Five on Friday - Getting Back to Some Normality

1. The first month, January.  The garden shows decay and darkness settles in.  It's always a tough month but if you look deeply you can still see some imaginative beauty.  I have been looking at the crispy, brown paper petals of my white hydrangea from the kitchen window, swaying in the wind, hiding from the rain and trying desperately to soak up any sun to dry its petals.  Now the skeleton starts to show which adds even more poetic beauty to this ever interesting shrub.

2.  I can now sit and enjoy the heady scent of the hyacinths that have finally opened in the house.  This was a gift from hubby when I managed to use my strength to walk briefly in the garden centre.  They greet me with their fresh colour and promise of spring (but let's get winter going first shall we!).  The useful case will be recycled again with even more blooms.

3. Those familiar routines are now in full swing.  The arguments first thing in the morning with the younger ones who swore blind that they had everything ready when asked the night before.

Daughter: Where's my bus pass?

Mum: Where you said it was last night!

Daughter: It's the wrong year!

Oh and my bag's broke!

Mum: RANTS!!

Normally I would be half way to work by the time they venture out into the darkness so I can avoid this stress, after all they are old enough to look after themselves, but my goodness they do test my patience sometimes.

4. With the house quiet, apart from the budgie chirping, Tia snoring and hubby trying desperately to keep away from his cabin crazy wife, I've been able to sit at my dining table and do some de-cluttering on the laptop, photography, read, answer emails, make lists.  Oh the joy and self appreciation.  I've even started a photography course on line and started questioning myself on things I want to achieve and are not so happy with.  I am really enjoying this as I have the time at the moment, it will be all change in February when I get back into my normal work routine.  The free course link is here and is called Makelight by Emily Quinton.  I've gone for this one to prettify my Instagram as I do love posting on this and following others.  Are you on Instagram?  If you are, please leave your profile name in the comments, I would love to visit you.

5. The glorious thing about today was the sun.  It actually made quite a strong appearance which was very unfamiliar after these awfully wet and windy weeks.  Little Tia sat in every space she could, chasing the sun in between the shadows.  She thoroughly enjoys the warmth and brightness.

The next thing on my list today?- writing the blog post on Chatsworth House Gardens!  I think I'm now organised enough to start.

Why not visit Amy at Love Made My Home for more Five on Friday happy moments along with Tanya's Willy Nilly Five and Cath's Fun Friday Favourites.

Wishing you all a really creative and happy weekend.

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Oh This Rain and My Stir Crazy Mind

It's been relentless.  Mild, wet and windy.  Flowers don't know what the season is and the birds look at each other thinking "do we start building or what?".  For those who follow me on Instagram, you will have seen this capture of a poppy in our back garden that is about to bloom!  It's January!  But, thinking POSITIVE, how lovely to see some colour out there.

Also,  with the weather being like a wet blanket and embracing my free time at the moment (I won't be back at work full time until February), I've picked up my crochet hook once more and started crafting my way through Lucy's granny stripe blanket but with my favourite colour combo of white cream/green/pink (they didn't have white when I went shopping before the surgery!).  I'm doing an hour per day and getting roughly three stripes done.

Now, also there has been a few changes.  For some time I have looked at my little area of blog space and wanted to change things but ended up just going back to how it was.  With my organised positive attitude that I am still embracing, I took advantage of keeping my feet up (after all Christmas and New Year is now over and everything is back to normal), and acted on a Tweet that I saw from a Blogger design website.  Boutique Website Design showed one template called Easy Living and I had the Eureka moment!  This was what I was looking for and luckily it was a Blogger template.  I've got to say that the instructions were spot on and just what a novice such as me could understand.  And so, what do you think?  There is still enough familiarity here but I love the font and I personally feel a little more organised and refreshed for 2016.

Today I didn't sit as much as the crutches had to come out as school shoes needed to be bought and last minute panic items that Miss Teen just simply couldn't go out and get during the two weeks holiday!  Teenagers - I despair!  The problem was the looks I got in the shoe shops from my gorgeous hospital supplied sandals, how the shop assistants wanted to get their hands on me!  Soon my dears... soon!  It's been almost four weeks and can say that the pain has subsided but they are uncomfortable if I am on them too long.  Oh the swelling if I over do it!!  Aren't they fabulous?!!

