Look at my 'prettys'

On the way back to the car I decided to call in at the op-shop, so glad I did. Since I have been very good and not had one bit of choccy over easter I treated myself to the ceramic tray, its about 12 inches long and PINK.  I'd eyed up the little spoons last time I was in and at 50c for the four it was a bargain. Not sure wether they are egg spoons, they are smaller than a teaspoon. 

I've been busy all day, all I have to do next door is and I'll do that first thing in the morning, my son came round to clear all the tree debris from the weekend he cleared for me, now I can see whats to be done in the garden. I wish this infernal drizzle would clear up so I can mow.

I've cooked up scouselob for dinner tonight, an old family favourite resurrected from the archives.  Its been simmering away for about 3 hours and smell delicious, lets hope it tastes like the one granny used to make.

Jan

The men in white coats will be here soon.............

My wonderful new cousins will be seriously thinking about cutting me out of the family tree after this. Well at least now they know which side the insanity runs in.

........and I wasn't even thinking of the ancestors when I did it.  There I was making breakfast, thinking about fitting everything into the my day, I have a meeting to attend, I have to shop, I have paperwork to do, I have to finish the cleaning job. Here there and everywhere today. I put my coffee and sugar in my cup, put the jug on to boil and got out the cornflakes. It was only when I poured the water into my coffee cup I realised what I had done - the soggy looking cornflakes floating to the top of the cup gave the game away.  In another life I might have thought - oh well, it all ends up in the same place and eaten coffee flavoured cornflakes.  What a start to the day.
I had a lousy nights sleep, the dreaded night sweats have started again.  I did four suduko puzzles in between tossing and turning, tried to read, then the legs cramps kicked in.  The poor dog got fed up with being kicked off the bed so many times. 

I didn't craft yesterday, I did pick up a needle and thread though so that should count, even if it wasn't for me and was just 'normal' sewing. 15 mins before he had to go out my son informs me I had sewn the stripe on his martial arts belt in the wrong place. I remember asking him exactly where it had to go. 'Sons',  no matter how old they get (he's 22) they will always be a pain in the rear end.

Jan

I got the job

Two posts in one day, I'm on a roll.

I've just had a phone interview for the mystery shopper job and I got it. I can fit it in with whatever I am doing, you choose where and when you work and the areas.  I have a cleaning job as well this week. Perhaps yelling at the universe that I was not happy at what it was handing out to me worked after all.
So far this morning I've defrosted and cleaned the freezer, done all the washing, put yesterdays washing away and I'm going to make a start on cleaning next doors holiday home. 

Jan

Look what I found under the Bed

.........apart from all that dust, spiders and an overdue library book.

These little treasures.  I collect pin dishes and mustard pots with the occassional egg coddler thrown in. I must have put them away after a massive clean up. So now I have to rearrange everything in the wall displays to fit them all in. 

A friend was also having a clear out and had a few of these cups and saucers so she asked if I would like one. I love the strong bold colours. I'm not sure whether the red was supposed to go with the blue saucer, but I like the match whether or not it does.

After cleaning out the laundry broom cupboard I finally found a use for all those shower curtain rings I don't use.

Better nip off now and go get dressed, I've excelled myself this morning. Just read Norma's comment so I suppose I'd better go take my meds as well.

Well I'm still here, didn't die in the night - I'd forgotten to take my heart pills for three days cos I was so engrossed in my new obsession and then I found I'd run out of them and I'd lost the new script, which wouldn't have done me any good anyway even if I hadn't lost it.since it was Easter and the chemists were all closed.  Cost me $25 for a quick in out visit to the docs to get a new script,  I hadn't even got my bum on the seat before he'd got it printed out, he asked a couple of quick questions, did my blood pressure and that was it. It usually only costs $16 if you are ordering a script but they've changed the rules and you have to see a doctor. I wouldn't mind but I was only there just over 10 days ago and that cost me $50, with the medications I've spent nearly a $100 on the docs, I got  a bit back on Medicare.
There isn't any doctors around here that bulk-bill Medicare so we have to pay up front. My own docs usually quite good if she knows I'm strapped for cash, she will waive the fee.  Doesn't happen very often and I'm grateful when it does. Just glad I have acess to great health care and can afford it.

I'm still doing my 20 mins a day, its moving me a little bit forward getting everything finished before I start on anything else.  I renewed my library book with the gorgeous crossstitch flower designs in it and I'm now doing anemones.  Nearly finished and I think that might be it though if I have the book for another week it might just give me time to do a rose one.

Because of my new obsession and equally my old obsession I have dragged out the slow cooker, got a beef curry cooking away in no time and now I don't feel guilty when my son comes home and I'm either sat at the puter digging up my great great great great granny or sat buddha like on the lounge room chairs, surrounded by coloured threads with needle  poised over fabric - just one more ancestor and I'll cook dinner, just wait till I get to the end of this thread and I'll make a start on dinner.  I long for the days when I am on my own and only me to worry about, I can spread myself all over the place with no-one to whinge about needles in the chairs or bits of paper covered in names scattered all over the dining table. 

The Skeat family tree is getting like an octopus,  arms everywhere. I just wish all my grandparents hadn't died young, I just wish we had had more contact with the reli's that we did have while we had them.  But we were strangers and for some reason outsiders.

