Steam Train & Christmas Tree

It has been quite a while since I wrote last and  I have not felt like updating my ravelry project, I have deleted a lot of friends from facebook over the past month and just kept quiet for a while. Been quite miserable to be honest.

Firstly, today is Christmas Eve and I celebrate it with having my Frank home now, we are going to spend a quiet Christmas day together with the pup and tipsy.  My son and his partner are coming over in the morning for a christmas breakfast and they are bringing with them the best present any Mum would want.  My first Grand Daughter, Magic.  She has made my whole outlook brighter and has ended a rather crap year quite wonderfully.  Here is a photo of her, she was born a month ago and was quite stressful for her parents and grand parents but she got better and better and is now the best present I could ever want.  

Her name is Mya and the first time I met her at the Intensive Care Unit one word came into my head, Magic and that is what I call her because she has brought Magic into my life and got rid of all the horrid feelings and emotions.  Here she is....

I cannot wait for my cuddles in the morning, I just hope she is awake because she is always asleep when I get to hold her.

The Steam Train 

This gorgeous train surprised us when we got off the District Line Train at Upminster Station.  The Lancashire Fusilier Steam Train was pulling 12 carriages and most of them were dining.  There were lots of train enthusiasts there and it made our day. The smell, the noise and the pure size of it was awesome. We had a look at what it would cost to go on a ride like this and they start at £300 per person.  No way, just not within my budget.  It was fantastic when it pulled away and all the steam filling the air.

Christmas Tree

This photo was taken on the 23/12/15 by Frank who went shopping in London and can you guess where it is.  Trafalgar Square to be exact and it was fairly early in the morning and not many people about.  

Crafts

I have kept myself busy most evenings working on a Tunisian Crochet Project that will be a Christmas Present, I finally finished it a couple of days ago and cross stitched a tag for it.  I will put a photo on here once the recipient has received it and I can photograph them with it.  

Work Update

I have been working now for 2 months in a distribution centre as a Transport Admin and at the moment, I am not sure how I feel about it but it pays the bills for now.  I just wish I could find a job in a yarn shop so that I can finally, after over 30 years of working, say that I enjoy my job.

Oh well, I am going to work on my Mitred Blanket at last and start knitting some happy squares into it. I will leave you with a photo taken about a week ago of Ross, the proud new Dad taking a selfie with Mya....Have a wonderful Christmas and hope you all get lots of food and happiness.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE

The old Route Master Bus in.....

Dagenham.  My son sent me a photo whilst he was out shopping at Heathway and he could not believe his eyes.  I, as a matter of fact, said they are being used again to remind people of the history and commemorative year of London Transport.  Frank said he does see them all the time in London and even the modern Routemaster Bus which has a jump on and off at the back as well as the sliding doors.  Anyway, here is a photo for any of you who want to know what one looks like.

 The number on the front of the bus is the route the bus takes and there would be a driver and a conductor.  The conductor is the one who takes your money and issues you with a small ticket to say you have paid.  There is a pull chord along the top of the bus on both decks and you would pull that to indicate you wanted to get off at the next stop.  I remember as a child on the few occasions that we got on a bus, we sometimes had to sit upstairs and at the back which was where the smokers sat and it was downright smelly and horrible.  So glad that is not allowed now.

Crafting & Xmas

Xmas is a bad to me at the moment, it is hard to celebrate anything however, I have finished a christmas present of a Spiderman Blanket for baby John.  It fits right across my dinner table and his Great Nan said he will like it.

My boys use to love making tents with their blankets and quilts, especially when it was the school holidays and it must be a boy thing.  I used 2 balls each of red and blue Robin Acrylic and Frank bought me some black yarn with metallic in it out of the pound store.  I think it makes it look like a sparkly web!

I finally finished the shawl I am making for my soon to arrive Grand Daughter,  it has come out quite big after blocking and is lovely and soft.

I used 4x50g balls of Regia Sock yarn in the Garden Effects shade and then used Robin 4ply in cream. I then outlined it with a half treble crochet on the edge.  I am so pleased with it and cannot wait to wrap her up and hold her.

Bits & Bobs

I have started to knit socks again randomly so that at least I have something to give as a Christmas present should the need arise.  I sound like a scrooge but when you think about it, people expect too much from families and friends.  It should not be like that!

