Bargain Hunting!

ROLL UP ROLL UP TO THE CAR BOOT SALE....
EVERYTHING YOU NEED, EVEN A BLOW UP WHALE...
LOTS OF JUNK THAT SHOULD BE THROWN OUT....
BUT IF YOU LOOK CLOSELY THERE ARE BARGAINS ABOUT!

Hello again,

This week I am going to try not to spend the whole blog writing about the dog but it is hard. Especially as I bought her a new bright purple coat and it makes her look like “Super dog” in a cape! Rob absolutely refuses to walk her in it, as he says it’s bad enough being a 6’ 6’’ man walking a little girlie Jack Russell without her dressed in pink too! (I still say it’s purple not pink!)

Anyway moving on, this week we went to one of my favourite places to go on a weekend, the car boot sale. I think you either love them or hate them, but I always have a dream like many others, of finding that antique rarity amongst all the junk and making my fortune.

At one time I sold a lot of old clothes through an online auction site and used to try to sell car boot treasures on there too. My best one was a little egg cup with penguins round the edge that I bought for £3.50 and then sold for £24, as it turned out it was made by someone collectable. Unfortunately this success has not been repeated so far. I honestly did think that a thimble collector somewhere in the country would really want my Charles and Di wedding thimble, but unfortunately I was wrong. I couldn’t sell it for 99p let alone make a profit!

I think there are too many programmes like “Bargain Hunt” and “Cash in the Attic” that encourage people like me to think I can become the next David Dickinson, when I really have no idea what I am doing! After the Charles and Di thimble mistake I work on the advice they give you to only buy items that appeal to you, as well as thinking they might have some value.

It always amazes me what people think they can sell at a car boot sale. As we wandered around I saw; a tin of chicken soup; some value supermarket furniture spray; dolls with no legs or heads; books with no pages left inside; jigsaws with no pieces and cars with no wheels! I’m no snob, and enjoy a quick rummage in charity shops whenever I can, but even I draw the line at buying second hand underwear or pyjamas, but it’s all there at the boot sale!

In my house I have a cupboard that is known as “the cupboard of doom” because every time I tidy up in a rush, anything I’m not sure what to do with gets shoved in there out of sight. In there you will find things like sellotape, tea towels, screwdrivers, hammers, plastic toys, bouncy balls, books, stickers, old magazines and many other random objects. Some of the stalls at the boot sale look like they too had their own “cupboards of doom” and just emptied them straight onto the table.

Anyway, we began looking through the junk for treasures and the first thing that caught my eye was a tall oak table that is meant for putting plant pots on. I thought it would look very nice with my new lamp I had for Christmas on top. Part of the car boot experience is bartering with the sellers. So I asked the man how much, he made up a price, then I told him what I would pay, and then we met in the middle!

Next, I saw a family of 3 black wooden elephants and asked how much. This deal ended up in me paying £5 for all the elephants the seller had (7 in total), even though I only wanted three and being offered a free scotch egg into the bargain! I declined the Scotch egg, but now have more elephants than I know what to do with. At this point I thought I should stop buying things for my new house before it ended up looking like the car boot sale was being held there, and concentrate on my bargain hunting.

I saw a very nice looking pottery Tom and Jerry but the seller wanted £25 and I thought this was too much of a gamble. I have since come home and seen them selling on the auction site for double that, so perhaps I should have taken the risk. I don’t really like to spend more than £5 on any one item, as it really is just a hobby to me and then even if it doesn’t sell it’s not the end of the world. In the end I found a saucer with the original Pinky and Perky on it in good condition, with the pottery name and “made in England” on the bottom. It had a price ticket saying £3.50 and I had great pleasure in getting the price down to £3! I actually like it so haven’t decided yet what I will do with it. There were no others like it on the auction site when I looked, but I have found the matching teacup for sale on there so perhaps I will buy that and then sell it as a set!

I think it’s safe to say I won’t be appearing on the “Antiques Road Show” as an expert just yet but it’s still a fun hobby. Sometimes Rob and I will both buy one thing with a £5 limit and see who can make the best sale with it. I think I just have to learn not to keep all the things I buy as that isn’t part of the game.

If you are off to a car boot sale this weekend good luck with the bargains, and if you see any more Pinky and Perky china for sale let me know!

Thanks for reading

Ellie
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It's a dog's life!

WE HAVE A NEW DOG, HER NAME IS PIP...
OUT ON A WALK SHE LOVES TO SKIP....
SHE STANDS ON HER BACK FEET, PAWS UP IN THE AIR...
AND LOOKS LIKE A MEERKAT YOU CAN COMPARE!!!!

