Hygge CAL

I stumbled upon the Scheepjes crochet along (CAL) combining crochet and cross stitch a few weeks ago. It starts today.  I'm not using the recommended yarn because I have plenty of cotton yarns and embroidery threads already and I like stylecraft DK which I a lot cheaper.



This is my sample swatch which obviously needs a lot more practice on the cross stitch. I haven't done any of that for a very long time.





The first part is released at 12pm GMT today. Hopefully I'll get time to start the project tonight and show my progress in the coming days.

2016

It was a year that certainly taught me a few lessons which is never a bad thing.

Without going into detail, which isn't my place to do, I learnt an awful lot right from the get go about mental illness and how it affects the person suffering from it and the people surrounding them. I knew a fair bit about autism and the affects of that having two sons with it but when they are affected in other ways it is a real eye opener. I'm leaving that right here as it isn't my place to discuss it. 

Back in February we lost our cat Toby. He was only 2.5. He had been peeing in very random places for a while but we put it down to a shift in house dynamics - one child moving into their own house, another and the only one Toby really gravitated to moved back to university. I took him to the vets a few days before he died, she seemed to think pretty much the same as me but wanted a urine sample just to be sure. We never managed to get the sample as it became clear he was just going where he was. I got some special litter from the vet and locked him in my son's bedroom to be sure it wasn't a sample from one of the other two cats but he just went on the bed or the carpet. The next day he took himself into a storage area in my bedroom as he did a lot of days but didn't come out for food that night. He was always the first to want feeding and most nights came and stood in front of us and put his head to one side with a look that said 'come on human my belly is rumbling'. We got him out of the hidey hole he was in. He had been sick and couldn't stand up. We tried to get some water down him but a short time later, after being sick a couple more times, he made the most awful scream that will stay with me forever and just died. Everything points to kidney failure and I should have taken him to the vets way before I did instead of putting it down to behavioural issues with the litter tray. His ashes are in a beautiful box in his little hidey hole. One day I'll scatter them but that day isn't yet.

At the end of June a friend took in some stray kittens on behalf of a policeman who had had them handed in at work. This is the same friend we got Percy from. Enter Hugo. I wasn't going to get another cat after Toby but he was just too cute to resist. He's been a learning curve. Razor sharp claws and an insane greediness have been big obstacles but six months in we are getting there.

and then he does something like this! Being greedy and thought he was pinching crisps but it was actually an empty packet that he got stuck on his head 😂

Another lesson that I'm not going to dwell on but need to write down for my own sake is people coming out of the woodwork when they think they can interfere in things that are nothing to do with them. This is related to paragraph 1 and is probably a misguided sense of wanting to help but when in laws pop out of the woodwork that haven't taken a bit of interest when we were dealing with some pretty tough stuff when the boys were diagnosed with autism 10 years ago it stinks of too little too late nosiness. The mother in law has only been in touch to send birthday cards and at Christmas. No telephone calls during the year at all for many years. The sister in law hasn't even bothered with cards for years. I suppose it could work both ways as my husband has not gone out of his way either but as a parent I just can't understand it. I couldn't go that long without talking to my kids.  It's unfairness as well that really sticks in my throat this year. Fpr Christmas daughter was given £100 of supermarket vouchers, my sons got £20 in a card. Their cousin's girlfriend tagged the mother in law on Facebook thanking her for her £100 in vouchers. I get that my daughter has her own house and I don't know the cousin's girlfriends circumstances BUT two of my sons live away from home during term time and have to feed theirselves. They aren't children. I find it thoroughly unfair that she has chosen to favour one child over the other three and am extremely cross that their cousin's girlfriend should also be favoured. This is not my daughter's fault though so I'm leaving this right here in 2016 with the lesson that I will not let myself get into that situation with my own kids and I will always treat each and every one of my grandkids fairly if I am lucky to be blessed with any.

The dogs have had their issues this year. Daisy more than Charlie.  I will admit that I haven't walked her as much as I should and she has put a lot of weight on. We put them in kennels overnight while we had some flooring fitted.  The next day she was struggling to walk so I popped her to the vets.  They diagnosed arthritis in her back legs.  She also had a problem with her anal glands requiring surgery. I've had to really change her lifestyle and apart from one blip when she had a nasty sickness and couldn't get up properly as she was so weak, she is now walking a lot further and has lost a fair amount of weight.  Any excuse for snuffling in the leaves.

