Still here... sometimes anyway. I've been working a lot of overtime these past few weeks, it's usually 1 extra shift a week, but my shifts are either 11 or 24 hours long. My pay check will be happy, but I'm spending my life in a permanent daze. I keep having to ask people what day it is because I honestly can't remember anymore. Thankfully I've got 1 more 24 hour shift, then I get a whole 2.5 days off! Then I'll start the countdown to my fortnight off.

So not much time off, and not much news to share... I'm sure there is loads, but I can't remember any of it.

We did go to the wedding of our friends Gareth and Nareda, had lots of fun, caught up with lots of friends, got compliments about my ruby slippers (they've been the hit of the summer), then on the way home Porl and I planned our own wedding. We even picked a month!

Never fear people, we woke up in the morning and realized it was completely and utterly impractical. We're going to continue living in sin for now. Who needs a marriage certificate? We've got a joint mortgage!

Earlier in the night we'd been discussing with another friend Jay how we'd be coming back to Gareths 50th anniversary party and still asking each other "so are you guys thinking of getting married?" That seems like a good plan to me.

On the crafting front I've been relatively busy, making some fun swap stuff for Banga off Craftster, I can't show it though or it'll spoil the surprise, but I will show what she sent me (she's far more organized than I am.)
It was a Foreign Exchange swap, so I've been doing lots of things about the UK, and Banga has sent me a guide to Rhode Island.



First I have this fantastic Rhode Island Recipe book. Rhode Island is known as the Ocean state, so there's plenty of fish and shellfish things for Porl to try, plus lots which I want to try like Spinach Pie and Wandis. Banga also made me the cute lobster keyring, and some sea inspired bracelets. The bottle is Coffee Syrup which apparently Rhode Islanders crave, and no-one outside of Rhode Island has heard of... sounds like a certain Relish I can't live without. Banga also sent me loads of newpapers and magazines which I've been reading, as well as some handy magnetics for food places. I wonder if they deliver to Stalybridge?

I've also had a great Freecycle donation. Two bin bags full of material. It's actually for the craft club, but there's So Much good stuff. The craft club is closed for the summer, and they're short of space there, so while the material is living at mine I'll make some things from it, then make some more for things for the club to sell, then pass on whatever's left.
I did take pictures of the neatly organised piles of colour co-ordinated fabric, but I seem to have deleted them during one of my stupid moments.

Lastly, my "it's a small world moment". I've been reading Vintage Pleasure for a couple of months, enviously eyeing up all her charity shop finds, wishing that I had the space or style to make them look at home in my house, but mostly wishing I could find anything nice in the charity shops round here.
Then this week I realised she lives about a mile away from me.
I'm obviously just looking in the wrong shops... with my eyes closed... or maybe I just don't have her talent.
She's been very kind though and pointed me in the direction of some places I haven't heard of before, so I'll be visiting some of them next week with my hard earned wages.

Must.Not.Buy.Craft.Supplies.Or.Boxes...
but I really would like to find an old dark wood TV table/video cabinet.

Unsurprisingly my birthday was a quiet one. I had a lazy lie-in and some breakfast, then the postman brought me some fantastic presents from the CrAftermath girls. We have a birthday swap on there, but I haven't been on much recently so wasn't expecting anything.

This lot is from Samsara:

Then these from PhizzyChick:

And last but certainly not least, these plant markers from teraspawn who is the swap organiser. Thanks to her I had parcels to open on my birthday :)

These were probably the highlight of my day, and certainly cheered me up first thing in the morning. Thankyou Girls!

At dinnertime Porl and I went to Quarry Bank Mill, which is an old cotton mill near here. I've wanted to go for ages, but talking Porl into these things isn't easy, so I took advantage of the fact it was my day to do what I wanted. My dinner wasn't too great, I hate chilled quiche, but it was interesting seeing all the machines, a shame that a lot of them weren't running. The demonstration of cotton spinning made it look SOOOO easy, but I know it's not.

We came home from there, Porl made me some nice veg and haloumi kebabs, then we had the fun task of trying to get in touch with people and tell them the news.
I share my birthday with 2 of Porl's other school friends, and we'd been asked to let them know about Chris' death. We got in touch with one friend and he decided to spend last night in the pub with us, the other friend is celebrating his 30th this year and we think he's gone away for the week. Either way we've not been able to get in touch with him.

Tomorrow is the funeral, so we'll be up very early to fight the rush hour traffic and get back to Ormskirk.
I've done a birth, a marriage and a death in 8 days.

I've just spent a lovely afternoon meeting my beautiful, 5 day old niece Evie, then to my parents for tea and a failed attempted at repairing their computer.

Came home got annoyed with Porl, very rare, but probably justified.

Phoned a friend following an unexpected email and found out that one of Porl's oldest friends commited suicide a few days ago.

It's my birthday tomorrow.

Duke is outside on the patio torturing a mouse as a present for me.

I had an adventure today, I went along to the North Cheshire Guild of Weavers Spinners and Dyers. It's near Warrington, which is about 45 minutes from me, but it's the nearest one. I've been promising myself I'd go, but kept chickening out, then I realized that Ali, whose blog I've been reading for a while, is a member. I love how blogs give you enough information about people to think of them as friends even without meeting them, so that, added to the fact her photos of meetings showed young people gave me the extra courage I needed to go.

My plans were nearly thwarted by a colleague spraining her ankle, meaning I had to stay on at work and do the night shift, but thankfully the guys slept pretty well which meant I did too. I was still shattered, but I made it through the day without falling asleep (until I got home) I was just a lot quieter than normal.
We had a class on Rainbow Dyeing, which was good fun, I dyed some sample yarns which I'm sure I can turn into something, then I at the last minute I threw some merino fleece into the pot. I didn't soak it for very long, and wasn't expecting it to work very well but it seems to be a success.