Hello again,

This week I have been wondering why people say, “It’s a dog’s life” to imply a bad or hard life. From what I’ve seen I think it would actually be rather nice to have a dog’s life! You get fed and never have to cook or wash up. You get taken to exciting places for a walk, you can lie down and have a snooze whenever you like, you have children ready and eager to play anytime you want to, and you get to snuggle up and have your back stroked in the evenings!

OK, that may not be every dog’s life and that’s why rescue centres are so important but it is pretty much Pip’s new life.

We have had her for three weeks now and she seems very settled in her new home. For the first few days she would follow me absolutely everywhere, including the toilet! She also seemed to be constantly shivering even when you were giving her affection. That has all passed now and she is happy to lie in her favourite place on the back of the sofa whilst I run around doing the jobs at home. She doesn’t shiver anymore when sitting on your lap at night for a cuddle. She just lets out the occasional big sigh! For a two year old I think she has had a busy life before coming to us. Apparently before her most recent litter of puppies she had two other litters previously. Considering she is only the size of a large cat she must have been exhausted by all those pregnancies and births!

It also became apparent that she has a fear of men. The first few times Rob came round after we had her she would always wee on the floor as soon as she saw him through sheer terror! (He has that effect on most people but really is very nice once you get to know him!) She also barks when she sees a man walking along the street and hides behind my legs, but runs up to ladies and children with her tail wagging. I think we have to put that down to a possible bad experience of men in her previous life. Now that she knows Rob she is fine with him and the accidents have stopped.

I have seen no evidence of the chewing and yapping that seems to be a Jack Russell’s reputation. In fact the first time I heard her bark was when the postman came to the door the day after we had her. It was actually quite reassuring to discover she did have a voice after all. She doesn’t chew anything up but does like to take anything that smells of me and cuddle up next to it. I usually find my slippers in her dog bed in the mornings! I just checked where she was as I am writing this and she is curled up on my jumper and bedclothes that are waiting to go in the washing machine!

We decided from the start that I didn’t want her sleeping upstairs in the bedrooms or on our beds. I know this is a personal thing, but in my mind she has a free run of the rest of the house and even allowed on the sofas, but bedrooms are special. I don’t even allow the boys in my own bedroom very often as I see it as my one place of sanctuary! Our house is quite open plan so this means at night she has to sleep in the kitchen/conservatory as it’s the only part you can close off. The first couple of nights she complained a bit but settled down after half an hour or so. She did manage “The great escape” one night and managed to open the door handle by jumping up and pulling down the shopping bags that were hanging on it! Very clever! I have a dog from MENSA! The bags have now been moved. Now she goes to bed happily when I go to bed and when I open the door in the mornings she doesn’t rush out shouting “freedom” so I know she is happy to sleep there.

The boys love her to bits but I knew they would after their longing for a dog to call their own for so long. She even does a trick for them where she stands up straight on her hind legs with her front paws in the air and they think this is hysterical as she looks like the meerkats in the commercials. Now there’s a thought, I’ve had my turn at being a minor celebrity appearing in adverts; maybe it is Pip’s turn now! Must get her an agent…

What has surprised me the most is how much enjoyment I am getting from owning a dog. The first time I left her while I went to work I wasn’t sure what chaos I might come home to but in fact there was no mess, no destruction , just a little dog with a wagging tail, bouncing three feet off the floor because she was so pleased to see me! It really is very nice to have such a warm welcome home. I also love the time in the evenings when, as soon as I sit down she will jump over and sit on my lap. I understand now why people say it is stress-relieving to sit and stroke an animal. I read somewhere that a study found that people who had dogs lived on average 4 to 5 years longer than people who didn’t. I don’t know if that is a true statistic or not but it seems to make sense when you think of the regular exercise and stress relief a dog will bring you.

We still have to keep her on the lead as she has some more immunisations due and the rescue centre also recommend you leave it at least 4 weeks before trying them without a lead in case they run off and don’t come back. She also needs to be sterilised as I think she has probably had enough of puppies so it will be a little while yet until we can take her to run freely in the fields. I am already wondering how she will cope with “The cone of shame” after her operation to stop her licking stitches. (If you have seen the film UP you will understand the reference!)

So in the meantime we are having two walks a day with the lead and I am hoping all this new found exercise will benefit me as well as the dog. It seems a much more reliable way of keeping fit than my normal plan of buying a new work out DVD in January and then ignoring it on the bookshelf by February!

Thanks for reading

Ellie

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We welcome in 20011 and add to our family!

HOW COULD I TOP 2010....?
I’D LIKE TO DO IT ALL AGAIN.....
IT REALLY WAS AN AMAZING YEAR...
AND MADE ME GRIN FROM EAR TO EAR!


Hello and happy new year to you all! I hope however you celebrated that it was a good one.

