IT'S THAT TIME AGAIN !!!! ..........

Well, we are now approaching December 1st, and, it's around this time that a deadly hush descends over our household .....
.......... Mr. Home starts to get a weird look on his face and his eyes glaze over and beads of sweat start to appear upon his forehead........ he opens his mouth and quietly utters those chilling words " It's that time again, isn't it ", he says in a very quiet voice.

I bury my head in my hands and quietly say, " Yes, I'm afraid it is ", and we peruse the calender for a time suitable for both of us to ...............................

CHOOSE THE CHRISTMAS TREE !!!!

It always has to be after work, therefore it is dark....VERY dark !! ..........

.......... and, it is invariably raining. It's either pouring with rain OR there has just been the worse storm of the year and everything is soaking wet and the wind is howling..........

.......... I am always wearing the wrong clothes, having been out for a Christmas lunch and then, running late, I don't have time to change ..........

.......... so, we arrive at the Garden Centre and, all of the trees are OUTSIDE, in the rain or freezing wind and we set about choosing THE ONE. We always have a seven footer so Mr. Home has to force his way to the back of the pile to pull out the one that I think could possibly be THE ONE, drag it out (remember, it's really wet) and hold it up, straight, for me to look it over. He has to turn it around, so that I can see it from all angles, until I tell him that it's not the one. This can go on for quite a while and we are getting soaked, me in my high heels and posh frock but, Mr. Home is sensibly dressed in waterproof coat.
Last year we had a bit of a disaster. I had spotted what I thought was a really good tree, but, just as we approached it, an elderly couple pushed in, grabbed it and proceeded to drag it to the netting machine. I was a little cross but, as luck would have it, I spied an even nicer one which was part of one of the displays. "Go and get that one " I told Mr. Home and, we both climbed onto the display, over some beautiful rusty railings and through some fake, decorated trees. Said tree was propped up in a zinc container. "Just pull it out" I said. Well, pulling it out was a bit of a problem. It seemed to be stuck. We pulled and we pulled and, the upshot was that the tree would not budge . It was caught on the railings. The railings all fell over like dominoes , knocking the artificial trees down. All of the decorations fell off of the trees and, three reindeer's of varying sizes made out of twigs, fell to the ground. Mr. and Mrs. Home were seen running as far away from the display as they could....AND...... I think that they have CCTV there !!!! We will try not to do anything like that this year. When we do find THE ONE, we have to go through the whole process again, on a slightly smaller scale, when we choose.......... .......... HOLLY and ...........

.......... MISTLETOE !!!!!!!!!!
I have to say that, after the tree has been chosen, we have a lovely time as, the Garden Centre that we go to is beautiful. There are always coach loads of people who come from all over the country and many foreign tourists who visit. They have the most wonderful Christmas display and, an outside ice-skating rink, where we sit, with a drink, and watch the skaters while we listen to Christmas carols.
I am hoping that, avoiding all disasters and divorce proceedings, that our tree will look something like the one above. I wish you a happy time, choosing your tree and hope you avoid any of the little mishaps that seem to happen to us, every year.

Jackie

TO SLEEP, PERCHANCE TO DREAM ..........

The other day, just hanging around on my sofa, I was wondering what would make the perfect bedroom ?
There is so much choice out there nowadays, it's enough to give a girl a right royal headache..........

.......... what sort of room would be good enough to take your beloved bunny to have a wonderful nights sleep and dream the night away ?

.......... is comfort top of the list or is the decoration more important ? .......... a good mattress or 10 ?..... or is an en- suite top of your list ? Here are a few that I like .........

Some cool blue ticking sheets and
pillows and a lovely shabby chic mirror ......... make sure that the mirror is put up properly. Could give you quite a fright if it falls on you in the middle of the night !!

I do love an iron bed and the end of the bed is a great a great place to hang your lingerie .....

I love this unusual headboard and you must supply a comfy place for your family pets !! .....

