Sewing

Today I am off to Birdies quilting group. It is a lot of fun. The thing is that I rarely take my patchwork, referring to do some other emergency sewing of soft kit. Today I am going to say nuts to it and get started on the Welsh quilt top. Just a little light sewing for fun.

Or perhaps I will take my wheel and spin linen. I have just thought of that...
Mmmmn. Spinning

Home

I always loved this blog. I was so proud of it when I started, I felt so brave figuring things out on the computer, working out how blogger put things together, changing stuff, playing.

I hated it when blogging became an obligation - when I felt I had to write and write in a particular way for other peoples entertainment rather than my own. I'd catch myself looking at events and wonder what kind of post I would write with that. Bleh.

So I am back here after a break away and I don't think anyone knows where I am and this is a good thing I think.

So, no obligation, no expectations, just back to spinning that song of sixpence
:o)

I Am Back... Again

I like this blog too much to leave it go and when it was just a private blog I didn't write anything on it. I realise now that I liked this blog best when it was out in the ether but before anyone started commenting on it. So I have put it out there once more kind of safe in the knowledge that no one will ever come to it. So I am back at the beginning. Which is a very good place to start.

So 2009 - What will you become? I hae made a good start on it I think and I haven't even been to Ffald-y-Brenin yet. The house is getting there slowly, there is still a lot to be done. I have neglected it for a long time but bit by bit I will get there. Rather a lot of glory holes still to be excavated but a few less than there were this time last month.
We will have to see how it goes.

On the crafting front there is patchwork, drop spinning and rather a lot of sewing still. I need to make Lily an new dress for reenacting and I also need to get a length of red wool to make their St Davids Day costumes.

So lots lined up

Not well

The children have not been well. Not well at all and they keep waking me up and I can't get back to sleep.

Eden is the only one to have escaped so far. They have all coped with it like angels but I am so tired that I could cry!

It is getting closer to Christmas. You can feel it in the light, a still kind of iron grey light that speaks of snow and icy wind. Wrap up well

All Good Things

There is no doubt that my life has changed just lately. My dear V, who has a talent for this sort of thing, said at the start of this year that this would be a year of endings and beginnings .
And here I am at both.

I started this blog to keep a record of my spinning/ craft activities and gradually it evolved to be a record of all sorts of things. Which was great, but just lately it has felt rather more of an obligation than it should.

So, I am drawing this little adventure to a close. But I have made quite a few friendships that I would not ordinarily have made - crafters, artists and writers all - and I do not want to let you go. So I have made a new place, a place I can go without all the daft restrictions I have placed upon myself. There may be crafting, there maybe not - who knows? I am venturing off the beaten path once more. You are very welcome to come along for the ride...

Here be Dragons

What to Do?

So the kidlings have been back in school for almost a week, I have tidied my house back to its usual background level of clutter rather than the chaos the Summer holidays had turned it into. But here's the thing..I have no desire to do anything crafty what so ever.

Nothing.
Not beads, not silk painting, not dying, sewing, embroidery not even spinning. I have no idea why. And what is worse, I have no desire to try something new. Paper making, enamelling, pottery for instance. It is rather unnerving, this is just not me. Perhaps I need a day trip to a really good craft suppliers. Or attend a workshop somewhere. I am mystified.
So, all you crafters and artists out there - What do you do when the mojo has gone?

but wait - here is something to cheer me up

The Sheriff has awarded me this, which is just so cool and I get to pass it on too. Here are the rules...
The rules are
1: Post the award on your blog.
2: Add a link to the person who award you.
3: Nominate at least 4 others.
4: Leave a comment on their blog so they can pass it on.

• Kati at Dragonfly's Musings. Ever wondered what it must be like to live in the Arctic? And what is more, to grow your own veg in a place that has permafrost? Here's the girl to tell you.

• The Ginger Darlings, three cats over in Pembrokeshire take you into their world of magic and poetry

• Alice at The Magpie Files. Alice has had to take a break from blogging just lately but you can still go over and browse.
  

• Matt and John with their peculiar but amusing cow obsession at Life is Mootiful. Pop over and visit their shop. Everybody needs a mug with Cownan the Barbarian on it.

• Jasfoup at Diary of a Demon. This is a work of fiction in progress and I find the daily adventures of "a rising star in the underworld" thoroughly engrossing.

