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.

No Need!

Well this week has just flown by. I must be honest, I was absolutely dreading yesterday as I detest training courses, and, as usual, fate stepped in and booted me up the bum and I had an absolutely awesome day that has finally showed me what I want to do with my life. I want to specialize in looking after people with Dementia. Such an incredible disease, and I can't thank the awesome course tutor we had yesterday enough. Utterly brilliant.

I was very kindly donated a big bag of gorgeously luxurious chenille wool by my good friend Lesley and I've started to do something with it. I was a bit stuck for something to do with it as the yarn is just so fat it's not suitable for most things, so I decided to make a loose stitch shrug. I'm in the process of crocheting it up into a long wide oblong, a few carefully placed stitches, et voila.

I must be honest, I'm rather excited as my lovely co-President/former Home Ec. Teacher/good friend Liz has offered to teach me to knit. Liz informs me that she was able to do fair isle at the age of 7 so I can't think of ANYONE better qualified to teach me, and it's a bloomin' good excuse to hang out with her for a couple of hours!

I purchased some yarn last week as I needed to start on my god daughter's Christmas pressie. When I got home, I totally changed my mind about the colour and tried to take it back to Shaws, where I had purchased it from. Sadly, the staff were INCREDIBLY rude, and informed me that the particular brand I had purchased was not returnable. I was not told that when I purchased it 2 days before. Given that I quite liked the colour etc I wasn't really that bothered about the fact that I had spent only a few quid on it because I'll use it for something else, but the fact that they were SO rude, I've now got a major bee in my bonnet about it. Given that Shaws are a good solid Welsh company I've always tried to support them with my purchases, but instead, cutting my nose off to spite my face, I went to Wilkinsons to purchase the yarn I really wanted. I don't think it's any less good quality but I'm not sure. Tsk, tsk, tsk!

Scratch and Sniff

I'm rather impressed with myself today. I had a sore throat yesterday all day and when I woke up this morning it was dreadful. Felt like someone had snuck in and poured acid down my throat in the night. Add in cold sweats, aching from head to toe and ears feeling like they've been stuffed with cotton wool, and that just about sums up how I've felt today.

I called in sick to work, hardly fair of me to pass that on to my lovely carees (and I think I got it from one of them in the first place) and stayed in bed. Until 17.00. And I reckon I must have been awake for less than an hour all day. Hubby very kindly then cooked me some tea and within half hour, I'm feeling wiped out again. Sucks. I don't get ill like this these days as my diet is so good. I've managed to see off all germs like that since I started on Slimming World - another good reason to join as if loosing massive amounts of weight wasn't enough!

I have some exciting news to pass on. I have been elected President of the Crumlin Women's Institute for the year. I'm really looking forward to the challenge and will be going out of my way to raise the profile of the W.I. in my locality and gain some new (hopefully younger) members to rejuvenate the group. I'm intending approaching the local papers and radio stations with the hope of doing some PR - has anyone any contacts I might be able to exploit or ideas for how to generate new members? Thinking caps on!

I also had to buy something. I didn't just "fall in love with some new shoes or anything, don't worry, my expenditure was justified, but I still feel a bit bad about it! I had to buy some new pants. My old undercrackers had literally fallen to pieces and, when you take into account my weight loss, they were quite literally falling off. Not a good look! Even then, though, I rejected consumerism - I took them to the till to pay and the lady told me that they were on offer, buy one get one half price. Well I did some quick mental calculations and decided to reject an obvious attempt to get me to part with even more cash, and declined the offer. I was pleased with that. I think previously I would have ran back and got the other pack, but I really didn't "need" them. It's only a bargain if you genuinely need it! I also had to buy a hat for Download. I very nearly passed out with sun last year, so I picked up my black trilby. I had asked EVERYONE I know, but no one had one I could steal. The fact that I have to have men's hats does not help either. Unfortunately I have a rather large cranium, which does limit my options!

We went to a car boot sale on Sunday and I was rather pleased with my treasure I found there. I went looking for craft material, wool, buttons, that sort of thing, but I was pleased to find some people there selling things from a hotel or B&B they must've given up. I unfortunately dropped my hand blender the other day. I'm gutted actually because I've only had it 10 years. It has (had) loads of life left in it yet. It isn't dead yet, but it's certainly not very well. I thought I could do with a proper blender because of all the soups and health foods I make and I managed to pick up an industrial one for £7 at the car boot, and the sellers threw in a spare jug too so I can make double quantities now too.

Meg had some lovely bargains that saved her some money. Corkscrew hair curlers, never been used and two lovely going out jackets, some lovely bits and pieces to go in her wardrobe (still bloomin' growing, her, not the wardrobe!) and all without going into a shop. See previous blog about value.

The craft group is making a real big dent in the preparations for the local fun day. We've now made yards and yards and yards of bunting, still got much more to do though, and all the signs etc for the stalls for the day. It's going to be a good day. It certainly was last year, despite the weather. After the decorations are finished, we then start on the costumes for the pantomimes. Now that WILL be fun!

I had an idea for a one piece cardigan last week too. I had wool at home that my Nana had picked up for me, so I've stared that off now too. I've combined two different yarns in sort of stripes for effect and ear marked a huge reclaimed horn shaped button for the front. It's predominantly mohair and makes my nose itch like hell when I'm crocheting it, but it's looking pretty good. I rather hope it works to plan, and, to be honest I can't see why it wouldn't.

We'd been promised a TV bracket a while ago for our little portable telly downstairs, but, to tell the truth, we got fed up of waiting! Hubby "liberated" some timber that had been fly tipped, picked up a couple of brackets and has manufactured an absolutely stonking purpose built bracket. I'm really pleased with it - was definitely worth the wait.

So it's officially the time that I can start packing for Download and I really need to get cracking on my outfits. I have several items needing my attention for the weekend. and I'll keep you informed as to my progress. I can't believe it's only 3 weeks away, I can keep my fingers crossed from now on for the weather.

Coming on tomorrow's blog - I have nearly run out of soap, so I placed my first order from the Mitcheldean Soap Co. Look out for the loveliness tomorrow ... does anyone know how to do a scratch and sniff blog...?!