 

Boo

Hello. Six whole flipping months. That's not good. Such a lot has happened. Some sad, some happy, mostly just getting on with it. 

I'll update the last few months soon but in the meantime here is one of the happies from that time. 

Meet Hugo - he is currently around 9-10 weeks old

See you soon

Pages 3 to 9

Page 3 - back to normality tomorrow. A very different one for me but more on that tomorrow. Usual supermarket shop and nothing much else to say about today. 

Page 4 - back to school/college/work and for me the first day of a new job. I've been self employed for most of the time the kids were younger. My business has been making a loss for the last couple of years so I made the decision that paid employment was the better way now the kids are older. 

Page 5 - the day directly from hell. I woke up with a migraine. Now when people say they've got a migraine and are still functioning they really and truly have not got a migraine. A headache maybe but not a migraine. They really knock you for six. They make me sick, my vision blurs and my head is like nothing you've ever felt unless of course you've had a migraine. Other things also happened in the evening but this is not the place for that. 

Page 6 - felt a lot better today. Bit wobbly but much better and helped by a call to say my youngest has been selected to run for the district in a competition. The school didn't have many details but wanted me to know and said it is a massive achievement. I will know more soon. 

Page 7 - back at work again today. I'm glad I remembered a lot of the stuff I was taught on Monday. Picked out some colours for a temperature blanket I'm crocheting. Took the eldest son for his supermarket shop before he goes back to uni. Indoor rugby training this evening for the youngest. 

Page 8 - hospital this morning with middle son. Chilli in the slow cooker making an easyish tea for when I get back from work. Felt much more confident at work today.

Page 9 - quick trip to town for my boots heeling and then the first outdoor rugby training session with the youngest. To say he was muddy afterwards is an understatement. Started the temperature blanket.

 

Page 2

A huge 9 degrees centigrade today. Took the Christmas tree to the tip and gave a massive sigh of relief. It has been the worst we've ever had for needle drop and has driven me crazy having to fish needles out of cups of coffee every day. 

Bye bye shitty tree

Page 1 Of The Latest Chapter In Life

A whole new chapter with 366 blank pages and because I documented virtually nothing last year I'm going to try at least a weekly page

Page 1 - 1 degree centigrade and time for a dog walk with my mr followed by a walk to the allotment and a huge ham for tea cooked all day in the slow cooker in tropical pop. Yum yum 

My Life Is One Big Washing Machine Saga

 I've written about this a few times before. In the last few years I've gone through at least one machine a year.

As we don't have room for separates and being a house of 6 (not any more but I'll get to that another day) we have a lot and I mean a lot of washing so a washer dryer is our best option. Whilst it isn't ideal because of the length of time it takes to do both a wash and dry it works for us. 

Washer dryers are notorious for breaking down though. We had dryer thermostat issues with the last two. They were LG and Samsung. Both had to be replaced within their warranty period. This one is by Hoover and it was delivered at the end of February this year. It has been trouble from day one. Mostly the washer unlike the others but when the washer breaks it trips the dryer so both are then useless. This particular repair was as a result of a massive leak under the newly laid kitchen flooring. It took 10 days for an engineer to be available. He diagnosed a hole in the drum and ordered a new drum. Another week and a bit later he turned up with the drum. Drum was faulty. He left me with the machine shell and all the interior workings plus two drums outside my front door (original one and broken replacement) with instructions to leave them for the scrap man. I ended up heaving them to the tip! This was how he left the machine.  Nice sharp edges on the metal there!

Another 10 days and another engineer visit scheduled but I got a text at 6:34am telling me the next replacement drum was damaged. Angry did not quite cut it. They emailed the next day to say they would be replacing the machine. Great I thought. My previous machines were bought from an online shop and when the company in question replaced them they refunded the shop and I got to order what I wanted hence replacing LG with Samsung and then Samsung with this Hoover one. Hoover, however do things differently to LG and Samsung and have replaced it directly. 

My replacement machine arrived yesterday morning. Words can't express how it feels to actually be able to just put washing in without having to heave it round to the launderette or having a relative do it. We have a massive backlog even with several trips a week. The launderette is £5 plus detergent so 5 weeks and 3 days without a machine has been very expensive and I shall be seeking compensation from them not to mention the damaged flooring.