Hope you have fun investigating that little lot. I will probably be off line for a few days. See you soon m'dears.

Sarah Who?

Politics do not interest me, liars and worthless creatures to a ...creature is I think the politest way of putting it. A necessary evil however seeing as the alternative is anarchy. I vote because men and women died to give us the choice but otherwise I think voting for politicians just encourages the little blighters. With that in mind I have noticed a fair amount of chat on the blogs about a certain Sarah Palin. I had to google her but it turns out that she is the republican nod to the girl vote although she sounds alarming enough to make Thatcher* pee herself.

To say I am unmoved by the American presidential shennanigins would be understating the case (unless it was to say that it might be nice to not have Mr Obama's Blair-like grin in every supplement that the Times produces) but I can appreciate a creative insult as much as the next Brit. And this site Sarah Palin - Little known Facts is crammed full of the most well turned one liners I have heard since Saki. Do check it out, but if you don't then here are just a few of my favourites.

• As head of Alaska’s Nat’l Guard, Sarah Palin taught troops in a training exercise to scare a grenade into not exploding.

• Sarah Palin believes in change, too. She takes it from your pockets after striking you dead.

• Jesus has a bracelet that says, “WWSPD?”

• Sarah Palin’s finishing move in the VP debate will be pulling Biden’s still beating heart from his chest & taking a bite.

and my favourite of all

• Sarah Palin doesn’t need a gun to hunt. She has been known to throw a bullet through an adult bull elk.

Fun or wot? Perhaps they are a little heavy handed but there are more subtle ones there too.

While I am on the subject - If political pugilism is your cup of tea then I direct you to the exchanges between Winston Churchill and Aneurin Bevan. Alas Churchill always seemed to win these as Bevan's Welsh temper got frazzled far too easily and too many of his shots went wide. Neu did manage to get a few good punches in though but I suppose if Winnie was not scared of Hitler then not even a Valleys Man would have fazed him.

*Don't get me started on Thatcher. I can wax very lyrical on Thatcher - suffice to say she was a demon sent from Hell to destroy this country and you will have about the mildest thing I have to say about her.

Slipping Through My Fingers

It is funny, I am writing this just about smothered in sleeping daughters. We are all stuffed into my bed and there is hardly any room for me to move my arm so that I can tap the key board. I am missing V so badly I am starting to annoy myself. And now that that window of the mind is opened, I find I am missing all sorts of people that I have lost touch with. I am missing Steph, I miss Tom, I miss Jo, but the weirdest thing of all is that I find I am missing Rose. She is zonked out right beside me! She goes back to school in a few days, her sisters are going full time too for the first time. I may be an unnatural mother but I will be glad for the break, so why am I sad too? It seems that my life has been a succession of learning to love things and then letting them go. It stinks sometimes.

Anyway, that's just me being low. September always does me in like that, Autumn in general really. I just don't like to see the leaves dying. It makes me feel morbid.

So... I think I will go and pop Brief Encounter on the DVD and snag some chocolate. A good howl will probably do me the world of good and everything will be better in the morning.

Sleep well m'dears

Colours

I haven't done a quiz here for ages. Lets see - what colour are you?

you are blueviolet #8A2BE2

Your dominant hues are blue and magenta. You're the one who goes to all the parties but doesn't quite fit in at every one... you know what you want, but are afraid of what the world might think of it. You're a little different and that's okay with them, and if you're smart it's okay with you too. Your saturation level is higher than average - You know what you want, but sometimes know not to tell everyone. You value accomplishments and know you can get the job done, so don't be afraid to run out and make things happen. Your outlook on life is bright. You see good things in situations where others may not be able to, and it frustrates you to see them get down on everything.

the spacefem.com html color quiz

Weird - I would never have said that purple was my colour. I'm an orange kind of girl. Hmmnn... not today obviously. Perhaps I'll try it tomorrow and see if it is different.

Guy Stuff

I was never a tom boy, I don't understand the off side rule, power tools are a little bit scary and while I have no problem walking into a pub on my own, garages make me nervous. I like hardware stores because they remind me of my dad but they are not my natural environment - that is V's department, along with everything electronic up to and including tuning in the TV.*

So it is annoying that just as V has bogged off to Africa that the loo cistern has sprung a leak.
Now my first instinct would be to call a plumber but it took me less that a minute to envisage my beloveds face when he discovers a plumbers bill in all the paperwork that will be waiting for him when he gets home.
Plan number two involves silicon sealant, vitreous gloves (the suspiciously snappy kind that haematologists wear - I use them for dying wool) and yards and yards of loo roll.

