Happy New Year

Let's us all hope that 2011 is far better than predicted!  

I find this to be a strange time of year,  the end of one and the beginning of another, but what really changes, other than the date?   Just like Christmas it is the anticipation,   that thing that you cannot see or touch, but you keep being told is there...  And then midnight arrives and....  nothing has really changed.   But it is up to us what will change,   we can decide and we can effect change,  don't ever stop believing that.   Whenever I see an MP I just think: I am your employer, you are working for me.  We just need to remind them of that, as often as possible. 

All I want for 2011 is less bad news, both personally and globally.  There has to be some bad stuff, that I expect, just not so much of it. 

So where ever you are, realise that it is up to you what sort of 2011 you have,  make sure that you manage to smile each day,  and make others smile.   

Now we have a heatwave....

Phew, back to thin clothing,  I'm no longer feeling the cold but my mother is... so one of us is enjoying a sauna, guess who?   Not sure where the photo was taken, but it was somewhere in the UK, came courtesy of an FB friend, but it does look nice.

Busy day today,  housework day, was determined to get it all done in one day.  Needed a few sit downs to give the knee a rest, but got it done.  So flat is back in some sort of order, just need to sort out fridge freezer.   Feel much better, an issue which had been bugging me got resolved, my fears were unfounded but just glad I followed my instincts.   Been reading about Buddhism today, makes sense to me,  stay in the here and now,  stop worrying about what you can not change,  stuff that is done including mistakes.   Moment I began doing that I felt the stress just lift from my neck and shoulders.   It will take work to maintain it, but hey it is a start.  Now the housework and shopping are out of the way I can now go on a guilt free shopping trip.   I did indulge yesterday during the QVC sale day,  just one thing caught my fancy so thought what the heck, it is on easy pay...  a couple of clicks and it was mine.  Be interesting to see how long it takes to arrive.   Very unamused with Royal Mail,   they can deliver a letter with a vague address but can't manage to deliver a parcel sent BEFORE the snow arrived, on time!   Still waiting for my vouchers as well.   What was equally UNamusing was our chaotic bus service, one lot of drivers from one company decided to brave it and made it to our neck of the woods, another company refused point blank, but that didn't stop them taking on passengers who were destined to travel just one stop! I'm not blaming the workers, but rather the management, if workers feel appreciated then they go that extra mile,   so figure it out...

I'm also a great aunty for the second time,  yes my niece gave birth to her first son yesterday,  so some happy news. Mum and baby are doing well, still in hospital,  but should be home by Friday.   My mum also managed to get beyond the front door today!   Relief,  at least I got two hours guaranteed 'me' time.   Makes such a difference to have the place to myself for a few hours,  just to be able to chill.   Played my udu drum,  it makes such a beautiful sound.

Was going to do some scrapbooking today, but never got round to it.   Printed the photos, so that is a start,  didn't think printer was going to cooperate,  got a shut down message on the software, but luckily it all came back on.   Just not in the mood I guess.  Feel the need to go to a craft shop,  need a fix.

Well only a few days left of 2010...  

At last....

A thaw has set in!   The temperature crept up to the dizzy heights of 3C - a heatwave.  The snow is also beginning to melt,  might all be gone by weekend.  Which will be a relief, then perhaps things can go back to normal.  Still waiting for some Xmas stuff to come thru, which my niece sent two weeks ago, well before we got any snow. 
Think I also need a thaw to set in elsewhere,  can't seem to do right for doing wrong with one person.  I've tried just to ignore it but it is now getting to me.  I just seem to say, suggest or do the wrong thing,  get the cold shoulder, then a few days later all is okay again, sort of.    Got enough to contend with on the home front, I want craft to be about fun and having a laugh with my craft friends, not worrying if I should or shouldn't say something.    Need to mull things over, perhaps it is time to move on?

Managed to finish off the baby box, turned out better than I thought,  recoloured a few things,  and managed to find other bits,  now it just needs a date and a name inside, left some spaces so they can put a few photos in it.  Also made up the Woodlands card,  but do not like it!  There were no instructions with it, it is supposed to be a concertina card, but not so much as a clue as to what bit went with what.  It will be okay in a frame.

Now just need my hobbycraft vouchers!

And that was Christmas...

