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Raisie Bay

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My Sunday Snapshot, Christmas Lights Switch On

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Every year we love to see the fabulous Christmas tree in Bournville lit up, it’s a delight to pass by but it’s also fun to go and watch the Christmas lights being switched on. Last year it wasn’t made into an event because of the Covid restrictions, but this year it was all on again and the crowds were out in force despite the cold weather. We actually woke up to snow in the morning and the wind was fierce.

This year we were lucky enough to know about the disabled car park which is right next to the tree. My girls had already been dropped off to look around the stalls and entertainment but were freezing by the time we got there so we stood outside and they sat in the car to watch the Christmas lights being switched on. I guess Christmas 2021 has begun now!

We had a walk around with the Little Man but there was too many people and so many steps. We skirted around the outside not being able to get near enough to actually see any of the stalls or shops. Then we got back in the car and went home.

It was a lovely end to the week. I also had a fabulous day on Friday as it was my birthday and I was really spoilt by everyone.

We had a lovely take out from the Japanese and the kids had Dominoes. Then we played Jackbox.tv together as a family and had a good giggle.

Now I just have to work out when or how I’m going to put the Christmas tree and decorations up at home. Do you have your decorations up yet?

My Sunday Snapshot – It’s not a Kiss!

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The other day my two cats were on the coffee table, well for a little while until I threw them both off. They both wanted the place and were sniffing. It’s not a kiss! I had my phone in my hand so I took a photo.

Sabrina will always go up to Ash when he comes in to sniff him. She likes to know where he has been and what adventures he has had. It’s also a form of Cat greeting, so I guess, not unlike a kiss. But, they are not really friends.

Sabrina is a lot older than Ash and was brought home with her brother when we already had two cats. She is used to having other cats around which is why we got Ash as she was getting lonely with the other cats dying. She was always the small timid cat though, and being bossed around by the others. She was always last to the food bowl. When Ash arrived we had problems with the food so we now feed them in different places from different dishes. They do still sneakily eat each other’s food though. Sabrina will stand aside if Ash goes for her bowl, but Ash also lets Sabrina eat from his. We just know that as the bigger and hungrier cat, Sabrina would not get to eat much at all if we didn’t feed her separately.

I think Sabrina just about tolerates Ash, they have occasionally curled up together to sleep but not often. They don’t fight and I guess that’s the best thing. Sabrina is an indoor cat and Ash an outdoor cat and they couldn’t be more different. Sabrina is constantly find a lap to curl up on, whereas Ash would rather curl up in a cardboard box. We’ve tried cat beds but neither of them will sleep in them.

It’s not a kiss! But it is a cute photo.

Ash in a Basket

My Sunday Snapshot – Christmas 1991

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This week I’m back with old photos. I was looking through an old box of snaps and found some Christmas photos from 1991. At that time I was a young Mum of two living in my first house with my husband of five years. The first photo is my Christmas tree, and an impressive house plant.

I put it in the corner behind the tree because, well you know, I had toddlers! I look back now and I realise it was mostly because my eldest could not leave anything alone and had he been able to reach the tree he would have most likely pulled it down on a daily basis. Who needs pets!

This next photo shows some of my Christmas decorations.

Two Christmas stockings hung above the fireplace, handmade wreaths courtesy of my Mum who loved to make things like this and if you look in the mirror you can see that my ceiling was full of Christmas decorations. I miss the whole house covered look, I really do. Even if it was a real pain to do.

Look at the fireguard. A necessity with toddlers and a gas fire. We didn’t have central heating back then, the fire was the only form of heat in the entire house! We’d put the cooker on to warm the kitchen, but the bedrooms just required lots of blankets. Fire guards were ugly, but they were a good way of drying the washing if you didn’t have a tumble dryer!

Here are the presents, so this must have been Christmas eve because I wouldn’t have put them out before then…Father Christmas had to bring them.

Look at all those lovely gifts, the kids did well that year. Look at my television, but try not to laugh. It was top of the range and we had a meter on the bag to put our £1 coins in to pay for it! If we didn’t put the money in we didn’t get to watch it. Hilariously, the guy who fitted it put the wrong wire and we had to pay for our VHS recorder so we could watch television as much as we wanted but had to pay if we wanted to watch videos. We still made the payment every month though because we had toddlers and there was no all day television back then. We would pop up to the video shop and rent the kids favourites, Thomas the Tank Engine and Sooty and Sweep Show.

