So, what's been going on here......

And in no particular order, some of the stuff that's kept us busy.....

Finally finished knitting this jumper (ongoing project most of the winter) which was a prototype to get a top-down pattern that's my size. I like baggy but not hanging off my shoulders or sleeves for an orangutan. Neck is too wide but great with a shirt under.

Corrected the neck and knitted another. 

My friend has just bought a beech hut so I made her a present. This is a doormat made from ties and t-shirt. The ties were taken apart and the outer fabric cut into strips and twisted into cord. The cords were then finger crocheted into chains to make them wider. The chains were then hand stitched together. The outer border is a single crochet chain of t-shirt yarn. It's very wonky but my friend was thrilled to receive it.

More upcycling. This stripey top used to be a jumper but it had a very low v-neck and wearing something else underneath made it a bit snug so I never wore it. By adding the collar and front panel cut from another top I rarely wore it's now a lightweight cardigan/jacket which I think will be ideal for my holidays, although I keep wearing it now anyway.

A pretend black layer stitched underneath meant I could open the sides of this top layer. Making it looser and longer (but not warmer) all because I love the sleeves

Hubby and I went with Daughter for a pub night were she was Tudor busking. The chef at the community owned pub Daughter knows from Kentwell so they both thought they'd give a Tudor night a try and he cooked pottage too. Only a small audience but really appreciative and Daughter kept us all entertained with stories, descriptions, a rude song and of course her magnificent musical talent. 

R had managed to fit in a ride on the back of Hubby's blood bike. She'd love to go out with him lots more but never enough opportunities. 

Our beautiful girls have had another birthday! Sweet 16  :-)

R and friends have gone to Comic-Con again this year and were busy making their costumes. Kodama is the character name if that means anything to you. 

Daughter and E were going to Kentwell Through The Ages as visitors and I invited myself along. Beautiful weather, hot, sunny with a gentle breeze. Daughter knows so many participants so it was lots of stopping for long chats that she would never get the chance to do when she is her normal Tudor self. E was taking the opportunity to play with a retro film camera. I was so pleased at the end of our busy day that I'd walked around for nearly 7 miles (according to my phone app), the most I've done since damaging my knee, so I'm considering myself mended (although I'll still keep on with the physio).

Daughter came over to sort out all the camping kit needed (as it's mostly stored in our shed) and O decided he wanted to make the cat-cakes he'd read about on the Internet. Took him ages to find it, then announcing he must save it as a word file for next time, turns out it wasn't a receipe he'd just read a description of "fluffy white cake with whiskers painted on and shards of chocolate for ears, they were yummy" So I found him all the ingredients for the vegan sponge and suggested we could improvise as I didn't have any chocolate. Half the batch had chocolate digestive ears and vegan biscuits for the others and amazingly I found a very small tube of black icing that hadn't dried up. O used to be a very enthusiastic cook but recently he seems to come up with ideas, make a half hearted start then walk off leaving me to it. So I made these and Daughter and I decorated them together.

And last but definitely not least, I've had my 6 month post-op CT Scan with results of internal scar all healed and clear with no signs of cancer! Blood test showed no decrease in kidney function, in fact a slight increase! 

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Sunny days and starry nights, at last.....

Here's a quick catch-up while I pop in from the garden to cool off a bit - didn't think I'd be saying that at all this summer, so that's good.
Bad, is that my ankles don't like the heat much and looking down at them makes me feel very old (which I'm not).

Good, that our son came to visit last Thursday.
Bad, is that he is suffering from acute asthma and nothing seems to be curing or even stabilising it. Such a worry!

Good, that I went for my bi-annual visit to special-friendH on Friday and slept over.
Bad, that the weather and traffic made it an horrendous journey (about 60miles away).
Good, that we had loads to chat about.
Bad, that it was a 3:30am bedtime and I had to leave by 11am.

Good, that Saturday was an easy journey home and straight out to Music-On-The-Green, a local summer fair where we help host the art and craft exhibition.
Bad, that none of our group sold a painting, although I did sell some of my crafts, so that's good.

