27th November

I had a nice day yesterday. It was Simon's day off.  We went out early in the morning to go to the main post office to collect a couple of parcels.  A book for him and some lovely smelly bath bombs for me.  We stopped of at Tesco for a quick food shop and then Jewsons for some stuff to mix in with concrete to make it water proof.

Simon spent his day out in the garage .  He was putting the concrete along the edges to seal them.  He also painted some wood for skirting boards.  I was joking when I asked him recently if he was going to have coving, skirting boards and a dado rail.  Seems the skirting isn't a joke.

I spent my day happily in my sewing room.  First I was parcelling up some brooches that I had sold on EBay.  Once that was done I got down to work on the scrap book of my Mum's life.  I am pleased to say that it is now finished.  It was quite an emotional experience and I had some tears but I am very proud of it. I will try to get time to photograph it today so I can show you. With that completed, I worked on a few brooches. I am low on stock!

Today is going to be a busy one.  With Simon at home yesterday I didn't do my normal jobs.  He totally messes up my routines.  I have no idea  what will happen when he retires completely.  The house will be a tip. So I have the whole house to clean and tidy plus a full laundry basket to get washed, dried and ironed.  The basket is always full on Monday as I do all the bed linen and towels as well as the normal clothing and stuff.

I am hoping to have some time this afternoon to get some more sewing done.  I want to get Verity's baby quilt  finished this week.  Time will tell.

Oh, by the way, are you impressed with how many blogs I have got done this week?  Every day since last Monday except Saturday.  I think I may have found my blogging habit.

Oh and a weather forecast for Morton, Lincs............ Freakin cold, very windy and RAIN.

Sunday 25th November- negative and adult content.

Weather forecast for Morton, Lincs?  You  really need to ask?  Rain and wind.  Lots of both.  I HATE this weather. Guess I should be grateful that we haven't been flooded out of our house like they have in some areas of the UK.

Having said that, our garage is flooded. I went out there around lunch time to get logs for the fire and it was under around an inch of water.  I can't quite work out how that has happened.  At a guess I think the water butts may have overflowed.  The guttering along each side drains into it's own water butt. If they have become full which I know they can do very quickly in heavy rain , then I guess they would just dump their water.  Doesn't quite explain how the whole garage is flooded though.  It hasn't come through the roof that is for sure. Simon is not going to be a happy bunny when he gets home.

He has just got to the stage where the garage is more or less finished.  He just finished painting all the walls white yesterday.  This is not good news.  He isn't here today. He has gone to visit the wicked witch and her ogre.  AKA the outlaws. Rather him than me.  Of course they are doing the let's all pretend that we are a lovely close family thing.  They so are not.  Makes me sick.  Another thing that I hate. I will never forget the trouble that they caused over MY MUM'S funeral.  Please note......MY MUM.  Nothing to do with them and actually for the record my Mum didn't like them either.

I need to get something off my chest here........ I speak to my family regularly.  My Dad several times a week and the rest of the family at least once a week.  My extended family including cousins and Aunts etc I am also in regular contact with.  We are a close knit family.  Simon speaks to his maybe once every 3-4 months.  he sees them maybe twice a year.  They generally only communicate when one of them wants something.  does that sound like a close family to you?  It doesn't to me.  Makes me sick. Such pretence.   There has never been a truer saying than this;  "You can choose your friends but you can't choose your family".   They are neither family nor friends to me.

OK, so that's my rant over with. Simon will be back soon... at least he had better be! He said he would be back by 3.45pm.  I think he knows better than to be late!  Duty visit is over and done with for several months now so we can forget them and move on.

I have spent the day as normal.  Housework this morning  followed by sewing this afternoon.  I  have made a few more brooches and got them up on EBay.  I sold 14 this weekend.  They are doing well, particularly the Christmas ones.   I have also made a babies Taggy.  You know, a ribbon blankie?  All of my grandchildren had them.  They like to fiddle with, stroke and suck the ribbons.  I made it in a about an hour and it was all from scraps which is what I like. I shall show it to you next week in a show and tell blog.  I thought I might put it on EBay but there are a gazillion regulations regarding stuff for babies and children so maybe not.

