They swam and they swam

I have 10 goldfish under this chandelier of ice,poor little things

Fool that I am

Almost froze my bones over the weekend with only a fan heater . The heating engineer came 8 a.m 0n the dot , pressed the reset button and hey,ho the boiler fired .

What do I know about boilers? a bit more than I did yesterday.

I decided to go a walk yesterday in the sub zero temperature on the basis that I would be warmer when I came back in . it worked .

As I was walking there was a wonderful smell in the air of pine,conifer and wood smoke . The sun was shining, it really was magical , and last night when the sun was setting the snow and sky were pink with the sunset .

The picture of the bird table is an early christmas present from one of my sons .Too big to wrap!!

2.30 pm Tuesday the coach will pick up those bound for New York .

Take a second look at your christmas cards, lovely pictures to convert to applique. Inspiration by the bucket load.

Out of the mouth of babe,s

Anyone who reads my blog will know I,m waiting for the plumber, It has bought back memories of an incident when I was living in Cyprus.

The taps for turning the water on and off were outside . If it was a block of flats there could be lots of taps .

Boys were a real pain, they would fill balloons with water to throw at each other. My friend was always calling over her balcony "Dimitri take your friends somewhere else for water and leave those taps alone " It always fell on deaf ears .

One day when I was with her she said "Right, I,m going to take a wrench down and turn the main tap off" down she went , I stood looking over the balcony waiting to see what would happen .About 8 boys stood looking at her wielding this spanner and turning the water off, one little angel voice says "Are you the PlumBer" with great accent on the letter B, I nearly fell over the balcony laughing . I shall never forget the seriousness of the question .

Up the creek again

I,m not unhappy but I do keep having really bad days just lately . These are the things I,ve replaced recently , the iron , kettle .toaster.the oven door fell to pieces and now my 2 yr old boiler has packed up .

Here in England we are in a freeze and this happens to me .

I consoled myself with 2 slices of fresh baked bread , spread thickly with butter and a mug of hot chocolate , now I,m going to bed with indegestion .

I feel really miffed so I,m not going to wash up the pots or put them in the dish washer so if I die of frost bite or hyperthermia in the night whoever finds me first will say "did she always live like this" /

My Owls

Do you like my little owls?
These are the owls Robyn who,s blog is Daisy chains designed .
Robyn invited me tojoin her get together for the owls, these are my contribution . they are approx,. 3" high .


This was my contribution to the sewing circles Faith lunch yesterday .All went well until it came to a box of chocolates . someone must have had them as a present last year, enough said !!!

I seem tobe in a pattern at present of waking at 4am inthe morning . It doesn,t bother me, the music is good on the radio , and sitting in bed all cosy reading or doing a crossword is bliss . I get up make tea then enjoy the peace of being in my own little world of comfort reflecting on various issues . By 6 o.clock I,m usually ready to snuggle down for another hour before the day begins .


This time next week my son and his wife will be spending christmas in New York . Sounds lovely . The hotel is near to Macy,s , even better!!!

Blog eyed but happy

I have been blogging on and off most of the afternoon, and considering it is now 8 pm most of the evening .

I have caught up with a lot of blogs I looked at in the past, found a couple of friends I thought I,d lost.

I have spent most time looking at http://daisyquilts.blogspot.com Robyn has a wonderful site and she is so generous with her tutorials . If you like crafting please pay her a visit , it will be enjoyable . I do have a lot and I mean a lot of bags around where I sit at night doing a bit of this and a few more sts,. in that but I,m going to forget all those things and make one of Robin,s little owls . I will post it about Friday .

I have made the first stage of the buckeye sweets to take to the Faith lunch tomorrow , I must now away to the kitchen to stuff dates with marzipan .

Gathering pace

On Thursday it is the faith lunch at my sewing group, I shall be searching the blogs for a recipe that is a little different . A few days ago I found a recipe for something called Buck Eyes .so I shall be making some of them, they are something I have not seen before . They will be my sweet contribution , the search is on for a savoury .

Whew!!!

I,m finally getting caught up with the christmas panic , I,ve sent the presents off, finished the knitting and some other trivial bits I promised I,d do . I put my trees up and decorated them .

I,ve decided when it,s time to put the frivolous bits and pieces away again I,m going to make another shelf cover like the christmas one I have here , but not in christmas fabric but something with roses.

Because of the candle lamp being right in the forefront of this picture you cannot see my china cat holding the fabric mouse,s tail down with her paw.

