Giveaway Winner!

Congratulations to Lissylou ... you are a WINNER!!

Woohoo! A GIVEAWAY!

I had a few extra followers over the festive period which took me to over 50 ... and as promised, I will be holding a giveaway to celebrate!

You will get an entry for each of the following:

1. Become a follower of this blog

2. Add my giveaway button to your blog

3.Follow me on Twitter

4. Leave a comment on this post letting me know whether you have done 1, 2 or 3 ... or all three!

I haven't decided on a prize yet ... it will be a surprise!

The lucky blogger will have their name pulled out of a biscuit tin at

9pm on 30 January!

Good Luck!

(A Bit Early!) My New Year's Resolution

I've woken up on a snowy, icy Sunday morning feeling a bit glum as we had planned a lovely family Christmassy afternoon - but I think that the roads will be too treacherous for my parents to drive down to London ... snow is only good when you don't have to travel anywhere. I'm really hoping that we will be able to get to my parents for Christmas ... I have been looking forward to spending Christmas with them since last Christmas (with my inlaws! ha ha ha). Actually, I have been looking forward to Christmas with my parents since the last Christmas we spent with them in 2008!

Anyway ... having relinquished my side of the bed to a 4 month old cutie pie, I am sitting in the living room with a steaming cup of tea reading a few blogs and thinking about the last few Christmassy things I need to get done....and planning my 2011 craft projects!

My new year's resolution for 2011 is ... to make a patchwork quilt!

Just the one resolution ... and am prepared for it to take the whole year ... but I just need to lay my hands on some lovely fabric ... hmmmm

The lovely Retromummy is having a fabric giveaway over at her blog - fingers crossed for me!

Go over and have a look!

I love bank holidays!

I hope you have all had enjoyable Bank Holidays?

We have spent the day at home, clearing out lots of our rubbish for either a car boot sale or the tip to make space for Baby Plum in our one bedroom flat!!

I am very proud of myself as I have finally got my sewing machine out from its hiding place and made a couple of cushions!

I used a pattern in CK's "Sew" book and am very pleased with the results ... the last time I made a cushion was in my Home Economics class many years ago!

I couldn't resist a little polka dot button on the back!

Ooh .... what's in the CK carrier bag?

The winner of my giveaway!!

Well done Kandi! Mr Plum picked you out of the carrier bag ... and something lovely will be winging it's way to you very soon!

Don't Forget ...

One final post while my inlaws are sorting out a slight hitch* with the caravan they are going to be towing to the seaside for us!!

Don't forget to enter my 200th post giveaway!!

See you in a week!!

* slight hitch means that we are still at my inlaws two hours later ... waiting for the RAC van and the prospect of spending our weeks holiday in the caravan in their garden and not on the lovely East Yorkshire coast ... but, I suppose it could be worse and we could have been one of the poor holidaymakers waiting for the ash cloud to disperse ... a week in Hull is not so bad.

Spoilt Rotten and giveaway winner!

One of my oldest friends came round for lunch yesterday ... we used to regularly meet up for cheese and wine after work but I had to cancel our last trip as I was suffering from morning sickness ... and hadn't reached the 12 week point ... and couldn't think of a viable excuse to get out of eating lots of (now, sadly banned for a while!) un-pasteurized cheese!

It was this friend who began my addiction to Philosophy's "Amazing Grace" range ... and she turned up with some lovely 'mum to be" pampering goodies from the Little Me Organics range ... mmmmm As soon as she had left to begin her trip back up to North London, I jumped in the bath and had a lovely relaxing soak. I am spoilt by my lovely friends.

And after a rather dreary day at work, I headed to the pool for a refreshing swim and to sort my muddled head out and got home to find that I had won my first ever giveaway!! Woohooo! You have NO IDEA how much this has cheered me up! The giveaway was over at Fondant Kiss ... have a look at her blog - it's lovely and perfect for a miserable Monday!

Fabric Addict Swap, My 200th Post Giveaway and other sunny weekend stuff ...

I have just signed up to Crafty Helen's First Swap! It's a Fabric Addict swap ... perfect!

