Mug Swap!

I'm taking part in Jennyflower's mug swap!

Go check it out to join in the fun!

Journey to the centre of the Earth.....

Or more precisely, the centre of England. Also entitled a quick stop off on the Journey to the Garden Centre.....Can you hear that? It's Jules Verne turning in his grave.
The centre of England is, as the plaque above says, traditionally the village of Meridan, and every so often Mr.M and myself will say to one another "We should pop over and have a look...." (because basically we're a couple of saddo's, that's as in sad not masochist)

....7 years later we did! Not ones to rush into stuff are we? And it took all of 16 minutes to get there from our house! So there we are, pulled up on the side of the road looking at a large statue to the cyclists of world war 2, wondering why it doesn't say Centre of England anywhere - except on the front of a charity shop,

"Oh look a plaque!" I say

"Umm, Manhole cover actually" says Mr.M

All that's missing was a comedy pantomime voice shouting "It's behind you!!!"

So there you have it, The Centre of England on a Sunday, a large green roundabout with a couple of giggling saddo's on it.

And no, funnily enough, no one has ever suggested I go to work for the English Tourist Board...

Cat's eyes...

What do you mean, we watch too much telly in this house?

Eye Spy....My Best Memories of 2008

Continuing the Eye Spy game started by Bug and Pop....

2008 was the year of camping, (in a tent- not the Julian Clary variety of camp you understand...)

Very, very wet and windy camping, not once, not twice but thrice. Hardcore!!

2008: The great British summer. The year of playing on the beach in a fleece. With my trousers rolled up. I'm just sooo English.


2008: The year we all turned 40 together, 19 years after we turned 21 together.

At least this time we didn't celebrate with a night out that ended with 'sleeping' in Victoria Train Station. In March. I say sleeping, really it was shivering with your eyes shut. Yes, it was cold, so cold I still remember it 20 years later!

Ladies, here's to another 20 years of inappropriate nights out!

And at least I've stopped being annoyed at being 40, I'm far too pissed off at being 41 soon to worry about it!

Thanks to Kat at Kats Creations for this weeks theme!

And Finally for 2008....

The Calendars! Nothing like leaving it till the last minute, there is afterall a whole 7 hours of 2008 left!

November and December courtesy of Laura Ashley...
December's coy little lady only slighty stained by my efforts in the kitchen...

and I couldn't finish the year without sharing the following from the Wallpaper calendar.

Cool looking spacemen, well I say men..I think the bloke in the rocket is possibly half man half frog...amphibians in spaaace! (Anyone else remember the Muppets 'Pigs in Spaaaace!' no? Just me then!)







And finally the amazing poodle mermaids!! Click to get a close up, those poodles are in some kind of doggy nirvana looking at their little faces!!
So let me just wish you all a Happy New Year and hope all your New Year wishes come true!!!
(And your hangover's aren't too bad either!!;))

Eye Spy the Festive Beforemath.....

Yes, that should read Festive Aftermath for this week's Eye Spy theme, but I forgot to take the 'After' picture in all the excitment, oh well, at least I remembered a before picture!

I hope you've all had a Merry Christmas, full of turkey and joy!!

Eye Spy...

Eye Spy.... A Bit of Bling!

This weeks Eye Spy theme is from Hoppo Bumpo. It worried me at first as I don't own any proper grown up blingy jewellery, or anything blingy at all in fact, so I decided to go down the Christmas tree route - turns out I wasn't the only one! I made these tree bling wotsits probably 10 years ago, using air-drying clay and the beads leftover from my wedding dress. Quite appropriate to have a bit of wedding dress on the tree, as we got married on Christmas day 11 years ago! ( In Vegas, which explains Elvis being here!)

And as they were made to entertain a then 3 year old, here are the ones Bigski made, entitled 'Explosion in a glitter factory'.......

and I also Eye Spy.....a Burst of Colour

which was last weeks theme from Flossy-P, only I was rather busy sorting out the loft, 'tis a truly exciting life I lead...

Tasteful bright pink reindeer lives on the mantlepiece throughout December, accompanied by an equally tasteful purple reindeer, who is sadly antlerless after a tragic freak accident (any reindeer reading this DON'T try diving off said mantlepiece head first...it'll end in tears and a date with some ineffective glue!)

You too can join in the fun of Eye Spy over at Bug and Pop!

Think I need to get my eyes tested, just misread an advert for Nat West bank with the tag line 'helpful banking' as 'helpful bonking'......I know there's a banking crisis, but really, are they that desperate for customers?!!

Viva Las Christmas...

Been a quite blogger this week, but I have been getting christmassy...

Mr and Mrs Stockings made for the window display at the bridal shop where I work, created to hang on the fab fireplace that Nicky designed...

