Freebies found in a skip

I haven't found a decent skip for ages, most of them have been filled with builders rubble and garden rubbish. Yesterday I found these. Two baskets with lids and fabric liners. I'll clean them up, wash the liners, and make new ones if they don't come clean enough. 

These will come in useful, two sets of chrome hooks that hang over the top of a door. Need a bit of a polish up.

Don't forget it's check in day tomorrow for the International Walking Group members.  ilona

Hippy patchwork bag made with scraps

I started this patchwork a few weeks ago, and now at last it has become a bag. It is lined, hand and machine stitched, and has long handles to hook over the shoulder.

 I made the two sides separately and joined them together with blanket stitch.

Some of the pictures were taken with flash, as the light was fading.
Av a butchers at the video for more details.



ilona

That didn't take long.

With such crappy weather outside, I think a cats instincts are to find somewhere warm, comfortable and dry to snuggle up and snooze. And so he has chosen, the best chair.  

The wind is howling outside, but we are all just fine.  ilona

Shades of grey

It's been a few weeks since I last went to the Scrapstore, and as I like to take something with me to give them, I paid a visit to the vinyl man to see if he had any scraps in his bin. I struck lucky, there was quite a lot, large pieces as well, and several bright colours. I went to the wood man next door but he didn't have anything of interest. Never mind, it's pot luck when asking for scrap donations. The ladies at the Scrapstore were dead chuffed with the vinyl. 

Angela came with me and we found some really nice fabric. Like me she has several projects on the go. My fabric looks a bit dull on the photo, mostly shades of grey, but some of it has a beautiful sheen to it. There will be some posh looking shopping bags coming off the production line. 

This one is shiny, with blue and purple hues in it.

They had big bags of coloured cord on offer and were decanting it into smaller bags for £3 each. I chose these colours. It would make great boot laces, ha ha.

When we got back Angela quickly rustled up a late lunch for us. Egg,chips, and beans, just the job. We had a rummage, and a laugh, a fun afternoon.

Raining now so no walking tonight.  ilona

Hello Oscar

It's looking like there might be another addition to my furry family. Micky on the table is not moving in, he lives two doors down and is always hanging around. He is a naughty boy though, as soon as my back is turned he dashes straight in and buries his head in whatever food bowl he can find. 

Other cat has been a regular visitor for the past few months. Sometimes sleeping in the cat sun house down the bottom of the garden. Sometimes sleeping on the cushion under the table. He wanders around, visiting another house round the corner, scrounging food wherever he can. His owner has been to look for him, and hasn't been able to find him. We have had a conversation, and she has agreed with me that it would be unfair to force him to go back home. He has been away for many months now. He is mainly an outdoor cat and does not like to be trapped.

So, if he wants to stay here he can. He is 8.5 years old, comes in for food, and hopefully in time he will want to stay indoors a bit more often. I don't feel at this stage that I should should shut him in, but I look out for him and let him in when I see him. I am calling him Oscar. Mayze and Heidi don't seem too fazed by this new addition.   ilona

Not a lot happening

Please excuse my absence from blogging, there hasn't been anything to talk about. Mundane stuff is not interesting, don't want to write boring stuff just for the sake of it. Off to Crafty Club now. Catch up later.   ilona

Dinner in a pan, 15 minutes.

Jumping for joy, my lovely Ford Focus passed the MOT test, no advisories, all is good. This is the fifth Ford car I have had now, two Cortina's, one Escort, and two Focus, and they have all been good, I'm definitely a Ford girl. 

It was a thrown together sort of meal tonight. A chopped up Quorn fillet, an onion, in a pan with a splash of olive oil. Whole grain mustard, vegetable granules, and half a packet of frozen cooked rice with vegetables. When nearly done, add an egg, mix it in. Serve on a bed of watercress with cucumber. It was bloomin lovely. 

It's been a miserable day outside, dull, cold, drizzly, damp, cloudy, and horrible. Only did my two mile walk. Helping my friend deliver some newsletters tomorrow, let's hope it's a bit better.  ilona

Spending a bit of money on my hobby

I went to see my favourite dentist yesterday for my annual checkup. Pleased to report that no work needs to be done, all ok. Jim is a nice young man, he remembered me from last time, quick chat, more patients waiting. Cost £21.60.

After that I had a mooch round Brigg, did some shopping at Tesco, and called in to see a friend who works in a sewing shop. I found some nice embroidery silks in a bargain box and chose five for £2. There was a poster up about forthcoming workshops and one caught my eye, so I booked it. Make a Christmas table centre, raw edge applique, patchwork, and free motion quilting. £48 for six hours, includes all materials, and a festive buffet lunch, with 25% off any fabric purchased on the day. Something to do on a miserable winters day. I like the social aspect of it as well, chatting with like minded people.

