Garden party and update

Sorry I haven't posted for a while been very busy. The garden party went well on Saturday the weather was kind to us and we were outside until 7.30 moving down the garden as the sun disappeared over the roof tops. There was loads of food left and we are still drinking the wine! Great company and lots of banter. Thank you to everyone who came and supported us.

I've finished another felted bag. Here it is before and after felting it shrank in the washing machine by nearly half, starting off very floppy as I used my broom shank needles and 8 strands of pure wool.

My beaded bracelet is growing slowly but I'm on the last run through and am nearing the end, I'll have to decide what kind of clasp to put on it.


I've done nothing to my black and white patchwork portfolio bag this week, sorry nothing to show, maybe tomorrow.

Apart from that I've been packing boxes. My study has been moved into my work room and the small bedroom is being decorated and will be reclaimed as a spare bedroom. That way I won't have to clear my study/workroom every time someone comes to stay. Photos will be coming when I'm a bit more organised.

DD is coming tomorrow so looking forward to seeing her.

Weather

Don't you hate weather forecasts? After postponing the Garden Party yesterday morning at 10am when it was still raining and showing no signs of stopping. By 12 the sun came out but it did rain again at 4pm. Then today we have had glorious sunshine! RATS we could have had it today.

Never mind we had a great mini party 8 people total, a good time was had by all and we will do it all over again next Saturday.

Weather forecast right

Today has been a miserable day up here in the NE, rain and gale force winds. The poor garden is swimming and I've lost some of my outdoor tomato plants which fell over and broke. Fortunately I have plenty more and they hadn't set any fruit yet.

The BBC forecast for tomorrow sounds a little more optimistic but I haven't been able to do the last minute tweaking I had wanted to do for my garden party. Why oh why didn't I have it last weekend?

I'm sorry there have been no photos of what I've been up to recently. I hope this makes up for it. In between preparing for tomorrow I have painted some papers, I'm not quite sure what I'm going to use them for, completed my felted vessel, cut some fabric for a large patchwork portfolio bag, this will be done in the fractured colour technique I learned quite a while ago - more about that later.









I have also been working on my small beaded vessel and a blue/turquoise beaded bracelet

Getting worried

The weather forecast isn't too good for tomorrow it poured it down this afternoon. I just hope it picks up for Saturday as I am hosting a garden party. But the long range forecast says rain in Newcastle right over the weekend Boo hoo.

Well I've done it

I completed the 5k of the Race4Life in 54mins. Less than the one hour I thought it would take. I'm really pleased as I raised more than my £200 target as well.

IT'S tomorrow

Yes I'm really going to do the Race4Life tomorrow. I have my number badge and DH is coming with me as a supporter. Many thanks P. A big thank you also to everyone who has donated, it's great that people want to help. Off to have an early night! Yes it is only 8pm but I've had a busy day, up at 5am I made some scones to freeze for my Garden Party next weekend, did a bit of pottering in the garden. Off on the bus to go swimming and then I walked back home. By the time I had had a bath, sorted out all the papers for the Guild meeting this afternoon, my last as chair - I hope. Water the plants, have dinner which DH made, chicken, pots and salad. Now I just want to sleep. Only problem is I'll probably wake up again at 11 or 12 and not be able to get back to sleep.

4 days until R4L

The time has just slipped by since I first decided to do the Race 4 Life and it's on Sunday. I've been a bit lax with my walking recently as I've been so busy in the garden - well that's my excuse! Anyway I did an hour walk followed by a quick swim this morning and I'm really suffering for it now! Never mind I'll be OK on the day. I'll let you all know how it went. I've also managed to raise £175 so that's really good when I started off aiming for £100.

The garden looked beautiful, then we had the thunderstorms and the flowers took a bit of a bashing and I'm busy going round picking out the weeds that have flourished. It doesn't seem to matter how many I pull out there are still several more round the corner!

I've made progress with my black and white patchwork to make a portfolio bag, I'll take a photo when it's further on in the process. My Blue bracelet looks great and my log vessel is looking at me saying, finish me, finish me! The design is finished for the knitt to felt bag and all I have to do is print it out tomorrow - note put that in my diary! So doing my prioritising was a good idea, it certainly focused my mind on what I should do first.

Two of my friends are in hospital - just found out today - one has had a mini stroke and the other is having a cancer op tomorrow. What a shock my best wishes go out to them both and hope all is well.

Night all

Prioritising

Today I sat down and started to think about all the different projects I'm doing at the moment. I'm going to write them all down and try and work on them all in a more organised manner.
1. C&G tree trunk vessel - to be completed over the Summer holidays
2. research into the embroidery of three countries for C&G - as above
3. beaded vessel - no hurry, but I enjoy making it
4. beaded bracelet - started as a coral piece - for a friend's aquarium project but the colour might be wrong - to be worked on Thursdays
5. patchwork large portfolio bag Friday's project - must sort the cut strips and number the order by next Thursday
6. preparation for helping craft group start their Purple Rain fluffy bag - need to do that for next Thursday!

Do you think I'm doing too much? Variety is the spice of life! LOL. This doesn't leave a lot of time for the garden which has to be set in order before the 18th when I'm hosting a garden party. I'll try and let you all know how all these things are going. Off now to work on mmmmmm the beaded bracelet I think.

garden pictures

I've just taken a whole lot of pictures of my garden, I have rearranged my Webshot album if you would like to see them. Take care there are lots of them on 6 pages. I am just going to show you a few here. Please visit my Webshot page if you would like to see more.
The first picture shows my painted pots There are actually 5 of them but one is still with Sandra and I am in the middle of painting it. Then there is a close up of my first pansy pot. I was so pleased with it.








My shed has now blended into the background, no new wood sticking out like a sore thumb and I have an automatic arm on the window.









Oh yes my tomatoes are going red, each day there are more showing a blush. Now when can I pick them?