Just another week gone by

Here we are again, Saturday morning time for a round up of my oh-so riveting week – not! To ring the changes this morning I am writing this post from the comfort of my bed! Outside I can hear the wind blowing around the house but I still have the curtains closed so can pretend it’s still night! Oh – and John has already been out for about an hour – something about a ‘first to find’ geo cache thingy! (Just heard him come back in ‘cos his batteries have gone – hehe)

I spent Sunday finishing the quilt that I’ve mentioned in the past couple of posts – I’m going to blow my own  trumpet here and say it’s very definitely my best effort yet! It’s the first time I’ve followed a pattern and I am so pleased with the results – even my mitred corners are good – not perfect just good! So here it is -

All of the coloured sections came from either a bag of scraps that I bought or from leftovers from previous efforts – the white has a tiny self patterned dotty print on it. The beautiful blue on the right hand side is lovely – it has a metallic sheen to it.

I found the pattern here as a freebie and have followed it (almost) faithfully, except for the binding – I used strips of most of the coloured fabrics instead – and the quilting – I ‘stitched in the ditch’ and kept it simple. My next goal is to practice free hand quilting on some scraps!

The rest of the week just sort of went really, Ipswich played Arsenal in the League Cup during the week. I didn’t feel brilliant when I got home from work and really couldn’t face a damp evening watching Ipswich lose again so I gave my ticket away. And of course the inevitable happened and we won 1-0 against the mighty Arsenal!! Having said that, we did lose 7-0 last Sunday to Chelsea! I wasn’t worried about the score against Arsenal because they were my first love anyway – a win-win there!

Today I’m expecting the friend that I call Julie and her friend that she calls Steph. Together they are JuSt Two here on Etsy and I’m going to help them create a blog – should be fun as it’s been an age since I did anything other than post on my own blog!

Ok – battery is almost gone so I’ll wish you farewell for another week – thanks for reading!

I think it’s fair to say…

… I’ve had better weeks! I won’t go into detail but work has been crazy this week. Some very harsh decisions being made, the impact of which will show over the coming months. Moods have been low, tempers frayed and tolerances tested to their very limits. Please keep your fingers crossed for us all for a better week!

Christmas is well and truly over now. We had a lovely day on Sunday with the Linda & John, the friend that I call Julie ( ) and Sue who we don’t see nearly enough of. Son 2 came with us and was proud to announce that he was having his first vegetables for a week! Repeat to my self ‘I will not worry about him’. Before we moved to Ipswich, Linda & John and Julie were our neighbours and people often commented that our road was like Ramsey Street in the Australian soap ‘Neighbours’. We were all very close, our children were close in age and we leant a lot from each other as we went through the phases of our children’s lives.

I decided on Monday that I was having a stay at home day. John and I took down the Christmas decorations – the house is always so bare afterwards – and had a general tidy up. I thought I would be artistic and arrange some of my Christmas presents in my newly acquired spare bedroom which we have now set up with new furniture ready for anybody who wants to spend a night or two. I’ve displayed my beautiful quilting and crochet books for my guests to browse, should they be interested! I also had a couple of wicker baskets which I’ve used to hold some of my fabric stash – I’m starting to become one of those women who have to buy it when they see it and am building up quite a collection (with more on the way!!)

Although Ipswich were playing at home on Monday, I decided to let father and son have some male bonding so gave Son 2 my ticket – I’m so glad I did as we lost yet again. Our manager was finally relieved of his duties on Friday this week – I hope its not too late for this season to turn around. Today we play the mighty Chelsea in the FA Cup – I don’t think anybody is expecting us to win but you never know in the cup!

Yesterday we drove to my cousin in Stevenage which is a round trip of about 180 miles – seems mad I know but it was to be the first time that I’ve met up with my extended family for almost a year. We decided to set off early enough to have a meal on the way, debating which route we would take and of course we opted for the wrong one. We went via the A120 across country and decided that, instead of taking that road for the whole journey, we’d take the M11 to the M25. As soon as we hit the M11 the warning signs started flashing that the M25 was closed at the junction we would be exiting from! Our only option was to head of at Harlow – with the rest of the traffic! The poor sat nav woman was almost in emotional meltdown ‘turn around where possible’ was all she could say until we managed to convince her that we had some sort of idea of where we needed to go! In desperation we pulled off of the road and had a lovely carvery lunch in a pub in Harlow – served by real Essex girls! (sorry Essex girls but they were stereo typical!)

We made it to my cousin’s in good time, even finding an opportunity for John to find a geo-cache in an ASDA car park!! The reason for our visit was to celebrate her daughter’s first birthday and it was lovely to catch up with the rest of the family, although it’s a little strange now because most of our offspring are otherwise engaged and don’t make it to the gatherings which just leaves us oldies to reminisce with one another.

Well – that’s a lot about nothing in particular! Today I’m going to bind the edge of the quilt I made last weekend – otherwise I’ll become one of those who have numerous WIPs (works in progress!) and feel bad for not finishing. John has already been out this morning (at 7am) to find a cache and, as the weather forecast is good for today, he’s planning to set off again soon. I expect Son 2 will arrive at some stage with his laundry but until then I will be home alone – bliss!!

F is for …

…Football!! And for you lovely people who will read this across the Atlantic, I mean the game played with a round ball that you call soccer!

