Mr Tumble....

Just over two weeks ago, a little after lunch, I was sat opposite Mr G at the dining table painting one of my signs when he took a phone call. It was the school Matron.

All I could make out was "fell down the stairs" and "ambulance" and so as you can imagine I freaked a wee bit!!

It transpired that our youngest W had had a friend jump on him at the top of the stairs, they had tumbled down and the friend had landed on W's foot. Matron said that W couldn't weight bear and so did we want her to call an ambulance or would we collect W to take him to A&E?

Naturally, off we went to fetch him and soon we were at the local hospital and on our way to X-Ray, all of us saying "it'll just be sprained" as although it was painful for W to put weight on it, other than that it didn't really hurt and had minimal bruising and swelling.

So both we and and the medical staff were amazed to discover W had broken four out of five metatarsals!!

 

Apparently it's quite a spectacular break as usually only one or two bones fracture.

So, W had to have a plaster:

This one is actually his temporary cast, he now has a proper one in purple!!

W had ten days off school while we awaited the appointment for the proper cast and he returned last week. This has been somewhat unsuccessful as despite the school initially saying he could attend all the classes that were on the ground floor they've since changed their minds and are keeping him confined to a corner of huge library on his own due to "health and safety" *rollseyes*.

This means long periods where he has nothing to do as the teachers have not really been very organised at sorting out work for him, despite me telephoning every day to ask them not to leave him with nothing to do.

This morning we attended the fracture clinic to check all was still aligned properly - it is, but W is still not allowed to weight bear. I must confess that after half term I am inclined to keep him home and the teachers can send homework so at least he is not isolated with nothing to do for much of the day.

It's my belief that the main reason they want him in is because it'll skew the attendance figures if he has time off.

Luckily, W is a laid back and happy boy and throughout all this he has been very brave and chirpy.

Although, he's not much impressed that the cast may still be on on his birthday in a months time!!

Thanks for reading....

Hugs,

S x

 

 

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Gotta Love Spring....

Whooops!! I had a bit of an unplanned blogging break there!! I do apologise!! I now have a backlog of things to write about and so my blog may do the "buses" thing!!

Late spring is one of my favourite times of year. The bleak midwinter is over and everything springs forth with life and promise - the weather is warm but not too hot (I don't "do" being hot) and we can get out into the garden and get things done that have been waiting.

When we lost two of our horses last summer we had them cremated and my Stepdad made these lovely wooden planters. Now the weather has improved we finally got around to planting them up.

We added some rocks for drainage, a little soil and then carefully unwrapped each heavy parcel that contained my equine friends - the chalky white ashes were gently tipped in and more soil was added. Then we planted them with roses and bedding plants before adding handpainted signs.

I must confess it was rather emotional and I shed a little tear. I like to think that by giving the roses nutrients their energy will live on.

While we were buying plants we came across a chap in a local village square selling flowering wisteria plants for £15 so we couldn't resist snapping one up.

We have a wisteria growing up the front of the house but unfortunately it didn't flower this year. I think we slipped up by being afraid to cut it back last year and so will have to do that this autumn.

We got some bedding plants, strawberries and a beautiful blue hydrangea to go in our mismatched (I love mismatched!!) pots for the decking as well.

The aquilegia has sprung up all over as it is does:

Even Jasper, one of our two, Tonkinese cats took a moment to enjoy the spring sunshine.

We got a lovely table and chairs for the decking - in candy stripes and so very me!!:

The directors style chairs are very comfy and I've already spent several afternoons out on the decking crocheting and watching Netflix.

Let's hope we are granted a half decent summer!!

Hugs,

S x

 

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Windsor - Mum's Birthday....

Last Sunday, as is traditional, we took Mum out for the day to celebrate her birthday. This year we decided on Windsor.

My Sis, Mum, Mum's Bestie and my niece Little E....

We arrived late morning and the first order of business was a little bit of shopping....

Windsor is so very British, very steeped in history....

We posed for the traditional photos....

And then it was time for afternoon tea....