Wasn't it a glorious day yesterday? I had to work in the morning, but that was okay because I could see the beautiful blue sky out of the window and by 1pm I was on my way to Covent Garden to meet Mr Plum at the London Transport Museum for the Suburbia exhibition. Mr Plum was, typically, 30 minutes late and incommunicado for that period ... so I managed to find myself a free curb in the Piazza and sat reading my new book The Resourceful Mum's Handbook (full of thrifty tips for not getting sucked into all the maternity and baby "must haves"), and listening to the nearby buskers!

The exhibition itself was okay. We had already spent a day at the museum itself, so didn't bother looking at the main exhibits again, and am glad that we had a 2 for 1 voucher. We found that we had already seen many of the Suburbia exhibits before, mainly because we have read about them, watched programmes about it, and attended a couple of lectures at the museum earlier this year. I am glad that we went though! If you haven't been to the Transport Museum and find yourself in London - I would definitely recommend it.

Under 16s are FREE and adults should make use of the National Rail 2 for 1 offer!

After that (and a piece of cake and cup of tea) we headed up to my FAVOURITE department store ... JOHN LEWIS!!! I was planning to get some wool so that I could start crocheting a blanket - but was overwhelmed by the choice of colours couldn't remember what I had in my yarn stash at home. So came away empty handed!

We popped to the Nursery Department and had another look at prams. Living in London and not being able to drive has had to influence our choice as I need to be able to get the pram off and on buses etc easily. Some friends had offered us their old pram for free - but unfortunately it was like a mini-tank and was not really practical for our needs. So we have chosen this one:

We had decided on this one even before we found it in purple!! Baby Plum in a Plum pram! It's nice and nippy and perfect for getting out and about!

This is my 200th post!!! And to celebrate I will be having a giveaway - and like last time, the gift will be a a surprise! If you would like to enter you can do any of the following:

Leave a comment on this post

Become a follower of my blog

Add the button to your blog (make sure you let me know!)

The more things you do ... the more entries you get!! The winning entry will be drawn from a cake tin on 1st May. GOOD LUCK!

Blogland is going giveaway crazy ...

The lovely RosieP turns 50 on Monday and is having a baking themed giveaway to celebrate ... have a look at her lovely blog here

I've got that Friday feeling! And another giveaway ...

Phew ... Friday at last! Why is it that the short weeks always feel the longest? And I have stupidly agreed to work tomorrow to earn some extra pennies for nappies! Ha Ha! Thankfully only working tomorrow morning and then Mr Plum and I will be heading to the Suburbia exhibition at the London Transport Museum. You have to pay to get into the Transport Museum (unlike many of the other large London museums and galleries), but we will be using a National Rail 2 for 1 voucher - these are fab and make a day out in the capital slightly more affordable (otherwise the Transport Museum is £10 each!!) Have you been?

So here I am, feet up at home (I had planned to go for a swim - but am too tired and think that maybe I will try for a Sunday morning swim instead...) catching up with lovely blogs, cats have come home (today they spent the whole day out in the sunshine and came in as soon as I got home!), and a new blog is discovered! Hurrah!

Check out Fondant Kiss who is doing a "New Beginnings" giveaway where the lucky commenter will get this beautiful necklace ... I love to enter giveaways - but never with any success! Oh well .... Not long until my 200th post giveaway!

As Chris Evans would say .... "Happy Fridays Everyone!"

Everyone's Doing Giveaways!

Have a look at Helen's blog ... she is having her first ever giveaway!

Giveaway at Kelly's Blog!

Have a look at Kelly's blog for another wonderful monthly giveaway!

A week off work ... and what shall I do?

Good afternoon!!

I am enjoying a lovely week off work ... and having worked eight days in a row last week - I think I deserve it!

Mr Plum is at work, unfortunately as he has a lower leave allowance than me ... so here I am, home alone (well - with two crazy kittens!) and a list of projects as long as my arm to do!! :) Where to begin ....

I realise that I promised you a giveaway back in August ... I didn't get very many comments on my blog, which was a little disappointing - but nevermind! Today I have finally got around to picking a winner!!! With a little help from Miss Pansy Plum .... more of that later!

