*A Christmas Love Story*

Our love story begins just before Christmas 1992 which is when I first met James.
We were both teenagers, and felt as if we had known each other our entire lives, our connection was so strong, and so we made it 'official' and became boyfriend and girlfriend on Christmas Eve ...

I now take you to Christmas day morning 2003, both in our pajamas, James knelt beside me and proposed to me ...

One year on, on Christmas Eve morning 2004 all dressed up, off we went to be married.
We took two good friends with us, and in a 'secret' wedding we made our vows and exchanged rings.
It was our special day ...
3 years on we are as happy & in love as ever.

***

*Merry Christmas everyone*
I really hope you all have a wonderful holiday time and that all your wishes come true, and may the new year bring love, happiness & joy to you all.
Lots of love
Alison
x

*I Heart Snow*

I *Love* Snow!!!!!!! I mean I REALLY love snow!!! I love love love it!!!
Eeek, and guess what ... it's snowing outside right now!!!!! *Yay*

I'm doubly excited as we are decorating our house tonight! James and I always do it on the Saturday night 2 weeks before Christmas and this is the time we exchange our Christmas cards too. We open the bubbly and get to it, champagne flute in one hand and wrestling with tree lights with the other! We have so much fun, we snack on nibbles along the way, (tonight it's cheese and biscuits, mmmmmmm) we have Bing Crosby & Frank Sinatra singing Christmas songs in the background, the bubbly keeps on flowing and by the end we do tend to get a bit giddy and giggly, once we are a bit too giddy we tend to decide that it's done, whether it is or not really!!!! But I always finish off and tweak the next day!

*Squeal* I've just looked outside the window again and it's still snowing, I just can't believe it, I'm so excited! Now I know it isn't going to lay, but just to see those beautiful snowflakes falling from above makes it feel so much like Christmas.
I *heart* snow!
x

*My Lovely Birthday*

Thank you all so much for your wonderful birthday wishes in my last post!

I had a lovely day, it started the night before when we went out to a lovely country inn for a meal with friends, and then when I got home I was allowed to 'see' my present from James!
He had made me this lovely huge gift box with lots of delightful presents in. He had wrapped everything in brown wrapping paper and tied each pressie with raffia and then filled the box with raffia!
I didn't open it until the next morning though, but obviously I could see a few of the lovely gifts peeking out!!!



Here are a few of my lovely gifts, I got one of these wonderful pink cake stands and a cutie of a pink teapot to match, which I have wanted forever!!!

One of the boxes was extremely heavy and I was sooooo excited to find out it was Turkish Delight! I absolutely love Turkish Delight and James had bought it from a fab sweetie shop in town called Fairylicious ~ just how cute is that name!!!!



I also got lots of other fab pressies in my gift box, which included a Basher print, which I think will have to have its own post, a couple of Charmed boxed sets as I love Charmed and have loved it since seeing the very first episode, but never actually got around to buying the box sets after I bought the first season!!!
3 bottles of pink bubbly!!! Mmmmmm ~ one of which we transferred into my pink teapot and then poured into our champagne flutes, and I actually think it tasted better this way! Tee hee!
I also got the new Harry Potter DVD & some beautiful Lene Bjerre cushions ~ although I actually got these before my birthday!



I received this beautiful vintage glass plate stand from my mummy, who amongst other things also got me a wonderfully huge white cake stand and a wooden clothes airer ~ I've wanted one of these for absolutely ever!!!



I had a wonderful day shopping around all 'my' shops ~ shabby vintage lovely shops and we picked up some lunch from a cute bakery/deli in town called Angel Share (another sweet name) and then we had all these goodies to look forward to on the evening, well a girl has to have french fancies and tunocks teacakes doesn't she!!!
We also had smoked cheese and oat biscuits along with some wonderfully yummy double hot pepper jelly that we picked up whilst in Somerset from *The Cheddar Gorge Cheese Company*
Mmmmmmm it is absolutely dee-licious!!!!
So I had a really *cute* birthday and it really doesn't end there as I'm off out tonight for another meal with more friends! Lucky me!

