It comes to something......................

................when you're caught chatting to a Robin whilst keeping the weeds at bay .  We had a lovely chat!  Didn't do much weeding only about ten minutes was all I could muster (read previous post).  You be surprised how much the neck is used in any movement! 

I do know when to stop, but if I don't make myself do something I will be come quite lazy!  Whilst my neck was really bad I was watching re-runs of Lovejoy and Bergerac, even that can become boring!

My stiff neck............

I just had to show these pretty Gladioli at 'past their sell by date' in Morrisons for 85p!  They are such a pretty lavender colour, the photo doesn't do them justice.

I still have my stiff neck but now we are into week two of it easing.  I am not a patient patient to say the least!  

It all started whilst we were on holiday, one morning I was sitting in the car and slowly I could feel my neck stiffening, I didn't think anything of it because I have often had stiff necks and it has cleared within a few days.  By the time we returned home I wasn't sleeping normally.  My sleeping position was sitting upright,  After a week of that, I went off to the doctors.  I had Torticolis. The muscles in the neck hook themselves onto the spine. (The way to describe - the spine is a series of 'Y' stacked on top of one another, and the muscles hooked themselves on the bits that stick out at the top).

The first week I was prescribed paracetamols, anything stronger can affect the stomach lining. I went back the second week and she prescribed Volterol, (industrial strength) but after a few days I had to stop using it because it was causing a rash on the back of my neck. In the meantime I got in touch with a really good friend who is a Osteomyologist. She agreed to call in to see me on the way to seeing her grandchildren. What she does is like physiotherapy and but far gentler. As soon as she worked her magic I could feel a big difference.

Now it feels like a bad sprain in the back of my neck. I am now sleeping normally but still find it difficult to turn naturally in bed, so sometimes I have to physically get up and re-position myself, but at least now I don't lay down and worry thinking I cannot get back up again, although sometimes it feels like that, but then as I just said I am not a patient patient! I am sleeping better but not getting a good nights sleep but am sure it will come eventually.

More Corsages.........

I have spent the weekend resting watching films and nursing a very sore stiff neck which when I went to the doctors last Monday found it had a very long name but cannot for the life of me remember what she said!  Its still very sore, and for a week been sleeping sitting upright in bed because that is the only position I can get comfortable.  This is the third week.......... From Tuesday will be the fourth week eeeekk!   I just wish it would go quietly like it appeared all of a sudden!  I cannot bend down or move my head from side-to-side without swearing and the words are not at all ladylike! 

The flowers can be found here

I have been crafting...........

............But you will have to go here to see..........

Well that's September!

Does anyone know what happened to September?  I haven't been round blogland much.  I haven't really been making - in fact I really haven't done much.  I have sorted loads of old magazines some pre-dating the year 2000.  They were all cross-stitch magazines, I put about twenty bags of magazines and another load with hardback cross-stitching books on our local freecycle.  They were snapped up, I think because the people collecting them thought they were getting a bargain!  Well they were, but you cannot sell cross-stitch books at the local bootfair for even 20p here so I decided just to give them away!  They have gone and I feel better for it - it is amazing how I felt so much better for getting rid of things - it did actually feel like a weight had lifted - so more stuff is going to go!

Now I wonder................ no I best not if I want to stay happily married!  They are the collection of 78 rpm records, there is even two piles behind the Iceland carrier, In the Iceland carrier are the Christmas 78 rpm.  I cleared out the cupboard where I kept the magazines, guess where these have gone......!   Nothing stays empty for long in this house!

It was wet, dull and dismal yesterday, so yesterday afternoon I made Peggoty.  She is a dolly-peg (clothes spin)  Dressed in white, with a light green shawl.  She will be put in my shop soon, when I have finished a sister or two.

I made pie.

Apple and Blackberry.
We still have Blackberries at the bottom of the garden

I am still stitching

Still knitting

Mr Robin has been sitting on  the tree branch singing for a mate - nice to see him back in the garden.

