I think something ate something

The other morning I looked out of the window to the following…

Ohh, petals on the ‘lawn’ (mown weeds) off…  well since we have very few flowers in our ‘garden’ at the moment obviously they couldn’t be petals so they had to be feathers, which further investigation suitably attired in my wellies and pyjamas confirmed.

Two patches of feathers and a trail of odd ones leading to/from the fence but no other remains.

I’m pretty sure the something that got eaten was a wood pigeon but have no idea what the something that ate was!  (Margaret is that grammatically correct or are you having palpitations?)

My Creative Spaces – Oh My Giddy Aunt!

There’s a blog that does My Creative Space on a Thursday.  A lot of the creative spaces/projects being worked in/on today, and previously, are so neat and artily photographed.  I decided to show my own creative spaces as they stand today…

I nearly didn’t do this not because, as you would have guessed, my creative spaces are just too arty today to show (I may enter them for the Turner prize they should give shed, boat, shed* a run for its money), but because I couldn’t find the camera.  Whilst looking for this I realised I couldn’t find my purse or mobile phone either!  On the second attempt I managed to ring my own mobile number and low and behold it was in a box I’d tidied with the camera and my purse – well, obviously!

*  I couldn’t find a site that showed the boat too, all I can say is – If that’s the state of the shed and they had to show that instead of the boat I dread to think what the boat looked like!

Vacation Cancelled

What I needed this morning was a bag of dog poo, since the hint mint wasn’t working (I just heard that on Glenn Martin DDS)

After a week of getting over feeling guilty about requesting a mother in law vacation it appears that my angst was wasted since the holiday plans appear to have fallen through.

Bernard’s brother does Mary’s weekly fresh shopping.  So the plan had been that B would pick the shopping up with ours in a morning and since she claims to be up at 6:00 drop it off about 7:30.  I got some stuff on Monday(I said I don’t mind carrying on doing this as long as I didn’t have to take it) and last night I did a list for him and this morning as planned B shopped and then dropped – except the drop was in our kitchen and I was greeted with

B:  ‘Since you’re not going out today how would you like to come with me this afternoon for a cup of tea?’

Me:  Ha Hah (I think I just thought that bit) ‘I had a text last night I’m going to Sunflowers.’ (with the lady who takes me to the Blood Support Group – I’m not getting lost in Liverpool myself today).

B:  ‘Well if you’re not back too late we can still go.’

Me:  (Oh, for %^&*£ sake! – I definitely just thought that.)

I finished getting dressed and rendezvoused with B in the kitchen where he proceeded to show me every item that he had bought, no wait he didn’t run the apples, oranges or tomatoes past me.

Me:  ‘Why don’t we put the sausages in separate bags and they can go in your mum’s freezer and she can just get a bag of two out at a time.’

B:  ‘Me?’

Me:  (No the sausage freezing fairy!)  ‘Well if the date on them is okay maybe ‘we’ don’t need to.’  (Thinking sod this for a game of soldiers.)

Me:  ‘And what happened to me not having to see your mum for a bit?’

B:  ‘Don’t be like that. You’re just being a meanie.’

So I feel more drastic action is needed as the ‘hint mint’ was obviously out of date, despite containing such comments as

‘Chris says that I’ll end up in a box before your mother at this rate.’  Chris (who views me as an adopted daughter) had phoned me up a couple of weeks ago and despite me answering that I was okay twice she said I didn’t sound it and therefore got mother in lawed.

Chris:  ‘You have to tell Bernard.’

Me:  ‘I have, he went quiet and wouldn’t discuss it.’

Thus like a lioness protecting her young the box comment arose along with ‘it’s no use you working hard at being well and B’s mum making you feel like that.  She wound you up at the best of times but this is the last thing you need at the moment.’  I got back from a short visit to the m-i-l’s and needed a three and a half hour nap as she sucks the energy out of me.  Apparently she’s an energy vampire  – Hey, it’s a real term and I don’t even think whoever coined it had met Mary!

There was a subsequent repeat of Chris’s comment two days later, after agreeing to go with B and the m-i-l for a blood test (B12 level) – with additional mint of

Me:  ‘I want ‘I told you so!’ on my headstone.’

B:  ‘There’s no need for that.’

Me:  ‘Don’t worry I’ll out live her if it kills me!’

