Feeling great.

Checking in after three days away. A walking holiday to re charge my batteries. I was lucky with the weather, sunshine and warm most of the time, didn't need a jacket one day. It's an hours drive from Sunny Scunny to Sunny Barnsley. A few miles south of Barnsley actually. Doesn't sound like an exotic location, but there are some interesting places to visit in that area. Pictures will be forthcoming when I've sorted them out.

I've had a note from Terry Miles, the king of boogie woogie piano playing.

Terry Miles

Hi there Ilona. Always a pleasure to hear from you. I hope you're well. I'm LIVE-STREAMING my weekly Boogie Woogie Piano Tutorial this coming Saturday 25th of January 2020 at 5 PM (GMT - British Time). This week we shall be taking a look at 'How To Play Amazing Grace ' Gospel Piano / Boogie Woogie Style. It's a one hour FREE tutorial. (5 till 6 PM - GMT - British Time). Try and tune in to my YouTube Channel and take a look this coming Saturday. All the boogie best. Terry x 

Here is his latest video. he is such a laugh. If you are learning to play the piano or want to take it up, give Terry's free tutorials a go. 

Catch ya tomorrow. Toodle pip.  ilona

Aaaaah bless.

Two friends lounging in the sun. Don't tell Oscar, he will be upset that Heidi has found a new boyfriend. She looks very chilled. 

She spends a lot of time indoors, so it's nice to see that the good weather is enticing her outside. She doesn't wander far, stays close to the house, and is quick to come back in when the back door opens. She's a little sweetheart.
Toodle pip.  ilona

A sewing day today

The sunrise this morning made pink fluffy clouds, very pretty. It didn't last long, gone in a matter of minutes. 

It's been sunny all day. I didn't go to Crafty Club, stayed at home and got on with some sewing. At lunch time I picked up my friends from the railway station, they had three days in London and seen three shows, the Tina Turner show being the best of the three.

Sewing friend came round this afternoon to learn some more stitches. We did French knots, bullion stitches, and couching, and refreshed on the stitches we did last week. I have sent her away to practice on what we have already done. She will be ready for a project soon.
Toodle pip.  ilona

Bonus.

End of a five and a half mile walk today. This is the bonus. I never get tired of taking photo's of fabulous sunsets. 

Now going to get my dinner. Toodle pip.  ilona

Drawing with thread - workshop with Sue Stone

It was a sunshiny day yesterday and I was sat indoors at the 20 21 Arts Centre attending a workshop. Sue Stone who I have mentioned before, was the teacher, and 15 of us followed her instructions. Choose a picture, transfer the outline onto tracing paper, then baste it onto two layers of fabric. Then with a small backstitch transfer the image onto the fabric, stitching through the paper. When this is done, remove the paper by carefully picking it off taking care not to disturb the stitches. 

Everybody beavering away whilst chatting to their neighbours.

Sue provided thread and fabric for those who hadn't brought their own.

Some of Sue's work on display for reference.

This is what I ended up with at the finish of the session. I have added a bit more today and will continue to do so when I have a spare hour or two. I am doing raw edge applique for the hair and dress.

This is a little bit out of my comfort zone, but good to try something new. The stitches are so tiny, I'm not used to working with a single strand of embroidery thread. Progress is slow, lots of stitches to cover a small area. If I did some more of this I would need to add more colour, this is too plain for me. It's like drawing with a pencil, and I am no good at that.

Thankfully it's a sunny day today, so I am off out. Toodle pip.  ilona

It's a stitch up

I've slowed up a bit on this, playing a waiting game. I spend a lot of time looking at it, thinking about the next step. I want the background to be simple, with not much detail so I can add some bigger trees and a sun. But I am finding it hard to tone it down to not make it too complicated. Trouble is I get carried away with stitching, I want to add more, but keep telling myself that less is more. 

The squiggly line is soft embroidery cotton couched on with thin cotton of a matching colour. The chain stitch is six strands of white embroidery cotton.

Here I have used hairy blue wool, woven through running stitches. The little tree section is finished now.