I am going to work on some more brooches now while I wait for Simon to get back.  He is doing dinner tonight.  The least he can do after deserting me all day.  We are having rib eye steaks with his king prawn sauce.  I love  that.  Something to look forward to.  Oh and I have the Strictly results show to watch too so a good evening ahead.  I think it will be Victoria Pendleton to go.  She may be able to ride a bike but she is a crap dancer.  Last nights performance was terrible.  I can't like her as a person either.  She always turns on the tears. So not attractive.  If you can't handle the heat  then get out of the fire love.  I think she will be tonight.

OK, negative blog over.  That is me done!

22nd October

It has been a grotty horrid start to the week here in my little corner of the world.  We woke up to fog and rain.  It has remained grey and cold but thankfully the rain stopped around about lunch time which has enabled Simon to get on and fix the guttering on the garage.

I have had a sort of slow day.  A bit of normal housework, a bit of sewing, a few phone calls, a bit of blogging.  I don't actually feel too great.  Probably just tired.

The washing machine is yelling out that it has a blocked filter again but I know it hasn't.  It keeps on doing this.  I hope it isn't about to go totally up the creek.  Simon said he would look at it at lunch time.  It is 6.30pm now and I am still waiting.  That is the trouble with him working on the wretched garage, nothing that I need doing gets done. One of the towel rails in the bathroom fell off the wall on Thursday and I am still waiting for him to screw it back.  Yes, I  am sure I could do it myself  if I could locate the necessary tools in the garage but frankly why have a husband and DIY?  That is mans work!

As there is not a lot to report today I thought I would post a few photos for you.  My friend Pam said she missed seeing the little ones so here you are Pam.

Evan, Ellie and Flynn out for a walk.

Miss Ellie.  This was in September when she was a bridesmaid at her Mummy's sisters wedding.

Miss Jessica.  Flower girl at the same wedding.

Now how about some of Saskia?  As well as working as a learning support in a school, teaching various dance disciplines and zumba she is also once again performing.  She is part of a group of 4 known as Apsara.  They perform mostly Eastern and Latin dance.

Saskia, for those of you that don't know is the one with the red hair, front right.  I still find it odd to see her with red hair!

These were back stage at the Curve theatre, Leicester. She is the one in green.

Back in the summer Saskia took part in the Race for life in aid of Breast cancer care.  She is the small one in the middle in the grey vest..

This is a photo of Coralie and the boys taken in the summer.

Guess that is it for now. Lots to do!

Sunday 21st of October

Another busy weekend is at an end. I wish the time wouldn't go so fast. Only 65 days now until Christmas!!!  I would do regular countdowns if only I could work out how to get them into my blog.

Yesterday ended up being a long day.  I went to help at the dog rescue kennels.  I usually stay there until 1.30pm.  It was a good morning.  4 dogs went to their furever homes which was wonderful. I played with several dogs and groomed a couple of others.    |

They have a Dalmatian there who has been really badly treated and he is very nervous. The last few weeks he would cower at the back of his kennel and bark.  He would not come to get biscuits.  They have been working hard with him and I was so thrilled this week to see that although he is still petrified he will now come to the front of the kennel and take a biscuit from my fingers through the bars.  So wonderful.   Much work still to do with him though.

A little Labrador who has recently been spayed has an infection in her womb and they needed someone to take her to the vet so I said that Simon  and I would do that as it was so busy.  The vet appointment was at 3pm so Simon came up at 2.30pm.  We took Molly in our car and she was so good.  Fortunately the vet thinks that it is not an infection but a reaction to some new suture material that they are using.  She has antibiotics and we were able to take her back to the kennels. It made it quite a late day for us but I was really pleased to have been able to help.

Simon had spent his day working on the inside of the garage.  He has got the lights in place ready for the electrical work to be done.  Tomorrow he is going to start on the guttering.  It is so nearly done.

Today John came over with the boys.  Coralie is having a weekend away in London.  John came to see what needs to be done with  the electrics as he will be doing that for Simon.  I took the boys to the village shop for sweets and then we had a lovely time playing.   Evan has requested a sleepover at half tern so I need to arrange that with Coralie.