There were hardly any instructions on the sealant, the manufacturers presuming that people are born with some kind of instinct for the stuff. But after snipping the top off and having a few trial runs on some cling film it seemed not too far removed from icing fairy cakes. If I took things slowly then all should be well. Ha!
I found out several things very quickly. The main one being that silicon sealant does not stick to anything that is wet such as a leaking cistern but give it a chance to smear itself on jeans, vitreous gloves, hair (that was a laugh) and ones nose and let me tell you a little of that stuff goes a very long way indeed. And man, it reeks! A nasty, burning, chemical smell. So that, plus the angle was flipping awkward and the stuff was sticking to anything but that which it was supposed to and you can bet I was a narked bunny when I'd finished. I took huge pleasure in throwing the whole sticky lot in the bin. Okay the chances are slim that I have fixed it but a girl can hope can't she?

In other news, I went to yet another funeral day before yesterday. I think I have been to more funerals this year than I have in the last five years put together. Is this an age thing? Will funerals start to become a yearly expectation? My grandmother always greeted each birthday with a cheery "This might be my last one"...until of course one year it turned out that she was right.
Oh and I hope that one day soon, people will be expected to hand their mobile phones over at the door of the church or crem or whatever so that they will not go off in the eulogy. This has happened at the last two funerals that I have been to and really, it was crummy.

I went to a pyjama party last night to reward myself for all my hard work. The kidlings and I decamped to Dizzys for an evening of daft films, popcorn, pink wine (for the grown ups) and chocolate (for everyone). It was a lot of fun but a terribly late night for the girls and I have been paying for that today in the coin of grumpy children. Early night tonight and a dedication service in church tomorrow.

I hope that once the girls go back to school I will get my crafting mojo back. I haven't spun all summer. But now the light is changing and the nights start drawing in I will remember again the lure of wool and the hum of the wheel.

Have a golden weekend all of you



*I want to emphasise here that I am not helpless - I can bleed a radiator, check the oil in the car, I can heave coal, I can even change a tyre if pushed and I once wired a plug - but I had to get a book out of the library to make sure that I was doing it right.

Favourite Things #3

Friends

Blogging friends are great. Oakmoon awarded me this a few days ago but I have been so busy what with V gallivanting off to Uganda and all that it has taken me this long to get my head together to write anything much. But I am chuffed to get this. Thanks Kim :o)

The Rules for those recieving an award are:-

1. The winner can put the logo on their blog
2. Link the person you received the award from
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs
4. Put links of those blogs on yours
5. Leave a message on the blogs nominated

I nominate in no particular order:

• Dizzy because she is a great friend on and off line. She is brave, good and beautiful and she has a mean eye for a shoe as well

• Bookwrym aka Nicole because her blog is fun to read, you never know what you are going to find next. Plus she knits, reads, beads, spins and she is into theatricals too. (A bit spooky really how similar we are.) It was through Nicole's blog that I found the Sheriff, another good blog buddy and she also pointed me in the way of Kresley Cole and the Immortals After Dark series, which is huge fun - so thanks an awful lot Nicole! :o)

• Patois - this girl has a terrific blog. Funny, poignant and wise and if I cannot share her love of Bruce Springsteen then at least we both agree that haiku are here to stay.

• Kate -of Kate Quilts because she has a truly uncanny eye for colour and design. Plus the fact that she is Australian and everyone knows that an Aussie means fun.

• Pippa - Pippa as well as being just as lovely in person as she is to look upon is immensely talented in all things crafty. She is inspirational in the way she bravely responds to a debilitating illness and she also happens to be a good friend

The above pics are of the lovely Pippa and myself at Craig y Nos for a dear friends 25th Wedding anniversary party. The invitation was handed over along with a challenge to dress as extravagantly as we could. Who could resist an opportunity like that? There were some splendid outfits there including V who worked the Lucius Malfoy look rather well. I did not manage to get a photo of my dear husband which is annoying. He will have to get togged up for a blog pic. That however will have to wait until he returns from Uganda though.