Christmas 1991 Presents

I can’t show my kids playing with their presents because I don’t have their permission to feature them on my blog. But I know that these were the favourite two gifts and they had many, many hours of fund with them.

For my boy who was three years old, his favourite present was his Big Red Fun Bus

This big plastic buggy was my daughter’s favourite toy, along with a baby doll. She was 18 months old so it was a great walking aid too as she was still finding her feet.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my journey back to Christmas in 1991. What where you up to back then…my guess is that you were mostly like my children and enjoying your presents under the tree (or the television 🙂 )

My Sunday Snapshot – Pumpkins for Blogtober21

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Today I am sharing some pumpkins for Blogtober21, I cant believe it’s the last day already.

Happy Halloween. We have a pumpkin and a big bag of sweets to share. The Little Man and his Dad spent the whole afternoon yesterday trying to find him a costume. I said they should have gone earlier as they found NOTHING. We will have to try and get creative if he’s going trick or treating tonight. I haven’t taken a single photo this week so I’m going to share some pumpkins with you.

We used to go to a local farm for a pumpkin carving event. It would be held in a spookily decorated marquee with dressed up witches and demons to assist. Everything was laid out, we just had to buy a pumpkin from the farm and carve away. They’d play spooky music on the CD player and we’d all have a great time. Pumpkin carving without the mess at home and great afternoon out.

Then Covid came along and the event was cancelled last year. I’m not sure if it was on this year but the girls are too old for it now. Even the Little Man is a bit old, it was generally aimed at younger children but the girls came along to carve their pumpkins and because it had become a tradition. Now, it’s too late and the kid’s are too old. We’ll have to find something else to do.

We have been creative in our pumpkin carving over the years. The one above features two Pokemon, always a favourite design. We have also stuck to the traditional scary faces and even made a puking pumpkin.

This years pumpkin is rather cute. I didn’t even know that Graham and the Little Man were working on it, but I guess it saved me the hassle. It has a lovely friendly smile and I’m worried it’s not going to scare any demons away from our house.

Blogtober21

Thank you for reading my Blogtober 21 posts. I know I haven’t managed everyday but I manage 20 days on this blog and 5 over on my other blog At Home A Lot That’s not too bad is it? I’ve not managed much in this last week thanks to half term being such a nightmare. Both me and Star have been poorly and we have had other issues on top. The week didn’t go to plan and the Little Man’s bedroom hasn’t been re-decorated.

I’ll post my Blogtober linky post for anyone who wants to post any of their posts they may have missed. Add as many as you like but spam will be removed. I have found some lovely blogs to read this October which is the true spirit of Blogtober.

Have a good Halloween and Happy November.

Linking up with My Sunday Snapshot as I do every week.

Don’t forget my Friday Linky (Which is still open until tomorrow if you want to join in with your Word of the Week)

And my Book Lover’s linky over on At Home A Lot which opens every month.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

My Sunday Snapshot – in The Pink (or is it?)

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Today I was going to share a photo of my latest crochet hat but it caused a bit of a stir on Facebook yesterday. I’ll explain more later but first I want to show you the pink sky we saw this morning. Maybe not that special but my Little Man seemed impressed so I took a photo. My Mom used to say, Pink Sky in the morning, Shepherd’s warning. (Red sky at night Shepherd’s delight.) It was a weather indicator, if it was red at night the next day would be fine (for grazing sheep) if it was pink in the morning the weather would not be so nice. It’s raining now.

The Crochet Hat

I took a photo of my latest crochet hat on the table in natural light. I thought it looked good so I posted it on Facebook. A local friend joked it would look better in blue and white. I live in Birmingham and the two main football teams are Aston Villa, claret and blue, and Birmingham City, blue and white. He had obviously thought my hat was claret and blue. I’d not even noticed! The hat is in fact cinnamon and grey, so I took another photo in a different light. Here is the same hat photographed in different lights, no filters.

It’s certainly made me think twice about taking photgraphs for my Etsy shop. I would hate to think that someone was expecting a colour that was different to the one they’d ordered from my pictures.

Anyway, the correct colour is the one on the left cinnamon and grey, and it’s a kid’s sized hat (age 5 to 10) I’ll be putting it in my shop soon. I’m already working on my next hat which is a different pattern and very different colours.