Happy New Year

The blog will be up and running again sometime soon in the new year as we are spending time with our families, we hope you all had a lovely christmas and would like to wish you all a Happy New Year and all the best for 2009 and in the words of rabbie

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And auld lang syne!

Chorus.-For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne.
We’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.

And surely ye’ll be your pint stowp!
And surely I’ll be mine!
And we’ll tak a cup o’kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.

We twa hae run about the braes,
And pou’d the gowans fine;
But we’ve wander’d mony a weary fit,
Sin’ auld lang syne.

We twa hae paidl’d in the burn,
Frae morning sun till dine;
But seas between us braid hae roar’d
Sin’ auld lang syne.

And there’s a hand, my trusty fere!
And gie’s a hand o’ thine!
And we’ll tak a right gude-willie waught,
For auld lang syne.

Our Favourite Sites

Since it’s coming up for Christmas and we will be spending all that we have and maybe more, I thought these sites would be appropriate to share 🙂 Has anyone heard of Cashback Kings?  I didn’t up until 6 months ago when i seen Martin Lewis on GMTV (money saving expert)talk about it and how you could earn while you shop, as I’m a curious person as well as wanting to earn while i spend, i popped over to the site to see for myself and believe me i wasn’t disappointed, i opened an account and now i earn money while i spend, it’s especially great at Christmas time as you will be spending quite a bit.

Go over and have a look for yourself, you can find Cashback Kings Here and this is not spam honest, if your still not sure Google it and you will see loads of people talking about it, and the good news is there’s more than one cash back site to pick from in fact there’s quite a few, although we will be skinning ourselves at this time of year, we will also be saving too, what more could you ask for, happy shopping 🙂

The second site I would like to share is Martin lewis the money saving expert the same man i mentioned above, this site is a great wealth of knowledge from cashback sites, Banking saving, Cheap Mortgage Finding, Use the ‘broker plus’ technique to slash costs ,Childcare Costs, Boost your childcare budget by £1,000s, benefits checkup, 5 mins to get what you’re entitled to, and this is just a few there’s loads and loads more, you can find money saving expert Here

have a great day, signing off …………

Christmas Wreath Tutorial

By Ex

The way we make our Xmas Wreaths has been handed down through the family for years.

Firstly you will need a strong stiff wire to make the ring a wire coat hanger is perfect.
We always use hay to make the form but you can use straw or sphagnum moss.
You will also need Florist’s tying wire (or fuse wire or even a good strong fishing line) to keep everything in place and a pair of pliers/snips to cut the wire.
First make a ring with the strong wire and twist the ends tightly together so that they do not come undone, the size of this ring will determine the size of the wreath.
Fasten one end of the reel wire to the ring and in one hand, take a handful of hay and hold it to the wire frame where you wish the hay placed. With the other hand (or another person) wrap the wire around the hay to secure it in place.

Continue to layer the hay all around the wire frame until the wreath is the thickness you desire. Always keeping the wire taut.
Now if you want you can trim the hay – give it a haircut- so it is neat, trim and presentable.

Mine never look as neat as this just remember the foliage will hide a lot of it.
If you are using the moss then you do exactly the same really, just tease out the moss and the wrap fistfuls at a time around the wire attaching it in the same way, until you have the size / thickness you want. Remember if you make a form with moss you will need to make sure the moss doesn’t dry out.
Now you need your foliage, its up to you what greenery you use, we always use Holly, another traditional one is Laurel, but you could use anything you want really so long as it is evergreen and long lasting such as Conifer.
Lay the prepared holly on the top of the form adding one piece at a time and securing each with a single wrap of wire. Overlap the holly to ensure no hay is visible. Work round the ring until it is covered with holly.

Moss Form at start of adding foliage.
The final decorations are up to you now, you can literally add whatever you want using a glue gun
Just a quick thought you can sometimes but the forms already made, and another type of form that you can but is the oasis one which you  just push the foliage into but I have to admit I prefer the old traditional ways

Countdown to Christmas

Halloween is over and guy fox night is just around the corner with Christmas biting at its heels eek.. guy fox night i’m not worried about as my dad has bought the boys a big box of fireworks and since my partner will be working away, its left to me to set them off, double eek, as much as i like them i’m a big scardy cat, i will need to talk nice to one of my neighbours i think lol

Now Christmas is another matter, i don’t know about you but my boys have their lists all ready written

and no doubt they will probably add to it as well, my oldest wants a playstation 3 and a psp and of course all the games to go with them

my middle son wants a psp too plus the games and various cars (toy ones my i add lol) his list is quite short just now so no doubt he will add more

my youngest son wants a laptop, a wii fit board, games, celtic tracksuit and tops oh and a psp as well

now i know looking at those lists there’s no way hosey i can afford all of that unless i win the lottery lol, so i’m going to have to sit down once again and talk to them and give them a limit of how much they can have and hope it sinks in, saying that the adverts on the tv don’t help nor do the local papers, everywhere you look theirs toys or some new console or gadget, and to be honest i think we ourselves as parents are our own worst enemy as we don’t want to disappoint them so we go out and get ourselves into debt just to keep them happy, or so we think sometimes its to stop us feeling guilty so our children won’t feel as they are been left out, as we all know our children will come home and say his friend has this and that so we feel we have to go and get it, i hope this makes sense as i’m not sure if i have worded this right, all i know now is the pressure is on and i’m running