V has also gone with friends and is at this moment very far from home indeed. Bizarrely, I have indulged in a whirlwind of housework and have also purchased paper to do the hall, if the little tunnel leading from the front door to the living room deserves such a grand title. I know what he will say two weeks from now, stepping into a pristine (and therefore unrecognisable) house
You have been busy...I really must visit Africa more often.

Sometimes Paper is Too Boring

Rose: I'm bored
Me: Do some drawing
R: Boring
M: Draw on me then
R: Really?
M: Yup, really

The things I will do for a quiet hour. It was quite pleasant really, like being massaged by fairies.

Kids and Cats Dont Mix

3 am and Rose wanders in. Zac is on my bed and he won't get off.
Me: Mmmfff?
R: And he's got fleas!
Me: Thwack him with a cushion, he'll soon shift

She wanders back out again. I try to get back to sleep but, tired as I am, there is now a voice in my head squawking Flea ridden cat on your baby's bed! He's not allowed upstairs anyway! You know how stubborn that cat is, he won't move just from a cushion!. etc etc
Sleep evaporates
I bumble groggily into Rose's room, pick up the cat who has suddenly gone as boneless as a tree hugging eco protester in the arms of a bailiff and evict him to his nice comfy shoebox on the sitting room windowsill.
And now I am still awake at 5am and I have a busy day ahead.
Rats

Heads Up!

Okay, most of you might have noticed that I have taken the comment moderation off.

Now here's the thing. You might now and again come across a comment written by someone called Cyril. Do not be alarmed - he is my darling nephew and is completely harmless. Okay? If he gets too bad, feel free to tell him off.
End of public safety awareness announcement
:o)

Favourite Things #2

Ticked off cats

This isn't Zac but imagine it black and you have a fair example of His Huffiness

V found two fleas on the sofa this morning. Cue biological warfare and Zac was the battleground. It was a struggle but due to my marginally superior strength and a far bigger mean streak the humans won. I find this kind of thing hilariously funny. He is a lovely cat, sweet natured as you like but he likes his dignity and there is only so much a feline can take. Zac declined to pose for a photo, hence stock pic above.

He probably won't speak to me for days.

An Award!

Kate of Kate Quilts nominated me for this!!

Thank you very much Kate :o)

It comes with rules and they are:

1. The winner can put the logo on his/her blog
2. Link to the person you received your award from
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs for an award
4. Put links to those blogs on yours
5. Leave a message on the blogs of the people you have nominated.

So I nominate the following fabulous blogs

Wayfaring Wanderer - because every single photograph this talented lady takes is a visual poem

Little Bird - for her unique and eclectic view on life, which despite her challenges, remain as clear and beautiful as stained glass

Oakmoon - because her blog is so very comfortable. There is a really peaceful feel in her attitude. Plus the fact that she too is a very talented artist.

Notes From the Cloud Messenger - for her astonishingly beautiful poetry and her ability to capture the essence of a moment in just a few words

Technodoll - because she is just fabulous, I wish she lived closer so we could go out for a few cocktails and laugh our heads off.

The Sheriff - not just because of her enviable skill with the needles but because she too has an outrageous sense of humour. Her blog has often made me laugh out loud.

and
Hedgewizard - because he is full of useful information about self sufficiency and he is also screamingly funny, really he is - check out Unexpected Showers for HW at his best

I found the camera

Guildford cathedral is the youngest in Britain at a mere 70 years of age (or thereabouts) I found it desperately stark but the height and soaring columns were still there, can't beat a classic can you?

This is the rear view, taken from the Children's garden where we had our picnic. You can just about see the bronze statues which fascinated my girls so.

This kept us quiet too - tucked away in the back of the children's garden. There is something deeply soothing about walking the labyrinth. No matter how many times I walk one or under what circumstances, it pulls me into stillness. I have never prayed a rosary but I imagine it is a similarly hypnotic occupation.

Here are two angels going spare, Eden is still working the Cistertian monk look, while Lily goes for the gargoyle angle.
The day previous we had gone to London on the train. It was very exciting. I am not a fan of cities in general but the lure of the finest museum in the country was too strong. I used to come here as a little girl and just loved everything about it - the huge space, the beautifully painted ceilings, the light, the quiet, the sheer amount of stuff. Awesome.

