What a difference a year makes, New Years Day last year we woke to deep snow, this year it was just me and I woke up to light snow flurries!! No hens to dig out, fuel in the house courtesy of my lovely son and just myself to please. Barney got walked and the fire has been on all day, the house has been much warmer and the boiler hasnt clicked on so hopefully I have used less oil today!
All day I have been promising myself an hour on the cottage garden quilt, but what with ironing, cleaning and concerned family phone calls I just havent had time!! maybe tomorrow! It has been good to spend a quiet day gently pottering. Hopefully tomorrow will be brighter skies and more peace and quiet, maybe I really will get some quilting done!!
Saturday, 1 January 2011
Friday, 31 December 2010
Happy New Year
The old year ended on a sad note as I had to let the hens go to a friend, I just couldnt manage them anymore. The weather is looking up a bit and after a pleasant quiet Christmas with my daughter and granddaughters, I am hoping to end my nomadic existance and settle down to kick starting some kind of life on my own. I plan to finish the quilting on the cottage gardens quilt. Happy New Year everyone, may all your dreams come true.
Wednesday, 1 December 2010
difficult times
A big thank you to all my cyber quilting friends who sent their kind wishes and thoughts following my previous post. The weather has conspired to mirror my feelings by sending early sustained and heavy snowfall coupled with sub zero temperatures. I am finding it increasingly difficult to stay positive and very hard to dig out the hens and coal bunker daily. I hope the oil and coal deliveries manage to make it through this week and that I can get to the grocery shop!! At 5 miles away it's too far to walk but the ploughs havent been up so we have white roads! heigh ho!!
Monday, 15 November 2010
sad times
Sadly my beloved husband died on the 15th October,there are no words to describe my feelings. Suffice to say I havent been sewing or posting.
Sunday, 25 July 2010
new patio
Cambell arrived bright and early today to finish the two patio extensions!! We have given up trying to grow stuff either side of the patio, if the rabbits don't eat it, it just dies!! And the weeds just colonise the gravel!! It looks so untidy so I decided to get rid of the gravel and have the two areas paved, this way the swing bench can rest on level ground instead of sinking slowly into the grass! With luck it will last a bit longer as it will be protected from some of the winter weather being closer to the house. It's a good plan!!
Well he is here and by tomorrow we should have the swing moved and maybe teh two wooden chairs with the little corner table as well!! If it stays dry long enough to cut the grass we will be very smart before Sam and the girls come on Wednesday! We are really looking forward to their visit, it always gives Paul a lift and I just love having cuddles!!
I have been dutifully working through the fEQ7 lessons, trying to do some every day! I have nearly finished the pieced quilt lessons and I am determined to work through the drawing and applique lessons as well. Usually I give up then as I am not a drawer and applique smacks a little too much of perspective and clever stuff!! But I do like redwork and the look of naive applique, sort of country style so I have set my personal goal in retirement to master all aspects of the program!!
Needless to say while I have visitors and house disruption I wont have time for 'stripping' in the sewing room so the pile of fabric waiting to be turned into useful strips is sitting accusingly on the ironing board! I have remembered that I bought the June Tailor ruler that lets you cut multiple strips across the fabric fthough so maybe once I actually get in their it wont take too long to restore order!!
I was planning how I would spend my time, now I am a lady of leisure, I thought come September when life returns to normal I would spend one day a week in Durham County Records Office, researching the history of my house. Then one day a week on an away day, exploring the area properly, you know the sort of thing, checking out National Trust properties, garden centres, shopping cntres etc and being a lady what lunches. Then at least one day a week in piecing, one day a week handquilting on my cottage gardens and the redworks I have finished, one day a week finishing Daisy cross stitch advent calendar. Of course at least one day a week in the garden to put it to bed properly for the first time ever and start the hard landscaping needed. Then I kind of realised I would need one day a week each for housekeeping, curtain making, and decorating touch ups like re waxing all the internal woodwork and filling cracks!
The only problem I can forsee is there aren't enough days in the week!!!
