Quote me happy...

Have you read any of Paulo Coelho's books? I haven't yet which is pretty unusual for someone who loves reading and feeling inspired.

I am assured that his books are fantastic...my sister has all of them! So while I wait for her to hand them over I found one of his quotes that hit home!

Have you read any of these books? This printable is available here.

Pinterest passion

"All yours, Babooshka, Babooshka, Babooshka-ya-ya!"  I can just hear her now...back in the 80s I loved Kate Bush and I loved this song.

I guess I always had a thing for these cuties and so began my Pinterest board 'Babushkas'.

So get this, these little babies are also know as Matryoshka dolls! But did you know there are few different ways to spell Babushkas? Here's Wikipedia's description...

"Babushka or baboushka or babooshka from Russian: ба́бушка; IPA: [ˈbabʊʂkə]  meaning "grandmother" or "old woman") may also refer to:

• A Western term for a woman's headscarf tied below the chin in the Eastern European manner.
• Babushka, an alias of Russian revolutionary Catherine Breshkovsky
• Babushka Adoption Foundation
• "Babooshka", a song by Kate Bush
• The story of Baboushka and the Three Kings
• Babushka doll, a commonly misused name for Matryoshka doll
• Babushka Lady is a nickname for an unknown woman who might have photographed the events that occurred in Dealey Plaza in Dallas at the time President John F. Kennedy was shot
• Buranovskiye Babushki, a Russian ethno-pop band containing eight elderly women from Buranovo, Udmurtia."

Nowadays they are not just a stacking doll but are used in many different ways...

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I like this but I also love the more traditional use for the Babushkas.

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Babushkas are still a very popular pin on Pinterest. Having just done a search, I think I'll go repin some of these lovelies...

Think before you act and read the reviews...

I now know reading reviews are a must, most definitely...don't rely on the brand name reputation!

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I've had phone trouble, mobile phone trouble to be exact. Not with my contract but with recycling my old phone. Rather than throwing my old phone in the drawer to gather dust, I thought I would recycle it and get a little bit of cash for my trouble!

Needless to say it hasn't gone according to plan, I had a contract with O2 so thought I might as well use their recycling service, so I input my details, got a price and waited for the prepaid packaging to arrive. Now bearing in mind the figure they give you online is guaranteed to 14 days, my packaging arrived 8 days later leaving me only 6 days to a) decide for sure if I wanted to sell it...yep! and b) return it to them!

I packaged up my phone and went to the post office to send it special delivery, which is extra cost to the prepaid envelope...approximately £5!!

The a few days later I get an email to say my phone has 'minor cosmetic' damage...hmmm yeah right! and that the price was to be reduced. If I was happy with the price I need not do anything and I would get and Amazon Certificate for the cost on Monday. Guess what no certificate!!

I thought I would check out some reviews about O2 Recycle and guess what? They were absolutely slated...registering 1 star, bad communication etc. Oh dear!! (picture a woman pulling out her hair and getting might angry)

I have eventually managed to contact someone who has arranged for the funds to be paid direct to my account but just so you know....review, check, review and review again.

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 I would have saved myself a huge headache.

Countdown to freedom...

Ooohh sounds ominous doesn't it....like I'm in prison and will soon be out...well I can assure you I am not in prison and certainly intend to stay well away from prison thank you very much!

As I mentioned before I am being made redundant and today is the start of my countdown. It's one month until D-Day (done-day) to be exact and to say I can't wait is an understatement!  I loved my job when I started this part of my career, I was so, so happy.

But as we all know things can change pretty rapidly and after several key people left, my job started going downhill! I plodded along because that's what you do, don't you? So now circumstances have ensured that redundancy is the only option and whilst I will be get some money from the redundancy, it won't last forever.

I'm thinking really hard now what I want to do with the rest of my life, I know I would love to make things and sell them because it's something I love doing and I want to be successful in my life.

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But also I want to do something worthwhile and I want to feel rewarded in whatever I do....is that too much to ask? For now I'll keep thinking and work towards stocking my Etsy shop!

Polyvore party...

Wow, I just realised that the first and last Polyvore party we had here at Doodle Dandys was March last year, there is no excuse...but I'm back now so let's party!

In the spirit of winter, here's this months...

