TWO DAYS

Only two days to go.

I had my MRI scan yesterday, it wasn't as bad as I expected. I just had to lay there and breath and hold my breath when the girl told me to. I'm always worried that they are going to forget to tell you to breath again and just get to the point when I think I can't do this any longer and the words come out "AND BREATH" aahhhh. It's funny how I don't worry about coming up for air when I'm talking!

I've bought a frozen turkey this year which is another break with tradition, I'm not sure how long it needs to defrost. Plus it's huge, I bought it when I thought that father-in-law was coming to us for Christmas dinner, so we'll be eating turkey well into the new year. Why do I always worry that I've not got enough food at Christmas? there is always more than we need, I'm quite happy to entertain and cook for lots of people the rest of the year. Still I've not got the problem of wondering around the supermarket this year, my shopping was ordered on line weeks ago and has been amended so many times since that I'm amazed I've not had an email from Ocado saying "bloody hell woman make up your mind!"

Daughter came home last night and as predicted "I don't think the tree looks right in the dinning room, plus we always open our presents in the living room, are we going to have to sit at the table and open them this year?" It's to late now the tree is staying where it is!

Today is sons 27th Birthday, there is a party tonight at his house, writing this has made me think about the parties that he had when he was small, we went through the McDonalds parties, Parties at home with clown's etc. then on to trips to the cinema with a group of friends, then to the various museum's in London, again with friends. Of course because of the time of year this was often done after his birthday as, the day before Christmas eve isn't always the most convenient time for other people. But as I think I mentioned in a previous post Birthdays and Christmas go together in this family, so we have to get over these things the tree either goes up late or comes down early depending on how we are going to celebrate. That tradition is carrying on, son said the other day "I haven't put up the tree at home yet until after my party", it made me smile.

Father-in -law went off yesterday to spend Christmas with brother and sister-in-law, I hope he has a good time, I'm sure he will there are the 2 boys and I'm sure that they will keep him entertained. The journey seemed to go OK, anyway he got off the train and didn't end up in Glasgow! our fear was that he'd doze off and miss the stop, he's not doing to bad for an 86 year old. I did tell him that they might expect him to go out and feed the sheep on Christmas morning, he wasn't to pleased about that! When we've been for a visit they've managed to get us townies out in the fields herding their sheep.

Well I suppose I'm delaying going out to look at the instructions on this turkey, I'm off to delve into the freezer now. Next year its tree in living room and fresh turkey and back to the tried and tested traditions!

Appointments

I had an appointment today with the surgeon, I need to have an MRI scan as they think that a gall stone has moved into my bile duct. This needs to be sorted out before the gall stone/bladder can be removed, lucky me! Everything is happening so fast, I thought that I'd get an appointment after Christmas but no I'm going on Monday for the MRI, thats really quick, I'm not complaining.

Tomorrow we start doing our pre-christmas family visits giving out presents, they still need to be wrapped!  I should be doing that now but I'm not, husband is out for his christmas works do and I did say that they would be done this evening but to be honest I'm not in the mood.

This year we broke with tradition and put the tree in the dinning room instead of the living room, I'm not sure its right, but its to late to move it. Son called in tonight and said "Mmm thats different" not sure he liked it either, cant wait to hear what daughter thinks when she sees it. Strange how we like things to stay the same!

 

Busy

WOW! do I always start my blogs Its been busy? The New Year will bring a new start to my blogs, that my first new years resolution!

Christmas Cheer

Its been a really busy few weeks, helping daughter to get her place sorted and also visiting father in law more than we have done previously. Now he's on his own I think that most weekends will be like that,  shopping for him or just visiting. His only close family is us or a couple of cousins who have their own families.

I've not been feeling that great for a while and after some investigation at the hospital its been discovered that I've got a Gall stone! My OH spent his birthday yesterday at the hospital while I had a endoscopy, he did get tea and biscuits what more could you ask for. I have an appointment next week with surgeon to find out what is going to happen about the stone.

Tonight we are having the family over for dinner, so his birthday starts when he gets home tonight! This time of year is always busy for us as the 4 of us have our birthdays between the 10th and 31st of December we call it bad planning not family planning! Then sons girlfriend has her birthday on the same day as daughter so that 5 birthdays and I must'nt forget my nephew who is also in December!!!!!! anybody else that wants to join the family is going to be vetted  and no December birthdays will be allowed.

