Made with love....

3am this morning I finally finished making this jacket and went to bed....it's a late birthday present for my darling Daughter and I gave it to her when they came over for lunch.

She thought I'd bought it and was surprised when I took photos when she tried it on! Then she realised that I'd made it specially and was even more thrilled.

So, now they have declared us in drought and it hasn't stopped raining, by that rule and the fact that Daughter now has the warmest knitted jacket we are bound to have a heatwave in the next few days!
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Can't forget today...

You'll be relieved to hear that one of the 'choosing' dilemmas is over. Saturday morning I shook hands on a car deal, I had finally made a choice and signed my name to the deal, although I have to admit that after two weeks of hubby and I trawling the internet for specs (making sure it will fit in the garage) and reviews (always good to get lots of driver's opinions) and traipsing round all the local dealers (have to spend time giving them a good poke around in all the right places) and test driving lots of cars (has to be done) and haggling with dealers lots and lots (has to be done too), that by Saturday morning I was so punch-drunk I would have bought just about anything just to make this recurring nightmare go away!

So today was the day for handing over my lovely and reliable red Peugeot that has done me very well for just over 10 years. I'd even got used to the very squeaky windscreen wipers! And in the pouring rain and wild wind I drove home my year old Citroen C3 Picasso. So far so good, even though the seat still needs a bit of fine adjustment and of course I need to get used to the extra controls that a newer car has directly on the steering column but hey all new things need to be played with!

Today is also special as it's little O's third birthday and they were all here this morning so he could unwrap all his presents, which he seemed to love (thank goodness). I made lunch of sandwiches with the crusts cut off and cut into small triangles and R set the table with the best plates and my fancy dishes and plates for the crackers, cheese, crisps and various dips and relishes. We followed that with birthday cake (made one last night) and O helped me put the candles on then sat back down quickly so I could carry it over lit for him to blow out. He so loves all the celebration of it :o)

And in the future, because of both events, I won't have to drag out the paperwork when someone needs to know "When did you buy this car?" Because it was on O's 3rd birthday of course!
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Pretending it was Sunday...

Yesterday was Thursday of course, but for us it was Easter Sunday.

R & E were away last weekend so we had delayed our usual Easter stuff until yesterday. All the paints were out to decorate the 30 hard boiled eggs and 30 polystyrene egg shapes I had ready and I'd brought back some little kits I'd found in Florida that were for dye dipping eggs and sponge painting and they were moderately successful. The girls also asked for my coloured permanent marker pens so they could draw freehand on the eggs too. I then added to those with the sparkly polystyrene eggs from previous years (about 8 of them left) plus the two egg shapes that Daughter had felted and the 6 fabric eggs I had made and sent Hubby and M out with a carrier bag each to hide them all around the garden.....it was raining by then!!!

Children don't care if it's raining of course and they had a great time egg hunting. O had such fun that he even made E re-hide some eggs quite a few times so he could carry on searching!

Meanwhile I had the excuse of not to go out in the rain as I was cooking ;o)

When the children came in they found little cardboard nests for them on the table, each one filled with a home-made hollow egg of mini-eggs and two little golden chocolate rabbits and a knitted chicken that laid mini eggs too (that caused lots of excited giggles). Plus they each had a squishy, stretchy, rubber chick that lit up and flashed when bounced. They all seemed totally happy with their goodies.

Dinner was the full leg of lamb roast and it was really yummy, even if I say so myself.
Had to keep reminding myself it wasn't a Sunday!
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Choosing choosing choosing....

Am I the only person on this planet who really hates shopping? I hate the choosing, especially for something expensive that I need to be happy with for a long time! At the moment we are shopping for a kitchen, a new(er) car for me and another shed for hubby.

For his shed I had to make the decisions of what size and where to put it, which thankfully wasn't too difficult. So now he's found the shed he wants to buy and is waiting for the supplier to give him exact measurements so he can make the concrete base for it.

