Competitions and Giveaways!

You have until midnight tonight to get your name in the draw for a chance to win the new K Bag - just let me know when you enjoy your coffee, simple as that!  Good Luck!

ALSO

I only need 4 more followers and we are at 900!! OMLord I never thought I would ever have that many so im going to do a special little giveaway.........

..... coming soon hopefully! :)

End of the week round-up!

A visit to TK Maxx brough fruitful rewards yesterday!

I managed to bag some gorgeous thick glasses with a little cow on the front of each, they say Fresh Milk too so will be fabulous for the dessert tables!  2 decanters, more glasses, a stunning huge display plate, Spongebob baking tin (£3.99 bargain!) and those beautiful cake stands and dishes!
Did I tell you how much I love that store!

Thought I would share a little update on the downstairs loo redo!

As you know im taking part in Sandras Pretty Crafty Home and the loo is getting the first overhaul.  Chandelier paid for with Tesco vouchers, wallpaper bought partly with the refund from the wallpaper left over in the living room means that it hasnt been an expensive make over at all (the blind was reduced to £4 in B&Q and the other bits picked up from....yes, TK Maxx!) lol
This is in progress, as you can see we dont have the lights sorted yet as Stu was still putting them up and it turns out the wiring is shot! We will go tomorrow and pick up the bits needed, the voile for the window and then once the mirror etc is back in place we are done :)

I love it!!

Win a luxury K Bag thanks to Kenco Millicano and Project D!

Country Heart and Home is offering one lucky reader the chance to win a K Bag, Project D’s first ever luxury handbag created in collaboration with Kenco Millicano.

In celebration of new Kenco Millicano stick packs, miniature boxes of ten individual servings which fit neatly into your handbag, Project D has designed the bag which gives your favourite coffee its very own pocket and carry clutch – enabling coffee lovers to enjoy delicious Kenco Millicano wherever and whenever they want. This removable antidote to clutter doubles up as a stylish clutch, the perfect size for holding cards, keys, phone and make-up –  making the handbag as versatile as the women who carry it, from day to night.

Fashion forward with snakeskin print black leather and metal studs, the “K Bag” is set to be 2012’s most sought after wardrobe accessory, with a long list of celebrity fans to date! Each bag includes its very own limited edition number engraved on the inside and a box of the new Kenco Millicano stick packs.

Kenco Millicano, Kenco’s first ‘Wholebean Instant coffee’, is a clever combination of instant coffee and finely-milled beans that gives coffee lovers the convenience of instant with the quality and taste reminiscent of roast and ground coffee at home – it’s quite simply Kenco’s closest thing to ‘proper’ coffee in an instant.

For your chance to win a K Bag simply tell me when you enjoy your coffee - is it first thing in the morning when its still quiet or do you have a girly coffee meet up you look forward to??  Whatever it is let me know and you could be in with the chance of winning!


Draw will close at midnight on 30th April and winner announced the 1st of May - GOOD LUCK!!

Today....

Today I have:

1. Been driven mad by an internet connection that isnt doing what its suppose to!

2. Found out my book cover is ready for my proofing but I couldnt receive it because mails arent working properly!

3. Driven myself even more mad trying to figure out what kind of border to put around not 1 but 2 blankets....12 granny squares in 100% cotton - I know I want the border and joinings to be white but not sure what kind of design to go for!  

 

A 33 round/square granny blanket that needs a pretty edge too - just not sure which!

4. Added the topping to my Diva shortbread - youve heard of Millionaire shortbread - well this is the next level! ;)

All that plus adding shelves to the boys bedrooms, sorting the organisation of our room, writing up recipes and keeping on top of 5 kids and a heli building hubby!  

 I think I deserved this pink champagne and fresh raspberries - join me??

Empty Jars?

I may have OCD...

I may just have a soft spot for empty containers...

Either way Im sure Im not alone!?!

Here is another way to use those empty jars...

Wash any empty jars you may have with warm soapy water and remove the label completely.

 Choose a pretty yarn, I went for a 100% cotton yarn as I think I may eventually use this jar to hold my knitting needles!

 Using either strong glue or double sided tape (I bought some mega hold tape from Hobbycraft and use it for everything!) and wind the yarn around the jar butting it up against the last row as tightly as you can.

 When you reach the top, use a needle to thread the end through a few rows to finish off neatly.

 I made a little pompom banner and tied 3 french knots on the front of my jar.  Im thinking this would be a great alternative to plain glass jars for some of the baby showers/dessert tables etc..

 Close up of the little french knots - simple, needle in, wrap yarn around 4 times and pull through, fasten off.

 And if youre wondering where this cute little birdie came from - check Quirkyboots - shes an absolute wizz with felt and makes THE prettiest things! :) 

Me and Bear Grylls!

Never thought I would hear myself say that one!

Me

Bear Grylls

Telephone conversation earlier tonight

Los Angeles - him

Durham - me!

Surreal!

Q & A session to follow soon and it doesnt involve me cooking worms - yayy!!

Gutted!

I am a complete technophobe...

I dont press buttons unless I have the ok from my hubby...

