Look at the gorgeous charms, I love them!

 Yummy goodies too!

 The parcel had lots of goodies in as well as the hanging, and the sweetest enchanted garden card, with lovely words from Kay, which I will treasure with all my heart. Thank you so much Kay! You are one of those special people here on blogger (and Facebook!) who I feel a real connection with, and now consider a very good friend, and who make all of this waffling that I do, worthwhile!

As a matter of fact, I am so very lucky to have so many kind and wonderful friends in this huge and unseen blogland and facebook too.... thank you all!

I will leave you with this photo of my clematis.... now if thats not magic, I would like to know what is!

Every time I see this, my I gasp, and my eyes pop out! That conjures up a picture... gasping for breath, with my eyes a bulging. Ha ha, I had wanted it to sound a bit more romantic than that! I was aiming for more of a  Wuthering Heights effect than the Hunch Back of Notre Dame!


I wish you all happiness and love, and hope that that darn crazy fairy stays well away from you. Its too late for me I am afraid!  Now where did I put that book of spells.... hmmmmm?  :o)

Suzie xxxxxxxxx

....With Silver Bells and Cockle Shells.....

Hello!
Thank you for all your warm comments and kind wishes over the last week, I really do a happy dance when I hear from you!

 One of my stitcheries (and my verse too! Oh dear!) Sorry it is not a very good photo!

I am sure many of you like me will have been out in your gardens busying yourselves. There is something about being outside, breathing in the air, communing with nature and being close to the earth which really relaxes, refreshs and grounds me. I always feel better for it, whether it is just being in the garden or going on a lovely country walk. It never fails to inspire me and touch my soul.

Kind hearts are gardens,
Kind thoughts are roots,
Kind words are blossoms,
Kind deeds are fruits.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow


This week the lovely George and I have been .....

Planting babies!

This is way down at the bottom of the garden, the meadow grass, natural bit! We planted plum, apple, pear and morello cherry trees, I hope they will be ok!

I have been tidying borders....

Bertram Butterbean Barker (Bertie!) had the very important job as executive supervisor!

I have been admiring our beautiful Owl Tree.....

Magnificent..No? I will miss this wise old tree when we move. Sometimes on a moonlit night, when caught in the silvery moonbeams, Mr. Owl tree has a face!

We have been finishing off our alpine rockery. I really wanted George to wear a Sound of Music little number while planting, but he wasn't having it! 

Oooh, what else have I been doing? Hmmmmm......

 Baking bread. There were two loaves.. I wonder what happened to the other one???

Now then Ralph Le Puff MacDuff! Don't you look all sweet and innocent in your 1920's hat.. you are not fooling anyone you thief you!  Was it tasty you blighter!?

And baking these, (keeping them well away from a certain big black twitching nose!)

And drinking this!

I had to buy this bottle of cider. No really, I did! Look at the lovely 1950's style label, I just couldn't resist!

You will be pleased to hear that the christening went very well. It was a lovely sunny day, if a little windy! Lily, the star of the show, after all it was her day, performed a fabulous party piece!  She grabbed hold of, and pulled off the vicar's glasses as he was holding her at the font, and she would not let go! It was so funny, the whole congregation were laughing! Not good for a serial giggler like me. George got that slightly alarmed look flit across his face, as he saw me laughing... Is she going to be able to stop? Yes, you will be pleased to know (or bitterly disappointed!) to hear that I managed to hold on to my dignity,   for a change!

Lastly, I am quite shocked and so deeply saddened at the news of the shooting in Cumbria. I have been to Whitehaven a few times, once to visit the Maritime festival, and it really is unbelievable that such a thing can hapen there.

 It truly is dreadful, and once again a reminder to me to enjoy each day and to always be grateful. When I heard it on the news, the gunman had just finished his shooting rampage and had run off. I just went in the house and locked the door. Silly I know, as Whitehaven is over an hours journey from where I live, but with going to Cumbria a lot, it felt so close! I feel so sorry for all involved in this tragedy, remembering too all of the emergency services and nursing staff who have had to witness such trauma. It is all unimaginable.

Til next week all you sweetpeas, go forth and enjoy... everything! Sun and rain!

I love to search for the joy in each day!

Another one of my stitcheries, I love this one (even though I shouldn't say so myself!) So I have it hanging from the french doors!

You may have noticed that I have changed my background on the blog, now what do you think, this one or the overload of owls? You can decide... if you want to that is!

Beautiful blessing to you all.... Suzie xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The Twenties, Flappers and bedknobs and broomsticks!

