A Crafty Night on the Town!!

Last week I had an evening out with my friend Jane, (I had a good week as I had a few drinks around at Karen's as well!!!) Jane is  one of my crafty friends, so we went out for an evening of beading! We decided to make bracelets, made out of seed beads. Despite taking her glasses Jane was having 'issues' seeing as everything was so small!!! In the end I loaned her my 99p magnifying specials, they worked for her!!

To help us concentrate we had a supply of skittles and malteasers!!

By the end of the evening we had both sewn ourselves a bracelet!!It wasn't too difficult once we had got the hang of it. It was surprising how few beads we used!!

We learned a few techniques, by the end of the evening we could 'picot' like a pair of professionals!!!

A couple of weeks ago I bought something called a Kumihino Disk, a Japanese invention to make braids. Once I had looked it up on You Tube it became quite easy, the translated instructions included in the pack were useless!! I made these two out of suede thongs. I can see that I will be able to make all sorts of patterns using this disk!! 

This past weekend has been Easter, the weather has been generally nice, although on Sunday we had yet another power cut, I can't believe that it keeps happening. Luckily it was another very short one, but I wonder why it keeps happening. Its a nuisance having to reset all the alarm clocks afterwards!!

I am pleased with how the garden is coming along, lots of nice plants. I bought Tom a new clematis after he lost two of them over the winter with the fences going down. That seems to be growing six inches a day!!

Finally a shot of the Easter Eggs, its going to take a while for those to be demolished!!

Hope you all have a good week.

A Trip into London.

Last week I had a few days off of work. Its strange how quickly the time I spent recovering from my operation seems such a long time ago. I am going from strength to strength. I am just about free of my walking stick. I know it seems like I have been using my stick for a long time, but I am trying to beat the limp that I have had for a few years. I am getting there. Now I only limp if I get tired. I am trying to increase the amount of walking that I do. I have a fancy pedometer and I have managed to walk a good few miles most days. Last Friday I went to the Excel Centre in Docklands for a craft fair with my friend Barb. We started by travelling to Kings Cross, it really s a fabulous station since they have revamped it.

It was a good show, lots of stalls and lots of chances to try your hand at different things. We made a pair of earrings, a layered card., tried our hands at glitter painting on acetate. Towards the end we had a sit down and joined in with a Guinness book of records attempt at making the longest knitted or crocheted chain. Barb crocheted the blue hoop and I knitted the yellow one. Its been ages since I picked up my knitting needles and it seemed to take an age to cast on and do the first row. Barb on the other hand whizzed through it. !!

I can't remember visiting Docklands area of London before. On the way there on the train we went pass a few land marks, The Millennium Dome, now called the 02 arena. We went by the Olympic park, we could see some of the buildings and the strange looking red metal landmark thingy!! We also went by the Banking district and Canary Wharf . Once we came out of the Ex Cel we walked down by the river, the place has been regenerated but it still retained some of its Dockland heritage.

The trains on the Docklands Light Railway don't have drivers, it has the feel of being on a Disney ride as you can sit right at the front and watch where you are going!! Its an interesting experience!!

Finally we have lots of spring flowers putting in an appearance. Dad is a fantastic gardener, he spends hours in his garden and in his green house. He can grow just about anything. The one flower he has problems with is the Pansy, he just can't get them to grow in his garden.We have just found these Pansy's flowering in the smallest of cracks between the road and the kerb stone outside our house. They are self sets and look really pretty. Makes me wonder what Dad is doing to fail with them !!!!

I am pleased that it is nearly the weekend again, I have a few plans for the next few days, starting with a visit to Ikea, a trip to Ally Pally and finishing with dinner with friends on Sunday.Next week is looking fairly booked up as well, with some evenings booked with friends, Happy Days!!!

Weekend Away.

We have just returned back from a lovely weekend away in Whitby. I like Whitby where my brother and sister in law live. Its nice to see them from time to time. This was a bit of a last minute decision, mainly as I wanted to do something completely different for Mothers day. In previous years we have always spent at least part of the day with Mum, so this year was going to be particularly difficult. I think we made the right decision to go away and do something different. 

We booked a nice bed and breakfast on the top of the cliff, splashed out on a sea view but look at the photo above, it was a fog fest!!!!  We did get to see the sea, but only just!! 

