Swap and goodies a plenty!

today is my sons 9th birthday and so we planned a lovely day out in York visiting the National railway Museum. Had a fab time, I oohed and ahhed over lots of old fashioned railway adverts and bits about days gone by. I came away with some fab postcards...


and then my son bought a train set and as we spent over 10 pounds we got another load of postcards free!
As we were in York I fancied visiting the Cath Kidston shop. I try not to be overly enthusiastic about her stuff as I do think most is vastly overpriced but I just wanted to see what a shop was like and so off we toddled. My dd who is 7 was oh so excited to go and was squealing with delight when we arrived. If I didn't look so shabby I'd have probably been mistaken for a yummy mummy who only buys her daughter CK or other designer stuff. But really my appearance probably discounts that thought!

It was a lovely shop, much bigger than I imagined too and had some lovely displays and goodies. I was very good and restrained and got myself the following:


I'm hoping to make a cushion cover out of the dusters as I have seen other people do and I wanted to try a bit of decoupage type stuff with the tissues and napkins.

Came out of the shop and my DH told me there was some other fab looking shops so I had a quick look, trying to remember we were out for my ds's birthday!! Almost directly opposite the CK shop was a fab shop with postcards, coasters, metal signs and other bits and bobs all with old fashioned adverts and stuff like that. So I got...



more postcards (!) and a couple of coasters. One for my DS and one for my dd. Can you guess which one is which? Lol, dd is getting all the dog stuff and ds all the war type stuff!

We were all really flagging by the time we set off for home so after a long journey home you can imagine how excited I was to find a parcel bearing the postcode of a lady who I knew was doing my swap. I desperately wanted my dh and his dad to go so I could open in peace and squeal with delight when I opened it, but that would probably have been rude of me to chuck em out ;) So I retreated quietly into the kitchen to open it and I was so pleased to see what I was sent. Viv was my swap partner and she spoiled me rotten by making me a fantastic bag, similar I think to the one's she's been making for herself and pictured on her blog.

I adore it. I have been so in need of a new bag for a while now and kept putting off buying one thinking I'd keep my old one a little longer. Now I don't need to do that. It's just great, and so well sewed. i'd never have done such a good job. My father in law said it was very me so high praise indeed coming from him.

Also included in the swap was a fab little roll that will go nicely in my bag to keep all my stuff secure and organised (how did Viv know I was a messy pup??)



and the most gorgeous fabric bucket in the most gorgeous bright spots and stripes (goes well with my ironing board :) ). I love bright rainbow type colours so this is just perfect.


Thank you so much Viv, I love it all and feel really lucky to have recieved such a fab swap that obviously had a lot of time and effort involved in making it.