Rosies Latest Ikea Visit: Part Two

Disclaimer: I haven't been paid to promote any products, just sharing our outing and what we saw x

Hi Honeys
Back again, as promised, with more photos from our recent trip to Ikea :) If you missed yesterday's post you can see it here.  OK, I'll wait here, why don't you grab a coffee honeys, there is so much to see :)

 From the moment we walked into the store it was all change since our last visit. Summer is coming and Summer is a time to be outside enjoying the garden...

 There were barbeques, trolleys, patio furniture.....

 and of course gardening equipment too for those with green fingers.  I've always wished I had green fingers! I would so love to be a talented gardener but I think our garden grows in spite of me honeys :/

Into the elevator then to begin our journey upstairs, from where you follow Ikea's carefully placed arrows on the floor which guide customers around the store.  Other than slight panic at how crowded (and noisy!) the store was when we got upstairs my first impression was wow....

Rosie's Ikea Visit: Part One: GILTIG Collection

Disclaimer: I haven't been paid to promote any products, I just wanted to share our latest visit to my happy place :)

Hi Honeys
Today I thought I'd share some photos, as promised, from our recent trip to Ikea :)  I went a little overboard taking photos this trip though (sorry! so much to see!)  so I've had to split them into two posts :) This first post I've devoted to a new collection called GILTIG which really is pretty awesome.

Why not grab a coffee honeys and enjoy while we take a stroll through the vivid images and vibrant colours that make up the GILTIG collection...

Friday Smile: I Finally Have Instagram, Still Knitting & Peace In The Garden :)

Hi Honeys
Friday again already :) After my week off I'm back to work today but before I scoot off in a short while I wanted to share a few smiles with you :)

Firstly, as it says above, I finally have instagram :) Thing is I haven't worked out how to use it yet but once I do I'm so looking forward to snapping more photos and sharing them with you, especially now that the garden is starting to wake up again.  I have such high hopes for the roses this year!

In order to sign up for Instagram of course I had to retire my much loved Nokia :/ Sob! It's served me well my dear wee phone over the (many) years we've been together.  I adore this phone honeys. It was a birthday gift from Hubby in 2006!  Ten years can't be bad, can it?  Now though it's all change to this...

I still have to work this new phone out yet.  It's an android so it's (a little) like working my tablet but I'm sure I'll get used to it eventually.  If you have instagram, do let me know in the comments so I can follow you?  You can find me here.

In other smiley news I'm still knitting my little squares to complete the next row of my blanket...

This next border to be added to the blanket will have (eventually, I can't knit very fast) thirty six squares, all in assorted pretty shades (a great way to use up left over yarn.)  This next multi-coloured border will then be followed by another border of forty four of the lovely dark blue squares.

The blanket will then be completed by adding three rows of squares at the top and again at the bottom of the blanket to change the shape from square to rectangular.  If you'd like to see it, or knit along, you can find the complete pattern (with a graphic to download and follow) here honeys.

Last wee smile for today then, I snapped a photo of the trees in the lane which runs behind our home. These beautiful trees are so tall and stand watch over our garden.  Aren't those leaves just stunning?

In no time at all these same trees will look like this...

I snapped this photo one perfect afternoon last year, just after Hubby had arrived home from work. Do you remember honeys?  These gorgeous trees with the sun shining through are definitely worth a smile :)

Wishing you a fabulous weekend dear ones, full of smiles and hugs x  I'll be working late shifts today & Saturday but I'm hoping to be back on Sunday with lots of (too many :) photos from our recent trip to Ikea, including these adorable little guys...

Till next time then, remember to smile lots and hug even more, huggles always xxx

Latest Ikea Goodies & Planning Future Projects

Hi honeys
I hope you're having a fabulous week so far. The sun has actually arrived! Yaaay! So lots of laundry being done and hung outside to dry on the line :) Yesterday I ran out of laundry and re-washed some of our furbaby Jade's little blankets :)

I thought I'd take a break from editing my photos from our recent visit to Ikea (there are so many! I'll share soon though honeys I promise) and share what we actually bought while there and also maybe a couple of future projects we'll be using these items for...

Time For A Bathroom Update!

Disclaimer:  I haven't been paid to promote any products, I just wanted to share our mini makeover and hopefully some smiles :)

Hi Honeys
Apologies! This post should have been published on Sunday but I wasn't feeling at all well and long story short yesterday morning started with the worst asthma attack I've had in a long time.  That in turn left me pretty much flattened yesterday.  It was a pretty icky end (to say the least! Scared Hubby silly, I'm sorry sweetheart x) to what had otherwise been a fabulous week.

