Show and tell

Goodness it is 3 weeks since my last show and tell and I have made loads of things.  Somany that I don't quite know what to start with.

Actually there is so much that I'll split it in 2. I'll start with things that I have made for family and then do another blog with things I have made to sell.

These are a couple of things that I have made for Jackson.  First of all a taggy blanket made with gorgeous, soft, blue Minky fabric.

I found the pattern for this burp cloth on the internet and liked it because it is shaped.

We had Ellie here one day last week for dinner and she just loves to go and poke around in my sewing room.  Sorting through the piles of fabric is a favourite game.  She saw some of the tote bags that I have made and asked if I would do one for her.  She chose her own fabrics!  It is quite bright.

Of course I had to make one for Jessica too.

I made 3 cards, a valentines one for Simon and birthday cards for Steve and Josh. I only seem to have a photo of Steve's card.

My niece Carly has just had a baby girl this week so just tonight I made her a taggy and a burp cloth.

So those are the things I made for family.  I'll show you the other stuff soon.

Log maker

My Dad has got us a new toy.  He saw it advertised in his newspaper and as it wasn't very expensive he thought it would be worth giving it a go.  According to the hype the "logs" burn for up to 2 hours which would be fantastic if they do as real logs are expensive, as is coal.

It is a simple idea.  You shred up your waste paper and cardboard, soak it in water for a few hours, pack it down inside the brick mould which is in the press, apply a plate thingy to the top, put one handle through the other and press down to squeeze out the excess water and compact it.  Then you lift it all out and turn out your brick shaped "log".  Of course they then have to dry out thoroughly before they can be used.

Ideally it would be best to make them through the summer when they can dry outside in the sun.  Mind you, if our last few summers are anything to go by that will not be an option and leaving them outside will result in a soggy mess.

So, I have given it a test run this morning. I was initially tearing the paper up.  Then I hit on the idea of running it through the shredder.  Only problem there is that I gradually feed through more and more and then the stupid thing jams up.  Not really sure that it likes newspaper either as it seems to be clogging the bit in the middle which tells it to run and so it keeps running even when I am not feeding it.

Once the paper is shredded it goes into a bucket of water to soak for a few hours.  That is the easy bit!

Then comes the mucky bit, getting out handfuls of the stuff and squeezing out as much water as possible before packing into the mould.

OJ, apply plate, cross the handles and PRESSSSSSSSSSS .................  It is flipping hard work!  I don't actually think that I have enough strength in my wrists to do this stage justice.  I think it will have to be Simon's job.

Once that is done it is a simple job to lift out the mould and turn them out.

They are very wet so are going to take forever to dry. Here are two that I made this morning

And here is one that I made earlier, all nice and dry and ready to go.  Well to be fair, my Dad actually made it earlier!  He didn't fill the mould so this is a thinner log than mine.

I hope they do work.  It would help save some money if they do. We need to try out a few once they are dry to see how long they last.  Obviously if they burn up in minutes then it is a total waste of time.  However if they really do burn for a few hours then I can see "log" making being a big part of my future this coming summer.  As they are brick shaped they will be easy to store.

Now the burning question  (pun intended!) .......  has anyone tried one of these themselves or know any one that has?  Do they work or are they a useless waste of time?  Let me know before I waste too much of my time.  

OK, it must be coffee time after all that hard work!

MIA again

I have just looked back at my blog and it appears that I have been missing in action again for well over 2 weeks.  Time flies when you are having fun!  Time flies when you are busy too but I have had some fun along the way.    So where to begin with my update?  You know me, I won't possibly be able to remember the whole 2 weeks.

