Help please

1.Viola silk lace

2 Lilac silk lace

3. Guava Silk lace

4.Blush silk lace

I have had some fabulous Lantern Moon ebony circular knitting needles from V for Christmas, they are beyond stunning and I want some equally stunning yarn to put on them for a shawl. (Probably an icarus as I have yet to find a yarn that I really want for this project)

I have Christmas money burning a hole in my pocket and I know that it is going to be spent at Sundara Yarn. But and here's the thing, what colour?

I think I'll take a vote or something. Click below to give an opinion. Don't worry it is quite safe.
I think it is quite funky really.

What colour yarn to choose?
	Viola
	Lilac
	Guava
	Blush
Free polls from Pollhost.com

One Deep Breath- Giving

over and over
I give myself. I get lost,
sometimes, from giving.

but

sunrise in their smiles
as they look at me. Mummy,
I love you so much

for more on giving check out ODB here

Is vaguely inebriated blogging allowed? I made the vodka martini's a little too strong I think. Still can't be too bad... I can still spell, punctuate and write haiku. Oooh, hark at her!

A Christmas Meme

All done for another year. The turkey is picked over for curry tomorrow, the dishes are done, the kids are whacked and are chilling out in front of the TV with Percy the Park Keeper Christmas Special dvd. (I love Percy, the illustrations are just perfect.) V has taken his mum to see his dad in hospital, FIL is out of danger now we believe but it was touch and go for a bit there.
I am sitting down for the first time today. Thought I'd surf for some snazzy lace weight to go with my new ebony circs! (so chuffed with them, must be the star pressie really) and I had a quick whisk around the favourite blogs - don't expect many to post on Christmas day but some have taken a breather from turkey and tinsel to post something. Saw this on Patois blog and thought I'd swipe it in lieu of something to say really.
Hope you are all having a great time!

“When people say ‘Christmas’ you immediately think…”
holly and carols

“Favourite Christmas memory.”
Daddy coming home out of the blue. We weren't expecting him back until January that year and it was always a tough time for my mum when he was away over Christmas. But that Christmas eve he wangled some leave and arrived on the doorstep in the snow bearing all sorts of beautiful present from far away. Spices and perfume for my mother, aquamarines for my sister. I cannot remember what he brought for me mainly because I was so shocked he was there - like magic.

“Favourite Christmas song/carol.”
"I believe in Father Christmas" by Greg Lake. Favourite carol is "In the bleak midwinter" sung by Bert Jansch or "The Holly and the Ivy" sung by The Medieval Babes

“Favourite Christmas movie.”
I like a bit of Bond at Christmas. Its tradition really. We'll be watching Casino Royale when V gets back with a vodka martini maybe ( I got V a cocktail kit for one of his pressies)

“Favourite Christmas character.”
I like the ghost of Christmas present in A Christmas Carol. But Gonzo as Dickens in the Muppets Christmas Carol is pretty fine too.

“Favourite Christmas ornament/object.”
The white porcelain nativity that I bought the first Christmas after I left home. My first grown up ornament. It hasn't been out since the children were born. I try not to be attached to "stuff" but I would be broken hearted if anything happened to this. So it is kept in safty until they can be trusted not to destroy everything they set their hands on.

“Plans for this Christmas.”
V, me and the kidlings. The MIL over for dinner and relax for the rest of the day. Fun day tomorrow with sister, bro in law and mad nephews, even madder mum and dad over too. Games, walk up the mountain, mulled wine and howling carols in the kitchen doing the dishes as the level goes down on the sherry bottle. It is tremendous fun.

“Is Christmas your favourite holiday?”
Fer sure.

Window in Your Heart

It is continuing to be a peculiarly schitzo chrimbo this year. Never had a Christmas like it. Normally the black dog waits until January to bite me in the arse, but he has been having a good old chew off and on for the last month. So surfing round the favourite blogs this morning I wandered over to Hedgewizard and paddled around a bit in a particularly touching post Window in Your Heart - It is brave but also sorrowful, you have been warned.

But Christmas is a happy time, giving gifts, being with loved ones, watching nostalgic TV. There was the church ceilidh last night which was huge, huge fun. I have so much to be thankful for, really I do. I have more than enough, my family is strong and healthy, there is ample food and drink in the house, the fire is glowing and there is plenty of coal, the presents are sorted even if they have still to be wrapped. So how is it that I am feeling so desperate at the same time? It is rather annoying frankly.

Christmas Eve is my absolute favourite day in the whole year - it is all about potential, the waiting, the excitement. I love it, the "eyes full of tinsel and fire" type stuff. That quiet intense happiness that only happens on Christmas Eve.

This morning I woke up knowing that I had had a wonderful warm comfortable dream. I can't remember anything of it, but I have been yearning for something quite hopelessly for some time. And I know that my mind had somehow manufactured what I had been yearning for and given me the comfort of it even if it was only in my dreams. I have been hanging on to that comfort all morning.
In the words of my favourite Christmas song "I wish you a hopeful Christmas, I wish you a brave new year. All anguish pain and sadness leave your heart and may your road be clear"

I think this post will also do for the "What Christmas Means to Me" meme from Pilgrim. (Can't link 'cos he's still flying under the radar at the mo)

Have a good one friends, see you the other side of the turkey madness!

Look!

Talk about love at first sight - check these out! Glow in the dark knitting needles. So, so pretty.

Limerick - Love at First Sight

I was singing Ms Marcos's blues
When dear V* chose to give me his views
"Its simply not right
this love at first sight"
So he's clearly not met the right shoes


*husband, no more to be said really.