Good, that Daughter and children are camping this week and that the weather is nice for them.
Only bad thing really is that I miss them.

Good, that Hubby went to Daughter's and fixed her washing machine and mowed her lawn front and back.
Bad, that he brought home three bags of washing for me to get done while they are away.

Overall....life is good :o)

These are the paintings I displayed and my crafts....

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Our 3-day celebration event in 5-days...

Friday - Daughter was here and shopping and here again and lots of prep was done for the party tomorrow. So much food flying around but unfortunately so much of it has to be done fresh tomorrow. Also Daughter's bell tent up as a children's tent (although I think it's only girls invited in) and Daughter's camper set up for a family of 6 that can't bring their own.


Saturday - Today was the 'friends' celebration of R & E's 10th birthday and the girls' special request was to have a camping party.....my garden being a lot bigger than their's was the obvious venue! We were all busy from quite early, with R, E and O beautifully decorating my house with long long runs of home made paper chain and ribbons. Their first guests to arrive (just after 11am) were a family of 4 and they very quickly had their tent pitched. After that there was a steady arrival of families throughout the day. I'm guessing in total we had about 40 people here (including some that didn't stay over), bringing food for the heaving buffet table. There were 8 visiting cars on the drive I think and 7 tents and the camper! M had made the most fantastic 7 layered rainbow birthday cake



and Daughter had made a long run of plain bunting for everyone to decorate with pens, hopefully adding their names as a keepsake of who came to their party this year. Well into the evening lots of the campers huddled round the portable fire pit toasting marshmallows coming in about 10pm-ish when it got far too cold for them (actually had been far too cold for me all along). I said good night well after midnight leaving about 6 adults still chatting.

Sunday - Noisy chaos for breakfast and bathrooms and making packed lunches was ongoing for a couple of hours really, then everyone left all heading to the Medieval Oyster Fayre in Colchester. The weather was not good at all, it was very wet and obviously was going to stay that way all day, (I decided not to go because of the weather) so there was lots of deciding about who was going to go in Tudor costume and who wasn't. Most had planned to and had it all with them but in the end the adults didn't and 6 children did (including my 3).

Authentic Tudor crisp packet of course :o)
Hubby and I took advantage of the empty house to have a major tidy up and then they all filtered back gradually in cold and wet states. Chilli had been bubbling away in three slow cookers all day (1meat, 1veg and 1veg no mushrooms) then I cooked up a load of rice and Daughter then served dinner with tortilla chips and grated cheese, yummy, in about 3 or 4 sittings. We even had extra guests for dinner. About 10pm one family packed their tent and headed home and all the rest stayed. I was the last to bed and started getting breakfast things ready on the table at 1am....unfortunately for me I opened the fridge door and a plastic pot of hummus and another of spicy tomato relish stuff hit the floor and exploded everywhere, all up my trouser legs and right across the floor, so not the end of the day I had hoped for and a much later night than I should have had  :o(


Bank Holiday Monday - And another breakfast and bathroom scrummage. All the drivers were asked to have their cars off of the drive by mid-morning as we were setting up for our Jubilee Street Party. Some of the campers took this as a time to pack up and leave anyway and also some were happy to move their cars and stay for the street party too :o)

There were lots more people arrived after this photo but Hubby had hung out of our bedroom window specially to take this so I had to show it, didn't I? Lovely to have lots of our neighbours together. We started at 1pm and about 20 of us moved inside at 7:30pm to watch the Jubilee Concert live outside Buckingham Palace on our TV.

Bank Holiday Tuesday - Was a major clearing up day. Daughter came over and collected all her stuff together with a heap left behind by her guests posting a lost and found message to them all. Too wet for her to sort out the tent, gazebo or camper so they will have to wait for another day. I collected all the stuff left behind by the neighbours and it's in a huge box by the front door for collection. Food that wasn't thrown out is boxed (mostly cake) or fridged (mostly salads) or frozen (french sticks I've made into garlic bread).

All great fun and lots of people told us what a great time they had. Of course the clearing up and getting our house back to normal could take some time yet! I'm exhausted but so pleased we did it :o)
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