Monday, 29 November 2010

The Morning After

 Not so deep, but certainly crisp and even this morning and -  Oh So Pretty!!


















A good long walk crunching snow under your boots, frozen fingertips and toes, nose glowing fit to make Rudolph jealous- don't mornings like this make it all worthwhile !!

Sunday, 28 November 2010

Surprise!Surprise!!

Look what we've been watching all morning.......




...........and still 2 days left in November !

Wednesday, 24 November 2010

Thanksgiving Day

A little something  for all my American  blogging friends and visitors  - a day early I know, but I am sure that everyone will be very busy tomorrow enjoying the holiday and not have much time left to go blog hopping !

Tuesday, 23 November 2010

Le Bon, La brute et Le Laid

Or to use the words of  that wonderful 'spaghetti' western starring Clint Eastwood.........

THE GOOD - has to be winning not only a little prize for joining in Sue's  Christmas QuiltaLong, but also finding out this morning that I managed another win on Darlene's  Christmas Quilt Show!  Now this is really a red letter occasion as I have never won a single thing before!!  Many thanks to both Sue and Darlene for taking the time to host  these events!

THE BAD - was waking up Sunday morning feeling not too good and looking in the mirror discovering my eyes had  turned  into narrow slits and my whole face swollen !  I did make it through the day, but in a lot of discomfort I have to say, even after swallowing handfuls of antihistamine tablets.  Yesterday  however it was worse, couldn't stop itching or stand light at all so we called in the Doctor.  Seems like I've got a very severe case of allergic conjunctivitis which, thankfully,  is a lot better today thanks to the meds, although I am still not too happy with bright light.

THE UGLY: - really has to be me looking like Miss Piggy with a bad case of sunburn without the pleasure of seeing the sun!



....or if that doesn't make you smile try this one - one of my treatments is to spray my face with purified cold water and DH  has suggested that I stand in the corner of the room impersonating a rubber plant to do it   - don't you just love them !!


Wednesday, 17 November 2010

What A Week !

Isn't it strange the way some weeks happen just the way you planned them, whilst others gallop away from you in a whirl of organised chaos -in other words the kind of week I'm having this week!!

Sunday -  started off OK, I got through the routine chores very quickly (!)  and made a good start on my Christmas Quilt a Long list, that is until a power cut caused by the foul weather brought my machine to a grinding halt for over an hour! Not too long really and I was just settling down to start again when then was a knock on the door heralding an unexpected visit from some of our neighbours in the village - no more sewing.

Monday - I'd voluteered to help make Christmas puddings for the Christmas Fair to raise funds for the local Cat Protection Society.  Off I go thinking it would be just a couple of hours - do you know how long it takes 6 women to mix up enough ingredients for 50 x 1lb puddings, including chopping dried fruit, grating peel off dozens of lemons etc etc? Well, it took a lot longer than a couple of hours, mind you DH seems to think that it might have taken less time if we'd not talked so much ! By the time I got home I was so covered in treacle and other gooey stuff that all I wanted was a shower, some clean clothes and sit down for longer than 5 minutes- no sewing.

Tuesday - DH's birthday and a day that turned into a  cross between manning the phone at a busy call centre and open day at the local lunatic asylum - no sewing !

Today it's been catch up day for all the chores that haven't been done this week - no sewing !

Tomorrow , as we didn't make it on Tuesday, its' out for DH's celebration birthday lunch and chuck in some Christmas shoping - no sewing!

No bets are being taken that anything will go to plan for the rest of the week,my normal sewing time has been  hijacked and I am resigned to the fact that I will be lucky to switch on my machine before next Sunday.

Monday, 15 November 2010

Christmas Quilt Show

Did you know that SewCalGal   is hosting a Christmas Quilt Show ?  




As I missed the Bloggers Fall Quilt Festival , this is a good chance to join in something new -  but what to enter? Maybe the quilt on this post could pass for Christmas with  reds, greens and blues it's all warm and cosy looking just as Christmas should be, but then I settled  for this one.




Only measuring 20" x 18", it's certainly smaller than most I've seen on other blog entries (!), but it is a real 'Christmas' quilt and a little special one at that.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
                                                

 My first attempt at paper piecing, though what possessed me I'll never know as the logs are only 1/2" & 1/4" finished !  Maybe this is the reason why I've avoid PP ever since:-)  No walking foot to Quilt in the      Ditch, just the general purpose foot - well, I didn't know any better then, and what you don't know doesn't
worry you does it ?                                                                                                                                 
                                                                                     

  


Pushing 40 years old, the Starlet is still going strong, if somewhat noisey , and still keeps me company in my sewing room, although these days she just sits and watches whilst the Bernina does all the work!

Don't know what's up with Blogger tonight, but there's a right wobbly happening  to the text around the photos  - guess I've hit to the wrong button again or something and set it off  on one - Ah Well!

Saturday, 13 November 2010

Today's Plan!

Right!  Decision's made for today's quilt-a-long!

We're going to practice a bit more of this



on this



Now, this was supposed to  be a sample block  for this quilt, but after one block , no way was I ever going to achive 20 so -  Voila!  One mini!   I think my FMQ is getting better, but a bit more practice will certainly help :-)

With the torrential rain and high winds that we have at the moment, and more forecast for the rest of the weekend, I should be able to carry on the good work tomorrow and make a start on a pinwheel baby quilt out of this



  So all in all rather a full couple of days - and yes Sue, I 've given in and dug out the  Christmas CD  not only to set the mood but also to drown out DH's cries of agony as Wales take on the Springboks at rugby later today  Little bit of a clash of loyalties here for me  having lived in South Africa for 10 years, but I'm sure that  the Land of my Fathers is going have the biggest pull.

Christmas Quilt A Long

With all the excitement of the wedding, I managed to miss the  Amy's  Fall Bloggers Quilt Festival , which was a bit disappointing as I've taken part in all the other 'shows'.  Not too worry though, I am sure there'll be another one come Spring, and in the meantime I've discovered Sue's  Christmas Quilt A Long.


So - today I am going to spend as much time as possible joining in with everyone.  Not quite sure what I'll  work  on  yet  but,  dust bunnies or not, I'm having some 'me time'.  Don't know if I'm ready to put on the  Christmas CD to sing along too (bit early yet!), but I'm sure it'll be good fun in any case, so why not come along and join in!

Friday, 12 November 2010

I'm Back!!

OK - so you're probably thinking ' where's she been??'. Well a couple of days after catching my breath from our trans- France dash to Calais en route to SE England to pick up a new laptop, DSl dropped rather a (nice) bombshell during his routine telephone check-in by saying 'Oh - by the way I'm getting married in 2 weeks'.

 I can only tell you that I was speechless as he has been with the same partner for 15 years and along the way they've managed to present me with two lovely grand-daughters with no mention of  marriage at any time.

'Nothing to fuss about' says he ' Just us and the girls and a couple of witnesses' - No chance!  So nothing left to do but get the suitcases back out, book the ferry and leave for the UK for the second time in 10 days.

In the end I'm afraid DS didn't quite get his own way about a very quiet affair as it all ended up rather more than he expected (blame Mum) but it was a lovely day followed by a great visit which meant I got to spend unexpected time with my two grand-daughters -  including helping them to dress up for Halloween!

Back home and back to reality  - more mountains of washing & ironing and you'd just have to see the dust bunnies to believe the size of them :-)

It was a very special occasion,and one I would not have missed for anything, but I do hope it's going to be some while before I see one of these again!