Last Friday we had the ERTF Essex Christmas meal it was really nice to get together socially. This lunch time the girls from my C&G class got together for lunch also a good idea as we had a good meal and had a chat. Not that its unusual for us to chat we sometimes spend the whole of Thursdays talking, although we've only known each other for a short time we all seem to get on really well and we have been talking about starting a group when the class finishes in June, it sounds very exciting! Tomorrow I'm off to the ERTF committee meeting, they are usually marathons, hopefully this one will be fairly short, we'll have to see I wont hold my breath!!!

While all this has been happening I've been getting on with my panel and also I'm getting close to finishing a double quilt for my brother and sister in laws 25th wedding anniversary next year, I've given myself a lot of time to get it done, I can do without any pressure at the moment.

Reading this back I sound quite fed up, I'm not apart from the stomach problems everything is great, and I really love this time of year even though on the 31st I'll be 53!

Bowled Out

It's been a busy time, The Material Girls have had their exhibition it all seemed to go off really well. Now I'm starting to think about what I'm going to do for the next one.

ERTF had their second conference it was a really wonderful day, I'm sure that everyone enjoyed it. The Monday before that my mother in law died, it wasn't sudden she had suffered for quite a while.

Last weekend my daughter moved out of home into a flat share with a friend, it was quite hard work, I've never known someone with so many clothes! When I go into her room here there are still loads of clothes left so the charity shops should do OK in the next couple of weeks. This is the second time shes lived away from home, last time it was while she was at uni, so I knew it was only for 3 years, this time it feels more final. I do understand shes moved back to where all her friends are, its not far away but I'll miss her.

Onto brighter things, last week I finally had my last sample and experimental piece signed off so now I can concentrate on the final projects. The wall panel seems to be coming along OK, I've lots of ideas but its getting them onto paper and then into stitch thats proving to be the problem, but I'll get there in the end!

The ERTF web site is up and running now so give it a look!

K&S

I had a lovely time today at the Knitting and Stitching Show, as usual I spent too much money and bought a few things that I really didn't need. There were lots of knitting wools a weakness of mine, I bought 2 lots of sock wool to knit my D and sons GF a pair each for Christmas, as D was with me she picked the colours. I also got the threads I'll use on my C&G project pictured in the last post, I'm hoping I've got enough. Oh, yes, I also took out a subscription to Selvedge, I've been thinking about doing that for quite a while, I usually ask for that sort of thing for Christmas but it never happens, so I treated myself!

I  went to Maggie Grey's stand, I introduced myself and said I'd bought her book and read her blog, my D was standing close by and said I sounded like a stalker, I'm not! I  just really like her work.

The K&S has become a bit of a tradition for my D and me, it started when she was away at uni and we would meet the for a bit of female bonding, since she's been living at home its carried on. Next month she's moving away again and will be living in North London she hopes!  it'll be like old times, next year we'll meet at Ally Pally.

Tomorrow we are putting up The material Girls exhibition and the private view is on Tuesday. When this week is over I can start thinking about the exhibition next September,  ERTF's first. I'll keep  you posted.

Lakeside Shopping

The day started off really well, we made a trip to Atlantis Art Supplies in East London for the first time. I needed a canvas for my next C&G project 'a panel' see the picture. This is 2 photographs that I took on holiday this year of a sugar mill in Antigua, I played with the displacement mapping on photoshop and a lot of help from reading magstitch.blogspot and came up with this. ( I will update my progress as I go along, promise). I couldn't quite decide how big I want to do it so I had to buy two, and of course the one I don't use will always come in handy.  A trip home dropped off the art supplies which I wont go into, but of course I really need them all! Picked up daughter then off to Lakeside on a sunday, always a bad move, especially when its raining it was packed!!

Oh how I dislike Lakeside on the weekends, especially when it turns out to be a wasted journey, we wanted to update my phone to an i-phone, it cant be done because I have just over a month to go on my contract, even though  its going to cost us a lot more, what's wrong with these people? We want the phone and are willing to pay more for it, but no the shop was right, when we got home my OH phoned 02 and it just cant be done. 

