A blog about house refurbishing, my jewellery business, everyday life and my 2 cats.
Monday, 9 April 2012
Sunday, 8 April 2012
www.lilyesque.com
Here are some new handmade earrings that will be available on the website next week.
Pale pink pearl and rose crystal dangle earrings.
Purple and clear crystal dangle earrings.
Pink and clear crystal with breast cancer ribbon charm.
Red and silver foil lampwork glass beads with silver heart charm.
Purple and silver foil lampwork glass beads on silver chain.
Black bead and clear crystal with silver heart charm.
Blue and silver foil lampwork glass bead with silver heart charm.
Turquoise cracked beads with silver hand made charm.
Red glass and white pearl beads with silver heart charm.
Here are some new handmade earrings that will be available on the website next week.
Tuesday, 3 April 2012
OOh la la
Hello to you all and I hope you are all well. I can't believe we are at the beginning of April all ready this year is going so fast. This weather we are having is amazing for March/April.
We have recently bought and erected a greenhouse and are hoping to be able to provide most of our vegetables this summer. We have dug over the veg plots in the garden and planted potatoes, peas, beans onions, swede, broccoli, radish and spinach, and that's just outside. In the greenhouse we have tomato's, aubergines, various herbs, cucumbers, chilli's, peppers, cauliflower plus many more. I think we are going to have a different relationship with the squirrels as they do like to dig in the soil burying and uncovering their nuts. I do enjoy walking down the garden in the morning with my cup of coffee to have a look at what has made an appearance since the day before. I get more like my mum everyday :)
Our house up north is For Sale http://www.primelocation.com/uk-property-for-sale/details/id/QHGB9939323/ we had lots of happy years there and it is a lovely house on a very quiet cul-de-sac. At the back it overlooks a farmers field and has very pleasant views.
The bread machine is still going great and I will be making hot crossed buns this week in time for Easter, so I will let you know which recipe I use and how they turn out.
I now have added some tiepins and cuff links to www.lilyesque.com and they are going very well.
The sheep that used to live in the field next to us were taken away by the farmer a couple of weeks ago and I haven't seen them since :(
It was our 26th wedding anniversary on March 1st and we went for a meal at a restaurant called 1thirtysix on Ashford Rd http://www.1thirtysix.co.uk/ The setting is lovely, it looks like a country pub set back a little way from the road. Once inside though its a very classy restaurant that is bigger on the inside than it looks. I must say it was the best Asian meal I have had in a very long time, it was absolutely delicious. I would definitely recommend them and they do take-away too, superb!!
Whilst we were driving to the restaurant we spotted an antiques shop next to a garden centre and made a point of going the day after. the shop is great, really big with loads of stuff to browse around, we've already bought quite a few things and I can't wait to go back. The garden centre is Greenways, Ashford Rd, Ashford TN26 3LF and the shop is just off to the side.
We went on a booze run last week to Belgium, we haven't done it before but decided that we would be silly not to take advantage of living so close to the channel to nip across and stock up on some lovely wines and beers. So we booked the P&O ferry and left Dover at about 10.30am, 1.5hrs later we were in Calais. Getting on and off the ferry was very efficient and took no time, the whole thing was great, £84.00 return for the car and 2 people.
Belgium, well Bruges was very nice we had 2 days and 2 nights and I think that's enough to see everything. We stayed at Bonobo Apart Hotel, http://www.bonobo.be/. We had a lovely meal on Thursday at De Vlaamsche Pot www.devlaamschepot.be with some very nice Cabernet Sauvignon called Grandiose, delicious! Found a lovely beer pub on Wednesday afternoon called Beer Wall, there are many glass cabinets along the wall leading up to the pub with hundreds of Belgian beers in them, http://www.touristeye.com/Beer-Wall-Bruges-p-17205. I had a delicious red beer called Kriek and its a cherry flavoured at 3% so lovely for in the garden on a summers day ( a word of warning to the guys its looks a bit girly because its pinky red). We drove back on Friday morning and stopped at a place called Addinkerke for beers and then drove to Calais to a warehouse called The Calais Wine Superstore website www.calaiswine.co.uk where we got some fantastic bargains in both red and white. So looking forward to some lovely sunny weekends when my sun downers that became a regular Sunday afternoon habit, can continue again :)
That's all for now people, look forward to speaking next time x
TTFN
Mandy, www.lilyesque.com
We have recently bought and erected a greenhouse and are hoping to be able to provide most of our vegetables this summer. We have dug over the veg plots in the garden and planted potatoes, peas, beans onions, swede, broccoli, radish and spinach, and that's just outside. In the greenhouse we have tomato's, aubergines, various herbs, cucumbers, chilli's, peppers, cauliflower plus many more. I think we are going to have a different relationship with the squirrels as they do like to dig in the soil burying and uncovering their nuts. I do enjoy walking down the garden in the morning with my cup of coffee to have a look at what has made an appearance since the day before. I get more like my mum everyday :)
Our house up north is For Sale http://www.primelocation.com/uk-property-for-sale/details/id/QHGB9939323/ we had lots of happy years there and it is a lovely house on a very quiet cul-de-sac. At the back it overlooks a farmers field and has very pleasant views.