Good day to you all!

I hope you have all had the lovely weather we have been having here in Lancashire, although some of it was  sooo hot, It rendered me quite useless at times!

 I just adore this print of an illustration by Charles Robinson... Indian Summer.

I love the 1920's , absolutely adore the furniture, fashions, dances, haircuts... everything about the roaring 20's brings a smile to my simple face!

George and I live in a 1920's home - it was built in 1923, and luckily still holds many of it's original features.

Oh doodle of mine....

A number of years ago I treated myself, or should I say my Mum treated me to this coat. I spotted it in a local shop and thought it had a certain 20's air about it. I just fell head over heels with it! It still looks just as good as it did back then, shame I can't say the same for me!!!

What do you think? (please note, it has artificial fur!) I adore it, and when George nearly passed out at how much it was, I reminded him, that I would wear it forever, and when I come to the end of my road, hey, he can bury me in it too!  It is not at all trendy, it is timeless, so it will see me out! The drawing above is based on it.

I have popped this video on again for all you flappers out there!




Talking of clothes, we are going to a christening this Sunday and so I have been throwing my outfit together ( literally!)...Here is the recipe.....

Take one old long skirt and  ruthlessly take a pair of scissors to it....

One plain long jacket ....

Several wooden and coconut buttons....

The final result.....

 Sorry for the poor quality, it is hard trying to take your own photo! The first pic shows the colours much better!

Well, I think it looks ok.....Or have I lost my marbles completely???!!! Too late! That's what I shall be wearing, rain or shine, good or bad!

This week I would like to thank the very lovely Mrs. P For this award! Thank you so, so much for thinking of me! Please go and pay her a visit, If you already haven't.. she has a very interesting blog, and is such a sweetie!

Now, I am to tell you 10 things about myself  ( I don't think I can think of anything else, not anything that I can tell anyway... Blush!) and 5 things I just don't like!  So here we go!

1. I can't swim... yup, just flail about and then sink.
2. I once did an Open University course in Social welfare (or something like that!) I love writing essays!
3. I loathed and detested school.
4. I have bent little fingers.
5. As a child I was a tom-boy and girlie, depending on how I felt at the time. Up a tree one minute and gazing at my shiny shoes the next. I am still the same! I can be dressed beautifully one minute and like a scruff the next! A bit like my musical tastes, all the extremes and the bits in the middle too.
6. I am still 10! (In my head anyway!)
7. I believe in spirits, ghosts and all things unseen.
8. And she shall have music wherever she goes, I have 6 stereos.
9. I am useless at all sports.
10. The words economy and anatomy very often get said as economonomy and anatomonomy... I find it hard to say them!

Five things I dislike immensely.....

1. Rudeness and bad manners.
2, Bigotry, ignorance, predjudice and closed-mindedness.
3. Lack of humour and unfriendliness.
4. Injustice
and   drumroll here......
5. Porridge.

I am so excited this week, as the Sroka household  has had a delivery! I have wanted one for a long time, and the price was slashed, and we really need one as the one we have is about 12 years old now. Also as I said to George, this will see us out, we won't ever need to buy another (now, where have we heard this before, hmmmmm!!!)

Tis this bed....

This is the pic on the Laura Ashley site, as we haven't got it put together, or even in the bedroom as yet, ... we need to decorate the bedroom first!

I can not wait to snuggle up in my new cosy bed, and hopefully get some much needed sleep too! Like Bedknobs and Broomsticks, I hope to be engaged in many exciting adventures in Dreamland! Oh and enjoy my early morning pots of tea too!

Anyway peeps! I hope you all enjoy a jolly good weekend!

Lots of love to all of you!  Suie Juan tit! xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx :)))) Tryed to keep it shorter! You don't know how hard it was! Did I fail? Duh yeah... miserably!  I kept adding to it...sorry!  He he! x

Hello All You Silly Sausages! Silly Sad!

Hellooooooooooo! 


Happy Friday!   PARF...... OOOOh Pardon me!  Sorry, I am feeling a bit silly this week, more than usual, so its one big silly fest here!  

 One of my stitcheries

No! I am not sorry actually... being silly is extremely good for the soul. Nothing makes me feel better than to have a mad half hour or two. I adore laughing and can be rendered completely helpless by just hearing someone else laughing, even if I don't know what they are laughing at.  I am perhaps a slightly split personality kind of character, as like all things in life, everything has a dark side and a light side. For all of my silly side that is, there is  also a very serious thinking side too. Sometimes I can get utterly lost in deep thoughts and examine everything in minute detail. Life to me is indeed a tragi-comedy, and so I seem to have the sometimes unfortunate ability to see both at once! 

