CRAZINESS

I want to tell you how CRAZY our country is getting! We have a petrol(gas) shortage, there are long queues at the petrol stations, and many are running out of petrol. The reason? The petrol tanker drivers are threatening to go on strike, and our government (in their wisdom) told us all to take precautions and fill up with petrol every time we pass a petrol station! The tanker drivers haven't even met to vote on strike action yet, and then will have to give 1 weeks notice!!! Now they've said they definately won't strike over Easter, so we're 10 days or so away from any strike. Then one stupid government minister suggested that we all should keep some petrol in jerry cans in our homes/garages
One lady was severely burned yesterday as she decanted petrol in her kitchen with her gas oven alight CRAZY!

To top that the government want to put tax on hot take away food (not cold). We are a nation of pie and pasty lovers, and the take away outlets do very well. But the definition of 'hot' is causing some problem as it is to do with the ambient temperature. So a pie in the summer won't have tax on it, but it will on a cold winters day!!! CRAZY! (Of course, our government ministers are too posh to eat take away pies and pasties!)

In addition we are all up in arms at the rise of the cost of a postage stamp! It's going up form 46p to 60p. The joke going round is that we'd all like to complain, but we can't afford the postage! There will be a run on postage stamps too as we are all being advised to stock up before the price rise! CRAZY!

One man tweeted that he was forced to buy a pasty while he waiting in the queue in the garage to buy his stamps!

These are the everyday things that matter to us as the general public.  The problems with the economy, bankers and EEC affect us all, for sure, but we don’t understand the details, they go over our heads.  But we do mobilise and take action when told to fill up with petrol, and that our beloved pies are going to cost more!  It’s surprising how much anger there is at the increase in the cost of a stamp because the reason it is going up is that we don’t write letters anymore – we text, email, social network and tweet!

Music, love and disappointment

What music are you currently loving?

I thought I would ask this question as Maurice bought me a CD for my birthday (it was on Sunday). I absolutely LOVE this single by Gotye, featuring Kimbra:

I 
He's an Aussie I think, She has a terrific voice!  This song has been no 1 in the UK charts for weeks! I hear it several times a day on BBC Radio2 – my favourite radio station, and I still don't tire of it But the whole CD is really disappointing. In my opinion, this is the only good song!

This got me thinking- so I dug out the last 3 CDs I bought (I did buy quite a few CDs, if I heard a good song on the radio I'd buy the CD, but I've stopped lately with the economising!)

Lonely are the Brave by Maverick Sabre
Love this track:
I just love the line:

When I kiss you on your cheating lips, all I ever picture is you with him (but it does sound like he sings ’cheesy lips’ YUK!)

Born to Die by Lana Del Rey
My favourite track:

Are those lips for real?  She does look very cool though.

Seasons of My Soul by Rumer
So cool:

This is an album I love!  Every track is Great.  I love the track ‘Slow’ too, not sure which one is my favourite.

 

Can't you tell I like slow and moody! I love a distinctive voice too!
What are the last 3 albums you bought/downloaded? And have you been disappointed in a the album after loving the single?

Maurice also bought me a laminator() and some solar lights for the garden!  I had a fabulpous day, made all the better by the gorgeous unseasonal warm sunshine we’re having.

The big reveal–Tiny Town!

I have been working hard on this applique quilt throughout the winter.  I am super thrilled with it, and am delighted to give you this Ta-Dah! moment!!

It was a ‘block of the month’ kit from Antique Angel.  I saw it at the Ardingly Quilt Show last year, and fell in love with it immediately.  I love the cute houses and the colour scheme is just gorgeous!  It’s really bright and fresh.  It was designed by Bunny Hill Designs.  Wow!  How I would love to be able to design something like this, and then there’s choosing the fabric!

Each month I received a beautifully wrapped kit for 1 block, with instructions and patterns.  I did keep up at first, but lapsed when I unfortunately cut a background wrong!  (Antique Angel came to the rescue with  a few fresh pieces of fabric).  Since January I have spent most evenings (and some days)sewing!

Now it needs quilting.  I think that might be a job for next winter!  I think I will hand quilt as my machine quilting is not very good, and I don’t want to spoil it.

Some of my favourite bits!  See the school background – the red with the flowers?  That’s my backing fabric!  When it’s quilted, each door will have a tiny button handle.

I really enjoyed the little bits of embroidery here and there like the branch behind the rabbit.  It really sharpens the images and makes them ‘pop’!

I just love Sunbonnet Sue and her little dog!  The dog still needs a ribbon colllar.

How about the 3 shops?

Did I tell you how super thrilled I am with it?

Signs of Spring

It was a lovely blue sky sunny morning when we set off for our dog walk this morning.  I decided to take my camera and look for signs of Spring.

These two pigeons look like they are getting friendly – yes Spring is in the air!

Daffodils just beginning to come out in the sunshine.

