Rocking Your World Friday - 48th of 2018

Afternoon peeps, first up a huge I mean a HUGE apology for the delay in posting last week, in being so efficient and ready I stupidly saved the post rather than published it and only realised my error on Monday so many many apologies, once I'd realised I published and linked up - so sorry!

Anyway after my grovelling apology you are surely here to see what has been

So I'm also going to apologise for a lack of photos, in essence last weekend saw me 'empty' my phone of photos leaving lots of memory and then putting them on the cloud, now I have in excess of 7000 photos to wade through to sort for my next photo order.  As a result of this, I literally didn't take any photos over the weekend (as it took forever to sort).  So you are going to have to imagine what it looked like.

First up having Friday off, it was lovely to have a day off, despite it being called black Friday and knowing just how bad the shops would be I did venture to the local shopping centre as I had things to sort.  But wisely, I went very very early, so I was leaving as the throngs of people arrived!

I spent Friday making Christmas gifts, just a token gesture for work colleagues having seen something similar on Pinterest, but it kept me busy and amused for quite a few hours it has to be said.

Me and hubby then headed to Ikea as I wanted to pick up a couple of things, said 18 year was working so we left him to get ready.  We decided very naughtily to have our tea there whilst we were out, the meal itself was just about pointable on Weight Watchers, but the cake was off the chart, needless to say had I checked before I bought perhaps I would have chosen a little more wisely, but the cake was lovely and it was nice to break the working week with hubby.

Saturday saw us with a trip to the theatre, there was a touring company bringing Macbeth, it was the version (although different actors), to the one we'd seen at the cinema live streamed in the summer.  My Mum and sister also came to see it with us along with a tired said 18 year old and his girlfriend.  The production was every bit as good as the one we'd seen earlier in the year, with the added benefit of atmosphere (you know the one you always get in theatres).  This particular performance was captioned to aid those poor of hearing (of which one is my Mum), I hadn't booked it for that reason particularly.  My Mum found it helpful, but I must say I found the orange lights from the words very distracting, whilst I can see the benefit of the captioning I don't think I'll be in a hurry to book another one.  However, the performance was fantastic.

Afterwards, we had a wander around the Christmas market, I noticed at either end of the street huge blocks of concrete had been placed to prevent any issues, I suppose it is a sign of the times, but whilst the Christmas cabins looked beautiful the concrete blocks left a little to be desired, however they did keep us safe.  I really enjoyed walking and having a nosy at all the stalls

Oh I've just found some of the photos, so this was on the way back from the theatre, they have set up one of these wheels temporarily and it looked so pretty with all its lights.

Then the lights inside the peace gardens provided a few photo opportunities, first up the giant bauble. 

And then a rather scary snowman

And a giant parcel

We walked up and got this selfie

And another (much better) one inside the parcel itself

My Mum and sister had been literally laughing out loud as my sister attempted to get a decent photo of the two of them. 

Which led to lots of laughter. 

Sunday was a quieter day, and at the last minute I remembered that it was stir it up Sunday, so I purchased the missing fruit elements and made one Christmas pudding, hubby was soaking some fruit to make a Christmas cake, so the house smelt of Christmas. 

Monday I spent a huge amount of time sorting cards, our annual newsletter etc and decided to type up everyone's card, don't ask me why I've no idea, I now have two carrier bags full of cards to send out in the post and yes before you ask it costs me a pretty penny but it is something I've always done and I know for some people our annual newsletter has becoming something of a Christmas tradition for them!

We had an impromptu visit from my niece who had popped back down from uni for a flying visit, it was fantastic to catch up with her and my sister is looking fantastic, so that definitely brightened my week! 

Hubby and said 18 year old got all the decorations out of the loft and we have been putting up the decorations all week, my note last year was to not do them in one day as it leads to grumpy people!  So we've had a leisurely week of putting them up, first the stair garland, then one of the TV room trees, the lads put the other up last night whilst I was at my work's Christmas do and then today I've done the dining room ones and said 18 year old is finishing off upstairs with his. 

Then there are a few sets of lights for the bushes in the front garden and then we should be done. 

I managed to have a few conversations last week with people on line when I was checking addresses, which was lovely and that definitely brightened my day. 

I hope you've had a great week. 

If you fancy joining in pop a post together, pop back and link up and we can come and visit. 

Rocking Your World Friday - 47th of 2018

Good Morning Lovely People, tis Friday time for 

Well the weather is definitely turning cooler and we found ourselves looking for something to do last weekend, we decided to head back to Chatsworth as their Christmas fayre had opened, we know of old that we needed to get there early in order to be able to get to the stalls. 

We had a lovely few hours wandering up and down, chatting to the stallholders and trying a few of the items.  

I bought a sour cherry, hibiscus and red grape cordial for Christmas, hubby got a couple of bottles of beer from a Stone based brewery.  We also got some flavoured salt grinders from a Scottish company and had a fabulous chat with an amazing lady on the crystal stall! 

It was good for the soul! 

We decided (given that we are members), to enjoy another walk around the house minus main camera to enjoy the decorations, this was the only photo I took before we got to the sculpture gallery (where my phone's battery had died last week).  

There were a few additions this week, including the technology working better this week, including the magic mirror in the sculpture gallery.