I have often found the end of the year to be a bit of an anti-climax. In my younger years before I had children I used to go out like most people only to find that pubs were charging you money to get in only so that you could spend more money once you got there. Everywhere was overcrowded and I seemed to have a habit of missing the actual stroke of midnight many times by being in the toilet at just the wrong moment! I often came home thinking: was that it?

Then during all the years with children I have normally been trying desperately not to fall asleep before 12 and waiting for the brief moment to let off a party popper and sing the wrong words to Auld Lang Syne whilst watching Jools Holland!

For the first year in a long time I actually had a baby sitter so Rob and I had the opportunity to go out. At first this was a very exciting thought, but then I remembered all my experience of overcrowded expensive pubs and wondered what we could do instead. It has been a year of a lifetime and I felt it needed a good send off. As luck would have it we were invited to a friend’s house for a curry. There were 6 of us altogether and it was one of the best New Year’s Eves ever.

We played a few games on the Wii, drank some wine, ate some very tasty curry and then laughed at how childish and competitive the men got playing Wii bowling! When the moment came we all sang the song and  I still don’t know the real words. Is there really a bit about baking cakes or were we all improvising?!

I actually felt quite emotional at saying goodbye to the year that had the best, and worst of times. Some of you may know that I lost an old school friend on my birthday back in March. We had been friends since age 5 at primary school and grown up together through all the teenage years. She was such a confident and brave person and I still say she is the reason I got where I did with Iceland. Whatever you believe, if nothing else, thinking of her strength pushed me to muster up more confidence than I normally have and to tell myself I should seize every minute and every opportunity and not waste time feeling shy or insecure and holding myself back. In some sense or another I know she was there, dancing the can can with me in those tiring 4 days of filming and I don’t think I could have done it without her!

It’s strange how some years seem to just plod along with nothing either very good or very bad happening, and then other years can be packed with such extremes of happiness and sadness. This year of course was also the year we made another dream come true and moved into our own house.

The boys have wanted a pet since they were old enough to speak. I resisted all the requests for gerbils, guinea pigs, hamsters and rabbits in the knowledge that after the first week I would be the one cleaning them out and caring for them. I would have liked a more interesting pet like a cat or dog but we couldn’t realistically do this due to always renting our houses and having to move regularly. This of course is another thing that is different now we have our own house. My friend Kirstein recently got a little Jack Russell cross breed from the local animal rescue centre and I spent quite a while cuddled up with her on New Year’s Eve at their house. I have since told Kirstein that I blame her for what happened next!

I made the mistake of having a look on the same animal centre rescue website, and that’s where I first saw the new addition to our family! She is a little Jack Russell called Pip who is 2 years old. The website information said she was unavailable at the moment because of having puppies 8 weeks ago. Despite this we went to the centre to have a look at the all the dogs and see some of the others. I told them that I had seen Pip on the website but knew she was still unavailable due to nursing her pups. This is where I believe in fate, they told me that she had become available that very day as it was the first day she had been separated from the pups. We were allowed then to meet her and take her for a little walk. The boys had seen her puppies on the website previously and had been saying “get a puppy mum, look they are so cute” but when they met Pip and she was so tiny and affectionate we all agreed we should reserve her immediately while we waited for the home check. I had already decided that I wanted an older dog and not a new puppy as I couldn’t stay with it at home all the time.

The rescue centre are very good at making sure their dogs go to appropriate homes and they checked our house and garden and gave us the good news that we could collect Pip the next day.

I almost felt like I did when I first brought the boys home from hospital for the first time as babies! It felt so good to be taking her away for a new life and lots of love. All the dogs are very well cared for at the rescue centre but it’s not the same as having a home and a family to call your own. The noise of continual barking is incredible and must be unsettling for them. When you walk past the different pens I can’t help thinking it looks like doggie prison despite looking after all of their essential needs.

I didn’t know what to expect when we got her home, would she be scared of meeting new people? Would she cry for her puppies? Would she miss her carers at the rescue centre? Would she chew things and dig things up? (Jack Russells seem to have a reputation for this!)

Well I can tell you more about how she has settled into the Taylor family life next week but the quick answer is that she has exceeded all our expectations and is probably the most well behaved loving and affectionate little dog I have ever known! In fact if anyone in our household needs extra training I would say it’s my own puppies, Sam and Luke rather than the dog!

Thanks for reading

Ellie

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Happy Christmas everyone!

CHRISTMAS COMES BUT ONCE A YEAR....
THE FAMILY ARRIVED WITH CHRISTMAS CHEER....
FUN AND LAUGHTER FILLED OUR HOUSE....
I WOULDN’T WANT TO BE ANYWHERE ELSE!

Hello everyone and I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas!

In our house the last week before Christmas can be a testing time. The children get so swept up in the build up they find it hard to contain their excitement and this usually turns into naughtiness. At least I know what to expect as I have seen it all before and know the pattern. Once the magic day arrives they turn back into nice little boys instead of horrible little trolls and peace and balance is restored again!

