A Halloween Smile :)

Hi Honeys
I hope you're well and enjoying Halloween.  We've had lots of tiny humans trick or treating tonight, mostly tiny witches and vampires but also an adorable fairy as well as a little angel. Too adorable!

I spent Thursday afternoon making up lots of little treat bags for visiting trick or treaters, with sweets, lolly pops and Halloween balloons inside and if we still have a few left over tomorrow,  no doubt Hubby will take them into work in the morning and leave them in the break room for co-workers as he always does 😊

We had such fun over the weekend at work. We were all asked to dress up and on Friday I wore a dress with way too many petticoats, a "pillbox" hat with a veil, added my pearls and some bright red lipstick and I went all retro ❤

On Saturday I wore a head to toe Hogwarts school uniform including my gorgeous scarf,  a gift from my dear Hubby, bought when he attended Comic Con earlier this year (thank you sweetheart, I love it and you of course x)

 
In addition to my scarf, I wore black trousers, a white shirt, black v neck jumper, a House tie,  a Hogwarts student gown and a fabulous velvet witches hat, another gift from Hubby (thank you sweetheart x)  I also had a wand and, of course, a small cauldron 😊

As any Potter fan knows it's possible to be sorted into school houses (and, of course, to have virtual wands chose us) at Pottermore. I was sorted into Gryffindor House but you might have noticed that Hubby bought me a Slytherin scarf.

My Hogwarts uniform simply had to be Slytherin honeys, to honour our beloved Alan Rickman so sadly taken from us this year.  I owe my love of all things Potter to Mr Rickman since having lost my heart to him many, many (really many) years ago, I only went to see the first movie because he was in the cast.

Dear Mr Rickman brought the Head of Slytherin House, Professor Severus Snape, beautifully, heart breakingly to life.  So, you can see why dear ones, there was no option but for me to be a Slytherin House student for the day and oh my what fun it was!

I lost count of how many customers asked me "where's your owl?" or "where's your broomstick then?" to which I'd smile and occasionally wave my wand in their direction, to be met with grins all round 😊

Later in the afternoon an adorable wee boy, maybe around six or seven years old, was staring at me. After staring quietly for a minute or so he asked me why I was wearing a witches hat.  I told him I wasn't really wearing a witches hat because I'm not a witch yet, but that I attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry so I'm only learning to be a witch.  

He replied "no you're don't!"

"Yes, I do" I said "why else would I be wearing a uniform?"

Silence for a minute or so and I continued chatting to the wee boy's Mum.

"If you really go to Hogwarts what are you doing here then?" asked the wee boy

"Well, have you ever seen older boys and girls helping to pack bags sometimes?" I said.  He nodded. "Well, if you're old enough they sometimes let you work a checkout too."

Silence again.  Again I chatted to his Mum and again this very smart wee boy mulled over what I'd said.

"If you really go to Hogwarts where's your animal?" He said.  "Everybody knows if you go to Hogwarts you get to have a pet.."

I reached into the little cauldron sitting by me at the checkout and lifted out my little frog and introduced him to my young interrogator.  "This is my friend, Theodore Arbuthnott the frog" I said.

"Why isn't he moving" he said.

"Oh, he only moves for me" I said "and everyone knows we're not allowed to do magic outside school.  It wouldn't do if a muggle were to see anything magical, would it?"

This darling wee boy looked at his Mum and said "Mum, I want to go to Hogwarts!"

😊 I hope you've had a fabulous Halloween dear ones, till next time, smile lots and hug even more,
huggles always * xx

* If, like me, you're a Potter fan you'll know we take "always..." really seriously 😊😘

Yummy Apple Crumbles Made From Apples Grown In Our Garden

Hi Honeys
I'm so sorry I haven't been posting very much lately. I'm still feeling terribly drained and run down due to a low blood count.  I'll be fine dear ones, low iron is something I live with it's just that now and again it gets fed up being in the basement and starts to dig 😞

Enough of this moaning honeys, today I thought I'd share a happy smile 😊 Do you remember our much loved little apple tree in our back garden? Hubby planted it for me and I've so loved watching it welcome Spring by bursting into gorgeous apple blossom the last few years.  You might remember that it even started to produce apples too with a first, single perfect apple in 2014 and with three apples last year.