Once they had gone we went to Peterborough to sort out the fabric for the living room curtains but unfortunately there was a flaw in the material so they have had to reorder it for us.  I was  most annoyed as it wont be in until Thursday so they won't get done next week.

This afternoon Simon has continued with his garage work and I have been doing sewing.  I have just watched the "Strictly come dancing" results show. NOOOOOOOOO.....  Anton IS OUT. I am really cross.  He  is dancing with Jerry Hall and although I can't stand her, they certainly were not  the worst.  I kind of thought that it might happen as I think the general public have not taken to her.  Why do they always give poor Anton such duds?

You my recall that Verity and I were in the audience 2 years ago and Anton actually spoke to us.  He is very handsome in the flesh and has a very cute  "bottom"!  I would dance with him any day. I wonder how you get lessons with him?   I must say I am very taken with Brendan Cole too.  I never used to like him much but he seems to have mellowed the last few years.  He danced last night to "love lift us where we belong" from "An officer and a gentleman".  My goodness, he looks good in a uniform!  I am not impressed with his partner though.  He is dancing with Victoria Pendelton the Olympic gold medalist.  The judges seem to be going very easy on her and I read today that they have been told to because "she is a delicate flower".  Apparently she self harms and they are worried that criticism may be difficult for her!  I'm sorry but if that is the case then she should not be in this kind of show.

Can you tell that I LOVE "Strictly"  It is my countdown to Christmas.

Ok, off to bed now, may be back tomorrow.

Tuesday 9th October

It is 5 days since my last blogs which is better than I have been managing recently.  I don't know where the time goes. I am still attempting to keep up and read the blogs of my friends who went off to different places.  It is quite a faff  having to log in to different sites.  I have got Google reader set up now and I can  use that to go directly to a blog if I want to comment.  However......... It won't let me do that with Blogster only Ipernity.  What a pain.  Consequently I am not connecting much with the friends that went over to Blogster.  I am really missing Pam and Eileen.

Nothing much is new here. Same old, same old.  The weekend was quite pleasant.  Saturday the sun even came out.  It didn't last though and yesterday and today have been really cold.  We had the fire going in the evening on Sunday.  First time this autumn.  I think it will be a regular thing now.

With the good weather Simon was able to crack on a pace with the garage extension. He worked on it all day Saturday, most of Sunday and Monday until 2pm when we went out.  It now has a roof!  With no holes!  All the ridge pieces are in place.  No rain can get in!!  He has done the cladding on the end pieces, both front and back.  He ran out of time yesterday so there is still one last piece to go on at the front.

 Note that the cladding has not been done in this photo!

So the structure is built.  There is still work to complete on the outside. Just under the roof there is a gap of 6 inches or so which is awaiting boards to which the guttering will be fixed.  There is still some trim to go on some windows too.  Basically the outside work is done.  The next job is the electrical work which will be done by an electrician.  Simon has to dig a trench across the edge of the front garden and drive to accommodate the cables which need to be taken from the front right around to the back.  More mess.  I am still waiting for the drive to be redone.  It was wrecked when we had the skips on it. Once that is done he will add insulation and board out the whole of the inside.  At that point it will be complete and he can move his stuff over from his barn.

Then we can start work on the garden.  We still need to get the fence at the far end of the garden moved.  We are missing 6 feet of garden there as the fence has been put in the wrong place.  Given the width of the garden, that 6 foot is quite a chunk.  That area all needs clearing and rotovating as it will be my veggie patch.  We need to fence it in too so dogs cannot trample it.  Now all the building materials have been moved from the side of the house we need to pave that whole area.  We have the slabs ready and waiting.  Then there is the drive way, not to mention the fence at the front too.  There is loads to do.

Yesterday afternoon we went for a drive to Spalding where there is a factory outlet shopping place. I wanted to go to the craft place where they sell paper crafting stuff.  I needed more pages for the scrap book I am doing of my Mum's life.  I got about 20 pages which I was pleased with.  I also got some doggie themed pages too for my Rosie's scrap book.  While we were there we wandered around the other shops.  Marks and Spencer yielded some good bargains.  Three white shirts for Simon for school and a very nice silk tie, black with purple and pink flowers!  I got a pair of slouchy boots which I love because they are warm and comfy.  They are fashion boots though so no good in wet weather.  I have other boots for that.

