Crafty

A new purchase has opened up some new craft possibilities for me. Well it will when it arrives.

As my lovely hubby is so poorly we have made loads of modifications in the house to help him get about and have more space to do it and no where is this more apparent than our bedroom. It's tiny, and without an extension, there's not a lot we can do about it. But what we can do we have done.

I moved the bed into the corner by the window. What this now means is that Steve can actually walk forwards rather than sidewards across the room (I'm aware that the word "across" is a little ambitious) which helps him considerably. We also now have a bed rail to help him get in and out. It's really good, if not a bit, erm, ugly.

From my point of view, I appear to like sleeping with the wall next to me, and the window sill is awfully useful, but I have to climb up into bed from the bottom, or over Steve and/or Labrador/Spaniel gathering. I actually can cope with that although I could really do with a step up to save my shins on the foot board.

Of course now that means the bed is partially at least enclosed on both sides, and, having rather a lot to do these days I use a simple equation to determine whether or not a job get's done. It goes like this.

I take into account the amount of effort required to complete task, over the duration of said task staying done and divide that by the life or death importance of said task = If it's a pain in the arse, I don't do it.

Making the bed is a pain int the arse in this current situation, therefore I don't do it. I don't like not doing it, but it's not worth it.

Yes, we're hoping to get a new home that Steve can get around better, no I can't guarantee how much room it's going to have, so I need to be prepared to put the bed in a similar position in the new house. I can't not make the bed for the rest of time!

So we've gone for the American approach - something I've been on about for ages. I've bought two single duvets. And I can't wait for them to arrive.

I'll be able to once again make he bed simply and efficiently, I can have a lower tog rating than Steve who likes to cook himself on gas mark 9 all night - and it opens up a whole new possibility of patchwork/vintage/shabby chic options. And Steve wants a Count Duckula duvet cover for his duvet. I'm glad I haven't got a complicated husband.

I went to pick up a couple of new mattress sheets today - specifically for easy bed making purposes and I was told that they no longer stocked that gorgeous jersey bedding - you know the stretchy ones like t-shirts? What a travesty. So I'm thinking about a patchwork duvet set, made from old t-shirts rescued from charity shops. It always galls me the amount of t-shirts we keep buying and buying, and then they end up in charity. So a well collected selection of contrasting/matching t-shirts will make me some bespoke, luxuriously soft, recycled, cheap as chips one off bedding. Do you dare me?

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

"Vintage" is now code for both "anything and everything that isn't neon" and "absolute tatt". Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

I've been a charity shop addict and lover of all things old and kitsch for a bloomin' long time and WELL before it got popular. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

So anyway, I've been thinking about the internet. As a concept in shopping. I bet you all have really. You're just too shy to admit it.

I've shied away a bit from internet shopping preferring to "shop locally", and don't get me wrong, you've gotta love and support a local shop. They're there when all the roads are blocked with snow, for a start, but increasingly I think people are turning to the internet to boost their company's profits, and I don't think that can be a bad thing.

Take for instance around here. There's not a lot of industry any more, Welsh valleys, decline of industry and the coal mines, yadda, yadda, yadda, but there's a thriving business here on one of our little industrial estates (that is all boarded up predominantly) that sells spares and stuff for caravans. Yes they have a shop, yes we've shopped there, (when we had our 'van) but without it's online and ebay stores - it would have closed down. There just isn't the footfall to sustain them without it. Now it doesn't employ an army, just a couple of people but isn't that better than another boarded up unit?

The internet allows people to set up and have a go at businesses to see if they are viable before they commit to paying the rent on an expensive commercial premises. Those rents are why we are having towns relegated to rows of charity shops. The internet allow's people to be competitive on a national level, which is really what business is all about, supply and demand, competition, all that. Now don't get me wrong, I don't advocate the total abandonment of the high street, far from it. I love and support my local high streets, but I also support the people providing me with services not available on my high street. And let's not forget about the jobs that all these packages whizzing about the country generates - Post Office and couriers. I personally have 13 parcels to take to my local Post Office tomorrow. That can't be a bad thing.

And think of the recycling that goes on every day on ebay! Brilliant.

I guess after all it all comes down to the same thing. Everything in moderation, support the little people as much as the big people and there's room for all.

Dresses to follow ...

Skip Diving

It's been a couple of weeks of sorting the house out hopefully before packing up to move. And I have a new obsession. My skip.

Him indoors wants me to get shot of it sooner rather than later as I'm so obsessed with it I keep waking him up looking out of the window in the middle of the night just in case someone tries to put stuff in it!

It's not without good reason, I caught a local pikey trying to deposit a fridge in it, I caught next door's landlady putting stuff in it and the new tenant this morning putting stuff in it. I'm not paying for other people's junk to be disposed of.