For more about Lurve see MK's blog

Update 21.29 same day
Have read Ul and Lissa's haiku since then and thought them particularly haunting. Thought I'd give it a go

Shrieking freaking pain...
Are you worth it love, really?
A thousand times, yes.

Haiku - A Kind of Beauty

For me there is no beauty like that of winter light, cold and steely or misty and muted. Wales sits well under a winter's sky. Here are three haiku on my favourite times of day: dawn, twilight and midnight. For other haiku on things of beauty check out One Deep Breath here

Frost ferns on the glass
dawn's light paints the pearly sky
the day has begun

Cold silken light. A
robin lifts his solstice song.
Rose kissed clouds linger.

Winters night spits stars
lift to touch the cold white sparks
but my hearth calls me

Simple Christmas Pleasures

Oh my, just sat down with a mug of tea and a Chrimbo snack. I have been shopping at Tescos but too tired to drag the stuff in from the car so it can stay there overnight. The car is as good as a fridge right now, my hands have only just stopped burning, they are just aching now. How they manage in the Yukon I'll never know.
So, hot tea, wensleydale cheese with cranberries on a few butterpuff crackers. Who I ask you can resist a snack called a butterpuff? I can't. There is fresh pineapple and double cream to follow if I can risk the heart burn at this time of night. I deserve it. My pantry is full, my drinks cabinet too. I love Christmas. I love the astonishing array of good things to eat and the treats that are stored up because you have fought like a salmon for well...salmon.

Actually it wasn't that bad in Tescos tonight. I went after work and while it was ticking over it was actually quite a happy atmosphere. People were singing along to the music, wishing utter strangers a happy christmas, everyone was good humoured about being out in the supermarket at gone ten at night. Tomorrow however it will all be changed with a miasma of aggression and stress wafting through the sprouts. I am glad I went tonight. I won't have to go again now until the New Year. And I am quite happy about that, does it show?
Warm milk and baileys now and then to bed. I am a happy bunny tonight.
Nos da cariad.

Thursday - Love is all Around

Angels

December's Crafts

This blog has been a bit quiet on the old crafty stuff of late, but that does not mean that there has been no crafting going on. Indeed, I have been snowed under making stuff for Christmas and here is the thing I am really proud of, it is all from the stash! I haven't bought any wool since oooh October I think.

Here is the stuff I have made for the girls teachers. It is a tiny village school and every single teacher there has some kind of input into my girls. At this time of year there is not really the money to spend on bought gifts for teachers, cos even if you just get them bath salts or choccies it all adds up, but raiding from the stash - well, it's just time then isn't it? I would say that this little heap took me about a week.


Pictured are: Felted scarves- Blue faced Leicester Humbug (brown). Cerise merino with trilobal glitz in parrot. Grey merino with "mardi gras" pencil roving swirls. I was particularly pleased with the way that that turned out, the flame shapes at the edges makes it a particularly flamboyant piece of felt (for a particularly flamboyant, wonderful teacher).
Also present (no pun intended) are two hairbands decorated with pencil roving, they are the spidery things on the right, a crocheted hat in hanspun merino with a mohair picot edging and a crocheted scarf, not handspun but two commercial yarns plied together.

Look at the crimp on that fleece will ya? Lovely, lovely,lovely stuff
(sorry, bit of spinnerese there)

The jewelry was easier as I can knock out about four pairs of earrings in an hour. The floating necklace was a bit of a fiddle, but worth it in the end. It is called a floating necklace because the beads are strung on gut and appear to "float" against the skin.
I made other stuff too, a felted necklace, another crocheted scarf of merino with a jacob fringe and a felt glasses case but I was in a bit of a rush to get them packed so I forgot to take a pic. But that is it for Christmas crafts now. I have to get the house tidy again and wrap the family pressies. Any spinning done from here on in will be purely recreational stress busting stuff. There is some Falkland tucked away in the attic, lovely spongy stuff to spin and makes the best hat yarn in the world. But for now, hoovering awaits.
Have a great day. Ta ta!

Another Christmas Song!

Another favourite. I love Chrissie Hinds voice, not classical, not smooth but full of feeling, pathos even. Listen to the way she sings "I miss you" to get an idea. There is no vid with this one which is a good thing if your 'puter is as asthmatic as mine. Just use the opportunity to visualise the purple sky and snow and a far away loved one in your company if only in your dreams ( different song, I know)

...and a Christmas one!

For the twelve days of Christmas, your true love will send you:

Twelve punk rockers drumming Eleven christmas trees a-twinkling Ten elves a-leaping Nine ladies yodeling Eight cows a-milking Seven rumballs a-drunkening Six Santas a-hohohoing Five golden toe rings Four calling telemarketers Three French chefs bearing escargot Two stale fruit cakes And a chimp in a peach tree

What Will You Get for the 12 Days of Christmas?

Insomnia Again!

Your Personality Is Like Acid

A bit wacky, you're very difficult to predict. One moment you're in your own little happy universe... And the next, you're on a bad trip to your own personal hell! At your best: You understand the world completely, and every ordinary experience is sublime. What people like about being around you: You say and do the craziest things. You're very entertaining. What people dislike about being around you: You're unpredictable. Your mood swings are quite intense. How addicted people get to you: They pretty much don't get addicted to you.

A joke, of sorts

This was sent to me by Sharon Aberdare who swears that it is one of her husband's jokes and that she finds it a bit sick. I thought it was hilarious and so I am passing it on. But blame Chris if you don't like it. You'll find him here. He's baaaad (got to say it like that when you are from Aberdare see?) at the moment tho, so take it easy on him okay?