The red section is still to fill, waiting for ideas. Something will come to me. When that's done I will make the sun.

Toodle pip.  ilona

Looking back at 20 years ago

For most of my life I have been writing letters to magazines and newspapers, about any subject I found interesting, and to put my point of view across. I enjoyed writing at school and wrote lots of stories for my own amusement. I remember the teacher telling us to write about a very important person. Most of my class mates wrote about someone famous, I wrote about my mum.

I have diaries dating back to 1963, and continued filling them out for many more years. I tried my hand at writing short stories and articles for women's magazines, some of which were published and I received a small payment, some were rejected for one reason or another. There are lots of people out there doing the same thing, so I think they were swamped with writings and only had room in their publication for a few of them.

In this video I am reading a letter I wrote to a local newspaper, over twenty years ago.



Wow, it's windy outside. I've just done a walk and litter pick while I was waiting for this to upload onto yoootooob. Now I'm going to get a late lunch. Toodle pip.  ilona

Beginners embroidery

Crafty Club was full house yesterday, not enough room around the tables to fit me in. All squashed up together, and very noisy. I might miss next week. I didn't manage to sell much wool, possibly they have enough, or it wasn't the right type, colour, etc, for the projects they want to do. I think the people up the road will have to try and sell it elsewhere. They did mention car boot sales, so maybe they will give that a go when the season starts. 

Yesterday afternoon was fun, teaching my friend some simple embroidery stitches to get her going. This is my demonstration sampler, small pieces of scrap felt to show the basics. 

We decided it would be a good idea for her to make a sampler book, so she could add pages to it as she learnt more stitches, and to practice on. I suggested using felt because it is easy to work with as a beginner. Start off doing big stitches, then eventually she can go on to using other fabrics for more delicate work. 

We did running stitch, back stitch, blanket stitch, and chain stitch. There is such a lot you can do with these four basic stitches. I have told her to keep practicing these as homework, and we will move on to other stitches, and look at ways these can be used to make small items in felt. 

As a complete beginner she picked it up very well. One to one works well for her at the moment. Eventually she may feel confident enough to try the Crafty Club. Now I'm going to get on with my own sewing. Toodle pip.  ilona

Wool for sale

Hello. A little bit more has been added. White chain stitch across a blue sky, and some trees on the horizon. There will be more stitching to add more trees. 

The people from up the road brought me another big bag of wool to sell at Crafty Club tomorrow. Not quite as much as last time, but enough to fill my shopping trolley and a Tesco shopping bag. I think the ladies will be chuffed as the prices are very cheap. The money goes back to them, I am helping them out.

£1.50 for four 100grm balls of pale blue.

£2 for six balls of 50grm pale green. All the wool is good quality and British made.

A friend is coming round tomorrow afternoon, she wants to do some embroidery but doesn't know any stitches. I'll show her some simple ones to get her started. We will have a little one to one workshop at my dining room table.

Walking by moonlight

It was 3pm when I went out for a walk this afternoon. Five miles usually takes me an hour and a half so I should have got back before dark. It didn't happen because I stopped to talk to a woman who was seeing to her horses. 

The sun was going down on one side, and the moon was coming up on the other. Looking like a full moon tonight. 

There is only about ten minutes between these two photo's. Passing a derelict farm building.

Should have taken a torch really but I didn't expect to be caught out in the dark. Good job I know the route, walking across fields in the moonlight is a bit eerie. Pleased to see the lights as I approached the village. I really must set off a bit earlier.
Toodle pip.  ilona

If I Can Dream

I think I can share this on my New Format Blog. Puddles is fab.



Toodle pip. ilona

The pressure is off. . . . . . .

. . . . . . and I am settling into a new routine. The blog has always been near the top of my daily 'to do' list, now it has slipped down to below half way. My commitment to helping people by writing about my money saving ideas has always been a priority. I feel sad that so many have lost their way. For eleven years I have been sat at this keyboard sharing my life, sharing how I manage my money, and sharing my rise from being skint, to my now position of having a comfortable life. I set my standards realistically, I don't need a lot, that's why I have a comfortable life.