  Ralphus Le Puff Mac Duff, being very silly indeed donning a hoodie!

Have you ever been truly crying and truly laughing at the same time. A slightly alarming feeling, but strangely illuminating too! To see the humour in a dark situation I feel is a blessing. To me it is anway. I had such an experience whilst in hospital just after having my masectomy. I had woken up in such pain which was radiating all through my body. there didn't seem to be one bit of me that wasn't left out! Also, I was desperate for a wee, but I couldn't seem to get up. Me being me, I didn't want to disturb a nurse, so eventually, I decided I had 3 choices... 1,  force myself to get up and know it was going to be agony,  2, wet the bed,  3 ring for a nurse, get some more pain killers, wait for the painkillers to work , and still wet the bed!   So I chose 1, and struggling I made it to the bathroom. At that moment in time I was feeling very sorry for myself. No sorry isn't the correct description, it doesn't even come close, I was is the darkest despair I had ever encountered. I had had many problems in my life leading up to that moment, and that was franlkly this was the  last straw, I was in the darkest dark night of the soul.  I was crying, no not crying.. weeping, sobbing.

 Ahhh, yes, I looked just like Robert Smith from the Cure, One of my all time favourites! I love Robert Smith!

 No, actually, probably more like this. Alice Cooper, I love him, very warped lyrics... I can't help it... I love them and him!  I also love classical music..go figure! Then again I love all music.. why? Because I am greedy thats why!

I lifted my head and spotted this strange creature in the mirror, wild and unkempt, face so pale the creature looked as if it had been buried for 6 weeks and dug up again! Red eyes, staring back at me, it's hair was so wild and was sticking up in the air like the scene from Something About Mary.  
 For a second everything was suspended in time, as still weeping I told my reflection in the mirror " you ARE pathetic!" . Next thing I knew I was shaking with laughter and weeping all at the same time, I could see the irony, the absolute funny side of the whole hideous affair!  Oh how the mighty have fallen I thought to myself! You would really have to know what else was going on in my life at the time of my diagnosis to truly understand how far I had fallen. But I'm not telling... Na Na, Na Na NA! 

 Yes just like that, but not that pretty! 

Isn't humour, after all, a way of trying to make sense of the world, helping us to see the other side of the coin, helping us to cope with the not so happy parts of life which we all face in life. Gawd knows there are enough tears, so certainly we should welcome laughter with out stretched arms whenever we get the chance! So, I do do!  I find that humour can appear in our darkest moments and we shouldn't be ashamed or frightened of it, it comes only as an aid to soften the situation and to bring understanding, strength of spirit, tolerance and humility.  It helps us to cope, and sometimes even to fight back with passion.   Humour is the reflection of sadness, I believe it is all connected. It is the other side of the coin.


Sometimes things just don't make any sense at all, but if you study it all hard and long enough, really give it all your full attention you can often,  if not always, see the funny side! 

This gate doesn't make any sense at all! Please keep this gate shut at all times! I laugh everytime I walk past it! No wonder I get odd looks around here. Walking on my own laughing at gates!


In those first few years of trying to come to terms with it all, I used to get very depressed sometimes, and actually used to say to George that I felt that I could cry and cry and never be done with it. It was a deep and sorrowful mourning, but it was tangled up with twenty odd years (No!, make that 30!) of other sorrows, that all seemed to be coming flooding back to the surface demanding for me to face them. Don't believe for one minute, that if you ignore/bury your feelings that they go away... They don't! They will come back out one way or another!  My buried and ignored emotions, hurts, etc. marched right in and sat down facing me full on and demanded some much needed attention. They had escaped  in a weak moment, when my strength was low, and my door was wide open.  The flood gates had literally opened! So I reflected daily during the long months I sat undergoing the chemotherapy....

 A drawing of mine, how I felt at the time!

If I needed to cry.. I finally gave my self permission, instead of thinking that it is my job in life to keep going and look cheerful! I cryed buckets and buckets. Totally indulgent!  How can that many tears come out of one person, have I got a damn ocean in there?! I came to the conclusion that keeping things bottled up was useless and probably the reason I was sat there in that state, with only one boob!  Of course, when I got so deep in the mire that I didn't even want to get out of bed, or go outside, I knew it was time to give myself a large kick up the....So I developed a technique.... I would force myself ( very hard some days!) to stand up and wave my arms wildly around in the air. Well actually one arm wildly, I couldn't move the other one much due to my lacerated armpit!  I defy anyone not to start to at least smile at how silly they look! The first time I tryed it, I cryed laughing. George! This works! Poor George, he used to have to put up with my silly cheer myself up routine quite often! I gave myself a nick-name.... Juanita Juan-tit .... to call myself when I got too serious about it all. Hey Juan-tit, get up, pull yourself together,  and go wave those arms, err that arm! He he!


