This Week

This week I have:

Watched my pretty pink Hyacinth blossom in its big 'Friends' style tea cup!

Enjoyed finding some colourful buttons to fill my little tin with.

Purchased some lovely smelling hand cream for my oh so sore hands. Not only do they get very dry at work, but I managed to burn my palm the other day so they need soothing.

Added some new earrings to my collection.

(via Camden Market and Primark)

Matched said earrings to my outfit. Day One.

Day Two.

Bought some pretty pastel beady bracelets.

Erm...and a blue rose plastic bangle...

...And a gorgeous fabric covered bead necklace.

Not too naughty :)

What have you done this week?

XG

Collection Plus Three

So when does collecting become an obsession?

I'm not quite at that stage yet, but am consumed with thoughts of the treasures I might find if I just pop into one more charity shop, or drive over to that town to see whats there! 

Well, I drove (not too far though) and I did indeed find some goodies!

What was I saying just last week about hoping to find some pink bits and maybe even some yellow?

Well I have been ever so lucky to find these lovely plates and sweet little jug. 

Both the pinks are Rosedawn by Johnson Bros, and came from two different shops for a total of  £4.50.

And this lovely sunny yellow plate, just £1 and the first yellow of my collection :)

Its Delphatic Primrose, which I think is quite a similar shape to the Dawn range.

Lovely pink sandwich plate, perfect for Afternoon Tea, or my little idea to have a little tea party for my birthday in June, so I'd better get treasure hunting for that!

I can picture it now, some finger sandwiches, scones, cakes and all sorts of delicious home made goodies, served with a lovely pot of tea and individual little tea cups. Hmm must remember to follow through with my idea now that I've thought of it!

Total haul price: £5.50

Happiness Factor: 10/10

:)

XG

P.S A reminder to any lovely local London bloggers about the fantastic new Big Girl's Craft Club starting this week at Emporium Tearoom! All are welcome!

Big Girl's Craft Club

Today I am using my blog as a little promo space for a very exciting crafty event coming to Emporium Tearooms and Fancy Goods, where I work. A brand new club for crafty ladies to come together and get creative and inspired in a lovely vintage style surrounding.

'BGCC' is a crafty club were you can meet other creative people, share skills, work on crafty projects, together or independently. It is a 'learn from one-another' environment. You do not need to have any creative background to join, just come along and have a go! It is not a craft 'class' although sometimes someone will come along and teach the whole group something!

 Membership is £10 per year. Lovely refreshments will be available to purchase. You can bring your own project or buy a kit there! To join in and become a member email info@emporiumtearooms.co.uk or by calling 0208 883 3434.

If any lovely London bloggers are interested it would be fab if you'd like to join in. Emporium Tearooms is situated in Muswell Hill, North London and is just gorgeous!

I will be there with my half finished hexagon quilt top, hoping to make some progress with it, being surrounded by crafty inspiring people should hopefully help!!

To read more or take a closer look at Emporium check out their lovely website: 

www.emporiumtearooms.co.uk

Feelin' Blue

I mentioned a little while ago that I had started to collect Utility China, after falling completely in love with it on Flickr (and seeing it on some of my favourite blogs too)

I found some pink, some green and blue, but it seems blue is the easiest to find as I have been really lucky this weekend to have found two lovely blue pieces to add to the collection.

Firstly is this sweet little sugar bowl (it looks quite large here, but is really quite small) this has no maker name underneath (just "Made In England") so I am not sure which range it is from. Anyone have anything similar or recognise the style?

I also found this gorgeous shaped Greydawn jug, which is a really nice size, perfect for displaying some pretty spring flowers (note to self - buy yourself some flowers!)

So these have been added to the current blue collection below, which funnily enough is all different makes, and none of it from the same set, although they match beautifully.

Next on the wishlist, some plates or ooooh even some cups would be lovely, and maybe a dash of the creamy pastel yellow (and more pink!)

Found any lovely bargains lately?

XG

Baking and Organising

I didn't do much baking in January, mainly because I was trying to be very good after indulging (as you do) over Christmas, and feeling the need to have a healthier diet, more homemade, and less junk. 

So, although homemade, it wasn't healthy, so my baking stopped.

Until Saturday, the BF had wanted to make some blueberry muffins (after becoming slightly addicted to the ones he gets in the supermarket!) and so as luck would have it, this weeks Super Six at Aldi included blueberries. So we grabbed ourselves four punnets (at just 69p per punnet you had to!) and headed home to bake!

I had a little browse on my shelf of baking and cookery books (mostly baking, mostly pink!)

and found an easy looking recipe in one of my favourite books...

Muffins (well, cupcake sized muffins really) in progress...

Some new jars from Ikea helped to solve my baking ingredient storage problem (no one likes half empty bags of flour and sugar in the cupboard) and these were prettied up with some of my favourite and very useful  Cath Kidston stickers...

While the muffins were baking I organised my baking cupboard (I still need more jars, who would have thought I'd have four different types of sugar!)

And ping! They were ready, of course one or two needed to be sampled straight away, whilst they were still warm and oozy from the oven.

They are lovely, but are not storing well. Any tips on that? My fresh fruit cakes always go soft! 

How should I store them so that they'll keep? 

XG

Your Thoughts Please...

Thanks for all the rose love on my last post! Its always nice when people like the same things that you do. I am wondering whether you will like todays little post, theres not much to tell, but just wanted to show you this cute little jam pot I got in a charity shop the other week, I think it is quite a new one, but I like how it looks pretty cute in the kitchen! Sadly the spoon is missing, so I am on the look out for a little tiny spoon for jam!

It's quite sweet really, and I will be filling it with homemade jam come summertime as I really want to go back to the PYO farm I went to last year and go jam making crazy!!!

Now this, this here is possibly the find of the year, and also a tiny bit naughty of me?!

What you see here appears to be a lovely Cath Kidston bag, right?

Only, the thing is, this bag doesn't have a Cath Kidston label.

It's a.......f a k e!

Shhhh!

I'm sure some of you will frown upon me, but for £10 I was having it whether it was real or fake!! And I have been wearing it with pride! Don't frown upon me too much will you? 

Would you have bought it? Knowing it was fake?

Please leave me a comment and let me know, I'd like to hear your thoughts...

I'll leave you with this complimentary cute cat photo!

XG

**EDIT** for those asking, the bag was from a market stall in Islington!

x