Crafty Conundrum

New Year and lots of stitching.

2012-01-28T19:56:00.010Z

My New Year has been busy with stitching, as one of my friends handed in her notice at the beginning of the month and left on Friday. She brought her dog Cassie into school to listen to the students reading each week, her cake making skills will be much missed as well. The designs on the sampler are a mixture of Jo Verso people, bowl of carrots from the sampler girl and cupcakes from crossstitcher magazine. I designed the school logo, caravan, for sale sign, the sand castle and cassie listening to the child are my own design.

I also managed some stitching over Christmas as gifts - Britter Kitty and Britter Puppy for the christmas tree.

Now I am working on a beautiful heart cross stitch as a gift for another friend.

Today in my local supermarket I came across a new magazine called Mollie Makes it is lovely and has some delightful projects and beautiful things to read about and make.

Hopefully back soon

Jane x

Christmas 2011

2011-12-28T07:32:00.003Z

It seems only yesterday that it was the summer holidays and yet I know it wasn't. My job in September settled in to a completely new regime with longer hours and a steep learning curve. Stitching in the evenings faltered and blogging thoughts dried up (plus blogging and Mac computers aren't compatible). Finally two weeks ago I finished the last 2 of 5 samplers I have made for friends who left in the summer term. It was a big commitment and one that I hope doesn't happen again in such demand.
We have just spent Christmas with my parents in Dorset and have now returned home as Tony has to work today and tomorrow. My main Christmas present was this beautiful Rolliecord camera - it was made in 1958 and uses 120 film (medium format) which I am looking forward to using. Back soon Jane x

Summer Holidays at last

2011-07-31T10:13:00.008+01:00

The term sped by filled with planning for the new office and systems that will take over in September. Several friends were leaving too so I was busy stitching samplers, these are a labour of love and usually filled with either the persons achievments at school /their favourite things or a combination of both. I had five to make! and not enough time. I did succeed in making three in time for the leaving meal, I am working on the fourth sampler and I have planned out the fifth. The three samplers I have finished are: Enids, which shows her love of holidays in New York and Paris, she listens to Classic fm, loves reading books,her favourite actor is Johnny Depp (pirate Captain Jack Sparrow), she belongs to the wine club and has been a receptionist and Reprographics assistant at work.

The next was for Claire who loves the Moomins, she has a cat and dog and adores Elvis. Claire also loves shoes, so I designed a pair of killer red heels for her in stitch and finally included an outline of the roof of the Royal Pavilion, Brighton. The final sampler was for Matt, who was leaving teaching for a career change. I included his fellow teachers from the English Department, along with camera, video and drama for Media Studies which he taught, as well as a blue rabbit for the animation classes he taught, and a bag of tools for his career change.

This week has been very relaxed and lazy, lots of stitching and some house work but not too much :-)

Then on Friday Em and I decided to go and visit the ruins of a local Roman Villa in the village of Bignor tucked away in the south downs of Sussex. It was a peaceful spot, surrounded by a vineyard and beautiful coutryside. The mosaics have survived because they were covered by buildings erected to protect them in the early 1800's when they were first discovered. There is another Roman Villa over at Chichester which is called Fishbourne Roman Palace, Bignor is not as grand but it would have been quite a large complex. We were hoping to get out this weekend, but Tony has been plagued by his sciatic nerve all weekend. Back soon Jane

Half Term - and a Huge Sigh Of Relief

2011-05-30T09:36:00.003+01:00

We have finally made it to half term, and the threat of compulsory redundancy has been lifted because three people have volunteered to take redundancy at the end of July as they are close to retirement, but with their leaving goes the experience and wisdom of the years spent in the job so it is bitter sweet.

Recently the weekends have been spent at home or in Dorset. We visited the local village fair in Dorset and listened to the brass band playing whilst having tea and cakes, browsed the book stall and bric-a-brac. I found a new pin board for Em so I could have her old one for the Rangers at camp, (we put the timetable, rotas and other info up) . Our cousin from Paris is visiting in a couple of weeks time too, so we are on a spring clean mission!. Back soon, as its half term we have some fun planned this week but it is laced with revision as Em has Science, Maths and Geography Modular exams after half term, Oh the joys of being fifteen, - its not fair! Jane x

The Royal Wedding, Camping and Work

2011-05-15T08:07:00.008+01:00

May Day bank holiday weekend was not only the Royal Wedding, for which I was glued to the television for most of the day; it was a beautiful ceremony filled with very special moments of happiness between the Royal couple which was a joy to see.

It was also our annual joint Scout and Guide Camp at Petworth Park. The theme was the Royal Wedding. We had lots of activities, wonderful weather and great company. This is a view of the park around the lake complete with deer in the distance and geese in the foreground. A photo of our mess tent decorated with bunting. I knitted a crown teacosy for the weekend to keep my tea pot warm. I found the pattern on the website of the designer Debi Birkin. It took me approximately a week to knit up in the evenings and I added a lining by knitting another layer of purple to go inside. The cosy was very popular and raised many admiring comments over the weekend, and kept my teapot lovely and warm.

Work for the first part of this year has been an unhappy and stressful environment to be in, as we are facing cutbacks and possible redundancies. Hopefully the situation will be resolved in the next fortnight or so, but in the words of the WW2 poster we will keep calm and carry on. I hope you have a good week Jane x

Easter Holidays

2011-04-28T19:09:00.007+01:00

They sped by filled with sunny days and lazy mornings. We did visit London on Wednesday 20th to see Changing the Guards at Buckingham Palace. It was so busy that it was difficult to move in front of the palace, across the road there was a bit more space. We did struggle to see what was going on, but eventually we caught a glimpse of the Guardsmen as they left the palace Courtyard. Later in the day we ate our picnics in St James Park before going to see the Abbey (it was shut!) so we enjoyed the view and the gift shop instead. I managed to find a couple of teaspoons commemorating the wedding and a fridge magnet.

Easter Weekend we spent in dorset having fun Easter egg hunting and spending time with the family.

This week I have celebrated my birthday - with a delicious homemade Gluten and Dairy-free Chocolate and Cherry Victoria Sandwich so Em could eat it too.

Ingredients:

6 oz/175g Dairy-free spread (vitalite)

6 oz/175g Castor sugar

3 large eggs

6 oz/175g Gluten free self raising flour (Doves)

1/2 teaspoon GF baking powder.

2 oz/50g Glace Cherries

2 oz/50g GF/DF chocolate drops (use chopped chocolate buttons if not drops available)

Method:

1. Cream the fat and sugar 'til fluffy.

2. Add the egg whisk in until mixed (if the mix separates add a spoon of flour)

3. double sift the flour then add to the mix using a metal spoon to mix don't beat it, just mix in by doing two cross cuts and then stirring the bowl. keep repeating until all the flour has disappeared into the mix

4. Add the chocolate drops and cherries, mix in.

5. Pour mixture into a large lined loaf tin

6. Bake at 170 Celsius for 40 minutes.

7. Test with a skewer to ensure cooked throughout.

8. Leave to cool on rack after cooking

9. Once cool decorate with icing and enjoy.

50 Small Things for a Special Friends Birthday

2011-04-07T17:02:00.006+01:00

One of my friends is celebrating a big birthday and I decided to make her a very special gift. I googled 50th Birthday for ideas and found a suggestion for a box of small things, sadly I can't find the original site otherwise I'd have posted a link. I started with a list of 30 and added and fiddled with the possibilities and finally finished with 50 small things. I collected them over two months and packed them all in a shoe box which I wrapped in gold holographic paper. My friend Debbie loved her gift and especially the little box of hugs which reduced her to tears. Here is the list if you wish to make your own for a special birthday girl or boy. You can tailor the list to fit the recipient.

50 Small things for your birthday

1. A favourite poem – The Host of Golden Daffodils

2. Candle-To remind you to shine brightly

3. Hand cream - to care for your hands

4. Lipgloss to keep you looking glamorous

5. Love hearts - To remind you that you are loved

6. A lighter - To light your fire when you're feeling burned out

7. A safety pin- To remind you to stay sharp

8. A pack of Smarties - To help you on those days when you don't feel smart

9. A pack of Starburst - To give you a burst of energy on days when you don't have any

10. Confetti- To remind you to have fun

11. Sellotape Tape- To fix things that will not work

12. A Potholder - For when things get too hot to handle

13. A Penny - So you will never have to say, "I"m broke".

14. Birthday Badge – so everyone knows its your special day.

15. A Rubber Band - To stretch yourself beyond the limits

16. String - To tie things together when everything falls apart

17. Elastoplast - For when things get a little rough

18. Crayon - To color your day bright and cheerful

19. A Puzzle Piece - Without you things wouldn't be complete

20. A Cotton Ball - For the rough roads, seek the cushioned support of family and friends

21. Happy face- Smiling is contagious

22. Eraser - To remind you that you can start every day with a clean page

23. Paracetomol – To cure a headache.

24. Battery - To give you that extra charge to keep you going... and going….. and going.

25. Piece of Rope - When you reach the end of yours, this will keep you going a bit longer

26. Paper clip - To help keep things together when they seem to be out of control.

27. A Small Smooth Stone - To remind you that the rough times help to refine and polish

28. A Star- so you shine like the star you are.

29. A Button – because you are always as bright as a button.

30. Glitter- For a glimpse of how the world looks through a child's eyes

31. A fuse - for when you blow yours

32. A small bag of marbles - for when you lose yours

33. A heart - to remind you that love is all around you (I cross stitched one)

34. A bag to keep it altogether

35. A little box of hugs – read its label please. (see below for label)

36. IOU – a 2011 coin (IOU because the 2011 coins aren't in circulation yet!)

37. Seashells – memories of summer holidays

38. A best memory photo – Tea at South Lodge

39. A cup - to make your favourite hot drink in.

40. Tea-bags – for time to relax and rest

41. Lavender sachet for you to bring you a little bit of summer time.

42. A pretty little apron – to keep you glamorous in the kitchen (I made the apron)

43. An origami crane for peace

44. Pretty post it notes for those special messages

45. Pen for when you can’t find one around the house

46. A lucky sixpence from 1961- on a silver chain for you to wear. (purchased on ebay)

47. A bottle of bubbles because they are always fun. (champagne miniature bubbles)

48. Pretty tissues to catch your sneezes

49. Bunting for your birthday – Fairy sized! from allsorts website

50. 50^th birthday balloon to make you smile.

The tag for the box of hugs make a tiny box from card and gift wrap with ribbon etc. Attach a gift tag which reads ...

This is a very special gift, 

That you can never see, 

The reason it's so special is

 It's just for you from me.

Whenever you are lonely 

Or are ever feeling blue 

You only have to hold this gift 

And know I'm hugging you.

You never can unwrap it 

Please leave the ribbon tied 

Just hold the box close to your heart 

It's filled with hugs inside.

Illness

2011-03-31T17:09:00.003+01:00

Six weeks of illness is quite enough, a throat infection that triggers debillitating coughing attacks which leave you gasping for air are frightening and very wearing. It is one which we are all trying to shake off but we are exhausted. Roll on Easter holidays next Thursday. The garden is begining to fill with spring flowers and the warm sunshine is very welcome too. Back very soon. Jane x

Sorrento, Italy

2011-02-26T17:40:00.025Z

Five days of sunshine and blue skies spent in Sorrento. We visited Pompeii, walked miles around its ruined streets, marvelling at the wall paintings that have survived. Em made friends with one of the local dogs that roam the ruins. All the time we were aware of the brooding presence of Mount Vesuvius behind the town.

We walked around Sorrento discovering all its delightful shops, views and marveling at all the beautiful plants which at home are house plants but in Sorrento are garden plants - Bougainvillea, white Jasmine, Bird of Paradise (Strelitzia), Date Palms, Prickly Pear Cactus, Yellow Mimosa in bloom, a stunning sight against the deep blue sky, figs, oranges and lemons and other plants I have never seen before. I spotted several birds - several birds which looked similar to a Bee Eater and a Black Cap bird (but it had airforce blue colour on its wings), Sparrows and I heard many other bird calls I didn't know. We enjoyed espresso coffee at Cafe del Carmine on the Piazzo Tasso. We visited Mt Vesuvius and walked (huffed and puffed) up to the top to look in the crater and admire the views. The views were hazy despite a bitterly cold wind blowing for two days, as you can see from the photos we were cold despite being well wrapped up.

Back in Sorrento much to Em's delight we discovered the big Supermercardo on Corso Italia, which stocks Gluten Free and Dairy Free pasta, rice cakes, cakes and biscuits as well as Alpro soya milk and rice milk, so we don't need to bring the special foods with us next visit. We stayed in a lovely appartment on Via Parsano with views across towards the hills behind the town of Sorrento. It meant that we could cook a hot meal which it turned out was necessary as we didn't find any restaurants selling chips or gluten and dairy free food suitable for Em. It gave us a chance to use the local shops, Tony spoke very rusty italian which hadn't been used since 1988 but like riding a bike he remembered most of it and gained in confidence as the days rushed by. I learned a few phrases and picked up a few more along the way, Em who usually stays silent on foreign holidays also attempted Italian and by the end of the holiday professed a love of Italy and would like to live there! I wonder how much of it was due to the idea that at the age of 16 you can learn to ride a scooter - she spotted a red vesper she'd like (oh no!) I did buy her a small model of one instead ;-) but she is keen to learn Italian, so when we return she can understand and speak more. Returning to the appartment one evening we spotted a beautiful little church up on the hillside above Sorrento all lit up. Finally on Friday we bade Sorrento farewell, but we will return because we had a wonderful time and we have more to discover about this enchanting area.