The bread machine is still going great and I will be making hot crossed buns this week in time for Easter, so I will let you know which recipe I use and how they turn out.
I now have added some tiepins and cuff links to www.lilyesque.com and they are going very well.
The sheep that used to live in the field next to us were taken away by the farmer a couple of weeks ago and I haven't seen them since :(
It was our 26th wedding anniversary on March 1st and we went for a meal at a restaurant called 1thirtysix on Ashford Rd http://www.1thirtysix.co.uk/ The setting is lovely, it looks like a country pub set back a little way from the road. Once inside though its a very classy restaurant that is bigger on the inside than it looks. I must say it was the best Asian meal I have had in a very long time, it was absolutely delicious. I would definitely recommend them and they do take-away too, superb!!
Whilst we were driving to the restaurant we spotted an antiques shop next to a garden centre and made a point of going the day after. the shop is great, really big with loads of stuff to browse around, we've already bought quite a few things and I can't wait to go back. The garden centre is Greenways, Ashford Rd, Ashford TN26 3LF and the shop is just off to the side.
We went on a booze run last week to Belgium, we haven't done it before but decided that we would be silly not to take advantage of living so close to the channel to nip across and stock up on some lovely wines and beers. So we booked the P&O ferry and left Dover at about 10.30am, 1.5hrs later we were in Calais. Getting on and off the ferry was very efficient and took no time, the whole thing was great, £84.00 return for the car and 2 people.
Belgium, well Bruges was very nice we had 2 days and 2 nights and I think that's enough to see everything. We stayed at Bonobo Apart Hotel, http://www.bonobo.be/. We had a lovely meal on Thursday at De Vlaamsche Pot www.devlaamschepot.be with some very nice Cabernet Sauvignon called Grandiose, delicious! Found a lovely beer pub on Wednesday afternoon called Beer Wall, there are many glass cabinets along the wall leading up to the pub with hundreds of Belgian beers in them, http://www.touristeye.com/Beer-Wall-Bruges-p-17205. I had a delicious red beer called Kriek and its a cherry flavoured at 3% so lovely for in the garden on a summers day ( a word of warning to the guys its looks a bit girly because its pinky red). We drove back on Friday morning and stopped at a place called Addinkerke for beers and then drove to Calais to a warehouse called The Calais Wine Superstore website www.calaiswine.co.uk where we got some fantastic bargains in both red and white. So looking forward to some lovely sunny weekends when my sun downers that became a regular Sunday afternoon habit, can continue again :)
That's all for now people, look forward to speaking next time x
TTFN
Mandy, www.lilyesque.com
Wednesday, 25 January 2012
2012, The Year of LILYESQUE
Well, long time no write...!!
Firstly I must say Happy New Year to you all and I hope you all had a lovely Christmas :). We had a great time and all survived the shopping and the festivities :). The Christmas Tree was one of the worst I have ever had, millions of needles all over the floor every morning and on the day when I took it down this was what was left behind...
I was lucky enough to get a smartphone for Christmas from my wonderful husband, it's the Sony ericsson Xperia Ray and I love it, I can even upload my blog from it just incase I get the urge to blog and I'm not near my laptop!
We have put the house up for sale http://www.bridgfords.co.uk/buy/search/WA3%203EJ and are hoping it goes quickly as we don't want to lose out on this one.
