Yesterday's buys and Lights Night

i bought a pair of cushions yesterday at a very reasonable price and when I put the covers away I will have inners for the duck cushions if I ever get around to making them.

The robin in the middle is a hand warmer that Darren and Tina got for me a while ago. I also got a small statue of a hare, the lady in the shop thought it was a kangaroo, can sort of see why.

i have a very exciting advent calendar to start tomorrow, it is full of sewing and crafty bits, a very naughty but nice gift from Tina and Darren.

This morning I went along to the Living Well meeting, chair aerobics today which was really good and more of a workout than I had expected. had lunch with Tina and then I marzipanned the rest of the cakes, the decorations are mostly made so definitely ahead of that game, wish I could say the same for the cards.
This evening it is Lights Night when the Christmas lights are switched on. The main street is closed and most of the shops stay open and there are amusements and so many tombolas! it was also the start of the Christmas tree festival in the church and Tina asked me to take some photos. One of the church as I approached.

There were a lot of trees so I will pick three pics to put on the blog.

I took a walk along the road, had lots of goes on tombolas and enjoyed seeing hundreds of people enjoying the evening.

Darren went straight to his club from work as he wouldn't have been able to get home with the road being closed, but he will be able to get in later.

Trip to Hull

Before I went for the bus this morning I assembled some of the decorations for th Christmas cakes.

The poinsettias and holly berries were pretty fiddly and I made my back ache, but getting well in front with sorting the cakes now. 

It was a miserable morning but I went off to catch the bus into Hull, I am not a keen shopper but had a list of things to do and buy. I got my train tickets for my trip next week and also needed to go to the bank. Had fish and chips before starting on the shopping. Not the best fish and chips I have ever had, in fact probably nearer to being the worst, but I ate them anyway!

I went into Princes Quay and quite a god display there.

Outside a table tennis hall there were these to sand sculptures.

I got most of the things on my list but was very tired so caught the 2.35 pm bus home. I did buy myself a beret and a couple of other bits, here I am dong my best Frank Spenser impression!

I made some cards last night, all using the same arrangement of stamps.

Will try and do a few more this evening.

Bus trip and cakes

Yesterday evening Tina gave me a present she had sent for in the Tradecrqft sale. They are very cute, I have quite a collection of different birds.

This morning I caught the early but up to Freeport as Mags and Abi were going to be on duty and Mags had a lot of ‘fish and chip baby’ vests and hats for me to give to Tina. The bus always has a challenge getting through the estate with the twisty roads and random parking, but today it was so bad that he just couldn’t get the bus through. He sounded his horn and the other people on the bus decided to walk the rest of their journey. I offers to go and knock some doors, it was the car on the right that had caused the problem even though there was one in front of the bus. The driver said the one in front of the bus had been ther all morning and it was the one on th right that had caused the problem. But when I found the right house th lady said the driver wasn’t in so eventually an elderly man came out and moved the one in front of the bus. Made the journey a bit more interesting!

Had a good chat and a laugh with Mags and Abi, collected the vests and decided to walk home, I had taken my trolley. When I got home I went to the shop to get lunch for when Tina got in. Before I went out I had made some bits to go on th cakes, trying to be more organised with them as I am away for a few days next week and need to have the ready by the week after that.

This afternoon I managed to get six of the cakes maripanned and now I need to get more plates to put the rest on and containers to put them in! Going to go into Hull tomorrow so maybe I will find some while I am shopping,

Will try and get some more cards made tonight.

Gardening and blood donating!

This morning I spent quite a time in the garden. We had trays of perennial plants that arrived months ago in minute plugs. I potted them on but they have been left, rained on, flooded and dried out, so needed to do something with them before winter sets in! I decided to make the bed by the front on the house a ‘nursery’ area for the plants that have survived and they can be repositioned in the spring.

I also got some bulbs planted and some pansies put out in other parts of the garden, but the nursery bed is done and fingers firmly crossed.

I said yesterday that I had finished some Christmas cards so took a picture of them.

I did some stamping this afternoon to make some more cards with and then I set off for the Floral Hall where I had a blood doning appointment. Bit of a wait but this time my iron level was fine, in fact the droplet sank almost immediately so was able to give blood. The final tattoo will have to wait! It was dark when I came out and bitterly cold in the wind and I was walking into sleet! It was very dark and not many lights but took pics anyway, the third one is very blurred but I think it is funky. 

Making cake decorations

This morning it was murky and miserable but I decided to walk to Tesco to get something for dinner and some roll out icing to make a start on cake decorations. I am away for a few days next week and I have to get them ready to go for the week after that. Don’t want to be getting stressed at the last minute. Got some food in for lunch for Tina and myself, she is still poorly and has a doctors appointment in the morning.

