Welcome to my blog! I'm not what you'd call a natural blogger but thought I might enjoy sharing a few thoughts about life in general and all the things that make a house a home.

To do download a PDF version of ButtonBlog, simply click on the title.

ButtonBlog - Issue 1 - June 2010

  

Mum's the word...

While flowers and chocolate are very nice, one doesn't last very long and the other is fattening (I should know). So let me help you find something a little bit different that shows just how much you love and appreciate her (or alternatively tells your kids just how much you want to be loved and appreciated).

She may not have worn a skin-tight outfit (not outside of the bedroom anyway) or intercepted meteorites on a daily basis but who always made sure that your dinner was on the table, that you had clean underwear, sacrificed her spit to clean your face and offered a shoulder to cry on when love wasn't all it was cracked up to be?

From retro bags to stylish bracelets, shabby chic decor to funky mugs, pretty yet practical kitchenalia for a mum who loves her kitchen to gorgeous gardening gear for the mum who loves to get her hands dirty, we've got loads of stunning gifts to please every kind of mummy, from the yummiest to the cuddliest.

 

New baby? No worries...

It's always a dilemma when friends or family have a new baby. You're not allowed to take flowers for the mother anymore and all the dad probably wants is a lie down (poor soul, all that hard work). So what to get them, and the baby of course? An outfit (to go with the other 37 they'll receive)? A framed picture for the... nursery (but will it go with their colour scheme)? A cute teddy bear (mmm)? So what about something a bit different.  

  

These are a few of my favourite things...

  

5 things to do in March... 

The 'green, green' grass of home...
Normally by now most people would be venturing into the garden to see what havoc winter has left behind it. But this year's cold season seems reluctant to leave us. Like the proverbial bus, for years we long for a white Christmas and then when it does happen it overstays its welcome. That said, the weatherman says, if we're to believe anything they say after our steaming barbecue summer, that spring is on its way and what a glorious one will be. I like gardening but the cold weather has persuaded me to stay indoors.  My husband tells me 'authoritatively' that this year is World Cup year and that football really is coming home. And so therefore the sun will burn bright, beer will flow and sausages will be burnt. I have a feeling that many wives and girlfriends will be spending a lot of time in the garden this summer. So last weekend, wrapped from head to toe in any thermal ware I could find, I stepped out of the door. After an hour I had cleaned and rearranged the patio and hung some lovely new lanterns around the walls. Then, in the hope that my dog has learnt to read over the festive period, I have also inserted a quirky cast iron sign into the flowerbed which shows a dog in prone position and reads 'No!'. I've also managed to adopt a great tool bag and stool, a lovely new seed box, a cute little bird house and a funky wasp trap. I've even set aside some patriotic bunting but no doubt this will rejoin the stock some time after July 11th (or very possibly earlier).

  

 You too could be a celebrity...
We’re all too familiar with the over-zealous celeb dropping in to wag their finger at us about the environment and then shooting off in their private jet to their exclusive islands made of Amazonian wood and tiger fur. But it seems that some inhabitants of ‘celebland’ have chosen a different approach. A growing number of stars including Cameron Diaz, Jessica Alba and Justin Timberlake have been seen picking up some milk and bread from the local store with an envirosax slung across their choulder. Chic and definitely stylish, the waterproof, lightweight bag holds more than your average carrier bag, is very nice to polar bears and comes in a variety of retro , pretty and stylish colours and patterns. And if it’s good enough for the likes of Timbertrousers, then surely it’s good enough for mere mortals like us. They're bound to create a stir in the shops or playground.

 

Now we're cooking...
Give your kitchen an extra bit of sizzle this year with some snazzy bits and pieces. And it just so happens that we have a fab new selection of kitchenalia. From retro Marmite to Emma Bridgewater, we stock a wide range of cool mugs and funky tins, pretty cake stands and beautiful food covers, 50s aprons and shabby chic storage - something for every taste, mood and budget.

 Dance your way into that bikini….
If you’re anything like me, you’ve emerged from your heavy knitwear and have started looking longingly in the wardrobe, dreading the trip to the shops to ask for the same outfit but in the next size up. Faced with the indignity, I gathered a few girlfriends and joined a salsa class. To be honest, my dancing's not much better than my will to lose weight and the sight of a gaggle of middle-aged, middle-class women waddling behing Carlos (not sure that's his real name) as he girates across the floor in his (slightly too) tight trousers and frilly shirt (open to the waist) requires parental guidance. But it really works, Not only are the wobbly bits disappearing but I'm also feeling strronger, more flexible, less out of breath and more alert. It's also a hoot. Any inhibitions we might have had went out of the window within the first ten minutes as we were all in the same boat (apart from Rosy who seems
more interested in following Carlos' wiggling hips into the sunset).

    

   

Dinner for 10...

So, I'm hosting a dinner party. Well, I'm not really but if I was, who would I invite - celebrity or mortal, dead or alive?

Stephen Fry (wouldn't everyone?)
Fern Britton (I'd like her as a friend)
George Clooney (he wouldn't have to say much)
Professor Robert Winston (sexy in a celebral sort of way)
Jack Dee (I once nearly wet myself watching him live)
Jeremy Clarkson (love him or hate him, he's never boring)
Judy Garland (I bet she's got a tale or two)
Agnetha or Frida from Abba (I always wanted to be them)
Neil Finn (he could happily sing for his supper)
Peter Kay (just his face makes me grin)

 

Full of the joys of spring...

By rights, we should all be looking forward to Spring with a bounce in our step. Now that we've finally completed all the jobs that traditionally follow the festive season. There's not a turkey or relative in sight, the house no longer resembles Blackpool seafront and yet, after all that, you're expected to return to work with renewed energy!

That's after, of course, you've fought your way through the crowds to return the nice stripy jumper your mother gave you for Christmas, despite telling her last year you didn't like either stripes or jumpers. Then there's the usual last-minute dash for school uniform when you realise that your children have grown six inches taller over Christmas.

And the garden? There's no escape there. Normally at this time of year, your garden would be emerging from its bit part in a Somme reenactment and bursting into life. But with all the crappy weather we've been having it has joined the ranks of field mice, hedgehogs and bankers and gone into hibernation.

Then there's the eternal dilemma of resolutions. You find 10, immediately drop five because they're never likely to happen, lose another two because you just don't want to put yourself through it, leaving yourself with the usual three - diet, money and giving up that one little thing which singularly gets you through each and every day.

So, how was your New Year?