Getting together to say goodbye…

…to Son2! He wanted a chance to say goodbye to family friends as I briefly mentioned last weekend. So yesterday was the day, it sort of coincided with John’s big birthday and we had our friends from Colchester up with all the grandchildren and we were joined by FDIL’s mum and brother (who was 18 on Friday).

As usual, we bought far too much food both barbecue and otherwise and now the freezer is overflowing! We had a great day, made even better by the fact that one of the grandchildren who was very poorly, and I mean very poorly, a couple of weeks ago after open heart surgery came along and was able to run around the garden as if nothing had happened – kids are a lot stronger than we give them credit for!

Most of you have probably already seen the photos from last weekend via Facebook but I’ll share some of them here as well. We’re really pleased with the results although they were evvvveeeerrrr soooo expensive – we did the deal when you buy one mounted print and get the CD with all the pictures for half price – I’m not even going to go there with the prices! Anyway, the best print by far was a black and white panoramic of Son1 and FDIL – an absolute killer pic and of course, the only one of the collection not on the CD , they had to have it. However the rest of the pics are ours to do with what we will and this is where good old Photobox comes in handy (and, no they aren’t paying me to say that!) I ordered a lovely panoramic of all five of us on Thursday and it arrived on Saturday and all for less than £10!! Just need to find a frame for it now….

So onwards and upwards, Son2 flies off on Tuesday week and John and I will take him to the airport but first he has to move out of his house share which means filling up the spare room with all of his worldly goods, *sigh* I love that room as it is now but never mind!

Good times!

I’ve had a couple of lovely days! Friday was my day off and I had planned to go to lunch with Nicola. Normally our socialising is limited to slaving over a steaming sewing machine but I had a voucher from Groupon for a local restaurant so off we went. Now, if you read Nicola’s blog, Stitch Magic, you will know that she spent a few days at the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham so of course she had lots to tell me about her adventures. I was green with envy and next year I am going to make every effort to go myself. She wisely tells me that one day just isn’t enough – even three days meant that she didn’t get to see everything – I’m just imagining the enormity of it all! Being the good friend that she is, she bought me a present to make up for me not being able to go! A beautiful bag kit – no spoilers, you’ll have to wait until it’s finished!!

We had a lovely meal but forgot about taking any pics until the dessert came – here’s mine!

Doesn’t it look huge!! Don’t worry that’s an illusion, it just looks like a huge trifle bowl, in fact it was a small bowl – meringue island, with lovely vanilla custard and strawberries – delicious!

After lunch, I inducted Nicola into the joys of Poundland – can you believe she’d never set foot in such a place before? I think she was a little overwhelmed, poor thing! I love Poundland (on a quiet day!) it’s great for all sorts of things but this time I needed bits for the grand barbecue we’re having next weekend.

And the fun continued yesterday. John has a special birthday coming up at the end of the week and he is notoriously difficult to buy for at the best of times. Son1 decided to organise a photo session as a local photographer’s studio. After agonising about what we should wear all five of us trooped along, FDIL and I both wore dresses, the boys wore more casual clothes and John wore smart trousers and shirt. The photographer took one look and said ‘you’re dressed quite formally – my style is more fun!’ We had an hours session booked and 10 minutes in I was exhausted!! We had this pose and that pose, John & I, the boys together, the boys apart, Son1 and FDIL, John & the boys, me and the boys – it seemed endless! I’m really looking forward to the results!

And of course all good things must come to an end and they did – with a bang. Ipswich Town’s match was televised yesterday and, having being thumped 5-2 at home during the week, we were hoping for a good result. We sat down to watch and were ecstatic when Town scored the first goal. Sadly the ecstasy did not last as Peterborough sent SEVEN (yes SEVEN) goals into the back of our net. There are 11 players in a team, we lost 2 to red cards and the remaining 9 seemed to think they should just stand back and watch the show. It’s hard being a Town fan, but we thought this season was going to be different – sadly that does not appear to be the case . Never mind, the next game that I will go to won’t be until October (Son2 will take my ticket next weekend) perhaps things will be sorted out by then!

So what’s next? Busy week coming up, going to view the photo’s on Wednesday, John’s birthday Friday – going out for lunch with FDIL’s Mum & brother ‘cos he’s 18 on the same day – and then on Sunday we have the barbecue as part of Son2’s ‘Going to Oz’ celebrations, this one’s for family friends (he has a compartmentalised life!).

I’ll need today to prepare myself!!

Catch up!