Today I have been to Coralie's where we had a sewing session with Denise.  I went in with Simon in the car and he dropped me at Denise's house at 8am.  We had breakfast together which was nice but I really do not do being up and out that early!  Denise and I then drove over to Coralie's and Denise dropped me off at the bus stop after lunch.  I caught the bus home and got in just after 2pm.  We had a good sewing session.  We worked on our teddies.  We got the feet sewn on and then got all the joints in place and stuffed them.  The joints were fiddly and I had a struggle to bend the cotter pins.

Once I was home and had done a few quick jobs I worked on getting my teddy all sewn up. It is not that easy as you are trying not to catch in the fur.  Don't want her seams to show!  Then it was on with her ears and ......... I have made a teddy bear!!!  I am dead chuffed with myself.  If you had asked me a year and a half ago if I would ever be able to make a teddy I would have said "no way". I am really pleased, She looks good.  She is called Elsie.  I have got some fur left so I am going to have a go at making another one for Jessica's birthday.  I am keeping Elsie for myself as she is the first one I have made.

A quick "Show and Tell" for you.  Here is my finished purple wall hanging which I forgot to post last week. Simon might get round to hanging it for me soon!

It doesn't really bend in the middle, it is the way I have taken the photo!

This is a cushion, totally made from scraps.  It is for my Aunt Jean, my Dad's sister.  She saw the one that I made for my Uncle Derek and wanted to know why she hadn't got one!

I made another 23 denim squares for my scrappy quilt. That gave me a total of 96.

I laid them all out on the bedroom floor so that I could get a good arrangement of colours and patterns.  Once I was happy, I stacked them up in rows.  I have begun the process of sewing them together now.  So far I have one row done.  It takes a while as you have to clip all along each seam to achieve the frilly frayed look once it is washed.  (Hopefully)!

You will notice that I am still 9 short.... so I had to make more!

I am going to work on this tomorrow.   It is my birthday tomorrow so I intend having a housework free day!  It will be a long day as Simon has a school open evening for 6th form students which he cannot get out of as he is head of upper school.  He will not be in until about 9.45pm so I am not best happy about that.  Not just because it is my birthday but because 16 hour days are not good for him.  He will be so tired and wiped out.  Good for nothing.

Right, I think it is time for me to finish this.  I want to search for some fabric on eBay and it is getting late now.

Garage progress

Well I said I would do an update on the garage progress so here it is.  The last time I posted a blog about it we had some of the concrete wall panels up but not all.

Now they are all in place.  The roof joists, if that is what they are called, are up on the new part and the roofing panels are in place on them.

The plan is to finish the roof on the new part so that it is water tight.  Once that is done the stuff in the garage will be placed at the far end of the new bit which will then be boardede up.  After that the flat roof on the existing garage will be removed and the new roof completed.  The structure will then be complete although there will still be much to get done.

Outside jobs include further trim around the windows, fascia boards under the roof, cladding on the end panels and guttering which will go in to a water barrel.  All this after the roof is complete.

Inside there is all the electrical work to do and Simon is currently getting quotes for this.  When the electrics are in he is going to insulate the whole thing.  Hopefully that will make it warmer in winter and cooler in summer and help stop any noise too.

After all that it will be complete and he can shift all his stuff over from the barn.  Hopefully then he will start work on some of my projects!  I can't wait for it to be done so we can begin preparing the ground at the far end of the garden. I have missed growing veggies this year.  We have finally given up our allotment which we knew we would have to as it is simply too far away  from our new house.  I was a bit sad about that as we worked hard and had good times there.  I have lots of photos though and the stuff we learnt will stand us in good stead for when we are finally able to start growing here.

With luck (and good weather) my next garage progress report will show a completed roof.

Tuesday 25th September

Well there is another week gone.  I have such good intentions to get back to daily blogging but it just isn't happening.  I seem to be busy, busy  busy!  Happily busy.  My time is taken up with all the normal housework stuff and a gazillion and one hobbies.  Sewing is all consuming right now.  It is as well that I have lots of indoor hobbies as the weather is just horrid right now.  Autumn is well and truly here.  We have had rain and wind and more rain and.......  let me think...   oh yeah, more rain!  It is cold.  I so hate the cold.

