shouldering the burden

For over a week I have been feeling very sorry for myself. An old shoulder injury came back to haunt me and I have been fairly immobile and full of painkillers, wincing and moaning and feeling generally crappy.

It is easing away now, and just in time as over the next few weeks I have to work long hours doing 'piece' work for a rush order of plastic flags for a company in the village. It pays well but is rather sporadic. It's not what I want to be doing, but at the moment is a necessary evil. Today is my last day off for a while!

I was so glad the sun shone this morning. 

 

I have had to lay off the knitting for a while as it aggravates my shoulder, but managed to finish off the squares for a cushion cover - all laid out ready for assembly.

The Country File photographic competition is upon the nation once again. So I set out with my camera for a short stroll round the field a couple of streets away - just me, the dog and the cat. Always a strange sight!

I don't think I managed to get any winning shots - and the animals are as far from wild as you can get - but they are so cute I can't help myself. 

I suppose I am going to have to get all extreme with the weather of the time or the situation to get the shots I really want! 

Poor old Jemmy having yet another rest. 

I didn't know you Felt that way!

I have been living a deluded existence. 

Yesterday - for the first time ever, on two separate occasions in two separate towns by two separate people it was assumed I was a GRANDMOTHER!

So obvious was the shock and look of worry on my face I do believe I have actually aged about 10 years.

The first lady to make this terrible error was attending the same class as me in Nelson. I had taken in a small bag made from a piece of felt I had made the week before. 

"what are you going to do with it?" she asked - "I bet your grandCHILDREN would love it"

The second lady was in ASDA in Colne - She was promoting mayonnaise, and my Daughter and I stopped to dip one of her tempting potato wedges into a pot of mayo with a hint of wasabi.

After chatting with the lady and agreeing to buy a jar of this tasty sauce she handed us a promotional pack with a competition in it along with some cardboard crowns and a party game which would be perfect for my to give "to your grandCHILDREN" 

I couldn't believe it - as we say around here "I was gob-smacked" 

not only did I look old enough to be a grandmother but I looked old enough to have several of them. 

As my family have pointed out to me I am technically old enough to have one or two - me being the ripe old age of 41 and my daughter is 20 - and maybe in Nelson and Colne most people of my advanced years do have grandchildren, I don't know - or maybe I delude myself that I look younger than I really am and all those years of going to illegal raves, dancing all night and sleeping for about 10 hours per week back in my late teens has finally taken it's toll and to the great unwashed I just look knackered.

Anyway I phoned my mum straight away for sympathy - and when she finally stopped laughing I told her it just meant that she probably looked like a Great Grandmother. Harrumph!

Here are a couple of photo's of the felt I have been making that my Grandchildren will no doubt love so much! 

195 Thrifty Days till Christmas

I have been a thrifty girl of late, although not everything goes to plan. The socks I knit for Dad for Christmas will actually be given to him for fathers day (I forgot about that one!) and the socks I was knitting for hubby - well, he saw them and really liked them so I just gave them to him - he then quizzed me incessantly about the next pair I was making and well, he's now wearing them as well - Still I am determined the Aran sweater I am knitting him will be for Christmas, I just need to make him something in secret for his birthday on new years eve rather than frantically search the sales for anything he may like.

Last weekend we were invited to my sister in laws wedding. I had been very apprehensive before hand - for many reasons that all seam very trivial - the main reason was that the whole of my husbands family are incredibly thin - I on the other hand have never even been remotely thin! they always look glamorous and gorgeous, I always feel fat and frumpy. 

I spent weeks deciding what to wear, I don't own a skirt or a dress and wouldn't wear one if I did, and we are so skint at the moment that a new outfit was out of the question. 

My dad took me to Burnley to the littlewoods catalogue shop and I found some white linen pants for £4 and a top I kind of felt comfortable in reduced from £70 to £5 - which he kindly paid for - but I still um'd and ah'd over it all. I even cried more than once - I couldn't believe it because for the rest of the time I am perfectly comfortable in what I wear, how I present myself etc.

On Thursday evening after looking through my Molly Makes vintage wedding supplement for the umpteenth time I decided to get a lovely white top my mum had given me last year that I had worn once and managed to get a coffee stain on - out of the cupboard. I rubbed vanish into the stain and found my stash of fabric dyes bought from a closing down sale a couple of years ago. Among them was 'French Pink' - 20 minutes later I had a new pink top. A frantic search through my mountain of vintage lace then ensued to no avail, so on Friday morning I popped into Clitheroe and came back with 2 meters of white cotton lace for £1.80 

A couple of hours in the sewing room and I had pinned, pleated and sewn my new creation. Something was missing though - A coat or cardigan. Off down to mums who said "I don't think I have anything like that but have a look"

In her wardrobe was a pink dressing gown she had worn once on a hospital stay, she had forgotten it was their! She can't stop laughing at some of my ideas and this was yet another.

Off came the bottom 2 foot of the dressing gown, 2 darts sewn into the back, the buttons removed and replaced with some vintage style ones given as a free gift on MM's then disaster! I tried to iron the darts on the back and the second the iron touched the fabric it melted! 

So a patch went over it with 2 more buttons and voila! one hand made vintage style wedding outfit! 

I am not a 'pink' person - but I felt really comfortable in the outfit, and a lovely day was had by all!

Bunting n stuff

It is Jubilee weekend - 60 years of Queen Elizabeth II reign. The second longest reigning monarch (after Queen Victoria) and only one of a hand full of Queens our little island has had.

We have strung up some bunting outside the house, and will be eating a scone and sipping tea while raising a toast to her majesty at some point this weekend - although in the village there doesn't seam to be much going on. A far cry from her silver jubilee in 1977. 

I was 6 years old and remember school parties, free mugs and tea towels for all the children and a best decorated bike competition - Mum and Dad covered my bike with red white and blue crape paper flowers and flags - and I won! 

There I am in front of their house proudly posing for the camera.

I remember my mum and one of the neighbors sewing miles of bunting and my dad taking me with him into the front bedrooms of each house on the street to help him tie it all up so it zig zagged above our heads. Trestle tables were borrowed from the conservative club at the top of the street and everyone contributed food to the feast.

Most of the street had lived there for ever - people didn't move much in those days - My parents had bought their house from my dads grandad in 1970. They still live their today! Most of the old characters have long since died or moved and the street has lost it's community feel. It is more of a spare car park for the village now when once my dad had the only car on the street! 

The village organised a big sports day at the cricket club with all kings of races for the kids, 3 legged, egg and spoon, sack rage, relay's - a cricket match for the adults, tug of war, and plenty of Shandy's being drunk.

This time around my mum is the only one to have put up a little bit of bunting - there is no street party organised, no neighbors getting together to sew bunting and flags, no children having egg and spoon or sack races. There are no village events where all the children get to run around wildly - but the pubs have organised a 'Whalley live' event. In the pubs, at night. 

Whatever you get up to this weekend, if you are here or abroad, part of the commonwealth or not, Have a lovely time. Spare a thought for what community means to you and what your place is in it.

And Your Majesty - if you happen to be reading this (that would be too weird!) 

Have a good one love - you've been a good Queen - you're ok by me!