Chris met the m-i-l for the first time ever last week (for all of 10 minutes) and when asked later if I exaggerated replied

‘If anything you under-stated.’

Amongst others I don’t think Chris was too impressed with one of the comments when I left the room ‘She’s put weight on hasn’t she!’  (I may have left the room but since I was still in the same house so I could hear her fine.)

I have shelves and a pain in my…

back!  What else – I haven’t seen the m-i-l since Thursday!  Although I had a close one today as I was supposed to be taking her to the doctors (just a routine follow-up appointment) this morning but fortunately B agreed that he would come with us to the next available appointment next Monday.  It’s just as well because I couldn’t have yanked her out of the car.

I put the shelves together on the floor last night, after B had gone to work (B stood it up this morning), so there was minimal lifting and when I woke up this morning my back was no stiffer than normal but when I leaned slightly over the wash hand basin – ow – nothing major but definitely pain as opposed to discomfort and I seem to have acquired a bit of a limp purely to get more sympathy!

The water jug was a bit troublesome when I was getting it out of the fridge. B put the box in to see what it looked like and I’m not taking a chance and taking it back out.

I also managed to break the wash hand basin last night.  One of the glass soap dispensers fell into it and it’s cracked!   B took that news very well because he managed to scratch the laminate flooring moving the shelves!  My sister in law, Gill, gave me a load of card making stuff a while ago and it included some tiny, tiny sprinkly ball things that you stick on with glue, they get everywhere even though I’ve never used them, and believe it or not one of those was under the shelving!  But it’s okay the huge table I got to use will cover the damage (to the floor, not the wash basin although it probably could – well it will cover most of the remaining free floor space in my sewing room, so that’s sorted.

B reaction to the broken wash hand basin confirms my theory that as long as it’s not HIS car it’s fine.  I’m going out in HIS car shortly!  After a nice warm bath!

I hate myeloma

‘Why’ I hear you ask, ‘what’s it ever done to you?’

Well I’m gonna tell you whether you want to know or not.

Normally (maybe that should now read previously), when we bought flat pack furniture I put it together preferably me, myself and I while B was at work or in bed.  This has always worked out exceptionally well.  The only thing B had put together was the now dearly departed spare bed as I was unable to at the time.  Now I’ve had to promise not to lift anything and this means B is involved in stuff so now we have partly dismantled drawers to go into the garage which currently looks like this…

B took 20 minutes last night to put the now spare single duvet and pillow into the top of the wardrobe in our bedroom and finished by saying…

‘I’ll look at it again some time.’  It’s putting a duvet and pillow in the top of a wardrobe not splitting the atom.

‘Are you okay?’ I’d previously asked trying not to sound condescending as, did I mention, wardrobe, duvet, shelf?!?!?!

‘Well it’s not that simple I had to take some stuff out and move it about.’  DUVET – SHELF – WARDROBE! To quote a friend – big job broke out.

Earlier in the week I decided it would be way easier to list my yarn collection on Ravelry as I was moving it into the new storage boxes.  I’m up to 86 yarns and still have four boxes to go – I seem to have one ball of about 85 of them– big job did break out!

This is bedroom three now…

So B has suggested that the SOON to be fully dismantled drawers go in the hall/dining room until the garage is tidied.  Then the new shelves have to be moved up from the garage and put together (why is that not mantled?). The table has remained pushed to one side from when the neighbours collected the bed on Friday in preparation because the 10 seconds it would take to push it back are obviously too precious to be spent in such an endeavour.  (It’s too heavy for me to risk, I tried, – basically because I’m not prepared to take the earache if I do myself a mischief.)

And we currently have a suitcase in it which B’s brother decided to return yesterday after deciding not to take it on holiday with them today

This can’t yet go in the loft because the glorihole (I have no idea how that is spelled it’s the word we use for a cupboard that you put er, stuff in, I guess that makes it a cupboard, I think it may need to be over the stairs to qualify for glorihole status) looks like this…

That’s the currently clean washing waiting to be ironed, needless to say I’ll probably need reminding where that is at some point.

I cleared as big an area as I could to make moving about easier and B on removing the drawers hastily filled it!  Now I may be mistaken but I believe they would have stacked!  I needed a nap at this point.

Meanwhile the other side of the floor is monopolised by the ironing board, which is huge, so is fantastic for ironing but the complete opposite for storage.  And if you try and stand it up it slides down.