Looking at the programme there might be some other workshops that I might be interested in. The 2019 list will be out soon. I quite fancy free machine embroidery as I have not been that successful when I have tried it.

In an hour or so my car is booked in for it's MOT test. I am now using a local garage, as they seem fair. Keeping my fingers crossed. I'll have a bite to eat before I go.

I asked a friend for guitar lessons, he wasn't too keen, quickly showed me two cords, so it's yoootoob tutorials for me. I can see it's going to take a while, with my brain slowing down due to old age, ha ha.   ilona 

Being polite has it's downsides.

Oh dear, I have eaten too much. I was presented with a massive cooked dinner on Sunday, someone had gone to a lot of trouble to lay on the feast, five of us sat round a table and scoffed. I am very appreciative of the kindness of others, so I had to be kind back and eat almost the whole plateful. It's rude not to eat what is put in front of you, and I hate wasting food, so I soldiered on. I did my best, didn't want to leave half of it, even though I was bursting at the seams. I had to stop short of clearing the whole lot, some cabbage and peas were left on the edge of the plate.

I do have big platefuls of food sometimes at home, but it is always vegetables or salad. If I can't manage all of it I put it in the fridge to be added to lunch the next day. The feeling of fullness never lasts long, because salad and veg passes through the body quite quickly. It's not a good idea to eat tons of heavy food which will linger a while longer. The stomach stretches to compensate for over indulgence, then you get the feeling that there is a blockage as some of it gets stuck half way down. Not good.

I was still full when I got to the hotel, the Holiday Inn, by the way, very nice hotel, so I was able to collapse on the bed and watch tele. I was still full the next morning when I went down for breakfast. I rationed myself to a bowl of cornflakes, and beans and scrambled egg on a slice of bread. I could have gone the whole hog and ordered a full veggie breakfast, but the though of it made me feel sick. I had to eat something though, not good to binge eat and later starve yourself.

I rang my Auntie to see if she was in for a visit. The first thing she said was, I haven't got anything vegetarian in. People always thing vegetarians have a completely different diet than everyone else. I never expect people to prepare special food for me, I will eat what they eat, except for the meat, fish, and gravy. I said, Auntie, I don't need to eat, I am still stuffed from last night, and I have just had breakfast. She is so kind. So I had a cup of coffee with her and a catch up natter.

Next onto sisters in the afternoon. Starting to feel like I ought to eat something so she made me a cheese sandwich, that was just right, will keep me going till I get home. I drove past Tesco, couldn't be bothered to call in, the thought of buying more food, yuk, can't face it. At 7pm I had a small bowl of soup.

This morning I had porridge with a few frozen fruits. I hope to get my stomach back to normal today, smaller portions to give it chance to shrink back to it's normal size. So sorry stomach, I have abused you, because I was too polite to leave food that someone had prepared specially for me.

Eating is seen as a social activity, go out for a meal with friends, getting a take away with friends, going to someone's house for a party. There's going to be a lot of this going on between now and Christmas. There's going to be a lot of stretched stomachs, over indulgence, and eating too much. I might get an invite to one more family do, it will be nice to see them, but I'm going to have to limit myself about what goes into my mouth. Feeling bloated and sick isn't my idea of enjoyment.

How will you cope, will you be partying, will you be stuffing your face, just because it's all laid out on a table?   ilona

Helloooooo ;o)

I am back and the computer is cranked up. I've had a couple of days away visiting family. Didn't take the computer, and didn't take any photo's, so nowt to show. I treated myself to an overnight at a hotel, very nice, relax in front of the tele, flicking around the channels with the remote. Watched some crap, I won't be following the jungle thingy, soooo booooring. The dancing thingy, booooring. Saw Cheryl strutting her stuff, not impressed. Watched breakfast tele this morning, that Morgan bloke hogs the conversation, keeps butting in. Too much Brexit, fed up of that now, just get on with it.

Done my three miles tonight, got caught in rain but was able to shelter so I didn't get too wet. So what's happening this week. Check up at the dentist on Wednesday, and car MOT on Thursday. Deliver stuff to the charity shop what Auntie gave me, she doesn't have a car to take them herself, and learn to play the guitar. What !!! Yes, I have a guitar. It was Uncle's, now I have it. Something to play with. Catch you later.  ilona

Computer says no.

Dr Rangan Chattergee says we should have one day off per week away from screens. I'm willing to give that a try. This screen is about to shut down, and I am going to engage with the real world.  Catch up later.  ilona

Another decorated stone.