My final two pictures were taken from the Taxi as we left Sorrento the colour is wrong but that is because the windows were tinted. It does show the villages stretched out along the coastline, in the distance is Sant Agnello and Sorrento. Hope you have a good week. Jane x

Home Ill

2011-02-10T07:31:00.004Z

January slipped away and February breezed in, the days are slowly lengthening too. the weather has been overcast and cold except for a beautiful day of sunshine we had on Tuesday, but I've been ill this week with a horrible bug that laid me low from last Friday - Stomach type - Yuck! So there's no pictures to post, instead I thought I'd share my Garden with you. At the moment I can see a snowdrop at the end of the garden in one of the tubs bravely standing alone (its only a small garden) and my next door neighbours Clematis balearica is also in flower trailing across the side and top of the garage. In the corner hidden from view is the Jasmine nudiflorum also showing its pretty yellow flowers. The rest of the garden is sleeping but the birdsong from the Robin and Blackbird tell me spring is on its way. I love gardening but the extra special bit is when the Robin comes down and fearlessly picks up all the bugs from the soil that you have just turned, he's close enough to touch and then he sings from the branches of the fig tree in the centre of the garden.

Here is my garden in the summer taken from the back door as you can see its quite small but I love it, I designed and built most of it myself with help from Tony and a builder who came into do the brickwork and path.

Em has gone off on a school art class trip to the British Museum to see the Egyptian exhibits and she's very excited. I hope you have a good week. Jane x

A Birthday!

2011-01-28T12:56:00.005Z

A certain little lady turned 15 this week! I think I have shared this photo with you before but it is my favourite. Em is sitting on the Rocking Horse at Pecorama, Beer, Devon, with her bear Eddy teddy and she is wearing the Kipper Jumper I knitted for her, aged four. Happy Birthday Em. xxx

New Year, New Horizons

2011-01-13T18:06:00.005Z

Its the New Year we are back at school, the budget is going to suffer huge cuts. We've been warned there's a real risk of redundancies and possibly a re-organisation. What delightful news to start the year!

So I got stuck into some knitting, a new pair of gloves in Regia red wool. Not too much knitting at a time as I don't want to upset the hand - the bruising is healing. The gloves are to replace a pair that Em bought me for Christmas but they spectacularly unravelled on our day out in London. They were only pocket-money gloves, but they went back to the shop for a refund and grumble.

I read the book Chocolate Wishes which Ali gave me for Christmas it was a lovely read - not too heavy going, I have also read the same authors book - the Twelve Days of Christmas. On the TV my favourite series at the moment is Zen although this coming Sunday is the last one! I like his style, good looks and his co-star is stunningly beautiful.

Our first week back at Rangers and we spent the time doing a couple of activities from the Girlguiding World Conference pack which is taking place later this year in June in Edinburgh, talking about rights and beliefs, then making a diversity web, which was finding out about things in common with each other with a ball of wool to pass back and forth creating a web of diversity. It was great fun with lots of laughter and giggles. Hope you have a good week. Jane x

Christmas Holidays 2010

2010-12-30T08:23:00.006Z

On Tuesday we went to London, it was a wet and gloomy day but we had a lovely time, we visited Trafalger Square and saw the ship in a bottle on the fourth plinth which I later found out is a replica of Nelsons ship The Victory which he sailed in for the battle of Trafalger. If you click on the link (ship in a bottle above) it takes you to a website with lots of photos of the ship in sunlight and if you click here you can read up more information about the artist who made the sculpture. We went to Leicester square where almost everything was boarded up and the swiss clock had gone! still it might just have gone for a service/repair as the flag stand was still there. We went to Wong Kei's for lunch and had Won tun noodle soup and Beef chow ho fun with chilli and black bean sauce, all washed down with Jasmine Tea. After lunch we walked through China town and wandered around the shops. Later we crossed Charing Cross Road and walked up to Seven Dials. we found lots of lovely shops along the way. We took a Taxi to St Pancras station and saw a Christmas Tree made of champagne bottles. Finally we caught the tube back to Victoria Station then a train home.

On Thursday we went to Brighton and browsed the shops in the North Lanes, fabric, shoes, boots, clothes, T-shirts, fancy dress, guitars, jewellery, secondhand, modern, bags, toys, home goods, stationers, CD's & records, health foods, cafes, bars, and restaurants all catering for every taste imaginable. It was amazing and I could have spent a fortune! Tomorrow is New Years Eve, I would like to wish you all a very Happy New Year 2011 from me and the rest of the family at Crafty conundrum. Jane x

December

2010-12-20T15:39:00.007Z

Another month has disappeared with alarming speed, it started with Ali's Graduation on the 30th November. Sadly I don't have photos as my camera decided to play up! Thankfully my parents took theirs so I'm hoping for a chance to copy the photos over Christmas. Travelling back from Graduation on the following morning, I arrived at Clapham Junction Station expecting to catch a train back to Sussex having come up from Dorset on the 5.18am. After a half hours wait we were told all trains had been suspended to the south coast! five hours later I caught a train. This photo is the village church in the snow. Since then I've been busy with Rangers doing their end of term show, which was brilliant. Stitching a special gift for my friend Debs and another gift for another friend which is yet to be given. Debs Loved her NOEL hanger and is so delighted with it that she facebooked it too. Finally the snow came back to Sussex not quite as deep and crisp and even as last time, but just a disruptive to the flights, Eurostar and roads. this photo is of the village pond and the poor frozen ducks.
Knitting, stitching etc has been suspended as
I have over done it recently and the osteopath has recomended a rest so my back and hand have a chance to recover, worse yet I have try to retrain my brain and left hand to use the mouse on the computer as I've bruised the bone in my right hand! Ouch! see you soon. J x

November!

2010-11-28T22:05:00.002Z

This is the best way to portray my month! Em's PG Monkey is attempting to climb the hill.

We began the month with a packed and busy calender and our feet haven't touched the ground since. Evening of climbing, Remembrance Day service, end of term show practice! which has filled up several evenings. Pennies for Pudsey/Children in Need activity evening, Tony's birthday, making paper decorations for the Rangers Tree at the first ever Christmas tree festival. district meeting, afterschool clubs, dentist, cross stich and knitting.

Coming up - tree decorating, Ali's Graduation, mum's birthday, christmas shopping etc.

The snow hasn't reached us yet and I'm praying that it waits until after Ali's graduation.

Hopefully back soon. Jane x

Happy Halloweeeeeeeeen

2010-10-31T12:45:00.014Z

S aturday afternoon we drove to Slindon which is well known locally for its displays and sale of pumpkins. It had rained all morning so when the rain stopped in the afternoon, the crowds came out and the village was very busy. There were ornamental gourds, patty pans, a mountain of the traditional orange pumpkins and the display of a traction engine, which was as eye-catching as always. If you click on the word display it takes you to a gallery of pictures from the pottery and pumpkin man. We purchased a medium orange pumpkin and then a small orange pumpkin and fridge magnet from the pottery.

On our way home I took a photo looking across the valley from Amberley, the sun was peeping through the clouds and just picking up a group of autumn colours on the opposite hill. You can see it better if you click on the picture to enlarge it.
This afternoon Em carved the pumpkin with a little help/interference from me! well I couldn't let her have all the fun - and it was the first time we had ever carved a pumpkin. Em was delighted with the finished face which we had found on the internet - it is her favourite character Jack from the movie The Nightmare before Christmas. Happy Halloween, Jane, Tony & Em

Half Term

2010-10-30T09:19:00.011+01:00

This week is half term for us, so we've been to Dorset and visited my family. We walked around the village stopping so Em could do bark rubbings and photograph natural forms for her art homework. We visited Charmouth in the quest for some fossils, but Uncle Tom Cobley and all were there and the fossils were hiding although we found some possibilities.

We've been up to London to visit the Docklands museum for the 100 Years of Guiding exhibition which was brilliant, but if you want to go you'll have to be quick because tomorrow is the last day! If you do go don't forget to ask for your free badge if you are a member of Girlguiding.

We went to the Sea Life Centre in Brighton yesterday; as its a few years since our last visit we noticed lots of changes to the displays. It was very good and we loved the trip on the glass bottomed boat, the turtles were amazing. Em was delighted to be able to collect a piece of Broccoli to throw to the turtles. Today we are hoping to visit the Pumpkin Farm at Slindon so I will post some pictures later. Jane

2010-10-12T17:16:00.008+01:00

We've been busy changing the main home computer. Our old one died two weeks ago and we have been learning our way around a Mac. It is a re-furbished G5 hopefully more reliable than the last machine. Very pretty in appearance but at times a touch frustrating whilst we re-acquaint ourselves with new ways of doing things. We've had a Mac before but it was an older model and although we still have it and it still works it has a tiny memory and can't be upgraded.

Autumn is showing in our little garden, the spiders have been busily spinning their webs across the paths and doorways. The Pyracantha or firethorn is laden with berries and the mini Asters are edging the border with beautiful mauve flowers.

Cross stitching has ceased on the Christmas sampler, but there is a little halloween stitching on the go instead.

Rangers spent last Wednesday having an American evening and inventing their own line dance to Cotton Eye Joe, which they performed for the Guides at the end of the evening and had a lot of giggles and laughter along the way. Hope you have a good week. Jane x

Too Long Gone!

2010-10-03T12:21:00.012+01:00

The last few weeks have passed in a blur of work, Rangers, family visit and a picnic with the Rangers which was great fun. My parents came up to Sussex for a long weekend as they had a special dinner/function to attend. On Sunday we went to the beach for lunch at the cafe and then walked along towards Ferring in what felt like the teeth of a gale. They had a lovely evening out with friends before returning to Dorset.

Last weekend Em and I went to a picnic which the Rangers had arranged at the local beauty spot. The weather was beautiful and sunny, we sat on our picnic blankets and lunched on mini pasties, crisps, corn chips and salsa dip and finished off with donuts and chocolate fingers washed down with pepsi or water! Then they played rounders, ran up and down the hills and burned it all off. Our Centenary duck Gertie accompanied us and was delighted that some of her friends had also come to the picnic, Ranger Bear x 2 and snowy the polar bear.

Meanwhile last wednesday we spent the evening scrapbooking, the Rangers made a scrapbook and then began to fill it with photos from our centenary year. We used the template I found on a scrapbooking site the Maze Scrapbook. The original pattern is for 12" x 12" scrapbook paper/card but being on a badget and unable to find plain 12 x 12 I adapted the measurements to 28cm x 28cm which can be cut out of A3 paper. the lines for marking were then placed at 7, 14 and 21cm the resulting scrapbooks were well recieved. The one most useful tip I would make is watch your folding lines - be very accurate.

On the crafting front I have been knitting as the cross stitch mojo has temporarily deserted me, a key hole/ Miss Marple scarf in blue which is a gift for a friend. I have also started a feather and fan scarf in some self patterning sock yarn which looks good too.

Time flies again

2010-09-13T19:29:00.006+01:00

Again time has flown and my blog has been neglected. My excuse? well the end of the summer holidays passed in a blur of illness so my break in Dorset with the family was spent mostly in bed ill - yuck!

Though we did manage a day out in Swanage which was perfect. We caught the steam train from Norden just north of the village of Corfe, and chuffed sedately down the line to Swanage. Then at a leisurely pace we explored the town stopping to visit the wool shop. We had lunch at a lovely cafe on the seafront and then a wander along the promenade, stopping to watch Punch and Judy. At the end of the day we retraced our steps to the station for another steam ride back to Norden. (big silly smile,) I love steam trains, Tony prefers diesels that fill up the canopy with clouds of thick black smoke and their engine sounds so unique.

Friday 3rd was back to school, the shock of a 6am alarm, dark mornings, Em in year 10. Oh my goodness! We have heaps of admin work, lunch breaks have become a distant dream, hopefully things will settle down soon.

Home life is a lovely contrast though, I have completed another cross stitch picure, this beautiful poppy from last years Crossstitcher magazine.

Rangers started again on Wednesday with a visit to our local museum to see the 100 years of Girlguiding exhibition with a slide show after of photos of Lord and Lady Baden-Powell. Which most of the girls seemed to enjoy.

Saturday was our Autumn Fair, sadly the weather wasn't kind and it poured on and off all day. The Rangers ran the cake stall and did quite well, there were lots of delicious cakes for sale as well as a tombola, bouncy castle, raffle, coconut shy etc. typical then that Sunday was glorious weather!

I'm just off to make a cup of tea now and do a bit of stitching, my new project is Quaker Christmas.

Its stitched in a very dark (almost black) green, gold and red.

I hope you have a lovely week, Jane x

Paris

2010-08-21T14:41:00.009+01:00

Last week we visited Paris, T's cousin had a liver transplant and is slowly recovering as things didn't quite go according to plan. We also managed a little sightseeing during the days, we went up the Tour Montparnasse and marvelled at the views of Paris. We walked around the shops close to the Notre Damme and St Michaels fountain, along the way we found the church of St Severin and marvelled at the beautiful old stained glass windows although there are some new ones as well. we tried to visit the Chateau Versailles but the queues were so long we would have been waiting for nearly 4-5 hours so we went to find St Germain-En-Laye and walked around the village. This week has been spent going out with friends to the pictures and a local

museum. I have managed to find some time for my cross stitch and I have finished my Mary Wigham which was a pattern available from Needleprint. I started last summer and worked away at a great speed loving every stitch, but then I had to stop for samplers to be made for friends leaving/christmas stitching/knitting etc I have picked it up and done little bits during the year, but I managed to finish Mary Wigham this morning. I am delighted with the finished piece, I just need to decide how I want to display it, framed, or backed and on a dowel. Here is the before in October and the finished piece today.