With the quiet days ahead with my two back into their routines, I can now go back through my camera card and relive some trips before Christmas.  Can't wait to put the posts together and then I will be back on track instead of just rambling on in my stir crazy mind.

Have a wonderful week and for those who are having to deal with this awful rain and flooding, my heart sincerely goes out to you.

A New Blank Page

So a new year starts and 365 blank pages stare at me excitedly once again.  I'm not one for New Year resolutions as they scare me with their threat of failure.  Once again I will ditch those pounds (as let's face it, we don't eat like that every day!), once again I will do more exercise (because the weather will get better... eventually), once again I will be more organised (as I don't have to rush about getting Christmas presents until the end of the year!)  Promising myself things because Big Ben has chimed at midnight will not help.  To me January 1st is another day with the difference that (and here is where I do get excited) a nice blank clean diary can be started ♥

Oh yes, my love of the note book/journal is at a height at this time of year and those that know me oh so well had wrapped me up some beauties for the tree.  I had actually bought myself a mighty oober humungous handsome devil before Christmas and have been itching to decorate and start filling in those gorgeous blank pages.  Two pages to a day!  Just waiting to be filled with the both equally exciting and the mundane thoughts running through my mind.  

Washi tape, coloured pencils, glue, postcards, sketches... yes, my plan will be a very thumbed and tatty book by the end of the year (don't you just love a tatty book?!).

I needed a cover though and as much trawling through Etsy and Ebay, I just couldn't find what I wanted, so a bit of shopping (very slow on crutches - but determined!), I bought these.

And then added them to the stash as I decided to make this!!

Well, correction, I did use some of the papers and supplies but didn't feel it was "me", and then found a Greenwich map and the creative juices flowed!

So, January 1st and the ink has just started to weave it's curves and lines in the book.  I hope that life will allow me even just an hour to work on this each day and that as the days turn into weeks, a glance will show exactly where I am from the tatty pages already thumbed.

Today has however been full to brimming with getting our home back to normal.  As I type this my feet are complaining and telling me off - what did the nurse say? "Absolute rest!", oh dear!  But it is so lovely to see fresh flowers dotted around the newly cleaned spaces.  It gives a real sense of achievement and makes me smile with so much content.

I only bought three bunches for £2 each, but there must have been six bunches per bunch as I ended up filling every vessel I could find!

My dresser is looking so neat and tidy after the festivities.  It had been quite cluttered but now my eyes feel cleansed each time I look at it, especially with another container full of flowers ♥

Another thing that I do think of at the beginning of the year is my word for the coming months.  Last year it was BALANCE.  How true this was, especially at the end of the year with me balancing my feet!  This year I am going to be bold and say...

POSITIVE

I lost my way last year and it reflected in my blog writing, my variety escaped me and I became more focused on my trips out and about rather than what was happening around me.  So with newly decorated and blank journal in hand (or should I say trolley!), I can look back at each week and remember all those lovely heart warming moments to share along with filling this jar with a positive thought from each week to unravel at the end of 2016.

So, with a deep satisfying breath I will publish this now for all my lovely readers (you are all so extremely special to me) and relax in my normal, happy home.  My big POSITIVE year now begins!

A very Happy New and Positive Year to you all.

2015 Review of Sweetbriar Dreams

I don't know about you, but once the last roasting tin, wine glass and gravy boat was put away, I breathed a sigh of relief!  Another Christmas over.  Another year now draws to a close and what a quick year it was.  Each month passed with disbelief that the next one was about to start.  With the unusual weather of extreme mild temperatures for December, floods throughout the country and stormy winds, it feels more like April.  Maybe that's why Christmas didn't feel like Christmas and it had nothing to do with my post op recovery!

There were lots of trips taken in 2015 to places I haven't seen for a while or totally new.

Bletchley Park     Southend on Sea        Chatsworth House

Highclere Castle - (The Real Downton Abbey)     Norwich

Melton Mowbray        James Herriott Country     London

There was however a very sad point of the year that fell on us at the beginning of April when our darling dog Coco was lost to Syringomyelia.  The life was sapped from us and will never be the same.  But one day as I was looking through some favourite pages on Facebook, a little face shone out at me. I showed the family and everyone was in agreement that this poor little rescued dog was going to come home to us.  After a while, operations and assessment, little Tia came to live with us and it was plainly obvious that she just wanted cuddles and to please.  She has now settled in, has her own Facebook page and believe me, guards my feet as if her life depended on it... well, her walks on her favourite Fen will!!

