A Happy Day for the OH

 

Long time readers will know exactly what that picture means! Geris' Ice Cream parlour is open for the summer.

Yet again we didn't get to go on opening day, as before the date was announced I had arranged for a friend to come round for coffee that day. But we did go on day 2 which was yesterday. The choc mint sundae is his and my cone had a scoop of vanilla and a scoop of Beyla's (sp?) raspberry gin. Both were delicious and it's lovely to have Geri's open again. 

It's as well we have something to cheer us up as we are yet again getting stressed with matters related to our house sale. I know that, in that well worn phrase, it will all be worth it in the end, but there are days when I do wonder....

March Wool stats and other crafty stuff

 I did well in March with only 100g of wool coming in and 547g going out. Net stash decrease for the year thus far is 3333g, which is pleasingly symmetrical or something. I would be happier if I wasn't aware that April will be - shall we say - less good?

Some of the 547g was given away, some went into a long term scrappy project and I finished three pairs of socks. Two were for me; the top pair from the Yarn Unique Degas yarn which came in January and the second pair was one of the socks sets from Stitch and the Skein's weekly advent. The bottom pair was for the OH and the wool came from what I understand is referred to as 'deep stash' i.e. it had bene kicking about for years. They are more red than the pink it shows in the photo. 

It doesn't seem much for  a month's work but I have been working on two other projects as well; a very lacy scarf which takes so much concentration I can only do 6 rows a day or it goes horribly wrong ( ask me how I know) and a small scarf cum shawl thing where you change colour every two rows. had I known how fiddly/irritating either of these projects would be I would not have cast them on. However the deed is now done ....

Having recently finished off and used some old, and small, cross stitch projects I picked up an old and very large one and I've been working on that too. This is slow work as I have to wear a head magnifier. Notwithstanding the fact that the optometrist told me what an excellent job the surgeons had done on my cataracts - and don't get me wrong, they did) working over 2x2 threads on 36 count linen is not something I can do with the naked eye. Twenty years ago, yes. Now, no. So that's a bit uncomfortable and I can't spend very long at a time wearing it. That said here  is the piece as at the end of March

there is no point taking daily or even weekly photos of it as progress would look infinitesimal but I'm hoping if I do one at the end of each month then it will be more noticeable, and encouraging. 

The Brochure Came

 

Lots of beautiful photographs and no prices. While I appreciate they take a 'bespoke tailoring' approach to their holidays (something I hadn't realised when I sent off for the brochure)  there's something intrinsically off putting about a brochure which doesn't give even guide prices so we won't be using them. I expect we'll do what we did when we went to Madeira and book through British Airways; not the cheapest, although I'm sure cheaper than these people!, but reliable, and we earn Avios points or whatever they're calling them this week on the total package not just the flights. Sometime in September is the goal. I have picked up a DK Top 10 Guide to Florence and Tuscany, 2013 edition, which was the nearest our library has to an up to date guide to Florence to get some ideas;  I'll read it,  make notes and then top up the info nearer the time with up to date stuff from the Internet. 

Did I mention recently how nice the weather had turned? If not here, I said it elsewhere and immediately jinxed it. Yesterday we even had hailstones! 

Quick Update

I 'passed' the retake of my Field of Vision test when I took it last week.  My mouth has stopped hurting although I am still using some revolting tasting mouthwash to ensure the almost-but-not-quite healed chasm in my gum doesn't get infected. And, we have sold the house again, we think.

After our recent experience we are not taking anything for granted but the current buyers seem deadly serious; they are in the process of completing the sale of  their own place down in England and don't need a mortgage and the people we're buying from seem OK (for now) about staying on side while our purchasers sale grinds through the slow mill that is the English house selling system. 

As a result I am rather more perky than I have been for many many weeks and even managed to send off for a City break brochure from a firm specialising in trips to Italy. I am determined that, even if we can't book anything yet, this is the year I see Florence. 

I note said brochure has yet to arrive; the Post Office in its wisdom recently started routing post for the Northern Isles through Glasgow rather than Inverness as they had previously done. This seems to have speeded up post going south, and seriously slowed the things coming north. The Post Office deny this slowing  down with great vehemence, which would be more convincing if the word 'Horizon' wasn't hovering in the air every time they make an official statement. 

Crafty Bits and Bobs Part 2

I have a lot of paper crafting supplies. This dates largely from the days when I visited my sister in America when she lived there for a time, where the choice was huge and cheap, and I was determines to do a lot of scrapbooking and card making. I have done a fair bit of cardmaking in my time but not in recent years so obviously the Go Through extended to my big paper crafting cupboard. And sets of drawers. I looked out lots of stuff I could give away live without and invited local people to come and take their pick. The take up was dismal. I thought people who ran local groups might be glad of free stuff but only the brownie woman turned up. I took back into stock some items  that I'd been in two minds about parting with, packed the rest up in cardboard boxes and off it went to a charity shop. 

