Thursday 29 October 2015

Bad things come in threes

Several years ago ... Um, ... gosh I'll start again. More than ten years ago I used to make stuff and sell it at craft fairs. Then things happened. My parents moved in with us and then I fell apart and couldn't leave the house and couldn't sew anymore. Add to that some medication that was instrumental in the anxiety attacks and you can see that back then was not a Good Time.

Last year the medication was changed, the world was a much more friendly place and I bagan to knit again and then crochet. I went to the Frost Fair at Miss Boo's school last year and said to my daughter that "I wouldn't mind knitting a few things for the next one". She said she would help me and when the forms went out she booked a table. I have spent the year knitting hats and scarves and crocheting booties and I suddenly remembered that I had a container with the dried lavender flower heads from my garden and from my neighbour.
"I'll make some Lavender pillows like the ones I sold at craft fairs" I thought, and went to look for the card writer thingy that goes with the embroidery machine so I could do the same lovely font. In my mind I could see the bag that it was in, together with the instruction book and the CD to install it on the computer. I knew they were all together because that's what I do - keep everything together in one place so that when I go back after five or ten years it will still be there. Everyone does that right?
It wasn't there.
The bag was there but it had a dance mat that I had never seen before in it but no PEDesign card writer. I took our study apart. I emptied the drawer with all the installation CDs in it and carefully went through all of them. I moved books on the shelves, I rummaged in the drawer that contains only envelopes. It was GONE!
"Perhaps I gave it away when I was in a Not-long-for-this-world mood" I thought. Mr M sighs quietly when that hits me because anything that hasn't been used for more than a year is fair game when that mood strikes. I couldn't think who I would give it to, and more to the point I couldn't think what I would say to them when I asked for it back!
Common sense, that tiny pale-pink voice in my head that gets ignored most of the time, told me that it was here somewhere but I continued to niggle about it and to get mad at me for doing such a daft thing when I still had the embroidery machine. I could still do words because the machine has three basic fonts built in but I wanted a script one. So I pouted a bit and found something else to do as the sewing mojo came back with quite a lot of energy.
On Tuesday several things happened. We took several bags of clothes that were FiL's to the charity shop and when I came back I realised that the bag of cards I had made for them was still in the study. I picked it up and as I did something slid out from behind the box of printer paper. The PEDesign!
I put it on the table intending to use it as soon as I had made the Lasagne for tea. This I did straight away. Then I discovered that the boiler had stopped working so I couldn't wash up. I put the Lasagne in the oven and took my cup of coffee into the front room and sat in my chair for five minutes. I woke up an hour later to find that the Lasagne was ... overcooked. Two strikes.
Youngest Son came home from work and fixed the boiler by twiddling things - very technical sorry so I went to wash up the bowl and grater disk from the food processor and promptly took a littl gouge out of the tip of my finger. It would not stop bleeding so YS drove me to the doctor's surgery. The receptionist informed me that "Doctors don't deal with wounds, you'll have to go to A&E." Three strikes
By this time, with constant pressure and holding my hand higher than my heart I had managed to slow it down a lot so I made YS take me home. I muttered something about "If it is still bleeding when Mr M comes home at 8 o clock he can take me. The evening rush should be over and the drunks won't be there yet"

As you can imagine all this negativity quite took the shine off finding the PE stuff so I didn't install it on the laptop until today and I only managed one practise run with the program. It does mean that I was able to re-download all the designs I bought and tomorrow I will be doing a few more Lavender Pillows to sell at the Frost Fair next month.

5 comments:

alexa said...

Oh dear, I am sorry to read about your trio of unfortunate events :(. Though rewarding now to have your embroidery program back? The ones in the photo look lovely - I am sure whatever you make will sell very well.

Sian said...

Argh! Maybe that's all the bad luck over and done with for a while and you are going to get lots of sewing done today and have a mountain of stock which will fly off your stall. I'm still marvelling at the change brought about by stopping that medication. It does make you wonder how many more people are similarly affected

Barbara Eads said...

I had completely forgotten that my grandmother always used to say that bad things come in threes. You certainly had your share! Now, let's think positive since you found your design cd. I'm wishing that the next good things come in fives!! Do share photos of your table at the fair and what you've made this year. I would love to see them.

voodoo vixen said...

Oh good grief, you really were having a time of it! On the bright side, I normally only find something when I have gone out and bought a replacement.... LOL ;) So happy that you have your sewing mojo back, and knitting too... now please send some my way... sharing is good! hugs Annette

Gail said...

Oh dear! Well I guess one good thing is they come in the threes and you've had your three. Sounds like it was definitely a full day! Glad you were able to find the card.