Then we went into the Apple shop OH has been going on about getting an Mac lap top instead of using the emac we already have, I was in agreement, but it turns out we where thinking along different lines he started looking at white ones I want black they are £300.00 more, so we are going to have to think this through again. He's going on about hard drives and gigabytes I'm thinking of how grubby the white will get. I do agree with him that why pay more just for the colour. By this time I'm starting to losing the will to live. 

Meanwhile daughter is looking for a jacket and phones to tell us that Yo Sushi has opened up since our last trip to LS, we decide to have lunch there. When we finally get a seat, we place an order for  the dishes we want and pick a couple of dishes off the belt as it passes by, we notice that a half of the dishes we have ordered haven't arrived, Daughter decides to call the waiter and cancel them. So not a fruitful trip to LS, well it was for D she managed to buy herself a really nice jacket.

Roll on next weekend Knitting and Stitching show the kind of shopping I like.

Sorry for the rant.

The Material Girls

Its not long now till the exhibition, I've only got to get the sketch book finished and then I'm ready. Back to college on thursday for the second year of city and guilds I'm looking forward to it, I hope to post more this year and put pictures of my work on the blog as I go along. I always have good intentions but I get distracted by other things!

A Long Time Since The Last Post

Its been along time since my last post, I do keep meaning to post regularly but life gets in the way.
Well I've been busy doing my samples for my city and guilds course, it seems I get 12 done only to be given another24. I do feel as though I'm never going to catch up! We are on to form now I've still got a couple of things to do to finish my shape folder then I can start on the form folder, having said that I've got a few thing done towards form already. Pictures later. I do sometimes think I sound as though I'm not enjoying the course which is not true I am.
Last weekend we went for a walk in to Cely Wood which is a place that we drive past at least once a week and at one time we both drove past twice a day as it was our route to work. It is true what they say the things that are on your doorstep you never seem to visit, anyway the bluebells were out and what a sight a wonderful carpet of blue and in one part of the wood they were mingled with a lovely little white daisy type flower. This is a place that we will visit again and again I'm sure. Well I must get on now and do some more work to try and get that folder finished.

Busy Times

I'm a bit late in posting, but its been a busy time. Last weekend I went to Belstead house with the Embroiderers Guild and had a fantastic weekend, just sewing it was great, snow and bad weather didn't put a dampener on things, Pauline Verinder was wonderful I will do another workshop with her. I have finished 2 of the pieces that I started there. I've also finished the banner I'm doing for an exhibition with the Material Girls and have come up with some ideas for my other pieces of work for the show in October. This time next week the ERTF launch day will be over, and we'll be thinking about our next event! Sorry to say that I've not got much done for my C&G course but at least I do know where I'm going. This afternoon I went to our Embroiderers Guild meeting and had an inspiring talk Barbara Weeks she was talking about colour and dying her own fabrics I want to do more of that!

Venue

I went with Chrissythreads today to look at the venue for the ERTF Launch day. Its a really lovely place with a nice airy feel about it. Its getting quite exiting as the day gets closer. I have decided that I am going to stand for election onto the committee, I was a little reluctant to stand, but it would be nice to see the first year out at least. My OH did say that if you start something you should see it through and it does show commitment. I suppose I am a bit concerned that I'm spreading myself a too thin, but I'm not standing for an officers job, I don't couldn't cope with that!
When OH gets in I've got to tell him that I've had a bit of a bash in the car, trouble parking! Its not too bad just a bit of paint scraped off the bumper and onto a gate post! Its the first time I've had a scrape in 35 years of driving, I just hope I go 30 years without another.

Getting on with it

Well today I've made quite a dent in some of the things on my to do list for the C&G. I seem to never catch up having 2 weeks off to go on holiday was not a good idea and to make it worse I was ill for a week before we went. I know that I'll get there in the end if I just keep at it. So today I've made a bonda web sandwich! made a really lovely bit of felt I'm over the moon with it and I've also made a couple of pieces of fabric using Grilon. Now I'm taking a little break and photocopying some of the work I did the other day using Gesso if I could work out how to put pictures on this thing I would. I'm not very good at computers, I keep meaning to do something about that, another thing on my list of things to do. It just keeps getting longer oh well I'd better get back to it! Bye for now, I'm also going to try and blog more often as I think it may help me to get things off my chest without them building up.