Imagine my joy when getting
the Christmas decorations
out and I found a present I'd
forgot to give the family last year.
Their excited faces were a picture
as they unwrapped it and opened the box...
unfortunately it was a puppy!

and as we are on the subject of fairly outrageous things to say, I thought I would pass on a small excerpt from Pastor's sermon last Sunday. It is Christmas okay? Magi and the stable and all that stuff.

Now in Wales you'd be hard pushed to find three wise men (pause of perfect length for maximum impact) ...or a virgin.

Yes, he is a real pastor, they ordained him and everything.

Limerick prompt - multi tasking

This one was pretty hard to do. Limericks are supposed to be amusing at least, if not out and out funny and it is kind of hard to be amusing about multi tasking, as it is such a massive part of life. So here is my effort anyway. It is not autobiographical - I like the odd cocktail as Dizzy will tell you but so far, and sometimes to my huge surprise, I have stayed away from alcohol dependency. I have other addictions to indulge in. Plus withdrawal's a bitch.

When my life was not in the pink,
I'd the impulse to take to hard drink.
Now something eludes me
and that something includes the
ability to talk and think

...simultaneously.

For other multitasking limericks and haiku check out Mad Kane's Humour blog

Favourite things

Sunday Scribblings - Dance

Our stage is the kitchen, the music starts and away we go. The music carries us and they are away, leaving me free to watch them with my heart in my eyes.
I love to watch my daughters dance. To watch them finding the beat, responding to rhythm and feel. They are sweetly expressive in their unformed grace, bobbing and dipping like little boats on a sea of sound. I am astonished at their beauty.

Then V says "They dance like you" and I see the truth of it. And I don't know what to think - I want them to dance their own dance, to find their own steps but mine is the only dancing they see, how can they not follow? Do they dance because they like to dance or do they dance for my approval? Does it matter if it is both?
They are smiling like sunrise as they dance around me. They are flying. Who cares? Stop worrying Mummy, we are happy.

For more writing on dance check out SS here

The Tree

Off to get the tree now. One of my favourite Christmas things. The smell of pine in the cold air, picking just the right one, bringing it home and finding that it is far too big for my tiny rooms. Smothering it in tinsel and fairy lights and then spending the rest of the evening admiring it and getting high on the woodland smell pervading the house.

Pics later I have tree finding to do and maybe lunch out.
Have a wonderful,happy, fragrant day.

Friday Five

1. What's the last movie you saw?
Stardust - for the second time, yes it is that good.

2. Are you gentle?
Sometimes

3. Do you sleep with your bedroom door shut?
Never

4. What's your middle name?
Aurwen- a Welsh name, it means white gold. Given to me by my father.

5. Friday fill-in:
I could learn to like ___.

Sorry, I have never learned to like anything as far as I know. I either like something or I don't and if I don't then there is no learning otherwise I'm afraid.

One Deep Breath - Yummy

Christmas is a time of good things in the oven as well as all the other good things in store this season. I love food and this haiku is the first of a probable few that I will write on favourite yummy comfort foods of mine. For other yummy haiku check out ODB here

Mulled wine
Cinnamon, orange,
cloves and warm ruby wine fills
my home with Christmas

A Winter's Tale

Yes, I know it is cheesy. It has eighties production too and it is a sad song which I was not going to promote but I was looking up links and there he was. I could not resist. David Essex (along with Timothy Dalton) has been my crush of choice for nigh on thirty years and this was the first single I ever bought... 1982, oh my gosh.

The one legged man...*

Well, we are all busy this season right? But it is fun right? I think I am having fun. You would tell me if I was going nuts wouldn't you? I still have pressies to make and a skit to write for the church ceilidh and carol service on the 23rd.

Here is another question - why is so much Christmas music appallingly sad? Not sad as in pathetic, though there is plenty of that too. I mean sad as in tragic, really "open a vein" sad.
I was wandering around Tesco last night after work and on the pipe came that lovely bunch of ASBO**s, I think it was East 17. Anyway, they were singing Stay Another Day. Jeepers! I was welling up!
I love Mudd and It'll be lonely this Christmas cos of his fine Elvis impersonation and it is a good song to weep into the beer to and David Essex's Winters Tale is a classic, albeit a forgotten one. But I never realised how heartbreaking it must be at Christmas if you have lost someone and then you have to cope with what is almost an unrelenting tide of sad songs. How awful it must be. I have lost a few friends this year and none of them have been easy, but to lose love...

Right! Enough of that! Here is a pic of the chocolate snack we enjoyed whilst out hollying.

It looks rather like the dead of night in the pic. Actually, it was not that dark on the mountain but instead heading towards owl light. I think it looks worse because of the flash, but I am not clever enough to fix it in photoshop.



* In honour of that fabulous saying - "busier than a one legged man in an arse kicking contest"
**Anti Social Behaviour something, I think it is Order. I don't think I am out of line when I say that the young men that sang Stay Another Day looked, to a pimple, like a bunch of car thieves. (oops, somebody give me a hand up to the kind blog waggon that just passed over my head will you?)

Holly gathering

Straight after school, quick change and on with the wellies. The girls and I set off to get holly, pine boughs and ivy to deck our tiny halls with. What with the rain that we have been having the paths were stupidly muddy and the waterfall by us was in full roaring spate. Alas, no pic - next time maybe. Four year old twins and the waterfalls don't go in my opinion.

Off up the back mountain, quite a trek for tiny Lily, but she managed and we got a basket load of bright berries and boughs. With time for a choccie break. It was very cold up there and by the time we had dawdled our way back down the hill, it was getting quite dark, but it was so peaceful up there too. Just the wind and the sheep and the first stars seeing us home.

Poetry prompt - Annoying Advice

Thanks to Patois for the latest poetry prompt from Kane. I don't write limericks as a rule but this took the time very pleasantly. And here is mine, constructed out of annoying advice.