I thought I took pictures of us in the Natural History museum. Really pathetically it turns out that I did not, we were too busy looking at cool stuff like blue whales and diplodocus and funky gibbons/ Neolithic's etc. V heads towards the creationist point of view in his theology, so it was huge fun watching him mosey through the gallery dedicated to the evolution of man...

The above pic is a stock photo taken from ecite. It was rather more crowded when we visited but I was still thrilled to be there. The children behaved really well too which made things easier but there was no doubt about it that it was a tiring day. I want to visit again soon, hopefully before Christmas but to come on my own and go to the Victoria and Albert museum and wander round Hyde park too if I can. V was truly amused at the thought of me wandering around London on my own and really if I think about it I can see his point. I get lost in Neath, a small town I have lived in for well over twenty years, if I went to London: the crowds, the traffic, the underground...the mind boggles. However, unrealistic bordering on the laughable, I still want to go.

***

In other news, there has been crafting but it has mostly been disastrous. It is not often I get craft disasters but when I do, man, they annoy the hell out of me. It has sort of taken the wind out of my sails a bit I must say.
I started the icarus shawl with my gorgeous raven silk yarn and it brought home to me how truly appalling I am at knitting. So that is another half baked project staring at me from the craft cuboard. I've pushed it right to the back to but it is still hissing at me from the depths - what possessed me exactly?

I started a baby quilt for a friends new arrival and really it is bad. I mean baaaad. I can't bring myself to send it to her but the fabric is so nice ( and not cheap either) what a flippin' waste!

I carded up the macabre dog hair/ wool blend for my batty old biddy and now it is just sitting there in batts, glaring at me and making me feel guilty that I am not actually spinning it. There by hangs a tail - that dog killed my goldfish - its true I tell you! I carded the stuff up too close to the fish bowl, some of the fibres must have gotten into the water and the daft fish must have eaten them - 24 hours later she was dead. I was fond of that goldfish and I haven't had the same look at that wretched fibre since

The good news is that I finished a baby blanket for a girl in church. It is a pretty yarn and soft though lamentably squeaky, acrylic is though isn't it? But no new mum is going to hand wash a baby blanket so wool is just not feasible.
Okay, I am wittering now. It is late and I am off to bed. Good night my dears.

Of shopping

There I was, trawling through e bay this morning, sighing over red kitten heels. V peers over my shoulder
It's going to be a hell of a shock for you when you get to heaven and find that there's no shoe shops
I give him my most pitying glance and shake my head.

Everyone knows it won't be heaven without shoe shops...

Hellloooo!

I am back, but then, you didn't know I'd been gone. Flipping heck, turn your back and blogger goes and changes its look, I'm all confused now.

I have been to London, which is strange of me as I hate crowds, noise, traffic etc etc...but we had rather a nice time. I have also been nominated by Kate for a blog award - ta love. More details tomorrow as I have to go and get togged up for a girlie night out tonight (with cocktails hurrah!)

Pics of trip soon - it involved museums, castles and a cathedral and what is more - that strange big light in the sky showed up once or twice - I have forgotten what the sun looks like. Needless to say, now we are this side of the Severn it has bogged off again. I am feeling waterlogged and need lots and lots of martinis to dry me out as it were.

So I need to see whether Pippa has got her etsy shop going, whether Technodoll has recovered and how far Wayfaring Wanderer has got on with her haiku. Plus all the rest of my blog friends and see what the world from the Arctic to the Antipodes has been up to...See you soon my lovlies!

Six different things before breakfast

There is nothing more charming than a quiet morning spent in the company of an eight year old. The conversation ranged over why there were such things as flies, the merits of short hair cuts, nail polish and favourite dinosaurs.
This last kept us going for sometime. It is quite a good question - what dinosaur would you like to be?

Rose settled on a triceratops.
I rather fancied being an ankylosaurus...
...but decided in favour of a deinonychus because they are just so funky.

Just dropping in for a bite of lunch

V saw us all off by deciding upon the argentinosaurus, a creature which even the deinonychus would find too much of a project to undertake. At 35 metres long, a man would not even reach this monsters ankle!
We spent a fair bit of time tracking down info on these creatures. Have you ever heard of Gondwanaland? No? Me neither. It was a super continent including most of the land mass of the Southern hemisphere and that is where argentinosaurus was found. I love wikipedia don't you?

So, tell me - what dinosaur would you like to be?