Make a house a home!

You know sometimes how you just have to spend some time remembering why you love your home and enjoying menial tasks that make it more special? Well, yesterday was one of those days.!! I bought some beeswax from eBay, melted it and added some linseed oil to make a wonderful polish for my wooden doors! It was really hard work, but so worthwhile! and therepeutic in a way! - My house smells divine now - all warm and waxy!!!, a bit like our school used to smell just before the summer holidays when we all had to wax our wooden desks before moving classrooms! Only trouble is that now I need to do the rest (I only managed 2 in about 3 hours!)


Meanwhile, I was also making cheese!! - No photos cos it's busy setting at the moment! but it was fun, and another thing helped me enjoy my home and that thing of creating something "real".


Finally, I couldn't not put up another photo of Spot - she obviously had a hard day too (or do you think she had nicked my beer while I wasn't looking!??) - She is fast asleep and snoring!!!

My WIP's are back

I'd just like to say a HUGE thank you to Jacquie who runs the bloggers' paradise forum, for sorting out my code and getting my progress bars back. For some reason they worked in the old blogger, but since upgrading to Beta, they had disappeared. Apparently all to do with a document.write statement - Yeah Whatever!! (Might as well be double dutch to me) But Jacquie you're a star for sorting it out and I'm eternally grateful!

2 Bargains!

Dsis's Josephine is coming along well. The body and both sleeves are done, just need to attach sleeves to body, and do the collar (the collar is HUGE, so that could take a while) But to spur me on I've purchased my next two projects.



Thoroughly co-erced by the fellow members of the crafty forum to join two (yep two) knit-a-longs, I have at least managed to get the yarn for them at a decent price!


The green for the cable sweater in the picture was a purchase from a fellow forum member who was re-locating her stash (to other people's houses!) in order to make room for more!!!! It's Bergere de France Berlaine. 100% wool and apparently unshrinkable!!!! (can be machine washed and tumble dried - not that I have a drier but it's nice to know) - Very useful when you have a dirty dog!!!!


The rose is for Rogue, and is 25% wool, 75% acrylic. OK I wouldn't normally buy acrylic, but it was only £10 from eBay, and again, at least it will wash in the machine!

So that's me set for the foreseeable! Now I just have to find a few hours to do it in!

Vets Get Scanning

Quick plug for a worthwhile petition here:

www.vetsgetscanning.co.uk


It's been set up by Bruce Forsyth to get vets to scan all dogs as a matter of course, for microchips. As the scheme stands at the moment it's not a lot of use unless you just lose your dog! If it's stolen, the microchip is never likely to be scanned so it doesn't help! - This petition aims to help the situation. There is also a downloadable car sticker!

Sessions

Flicking around on the TV late last night (as I have a habit of doing when I can't find something to watch) I found Paul Simon on BBC Sessions. Well I have to admit to having a very soft spot for Paul Simon, having spent a whole heap of my youth singing along to all the Simon and Garfunkel albums, and consquently to both Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel as solo artists. I was pleased to hear him sing some of his older (and in my humble opinion, far superior) songs, and even more pleased to realise that I still know every word to sing along!!! Ahh don't you just love a bit of nostalgia!!!

New Title Font Colour

. . . . . and all because I spell in English!!!


(is that better MrsI??!!)

ARGHHH Upgrades!

I have finally upgraded to Blogger Beta - and I now have to re-learn all the html that I learnt before 'cos it's all different now!

We have upgraded from templates to layouts (no idea what the difference is except they're harder to work out!) and we now have widgets! - I thought a widget was a little plastic doo-hickey in a can of beer that made it fizz like draught, but apparently now it's also a geek-term!!! - And I don't think I really understand them!

Still, for the moment the blog is complete and legible, and it looks quite nice! My old template no longer allowed me to put a photo in the header - which I liked. So I changed to one of the new layouts, which was in a really atrocious colour scheme, but did allow the header photo. I have finally sorted all the colours out so they're quite similar to the old ones. But if anyone finds anything out of place then do let me know!

I'd like to say a HUGE thanks for all the comments on my 11 Nov post so far, At this point there's about £60 for the Everyman charity (a few more comments than that but some have posted twice to get the Christmas message in and double the contribution!) But don't stop yet - You can keep commenting right up until Christmas Eve! I know some people made a huge effort to comment - Aknita finally logged into blogger, and a few other people came out of the woodwork! - Have to say that so far, my biggest surprise is Eric the Lurker (I mean that in the nicest way!) I didn't know I really had any lurkers but thank you soooo much for revealing yourself for this very worthy cause, and I do hope you continue to lurk, and that you enjoy what you read here! Needless to say my blogroll is growing daily as I am finding new blog pals through this, I am trying to get round to thank you all, but please forgive me if I don't get to you. I am grateful and am really loving the comments! Some of the Christmas ones are very inventive and I am already singing carols in my head as these comments start off that non-stop brain jukebox that we all have.

As an added bonus and a favour to me, I'd love it if all you lovely ladies that commented would send one man from your life over to that Everyman website. Raising money is only one part of the issue, Raising Awareness is the other. . . . and you never know,. . . . between us we may save one life and wouldn't that be amazing?!