My favourite time is Christmas Eve. Although I had to work, we were allowed to finish early. So at 1pm I was rushing home to check on the website that tracks Santa, whether or not he had started! It is a bit of a routine now that we always go onto this website on Christmas Eve, and one I hope that will continue even as the boys grow and become older and wiser and more cynical about magic in the world we live in. It is an interesting time as Sam is 10 now and able to question things a lot more. I think he is developing his own ideas about Father Christmas but as Luke is still only 7, I try to protect him from growing up to soon. You have your whole adult life to develop cynicism, so in my view the longer it takes to get there, the better! I remember my own mum telling me that when you stop believing in Father Christmas that is the time he stops coming to you. She said when other children try to tell you at school that it’s really the parents, in their case it probably is, because parents have to take over once Father Christmas stops and I stand by that argument! The children had actually gone to bed by the time the web site showed Father Christmas’s sleigh flying over Bristol and landing at the millennium stadium in Cardiff to make his deliveries and for a minute I forgot I was nearly 40 and shouted to Rob “look, quick he is flying over Nailsea right now!”

The morning arrived and this year I am pleased to say it didn’t arrive until around 7am. I remember plenty of years when I have woken up to shouts of “wow look at this, he’s been!” “Mum can you open this, have you got a screw driver?” and felt a sinking feeling when the clock said 4.30 am! One of their stocking presents was a make your own comic set and this kept them busy for several hours whilst we waited for the rest of the family to arrive - so top marks for Father Christmas this year from me!

At around 10.30 my parents and brother arrived, the turkey went in, and the mulled wine went on. Some people find Christmas cooking quite stressful and maybe I’m just lucky with the family I have, but I think there is no point in doing it at all if you spend the day tearing your hair out in the kitchen. We are all very relaxed and I know that even if I burnt everything and ended up giving everyone a sandwich, my family would still all say it was wonderful as long as there were crackers, games and wine! Rob is very handy in the kitchen too and had prepared all the vegetables the night before with the children. They love peeling and cutting the veg as they get to use a sharp knife under supervision - something I would be far too nervous to allow, so I let them get on with it under Rob’s watchful eye and keep out of the way. I know it is good for them to develop a sense of responsibility and I’m sure their future wives will be very grateful that they know how to deal with a sprout!

Anyway without feeling under the stress and pressure of having to create a perfect meal the end result always seems to be just that, a perfect meal. No one was confined to the kitchen; we all helped and had a lot of help from Iceland too!

I never want to eat turkey curry for three weeks after Christmas so we had a turkey breast crown which was delicious and juicy and was the right amount for the number of people eating. We also had the prepared stuffing with the bacon on top and the prepared pigs in blankets. This meant there was time and space for Rob to make his own vegetarian version with veggie sausages and veggie bacon. My brother is vegetarian too but between us all we produced two versions of the best Christmas dinner ever without any dramas in the kitchen.

We all had some lovely presents. I had got new bikes for the boys that I covered in tinsel and put in the hall. (They took some hiding in the run up to Christmas and I am very grateful to good friends with spare garage space!) I got the response I was looking for, and they both seemed really happy with them. I had a beautiful lamp that is hard to describe but looks a bit like a huge red tulip bulb with sticks sticking out of it, it is actually much better than it sounds! Top marks to Rob as I had seen it in a shop window a month or so before and commented on how much I liked it and he must have remembered and gone back to get it.

I also had a huge mirror disco ball from my friend which I realise may not be everyone’s heart’s desire but I thought it was fantastic! It is now hanging proudly along with my blue neon lights in the conservatory and I am happy to say a boring old kitchen is rapidly turning into an authentic 1980’s discotheque, especially with the addition of a purple lava lamp too!

I can honestly say it is no longer a problem in my house to be out in the kitchen, with the music on and all my disco effects. I would happily stay out there singing and dancing, and perhaps even cooking for hours!

The icing on the cake was having a dishwasher from my mum. Yes, I know that might sound very grown up and boring, but she also gave me a wooden monkey that does trapeze tricks and a Spike Milligan book to balance that, and the time I save not having to wash up anymore can be used to do things that are much more fun, so it is the best present ever! I have never had one before and can’t believe how labour saving they really are.

We spent the rest of the day playing silly games like charades, consequences and playing “Just Dance” on the wii to burn off a few Christmas calories! It really was the best Christmas so far and unlike the soap operas at Christmas, there were no fights or natural disasters, just a really happy day!

I hope you all had your own perfect Christmas too. I realise that might mean different things to different people depending on your own routines and priorities, but whatever they are I hope it was good!

Please come back next week when I can tell you how we said goodbye to 2010 and welcomed in the New Year.

Thanks for reading

Ellie

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