Our garden foxes (Freddie and Basil, I don't need to explain do I?) have not been strangers over the last weeks and it still gives me a thrill to see them through the window and its extra exciting when I get to see them in the flesh so to speak. I saw them both in the garden a couple of nights ago and Basil was limping, I hope its not a bad injury, I will keep you informed and put more pictures on when I have taken some more.
One of our squirrels seems to think he is a bird
but I suppose in this weather its every squirrel for himself :)
We had another visitor yesterday and I would like your help in detemining what kind of bird it is....
I've nicknamed him Kes but I'm not sure if it's a Kestrel, let me know :)
www.lilyesque.com has lots more products on the website so please go and take a look and it's FREE SHIPPING until the end of January 2012, which is great timing for Valentine's Day. I think I'm being stalked on the website, someone from London keeps going on and searching for pink adjustable ring, please just buy it!!! http://www.lilyesque.com/index.aspx?pageid=837028&chainID=89631&txtQuickSearch=pink+ring
It was my birthday last week and we went, as a family to a lovely Italian Restaurant in Ashford called Trattoria Romana, lovely staff, just the right size and very nice atmosphere.
Disaster struck just before Christmas as my bread maker that I bought in Australia broke and as it was Australian I didn't think there was much point trying to get it fixed. So I treated myself to the Panasonic SD-2051 and I am thrilled with it, its far better than my previous one. The bread is lighter even the granary bread is light and fluffy, it makes lovely jam too. I would definitely recommend it.
We have a job to do this weekend, the pump in the fishpond has given up the ghost so we have to take it apart and see if it can be fixed, I will let you know how we get on but my guess is it will cost us a new one....thats just our luck.
Right time to go and check if my website stalker has had another look for "pink adjustable ring" ... YES I have 4 at £3.99 each...buy one !!! LOL
TTFN and Take Care
x x x
I was lucky enough to get a smartphone for Christmas from my wonderful husband, it's the Sony ericsson Xperia Ray and I love it, I can even upload my blog from it just incase I get the urge to blog and I'm not near my laptop!
We have put the house up for sale http://www.bridgfords.co.uk/buy/search/WA3%203EJ and are hoping it goes quickly as we don't want to lose out on this one.
Our garden foxes (Freddie and Basil, I don't need to explain do I?) have not been strangers over the last weeks and it still gives me a thrill to see them through the window and its extra exciting when I get to see them in the flesh so to speak. I saw them both in the garden a couple of nights ago and Basil was limping, I hope its not a bad injury, I will keep you informed and put more pictures on when I have taken some more.
One of our squirrels seems to think he is a bird
but I suppose in this weather its every squirrel for himself :)
We had another visitor yesterday and I would like your help in detemining what kind of bird it is....
www.lilyesque.com has lots more products on the website so please go and take a look and it's FREE SHIPPING until the end of January 2012, which is great timing for Valentine's Day. I think I'm being stalked on the website, someone from London keeps going on and searching for pink adjustable ring, please just buy it!!! http://www.lilyesque.com/index.aspx?pageid=837028&chainID=89631&txtQuickSearch=pink+ring
It was my birthday last week and we went, as a family to a lovely Italian Restaurant in Ashford called Trattoria Romana, lovely staff, just the right size and very nice atmosphere.
Disaster struck just before Christmas as my bread maker that I bought in Australia broke and as it was Australian I didn't think there was much point trying to get it fixed. So I treated myself to the Panasonic SD-2051 and I am thrilled with it, its far better than my previous one. The bread is lighter even the granary bread is light and fluffy, it makes lovely jam too. I would definitely recommend it.
We have a job to do this weekend, the pump in the fishpond has given up the ghost so we have to take it apart and see if it can be fixed, I will let you know how we get on but my guess is it will cost us a new one....thats just our luck.
Right time to go and check if my website stalker has had another look for "pink adjustable ring" ... YES I have 4 at £3.99 each...buy one !!! LOL
TTFN and Take Care
x x x
Wednesday, 7 December 2011
Snow, Songs and Foxes
Well December is here but alas no snow.... I must admit one of the reasons we got homesick in Australia last year was hearing about and seeing the pictures of the double whammy of snow that you got here in the UK. We were very jealous!
I had a visitor in my garden last Wednesday, a beautiful fox. I saw him right down at the bottom of the garden in the little wood that we have but then he disappeared and I thought he must have gone into the fields next to us but just as I was about to turn away from the window he appeared from behind the shed and proceeded to peer into the fish pond then sniffed underneath the bird table...how cheeky :) Even though he is very handsome as you can see from the picture I now have to walk down to the wood banging a stick before I can let the cats out to play.