And the decorations at home are up, the girls did them when I was at work one night...a creative pair they are...sweetly tried to recreate what I normally do around the fireplace, only they couldn't find the sellotape....so they used this

DUCT TAPE!! at least it's silver and coordinates...

I do things much more gracefully, as you can see by who's straddling the top of the tree...

Viva Las Christmas!!

Red, white & blue....

Red...
white....
and blue.....
screen printed t.shirts for a little boy who was 1 at the weekend. The same little boy that I made the baby bibs for when he was born, remember? What do you mean you weren't visiting here then? Cheek!!

Bye Bye 'This is'...Hello 'I Spy!'

Sadly, 'This is...' is no more, boo hoo! Angela, the lovely lady at Three Buttons who has organised the meme for the best part of a year, has decided to call time on the weekly posts. I'm sad to stop it's been great fun, and of course has kept postings a little more regular for the naturally slap dash amongst us (ie: me!!)

So it's with great joy that I came across 'I Spy Sunday...!' another new weekly meme, started by Cindy at Bug and Pop!

This weeks theme is 'Eye Spy Something in my Garden!' and guess what I have to cheat already (well apart from being a day late....but we'll ignore that), it's winter and the garden is not what you'd call at it's best - if it were a person it would be mutton dressed as lamb, faded and passed it's best after one bottle too many of Pinot Grigio (always a good look !), so a photo from a few weeks ago will have to do, because everything always looks better with a layer of snow....

...and clever cropping out of the massive shed and giant trampoline!

And thanks to Curlypops for this weeks theme!

New Shoes for Christmas!

Is it a bird?

Is it a plane?

No! It's Super Shaz of the Shire single handedly saving the British economy with a totally unselfish act of Christmas shopping. Oh, the sacrifices I make!!

Does anyone else buy their own presents? I can highly recommend it, I do find it's a win ,win situation! :)

New on Folksy!

I've just listed this lovely ballet shoe bag over on Folksy. It's got the cutest little ballet shoes made from felt applique, complete with satin ribbon 'lacing' on a lined calico drawstring bag.
Obviously the perfect Christmas gift for any budding ballerinas, but these are strictly limited edition .......
took an absolute bloody age to make, so I won't be going into bulk production on these!

Whoa! I made my first Folksy sale!!

I sold a tea towel on Friday, didn't realize until Saturday evening because after obsessively checking blog, Etsy and Folksy, and emails constantly for months I didn't check them on Friday! Typical! A new and unique sales technique maybe - ignore your customers and they'll come a flooding in?!! And did anyone notice I switched the side bar to the other side of blog page? Apparently we scan pages across the top first, down the left hand side and then across the middle of the page, (imagine an 'F' shape). Did that on Wednesday, sale on Friday.....coincidence? I think not!

As Mr.M said "You've improved your sales by 100%!"

I think there was sarcasm in his smile.

This is..... my favourite thing from nature

This hydrangea is my most favourite thing in our garden. Truth be told, I'm a bit sentimental about it, it's a very well travelled plant. My Gramfie ( the same one from these photo's) dug it up from his garden in Somerset and gave it to us when we bought our first flat in London, about 14 years ago. Them we dug it up and planted it here, in Warwickshire, where it's very happy. And I'm just happy to see it every day from the kitchen window.
Thanks to Cloth and Fodder for this weeks theme, and to Angela at Three Buttons for the This Is Meme!

Giveaway.....

It's Sunday so it's giveaway result time!! I revved up the random number generator thingy, or got out the mixing bowl and got Mr.M to put down the beer, if you want to be truthful. As it turns out I'm an excellent multi-tasker. I can almost take a photo in focus while holding a beer. A talent like that is hard to come by you know.....

So without further ado....the winner is...drum roll please....

Swirlyarts!!!

Congratulations Lynsey! Drop me an email with your address and I'll pop your goodies in the post!

You WANT these!! You NEED these!! You KNOW you do!!

Screen printed denim tote and a linen screenprinted tea towel - just for you!
So what are you waiting for? Leave a comment here and enter the

Iris + Lily Handmade

GIVEAWAY!!

Remembrance

My Gramfie (on the right). WW2. Egypt?

Gramfie (on the left) WW2. Ceylon, 10th August 1943

This is....my favourite quote.

Burne-Jones (left) and William Morris (1890)

William Morris said,
'Have nothing in your houses which you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful'
Roughly translated to the 21st century that would be
'Stop buying useless crap!'

Favourite quote from my 14 year old?
'Be nice to your children. They pick your care home.'
Charming! And yet scarily true.....

Thanks to Strawberry Kisses for this weeks 'This is...'
More 'This is....' here!

Don't forget the giveaway!!!!

This is....100th Post Giveaway!!

