A time for reflection.

Tuesday 31^st December 2013.  New Year’s Eve or Old Year’s Night.  A time for reflection.  As always we had our ups and our downs. 

Our highlight of course was the birth of little Jackson.  It was a scary time when he came into the world at just 29 weeks.  Verity and Steve had to be so brave. We all did.  He is nearly a year old now and doing really well.

The worst event of 2013 has only recently happened. The loss of our Alfie, who crossed the rainbow bridge on the 19^th of December.  We will love and miss him always.

Looking back it is the ups that I want to remember tonight and for which I am grateful for.

I am blessed to have made it through another year pretty much unscathed.  I have my health, my family and my home.  I have many friends.  I have the luxury of being a home maker and have time to do my own thing as well as time to work with the doggies. I have so much to be grateful for.

I hope as we pass the midnight hour and enter the New Year that 2014 will be a good year.   I hope that it will bring each and every one of us ………. Enough.

Happy New Year.

Our Christmas

So did you all have a great Christmas?  Ours was lovely.  We spread it out over 3 days to ensure that we saw everyone.  We collected Saskia from the station on Christmas Eve and went over to Coralie's as we were not going to be seeing them on the big day.

Christmas day was lovely as it was just the 3 of us to start out,  Saskia was up first to make the coffee and then she had a stocking of presents in our bedroom.  She had gifts for us too.  We were doing a secret Santa thingumy this year so she wasn't supposed to have anything for us.

We went to Sam and Lisa's house for dinner.  It was the very first time in the whole of our married life that we have not cooked Christmas dinner!  It was lovely!  Everyone then went to Coralie's but we went home to be with Loulou.  It was quite hard not having Alfie with us. We miss him so much. It was nice to have the evening just the 2 of us.

Boxing day was a lovely slow start again with just the 2 of us.  Verity and Steve arrived with Jackson just after lunch and everyone else came shortly after.  We had more presents and a great time, finishing up with a buffet.

The following day we hit Kiddicare for pram shopping.  It took some time time to find the right one and we actually ended up buying a Mothercare one. Saskia is thrilled with it which is the main thing.

I thought you might like to see some photos.

 

   

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 So that was our Christmas in a brief nut shell.  Saskia went home on Saturday and we are now alone again.  Only 360 days until we do it all again!!

Happy Birthday Saskia

Happy Birthday to you

Happy Birthday to you

Happy Birthday dear Saskia

Happy Birthday to you.

My baby is 28 today!!

My baby is expecting her very own baby!!

Hope you had a great day, 

love from Mum and Dad 

xxxxx

Christmas Eve 2013

Not sure how it is already Christmas Eve.  The year flies by so fast.  We are doing OK.  Still incredibly sad over Alfie.  Loulou is at a loss.  She doesn't know what to do and keeps crying. I don't know how to help her.

Anyway, I just wanted to pop by to wish you all a very Happy |Christmas and enough Blessings for the coming year.

I Wish You Enough

I wish you enough love in your heart, and enough communion with your soul.

I wish you enough light to illuminate your lessons, and enough dark to integrate your wisdom.

I wish you enough giving to open your heart, and enough receiving to bring you home.

I wish you enough activity to sharpen your mind and strengthen your body, and enough rest to bring you peace.

I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright, no matter how grey the day.

I wish you enough rain to nourish your garden and to  appreciate the sun more.

I wish you enough gentle wind to lift your hair and your dreams

I wish you enough storms to clear away the old and make room for the new.

I wish you enough dirt to grow your herbs and flowers and to keep your feet firmly on the ground.

I wish you enough clouds in the sky to inspire you to reach beyond them.

I wish you enough birds in flight to delight your eyes and enough birdsong to serenade your ears.

I wish you enough kisses and cuddles with children and animals to bring you simple joy.

I wish you enough friendship to remind you that you are not alone.

I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive and ever lasting.

I wish you enough pain so that the smallest joys in life appear much bigger.

I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.

I wish you enough starlight to inspire your imagination and enough moonlight to stir your soul.

I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.

I wish you enough hellos to get you through the final good-bye.

Alfie

I know that I have been missing here for absolutely ages. Life has just been happening around me. However I just wanted to do a quick blog today as lots of my friends here knew that our Alfie hasn't been doing too well.

It is with much sadness that I have to tell you that we lost our beloved Alfie on Thursday the 19th of December. It was very peaceful and he died at home in our arms in his favourite place on the sofa in the living room.  We are beyond distraught and will miss him always. He is with his Mummy Rosie and also Buick and Sandy.