Hoping this one is a long term fixture.

Boots Revlon Freebies December 2015

Hello there.  It's been a while.  I kind of got caught up in a marathon of hat knitting for winter and Christmas craft fairs during October and November and didn't really have a huge amount to talk about.  I'm done with all that now though.

It was my birthday in October and I got a couple of Boots gift cards.  I used one on a Laura Ashley gift set which I'll show you another day.  The other I used on some make up.  Boots is fantastic at this time of year for make up freebies if you spend over a certain amount.  Whilst I was looking I saw a few brands having promotions.  Max Factor, Bourgois, No 7, Seventeen, Barry M, L'Oréal and Revlon that I can remember but there may have been more. 

The Revlon caught my eye because it wasn't heavy on the dark colours and I prefer more neutral shades.  You had to spend £15 on Revlon products to get the freebies and to be honest I could have spent it 10 times over.  This is what you get free:

 

Photoready 3D Volume mascara in Blackest Black

Colorburst Lip Butter in Crème Brulee

Colorstay Gel Envy Nail Enamel in Perfect Pair

Colorstay Eye Quad in Addictive

 

 

and this is what I bought to get the freebies but to be honest I might have bought these with the gift card anyway.

Super Lustrous Lipstick in Blushed
Colorburst Matte Balm Stick in Sultry.

Boots had the sticks on offer online over the weekend at 4 for £10 but they were out of stock very quickly.

I really like the offer I got on this and the freebies are well worth the £15 spend.  The other brands looks like excellent offers too and I may have to go back for another look.

Learning Something New Everyday

September is the month for learning and the month Shimelle prompts us to learn something new everyday.

So the first week of September went a little bit like this:

Day 1 - I learnt that looking through my youngest son's homework which was set by his new school to do over the summer that he is very good at his times tables but getting him to read is a flipping nightmare.

Day 2 - I learnt that going to the park with the dogs earlier than usual results in wet feet because the dew is still on the ground and my boots have a hole in

Day 3 - I learnt that the local library now opens earlier than I thought and planning a trip to town around it opening later meant twiddling my thumbs unnecessarily.

Day 4 - I learnt that when a job is supposed to be an easy half hour it can turn into way more than that - one broken needle on my sewing machine caused absolute chaos when I was making some hair wraps.

Day 5 - I learnt that I am not alone in my observations about cliques and bullshit.

Day 6 - I learnt that some people either don't care how they park or are oblivious to the fact that they are parked at such a crazy angle.  That red car was parked with it's arse end stuck out like that for 2 days.

Day 7 - I learnt that the remnants of a gala in the park can leave interesting items that my Charlie dog just can't resist cocking his leg up at and burying himself under

Erm Hello

I haven't really been hiding under a rock all this time.  Things have happened and for various reasons I haven't got around to writing anything.

We had a stay here

because of a nasty injury during a rugby match. The youngest landed awkwardly during a tackle and his own body weight on top of his arm dislocated his wrist and fractured the growth plate on one of his arm bones.  Not a pretty sight and I've never been in A&E and seen them move so quickly. He bypassed the whole waiting room, was weighed and was on morphine within minutes of us arriving. This is a child who has a huge pain threshold and managed to sit through a whole afternoon of school and then walk home with a fractured patella sleeve 2 years ago so that told me how bad it was. They classed it as needing urgent theatre time. Unfortunately there was an emergency elsewhere in the hospital which prevented him having it operated on that afternoon so we spent the night on the childrens ward and he went to theatre first thing the next morning.

He was incredibly brave and went to school the next day. He actually didn't miss any days of school with it apart from fracture clinic appointments which is a massive achievement.  His downfall on school attendance was a bug this year but hey ho that's how it goes.

Thankfully it was his right arm and he is left handed so he managed to sit his year 6 SATs two weeks later without the need for a scribe.  I am so proud of him for managing to get through the most stressful time in year 6 and he did extremely well getting level 5 in every external test and level 4 in writing which is teacher assessed.

We had already booked a holiday to the Norfolk coast during half term in May.  Rugby is his life so not being able to throw a ball about on the beach was a major issue for him.  Football wasn't quite the same.  He spent a lot of time finding skimming stones to throw into the sea with his good hand.

