ROCKING YOUR WORLD FRIDAY - 46TH OF 2025

Morning all tis Friday time for 

So time to clock the positive moments and silver linings for the last 7 days. 

Last Thursday after we'd been to see our grandson at the hospital we headed into town and had a meal at the local college's restaurant.  

We both opted for the same starter, which was pheasant breast on sourdough with pickled blackberries which we both enjoyed. 

For main I had the fresh made parpadelle pasta and a beef ragu with parmesan crisp

whilst hubby had chicken and leek pie on a root vegetable mash and braised greens

dessert we both went for the same lemon meringue pie with forest fruits and a sugar coated mint leaf that we both enjoyed

 

and then we headed over the road for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at the theatre which was fabulous. 

Friday and we decided to have a crafting day, I was behind on the two homemade gifts that I make for an old schoolfriend's children and hubby hasn't done any metalwork for a while, so with Alexa blaring out tracks for company we had a fun creative day. 

My view from my desk as hubby was busy. 

and my desk view

In the evening we lit the woodburner and sat and read which was great.  Hubby has moved this lamp into the TV room recently, I love it when it is lit up, so very pretty

and the aforementioned woodburning stove

Saturday and I was determined to finish the two journals in readiness so this is the first

and this is the second

I think I'm safe to pop them on here as I don't think my friend reads my blog. 

Hubby had bought me some roses a couple of weeks ago and they are still going strong.  

I find that the mixed bunches simply don't last, is that just me or do others find that.  I had a bunch with carnations in recently and the roses didn't last the week. 

I also spent some considerable time over the weekend doing my Herald newsletter, it is something I've done for years and whilst 'round robin' letters are very much out of fashion I think I would have a stampede to the front door if people didn't receive it.  I've been told by quite a few that it is the mark of the start of Christmas for them, which I think is very sweet.  It takes a lot of time to pull together and I was going to shrink it back to the 4 sides of A4 but I've kept it at 6 sides (extended it last year after my Mum passed away as I wanted to add in extra stories of her). 

Sunday morning and we headed to YSP as it was dry-ish.  We had a breakfast sandwich and a cuppa and then a great walk.

We also spotted some new artwork on the walls a nudge to a new display coming soon. 

They'd put their Christmas decorations up in the main centre. 

We spotted these in the cafe

Outside the grey clouds were tumbling in but the walk remained dry although a little muddy under foot. 

We stopped at 11am and held a two minute silence by the lake given that it was remembrance Sunday. 

We walked down to the shell grotto which we haven't been to for a while and I grabbed a selfie. 

Then back along and up through the park we had a coffee at the learning centre before meandering up past this statue which was shining in the sunshine. 

Sunday afternoon was definitely a relaxed affair.  We watched a little TV, read a little and relaxed and had homemade minestrone soup and homemade granary rolls for tea which were lovely. 

Monday and I was working from home, hubby did the food shop and I worked until very late as I have some things that needed sorting. 

Tuesday and Wednesday I was in the office, I had a productive and positive meeting on Tuesday but it still left me with a 'to do' list. 

Another busy day on Wednesday with 3 meetings and then I headed home to try and resolve the spreadsheet.  It is almost there but at 5.30pm I decided I'd done enough and will pick it up again on Monday with fresh eyes. 

Thursday and we've been for a good walk, had a tasty breakfast and are off to the hospital this afternoon to see our grandson. 

I hope you've had a splendid week. 

Hugs

ROCKING YOUR WORLD FRIDAY - 50TH OF 2022

 Morning all tis Friday time for

Well we had a lovely day on Friday we headed to NT Nostell for a day of slowing the season down and enjoying some time together. 

First stop was the coffee shop, with its beautiful decorations, we enjoyed a breakfast butty and a cuppa. 

We saw the beautiful gingerbread village 

and explored the house

we even saw the man himself

and enjoyed seeing the dolls house decorated with festive trimmings

I enjoyed reading by the fire over the weekend, even thought it is a children's book it was pure escapism which I read in one sitting. 

the fire has been a true blessing

particularly when you wake to a winter wonderland

I made gifts for staff at work

and Saturday I went and did a wreath class with my Mum and my future daughter-in-laws Mum (it should also have been my sister but she was poorly). 

I loved making my wreath

and also managed (with the help of Sue who ran the class) to make my sisters too

My Mum is doing amazing at the moment, look at that smile! 

The rest of the week has tripped along at a merry old pace, we are ridiculously busy at work and despite it technically being our last week in before the festive break, most staff are of the view we will be in for some of next week. 