Last week had been a busy one, Hubby and I were both on hols from work to spend some time decluttering and organizing our home.  It was lovely getting to spend some time with my other half and it felt as if we spent the whole week laughing.  Who knew organizing could be such fun :)

Jade loved her Daddy being with us all week too, bless her :) Extra walkies!  On Saturday we went to Ikea for a few things for our home (I'll share those in another post, promise) and had such fun, even though it was really busy and oh my! The noise! Note to self: in future when we have the whole week off work go on a weekday! :)

Before we set off to Ikea I hopped online to try to find something nice for our home in Argos, since I still had a gift voucher from my lovely sister-in-law (thank you angel x) left over from Christmas.
Here's what I did with it honeys...

Every makeover show I've ever watched, every book I've ever read on the subject, always suggests to "shop your home" or use what you already have before buying new things unless that is you're tearing everything out and starting over.

Now, if money weren't an obstacle that's precisely what we'd do honeys.  In a heartbeat.  The "shell" bathroom suite I used to adore is just irritating to me now and with my arthritic hands it's also painful to clean too (thank heavens for my steam cleaner!) Unfortunately though we simply can't afford a complete re-model of our tiny bathroom so a mini makeover is the best we can do for now.

So, keeping the idea of "shop your home" in mind I went through what we had for our bathroom. Most of which (towels, rugs etc) are in shades of white and pastel or baby blue in order to match the wall tiles in our bathroom.  Most that is but not all...

Friday Smile: Yippee! New Books To Read!

Disclaimer:  I have not been paid to promote any products, I just thought I'd share my latest book related smiles x

Hi Honeys
Today's Friday smile is one of the best kind of smiles... it's the smile when there is a very loud knock on the front door and outside is a delivery driver with a lovely box of new books!

Yesterday morning our latest book purchases arrived and it really did brighten my day... books always do :)  It's been a smiley week honeys.

I've had Hubby home with Jade & I all week, we've been working on organizing two bedrooms and the upstairs landing where most of our book collection/mini library is stored on bookcases, we're hoping to make a trip to Ikea before Hubby goes back to work on Monday and (as if that's not enough reasons to smile) the garden is starting to wake up and smile too. It's definitely been a smiley week so far, honeys :)  

I thought I'd share our new literary arrivals in the hopes that they make you smile too :)

Do you remember the "Stuff I used to know in school" series of books honeys?  It all began with a title by Caroline Taggart called I Used To Know That and has been followed by a whole collection of titles covering English, science, maths, grammar and many, many other topics :)

The Picture Perfect Project: April Showers Bring May Flowers

Hi Honeys
It's month four of The Picture Perfect Project for 2016! I'm so excited and I can't wait to share this month's pictures with you :)

Last weekend at work I was having a good old moan about the lack of sunshine when a lovely elderly lady tutted at me and reminded me of the oft quoted Thomas Tusser who famously wrote:

"Sweet April showers
Do spring May flowers."
-  Thomas Tusser, A Hundred Good Points of Husbandry, 1557   

Of course this very sweet lady, and Mr Tusser, were quite right!

As fed up as I am (and I so am honeys!) of the almost constantly grey skies and miserable rainy weather, I can't deny what's happening in our little garden :)

For this month's post in the Picture Perfect Project I thought I'd share a side by side comparison of our much loved roses, showing how they've grown in just one short month...

How To Avoid Adding Clutter To Your Home When Shopping!

Hi Honeys,
I hope you're having a fabulous, smile filled week :)  Hubby & I are using our week off work to plough ahead with decluttering and organizing our home but I thought before we started today's project, our upstairs hallway which is home to our mini library of books and CDs, I'd have a cuppa and share with you my tips on how I stopped buying unnecessary stuff and keep (potentially new) clutter outside our home where it belongs :)

Seriously honeys, Hubby & I are working our way through a backlog of many (many) years worth of collected odds and ends AKA clutter so the last thing we need is to keep adding to the already considerable task at hand :/

Something had to change and it did!  I can honestly say, with hand on heart that we neither of us buy anything anymore without asking ourselves the following questions...

6 Never Fail Decluttering Tips!

Hi Honeys
I hope you're having a great start to the new week, I can't believe we're a third of the way through the year already! Time is flying past again, just like last year :)

Hubby has taken this week off work, as have I, and we're using this week to have another mammoth clear out session.  Eventually we'll manage to make our home look the way we want it to but it's a process and I feel so lucky to have Hubby on board and helping.  

I thought today I'd share a few rules we're using to help us unload our mountains of no longer relevant and definitely no longer loved or wanted stuff...

Ham, Cabbage & Fluffy Mashed Potato - A Filling & Frugal Dinner... And You Get Soup Too!

Hi Honeys
Yaaay!  The sun finally made an appearance yesterday, after a miserable, rainy week!  So, naturally,  I spent the afternoon doing laundry and pegging it outside in the lovely, fresh (although still chilly) air :)  Is there any better feeling than standing at the kitchen window with a cuppa looking out at lines of laundry floating around in a lovely gentle breeze?

