Dorothy Shoes.

The real shoes from the movie The Wizard Of Oz in the National Smithsonian Institute Washington D.C.

These are so sweet. Nutty Jo phoned me a couple of days ago and was telling me about taking the children to a Christmas Party and that while she had a cute outfit for Little Miss Nutty to wear she was unable to decide which shoes she should wear.

What's a girl to do, your off to a party,but none of the shoes you have match the outfit.
Plus it's Christmas and you so want to look your best, but the shoe fund is low.

We got to talking about what is the quintessential Christmas shoe.
After running through a whole host of shoes, taking into account stilettos, silver black, never ever not boots, strappy, sling backs, wedges you name a shoe and we talked about it.

Then we hit on it, the best Christmas shoe has to be Dorothy's shoes from the Wizard of Oz. I believe we have been strongly influenced by the fact, that for the last 6,000 years the Wizard of Oz has been on out telly's over here every Christmas......I bet if I looked I could find it in the telly listings for this year at some point. Okay! so 6,000yrs is a slight overstatement on my part, maybe it's only 5,999yrs!!!!!!!!!!!!





We both talked about how we would have loved to have had Dorothy shoes when we were little and then the idea sprang into mind.

I knew Nutty had glitter and glue, but did she have an old pair of shoes that Little Missy Nutty was about to grow out of; or were summer shoes that wouldn't fit her come summer.
Yes, she did and straight away knew where I was going with glitter, glue and unwanted shoes.
That's what I love so much about Nutty, she always catches on to my mad ramblings and we bounce off each other so well.

I got an e-mail today, showing me the shoes. Off course she won't take them off now and it looks like Nutty is going to have to re-glitter them. I am also to blame for the amount of glitter all over the carpets!!!!!!!
Not jealous much, no not me!!!!!!!!!

Dorothy Shoes

Whose This Lady and Why Is She A Heroine To Me?

When I was growing up, this woman played a huge part in the life of my imagination, I so wanted to be her.

Bet your wondering who she is!!!!

She was born on February 7, 1867 near the village of Pepin, near Lund, Winsconsin and died February 10, 1957. The village still celebrate her every September with traditional music, crafts and a look alike contest, a spelling bee and other events.

You still don't know who she is, well some of you may.

She is Laura Ingalls Wilder, that's right "THE" Laura Ingalls of the Little House on the Prairie or as the books where called The Little House In The Big Woods, The Little House Series as they became more commonly known. The first was published in 1931 and has continued to be published to this day and has been translated into 40 languages.

I first came across these books in my Grandfathers shop. Grandpa was a Pawn Broker in the dock area of Southampton and had come from poverty himself and so while it might have been unusual for Pawn Broker to take in books, he did in fact know first hand how hard it was for people and so took in every thing from books to silver teaspoons, your Sunday best suit, to your gold and silver. More about his little shop another time...I really should tell you more about the dusty old shop; old day soon.

Rooting about in the shop one day, I came across the whole series and as they had laid there unclaimed for a very long time, Grandpa allowed me to claim them as my own. They were all first editions and I am sorry to say that they were lost in our house fire a few years back.

I remember well getting stuck into the books and being transported to a time and place I didn't know existed. How Laura became my best friend, even my mum read them and then a little later in time they brought out the t.v series and I was lost and transported again.

I always related to Laura, she was high spirited and curious about life, always defending others and often in trouble. Something a little like me. Can't say I was ever as nice as she was at times, but I'm guessing that I had those moments too.

What I didn't know was that she was a real person. In truth I had never thought about her as real. As a child Laura was very real to me, but she lived in the books and t.v shows that would transport me to Walnut Groove.

It was only this morning that she turned into a real person. When I accidentally came across a letter written by her that also contained a recipe of hers for gingerbread. I was checking an e-mail from Tipnut.com and found it, further searching lead me to a letter written by Laura where she mentions the recipe.

So as it's Christmas and some of you may be thinking of making some gingerbread, I thought you might like to share in this little discovery of mine.
The letter was written to, Letter to Jennie D. Lindquist (October 19, 1953)
Here's the recipe:-
1 cup brown sugar blended with

1/2 cup lard or other shortening.
1 cup molasses mixed well with this.
2 teaspoons baking soda in 1 cup boiling water
(Be sure cup is full of water after foam is run off into cake mixture).

Mix all well.

To 3 cups of flour have added one teaspoon each of the following spices: ginger, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, cloves; and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Sift all into cake mixture and mix well.

Add lastly 2 well-beaten eggs.

The mixture should be quite thin.

