Hope and Faith

What a wonderful weekend

Well, my weekend got off to a wonderful start, when my friend who had gone to the Country Living Fair on the Friday had returned home with a spare ticket. My sister and I headed off for the day at9.30am. I had managed to get a ticket for £5.50 so it cost us just £2.25 each to get in!! I'm sorry, but is it just me or is £10.50 ridiculous just to get into the Country Living Fair?!!! If we had been unfortunate enough to pay the full £10.50 each we would have spent £31 alone just getting to the fair. £10 in petrol as we live 1hr and a half away. I know you can book tickets in advance but even subscribers to the magazine have to pay £7! Country Living must be rolling in it. As they charge a fortune for having a stand aswell. I would love to have a stand in the next couple of years, but wonder if it would be worth it. Anyway, sorry for sounding so negative.

The fair was lovely. Met a very nice lady called Lisa!!! Didn't spend too much money. Bought the cute little lavender heart below, some Lime Vodka for Calum from DemiJohn and a gorgeous wallet from Ness for me as you know I love Harris Tweed! How kind they were, they had run out so they phoned their store at the airport and asked for one to be brought over. Now that is service for you!

We didn't get home to Killin till about 6.30pm and was out by 8.00pm to the pub with friends. How pathetic, I was falling asleep by 10.30pm and wanted to go home because I was soooo tired.

Woke up fresh as a daisy on Sunday, somehow! Went to church and returned home to look after Murray. As I had Saturday to myself, Calum was having a boys day on Sunday and went to the cinema in Falkirk to see 300. What a gorgeous day it turned out to be! Officially british summer time began on Sunday and it certainly did it in style in Killin. The sun was beaming down, we even thought about having a BBQ! We  being Scott, Judith and their three, Murray and I went on a long walk up the village and out the old road to Auchlyne Farm. There were no lambs to see just yet but we are going for a visit with the Toddlers when they do arrive.

Then it was back to ours for juice and biscuits in the garden. Thats not me in the picture. Its our neighbour who lives upstairs, who we share our garden with. Its brilliant as she loves garening and as long as we don't make a mess we don't have to do much. I will be showing you lots of pictures of the garden over the next few months as it is spectacular when in bloom!

As Calum was showing no signs of returing home by 5pm Judith kindly asked if Murray and I would like to go for dinner. Mmmmm... Roast Pork! And a couple of glasses of wine. A perfect end to a perfect day!

The house didn't get any of our attention this weekend as we were both busy but when Calum returned, we took half an hour just to tidy up before we sat down to watch a dvd. Its all about TEAMWORK!!! I thought I should take a picture of my roses I got for Mothers Day before they start to wilt. So here they are.

Hope you have all had a lovely weekend.

Love Charlotte xxx

Simple Pleasures

I can't believe I just wrote this post out which took me about 1/2hr only to lose it!Anyway, here it is again -

Strange things have been happening in our household recently! I've become tidy! What gets between Calum and I is the house. I.e me not tidying it enough. Its not a bad thing, I just couldn't see that it was more important than looking after Murray. But its not. Its on an even keel! Having a happy home is just as important as having a happy family and I've found out that by having a happy/ tidy home, I have an ever happier family/ partner! It has recently become a pleasure for me to tidy. I, myself can hardly believe it! I've set a goal of 1st April to have the house immaculate. Spring cleaning, here I come! Someone must have sprinkled fairy dust on me. I don't know where this has come from, but let me tell you, I've never felt better!

I couldn't sleep last night so I got back out of bed and tidied the mantlepiece and shelf in the living room, put a load in the washing machine to go on this morning and tidied the bathroom! What is happening to me?

This morning I awoke at 7.45am, woke Murray up ( yes, he's a heavy sleeper - it's great!), and made Calum's lunch! I then proceeded to start the washing machine, scrub the work top till it was gleaming and make the bed.

As I'm tidying I'm also decluttering and have been listing a few things on ebay, so whilst Murray was eating his conflakes, I quickly nipped on to check how my things  went. To my delight, my barbour bag ( which I didn't use enough to justify keeping it ) sold for £50! Its on its way to its new owner in Sweden, lucky bag!!! And lucky me, more money to add to the pot for neccessary things like groceries, bills, and em...... more ebay purchases! Sshhhh... don't tell Calum.

My second simple pleasure of the day came at just after 9am whilst Murray was still (trying) to eat his cornflakes and I was looking at some vintage floral fabric. Mmmm! The sweet sound of mail being pushed through the letter box and a gentle thud on the floor could only mean one thing! My issue of Country Living had arrived! I sprang from my chair, quickly filtered through the other mail, then proceeded to engross myself in the pages!

In the picture, there is my diary, which helps to keep me organised. I'm not that busy but, its nice to have a pretty diary to write appointments in. Its amazing how pretty things can make us fell that bit better.

I only managed a quick glance through the pages, as by now, Murray had decided that the cornflakes would be better on the floor than in his mouth!!!

So we got dressed, tidied up breakfast and headed out for a walk. We took a trip to my sisters cottage, Fern Cottage, to deliver breakfast of bacon, rolls and orange juice, to her friend who was staying there.

After spending some time with Pete, and Murray managing to find the chocolate biscuits, we headed off again over the Falls of Dochart, Killin's no.1 tourist attraction and down the muddy railway track. On our way we passed Yellow Cottage. I would love to live in a house like this.

And to the left of Yellow Cottage ( I sound like a tour guide!) is Barn Cottage, a quaint little self catering cottage.

We then set on our way along the old railway line, over another bridge and arrived home just as Murray was falling asleep. Typical!! Murray is sleeping as Iwrite this. It won't be long till he is up and I really should get on with my cleaning. I'm enjoying being a mum and a home maker, but I still need to be creative to help me keep my identity .

Be back Soon

Lots of Love 

Charlotte xxx