Saturday 27 November 2010

Today

Today its cold, staying at 0 degrees all day and to be honest, I'm glad I'm in the warm. This morning I went to the village for the Christmas Market.  I was a little disappointed this year as it didn't seem as good, not as many stall holders and too many of those that were there this morning were tombola or raffle stalls.  I made a mental note to perhaps take a stall myself next year.  My friend and I meet once a month to have a craft day and over the years we've tried many different crafts and have a cupboard full of 'makes' some of which we have sold.  About two years ago I became very despondant a really not interested in crafting, but all that is changing and I find myself full of inspiration with lots of ideas buzzing around in my head.  I'm thinking that maybe next year my friend Betty and I can get back to it.  Its not that we stopped crafting altogether, we just seemed to have sat and chatted for most of the craft days rather than worked.  To be fair to Bet, she has never lost interest and remains keen to get out there and sell stuff.  We did have a web site until late last year when the website host withdraw its services.  Bet's husband, Ron has agreed to set up a new one for us and will get cracking on it in the new year, so watch this space!

One stall at the market was one of those 'bit of this, bit of that' stalls and I found yards of material that I just had to buy.  Look...


There's enough to make a couple of tablecloths as well as plenty to use for collage.  I've always wanted to try my hand at fabric collage, but having no stash readily available and being unwilling to spend a lot of money, I have til now, been unable to have a go.  This lot cost me just £7!  I came away feeling like the cat who got the cream!  Now I only have to contain myself until after Christmas when I can put this stash to good use.  Christmas must come first as I have presents to finish and there's only a few weeks remaining.  And on that note, I leave you to take up my crochet hook and get hooking!

Til next time, and thanks for stopping by.

Friday 19 November 2010

Friday Walk to School

Friday mornings are always started by walking with my Goddaughter (K) to school.  Her mum needs to leave for work at 08.30am, but as school is just a five minutes walk away, and K doesn't need to leave until 08.45am, Grandma and Aunty Debra (me) take it in turns to do the "school run".  Grandma comes off worst as she does it four days a week!  I always hate having to get up early to do this, but once I'm up and out I really enjoy the fresh start to the day.

On the way to school this morning, not only did I strike up a conversation with a Grandad who was taking his two grandsons to school, who I strolled with as his two and my K ran ahead with gay abandon, but we saw a rather lovely spiders web glistening in the light and strung with diamonds from the dew.  Look ...


isn't it lovely?  This photo doesn't do it justice, of course, but we all stood there with our noses pressed close for a good look before the boys and K ran off again.

Its a foggy, damp start to the day here, but I can see a glimmer of sunshine and a ray of hope that the day will brighten up.  I struggle to stay positive on these dull winter days, but my spirits have been well and truly lifted by seeing the glittering diamonds and thoughts that nature truly is remarkable and gives us many gifts if only we use our eyes and look.

Saturday 13 November 2010

Saturday Shopping

This morning I popped into a local charity shop for a look around and they have dedicated one window and almost half the shop to Christmas.  Naturally I went to have a rummage through the stuff and found a few bits that I just couldn't say no to, like these lovely place mats:


Sorry about the poor picture quality but the light here is not favourable for taking photos today; very dull and overcast.  There are four of these marked up at £1 each.  They are still starched as though they have never been used.  Not sure if I'll use them as table mats with food around, but I thought I could use them on top of the side board and small cupboard, or even on the top of the chest of drawers that sit on the landing, bringing a festive touch to the upstairs.  I also found these:


Tray cloths!  Two long and two round.  Here's a close up of the picture detail: 


Aren't they just gorgeous?  I saw a set almost identical to these on ebay a couple of weeks ago and was tempted to bid for them, but I'm really glad I didn't as the ebay starting price was £5 and I bought these for just £2.95!  Again I'm not going to let food anywhere near these; they will be used for decoration only - maybe as a base for some fancy candles that will not be lit or for a few of my (many) Christmas decorations.

And then I also bought this towel:



Its a small hand/guest towel that I thought my Godaughter, whose seven, could use for wiping her hands.  Its very thin and cheap but just right for messy children!  It will add a festive touch to the bathroom.  I also found and bought a jigsaw puzzle which is a Christmas bauble to hand on the tree when put together.  Its still in its shrink-wrap so could be given as a present but I'm really tempted to do it myself.  All in all a good morning's shopping.  All these treasures came in at just over £10.

I can't wait til Christmas.  I just LOVE the festive season and go completely over the top! 


Thursday 11 November 2010

November Already?

Hello and sorry I've been missing for a while.  I had an email from my sister which started 'where has the time gone?' and it got me wondering just what has happening to this year?  I mean it's November already and I've done nothing to speak of this year at all!  It's funny, but when one works full time you think you are so time poor that you really could do with working only part-time and when you do become lucky enough to work part-time, such as myself, after a few months of feeling time rich, you then start to feel time poor again and want to work no-time!  Are we never satisfied?  I have finally realised that I am one of life's muddlers. After ten years of working part-time and so having a few hours each morning to do chores at home, I still cannot get a routine going to ensure everything gets done that needs to be done, like the cleaning, the washing, the ironing.  My house is 'grubby around the edges'.  I'm not proud that it is like this, but I seem to be able to do nothing to keep it any differently.  Many years ago I wrote out a weekly To Do, spreading the housework chores out throughout the week and ensuring I had a little bit of 'me time' in there too and for a while all went swimmingly.  Then something happened to put me out of routine and for ages after, I struggled to get back to what was on the To Do.  And this is how its been ever since.  Weeks of good routine where things seem almost to get done by themselves and then weeks of procrastination and excuses and laziness which puts the home back into grubbiness.

It's a bit like that with my craft work too.  I have thousands of ideas all jamming up my brain and I feel desperate to get at least some of them made, but for one reason or another I sabbotage those good intentions too and end up doing nothing.  This blog also was a good intention that was supposed to be updated at least weekly, as I know I have the time. But, as is usual for me, it doesn't happen. Why?  Why am I like this?  Anyone out there got any ideas?

Search This Blog