Anyway, I am off to get warm cause it is quite cold and miserable today.  Tomorrow is forecast as a wet and miserable day too so I am going to stay indoors and pull my bedroom apart to do a deep clean. Have a good week.

The Gatepost moved again

All I can say is, when your employed you should not be told other duties are expected of you so I survived one day at my new job and came home so angry and upset that I have finally made up my mind about my career.  I will not work in the Care Sector, namely Care Homes ever again.  Today I woke up feeling de-moralised, of no value and uncertain about my future.

The only positive I can think of today is my crafts.  I do a lot of thinking whilst crocheting or knitting in my living room or whilst in bed, I sit for hours with no noise at all and just think. I hear the clock ticking on the wall and the noise of people and traffic walking by and sometimes, it is just nice to get that kind of quiet.   How many of you do that ?

I do not know if any of you that read my blog are aware of an online craft store called etsy.com.  You can sell your hand made crafts on there.  I opened a store quite some time ago and have not actually used it very often but am giving it a go with selling my finished projects that are my own design.  If anyone is interested I have placed two of my blankets that I designed and made and will put a link to it below for you to take a look.

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/249206848/cable-edge-blanket?ref=shop_home_active_1

The first link is to my Cable Edge Blanket which has a knitted lattice border and a wrapped stitch design for the main body of the blanket.

There is also a small pram blanket for sale which is knitted out of a chunky yarn and is bright and cheerful.  A link for that is below if you want to take a look.

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/249098563/chunky-stripe-pram-blanket?ref=related-0

I just do not know why I never thought of using the store to try and sell my finished designs.  A lot of the podcasts that I watch sell their finished items there and I had a light bulb moment a few hours ago to give it a go of linking it to my blog.

Projects On The Go

  I finished crocheting the rectangular shape in Regia Garden Effects Sock Yarn for my soon to arrive Grand Daughter.  It took just over 4 x 50g balls and is crocheted using the Corner to Corner method.  I did start crocheting a white edging to it but I soon unpicked it.  I really did not like it, so I had some cream 4ply and it is looking much better.  I will post a photo of it later for an update once I get enough progress on it.

I am also still working on the Spiderman Blanket for a christmas present and that is going well.  It is a 

slow progress but still enjoyable.  I have started another section of red and will then do another blue and then work on all the black webbing for it.  I have done this blanket before in other colours and it is not hard to do.  

Finished Projects

I have only one completed project to show at the moment, my son Ross asked me to knit him a hat because it is getting rather cold and hates his ears being cold.  So I knitted a Bankhead Hat within two days.  If you look on ravelry.com you will see the hat on there, it is a free pattern and is only knit and purls in the round.

I got Ross to model it for me and as you can see it does cover his ears.  Just wished he had taken the time to have a shave.  Never mind!

Future Happenings

I just do not think too far in front, especially after the kind of year I have had.  So, I am pondering over the thought of knitting some christmas stockings, or christmas bags for filling with goodies.  I am hoping to start one today so that I can have a go at personalising them with a name.  

As for the rest of the day, or week even, I shall be job searching AGAIN!, keeping the house tidy and trying not to comfort eat.  Hope you all have a good week and that it is not too cold where you are.  It is 15 degrees today and I still have not managed to put the central heating on but if it carries on getting colder, I may have to.  

Knitting & Candy addiction

It is hard to choose which is my favourite!  Knitting or sweets.  Some might say knitting at first but it is not an easy question to answer.  At this very moment I am sitting up in bed at 8pm on what has been a really cold day today.  It has been around 12 degrees, cloudy and breezy and I just cannot get warm.  So I decided to come up to bed, wearing my night dress, knitted opal socks, a cuppa, my knitting and laptop to watch some podcasts.

However, I have found a new sweet that I cannot get enough of and they are called Mr Toms.  Here is a photo of them..

It is a bit like peanut brittle but less harsher for your teeth.  It is packed with peanuts galore and set together with a soft brittle.  I was debating about buying up loads of them to keep in the fridge but that would be a terrible mistake!  They cost 45p in my local shop and is well worth it.  The next time I go shopping to Asda I will have a look to see if they have them.