Just relax the midwife told me.
Stop running away from that bee.
There's no use repining,
look for silver linings.
There's plenty more fish in the sea.

Favourite Christmas Song Ever!

New Find

Through Pippa I have found an amazing blog. Wayfaring Wanderer Stunning photography, go and check it out.

Christmas Shopping

Whew! What a nightmare and it has barely started yet. Swansea was heaving, full of people who pushed, shoved, ignored personal space - old women are particularly good at this. I leant into one old space invader in the queue in Marks, really put some weight on her, evil of me I know, but she was a sturdy old bird and didn't budge an inch. So I brought out the big guns. In an act of staggering violence, I turned around and raised my eyebrows at her. She stepped back. Never have met a Brit that can stand in the full glare of a raised brow.
Feeling much better we went to Debenhams and I promptly lost my sister. She could not have disappeared more effectively if she had been kidnapped by aliens. It took me well over half an hour to find her and we could not figure out who was more annoyed with whom, though as the younger sister I naturally took the blame because hey, I'm the youngest right? And if my eyebrows can make an ignorant old biddy take a step back, my darling sister's lifted eyebrows would have made her spontaneously combust. I know my place. I love my sister by the way, she is my absolute hero.
As a particular treat, it was off to the LYS (see, I know the lingo)* to pick up some Y obviously. But while there I succumbed to the lure of some particularly stunning ice blue frosted glass beads...and some bugle beads in mixed colours and some sequins (tacky I know, sue me) and little pink cubes and some frosted plum ovals too. Have I told you I have a serious bead habit, it is worse than wool really because they are so much easier to store ie, keep hidden from V's sight.

So, back home and hide the goodies. My husband is out to the rugby tonight, not an uncommon event in Wales, but my dear V has lived on this earth for over forty years and has never, in my knowledge, gone to a rugby match in any of them. I wonder how he will like it? He'll probably shout himself hoarse, have a whale of a time with Uncle Daisy and probably take another forty years before going again.
What shall I do tonight then? Oh I know...some beading I think.

*
LYS - Local Yarn Store, whough Swansea is only local-ish for me. There is no YS near me' cos I don't count the acrylic nightmares that Shaws in Neath offer us as yarn. I've got nothing against man made fibres, but make them soft for goodness sake.

Friday Five

1. Are you married?
Yup.

2. When do your claws come out?
When scared and/or threatened...or sometimes just for the hell of it.

3. Have you ever been in a car accident?
Yes and dashed inconvinient it was too!

4. Who is the last person you held?
Sleepy Lily who zonked out in the car and had to be carried into the house.

5. Describe a time you've gone overboard:

Going overboard is a regular thing for me. I rarely do anything by halves. So this means if it is yarn, spinning, books or people I give my complete attention and focus. That can be scary at times. But hey, who wants luke warm? Not this bunny.

As another tack (no pun intended) I have never fallen off a boat in my entire life.

Calling Pippa!

My dear girl, when you change the url of your blog, you need to tell people or else they will not be able to find you anymore! Pheonix Song is not there and so I cannot find you, let me know where you are, there's a sweetie.
:D

Chairman's Challenge

Each year in the Guild, the Chairman issues a Christmas challenge to be completed and submitted at the Chistmas meal. We are off to the Butchers arms in Alltwen again - yay! Very good food there with a reassuringly large chef - I like a man who enjoys his work.
Anyway, this year the challenge is Christmas Stocking and with marked lack of originality on the take, I have made a Christmas stocking and filled it with goodies, some of which would be of interest to a spinner! But most of which is of the every woman fondness for choccies, pretties and smellies. I enjoyed making it very much and it whiled away a miserable few hours of insomnia that I could well have done without last night.

Beaded Stars

Filthy weather outside, stuck inside, chores all done (amazingly - just shows how much time I waste on the 'puter). Anyway, I wanted to work on something fiddly but not challenging to the brain, so out with the beads once more.

I had a good lot of pics to put up here and blogger is just not playing. But you can see the method from the above pic.

You just need about 13" of wire, I used 6mm silver plated, but I have used sturdy fuse wire in the past. 20 bugle beads, 10 beads (4mm) these are swarovski crystals and I love them 'cos they sparkle like crazy which is always a good thing, but particularly good at Christmas.
Twist a loop and wrap round, thread the beads according to pattern, bending wire as you go. A little bit of tinkering at the end and you have a star.

After making three, you will be able to make them in your sleep - they are that easy. I love stars. So beautiful.

Phew! I am Back!

Thanks to the truly dis-gusting weather that the Welsh sky is throwing at us our phone lines snapped and we have been out of the loop for twenty four hours. Man! I thought I was going nuts! How do I rely in the internet, let me count the ways...
Anyway I am here now and I am going to check up on you all in a little while. First though I have to upload what I have been doing lately (been quite busy really).

Carers Day in Port Talbot

A rare shot of me spinning

Spinning as occupational therapy for the carers of Neath and Port Talbot. I got there just in time for the speeches but left before the line dancing. So an hour demonstration of spinning lace weight silk, yes I am still on that seascape and I probably will be still until well into 2008. Hang in there folks, I'll have a shawl to show for it to wear to Rose's wedding maybe.

From there straight to my new job. Yes, I am a working girl now, a kept woman no longer. I am a receptionist so I can officially tell people where to go. And then to a late gathering at Birdies to discuss arrangements for the church's Chistmas party. We are actually having a ceilidh! Such fun! And wisely or no I am in charge of the mulled wine. It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas...

Today's Project -school play costume

Small Villager

Brown skirt (hand sewn, took ages)
head scarf (ditto)
shawl (crocheted in about an hour - doddle)

and I believe my darling girl has pledged my help in school tomorrow - yay!

