The Norty Corner

So here it is first post of the year and what a miserable day greets me as i type this. It is now February!!!! We seem to have bypassed winter and gone straight into spring, the daffodils are already out on the road sides and even the lazy little ones in my garden have been awoken far too early for there liking. The weather here is up and down, one minute we have storms the next we have beautiful sunshine, that's such a wonderful thing about British weather - you never know what you are going to get. So christmas....... , seems like forever ago now, we spent it at home just the 5 of us and of course our 3 furry family members. I was relatively organised this year and made several of these little Christmas cakes alongside the bigger one for us. They make great additions to homemade hamper gifts . I was studying pinterest hard for ideas for wrapping and found some great tutorials for turning wrapping paper into bags for awkward shaped gifts, and how to jazz up normal boxes t

Having sorted out the upstairs cupboard and organizing the duvet sets by placing them in their corresponding pillowcases, I decided to treat myself to a new Christmas duvet. I love all the folksy fabrics and the simple felted Christmas shapes that set those wonderful homemade Christmas scenes in the magazines, i am a huge fan of pinterest and i seem to be drawn to this style of late so when i found this duvet set and matching throw from George at such a brilliant price, I had to buy it. Throw £20.00 , Double Duvet £12.00 by George at Asda. The colors are perfect and the taupe matches my bedroom curtains and decor perfectly. i cant wait until it is on the bed!! Now i'm not the greatest at sewing, and my eyesight is not what it used to be either, so anything involving threading a needle was going to be a challenge. Having decided that creating my own designs of felting Christmas nostalgia would be relatively simple,  things didn't really go to plan. After a few bo

You can feel in in your fingers - you can feel it in yr toes. It's here that distinct drop in temperature at night although we seem to be benefiting immensely from an Indian summer this week during the day. Personally I can't wait to add the extra layers on .... I'm sure I will resemble the Michelin man this winter. I've managed to get a few chores of accomplishment done, one that I'm rather chuffed with- the defrosting of the Grey freezer, this symbolizes the start of winter and all the winter baking in preparation for being snowed in ( not happened EVER) and for the season of goodwill . The upstairs cupboard has also had a tidy up and having picked up a hint from pinterest on folding up duvets and sheets and placing in the corresponding pillowcase, all the duvets are sorted and neatly stacked. It came as quite a surprise to oldest son to learn that he has 8 single duvet sets now!! The bathroom had a bit of a spruce and the cupboard was raided for out of date l

And the reason for my tiredness would be the eldest son, who was out on the tiles last night. I mean I know that he is 23 now but once a mother always a mother and I can't sleep properly until I know he is  safely tucked up in bed. I woke several times and he wasn't home , by 4am , I had him pictured in gutters, mugged, kidnapped , eaten by a bear, you know the whole cadboggle.....and then ....oh yes I remembered that when I purchased my lovely iPad Air on which I am tapping away now, there was an app, a find my friends app. It is a find my son app on my iPad as I have no friends that wish to be found.  Eagerly I reached for the iPad which is never more than a few inches away from me, and entered the app. I eagerly waited as it flashed locating........... And then horror of horrors it came back location not found!!!!!!! WHAT?????? I couldn't shout at the app as hubby was sleeping next to me ( how does he sleep when I am writhing with anguish)  I pushed the icon of myself to

It's the most wonderful time of the year!!!! I love Halloween almost as much as Christmas. The air is changing - some leaves have already started to fall in the front garden which heralds the start of my most favourite seasons . I can think of nothing nicer than the wind howling outside while I'm safe and warm inside with candles flickering and a nice cosy throw over me too keep me snug. I'm looking forward to decorating the house again, I decided last year that I didn't want to go over the top with colour so I started collecting little bits and pieces that looked old. My plan was to hold a small party as our house isn't the biggest . I found a plain coloured witches cardboard hat in hobby craft for £5.00 which resembled the sorting hat from Harry Potter, so I set about painting it. I bought some acrylic paints from the range and set about painting it up layering on the colour it was quite easy I just kept going adding darker and lighter tones unt

I think without the doubt whenever i hear that the arrows are coming to do an air display i feel a shiver of excitement. I absolutely LOVE going down to the seafront in Weston and wandering down onto the sand so i can get some uninterrupted shots of these amazingly skilled pilots as the speed across the sky. I am no photographer i just aim and hope but each year i manage to get some fabulous pictures of them. These are some of the pictures that I took this summer. Here they come!!! There are some super facts about the Red Arrows on their official site or on Wikipedia. You cant be a reserve pilot in the red arrows if one pilot is away they will only fly with 8. If the main pilot -Red 1- is unable to fly, none of the Red Arrows fly. To be a pilot in the the Red arrows means you have to be the best of the best. Each pilot flies for 3 years and every year 3 pilots are changed.