Think I've mentioned the kitchen before. There are actually only a few things that need changing in our kitchen and I definitely need to keep the cupboards and features that work perfectly for me......so what to choose and how do we get it all to match?

And now my car. I am only it's 2nd owner but I've had it about 10 years now and it's sounding really rough and will undoubtedly cost me money to keep it going so a good time to trade it in, it's a T reg Peugeot 306 which is a pretty shape and I'd love to just replace like for like but they stopped making it years ago. I'm definitely not buying a new car as I think one that is a couple of years old is much better value for money. Hubby always drives his 'toy' whereas I consider my car a 'tool'. So far we have been to Toyota and looked at the Yaris (too small) and test drove the Auris (quite nice but nothing special). At Marshall's we looked at the Kia Rio, C'eed and Soul and took the one year old Soul Silver for a test drive which was very nice, negatives were the price and it is a bit of a quirky shape! Then at Bristo's we were surprised at the Clio's internal space, the boot space was so much bigger than it used to be, the price was really good too, so out for a test drive in that and I actually pulled the car over half way back for the dealer to take over as the seat was just so uncomfortable! The dealer was really pissed off, didn't say just could tell by his body language and the way he drove the car back as there was nothing left to negotiate over, car was fine but the seat just wasn't a fit for me! I really hate all the detail giving and haggling and time wasting and sales-pitching but mainly the choosing! But the searching and choosing goes on.

Not sure I should even type this but this laptop has had to be turned off very quickly four times in the past week as the hard drive has made a most terrible noise..........please don't make me have to choose a new laptop just yet!!!!
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Worth the wait.....

My lovely FriendKK and I became friends very nearly 30 years ago and we did lots together with our young children evenings, weekends and during school holidays. We also did lots together when the children were not around, we are both very arty-crafty types with FriendKK always having lots of "let's make, sell and make money" ideas which were always hard work but fun to do and rarely made enough money to cover the material costs let alone our labour. KK if you are reading this, remember the Christmas wreaths project where we were both covered in cuts and bruises from foraging for greenery and your poor dinning room carpet covered in squashed holly berries......there was also the "Clowns" project when we made from little brooches up to big rag dolls and even thought to dress as clowns to man the stall......and it might be best not to remind you of the "ginger beer" project that actually exploded all over your cellar!

Over the years we had less time to spare - she got an allotment and I got a factory job (yes it was easier than having to help her dig). About 10 years ago we decided it was getting daft buying each other birthday presents when what we really needed was time together so sometime between her birthday and mine we plan a whole day out, mainly to catch up with each other's lives. Unfortunately over the past 3 or 4 years it has been really hard to find the time that fitted in with us both so it was especially nice to manage a day together this year...yesterday in fact.

We started the day at Wimpole Hall (National Trust) and out of the car and into the tea shop :o)
A lovely walk around the hall, reading the info, asking the guides in each room and generally poking about a house that still feels very lived in. Then we stopped in their restaurant for a very late lunch and spent a very long time sitting in the warm just chatting, sharing all the news about our loved ones and having a real good whinge about the people that really piss us off (essential therapy right?). After that we drove back to Bury St Edmunds for an evening at the theatre. A quick meal in a pub before the theatre. Actually it had to be quick as the pub was hosting a Frank Sinatra evening and all the tables were booked from 7pm, but the curtain went up at 7:30pm so that was fine. We got the cheapest seats, thankfully, as the show was a bit of a disappointment. It was called "I'm An Aristocrat, Get Me Out Of Here" and was about the French Revolution and the imprisonment of the posh lot including King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette and their rescues by the underground group 'Les Petite Pois'. There were just three performers making lots of quick costume changes to play lots of different characters but the script was a bit daft and delivery wasn't good so just a few 'moments' that made me giggle but overall just a bit weird. Then home by 10pm making it a 12 hour day out almost to the minute.

Actually even doing naff stuff together is good because it makes us laugh and gives us plenty to talk about. So a really good day and hopefully it won't be 4 years before we get to do it again.
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Another busy week....