These two christmas bits on my kitchen windowsill were fantastic bargains in the last year winter sale at the garden centre , My son came to see me last Saturday , I was pointing out to him what bargains they were . "Only £1 each I said , how much do you think the original price would have been "? such a cynic ! " 89 pence he replied , needless to say I didn,t tell him anything else

Rudolph the red faced reindeer

Do you remember I wrote that I had been into the loft to get the christmas decorations down only to find rudolph had been chewed on his bottom by a mouse?
His surgery is now complete ,and he has a blanket to preserve his dignity,Look at his next picture to see his recovery, in fact click on his picture .
His eyes are missing , they were 2 small beads,so if you see a mouse with 2 small beads either round his neck or on his ears just tell him or her we wantthem back please .

Busy but Happy

Today I went off to town to buy stuff I cannot get in the village where I live, things like lambs liver , faggots , avocados , really fresh nuts and dried fruit , if I had to rely on the village shop,well !!!! .
Tomorrow I will post a before and after picture of my reindeer . I can just imagine that mouse .
I,m going to sit and cut papers for a quilt in the English method of paper piecing. the quilt is in a very old copy of Ausralian patchwork and quilting . It will keep me busy when I go to the family at christmas , tacking over papers and hand sewing.

Desperate

I,m desperate to do some sewing , I have cut strips today at the sewing afternoon hoping I can get a head start at the weekend , at present I,m knitting and doing just fiddly bits that are quite nice but it isn,t like getting stuck into a project .

We had a good afternoon at the sewing group , lots of giggling and laughing, some nice show and tell .and swopping of patterns and ideas .

I went into the loft over my garage yesterday to sort out christmas decorations and what do you know ! a cheeky mouse had bitten into my reindeers bottom . I had put lentils in the stuffing to make it stand nicely, You would wonder how they could smell the lentils through thick plastic wrapping . Well the reindeer is going to have a patch on his posterier . It is a Santa with a reindeer either side of him . I cannot bear to throw it away

I,m sure like every one else I cannot believe it is christmas again already.

Urban Christmas

These two wall hangings are from a pattern on the blog of http://mrsmoen.blogspot.com

they are easy to do . They come with several very attractive patterns as a mix and match set , They are PDF which is a bonus , no waiting for the postman, I shall use mine as a table centrepiece. Mine are made with pieces from my scrap bag so no cutting into yardage

If you are interested and have difficulty getting into the site just click Mrs Moen on my side bar

Over the rainbow

Just a short post to say I hope my blogging friends had wonderful Thanksgiving celebrations.

Cherry Pie

The pattern for this cherry pie is on the blog of chitterchatter designs, I think it can be seen on both of Cori,s blogs, the other one being creativity among chaos . It is easy to make , she also sells the pins
httphttp://chitterchatterdesignsblogspot.com

This is my lunch, I wish the cherry pie was to follow

The maharaja,s hat

This is a cushion I have been working on, it is very pretty even if I say so myself . I bought the pattern at the last quilt show I went to. You might recallI enthused about the fabric I bought from this lady , beautiful silky stuff and lace in prepacked packets . this was made from my stash but now i have the idea I shall be starting on the stuff I bought. The pattern was also available.

I will gladly pass on her details, click on the picture to enlarge

Wrong

No this isn,t a scrumptious cake, it,s a scrumptious vanilla candle .

A friend of many years came to see me Sunday morning and bought this candle as a present , she also bought a bag of silk and satin bits of fabric for my crazy patchwork . I never have enough silk satin or lace .

Also she showed me her new card selection . she makes really nice christmas cards . One was absolutely very desirable, I begged her to send one to me as my christmas card . she told me it was a shared effort between her and her granddaughter, I hope the post comes early .

I now have my email problem sorted , I have a new email address, if any of my blogging friends need it just leave word on my blog

The postman called

I,m so lucky, the postman bought this package to me from scrappy quilter , now I have to decide ,do I use the fabric in one piece or incorporate it with like pieces . I don,t want it to get lost with other patterns so I must think carefully . Isn,t it funny how fabric received is always something you have been looking for . Thank you Carol,the packet of goodies are delightful .

Can You Imagine

All who read my blog will know I ,ve been out of action a bit lately waiting for the new router . It is now working, well I can get the broadband but I,m having a lot of problems with the email part of it , I have been chatting with the B,T people, going through the motions , they say every thing is O,K but as soon as I disconnect from them I,m back to sq,.1

when I firsthad talks with B,t about the said piece of equipment the fellow on the other end of the phone said why didn,t I have a vision box , If I signed with them for another 12 month contract it would be free, hmm, well he didn,t say it would be a refurbished one , I ask did they send a man to fix and tune in this equipment . Oh no said he it,s so simple you will be able to do it yourself !! I,m not a whizz kid said I , you will be able to do it yourself he replied again .