150th Post Celebrating Our Centenary Camp

2010-08-10T16:00:00.009+01:00

Just dropping by dear friends to say hello, we have been at Girlguiding Centenary Camp all of last week in Cudham, Kent. Our two centenary ducks came with us - Barry (yellow) belongs to the Guides and Gertie (blue) belongs to the Rangers. They feature in many of the photos wearing our unit necker, they are substituting for the girls. On the Sunday evening we had the opening ceremony and then the Take That Experience which was brilliant. We had a wonderful time during the week filled with lots of activities; On Monday we went to Downe House, former home of Charles Darwin. In the afternoon we walked to Downe Activity centre where the girls got the chance to do lots of physical activities: aerial walk way, climbing, zip wire, shooting, grass sledding and Go-Karts. On Tuesday we had bungee trampolining and rock wall climbing with faith and guiding history in the afternoon. In the evening we had a talent show for our sub-camp. On Wednesday we had a day trip to Brownsea Island which was just fantastic despite getting thoroughly soaked in a downpour. Our centenary ducks enjoyed planning their route around the island and got really excited when we got off the coach as they spotted a statue of Lord Baden-Powell and wanted to have a photo taken (so did the girls). We then got on two yellow ferries which took us across to the Island. We had challenges to complete so we spent the day finding various places on the island, e.g. The public hide, the church - were we sheltered from the rain, The memorial stone - where two of our girls made their promise as Rangers and then as a group we re-made our promise. We visited the trading post and found some lovely things to buy! We walked on down to the crabbing, and sand art on the beach. Then it was time to catch the yellow ferries, and eat fish and chips on the coach coming back. On Thursday we learnt about making knots and lashings, camping gadgets, wood fires and cooking on fires, In the afternoon after our picnic lunch we did crafting - making bracelets, mosaic tile, iris folding, an Ocarina and a photoframe. Each girl had the chance to do three crafts all predetermined by ticket. On Friday we watched a display by the Metropolitan Police Dog Team then the finals of the tent pitching and rounders. After lunch we had a fete to raise money for the Kent Air Ambulance, we had a pick a card table, every go wins a prize and did very well. Our final evening had arrived and it was time to say good bye. We had the final of Cudhams Got Talent and then the closing ceremony and finally an Abba tribute band. Saturday morning we packed everything up and went home, exhausted but happy as we had a wonderful week . We made lots of friends and swapped badges, we also left a couple of badges to go onto the giant necker for the campsite.

I'm back!

2010-07-23T16:35:00.004+01:00

Well at last the term and school year have finished, my lack of posting/blogging has been because I was making a sampler for my Head of English who is leaving us and going to have a year off. Why? just because having been a teacher since the early '80's she never had the chance of a "gap year", so she plans to take some holidays. I filled her sampler with her achievements and hobbies as well as the English Department. Jane loved it and is really looking forward to her break.
Back soon.
Jane

Pasties and Holidays

2010-06-06T09:19:00.007+01:00

Another month has flown by! Em made Ham and Cheese pasties, delicious! But the dairy free homemade pastry was a disaster so she had to make them with bought pastry that she couldn't eat. Em also made a salad which had to be high in protein and vitamins; she used lettuce, anchovies, sundried tomatoes, smoked salmon, cashew nuts, raisins and olives with a dressing of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. We had it with new potaoes for our evening meal and it was delicious (just a bit on the salty side). With the Rangers/Girl Guides we went to visit our local RSPB reserve and spent the evening pond dipping and looking at moths. With the pond dipping each team of four had to see how many species they could find. In our tray there are 16 species! This week was half term which we spent in the Cotwolds. We stayed in a National Trust property on the edge of the Lodge Park & Sherborne Estate. It was a very peaceful place to stay, we had a comfortable two bedroom lodge cottage with beautiful views across open countryside in front of the property. Blue Tits were nesting in the cottage wall, chaffinches, greenfinches and blackbirds nesting in the hedges and deer walking in the fields down to the woods. We visited The Cotswold Wildlife Park which was brilliant, Cheltenham, Upton House and Gardens (N.T.), Burford, Bourton on the Water, Stow in the Wold, Cirencester and Bibury. Bibury is very picturesque, like Stow and Bourton, with a stream full of trout and a row of beautiful stone cottages and busy with tourists during the day but peaceful and lovely in the evening which was when we visited. The lanes back to the cottage were festooned with blossom and the occasional baby rabbit dashed away into the long grass. We also saw a pair of Partridge (Mr & Mrs) crossing the lane. Back to school on Monday! I hope you have a good week. Jane x

Time flies when you are having fun!

2010-05-08T14:35:00.008+01:00

Goodness where has the time gone! Easter was yesterday.... wasn't it? I have been busy cross stitching for a swap with a fellow guider, it is to commemorate the centenary/100 years of Girlguiding and she is making a quilt of squares which 100 of us have decorated. Em has been busy in food tech creating salads this one was made using cheezley, continental lettuce, yellow pepper, cherry tomatoes, apricots and cashew nuts dressed with a mix of Balsamic vinegar and olive oil. It was delicious and disappeared very quickly.
Last weekend - 1st May was a holiday on the Monday, so the Guides, Rangers, Scouts and Explorers were taking part in a joint camp at the local National Trust House - Petworth Park.
The Saturday was lovely bright, dry and occasionally sunny with lots of activities to do. Zorbing, Kayaking, rafting, zipwire and craft activities. on the Sunday it poured with rain but there was stillplenty to do; rock climbing, abseiling, zip wire, rafting, Kayaking, drumming, glass engraving, sweet making, candle making, decorating pencil cases with fabric pens, pyrography and Radio shack. The girls had a wonderful time and went home tired and happy on the Monday.
At the moment I am recovering from a nasty throat infection which left me without a voice yesterday. :-)
Hope you have a good week Jane x

Easter Holidays and Happy Easter wishes

2010-03-31T22:03:00.005+01:00

Hoorah! the holidays have begun, so we are busy with the family but looking forward to the lazy mornings. I have been busy with Guides/Rangers and working towards a camp holiday in May. Em has been busy trying out recipes and made a Thai Curry rice with tofu. Without the tofu it was a lovely tasty dish :-) As we will be busy for the next few days I'll wish you Happy Easter and hopefully get back to blogging during the holidays. Jane

Performance

2010-03-09T16:12:00.005Z

Last Wednesday Em did her star turn at Guides in the talent show, and performed her own composition "Rocking the Souls" on her electric Guitar. It sounded great, the other girls also took their star turn and performed skipping rhythms, Dance, Poetry reading, Singing, Jokes and finally the senior guides sang "on top of Spaghetti" to the Tune of "On Top of Old Smokey" It was a brilliant evening which we all enjoyed.

On Monday this week the English department went to see the Poetry Show which was a performance for GCSE students travelling around the local theatres. It was a presentation of the poems from the AQA Anthology and Heaney & Clarke or Duffy & Armitage. The show appealed to the students and had quite a bit of humour in it, certainly it was worth every penny of the ticket price.

My present knitting project is a Ranger Doll for Em as we are hoping to start the new Unit after Easter. The pattern is Jean Greenhowe's Mascot Doll booklet - Guide which I adapt with colours to fit the doll I'm making. Jane x

Half Term

2010-02-23T20:03:00.006Z

It came and went with amazing speed and yet we didn't get as much done as we'd hoped. We visited Ali and stayed overnight. We did go up to London for a day but it rained constantly and the whole world had decided to go to The Natural History Museum! The queues were horrendous so we tried the V & A but that only really appealed to me. Later we went to China Town for a meal and then we watched a traditional Chinese dragon dance performed on the street in the pouring rain. The dancers were accompanied by a band of drummers and other muscians. It was amazing and we loved it. The crowds loved it too. Unfortunately walking round London Tony twisted/pulled muscles in his foot and was unable to do much walking for the rest of the week. So on Friday my parents came for the day to visit and we went for a walk along the harbour front at Littlehampton. The photo shows blue skies and sunshine but behind us was a sky that was almost black in colour. We managed to get back to the car before it began to rain. On Sunday it was Girl Guides Thinking Day Celebration so our local Girl Guiding area held a procession. All the girls from the youngest Rainbows through to the older Rangers, Leaders and Trefoil Guild members attended. We carried all the unit flags through the town to the church. It was an impressive site as we snaked our way up through the streets despite the rain.

Stitching and a Footplate Ride

2010-02-12T15:40:00.005Z

On Saturday I went to the Knitting and Stitching Show in Brighton with two friends and we had a lovely time. We parked at the back of Brighton and walked through what my friend described as the hippy lanes. I have been before but it was a very long time ago. We found some beautiful shops selling jewellery, fabrics, paper, beads, clothes and bags. Heaven! We crossed the main road and wandered down through the real Lanes and drooled over more jewellery and food and finally got to the Brighton Centre. The show was great and mostly had what we were looking for, my friends wanted wool and I wanted cross stitch supplies. Has anyone noticed how gradually the nations love affair with cross stitch seems to be fading? Or perhaps it was that what I was looking for just wasn't at the show. There were kits, aida and some buttons, but very few books. I am beginning to wonder if I will have to go to London in March to find the little charms and bell pull hangers I am looking for. I could buy it off the web, but its nice to go and find the things you are looking for. Later in the day we walked back to the car retracing our steps from our morning route and found some more lovely things to buy.
On Sunday I went on a steam footplate experience ride with the Mid Hampshire Railway - Watercress Line. It's ok if you think I am a bit weird, at school this week I mentioned it a couple of times and then gave up. I got very bemused looks and I have the distinct impression they thought I was bonkers! If you are interested I rode on a GWR 5224 tank engine which belongs to the Waterman Railway Heritage Trust. It was a fantastic feeling and fascinating to watch the Fireman and Driver at work. They were both very friendly. We chatted about driving the engine and the line. The gradient is 1 in 60 from Alton to Fourmarks and the steepest that an engine can manage is 1 in 45 on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. Tony is more interested in electric and diesel engines, not steam. So he and Em enjoyed the ride in the carriages behind.

Today at school was Hearts for Haiti and the students brought in £1 or £2 and in return were allowed to wear home clothes. They were given a little packet of love hearts - yum! I have saved a couple for Tony as the staff were also given a packet each. It is also the start of half-term yipee! A whole week of fun and Tony is on holiday as well. I have finally finished my purple scarf mentioned in the previous post it is lovely and long. I used two balls of 4ply but I knitted the scarf using two strands of the yarn to make it double thickness. Happy Valentines Day for Sunday. Love Jane x

Thank You!

2010-01-31T18:33:00.008Z

Em would like to say "thank you everyone for your birthday wishes, I had a lovely day at school with my friends filled with hugs and birthday wishes. My friends and I also had a cool day out in our local town, we visited our favourite shops and had lunch out to celebrate my birthday."

Em has been busy in her food tech lessons recently, she made a macaroni cheese - dairy free with gluten free pasta. This week she made a Quiche Loraine also dairy free, she used soya milk and soya cheese in the filling and pure spread in the pastry. Much to our surprise it was a tasty success with not much discernable difference to the normal Quiche.

Following on from my knitted cabled wristys, I started knitting a scarf to match. I struggled to find a pattern that looked right, so I used the cables from the wristy twisting in opposite directions for the scarf. I have used one and a quarter balls of the four ply yarn doubled up, and I'm really pleased with the result, I still need to keep knitting though as its not long enough yet. I hope you have a good week, Happy crafting Jane x

Em's Birthday

2010-01-24T12:14:00.013Z

Hello dear friends, thank you for your very much appreciated good wishes for my back. they worked a treat and I am back to normal - thank goodness! This week I was hit by a chest infection which I have mostly recovered from, it has though caught Tony (no it shouldn't be the other way around) and he is suffering much more with it than I did, temperature, wracking cough, streaming nose struggling to breathe, etc. Moving swiftly on to much nicer things it is Em's birthday this week and I cannot believe how fast the years have flown by. Em was only a few days old when this first photo was taken -she was so tiny. My next photo is of Em four years old on a rocker with her favourite bear Eddy Teddy at Pecorama, Beer, Devon during an Easter break. Em at 9 years of age dressed up as an evacuee for a history lesson on WW2 at Primary school. She loves all sorts of animals but she's always had a love/fascination of snakes so when we found a fountain with a most enormous snake in Copenhagen she was determined to have her photo taken with it. A year later we visited Malmo and she spotted some bronze cats for a photo opportunity although the real cats are even better for a cuddle. She loves sheep and has her very own flock of cuddly sheep in her room! She draws beautiful accurate detailed pictures and loves manga stories. She has been a Brownie and a Guide and had lots of fun during her meetings and camps. Happy 14th Birthday Em, love from Mum, Dad, Ali, Granny & Grandad.