I got a phone call from the blood donors and have agreed to go along to a session tomorrow afternoon. If my iron count is too low again I will give up on trying to get to fifty dontations and get them to remove me from the register. Always threatened to get another tattoo when I stopped donating, so we will see!

After lunch I got on with making holly leaves and poinsettias for the cakes, hopefully I have done enough.

After a tea break I go on with dinner. Went out a couple of times to take pics of the sky!

May try and finish off some cards this evening so may have a photo to post of them to post tomorrow.

Winter skies and cute animals

This morning Darren and I went to the boot sale and market. Well, more market as it was wet and there were only a handful of cars on th boot sale site. We had our usual sausage sandwich and I got my supply of nuts and we had a wander around but didn’t go mad today. We had dinner at lunch time as Tina is still not well and didn’t take any services today.

The weather had cleared up a bit this afternoon so I decided to walk up to Freeport as the craft outlet had an offer of a free goody bag if you spent ten pound or more. I took some pictures of winter skies as they were just stunning, to my eyes anyway.

There was a van parked there and I was intrigued.

I soon found out what it was all about, and sooooo cute!

There was a machine where you could buy a plastic ball full of food for the animals, they were very tame and liked being petted. There was also a hand gel dispenser. Lots of children were having a great time feeding them. 

I went to the craft outlet then and bought just enough stuff to get the goody bag. Some of the things I won’t use but I am delighted with the panel that will be enough for two cushions, so well worth the effort.

Took one more sky picture before my walk home.

Victorian Christmas market

I was up railroad early and prepared the veggies for a sausage casserole which I set going in the slow cooker before I went out. There was a reuir meant to ‘dress the part’ when helping at the Victorian market so I had to buy some tights at the factory shop as generally I just don’t wear skirts! No one to take a picture f me thankfully! I helped out all day at the tombola with a lady called Jean and we also sold rqffle tickets. It got busy a couple of times, was pretty quiet when I took this picture.

There were two singers who took it in turns to sing, mostly First World War tunes then later some Christmas songs. The young lady looked lovely, the next two pics ar not great!

Those hand look a bit odd along the edg of her dress, it was actually part of the remembrance display! The local primary school children did a little performance and some singing too.

The hall was at it’s busiest then with all the parents lining up to take pictures. I helped clear away after the raffle had been drawn and then walked home.

The casserole was tasty and now it will be a telly evening.

Interesting talk/demonstration

This morning I went along to the Living Well group talk on reflexology.i was a bit early so wandered into the park and took a picture of trees getting ready for winter.

It was sunny then, that had changed by the time I came out of the demonstration. Helen, the reflexologist was very interesting. David, who runs the grou, was the guinea pig and she explained what she was doing as she worked on his feet. I didn’t know anything about the practice really and was amazed at how much they can discover from our feet. Apparently a lot of people sleep better after a treatment so I am thinking of giving it a go.

Had lunch with Tina again when I got home, she is still quite poorly with the cough and has made an appointment to see a doctor now.

I went out in the garden this afternoon, cleared a few more leaves and hoed a couple of beds to tidy them up. Just a few bags of leaves now and not finished yet!

I put some sweet Williams in near where the gladioli live and then prepar d an area to put the lavender plants in for now. The plan is to have a lavender edged walk up to the summer house but that area isn’t ready and I didn’t want to leave the plants in small pots all winter.

I felt like getting out for a bit this evening so went for a walk, I went to the seafront first and the tide was in. A couple of shots of the spray. One out of focus but funky and the other one clearer. Good little camera for these types of shots.

I walked back round the back of the park, it was a bit cold and drizzly but it cleared my head and it was good to have a reasonable walk.

Helping out at the Victorian market tomorrow.

 

No gardening again!

This morning I had an appointment for an informal interview to see about joining the telephone support service run by the Living Well group. It was cold wet and windy today, not very pleasant out at all. The car park along the road could do with some serious attention!

I had my interview and will go along to a phoning session on Monday to see how it operates and decide whether I want to sign up to be a volunteer. It is a great service reaching out to lonely and isolated people the phone calls probably being their only outside contact. I bought my copy of Hello magazine, very unusual for me, but it has pictures of Prince Charles with his grandchildren, they are an absolute delight. I had lunch with Tina and decided on card making rather than gardening but I had to get a bit of tidying up done first. I have made a couple of cards I am pleased with now and have even more clearing away to do as a result.

This one I used and embossing folder for the background and added some colour with chalks, the thank you is die cut.

This one I used a large stamp that I borrowed from Ellie, stamped the sentiment and the butterflies are die cut. Had better get back to some Christmas cards again now!