Winter blues work outfit

I just love the idea of wearing a cream outfit, with a touch of wintery blue and you can't beat a pearl bracelet and earrings to finish it off. I'm not sure how practical this would be though unless you are lucky enough to sit at a desk all day!!

Les Miserables and non-stop sobbing...

Oh my word...I completely forgot to tell you about my movie trip with my girlfriends last Thursday!!

Well by now you know I went to to see Les Miserables with my girlfriends last week and what can I say...if you haven't seen it you must!

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It was absolutely fantastic, the actors and actresses surprised me in every scene, their singing was beautiful.

I was completely blown away by Anne Hathaway when she sang “I Dreamed a Dream”. To say I didn't cry would be a lie, I sobbed...but can I just say I wasn't the only one...all but one of the six of us that went cried too and pretty much all the way through the movie.

I recently watched an interview with Anne Hathaway on how she prepared for the scene where they cut her hair and when she was singing “I Dreamed a Dream”, can you believe she sung that live whilst they cut her hair? her own, real life, gorgeous, hair???

As for Hugh Jackman, one of my friends (who will remain nameless) turns to me in the first scene and whispers to me, "Isn't that Wolverine?".  I just love my friends!!

I have yet to see the other movies nominated for the Oscars, I'm going to try and get to see them and then maybe my opinion on who should win may be swayed but as it stands now...Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway should win, as should the movie!!

Pinterest passion

I thought I would share one of my more recent boards, simply named Mercury Glass.  I just adore mercury glass and have only recently started collecting it.

I was fortunate enough to receive these beautiful mercury glass candlesticks from my parents for Christmas.

I love them and they come from the fabulous Cox and Cox.  

Mercury glass does not seem as easy to get over here in England as it seems in the US but thank goodness for good old Ebay where there are many listing that are sold from the US.

Do you have any collections?

Looks like it's gonna snow...

I love the snow. It looks so beautiful when it settles, when it's unspoilt by vehicles driving on the roads creating the steel, grey, slush in the gutters.

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This is what one of the roads in our village looks like after the vehicles have been at it, the trees look magical but somehow slightly spoilt by the road...but hey that's life right?!

So the snow is due Friday and I can't wait, my boys love the snow too. We wrap up warm, put on our wellies and traipse through the snow to the cricket field, where we lay in the snow and make snow angels!!

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What joy, seeing my boys eyes light up and hear them giggle as we throw snowballs at each other.

I just hope the snow fall won't be as much of a disappointment as it was this past Monday, it had melted by lunchtime!!

Life itself is a quotation...

Don't you just love quotes??

Life itself is a quotation. ~ Jorge Luis Borges

Jorge Luis Borges was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator. I don't think he could have said it better and neither did Marlene Dietrich below.

I love quotations because it is a joy to find thoughts one might have, beautifully expressed with much authority by someone recognized wiser than oneself. ~ Marlene Dietrich 

I love quotes, I have a dedicated board to quotes on Pinterest named 'Good words are worth much and cost little' . I also like to dabble with graphics and decided what better way to do both than to create a quote of the week post, what do you think?

Anyhoo, here's my first one. If you want to use it please feel free but I would be grateful if you could link back to the original post. Thanks

Be sure to look out for next week's quote of the week, all my printables are available for free here.

Hello boys, I'm back...

In the wise word spoken by Randy Quaid in Independence Day, 'Hello boys, I'm back!'

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After an extremely long hiatus, not quite a year, I'm back to work on this little blog of mine.  I have redesigned it and I'm happy with it, really happy...okay it's not professionally designed but it's pretty good in my eyes.

I have lots of ideas in what to fill it with, mostly with the things I love, everyday life and crafting.

Lots of things have happened over the past 10 months, one of which is I'm taking redundancy from my job of 18 years, so I hope to have a little more time on my hands for craft projects I have in mind.

I am working on building stock for my Etsy shop which I will launch in the near future, when I'm happy with my stock levels and I hope to sell hand crafted cushions, bunting, plaques and button art as I did in my Folksy shop.  This time around I'm going to get prepared, I hate to rush my work and love to produce great products that I would be happy to receive, so watch this space.  I'll be sure to share my work on the blog too.

So there you go, I'm glad to be back, be sure to follow me!