Just a Very Random Blog Post

Since the last post we haven't done much

I have been knitting,

and embroidering and appliqueing.

We have been to Bristol to take some of Robert and Anneka's things back to them.  They left loads of stuff with us when they went travelling  They let their flat on an eighteen month let.  Although they have been back a year they only managed to move back in August this year so now they are collecting their belonging back slowly for various places.

This happened in the garden one afternoon

Pigeon on the seed tray, Crow, Seagull and Magpie!  Think I might send it to RSPB

My husband went shopping and came back with a small bunch of flowers.........

Well its the thought that counts!

My friend Meg gave the first of the season Bramleys

We picked the Blackberries from the bottom of the garden.  This is just a few I have two bags in the freezer.

We needed a new Address Book, found this one in a charity shop - now we could see why!

Click on the picture to make larger............. Can you spot the deliberate mistake?  Answer at the end of post!

Things don't change do they - this was an article dated May 1992.  I found this morning whilst having a chuck-out.  Click on picture to make larger.

Here is the text for the article.

Have you worked out the answer ....................

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

Where is the word NAME?

Tulips (The design on the cover) 2

Thought I would make a Pink one!

(See my last blog post)

TULIPS (The design on the cover)

Do you remember when I showed my collection on Needlewoman and Needlecraft Magazines?  

Well, the other day whilst venturing round a very large boot fair, I found a lady selling vintage linens. My hand instinctively leapt forward and grabbed them, on this occasion my hands were working faster than my brain!  I wasn't sure what I was going to do with them but I knew they needed something special.  My vintage magazines were tucked safely away, so I retrieved them and sat with a cup of tea  looking through them and as if by magic this copy jumped out........

All I had to go by was the picture on the cover and the instructions inside.  With these magazines you sent for the the transfer. (click on pictures to have a closer look)

Samuel Seagull

Meet Samuel is Cyril's best friend.  

He can be made into a doorstop, or just an ornament or a child can play with him he is quite safe and friendly!  His pattern can be found here and here!

One Tiring Saturday

photo taken just before opening!

Yesterday just before 8am my friend Janice picked me up to drive an hour and quarter to Exeter.  I helped her on her stall till 5.30.  A very tiring day but a very good one with good company.

Some of the kits Janice produces

I also chatted with  Sue Hawkins her work is spectacular!

One of the exhibition pieces were these beautiful dresses. 

My photographs do not do them justice!

The dresses as worn in Downton Abbey

Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham's dress 

as worn by Dame Maggie Smith

Creative Stitches - Exeter

I will be here on Saturday with my friends Bill and Janice on their stall C37 County Needlecraft,
I will be there all day!  Come and say hello.............

Very embarrasing and Thank you.

I would like to say sorry........... Why I  hear you ask?  It it's all very embarrassing. I am not very good at English comprehension, never have been but then I blame my senior school, and an English teacher called Miss Drake.  I can still see her now in her low heeled shoes and tweed suit.  Dare I say very 'old school' but this was 1967, I was eleven, first week in my senior school wanting to try hard for everyone and I was bored!  It wasn't that I didn't want to learn, but excuse me I always thought in my naivety that English lessons were reading classics, which I did, not just Dickens and Austen in later life, but also read and enjoyed Children of Green Knowle by Lucy M Boston and Railway Children, and Five Children and It by Edith Nesbit and Tom's Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce - .  I could carry on listing the books I have read over the years, but quite honestly you will get bored!   I always thought it was getting the spelling correct, I was always top of the class for this, and knowing where the punctuations go.   I just couldn't get on with English.   Ask me to do a five hundred word essay, just like that, forget it! Tell me what did Hunting, Shooting and Fishing and Sex have to do with English….?  I can still see the words on the blackboard now and this was only my first week.  I tried my best!  I have been known to cry out of frustraion because I cannot do it!