Little Evan told Coralie that he knows Alfie will be OK because he is with Rosie and she will show him around and tell him where everything is. Children see things in such a lovely way.

Run free my baby.  We will love you always.

I have missed my blog and all my friends here. I know that I have said it several times over the last year but I really do intend to try and get back into a regular blogging habit.  We shall see what 2014 brings.

In the mean time, I would like to wish everyone a very Happy Christmas and blessings for 2014.

Monday 21st October

So much for trying to get here every day!  Never mind I am here now.  It has been another grey day of pouring rain.  The good news is that it has been reasonably warm for the time of year.

I have spent the day doing the usual housework and then some computer and sewing time. The best bit of the day was doing my first Google hangout with my Merikan friends Cindy and Phyllis.

Isn't technology amazing?  I can remember the days when only the very poshest of people had a phone in their home. I remember the excitement when my parents first had theirs installed. It was 1978, I was 18 years old. I got married not long after and we had our own phone and it seemed so decadent. Now of course everyone has a phone in their pocket and we are always contactable.

It was so nice to see Cindy and Phyllis and to have a chat.  The Hangout thingy is a bit like Skype except I didn't seem to be able to make the picture full screen which was a shame. Maybe, I was missing a trick.

Hopefully 2014 will be the year we all meet in person.  Wouldn't that be fantastic.

I mentioned to Cindy and Phyllis that while Coralie was in Merika recently we looked after the boys. One afternoon, their grandad took them out to give me some free time. He took them to the digger graveyard. They absolutely loved it but I'm not sure that it is really the best playground for little ones!!

Thought I would show you some photos.

That's it for today.  Will do my best to be back soon.

15th October

Another cold day but at least it isn't raining, so far.  I got the usual housework malarky out the way early and am now having a sewing day.  Just finished these for an Etsy friend. We are trading; she is knitting me a pram blanket and I made these for her.  They are to be a Christmas gift for someone.

Made her one of my little fabric brooches as an extra.

Just have to get it all parceled up and then I am starting on a hip pouch which is a custom order for a friend of Verity's.

My day today

The start of another week.  Monday 14th of October 2013.  As always no time to do much here.  I did promise to try and do a daily photo though.

This is my photo for today.  As you can see I have been looking after my little GD2.  We played with the dollies.  The big one in the pink dress with the lop sided eyes was mine when I was a child as was the tiny tears on the right.  The one in the middle belonged to Saskia and was named Muffalina!

Hope she thinks of a better name for our coming grandchild!

Slacking already

A few days ago I did a couple of blogs and said that I was going to try and get back in the swing of things!  Ain't happened!!!!

So for today here is a photo.  It was actually far worse than it looks here but I think you get the picture.  The weather here is GREY.  Cold, wet, windy, grey and miserable.

Did I ever mention how much this time of year gets me down?

Winter woes

It is no secret that I don't like winter. I don't like autumn much either as it means summer is over and there is nothing to look forward to weather wise except about 5 months of grey, cold days.

What is it about this time of year?  Well I could sit here and give you a whole stack of  things that I hate but that would be depressing.  I figure it is easy enough to get depressed with the lack of warmth and sunlight anyway.

So, in an effort to cheer myself I am going to try and think of things that I do like.

Erm........ it's quite hard actually!  Oh, I know, going to bed super early so I can have long dreams about summer!

OK, this is silly.  I challenge myself to think of 5 good things that I do like about autumn and winter.

Autumn.
1. Strictly Come Dancing starts!  I do love a good Strictly sesh.  In fact I get quite annoyed if I miss it.  I know I can watch it on iPlayer but it isn't the same. Saturday evening 6.30pm is sacred at this time of year.
2. The autumn leaf colours.  There is something quite glorious about all the yellow, orange and red that the trees are currently wearing.
3. The appearance of Robins in the garden they have been missing all summer.
4.Wide, blue skies, yes they do occasionally still appear and there is quite a nice quality to them which is different to a summer sky.
5. Planting onions and garlic for over wintering. Those little bulbs have such promise.

Winter.
1. I can wear my thick, wooly tights.
2. Hot water bottles in the bed.
3. PJ's.  The only time of year I even think about them.  They are good for keeping warm and cosy
4.  Open fires.  I love our fire.  Must get Simon to order the logs so we can have our first one of the season soon.
5. Christmas.  One of the redeeming features of winter!  You know they say that Jesus was more than likely born in September or possibly March.  It for sure wasn't December.  Christmas actually comes from a pagan festival which was hijacked by the church authorities when they were trying to convert the pagans.  Whatever,  It does seem a good idea to break the relentless monotony of winter with celebrations and gift giving.  I can go with that.