Bake in a moderate oven for thirty minutes.

Raisins and, or, candied fruit may be added and a chocolate frosting adds to the goodness.

I have no idea if this a good recipe or not, but I do intend to bake it and I'll let you know then.

A couple of other things I found out. The "fiddle her father played every night when she and her siblings were in their beds and the sound she drifted of to every night still exists in her home.

My Grandpa played the violin, which is as far as I know the same as a fiddle and I loved it when he played. Must have been nice to hear it every night as you drifted off to sleep.

Walnut Grove is a real place and they also have a Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum click HERE.

Here's a replica of the house she was raised in, spacious it ain't.

This is a replica of the inside of the home that she grew up in, makes the one from the t.v show look like luxury; and I thought our house was small. You can see more HERE

You can find out heaps about her on Wikipedia, HERE which will then send you off in all sorts of directions, I certainly had fun today finding out more about her.

In case you are wondering who the letter was too.

Jennie D. Lindquist.....Horn Book Magazine Editor.
editor from 1951 to 1958

When Jennie Lindquist, formerly managing editor of The Horn Book, became editor in 1951, she was face to face with a children’s book publishing industry creating a greater variety of books than ever before. She skillfully kept the magazine on course under this onslaught of titles — plumping up the issues, and allowing the reviews to grow a bit longer and occasionally more controversial.

Just For Christmas Fun.

London Snow Part 3

I seriously doubt that I am ever going to make it off this hill. I thought I might manage to get off tomorrow, well that was till this happened an hour or so ago. it wasn't looking to bad when Francis (with an i) got home.


However 10mins later when Ashley got back it looked like this, he wouldn't stand still for the photo, gosh he was grumpy lol. He looks like a ghost.


10 mins later it was like this and darkness had fallen a little earlier tonight.


I zoomed into the tree opposite my window and you can clearly see how big the snowflakes are.


This one is where I just zoomed in as far as I could and took a photo of the sky.

All the rest are of our little back garden, we don't have too many buildings out the back of our house and the ones we do have tend to be behind the trees, so the garden takes on a magical quality.




Can't wait to see the animal footprints in this, I can now tell Misty cat and Bear cats apart and then there is the foxes and the mice, I think the mice are living in my shed, I don't mind it's warmer in there for them.







And yes! that is an old disco ball hanging off my washing line. I found it on a building site I was working on and rescued it from the men who where playing football with it. It's lived in my garden for about 3yrs now and when the sun catches it it sends out beautiful shafts of rainbow light. It annoys the hated neighbors as it shines into their house as well as ours and other neighbours, which is another reason to keep it (oh! I bad mwhahaha)

We are now listening to a thunder storm and hearing reports of London at a standstill and airports closed......again.

People Of Walmart!!!!!!!

You'll have to forgive me for being a bit naughty today.
I put it down to two things.

1) I have cabin fever, having been stuck in the house since last Wednesday.
I'm still stuck in because of the snow, which is now ice and even the most balanced of people are having trouble walking up or down the hill. No way am I going to be able to walk out there, so until it goes, I'm stuck inside.

2) Nutty Jo, yes that's right my mad friend from Nottingham, who sensing that I needed a good laugh sent me an e-mail she had received and this lead to a Google search.

Click HERE to see what I have been laughing at. Honesty don't these people have mirrors.
Surely Walmart sells them!!!!!!
Reading the love/hate comments just made me laugh all the more.
I find it astonishing the amount of people who go shopping in their pj's. Or the extremely short dresses and skirts on some of the women, some with no drawers (panties) on. What's with the smallest shorts in the World on some very shall we say rounded bottoms, do they get extra discount for this outrageous fashion.

Ogh!!!! my eyes, they have melted, my ribs hurt, I have laughed so much. I have cried and nearly fell off the chair, and I actually spat my drink over the key board at one point.
The boys are now going through the site and all I can hear is raucous laughter.

Thing is, we have a supermarket over here called ASDA; and Walmart took them over a couple of years ago, so I have a feeling this is coming to a store near me very very soon.
You'll find me lurking near the door with my diggy camera any day now....that is if I ever get off the hill!!!!!!!!

Maybe Walmart should introduce a dress code before they let this lot in the stores, it's enough to put you of your food!!!!!!!!





















If you have reconised yourself in any of these photos, please, please, buy a mirror, use it, get dressed and for goodness sake, remember to put your underwear on!!!!!!!!!

Not that I think any of my American blog buddies go shopping dressed like this, I'm sure you all have more taste and decorum.

Oh I am bad for laughing, but I couldn't help myself.