..... how about this for a children's bedroom. Couldn't they have fun, up there in the eaves of the house ?

How gorgeous is this bedroom ? A little bit girly without too many frills.

I really like these sparsely decorated rooms with a couple of over-stated pieces of furniture........

.......... but then again, I love all of these quilts and cushions, pillows and curtains......oh, the choices we have makes choosing so difficult.

I like this look as well. Distressed, just the way I like it, but made sharp by the addition of the black and white throw.

Well, put me in here with a supply of food and drink and I could stay there for days, reading all of those magazines.

If storage is at a premium, hang your undies on the wall !!

I think that clutter can look pretty good. don't you ?

.......... and don't think that the garage is the only place to store your bike..... stick it in the bedroom !!!!

Well, I'm off to dream of the perfect bedroom and float off to sleep on the river of dreams.
What would be your perfect bedroom ? I'm in a quandary.

Jackie

UP THE APPLES AND PEARS ..........

Sitting amongst the fallen autumn harvest of windfall apples the other day, I was reminded of cockney rhyming slang. To explain....a Cockney is someone who is born within the sound of Bow Bells in East London. I think that, maybe, some of you have heard of Cockney rhyming slang. Apples and pears means stairs. Brown bread - dead.......Boat race - face....... Dog and bone - phone ........ Frog and toad - road ......... Plates of meat - feet ......... Trouble and strife - wife and there are many, many more. So, today we are talking about the good old apples and pears - stairs. .......... and how about these for a set of stairs. You do feel a bit dizzy when you get to the top. My friend has a spiral staircase and it's not something to attempt after a glass of wine.....or two !!

That plant reminds me of the plant that is dying when E.T. is dying and then it comes back to life when E.T. starts to get better.......... a lovely old staircase.

A beautiful blank canvass, ready for someone to bring it to life.

I love a collection of pictures on a staircase.

See ..... I told you that spiral staircases make you dizzy. She has had to stop for a while to try and get her centre of gravity back !!

Now, forgive me for repeating myself. This is obviously the same photograph as the earlier one but I didn't realise as this one is much 'whiter' than the other version and it has been taken at a different angle. Someone was obviously playing with photoshop and it has messed up my post, because I thought that they were different staircases !!! Oh, never mind, have another look at it....it is a lovely room. It deserves a second look.

More pictures up the stairs....looks good, doesn't it ?

This one just makes it into the 'Apples and Pears' post. You can just see the stairs in the bottom left hand corner. What a gorgeous open plan house.

Well, I'm off up the apples and pears to my Uncle Ted with a nice cup of rosy lee.

Nite nite.

Jackie

LAMPLIGHT ..........

Laying in bed this morning, fiddling with my dandelion seed heads as you do on an autumn morning, inspiration was at a premium. Then, I thought, I could do table lamps and it would be a bit of a cheat as I can show rooms at the same time so, here we go ..........
One of my favourite pictures, old lace and a beautiful Edwardian lamp..........

.......... a simple lamp but what fantastic shutters and a wonderful view .........

Another simple table lamp in a gorgeous cottage setting ..........

They've gone a bit mad with their lamps in this one, haven't they ? A lovely room though..........

Isn't this a great idea ? Can I class these as table lamps ? ..........

.......... love this one, not just for the great industrial type lamp, but also for the lovely distressed shutter.

.......... the trouble with this one is the flex....it doesn't do it any favours. It's one of the problems of table lamps..........

.......... this is so pretty. Lovely distressed bedside table and a fresh bunch of flowers from the garden.

Do you think that I'm obsessed with distressed furniture ? Well, I am !! Isn't this wonderful ? I love the table, the door, the glass dome, the plants........ oh, and of course, the lamps.

Well, we have come a long way from the time when we lit the lamp to find our way to bed. We are in a new phase now, where we are going to have to use energy saving light bulbs. Maybe, in a few years we will be back to candlelight .......... maybe that wouldn't be a bad thing ?

Jackie