It can't just be me who loves laundry that much can it?  A dear friend once told me, long ago,  I had "an unnatural obsession with laundry" :) It still makes me smile.. a lot :) She's right, (love you Mimmy sweetheart x) I can't help it, laundry is my fun time, love it! :)

Having run out of laundry (boo!) I decided to plan dinner for Hubby getting home from work and since there was a chill in the breeze in spite of the sunshine, I thought I'd make one of his favourites. He works so hard, bless him (thank you sweetheart, love you too x)  

Well, since I was going to make one of Hubby's favourite dinners and since it really was a staple dish when we were both growing up, I thought I'd share the recipe because I'm curious as to where this was a common place meal.  Certainly it was popular in working class Scottish homes here on the West coast of Scotland.

I'm fairly certain, from what I've heard over the years honeys, that a version of this dish was also popular in Ireland too. Without doubt it was a popular dinner in working class households because it's very inexpensive to make.  I grew up on a council estate in a poor neighbourhood and while we didn't have money we did have everything we needed. I have such wonderful memories of my childhood honeys, and I wouldn't trade them for the world.    

We may not have had luxuries in 1970s Scotland but we did have fabulous, homemade from scratch food! There were no microwaves and no Scots woman worth her salt would have allowed a "TV dinner" in the house!

The smells that came out of our childhood kitchens! Heavenly! Such wonderful memories :) Hurrying home from school on bitterly cold winter days, knowing there would be a huge bowl of  homemade vegetable soup waiting and a coal fire to sit in front of :)

Super Easy, Super Yummy Baked Mozzarella Cheese & Red Onion Rounds

Hi Honeys
It's still raining down outside and I'm beyond fed up of waiting for Spring.  So yesterday, equally fed up with the constant rainy, miserable weather, I decided I'd ignore the nasty grey skies outside, make a huge crunchy green salad (yumm!) and pretend to myself the sun is shining and Mother Nature has come to her senses :)

Having decided on salad I went in search of a salad buddy... something I can make to serve with the salad and then I saw the mozzarella in the freezer and bingo! An idea was born :)

Poor Hubby has the patience of a saint :) He never knows when he'll come home to one of my kitchen experiments and he never complains :) What can I say, I love to experiment, I love to try new ingredient or recipe combinations to see what happens, it's fun :)

So, yesterday when I saw the mozzarella in the freezer.... in the freezer you ask? What are you? Some kind of nut?  Who keeps mozzarella in the freezer?  You can see why here honeys :)

What could I make with grated mozzarella that might be yummy with a lovely, crunchy green salad? Before I knew it, this had happened....

How To Find Free To Use Images For Your Blog

Hi Honeys
Have you ever wondered how to find pretty images to add to your blog without breaking copyright?
Did you know you could search for images and find them by the licence under which they could be used and modified (ie: by adding text) freely?

Writing a blog is a wonderful way of expressing yourself, through your writing and also through the blogs appearance.  Bloggers show their creative side through the blog design they use, the fonts they choose to write in and of course through the images they illustrate their posts with.

When I first started this blog I made the decision to take all of my own photos.  I've never been a girl who makes life easy for herself and I'm an "all in" kinda gal :)  Looking back now though at my earliest posts, well my goodness I have to go back and re-do some of my photos!  Blogging is, like any of our other life's endeavors I suppose, a learning curve and I've learned so much more than I knew then about editing and even taking the photos themselves.  Memo to self: go back, take more photos and edit those earlier posts!

So today's post I think I'll file under things I wish I'd known when I started blogging.  I'm far from being anything near a photographer honeys, I do though adore snapping away happily and learning about lighting, backgrounds and editing.  This blog has given me a new hobby and I'm so grateful because I'm having such fun :)

Still though, what if a blogger wants to write about something they find inspirational, something beautiful or something that means a great deal to them?  What if we can't just snap away with our ever present cameras and phones, what if the subject of interest isn't within travelling distance?  How does a blogger illustrate that blog post?

Friday Smile: Knitted Blanket Update :)

Hi Honeys,
April first already! Can you believe how quickly we're sailing through this year?  I'm sorry I've been so quiet this week, the elements are playing havoc with my aching joints so I've spent most of this week on our sofa hugging our furbaby Jade.

I have some posts waiting to be typed up and I'll make a start on them this week honeys, but right now I have to dash to work. Before I run off though I thought I'd say hello and share what's making me smile in the hope it might make you smile too :)

 Do you remember the knitted blanket pattern I shared a while ago?  If you missed it you can see the last update post here.  This post also has the complete pattern typed out if you'd like to knit along, if you do decide to knit along do share honeys? I'd so love to see your blankets too :)

Well, over the past couple of weeks I've managed to knit some more squares and this happened...

 I know it's silly but I can't stop smiling! I've checked (and our furbaby didn't mind at all) and this little blanket project is now big enough to cover Jade :)  Hubby has taken to calling it the Dr Who blanket because the row of multi coloured squares kinda looks like Tom Baker's scarf in the classic Dr Who series and I'm OK with that :) Next task for this growing blanket is a row of thirty six more squares to form the next outside border...