Ups and Downs

The new start still hasn't happened! By the time we'd prepared, cooked and eaten tea and I'd had a chat on the phone with my DSis (she's currently having her bathroom revamped and was totally unprepared for the mess that sort of job entails) and did a couple of other things I was shattered on Monday night. Bedtime came early for me - I went up around 10.30pm after realising my head was nodding whilst I was trying to answer emails!

Tuesday I pottered around but my head was a shed, so it was a case of starting something, then wandering off to do something else, then coming back to finish the first job. To be honest getting anything done at all was an achievement, with the anniversary of my Mum's passing on Wednesday and I was struggling to focus on much else beforehand - it's par for the course, judging by previous years experiences. I've learnt to just go with the flow.

With that in mind I got my cardmaking stash out on Tuesday and made the tag to go by Mum's name plaque:

I'm not totally happy with how it turned out (I didn't have a cream coloured tag and probably should have inked the lacy border with brown ink, not green) but inspiration was slow in coming. Still, it was made with love. :0)

Whilst I'd got the cardmaking stash out I remembered to make a card for Eleisha, DH's youngest niece.


Sorry about all the extra background - still trying to tame the scanner....... and failing miserably. DH posted it that night, so it will arrive in plenty of time - it's got to go all the way up to Glasgow, in with all the Christmas post.

The Christmas card writing didn't get far initially: I got the air mail ones and all those that had to go in packages written and sorted and then it all sort of stalled after that. DH thought he had done his bit........ he got me several books of second class stamps, for posting them. LOL I finally bit the bullet on Tuesday night, when I got fed up of the guilt trip every time I saw the box of cards, and got them all done. That was one marathon session and it meant I didn't do any stitching for UFO Night. Oops! Am hoping the extra I stitched on him earlier in the week will count towards it so Julie won't send Mr Stick round for a visit. ;0) LOL

Wednesday we were up bright and early to go over to Doncaster, posting all those cards on the way. We went to my DSis's first. The new flooring in the living room is lovely. The bathroom is a re-boarded and plastered shell with just a loo in it at the moment but the chaps are getting on with things fairly quickly, so it should be all done in time for Christmas. We went to the Servery for dinner (saved her cooking when the house is upside down) then went on to Rosehill to lay some flowers and clean the plaques. I also took a small windchime with me and hung it from the big blue spruce tree that's close to where Dad's ashes are. It's lovely to hear all the windchimes playing in the wind. It was bitterly cold, with frost still on the grass, so we didn't spend as long as usual there. When we'd had a coffee and a defrost back at DSis's we did a couple of runs to the amenities site, loading up The Tank with all the old living room flooring and rubble - as the workmen get charged if they take it, it seems they now leave it for the householder to dispose of. That's OK if you're a big strapping bloke with a large car or van, or someone with deep pockets who can afford to hire a skip....... not so great when you're a lone female with a small hatchback and a tight budget! DH then broke up the pieces of old cast iron bath into more manageable bits and left them down the side of the house for the local gypsies to take - they're always trawling round for metal so it won't be there for long. We didn't get back until late, so no stitching done at all.

Today I'm more my usual self again......... not sure if that's a good or a bad thing though. LMAO The fascia chaps mate has been to collect his ladders so I can now put things back to where they should be down the side of the house. We'll also be having an amenities site run of our own at the weekend, to get rid of all the old guttering etc and the off-cut waste from the new stuff that went up - no metal among it so our local gypsies aren't interested, unfortunately. LOL It's my neighbours eldest girls birthday tomorrow so I shall be making a card for her shortly and it's also Sea Stars SAL today - still no new start but at least I'll be stitching. :0)

Many thanks for the kind comments on SS and Night Watchman, they're very much appreciated. I've caught up on some blog reading/commenting but still have a ways to go - please bear with me, I'll catch up eventually. LOL

Thank you for taking the time to visit. Hope you're all having a good day and managing to get lots of stitching done. :0)