We had a discussion yesterday about amending this wardrobe (which currently contains the stuff out of the drawers which I moved in after moving the wool out, I know, I know, why didn’t I just move the stuff from the drawers into bedroom three and sort out the wool later – doing it this way seemed like a good idea at the time – it’s the medication) to accommodate the ironing board…

I stopped talking when B glazed over completely and steam started coming out of his ears, I mean come on, he was about to take some drawers out which had funny little plastic screws to stop them coming out completely in use, one technical problem at a time for goodness sake!

Our bedroom has become home for B’s loose change collection…

I wondered why he was said at one point, seemingly unrelated to anything, – ‘Don’t worry they won’t be there long.’

Even the landing has stuff…

The lounge has the things I am currently knitting/crocheting in it (as where I normally put these is full of the clean washing) and some wool that needs sorting.  The only rooms not affected are the kitchen and the bathroom, but thinking about it I could get a lot of wool in the bath, it’s okay we have a separate shower so we wouldn’t smell!

Bearing in mind it took B over a week to move a vase of flowers out of the porch I think I may have a fully functioning sewing room in about 2015!

Did you miss me?

I missed you.  I couldn’t believe that the last time I posted anything was last Saturday.

I feel like I’ve been a bit of a glum bum!  I should have been all excited about new storage that would get our second bedroom back to my sewing room rather than potentially the mother in law’s room!

I’ve been out every day and fortunately it was all appointments or with friends otherwise I don’t think I would have gone out.  I’d just have stayed in and moped about as it would have been just too much effort.  When I did sit down to type something and nothing – well that’s not right more everything.  The mother in law is dragging me down and when I sat down to type something even craft related it all wanted to pore out the end of my fingers but not in a coherent fashion just a bit explosion of stuff.  Basically I don’t want to do anything that involves me seeing or speaking to her and I feel guilty about it.

Yesterday we went to meet the occupational therapist at the m-i-l’s at to persuade her to use a bath seat/lift , before she starts to smell.  We received three phone calls before actually getting there…

10:30 – ‘Will you bring me a pie when you come.  You can get yourself one too.’

11:30 – ‘Don’t forget my pie.’

13:00 – ‘I’m starving, where’s my pie?’

But I’ve been feeling decidedly better today even though I got lost, I mean mislaid, I knew I was in Liverpool and generally the name of the road I was on or had just passed but with no idea how to get to where I needed to go.   I telephoned the lady I was going to see at Sunflowers, which is where the Blood Support Group meetings are held, she was apparently no good with directions but if I headed for the airport I should find them and I should take my time and not get stressed!

When I ended up in Sefton Park, which is very, very nice, and a place I intend to visit again but on purpose, I phoned a friend who comes from Liverpool but who is crap with directions.  I thought at least Pat will be able to tell me if I’m anywhere near Aigburth.  I was, but true to form – ‘Your ringing me for directions?!?!?’  Anyhoo with the aid of multimap, a colleague of Pat’s and a notice board displaying a map of the park I was only an hour and 10 minutes late for my appointment but the lady I was going to see said she didn’t mind!  I believed her particularly since she was very surprised when given my date of birth and said I looked about 31.  Hairless is obviously a good look for me since one of the nurses during my holiday said she thought I was 35 but I still had hair at the time!

And now I feel even better because of this…

Yes, I know, nothing.  There was a bed there and now there isn’t.  Our house is officially, for the time being anyway until a sofa/chair bed is procured, a mother in law free zone.

More Dresses

I dropped on this material in my local fabric store, which I must take a photo of as it has to be seen to be believed, although I’d need some spy training first as some the staff would probably escort me from the premises if they caught me.

I particularly liked the way the flowers were denser at the edge of the fabric although the dress doesn’t show this off as well as it could because I was a little short of material and had to cut out what I could from where I could – grain be dammed.  I had intended for the band under the bodice to be smocked but that turned into a smocking mess and I took the scissors to it one night when I was a little over tired – as my Great Aunt used to describe it – I was nangy tired!  I ‘tidied’  the dress bits away (for tidied read stuffed in a drawer) but fortunately the following day after a good night’s sleep I tackled it again and used the waistband that went with the original pattern but altered the skirt.  Fortunately being short was advantageous and even with the three inches of smockiness cut off the dress was still long enough.