Had a lovely evening meal out with my usual Tuesday friends on Tuesday of course, always good to catch up with gossip haha.

Wednesday morning hubby and I drove to friendsL&K's (hour and a half away) and after a quick coffee I went with friendL to meet the coach leaving the men with their plans of computer buying and installing and moving huge wooden sleepers in the garden. FriendL is an active member of her local WI group and had arranged a coach trip to the West End to see Blood Brothers. Just 16 of us piled into a small coach and were deposited near the Phoenix Theatre, Charing Cross Road. FriendL had really kindly bought me a sandwich and bottle of water so along with others from the group we went into a little park area to sit and picnic in the sunshine (a bit chilly though). It seemed like community gardens with little paths and small areas where brick walls or large stones had been arranged for seating. We did get a couple of odd-bods walk directly into our semi-circle and start chatting but they didn't stay long and I don't think anyone felt too intimidated by them!

The show was brilliant. Marti Pellow (formerly of Wet Wet Wet) was a lead role as narrator and although I didn't actually recognise the other actors they were all brilliant. I laughed and cried!!!

We got back about 7pm(ish) and the four of us then went straight out to dinner. When we finally got back to their house to settle in the lounge we had all their cruise photos and our Florida photos to bore each other with.....then definitely ready for bed at midnight.

Thursday up not too early and lovely bacon sarnies for breakfast (thanks FriendK), then we bid our fond farewells around 10:30am(ish). On our way home Hubby and I stopped off at B&Qs to have our first look at kitchens - yes I've finally given in and letting him give ours a makeover!

Thursday evening was an art-group night. So nice to see a few more people there. I think there were 10 of us :o)  Then onto the truck stop for live music and a bit of dancing and a lot of chatting to friends. And Friday was our usual Daughter and children here for dinner day. E was doing a lot of sewing and made a full set of clothes for the rag doll she had made, clever girl in both design and execution. R spent a lot of the time sitting around not sure what she wanted to do. O was his usual cheeky self and Daughter and I cooked between us and pegged out washing and brought it back in again between us too.

Today is a relax day for me, recharging my energy levels because I've a full house again tomorrow with NieceL and her family along with Daughter and hers......off to do the shopping list now!
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Pressing......

OK so the pile of ironing had got so intimidating, every time I walked out of the bathroom I could see the tower of creased clothes piled high in the room opposite. Well tomorrow Hubby needs the top he only wears once a month for a bowling league and he missed last month because we were away so I guess this top had been in the pile two months so I'd obviously not done any ironing for that long and had holiday washing in there too!!!

Well today was the day. So apart from two very short tea breaks and one hour long lunch break I managed to iron my way through five recorded TV programmes and even though it's early March and a bit chilly outside I needed both windows in that room thrown open to keep me cool enough to carry on!

I'm very pleased to announce that at 5pm it was all done, including his bowling top.
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Helpful distractions....

Woke this morning quite worried about SisterM who had been taken into hospital yesterday and kept in overnight, thankfully by early afternoon she had text me to say treatment and scan done and she was going home. So I let my siblings know.

Meanwhile Daugter came over with the children and the day was taken up with car washing (Granddad with R and O), trousers making (E with help from me and Daughter), checking out an internet story (me and R), crochet (E), craft shopping (me, Granddad, R and O), lunch (all of us), collecting frog spawn in a bucket to watch (me, Granddad, R and O), bathing (R), hair combing through and drying (Daughter for R), afternoon tea with muffins (made by Daughter yummy), badminton in the garden (Granddad with all children at various times), playing mario with O (Granddad - while Daughter took R and E to choir)........so a busy day had by all.

This evening I'm off to my art group but mentioned that I really don't know what to paint as I'd finished my last projects. So R suggested....
* Toast with butter melting over the edge
* Pancakes with syrup on
* A French worm wearing an onion string around it's neck
* A Penguin wearing dungarees and a straw hat
* Cowboy panda
* Hippy blackbird with dreadlocks
E said to keep the perspective of lying down toast the finished picture should remain lying down!!!
This made for a very funny lunchtime with lots of laughing. The only problem is I think R would really like it if I did produce these pictures, I wish I was a good enough artist to manage it.
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40 years in 210 minutes....