Www.lilyesque.com is ticking along nicely in the run up to Christmas, it was only a matter of time before word got around about how well priced my jewellery is, and there really is something there for all the ladies, young and a little older ;) so make sure you have a look at www.lilyesque.com .
Another reason to love this time of year is we can start promoting the Christmas Song that Colin and his friend Tony wrote in 2010. Its a fantastic rock n roll style Christmas tune called "All I want is Christmas" by The Summats. Its available on iTunes http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/all-i-want-is-christmas-single/id402973211 . This year I have promised the band that I will get it played on BBC Radio, so far I have sent it to Fearne Cotton, Chris Moyles, Chris Evans and Dermot O'Leary but not heard anything back from them. If you do buy it and like it make sure you get in touch with your local radio station and tell them to play it. It would be great to have a proper Christmas song at No 1 not an X Factor song AGAIN, although I do like the idea of the Military Wives song that will be released on 19th December, good luck to them as all the proceeds are going to charity. Have you all done or at least started you Christmas shopping yet? I have started mine but will have to carry on this weekend. We are going to check out the Christmas Market at Canterbury on Saturday or Sunday so I will let you know how that turns out.
We went to The Conningbrook in Kennington for a meal on Sunday evening which was very nice, they have a huge outdoor area that I am looking forward to going to in the summer.
Well happy shopping to you all and let me know what you think of the blog :)
You can folllow me @lilyesqueonline :)
TTFN
I had a visitor in my garden last Wednesday, a beautiful fox. I saw him right down at the bottom of the garden in the little wood that we have but then he disappeared and I thought he must have gone into the fields next to us but just as I was about to turn away from the window he appeared from behind the shed and proceeded to peer into the fish pond then sniffed underneath the bird table...how cheeky :) Even though he is very handsome as you can see from the picture I now have to walk down to the wood banging a stick before I can let the cats out to play.
Www.lilyesque.com is ticking along nicely in the run up to Christmas, it was only a matter of time before word got around about how well priced my jewellery is, and there really is something there for all the ladies, young and a little older ;) so make sure you have a look at www.lilyesque.com .
Another reason to love this time of year is we can start promoting the Christmas Song that Colin and his friend Tony wrote in 2010. Its a fantastic rock n roll style Christmas tune called "All I want is Christmas" by The Summats. Its available on iTunes http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/all-i-want-is-christmas-single/id402973211 . This year I have promised the band that I will get it played on BBC Radio, so far I have sent it to Fearne Cotton, Chris Moyles, Chris Evans and Dermot O'Leary but not heard anything back from them. If you do buy it and like it make sure you get in touch with your local radio station and tell them to play it. It would be great to have a proper Christmas song at No 1 not an X Factor song AGAIN, although I do like the idea of the Military Wives song that will be released on 19th December, good luck to them as all the proceeds are going to charity. Have you all done or at least started you Christmas shopping yet? I have started mine but will have to carry on this weekend. We are going to check out the Christmas Market at Canterbury on Saturday or Sunday so I will let you know how that turns out.
We went to The Conningbrook in Kennington for a meal on Sunday evening which was very nice, they have a huge outdoor area that I am looking forward to going to in the summer.
Well happy shopping to you all and let me know what you think of the blog :)
You can folllow me @lilyesqueonline :)
TTFN
Saturday, 19 November 2011
Babes in the woods.
As I said in my last posting, Colin and I went to our local pub for a meal on Saturday night. Its a small country pub but it has won awards for its food so we were both really looking forward to it. After the long walk (about 2 mins, tops...lol) Colin bought us a drink whilst we looked at the menu, he has been trying the local ales the last few times we have been in, which have great names like Spitfire, Shannons and one over Halloween called Spooks I think. Anyway they had one that he hadn't tried called Seafarers which he enjoyed very much, even though the ale in the South never seems to have a head on it like it does up North. The landlady said to let her know when we were ready and she would show us to our table, we had a choice of one right in front of the fire or one just through into the next room, we opted for the latter as the fire was roaring and we were already quite warm. I opted for the pan fried salmon with new potatoes and vegetables which was cooked to perfection with a lovely crispy skin and Colin went for the homemade steak and mushroom pie with new potatoes and vegetables that was also delicious apart from the crust being slightly over done. So our pub definitely gets the thumbs up from us and next time we will both be a little more adventurous with our selection now we know that they can get the basics right.