I keep telling myself that next time I'll try muted colours, or shades of the same colour, but I always end up with rainbows. Oh well :)

Of course Gonzo had to get in on the action, and he got a slap for getting his claws stuck in the fleece.

Now I'm going to bed because I'm exhausted, and I have another sleep-in tomorrow. 3 more shifts till my next week off... and my birthday :)

Speaking of my birthday. We're thinking of having a barbecue on the Sunday beforehand, (if the weather is okay) it's the 30th July. Open invite to anyone who wants to attend. I'll probably get in touch with people a couple of days before though. I realize not everyone leaves things till the last minute like I do, so I'm trying to give people advance notice.

The fires are still burning across the road, they keep dying down in parts, then suddenly getting loads worse again. Shell took some pictures of them earlier today from higher up the valley. The area on her photos has got worse this evening, we can see flames there again now instead of just smoke. The helicopters were dropping water on them again early.

If we don't get enough rain by Sunday to put them out we could forget the barbecue and just go across the road to cook everything.

Sorry for apparently dropping off the radar recently. After coming back from Cornwall I had a week off, where I was busy doing house and garden things, then since being back at work I can't get back into the swing of it. I still love it, but I want another holiday. Quite handy then that it's my birthday in a fortnight so I've got another week off.

So what's brought me out of my lurkdom?
Dramatic Pictures!

There may be someone out there who hasn't heard that it's Really Bloody Hot in the UK at the moment. For that person... believe me, it is... Really Hot.

I've been at work today, lounging around, trying to keep cool, trying to keep clients calm and entertained on a day when they can't go out. I've spent most of the day on the phone, trying to get a new fridge before the one at work dies completely. That was pretty much solved when we had drama!
There is an area of the garden overgrown with trees which we never venture into, we were sat relaxing in the lounge when there was a huge *CRACK* as a large branch fell off one of the trees. It didn't fall to the floor but stayed suspended high up in the air, just about supported by the other trees. There was no breeze at that time, so it can only be the heat that caused it. We spent a little time trying to figure out which tree had fallen and whether it was likely to bring anything else down, but the ongoing creaks and groans convinced us it wasn't safe (it felt like an episode from "Lost") so we retreated to safety and I spent the afternoon trying to phone people to find out who could look at it for us.

But, that drama wasn't what I have pictures of.

This was the view out of my window a couple of hours ago. The moors opposite have been burning since about midday today. The fire was apparently moving away from us, towards Derbyshire, and the smoke was blowing over towards Stalybridge town centre so missing us.

Here's the BBC news article about it. I think the picture must have been taken from the end of the road.

The fire was not near any property, and was thought to be about one mile away from the nearest road.

Yes, that would be our road, and I reckon it's a lot less than a mile.

Since taking this the wind has picked up a lot and changed direction, the view is now one big smokey blur blowing over our house.
Not only is it Really Bloody Hot, but it's Really Bloody Hot And We Can't Have The Windows Open! Even with them all shut it's making my eyes sore, getting to my throat, and bringing my asthma on. I can't see the source of the fire anymore so don't know if it's getting closer to us or not. I doubt we're in much danger either way... but I'm glad I'm not on the other side of the road.

One plus side is that icecreams are really good for helping to cool you down whilst also soothing on smoke inhaled sore throats (made worse by having to go cat hunting in it because we were getting worried about them.)

I've been busy making things, and tking pictures of them. I've also got pictures of the deck which now has a railing, so is safe to explore, also the grass has gone so at some point it will be full of lovely plants, at the moment it's mostly bare dust dry soil.

Finally, today is the day I'm due to become an Aunty for the first time, but baby obviously isn't ready yet. I'm not sure what seems worse, being 9 months pregnant in this heat... or being in labour in this heat. I guess hospitals are air conditioned though.
Mental note, don't get pregnant in September/October/November.

I've a billion things I want/should be doing... most of them crafting for swaps... but it all feels a bit too much like homework... so procrastination it is then.

A meme pinched from Kat's Paws

Accent: Sorry, English Language student, my pet subject, forgive my rambling on this bit. My accent changes depending on who I'm talking to, or what I'm talking about. I pick accents up pretty easily (but wierdly I'm rubbish at imitating them.)
I've got a definite Northern accent, but beyond that it's a little confused.
It's definitely not Sheffield, (I don't sound like Jarvis Cocker or the Arctic Monkeys) even though I lived there for 18 years, but it does get broader when I spend any time there. Some words come out with a strong Scouse twang thanks to the 9 years in Ormskirk, sometime a Lancashire accent creeps in. Since moving to Stalybridge I've realized I speak quickly, a little quicker than the Mancs and Stockport people I work with , and about 10 x faster than the Tamesiders, I often get bewildered looks off people who haven't caught a word I've said, I'm slowing down though.
My Mum once told me that since going to Ormskirk my accent had turned "sing-song" which I quite like. Basically quick and the tone going all over the place. In my head my voice is far deeper than it is in real life. I always wonder who the squeaky person is when I hear recordings.

Booze: Not much anymore (except for all the cider I've drank since coming back from Cornwall.) The pubs withing easy walking distance are rubbish so if we do go out I usually drive. I'm too forgetful to drink much in the house. As for what I like, proper ciders if I can find them, good strong lagers like Staropramen, San Miguel and Stalla Artois, I occasionally like real ales too. If I'm not in the mood for lager then I'll have a Vodka & Lemonade (no ice), if I'm at home and determind to get drunk it's usually Gin & Bitter Lemon which I love but can't afford in pubs. I don't like red wine, it gives me chronic hangovers and makes me thirsty, I will drink a nice medium or sweet white though.