This years trip was a wee bit poignant as last years day out had to be cancelled as Mum was recovering from a triple heart bypass following her heart attack - she was only up to a quiet meal out.

So this year we were thankful in more ways than one to have our lovely Mum....

Hugs,

S x

 

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Building Raised Decking - A Ta Dah!!

Since we had the conservatory along the back of the house we have been without a patio and really missed sitting out in the summer to eat. After the cabin was built decided decking was the way forward as the space in front of it was perfect:

Aside from building the cabin last autumn we had not done much building/carpentry and first of all decided to get someone in to do the decking for us but after a review of the budget decided that was not going to be possible - we would have to Do It Ourselves.

I did a bit of Googling and watched a couple of videos on YouTube and set about designing the frame, making calculations and then spent just over £500 on materials.

I found a place that did long lengths of decking as well as the beams to support it and so ordered them exactly the size we wanted to ensure minimum cutting was needed. We did hire a circular saw for 48hrs (£22) to do the cuts for the bearers which were placed between the joists to add strength.

Mr G has had this week off work and he and W (at the rate of £1 per hour for his labour!!) have been hard at it the last two and half days:

Of course I "project managed" with a bit of stitching to keep me occupied between "instructions":

After the first day the frame had taken shape and the supporting posts were concreted in - that was a lot easier than it sounds as we used Postmix - you dig your hole (a minimum 30cms deep for raised decking), fill it 1/3 with water, set in your post and then scoop in the Postmix powder until no water remains. It "goes off" in ten minutes so the post is going nowhere:

Yesterday, the decking itself was laid - we decided we didn't want railings for a couple of reasons, firstly (and a bit embarrassingly) we didn't realise quite how high it was going to be!! The garden slopes both back to front and side to side and so that left corner is pretty tall. Secondly, I thought railings would make the whole thing look closed in and detract from the cabin and thirdly, railings are expensive and so they would have doubled the cost:

And today, we finished off by boarding the front and making some steps - the deck is a fraction smaller than the cabin itself 4.8m x 3m:

Doesn't it look fab? To the right of the cabin we are awaiting a new fence and a gate so the dogs can't get behind the cabin as the fence belonging to the house that backs onto us is not secure and in front of that (where you can see the railway sleepers) we will fill with bark chippings.

We need to reseed the grass where it's got compacted with all the to'ing and fro'ing and I intend to put a standard rose in each of the planters (built for me by my lovely StepDad) along with the ashes of my two ponies lost last year.

So if you think you can't manage to build a deck of your own I'd urge you to think again, with just a couple of days (enjoyable) work and a small budget look at the lovely finish Mr G has achieved - (and at this point I will confess his nickname is "Bodge It Bennett" and so if he can do it anyone can, lol!!)

One last thing (before I shop for a table and chairs of course) I'd like to paint all the fences a paleish, sage green - Mr G currently DIY'ed out and refuses but I reckon I'll get my own way before long....

Many thanks for reading....

Hugs,

S x

 

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Untitled

Hello my lovelies!! I hope you have all had a fab weekend?

Mr G has this week off as we are laying some decking in front of the cabin (or Shedquarters as I have taken to calling it lately) and so we have had a pretty lazy weekend before getting stuck in this week.

So what have I been up to lately?

Last weekend was Mothers Day and so I put my feet up while Mr G cooked one of his mean roasts (he really is a very good cook these days):

My Mum and Sis joined us for lunch - Mr G's parents would usually have come too but they were away on holiday.

The boys got me a couple of lovely cards, despite them being teenagers I still insist upon being called "Mummy" - that's what I started as and I don't see why I should change my name!! Although I do let them call me "Mum" around their friends:

They also bought me a super cute bag:

How fab is that?

I made my Mum and little niece a Tilda elephant each:

I've made five of these now and I'm particularly pleased with how these two turned out - the fabric is a kind of single sided micro fleece and it worked really well.

I've tried dressmaking again, I actually took it up the week before it started but The Great British Sewing Bee has kept me inspired.