*Birthday Party*

Eeek, it's my birthday tomorrow and so you are all invited to my birthday party ~ tee hee!
So pop on your best party dresses, get out your new shoes, tie your hair back with a cute ribbon and drop on by for lots and lots of sweet treats!
Look for the house with the cupcake bunting and come on in ...

*A Sneak Peek at our Autumn Loveliness*

I thought I would share a little sneak peek at what Autumn loveliness is going on in the Vintage Amethyst home this October.

As you can see above we have some wonderful gourds on display in the living room. I absolutely love it when these beauties (or should that be uglies) arrive in florists & boutiques in the Autumn months. These here were such a bargain at 50p each too!



Of course we have our ever so cute mini pumpkins on display again, aren't these little cuties adorable? They are so fairy-tale like & delicious.
They sit in this bowl on our coffee table in the living room and they always get a comment from guests. People can't believe they are tiny dried pumpkins!



And here is a snippet of the fab fabric leaves I picked up in Hamburg last year.
Lovely to adorn tables and fireplaces with.



Here we have a little Autumn pot-pourri mix that I made up from dried orange & lime slices, bay leaves, tiny dried chillies, dried rose hips, sticks of cinnamon & a few conkers thrown in too.
This all sits in a lovely hand-turned wooden bowl in our hallway.



Yay, conkers! Well it wouldn't be Autumn without conkers would it! This is a selection of conkers that we picked up last weekend over in Appleby in Cumbria whilst we had a lovely Autumn walk by the river.
I must admit I can't resist a conker lying on the ground, I do love these little fellas don't you?



And lastly here is a hanging chili heart that I made which hangs from the dresser in our dining room. I love the colour of these chillies as they are so orange & teamed with the raffia I think it looks so rustic & Autumnal.

Hope you enjoyed the little sneak peek into our Autumnal goodies that are decorating our home at the moment, eeek it won't be long before the Christmas lovelies will be adorning the home will it?
Well until then enjoy the beautiful Autumn days everyone.
x

*A Cosy Night In*

As James was going out on Friday night with friends I decided to have a cosy night in!
I was actually invited to go out too but looky looky who would go out when they could stay in curled up on the sofa with these goodies!

Instead of going out I decided to treat myself to a copy of Ideal Homes Complete Guide to Christmas (ooooohhhh yummy) some Kshocolate chocolate (obviously I need to have 2 different flavours to test 'Honeycomb & Vanilla' and 'Lemon & Pepper') and a bottle of red wine!

Mmmmmmm, so there I was all snuggled and cosy on the sofa on Friday night with my wonderfully delicious treats, and after the wonderfully festive read, I watched 'The Devil Wears Prada'.
Just what a girly need with these chilly nights drawing in on us.
A perfect cosy night in!
x

*Awards, Sevens & a Random Scarecrow*

Ok, so there is the random scarecrow out of the way ~ I wanted to post a photo at the top of the page that I hadn't posted before and here he is in all his glory!!!
We found him one day in the Summer at Helmsley, and isn't it marvellous! I love him!

Anyhoo on to the awards, well I have to say a wonderfully big thank you firstly to the ever adorable Tracy at Pink Purl for this award ~ so Thank You! (hey now that's big!)



This as you can see if the One Sweet Blog award ~ sweet and along with this award comes a tag, and this Meme is about 7's so here goes ...

7 Things I plan to do before I die:

1. Have children.
2. Have grandchildren (of course children willing!)
3. Visit San Fransisco
4. Learn to Drive (yes that's right I don't drive, eek!)
5. Live with my family (see number 1.) in a lovely country home with a huge garden
6. Open a Vintage Amethyst shop (bricks & mortar shop that is.)
7. Open a tea-shop (I plan & think about this all the time!!!)

7 Things I do now:

1. Run my own business (yay!)
2. Day dream about the future
3. Sit with one leg up & generally under me (yes I'm doing it now!)
4. Touch Type (yay for GSCE Typing along with Business Studies!)
5. Read lots of books
6. Like to have a good moan about things!
7. Drink wine (no I'm not doing that particular thing at the mo, oohhh but now I'm thinking about it!)