So it's nearly a year since I first started blogging and I finally made it to 100 posts!
I started this malarkey mostly because I just wanted to join in with all you crafty gals ( and you Mr. Griffin!) and because of Iris+Lily Handmade. I got a Plan, which I think I'm well on the way with (especially the coffee and cake bits), in fact, I could actually do with coming up with The Plan-mark 2. I've managed to win a competition, started a new job in the wedding shop, started another shop at Folksy to go with the Etsy shop, and the lovely Lily and Agathe are going to stock the "She's Got Bottle" Apron and Tote Bag! Oh yes, I'm going to be stocked! Wouldn't have thought that a year ago!!
Oh Alright! I'll stop waffling now, you want to know about the giveaway!
You're gonna have to use your imagination for now because the bloody camera is being an arse again!!!! ARRRGHHH!!!!!
I'm giving away a denim tote bag, made by moi, printed with Spirograph's and a linen vintage spoon printed tea towel! Cool! You know you want it so leave a comment and I'll do the random number/pick a name out of the mixing bowl thing next Sunday (16th)!
*Update* ( Ha!! Did you notice I've got pictures now!! Whooaa! And it's only taken a year to work out I can get two pictures side by side!)

Looky here!

Looky what came in the post for me!

I spent my winnings.............

on three brand new screens and more ink! Yippee!!!!!

This is post 99, can you believe it ?!!!

And you know what that means, don't you? Blog post 100 is traditionally a giveaway ...and I wouldn't want to disappoint!

So spread the word throughout the land of blog , Shaz of the Shires is going to have a giveaway!!

She doesn't know what it will be yet, or even exactly when, but it will be THIS week! Just as soon as she stops talking about herself in the third person, which quite frankly is just plain odd......

I've been lucky enough to receive the Kreativ Blogger Award from the mightily talented Mr.Griffin, who does weave such a wonderful tale.

Firstly, I have to tell you six things I like;

1. Stitchery and printing. Obviously.

2. Cats. I always stop and talk and fuss random cats whenever I come across them on my daily business. Didn't know how odd that actually is until I wrote it...

3. Chocolate. Obviously.

4. Coffee. Hate tea. It smells awful.

5. Getting older, you realize what's important...

6. Doing nothing. Just thinking, daydreaming.....

Now I'm supposed to pass this onto 6 others, but there are so many talented and creative bloggers out there that I'm gonna bend the rules and pass it onto the first 6 visitors who pass by these here parts....so if that's you leave a comment and consider yourself awarded!

This is..... a favourite recipe I'd like to share

Are you sure you want cooking ideas from me? Because my first choice of recipe goes like this....
1. Put on coat
2. Exit front door
3. Cross road
4. Purchase some delicious chips, ask for salt and vinegar and curry sauce
5. Return to Chez Shazza. Arrange on plate, with addition of mayonnaise if desired
6. Enjoy!
But apparently Mr.M says that doesn't count, nor does giving you the telephone number of my favourite takeaway......Damn those men!

Which leads me to rely on Mr. Ramsay's rather fantastic cheesecake that feeds a lot of people, and looks very impressive for very little effort, always a bonus in my book! Sorry no pictures but it looks a lot like a cheesecake (because it is).

Baked New York Cheesecake (apparently serves 14- yeah right!)

1 1/2 Packets Hob Nob biscuits, crushed (or Digestives if you fancy)
75g butter, melted
250g caster sugar
800g cream cheese
pinch salt
2 tbsp pure vanilla extract
3 large eggs
for topping;
50ml soured cream
25g caster sugar
2 tsp pure vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 180c, 160c fan oven, 350F, gas mark 4. Mix biscuits, butter and 50g of the sugar. Line the bottom and sides of a 23cm spring form cake tin with this mixture, pushing it into the corners. Store it into the fridge.
2. Whip the cream cheese until soft and fluffy. Add the remaining sugar, whisk, then add the salt and vanilla and beat once more. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Pour into tin and place on a baking sheet. Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes until cheesecake set. ( It only takes an hour in my oven so best you check!)
3. Whisk together sour cream, sugar, and vanilla and pour over cheesecake and bake for further 10 minutes.
4. Decorate with berries to make it look pretty, before serving to your guests who will applaud you loudly! (I live in hope.....)

Thanks to Angela at Three buttons for this weeks theme!

Spoon Peg Bag

My Spoon Peg Bag has been included in a shopping list over at November Moon! It's the blog of Cathy Cullis an artist who creates beautiful textiles (you know I'm a sucker for a bit of stitch) and mixed media art pieces, and it's well worth a visit!

Oh yea, it's my blog and I'll self promote if I want to! Spoon Peg Bag is for sale over at Etsy and Folksy if you're in the UK!

New Jumper

Bought a new cardi....soft grey....
....velvet ribbon and big poppers.

Yummy Yum!