As I love to wear jersey most I've stuck to knits so far and signed up to a class - "Plus Size Pattern Fitting And Design" over on Craftsy and am at last beginning to understand how to adjust commercial patterns to fit me better.

A heads up - if you join Craftsy they will offer you a choice of discounted classes, mine was less than half price!!

This is Butterick 5794 - next time I make it I'll add a bit more width to the skirt I think:

I used clear elastic tape and my twin needle on the neckline and it turned out lovely and flat:

I've got a couple more patterns and jersey to make up so will keep you posted.

Finally, last week I went to visit my dear friend Gem from Treasures From The Cherry Tree, we were joined by Sarah from Annaboo's House and we had a lovely girly day of nattering, baby cuddles and gorgeous food.

Naturally, there was the obligatory selfie!!:

So, that's all I have to report for now - hopefully I'll be back later in the week with photos of the decking!!

Hugs,

S x

 

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Singing Kitty!!

As you may remember we have two lovely Tonkinese boys:

Tonkinese are a breed in their own right though they started off as a Siamese/Burmese cross. They have huge personalities and naturally as lovers of such characters we are suckers for all things feline.

One of my favourite adverts at the moment is the one for Three with the fab singing cat Bronte who sits in her little owners bicycle basket belting out "We Built this City On Rock And Roll":

I was delighted when I was asked to review an iPhone 5S case resplendent with Bronte's cute face:

The case is really nice quality, fits my phone perfectly and does not interfere with the signal - I had an issue with my old case causing the signal to drop out - I've had much better coverage since swapping to my new case.

If you haven't seen Bronte doing her thing you can check her out at #SingItKitty

Do beware though, every time I see the ad I can't stop singing "We Built This City" for a week #earworm!!

Hugs,

S x

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My Biggest Sewing Project Yet - A Ta Dah!!

As soon as I learned to quilt I knew I wanted to make a king size quilt for our bed. I was a little daunted with the size of the task and so it's little wonder that this Ta Dah has been a year (or more?) in coming:

I began by starting to collect half metres of fabrics I liked. Lots of Cath Kidston-esque prints from Sew La La (she has a lovely selection of really well priced cotton prints) and a smattering of Tanya Whelan and Tilda:

After lovingly gazing at my growing stash for a few weeks I began to cut the squares. I wanted just simple 6" squares to let the prints do the talking. 324 of them in all.

I spent many afternoons sewing them into nine square blocks and after I had done that I ran out of steam and shelved the project for a good few months!!

A few weeks ago I came back to it - I had decided early on to use the quilt-as-you-go method, I really hate the quilting part mostly because it's just so tricky to manage anything other than a pretty small quilt with a domestic sewing machine.

I used white sheets cut into squares for the backing - sandwiching cotton batting between each nine patch and plain white square. I then quilted each 6" square on the block 1/4" in from the seam. Thirty six blocks took me several happy afternoons in the cabin.

(My industriousness was halted temporarily when I decided I needed to get my sewing machine serviced - I was spending the same about of time detangling and retreading as quilting and so I contacted the manufacturer Silver Viscount and they advised me that they could service it.

They provided a fab service, collecting, servicing and delivering my machine for £50 and taking less than a week. After it's service my machine is running much better).

There are a couple of ways to quilt-as-you-go - I used this method. I used very narrow sashing and trimmed the seam allowance to match and so there are no gaps without batting or ridges and you really wouldn't know it hadn't been quilted all in one go.

One of the other advantages of this method is you can buy your batting as you go. I wanted cotton batting and it cost £60 but because I bought it a couple of metres at a time I hardly noticed the outlay.

An evening and afternoon saw the binding hand sewn on and then it was All Done!!

I decided with all the patterns on the quilt then something a bit more plain was in order so at the weekend I made a couple of raspberry cushions to replace the floral ones we had:

It's had a wash and I haven't pressed it as I like the crinkly, vintagey look (the big creases will drop out in a few days).

All in all I'm very pleased with it though will be waiting awhile before accepting any "orders" from certain members of the family!!

Hugs,

S x

 

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