A Little Bit Of Sun And A Little Bit Of Green

2010-01-17T14:57:00.010Z

This week has seen more snow which lead to more wintry photos, finally on Friday morning the thaw began. The daytime temperature climbed to a tropical 4 Celsius and everthing dripped steadily. School still had huge amounts of snow piled up from the pathways being cleared. Yesterday we had lots of rain and many of the local roads flooded. Now the snow's all gone and the garden has returned to green, even the bamboos have recovered from being bent in half. I hope the bay tree will recover as well as it is still leaning over. The fat balls I put out earlier in the week are being visited regularly by a Robin and a couple of Bluetits. This time last year we had to stop bird feeding because our garden was invaded by a huge rat (shiver) the council pest control officer said we and the neighbours had to stop feeding the birds because the food contained vitamin K which helps rats to combat any poison they eat. Finally it was run over on the main road and so for the rest of the year we haven't dared put any food out and gardening gloves have been worn for even the smallest jobs in the garden. I am hoping that this year the problem will not return and that we can enjoy the garden again. Last week whilst clearing the huge amount of snow off the car and from around it (with Tony's help) I managed to hurt my back. All week it has been painful and at times things like getting out of the chair, or picking something up that I have dropped, have reduced me to tears. But perseverance in moving have paid off and today my back feels a marked improvement. Thank goodness. On the crafting front I started knitting a pair of wristys from a pattern on Knitty.com. Sometime ago I bought three balls of Stylecraft 4ply because I liked the colour,

I intended to use it for wristys, scarf and hat but it kept splitting. I finally decided to use the yarn double as the tension swatch was close to Aran yarn. I changed pattern and chose this one, also from Knitty. The initial wristy was too long for my liking and I found that the cables came too far up the arm to be seen, this may have been because of the different tension/yarn. So I made the second wristy with a shorter row count between the last cable and the base of the thumb, this resulted in a much better finish as you can see the cables on my wrist. My next project is the scarf and I have promised to show my friend at work how to cable. I'm off to buy some tickets to a knit and stitch show coming our way soon. I hope you have a good week, happy crafting. Jane x

Snow!

2010-01-09T09:16:00.011Z

The snow arrived Tuesday night / Wednesday morning as it did right across the lower half of the British Isles, so we woke up to 8-10 inches of the white stuff. School was shut and has remained so for the rest of the week due to the inability to run buses and get along the local roads. We are, it seems, one of those rural communities which is almost cut off. We've no post, the buses aren't running throught the village, the bin collections haven't happened and of course we haven't, and won't see, a snow plough or gritter because we are not an A road or Motorway. Until yesterday morning no deliveries of milk or bread had made it into the village either. But in true british style we've been helping each other out, checking on the elderly neighbours then slithering off to the shop to find out what supplies there are available. We haven't been able to get out of our driveway or road as you can see from the photos. The only people who have suceeded are two neighbours with 4x4's. Meanwhile school have kept Em busy with so much work on the VLE that she hasn't had chance to build a snowman or play in the snow! Then yesterday afternoon, she had to build a sculpture in the snow for art, she had to research Andrew Goldsworthy and then sculpt something using his work as inspiration. She decided to mimic his stone balancing in snow, now she has to photograph it as it melts! Thats not happening much at the moment, although there are some spectacular icicles appearing on our guttering. We have enjoyed our time at home altogether, but the novelty has worn off now. Tony says "It is so frustating that we are stuck at home unable to get to work or anywhere else". The enforced time at home has meant that I have been supporting Em with her school work and trying to get a little crafting fitted in around it all. So far I have managed to finish my socks - Yipee! I hope we might get out to the village centre this morning on foot. See you all soon. Jane x

Happy New Year!

2010-01-03T16:23:00.009Z

The Christmas tree and decorations have gone away into the loft, the house looks bare and lacks light and sparkle. We are back to school and work tomorrow the holidays are over. We did visit London last week on Tuesday with Ali and had lunch in the World Food Cafe, Neals Yard. The food was vegetarian with dairyfree options for Em which she loved and enjoyed, we all found something on the menu we liked too. We wandered around the shops in the Seven Dials area. Ali spotted a shop selling some fantastic cupcakes, so we bought a pack of 5 - They tasted as good as they looked and were on a special offer. In the afternoon we walked along Regent Street. It felt as though the whole world was out with us as well. The pavements were packed and it was impossible to stop! Quite scary really. Ali was delighted when we came across the Marmite shop which was due to close on New Years Day then it will apear somewhere else around the country. We bought the girls marmite t-shirts at greatly reduced prices. We admired the lights along the streets and window displays in the stores, and fought our way into Hamleys so I could look at all the beautiful bears before heading home. Ali goes back to Uni soon and is in the midst of writing her thesis. Happy New Year! back soon. Jane x

Christmas and New Year

2009-12-29T20:43:00.003Z

Christmas was lovely and we spent it with my parents. (Tony's are sadly no longer with us) During our summer holidays in near Kingswear we visited Kingswear Bears which has the most wonderful selection of bruins and friends. We bought a Meerkat for Ali, she asked my Mum to make a costume for him as she wanted him to be Alexandr Orlov from the comparethemeerkat.com website. (for those of you who don't live in the UK, Alexandr is head of Compare the Meerkat.com and has his own TV commercials complaining about all the people who visit his website searching for car insurance and his catchphrase is "simples" He is brilliant and to date has had five different commercials which you can watch on his website. Now he is releasing a 60 second epic film about his ancestors, it is due to be screened on Sunday night ITV 9.20pm. For Christmas we bought another Meerkat and asked my mum to dress him as Sergei, Alexandr's IT sidekick. She did a brilliant job and Ali never suspected a thing! Ali was delighted and amazed with Sergei, and here they are together. I hope your Christmas was a good one, and that you have a Happy New Year filled with happiness and good fortune. Jane x

Merry Christmas To Everyone

2009-12-24T06:15:00.003Z

Wishing you a Happy and Peaceful Christmas from all of the family here at craftyconundrum.
Thank you for all your wonderful comments throughout the year.
Jane,

The Snow Came But Now Its Melting

2009-12-21T17:55:00.006Z

The snow came on Friday, school was shut so we built a snowman and had a snowball fight. The snow hung around all weekend gradually disappearing here and there and turning the road and pavements into ice rinks! This afternoon as the temperature climbed to a giddy 3 degrees it rained/sleeted/snowed and the thawing surfaces are now so much more treacherous as they have turned back to sheets of ice again. Tony's journey home from work has proved difficult this evening, as it is snowing over the North Downs and several routes south are closed. He has rung to reassure me he is ok, just stuck in traffic nose to tail heading for the M23 in the hope it is still open. Jane x Added at 7.30pm Tony arrived home safely after a very long journey, normally his journey home takes one and half hours tonight it took four hours! The M25 and many motorways off it are blocked by the snow and at one of the services (Clackett Lane) cars are snowed in! Tony managed to get on to the M23 and home, but drivers heading toward London, Kent etc are all stuck in traffic/snow.

Christmas Preparations

2009-12-16T07:27:00.005Z

Emily has been busy christmas baking in her food tech lessons at school. Last week she made a chocolate log and decorated it beautifully. This week she made biscuits which are delicious. We've decorated the tree and now the house looks very festive. Last night the English Department had their Christmas Meal and at the same time said farewell to Jo who is leaving us to spend time with her baby girl. The sampler I was stitching was for Jo and she was delighted with it. We also gave her vouchers for a pampering session which she loved, as well as an enormous bunch of flowers. It was a lovely evening but tinged with sadness at Jo's leaving. We finish school on Friday for Christmas which will be lovely as we will then have time for all those little things which still need doing. Jane x

Nothing to post about!

2009-11-29T19:03:00.004Z

Well I'm not sure thats true, but I haven't progressed much on the sock knitting nor have I done any stitching apart from hemming Em's school trousers. At school we took the A level students to GunWharf Quays Portsmouth, we were fortunate with the weather - it didn't rain. The views from the top of the Spinnaker Tower were very good. The students had questionnaires to fill in and all sorts of data to collect. We, the staff were playing host to a lovely teacher visiting on a teacher exchange from Africa. Sadly she is going home at the end of this coming week. Happy crafting and I hope you don't get too wet this week. Jane x

Hoorah! I've Finished The Sampler

2009-11-15T19:40:00.008Z

Its been another bad week healthwise, Em has been ill again! She made a good recovery from the tummy bug for last weekend, but then Monday morning had it all over again. She was off all week again, the GP suggested that we keep her off all gluten as well as the usual dairy products once she started eating. Finally she is well again so I hope she will be back at school tomorrow. Three weeks illness has been a real trial for Em but she has carried on working at home on Maths, English and IT set by her teachers. My crafting has been mostly cross stitch as I have finally finished her leaving sampler, I just need to hem and mount it, I think an over sized pencil might look good top and bottom. For the next two Wednesdays I am running a craft evening at Em's Girl Guides group, whilst half the group is learning to shoot then they swap over. Em is going to start off the evening showing the girls how to make pipe cleaner flower pencil toppers, then I will show them how to make the little Christmas Tree topper. They will also have a chance to make an angel and a handprint poem. I hasten to add that these ideas were borrowed from across the web and adapted to our needs for the crafting evenings. I wanted to find a pattern for an angel made from paper doileys - instead of which I came across an angel on a website which uses paper doileys for wings. Now doileys have all but disappeared in good old England, so I played with the pattern and borrowed wings from another angel and changed her halo to a pipe cleaner version. Hey presto she looks like an angel. I thought the Handprint poem would be perfect for the girls to make, usually these are made at toddler groups and pre-school with hand paints. So I decided it would be fun for them to cut out their handprint and put a toddler sized print on top with their name age and the year. I also adapted the wording to reflect the fact they are older now. I apologise for my photo being on its side I have tried to upload the photo three times, it was saved in landscape format but blogger keeps loading in portrait! You can still see the poem. The Handprint poem and angel I found at DLTK's website. The flower pencil toppers Em found in a book. but she designed the flowers and made her own templates. I hope you have a good week. Happy crafting. Jane x

Progress on Knitting and Stitching

2009-11-08T16:43:00.008Z

Thank you dear friends for your kind wishes for Em, she did come down with a chest infection over half term, she recovered in time to go back to school. Then Wednesday I got a phone call to say she was in sick bay feeling sick, dizzy and faint. So she has been off school again for the rest of the week with a horrible tummy bug. She recovered in time to help with the Guides Jumble Sale on Saturday - They were raising money for Sight Savers which is The Lions and The Rotary clubs in partnership with Moorfields Eye Hospital working to save the sight of children in Ghana, Africa. They did very well but we don't know how much was raised yet. Today was Rememberance Sunday with Church Parade, so the Scouts, Cubs, Guides and Brownies all attended the service and wreath laying in the village. During half term I knitted a Robin Hood figure, which a friend at work had requested from the Jean Greenhowe Book of Favourite Toys. I then made a little ghostie for Em to cheer her up as she was feeling so ill. Tony managed to find me the October issue of Simply Knitting magazine when he went up to visit Ali, so I could knit a Pudsey Bear. He is the mascot for the BBC's Children In Need Appeal, which is held every November to raise millions for childrens projects both at home and overseas. Finally I have been busy with my cross stitch, I have done more work on the sampler for my friend who is leaving school in early December. I hope you have a good week, and thank you for leaving me so many lovely comments. Jane x

Knitting and Stitching

2009-10-28T09:33:00.006Z

Progress on Mary Wigham has stopped since my previous photo because I have several other projects on the go. I returned to a pair of socks I started last year but because of the pattern I hadn't got very far with them. I frogged the sock, changed the pattern and voila! one sock down and the other on the needles.

Another friend at school is leaving, she came back from maternity leave and decided that she couldn't continue teaching and leaving her little girl at creche. So at the moment she is counting the days to the end of the Christmas term which is when she is finishing. I have started a sampler for her with all the things she has been involved in at school, in the six years she has been with us she has been very busy. On Friday we had another coffee morning, this time for Breast Cancer Care we raised approx £159 At the moment it is half term and we are enjoying the sleep-ins and lazy days although Em seems to be fighting a chest infection at the moment. I hope you have a lovely week whatever you are doing. Jane x

Baby Care

2009-10-20T16:24:00.005+01:00

Last week Em's year had to take care of a baby for a whole week as part of their development lessons. They were each given a hardboiled egg which they had to name and look after. Here is Em with Eadbert, many of her friends chose names for their eggs; e.g. Sheldon, Shelly, Spencer, Eggy, Phoebe and Shelly McEgg. Em decorated an egg box for Eadbert to live in with bed, tv, reading book, chair and table as well as a string of pasta shapes as a baby mobile. Finally I made a tiny pink teddybear for Eadbert. (Em was hoping for a girl) Em was going to make a power point presentation of her, her friends and their eggs but sadly by Monday most of the eggs stayed at home with their parents or went to school with siblings so she never got the photos she wanted. Instead Em took a photo of her rubber egg Eggbert visiting Eadbert for my blog. Em did really well and managed to get to the end of the week without any breakages. Jane

Bytes and Bites

2009-10-07T07:20:00.005+01:00

Our coffee morning raised £142 which was brilliant for Macmillan and everyone enjoyed the cakes. This week has been a difficult one as a virus has paralysed the school computers for two days, slowly things are returning to normal but at the moment the virus is still causing problems in the background. Emily has made a delicious ginger cake in Food Tech lessons this week, unfortunately some mixture dripped on to her cake from one on the shelf above. It made a funny mark across the top but the cake is delicious - dark, sticky and gingery but not too fierce and its all gone! Em did her usual trick of using vitalite instead of butter and lacto-free milk, so it was safe for her to eat.

Cross stitching Mary Wigham this week has been slow but I have made some progress. I may have to stop shortly as I need to start work on another sampler for a friend who is leaving school at the beginning of November. I hope you have a good week. Jane

Baking and Macmillan Coffee Morning

2009-09-25T12:28:00.009+01:00

The staff at our school had a coffee morning for Macmillan - world's biggest coffee morning. Many of us made cakes and the money pot was looking good at the end of break (total collected to follow) This was the cake I made and half of it disappeared - hopefully the rest will go at lunch break. Earlier in the week Em made a victoria sponge cake in food tech lesson. (cookery to you and me) She changed the butter to vitalite - dairy free and added 1 teaspoon of baking powder to the self raising flour, which helped the mix to rise as the vitalite tends to be wetter than normal butter. Her cake was such a success she got top marks and it was delicious. Finally my stitching progress on Mary Wigham; It has been very easy to work with in the evenings, I love working in all the different colours. Ali is back at Uni now, so tomorrow we are planning to go and visit. This photo was taken in the summer hols in Dorset. I hope you have a good weekend/week. Jane x

Mary Wigham Stitching Progress.