The Weekend

I was with Frank for about four days and came back home Monday which always makes me low when I have to leave him.  I met Frank at the train station Thursday and Friday evening with Tammie and we just spent the time together relaxing, going out for walks etc.  We did go to Oxleas Wood again because it had been a cool, Autumnal few days and had no rain so the woods would not be too muddy.  

Tammie loves it in there, she chases the squirrels which sometimes is just a leaf falling in the distance and we see a few people walking their dogs.  It is such a nice feeling to say good morning to people instead of just ignoring each other.  We sat on a bench that we always do and it is just so calm and relaxing to hear the rustle of the leaves, watch the leaves falling and hearing the birds above our heads.  Here is a photo that I took when I stood up from the bench...

Words are just beyond me as to how I feel when I am inside a wood.  I said to Frank that if I had my crafts, a picnic, a flask of hot drink and Frank and Tammie beside me then it would be a perfect day.  I did not realise there are so many shades of green and brown that you can see and we even had parrots flying over our head and you got to see their bright green feathers.

Projects

What next....I think I will show you the scarf I knitted for Frank.  He bought some Shetland Wool from Hobbycraft in a green colour and a mustard colour and wanted an itchy scarf, so I knitted one.  Here is a photo of it finished after only a few days of work...

Frank said he loves it so thats good enough for me.  He did say he did not want it too long so I made up my own pattern and casted on 300 stitches using a size 3mm circular needle and knitted two rows of green and two rows of mustard.  I ended up doing about 24 rows in total and he likes both sides.  It is long enough to tie up under the chin to keep you warm and is not as itchy as you think.    I only used half a ball of the yellow and green yarn, which is a bonus so I am knitting another one in plain green for Franks brother John. 

When I packed to visit Frank I took some sock yarn to have a go at a design for a shawl and I wanted it to be something unusual and special because I am going to be a Nanna in November. I had two 50g balls of Regia Sock Yarn in the Garden Effects design and thought I would have a go at doing a corner to corner sample with 3mm crochet hook.  Well, as you can see from the photo below, I used both balls of yarn and on average I got 34 rows out of each ball.  Frank has ordered me two more and they should be here soon so that I can carry on with it.  

I am going to make it a rectangular shape and then add a thick white border around it so that Ross and Emma can wrap baby up in nice and snug when she arrives.    

The photo you see below is of Tinkerbell modelling the work so far, she just has to get in on the act!

PODCASTS

I have decided to put a link to a podcast each time I update my blog because there is nothing better than to spread the work of crafters.  My favourite one is bakery bears, you can find them below on the link but they are also on ravelry.com and the hosts are bakerybear and obiwanknitter which is Kay and Dan. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZlKBVX6jbw

Get a cuppa, knitting and watch.  They are so varied with their content and check out their other episodes too. There is baking, visits to our British Castles and much more.

Bits and Bobs

As I mentioned before, I came home yesterday and spent most of the day keeping busy tidying up and then watched quite a few podcasts.  Oh yeah, by the way did anyone watch the final of Great British Bake Off!  Oh my goodness, it was brilliant. They all deserved to win but Nadyia won and it was wonderful what she made.  Here is a link for you to see  on youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyO_LyNXiLg

I do hope it works, it is over an hour long so be prepared with a cuppa and your crafts.

What I was going to say before that distraction is I decided yesterday to do lots of gardening today and I did.  In fact I spent two hours in my front garden sweeping, pruning, weeding and clipping back a large shrub.  I also took a photo of the holly bush that is flowering after about ten years.  It really should not be alive to be honest because I had it growing as a small plant in a tub in the front garden, it just was not growing so I threw away the tub and just lazily left the holly bush to rot away.  

After quite a few years of seeing it grow in the place I threw it, it is now about 6 feet tall with lots of the little white flowers at the end like the photo above.  Frank said it will get berries now so I was rather pleased with it.  

That is all I have for now...not much really considering its been over a week since I wrote on here.  I have started knitting a Bankhead hat for Ross because he asked for a hat.  I will be getting on with the shawl and I must pick up my mitred blanket soon because I have not touched that for a few weeks.