Regular readers will know I decorated a stone with felt and embroidery, I have just finished another one. This is slightly bigger than the first one, and I have used more different colours rather than blending similar colours. There's some wrapped rings, ear rings, beads, sequins and lots of French knots. 

If anyone wants to have a go at this, first find your stone, then cut a piece of felt big enough to cover it. Thin felt is best, or you can use any fabric, it has to stretch to fit the curves of the stone. I start with four or five larger circles, put the fabric over the stone and position them where you want them. Then fill in the spaces left with smaller pieces, and finish off filling all the gaps with French knots. Then I trimmed off the excess fabric, so that the edges barely met at the back.

Next I used really strong cotton and did a running stitch around the edge and pulled it tight. I found that I hadn't trimmed enough off, it was too bulky on the bottom.

I trimmed more off, and cut 'v' shaped notches into the edge. Then re do the running stitch and pull it all in to the centre. Better this time. It needs some pulling about to adjust the gathers evenly.

Done, that's better.

This is the first one I did. I think I like this latest one best.

I cut an egg shaped piece of darker felt to hide the gathers on the bottom.

Think I'm going to keep them for a while because I like them.   ilona

A walk from Edale in Derbyshire.

I had a brilliant day out yesterday. It was a hellish drive through gridlocked Sheffield to get to the start. I almost gave up and went back home. Glad I didn't. 

I met up with a Walking Forum buddy at Edale in Derbyshire. He is an experience navigator and map reader, so I thought I might learn something from him. Although I can walk from one side of the country to the other using maps, I am not an expert at associating what I see on the ground to what is on the map. My walking is usually at a fast pace, with the intention of clocking up the miles. Yesterday it made a nice change to stop and study the map and have things pointed out to me. 

The church at Edale. 

Edale is the start of the Pennine Way, a long distance trail to Scotland. A good place to meet up with friends is the pub.

route2rock (user name) led the way. Down the steps, over the wooden bridge, and up the steps.

Then we took a track through fields alongside a wood, and started the climb up Grindsbrook Clough. Stop for a pic halfway up.

Doggy is enjoying the walk. Ruby is a recently adopted rescue dog. She is absolutely delightful.

Onward and upward, stunning views, but oh so windy.

Scrambling over rocks at this point as we neared the top. We came down the path on the right, scrambled over the water, and went off along the path on the left.

It was very rocky along this stretch.

 Amazing rock formations carved out by the wind and rain over the centuries.

Just look at that fabulous view, photo's don't do it justice. The wind was so strong it nearly blew me over.

The sun is going down over there.

I love to see the green fields mapped out below, with a sprinkling of golden brown trees that looked like feather dusters.

One last pic before we head off back.

Oh boy, did my legs work hard with all that elevation. Up and down rocky slopes, scrambling up a steep grassy bank to the top, but hey, what a great feeling at the end, and no aches this morning. Only six miles covered, but a walk to lift the spirit.

The traffic going home was just as bad. Sheffield not quite as gridlocked as earlier except for long queues on The Parkway. Then long queues on the M18 motorway. Just had to sit in it and crawl along.

Now I need to put the map reading skills I learnt into practice. Thanks to my buddy for showing me how to get more from a walk.  ilona

Bags more bags.

I think I've got enough bags now to sell at the Christmas Fair. 20 finished, some shopping bags, some smaller with longer over the shoulder handles. I used some smaller pieces of fabric up. 

I'll have a rest from this now, and move on to something else. ilona

Problem solved

I use my little netbook quite a lot at home, it's the one I take with me when on holiday, it fits into my rucksack. I have taken the battery out because it is always plugged into the mains, I prefer a mouse, can't get on with those pad things below the keyboard. 

At meal times I always eat in front of the computer, I like to read as I eat, just eating is boring. With the netbook on the desk in front of me I find I am leaning forward, thus scrunching my stomach up so the food was getting stuck half way down. It was uncomfortable. I suppose I could have lowered the chair, but that would mean the whole desk would be under my chin, and I would have to raise it again when I went onto the big computer. 

Problem, how to raise the height of the netbook but not the desk. I need a plinth for it to sit on. Spose I could knock one together out of wood, but that would be too bulky on the desk. And I would have to paint it to make it look pretty. 

I know, all I need is a cardboard box, and cover it with white stickyback shiny paper. A box that had cat food pouches in is just the right size. So there you are, the netbook is now five inches higher than it was, and I can now sit up straight as it is at eye level, no slouching. Much better. 

Problem solved.  ilona