2009-09-15T19:20:00.004+01:00

This is a lovely sampler to stitch, I love the colours. I have changed one or two medallion colours from cream because it didn't show up on the off white background, but I have stayed with the colours already in the sampler. Some of the MW's Samplers have been completed and they are beautiful as you can see on the Needleprint blog. The return to school has been busy, planning trips , getting data. etc. Em was delighted to be back with her friends, and the promise of a new academic year filled with many of her favourite lessons. Al has returned to Uni for her final year of English Lit, she's in a new house with old friends and she was glad to be back too. I have been looking around the web and found some lovely blogs devoted to both cross stitch and Quaker samplers. The Sampler Girl's Blog and her shop Quaker Inspired Blog The world's Greatest Collection of Smalls Too and the original blog The World's Greatest Collection of Smalls I also found a Cross stitch website which sells kits and charts and I fell in love with a chart called A Quaker Christmas 2007 and a chart called Spook-A-Boo So I've plenty of stitching to keep me busy. I hope you have a good week. Jane x

Holidays and Stitching

2009-09-01T14:06:00.013+01:00

We've had a lovely break, We stayed in a cottage on the National Trust Estate of Coleton Fishacre - Kingswear, Devon. It was lovely as there was a bottle of milk, tea bags/coffee and biscuits for you to have a drink on arrival, it was so quiet too. Greenway was close by in Dartmouth which was the holiday home of Agatha Christie, it is now owned by the National Trust. You have to pre-book parking if going by car but it was a fascinating house to visit. We crossed the river Dart by the historic ferry and wandered the streets of Dartmouth. We lunched in the station restaurant and on our walk along the sea front stopped to watch the children crab fishing. Babbacombe model village was a very interesting place to visit, they have even created the 2012 London Olympics construction site amongst all the other dioramas. On our final day we visited Brixham and stopped for lunch at Tiffany's. Al is an Audrey Hepburn fan so was delighted to have "Breakfast at Tiffanys"

My Holiday Stitching

I have stitched a gift for a friend who is leaving work to study to become a Vicar in the Church of England. I chose the prayer by Saint Francis of Assisi - Make Me A Channel Of Your Peace as the verse with other motifs of family and trains. I also stitched the two sides of a stork scissor Biscornu from a pattern by xstitch happy I haven't found time yet to sew it together. Then I moved on to a biscornu pattern I had saved from The world of Cross Stitching Magazine, that is also awaiting stitching up. Finally I designed a biscornu as a gift for one of Em's Guiders as she got married in July and Em together with five other guides formed a Guard of Honour with arches of ivy as the Bride and Groom came out of church. I used Jo Verso's hearts for the centre but the rest of the designs were mine. (I have blanked out the surnames to protect their privacy) The reverse will have the girls names and the ivy clad arches that they held. Finally I have started to stitch Mary Wigham Quaker Sampler from Ackworth School, Yorkshire. The pattern and SAL can be found on the Needleprint Blog.

Holidays in Dorset

2009-08-06T06:33:00.012+01:00

We went to Dorset and had a lovely time despite the rain. We went to the cinema to see Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince, which we all thoroughly enjoyed. We visited Tyneham Village which is on the East Lulworth Firing Ranges, because of the summer holidays the ranges were open to the public. Tyneham was taken over by the Ministry Of Defence and the Army during WW2 and it has remained so since, despite the villagers being told they would be able to return after the War. It is a very melancholy experience as the houses are all ruined but there is a schoolroom and the church still intact, both of which have exhibitions. Later the same afternoon we visited Lulworth Cove, which is a very popular spot along the Dorset Coast. We visited Great Chalfield Manor which was used for filming Wives and Daughters and Lacock Abbey, which was used for filming scenes for the first two Harry Potter films. They are both National Trust properties . Finally we spent an afternoon in Lyme Regis which is a lovely place to visit, sadly the sun was not going to co-operate so we decided the sea might be a bit chilly for paddling. Al couldn't resist trying it out - brave girl! As you can see from her expression it was freeeeeeeeeeeeeeezing. On our final day it was raining so hard we went to the pictures to see Ice Age 3 - Brilliant. On the crafting front I have been making another sampler this time for a friend of Tony's who is leaving work to study to be a vicar in the Church Of England, I will post some pictures when its finished. Shortly we are off to Dartmouth for a family holiday, I hope your holidays are fun filled. Jane x

Almost There

2009-07-21T17:20:00.005+01:00

I've finished the samplers x 3. Em has been part of a Girl Guide Guard of Honour at one of her Guiders wedding. School finishes tomorrow and today she's at Chessington World of Adventures having a great time with her friends and classmates. Text messages from her included: 'I've been on the Vampire ride and the Rattlesnake!!!!!!!!' As for me, I'm reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince as I want to go and see the film. Looking forward to holidays filled with stitching, knitting and reading. Time to be spent with my parents and a family holiday in Dartmouth - whoopee! Oh and a dusting of blogging thrown in too. Last weekend we went to Amberley Museum for the Steam Railway Gala. There were several visiting engines, Armstice and No 11. The resident engines were also steamed up, Polar Bear and Peter. Peter had been restored by the rail enthusiasts at the Museum and it was Peter's first day out. Some of the non-steam engines were also running. I hope you have a good start to your holiday - all we need now is some sunshine! :-) Happy Weekend. Jane x

A Sponsored Walk & The Coconut Shy

2009-06-28T11:26:00.006+01:00

There hasn't been much to write about recently, (household chores and washing our cars doesn't count!) but this end of the week has been busy. On Friday approx 950 students and 90 staff from our school did a sponsored walk of 8 miles! There were only a few injuries and they were mostly blisters and twisted ankels. Thankfully the day was mostly dry and cool although the sun did come out after lunch, by which time over half of the walkers had returned to school and were relaxing in the shade. We don't yet know how much we've raised, but all the money is going to be used to buy materials for new classrooms in our group of partner schools in Kenya. Many of the schools we are supporting have only mud huts and they leak during the rains. They don't have desks, books, pens, pencils, rulers etc. Things we take for granted like toilets are holes or trenches in the ground. So the money raised will make a big difference to these children and their teachers in Kenya, by providing them with permenant classrooms and proper toilets.

Saturday we spent running the Coconut Shy with the Guides at the Village Fete. It was a hot sunny day with big crowds out enjoying the fete, the Guides worked hard and raised lots of money, approx £80 which they are donating to the Moorfields Lions Eye Centre in Ghana. Moorfields uses the money to save childrens eyesight in Ghana. Today is a rest day for our sore feet, but I've plenty of stitching to do as three of our teachers from the English department are moving on to pastures new at the end of July. I will post pictures of the finished stitching later in July. Mum's batch of Elderflower cordial was (and still is) delicious, I froze some of the cordial in ice-cube bags for later in the year. I hope you have a lovely weekend. Jane x

Crafting and Recipe From Dorset

2009-06-11T17:04:00.006+01:00

Last weekend we were down in Dorset visiting my parents. My Mum had been given some elderflowers by her neighbours as she wanted to make Elderflower cordial. They were cutting back their elderflower bush. So we made two batches to share, We couldn't carry our batch home so we left it with Mum to finish. We are looking forward to collecting next time we visit. The recipe if you would like to make some cordial too, is very easy:

30-40 Elderflower heads (fully out but not going over)

2lbs Granulated Sugar

2 Oranges

1 Lemon

2 0z Citric Acid (available from the chemist/pharmacy)

4 pints boiling water

Method:

Cut the flowers from the stalks with scissors

Put into a large bowl with the boiling water, citric acid & sugar

Stir and leave to cool slightly

Add the grated peel of the lemons and oranges and the juice too, stir again

Leave for 48 hours stiring occasionally

Strain the mixture through a very fine sieve or colander with muslin

Pour into bottles, plastic is best if you are freezing any of the cordial.

Finally pour a small amount into a glass and dilute to taste, relax and enjoy.

I have been busy knitting and cross stitching again. In the absence of a model, the chair was a good substitute for showing the length of the shawl/wrap. My progress on the poppy picture has worked up the left side, but I have run out of one of the main colours of thread, so work has stopped temporarily. Happy crafting Jane x

Where Did My Holiday Go?

2009-06-02T16:48:00.008+01:00

Where did my holiday go? It has gone much too quickly. We spent the first weekend around the house. My parents came to visit and Ali returned from Uni. My dad helped Tony change the handrail on the stairs. It was a low profile rail which was useless if you lost your footing as you couldn't get a grip to stop yourself from falling. The new rail is wonderful by comparison, it is properly mounted on brackets and sealed with varnish. Thanks Dad for your help.

During the rest of the week we went to the pictures/cinema to see; Angels and Demons with Tom Hanks as Professor Robert Langdon - It was a brilliant interpretation of the Dan Brown novel of the same name and we all enjoyed it very much, even me who is inclined to close my eyes if it gets scary! We also saw Night At The Museum 2 Battle Of The Smithsonian. We enjoyed it so much we keep quoting bits from the film, then we bought the original Night at the Museum on DVD which was also very good. We also visited Clandon Park N.T. which was brilliant. Clandon has a hidden Dutch sunken garden, the village church, the house itself and a Maori house - Hinemihi o te Ao Tawhito, which is the only one of its kind in England. I remember standing inside the Maori house when I was a child so it was like seeing an old friend. Best of all for Em the restaurant actually had food she could eat and even offered Gluten free/Dairy free cakes, which made all the difference to our day out.

On Friday we went to Brighton to see the Royal Pavilion which is the former holiday home of The Prince Regent, later King George IV. Opulent, swathed in gold and dripping with Chinese dragons and serpents it is an amazing show piece home. To stand in the main dinning salon and imagine yourself at one of the lavish dinner parties is quite easy. The gardens are beautiful and have been restored with many of the same type of plants from the period when the Pavilion was newly built in the 19th century. I was surprised how many plants I recognised that are still available today.

On Sunday we visited Uppark House N.T which suffered a major fire in 1989. With the insurance money and funding from English Heritage the downstairs rooms were restored to the same condition they were "the day before the fire." As a result it looks an odd mismatch of rescued and conserved pieces along with some new replacement and gives the place a shabby, tired look. There are virtually no gardens either as it was landscaped by Henry Repton to fit in with the dramatic views of the South Downs. Back to work has been busy and with the glorious weather at the moment it has been difficult to be indoors. I hope you have a happy week. Jane x

Chelsea Flower Show

2009-05-17T19:14:00.005+01:00

I'm tempted to start off by saying I can't believe it is Chelsea Flower Show time again, but of course another year has flown by. Tony's a very long suffering husband as I like to tune in each evening to enjoy the delights of the gardens with Alan and the team. When I was at college I went to the show each year and it was amazing, very busy even though it was members day. Now I enjoy watching the show on TV, but I do miss the experience of being there. I love looking for ideas for our little garden which has evolved over the years. We moved in 2000 and inherited a garden paved from wall to wall with crazy paving. I attacked the edges and softened it with plants, but we weren't really happy with it. So in 2003 I designed the garden and we employed a local landscaper to do the hard landscaping. I then laid the lawn and planted up the flowerbeds. Finally six years later the garden looks lovely.

We have learnt lessons along the way about what will and won't grow in our little garden. It has sandy soil which is lovely to work with, but you must remember to pour in lots of mulch/ peat free compost. My parents garden always had thick London clay that was too wet for working in the winter and too dry and hard in the summer. Our garden catches the early morning sun, but by lunchtime/early afternoon in the summer the sun has disappeared behind the house on the right so it is quite shady. During the winter, sun hardly touches the garden at all. So it is more like a woodland garden without the trees. Happy gardening Jane x

Crafty Mojo Has Returned

2009-05-10T17:12:00.009+01:00

I'm so pleased that my crafting mojo has come back, as I was beginning to wonder when I would feeling like picking up the needles again. This time though it is the cross stitch needle that appealed so I returned to an old friend - my poppy picture. It is a beautiful pattern from Cross stitcher Magazine issue 204. Yesterday Em and I went to Horsham and discovered that the English festival was on in the Carfax (square) there was a food fair and morris dancing. Lots of local groups from Sussex and 1 group from Surrey came to dance, some were all male groups others were all female and there were a group of scottish dancers, they were all very good. I didn't have my camera with me so these shots are taken with my mobile phone, 3.2mp. Tony has gone to Dubai on a business trip, and I'm missing him very much. He will be back at the end of the week. I hope you have a good week. Jane x

My Birthday

2009-04-29T21:45:00.005+01:00

Last Sunday was my birthday, we went out to Amberley Working Museum, they had an industrial trains weekend. All the little quarry engines came out to play, some were the engines that used to work in the chalkpit carrying lime to the de Witt Kilns. Most of the engines were diesel, one was electric with a huge box full of batteries and there was one steam engine. The Museum has been busy with improvement and repairs and now that funding has been granted for the restoration of the De Witt Kilns further work is underway. Still not much knitting being done, more reading Last night I even picked up my cross stitch! I hope you have a lovely weekend, Monday is May Day Bank Holiday in the UK. Jane x

Books

2009-04-25T19:34:00.005+01:00

During the Easter Holidays I spent my spare time reading as well as knitting. I have enjoyed three Elizabeth Chadwick novels, I couldn't find The Conquest for this photo. I have also been reading more of the No1 Ladies Detective Agency stories. My wrap has grown to nearly its full size and I have decided, when its finished, to crochet on at both ends a very pretty edging which I found in a book my parents gave me. It is by Nicky Epstein. It is full of the most wonderful edgings for all sorts of projects. Looking at my photo the wrap looks grey but it is infact a deep purple plyed with a creamy white. I hope you have a lovely week. Jane X

"Dorset is beautiful where ever you go" Part 2

2009-04-15T21:26:00.014+01:00

Our trips out this week have included, Athelhampton house and Gardens which are beautiful and have many echos of Montacute and Barrington Court, but Athelhampton is privately owned. Lulworth Castle which was fantastic, it was destroyed in 1929 by fire. It was then rescued and roofed and stabilised, so you can see three floors from the ground floor. One of the towers has a steel stair case to the battlements which give 360 views of the castle lands. Later the same day we visited Lulworth Cove, we even tackled part of the coastal path to Durdle Door. The views were stunning.