However, even though I didnt touch anything (honest!!)my computer crashed last night and its completely cleared out my email system to the point of having to start afresh with just the emails hubby has managed to catch coming through just now :(

Gutted isnt the word!

Please could you just take a second to email me at debbie(at)countryheartandhome.com with you email addresses if i need to send you anything, have been talking via email with you, PR messages, creativeheartandsoul details about the retreats etc - anything!

Thank you so much and im so sorry if Im late in doing anything due to this :(

Yours hopelessly

Distraught of Durham!

Minnie birthday Party! :)

So much pink! So much Minnie!So much candy!Now, So happy but...Sooo tired!

Happy Birthday Princess! xxx

A cute obsession!

Theres a little girl who turns 2 tomorrow and she has an obsession...its getting quite bad...and she found her party dress....
Can you guess what the theme of her party will be this weekend??

Almost done...

I fell in love with this yo-yo blanket when i first saw it in the Crocheted Throws & Wraps book - remember this post here...and this one here when I first started it...

Well, as you know by now, when I want something I have to do it straight away and in little over a week I was finishing up my last yo-yo - yep 168 of the little rounds! They just got easier and quicker the more I did and thankfully I managed to finish a week ahead of schedule! lol (yes im anal like that and give myself deadlines - I work well to deadlines!) lolNow comes the sewing together and its taking time but instead of crocheting it together im adding little tiny knots to keep them all together. I love looking at old projects and seeing little embroidered stitches or workings where you know someone has spent time over and i thought the back deserved to have as much character as the front.
Hopefully in years to come the kids will look at the blanket with their own grandchildren and say 'your great grandma hand tied each of those tiny knots and filled each one with hopes and dreams and lots of love' ... because thats exactly what Im doing :)

Family Heirloom of the future??

I love visiting charity shops and finding hidden treasures that were once loved but no longer needed. So many pretty things that you can tell have been lying around someones home, probably picked up and used hundreds of times or just placed on a shelf and looked at - smiled at :)

Since the Mary Queen of Charity shops programme was on TV everything has hiked in price and theyre always busy which is good for the shops but not so great for us bargain hunters!

Today I didnt find anything that I needed but saw something that I just knew Evie and the boys needed!

We bought London for £1!

How cute is this little set of building bricks...Scott has gone off to find a map of London so they can make it look geographically correct. Evie just likes moving them around....ME, I like the little London Eye and Royal Albert Hall! How Cute!!

The Top 10 book winners are...

I used Random.org number generator to get the 10 winners for my Amazon top 10 books giveaway...
Here are your random numbers:

74 2 47 20 42 4 66 18 29 70 

Timestamp: 2012-04-09 09:34:13 UTC

The top 10 books right now are... which means the winners of each book are...

Catching Fire - Lucy R

The Hunger Games - Hollysmum22

Mockingjay - Kathleen Hooper

Hunger Games Trilogy - Scattymam1

Little Paris Kitchen - Paula Maher

Before I Go To Sleep - CarolynUK

The Dance With Dragons pt2 - LadyBugSays

The Dance With Dragons pt1 - K

Me Before You - Emma Lowe

The Cat Named Bob - The Crafty Haggis

Huge Congratulations to you all and if you could please email me your addresses to debbie(at)countryheartandhome.com I will arrange for these to be sent to you :)

Thank you again for taking part - I really enjoy reading each and every one of your comments and hope you had a little fun with this competition.

Stay tuned for lots more and since im hitting 900 followers soon there may be a little extra giveaway!! :)

Our Easter Tree!

We have a rather large cherry blossom at the bottom of our garden so when it came time to do our Easter Tree it only seemed right that we use some of the pretty branches from this!
What with the severe change in the weather lately the leaves have all gone a lovely autumn colour - reds, dark greens etc. This meant the tree was a little darker than it usually is but hey it was still ok for what we needed and probably fitted a little more with the whole feeling of the weekend if that makes sense.
We decorated it with little wooden eggs, rabbits and ribbon then popped some chocolate in front for us all to share (believe it or not the children only got 2 eggs each this year - thankfully as i hate seeing masses of temptation when I really need to diet!!) lolEvie decorating her little tree too :)Sunday morning we removed all of the leaves and blossom from the tree and wrote out our dreams and hopes for the rest of the year. It resembles a fresh start and keeps our momentum going for what we want out of 2012 :)Happy Easter! xx

Dyed Eggs :)

Our kids love eggs...whether they be scrambled, poached, fried, boiled or DYED!!

In fact I think dyed is probably their favourite!

To make these cute spiderweb style eggs all you need is some hardboiled eggs and an assortment of different food colourings.Lightly crack the eggs by rolling them on the table.Pop the egg into a bag and pour in a little of the food colouring (believe me you need the bag or rubber gloves as its VERY messy!!)Roll the egg in the colouring until completely covered.Set aside and allow to dry.Repeat for each egg.Use kitchen paper to unwrap the egg from its shell (you can see on the blue one where i had a little colouring on my fingers and it transferred to the egg - its easy done so try to keep something between you and the egg at all time!)

Pat dry with kitchen paper and marvel at all the little tracks in the egg that the colouring has made! :)What are you doing this weekend??