I guess Jackson is a good starting point as my last blog was about him being back in the NICU.  He is now 5 weeks old.  Incredible.  Of course he wasn't even due to be born for another 5 weeks yet.  He is doing really, really well now.  He was moved out of NICU last week on to SCBU.  He is now out of his incubator and just in a "hot cot" which they are turning down day by day.  He only has 2 wires now, a heart monitor and a temperature  monitor.  He still has his feeding tube although he does now have a sucking reflex and is beginning to feed from Mummy.  It is slow progress as he finds it hard to suck and breath at the same time. He weighs 4lbs now. All his test results are now fine. The heart specialist is pleased with him.

Here are the latest photos of our little guy.

These next 2 were just taken yesterday.

Last week was the school half term break in Lincolnshire.  As always it was really busy.  Simon spent one complete day moving cars around.  His truck has gone to someone to do some work that for some reason he can't do. His dragster is now residing in the garage. We had dentist appointments, several meals out, a day in Lincoln,  an evening out with staff from the old Walton school, a trip to Stevenage to collect my Dad, then to Stamford station to collect Saskia. We had a day in Leicester at the fabric shop, lots of kennel visits and we saw lots of the grandchildren. It was busy.

Alfie had a day at the vets for more scans and X-rays.The good news is that his very large bladder stone has broken down into much small pieces and they were able to get some of them out. He has been given more tablets which should hasten the process. The bad news was his arthritis is looking pretty bad. More bad news was received in a letter........our insurance will not cover the cost of his very, very expensive prescription food.

I am sure I have missed stuff out.  I don't seem to have any photos though.  How about one of Alfie the evening he got back from the Vet.  He is still very drugged up.

Here is a  recent one of my 2 gorgeous boys.

Photo blatantly stolen from Coralie's Facebook page!

We had a good few days with my Dad. He saw 4 of his great grandchildren and he enjoyed that. He came and had a cup of tea at the dog rescue kennels and he got to see Jenson the Dalmatian.  He took a walk down to our village church and lit a candle for my Mum.  That seems to have become a regular thing when he visits here.  I'm not sure why as he doesn't do that anywhere else. On Sunday we took him to Leicester to the Fabric Guild.  He has wanted to go for ages. He is really into his sewing now.  He has made me 4 tote bags for the fund raiser for the doggies and also this table runner for me.  He has made a good job of it.

The Fabric Guild was disappointing.  They had a sale on, which was good but they had less than a quarter of the stock that they would normally have.  Also I thought they closed at 2pm and they close at 1pm so we only had about 40 minutes there.  It was a good job that we had combined it with taking Saskia home otherwise it would have been very annoying.  My Dad still thought it was a fantastic place and I still managed to spend lots of money!

We had some good news on Sunday evening.  My niece Carly has just had her first baby.  A little girl named Annabelle Iris. Both are doing well.  My Dad was so thrilled.  He especially liked that she has Iris in her name as that was Mum's name.  He can't wait to see her.  He now has 6 great grandchildren, 3 boys and 3 girls. She is my sisters first grandchild so they are all very excited.

Simon took my Dad home yesterday and he is now back at school so peace and quiet is here again.  I will probably be spending the next few days getting the house back to normal.  It deteriorates rapidly when Simon is on holiday!  I get out of my routine.

Today, I have washing, ironing, cleaning etc, etc. Hopefully I will find some sewing time too.  I have done lots of sewing the last few weeks and will do a show and tell soon.  Right now, I am having a coffee  before hoovering my bedroom.  Our lovely cuddle arm chair is being delivered this morning.

Well my coffee is finished so I suppose it is time to move myself into gear.

Happy Birthday Joshua

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday dear Joshua,

Happy Birthday to you.

It is our youngest son, Joshua's 25th birthday.   A quarter of a century!!!  Makes me feel old. 

Some photos of Josh from the last year.

Just found this in amongst my photos.  Josh did this when he was at primary school.  He seems to be in a muddle about the concept of a best friend......... he is his own best friend!