We also visited Barrington Court for an Easter Egg Hunt then on Easter Saturday we went to Corfe Castle and later the same day we boarded the steam train to Swannage which was brilliant. I love steam trains despite being born after Dr Beeching wielded his axe on the railway. We visited a wonderful chocolate shop which hand makes all sorts of chocolate including the dairy-free variety. So Em did very well this Easter despite her dairy allergy. I bought the dairy-free bunnies as substitues for the Cadbury's egg she won on the Easter Egg hunt. Easter Sunday we went to Lytes Cary Manor and Easter Monday we visited Coldharbour Mill, Uffculme. The mill has some beautiful wool. Today we came home to Sussex with Ali. I hope you have a lovely week Jane x

"Dorset is beautiful where ever you go"

2009-04-07T21:12:00.009+01:00

The title of this post is a line from a song sung by the Yetties and pefectly sums up the County of Dorset. Sunday afternoon we visited Tintinhull Gardens N.T. The gardens were beautiful, the tulips and magnolias were in bloom. Em took her sketch book with her to practise single line drawing of organic shapes. They will be doing more in art lessons at school after Easter. The pond in the photo was full of fish and lots of tiny tadpoles hiding in the clumps of iris. On Monday we went to Bath, to the Jane Austen Museum. It has a display of costumes of the period and tells the life story of Jane Austen, which was fascinating. We walked around the Royal Crescent and down the shopping streets. Tuesday - we visited Athelhampton House, it is a beautiful house and gardens, which we enjoyed discovering. I hope you have a good week. Jane

Dorset Here We Come!

2009-04-04T20:03:00.004+01:00

We're off to Dorset, we've packed everything including the kitchen sink! I hope to post during the week but that depends on the time available and broadband connection. We've plans to visit Bath and lots of our favourite National Trust houses. I've packed some knitting and crosstitching and a couple of books to read. I hope you have a good week too. Jane x

Recovery

2009-03-29T15:46:00.007+01:00

This week the theme has been extreme tiredness from the cold/flu bug, I have been at work but exhausted by 8pm and asleep in the chair. Spring is really waking up the flowers in our garden and the pots outside our back door are beautiful, even on gloomy days like today its as if we've trapped a few sunbeams. The cowslips are forming a beautiful clump just behind the terracotta birdbath. The Polyanthus and Daffodils together with a little purple Wood Anemone brighten up the base of the wall. Further along the border the ruby coloured Helleborus are almost finished flowering but the pink Bergenia (Elephants Ears) are just beginning to flower. Our garden is small, only 15 foot long x 20 foot wide, but I try to have something in flower or colour foliage all year round. The last photo for today is of the camellia at the end of the garden against the garage wall. I planted it as a small cutting approximately 9 years ago, It is now just about 5ft tall and looks beautiful. The photo doesn't do the colour justice, but then I was playing with my old camera! Tony took one earlier in the week with his camera and the colours are much better. I have finished my shawl and it looks lovely. I think I need to crochet or knit an edging so I'm on the hunt so a suitable pattern, any ideas please? I have started a wrap in a beautiful mauve yarn which I bought from a table sale, 50p for a 300g cone. I decided it would be perfect for a lacey shawl I wanted to knit, but oh dear, the yarn is slightly fuzzy so if I made a mistake it was very difficult to undo as it knotted its self up! I decided to knit it up in stocking stitch and then crochet a fancy border. Hopefully it will be lovely for a summers evening to keep off the chill. I have also just cut out the pattern for a shirt in a mauve liberty print cotton lawn, so I shall be doing some sewing this week. I hope you have a happy week, we are on the downhill ride to the Easter holidays so three days of school, a parent consultation day then an INSET day - yipee! holidays. Jane x

Mothers Day

2009-03-24T19:31:00.006Z

We spent Mothers day at Nymans National Trust House and Garden. It was a beautifully warm sunny day but I was not feeling very well from my cold, so I'm dressed as though its six foot of snow. The gardens were full of plants in flower: Daffodils, Camellia, Magnolia, Fritillery and Rhododendrons. We wandered at our leisure admiring the views and then chose a bench in the sun to picnic on. It was a lovely day, just what a Mummy needed - sunshine and flowers. I hope your weekend was good too. Jane x

Glass Bowl, a Rainbow Shawl and a Rotten Cold

2009-03-19T16:56:00.006Z

Last weekend on our visit to Dorset I bought a lovely little green glass dish, its quite an unusual shape. Does anyone know what it was originally used for please? on Monday Evening I started a cold - not that unusual, except Tuesday morning I felt so rotten I couldn't get out of bed. I had all the usual symptoms of temperature, sore throat, streaming cold, aches and pains but I also felt as though my legs wouldn't hold me up and I lost my appetite. I spent some time knitting which has speeded up progress on my shawl wonderfully. I am up to row 87. I have also slept quite a bit, and yesterday I made a Bounding Bunnypin which Jenny had designed. Sadly I managed to mess up one ear but Em thought he was cute, so instead of throwing him away I stitched a safety pin to the back and she pinned him to her Ikea heart cushion . Hopefully I have turned the corner now and life will resume its normal pace soon. Happy Weekend and Happy Mothers Day for Sunday to all Mums around the British Isles. Jane x

Birthday celebration, Ofstead and Knitting

2009-03-12T15:47:00.005Z

On Saturday we went to visit Ali for a Birthday celebration, we had a delicious meal out. Now I can show you a photo of the teddybear jumper I knitted for Ali's bear, Timber. I knitted it on dpns and I followed a pattern which I found here. There is also a blog which I thought looked interesting, and I like the monkey blanket. It is very cute and also it might appeal to Monkey Maker. Yesterday the school had its Ofstead inspection and at the moment we are awaiting the final report for the grading but it is a good result. Needless to say the staff are all very happy and relieved. Knitting hasn't been so good. When I started the shawl I made a very silly mistake. So, having done 120 rows I had to take it all out and start again. It took me 2 hours to rip out nearly two weeks knitting work - groan and it looked so lovely too :-( I have started the shawl again and managed 18 rows thus far, at the moment my rows are 360 stitches long and seem to take for ever.
I hope you have a good weekend. Jane x

Sewing and Bushfire Appeal.

2009-03-02T19:18:00.006Z

This weeks return to school has been a busy one and our three years is up, so an Ofstead Inspection is due to take place in the next 12 months. At home this week there was a lot of excitment for Emily as she started her Electric Guitar lessons on Thursday. She loved her teacher and enjoyed the lesson, which was a relief. On the crafting front I have been making pincushions and needlecases; both sets are going out to Australia. I sent one set in a zippered pouch with the books to Jarryd, the other is going to the quilter who lost everything along with a couple of fat quarters. I have continued to knit more of my shawl and it is slowly growing, the rows are so long it takes me nearly ten minutes per row! I had to frog my sock as it was too big, so once I need a rest from ten minute rows I'll start again with a smaller size sock. On Friday at work, we had a coffee morning to raise money for the Australian Red Cross Bushfire Appeal. We raised £60. 86 which is approximately $135.00 which was wonderful and several people bought / made cakes too. I made the one in the middle with the white icing and Thank You written in blue, lots more delicious cakes arrived after I had taken the photo which I'm sure helped us raise so much money. I'm off to knit some more of my shawl now, I hope you have a good week. Jane. Oh and this pretty and clever young lady is celebrating her birthday tomorrow. Happy Birthday Ali from Mum, Dad and Em x

Half Term Flew By ......

2009-02-22T18:46:00.007Z

Monday came and went in the midst of changing Alice's and Em's rooms over, so Em could have a bit more space. She still has to put up with my sewing corner as that didn't change over. Tuesday was mostly more of the same except I had to go to the dentist for a filling - now I've said this before, but I am the biggest baby when going to the dentist. Its not justified though as my dentist is a gentleman and very understanding. When I got home Em had made me lunch and a very cute pipe cleaner flower called "Guenoladooless" It made my day. Wednesday we went shopping and had lunch out at Starbucks, Why Starbucks? because they are the only cafe that actually keeps labelled dairy-free food. Other cafes are not sure/don't label/or look at you as though you are speaking a foreign language when you ask if its dairy-free. Thursday we went up to London and visited Madame Tussauds which was brilliant. Em was delighted she could have her photo taken with Britney Spears and Shakespeare. Cool! We enjoyed it too although it was very busy. Friday we went to Ryde in the Isle of Wight. It brought back many memories of childhood holidays spent with my Aunt, Scruffles her little dog and Boy cat Long sunny days spent on Ryde beach cockling and building sandcastles with Mum. My Aunt died in 1993 and this was the first time I had been back. It was full of poignant memories. Friday evening Em went to Guide sleepover and had a wonderful time, she came home this afternoon happy and tired. In my previous post I mentioned the Handmade help appeal for the families/people affected by the bushfires in Victoria, Australia. I have now added the button to my page so you can have a look at the appeal too - you never know there may be something you could help with. I have also added the followers list to my side bar, please add yourself to my list. Happy crafting, Jane

A Helping Hand Down Under

2009-02-18T19:51:00.003Z

Whilst wandering about in the blog world today I visited moogsmum and followed her link to TrashCan who is having a raffle with the Australian Red Cross to raise funds for the people who lost their homes and all their possessions in the Victoria state (Australia) fires last week. So I followed the link and donated some money. My Aunt lives in Victoria State and thankfully wasn't affected, but she did send us some newspaper cuttings which were shocking. Then I followed another Handmade Help button on TrashCan's page which took me to more appeals for help. The two that caught my eye were: The quilter that lost everything and another quilting friend suggested sending in one fat quarter each to help her rebuild her stash, she likes earth tones cream, browns, greens. The other was an appeal on behalf of a teenage boy who has lost his extensive book collection in the fire along with all his other possessions, A friend of his family suggests sending a book or donating a voucher for him to purchase a book, there is a list online. With Alice at Uni studying English Literature and with her having a huge collection of books which grows daily, and me, who loves crafting and sewing I suddenly felt there but for the grace of God go I. So I have promised to find a book or two to post out, and I'll see what I can find from my stash.
Meanwhile we are enjoying our half term, I hope you are too. Jane x

A Creative Day Out

2009-02-08T17:32:00.006Z

As a result of our snow day last Monday I started to make a cover for our Cafeteria as I frequently find my coffee is drinkable the instant I pour it out. I measured very carefully and decided I wanted the cozy to be tall enough to accomodate the pot with its plunger still up. So I made a cozy 14 inches tall by 9 1/2 inches wide, and lined it with batting and cream calico. I am delighted with the finished cozy and our coffee stayed much warmer this morning. I have also finished knitting a very small jumper for Ali's bear but I won't post a picture just yet as that would spoil the surprise, although she does know about it.
Yesterday a friend and I went to the Creative Stitches & Hobbycrafts show at The Brighton Centre. We had a lovely time as we found lots of lovely wool, both 4ply and DK. We treated ourselves to some lovely patterns as well as wool. My friend bought some beautiful 4ply wool in shades of purple and grey which she intends to make into a shawl or wrap. We also saw the Shaun's Pic-knit display which was amazing , every single item has been knitted especially for the display by knitters around the country. It certainly made us smile.
I hope you have a good week. Jane x

Snow Day

2009-02-02T14:22:00.010Z

This morning we woke up to snow, then the best news ever - a 'Snow Day' as school was shut. So we built a snowman and then went for a walk around the village. It all looked very pretty and like the scene from a Christmas card. Though the ponies looked a little unsure what to do. Later in the morning Em built another snowbaby in the front garden, then This afternoon we went to admire all the other snow men/ladies that had appeared in the street. We've had a lovely day home and I'm experimenting with a cosy for our cafetiere. Jane x

Em's Birthday

2009-01-30T19:17:00.009Z

Last weekend we all went bowling with Granny and Grandad and Ali. Then we all went for a fish and chip supper. Back at Granny and Grandad's house we had homemade dairy-free birthday cake which Granny iced. She also made sheep out of fondant icing for the sides of the cake. Em was delighted. She loves sheep and thinks they are so cute whatever size or age they are. Finally I can now show you the iPod cover I knitted in Regia Sock Yarn for Em's birthday. It also has a front pocket for the headphones. Hope you have a good weekend, happy crafting. Jane.

And The Winner Is ........

2009-01-23T17:10:00.006Z

Using a random number generator the winner is Willow.

Congratulations Willow, can you email me your details so I can post you the parcel of goodies. craftyconundrum(at)tiscali(dot)co(dot)uk.