I know a lot of people knock Facebook and yes for me it can be the cause of total procrastination looking through other people's pointless status updates but I love it for the way I can keep an eye on family and friends and just occasionally find or be found by someone I knew in a past life and lost touch with.

JF found me, we had known each other in our youth club days, and we arranged to meet some 40 years later.

The venue was about 22 miles from home and roughly mid-way between where we both now live. It's a food-hall with a cafe and we sat at that table talking non-stop for three and a half hours. One of the waiters heard how we were having a 40 year reunion and was so amazed he even brought over another waiter to introduce us!

We only really dragged ourselves away because JF had an evening planned that she need to get ready for, but we left with promises of doing it again soon and an invite for hubby and I to her house to meet her hubby too.

Thank you Facebook.
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Florida holiday - February 2012....

Another holiday with Hubby, SisterM and bilA.
19 Feb off to Orlando in Florida for 10 days with a night flight on 29 Feb getting us home mid morning on the 1 March.

The journeys to and fro were thankfully uneventful, just the usual queueing and hanging around, but nothing really to report on. Collecting the hire car took time but was easy too. We had talked to lots of people before hand and been told which were the best diners to go to for a good breakfast and some venues we should not miss and the provided sat.nav. managed with everything Hubby put into it, including getting us to the place we collected the villa key from and then onto the villa. Hubby did all the driving for the whole holiday, of course.

By total coincidence our Canadian cousin F and her daughter M were going to be in Florida at the same time as us so we arranged to meet up with them, but as they were still over 3 hours drive away we suggested they sleep over so we had a full day with them which was lovely.

The villa was lovely and four bedrooms instead of the three that SisterM had booked, so plenty of room. Two double bedrooms both with en-suite so no arguments there, and the other two twin bedded rooms shared a bathroom so really easy when F&M stayed.

We used diners Bob Evans, Dennys, iHop as on our recommended list, also we could tell the very popular ones in the evening as they had huge crowds outside with people holding bleepers and having a 60-90minute wait.....we couldn't be bothered with that, so we mainly ate our 'dinner of the day' in the theme parks but not the fast food as each one had choices of 'nice' restaurants too, then snacked in the villa at night. The night F&M stayed we had Chinese takeaway delivered, which meant lots of chatting time :o)  Unfortunately SisterM had a rotten 'holiday' tummy day and was very tired so didn't enjoy their visit as much which was a shame. 

First theme park we did was Magic Kingdom, which we all were very disappointed with. It was very scruffy looking, seemed like all shops and fast food but very few rides and only geared to the very young, but no magic, no Disney characters walking around........we certainly wondered what we had let ourselves in for with this sort of holiday!!!

But very glad to report EVERYWHERE ELSE was so much better. We did NASA and was lucky enough to be there when they launched a rocket, we went to SeaWorld and were given an upgraded ticket to go back a second time for free which we did, Hollywood World was great fun too and Epcot was brilliant. On our last day on the way to the airport we also had an hour long Airboat ride spotting alligators in the reed beds of Boggy Creek then we listened to a short talk and got to hold a small alligator (with his mouth taped shut of course).

We got totally rained on twice and even bought those Mickey Mouse plastic ponchos the second time. M&A decided they needed two rest days, Thursday and Sunday so they could recharge their personal energy. Hubby and I left them to it on Sunday and headed out shopping, didn't buy lots but interesting to see the different goods and prices.

This was a very special holiday as my big sister has terminal cancer and we never thought she would be able to go on this sort of holiday, her travel insurance cost more than the holiday, so we made the most of it all and even cuddled Winnie the Pooh and Shamu the Whale posing for photos enjoying the silly-ness of it all.

Got home lunch time Thursday and so far Clive and I don't seem to be suffering jet lag, fingers crossed eh?
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