7 Things I can't do:

1. Drive (as previously mentioned)
2. Play the piano
3. Let things go (oooooh if only ~ oh but then I wouldn't be able to moan see no. 6 above!)
4. Leave the house without makeup (a little bit of mascara, a touch of concealer in the right places & a lick of lip balm does it at the minimum but no never without anything!)
5. Eat meat (I am vegetarian ~ does this one count??)
6. Walk very well in high heels (I do wear them whenever we go out in the evening as I'm only 5ft 2" but I'm not one of those people that can just nip to the shops in high heels oh goodness no it would take me forever!!!)
7. The splits (anymore!!!)


7 Things that attract me to the Opposite Sex:
(eek I'm married don't you know ~ well I suppose James has all these qualities so it doesn't matter right?)

1. Humour
2. Kindness
3. Intelligence
4. Good Manners
5. Quiet Confidence (not cocky!!)
6. Honesty
7. And just all round generally loveliness!

7 Things that I say most often:

1. James
2. Delicious
3. Oh my word (when am I from the 1950's!)
4. Lovely
5. Oh-Oh (yes really!)
6. Blimey
7. What's all that about???

7 Celebrities that I admire:

1. Drew Barrymore ~ as she picked herself up from a troubled teenager to working as a waitress & auditioning for roles to becoming a successful actress & production company owner.

2. Paul Newman ~ for donating all profits from his 'Newmans Own' sauces to charity.

3. Brad Pitt & ...

4. Angelina Jolie ~ for all the charity work they do & according to tax records, the couple donated more than $8 million to charity in 2006 alone!

5. Sharon Osbourne ~ for building a huge business empire and being a pioneer in celeb docu-soaps (love 'em or hate 'em!) and overcoming cancer in the public eye and founding her Cancer Programme to help others with colon cancer.

6. Robert Redford ~ for what he has done for the independant film business, he was the one you created the Sundance Film Festival and works to promote independant films.

7. Doris Day ~ I admire this wonderful lady for a number of reasons, one for overcoming a heartbreaking event in her early life, being in a car accident which curtailed her prospects of being a professional dancer to then picking herself up and going on to be a wonderfully successful singer & actress. Two for having to cope with another heartbreaking moment when she found out that her husband had sqandered all her earnings which left them in tremendous debt! And thirdly for her Animal Welfare work. She has also had a number of terribly difficult marriages and yet we only ever see this wonderful 'perfect' happy lady ~ a true lady.

7 Favorite Foods:

1. Feta (oohh lovely!)
2. Black Olives (Mmmmm could eat them all day!)
3. Hummous (mmmmmm yummy especially with pitta breads!)
4. Garlic (can this be classed as a food? Anyway I love putting garlic in anything!)
5. Pizza (you know those yummy thin crust ones that seem so light, mmmm!)
6. Pasta (especially with ricotta & spinach or rocket anything like that)
7. Chocolate (well it had to be on there didn't it!)


7 People who need to do this:

1. Catherine at Mollycupcakes
2. Anna at All Things Lovely
3. Kim at Ragged Roses
4. Kimberley at Tallulah House
5. Marrisa at Dawes in New Zealand
6. Priscilla at Priscilla's Cottage
7. Jenny at Everyday is a Holiday

Sorry cutie-pies if any of you have done this before and I've missed it and please feel free not to do it if you really don't want to, I won't be offended 'k?




Righty ho then, this leads us on to my second award which was kindly given to me by the adorable Victoria from Vintage Tea.
Thank you sweet girl for this.

So I have to pass this on to 7 of my Super Commenters, but seeing as you are all super super commenterts & obviously I can't choose, I am passing it on to all of you, so if you haven't had this award before feel free to pop it on your blog and pass it on to 7 of your Super Commenters.

Thank you again to Tracy & Victoria for my lovely awards. I love you girlies loads.
x

*More Devon Delights*

I'm so glad that you all enjoyed seeing the photos of Cockington Village in the last post, so really if you aren't too bored here are a few more photos of our trip to Devon!