One day last week it was so windy that the washing on the line was blowing horizontal.  This is dog bedding.

Do you remember some months back when we had an outdoor mud bath / paddling pool?  Well we now have an undercover pool!  The garage extension is progressing well but as it only has half a roof we can't stop the rain getting in.  Yesterday it had about an inch of water inside and it was flowing like a river into the existing garage.  Simon had to move a lot of stuff to protect it. Hopefully he will be able to get the roof finished soon so it will be water tight. I shall do a progress blog soon.

So what have I been up to this last week?  Well I went to see my Dad last Wednesday. I took Flynn with me and we had a lovely day he was so good.  It is so nice to see my Dad playing with him.

On Friday I went to help out on the Three Counties charity stall at Peterborough market. They have a secondhand stall there once a month.  It is run by a volunteer called Marion and 2 other ladies, Nita and Mary.  They were very friendly and made me welcome.  I didn't know what to expect really as I have never done anything like it before.  I loved it!  It was really fun.  My feet were killing me by the time I finished but it was worth it as we made £416 for the doggies.   I was so pleased.  I shall do it every month now.

I was also really thrilled to get 5 pairs of jeans for £2!  You may recall I have been trying to get some old jeans for ages so I can progress with my scrappy denim quilt.  These jeans were old fashioned and very large.  The other ladies said they wouldn't sell so put them aside for a man who buys unwanted clothing from them for 50p a kilo.  I said I would buy them and they let me have them for what he would have paid.  Bargain!

Since Sunday I have been busy cutting them all up into 6 inch squares and I have made fantastic progress with  my quilt.  Well it isn't a quilt yet but I have now doubled the amount of squares that I have ready.  I had 40 and as of tonight I have 96!  I did 30 on Sunday and Monday and another 26 today.  I think I have about another 40 to go to make it the size I want.  It isn't for a bed;  I think I shall use it as a picnic rug.  I have got enough denim now to make all the squares I will need.

On Saturday I went to help at the dog rescue kennels again.  They had 2 Labradors brought in and one of them was in such a bad state.  Really emaciated and some nasty skin condition too.  They looked so sad.  It really upset me.  It was the first time that I had been right there when people signed them over. They didn't seem to care.  They weren't upset and didn't say goodbye.  I cried buckets and felt stupid but the others all understood.  I keep telling myself that at least they hadn't just dumped them.  At least they had taken them to the rescue where they will be cared for. I hope I  can continue with this and that I don't get too upset.

I did enjoy playing with some of the dogs.  A Staffie cross called Harrison was lovely.  He really enjoyed playing ball. That is what I really want to do, get them out and play with them and give them some love and affection.

Yesterday I was at Coralie's house for sewing with Denise.  We are each making a teddy bear.  Denise thought it would be a fun way for us to try working with a different kind of fabric.  I have chosen grey fur and pink suede for his pads.  I got him cut out which is quite tricky and time consuming as you have to just cut through the backing and then tease the fur apart.  Denise has shown us how to get them pinned together and we have to sew the seams on the body, head and limbs ready for our next get together.  You have to take your time with the pinning as you have to brush the fur inwards so it doesnt get caught in the seam.  I think I will work on him tomorrow.

I have quite a busy day tomorrow as I am going to do 2 hours from 11am - 1pm outside Tesco in Bourne with a collection tin for the dog rescue.  They have an information stall there on Wednesday and Thursday  and there will also be a dog.  They collect more money when they have a dog there as people are more inclined to stop.  I am doing 2 hours on Thursday too. There is another volunteer lady called Judy who lives in my village so she is going to give me a lift.  They do these collection days several times a year.

If I get my housework done before I go out then I will be able to do lots of sewing once I get home.  I will have a long day as Simon won't be in until 8.30pm because he has a parents evening.  I hate that as it means dinner is really late and I hate cooking late.

Talking of late...it is quite late now so I suppose this is a good place to stop my rambling. I shall try to get back soon.  I still haven't posted photos from the summer holidays.