When I was growing up (way back in the 60s) I didn’t know much about football – there were a few clubs that I heard of but to no great effect. In my teenage years I started to ‘support’ Arsenal Football Club  - probably because they had some pin-up players. I had absolutely no knowledge whatsoever of the game. Arsenal are a North London team – not too far away from where I grew up and they are still, apart from Ipswich, my favourite club.

I went through a few years of not really caring much about football until number 2 son started showing an interest in playing. He was only about four years old when he started to play – he would go across to the local playing field with the bigger boys and really get stuck in. Then he joined Cub Scouts and started playing every Saturday morning. Of course he needed to be taken to the games and after a while he started to complain that I didn’t stay with him to watch. So I started to stay – come rain (lots of it) and shine (not much of it) I stood on the touchline every Saturday through out the season.

As he got older he joined a ‘proper’ team and showed real promise. That was until all of the other boys grew to twice his size but he stated the same size. The bigger the others got, the less chance he got to play and the more disillusioned he became. He finally gave up about age 15 when his spirit was broken after a particularly awful match.

Even though he no longer played, he still wanted to watch matches when Ipswich played at home and, because he couldn’t find anybody to go with him, I volunteered. I think we have been going along to almost every home game now for about eight seasons – generally it has been very enjoyable. Except for this season which has been diabolical. Freezing cold, not scoring many goals and drawing far too many games. The question currently hanging in the air is ‘do we renew our season tickets next year’. We’re undecided. But I know I’ll miss it. I wish it was an easy decision to make. Bother. What’ll I do if I don’t go to watch? Oh questions, questions….

Check out the other Alphabe-Thursday offerings over at Jenny's blog!

Here I am!

After a so-so week, the weekend is here with still gorgeous weather. After a so-so (I've decided I like that little phrase-ette) night's sleep, I woke full of good intentions. I set John the task of clearing the clippings for the ceanothus bush (which is now totally decimated) to the compost bin ( they've been resting in the garden for a couple of weeks just waiting for the trip to their final resting place which will be the local dump where they produce compost from our garden waste) and to mow the lawn. Meanwhile I was to sort the laundry get it washed and out onto the line to dry which I did with time to spare – let's face it its not really a difficult job is it, I mean I don't have to stand up to my elbows in soap suds do I? After that I was to go into the garden and begin the clear up for autumn. Task score John 2 – me 1! I had to go to the supermarket this morning because I had to get prints from my lovely boys holiday photos – no it couldn't wait any time at all, it's been months since we all got back and it's time to sort the photos out.

Suffice to say I was far longer at the supermarket than I intended to be and got home to find John pacing because son 2 had asked to meet him in town with a view to getting another suit – of course I went with him, I could feel lunch being offered! Typically the jacket for the suit was out of stock so we had to order it – a very helpful young man in Burtons really went out of his way. 'So', says John, 'do you want to eat?' Do I want to eat - what a stupid question. So off we went to Morgans so that I could show John where I'd been with Janet last week, it was a little busier but still able to give a personal service. The he says 'Do you want to have a walk around the shops?' Another stupid question. Debenhams had 20% off most stock – daft not to at least have a look round wasn't it? I tried on a cardigan which was the most beautiful purple fluffy cardigan-come-jacket but just couldn't make up my mind so I brought a 'gypsy' style top and a black t-shirt. Having tried on the cardigan my appetite was whetted and I just had to find something so wandered into Marks & Spencer and spent ages looking for something similar. John kindly bought me a chunky purple cardi so I treated myself to a pair of black trousers! I need to confess that I also bought 'work' clothes when I went to the supermarket – does that count though when it comes to buying clothes?

Anyway – moving on, we came back from town in time to watch the start of the football scores rolling in on TV. Disappointingly Ipswich Town Football Club conceded a goal very early on giving me the perfect excuse to have an afternoon nap – not that I needed much of an excuse! Of course as a result of that I haven't done any gardening – again!

Tomorrow we are off to a 'Wedding Fair' in preparation for our preparations! The bride-to-be's Mum is joining us which will be lovely and I'm looking forward to being able to take some photo's of the lovely scenery at the venue.

Meanwhile, I leave you with a few photos that I have taken today with my gorgeous new Blackberry Curve!

Weary Wednesday

I was just struggling to come up with a W to describe Wednesday when I realised just how tired I am! Damn hormones are wreaking havoc again, HRT pretty good but only for three weeks out of four, never mind I'm allowing myself a bit of a lie-in tomorrow and not going to work until after I've been to the dentist - I know how radical am I becoming, eh?

Work OK again today, had a lovely lunch break with Lisa (again, how radical to actually have a lunch break and not work through with a sandwich!)

Wednesday has become a tradition now for number 2 son & girlfriend to have dinner with us, poor L has spent the day at her new job today, she's just got her first hairdressing job after college, she came in about 6.30 and looked sooo tired - almost made me feel good! After a simple but delicious (is that one worn out yet??) dinner of Kievs, jacket potatoes and salad they trundled off to their other home - with L's parents, wouldn't surprise me if she slept all evening.

I can feel the beginnings of withdrawal because BGT is not on TV - however I am quite happy at the moment because Manchester United are currently losing 1-0 (that'll teach 'em for thrashing Arsenal!!!)

I stumbled across a great blog this evening http://insideaileighsheart.blogspot.com/ really made me (and Julie) chuckle - take a look, I'm sure it will brighten your day too!! I'm trying to get to grips with the clever ways of adding links, meanwhile please make do with good old copy & paste!