He coped incredibly well and I think the autistic part of him accepting that if something has to happen a certain way then that is what is happening has helped him a lot.  He knew he couldn't do certain things and just accepted that.  I won't say he hasn't been frustrated because he has.  Mainly over not being able to play rugby. 

His injury happened at the end of April and this weekend just gone he played again.  He's been to training every week to watch and helped the coaches out at matches.  As soon as the pot came off and he was allowed to join in again with general training he did.  He did the exercises the consultant showed him religiously to gain strength and movement back. He counted the days down until he was allowed to do contact sport again. Determination has paid off.

#wearethethey - Not My Business

There has been a lot written about plus size this week. Some good some not so good but it has all made me think. To be truthful it made me think last week when one of the psbloggers photo prompts was fatshion and I searched Instagram for ideas. What I found was a huge hate campaign going on against plus sized people over there and it isn't something I want anything to do with so I stepped away from the photo prompts. I'm on the fence about the hate campaign.  On the one hand I'm all for positive body image and the self esteem it brings. These ladies are very body confident and that is a good thing but on the other hand being morbidly obese (which most of these people are) is not a good thing and neither are the bullying tactics these haters are using. There seems to be a vibe that they are immune from heart disease from eating so much fat etc, diabetes and the sheer pressure on their bones from carrying so much extra fat. Instagram is full of pics of their food intake. You don't get that size eating one or even two cakes. Excessive intake of crap or even not crap but too much food full stop and not enough exercise regardless of polycystic ovaries etc makes you fat - fact. The NHS guidelines are made up and not based on facts apparently. I only have one thing to say on that YOU DON'T SEE MORBIDLY OBESE OLD PEOPLE. 

However it isn't my business what anybody else does to their body. I feel sorry for their families as they will probably be the ones left behind in older life but again none of my business. 

What is my business though is my own overweight body. I've steadily gained weight since having my youngest child 11 years ago and am not at a healthy weight. I'm not morbidly obese but I am obese. My bmi was 34 on the scales in boots this week. In the school holidays I was puffing and red faced walking to keep up with my son on his scooter. I used to be able to run around that park. I am out of breath walking up the hill to Asda. That never used to happen. Enough is enough. Time to do something about my own business.

There was a documentary on about the plus sized clothing industry on Tuesday. I have mixed feelings about the documentary and as they are mostly negative I'll keep my mouth shut except to say Georgina Horne had the best outlook on life. Then Jamelia or whatever she's called made a comment which caused a massive uproar from the plus sized community and prompted the #wearethethey hashtag. She basically said it isn't healthy to be either very underweight or very overweight and that high street shops shouldn't  stock extremes of sizes. Whilst I agree with her comments about extremes of size being unhealthy I don't agree about clothes not being sold in high street shops. It's a basic human right to be clothed in a way you choose and why shouldn't anybody be able to buy from the high street just because they are bigger or smaller than is good for their health. Good on the plus size community for making a stand on it. 

Few More Prompt Pictures

Following on with the ps bloggers photo challenge thingy

Dinner - sausage casserole with dumplings (in the slow cooker as I'm not that greedy with those dumplings)

Dress - I figured that since the sun has had his hat on this week it might be time to iron one to wear over my jeans. 

Something bright - the sun

Weather - taken when the Look North weather was on. Still a bit chilly overnight and in the mornings even if it is warm during the day 

Breakfast - Asda version of Special K with red berries

Chocolate Of Course

What else could the prompt be for today?

Here is Percival not too impressed that chocolate eggs are stopping him stretching out on the kitchen table

Saturday Plans

The prompt today is Saturday plans. Today is different to most Saturdays. Usually my youngest is playing rugby league so the day is centered around that since they kick off at 1130 in his age group. If it is away there is usually travel plus afterwards there is a food and a certificate presentation so it's generally mid afternoon before we are back home. 

This week there isn't a game though with it being easter. Instead they met for a game of zorb football which he loved

This morning was food shopping. I don't usually do it on a Saturday but because the shops are closed tomorrow and the cupboards are bare it just had to be done

My other plan for today was sewing in a gazillion ends on a work project. Ticked that one off too thank goodness. I hate sewing ends in. 

