At Long Last

There has been quite a wait not only since my last post here, but also for the complete body of work that The Material Girls completed last year for the exhibition at National Trust Rainham Hall to be shown. At long last it has been decided that as the exhibition space in  the BREW HOUSE still isn't ready our exhibition will be in THE HAYLOFT instead. But as they say all good things are worth waiting for (well I say that)....... every day the exhibition is open there will be a Material Girl working in the space so this makes it quite a different experience for me at least.

Apart from exhibitions being sorted and arranged for this year, I turned 60 on New Years Eve, what a few days we had as a family, I've mentioned before December is the Month of Birthdays in this family. The day before my birthday Rachel turned 30, so it was up to town (London) for lunch with the family, then all back to ours for lunch on my Birthday, we had planned to go out for lunch but we sprung a leak so needed to wait in for a plumber.

Seeing in the New Year was done at the 'local' where Dave and I used to go most evenings when we were courting (we spent so many evenings in there with 1/2 a lager each that the bar staff actually bought us a wedding present).

Unfortunately Rachel and I both managed to pick up a nasty bug probably on her birthday lunch, when it came to the Saturday and her birthday party at a pub in Hackney, well I don't know how we actually got through it, I was almost rattling with the pills I'd taken. Boy did I pay for it for almost a week after I was lets just say 'out of it'.

Just when it looked like 2016 was shaping up to be a completely S**t year for many more reasons than I can put on my blog, James and his beautiful girlfriend Annabell have got Engaged. We are so happy and pleased for them I can't tell you.

So fingers and everything crossed 2016 will be kind and everything will work its self out.

Merry Christmas and a Healthy and Happy 2013

December is always full of celebrations in this family, we've already celebrated Dave's birthday and this year we had an extra celebration, on Saturday my lovely God Daughter Kate  married  Peter, see  her Mum's blog there are some lovely photographs of the happy couple. Then Sunday it was up early,  no time for a hangover and it was on the train to London for lunch with James and Becky plus Becky's family to celebrate James' 31st birthday, where does the time go, it seems like only yesterday I was pushing him in a pram........ Tomorrow it's Christmas Day then off we go again getting ready for another three birthdays!!!!!!
A Big Thank You to everyone that has visited my blog over the last year and to those that have left a comment an extra big thank you!  Those that haven't I look forward to maybe reading your comments during the coming year!

A Lot of Images

The kitchen is finished, well apart from the walls, they need tiling, but us girls can only put up with so much before Christmas (that's me and Betsy). So until after Christmas we'll be happy to put up with undecorated walls, I've hung a Christmas wreath in the kitchen, very glad it didn't sell at the craft sale!

I had a great day at Art Van Go, and a surprise  bonus was when someone said 'Hello Miriam' it was Lynda Monk, she had popped into pick up some supplies and was asked by Viv to give an impromptu demonstration, which of course being such a lovely lady she did......

Lynda Monk

On my way back home from Art Van Go I stopped at Sewfine in Watford and picked up a new sewing machine a lightweight Janome, that I'd ordered  I've not had a chance to play with it yet.

 Kate my God daughter is getting married on the 22nd December and I was invited to her 'Hen Tea' you can read more about it on her Mum's blog. We all had a lovely time and there was soooo much food, and yes there was cake and yes, I did eat it and NO I haven't forgotten my diet.  At this time of year I find it so hard..... Last weekend Rachel came home for a few days, I can't believe that this time last year I was dropping her off at Heathrow for her trip to Australia. Sunday the rest of the family joined us for lunch as it was Dave's birthday. I cooked the first roast dinner in my new oven with no disasters, a good rehearsal for Christmas Lunch. Monday Dave took the day off work and we went out for Lunch with his Dad. Tuesday it was the Material Girls Christmas do, so much food and I just cant say NO!!!!

This year I took part in ALQS7, I posted my quilt to Scarlett in Chile, I've heard from Scarlett that the quilt arrived safe and she is pleased with it. The quilt I received came from Claudia she lives in Brazil, I'm really happy with the little quilt the colours and the work are beautiful, just right for Christmas.