Hope you had a great day Josh, lots of love from Mum and Dad.

xxxxxxxxxxx

Our weekend - Jackson news

How comes the weekends always go by so fast?  Saturday I was at the dog rescue form 10.30am until 5.30pm.  I am not usually there that long.  Simon went off in the morning to collect yet more stuff from his barn.  He was back at lunch time.  We had Jenson in the office when he got back and that dog was so pleased to see Simon.  He had a waggy tail and clearly recognised him.

The morning was fairly busy and 2 dogs were officially signed over to their new people which is always lovely.  There were several people come to look round but to be honest none of them seemed promising and I am not sure they will be back.

we had a phone call from a woman who wanted us to take her 2 dogs which are Kerry Blues crossed with Lakeland terriers.  She claimed to be moving and couldn't take them with her.  Those stories always make me so angry.  I mean, did she only just discover that she was moving today?  Of course not. What effort had she made to re-home her dogs elsewhere?  Probably none.  Why can't they go with her?  You know the one thing that I have realised since I have been volunteering is that no matter what story they spin you, the bottom line is they don't want the dog.   There are odd exceptions of course but mostly that is the story.

I don't understand it.  Whatever may happen to us in our life our dogs are part of it.  I would never leave my dogs behind.  I know some people are in rented accommodation and I know that sometimes homes are lost and that it can be hard to find somewhere that will take pets.  I know all that.  But, we would live in a tent if we had to rather than lose our dogs.  I hate that people lie too.  Why not have the guts to actually say, I don't love it and I don't care about it and I don't want it?  Cowards.  Horrid nasty, cowardly people.  We can only hope that we are able to find better homes where a dog is truly loved and cherished.

Bit of a rant there!  Anyway the reason we ended up being at the kennels so long was that Simon and I were the ones who were waiting for these 2 dogs to come in.  We were going to collect them but then the people said they would come in.  Gyll and Jim had to go to the vet with Monday the Lurcher so we agreed to stay.   Guess what?  They didn't come!  We waited until Gyll got back and she finally got them on the phone.  The woman said that her uncle was going to take the dogs and see how they get on. Could she not have rung up and said that?  We waited nearly 3 hours for her.  We were going to go home but we were concerned that if she turned up and nobody was there would she just let the dogs loose? You never know.  Gyll thinks that they will still end up in the rescue.  We will see.  I'll let you know if they do.  So that was Saturday.  Quite a long and tiring day.

Sunday we went to Cambridge to visit little Jackson.  We were really excited about this as we got to have our first cuddles.  My sister had taken my Dad on Friday so I was dead jealous that they got cuddles before Nanny!  He is doing really well and now weighs 3lb 9oz.  Verity is doing well and coping well.

Monday was Simon's day off and we ran errands.  A visit to the post office to post the sponsor dog newsletters and a cushion cover that I had sold.   Then Simon had his hair cut while I went in the craft shop for some wadding and then in a printers to have some photos printed.  Our printer is playing up so can't do them at home.  I think it is time to get a new one actually.  Must research which has cheapest running costs.  Once Simon was done we went and did the weeks shopping in Tesco.  After that there was just time to go home and have a late lunch before going to collect Miss Ellie from school.  She was coming to have dinner with us.

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It was just after we collected Ellie that we received the phone call that we didn't want.....  Little Jackson is back in intensive care.  He is quite poorly and they are not yet sure what the problem is.  It may be an infection, we are waiting the results of tests.  To have him back in the NICU when he had been doing so well is a real blow. He is a little fighter though so I am sure that he will be OK. I got myself in a bit of a state last night  and consequently today I have a dreadful headache.   Upset and worry tend to do that to me.  As long as it doesn't turn into a migraine I shall be fine.  I took tablets first thing this morning and I have been taking it very easy so far. It is a bit easier now but I shall not be doing much today as I need to get rid of this.  Experience has taught me that I have to just give in and do nothing, move slowly, be quiet, no stress, no bright lights.  I may have a sleep in a while.

I will keep you updated with news of Jackson as we get it.