The parcel arrived , it sat in the hall like a squatter at a demo . bluebell phones , have you got a piece of whatever, ? Yes ! o,k I,ll be round for it . In she comes , have you not opened this box yet? she puts it on the table , undoes the parcel , plastic and brown sticky tape everywhere . I made coffee while she studied the paperwork . After a series of hmmm, yes , er, she said right you bring this into the sitting room I.ll bring that .

I,m very good at doing as I,m told , I take this and she brings that . T,V and cabinet pulled away from the wall , the dialogue begins . Pull that wire out of there and plug this in it,s place . Yes boss lady , I,ve done that .

Take the d,v,ds out of there to make room for the vision box,

O,K boss lady, now the once clear coffee table is piled with d,v,ds . little boxes ,cables and plugs . Arials and scart plugs duly and dutifully pulled out of one thing and plugged in somewhere else, ethernet cables attached to phone lines and other space looking objects .

Yes boss lady says , I think we are ready , (anyone would think we are switching on the christmas lights in town) Switch on ! are all the lights showing green the boss lady ask,s No, they are yellow says I . So , another phone call to the support team , by now boss lady was on first name terms with the support team ,and had quite a friendly rapport with them , there was quite a bit of o,k, babe in the conversation . but on this call the babe said we cannot help you anymore the computers are down . Is this the signal , clear off we,ve had enough of you ?

more reading of instructions , Ah !! said boss lady , whats this cable for , we missed this one , plug it in , we had been lying on the floor and almost standing on our heads looking for green lights ,up to this stage we had green lights but now they had turned yellow ! the t,v screen said please wait , after 1/2 hour waiting boss lady said I,m going home ,

After boss lady went home the screen said , wrong set up ,unplug everything and start again . Boss lady phoned again for the result of please wait sign . I told her the message , she said I.ll be round in the morning . Oh ! dear thought I silently

Morning came , boss lady came , more phone calls, it finally took a girl support worker called Amy to give the right information .and get us on the right track, all is now working .

P,S ,, I now know why boss lady bluebell wears combat trousers .


she is a very good friend and we do laugh a lot, coming home from our sewing circle we saw a man with those trousers where the crotch is almost down to the knees, wonder what he keeps in there we mused , bluebell couldn,t see to drive with tears in her eyes laughing .

Learning the craft

This little cat was my friend when I went to Cyprus recently .
The new router should arrive tomorrow, it,s rather a heath robinson set up at present with the ethernet cable trailing the kitchen floor .

I did another stupid thing yesterday , I really must start reading labels . I decided to have some yoghurt , it was on it,s date, and anyone who eats natural yoghurt will know it gets a little sharp if not eaten really fresh . I decided to add a spoon of sugar , I thought ,sugar looks fine , must be caster sugar but carried on, while eating the said goodie I thought it tasted a bit grainy but not sweet,----I,d added ground rice .

I,m just going to have a browse around the blogs before going back to start some quilting , just 4 little pockets for a sewing bag

Silk ribbon embroidery

This last few evenings I decided to have a change from quilting so I have been doing silk ribbon embroidery .this picture will make a needle case for myself ,

The following little needlecase will be going off to my friend in Australia , she left these shores many years ago and settled easily into her new land .

I,m still without my new router, still have the ethernet cable trailing the floor. I,t makes me nervous if someone rang the doorbell I would most likely trip over the cable and have the lot on the floor but I did want to keep in touch and let you see what I was doing .

I shall browse around the blogs and then disappear again for a few days . I am now promised my router for the 17th November, so see you then .

Bye xx

One Happy Lady

Today I have received a pattern I sent for, check out this site to see the pattern

http://www.chitterchatterdesigns.com/ You can also reach the site via

Creativity Amongst Chaos .

Please don,t let me mislead you IT IS NOT the picture shown, this is a christmas wall hanging from several years back. This is a pattern I created myself and please copy it if you wish. The delightful pattern I received from Cori Blunt is for Pies!! If you like doing cup cakes you will love these pies. Cori also has a tutorial for a cupcake .

Just read this, I am not a person who drinks normally, it makes my face go red immediately , but I do keep drinks in for guest or family if wanted . Yesterday I had been working at all sorts of things and had a trip into town . When I got home I was absolutely exhausted , my feet hurt, it had been a long journey and I had to prepare a meal for myself . I thought , I know, I,ll have a pick me up , I knew there was some Absolut Vodka in the cupboard , I,ll have a slosh of that and some fruit cordial in it, so . about an inch of this liquid went into the glass , then a slurp of raspberry squash , and then I added water , well I didn,t want it to be strong, just to give me a lift if you know what I mean. Being as I was frazzled I downed half the glass in a couple of gulps, ooh, ouch , choke, I had made the drink with white vinegar . Just goes to show what I know about drinking

Malvern Quilt show 2009

These are a few of the quilts that caught my eye at the show

Still no router

Still have the ethernet cable trailing across the floor , so much for it taking 4 or five days .