So - what will I be getting up to this week? This morning we had our boiler serviced and had hoped to get our gas fire finally fitted - but that is going to prove to be more difficult and expensive that we first thought ... great.

I have just baked my first sponge cake for a cake competition at work ... and have enjoyed a lovely poached egg with mushrooms on toast for my lunch. I will probably pop out for a quick swim in an hour or so ....

Tonight me and Mr Plum are off to a special gig by Ian Brown - Mr Plum won the tickets and is very excited!! I last saw Ian Brown at Reading 1997 when he was still with the Stone Roses ... he actually stropped off stage in true rock star style mid set! I hope he doesn't do the same tonight!

I am planning to do a fair bit of tidying and sorting, a huge amount of knitting ... something cultural in town and just generally relaxing!

Okay ... on to the giveaway!!!!!

My five commenters ....

Here they are lined up on the sofa .... I wonder if there is a willing kitten who will help me pick the winner???

Of course there is!! Thank you Pansy ... and the winner is ...

GREEDY NAN!!!!!

Well done and thanks for reading my blog!

Autumn days ....

It's been a while since I last blogged ... not sure where the time has gone! I think it might have something to do with my (rather late) discovery of the Twilight Saga ... I have now read the three books which are out in paperback (and will see if I can restrain myself for a while longer and wait for Breaking Dawn to be released in paperback!). I even bought the DVD last week! For some reason these books and film had passed me by, but I picked up a copy of Twilight while walking in Guildford and am hooked! I am looking forward to the release of the second film in November!

This posting will be a bit of a catch up post! Here goes ....

I finally got to see the latest Harry Potter film! I know that it has had mixed reviews, but I thought it was fab!

Last night we had a new arrival! Yes ... finally, welcome to Plum Cottage Pansy and Twister - our lovely little kittens!!

Pretty little Pansy playing with my apron!

Gorgeous Twister!

We had a trip up North to visit the inlaws ... and watch the start of the round the world clipper race, a fly past by the red arrows ... of course a visit to Betty's in York! My favourite place ... we stocked up on tea loaf, parkin and a fat rascal!! YUM!

Mr Plum took some fab pics ...

I have also been busy harvesting my vegetables .... golden sunrise tomatoes and scrummy red peppers ...

More tomatoes and a green pepper ...

As promised ... here is the picture of my yummy coffee cake!! Mmmmm mmmm tasty!! You can never have enough buttercream!!

I haven't forgotten my giveaway! Sorry for being so behind with things. I will draw a name out of a cake tin tomorrow!

Random things to do on a Wednesday lunchtime when you find yourself near Waterloo station and my first blogiversary giveaway!

On a muggy Wednesday lunchtime, I happened to find myself near Lower Marsh Street, near Waterloo ... what a find this little street is! Of course, there is the wonderful shop calledfull to the brim with beautiful yarns and this lovely book which I stood drooling over for a good few minutes ... what a lovely Christmas pressie this would make (Mr Plum?)

It is called "A Stitch In Time" and is full of beautiful knitting patterns from 1920-1949.

There were also lovely vegetarian cafes, pretty gift shops and a wonderful looking deli ... I hope that I find myself around Lower Marsh street again! Apparently there is a very good market, but it looked like it was packing away for the day. What a gem!

Otherwise this week has been rather quiet! I had a red spider mite scare on Monday ... and spent an hour spraying my lovely aubergines with soapy water to get rid of the blighters. I did try to take some pictures, but it wouldn't work ... but have a look at this wonderful blog which helped me solve the problem. I think the aubergines will survive. I have moved them out of the greenhouse and they are now living on the garden table .. in the pouring rain ... hmmm

Tomorrow me and Mr Plum are off to the Great British Beer Festival! We went last year and had a great time! I will blog about that later ... but to celebrate my first bloggiversary which was yesterday I am inviting all my readers to enter into a giveaway! Not sure what I will be giving away, but please leave a comment telling me what your favourite tipple is! I will pull a name out of a cake tin next Friday!