Last time we had a skip it was a big badger. A builder's skip. Cost about £75, two years ish ago. This time I have the smaller variety and it's cost me £120. £120!?!?!?!

So I've been dealing with the fall out from the consumerism free year, I think. Because of the extraordinary generosity of lots of my friends and family I was given a tremendous amount of "useful stuff" and I mean that seriously - It generally was all useful (excepting my Grandmother, of course, she is a bonkers, tat obsessed magpie with a penchant for picking junk up off roads), but the reality of it is that as a single individual determined to "reduce, reuse and recycle" I simply could not plough through the amount of useful stuff I was given, no matter how useful. But through sheer terror of needing something I couldn't purchase, I kept it all.

In days past, we did make full use of every single little bit of everything useful, but we also HAD an awful lot less. In actual fact each and every one of us could probably survive most of the rest of our lives with the belongings and possessions we already have as they are so well made and plentiful that we'd had enough. The fact that we don't do that means that all of us have generated a massive amount of surplus belongings, and it's just impossible to get the full amount of use out of them that they're capable of.

So, I've had a lovely bonfire, thanks to the gorgeous Rawcliffe boys, filled a skip, took 9 bags of clothes/shoes/soft furnishings to charity in Africa (I sadly did not get to take it to Africa, just Swfrydd Primary School - bit of a let down, if I'm honest), gave 4 boxes to Lou for "Glamping" (I know - I thought that was called Premier Inn too), have another 3 boxes in my car, a living room full of stuff on Ebay (gwynsmummygwynsmummy1 if you fancy a punt) and I haven't even got to the attic yet.

Seriously. Ridiculous. That is all.

Bloomin' Kids

So, the husband is home, I have made some stuff, broke a sewing machine, bought a new one and had a skip delivered, amongst other things.

I;m trying to get life as far back to normal as I can and I suppose it's going ok. I have a new paranoia. People putting stuff in my skip and kids playing on it.

I'm trying to decide whether or not to take a sabatical from work, put a load of stuff on ebay and get things sorted to hopefully (fingers crossed) move in the not too distant future.

I need to take one thing at a time at the moment, I have many photos to upload, and I'm getting back in the saddle, slowly and a bit gingerly - but you never can have too much ginger :)

A Very Royal Wedding

I loved it. I care not what anyone thinks, I enjoyed myself more yesterday than I have for weeks, so exactly how can that be a bad thing?

I will be nipping out for my souvenir specials later on my way down the hospital - and I don't even apologise for it. I just wish I still had all my Charles and Diana stuff.

So, I'm still up and down the hospital, it's day 12 in the big brother house, and there are going to be a whole lot more. It's draining, exhausting and one of the most difficult things I've ever done, and it really has taken our marriage to a whole different level. I've done things I could never imagine doing, and become a person I never thought I could be. I've taken our circumstances to all the best people and asked for the thing I most hate asking for - help. And now comes the really hard part - waiting.

I've tried to keep things ticking over a bit normality wise, so I've started crocheting a very plain baby shawl for my nephew due in August, and I knocked up a little dress that still isn't finished from a duvet cover I loved. Not got 'round to photos yet though.

Be right back :)

"So," I hear you cry, "what have you been making then?"

Well ... calorie free cakes, for a start! I must be honest I'm cheating posting this picture actually because it's not really for this blog, it's for Twisted Sisters really. It and a load of others will be strategically placed in public places with a Twisted Sisters business card attatched, hopin to attract more lovely ladies to join our group. They're a bit of fun, aren't they?! (And £7 each in the posh haberdashers in Monmouth)

And I've been doing some work on "the prom dress" allthough you could be forgiven for thinking I was just about to declare war on a small country and this is my battle table. I thank the lord for my Nan's old oak drop leaf dining table.

And I've been doing some work on "the prom dress" although you could be forgiven for thinking I was just about to declare war on a small country and this is my battle table. I thank the lord for my Nan's old oak drop leaf dining table

So then of course we had Mother's Day. I had a lovely tea cup and saucer necklace from my Daughter, which was gorgeous, but the card she gave me was SO much better. I will scan it one day so you can see what she wrote, it was great!

...but I can't pretend to have thought up the idea for my "visitable" Mumatron/Step Mother/Grand Mother - it was actually "borrowed" from Helen's sister, and I believe she in turn "borrowed" it from Marks and Sparks, who were doing the same thing and charging £15 for.

I got some bean tins, soaked them, got the labels off as best I could - the glue was the problem, and as I've not had a lot of time I could have got it off better than I did. On the tins, I stick double layered vintage labels, and in the tins (three holes in the bottom for drainage) were two Peacock Lillies in each. Three tins were celophane wrapped (have you any idea how expensive that stuff is?!?) and tied with ribbon. The lillies will grow in the tins on a windowsill - no need to plant out; and recycled too!