I have been busy with some cross stitch this was a birthday card from the front of a magazine which I stitched for a friends 70th Birthday. She was delighted with her card and even plans to put it in a small frame. My next project started out as a small jumper for Alice's bear Timber, but I had to stop, so I could knit something Em needs for her birthday on Sunday. I won't post a picture yet as it would spoil her surprise but I will post one after Sunday. On Monday our new bed arrived and it is just lovely, our old one had become very uncomfortable and my back was beginning to play up. I had a back injury 5-6 years ago and it has healed but sometimes it grumbles. I am happy to say it has almost stopped being painful since our new bed arrived. I hope you have a good weekend, happy crafting. Jane x

edited to include: Two awards which have been given to me by Duckie The Lovely Blog Award and the Your Blog Is Fabulous are so lovely and I'm very grateful to Duckie for them both. I love reading her stories, she loves keeping us on the edge of our seats. I would like to pass both these awards on to all of you who read my blog especially you are on my side bar but also to any new readers - please leave me a comment so I can visit and say hello. Jane x

100 Posts!

2009-01-07T19:39:00.007Z

I didn't know I had written that much! So as a celebration I'm going to have a giveaway - a surprise parcel of crafting goodies to the lucky winner. So please enter by leaving a comment and I will draw the winner in two weeks time.

During the holidays I had time to do some special cooking and have successfully converted Fairy Cakes & Victoria Sandwhich to a dairy free recipe by substituting Vitalite for butter. This resulted in some tasty cakes when our friends visited on Saturday. Also, as we were having a Banoffie Pie, I made a dairy free version for Emily.

Recipe:

3 dairy free biscuits

1 small lump of Vitalite or Pure dairy free spread

1 Alpro Soya caramel dessert

1 tsp brown sugar

1/2 a banana

Alpro soya cream.

Crush the dairy free shortbread biscuits then mix in a small lump of melted Vitalite (or Pure) for the biscuit base. The middle caramel filling was made from Alpro Soya caramel dessert mixed with a teaspoon of brown sugar and topped with the freshly sliced banana. Then add a sprinkle of ground coffee. Em was able to add some Alpro Soya dairy free cream on top. Her dairy free banoffie pie was delicious and she loved it. Happy crafting. Jane x

Happy New Year 2009

2008-12-30T07:51:00.003Z

We are away for a couple of days, but I hope you have a very happy start to the new year
Auld Lang Syne here is a link to the most famous new year song, written by Robert Burns. It is the 250th anniversary in 2009 of Robert Burns birth. Jane x

Christmas

2008-12-28T11:50:00.005Z

We had a wonderful Christmas, my parents came over for the day. We had roast beef, etc and Christmas pudding. I hope you had a good day too. On Saturday my Aunt and Uncle came over for the day and we had a lovely time catching up on all the news of their retirement and two young grandchildren. Finally sadly on Boxing day an elderly friend died, he had been bravely fighting bone cancer. It was a relief tinged with sadness as he was in constant pain at the end. We will always remember him as a wonderful friend who loved gadgets and conquering problems. He always had a smile and time for a chat, especially with Em and Al - he loved to hear their plans and thoughts. This photo was taken on his 80th birthday last year, surrounded by his friends and family. May he rest in peace.

Christmas is Coming!

2008-12-23T14:48:00.008Z

Hello to all my blogging friends, I am sorry that I have been away for so long, but I have returned now. School is finished - My small part in the staff Christmas panto of Robbin' Hoodie was great fun though all the rehearsals at the end of term made it very tiring. The sampler I stitched for my colleague, who was retiring in order to spend some time writing, was finished, framed and very well received. In return he gave me a beautiful sampler which had belonged to his family. He gave it to me as a gift as he thought that I would appreciate it. I love it, it is beautiful. It was stitched by a young girl in 1828 and is exquisitely done, as you can see from the photograph. It now hangs in pride of place on the stairs out of direct light. Preparations for Christmas day at home continue, and I'm very excited as it is eight years since our last Christmas at home. Mum and Dad have brought their caravan to Sussex and are spending the days with us or visiting friends. Alice has also returned from Univeristy (collected by Mum and Dad). On Monday evening we dressed the tree. It's a real one and it looks beautiful. Happy Christmas to all my readers and thank you for all your comments this year. I have enjoyed reading your blogs very much and I look forward to reading them all next year.

Nearly The End Of Term!

2008-12-03T07:07:00.005Z

I haven't given up blogging, I've just become so involved in the end of term fun that blogging time has shrunk to the odd half hour every few nights. I have volunteered to be in the staff christmas panto as one of Robin Hoods Merry Men. We have to be all dressed in green with fake green beards! so I have been sewing a green shirt and I have cut out a green furry beard. When its all finished I will take a picture. My other project is for a member of our English department who is leaving after many years devoted work in our school. I am cross stitching a sampler with lots of motifs relating to their time in school. Finally next monday is our carol concert so I'm invoved with the staff carol of Deck the Halls and helping with the refreshments.

A duck in her pond has given me a blog award, thank you Duckie, I am so tickled that you think I have a cool blog.
I would like to nominate the following blogs for the award,
Alison, hey good booking,
Daisy Cottage
Kaz's Crafts
Moogsmum
Lucy Locket and Willow's Cottage. Hope you all have a good week. Jane

Time Flies

2008-11-16T15:52:00.007Z

Hello everyone. Life has been hectic in the CC cottage for the last two weeks. Ali had a couple of asthma attacks at Uni last week which were caused by a nasty chest infection. So she went home to Granny & Grandad for five days to recover. Thanks to G & G Ali has returned to Uni today ready (almost) for lectures. We went down to Dorset for a visit over the weekend and enjoyed Granny's delicious braised steak hot pot; and we celebrated Tony's Birthday which is this week. We also had the added bonus of seeing Ali, which was lovely. Earlier in the week with school I went on a visit to Gunwharf Quays, Portsmouth to look at reimaging and rebranding with A level Geography students. The weather was horrible but we went up the Spinnaker Tower and had a reasonably good view. The shops were nice too. The students spent time doing their research and assessment but it wasn't easy for them in the pouring rain.

Finally I'd like to say thank you to
Rainia from Raining Sheep, she has sent me some beautiful Moo cards. Thank you Rainia, I shall enjoy using your lovely cards.

Paris

2008-11-02T13:25:00.014Z

For half term we went to Paris to visit Tony's Aunt. We had a lovely time and packed in quite a lot to our six days. The highlights were going up the Eiffel Tower with friends who also happened to be in town. Auntie loved it and admitted that she'd never been up the tower; and she's lived in Paris all her life. The views from the second floor were stunning.

Other enjoyable days out included a walk along the Champs Elysee with visits to the Citroen and Renualt showrooms for Tony, and Sephora for us girls. Another day out was spent in Monmatre and the Sacre Coeur although it poured with rain.

The rest of the weeks weather was bitterly cold but dry with some glimpses of the sun.
Finally I'd like to say a big thank you to Alison - Hey Good Booking for the lovely gifts I won in her giveaway. They arrived safely during the week whilst we were away. There is a beautiful soft pink scarf which is so cosy, a white cloth with Sweet Little Cupcakes across the corner which look good enough to eat, a wash cloth with an aida band for cross stitching a design on and a very cute reindeer for our Christmas Tree. Thank you so much Alison they are all so lovely and I shall enjoy using/wearing/looking at them. Duckie has given me an award:

I'd like to pass this award on to all the lovely people who leave me a comment. I really appreciate all your comments and I love reading your blogs too. Hope you all have a good week Jane x

Bitten by the Knitting Bug

2008-10-20T19:01:00.006+01:00

I was well and truly caught up in the euphoria of knitting myself a cardigan that I volunteered to knit Em a shrug / bolero to wear with her lovely dress. I managed to find the perfect colour match yarn. I have knitted the back, both fronts and one sleeve but now I have stopped as I have upset a muscle in my right shoulder blade. I am hoping that with rest it will be better by the weekend as we are on half term holiday. Ouch!
I hope you have a good week. Jane x

A Heap of Warm Woollyness

2008-10-07T15:43:00.009+01:00

Encouraged by my wonderful blogging friends to have a go at knitting a cardigan or jumper, I decided to frog a shawl that I had lost heart in and use the yarn to make a cardigan. I looked at Knitty and found some lovely cardigans, further exploration of the web turned up Knitting Plus with lots of patterns for the larger person. I finally decided on a Sirdar pattern I had used before. So far all is going well but there hasn't been much blogging going on. I just need to finish the sleeve and then the border/collar and I'll be back. Writers block struck and no more thoughts bubbled to the surface!

Finally Saturday evening blogging mojo crept back. Emily was making some biscuits at school on Friday morning, she did her usual substitue of dairy-free ingredients and made some delicious Apricot and Cherry Stars which fortunately I photographed before they all disappeared.

The recipe for Apricot and Cherry Stars, courtesy of school:

100g Vitalite or dairy free margarine,

50g Caster Sugar,

150g Plain Flour.

7 Apricots.

7 Cherries.

Method:

1. Oven temperature Gas no5 or 190 Celsius

2. Flour the baking tray lightly.

3. In a bowl cream the sugar and margarine until pale and fluffy

4. Add the chopped apricots and cherries.

5. Fold in the flour gently

6. Ease the mixture together into a ball using your fingers.

7. Knead the ball of dough lightly on work surface

8. Roll out the dough and cut out biscuits using a star shaped cutter.

9. Bake biscuits for 10 -15 minutes until golden brown.

I have also finished my cardigan and I love it. I used chunky wool - Magnum Chunky Acrylic / Wool mix by King Cole. I think the next one I make, I shall shorten the sleeves a little but otherwise I am very pleased with it and it only took me two weeks.

Ali's Stitching.

2008-09-26T19:07:00.006+01:00

Our eldest daughter Ali has almost completed a beautiful piece of cross stitch featuring a Georgian ballroom scene. She started stitching it early last year, she has only had time to stitch during the holidays as she is at University reading English Literature. I took a photo last Saturday when we went for a visit. We are so proud of her and all she is achieving with her studies (and stitching!) and we are looking forward to seeing her beautiful picture finished and framed.
Meanwhile at school Emily made a very tasty dairy free pizza, which she topped with tomato, chorizo, pineapple and olives. This week I have mostly been working on a baby blanket for another colleague who's expecting a baby in about six weeks time. It will be another star blanket in a different colours. Last week Little Cotton Rabbits posted about a little girl, Ellie, who is "bravely fighting a rare and aggressive cancerous brain tumour. She's already had two operations and radiation therapy earlier this year and is currently undergoing chemotherapy". Ellie's mum, Colleen, has had a lovely idea to help raise Ellie's spirits whilst she's in hospital. Something that you and I can help with. Please would you send a card or a picture to Ellie if you have time. Details of the campaign are here and there's a journal about her treatment here. So, I stitched a Mickey Mouse picture for Ellie and wrote a short letter with a photo so she could see who had sent it to her.
I have done a little more work on my poppy picture and this time the colours look much better in my photo.

Finally I will leave you with another picture of Ali's beautiful stitching. Jane x

A Busy Week

2008-09-17T18:02:00.008+01:00

It has been a busy week and I hadn't realised that my previous post was last Tuesday. The first of my friends at school, who is expecting her baby this week, finished last Friday. So, we had a get together at lunchtime for a gift giving. I slipped in the star blanket I had made earlier in the year. It was a hit and well recieved which was a huge relief. Emily lost a tooth and had a visit from the Tooth Fairy. Each time the Tooth Fairy visits, Em always leaves her a little letter and this time was no exception. The Tooth Fairy duly collected the tooth and left a £1 together with a reply to Em's note. Now, all the fairies that have visited so far have had pets. In the last few years we've had: Sarah & her cat Toffee; Gabriella & her puppy Ralph; Lady Lucy and her pet sheep Lucy Lamb and, this visit Serena and her pet puppy Charlie, a cocker spaniel. All was fine until she let slip that not all fairies have pets some have teddybears to keep them company on their night time journeys. Em turned to me and said I think this is a Mummy fairy (oops, I'm a big fan of TB's). I smiled and said me? A fairy? I'm too big! I wouldn't fit the costume. It made her giggle!

On Tuesday we returned to the hospital to see the consultant following on from the biopsy at the end of June. Although the results haven't returned from the hospital in London - have they lost them? We have established during the holidays that it was dairy produce making Em so ill, as soon as we stopped dairy foods the problem stopped immediately. So, Em has been discharged, hoorah!
Being dairy free may seem easy but it is fraught with problems. She can't eat butter, milk, yoghurt, cream or creme fraiche from cow, sheep or goat due to the lactose content. But then there's all the hidden dairy in sauces, cooked meats (why?) cakes, biscuits, pastry etc.
We have found soya: milk, desserts, yoghurts, Parmesan cheese substitute, free from dairy cakes and biscuits in the supermarkets. But the most difficult thing has been cheese Soya cheesly has not been a success because Em doesn't like the texture. So if you know of a different cheese which is dairy free, we'd love to know please.
Finally some stitching, I have made another Biscornu. This time its slightly larger than a 50p coin and is my own design using the DMC variegated threads. Happy crafting Jane x

Sewing and Cross Stitch

2008-09-09T19:51:00.006+01:00

Towards the end of the summer holidays during a visit to my local library I found some lovely books, one of which was 21 Sensational Patchwork Bags. I was only the fourth person to borrow it, so it was lovely and new.

Emily fell in love with the saddle bag so I willingly said I would make her one. She chose her favourite fabrics from my small stash and I started work. I soon realised that although I am quite experienced at clothes, I was struggling with the bag. I found it difficult to follow the instructions as there were very few diagrams or pictures of work in progress. Finally I abandoned the book and made my own bag, it could do with being a little bigger but Em loves it. The stripped fabric came from Ikea, the butterfly fabric I purchased to make a dress but never got around to it. The cat squares we found last year in a wonderful fabric shop in Sturminster Newton.