After the fun and games of last Saturday, we took an impromptu trip to Snape on Sunday for the vintage market. I’m always so tempted by the wares displayed on the stalls, constantly saying ‘oh look, we had one of those’ or ‘oh look how much they want for that’! I resisted though and didn’t buy, although I was sorely tempted by the lovely cake stands made, mainly, from similar but not quite matching plates. The thing is I decluttered a few years ago and now have very few decorative things on display – plus my style is more contemporary that vintage, although I love the look of vintage on other people’s blogs as I browse my way around them. We followed our browsings up with a trip to Aldeburgh where we had fish and chips on the beach – imagine that, on a Sunday! For those of you that don’t know Aldeburgh, it’s a lovely place but very popular with Londoners for holiday homes (disclaimer – I have absolutely nothing against Londoners – it’s where both our families hail from!)

Whilst we were queuing (you always have to queue) for our fish & chips there were a couple of young children in front of us whose mother had left them to keep her place whilst she wandered along the shops. They were a bit mischievous but nothing exceptional and, right on queue, when their turn came to order, Mum appeared as if by magic. I’m getting to the point now, don’t worry. Order placed, the children helped themselves to the little wooden forks on the counter. Handfuls of them. Only to be told by Mum that they didn’t need that many. So they put them back! Eeeeeewwwww! I watched so carefully, determined not to take any that they had put back! Mum didn’t bat an eyelid, just steered them out of the shop when she’d paid.

The weather wasn’t brilliant – overcast and cloudy, but I liked the look of this boat!

I suppose though, in the scheme of things, that was nothing compared to the headlines of this week – I’m not even going to begin to go there, don’t worry.

A joyful week at work was broken by a day off on Wednesday when I had to wait in for the man to come and replace the door trim on my oven – can you believe that it is not covered under warranty? As a matter of principle, John insisted that they come and fit it and not send it in the post for us to fit ourselves – it took all of two minutes! And then I waited for somebody to come to repair our front door handle – it’s not been right for a long time and sickeningly we realised too late that it would have been covered under the 10 year warranty if we’d called them out before – that took about three minutes to repair!

Yesterday saw the first home game of this year’s football season. We lost. Enough said. Before the match I did something I haven’t done for a long time – I bought some yarn from a real shop! The friend that I call Julie has put in an order for another baby blanket (she seems to work with some very fertile people!) and, as the sex is not yet known, I opted for a minty green and white – hope that’s OK Julie!!

Which brings me on to today where I spent the day joining fabric squares together – in two places – only to cut them in half!

I’m sure some of you have worked out by now I was making half square triangles!

I bought this in kit form several months ago and thought it was time to do something with it – if it works out well it will be a Christmas present for somebody who I think will like it!

I’ve decided that I’m going to add my name to some of the photo’s as I discovered a few of my pics on Google Images for all the world to use! Well, I might just as well make my claim on my own stuff, mightn’t I!!

That’s it for now – another exciting week awaits me I’m sure! Thanks for stopping by!!

Ladies who……

Earlier today I had a really catchy title in my mind for this post, however the sieve that has replaced my memory in recent months has let it leak out and it’s lost!

I hope as I’m writing I can come up with something that tells you what a great day I’ve had today! A few weeks ago I had the brainwave of inviting some likeminded ladies to spend the day being crafty and today was the day we settled on. I suppose I expected maybe two or three friends would say yes please but we ended up with eight of us – and John!

John very kindly rearranged all the furniture a few days ago so that we could open up the space available and this morning we got ourselves ready. We opened up the dining table, laid out the cutting mat and sewing machine, pulled out a box of yarn and awaited our guests. I’d said 10 o’clock for a start time but slowly messages started coming in about people being delayed. The best one has to be the text that said ‘Please tell me it’s tonight we’re sewing’! Poor Trish had got 6 on her mind not thinking that was the date and not the start time! She and her daughter arrived just in time for lunch much to the amusement of those already gathered!

So here is the day in pictures – I think we all enjoyed ourselves, Isabel sort of learnt to crochet with Janet’s help, Sian made one of Nicky’s lovely boxy bags, Julie and Steph enjoyed a bit of show & tell, Trish wasn’t having a good day – instead of bringing her dress to finish she bought the remaining fabric, John got a few photography tips from Trish & Sian and me, well I did some crochet and marked out the half square triangles for my next project.

 

The sewing end

Elevenses!

The other end!

Yes – I left the ironing board out! The sewers amongst you will know that this is an important piece of equipment!

She need a bright colour!!

Don’t show my face!!

See – Nicky used that so important piece of equipment!

I’m not looking up!!

Always happy teaching!

The final result!

Thank you all for coming – shall we do it again?