... because life's too short to do anything ALL the time . Creativity and positivity are my "hiraeth"

Friday 14 October 2011

Love Thy Neighbour. I do.

I've got a new best friend. Actually I've got two. What a show off.

One of them is a circular saw - who I have called George. I used to be really scared of him, but now I love him, and I use him every day.

The other best friend is my neighbour. Until we moved here I'd never set eyes on them before but my goodness what a lovely couple and my goodness how grateful to them am I? Very is the answer to that.

A conversation over the fence yesterday with me looking longingly at their beautifully kept garden while I wrestled with something or other in mine, resulted in the lovely gent offering to help me concrete my line post back in. The council ripped it up when doing renovations and I'm fed up of waiting for them to come and put it back. I'm quite brave, I'll attempt and pull off anything DIY wise (that doesn't involve wires - except a plug of course), but I've never touched concreting before, and I didn't really have the tools to even dig the whole.

I also mentioned that I had had a quote for cutting my front shrubs back from their bedraggled and unkempt state. I came home today and found the shrubs beautifully pruned, off cuts gone. I nearly cried. It's so lovely to have another big job to tick off my extensive list.

Then, while thanking lady neighbour for the pruning, she spots my half dug hole for line post. I wanted to at least do the hard work bit so that I didn't have to ask "getting on a bit" gent neighbour to do it. Within five mins, he was around, pick axe, sledge hammer and crow bar later, a suitable site was located, between all the buried rubble, and another ten minutes later, the post is supporting itself! I'm so grateful - and isn't that lovely? In truth I had no idea how I was going to pull it off.

Then, as I was doing further drilling (shelves, wall mounting wicker baskets, tie back, fixing my shed door) and my other neighbour on the other side knocked the door with two lovely fresh trifles for us! I love it here, I must be honest.

I've been so lucky. I've got awesome friends, and awesome neighbours and for all of the things they've done for me I am incredibly grateful. Let's face it, we're all busy, but some people make the time to help a family struggling with massive life changes and illness. I'm so grateful.

So with my help received today, I managed to do the last bit of fencing today too, and I'm also really pleased with it. I'm going to use some of my skip-rescued timber to reduce the amount that can be seen through it. I reckon I'll finish it tomorrow, photos will follow.

And I FINALLY fixed my shed door! What a relief!


Wednesday 12 October 2011

Gratuitous Spaniel Photos




I don't apologise one bit for sharing this picture of my gorgeous Spaniel. His gorgeousness deserves to be shared - I look at it as a public service. And in fairness he is under one of my most favourite candy stripe brushed cotton sheets from the actual 1950's that I was so excited about inheriting from my Grandmother.

One of the five, count 'em - five, funerals I went to of late, my Grandmothers lifelong friend Enid was sadly one of them. She had been quite frail and vulnerable for a long time, but before she got very ill, she used to do a bit of knitting as most ladies of that generation did. My Grandmother gave me a sack of wool odments that she had been given from Enids house and there were two half made Tom Baker style scarves. I joined them together and fringed it - I don't think there's anything prettier in the world. ANd I get to carry a bit of Enid around with me wherever I go.

So, Steve's back in hospital, not fun, and a side effect of my looking after him full time is that I have put a lot of weight back on. The difference is this time, I quite like it.

What I don't like is constantly having to spend a fortune on ever bigger underwear. So I'm going to make my own.

Watch this space!

Thursday 6 October 2011

Rest and Rejuvenation in the Face of Sadness





Something good has come out of the recent sadness. Some lovely creative conversations with Mrs CrownHeartStar and a trip to new haberdashery territory gave my creativity a kick up the backside. And not a moment too soon.

We've got the wedding of the year on Saturday to look forward to, and boy are we looking forward to it.

I picked up a genuine vintage 1960's suit off ebay for £30 and that one outfit will do the whole day. The suit, obviously, for the day, remove the jacket, move the brooch, add a belt and a change of shoes (my old faithful Ravel Mary-Jane's £2 from a car boot nearly 10 years ago that rarely get an outing) and voila - evening wear also.

My Mum in law gave me a plain fascinator when we were up there last and I fell in love with a bag of feathers in the lovely haberdashers, so, this little multi-coloured baby was born. I used my favourite brooch and added a little few feathers to it to match beautifully. I'm really into the whole multi colour thing at the moment. Colour schemes are for wimps!

And while in said haberdashers, I was quite taken with some wool in there. I've been wanting to make myself a wrap for ages, and I must be honest it really feels amazing, and has been a pleasure to knock up.