We visited Buckfast Abbey which is a beautiful Abbey and also home to a community of Benedictine Monks. Photography was not allowed inside the Abbey so nothing of inside to show you I'm afraid.

In the Abbey grounds there are also gift shops which of course we visited but one of the newest additions to the Abbey grounds is this, which is the Monastic Produce Shop which gives you the opportunity to see crafts & products that are produced amongst the Benedictine monasteries and convents throughout the world, many of which are made by the monks and nuns themselves.

This is the Monastic Gift shop below, you had to cross over the little bridge to enter the shop and in the water was a Loch Ness Monster which was made out of some type of moss or grass!
I bought a huge bar of honey soap from the gift soap which smells just divine, and on our way out we dropped a few pennies into the water and made wishes as many had done before us.



We also visited Dartmoor which is just the most amazingly beautiful place.



We loved these rocks, they were huge ~ of course James climbed to the top!



There is so much natural beauty on Dartmoor I could have spent all day just taking photo's, the colours are just amazing and the differences you experience travelling from one part to the other are unbelievable.



We drove past Dartmoor Prison and by this point the weather was so dark and damp, mist was covering everywhere. You certainly know why the prison was built there and why so many writers have took inspiration from the moor.



As we drove further on through the moor the weather changed so dramatically the sun shone and it was so warm, such a difference from earlier in the day.




We also visited Widecombe-in-the-Moor, as its name suggests, is positioned in the heart of Dartmoor. The village is well known for its church, known as "The Cathedral of the Moors", due to its large size in such a small village. It is also known for the Widdecombe Fair.



And I shall leave you lastly with these couple of photos of where we used to sit upon the rocks and look out upon the wonderful view with waves lapping right by ourside.



We visited many more places in the week and took many more photo's but I am aware that you really must be bored by now, so I am restraining myself and not becoming a holiday bore (unless that is far too late of course! Eeek!)
x

*Chocolate Box Village*

Well here are a few of our holiday photos. Now let me know when you are bored, ok? Tee hee.

We stayed at a place called Waterside between Paington & Brixham and this was part of our view that we woke to each day ~ a wonderful view of Torquay in the distance and this wonderful coastal train line which steam trains ran along a few times a day. We always knew they were coming as you could hear them toot toot before they steamed there way by, so we always used to run to the window and see which one it was!




As we were so near to Torquay of course we had to pay a visit to the ever beautiful Cockington Village.



I'm sure lots of you have visited this wonderful village and I have a couple of times, but for any of you that haven't really make a special visit there as it is a magical fairytale like place filled with adorable thatched cottages & prettiness.



This one above is called Rose Cottage and has tea rooms at the rear.



This is a photo of the tea rooms gardens, so very pretty. It also had a pond with lots of ducks waddling around too.





Here you can see the man playing the piano in the gazebo whilst everyone enjoyed lunch or cream tea's (as in my case, yummy).



Here is the village Inn above in wonderful grounds, how pretty is this pub!



Just on the edge of Cockington Court's grounds is this very very pretty fairytale cottage which I just wanted to live in forever & ever ~ oooohh wouldn't it just be wonderful to live in such an adorable cottage in beautiful grounds.



The cricket hut on the grounds of Cockington Court.



And then Cockington Court itself. It is set in wonderful woodland with sweeping lawned area to the front which the cricket pitch is situated too.
You can just about see the horse & carts that offer rides around the village at the front of the building.

Inside Cockington Court is a Tea Room, a artist studio and lots of little shops one of which was a soap lady who was making the soaps there in her shop room.

Outside at the rear were gardens and in the stable area some workshops.
One was a Iron Mongers, I didn't get to take a photo of this as you had to let them know if you were using a flash so as not to startle them I presume and I didn't want to disturb them.
But I did get a shot of this huge iron spider in a window frame opposite the workshop, eek imagine finding that on a dark night!



Another workshop was a glass blowing room, which I did manage to get a couple of photos of.






