Growing our own

We are finally nearing the end with the renovations on the house and have even started making plans for our garden.  Although not in a poor condition when we moved in, it has been left mainly as was, untouched or tended save for the occasional mowing of the "lawn" and trimming of bushes. 

We are lucky to have a lovely old apple tree and a lot of the bushes and shrubs look like they may well have been in residence since the original owners took occupancy of the house.  We are only the third family to have lived here.  There is evidence in the garden that there might have once been a greenhouse and a path to a back gate.  Neither now exist.

My dream is to clear out the bushes above to make room for us to have a shed next to the garage and then a greenhouse for growing vegetables and over wintering plants etc.  Of course this is just a dream at the moment.  Not much chance of us affording a shed or a greenhouse but until we can, we have made a start in a little corner of the garden ....

We will be planting tomatoes, peppers and hopefully potatoes soon.  Watch this space x

This is a sponsored post but it is about something we are actually doing with our home.

Always been stylish me !

I am feeling particularly frumpy and out of sorts with my fashion these days. There never seems enough time to "think" about the clothes I wear. It wasn't always this way, so when I saw the April Tots100 blog hop I though it might be fun to show you just what a style icon I was back in the day !  ( remember these photographs were taken 30 years ago - gulp).

I was no Private Benjamin. 1979 aged 17 years in basic training for the army. They made us wear our P.E. Skirts for the two weeks until our uniform was tailored. Look how shiny my shoes are. All my own work, spent hours and hours of spit and polish bulling them.

1981 The coolest girl on the base ! Horrible itchy acrylic woolly jumper tucked into my high waisted jeans, coolest of cool leg warmers pushed down (of course) and pixie boots (the first time around) leaning ever so casually against the bonnet of my boyfriends yellow golf of was it a polo ? can't remember. The hairstyle of the day Joanne Catherall of the Human League of course !

1982 wearing the biggest style statement of the year courtesy of Kevin Rowland from Dexy's Midnight runners. Dungaree's! I had 4 pairs in different colours and also colour co-ordinated the tops ! Look at the telephone on the wall in my mum's house. ha!

1982 Then it all went horribly wrong ! Somebody told me having a perm would be good for my fine flyaway hair. I duly went to a German hairdresser on the base in Rhinedahlen and came out looking like a poodle! I was totally distraught, I ran all the way back to my room crying and spent two days trying to wash the perm out. Of course it only made it worse. When my boyfriend first saw me he turned and ran off! I ended up marrying him, should of known the marriage would be doomed from the start!

So there you go That's my Tots100 blog hop post.

WorldFoods Fusion of Flavours

I still think they sent me the email by mistake and will at any minute realise and withdraw the invitation.  Those who know me will know that cooking is not my *cough* strong point or rather something  I can, but prefer not to do.  I blame years of being waited on in the Army Mess.  

Anyway until I'm thrown out of this exclusive and rather imposing club I will continue to masquarade as someone who cooks and reveal my kitchen as requested.

Can you spot whats missing ?

There it is !  The essential cooker and hob.  Apologies for the microwave, we really don't use it that often .  If you look closely you might spot the Marie Claire cookery books ontop of it, never use them, just bought them because they have pretty cover pictures that match the colour of my kitchen.   The sign on the wall ?  Says it all really : Coffee, Tea or ME !

I love vintage and thrifted household items.  Here are a selection that I have out on display.   You can follow the progress of the renovation of our home on my The White Approach   blog.


So there you go.  My kitchen. Take a minute to pop over and like the WORLDFOODS fusion of flavours facebook page and you will also be able to follow us as we cook (or attempt to) our way to Asian cooking heaven !

Celebrate the wedding in Red, White & Blue

I know we all say it about our own children, but really, how GORGEOUS does my eldest son look wearing one of the Ralph Lauren Tees just in ! 

Available in Patriotic Red, White and Blue, they will be on the website in time to celebrate the Royal Wedding.

Meccano Space Chaos & Turbo

We were recently thrilled to receive some Meccano Space Chaos and Turbo Models for the twins from Meccano.  The boys loved the sets, although they needed a little help from daddy to put them together.  They combine the traditional view of Meccano (metal pieces with holes in them ) with some plastic components and futuristic design.

The space Chaos ships come in two ranges Silver Force set (on the left above and the good guys) and the Dark Pirates (on the right and the bad guys).  Both ranges transform into two ships.   Also included is a trading card  .  As is often the case in our house  Jarvis chose to be a bad guy and Milo the goody, I can confirm the good versus bad battle was rigorously fought, with lots of bashing and crashing, sound effect and flying around the house !  The ships survived to fight another day !

 Children  can go online on the professional and easy to use website to read about the quest, download card games, secret codes and videos.

The third set was from the Turbo range a selection of racing cars.  One clever feature is part of the storage case is used to form part of the car.    Suitable for 7 yrs and over they boys had no trouble putting this one together.  Its sturdy and well made and again combines the traditional look of Meccano with uptodate features.

If you are looking for an alternative to expensive chocolate Eggs this Easter, these toys priced at around £12 represent good value for money. 

This is not a sponsored post, we received no money for our review.