Back on Track

Okay, the frivolity of weddings and cocktails is gradually leaching out of the system. I am back to crafty stuff one might say - it is school play costume time. So I am sewing - slowly, very slowly because I do not trust sewing machines (due to witnessing a most disgusting accident in school home economics class) so I am doing everything by hand. What a drag.
Still, we have got Raymond Briggs' Father Christmas on the DVD, which is great fun (grumpy git of a Santa goes on holiday) and soon I am going to get out the cheesy Christmas music that I have stockpiled over the years. There might even be some mince pies in the oven this afternoon. Holiday spirit here I come... and I am not talking single malt here.

For Dizzy

You Are a Strawberry Daiquiri

You're a fun, playful drinker who loves to party. You may get totally wasted, but you're always a happy drunk!

What Mixed Drink Are You?

Okay

I don't know what is happening with the font sizing on the previous post. Blogger is playing silly buggers I think.

Sunday Scribblings - Walk

I love this song, written I think by Mr Hendrix, but I'm not certain about that. Anyway it was covered by The Corrs and was the first thing that sprung to my mind when I thought about walk, which is the prompt for Sunday Scribblings. There is something dreamlike about this song, childlike too in a way, but I also happen to think it is one of the sexiest songs I've heard. "Take anything you want from me" - an inspired line if ever there was one.

I rarely use other peoples words for S S but hey, it is late and I have no words of my own that fit tonight.
Nos da cariad.

"Little Wing"

Now she's walking through the clouds
With a circus mind
That's running wild
Butterflies and zebras
And moonbeams and fairytales
All she ever thinks about is riding with the wind...

When I'm sad she comes to me
With a thousand smiles
She gives to me, free
It's alright, it's alright' she says
Take anything you want from me
Anything

Now she's walking through the clouds
With a circus mind
That's running wild
Butterflies and zebras
And moonbeams and fairytales
All she ever thinks about is riding with the wind...

When I'm sad she comes to me
With a thousand smiles
She gives to me free
It's alright, it's alright' she says
Take anything you want from me
Anything

Fly Little Wing... Yeah, Yeah...

[Guitar solo]

Fly Little Wing...
I want her to fly

Advent Wedding!

The Gorgeous Bride...
(one of the most gentle, giving and just generally amazing women I have ever met btw)

The Fortunate Groom

(who looked so tasty in his evening dress he inspired all the male guests to turn up at the evening do in Bond costume too.)

Signing the Register

A wedding is good at any time of the year, but a Chistmastide wedding...that's romantic.
A loved one once described advent to me as a time of yearning. It is indeed a time where the church prepares for the return of the Bridegroom and, face it, the party of the Universe. There is something about a wedding that anticipates that huge party to be...I hope there are cocktails.

This week I am mostly reading...

So with the fibre blahs ( as The Sherriff so aptly calls it) still firmly in place despite the fact that I have merino waiting to be spun into Christmas pressies which normally would have sent me into a whirlwind of pleasant activity...
I have instead plumped for putting up my still baddie leg and reading delightful trash. This is good trash though. A bit like Turkish Delight, you know that there is no content but sugar in there and you know that really it is doing you no good, but oh it is just so very tasty. The lit snob in me was shrieking the entire time I was read this - about six hours, yes it is that lite. But then who wants Dostoyevski all the flippin' time? Not this bunny. (I've never actually read Dostoyevski. I have always wanted to, but I take his books out of the library and then discover that my eyebrows need plucking or I have to paint the bathroom etc etc)

So, here we have exotic, wild and beautiful settings; New Orleans, Paris and the Highlands of Scotland and exotic, wild and beautiful creatures; too many to mention but the cast include vampires, werewolves, Valkyries (no less) and some wraiths. As an honourable mention, a Valkyrie is a creature I could really get behind, not like the rather prissy LOTR elves...Aragorn is another matter entirely but I digress.
Ahem...

Ah yes. There is the obligatory devastatingly handsome hero and the stunningly beautiful heroine so far so ho hum. But he is a werewolf and she is a vampire cross valkyrie (some girls have all the luck) and this little tale is their adventures across half the globe: she escaping all kinds of stuff by the skin of her teeth and he literally fighting the hordes of hell for his lady fair. The way I am feeling right now, this piece of mental bubblegum really hits the spot. I love a hero. I loved the way Cole described desperation of loss and I loved the (occasional quite literal) tooth and nail fight for love.
The pace is very fast, the (rather gory) fight scenes lucid, the sex scenes... umm raunchy might be an appropriate desciption and there is fairly liberal use of the f word too. Altogether a book that a good Christian woman might think twice about reading. And I did think twice about it too and then I went ahead and bought it. And now I am going to go and buy the sequels because sneers aside, this is a damn fine tale and there is nothing wrong with that in my book.

Friday Fiver

1. What do you resent?
Mostly, being awake when everyone else is asleep. Knowing that I will spend the day feeling bloodless and awful and will probably have insomnia the coming night too.

2. What is your most recent occupation?
I am a mum, that is a career. Last paid work was as a sheltered housing warden

3. What are you presently wearing?
muslin nightie and fleece robe

4. What presents have you bought?
lots, but they are a secret.

5. Whose presence would you enjoy tonight?
I miss Tom


Another sleepless night and while looking for things with which to entertain myself, I realised that I had missed the Friday fiver. I will move it to Friday later on.

Bad day for Eden...

Eden plays with rubbish...we have more toys than we can shake a stick at and she likes to play with empty yogurt cartons. This she was doing this morning. She had a lovely time...right up until it broke, split right down the centre. And these things are sharp when they are broken, not the toy of choice for a four year old. Right? I threw it in the bin and she cried and cried and cried.