I think that what I am trying to say here, is that I just refuse point blank to lose my humour, and spend nearly everyday, polishing it, crafting it, and displaying it with love! When life throws S**t, humour is always hiding in the corner somewhere! It just needs spotting.  Humour is the child within.






One of my favourite songs! Tis wonderful sung by the great Judy Garland!


Before I trot off to my vegetable patch,  I have another thank you! Thank you Jaqueline for this lovely, lovely  tag and ever so cute fairyland stickers!  They certainly are gorgeous and in your wonderful words Jaqueline... groovey! , and how kind is this magical lady, who you can visit here, this is the nicest surprise Jacqueline!  The inside of the envelope had polka dots!  I shall go a merry sticker stickering!

Go forth and giggle, it is our duty to spread mirth! Ta ta old beans (hey less of the old!) Sorry for waffling again, I just can't seem to say anything in one sentence! I will try harder next week. Short post, short post......
But then I  do only post once a week.. I don't say boo or a moo all week and then I get on here and I just can't a shuta me trap!


Much love Suzie xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Vintage stitchery, a bit of Cath and a helping of kindness!

Hello you lovelies!

How is life treating you all... very well I hope!

I love this time of the year, don't you? All changes.... buds bursting forth and gardens and widlife springing to life. You just can't help but to feel brighter on a spring day pregnant with hope and promise! That is the spring day being pregnant... not me! Now that would be a blooming miracle!!!!

This is one of my cross stitch designs ... my take on spring, and my own verse too I may add. Yes I know, I will never make it as a poet! Ha ha ha!

Even the country is standing at the starting line of new beginnings, changes are afoot, and no matter what our individual views on it all are, it is a very interesting time to come. A little scary perhaps, and unsure, but this last week has been a historical one in politics! I am finding all a little scary I must say! I wait with baited breath to see the future unfold..... People have been getting bees in their bonnets about it all, and we will wait and see now what is to come!

One of my stitchery designs... Think I may have put this one on before, so sorry if I have! Losing track!

I seem to have been drifting away from stitching lately and filling my blog with my drawing. There is good reason for this of course, and that is that all my stitcheries originate from my drawings and paintings, so they are close cousins!  So here are some charity shop finds for all you lovers of vintage stitching! These are not my designs, I found them in my local CS s.

Lovely spring inspiring beauties.....

I love this one, it is a table cloth, but it is badly marked in places, so it may be a job for the scissors maybe!I quite fancy using the pieces in a patchwork quilt for the bed , maybe!

I was rooting about upstairs trying to find something, when I heard some giggling coming from a box in the cupboard. Guess what? It was these two impish little girls and their cat who have been stuffed in a box in a very undignified way since we moved. I had forgotten all about my attempts at making ragdolls!

 

 

 

The top girlie has been embellished with some of my stitchery and my handmade buttons!

While I am still in the sewing theme... I am thinking of making a throw for a very tatty embarassing chair out of these fabrics and some embroidery... what do you think hey?

Ok! I can hear you! "Where is the Cath Kidston bit?".....  Oh ok! Here it is. I spotted this tote on the front of a magazine a week or two ago. My eyes nearly stood out on stalks! I actually let out a little squeal of delight right there in the middle of a crowded supermarket, much to poor George's despair! A free, yes FREE Cath Kidston tote bag! Straight to the till with that!

So cheerful, it brightens up my hallway! Off to the shops I will go! 

Before I go again, I must tell you all about a parcel that landed on my porch floor on wednesday. My lovely friend Jen at Themadhouse sent me these lovely gifts. I sometimes just can not get over the kindness of you wonderful peeps! Jen thank you soooooo much! I really must get my finger out to repay these kindnesses, as I have had a few so far, and I am going to see to it that I give some kindness back! You know who you are! So! Thank you so much Jen, you are a very kind and special person! 

A beautiful pin cushion, such a lovely fabric and a little label which says sewing! A very interesting book, which I just know I will love! Also a lovely thoughtful note, which I have partly covered to hide the address, of course!

Right then folks! Cheery bye for another week. I am off to water my seedlings and veggies now!  

Suzie xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx :)