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.

Me on Monday - sorting and distributing

It's been a sorting out clothes for the night shelter, putting books in boxes, rummaging in kitchen cupboards and most of all missing our girl kind of a weekend

waiting for food

We all went to F-i-L's house on Saturday as the emptying process continues. Trying to ensure that things don't get thrown out if they can go for some charitable use. All the jackets and jumpers (sweaters for my American readers) trousers and the socks that are still in the wrappings from new will go to the night shelter here in town. The shirts and tops can go to the charity shops where someone will find them. Mr M has nabbed all his Dad's ties and when he has sorted through them I intend doing a quilted something out of the rejects.
The reference books and all the murder mystery books are now in boxes in my sitting room to be sorted and bookcrossed and at least one box will be going to Jo's cafe just south of Ross on Wye where she has shelves of books available for a donation to one of the charity boxes.
We also sorted out most of the cupboards in the kitchen, threw away all the food dated 2007 or before. I brought the food processor home and discovered that it had two of every accessory - how did he manage that I wonder. Found the hidden cutlery in a large tupperware box on top of the cupboards. I suppose you only need knives and forks for a couple of people when you live on your own but that made the drawer empty???
Most of all I have been missing Miss Boo. She has gone to Gibraltar with Mummy and Daddy to visit friends and to seek out her ancestry. My ex-husband's father was born on Gib and his mother was born there as were her parents. Boo was interested to see where they lived and where great, great grandmother Ana was buried.
We are told that Boo has an ear for languages and has decided to become a famous photographer and travel the world - I just want her to travel home to her Grandma please as I have emptyarmitis and need lots of cwtches

And that's me on Monday. My thanks again to Sian at FromHighInTheSky for inventing this way of keeping me blogging.

Me on Monday - filled up with laughter and good food

It was a get the fridge, freezer and sofa from FiL's house. It was a surprise family meal kind of a weekend with a bit of game playing and lots of laughter. It was a sleazy Sunday that segued into dinner at the Bluefunnels where we laughed a lot and reminisced a lot and Mrs B railed against her new knee because it has "been three months and I still can't bend it enough to ride my bike." 

the ticket Officers

gamers ready for action

One of the things we did at Dragondaze, apart from sell a lot of tickets to people who wanted to be inside gaming, was we bought a game. It is called Halfling Feast. It comes in a neat little wooden box and an A4 size sheet of rules. We like simple games. Miss Boo likes games too, however she isn't too fond of the fact that ALL the adults around the table on Saturday insisted on doing sound effects when "emptying belly spaces" - I mean the card that releases 10 belly spaces is called Mighty Fart so what is a gamer supposed to do?
We spent Saturday morning moving the fridge, freezer and sofa from FiL's house so that my granddaughter Ms H can have them in her flat. Her first home of her own. Her partner coralled his dad into using their car and they took the freezer and sofa while Ms H's Dad took the fridge and the contents of the larder in his car. Being a prewar child FiL tended to keep a few supplies in the cupborad just in case he was snowed in.
I also sorted a bag of clothes for the night shelter and my next job is to collect all the bedding - my MiL hoarded bedding - because you never know - and make a few cot sheets for the baby and then see if I can make some single sheets for the other great grand kids as well.
We were supposed to be going out for a meal on Saturday evening but none of us could be bothered sso we stayed home and Miss Boo brought her parents to ours. She announced that Christmas dinner will be "At this table, it is a tradition". So even if it isn't a tradition it is going to be.
Sunday we were really indulgent and had a fry-up of the veggies left over from the night before together with some bacon and a few mushrooms. Mr M had an egg. I don't like egg and I have decided not to eat stuff I never really liked. I am 69 now so I don't have to eat things I hate.
Sunday evening we went up the hill to the Bluefunnels. I love all my cousins and I wouldn't swap any of them they are all very precious to me. However, Admiral Lord Bluefunnel is the closest thing I have ever had to a younger brother. We spent many happy hours together as kids, playing monopoly or just lying on the floor while I read out loud to him. as we grew and I had the horses he would be there with me and these days we still have that rapport.
The best gift he ever gave me? oh that was the day he brought a young lady to meet my parents. We looked at each other and smiled politely but within half an hour we had, several times, come out with exactly the same words at exactly the same time. They have been married for 45 years now and our brains still work the same way. Don't get me wrong we do disagree about things and have been known to glare at each other occasionally but these minor disagreements have never got in the way of the ability to read each other's minds. We put the world to rights, we ate a wonderful meal and we would have played Halfing Feast if we had remembered to take it with us.
Today is an inset day for Miss Boo's school so she is watching TV and reading her David Walliams book and I will be joining her to sleaze away the afternoon because this morning I made four peg bags for the frost fair at school next month.