This is the side view of Cockington Court, at this point I am stood near to the Norman Church which is next to the house and is still used to this day and if you wish to marry there you will have to wait 4 years!



Here is another photo of the centre of the village where the horse & carts picked people up for trips around the village.

We there is so much prettiness in this chocolate box village you could just faint, I have so many pretty photos that I took, (yes even more than I have shown you here!) and if you cross the grounds of Cockington Court apparently there are some lakes and a ground keepers cottage too which we didn't even see as we didn't know about them until we had left ~ well at least that is another reason to visit again isn't it.

As you can see we had a deliciously sunny & warm day too that day which was so fantabulous especially for photo taking ~ I do hope I haven't bored you all silly with all these photos, and if I haven't I will do another post with some more Devon snaps seeing as this one is basically all about Cockington Village but really who can blame me with such a wonderful fairytale of a place, I know you will all forgive me for being so indulgent, you will won't you?

*wink*

*How Old do I Feel!*

I've been keeping a tiny secret ~ I'm going to be a Great Aunt ~ and that doesn't mean being a really cool and great Aunt, I mean I'm actually going to be a Great Aunt!
One of my neices is having a baby!

I have two older sisters that are quite a bit older than me and so I first became an Aunty when I was only 8 years old and I have 4 neices altogether.
But how weird and fab is it that I am going to be a great aunt at the tender age of 34 (well as I will be when it arrives!)

My lovely neice Hannah as we have just found out today is expecting a baby boy ~ he is expected to arrive at the end of January. *yay*
Ooohhh goodness it really doesn't seem too minutes since she was tiny and I used to call her 'my little pud' as she was just sooo adorably cute and as lovely as pudding.

A Great Aunt, how strange ~ does this mean I have to start starching things and wearing lots of lace, drinking tiny glasses of sherry, taking tea on the lawn & telling people what I really think of them???

Hmmm, anyhoo all I know is that I just can't wait to be a Great Aunt & to meet this little chap who is going to make me feel so old! *giggle*
x

*A Wonderful Picnic Day*

Last weekend when it was the Bank Holiday weekend we decided to go out for a picnic on the Sunday and what a day it was, such a beautifully sunny & warm day, such a difference from most of the summer we have been having!



James decided he would be in charge of the food and made us our favourite ~ bacon & brie for him and cranberry & brie for me all wrapped up in delicious crusty french bread, and with a flask of tea and some plain chocolate digestives in our basket off we went.

We didn't know where we were going and just set of to see where the day would take us and after some driving around we came across this wonderfully beautiful English village that we had never been to before called Barningham.



All these photos are taken in the same village and look a green telephone box, how fab is that!?!



It was outside of this cottage which obviously used to be the post office too, I'm afraid I couldn't resist taking a sneaky shot of this lovely window sign.



The village had this wonderful fountain too which worked, either side water flowed and in the middle was a big pool of water, so pretty with the sun shining on it and twinkling.




And not satisfied with a green telephone box and a fountain this village also had it's own stone circle!



I had to take this lovely photo of the apple tree with its branches heavy with fat juicy apples, ready to drop.



This was the village pub at the end of the village, isn't it just a wonderfully typical English village scene. The photo at the top was a closeup of the pub and its wonderful display of Holly Hocks, they were so pretty and vibrant.



We had had our picnic just outside the village over looking fields and the Yorkshire Dales, oh and of course sheep before we heading back in to the village to explore on foot.

There seemed to be a lot of coming and going as we walked around the village and then we realised people were carrying gifts and making their way to the village hall ~ we had noticed a banner on the outside wishing Ann a happy 60th birthday so it seemed that the whole village was off for an afternoon of gift giving and jolly making ~ so lovely.
We couldn't believe we live so near to this pretty village and yet have never been before!

We topped our day off by heading through Barnard Castle then Cotherstone and on to Middleton-in-Teesdale and I even managed to fit in a touch of thrifting before the day was over ~ I managed to pick up a silver plated candlestick holder for only 50p, which I had ideas for ~ but I will leave that for another post!