"Baby, it's broken, no good"
"Whaaaa!"
"No good, sweetheart, it would hurt you."
"Bokken?" Hiccuping sobs
"Yes, sweetie. Broken."
"Fixit?"
"I can't darling, some things just can't be fixed."

Big, big, blue eyes brim over with huge tears and my heart breaks for her over a damned yogurt pot. If only we could fix everything. A hard lesson for a four year old to learn.

On the good news I don't have DVT, which was a concern that caused much sleeplessness last night. I just have a baddie leg is all. I have to warm up properly when I dance (duh!) and take things easy for a few days. I did not laugh in the doctor's face when he told me this, hey, he had just lifted a sentence of warfarin off me, so I just about managed to keep it to a twisted grin.

It still flippin' hurts mind and there is still the niggling thought that I am banking a fair bit on one man's say so that this lump in my calf is not a clot that might not break off, get lodged in a lung and drop me dead in a cold second.
Most of my mind is content with the situation though and is very content that I do not have to go down the hospital for daily jabs of rat poison.

But if he is wrong and I do drop dead then V gets to sue the backside off the National health and becomes a very rich widower indeed.
See? There are silver linings everywhere!

I wonder...

I don't often blog personal stuff. Apart from my ongoing battle with insomnia that I mention so often, I can't remember the last time I did. But hey, death does that to you right?

Yesterday was the funeral of an old friend. She had been ill for years with a mild kind of leukemia - debilitating rather than deadly. Then all of a sudden, it mutates into the malignant kind and she is dead six weeks later. Bang. She was the same age as my husband, seven years older than me. It makes you think.
I have been fighting hard lately, fighting for stuff I should not want, making impossible demands on people. How can I be devastated when they do not give me what I want? It seems that all my adult life I have wanted more. More stuff, more challenges, more people to love me, more things to do, more things to learn. What will it take? What will it take?
I have been thinking for a long time to go and train as a nurse. The twins are going to school full time next September and this is my chance, maybe my last chance. And of course as my little ones leave for a new chapter in their lives, I am getting broody again - which is right out as far as V is concerned. And I see the rightness of it. Doesn't make it easier though, especially with the girls in church sprogging left right and centre.
So here is the question. Is this desire to get out and get nurse training a bluff for hiding broodiness? Or is it a real desire? Or is the broodiness a hiding place? If I stay at home with another baby (or two?) for another four years, I will not have to attempt the three years training that it takes to be a nurse. Also, V thinks I do not have the necessary characteristics to become a nurse. Do I ignore the opinion of a person who knows me so very well? He has lived with me for more than half my life after all.
What to do? I wonder...

There is something wrong...

I have not spun today...
Neither have I knitted,
crocheted,
felted,
or looked at yarn on the web...

and what is most worrying of all, I have not wanted to either. And it is not as if I have decided to write a book or take up roller blading or origami. I just have reached a dead end and I am finding it bizarrre.

Am I going in for something?

Sunday Scribblings - Misspent Youth

I don't know if a youth is ever misspent. Surely every experience goes into making what we are.

(Just about the shortest SS I have ever done!)

It is Love

Ebony circular 26" circular needles, size 4.5mm

Christmas is coming...hint, hint.
(Sometimes V reads my blog. It is worth try.)

Pod's Hat - phase four ...or... Return of the Hat

V says this looks like Darth is off to a hippy gig (Hippy Vader). I say that it has taken me roughly fifteen hours of work and is ab fab! (Though secretly, I agree with him). Oh well, this is what happens when you tell me amber and black -you get flames. But while the sun and comets are my fault, the basic Darth design is Pod's responsibility. So perhaps it is Pod Vader and hey, at least in no one will raise an eyebrow in church...too full of nutters there to notice even such a dashing hat as this.

I am quite chuffed really with this, it has certainly been fun to do. Thanks Pods, I'll hand it over to Dizzy this evening.
x

Blessings

I found this today.

Blessed are those who can laugh at themselves;
they will have no end of fun.

I liked that.

Happy Thanksgiving to our American friends!

Pod's hat - phase three

Well, it is done!

Apparently Pod has been watching with baited/bated (?) breath for the next installment of the hat saga. The felt has been sitting on my piano looking forlorn. I made it up and then got cold feet thinking that I would foul up the cutting somehow, but I managed and now it is recognisably a hat.

It looks a bit weird though. Kind of what Darth Vader would wear if he was a Mountain Ash Rugby Football Club supporter. But there you go. I followed my brief and it is all done bar the shouting. Hopefully they will be yells of glee rather than "What the hell do you call that?!" followed by hoots of laughter. I can hear Uncle Daisy* now...

Pics tomorrow when I can find a model that is awake



*Uncle Daisy - the name bestowed by my youngest on Dizzy's husband - as sturdy an example of Welshman that you could find in the Valleys, built like a brick privvy as they say around here and my three fairys call him Uncle Daisy. He wears it graciously.

OK Now I Know

Yes folks it is insomnia again! And you know what that means...blogthings quizzes! Yay!

You Are a Fruitcake

People pretend you're sweet and precious, but they know how weird you really are!

What Holiday Food Are You?

Friday Five

1. What's the last thing you threw away?
Coffee grounds - what a weird question

2. Have you ever been to Paris?
Yup - it is chock full of rude French people...apart from that, it is stunning.

3. What do you stare at?
Stars, candle flames

4. What do you hurry for?
Not much, but the school run is a hassle sometimes :)

5. Friday fill-in: I could have been...

a physiotherapist if it were not for a career's advisor in school who told me I needed a degree in Physics... bad advice...utterly incorrect in fact, but I believed him. Oh well...