Birthday Girl

I will leave you with a photo of my birthday girl who turned the ripe old age of 12 today.  She looks like she owns the joint the way she is sitting on Franks lap.

Oh my goodness..

Those are the words that come to mind when I have just realised how addicted I am to my crafts and my need to create.  Why do I like to spend every spare moment working on my knit or crochet projects?  Well, it relaxes me for starters and helps me to think better plus if I have to sit and watch something on tv (which is not very often), I have to be doing a craft.  I would fall asleep otherwise and then I would not sleep at night properly.  I also love giving gifts and I will only give gifts to those I know who are going to appreciate and look after what I have made.  It sounds a bit selfish really but I just do not understand anyone who would spend a lot of money on something and not look after it.  I know people who have spent hundreds of pounds on a handbag and then chucked it in the bottom of the wardrobe, that is so wasteful of hard earned money.

Anyway, this week I have worked on the Spiderman Blanket which is growing slowly but am still working on it every day.  I have also finished my Tunisian October Scarf which took about two weeks to make and about a week to put the pattern together.  Here is a photo of the completed scarf..

It is a small scarf for a lady that can just be wrapped under a coat, cardigan or just to be worn inside to keep the chill off and to avoid putting the heating on.  

The main part is crocheted using Tunisian crochet method until you have it the length you want and then the edging is crocheted using a normal crochet hook,

The pattern consists of the stitches you need to know, it has lots of photographs for you to see as you do each stage and a few tips to get you along the way.  If your experienced at both Tunisian and normal crochet I would rate it as easy and is a good project for a beginner to practice.

Here is a link attached below just in case you might like to take a look or purchase the pattern.

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/tunisian-october-scarf

I purchased the yarn for this scarf from an on-line shop called Kemps Wool Shop and it was on a clearance section.  I dont think they are still selling the yarn but when I bought it, it was only £0.59p a ball so a designed scarf for under a £3 is a bargain.

For the weekend I met Frank at home and we went to Romford for some breakfast at the Carvery and then went clothes shopping and some yarn hunting.   We went to Hobbycraft and they had a sale on of this gorgeous Shetland Wool which Frank liked and he said could I make him a scarf with tight knitted stitches.  The yarn was £3.59 a ball instead of nearly £7 so he purchased two green and two of the mustard colour.  We spent the rest of the day at his Mums place and then I came home Sunday morning because of the Rugby match that was kicking off on Sunday afternoon.  The trains would have been horrendous trying to get home with all the crowds of people so I came home Sunday morning.  I could not stay at Franks on Sunday night either because I had an interview at 8am on Monday so to save the rushing around, I came home early.

So I spent the rest of the day tidying up, cleaning and had a nap in the afternoon and then watched a few podcasts because the tv is so boring.  I then started on Franks scarf and here is a photo of the yarn called The Womens Institute Unique Shetland 50g.  It is a 4ply yarn, has got a good yardage of 215meters.

I didnt have the time to make a cake this weekend but came home to a cake that Ross had made and it was delicious. Plus he made some homemade coleslaw which was rather tasty inside a corned beef sandwich for my Sunday dinner.

I am off to potter around whilst waiting for the rain to stop so I can take Tammie out.  Hope you all have a good week.

A busy bee...sort of!

I firmly believe that my crafts are causing me a discomfort in the neck, almost like a headache, achy shoulders and a weak grip.  That does not mean I will giving up the crafts, no way!!

Tipsy has been behaving herself and kept off my rug.  I finally finished it the other day and after deliberation, it sits in front of my baking books.  It has worked out rather well with the sizing, which was just a fluke but it softens the laminate flooring until I can afford to buy a big rug.  Here is a picture

I had to move Tammies feeding bowl so she did not ruin the rug with her food and she seems ok about it.  When I first got Tammie, I wanted to have her feeding in the kitchen but she just would not do it.  When she eats, she likes to turn her head round to me as if to say Thanks Mum, and then carries on eating.  She does that several times.  When I had Peanut, the mad black cat, he was always fed in the kitchen and Tipsy was fed on one of the steps on the stairs because she felt safe.  Our pets have such funny routines......

