Lazy me

Well hello again. I feel so guilty, all I've done for the last week is some washing and a bit of light dusting (with the emphasise on the bit!) and caught up with programmes I've recorded. I know I wouldn't feel bad if I had two weeks abroad and just read and sunbathed all the time, but somehow being at home I feel I should be doing something. I've hardly even been in the craft room now I have the time apart from making a batch of cards - I'm so stupid, when I'm at work all I do is think about what I could be doing when I'm at home and now I am, I am wasting time!! Well that is going to stop - watch this space .....!

Quick card

Thought I just put a piccy on of a card I've just done for Beverley, one of the ladies I met on my course. She made a brilliant lamp based on global warming made from all sorts of recycled bits and pieces. It was rectangular in shape and each side represented a different aspect, the Ocean, the North Pole, the Rain Forest and the Coral Reef. It looked great when it was finished and was amazing that something so decorative was made from things that people would throw away. I must get into the town this afternoon to post it as it's tomorrow - better get a move on!

Out of the Doghouse

After wrestling with it for a while last night, hubby managed to open up the Sky remote. He took out the circuit board and cleaned up one of the connections, put it back together and it worked again. It may have also helped that Niall tried to dry it out in the morning with my hairdryer as one of his friends did that when their mobile phone had something spilt onto it. Anyway, that has saved us about £25.00. No more dozing off with half a mug of hot chocolate in my hand!!

In the doghouse

Well I'm not very popular this morning. I dozed off on the settee last night and spilt my hot chocolate on the Sky + remote, so we are now stuck on GMTV. We can change it manually but having to trawl through loads of channels isn't much fun. Luckily the sun is shining at the moment so hopefully it won't really be too much of a problem today. Maybe it will dry out, but I don't hold out much hope - otherwise we will have to invest in a new one - oh dear!

Winchester Contemporary Craft Fair

Ah yes, there has been so much going on this week, I forgot to mention that I did get to the craft fair in Winchester last Saturday eventually, I say eventually because ...
the evening before, Niall and I attended a music evening at college put on by the Art Dept. Ian was working that night so was due to lock up when the event finished. It was a brilliant evening involving many of the teachers themselves that are involved playing in bands outside of college and we listened to Jazzatazz, featuring Andrew on Jazz guitar and Bob on trumpet, Joel playing Blues, Mist on the Bog, with Tim, - Irish music - really rousing at the end of the evening, Red Campion, a very talented melodic group, some Bruce Springsteen and Joni Mitchell courtesy of Gary, Jack and Sue from the Music Dept and Dave on the Djembe Drums (where a lot of us got to play along on various percussion instruments. I was given a tambourine which I was really excited about and got a bit carried away!). Anyway... the evening overran by quite a bit and Ian didn't get in until gone one after locking up and came in with a little bundle in his arms, he had found a tiny poodle with cataracts in both eyes, looking very disorientated and frail outside the college gates and had brought it home. He then proceeded to phone around for three quarters of an hour to the Police, RSPCA, Dog Warden and 24 hr Vet who talked through his sympoms with Ian and suggested we contact the Dog warden in the morning. The Dog Warden had shut for the night and came on again at 10 in the morning. Ian had to be back in work at 8am as there was an event going on so it was up to me to phone the Dog Warden at 10 - which I did, again, again and again. It was constantly engaged or the answerphone came on, and whilst the dog (a male as we realised next morning when he went out on the patio) seemed quite content out in our back garden, he had been sick on a number of occasions and it was clear that something wasn't right with him. Ian eventually managed to contact someone at the RSPCA who said they would come and collect him and that they thought he belonged to an old lady from the old people's bungalows near the college, which is what we had thought maybe the case. the RSPCA lady was lovely and said that he looked well cared for although very thin and that me may be having treatment for his problems. We asked that she phone us to let us know what had happened to him and she did about half an hour later saying that his name was Joey, he had gone missing at 11 pm the night before, he was having treatment from the vet and that his owner had been beside herself with worry about him. On Tuesday night we had a knock on the door from the owner wishing to thank us for looking after him, but said that she had had to take him to the vet to be put down on Monday and that he had died as they were getting the injection ready - he had kidney failure. We were so pleased that she had had him back for his last couple of days - he was a really sweet little thing and had been as good as gold with us.

Anyway ... all this meant that I didn't get to the craft fair until about 3.30 pm on the Saturday aftenoon, but it was really worth going. There was some really beautiful stuff on show - textiles, jewellery, woodwork, pottery, ceramics, stonemasonery - people are so talented, and I was pleased that I had got there in the end.

Nearly there!

Well I've nearly made up my extra hours that I have to do for being 'term-time only'. I have three left to do on Monday and this is because Ian and I attended Southampton University on Wednesday as Niall was in one of three teams from his school that had been taking part in a 10 week Science and Engineering project through the university and it was the final assessment day and celebration. It was lovely to see him and his friends asking questions about their project and a really good opportunity for them to have taken part in this prestigious opportunity with teams from other local schools. His team didn't win one of the final four awards but one of his school's teams got the best teamwork award. I think they all enjoyed taking part and I am sure they learnt a lot along the way.

I have taken out four books from the college where I work's (correct English?) library. We are really lucky to be able to take advantage of such a useful resource. They have a brilliant Textile section, much better than our large local library, and I suppose this is because they have to keep up with all the trends and order new books regularly. I have taken out Feltwork by Victoria Brown, Felt to Stitch by Sheila Smith, Creative Recycling in Embroidery by Val Homes and Three-dimensional embroidery by Janet Edmonds, I am able to keep them until the term re-starts and there are plenty of things in each one to whet my appetite and give me plenty of ideas of things to do in the holidays!!

We're going back to Cornwall - yippee!

Well we've gone and booked up a holiday for October half-term. We haven't got anything planned for the summer holidays as money is a bit tight and it's Ian's busy time at work, being a Premises Asst (aka caretaker/maintenance man) at the college where I also work - lots for him to paint, mend etc, but we were talking at the weekend and he said he had been looking on the Harlyn Bay website, http://www.harlynsands.co.uk/camping.htm where we stayed last summer in Cornwall, and they had an economy caravan at a really good price so did we fancy going then instead - Niall and I jumped at it and when I rang to book the girl there said they had a special offer and we will get 8 days for the price of 7 - bargain! It's a beautiful place, with a gorgeous bay just a few minutes walk from the campsite. We can take the kites as the water goes out for miles, and there is loads to see and do in the area. It's really bucked me up as I felt the year was drifting by and even though I finish work for the summer holidays at the end of the week, at the age Niall is now I probably won't see a lot of him during the day as he is out and about with his friends and gone are the days when the two of us used to take ourselves off on the train to the beach and different places and I sometimes feel at a bit of a loss - of course this is when I should be making good use of all the time to get creating while I have the chance but I find I waste so much time watching daytime tele and having yet another cup of coffee. One of the reasons for starting this blog was to try and keep up the momentum when my course finished to create some things which I could then discuss and put photos on of what I had made - lets see if it works!! I am so good at thinking of things I want to do but not so good about actually doing them - I'm the world's best procrastinator!