The best bit about this weekend was that I was able to walk without any pain, so we walked from the cliff top right the way down to the beach and all the way along the pier!! I also walked around the town and clocked up 4 miles on my pedometer I can't remember the last time I walked that far !! I am so pleased with how far I have come.

The B and B had a lovely little sitting room looking out over the sea, but as you can tell the sea is not particularly 'seeable' in this picture!!

The Abbey is on the cliff on the other side of the harbour  I really like how this photo turned out, the fog adds and air of mystery to it!!

There were plenty of Lobster pots piled up on the harbour, The church in the background is St. Marys , just in front of the church is a church yard which has started to slide away. It was this church that featured in the Dracula books written by Bram Stoker. (previously I got my authors confused!!!)

One night we ate out at the famous Magpie Cafe, usually people queue up for ages outside, they queue down the steps and onto the pavement, its not unusual to see 40 plus people waiting to get in!! On Saturday night there was no queue, I expect March is low season even for very popular places!! We had fish and chips and it was nice, not exceptional but nice, I can now say I have been there and done that!"!!

Finally for the first time in my life I have had a Mothers Day without my dear Mum, I miss her so much its been a hard time without her.

A Week Without Rain !! Must be Spring!!

Well it looks like spring has finally sprung, we have had a whole week without any rain and the garden is finally coming to life. I had a few days off last week and it was great to be able to potter around the garden weeding and getting the place straight again. Over the past few months we have been gifted lots of garden plants in particular roses, which I love. I have finally found a space for all of them and I can't wait to see them all in bloom. 

It was so warm that after all our labours we were able to sit on the patio and enjoy a cup of tea in the warm sunshine, it was bliss! even came in with a bit of a rosy glow!

The weekend started with a quiz night at school. A once a year event that we have been going to for years and years !  I am the 'maker of the spoons' The losing team win a wooden spoon ! I have been doing that for years as well! Its a great night out a chance to meet up with 'old' friends from years ago ! There is a knack to the evening, you have to aim at coming second, second is respectable, last is acceptable, but winning will bring down a whole load of problems in the form of setting the quiz for the next year!

So the idea is to try very hard not to actually win. We achieved our aim perfectly and came third by 2 points perfect!!! By way of a twist this year they decided to draw straws between the top and bottom team to see who who set the next quiz and the poor old losing team lost again! A great evening out!

Sunday the 16th was the Anniversary of my sister Val's  passing, I know that time flies as you get older but it was 1999 that she left us. We took a trip over to the Crematorium and visited her grave to lay some flowers.

It was difficult to get a photo through the glass, but it has been a few years since I had looked at the book of remembrance. Hard to believe so much time has passed and that her daughter Emily is now a Mum herself. 

While at the cemetery we visited Nan and Grandads graves as well.

I can remember them so clearly, visiting them and having a cup of tea with them. The smell of warm tomatoes in Grandads greenhouse, Nan making cakes that didn't rise!! Happy memories. They really loved having great grandchildren, but sadly never got to see Beth as although Nan knew I was expecting she passed away in the September before Beth was born in the November.

Because it was such a gorgeous day the grounds looked beautiful, a typical spring day in English countryside. 

I hope this weather continues, the papers are saying we are likely to have the hottest summer ever this year, but I have heard that one before!!! Have a lovely week, don't work too hard!

Its been a Beautiful Weekend!!

It does now feel like Spring is just around the corner! This past weekend we have had beautiful spring weather, its nearly been warm (well I have swapped my duffle coat for a fleece jacket!!) I popped in to Tesco and they had some lovely strawberries, they smelt wonderful and when I opened the punnet there was this one enormous strawberry the size of a large plum ! Not only did it look nice it was really tasty. Sometimes strawberries out of season taste very bland and watery, but these were summer in a box, gorgeous!!!

Sometimes I despair at the standards of education and understanding around all things mathematical. I do not consider myself to be a maths whizz kid, being a child of the 70's I only managed a grade C 'O level'.

I was surprised to find these great offers in a store in town.

I spoke the shop assistant who was stacking the shelf nearby and asked why she thought that anyone would buy these fantastic deals? She completely missed the point and told me that they were multibuys and would save me money!! I said clearly they wouldn't save me money, but she didn't get it. So I said if I add up three packets of crisps at 32p a packet how much would it cost? she said £1 !!! There is no hope!!