So that's Me on Monday. My thanks to Sian over at FromHighInTheSky for inventing this way of keeping me blogging why not go and read about her weekend too?

Me on Monday - new starts

"no biscuits Grandma"

It's been a Brownie Pack Holiday, sorting out kitchen stuff, knitting cowl-hoods, congratulating YS on yet another new job, watching TV and sleeping kind of a weekend

Friday saw Miss Boo dragging her weekend bag off to Brownie Pack Holiday. Was she excited? oh you betcha! Ten years old and she was out through the door and already in holiday mode, without so much as a backward glance. Her mother, on the other hand, was in bits and really didn't know what to do with herself.
Mr M and I spent an hour or so gathering some of the kitchen untensils and cooking pans from FiL's kitchen and going through cupboards for towels and teatowels because one of my granddaughters has just moved into a flat with her partner and baby. There will be more stuff as Mr M and his brother and sister get to grips with it. Everything is still a bit raw.

I knitted. I am taking a table at the frost fair at Miss Boos school to sell knitted and crocheted stuff. It all helps school funds. I am also crocheting and knitting for the Donkey Sanctuary. While doing this I congratulated YS on being offered another job, still driving but for the company he was driving for a year ago when he moved across the bridge to England and changed his job so he wouldn't have to pay the tolls every day. Now he is back home and was paying the tolls to go the other way. A friend told him this job was on offer and as the other new job turned out not to be what it said it was - all complicated stuff to do with how and when he got paid - he said yes and has gone off to work today with a smile. The first real smile I have seen on his face for weeks.

Mr M watched Dr Who on Saturday, YS watched the rugby, I watched something but can't remember it - I was knitting. Mr M came and joined me in the sitting room after he watched Dr Who and immediately fell asleep in the chair. He doesn't sleep very well when lying down because his hip hurts so I popped a pillow behind his head covered him with a quilt and carried on knitting.

Today Miss Boo has just left for five days at an adventure place somewhere in darkest Wales, where, we are told, the highlight of the week is to be Mr R (one of the teachers) dancing. No cameras allowed so we await the verbal report. He mother is as usual missing her already and it's a good job she has a really heavy week in work to take her mind off it a little.

So that's me on Monday. My thanks as always to Sian at FromHighInTheSky for inventing this neat way of keeping me blogging. Was it invented for me? Yes, of course.

Me on Monday - melancholy

waiting for breakfast at Daisy's

trying not to be caught with my mouth wide open as I laugh

It's been a stay at home, knitting for me and computer games for Mr M sort of a time, interspersed with a back of the mind niggle about Youngest Son starting a new job on Sunday night and the funeral looming at us on Tuesday.
I ordered the prints of some of the pictures from our Devon break and they came this morning so I was able to spend half an hour in the craft room doing a couple of the pages. These two pictures made me smile so I thought they would make you smile too.
Youngest Son had been harrassed at work and his life was becoming quite miserable because of the person doing the harrassing being in a position of power. Then he went for an interview with another company - he drives articulated HG vehicles and with the new regulations that make drivers jump through even more hoops to be legal his qualifications are rarer than hen's teeth. He got the job and we took great delight in composing his letter of resignation and managed to fit in such phrases as "Continual harrassment" and "Incessant bullying" and "After consultation". He thinks he will like the new job even if his first shift was a round trip of Cornwall.
My knitting is a baby blanket and it will be winging its way to the Donkey Sanctuary to be sold in their visitor centre. Next I have a cowl with ears to make for a granddaughter or two and some dragon scale slippers too.
I will start them after tomorrow

My thanks to Sian at FromHighInTheSky for inventing this idea it keeps me blogging.