Memorandum Monday–Monday 10th October

In an effort to get back to blogging, I am joining in with Sian’s Memorandum Monday.

Mine was a slow weekend.  It started off not with Boot Camp at the gym (as is usual on a Saturday morning), but queueing up at the doctors for my annual flu jab.  So of course, as the weekend wore on, my arm began to get that heavy feeling you get afterwards.  If that’s the worse I get then I am thankful.  A small price to pay for not getting a nasty bout of flu this winter.

There was a short walk to the post office to post some sales from my Etsy shop, followed by our first visit to the new Costa coffee shop in our local parade of shops.  The unanimous verdict is that it is very good!  We had a lovely long facebook call with daughter Lucy, who is working in Connecticut, USA for a few weeks.  She has been helping out at a local fair, ‘seeing the real USA, with tractor pulling and pumpkin competitions’!  They got her directing the traffic!  Not sure that was a good idea seeing as they drive on the other side of the road!

Sunday saw me sewing up a storm!  But, first a dog walk and coffee.

We have put our patio table and chairs  away for the winter, so it’s Sunday morning coffee in the summer house now.

I made some bunting from vintage fabrics to sell on my Etsy shop, and continued with my dress.

I then cut out a skirt with this lovely autumnal fabric.

 

 

 

And then of course, it was a Strictly sort of weekend!  We are loving Strictly Come Dancing, this season.  Some great dancers!

Two more Adventures - Number One

You may remember that my one little word this year is ADVENTURE!  Well, after our epic adventure in Australia and New Zealand, I am about to embark on 2 more adventures!

Number One: Meet our new puppy!  He is an English Springer Spaniel, and in these photos he is 6 weeks old!  How cute is he??? We are going to collect him in just over a week's time.  So we are busy getting the house and garden puppy proof!  As yet he doesn't have a name.  We like Oscar, Charley, Bobby and Monty.  Any thoughts?  Or other ideas?  As you can see he is mostly black, and has the cutest face ever!

I have uploaded these photos via my phone, and have had to use blogger instead of live writer for this post, so the layout might look a bit different.  First picture is Lucy holding the puppy.  Third picture includes the other puppies and his mother, Pearl.  In the fourth picture you can see how black he is.

Expect this blog to become rather doggy over the next few months!  Can't wait!

Scrubbed and Polished!

 

Way back in December Lucy turned 21.  One of her presents was tickets for both of us to go to a Maroon 5 concert at the O2 arena in London.  It was supposed to be last weekend, but Maroon 5 have postponed until next January!  So we looked around for something else to do, and came across a ‘pamper day’ at a local hotel on Groupon.  I am not usually all that keen on beauty treatments, but Lucy really wanted to go so we packed our swimming costumes and off we drove!  We had 2 ‘mini’ treatments each, a pedicure and a facial.  Look at my toes!

We had a really lovely lunch, all healthy stuff, sitting in the bar area.  The waitress asked me if I was Merlin’s owner!  I didn’t recognise her at first, so asked her what her dog’s name was.  It turned out that we used to walk our dogs together about 8 years ago!  Sadly she had lost her dog earlier this year too.

Our day was made when we ventured outside to the pool (the water, a balmy 30 degrees) and then the sun came out!  So we sat in the sun for the afternoon, perfect!

Remember my craft challenge?  June was supposed to be make a bag, which I am pleased to report I have done.  It’s a doggie bag!  I made it from a pattern in Lynette Anderson’s book It’s Quilting Cats and Dogs.

10 on the 10th (1 day late!)

Here’s 10 photos I’ve already taken this Christmas:

Christmas preparation

1. cards all made and written, just waiting to be posted. 
2. Christmas shopping at Bolney vineyard!  (We bought bottles of English red wine for the parents of those babies who the quilts are for!  Of course, we had to taste it first!)
3. Christmas puddings (and cake) made and waiting in the pantry.

Evening out with the ‘lads’, a group of old motorcycling friends

And my ‘small one’ turned 21 last Saturday!!!  Here she is blowing out her candles on Friday, and at the restaurant with Mum and Maurice

All dressed up and ready to go to a posh dinner dance at the Amex Stadium in Brighton

And here I am at the party with my Friday morning coffee friends, Angela and Sarah:

Hope you enjoyed a little peek into my wonderful December – still more to come!! Bring it on!!

Storytelling Sunday–Sporting Prowess

OOps! A day late, but never mind, here’s my story for this Olympic month of August 2012'.

I am inspired by the wonderful tally of gold medals (now 16!!) that it got me thinking about our sporting prowess.  The only really sporty one is Lucy.  Maurice does a little running, and once ran a marathon, but Lucy was an England Champion!

Lucy and her cousin Izzy started to play volleyball when they got to high school.  Thanks so much to Freda Bussey, the PE teacher who loved volleyball and got them playing to such a high standard.  They won the under-16 England championship in 2008.  We all trooped off to Bath University to support them.  They were the under-dogs having been well and truly beaten by the other side previously.  But they won!  Wow, we were so happy for them!

 

Here’s the moment they won:

Team photo with coach Freda Bussey:

Lucy and Izzy holding the cup.

Sadly, Lucy doesn’t play any more, but Izzy does.  In fact, Izzy’s friend Megan just missed getting into the England women’s team this year!  Watch this space, she will surely be a future star.

Freda was well and truly recognised for her great work for volleyball when she was picked to be an Olympic flame torchbearer.