Friday

Goodness, where did the week go to?  For that matter where did January go to?  Can't quite get to grips with it already being February.  That means 1 more month of winter and then it will be spring again..........when it's spring again,  I'll bring again, tulips from Amsterdam, la, la, la.....where the heck did that come from? I can't wait for spring, it heralds summer and I love summer.  No guarantee of good weather though.

So,  who would have ever guessed that by the end of January we would already have our new little grandson?  He is two and a half weeks old now and doing well.   He was moved out of intensive care on to the special care unit and has already progressed to an open top incubator.  He is breathing well on his own and gaining weight.  Verity and Steve are both fine.  

Coralie visited them on Wednesday and got to hold him, My sister and brother in law are taking my Dad today so they will get to hold him too.  I am jealous!  We haven't been this week so have not had a cuddle yet. 

Looking back I am not sure where this week has gone and what I have done with it.  Let me think, Monday was the normal round of housework, catching up after the weekend with a bit of sewing thrown in too. Erm, come to think of it Wednesday and Thursday were pretty much the same. 

Tuesday was a busy day as we had 2 visits to the kennels.  We went in the morning so that we could give Jenson some attention.  Simon got him out and we had him in the office for over an hour.  He is so different when he is out of the kennel and is really responding.   He loves Simon.  We zipped home for some lunch and to see our own doggies before going back to accompany Jenson to the vets. 

He was to have gone in our car but for some odd reason the boot will not open.  We first noticed this when it was very cold a week back and thought it had frozen, but it seems that it must be something else.  the rest of the central locking is working fine.  The car is going to the garage next week for new tyres so Paul will look at the boot then.  A  boot is a trunk for you Merikans!   We also need to have the windscreen washer bottle drained.  Right before the cold spell Simon realised that it was empty so filled it with water to drive home from school.  Of course the bad weather came and it froze over night and still won't defrost so we can't get the anti freeze stuff in!  

Back to Jenson.  He must have thought he was a VIP as 4 of us ended up accompanying him!   The vet was actually really pleased with him.  She thought he may have a strain in one of his back legs so gave him so anti-inflammatories  It was decided not to neuter him as he is still very underweight.  He was a very good boy at the Vet and in the car.  I am so thrilled at how he is turning out.

So that was my week.  I am looking forward to the weekend and to seeing baby Jackson.

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Thankful Tuesday.

Can you believe that baby Jackson is already 2 weeks old?   I lay in bed last night thinking about the last 2 weeks and how much we have to be thankful for in our family. You may recall that I used to regularly do a kind of gratitude blog. Haven't done that in a while.  It is good to remind ourselves of just how much we have and how lucky we are and to remind ourselves to be grateful.

So Thankful Tuesday.  Ten things that I have been thankful for this last week.

1. The safe arrival of baby Jackson and his continuing good progress.
2. The fact that we live in a time and a place that means babies born as early as Jackson are not only able to survive but also to thrive.
3. The prayers, good wishes, positive vibes etc.. that have been sent our way by so many friends and family.
4. I am thankful for the excellent medical care that Verity received which will hopefully result in a swift and full recovery from what was a very traumatic birth experience.
5. I am very thankful that despite a bit more snow on Friday night the weather was OK on Saturday and we were able to go to the baby shower.
6.  We have a warm and cosy house.  As a person who feels the cold dreadfully, I cannot imagine what it must be like to have no heat and to be constantly cold.  Not long now until spring...hopefully.
7. I am amazingly lucky to be able to spend my days at home doing what ever pleases me.  That is usually sewing of some kind at the moment
8.  Denise.  Without Denise and her continuing efforts to teach both me and Coralie I would never have learned to sew.
9. I am thankful that Alfie seems to be on the mend.  The very expensive prescription diet seems to be working.  He will have another scan in a week to see if the bladder stone is breaking down.
10. I am also extremely thankful that we can afford the dog insurance which is paying for Alfie's new food.

Lots more to be thankful for of course but those are the things that come to mind right now this morning.