Postscript to yesterday's comment for charity

My Lovely M & D want to add their support to my comment for charity post below, so they will donate an extra £1 for anyone who adds a Christmas message to their comment. It can be anything Christmassy (is that a word?), your wishlist, a joke, a wish, prayer, poem or song. . . anything you can think of to get the festive season underway. Please comment on the post below though or I won't be able to keep count - anyone who has already commented - if you add a Christmas message below the extra £1 will be contributed!

Comment for Charity

OK everyone, it's getting on to Christmas time, and time to think of presents, cards, cold nights, warm fires. . . . . you know the kind of thing.

So in order to warm my heart I am looking to get as many comments on my blog as possible.

To this end for every comment I receive on this post I will donate £1 to the Everyman cancer charity. I think the most comments I've ever got is around 20, so I'd love to beat that. Err I should add only one comment per person allowed! (I will also add that just in case this gets out of hand I will make a max amount of £100 - although if your comment is over the 100 and it's super special I might make an exception at my own discretion!!!!)

Go on tell me what you think - Click the link below that says how many comments I have so far, and make it one more. . . . you know you want to. You don't need to have a blogger account, you can comment either under "Other" by leaving your name and/or website or as Anonymous, but anonymous would be sad because I wouldn't know who to thank for making me skint for such a worthy cause!!!

Comments need to be received by 24th December, and donation will be made after Christmas.

**See post above for 12 November to see how you can make your comment worth £2 !!!**

p.s. Terri has made a good comment already - for all you knitters out there The Yarn Yard's November charity yarn is also for Everyman - see here. Have to say I have succumbed to a couple of skeins of that too!

Apologies

. . . . to anyone who subscribes to my feed using bloglines and was informed yesterday of 27 new items to read!!! - Then logged in and found NONE!!!! I was messing around with my template trying to get all posts on one page, along with comments, to backup my blog, and make a pdf of it to send to my DGM. She doesn't have a computer but everyone keeps telling her about my blog (at a tender 86 years old, she must wonder what the world has come to - blog isn't a very helpful word really is it?!) Anyway, the deed is done and normal service will be resumed soon!!!! (Assuming I can get my template back to normal!!!!)

Strictly Finished!!!

Whilst watching some celebrities and sports personalities ballroom dance last night, I finished off some knitting!

I don't normally post piccies of me on here (as you know) but the photos are taken, and I really can't be bothered to edit them, and can't see myself getting stalked on the basis of these!!!!!!

So, First up is the Apocalypse Hoodie, as previously mentioned here It's still a V-neck and not a cardigan as the pattern, but I love it and it's just perfect for a house-sweater! - I made the sleeves a bit short on purpose so they don't get in the way on the odd occassion I do wash-up!! I also made it longer, and put a short 2x2 rib on the bottom to stop it curling up and keep my back warm!

Not the best photo of the Noro cardigan, but will do for now. (I'm still wearing the hoodie underneath as it's too darn cold to be undressing!!!) I need to get a zip for it and am not sure what colour to choose, one of the darker ones I think. Anyway it's wonderful and warm and I love it!

Lovely Day

I haven't seen much of OH lately as he's been working far too hard. So, yesterday we decided to take a day to ourselves and go to Hayling Island for a long walk along the beach.

As luck would have it the tide was in our favour and was out when we got there. (Didn't take any photos, but see my post here, for more of the same) We took the dog too, who was surprisingly well behaved and just ran around like a mad thing sploshing in the puddles and chasing seagulls! and actually coming back when she was called, (maybe she remembers what happened last time ) The weather was fabulous. The sun was shining and warm, and although we both had sweaters and coats on , we could actually have managed with one or the other:- there was no wind or chill to the air at all. At Hayling Island, when the tide goes out, there are acres of sand banks to walk on, little channels of water remain the only sign that the sea had been there only an hour or two before. The sun sits on the water all day, and it is glorious! We walked, we chatted, and OH identified all the geese, gulls, and ducks, as is his way!! - We saw a hawk of some sort too (just slightly too far away for OH to be 100% on identifications!)

Today the weather, again, is awesome. The sun is shining, there is a little of last night's frost left on the lawn. The little garden birds are queuing up to use the nut feeder, and Spot is asleep under the radiator. What a perfect weekend!

Today's Walk

(You can click these to get them bigger - I hope!) Quality not amazing as only taken on a phone 'cos I was silly and forgot my camera - but was a beautiful day that needs to be savoured!

Drive to Newlands Corner - past this lovely Autumn Exhibition! (the trees, not the car!!!)

Out of the car and along the first pathway. . .

to this lovely bit of bracken to play on

. . . . and fetch things from.. . . .

. . . . . and admire

. . . . . . twice. . . . . .

Then along more overgrown paths with fairy tales to tell. . .

. . . . . 'til it begins to get lighter. . .

. . . . . and a bit more open. . . . .

. . . . and then you can see all my kingdom. . .

. . . . . in all its glory. . . . .

. . .. . as far as your eyes can see. . . .

. . . . So we sit for a minute and enjoy!!!!!