Yep, all that build up,  weeks and weeks of it... endless TV programs about how to create the perfect Christmas (if you have a beautiful chocolate box style house and pots of money it may be possible... ), the type that no-one wants cos it isn't cosy or user friendly, it just looks nice!   I got sick of that Kirsty from RRR,  telling us all how to decorated our homes... shows how out of touch she is with reality.  I notice she wasn't on a council estate! Lets face it the Christmas we all usually end up with is more akin to the Royle family,  chaotic, a few rows,  a lot of laughs and far too much food! 
I don't much care if the bookies insist on  snowflake falling on the Met office roof before it is an official white Christmas, it was very white here!   The snow that arrived a week ago is still with us, pretty much intact,  everything is still frozen solid.
My mum liked her necklace and earrings,  necklace is in pic opposite, wonder if you can spot the mistake?  I did and undid it, at same time I made it a bit longer, but she was chuffed with it.  Also got her some books and a CD,  so she at last has something to read,  or so she said,  just a week ago I took a full carrier bag of books back to library,  they'd been here for over 2 months and she'd not read any of them cos she didn't feel like reading.  Of course  the moment I returned them she wanted something to read. Typical. 
I was in charge of cooking yesterday,  I still can't figure out why so many people panic over Christmas dinner, it is simply a roast dinner, all about timing,  and every blooming thing these days has on it cooking instructions! So what is the problem?   Our turkey was delicious, very moist, and it was a frozen turkey,  just the crown which is plenty for the two of us,  veg was spot on, only the roasties let me down,  the King Eddies are a bit naff this year,  and made some lovely gravy!   We even managed to eat the Christmas pud,  well these days I make sure the plates are not overflowing,   so we both had room for the pud,  Tesco's finest,  which looked on the small side, but then you forget how filling Christmas pud is.   And that was it,  time for mum to snooze, and time for me to go sit in watch over PC,  waiting for sister to skype us from Spain, I did ask her to text me to tell me when she'd be on skype, but she forgot.   No worries, caught up with a few bits on FB and e-mails.  Can't say sis looked very cheerful,  it seems Spain doesn't really 'do' Christmas, it hangs on for what we see as 12th night.   They did have the family with them, two of the offspring had flown over, after an horrendous time at Bristol airport, a certain airline beginning with R... It seems some plonker let all the passengers on then remembered that the plane hadn't been de-iced!   They got away some 3 hours later, very unamused as they'd been at the airport from 4.30 a.m.   I hope they do change the law and make all public transport companies liable for passenger comfort etc, high time that airports and airlines got a kick up the backside. 
Hope you had a good Christmas, and that Santa brought you lots of goodies... 

Anyone got a spare sled?

Finally managed to clear the snow off the car,  and it also started first time, which was a relief.   Wasn't going to go out, but forecast was diabolical for tomorrow, so decided to head off to supermarket.  The place was packed,  they'd cleared the main road into the car park but not the actual car park, worse they'd not really done anything to the disabled parking spaces.   Got all that we needed,  so we are now all stocked up,  will just need some more milk.
The pic is of the ivy on the wall,  full of icicles, I took the picture on Sunday, and they are still there today, in fact think they've grown. Main roads were terrible,  a friend said it had taken him an hour to drive a mile!  And that was on a main road, in fact the main road thru to Liverpool,  we've only got a few buses running and a limited train service, so everyone has taken to their car.  I was followed by a gritter, not that it was gritting even tho it was full.   We've had some extremely low temperatures and the grit doesn't work at anything below minus 10, but they could get out in the day time we've had sun,  get some grit on the roads then and they'd soon clear. 
My niece and nephew got away from Bristol airport this morning,  they thought last night that the weather may close the airport,  luckily the snow wasn't that heavy.

Managed to get on with my drum, added three designs,  this is one,  will upload pics of the others later in week.
Looks like it will be a white Christmas afterall,   it does look very pretty, 

White world

Yesterday they said we'd get some snow, but by mid afternoon the sky was still blue so I thought we'd got away with it.  At 5pm I looked out of window and it was snowing heavily,  and so it carried on till the next day.  Took photo at 9.30 this morning, we'd had about 9 inches of snow!    At that point we'd had no newspaper,  didn't blame our paper boy (fully grown man actually),  but guess what?  15 minutes later he turned up with the paper!   Then a neighbour rang to ask if we needed anything,  only thing we were short of was milk, and she kindly went and got us some, then offered to clear the path.  She also checked on our downstairs neighbour. 

We haven't had any more snow today, but more is forecast... hope it eases off later in the week to give me a chance of getting some shopping.  We had no buses, no trains and some taxi firms only ran a limited service.  With no buses there wasn't anything heavy enough to churn up the snowy roads. 

Only one thing to do, get crafting, so I did.  Made two pairs of earrings,  and then did a bit more work on decorating my udu drum,  coming along nicely.  Haven't had chance to do anything with it these last few weeks, it has just been card making 24/7, or that is what it felt like. 

Off to catch up on Strictly....

Oh no the white stuff is coming again!