Today we went out to lunch at my Auntie June and Uncle Ed's, Ed is my Dads younger brother. For years I have been interested in my family history and I was really pleased that Uncle Ed had some photos of my Nan and Grandad that I had never seen before. The photo above of my Grandad was taken in 1945 when he was 24 years old, what caught my eye was the similarity to Carl, the cheeks, the eyes even the hairline and style, its quite uncanny. Carl is roughly the same age as this photo as well. The other striking thing that I remember about Grandad was his bright blue eyes. Nan had Hazel eyes, so all of their sons had Hazel eyes. When I was pregnant with Laura and planning in my head how she would look, I did wonder if we might get a blue eyed baby. (Tom has blue eyes and I thought there was an outside chance that I might have inherited a blue gene from Grandad) Anyway Laura turned out to have very dark brown eyes, but when Carl came along he had grandads blue eyes!! They are definitely Grandads colour as they are a different shade to Toms!! We managed to crack the blue eyed gene again with Beth, although her eyes are closer to Toms in colour!

I love looking at the old photos. My memory of Grandad was as an elderly man, so its hard to see a resemblance, looking at this much younger photo is striking. The similarity between my cousins sons and Carl is also quite amazing, so they are all connected on my paternal line!!

I am looking forward to a few days annual leave at the end of this week, plus the delivery of a bookcase for our bedroom. I think that I will have to start Tom on a new task of trying to sort out the mess in the loft, a few hours a day and we might start to be able to see the floor again!!!

Have a great week. 

Trying something new.

The advantage of being off of work is the extra time you have to sit and think about things, I like to think and ponder , but even better than that I like to 'do' things, try my hand at things. The advantage to trying things is that it occupies me body and mind!! We have recently redecorated two bedrooms, I say we, I have the ideas and I have been project manager!! Tom has decorated to my command!! I have helped clear out cupboards and under the bed in our room, you know offering express instructions and holding the black bags!! Its taken some time as I have not been physically able to help too much, but we are finally there. We unearthed lots of 'stuff' mainly 'stuff' that is too good to throw away, but no longer required. All that happens with that is that you store it for ten years and then throw it out anyway!! I suppose if you were able to keep it for another thirty years it would become 'vintage' and be worth a fortune. Sadly I end up getting rid of stuff long before it becomes valuable again.

Anyway I found some old curtains that had been in the conservatory many moons ago, I packed it all up with the intention of giving it to the local school, the more I thought about it the more I wished I could put it to some sort of good use. I was looking on the great time waster - Pinterest when one of my friends pinned a picture of a braided rug made out of strips of fabric. I did a bit of research and although I liked the look, it was clear that you would need to braid the fabric and then sew it together in a spiral, it was the hand sewing that put me off, but it had tickled my interest so I eventually found instructions to make a crocheted rag rug, it had everything I needed, used rag strips, grew quickly and did not require sewing up afterwards. So I ordered my giant crochet hook (20mm size) and started to tear up the material into two inch wide strips. 

This part was very satisfying, the quickest way to do it is tearing great for venting your frustrations. I found that if I ripped along the length and stopped around an inch from the end, I could move over two inches and rip back the other way, before I knew it I had a huge ball of yarn !

So the next step was to start crocheting, it was quite easy, I tried several different ways before I settled on a simple strip. I planned to put it by the side of my bed, so it needed to be around two feet wide by 4 or 5 ft long. I unpicked it a couple of times until I was happy with the result. In the end I made a 15 chain and then did a single crochet into each stitch, at the end of each row I added an extra stitch to allow me to turn the corner and crochet back along the other way. I carried on until I ran out of fabric.

I love the effect, its knobbly and somehow rustic!! Its multi coloured effect is much nicer than the dated curtains that I made it out of. 

The finished article!! I have found it quite addictive, it grows so quickly I managed to do the whole rug in two evenings. So once that one was done I started to think about doing a round one for the spare bedroom. 

I had run out of fabric, so again looking on line other people suggested that duvet covers are great for rugs, so I put a wanted on my local Freecycle site and was given two king size  blue sheets and a dozen blue and white pillow cases, all had seen better days, but that didn't matter as I was going to rip them up and it saved sending them to the dump!!

So I started on a circular rug .

You don't have to worry about the fraying on the sides, or making sure that its only the right side showing, the variation of the right and wrong side gives it an interesting texture, the blue looks quite like washed denim.