This years apple adventure got exciting because I was actually in the garden with our furbaby Jade when the apples fell from the tree! Our dear wee tree has produced two full size Bramley apples, easily large enough and perfect to cook with and of course you know what that means...

I look forward to the day when our tree (which, at nine years old, is still very young in the world of trees) will grow a basket full of apples but for now I'm so chuffed!  This year the tree has grown two apples.  Two full size, healthy, beautiful Bramley cooking apples....

Even looking at this photo makes me smile honeys :)  Onward then to our crumble recipe!

A New Look For Autumn

Disclaimer: I haven't been paid to promote any products, just sharing my recent purchases from a new range.

Hi Honeys
You might remember I promised in a recent post about the Technic Cosmetic Advent Calendar that I'd share my order from Avon's new True Colour range, so today I thought that's what I'd do :)

I'm in a funk honeys.  There is zero self care going on around here and there hasn't been any Rosie care for a very long time now that I think on it.  The most I can do every morning is to have my shower, get dressed and run a brush through my hair.  It's simply not good enough.

As if the cosmos heard my thoughts, at that precise moment an ad appeared on TV for the new Avon range, promising to let us "say bye to your morning face in five minutes!"

Intrigued, I went to their website to find out more, only to find that since the range was new, most items were also around half price as part of an introductory offer. What's to lose I thought honeys and this is what I ordered...

Picture Perfect Project: October: Hubby's Fence building Project

Hi Honeys
I have to start this post with an apology! I'm so sorry this post is a week late honeys.  I haven't been feeling at my best, my bloods are terribly low again and while I have posts lined up, just getting them written & published is proving difficult right now.

It's time then for another post in the wonderful Picture Perfect Project, the fun link up which encourages bloggers to improve their photography skills, as well as the appearance of their blogs, by taking more photos.  Practice makes perfect after all :)

For my tiny contribution to the fabulous Picture Perfect Project I've been documenting a year in the life of our garden and what fun it's been!  It's so good to be able to look back at the past year and to re-live our gardening smiles :)

Autumn has finally arrived.  We've been lucky in that we've still had beautiful blue skies in place of the more common (for the west coast anyway) grey skies and constant rain for this time of year but the temperature is starting to fall now honeys,

Maybe not quite time for warm sweaters, mittens and scarves yet but certainly there is a change in the air.  Most noticeable in the early morning when Hubby takes Jade for her walk.  Jade has her jacket on now to keep her warm on walkies.

 
The garden too has settled down and is beginning to prepare itself for it's winter nap.  Our tiny front garden though is still blessed with a little colour from the lingering roses...

Saying Goodbye To Friends & Hanging Onto Your Smile...

Hi Honeys
This has been such a sad few days.  My dear next door neighbours, loveliest couple ever, have decided to move out and have found their perfect flat/apartment.  I really am happy for them because they're so happy with their new flat but at the same time it feels, genuinely, like an end of an era.

We've been neighbours for over ten years and aside from missing them both terribly I'll also miss their two furbabies adding smiles to my day with hugs and kisses.  Having already lost her fur-pal Gypsy, the most beautiful of black labradors, who would come across our tiny cul de sac for play dates and hugs, a couple of years ago and her gorgeous golden retriever shaped bundle of joy and hugs fur-pal Sam very recently, both gathered by angels, I worry how she'll cope with losing another two fur-friends.

We've talked about adopting another furbaby to keep Jade company, if we could I'd adopt every furbaby who doesn't have a home bless them, but on a practical level Hubby's knees are not great anymore and I can't walk to the end of the street without awful pain, so walking Jade is about all Hubby can do. It's unfair to adopt a baby if you can't care for him/her.  Hugs and love we have in abundance but exercise would be a problem :/

I really (really) don't cope well with change honeys.  Even typing this I'm holding back a major anxiety attack.  Writing it down makes it real.  Of course the world around us changes and coping with that change is important and I will cope with it, eventually, but that doesn't make it any easier or bearable.