Chore I hate: All of them? unless I'm in the right mood. I always hate hoovering the stairs though

Dogs/cats: Two cats, Duke & Gonzo, love 'em to bits.

Essential electronics: Computer. Unlike almost everyone else in the world I don't care about my mobile phone. In fact workmates curse me because it regularly runs out of batteries and I don't realize.

Favorite perfume: Pass, I rarely wear it, I've got a few bottles that people bought as presents but I don't know what there are (one might be Calvin Klein, haven't a clue about the other 2.) I did find one called Celeste, or Angel though which I was quite tempted by, but it was a bit sweet smelling.

Gold/silver: Silver, but most of my decent jewellery is gold because it's all inherited.

Hometown: I still think of Sheffield as home because that's where I was born and grew up and my family are there. This house feels like home.. because it is, and it's mine, but Stalybridge as a town doesn't yet, even though I love it and the area. Plus Ormskirk will always have a special place in my heart because I had so many good years there and my friends are there.

Insomnia: Only at the end of the month :) I find it realy hard to go to bed before midnight though, even when I have to get up for work at 6 the next morning.

Job title: Support Worker (which is so undescriptive) so I generally say NHS Support Worker for Adults with Learning Disabilities

Kids: Nope... ask again this time next year. ;)

Living arrangements: Me, Blokey, 2 cats. He's my "Domestic Partner" oh how I hate that phrase.

Most admired trait: The ability to smile, laugh and stay calm, even when everything is going to shit.
My years in Customer Services, dealing with complaining customers 8 hours a day made me realize that shouting at people gets you nowhere. If you keep your temper and keep smiling people will go out of their way to help you, if you lose it you'll get put to the bottom of the pile (I know I've done it to angry people so many times myself.)
Now if only customers would realize this, then Customer Services might be a bearable job.

Number of sexual partners: :P Not a chance.

Overnight hospital stays: None, unless I was kept in when I was born, I'll have to ask.

Phobia: Spiders, getting water in my ears.

Quote: I've had a quote tumbling round the back of my head for months, but can't find it anywhere, these 2 give the general gist though:

"Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information on it."

Samuel Johnson (1709 - 1784), quoted in Boswell's Life of Johnson

"The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool."

William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), "As You Like It", Act 5 scene 1

I've just found this too which I quite like:

"Never seem more learned than the people you are with. Wear your learning like a pocket watch and keep it hidden. Do not pull it out to count the hours, but give the time when you are asked."

Lord Chesterfield (1694 - 1773)

Religion: Technically a Christian, I was Christened, but only went to church at Christmas or Remembrance Day, sometimes Easter and Harvest Festival, mainly only when my brother was playing the trumpet or with Scouts & Guides. I was never taught about Christianity so know scarily little, maybe one day I'll read the bible, just for the story, and because I suppose I should know some things for pub quizzes.
I was once told my beliefs were Pagan, I believe in looking after the planet, treating everyone equally, and as Bill & Ted say "Be excellent to each other."

Siblings: A big brother Sam, he's 4 1/2 years older than me, and in about 3 weeks will be a Dad ! Scary!

Time I usually wake up: If I'm working then I have to get up at 6:30. If I'm rested and able to wake up naturally then it's usually about 10am. I don't go to bed till at least 1am if I don't have to get up though, often much later, so I'm not that lazy really... I just have an unsocible body clock.

Unusual talent: I honestly can't think of any. If any friends can think of any let me know, I feel so boring and dull right now.

Vegetable I refuse to eat: Peas & sweetcorn, if the odd one slips into a mix of something I will eat it, but if possible I'll pick it out. Also cauliflower and beans (the big long green ones). Pretty much anything else I'll eat, but some things, like cabbage I'll have to eat with potatoes. I know I sound fussy, especially for a vegetarian, but believe me, I'm far far less fussy than I used to be.

Worst habit: Procrastination. Messiness. Buying books and craft things. Pack-rat.

X-rays: Only Dentist ones.

Yummy foods I make: My Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies & Broccolli Mush (not together) are most popular, but I'm quite proud of my veggie stews and veggie lasagnes (the meat ones are apparently quite good too, but I've never tried them.) Basically I'm quite good at really hearty, comfort for type meals.

Zodiac sign: Leo. Star signs fascinate me, I've had my chart done and can see a lot of truth in the results, but then I think of my friend who is 8 hours 10 minutes older than me, yet so completely different to me it's unbelievable.

There, several hours wasted. Bed time now, crafting tomorrow.
Ni-ni

I think I've found my spiritual home.
Cornwall has the wide open spaces and hills I love of the Peak District, plus the sea, plus little craft spots, (I passed so many wool shops and even managed to go in a couple) plus Cider, plus cream teas, plus ice cream (I ate soooo much!). They also seem to be making a genuine effort to do something about climate change, seeing Wind Turbines everywhere makes me so happy. And for any people who say "Hmph fine so long as they're not in my backyard".... well personally I'd be delighted if the vew from my living room was peppered with Wind Turbines.

To top it all, my hayfever was managable with a couple of tablets a day, and my excema seemed to clear up too. Unfortunatly both have come back with a vengence since I got home.