The pressure is off for me to watch every penny I spend, I will always be careful. And now the pressure is off for me to document my every move. The blog will always be a reference point for anyone who wants to look back, navigable by the topics list on the side bar. Anyone can access the posts they have an interest in.

I am moving on. There is no need for me to post daily, so my apologies to my loyal readers, those who have come to expect me to be there every day when they log on. Apologies also to the trolls who have never grasped the concept of what a blog is about. It isn't a forum, a free for all, where anyone can spew forth their sarcasm behind the cloak of anonymity. You know who you are. No doubt the troll(s) will want to have the last word, they need to because it makes them feel good. Especially the one with the warped mind who has been visiting over the years. I have the upper hand here, my best friend is the delete button.

An Anonymous troll asked about the Anonymous rule. I prefer it if everyone adds their name to their comment, whether in the appropriate box, or at the end of their comment. Anyone who doesn't will get extra scrutiny from me. I can sniff a trouble maker out half a mile away, so whatever name you use, if your comment stinks you will get zapped.

The blog isn't closing, but it will be a slimmed down version of what it has been. I will post as and when I feel like it, going back to basics. I started the blog as an online diary, and that is what it will end up as. There will be some sewing, some art, some crafts, some days out and holidays, some walking, some cats news, some gardening when it all starts growing again, and some photography. Welcome to the new blog.

It's coming along. Building it up slowly, lots of blank spaces to embroider.
Toodle pip.   ilona

All systems go

Here I am, back in circulation. I must say, the break was very nice, takes the pressure off when struggling to think about something to write every day. It's given me time to re evaluate the blog, reflect on the past, and work out where I want to go next. I will be reducing the amount of days I post. I said that once before and slipped back into my old ways, but this time I mean it. I won't be posting if I have nothing to say, makes sense to me. 

Yesterday I had a day out with the relatives in Nottingham. My cousin cooks a smashing meal, she made me a lovely nut roast. There was a lot left over so I rescued it and brought it home before it was binned. This was my lunch today, tasty roasted vegetables. 

A present from Aunty. Looking forward to trying these five flavours of relish with my cheese and crackers.

A quick peek at the new artwork. It will be a felt wall hanging. I had planned on using the felt spirals on this, but now I'm not so sure. I'll see how it pans out.

I took Heidi to the vet this morning, she has not been too well. He had a good look over her, she has lost a bit of weight, due to the sickness she has had. I booked the appointment last week, but she hasn't been sick at all for the last four days. Anyway, we have a new supply of her usual tablets, and some liquid I have to squirt on her food which will stop it coming back up. Fingers crossed it will do the trick. As soon as we got back into the house she went straight to the food bowl.

That's it for now. Toodle pip.  ilona

oooops, something went wrong.

I have a technical hitch. Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.

ilona

Check in at the end of the year, and starting another 1000 miles.

Hiya my little bloggerettes. This is check in day for the whole of 2019. How far have you walked in the last twelve months? You already know what my total is, now lets hear about yours.

Have we any new members starting? Don't let the figures put you off, break it down to 2.74 miles a day, or 84 miles a month. I write my miles down on my desk top calendar. I have two routes of 2 and 3 miles which I have already checked on bikehike.co.uk. I go back to that web site if I want to check any new routes I have walked. It did stop working for me for a while, but it seems to have sorted itself out now so I am still using it. You can use any method you like to check your miles. Do it any way which is best for you.

Here is a bit of motivation to get you going. Don't think of it as a New year Resolution, it is a challenge for the whole year. Watch how these people benefited from it.


Now it's up to you. Let's hear about your progress from last year, and if you are in it for another year. Don't forget, you are making the commitment for yourself, no one else. Doubts will creep into your mind, you will wonder what you have taken on, it's like getting on a merry go round which won't stop. If you fall off, get back on again.

Happy 2020 to everyone. Thank you for your comments yesterday, it's great to hear from you.
Toodle pip.  ilona