What do you like and dislike about autumn and winter?

Where is my bloggin mojo?

Just had a look at my poor neglected blog. Last time I was here was back in August and prior to that May! There once was a time when I never missed a day. I seem to have lost my blogging mojo.  I started a blog for my Fabrilushus shop a while back and that has ground to a halt too. There just never seems to be enough hours in the day.  I have even got very lax in reading blogs so I am totally out of the loop.  I miss my friends.  I see FB posts but that simply isn't the same.

Not much has changed here apart from the season!  How can we be in autumn already? As seems to be the norm in the UK, we had a pretty measly summer.  It wasn't as wet as last year but we didn't have that many sunny weeks and it wasn't ever what I call hot.  Feeling pretty miserable right now at the thought of the long winter months ahead.

We are all doing ok.  I have been a bit worried about Simon, he is tired and gets headaches and yesterday had a pain in his eyeball all day.  A sharp pain.  This is his good eye too and he wouldn't do anything about it!  Don't suppose I had mentioned here that he lost most of the sight in one of his eyes back in the summer?  He has a central retinal occlusion. It was pretty worrying for a while as they though he had a stroke.  That eye is getting better slowly.

The rest of the family are all ok. Our big news is we have our 6th grandchild on the way. Saskia is expecting her first baby in March.  It is very exciting.

Alfie and Loulou are both still with us, although Alfie has bladder cancer and Loulou's tumor is growing. I worry about them all the time but they are pain free and happy so we are enjoying whatever time we have left.

I am busy doing all the usual stuff.  I also look after Jessie 2 days a week.  Once the housework is taken care of I spend quite a lot of time making things to sell at Fabrilushus.  Sales are very slow but they are coming.  The rest of my time is spent doing stuff for the dog rescue.  Both Simon and I are more and more involved there which is great as it is something we do together. It has also had the added benefit that we have made some very good friends.  We love each and every one of the dogs and spend many hours playing and grooming and just generally teaching them about love.

I would like to get back into my blog.  I always used it as a sort of online journal of my life and I am so annoyed that this year there are great chunks missing.  SO, I am going to try and do a daily photo to get back in the swing of things.  I figure a photo won't take too much time to do.  We shall see how it goes.

Wishing you all a happy Autumn.

Mosaic Tree Memorial

Yes, I know it has been an age since I have been here.  I just did this for Tumblr which I am using to promote my Fabrilushus shop.   It occured to me that maybe you would all like to see it too.  So........

"I lost my Mum to Alzheimers 18 months ago.  She spent the last years of her life at Victoria Court which is a part of the Lister hospital in Stevenage.  My Dad would regularly sit with her outside in the gardens.  They had some lovely mosaic sculpture work on the walls and fences and from the first time I saw them I knew I would like to try my hand at something similar.

Gradually the idea formed in my head that it would be lovely to do it as a sort of memorial to my Mum.  Something to remember her always.  I knew I wanted a tree design. I knew I wanted a heart in there somewhere with her name, Iris.  

I began to get my bits together a few weeks ago. I purchased  my tiles, glue and tile cutter tool from Mosaic Heaven in Market Deeping. They were incredibly helpful and I would thoroughly recommend them.  If you are not local then check them out here : http://www.mosaicheaven.com

My gorgeous Iris heart was made by a fellow Etsy seller, Louise of Loutul, http://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/Loutul  It is made from pewter.  The board is a piece of marine plywood which my husband got for me.

Once I had everything together I was itching to get started but I suddenly thought how good it would be to do it with my Dad.  He was due to come and stay with us so I decided to wait.  I am so glad that I did as I will have lovely memories in the future of the 2 of us working on this. 

So, we finally got started last week.  My Dad drew the design after we had looked at images on Google for inspiration.  It is a tree, with a few “flowers”, plus the heart.  The sky is blue and the grass is green!  Oh and there is also a large yellow part which is a corn field or something!  LOL. 

Anyway, here are the first photos of the process.  I hope you like them."

I am quite please with the way it is turning out.  I think it will look fantastic when it is completed.  Since Dad went home I have done a lot more which I will show you another day.

This is my first attempt so if anyone has any advice for me it will be gratefully received.