The Quilt I sent to Chile

The Quilt I received

Today we decorated the Christmas tree (last year we didn't have a tree, new puppy and only Dave and I here) To start off Betsy was very interested but then she got tired of it all and went for a lie down but couldn't help coming back  to have look, fingers crossed the tree remains intact until at least Boxing Day!

The Tree in One Piece

That was hard work.....

What's He got?

 You  do know it's raining!!!

Help ME, don't let him take me......

I give in..... wait till I get back, paw prints all over your clean floor!

December Celebrations

This month is certainly whipping through, just enough time for a quick catch up, I really should be writing Christmas cards and doing the ironing so this is a delaying tactic!

We have some big birthday celebrations this month (our family all have December birthdays) Dave turns 60 on Saturday, we have a family meal arranged, in fact it's been all family meals recently!  On the 23rd James will be 30, he doesn't want to celebrate,  I think something will be arranged not sure what yet. Next Sunday will be another get together, we will be giving Rachel her presents,  she won't be here for Christmas or her birthday or New Year, lucky girl will be on a beach somewhere near Sydney, Australia!! I'm not envious AT ALL!! It does mean that I wont be cooking vegetarian options on Christmas day,  I'll be roasting potatoes in goose fat and putting pancetta on the brussel sprouts.

I have been getting some textile work done, still can't show it yet not until the first exhibition is up and running. Ok, just to prove I've been doing something, I've been using romeo, for those that may not know what that is, it's a soluble film that can be stitched through. There's always that moment when it goes in the water that I think will it all just come apart and hours of work be wasted, Thankfully that didn't happen.... not this time anyway. Am I the only one that thinks that?

Betsy watching the swans coming out of the water

Betsy will be six months old on the 27th, she's a real character, she loves her walks at the weekend when we take her into the woods or by the ponds. Last Saturday all the ducks and geese were on the path as we passed by and on the return the two swans and the cygnet started to get very interested in us and came out of the water, we decided not to hang around and made a quick exit.

Have I mentioned the obedience training?  We attend a class for an hour every Monday, this week she was a little star and didn't put a paw out of place, sitting and laying down on command (not too much barking at the other dogs). I did have to laugh, this week there were a few new pups and owners, one lady said to me ' OMG this is such hard work',  I was so relieved when she said that, for the first couple of weeks I  left there  feeling absolutely exhausted. It felt as though I was never going to get it right, but it seems to be coming together. Having said that Betsy still pulls when we walk her and wants to play with everyone, (people and dogs) that we come across when out for a walk, so the trainer is going to come here one evening next week for a one to one session, Dave can join in too (that should be a laugh). We are getting there.

Must dash things to do and someone needs to be taken out for a walk........

Three Birthdays and A Happy New Year

Well since my last post, we've had 3 more birthdays  Rachel and Becky  celebrated  theirs yesterday and it's mine today! Last night we joined Becky's family for a celebration dinner Becky is 30, Rachel went out with her friends to celebrate her 25th birthday!
This morning I had a lovely basket of flowers delivered, a gift from my cousin and gym partner Tina, I was really lucky to get a scarf and 2 dvds from James and Becky and  Gwen Headley's  book Drawn to Stitch from Rachel.

Then Dave and I went out for lunch to the George and Dragon in Ingatestone, I went there for lunch a few weeks ago with Lady Bugs patchwork group. We are going to spend a quiet evening in tonight and go for a walk tomorrow, this has become a tradition.

I am hoping that 2011 is a better year than 2010, which hasn't been a great year for me or my family, we miss my Mum a lot.  I'm not making any resolutions which I will break in the first few days, I just want it to be a good one.

I  want to wish everyone a Happy and Healthy New Year!

Christmas is Over

Christmas was better than I thought it might be, we had my Mum with us this year on Christmas day, she's been suffering with depression for a few months now which isn't very pleasant. My Father in Law was with us too, we collected him on Christmas eve and he went home on the 27th. He and my Mum kept each other company on Christmas Day and apart from the fact that he insists on taking out his hearing aid every few minutes everything seemed to go off OK!