Just seen our forecast, looks like it is our turn for the snow!   It at least had a good effect on me in that got all cards written and posted, plus parcel I needed to send.   Will do shopping tomorrow, got hair appointment on Thursday morning, taking mum to hospital in the afternoon...  so a busy few days but if the snow does arrive at least we'll have plenty of food. 
Finally managed to get all the xmas stash cleared away and stored for next year.  At least now it is all in one box rather than being spread all over the place.  Just need to sort out tool box,  which has got really messy.
I've done a lot of crafting over last few days, needed a box for a gift but local craft shop didn't have any, so had to make my own.  Which wasn't ideal as the gift is heavy, hence need for chipboard box, but temporary box will do for now, it looked very good when I'd finished,  used some violet paint,  put it on thick so you could see the brush strokes, then added some cosmic shimmer, and a few corner peel offs.   Next up was a 70th birthday card,   I used the QVC kit that I had been intending to send back, but once I'd looked at it properly I decided to keep it,  good job as it was just the thing i needed to make the card.   So white card blank,  butterfly acetate (glittered),  matted and layered piece of white card with silver frame,  used peels offs in centre, all finished off with a lovely bow.  All very blingy. 
Now I'm trying my hand at jewellry making,  got a kit at the weekend, said it had all you needed,  except it didn't as you also needed the tools, so had to go back to get a tool kit.   So far I've managed to make a pair of earrings, now making a necklace,   I'm going to give them to my mum for Xmas,  but not say I've made them just to see what she thinks. 
My life sounds all in order and calm, I can assure you it is neither,  got more bad news last week,  and then there is mum's appointment on Thursday.   Can't say I am much of a festive mood.

Hope you're all safe and keeping warm.

Oh it is getting closer...

Yep the day is looming large on the horizon.   All my pressies are sorted and sourced,  and everyone is online!  Well High Street shopping is beyond me at the moment, so internet is fantastic.   There are a few folk who have been knocked off the list,  well there is only so long you can keep giving without receiving.  So Christmas this year has been a relatively cheap affair,  lots of bargains on Amazon, but each present was chosen with care to ensure it suited the recipient.    Ebay also came to the rescue for a few things!

This morning was spent at an outpatient's clinic, full to the brim of nature's casualties,  courtesy of our wintry weather,  broken arms and legs everywhere.   So that meant an elongated stay,   we didn't get seen till 1pm, then it was decided by junior doc that perhaps the Consultant needed to be consulted...    trouble was he was also needed in theatre.  So we ended up going home without a result,  at least they got all the tests out of the way.   And so we get to do it all again next week!   Joy.  More annoying was the ruddy car park, the multi storey,  had to park up on the second floor, but the sodding lift wasn't working!   I was fuming.  Only bright side was that they have a flat rate charge of 2 quid, regardless of length of stay.   So after arriving at 10.15 we finally left at 2.45!    Was waiting in a pick up point for mum,  in which was a very officious/jobsworth looking security guard invested with booking anyone parked illegally,   think it took him 20 minutes to write out ticket for car parked next to me, which had been there for well over an hour.  I'd only just got there, but I thought if that chap comes anywhere near me... 
So that was my day over,  managed the last bit of QVC,  but not a spot of crafting,  same as yesterday,  had to put up Xmas decs,   had got neice's boyfriend to get them from loft, so nowt else for it but to put them up or live with large box and tree in bin bag for rest of week.    Had to get new set of lights,   last lot had too many out of order bulbs,   so got a set at half price at supermarket.   Not sure how I fitted 100 bulbs on a 2 and a half foot tree, but I did,  whats more it is only half a tree... ! 

As for weather,  well it has been freezing!  We got a brief respite on Sunday,   it did warm up a tad,  but Monday morning the world was a ghostly white, the frost didn't lift till well after lunch time.   It took me an age to defrost the car,  thick ice on windscreen, couldn't open the driver's door,  glad to say the passenger door did open so could push open the other door.   Car started first time and soon warmed up.

Hoping tomorrow I may get to finish off what needs to be finished off,  who knows, have to put prescription in chemist first thing - last time they had to ring round to get my painkillers!  Fingers crossed for an uneventful day, please! 

Whoa... December!

And am I panicking... nope,  Christmas arrived today in a box, well the pressies did.   Decs will be rescued from loft by god-daughter's boyfriend this Sunday.  
We did have a sprinkling of snow on Tuesday,  enough to put mum off going to her appointment.   Sort of suited me as I didn't really want to go de-ice the car that early in the morning.   But did venture out, had to, we were out of the essentials, bread, milk.   Wore my super grippy shoes,  to see if they were any good and they were.  As was new winter jacket,  kept me very warm and snug. 

Got in a bit of a tizz yesterday making a card,   planned to make my group cards,  So got all the bits,  but what I was trying I hadn't tried before, so ended up with a mess, getting frustrated and wanting to hurl the lot out of the window.  So gave up and started again today,  this time with more idea of what I wanted to do and it worked.   Had slight hitch with printable acetate, the printer wouldn't recognise it, but solved that problem by using some paper behind it.   So one down, eleven to go!   
Also found one of my local craft shops is online,  it is in Southport, so by time I use petrol, pay for parking I may as well get stuff online from them.