Outside, it was dry and cool, we grabbed a cuppa and pasty and sat in Flora's temple to enjoy, before we went for a walk around the gardens. 

The copper colours are at a premium at the moment, but the walking lady statue in the trees must be haunting if you see it at night! 

The view down the valley is amazing! 

We grabbed a selfie in the bright sunshine!

The coppers were beautiful looking down towards the ornamental pond

We found a different viewpoint of the maze for a change

And had a great view of the house up by the weeping willow tree

I don't think I've ever seen the cascade empty! 

As the day grew to a close, we headed back out of the garden.

On the way home the colours were stunning! 

With fabulous edge of the world shots at the top!

It was a fabulous day and we really enjoyed it, overall the weekend was lovely albeit quiet. 

Monday morning I arranged to meet my sister for a catch up, she'd come over on the Sunday for a catch up, but I was making the most of her having some annual leave! 

We met in Ikea (I was very good and had a fruit salad), we sat and chatted for a few hours and said 18 year old came with us. 

The rest of the week has been mighty busy, work was busy busy busy but that's always the case.

Today being Thursday I've taken a day's lieu time and enjoyed working on homemade Christmas gifts which I can't share until a later point in the year. 

I hope you've all had a fabulous week, if you fancy joining in pop back and link up and we can come and visit. 

Rocking Your World Friday - 46th of 2018

Good morning lovely people tis Friday time for 

So it has been a busy week overall, you will all be pleased to know that the pre-Christmas deep clean is officially finished (there are still a few jobs to sort) but on the whole its done and the house feels sooooooooo much better for it and I officially know where most things are, which is brilliant! 

Next up, the decorations in the local shopping centre look lovely, I do so love the time and effort spent on such things, so it was lovely to walk through and see the decorations, despite it being something of an eventful trip through the centre.

I love the paper look of this one

Next up date night with hubby, always lovely, we went for some food, had a walk through the shopping centre and ended up at the theatre. 

We went to see a play called The Messiah with only three actors in it including Hugh Dennis and Lesley Garrett and whilst it was a lovely date night, it really didn't quite hit the spot.  We've seen other theatre companies that can just hit that humour factor every time but this one seems to have missed it, it was just about picking up prior to the interval before going downhill once more in the second part, but hey it was a fun night out just the two of us. 

As Saturday was spent finishing the deep clean (and yes we did attempt to do three rooms in one day), we decided that Sunday would officially be our day of rest.  So we headed to Chatsworth which has once again put a beautiful display on in the house, its Christmas theme this year being 'Once upon a time', inspired by stories and nursery rhymes. 

Our first stop was the stables restaurant for breakfast.

We took my crazy sister and my Mum with us, so a fun day was ahead. 

The walk down to the house was filled with silhouettes

And the entrance hall had a gorgeous sleeping dragon.

The first corridor was inspired by Charlotte's Web and there were lots of nods to the story. 

Including a pig from the story being found in the tree 

Next up the Elves and the Shoemaker, a personal favourite story of mine from childhood. 

The chapel had a beautiful carriage from Cinderella in it

I loved the tiny tree decorations. 

Then we went into the Princess and the Pea, I think this may be the only time I see that pea decorations on a tree actually work. 

Then the back of the Elves and the shoemaker

We posed for a quick Christmas selfie. 

Next up the main painted hall was decorated on the theme of - well I'm sure you can guess.

The ruby red slippers and yellow bricks were a bit of a give away. 

I grabbed this lovely photo of my Mum and sister

And loved the Emerald City tree at the top of the stairwell. 

There were 'wish' trees to adorn next to the Emerald City tree, I thoroughly enjoyed seeing what people wished for - I think my favourite was the Shakespeare one

The Chinese bedroom had the theme of Mary Poppins and the music was playing in the background, so we were singing along as we continued around the house. 

James and the Giant Peach story was the prompt on the stairs.

The inside of which was so very cute. 

Next up Arabian Nights (which didn't really work for me, it looked like a carpet stall if I'm honest). 

But the tree decorations were lovely

All in all a lovely festive (even if it does still feel a little bit too early), day out with family.

Next up, we enjoyed our first fire of the year, which was all the more pleasant for cleaning the glass of the fire, its weird the little differences make.  We sat curled up quite happily in front of the roaring fire reading books and chatting - bliss. 

We brought this little chap as we left Chatsworth, these little beasties were dotted on a children's trail around the house.  Apparently they are the children of the sleeping dragon in the entrance and have a specific Chatsworth label on them, which indicated that he was called Arthur, the problem was we'd already named him, so his officially name is Sir Arthur Bootastic the Third of Chatsworth, but we have named him Boo for short (he is the third Boo because my sister's cat is called Boo, then we met Boo on holiday so this is the third Boo and yes as you will note we are completely crackers). 

Said 18 year old's artwork is literally taking over the house (and deadline day of Thursday has now been extended to Tuesday so we still have a house full).  As a result the kitchen was out of commission, so we ordered in, you have never seen someone so happy for Dominos pizza!

I had an additional day of work so spent it making Christmas gifts (hence the close up)

And the boss brought her new dog to work on Wednesday, please meet Bryan a baby Bedlington puppy, he was very funny and very mischievous but also very cute asleep under my desk! 

And that my lovely people is the week that was, if you fancy joining in pop a post together, come back and link up and we can come and visit.