Busy Saturday

It has been a wonderful day here in the Fens.  Temperature around 77 degrees and lots of sun.  I'm wondering if this is summer?  Strange that it should come now.  It won't last.

I am exhausted.  It has been a busy day.  When isn't it?  We went this morning to the Three Counties dog rescue home.  This was the second Saturday that we had gone.  I am going to be doing some volunteer work with them.

I spent about 3 hours there this morning mainly getting to know Gyll the owner and a few other volunteers. Simon was there for a while but did go off to run a few errands. It is a good place and they do wonderful work. It is sad to see all the unwanted dogs and 1 more was taken in while I was there.  So sad.  There were 2 couples there though to view the dogs and it looks like one little chap may have a new home.  Fingers crossed for him.

Simon and I did take a little Jack Russell called Bobby out for a play in the paddock which was nice.  He was adorable.  So full of life and fun.  Why he was given up is beyond me.  If I didn't have Alfie and Loulou I would be bringing them all home with me!!

This afternoon I have been baking.  Mega baking!  The dog rescue people have a fun dog show tomorrow and they needed cakes for a cake stall.  I have baked 5 dozen cup cakes, 3 dozen rock cakes, a chocolate and banana loaf cake and an iced almond cake.  Phew!  It is the least I can do to try to help them raise funds.

Poor doggies.  So sad. Alfie and Loulou have spent the afternoon trying to convince me that they are poor doggies and should therefore be allowed to sample the cakes!  I did make a batch of rock cakes minus the demerera sugar so they may get one of those at bedtime.

Simon has spent the afternoon and half the evening working on his garage extension.  It is coming on now and most of the roof trusses are up.  He will be ordering the actual roofing on Monday.   He did cook dinner though as I was all cooked out.  It was a nice dinner of lamb steaks.  Very yummy.

We have an early start tomorrow as we are going to help out at the dog show. It is being held at a garden centre about 8 miles from here.  Simon will help to set up first thing but he is then coming home to get on with the garage.  I am going to stay for the duration.  There are various stalls to help out on and also there will be some of the rescue dogs there too and I can help with them.  It should be fun.

The dog show is just a fun thing to raise money. It is not a serious show like the ones we entered Alfie in when he was a pup.

I hope they raise lots of money.  They do not have a craft stall as no one makes crafts.  I am planning on doing lots of bits and pieces over the coming year so that next year they can have a stall of my stuff.  Lots of small things that won't cost too much should sell well. Plus it is easy to make small things and I can use fabric scraps.

OK, I think  it is bedtime now.  I am tired today. Maybe I will sleep for once.  If you want to check out the Three Counties dog rescue click the link:  Three Counties Dog Rescue  Remember, "A dog is for life".

Look who has started "Big" school.

Just had to take a few minutes to share this.  I can't believe that he is at school already.  Seems like yesterday that he was born.

Yes, Evan started school this week.  He is only 4 but we are talking "Big" school here.  That is proper, full time school.  He is going to the same school that his Mummy and his aunties and uncle went too.  LOL.  Some of the teachers are the same!

Doesn't he look so grown up and handsome?  I so hope he does ok , makes lots of new friends and enjoys his school years.

Jilly

Another catch up!

Where on earth does the time go?  Last Monday when I posted a blog, I had every intention of trying to get back to my daily blogging habit.  Here we are more or less a week later and zilch!  Not to mention we have moved form August to September.

I can't believe that we are now at the end of summer and autumn is just around the corner.  The summer here was terrible.  We didn't really have a summer. I heard on the news that it is officially the worst one on record for donkeys years.  Yeah, like I needed to be told that!

The school holidays just flew by. Simon has already been back a week. This coming week will be the first one of his new 4 day week. Because of the way the school timetable works he will be off Monday one week and Tuesday the next.  Next week is a Tuesday week.  

The teachers always moan about the autumn term as they say it is a long one.  It isn't really, just a few days extra maybe.  I have always found that it flies by as it is all down hill till Christmas.  When our children were young, I would begin my Christmas planning in September.  I had to as it  was the only way to afford it by spreading the cost.

This year I have been planning Christmas since January!  Only because I wanted to try to make a lot of my gifts this year and that takes planning and time.  No way can you make loads of presents if you leave it until the last few weeks.  I am quite pleased with how this is going as I have quite a few made. 4 out of my 5 children are already sorted with homemade things.  I need to start on the grandchildren soon.  I am really loving making lots of things but just wish that I had more hours in a day.  

Today I have been working on a quilted sofa throw which is a Christmas gift.  I spent most of Thursday getting it tacked together.  The last one that I made, also a Christmas gift, wasn't as good as the previous 2 that I made. It had some wrinkles and I  ended up unpicking some and redoing it.  So this time I decided to tack it to within and inch of its life.  It took forever and killed my knees, back, wrists, hips, shoulders.....come to think of it...it killed me full stop!

I have found that the best place to do it is on my bedroom floor as there is lots of room but that means crawling around.  It was worth it though as it has turned out super smooth with no wrinkles.  I quilted it today using free hand stippling which took ages.  I am getting better at stippling.  I will take some photos and post a "Make do an Mend" blog soon.  I have loads to show of what I have done over the holidays.

Simon is continuing to work on the garage extension every spare minute that he gets. All the concrete panels are in place now and the roof trusses were delivered on Friday so I guess that is the next job.  

I had more to say but it is nearly 11pm and I am tired.  Simon is just doing some drinking chocolate so I think an early night is in order for once.  I shall endeavour to get back here tomorrow.  Hope you all have a good week.