What I have enjoyed this year is escaping from everyday life and playing with my camera, both my bridge and my new mobile one, and that is one of my hobbies that I will be enjoying every moment.

Crafts once again were on the back burner, so next year I plan on getting myself organised to do more.  My fingers need to be busy!

So, what will 2016 bring?  Hopefully it will be a happy and healthy one (especially feet wise!).  I can't wait to be able to ditch the crutches and oh so beautiful sandals and be able to walk normally once again.  Don't get me wrong, I am so glad I had the operation on both feet, but for someone who loves to go walking and being out of the house, these last three weeks have been incredibly hard.  How I would have loved everyone to rally around but I am a control freak so why ask for something to be done when I clearly enjoy the pain to do it myself!  Yes, my own worst enemy!!  Bunion removal, two broken and pinned toes and the removal of arthritis is not going to stop me.

So, here's to a wonderful 2016.  I wish you all a very Happy New Year and incredible health to you and yours.

Cheers!

Christmas Decorations at Chatsworth House, Derbyshire UK

Well Mr Darcy, how do you do!  We have been waiting to visit Chatsworth House, the home of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire, with its Christmas decorations for simply months!  And so, what a way to end my 2015 blogging year with this sumptuous, gorgeous, exquisite house.

This is a picture heavy post for which I don't apologise.  I really wanted to share this with you while you relax during your days of sharpening the elbows for the shops and the madness of crowds.  Our trip to Chatsworth will be in two parts, the inside - today's post with its Christmas decorations to the theme of The Wind in the Willows and very soon the incredible exterior .

So, sit back and enjoy with your champagne and caviar!

For those of you who have enjoyed the 2005 Pride and Prejudice, you will know this bust of Mr Darcy.  This bust is the actual one used in the film and has a little sign to say that there is to be no kissing!

Sorry, being distracted!  The reason we came was to see the magnificent Christmas decorations and they certainly didn't disappoint.  The stately home is full of treasures and incredible architecture, so to see the top end of decorations and imagination was a marvel to cherish.

My favourite room by far was the library.  My obsession of owning a room full of books with a desk to write at, a dark colour scheme and a feeling of serene calm was here.  No need to look anymore.  I have found my perfection!

Further along the corridor, a room that would fill some people with dread.  Which fork do I use first?

The dining room was filled with the rascal voices of the weasels from The Wind in the Willows.  Smashing glasses, merryment and mischief.  

Some of the weasels were being particularly naughty though and hiding behind the curtains...

... and under the table!

A spectacular room with a wonderful way of engaging the book with the decorations needed to flow through the house.

Looking up as we walked through the many rooms and hall ways was just paradise for me.  The chandeliers were rich with their opulence.

And the plainer version was equally as spectacular, surrounded by exquisite statues!

The decorations continued throughout and the trees were so tastefully decorated making the statues stand out even more in their beauty in the sculpture gallery.

We were now upstairs which was equally beautiful.  If only there were no other visitors around, I would have very easily just slipped into this incredibly comfortable looking bed.  Couldn't you?

At the other end of the room, a very happy Mole was singing and enjoying a good bath in a cupboard! 

Another favourite thing of mine is to see a wash basin and jug.  It screams simple and beautiful times.  But oh dear, how strong were my feelings to move that lampshade to hide the line.  Seriously, it was very hard for me not to reach across and help it along!

Now this capture really made me smile.  In the stairwell the water heater was lit up.  The Duke and Duchess' water was being heated, and not by servants of times gone past.

Each room we visited showed off Christmas trees so beautifully decorated.

Mr Toad had clearly been very busy!

But now he sinks into his bed and relaxes for another full day of mischievous antics.

Once again, thank you so much for visiting and commenting.  My bandages come off tomorrow and my new feet will be revealed!  A little nervous about it but at least I will know what I need to deal with very shortly.  I can't wait to get out and about once more and life can return back to some normality.

I am going to take a little blogging break now to get the last bits and pieces in order before the big day, so until next time I wish my lovely readers a ...

VERY HAPPY AND MERRY CHRISTMAS/HANUKKAH

       

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