My nerves about my fellow staff mamber were unfounded, we got on really well and I'd be happy to go with her again. My client was also wonderful. At home he wakes somewhere between 6:30 and 7, then goes to bed about 8:30. We were told he was the same on holiday, but we got him to sleep in till 9 most days (10 on one day) and he was going to bed at about 9:30, though he stayed up till 11 one night, we couldn't believe it, we kept asking him if he wanted to go to bed but all we got was "no, not yet". We had to take a picture of him with the clock becuase we knew no one would believe us.

We visited The Maritime Museum at Falmouth (but it rained so didn't see much of the town), St Austell, which wasn't too nice, but it's going through a regeneration project at the moment so I'll let it off. Plymouth I loved, even though pushing the wheelchair up the hills was hard it was worth it. We went on a boat ride, then sat on Plymouth Hoe eating ice-creams that were melting quicker than we could eat them, I found loads of little junk/crafty shops and would have happily spent a few days there on my own. I got sunburnt too, but that's nothing new. I loved the Eden Project, annoyingly the other staff member wasn't interested so we only go a couple of hours to look around. We had ice creams at Widemouth Bay, then cream teas at Crackington Haven, then felt ill. A gentle stroll around the shops at Boscastle soon set us right though. We went to Bude beach a couple of times, but chickened out of pushing the wheelchair around the shops there, far too steep. On the second trip to the beach we swapped the wheelchair for a Sand Buggy which meant we could actually get on the beach, and even take our client for a "paddle", the weather was gorgeous, so we had a couple of hours sunbathing.

I missed Porl loads though, he must have thought I was gloating, I kept phoning him from places with spectacular views, or when I was eating ice creams, but I was just wishing he was there with me.

I've got 2 weeks off in September, so I think we'll have to go back there together.

So tired, I want to sleep for a week. No time unfortunatly. Tomorrow is my 3rd sleep-in in a row (24 hours in work, 24 at home, 24 in work, etc etc). Wednesday I'm doing a 10 hour shift, Thursday I have off, technically, but Friday I'm going to Bude in Cornwall for a week on another client holiday.

I've never been to Cornwall before, well except for a brief look around Penzance before getting the ferry across to the Scilly Isles. I'm sort of looking forward to a nice week touring around, but I know I'm going to miss Porl like mad. EuroDisney was only 4 days, and we were so busy I didn't get much chance to miss him, but 4 days was enough. A week is a long time, plus this holiday will be a much slower paced one, my client is 85 so we're planning on alternating long days out (Plymouth & The Eden Project are definitely on the list) with quieter days closer to home so he can have a rest in the afternoons. Quieter days mean I'll have more time to miss Porl. I'm going wih a different staff member this time too and I'm nervous about how well we'll all get on. She's young, and can be headstrong, the client is old and can be head strong, and I'm going to be stuck in the middle negotiating. Luckily the accomodation has a pool, so on the quieter days I plan on escaping for a swim, or sending her off for a swim while I escape into a good book.

So far I've done absolutely nothing towards getting myself organised, except for buying some suncream (I'm hopeful). I'd best pack on Tuesday, so I can spend Thursday running round buying things I need.

There are just 2 things about this holiday which I'm really looking forward to:

1 - Spending time with the client, he's got some great stories, but at 85 he needs to be relaxed enough and have the right stimulation to remember them. It's not often at work that we get the time to sit and listen to him.

2 - Coming home and having a week off work! I'm planning a couple of days camping for Porl and I. The seaside is calling me. I'm torn between our old favourite, Anglesey, or taking Porl somewhere new, probably Filey, so we can visit Scarborough and Whitby too. The paddling opportunities are better on Anglesey, but I've not been to the East coast for years.

What to do, what to do?

I'd forget my head if it wasn't screwed on...
The foul mood wasn't even shifted by the fun post that arrived today.
I got the 3rd mailorder, which has a little needlework project book to make, and a recipe for Lemon Ginger Cake... Oh how I love Lemon Ginger Cake! Now I can make my own instead of buying Mr Kiplings Exceedingly Expensive stuff.

The 2nd fab thing was even better. A copy of Super Crafty which I got for being winner of Craft Idol. Lots of fun stuff to make, but where do I buy those socks for making sock monkeys?

Lastly, I've finally worked out how to reinstate my atom feed which I deleted in a fit of peak a while ago when people on Livejournal were annoying me.
So if you want to add it to your bloglines, or what ever then feel free to do so.
The address for it is http://homepages.nildram.co.uk/~daymaker/atom.xml. Or if you're like me you'll have a trendy like widget on your toolbar which should be lit up now and you can just click it to subscribe.
If none of this makes sense then I apologise, unfortunatly I don't really understand it either, you can ask questions but I doubt I'll be able to help.

Now I really am going to water the plants.... grumble grumble grumble.

I've been restless and in a foul mood all day. I'm stressed about something (I know this because the insides of my cheeks are chewed to shreds) but I don't know what.

Maybe it's the weather. It's been overcast and threatening like rain all day but it's stayed dry. Which means I still have to go out and water the plantpots. I love plants in pots and baskets, but I hate watering them. I need to get the outside tap fixed so I can use a hosepipe (no bans round here) the watering can is too heavy to lift for the baskets and I always end up drenched.
Why then if I hate watering them am I considering going and planting up a few more to climb up the spiral staircase my neighbour gave me?

Today I was planning on spring cleaning. I cleaned the bathroom and fixed the hose to the tumble dryer, but by that point my mood was 10x worse, so decided that for Porl's sake I'd best stop before I turned green and nasty.
When we were little my brother and I (and mum too) always said Mum was like the Incredible Hulk, she rarely lost her temper, but when she did she went green and nasty. It seems I'm the same.

I have spent a good hour of so spinning though, well trying. I'm getting there slowly. I've found 3 problems, and 2 I've solved.