4 things

Yes it is me again, my blood sugar is rock bottom and all I can do right now is sit in front of the 'puter and not move.
So, reading Pilgrim's blog (among others) this morning and he has a four things meme. Now I am not about to do the whole thing...but V just wandered in with second breakfast and asked me for the four best intro's to songs I know.
And here they are

• Golden Brown by The Stranglers
• Walking on Sunshine - KC and the Sunshine Band
• Take on Me - A ha
• Feelin'Good - Ella Fiztgerald

What are yours?

Belonging - Haiku

I have not done One Deep Breath for a very long time. Thanks to Patois, whose lonliness prompt was poignant, heart breaking and rather too difficult to face, I visited there again and found - belonging. Rather easier to sum up in seventeen syllables.

Safe in his warm arms,
I am his and he is mine.
Two souls, one heart beat.

This is, I know, almost unbearably sentimental, but belonging just spoke of the Song of Songs to me. I am my beloved's and he is mine. That is belonging. For other haiku check out ODB here

A Day for the Queen

That is what we used to call a day spent doing what we liked in my house when I was growing up. These days they are known as crafting days. I had Carol's company all day yesterday. She is working on a mega quilt - patchwork and it is beautiful so far and surely will be stunning when it is finished. Quilting is something that has always passed me by, like cardmaking or applique. They are all crafts that one would think I would take to - pretty little fiddly things, but there is too much design involved in it, composition and that - it is bad enough putting earrings together. Quilting would fry my poor brain to a crisp.

I spent the day working on Pod's hat as you can see from the previous post which is I confess post dated or a retrospective or what ever you call it when you fiddle with the posting options on blogger - cheating?

Anyway. It is Thursday and that means a love is all around. There have been plenty of kidling pics up here of late so I think I will post up...

Carol (sans quilt) in her Cordell costume. Taken in Blaenafon Ironworks which is where The Coal House was filmed.
Carol will not kill me for posting this up because she is a lovely person, but she will want to kill me very much indeed.

Pod's Hat - phase two

Pod has a team and that team's colours are black and amber. Amber is not a colour one gets in the Winghams catalogue. So it is out with the carders for a bit of creative blending.

This is fun, but it takes a looooooong time. Get the colour mix right, then blend, pile the batts up, split, card up, pile up, split the pile and card again. It is best to take rings off the fingers for this or else you'll get blisters! Trust me, I know.

Colours to make amber. Mostly yellow, orange and brown
but touches of others needed for depth

the blend on the carder

semi-mixed batt

finished pile of blended batts

sample of amber felt

Pod's Hat - phase one

Laying out the fibres

Add bubble wrap, hot water and soap... and a bit of elbow grease

Two pieces of fine black merino felt

The Double Portion

Today is Eden and Lily's fourth birthday.
All kinds of stories surround these pair. Here are some :

• The vision of cherries I recieved in prayer when I knew I was pregnant but had no idea of twins.
• The fact that I thought I had killed my mum when I told her over the phone that I was carrying two. That was a laugh - she went utterly silent and I thought she had had a heart attack and died.
  
• The struggle of carrying them when the docs mentioned twin transference (big problem) and then genetic growth disorders (bigger problem) to the point where the obstetrician finally mentioned "abnormalities incompatible with life" and then offered to terminate the smallest (Lily).
  

It was not the easiest or happiest of pregnancies. Thank God for the vision of perfect cherries I had when only six weeks pregnant. I hung all my faith on that, stood on it when things got very shaky indeed. And then there they were, six weeks early, tiny, and made up equal parts swansdown and whipcord - tough and kicking, so small and so vital, so vulnerable but so very strong too. They were whisked away to intensive care (Lily weighed only a little more than a bag of sugar and fitted into my double cupped hands, Eden weighed about the same as two bags of sugar and looked huge by comparison but she too was pitifully small). They stayed in the special care unit for a month in incubators and I was allowed to take them out for a cuddle and a feed and then I had to put them back quickly before they got cold. They felt like dolls I was sometimes allowed to play with. This continued until they had reached the magic weight of five pounds when they were allowed home, just in time for Christmas. Tiny but perfect and wonderfully strong and healthy. This they still are and will remain so all their lives.
I still look at them and catch myself thinking in astonishment "Twins!" and Rose too, as beautiful a big sister that you could find.

My cup runneth over. Happy Birthday babies.

And this!

Merino chunky on niddy noddy

Ah! I remember

Blue Faced Leicester "Humbug"

This is what I have been doing the last few days...this is beautiful stuff. A blend of cream, grey and brown fleeces and it is so warm made up. I shall find it hard to part with this!

Monday Again?!

Excuse me, did you see a weekend go past just now?
Bleedin'nora as they say round here. Is it Monday? And heck, it is almost tea time! I can't remember what I did with it. Hope it was good. I knew there was a reason why I kept a blog. It tells me what I have done.
I think I have slept...I am sure I have. What day is it again?

Remembering

They shall not grow old as we that are left grow old
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
we shall remember them

There is that stillness that happens on this day and we try to absorb for those two small minutes the enormities of two world wars and the other conflicts since.
The First World War has always had a soul impact on me. The optimism with which it started and the unimaginable horror that it trailed behind it.
I went to Borders today and leafed through a book titled Faces of the First World War. a book of photographs and they left nothing out. I was transfixed...but I did not buy it, some things should not be brought home to look at you from the bookshelf, but I am glad I read it.

Yes It Is Insomnia Again!

You Are Animal

A complete lunatic, you're operating on 100% animal instincts. You thrive on uncontrolled energy, and you're downright scary. But you sure can beat a good drum. "Kill! Kill!"