My Mum in law gave me a mahoosive bag of fabric last year and I'd not used a lot of it, so I decided to use some of the pansy fabric I had as it's just SO pretty, so I made little tote bags (remarkably to an excellent standard and finish! Not like me at all!) to put them in, and I just finished it off with little print of the three of us in sepia and Victorian costume on the old fashioned baggage label - and I can honestly say, everyone loved them.

For my Mum in law, I made a shopping bag with her initials beaded on, out of the same fabric - I have to post hers up north, you see, and I couldn't guarantee the tins staying intact - or not costing me a fortune! She could see that her donations were very gratefully received, and she loves the bag. Once again, I didn't make myself one and I'm a bit gutted but I have got enough pansy fabric to make a "statement skirt" a la Emily Jayne Style Consultancy, so all is not lost, and with a bit of luck a wee bag to match that!

And last but not least - the mothers day cards. Dymo machine, pinking shears left over pansy fabric and some glue. Nuff said!

Oh and stay tuned for some VERY exciting news!

Smoke'n'Mirrors

It's been a while. Those that know me know what I've been up to. Nothing terribly exciting or rock'n'roll, just my better half becoming increasingly poorly - long term poorly. And he needs me to do an awful lot for him, and that's the way it's going to be for a while. Quite a while, by the seem of it.

I think that's the very worst bit of it for him. The constant feeling of being full on ill with severe vertigo, deafness and tinnitus at the same time and having lost the proper use of his left side is way bad enough, but for a proud, stubborn, Northerner, loosing independence is far, far worse.

But that's just the way it is these days, no point thinking "I shouldn't be this dependent" you just are. Deal with it. I have.

It's funny, funny "queer", not funny "ha ha" , but under extreme circumstances, you learn what you're capable of and you learn who your friends really are. It's taken me about 6 weeks to learn things I've been trying to learn for 34 years in respect of time management, priority management and delegation and most importantly, saying no. For years, I've not been able to say no to anyone, virtually, who has asked me to do anything, but I'm getting quite good at it.

Of course it really would help if your friends would see how you are juggling faster than ever and not ask in the first place.

And I've learned what it's like to have a real struggle. Everything before this has just been a practice.

So you can't say nothing good has come out of the situation.

And I've realized that big organisations are a smoke screens. Their "mission statement", their PR, their printed stuff, their website may show them to be dynamic, progressive, positive, but the bare bones of it at ground level is usually very, very different. Of course, I've always known this really, but as I get older the more obvious, disappointing and downright demoralizing this is.

The same as politics can never really be "for the people" until it ceases to be about the ego's of politicians, the big organizations, charities or companies, are more about the ego of the brand and the board of directors/trustees, than doing a good job helping the people they set out to help, or providing the service they set out to provide.

Of course there are benefits to being part of a big organization. It gives you a certain amount of protection and job security, but I've really learned to look way past the brand power, to the grass roots level. Of course we all need organisation, but it isn't a fixed thing, it needs to adapt. It's the bare bones of it that makes the difference, the people providing the service, delivering the goods, that are the REAL company. And a lot of them are crap.

Last Friday, I took Steve for an ENT appointment and the clinic was running 1 3/4 hours late. It was all he could do to not pass out, and while we were waiting to go in, the Consultant and the Nurses/Technicians were calling people for testing that had just gone into the Consultant, and vice versa. Just doesn't make sense to me.

We live in a Labour stronghold. Irrelevant of your political persuasions, you'd think that the Assembly Member to pick up Steve's requirements and run with them to get him the support he's entitled to, would be the Labour for the constituency we belong to. No, it was a Conservative minister that doesn't even cover our area.

I am no longer going to be taken in by brands. I will make my decision about who to use/trust/depend on/order from based on the individuals I come into contact with and push the brand aside. I've said it before - "It's all about the little people".

There's a big rock club opening this weekend and the whole world will be going. I won't. For two reasons. 1- If Steve fell when I was out working, that'd be one thing, if he fell because I was out dancing, that'd be something else. and 2- Even if I did go, I'm just not in the mood. I'm a bit more tired than usual, and got a lot more on than usual, so I'm not going, and I actually don't care.

Believe it or not, I have actually still made some stuff since we last spoke. Mother's day, ummm, Mothers day, oooo and I started on "the prom dress", but it's not got much further than starting. Perhaps this weekend will be it's debut.

We've got loads to catch up on, haven't we? I'll post again tomorrow, so grab yourself a cuppa and we'll chat then

B xxx