ROCKING YOUR WORLD - 50TH OF 2021

 Good Morning lovely people tis Friday time for 

So last Friday saw my postponed Christmas wreath class rescheduled, thankfully the majority of the people who had booked on were able to make Friday afternoon, so we headed to the church hall and had a lovely couple of hours having great fun with lots of lovely chat making a Christmas wreath. 

Here is my Mum and sister hard at work! 

On Friday evening we had a surprise leaving do for a colleague who is retiring after 22 years, she had booked at a local venue for a dinner and dance night and we had all booked on without her knowing and arrived early to surprise her and she really was surprised.  It was a lovely evening which I really enjoyed, photo of me and hubby before we headed out, we scrubbed up quite well! 

Saturday we had plans, we had big plans and long plans, what we hadn't planned for was the continuous rain.  Nevertheless, we aren't people who re-schedule due to the rain so we carried on regardless.  We headed out late morning to Kelham Island for their Victorian Christmas Fayre.  It was quieter than normal, but really lovely nonetheless

Hubby enjoyed a pint of Belgian Blue beer made by Bradfield Brewery which is local to Sheffield and I had a very tasty hot chocolate with all the trimmings.  We hid inside out of the driving rain to enjoy, well we wouldn't want to water down the beer would we. 

I grabbed this shot as we were leaving, Kelham Island is based in what was once a heavily industrial area of Sheffield.  It is now the home to a museum celebrating its industrial heritage and is definitely on the up and up when it comes to properties. 

This shot of one of the old furnaces to the side of the building, most definitely shows that slightly inclement weather. 

We headed back into Sheffield and had a wander around the market, which again has been scaled back due to the pandemic, we took a detour off and headed over to Graves gallery, which is above the main Sheffield library.  I had gone to look at the Pandemic Diaries created by a local artist known as Phlegm, for those of you that have followed my blog for a while, it is the same artist that did the Mausoleum of the Giants a couple of years ago inside a huge building that was due to be demolished.  Unfortunately, whilst Sheffield has seen fit to purchase the pandemic diaries which really do summarise the history of what most of us went through last year, it has not seen fit to allow you to photograph the exhibition. 

However, we did see a brilliant other exhibition by a metal artist called Precision as a State of Mind and the artists name is Mark Firth.  My hubby was most intrigued, having originally trained as a mechanical engineer when he was 18 he understood the processes that had been used to create. 

By the time we headed back outside the skies had darkened, we headed inside the Winter gardens for a coffee and a sit down.  

I took this photo which shows the library (with Graves gallery above) lit in blue, the building in the centre of the photo is the Lyceum theatre and you can obviously see the Crucible theatre at the bottom of the photo (famous for the World Snooker Championships, but also a damn good theatre). 

We headed back inside the winter gardens and enjoyed seeing the fairy gardens they had created, I'm sure children will really love to see these as they wander around.

The Peace Gardens had two giant lit pieces, which were out of bounds, but lovely to look at. 

There was also an alpine bar where people were enjoying a drink or two. 

The lit Sheffield sign raised a smile

We then wandered the market, many people had said it was poor, but because it was dark and everything was so prettily lit, we really enjoyed the wander, probably aided by having absolutely no expectations whatsoever. 

Some of the stalls were up by the City Hall, which was different

The tree outside the town hall was lovely

Back towards the crucible I really love the reflection.

Then we headed for some food, we'd booked a table and so whiled away an hour or two enjoying a warm dry atmosphere (had I mentioned it was still raining). 

Then on to our final stop of the day, Sheffield Cathedral for their digital light display known as The Beginning. 

The inside of the cathedral was just as breathtaking

and then we headed home utterly shattered after a very long day, but it had been great fun. 

Sunday morning arrived and we headed to Nostell Priory, unfortunately the reduction in funds for National Trust were fairly evident from the poorly decorated house, but once again, we enjoyed the venture. 

This reindeer retirement village definitely raised a smile

The trees were pretty

Very simply decorated with pine cones and variegated ivy. 

The table upstairs was also pretty and I learned the iced item in the centre of the table is actually a miniature version of the original gateway into Nostell. 

On our way back home we stopped off at a Christmas fayre at Elsecar and hubby purchased a few bottles of his favourite.  They are only available at this time of year and it is genuinely a real sign that Christmas is almost upon us. 

The week has been quite frankly mad, however, when I arrived home on Monday night, I discovered said 21 year old and his fiancee had bought me a chocolate advent calendar (as they knew I didn't have one) and filled it with sweeties.  I was absolutely gobsmacked and love that it is both Harry Pottery themed and reusable as well as being an incredibly thoughtful thing to do. 

The rest of the week has been mighty busy, with incredibly busy work days and collapsing on the sofa evenings.  

I hope you've all had a grand week, I will happen over and have a nosey at your blog posts over the weekend. 

Take care and biggest hugs

ROCKING YOUR WORLD FRIDAY - 49TH OF 2021

 Good morning lovely people tis Friday time for

Well last Thursday, we ventured up to Barnsley's Bright Nights, technically their light switch on, we took said 21 year old and his fiancee and were hoping for a lovely wander around, but it quite simply wasn't as good as the previous years we have been which was a tad disappointing, however, the main reason for visiting was to see Luke Jerram's Mars and that did not disappoint, look how pretty it was

I had to grab a selfie (well there was a selfie spot)

There were a few other light installations that we saw, I liked this one but it was tiny

However, this definitely had to be one of the highlights, a human snow globe. 

There were also two stilt walking angels. 

So overall not as good, but we still enjoyed it.  

Friday morning we woke to this scene, I kid you not.  But by Saturday the roads were a little more manageable and so we weren't too worried.   

In fact the postie managed to get this bag full of advent calendar goodies through to me, which was definitely a positive. 

The house definitely looked festive with the white stuff outside

Saturday evening we walked around to the local church for the Christmas tree festival and their Christmas fayre, it was mighty cold and slippy underfoot, but it was nice to get out of the house. 

The trees this year (due to Covid) were outside, so it was difficult to see the different decorations.

However, I did like the church all lit up

and the huge nativity at the front of the church looked beautiful 

I technically should have been doing a Christmas wreath class on Sunday, but the lady who runs the class had to postpone due to a family emergency which left me, my Mum and my sister all a little disappointed (if truth be told).  So hubby agreed to help me do a mad dash around Hobbycraft and the Range, so I could do a very quick impromptu Christmas craft.  This is what the tables looked like before they arrived. 

Unfortunately the weather had other ideas as it started snowing just as they arrived.  We attempted initially to craft on, but to be honest we were stress crafting and speed crafting, to the point where I eventually said stop, packed them up with goodies and sent them home to complete the item using facetime together. 

This was the state of the weather as you can see not great, said 21 year old ended up home early and said 21 year old's fiancee got home much later by which time the snow had stopped and the roads were better. 

My Mum asked for a picture of the finished item before she left and I laughed saying I hadn't got a clue because I hadn't finished mine yet. 

However here is the finished indoor wreath.

with a close up of the middle

These two were misbehaving on facetime, but had me in stitches nonetheless 

but they did manage to finish it with these finished results

Monday morning and the world was still very white

however I did manage to get into work 

and we soon found ourselves on the 1st again, said 21 year old and his fiancee bought me the Harry Potter advent calendar for my birthday and up to now I've opened the following. 

and that my lovely people was my week that was.  

I hope you've had a lovely week and will catch up with your posts over the weekend. 

Much love