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Mainly because my family cant get their acts together and make a decision over what they are planning on doing Christmas day, and partly because my mum has been so ill (she had to be rushed back into hospital again last week. They tested all her blood for clots and now she is back home but has to have a pile more tests yet before they can tell what is wrong) Christmas is taking a slow time to arrive with us this year.
I have been making some cards - but since inspiration is lacking I have been doing quite a few scraplifts.
I have already missed out on the Christmas Fair held at The County Show Grounds since I usually go with mum and dad, and this weekend I had hoped to use our key tickets for a free entry into the Christmas Market and Fair being held at Leeds Castle, but Martin had scheduled himself in for a Sunday work day. There is little left to go to now as come December most of the fairs are over and I have yet to persuade anyone to come to the Dickens Festival (so brilliant last year) with me yet. I do intend getting the decorations up next weekend even though the two days Martin has off this week are the two that I am booked to work! Oh well.
Some good news. The people who own the house that Ollie and Kelly have put an offer on have finally found a place to move to themselves. It is empty so completing the chain meaning all systems go for their move. Kelly also finally got the pay rise promised to her two years ago for her exam passes so well done babe and that will make the move less painful financially.
I wouldnt neglect my poor little blog again, but life just gets in the way doesn't it. This time it was my poor mum who having had a small minor op, came home for a few days only to be rushed back in again with a suspected heart attack.
Thankfully tests showed it was not an attack but she still has to go back for further tests to find out exactly what did happen. Whatever it was involved her being kept in until 3 the following day, and then a further 4 hour wait for her perscription to be filled by the hospital pharmacy, 100m away!!! Still she is home now and slowly getting better.
The kids all came over on Saturday to let off some fireworks in the garden and stuff themselves full of traditional bonfire night grub. I put my new camera onto 'firework' mode but it still took rather naff photos We had a great time and the kids (plus Auzzie visitors) didnt go home until gone midnight.
I have also done a fair bit of teaching at the lovely village school that I really love teaching in, and have a few more days booked there this week too.
I spent all my birthday money on a new hard drive - it is taking forever to persuade many of my discs to run long enough to copy the data over onto it but it is going to be great to have all my digi kits, photos and music in one place instead of hunting through heaps of cd backups so will be well worth it in the end.
And I have been busy making Christmas cards, using a mix of my old stamps, my new SU! stamps my cuttlebug embossing folders and my cricut.
Baubles cut on cricut using SCAL and a downloaded free SVG file off the net. Fronds cut using a punch
Snowflakes cut on crucut using a snowflake dingbat, covered in snowy glitter and then layered onto card.
Finished card, ,I think thats an old Hero Arts stamp.
Poor little blog, its been a bit neglected of late. And since loads of folk are now following and DOING Shimmelle's blog prompt class, all the blogs but mine are full of fun and exciting blog posts whilst mine languishes in loneliness.
Soory blog, I promise to visit you more often with news, and visions of wonderful craftiness.
So what has bloggie missed...
We finally managed to book tickets to the ballet. I have always wanted to go to see The Nutcracker as I love the music, but have never plucked up the courage to persuade Martin to come along with me. This year though, as part of the Canterbury Festival, a special production was being shown locally. I tentively asked if we could go, and surprisingly he said OK. Mind he had to check he was on the right shift and by the time I remembered to ask if he had done that, all the tickets had sold out. I was really dissappointed. So I spent a quiet (and sulky) afternoon searching the big wide web until I found that there were a few other local theatres also showing it this year. The only problem is that the nearest venue (Herne Bay Kings Hall) is not a proper theatre but was the nearest and most sensible option (with the best dates). The King's Hall is one of those old fashioned seaside town halls, you know, like the ones you used to find on the end of beach piers, where there is a small stage but no fixed seats. The seating arrangements will depend on the number of tickets sold. If it is a full house then the chairs will be arranged theatre style (although not banked obviously) if not they will be around the edge of the hall and will come with their own table. It should therefore be quite an interesting night.
Mum went in and had a small biopsy. She seems to have come through the general anaesthetic ok and the quack reckons all is ok.
And yesterday it was MY BIRTHDAY!!!
I had to work but it was at the really nice tiny village school where all the staff are so friendly so I made up a batch of fairy cakes which went down a treat with everyone, and had a fun day with the children playing with autogiros (paper spinners).
