Good morning lovely people and welcome to the very last Rocking Your World post of 2018, the year has once again flown by. I've had a lovely year and enjoyed sharing it with two amazing ladies who've joined me regularly this year on my Rocking posts, showing me a little part of their Spain. It is fantastic and fabulous to be able to share the positive moments, silver linings and things that we are grateful for with these two amazing women.
So Kate and Lisca, I salute you for being regular contributors and for letting me be part of your world each week, it means a huge amount!
For those that are frequent contributors on the comments front, thank you, it never ceases to raise a smile when I see messages not only from the lovely Kate and Lisca, but also Gina and Helen who regularly leave messages.
To those that read frequently but aren't 'on' blogger and don't have the opportunity to either link or blog, thank you for reading, I hope the posts leave you feeling on the whole positive!
Now for a summary of the last 7 days of 2018
First up, me and hubby have actually put our National Trust cards through their paces this Christmas, whilst we always go to Chatsworth several times (due to us being members), over the festive period, we have actually avoided both National Trust and English Heritage (again we are members of both) and this is mainly because the English Heritage events are usually additional costs for members. However, we learnt this year that National Trust just like to decorate their beautiful homes (as we showed last week at Hardwick Hall) and you get to wander around the house and enjoy a festively decorated home as part of your membership.
So this week, we were eager to pop to Nostell Priory, only 35 minutes away (and no motorways - win win), to see their beautiful house, before it closed for the festive season.
We got their early and headed for the coffee shop
We sat on a table next to this rather glum looking snowman (however, he did make me smile).
I was sent to buy tea and cake (for breakfast, well it was Christmas), I came back with a mince meat (as in mince pie - so sweet) and custard tray bake and a tea soaked fruit cake.
Here is hubby trying to decide which one, as it was we shared each of them, so we could enjoy both.
The view from the table of the house was simply amazing
Once we'd finished tea we headed into the house, the entrance hall was stunning with two coal burning fires. The columns were decorated with swirls of handcut paper snowflakes, I liked the additional donation box all lit up
The fires were lovely and warm
A room off to the main entrance reminded me that Nostell do quite a lot of one off craft classes, one of which was a marbling workshop, they seemed to have fantastic success in theirs (if you remember we did a marbling workshop in the summer), the papers were stunning and they'd also made marbled baubles. Apparently the original owner of the house was a lover of marbled papers, the leather bound books were often lined with marble papers on their inner covers.
This is one of their papers up close, isn't it stunning!
There are two main staircases in Nostell, both of which were festooned with fabric, lights and pompom wreaths, I thought these were a brilliant and festive way to use up left over wool!
Upstairs one of the side rooms had a fire place filled with marbled Christmas tree shapes
And the main tree in that room was swathed with marbled paper chain.
Into the library next door, there was a forest of paper trees
They were so effective and looked amazing!
The dining table appeared to be set for a meal, I loved the fact that they had filled the glasses on the table
Into one of the state bedrooms we loved how the vase worked with the wallpaper, however, the wallpaper would originally have had a pale blue background, apparently sunlight and coal fires aren't great for these papers!
There was another room next to the dining room, that had originally been planned as a music room, as the plaster Adams work played tribute to, but it was realised later than expected and it wasn't believed to have been used that way.
The trees were all sponsored by local groups or businesses and had been decorated to reflect the same.
The one nearest was a gin business and the ornaments were made of cork
This one was a paper crafting business, all the little bird houses were made of upcycled materials
I loved this ornament
And these photo transfer decorations
The ramblers tree was fun
I loved the tissue paper baubles
We headed back downstairs to make sure we hadn't missed anywhere and came across the kitchen which not only looked stunning, but it also smelled stunning too.
There was a little train, running around the track making train noises which was brilliant, it reminded me of the train set my Dad bought me when I was little, it used to have glowing coals and puffed smoke out of the top.
The large house at the back had been constructed out of bought items and put on cardboard (obviously none of them were destined to be eaten). I loved the shredded wheat fence around the house.
I also loved the clock tower, not quite as extensive as the one we made several years ago, but fun nonetheless.
Back outside, there was a large picture frame to take photos of the house.
So we also grabbed a selfie
Back home and in the last couple of days (yes including Christmas Eve), I was still making. I have never ever ever made as late as this (and don't intend on doing again), but the family bereavement really did stop me in my tracks.
Christmas eve night we dressed the table.
Said 18 year old's girlfriend popped over for a few hours and he introduced her to Norad.
Christmas day
So said 18 year old had to be woken up - I mean what is the world coming to! It was well gone 9am when he ventured down and it was almost 10 before we got to present unwrapping as me and hubby were very busy in the kitchen.
Here is said 18 year old opening a gift after he thought he'd done opening (I'd hid this one).
And the surprise when he realised it was a new phone!
And the happy face - I can't wait to scrap these three shots of him!
We managed to get a shot of the floating candles (bearing in mind the Harry Potter themed tree and table)
I had to ask my sister to try the sprouts as I detest them, here she is confirming they were cooked.
Hubby managed to get one of us all sat at the table (except him of course)
Said 18 year old's girlfriend came over in the evening.
The wine was flowing for some, here a photo of my Mum reading to my Step-Dad, who seemed more interested in the bottom of the glass!
My sister trying on some of her presents.
And a shot later in the evening, yes my sister is wearing a dressing gown! Since losing lots of weight she now feels the cold more, despite the fact my house was like the Bahamas from all the cooking we had done!
Present unwrapping occurred after the main course (as everyone was full to bursting).
And me and my sister and brother, enjoyed a cup of tea!
Boxing day brought the usual tidy up, then we lit the fire and settled down with cups of tea and books to read. My cup runneth over!
Me and hubby decided to blow the cobwebs off yesterday and go for a decent walk. Given that it was both mild and dry, we headed to Yorkshire Sculpture Park. The wintery sun was very low in the sky
We grabbed an early morning selfie.
And enjoyed the sculptures around the park
The water looked and sounded amazing.
Hubby enjoyed using his new Christmas present
We had a different walk around the grounds and went along the other side of the lake for a change.
The mist was beautiful
We grabbed another selfie,
Came across the Alfreedo Jaar pieces which have now been repositioned into their final home.
The trees are bare now as we sit in the midst of our winter (although with the temperatures you wouldn't necessarily have thought it).
I managed to grab a shot of hubby
And we continued out walk around to the red path (which said 18 year old renamed many years ago as 'red and rubbish', you can tell he wasn't impressed at the time), to the original entrance to the original Bretton Hall that stood on the grounds at the far end of the park.
Up to the Greek temple folly before heading up towards the main centre.
We thoroughly enjoyed the walk and savoured a lovely pot of tea and a bite to eat in the visitors' centre before heading back home.
I hope you have had a truly blessed and festive season and for those that celebrate Christmas a very happy Christmas.
If you fancy linking up (and can actually see Mr Linky below), then pop a blog post together, pop back and link up so we can all come and visit.