Problem 1 - can't get the wheel to keep turning, it was losing momentum before doing a full turn.
Solution - I realized it was doing a little jerk when I first treadled, so I had a little jiggle of things and realized there's a nut holding the top of the footman to the wheel, and it was loose, so the plasticy bit at the top of the footman was slipping. I've tightened it up, and hey presto, no jerk, and I can treadle properly again now.

Problem 2 - my yarn kept breaking.
Solution - stop being so adventurous (not that I was doing it on purpose) just stick to spinning bulky weight yarns. Once I can do a spindle full of nice thick, even yarn I can try spinning thinner, even yarn.

Problem 3 - Too much twist.... waaaay too much.
Sort of solved - I know this is to do with my tension, and not drafting quickly enough. I get the theory of it, I'll just have to keep practicing on the practical side. I think I need to try moving my hands further apart too.

I'm also better at drafting in new pieces of fibre now, I'm using some nice creamy white merino, and mixing it with some of the same stuff that I dyed pink with KoolAid a while ago. It's lovely and soft, and the bright colours are keeping me interested. Far better than the grey I started with last time. Too dull and I couldn't see what I'd done.

Anyhow now I'm going to see if I can find some black yarn to try and make a "fat bottomed bag" from The Happy Hooker book, then I'll sit watching Firefly and hopefully I'll have crocheted my bad mood away before bedtime....
Actually best go water those plants first.... grumble, grumble, grumble.

Today I've been trying to get caught up with my life. I'm only about a week behind now.

I did manage to get to the post office and send off my part of the "Colours of Europe" swap, it's late, but at least it's gone now, and thankfully the person I was sending to does the same job as me, so she was very understanding. She knows what it's like to work bizarre shifts then on days off only be fit for sleeping. I'll post pictures of what I sent made her once she's received it.

I got a wonderful parcel off my partner Spicey for the same swap. The brief was to send 10 things, 3 of which we'd made in our partners favourite colours. My favourite colours are blue, red and orange. She sent me all this;

A HUGE bag which will be going to Cornwall with me. Babelfish tells me it means "A summer with the sun" which I hope it will be.
3 type of yarn, all are lovely and soft thanks to the mohair in them
2 parkly gel pens
Carrot and flower seeds, I'll be planting these next year.
Beads, I can never have enough.
A purse, I love the colours of this
Handbag shaped cards toppers
Sweeties, which I refused to eat until I'd take a picture, so they've been sat on my desk tempting me for a week.
Blue material, trying to decide what to turn this into.
Handmade lip balm and Caramel Apple scented body spray. The body spray smells delicious, my skin is so dodgy at the moment that I daren't use it as a body spray, instead I've been using it as a room spray. It's making me hungry though!
Lastly 2 lovely necklaces which are just my style, nice and simple.

The last few days have been hot... really hot, which I thought was wonderful except for the day I had to go to work. Thankfully my boss gave us strict instructions to take it very easy, and we took him at his word.
I hate being cold, I love summer. I love winter too, but only when it snows, the rest of the time it's rubbish. I spend my time wrapped in a blanket next to the radiator, I really miss being able to curl up in front of the coal fire. This evening it rained and cooled down a bit so I'm back in my cardigan and thick cord trousers.

Unfortunatly Porl is the complete opposite. He hates the hot weather, trying to get him outside in the sunshine is nigh on impossible. He's spent the last 2 days pottering around the house in my big baggy cotton pyjama bottoms (pale blue with flowers embroidered on the bottom.) Thankfully he got changed before leaving the house, we don't live in Skem* I'm going to have to make him some of his own in a more manly colour.

Porl spent 2 days moaning about the heat, before we had the following conversation.
Me: You know how you're really hot.
Porl: Yeees.
Me: And you know how you keep complaining.
Porl: Yeees.
Me: And you know how you've got a fan under your desk...

He is intelligent... honest.


* Skem = Skemlersdale, a few years ago I was at the supermarket there when I saw a young teenage Mum pushing a pram, she was wearing a pair of pink flowery pyjama bottoms. I felt sorry for her, thinking she was a young stressed Mum. I mentioned it to my collegue, who told me that no, pyjama bottoms were the current fashion "with the kids".

Oh the luxury of a Sunday off. Shifts are supposed to be shared out equally among staff, especially weekend shifts which pay more, but there are a few staff members who can't work Sundays and others who don't want to work them, so I think this has been my 2nd Sunday off in 3 months. It's a shame, I like Sundays off, but I'm not complaining too much, at least I've had a few months of healthy wages.

I took the opportunity to go to Ashton Market as they have a table top sale on a Sunday which sounded interesting and I've never been. It was okay, I arrived quite late so probably missed the best things but I did pick up some cheap jewellery which I can dismantle, and some material for a swap.

I also had a wander around the shops, I was in a good mood so decided to brave shoe shopping. I hate shoe shopping. My feet are huge (size 7) except they aren't. One foot is a 7 one a 7.5, so usually 7's are too small, and 8's (if they have any) are too big. I can also only wear flat shoes because any heel would make me taller than Porl, which feels odd. I'm desperatly in need of some new trainers though, I bought my current trainers just before the last world cup. I love them, they're so comfy, and velcro, which is good for me because laces refuse to stay fastened on my feet, but they have holes in the front now and I keep getting wet feet. I really want a pair of converse style boots in lilac, but I'll settle for a bright blue, I'm cheap though and don't want to pay £35 for trainers.