I have also been cross stitching a picture of Audrey Hepburn for Ali, which I gave her last weekend to take to her new lodgings at Uni. She loved the picture as Audrey is her favourite actress. My latest project is a beautiful poppy which was featured in the October edition of Cross Stitcher

And the Winner is ..........

2008-09-06T10:22:00.004+01:00

The winner of the pincushion giveaway is raining sheep for the hand needlecase and pincushion.

Then I decided to put another cushion into the giveaway so the winner of the double flower cushion is sunnie_fairy.
Congratulations ladies, please email me your addresses so I can post them to you. orac1(at)tiscali(dot)co(dot)uk

Stitching and Giveaway

2008-08-29T11:10:00.012+01:00

In our old house I had a sewing corner which I shared with the model railway, then the railway expanded, and I put my machine in the cupboard! Emily arrived and my machine had to live in the bottom of the wardrobe as the hobbie room became her bedroom. When Alice moved out I put a small table into her room and used that as my sewing base. But now Tony has put up some shelves for me to keep my sewing on (the rest is in the cupboard) It is lovely and so much easier having everything to hand. I didn't convert the whole room as I still want Ali to come home to visit (when she's not at Uni or my parents) and I share the room with Em's computer, and the model railway is hiding on a board under the bed :-)

During the last few weeks of holiday I have been cross stitching a biscornu which is a french eight sided cushion, I found: Own Two Hands, Finishing School, and The Floss Box most helpful although if you google it there are lots of links to free patterns and tutorials for making one up.
I enjoyed it so much I plan to make some more in the future.

I have finally finished the pincushions I was making, although there are a few more I'd like to try I'm running out of holiday as we return to school on the 4th September. I made a daisy pincushion, then I stacked a couple together

Then I made a thumb cushion and an ordinary cushion.

For the giveaway I made a needlecase and matching cushion, so if you'd like a chance to win this matching pair please leave a comment and I will have a draw in a weeks time. I hope you have a lovely weekend. Jane x

Family Visit

2008-08-24T22:03:00.007+01:00

This week has raced by (no sewing has been done) and the family have been visiting us, Al has been ill with an allergic reaction to a friends cat, which triggered an asthma attack. (The cat slept on her and the bed whilst she was visiting her friends house) So she's on steriods and Ventolin to combat the tight chest etc. Al doesn't normally suffer with asthma so we're hoping that she will recover and not need inhalers.

As the weather has been so wet, and Al so ill, we haven't done much until today when we went to the cinema. Tony and Al went to see Get Smart, verdict: brilliant and funny. Granny and Em went to see Wild Child, verdict: fantastic, funny and lived up to their expectations. Grandad and I went to Chichester Caravans for a gas refill. Whilst there we had a look in the caravans, a very serious amount of money is needed to purchase a brand new 'van, up to £15000 ouch! But they are very plush.

Later we went to Bosham (Bozzum) for a walk along the quay side and around the church, then we had a cream tea after. The village was full of tourists, us included! we couldn't get near the craft centre. Tomorrow we are taking our bears to Amberley Working Museum to the Teddy Bears Picnic, I just hope it doesn't rain. Hope you have a good Bank Holiday Monday Jane.

Added to post on Bank Holiday Monday:

Alison gave me an award. Thank you Alison I'm glad you enjoy reading my blog, I love reading yours too.

The rules are:

Please accept this award from me and ...

1. Please put the logo on your blog.

2. Link the person from whom you received your award .

3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.

4. Put the links of those blogs on to your blog.

5. Leave a message on their blogs to tell them!

I'd like to nominate the following bloggers for this award as I love their blogs too DottyCookie, Fan my Flame, Kaz's craft bits, Kittycafe, Lucy Locket, Moogsmum, Raining Sheep, Suzie Sews, Willow's Cottage. (yes I know that's nine - I lost count!)

Our Holiday

2008-08-17T19:11:00.017+01:00

This week we have visited Hinton Ampner, a National Trust house near Winchester. The house is lovely with beautifully restored rooms following a fire in the 1960's. The gardens were quite large with many paths winding around the borders. It also has a walled garden for vegetables and flowers.

Our next day trip was to London to visit Docklands Museum which tells the story of the Port of London from Roman times through to the present day covering slavery, world trade, the Second World War and todays regeneration. It was a fascinating visit which filled most of our day. Later we went for a ride on the Docklands Light Railway (Em and I hadn't been before but Tony uses DLR for work)

Tuesday afternoon we all went to see Wall. E. which we all enjoyed.
Wednesday we travelled up to London again, this time to visit Tower Bridge exhibition which took us up to the walkways above the bridge. We were able to look out across London and spot the places we knew, for Tony and Em it was a first visit but I had visited when I was the same age as Em is now with my Dad and a couple of friends. This time we went up in a lift but on my first visit we had to walk up a staircase that seemed to go on and on for ever. Later we also saw the engine room with the steam engine that used to lift the bridge until 1976 when it was replaced. We walked along the banks of the River Thames past City Hall and on to Hayes Galleria which gave us protection from a deluge of rain and provided a shopping opportunity.

Thursday we stayed at home. On Friday we went to Polesdon Lacey (National Trust) in Surrey which is the former home of Mrs Greville, a well known Edwardian hostess who entertained royalty including King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. Yesterday and today have been full of odd jobs and house work.

Dorset and Pincushions

2008-08-08T17:02:00.008+01:00

Photos from our holiday in Dorset at the end of July.

Old Sherborne Castle, which was dismantled during the Civil War after it fell to the Parliamentarians.

Castleton Waterwheel, Sherborne, now fully restored

Clevedon Court, Bristol.

This week I have been sewing - Pincushions. This all came about because a few months ago one of my frequently visited blogs (it may have been Lucy or Lesley) did a post about pincushions and I realised that I don't have a pincushion! I trawled the web and found some wonderful patterns: Flower Pincushion Square Pincushion Hedgehog Pincushion Pretty Patchwork waterlilly Chicken Small Flower Thumb Pincushion Mothers sewing box in between doing other things around the house I have been busy sewing. They aren't quite ready to be photographed yet but when they are I will post a photo and do a give away to celebrate a year and 1 month blogging (1year and 3 months being a member of blogger).

Finally a photo of the finished Sydney collage hung up at Guide Camp last week.

Happy crafting Jane x

Awards and holidays

2008-08-01T09:29:00.009+01:00

Gina and Willow have both given awards out to their readers/commenters of which I am one. Thank you ladies, the rules are: Post the logo, link to the sender, and pass it on to five/seven other blogs. I have decided to give it to everyone who reads and comments on my blog, because I in turn read and enjoy your blogs. Thank you.

Em and I went down to Dorset to visit my parents, our days out included Weymouth beach on the day that it was featured on BBC1's The One Show and the film crew took a shot of our sand castle, we were very excited but sadly our castle didn't make it onto the show.

We also spent time visiting Clevedon Court, Bristol (NT) and Old Sherborne castle which is a ruin from the Civil War and the recently restored Castleton Water Wheel. The weather was beautiful with blue skies and sunshine.

We also went to see two films: Mamma Mia! which was just brilliant and we'd love to see again, then we also went to see Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging which was another good film.

Sadly during the week we heard from the owner of the house we were going to stay in Brugges in a couple of weeks time. During restoration to the house next door the builders have found problem with the water supply which affects both houses. We have been to Brugges before but were looking forward to visiting all our favourite places again. We can have a full refund but now will be staying at home for the week.

Tomorrow Em is off to Guide camp for the week and is very excited about it all. Quite by accident we have discovered that Em is dairy intolerant so have stopped her eating all dairy products. Immediately she recovered from the illness that has plagued her for weeks. Still no Biopsy results, but the blood test came back negative. So, she may not be coeliac after all but for the moment, to give her tummy time to recover, she is to stay wheat and dairy free. After Guide holiday we may try wheat food and see if she is ok or not. Happy weekend Jane x

Summer Holidays

2008-07-23T20:33:00.004+01:00

We've finished school for the summer today although I succumbed to a bad stomach so I missed the last day of school. I was sad because two friends were leaving - Andrea is moving to Bristol having been a teacher in our school for the last two years. I stitched a sampler of all the people in our department and also those she helps in other activities like the Duke of Edinburgh award, and then we decorated a box with some shells on the lid from the earlier fieldwork trip to Littlehampton, Andrea was delighted with her gifts.

My other friend who was leaving today was Meriem, she has only been with us a short time but has made many friends, so we got together and bought her a vase which she loved.

Today (Thursday) Em and I are feeling much better so we are off to visit my parents for a few days with plans to go to the beach etc. We are still waiting for results from the hospital! but have discovered that Em can't eat any dairy products at the moment either. Happy Holidays back soon Jane x

Gardening and Knitting

2008-07-13T18:01:00.006+01:00

Today as the weather started so warm and sunny I decided to do some gardening whilst Tony hoovered and washed his car. Em hopped in and out between us chattering all the while, I cut back the climbing Hydrangea as it was headed for the roof! Trimming it to 8ft tall. Today was a good time to prune as it has just finished flowering so it now has the chance to set some flowerbuds for next year. My next victim was the climbing rose that is just showing in the upper left corner of the photo, It was planted by my father-in-law Peter when he and MiL moved here in 1985. It was a cutting from a plant in the garden of their previous house, I think it may be called Excelsior. There was a lot of old wood which needed removing and some new shoots needed tying in. This afternoon with Tony's assistance I attacked the Pyracantha as it had become too large and unruly. After a bumper year of berries last winter it hadn't flowered at all this year so I'm hoping the prune will also help it to think about flowering next year.
Last weekend whilst visiting my parents my mother gave me a doll of mine which she had found, her name is Matilda and the jacket and bonnet she is wearing was my very first knitted garment. I learnt to knit in primary school, we started on a scarf each and gradually learnt different stitches along its length made in grey wool. When I finished my teacher decided I should knit a jacket for my doll, this was a big jump as I had to learn to do moss stitch and understand garment shaping. I had a lot of assistance from my Gran but I managed it and I knitted a bonnet too, it still looks ok and it's approximately 34 years old. Jane x

Em's smiling again

2008-07-06T16:27:00.005+01:00

Tony and I are happy to say that at last Em has her bounce back, it returned today almost un-noticed at first and then with a giggle and finally a full smile and laughter. Hoorah for being gluten-free!

We have had our dark moments this past week, Em had a violent reaction to the biopsy the following afternoon which lasted all week and meant she missed more school. But I think the biggest problem I have had is me! My friends at school have been very understanding and supportive through all of Em's illness and this week more than ever.

Until last week I have been positive (I usually am) I was looking forward to the biopsy as the goal to reach so that afterwards Em would be gluten-free and she would recover gradually, be able to return to school and see her friends. Em has missed them a lot over the last few weeks, they have rung and chatted and were delighted to see her on the odd days at school.

Em is easy to cook for as there isn't much she dislikes, but my problem was shopping for food (I dislike supermarket shopping) we haven't had the final results yet so we are still on our own. I spent lots of time researching Coeliac/Celiac on the web which helped, but when I went to the supermarket each trip took nearly three hours instead of one because I had to read each packet, tin and box I picked up. Each visit left me feeling tearful and upset - why? because all the things Em used to love she now can't eat e.g. croissants, biscuits, cakes, brown sauce, etc and yet I wanted to find her new things to try, food she would in time enjoy. (I also kept coming home with only half the shopping done)

So on my third trip to the supermarket I decided to try a different approach. I put a hand basket on the front of my trolley with the goal of filling it with gluten-free products for Em then I could make sure I had things for her as well as us. It worked wonderfully as I found some G.F soups, bread, cakes, biscuits, gravy mix, brown sauce, pasta and flour. I filled the small basket up to the top and then some of the items had to go into the big trolley. Hoorah!
Life got even better this weekend when we were visiting my parents in Dorset I dropped into Waitrose - Gluten free heaven for Emily. I found croissants, crumpets, honey nut maize flakes, chocolate chip muffin and finally a chocolate cake mix which I made up for tea on Saturday as we were celebrating my Dad's birthday. Everyone loved the cake and we all agreed it tasted as good as home made. We won't know until later this week what Em's results are, but I do now feel more positive that she can enjoy similar food to us (It just costs double, ouch!!!!!! )

But the best thing is Em feeling much better she is laughing and smiling again and her very infectious giggle is back, we had both missed that very much.

In my last post I mentioned the baby blanket I had made, I finally managed to take a photo. It doesn't do the colours justice but I'm sure you get the idea, It has cream, pink, blue, light blue/aqua, green, peach, purple, yellow.

I also treated myself to a new compact camera but in a week it galloped through four sets of batteries, two sets were rechargeable and the other two sets were not and each set only lasted for 10-20 pictures each! so I took it back and asked for a refund. Ho hum - I'll stick with the old Sony 4mp compact for the moment or my Sony DSC-H2 which takes beautiful pictures but just doesn't fit in my pocket.

I hope you have a good week, happy crafting Jane x

Biopsy

2008-06-30T18:27:00.006+01:00

Today was the day - we travelled up to St George's, Tooting for Em's biopsy, they were checking for damage done by wheat/gluten as well as taking a small tissue sample for analysis. She is still feeling a little sleepy but otherwise quite well and we are now back home. It was a long day as we had to leave home at 5.15 this morning and we returned at 4.30 this afternoon. The doctor will ring with the results next week. Em is relieved as now she can be wheat free (good thing I took rice crackers with us to the hospital, plentiful amounts of toast on offer after the op but nothing wheat free!)
My Mum and Dad gave Tony and I this beautiful fairy couple lamp for our anniversary present at the end of May. It sits by our pond and glows magically in the late evening.
I have finished the baby blanket which I must photograph and I have started cross stitching a gift for my friend who is leaving school at the end of the summer.