Family Visit

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

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

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

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

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

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

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