Well anyway for all of this, my last post.  Instead of reading "Everybodies"it should have read "Everybody's" I gave my husband a good laugh!  He is a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to the English language so I don't usually allow him near my blog unless I specifically ask for help, which I invariably do, but on this occasion I was in a bit of a hurry to do the post! Well that's my excuse anyway..............

THANK YOU to Lizzie for this pretty Lavender Bag 

The Great British Seaside Swap

After putting everybodies names in a pot.  I duly drew eveyrbody in turn and partnered the first person with the second person and third with forth and so on.

My partner was Michela

I had some really lovely gifts from Italy

Some jelly sharks - quite safe I eat them!

A giant rock lollypop - I have eaten it yet!

Lip Gloss in a pretty shell container

Some crafty bits.

Painting of an Italian Fishing Village now hanging in my craft room

A fish themed necklace

It is black and silver and I think it is amazing.

A white cotton bag........

.......full of shell beads and abolone shell buttons

THANK YOU!

Hope evervbody who joined in had fun

Downsizing

I have decided to downsize my brooch collection

If you would like to see them please go here



We did it!

We finally did it!

You at the back there stop sniggering

OUT!

We went to the cinema and watched a 3D movie.

We bought our tickets and glasses and sat and enjoyed

The last installment of the Harry Potter story

Oh wow!  Would we do it again........?  We certainly would!

I won't spoil it in case there are some of you out there who still haven't seen it yet, but some of the scenes came out into the auditorium.  We were very impressed!

The Great British Seaside Swap

Just wondering how everybody is getting on........?

Michela has posted and I have posted be blogging about them soon!

Was it really a week ago when.........

We had a long week-end in September

Chapter 1 - The Wedding

Last Thursday, I spent the whole day washing ironing, packing, tidying for a wedding and short holiday. Everything was ready to go, all we had to do was to get some petrol for the car and pick up a dress from the dressmakers. So early to bed! Printed off AA Road Maps (more about these later). We have a SatNav too, but we looked at the maps and decided it might be just as easy without the SatNav! NO!

Friday morning woke early, case and bags put into the car, ate breakfast and left home precisely 7.20am to collect Granddad in Okehampton an hour and forty minutes away.
First part completed and left granddad’s house about 9.15am for the journey to Tetbury in Gloucestershire, Kingscote Barn to be exact! We checked the print outs (again more about these later!) Eventually we found where we were going after ending up down a muddy track to a Lavender Farm! Met Michelle and Lizzie and collected Caitlin’s dress, and made our way to the Premier Inn at Stroud, just five minutes down the road - huh! We missed it twice because the place could not be seen from the road! Anyway Peter half an hour behind us found it first and waited for us - well we had the dress!

Peter had his SatNav too and he was actually using his (the reason we didn’t use ours was because the sucker that sticks to the windscreen had been broken off accidentally so the passenger has to hold it!)
We found our rooms and, washed and brushed up and changed and went off to the wedding.




The venue was beautiful, hidden away in a valley. All the guests gathered in the foyer of the barn. We met friends and relatives and chatted for a while then everyone gathered in the main room and had our “important” talk from the registrar about not taking photographs whilst the ceremony was being performed or throwing confetti, but we had bubbles to blow, very entertaining for Caitlin and other young children at the ceremony. When the ceremony started two Flower Girls and a Page Boy (Lizzie’s cousins) walked down the aisle first followed by Michelle and Sophia (Lizzie’s Sisters) then Lizzie and her dad, she looked so radiant wearing a cream strapless dress. Just as the ceremony got to the solemn bit, the vows etc, Caitlin decided she had had enough sitting quietly, wriggled, screamed and mummy and daddy decided to take her out. A few minutes later they returned with a smiley Caitlin and a pink wafer biscuit!