When I got home Martin, who had been up since three as he had to go in to work early for a petrol forecourt cleaning, was really tired. Kelly was coming to visit later for tea, and we had already had some debate about what to feed her. I asked him why we had been trying to decide between chops and sausages when, since it was my birthday we should be having the traditional steak and chips supper? In that case he replied, lets just cross the road and have it in the Hungry Horse. Before I knew it we were sitting at a pub table with not only Kelly but Laura and Wayne too. The food had improved immensly since our last visit and we were very stuffed when we finally got home, and climbed into the hot tub.
I had heaps and heaps of birthday well wishes from my web mates and my rl mates, a good bit of money which is going to buy a new external hard drive for backup and storage, and a new gardening journal all ready for me to start gardening again in January. Oh and two large bags of skittles from the cat.
Thank you guys for a lovely day.
There was a bit of a problem in that my original prize from SU! didnt turn up. Lousette emailed the wonderful Jo who was organising it, and she has sent me goodies out of her own supplies as replacement!!!
She apparently added a little something extra as she felt bad about my prize taking so long. She is one wonderful lady. My packet arrived today and I am totally blown away by how genourous she has been. This is what she sent...ove £100 of wonderful SU goodies!!!
No, its not been abandoned, I just havent had much to blog about. I havent been doing much crafting as I am slowly getting sucked into cross stitching - and I havent finished anything yet ready to show on here.
However I do need to update so here are all the things that have been happening to me and mine:-
- Kelly and Ollie finished doing up their house, put it on the market on a wednesday, sold it on a saturday and put an offer on another house on the Monday. They are hoping to be in their new house in New Allington by christmas
- Our real hot tub arrived and is fantastic, we have enjoyed being in it every day. The weather is still very mild so we havnt worried about getting out of it into the cold yet.
- Laura and Wayne's new build is fast approaching second fitting stage so they also hope to be in by christmas.
- We were invited to tea with Martin's two brothers and their respective other halves. Martin's dad has been discovered to have a heart murmer and has to go for ongoing tests. He is going to be 90 next January so the meet up was to discuss plans for a celebration. Dad however only wants a very small affair - dinner at Chris's for just the 8 of us, no grandchildren no friends or extended family.
- We went up to town to see Calander Girls at the Noel Coward theatre. Our cheapo 3rd balconly tickets were upgraded to third row circle for free, Martin was one of only about 5 men in the audience and it was so funny we both litterally cried with laughter.
I must be on a bit of a roll at the moment because as well as winning the Sketch challenge for last month on the Pad, and the SU! blog candy, I found out last night I have also won another Sketch challenge over on Pickleberry Crafts blog. !!!!!!
I am still a bit stunned but after blogging about it and encouraging everyone to go to Suzanne's , Lousette's and Jenny's blog to see all the wonderful new SU! goodies, my name was actually picked on Lousettes sit and I won the blog candy!!!
My prize should be here by the end of the week and I will be able to share what I get.
Wow!!
Ok in other news. It has been super quiet work wise with only 2 days supply in the 4 weeks the children have been back at school. Out of bordom I decided to sand down the table in my craftroom and re-stain it in a much lighter colour. It is actually the dinning room table we bought back in 1985, a treat to us both after spending 3 years waiting for something to be done about the house we were living in, which was subsiding. When we finally moved we lashed out on a rather expensive dining room suite, a solid wood table and 6 solid wood chairs. Trouble is back in the 80's dark stained wood was all the rage but now it is just too dark for the small room. We bought a pine and glass replacement table a few years ago and the old table was placed in the craft room where it has slowly become covered in ink and pain and glue.
Sanding it down has been a horrible job, with dust everywhere - its going to be fun cleaning up all my craft stuff afterwards, I had to do it in situ as the weather has been too wet to take it outside. I have managed to finish the top surface though and now need Martin to take it apart so I can do the legs.
On Saturday I got a call from mum ..... dad had been knocked over by the dog while they were playing ball together, and had ended up in the pond. He was a bit shaken up, but managed to get to two parties that evening so I think he was ok in the end.
I also went over to help Kelly clear up her house after all the decorating in order for the carpet man to come lay the carpets. Their house is looking really good now it is nearly finished. Ollie came over on Sunday and collected the spare bed so that they can now present it as a proper 3 bedroom house.
Oh and in final news, we have booked tickets to go and see Calendar Girls in London next week.