Anyhow I failed with the trainers. I found some great ones for £7, but the 7's were too small, and they had no 8's. So I bought these instead:

I've wanted some ruby slippers for years, but finding flat ruby slippers which fit me without making my feet look like barges isn't easy. At last I've managed it though, and for just £12. God knows when I'll wear them, but they look good with jeans so I might just have to use them as every day shoes :)
Oh they do work as teleporters too. When I got how I clicked my heels together 3 times, said "there's no place like home" and hey presto I was at home. Porl pointed out the flaws in this, I pointed out he was boring.

Anyhow, going shopping late did mean that I was at the supermarket just before it closed, so I've been eating nice fresh baguettes, which were even nicer knowing they only cost 20p. I also treated myself to a couple of bunches of flowers at 25p each. I love fresh flowers, but they're an indulgence I can't usually afford.

I've spent this evening playing with the wheel. I've still not spun anything. Instead I've been reading all my books and learning what things are called, where I have to oil, how to string it (they don't tell you what to use though...I've used crochet cotton becuase it doesn't stretch) how to check the wheel isn't warped (it isn't thankfully) etc etc. I've also been trying to rub all the metal bits down with wire wool and WD40 as there are a few patches of rust. Most of the pieces are okay now, the only bits which worry me are the cup hooks and the orifice as the fibre might snag on them. I can buy more cup hooks easily but I think I'll have to use my jewellery files on the orifice smooth.

I'm also down to just 1 bobbin. There was some yarn on it which broke away when I was cleaning it up. My first thought was moths, but when I got to the centre I found the wood had been gnawed at too, then I spotted the woodworm holes. It's banished to the greenhouse until it proves to me that the woodworm is no more. It's a good job Dad is a woodturner and can make me some spare bobbins.

I can't find a makers name anywhere on the wheel, but the drum carder is made by a Canadian company Patrick Green Carders, and I think it's a Deb's Delicate Deluxe. It needs a new drive band as that has perished, but I've been looking and they are relatively cheap to replace. I'm not likely to use it for several months/years though while I'm learning so I've offered it to someone who would be able to use it on a possibly permanent loan. I'd prefer it was being used rather than sitting in my loft waiting for a day when I may get a raw fleece.

Carol, if you lived closer to me than you might have found me sat on your doorstep this weekend going "help meeee!" I'm muddling with my books at the moment so I can tell you it's a double drive wheel (I learnt the difference between double drive and scotch tension tonight). I'll take some better pictures of it when I get chance next week and you can tell me all the things I've done wrong in getting it set up :)

Now I should go to bed. Tomorrow is the first of 2 sleep-ins this week. Do you think they'd mind if I took my new toy to work?

Isn't she pretty. She needs a name, everytime I look at her I see Clara, which then makes me think of Heidi, or Long Distance Clara. I'm trying to make myself see her as an Emily instead.
Excuse the mess in the background, it's tidier than it was, but the blue box is my rain bucket for colloect water for my plants.

I picked her up this morning, apparently she's about 25 years old, was used a lot but hasn't been for a few years. As well as the wheel I've got a drum carder, a couple of hand carders (on the bench) a lazy kate, 2 bobbins, a bobbin of green silk, and some magazines and spinning books. The lady said she'd call me if she finds anything else.
I gave her a box of chocolates and a very good bottle of wine, and lots and lots of thankyous.

Today has been spent gardening. We were going to go to Ormy, but the sun was shining, the garden needed doing, and I wanted to play with my new toy.
I resisted cleaning the wheel up (she was very dusty) until I'd planted all the plants I've bought recently. I now have 2 belfast sinks potted up, some hanging baskets, and a load of flowers in the front garden too. I also have a very achey body and sunburn.

The belfast sinks look really good now they've got their new coverings and plants in them. It's a good job they look good too, because there's no way we'd be able to shift them now, they're so heavy!

A bit boring now, but the should look great in a couple of weeks.

[manchesterfreecycle] OFFERED: spinning wheel & carding machine - M21 Chorlton
Dark brown wood, small spinning wheel in working condition, not used
for quite a long time. Also carding machine & a few mags/books about
spinning.

Guess who just got their name picked out of the hat.

EEEeeeeeee!

I'm picking it up tomorrow.

If Sezer gets booted out of Big Brother tonight then today will have been a truely perfect day.

Hello, I'm back.
Disneyland was FANTASTIC! But I pity all those parents who took all those children. Their bank balances must be feeling very poorly now. The place is sooo expensive. £35 for a main meal and a soft drink for 3 people, and that was the cheapest restaurant we went to. If you then add in all the merchandise which is thrust at you from all sides you'd need to re-mortgage if you took a child, or have your child screaming constantly because you're not buying them things that they Need.
There were so many things there that I needed to buy, but I was very good and restricted myself to a couple of books about how to draw cartoons, and a limited edition Dopey Model Sheet Picture which I fell in love with on the first day. I waited till the fourth day incase I saw something else, but nothing matched it so it's now adorning the living room wall.

Unfortunatly since I got back I've been feeling rotten, a mixture of hayfever, and a few particularly unpleasant ailments which I think have been brought on my the stress of the whole holiday. Not that it was particularly stressful, but being on duty for 4 days straight, takes it out of you. We also had a few hassles on the first day, like arriving at 11am, but not being able to get into our room till 3pm. I nearly cried when we found out, I'd been up since 2:30am and had only had 3 hours sleep anyway. When we did manage to get into our room we had other hassles to sort out too. Thankfully from the next morning everything went smoothly, but my body is currently hating me for the trauma and sleep deprivation it went through, so a trip to the doctors is on the cards for this afternoon.