I would have liked to fit some allotment time in today but that will have to wait until tomorrow now. 

It's Friday

That's the photo prompt for today.

I woke up to this view. Typical bank holiday weather that lasted all day

April Photo Challenge

Linking in with the psbloggers photo challenge. I'm going to try and keep up but I'm not promising because we all know where that leads. 

ps bloggers = plus size bloggers - I guess I qualify since I'm no skinny minny anymore. I was though when prompt 2 was taken. Prompt 2 is throwback Thursday but since today is also my daughter's 23rd birthday I chose one of both of us. Taken on a beach in the south of France in the summer of 1993 when she was a year and a bit and I was only 21. 

The first prompt was selfie. Selfies are WAY out of my comfort zone but here goes complete with granny roots and a few more stones than in 1993

I'm not sure if there is a central blog post anywhere for this challenge as I found it via Instagram. The hashtag over there is #psbloggeraprilchallenge if you fancy playing along. 

Erm OK Then

Blog silence.

I got bored of the A to Z thing. Nobody else in the house was really interested so it just kind of fizzled out. 

I don't really know what else I've been up to in the meantime that isn't mundane or worthy of a blog post so I'll not bother with any updates and we will forget about the blog silence and start over tomorrow.

C is for ....

Not a lot really.  It should be a kick up the bum with this project!

I had a bit of a list of food, chocolate, cheese and cake. What's not to love about those three things? I planned to make chocolate cakes. Never really happened. I made a yummy cheesecake but forgot to take a picture. Bought a Columbian coffee cake which was amazing 

I took some cold pictures  at the allotment 

My C son had a go at being a cowboy at my sister's party

Cats - not a popular c word at the moment - scratching anything and everything at the moment so I got a new scratching post in the hope that my stair carpet can have a rest from their claws. Look at the state of the settee arm in the foreground!

I'll be back with D in two weeks

B is For....

B fortnight runs to 28th January so here is what B discoveries we had.

Birthday - our youngest turned 11 during the fortnight.  Had to improvise a bit with the candles

We ate black bean casserole, beetroot, bacon butties and blitzed blueberries in the nutribullet.

I found a very nice beetroot and mint dip in Asda.

Made bird feeders at brownies and bought a bargain priced bird house in the sales for only £2.50.  Neither of these have made it to the allotment yet because the weather is a bit breezy and wet to say the least at the moment.

A definite highlight during the B two weeks was my daughter getting back into black robes for her second graduation. This time for her teacher qualification. Obviously different robes than for her geography degree because it is for a different qualification as a post graduate.  The stripe on the hood was much bigger, the hood was way longer and a bit difficult to photograph properly because of how it hung and the sleeves on the robes were a lot different.

She was chosen by the chancellor of the university to be stopped for a chat on her way across the stage which is a massive honour.

A bit of excitement last week was the filming of a bread advert on our street which will air on national TV with a major Hollywood star in it. 

I'll be back in two weeks with C.  Did you do anything for B?

Wednesday Is For Yarn And Reading

So back into the blogging and Wednesdays are for works in progress at Tamis Amis and also for reading progress on Yarn Along. 

It would appear that I've been out of the loop for far too long as Tami hasn't done a WIP Wednesday since September.  Hope she is OK and just taking a break.

In a bid to use up some of the aran yarn I've got I started the Sophie's Universe mystery blanket last week.  The pattern is here and is free.  There is a new clue every sunday for 20 weeks so I reckon by that time I will have used up a fair amount of the Drops Lima I've had for yonks.  I bought it for a fairisle knitted blanket originally but fairisle and me just do not get on long enough for such a big project.  Then I thought I would use some of it to make a crocheted jumper. Turns out the yarn is a bit too itchy to make that work so it has been sat in a dark cupboard hibernating until now. 

This is up to part 3

There are some rounds that are not easy to say the least but there is a step by step photo for every part which is so much help.  It is a well thought out and enjoyable project so far.

I'm reading a series of crime novels on my kindle by Karin Slaughter.  These are the Grant County series and I'm up to book 3 called A Faint Cold Fear

As it is a series of books with the same characters there are a lot of repeated facts from the other books for readers picking this up as an independent read.  Once you get past that they are easy to read and you are drawn in to the story.