The next project that I am crocheting is a Spiderman blanket for a christmas present.  I have made a few of these before and once you get past that first bit, the rest of it is easy to do.  When it is the size I want it to be, I will crochet black chain stitch from the centre out to create a kind of web.  

I was working on it a fair bit but my designing head has sprung into action and so I leave the spiderman blanket on my bedside table and work a couple of rows on it every night.  

My next crochet project is a Winter Wreath by Lucy at Attic24, I decided to crochet all the flowers, leaves and weeny balls first before I crocheted the wreath covering.  I have a link below for you to go to Attic24 project.

http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/2015/03/winter-wreath-ta-dah-1.html

It is for an experienced crocheter and I started making the leaves on Monday afternoon and by yesterday (Tuesday) I had it all done except for the Robin and the wreath covering.  Granted my neck is hurting today because of the 6 hours crocheting.    Here are a couple of photos for you to enjoy of my work so far..

The Hellebore Flowers are very addictive and I only followed the pattern once and was able to remember how to do the other two.  I might get a small badge like pin to attach on the back of another one for a brooch...

Bits and Bobs

I am waiting for a start date for a new job which I am excited about (sort of) and I have still been trying to keep busy during the day whilst at home.  I would go absolutely bonkers if I did not have crafts to do.  

I am so glad summer has gone now and welcome Autumn with open arms.  It is getting dark around 7pm now, rather chilly of an evening so I get the blankets out to keep warm.  I refuse to put the heating on until at least nearing end of October.  

Frank and I have not been out anywhere really of a weekend, might do some christmas visits to London once my finances are better.  I just cannot bare the crowds in London, especially Oxford Street.  It is absolutely crazy there.

Anyway, I am going to grab a cuppa, a bag of crisps and potter around a bit.  I have spent a lot of my time watching podcasts and have even re-watched a few too because they brighten the day plus there is absolutely nothing worth watching on tv.  Well, apart from Bake Off which is on tonight...wooohooo!!

Have a good week and thank you to everyone who reads my posts...

The culprit....

Do not be deceived by this innocent cosy and sleepy cat.  Look what she did below...

I am knitting myself a small rug for my front room and is made of expensive Rowan Country Yarn. I had put it down to answer the house phone and before I knew it, Tipsy started scuffing it trying to make a bed and I raised my voice to her telling her off.  She has made a fibre stick up and it wont go back.  

I had to get my quilt that I made and threw it on the sofa for her and she immediately curled up with no apology or anything!  You wait Tipsy.......

After five and a half weeks of not working and worrying about when the next penny is coming into the house I have taken a job of an Activities Co-Ordinator and it is only 30 hours per week.  It is not what I really wanted to go back to, in fact I wanted to come out of care altogether but I am just not getting anywhere with my applications for office work.  It is so hard now to get what you want and a decent wage to go with it plus the annoying thing is everytime you go on the gov website to browse for jobs it is all agencies advertising.  I have lost count of how many agencies I have signed up to and even worse than that, do you think you actually hear anything from the.  NOPE!!

I am hoping I can kick myself up the bum and get on with designing so that I could make up the shortfall of income but at the moment, I dont know when that will happen. In fact, I am just going to stick with what comes along and be thank full.  

Anyway, enough of that and back to my weekend of baking and foraging.  I baked another cake for Frank and on Sunday we went to Danson Park and went looking for some acorns from the really old tree.  Here is a photo to remind you and there is Danson House in the background.  

As you can see there is a fence around the tree to protect its roots and branches.  It is over 200 years old.  There were no acorns around to be seen and its either the squirrels or the local schools that have collected them so I thought it would not hurt if I climbed over the fence and gently went searching for just one acorn.  Here is a photo of me foraging..

I actually found 1, just one acorn and Frank and I are going to plant it to see if it will take.  

Well that is all I have for the moment, not much really and I am sure you dont want to see photos of me cleaning the house to keep busy.   

I have been watching podcasts in the afternoon and I actually shouted at the laptop the other day whilst watching The Bakery Bears Podcast.  A husband and wife knitting team who started a quiz where they have to answer questions about knitting and poor Dan got his question wrong so I froze the picture, took a photo and posted it on my Instagram and tagging Kay and Dan.  Here is the photo....