In other news, Porl missed me, the cats missed me, and in 4 weeks time I do it all again, but this time for a week in Cornwall with a different staff memeber and a not quite so easy client.
*Sigh*

Passport - yep
Tickets -yep
Suitcase - yep

Absolutly conviction that I've forgotten something - Yep

EuroDisney here I come - well soon, I'm getting picked up at the horrible time of 2:30am. Best try to get some sleep.

That epic post down there looks so daunting, so I'm shoving it down the page with a nice short (I hope) post.

Today has been an odd lazy day, I got up early, had a fantastic appointment at the doctors (more on that in a sec) then when I came home I fell asleep, I've spent the rest of the day feeling vaguely confused and hungover. Very Odd.

The doctors was great though. It's taken us 18 months to get around to registering with a doctors here. We went for our new patient health check a couple of weeks ago with the nurse, and the subject of my excema came up. The nurse told me to go and see a particular doctor in the practice because skin was her speciality.

Anyone who's met me will probably know about my excema, I get it on my hands and on my scalp and it drives me nuts! The stuff on my scalp is also embarrassing because it looks like really bad dandruff, but no dandruff shampoo will shift it.
My job means I have to wash my hands a lot, and if I'm honest I'm a little obsessive about washing them anyway. After a normal day at work my hands are very dry, they crack and bleed and I keep scratching at them anyway. Actually I rarely scratch, I rub them on the edge of my jeans pockets or the creases which is just as bad as scratching.
My hands tend to heal up when I'm at home because I'm lazier :) I don't clean as frantically as at work, and we have a dishwasher. But as soon as I go back to work and they're sore again.

So I saw the nice doctor, she was lovely and very helpful. She asked all about my allergies and family history. She gave me a proper explanation about what excema was with diagrams and everything! No-one has ever done that before, so I now have a better idea of what to avoid, why to avoid them, and how best to treat it.

I came away with a bag full of goodies, which cost a fortune, but if they work I don't care, but even better than that I came away with the feeling that for the first time I'd found a doctor who actually cared and hadn't just fobbed me off with another steriod cream. In fact she's given me an Emulsifying Emolient which I can use to wash my hands with instead of soap and it'll work as a barrier cream. It seems to be working, my hands are much soften than normal and haven't itched... too much... all day. What's even better though is I don't need a prescription for it and it'll work out far cheaper than all the pots of hand cream I get through in a month.

While I was in the chemists and asking about the Emolient I was approached by another customer. She's just set up an online shop called Summer Naturals selling natural holistic products for both household cleaning and personal hygiene. A lot of the things she sells are things I've been looking into using anyway, I hate using so many chemicals for cleaning, but it's not very easy to find things like soda crystals, borax and citric acid. This shop sells them all though, and lots else besides. I like her ethics too, she uses all recycled packing most of which she gets from the shop across the road, but she also put a post on Freecycle today asking extra packaging.
I think I'll be buying some soap nuts for my washing, and maybe some ingredients for making my own soaps too.

Well my excuse for being gone so long is that the sunshine has been tempting me outside. I'm making the most of whatever sunny days I can get out there, it won't be long before the air is completely pollen laden, and I become a Sneezy, Grumpy soul. Actually hayfever also makes me quite Sleepy and Dopey too... more Dopey than normal. I doubt it'll ever make me Bashful or Happy though, and Doc, well I've never quite understood what Doc was all about.

Anyhow what have I been up to?
Well the garden has a few more plants in it, a lot less weeds, and hopefully less ants. There's an ants nest somewhere under my front garden so I went a little berserk with the ant powder. I know ants aren't the worst bug out there, and they do no harm to the garden, but my first trip abroad when I was a child left me with a hatred of them, seeing them crawling everywhere, even out of plug sockets will do that to a young mind.

I've also been making mudpies and playing with ModPodge.
The mud pies were for my Belfast Sinks shown in the earlier post. I got the sinks last year off Freecycle to use as plant pots, but even after I cleaned them up they still looked messy, so Dad found a recipe, 2x sand, 2x peat, 1x cement. Mix it up, cover the pots, then moss and interesting things should start growing on them quite quickly. I've only covered 1 so far, I wasn't certain whether the mixture would stick, but it seems to have so next week I'll put some plants in it and make more mudpies to cover the other 2 sinks.

The adventures in ModPodge were even messier than the mudpies. Mainly because I was sensible with the mud and wore gloves, but ModPodge is only PVA so getting covered is half the fun. Porl commented on it being like "Fun Excema". I've not finished that project, but I'm halfway through covering a box with postage stamps. I'll be getting merrily messy again next week.

The big news of the day (other than Liverpool winning the FA Cup) is... I won Craft Idol!

The final theme was "My Hero". Well my heroes are my parents, for being generally ace people, being great crafts people, passing their love of crafts onto me, and lastly for generally spoiling me rotten.
I was going to try to make a doll, but I wasn't happy with it, and I'd set myself a personal challenge of doing a different craft in each round, so I made a necklace instead.

My parents initials are "R" and "S". So the chain is made up of lots of "S"'s and the pendant is 2 "R"'s. The beads are from a necklace of my Grandma's. She left me lots of costume jewellery. She asked that we not sell it, but she knew I made jewellery so I hope she doesn't mind that I've been dismantling it.

Porl got more into this competition than I did, he's much more competitive, he's been asking every day whether I've won yet, so when I told him the results he was dancing around the kitchen. On the other hand I always feel slightly guilty about winning things and feel other people deserve it more. I was really pleased with my last entry, but I know I only scraped through on some earlier rounds, the work people have put in has been great, and the different takes on the themes and the range of crafts has been amazing.