Well he is here and by tomorrow we should have the swing moved and maybe teh two wooden chairs with the little corner table as well!! If it stays dry long enough to cut the grass we will be very smart before Sam and the girls come on Wednesday! We are really looking forward to their visit, it always gives Paul a lift and I just love having cuddles!!
I have been dutifully working through the fEQ7 lessons, trying to do some every day! I have nearly finished the pieced quilt lessons and I am determined to work through the drawing and applique lessons as well. Usually I give up then as I am not a drawer and applique smacks a little too much of perspective and clever stuff!! But I do like redwork and the look of naive applique, sort of country style so I have set my personal goal in retirement to master all aspects of the program!!
Needless to say while I have visitors and house disruption I wont have time for 'stripping' in the sewing room so the pile of fabric waiting to be turned into useful strips is sitting accusingly on the ironing board! I have remembered that I bought the June Tailor ruler that lets you cut multiple strips across the fabric fthough so maybe once I actually get in their it wont take too long to restore order!!
I was planning how I would spend my time, now I am a lady of leisure, I thought come September when life returns to normal I would spend one day a week in Durham County Records Office, researching the history of my house. Then one day a week on an away day, exploring the area properly, you know the sort of thing, checking out National Trust properties, garden centres, shopping cntres etc and being a lady what lunches. Then at least one day a week in piecing, one day a week handquilting on my cottage gardens and the redworks I have finished, one day a week finishing Daisy cross stitch advent calendar. Of course at least one day a week in the garden to put it to bed properly for the first time ever and start the hard landscaping needed. Then I kind of realised I would need one day a week each for housekeeping, curtain making, and decorating touch ups like re waxing all the internal woodwork and filling cracks!
The only problem I can forsee is there aren't enough days in the week!!!
Friday, 23 July 2010
Dark days
Hello blogland! It's bben a while since I was last here. The good news is I have finally finished with school and am now officially a lady of leisure!! The last couple of weeks were hard going and it felt like I was never going to get there! My last day was Sport's Day and Summer Fair so not too arduous. As it was a slimming world day I went over to Hexham after school to get weighed and joy of joys had even mamanged to loose another 1 and 1/2lbs!! Nearly a stone gone now and I feel better for it.
We had a lovely week down with Sam and the girls, despite Paul's nocturnal disruptions. Sadly, nothing seems to help the pain in his shoulders, which doesn't bother him during the day but which makes sleeping impossible. He is up two or three times in the night, making hot water bottles and hot drinks, waiting for painkillers to take effect. Needless to say it means I don't get much sleep either and it was difficult to manage away from home. I was terrified he would wake the girls, who aren't good sleepers at the best of times. So even when he came to bed and went to sleep I was awake!!
He has been back to the Drs and has morphine now but it doesn't seem to make much difference, I don't know if it's a habit he can't break or whether this is the beginning of the end!! He has lost weight and seems very down. We have been in more contact with his sister which is good and she is coming to visit soon, she will be here when he has his next scan and oncologist visit, as she is a senior nurse I am hoping she will be in on the consultation and give me the benefit of her expertise. He is due counselling with the Macmillan cancer nurses next week and maybe that will help. It's really hard to decide whether the cancer is active again or whether understandably it's worry and fear that's causing the problem.
We are due to go away for a week with Sam and the girls to Devon for a seaside holiday, I was really looking forward to it but now I am dreading it. It's so difficult to manage his insommnia away from home and I am worried he will disturb the girls and Sam. She finds it really hard to cope with the evidence that her Dad is really ill and she is not good without sleep!!! It could be a nightmare.