If you like watching podcasts about knitting, sewing, books and star wars/lego then take a look because it is well worth it.  They also do a section called Favourite Places to Knit and much more.  Here is the link for their podcast  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEdYBhndKE4

Hope you enjoy it!

Not London today but baking...

Here is what I made today and it's called Victoria Sponge,  a traditional receipe by Mary Berry who is a British icon of cooking.  www.bbc.co.uk/food and type in Victoria sandwich and it will show you the receipe as well as the method.  Here is my method exactly as Mary says.....

This is what you need in the bowl all at once

Then mix it all together with an electric mixer until it's all mixed... Don't over mix it.  Here is what it looks like.. 

Just simply put half of mixture into two greased tins and weigh them both to make sure that they are as even as possible.  

Put in oven for about 25 minutes and then voila.... 

Once cooled put your filling onto one which traditionally is a jam but I put some butter cream in and then lightly dust with icing sugar. 

I hope you enjoy making it and hope they you use the BBC website for more receipes.

On the crafting side of things here is my latest finished project and I will talk more about it later.

Convent Garden, The Strand and

Burger King at Charing Cross.

On Thursday we bought a travel card for the trains and buses and we started by getting to Convent Garden in London.  Here is a crazy guy juggling swords whilst having a plaster on his shin.

We didn't stop long because we saw a beautiful display of balloons towering over the seating area,  here is what I mean.

The meaning of the balloons relates to the history of Convent Garden and it's heritage.  If you can read the photo below it explains it and the designer.  

We then had a walk through St James Park and the below photo was taken whilst walking over the foot bridge and you can see the London Eye.

We ended up at Charing Cross Station and was hungry so decided Burger King was our dietary need. 


Oh well,  I'm off to do some more creating and hope you liked the photos

And so it begins ....episode 2

I just want to say thank you to the 175 people that took the time to read my last post. It must have been the title of the post so I hope you all like the next stage, so do I !!!

In between the last blogpost I have had two interviews, one of them I really wanted but did not get short listed and the other one I got the job but after doing one shift, I walked out of there in the pouring rain, cold and so depressed that I cried all the way to the bus and then forced myself to a small quiet cry until I got to my front door.  Luckily it was raining so much that my head was down and when I got indoors I did not want to go out ever again.   That is the honest truth and I refuse to write that everything goes to plan and the days are lovely because thats not real life!

After going to bed and talking to my family I decided that I do not want to work in the care of elderly anymore, its supported me for the past 15 years but that is it.  I then made myself get up and spent the rest of the day crafting and crafting.  I could not concentrate on anything other than my mitred blanket and did 10 squares in just a few days.  I spent a long weekend at Franks with his family and did baking and chatting and going for walks.

I have actually spent hours and hours applying for jobs all normally by e-mail and I have had one reply out of over 20 and that reply was to say they would keep hold of my cv.  I have joined agency after agency and no telephone calls, I have rang up all of those companies that I had a business relationship with via ex-employers but to no avail as of yet.  I have however been shortlisted again for something and I am praying that I am successful so am not going to say anything because I just do not want to jinx it.  

Frank and I had this week booked off work as a holiday so we went out for few hours a day and I came home to job search and general housework chores.  Today we went to Southend on Sea and it was a lovely warm day. We did our usual routine of going on the arcade machines, (spent a whole £2 in 2p coins), we went into the cafe we love and then we crossed the road and had a look in Gabes Yarn Shop.  I got chatting with the lady who owns it and I said to her that my local yarn store had closed down after 40 years and it is so hard to get a job in a yarn store and she said that she employs people part time and rarely has a vacancy because the staff have been here for years and are ex-customers.

Maybe I should go to the bank manager and say can you let me open a yarn store, here is my business plan and expect him/her to say of course Susan!

Here is a photo  of their window display and I fell in love with the blanket a long time ago and will one day get it done.

This is the better photo of the colourful blanket.  I have plenty of yarn to make it and will one day.

The next photo below is a sneaky one that Frank took of me whilst having a look at the yarns,  I go off into a place within my mind that just screams that there is not enough hours in the day.

Anyway, we went into the Valerie Pattiserie a bit later and then headed back on the train so I got out my crochet project whilst it was chugging along on the tracks.