Jan

So now all the excitement of the last two days has sort of died down a little, its time to start getting back to normal.  Well as normal as this household gets anyway.  The weathers wet and miserable again so gardening is out. My youngest and his girlfriend turned up yesterday and I managed to get him to finish trimming off the trees behind the shed. So now I have this mountain of branches in the middle of the back lawn.  I might potter on the verandah and repot some plants up.
I'm still managing to do 20 mins a day craft, I finished my gloves last night. I got a pair out of one ball of Carnival Soft yarn, its just under $3 a ball so thats not bad.  I think with these and the wool pair I did last year I should be right for the next few years, considering how often we get really cold weather they will not get a lot of wear. I still want to do another pair of socks, masochistic I know.
I need to finish the cross stitch I started the other week. What I really need to do is finish the ufo's that have crept up again before I start anything new. 
I want to start on my new embroidery project, not sure yet wether it will suit prim naive or the more traditional embroidery, perhaps somewhere in betweeen. I love jacobean/crewel work but it can be time consuming on a large design and I love thread painting but that will definately be too time consuming for what I have planned.  I can see two designs coming up now and sitting here at the puter is not going to get them down on paper. I will probably keep putting if off and making excuses like I normally do.  As I am typing away a couple more ideas have sprung up but I really don't want to go there - Applique. 
I'll make a start my sharpening my pencils and rescuing my colours from the grandgirls toy corner.  The desk in the craft room has to be cleared as well, but that means all my threads have to be sorted and put back and that means I might as well finish the cross stitch first and a couple of embroideries. See.....I managed to find that excuse not to make a start on the new project.
I'm trying very hard not to jump into Family Search today.  It is so tempting to just go look for one more clue in my search for the ancestors.  I need to find confirmation on one of my great great grandfathers I think I have finally found.  Its a wonderful feeling finding someone from your past and when you find LIVE reli's its even better no matter how distant the common ancestor is that you share. 
Should I or should I not go garage saling today, theres only two down in the paper.  I would need to put petrol in the car first, and theres a new second hand place just opened up on the edge of town as well I want to check out. Do I ignore the bills piling up, do I ignore that voice of reason that was so good when it came to not going to the Spotlight sale, but what if I miss that elusive bargain of the century I've been searching for, that perfect piece.  Grrrrrrrrrrrr.................


Jan

End of March already

Where has the time gone.  Not much happening craft wise. I seem to have slowed down though I do still do my 20 mins a day.  Easter just like christmas has crept up on me.  It not something we really make a fuss of. Maybe I will have the family round for lunch on Sunday, depending on my mood. I'm not feeling very sociable at the moment.  I'm in my grumpy old woman mode. 
I want to lock myself away from the world and just craft away to my hearts content, no stopping to cook meals or talk to friends. No cleaning or shopping. Its not going to happen so I might as well 'suck it up and deal with it Princess' as my friend would say.
I whizzed round the supermarket this morning, making chimichangas for dinner tonight. Got everything I needed and more while I was there.  I'm going to put the meat on now so it will be cooked enough to shred later.  Then I'm going to find a couple more ancestors to add to my family tree and then settle down while the meat is cooking to an hour of crafting. I have the house to myself for the first time in ages so I am taking advantage of it.


Jan

NEW SHOES

Since I was so determined I was going to come home with a new pair of shoes I practically tried on every size 6 - 7 in the shop.  The pretty trainers with the rose print on were too tight so that was a big disappointment.   To me the shoes that RIVERS sell are a bit quirky, but I decided that quirky was okay - suits me down to the ground in my present mood. So I got a pair reminiscent of little girl shoes. I've always shied away from them in the past but yesterday I bit the bullet and tried something new.  I also got a skirt, a pretty brown swirly skirt with beads and embroidery on, reduced to $29 from $59.  The op-shops turned out to be a big disappoint as far as rose themed items went. Not one thing. So I bought 2 pretty shirts and a cute little pot bunny.  I also bought a cotton overshirt that had aged very well, the faded colour blending perfectly. At a $1 I thought it was a good buy and I plan to do a little surface embroidery around the neckline, nothing too pretty as it isn't a pretty shirt.  I bought a new handle and lock for the bathroom door - no more yelling out to visitors - Put the big wooden duck behind the door.  Now all I have to do is find a capable man to fit it for me.  Actually I am probably quite capable of fitting it myself.

If I don't get new shoes today I will Scweam

and I'll scweam and I'll scweam and stamp my feet.

Yesterdays trip to Mareeba was cancelled yet again, my son turned up at my friends early in the morning to do her mowing and pruning and since we had been nagging and nagging him to do it and the weather was perfect we cancelled our shopping trip.  If we had been younger and fitter I suppose we could have gone in the afternoon but by then it was 90 degrees and neither of us fancied the journey and shopping in that heat.
So today we are going to be two determined little old ladies. We will get there, come rain or shine.
We've given ourselves a project - paint our garden pots, so we're going to the second hand shops to see what they have we could use as pots. Then the op-shops and then we'll end up at the store where hopefully we will have money left for shoes. 
I have given myself a challenge today - to buy 4 rose themed items and not spend over $5 for the lot.  I am so in need of 'pretty' in my life.  Having three boys and a husband who wasn't into frilly and pretty (though to give him his due he did like fossiking around op-shops and garage sales with me) I was overrun with masculine things. So now I only have one son at home I can gradually start prettying things up.  I am hoping that all the prettiness will get to him and he'll move out. Aren't I a horrible mother.

Well better get a move on, pots to wash, clothes to hang, shower, get dressed and prepared for a big shopping trip.

janjan