The Muppet Personality Test

New Game

Wandering around Blogspace this morning, as you do and I happened across a new game. What you do is tap in your name into amazon search and see what it throws up. I had several, including an urban gothic, whatever that might be. Sounds like something they would offer you in Starbucks as part of a Halloween special, probably in a tall black mug.

I digress...

Sian Hill threw up this...written by Eric Hill and translated by Sian Lewis, see?

Spot's Toy Box (in Welsh)

I know...I have far too much time on my hands. I don't actually, but I am ignoring my chores. Hoping that the fairies will appear and wash up the steaming, fetid heap of dishes that are lurking, waiting to pounce on me as soon as I haul my sorry carcase into the kitchen.

*wailing* I don't wanna do housework!

Baby, it's cold outside!

Recipe for Mulled Wine
I have perfected this recipe over many years and I think it is as close to perfect as I'm ever going to get anything

Bottle of inexpensive red wine. ( I use the French table wine from Tescos but the Bulgarian cabernet sauvignon is good too

1 orange, sliced into half inch slices, dont use the top or bottom slice as there is too much pith in proportion to flesh and pith makes it taste bitter. (I will resist the urge to make any further comment here)

Brandy or port or sherry in order of preference. If you want to make falling down water then use all three. Fill a large mug half full with chosen plonk - Tesco's own tawny port is lovely for this - and top up to full with water. Add another mug of water or else you'll be asleep by eight.

Soft brown sugar to taste. I use about 1 or 2 tablespoons. Don't use too much or else it will start to taste medicinal, weird I know but there it is.

5 cloves
1 large cinnamon stick. Tap the stick very gently with a wooden spoon. It releases the scent of the spice into the wine.
1 decent sized piece of whole dried ginger root. This can be difficult to get hold of. I got mine in a health food shop in Aberystwyth, Do not be tempted to use powdered ginger, it clouds the wine and it hangs around on the tongue too. If you cant get it whole dried, use fresh (peeled) but then make it a large piece.

Put all the ingredients in a large sauce pan and heat very gently until steam starts to curl slowly from the pan. Strain and serve in heat proof glasses.

DON'T DRINK THIS AND DRIVE AS IT IS STRONG STUFF!

Roasted chestnuts are the desired accompaniment with this but gingerbread is good too.

Tired

Too tired to write much tonight. Been dancing in church, got a lovely pressie from Dizzy for the shrugs which were their own reward to work but still it was a beautiful thought - Thanks Dizzy :) and I recieved design info for the commision from POD - a hat, yay! That means a fibre order to Winghams tomorrow and spinning with a purpose again - love it.

Went to see Stardust last night - oh what a fantastic film. I think I will go and see it again before too long and it is a definate must for the DVD collection when it is out. A proper fairy story: true love, evil, beauty, a handsome hero, murder, escapes, pirates, oh so pretty costumes, sword fights, adventure and rescue. You just can not beat a recipe such as that ...and the ending is a classic. Go and see it with someone you love.

When Spinning is a Chore

Get the beads out...

mess, but good mess

Finish with dragonflies

And weird tutti frutti earrings

The Chore

Shetland Lace weight

Man! This stuff is fine! And that takes some spinning. I have about 85 grams of this fibre and I reckon I have about 45 g left to spin up. Perhaps another week of spinning evenings.

Sorry

I just could not resist. Apparently it is an art installation in London being... um...installed?
Thanks to Hedgewizard for the pic that made me laugh til I had to mynd i'r ty bach

Sara in her Shrug

The light was abysmal for pics and my camera was playing up. That is why Dizzy is looking so pale, not because she has been through hospital hell with her precious baby for the last month.

Friday Five

1. What is sweet?
honey and the back of my kids necks always smell delicious

2. What hours do you work?
Hey, I'm a mum... I'm on call 24/7

3. When do you relax?
does not compute...error, please re boot and try again

4. How did you learn about the birds and the bees?
This reminds me of the Les Dawson quote of the young man who had ambitions to become a sex maniac but failed the practical.

5. Friday fill-in:
The good vibes flow ____.

I would have thought that good vibes vibrate actually... pedantic? Little me?

Thursday - Love is All Around

Show this girl a camera and she poses. I wonder sometimes...

Is is half term already?!

So far we have had one destroyed lipstick (black cherry, one of my favourites of course - almost a lip dye and very hard to shift from infants delicate skins) and two fights and it is only just gone 10 am. Give me a park or give me death. But you can rest assured that where ever we go the crochet is going too - I still have the second of Sara's shrugs to finish. I said that I would get them done by the end of October and here it is, I have two days to go... I love a deadline and a rushed deadline is the best!

On other fibrous stuff, I have finally managed to stuff the goody bag for the fibre swap, (only a week late) and I aim to get it posted this morning. And huzzah! I will pick up the Winghams order from the PO as the new postie, instead of leaving the precious white sack with my neighbour as all the other post men have been trained to do, toddled off back to the office, leaving me with the torturous knowledge that my order was within my grasp (theoretically) but thence whisked away and left to stand over the weekend when I could have been playing - though really all things considered, I was busy all day Saturday and crippled Sunday. But it is raspberry ripple silk for me tonight. Mwah ha ha haaaa!

Owwww!

Busy day yesterday, helping Pippa and J move to England. Why on earth they want to leave God's own country, I don't know, but there you are. All the best you pair x

Spent today paying for the exertion in aching legs. Dancer or not, fit or not - I didn't warm up or stretch at all before running up and down stairs and oh-my-gosh am I sore today. Could not even pedal the louet, that's how sore I am.

So I have spent today surfing and making a start on the Christmas shopping on amazon. So not a wasted day, just inactive.