Michael & Lizzie signing the register and smiling at Caitlin

After the ceremony, everyone left the room, for drinking, chatting, drinking, photographs more drinking while the room was being prepared for the wedding breakfast. The food was wonderful, a bar-b-que.

Then the speeches from Lizzie’s Dad, Alex (Michael’s dad) (Si and Ewan Best Men) The speeches were lovely and emotional, and very funny!

As the evening wore on the tables were cleared again more chatting and drinking and more evening guests arriving, and a live band, at this point we decided it was time to leave. The band was a Reggae Band, they were excellent but extremely loud!!! We must be getting old! The cake was cut, Chocolate and Kirsch, very yummy, we took ours with us to eat the next day.

Saturday morning, Peter knocked on the door and said he was going for breakfast. I said you’d better collect granddad. Oh! he said, granddad is eating his and we are just about to have ours! We caught them up with breakfast and sat and chatted for a while. Then Jennie arrived to take granddad home for us. After we sent granddad on his way, Peter, Steph and Caitlin left, we thought we would look stay and look around Stroud for an hour or so (very nice, small shops market etc.) because we were going to have a few days in Bath and the journey to Bath from Stroud was only about fifty minutes……….

Chapter 2 - Bath


Did I say fifty minutes? Two and half hours later, (MAJOR jam on the A4) we arrived at the Francis Hotel via the Toll Bridge at Bath Easton and yes, we used the SatNav from Stroud and did we need it! We arrived about three o’clock. Went to our room, had a cup of tea and then felt revived enough to walk round the town a bit just to stretch our legs.

Sunday after breakfast we went round the town again via the Circus. Walked up to the Assembly rooms and back into town stopping at Sally Lunns for a Bun for lunch. Bought some fudge from the Fudge Kitchen. We also went to look at the Weir and walked over Poultney Bridge.

The oldest building in Bath

Sally Lunns

LUNCH!

Pouring the boiling sugar fudge mixture onto cold marble

Guess who's window!

Monday again after breakfast we walked round the town again, looked in the other charity shops that were closed on Sunday, actually didn’t see much, I am beginning to feel charity shops are no longer charity shops but……..I don’t know how to describe charity shops now, but I feel they are not charity, shops. The shops sell new stuff and since Mary Portas has changed them to be this way I don’t seem to find anything I want. Found Cath Kidston’s shop, but didn’t see her Lion but there were loads of other Lions around the City. We saw the photographs of Britain by Air and also visited two museums, the Roman Baths and the Costume museum which has an exhibition of some of Princess Diana dresses.

Roman Baths - Bath

Chapter 3 - The Journey Home

Tuesday we packed for our journey home. I was hoping to go to Nostalgia at No.1. Remember me talking about the maps I printed off? Well, I went to put the postcode into the SatNav and it was only half there and read BA2 Timsbury and the map with the red arrow just stopped in the middle of no-where. (I didn’t check the print off properly because I have never had a half a post code before.) Alex agreed to drive round, and round, and round but we couldn’t not find it - I was pretty miffed about it. I even stopped at the local post office and asked, and the lady behind the counter and a customer both said they never heard of it, and a little later I managed to ask the same lady as seen in the post office in the Co-op the same question! She said if it is vintage I would know about it, I did explain the BBC had recently been filming there too, but never mind I will get there one day, I will I will….. So we continued our journey home via Montacute, to another museum, yes you guessed it we didn’t have much luck there either, Tuesday, the only day of the week this museum is closed!!! But we did have nice lunch in the pub next door to the museum. Onwards to Taunton, where we stopped to return Robert’s I-Pod. He has a knack of managing to have to return things just before the guarantee runs out, but because we bought it for his birthday the guarantee is in our name and they wouldn’t accept it at another Comet in Bristol where he lives, so when they ring, a trip to Bristol to return it to Robert! Shopped in Sainsbury’s and after eating glorious food at the Francis we are now back to Fish Fingers and Chips - He!He! Then home - there is nothing like your own bed!