Rachel came home for James' birthday and is going home tomorrow after lunch, she has plans for the evening, tomorrow is her birthday she'll be 24! James and Becky are joining Rachel and her friends for the celebrations it's Becky's birthday tomorrow too!

Today we went to Bluewater shopping, thank goodness we went early, the parking was horrendous and the queues across the QE11 bridge to get in when we left there were stretching back to the M25. Dave and I only went to keep Rachel company, she had a couple of Birthday presents to buy. We needed to buy food for dinner tonight, Tuna, new potatoes and salad from John Lewis food hall, so Christmas is well and truly over!

Like Gina we are without central heating! Our boiler gave up on Sunday, could have been worse and gone off at Christmas, especially as Dave's Dad was with us. The gas board turned up and cant repair it until tomorrow, fingers crossed, this is not an unusual thing for us, it happened 3 years ago over a Christmas, we have a new boiler!!!!!!!!!!! As predicted in a previous post the tumble dryer has given up and a new one is on order.

Cant wait to get back to textile related things, I haven't managed to do much. I'd feel a bit mean sitting here under the quilt stitching, I have thought about it though! I've been knitting a scarf for myself using some of the wool I bought at the K&S this year. Usually when I feel stressed I knit socks, this year I've knitted quite a few pairs, here's a picture of just some of them!

Happy Christmas

Another Birthday celebrated yesterday, James is 28! 3 more birthday's left before the end of the year......

~~~~~~~~~~~~Have A Very Happy Christmas~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I've Posted the cards!!!!!!!!

Well two birthdays down, my OH Dave's was last week, so I cooked a family dinner as it was mid week. Saturday 14 of us went out for a Chinese Meal to celebrate my nephews 21st birthday. It was a shame that James and Becky couldn't be there but as I've said in a previous post, James was playing with Gyratory System at the Brixton Academy!!!! James is playing the Bass Guitar!

Christmas is creeping up fast only one gift left to buy, all the cards posted, a Christmas cake to ice, but the tree is still in the loft waiting, so there is only a sad little snowman sitting lonely on the window ledge, waiting for the rest of the room to be decorated!!!!
As promised in the last post here is a photo of the quilt! Still unfinished but I'm stitching on....In the meantime lots of other things have been happening ERTF have been invited to take a stand at the Knitting and Stitching Show, Alexandra Palace in October 2010, we have also been invited to take part at Textiles in Focus February 2010, so I think that ERTF are in for a busy time in 2010!
Winter has arrived, I had to scrape the thick ice off the car windows this morning before I went to the gym! Then at lunch time it snowed, it hasn't settled but we are forecast more! Just in case it doesn't snow I copied the snow fall onto my blog from Sharne's thanks Sharne.

Counting Down To Christmas

Some Holly to get the Christmas Spirit started!

This is Birthday Season in our house, in our immediate family there are 5 birthdays this month, that's without my nephew who will be 21 this month and about 8 members of my extended family that's Aunt's Cousin's and their children have birthdays too! Expensive!!!!!!!! There are only 2 Christmas gifts left to get, but I've still got all the cards to send, every year I talk about giving money to Charity and not sending cards but don't have the courage. Would everyone realise that was what I was doing? Or would they think I'd taken a dislike to them, that I was dead or that I'd become very mean spirited! Instead I buy charity cards and hope that they get a fair share of the profits!

I've not posted for a while, Dave returned from Madrid with a gift, a cold which he kindly passed onto me! I think by the time I caught it, it had mutated into a mild case of the flu, so I was out of action for a week or so. This week I'm so much better, and lots to catch up on. A couple of weeks ago I was invited to join a quilting group, the group is fairly small and is going to concentrate mainly on Art Quilts. I'm really enjoying the work, it' still needs a lot of work as you can see, I'll keep you updated.




I've also finished my first piece of work for the Aqua Group, I'm not going to show that yet as we are hoping to have an exhibition, more news on that when it's arranged. I'm still hand stitching the quilt for our bed, I think that will be ready for the new year. I'll post an image when I next post.