Work on the decluttering, gardening and sewing have taken a back seat recently but I am trying hard to complete a cross stitch advent calendar for Daisy for this Christmas, I didnt make last !! The sewing room tidy has halted! I have a pile of fabric which needs cutting into strips and filing!! My boxes are neatly labelled, ready and waiting! I think most things will have to wait until September now. By the time we have been away and had our summer visitors it will be September and hopefully Paul will be back driving the school bus! Maybe he will improve then, I think some of it is boredom and too much time to dwell on every little symptom he feels. He has never really been ill before and finds it all very frightening. What a gloomy post!! I wll try to be more positive next timex
We had a lovely week down with Sam and the girls, despite Paul's nocturnal disruptions. Sadly, nothing seems to help the pain in his shoulders, which doesn't bother him during the day but which makes sleeping impossible. He is up two or three times in the night, making hot water bottles and hot drinks, waiting for painkillers to take effect. Needless to say it means I don't get much sleep either and it was difficult to manage away from home. I was terrified he would wake the girls, who aren't good sleepers at the best of times. So even when he came to bed and went to sleep I was awake!!
He has been back to the Drs and has morphine now but it doesn't seem to make much difference, I don't know if it's a habit he can't break or whether this is the beginning of the end!! He has lost weight and seems very down. We have been in more contact with his sister which is good and she is coming to visit soon, she will be here when he has his next scan and oncologist visit, as she is a senior nurse I am hoping she will be in on the consultation and give me the benefit of her expertise. He is due counselling with the Macmillan cancer nurses next week and maybe that will help. It's really hard to decide whether the cancer is active again or whether understandably it's worry and fear that's causing the problem.
We are due to go away for a week with Sam and the girls to Devon for a seaside holiday, I was really looking forward to it but now I am dreading it. It's so difficult to manage his insommnia away from home and I am worried he will disturb the girls and Sam. She finds it really hard to cope with the evidence that her Dad is really ill and she is not good without sleep!!! It could be a nightmare.
Work on the decluttering, gardening and sewing have taken a back seat recently but I am trying hard to complete a cross stitch advent calendar for Daisy for this Christmas, I didnt make last !! The sewing room tidy has halted! I have a pile of fabric which needs cutting into strips and filing!! My boxes are neatly labelled, ready and waiting! I think most things will have to wait until September now. By the time we have been away and had our summer visitors it will be September and hopefully Paul will be back driving the school bus! Maybe he will improve then, I think some of it is boredom and too much time to dwell on every little symptom he feels. He has never really been ill before and finds it all very frightening. What a gloomy post!! I wll try to be more positive next timex
Thursday, 24 June 2010
rats!!!
well it was much cloudier to day so we attacked the shed! Surprisingly it didn't take us long, we took everything outt and then discovered yet another hole the rats had chewed through into the shed! We put some slaymore down and Paul blocked it up before we swept out all the straw and debris from the floor, yet another full car load of junk for the tip!
It was lovely this morning being able to walk into the shed without clambering over rubbish. After the all important England game I started on the fabric drawers in the sewing room, I am sorting out complete fat1/4's and refolding them into the small drawers at the top of the chest, larger pieces are folded into colour coded bigger drawers and any thing else is going into a large basket under the Grace frame to be stripped and filed according to width in my new labelled boxes!!! I think this could be a long job! I have an old feed bag to hand for complete rubbish!! I wonder how many bags I will fill.
every time I think I have finished sorting out rubbish I find another little store! Next job will be the old kitchen dresser ( the man and lady drawers and cupboards)! I suspect it will be like painting the Forth bridge, a never ending task, once you have finished its time to start again!
It was lovely this morning being able to walk into the shed without clambering over rubbish. After the all important England game I started on the fabric drawers in the sewing room, I am sorting out complete fat1/4's and refolding them into the small drawers at the top of the chest, larger pieces are folded into colour coded bigger drawers and any thing else is going into a large basket under the Grace frame to be stripped and filed according to width in my new labelled boxes!!! I think this could be a long job! I have an old feed bag to hand for complete rubbish!! I wonder how many bags I will fill.
every time I think I have finished sorting out rubbish I find another little store! Next job will be the old kitchen dresser ( the man and lady drawers and cupboards)! I suspect it will be like painting the Forth bridge, a never ending task, once you have finished its time to start again!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)