I grew up in a time and place, not so long ago, when everyone knew all of their neighbours.  The neighbours children grew up together and your parents neighbours would be known as "auntie" or "uncle."  I know I'm not alone in missing those happier days because I hear others reminiscing around me at work frequently.  Life moves so fast now, people don't connect in the same way and while neighbours may say hello in passing, there isn't the same community there used to be.

I've spent the past couple of days trying to take my mind off losing two lovely neighbours who became far more than friends by throwing myself into my happy place as a distraction...

The beautiful sunshine, and wonderful "drying winds" this past week have cheered me up honeys and as a bonus I freshened up lots of our bedspreads and duvet sets, not that they get to sit on a shelf long enough between washes to be anything else.  Will my new neighbours be friendly? Will they be happy to chat at the back door over the garden fence?

Time will tell dear ones. I've been told a few details so far.  I know they seem, according to our present neighbours, to be a lovely couple, that they have two daughters, no furbabies I'm afraid, but you never know.  Maybe they'll meet our furbaby Jade and might want to adopt a furbaby of their own :)

How do you cope with change honeys?  Do you have any tips to turn a smile upside down?  They would certainly be helpful now if you do.  I'm going to stay positive.  I didn't know our present neighbours before we moved in and look how we became such good friends, so onward to new beginnings and new friends. I hope.

I'm off to check on a rhubarb crumble I have in the oven for our neighbours, they'll miss my crumbles :) Have a fabulous weekend dear ones, fill it with smiles and hugs xx  Till next time, huggles always xx

Christmas Smiles In October: Cosmetic & Beauty Advent Calendars

Disclaimer:  I haven't been paid to promote any of these products, just sharing some online smiles and virtual window shopping x

Hi Honeys
I hope you're having a good week so far.  This past week I received my latest order from Studio.  You might remember the little organizing trays which I've put to fabulous use in our kitchen.  I adore those little trays so much I'm going to order another set :)

Also included in this latest order was something I've been curious about for a while now and have never gotten around to treating myself to.  Have you ever seen a cosmetic advent calendar honeys? I'd spotted one listed on the Studio site and thought "why not!"

I don't wear make up much, well lets face it (see what I did there? :) unless I'm at work or have a doctors appointment I'm at home so somewhere along the line I think I just decided it wasn't really worth the effort or maybe that I wasn't worth that tiny bit of self care.  I have to work on that.

To that end I'm expecting a delivery from Avon this week (I'll share when it gets here honeys) but for now back to the cosmetic advent calendar I ordered from Studio...

My first reaction when it was delivered was that the box is huge! I haven't had a cosmetic advent calendar before (although I'd heard of them) but I suppose I was expecting a box along the lines of the chocolate advents which appear in shops at this time of year but it's larger than those.  Let's have a closer look at this set and maybe a sneak peek at the contents then shall we....

Mini Kitchen Organizing Project

Disclaimer:  I haven't been paid to promote any products, just wanted to share my latest little organizing project x

Hi Honeys
Back again :) I'm sorry I've been missing for the past week or so.  I really needed a short break. I've been feeling very drained, I'm feeling much better tho so I thought I'd share my latest little organizing project in our kitchen :)

Have you noticed that sometimes even a tiny change in your surroundings makes you feel good? This week I had our latest order from Studio delivered and included in the order were these three organizing trays...

Set of 3 organizers: image & details can be found here

I already knew when I ordered them that I'd use these trays in our kitchen and that's what I did :)  The three organizing trays all have tiny silicone, non-slip feet on their bases. In addition, as you can see from the image above, the trays have a silicone inner layer to prevent their contents from sliding around, which would make them ideal as drawer organizers, but I had other plans...