I hope you've had a lovely week

Hugs

Rocking Your World Friday - 2nd of 2019

Morning all tis Friday time to clock the silver linings, positive moments over the last 7 days. 

First up me and hubby have started putting my Fitbit through its paces, in essence I'm trying to achieve all the elements on the front page by the end of the day to get a totally green day, this in turn has meant some early evening walks, which in the UK means very dark walks. 

But this has led to lots of chatting and planning, which is brilliant and occasionally we wander across other things.  At the beginning of the week, the nativity seen outside our local church was still on view, so I grabbed this snap one evening. 

Next up this little Christmas gift from hubby makes me smile every morning.  Anyone who is a Fantastic Beasts fan will note that this wee fellow is a Niffler, known in the film for being attracted to all things shiny and pretty.  He is a trinket stand, so at the end of the day I put my jewellery from the day on him.  In the film he often stands stock still with the jewels over him, so as to disguise what he is up to, so this pose is rather humorous I'm sure you will agree. 

We had a wander around the local shopping centre and came across this commemorative statue which notes down the lives lost in the Manchester arena bombing, I'd seen the statue on a couple of my instagram feeds, but this was the first time I'd seen it in person, a very poignant piece of sculpture which made me rather reflective. 

Next up we have been treated (up to now, the weekend, not looking quite so calm), to a relatively calm period of weather, which has meant lots of local walks. 

On Sunday we took the bridlepath walk up to the next village again, grabbed a coffee (pint for hubby) in the beer garden and then walked back, catching the gorgeous golden hour light. 

As you can see it was a real treat. 

We even managed a golden hour selfie

The view was breathtaking if I'm honest and was just what I needed to reset myself ready for a rather busy work week. 

The pretty farmhouses on the way up were beautiful

More sunset and sky photos

The weekend also threw a curve ball in that both our main TV service and broadband went down, so we planned a board game/card game night.  However, it came back up before the planned evening, but we went ahead as planned anyway.  

The game in question is cards against humanity and is definitely not for the easily offended, for us we take it relatively light hearted but there are times when the cards don't make sense and the dilemma is to google or not to google.  Sometimes you wish you didn't know the answer after you've googled.  As said 18 year old got a new set of additional cards at Christmas this led to an evening of googling again and don't just think it was that side of the table that were googling!

Now I thought I'd share a few photos of things I made at Christmas, I couldn't share them on here or online for fear of the recipients seeing them. 

First up, this year's jars were not cookies (that I've made year on year) but brownies.

I've yet to get feedback as to whether they were any good. 

I save my coffee jars all year and then wash them in hot water and pop them in the oven to sterilise, I put the plastic element of the jar into boiling water, air dry them and then put them back together before filling with the layered contents.

I covered the jars in festive papers and put instructions on the jar of how to cook, they always go down well with the recipients and it is a quick and easy homemade gift.  

Next up were token Christmas gifts for my work colleagues, this year inspired by Pinterest, I made sweetie Santa sleighs and once completed wrapped them in cellophane and tied with a ribbon.  Everyone was very happy to receive them, I had a few spare which made up as stocking fillers at Christmas. 

Finally a gift I made my brother.  We've had this clock case in the house forever, it came from a charity shop years ago with an overwound clock, the case was mahogany in colour. 

It did actually make it as far as the 'tip' pile in the porch (minus its clock parts that said 18 year old had commandeered) when I considered that it really was too good to not use. 

So with the help of hubby who sanded the item for me (I have a sandpaper phobia) and some acrylic paints I managed to make it look like this.  I would never profess to be an artist, but I really enjoyed making it, he is an avid fan and has lots of items that can sit inside the case. 

This week saw me completing my tenth Christmas journal.  I finished off the entries, added a few more photos, popped in the Christmas cards I'm saving and added some embellishments to the pages.  Very happy with the finished item. 

In fact that day was brilliant as I was feeling very festive, I finished my journal, made a start on Christmas cards and had Kirstie's homemade Christmas playing in the background! 

Back to work has meant that my photo a day has proved more difficult than expected, mainly because when I'm at work I rarely move from my desk, so there are no decent photo opportunities, as you can see from the next picture, which was my photo on Tuesday! 

So I had the same problem on Wednesday, so decided to share a collage of my green fitbit days as a bit of additional motivation for me.

Then last night's photo after a rather fraught week overall at work was yet another evening walk photo, I'm hoping for something with a little more daylight in it today! 

So there you go, a busy week overall, first one back at work and well into January already.  I hope you've had a fabulous week, if you fancy joining in, pop back and link up and we can come and visit.