But, as we approached home (this is a neighbour’s tree), the clouds were rolling in and it has stayed grey for the rest of the day.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Picture Inspiration

Remember I was going to go back over some of my online classes?  Well, here’s some photos based on the prompts from ‘Picture Inspiration’ class over on www.bigpictureclasses.com

All about me!  here I am in my craft dining room!

Finding a little rhythm on our recent downs walk

How things stack up.  Some gorgeous fabrics purchased recently

Infinity and beyond.  Love how the path disappears into the photo!

What’s your motif?  This is a block from the quilt I am sewing at the moment.  I just Love the little houses!  Can’t wait to show you the whole quilt.

What’s on my Worktop Wednesday?

A couple of weeks ago I went to the ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ family history exhibition in London.  I went to help man the Anglo-Italian Family History Society stall.  It’s something I have done for a number of years and always have an interesting day hearing different family history stories.  I always return inspired to do more of my own family history, but don’t always act on it!  Well, now I have scaled down my duties for AIFHS, I decided this is the year for action!  I bought a lovely box file with carry handle at the fair that will do very nicely for my old photographs. 

So my desk is strewn with old family photographs!  I want to sort them all, carry on identifying who’s who, and remove the photos of people I don’t know.

This rather handsome man is a bit of a mystery!  This photo was taken in WW1, and I did think that he was a friend of my Grandad’s.  But I can’t find anything about him!  On the back of the photo it says:

Pte L H White

22480 B Coy

2nd Leicester Regt (attached)

7th Division

Headquarters

E.E.F.

Late of Mesopotamia

This is the same regiment and place as my Grandad.  I was thinking that this photo is LH White, but I can’t find any record of LH White!  Today when I looked at it again, I wondered if the name on the back was who the photo was to be sent to, not the name of the person in the photo.  Any ideas?

 

Also, I started scrapping the next holiday!  This is Summer 1996, where we took a caravan at Minehead in North Devon for 2 weeks.  What a great time we had, despite the mixed weather!

First is the title page for this holiday.  Thanks to Glitter Girl, who’s LO I have unashamedly reproduced here, and her hot tips for scrapping vintage photos.  I love the little pocket in the top!  The pink and orange striped card is folded to create a pocket for the journalling.  I have a detailed diary for this holiday, so I might ‘hide’ some of it in the here.  There’s just one thing I am unsure of - the title in pale pink.  Do you think it should be darker?  Maybe hot pink like the ribbon across the middle?  What do you think?

I love this bright paper which is from American Crafts Margarita range which I bought in a sale, but it is on a white background, and Glitter Girl suggests a cream background to go with the more yellow tones of older photos.  I’ll save it for a more sunshiney holiday!

I am intending to scrap a few 12 x 12 LOs for my album and use different page protectors for the rest.  Here’s another 12 x12, this time following Shimelle’s starting point for this week.

The West Somerset Railway went right by our caravan site.  As you can imagine, Nicholas at 7 was very excited about this, although a little scared by the noise!  So one of the first things we did was catch the train into Minehead

Not sure what this paper is, I bought this in a sale we held at our crop back in January. It doesn’t have any name on the strip, so I’m suspecting it’s from one of those big pads of paper you can buy at the Range.

I am linking up with:

Starting points with Shimelle

What’s on your Worktop Wednesday? with Julia at the Stamping Ground

The Tale of the Lost Blanket

I had a go at scrapbooking some old holiday photos yesterday.  It was May 1996, the school was on half-term holiday so we decided to take Nicholas (7) and Lucy (4) to the Isle of Wight for the week on the train.  We stayed in a little old fashioned B&B with evening meal in Sandown, just a few streets away from the lovely sandy beach.  Despite a mixed bag of weather, we had a lovely time!

It’s a big project of mine to scrap all our holidays.  A few years ago I took all the photos out of the old ‘sticky’ albums and used these albums from Arrowfile, who also sell lots of different inserts or page protectors to go in them.  So it’s another take on Project Life!

The big story of the holiday that I want to tell you today is

‘The tale of the lost blanket’! 

Lucy had a little yellow blanket that went everywhere with her and she would clutch it in her fists while sucking her thumb, a proper comfort blanket.  You know the sort, it got dirty, torn, and gradually got smaller and smaller until there was just bit of the satin border left!    We weren’t quite at that stage at this point, the blanket was still whole and intact.  But, when we got home, we realised that she had left it in the bed at the B&B!  EEEK!! What to do?  We had to buy a new blanket quick, so she could have it for bedtime, and after a bit of telephoning round, luckily the big department store in our town had the exact same blanket in stock, PHEW!

The proprietor of the B&B, Mrs Jessop found the blanket and returned it to us in the post a few days later. So then we had a spare one just in case it happened again!   So a happy ending to my story

I am linking up with Sian for Storytelling Sunday.