Frank stayed on the train to his destination and I got off and headed home to Tammie and my chores.  I did take Tam out for a walk straight away and then when I got home I felt like I was getting really down so I weeded the front garden path and kept busy for a while until I could get ready for bed.

I watched a few podcasts and I have just seen the latest episode of The Great British Bake Off which I was looking forward to because it was about gluten free products.  I am not in need of Gluten Free, I am just interested in the range that is called free from products.

Whilst that was on I have completed stage 1 of my crochet project, here it is and it is a polystyrene ring from Hobbycraft for £2.50 and some baby blue acrylic that was an absolute nightmare sewing it on.  

This is the front of it and you have to sew it so it gathers at the back and keeps the flow of the design even at the front and not distorted.

This photo next door is showing the back and honestly, you must PIN IT with safety pins all the way round so that you can stitch the gathering evenly.

Its still in the thinking process on how I am going to decorate it so I will hope that you can all come back next time and see its progress.

So without much more to say other than I am so glad the summer has almost gone and the autumn colours are going to be showing soon, I shall say goodnight and leave you with a photo of a traditional Southend on Sea photo.

Have a good week everyone!

And so it begins....

Without getting too personal, I decided that my career was going nowhere.  For the past year I have been like a robot, like many of us. Go to work, come home, go to bed absolutely sick of the day you just had.  I was ok once I was at work because I enjoyed being around my colleagues and we had such a lot of fun at times however, gradually every day I was dragging my feet through the park wanting to turn back. The stress was part of it, the wage was another part of it but if Im true to myself, I was not happy.  So, even though I knew what effect it will have on me financially, I just could not put up with it emotionally, physically or mentally and if anyone knows me well enough, I will only take so much and then move on.  So after 8 years in one place, I walked out.  Im not proud of it but I have to think of myself.   

I have a great family who support my decision and even my work friends and now as the title of this post says, And so it begins....

Job searching is a tedious task and I have already had some promising outcomes. The worst thing about it is waiting by the phone however, I will not do that for very long.  I know, from experience, companies are busy so I give anyone a day and then I ring up reminding them that I am available.

Yesterday (Wednesday) was my first day at home and unemployed and my head was spinning, neck hurting and feeling pretty low.  After a couple of hours job searching, I put away the laptop and did some housework.  I then wanted to finish my latest design so I went outside in the garden and sat there with a cuppa in the sunshine and finished a small cotton blanket for my soon to be grand daughter.  Here is a photo of it completed and I now have the pattern up for sale on ravelry.com and it is called Jodie which is the name of one of my work mates who I absolutely love because she gave me the nickname Suebo! 

Its made with a cotton/acrylic blend and I wanted to make a blanket that was just big enough for a baby basket that was cool and not too heavy on baby.  So after knitting it, I did a small crochet border around it and am pleased with the outcome.  Ross said he likes it so am pleased.  I have just got to think of something else to knit now! 

After spending an hour in the garden I took Tammie out to the park and had a walk around there and then got pretty miserable the rest of the day.  Your mind just works overtime when you dont have much to do, I watched some tv which I hardly ever do now, I got a bath and then I just collapsed on the bed sobbing.  Anxious and feeling rather sick, Frank rang me and seems to know the right timing, and he told me off and said everything will be ok and to watch some tv.  I did in the end, I watched the second episode of British Bake Off and it was about biscuits which was interesting.  I then turned the tv off and went to sleep with Tammie by my side.

Today is Thursday, and I am writing this at about 3pm.  I had a lay in, did a bit of tidying and then went for a walk down to Asda to get some ingredients.  I found a group on facebook called sugarhero.com and its all about sweets.  I found a receipe for some cashew nut, caramel and chocolate turtles so that is what I made an hour ago. Here is the result and omg, they are delicious..

 I am not keen on cashew nuts but these are yummy plus you can use any kind of nut really.  I am going to add a little fruit with it next time.

Whilst the sweets were in the fridge I did some ironing and then came downstairs to write my blog.  Now that I have done that and it is pouring with rain outside and a storm, I am going to watch a podcast and knit on my blanket.

I do hope I can stay strong with all these troubles, I guess only time will tell.

Bit of this and that

Am still at franks so will do a better update when I get home x