We decide a couple of weeks ago that last weekend would be a good time to start letting the cats out for short periods of time until they get used to where we live. Well out they went on Sunday afternoon and they had a ball. They were into all the nooks and crannies looking for mice and squirrels but I'm glad to say they didn't find either. The best time they had was in the little wood/copse we have right at the far end of the garden there are loads of leaves for them to scoot about in and lots of trees for them to climb so you can imagine when they finally did come in the were fast asleep in no time. Aww bless :)
Thanks for reading TTFN
Please leave a comment if you like :)
We decide a couple of weeks ago that last weekend would be a good time to start letting the cats out for short periods of time until they get used to where we live. Well out they went on Sunday afternoon and they had a ball. They were into all the nooks and crannies looking for mice and squirrels but I'm glad to say they didn't find either. The best time they had was in the little wood/copse we have right at the far end of the garden there are loads of leaves for them to scoot about in and lots of trees for them to climb so you can imagine when they finally did come in the were fast asleep in no time. Aww bless :)
Thanks for reading TTFN
Please leave a comment if you like :)
Monday, 7 November 2011
Remember Remember .....
It's been a pretty uneventful week apart from Bonfire Night on Saturday. We have missed the last 7 Bonfire Nights as we lived in Australia and Dubai so we were really looking forward to this one. The weather forecast didn't sound too good, wet and windy for the whole weekend. I'm not a fan of rain but wind and rain together...yuk!
Anyway we decided to go to the display at the local rugby club, they had a bar, food stalls and a band on. After paying on the door we made our way to the bar and we couldn't believe our eyes they were at least 10 deep, OMG! Well we got into the queue and waited and waited and waited for about 20 mins. When we were about 3 rows from the front one of the organizers shouted that they were just about to light the fireworks and the bar would be closing until after the display had finished. I was gobsmacked...all that queueing for nothing...we were not very happy bunnies. So we went outside and watched the fireworks, they were fantastic, money well spent. After the fireworks we looked around for something to eat but the queues were ridiculous, so we decided to get a pizza and go home to the X factor. I'm guessing the upshot of this story is that sometimes we remember things to be better than they actually are.
On Sunday we plucked up the courage to go into the garage and get some boxes out to sort through them, but that was as far as we got before we decided to go over the road to our local the Kings Head for a couple of cheeky ones. We have booked a table for next Saturday to sample the food there as its supposed to be really good, I will blog with the verdict next week. The boxes are here still unpacked but I'm sure we will get round to it sometime this week.
There's a new addition to our family as of 9am 7th November, a little niece for us called Ella and she is beautiful.
I thought my beadmaker was on the blink but I have discovered that it was human error that ruined 2 loaves yesterday...anyway enough about that :)
I did say it was an uneventful week :)
Please leave a comment TTFN.
Anyway we decided to go to the display at the local rugby club, they had a bar, food stalls and a band on. After paying on the door we made our way to the bar and we couldn't believe our eyes they were at least 10 deep, OMG! Well we got into the queue and waited and waited and waited for about 20 mins. When we were about 3 rows from the front one of the organizers shouted that they were just about to light the fireworks and the bar would be closing until after the display had finished. I was gobsmacked...all that queueing for nothing...we were not very happy bunnies. So we went outside and watched the fireworks, they were fantastic, money well spent. After the fireworks we looked around for something to eat but the queues were ridiculous, so we decided to get a pizza and go home to the X factor. I'm guessing the upshot of this story is that sometimes we remember things to be better than they actually are.
On Sunday we plucked up the courage to go into the garage and get some boxes out to sort through them, but that was as far as we got before we decided to go over the road to our local the Kings Head for a couple of cheeky ones. We have booked a table for next Saturday to sample the food there as its supposed to be really good, I will blog with the verdict next week. The boxes are here still unpacked but I'm sure we will get round to it sometime this week.
There's a new addition to our family as of 9am 7th November, a little niece for us called Ella and she is beautiful.
I thought my beadmaker was on the blink but I have discovered that it was human error that ruined 2 loaves yesterday...anyway enough about that :)
I did say it was an uneventful week :)
Please leave a comment TTFN.
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