Sometime last week, when I wasn't feeling up to dong much I was desultorily watching a few YouTube videos from knitters and one of them was showing off a hand made card she had received  with a wool order. She was in raptures over it, despite the fact that it was basically a big white square with a sticker of crocuses in the middle. I'm not saying it wasn't lovely, because it was, it was really nice, but it was also the epitome of simple. 

I've got stickers I thought; also I am more aware now of the large numbers of blank cards I have, I thought,  I cold bring the two together and make some notelets I thought.  So I did. 

Card, stickers, sticky ribbon and I even ventured a bit of rubber stamping on one of them. Then I let it get a teensy tinsy bit more complex

by mounting a sticker on a piece of card and rounding off the corners. 

They are not going to set the world alight but I enjoyed making them (using up stuff - yay!)  and I'll enjoy using them and I was pleased with how they turned out. 

Simples! but Effectives! 

Some Crafty Bits and Bobs Part 1

 Just to get the bad news out of the way first, not only have we lost our sale but it looks as though, as a consequence, we may lose our purchase as well. We might be able to save it if we get some new buyers for ours quickly, so fingers crossed, more in hope than expectation. 

Also my mouth continues to be painful after last weeks major extraction, but it is less painful than it was so we are thankful for small mercies. When we remember how. 

Anyway slightly more cheerfully. One of the places that got a Go Through was one of my built in storage boxes in the sunroom that had a lot of miscellaneous cross stitch stuff in it. It was about 5/6 full and now that it has had the 'going through' treatment there is  a single layer along the bottom plus a couple of shoeboxes, which is a very pleasing result. If I'd  known what a drastic difference it would make I would have taken photos. 

While I was clearing this out I came across various bits of stitching which had been finished but needed something done with them; obviously in the past I had considered it enough to do the stitching and then move onto the next shiny stitching thing rather than cope with the boring bit of sticking it in a frame or a card or whatever. Possibly I am older and wiser now. Whether that's true or not I took the poor neglected bits and pieces and finished them off.

There were some cards

and the good thing is I have actually used two of these already, including the one with the beaded cherries which I see I have photographed upside down! 

There was a mini sampler which I put into a frame that I found in a box of 'mounting things'. I'm not showing anyone the back! which is a total mess, but it looks fine from the front.

  

and there was this picture which also got put into a frame from the box. This was a kit given to me by a friend decades ago and I think it's Ann Hathaway's Cottage although it's so long ago I don't really remember. 

Part 2 tomorrow - probably. 

Consolatory Mail.

I am sorry to report that things have not been going wonderfully well since my last post, which is probably why I haven't been here for so long to be honest. 

Our house sale fell through. Our putative buyers, who had told us since January that they had their finance in place, but seemed increasingly reluctant to produce it, were finally forced to admit last week that they did not have any of it locked in and there was no money currently available, at which point we put the house back on the market together with prayers for a quick sale to someone with cash in hand so that we do not lose the house we want to buy.   I am not going to pretend that this was anything but A Blow.

In other news the thing that sent me to the GP continues to cause me some anxiety. My eye test was fine except for the Field of Vision test which I 'failed' twice. I know you don't fail it like you fail a school exam, but I have never had any problems with it before and this time there were gaps. The upshot is that I have to go back next week to retake it. I shall insist that they either lower the machine or heighten my chair because I don't think the fact that I was huddled over to see the screen like some ancient shrinking witch helped at all, and also I won't be suffering the after effects of just having the bright lights of a retinal scan in my eyes, so fingers crossed for a clean bill of health on that one.  I went yesterday for my double tooth extraction and it was brutal. It didn't help that he had to remove some infected bone as well as a wisdom tooth and the one next to it, which prolonged the procedure almost beyond endurance. Shock and pain were the major elements of the rest of the day and today I have done very little other than knit a lot of a sock and transfer yesterdays washing to the tumble dryer. 

There was a small shaft of light when we got back from the dentists in the shape of my yarn from the Art Gallery club from  Caroline at Yarn Unique. I was expecting another print like we had last month; I was already wondering what I would do with 12 A4 paper art prints but in fact this month we didn't get one.  We got some lovely Klimt postcards and some bookmarks instead. And of course the yarn. As it was Klimt I had opted for the sparkle version, since I was fairly sure the yarn would be gold coloured. And here it all is.

I have used up last months Degas yarn on a pair of socks for me and I ordered next months which is based on Van Gogh's Starry Starry Night which I am planning to make into a pair of socks for the OH. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the current one - is there a pattern lovely enough I ask myself? but it will be either fingerless mitts or a scarf/shawl thing to go round my neck. 

Also on the upside I have finished going through stuff, and the library has really benefitted from a lot of new to them books; we have another couple of handfuls to take in over the next few days as and when we go into town. I daresay a few more things will get weeded out when we do the Actual Pack but meanwhile the sorting is done. Much to my relief.