To make the rug circular its best to work it on a table to keep it in shape, you have to judge the shape and occasionally add in stitches to keep it flat. There is no exact science to it, you just have to make sure it stays flat. If you do it too tight it starts to turn into a shallow bowl shape, which is not what I was looking for!!

Here is the finished article, just right for my 'dressing room' The pale part is made out of the pillow cases and I finished it off with the last of the dark blue. To give you an idea the rug used one blue king sized valance sheet and twelve pillow cases !! 

This afternoon I tore up the rest of the sheets while watching Sunderland come second in the cup final. I actually felt it was a good game, just a shame that Sunderland lost. I just have to decide what to make with these mammoth balls of yarn!! I have a couple of ideas but I think I'll think about it for a while and see what I decide to do with them!!

Hope you all have a good week, as I sit here its pouring with rain yet again, I would love for it to be a bit warmer and a whole lot dryer some time soon!!! 

They are out!!!!

Finally I think spring is on the way, this week at last, my first three daffodils have flowered. They look very cheery and I really hope that the rest of them flower soon. The weather this week has on balance been better and the daffodils and a few crocus makes the world seem cheerier.

This week was also my birthday, so it was nice to be able to celebrate with my family and friends. The night before I went out for dinner with Madeline, Sue and Sandra at the Long and Short Arm. Incredible value as they have a two for one menu, we had dinner and sweet plus a bottle of rose for £45 !! Bargain!!

We had tried to take a bit of a selfie with all of us, but it was just a bit on the cramped side, so the waiter took this one !! Madeline seems to have her eyes closed in both of the shots!!

This is the selfie!! Eyes closed again Madeline!!!

The next day at work Barb made me coffee walnut cup cakes, very nice!!!

Beth bought me a chocolate birthday cake, so we did the happy birthday thing with Laura, Tom and grandad.

Carl arrived a little later and bought me another cake, made by his own fair hand!! Karen (over the road Karen!!) made me some lovely chocolate Florentines, so lovely that everyone who tried them, loved them, so bang went my birthday present !!!!  So all in all I had a very good birthday!

This week I started back at work, its been a bit of a mixed experience. I am glad that I am only doing a phased return because I have found it all quite exhausting!! I have decided that when I grow up  I would like to  have a career as a furniture painter or a seamstress!!! 

Have a lovely week!!

The calm AFTER the storm!!

We are very lucky here in my part of Hertfordshire, we are not at risk of flooding and we usually only have the 'normal' weather to deal with. A huge part of the rest of the country has been flooded since before Christmas its something that must be soul destroying. Over the past few days we have had a really horrible storm, the wind was raging all night and I could hear stuff outside crashing around and  as there was a full moon with a quick look out of my bedroom window I could see one of the fence posts had broken and the fence was flapping around, still upright but flappy. The following morning I think we were lucky to get away with one broken post. All around there were fences down and trees uprooted. The weather has certainly been doing its very worse. Today is the first day in a long time where it hasn't rained and better than that it is sunny with a blue sky. I have daffodils nearly ready to bloom in the garden so perhaps spring is in the air after all. 

After a while off of work I am heading back tomorrow. I am still using my walking stick, so I am going to have to ease myself back in gently, I am going to have to take it slowly and not overdo things. Its a bit of a worry, I am sure once through the door I will be fine, it feels like stepping into the unknown again.Wish me luck!!

Just after Christmas, in the sales I bought myself an Amaryllis bulb, I planted it straight away and it grew very quickly. When it came into flower it was beautiful!! I was so lucky that I took these photos because the next morning it committed suicide!! It fell over and landed on the floor with a broken neck! I have chopped the stem off, but you are supposed to allow the leaves to grow on so that it will flower again next winter. I will have to take precautions next time to keep it upright!

I like a nice bargain, I have been quite limited as to what I have been able to do while recovering, but I have been able sit down and chop things up!! I have a food dryer which I haven't used that much, but a few weeks ago Tescos were selling apples for 5p each, a bargain, so I bought two quids worth and set about drying them! I sliced them and cut the middles out. The pile of middles looked really pretty. I dried the rings and now have two jars of apples which make tasty snacks. 

This coming week is my birthday so I have some evenings out planned !! I am looking forward to celebrating with friends and family!! I hope you all have a good week