I've also been busy having a bit of a re-organisation. 1 trip to Ikea, 2 evenings with the glue and hammer, and 9 episodes of Buffy S7 produced a lot of boxes.

It took a couple more days and my Craft Idol entry to get the remainder of the series finished. It was very good, not as funny as earlier series' and it left me with a vague feeling of confusion. I'd watched them so quickly that I didn't realize I was on the last episode. Also the little bits I've heard about the ended were wrong, I was expecting different people to die, so when my favourite character died I kept expecting him to come back. I guess I'll just have to watch them again to see if the confused feeling goes away. :)

Update on the mouse. It seems to have defeated the cats. I made sure they were inside for at least some of last night. This morning we have no "presents" on the doorstep, and the mouse is no longer under the sink. I'm not going to start worrying about where he might be instead, there are plenty of hidey holes outside, and if he found some way into the house the cats have proved they would soon sniff him out and set up a vigil to draw my attention to him.

Our garden has turned into a haven of wildlife this past week. We've had a hedgehog scurrying around the patio at 4am. Then this afternoon a squirrel came running down the steps, right up to the patio window. It stood there with his front paws against the glass peering in. Then scampered off down the side of the house before I could turn my camera on. Gonzo slept through it all.
In the 18 months I've been here I've never seen anything more interesting than a Great Tit, we get Blackbirds, Magpies by the dozen, a lot of Chaffinches, Wood Pigeons (Although these would count as "Flocks" which is what my Mum calls particlularly fat Wood Pigeons. Far too fat to be counted as just 1 bird.) Then very occasionally a Robin or Great Tit, so Hedgehogs and Squirrels are something to get excited about.

We've also had some new kittens hanging around. (Anyone not remotely interested in cat/kitten escapades stop reading here.)
The most frequent visitor is Ollie. He's a jet black kitten who is impossible to photograph, partly because he's jet black and absorbs all light, and partly because he's a kitten and doesn't keep still. Every photo I've taken is a blurred black smudge, occasionally I'll get a picture of a black blob which has glowing eyes and a red name disk. We first saw Ollie a few months ago, but these past few weeks he's been practically living in our garden.
As I write Ollie is sat by the patio doors waiting for Duke to come out to play, and Duke is sat the other side waiting for me to let him out.
He's very timid of us so he hasn't been in, not that we'd tempt him of course, he obviously has owners, he has a name tag, we just want to play with him!
He loves Duke though, I think it's because Duke usually tolerates being randomly attacked in a playful kitten manner. Gonzo on the other hand doesn't, ever, and fights back in earnest. Ollie has quickly learnt to avoid this kind of play with Gonzo.

Our other kitten friend is more restrained, literally. Our road is too busy for a kitten to be near so my neighbour is taking him out in the garden for walks on a leash, (which he keeps escaping from). He's called Frankie and if he keeps still for long enough you can tell he is the double of Gonzo. In the 6 weeks he's been at my neighbours he's trashed several of her ornaments, all her plants are now outside because he knocks them over and eats them, she's covered in cuts and bites, I'm covered in cuts and bites, and the other kitten she got as company for him has had to go to another home because he attacked it constantly and it never fought back. He's now restricted to the kitchen. Duke has tried making friends with him, but Frankie keeps attacking him, (Duke is easily 3x taller than Frankie and probably 6 or 8 times heavier) thanks to the leash Frankie has been kept off Duke, and Duke is too soft properly to attack Frankie, he just play fights. However, whenever Gonzo sees Frankie there's full scale hissing and growling, which is quite funny to watch when Frankie is locked the other side of the kitchen window, or straining at the leash :)

Next week Frankie is going to the vets to have his bits chopped off. Hopefully being neutered will calm him down enough to enable him to join cat society without starting WWIII.

Sorry, still here, even have a post half written, but we have more pressing concerns right now that need our undivided attention.

Don't worry, nothing dramtic, just the non-internet parts of life like, sunshine, friends, work, friends getting engaged (Congratulations to both pairs), gardening, DIY, and getting thoroughly covered in ModPodge (PVA Glue to UK people).

I'll get around to finishing the post and filling in the gaps once the sun goes in, which might be surprisingly soon.

Mouse is looking for a house.
Mouse wants a house that is:
Not too big,
Not too small,
Not too hot,
Not too cold,
Not too wet,
And not too FULL OF CATS!

I love that the simpliest things can make you so happy.
Today has been full of simple pleasures.

We have hot water and heating again. The man came round at lunchtime and repaired the boiler, the second bonus was the price he told me the other day was for everything not just the part, which made giving him £200 just that bit easier.

My parents came up today which means the Spring/Summer season has officially begun. My brother lives near my parents, so he gets their help during Autumn/Winter when the weather is bad. When the longer days arrive, and the drive over the hill isn't likely to be bad they come over here. If they want to do anything to their own house it has to be planned weeks in advance.

We got lots of little jobs done today which will make life much better.
Dad drilled a hole through the wall for the tumble dryer. I can now dry clothes without having to have the patio door open. The luxury of warmth. We may also save a fortune on cat food as the neighbouring cats won't be able to get in and have a feast.
We also put shelves up in the hut. It feels like a proper little hut now. I might start spending more time up there. I'm pondering putting some curtains up, getting a comfy chair... and taking up pipe smoking.
Mum did a great job clearing rubbish out of the back of the garden in the bit of land the council have given us. So many bricks and pieces of metal (and the Thompson Twins single "Hold Me Now".) Our old fence has gone to the tip, and the land is all dug over ready for me put plants in... when I get some.

Now to browse the Ikea catalogue and decide what I might buy tomorrow.