The zip I inserted by hand as per Couture Sewing Techniques.  I don’t think my running stitches are quite as small as they should be but so far the zip hasn’t burst free and I’ve worn it twice.  I had a zip in which matched perfectly the peachy colour in the material and decided rather than hide the zip I’d leave it on display as a contrast.

When I put it on to go out last week B had just woke up and said he liked it but enquired about my wig.  I tried it on and B didn’t think the wig went with the dress – thus proving my theory when you are folically challenged you don’t have to worry about your hair style matching your outfit.

The second dress was made from scrapes.  A dress I’d made but didn’t like in the blue gingham along with plain white cotton and three different lots of broderie anglaise* my Auntie En had given me.  I like it but… because I lined the broderie anglaise on the top two tiers it doesn’t hang like it should, being a little bit stiff.  I have a sneaky feeling it’s not going to get a lot of wear.  It took a lot more material than I had anticipated hence the patchwork bottom tier which got complemented by a fellow customer in the fabric shop.

*  I had to google this because spell check had no idea – I also had no idea – how hard is it to google something when you have no idea how it’s spelled – but I did find an online fabric shop so it worked out well!

Moxafrica

I have no idea how the decision to start most charities happens and it would be interesting to find out.

I went to visit Deb, my acupuncturist, on Monday (parking ticket day) and she was telling about being at a seminar with some fellow acupuncture friends and one morning at breakfast one said to her ‘I think I agreed to start a charity last night and go to Africa’.   How cool is that?

Two of Deb’s friends had stayed drinking in the bar drinking and got to discussing how a simple and cheap treatment with moxa can be very effective with TB.  They then decided to do something about it.  I’ve checked out the website, Moxafrica, but can’t find any reference to this although for me it’s as good a reason as any –

‘And tell us why did you decide to start this charity?’

‘Well, we’d had a bit to drink and it seemed like a good idea at the time!’

After a skinful most people think it’s a good idea to go for a kebab!

I have a request

On Monday when I got the parking ticket B asked me who’d died and now I feel so ashamed that I cried over such a thing.  Today there were more tears only this time someone had died.  Someone from armchair yoga, someone a similar age to me, someone with breast cancer, someone I knew, someone…

So my request to you is simple – Don’t die!

This is a purely selfish request of course – I don’t like being sad, it doesn’t suit me and apparently it gives you more wrinkles than being happy.

Look at my Watch…

‘That’s a nice watch.’

Why, thank you, yes it is.  I can just about lift my arm up with it on.  I’m going to have to swap wrists regularly otherwise my left arm muscles are going to be so much bigger than the right.  It was a birthday present!  It’s the thought that counts!  And the thoughts were probably I’m always on the last minute and I like purple!  Don’t you think it makes my wrist look small – if only there was something that had the same effect on my backside.  I wonder if I could get FitFlops or Skechers Shape-ups on prescription.

I never wear a watch and this coupled with my current scattiness is not a particularly good combination.

Monday parking ticket.

Tuesday missed BBQ at the blood support group (not that I was intending on risking the BBQ’ed meat, or salad or anything that had been manhandled by anybody who didn’t have a detailed itinery available of exactly where their hands had been all day – other than on the end of their wrists of course) and B nearly had sniffer dogs, mountain rescue and the coastguard looking for me – which could have been quite neat really, a ride in a helicopter!

I did however remember to pick up and drop off the yoga-ing ex vicar and there started my problem.  I went in for a cup of tea at 15:20 thinking I had plenty of time to get home for 17:00 for B to take me to the Blood Group Meeting.

When I got asked did I want a second cup of tea, I enquired what time it was and I’d been having such a good time that I not given a thought to time and there it was 17:00!  My own mobile was in the car, as it turned out with no charge and 9 pence worth of credit – this in itself isn’t that unusual I’m not a big fan of mobiles.  When I rang B much to my surprise he wasn’t a happy bunny – can you believe that.

Now if I’d driven home there and then technically we could still have made it to the Sunflowers Centre but this is B we are on about who had pulled his face at taking me in the first place – I had a lift home and the lady who I normally go with was at the centre all day but would have come back and picked me up but I thought I’d inconvenience B instead.  So I decided it would make my life so much easier if I didn’t push this so I had another cup of tea, a couple of biscuits and got home at 18:50 – via car rather than helicopter as B had only phoned my sister in law, Gill, and one of my friends.

I did apologise to B for having so much fun with a vicar that I lost track of time!