This is a pic,. of my darling great grandson last christmas . His name is River, he was 6 weeks old here . Now he is scooting around , crawling, standing alone but not quite brave enough to take that final step. He will be a year old on the 15th nov,. he is gorgeous .

His mum took his little fur lined shoes off when he arrived and he had a little bit of white fluff between his toes. I snaffled it as a trophy

Still Tripping

I,m still tripping the light fantastic with the ethernet cable , the B,T man said 4 to 5 working days before I would receive the new router, perhaps tomorrow .! just a little nervous in case I get up to answer the phone and forget I have the cable trailing over the floor . At least for a while I can see what everyone else is getting up to .

A little more time on my hands while not blogging so I gave the kitchen dresser a going over and changed the pots . I have a lot of this pink stuff so thought I would give it an airing . my dresser in the conservatory is overloaded with blue and white. can you see the cake stand ? that was a bargain buy at £1 . just plain glass , I have plans to use it as a centrepiece at christmas with baubles .

A quick trip around the world to see what my friends are up to . Bye

Between A hard rock and a stone

Hi, Friends , I,m using my laptop balanced on the cooker with the ethernet cable plugged in , what a performance . The cables will not stretch to any where else . No fun standing up to blog . Please Mr Postman bring my router quickly .

A word here and there

my blog might not happen again for a few days, . i have lost my internet connection for a few days i think .
The b,t man says I need a new router and it will take 4or 5 days, might be more because of the post office strike . Thats not the only loss, Silver sewer came to see me , we were fiddling with the camera , "you have a lot on here she said, looks like old stuff !! Get rid of it said I . Oooh !! in horror , too late, I forgot the quilt show and a picture of a bird table I wanted my son to make. Ah well ! doesn,t really matter

I,m using the laptop with the ethernet cable but will not bother setting up each time I want to do something. Bye for now

A Wonderful World

Here in England we are enjoying the most wonderful weather at present , it is so different to this time last year ,

Iv,e had a wonderful day today, I had several jobs planned but as soon as I stepped outside to feed my goldfish I knew I would be outside for the rest of the day . I,m clearing a lot of plants out , I need to clean the soil up for next spring. The house next to me has a lot of Ivy growing up the fence , as I,ve been clearing the ground the roots of the Ivy are a real network in the soil , I,m so concerned that I will never get it all out , the tiniest bit left in will start a new plant . I,ll keep at it hoping the weather stays good .

Scuppered Again

Bluebell and I planned to go to the Malvern quilt show this week,

Mmmm, I,ll make an appropriate bag for the occasion, this is it, we decided that Thursday would be the day . The quilt show is usually 4 days , Thurs to Sunday. This afternoon bluebell popped round with the news , the show would not be starting till Friday, so , another best laid plan gone by the wayside . I cannot go Friday , the man is coming to give the boiler it,s annual service and the roads are far too busy at weekend, so we keep our money in our pocket for something else ,

If you have looked at bluebells blog you will see we had a lovely day out yesterday until we went to a favourite lunch place , Lunch!!! it was so bad , bluebell was brave and ask for the money back , not a girl to be trifled with is bluebell ,

My halloween T,cosy

I decided Saturday afternoon I would get together orange fabric and make something . I settled for making a tea cosy , I do drink a fair amount of tea , so this is my effort for halloween . I didn,t get around to it until this afternoon . My best laid plans always get waylaid

This is the back of my tea cosy,so now you can see it definately is a halloween one . The good thing about accumalating a big stash of fabric is there is always something suitable for a project.

This is my pattern , just cut out from a cereal packet . Best sort of patterns , cheap and cheerful .

up a gum tree lying down

This is no,.3 in the gum tree designers series. I hope you don,t get a crick in your neck looking at it side ways .

On the pattern it is a hanging , I decided to make mine into a bag,

This bag I made for no reason at all but I shall probably use it to take stuff to our sewing group

Two bags full

This bag I have made this week, it might be to carry stuff to the quilt meeting , or , it might be to put christmas gifts in

I think you will have tolie on the floor to see this one,its the gum tree designers bag . no ,.3 in a series

Fabulous cheater fabric

Isn,t this just beautiful cheater fabric, look at that lovely border. I had one and a quarter yards for a lap quilt. I finished a cheater quilt last Thursday, took it to show at the fabric guild, it is now hanging there so people can see how the fabric makes up. If only one of my idols Kaffe Fasset would do cheater fabric in his glorious colours I would stash up and stay indoors all winter. Does anyone out there have any influence ?