I'm Back!

Well, it’s been a while since I’ve blogged and I’ve been up to a fair few things instead of sitting in front of my pc!  Firstly, the tooth that has been giving me so much pain and trouble for the past 14 months is finally gone. I had it removed under a general anaesthetic two weeks ago today.  I was in complete agony afterwards, with a face that looked as if I’d done a few rounds with Mike Tyson.  I couldn’t eat for a few days and my gum looked as if the tooth had been dug out with a teaspoon. Fortunately it’s healing well and I’m now back on ‘proper’ solid food.

Since then, I’ve been down to Essex for an interview and assessment at Anglia Ruskin University, who subsequently offered me a place (which I immediately accepted).  The OD has been up for a few days and the children’s godmother and her family have been staying with us for the past week so we have been out and about as much as the weather has allowed.

But most notably, the Nocturnal Child bought a boy home.  An actual boy.  Twice.  Not a ‘mate’, but the boyfriend.  I have been told of the existence of such creatures but had never actually experienced one connected to the Nocturnal Child.  Even stranger is the fact that he seems to be a perfectly normal, polite, well-mannered lad.  He didn’t have 1,000s of face piercings and has all his fingers and toes, both eyes and hair.  Proper hair, not a blue Mohawk or a greasy ponytail, just ordinary, brown, slightly swept to one side hair.  And he’s clever.  Almost to the point of geekishness (speaking as a geek myself, I see this as an excellent trait – after all, it has served me very well throughout my life).  He had dinner and joined in the conversation freely and as naturally as a lad confronted with parents, siblings, cousins and godparents all in one go can.  To be honest, I’m struggling to think of things I didn’t like about him.  Apart from his silly beardy bit, but I'm sure he’ll grow out of that!

Signing off for a few days

I'm signing off for a few days as I'm going into hospital tomorrow to have a horribly infected tooth removed under general anaesthetic.  They've been trying to treat it for 14 months now without success, partly due to the fact that I am a 'variant' and they can't numb me with conventional methods.  As it's a second molar the dental hospital won't undertake root treatment and there was no point paying to be treated privately as I had already been told that there was little chance of success as I need the kind of anaesthetic only available in the hospital.

I am a dreadful coward so to keep my mind off of the impending op, I have been working hard on the memory quilt and it's looking really good (even if I do say so myself).  I've also just started a quilt for YD's teacher's end of year gift.  It's going to be from the whole class, paid for with the donations made by parents.  If I can find some fabric pens I'm going to get each child to write their name on a piece of fabric and then incorporate them into the quilt somewhere.  I'm sure that there are some children in the class that Mrs P would rather forget, but in this age of inclusion they all have to go on, or none of them at all.

With a bit of luck I should be able to finish the hand stitching on the memory quilt while I'm waiting to go down to theatre tomorrow.  Wish me luck!

Memory Quilt

Hurrah!  I've done all of the blocking for my mother-in-law's memory quilt.  Each picture block is approximately 12" square and the overall size (unfinished) is just over 5' square.  Excluding design and printing time, it's taken me about 8 hours so far and I am very pleased with it.  The photos printed beautifully - the printer fabric was very easy to use.  Of course, the patchwork is the easy part though... the hard work starts tomorrow when I start putting the actual quilt together.  I'm off to Calico Barn first thing to buy some batting as the stuff I've got already isn't wide enough for this quilt.  I'm also taking DH with me in the hope that he'll pay.....

Busy, Busy, Busy!

I've been very busy again today.  I've nearly finished another quilt... I just need to hand-sew the edging and it's done.  But more excitingly, something arrived in the post this morning that I've been desperate to receive... printer fabric. 

"What's that?"  I hear you cry.

Basically it's chemically treated, paper-backed cotton fabric that you can put through a printer to print photos on.  Hard-wearing and washable photographs.  Fantastic stuff. 

I've decided to make my mother-in-law a memory quilt for Christmas.  She has 16 grandchildren and step-grandchildren, so it will be a 16 block lap quilt, each with a photo of a grandchild in the middle.  I need to start it now and try to finish it soon as I don't know where we'll be from September and I doubt I'll have time to make it for Christmas if we move back into our own house at the end of October (or later).

It'll look something like this (but better), but in blues and white with black and white photographs:

I think my mother-in-law will love it!!!

Magpie Monday

I rarely buy brand new clothes and when I do, they're almost always in the sales.  That's not to say that I don't dress, well... my wardrobe comprises mostly White Stuff, Boden, Phase Eight, Laura Ashley and so on.  But I do believe in recycling, reusing and not wasting clothing so I love browsing eBay and charity shops for little gems.  I also make sure that anything we don't wear any more gets recycled.  Anything in pristeen condition goes on eBay, things that are slightly worn go to the charity shops and anything that looks 'old' goes into the fabric recycling bin at the local recycling centre.

The nocturnal child has also discovered the Aladdin's caves that are charity shops.  She has found that her allowance goes a lot further if she thrifts and she gets the vintage look she craves, for a fraction of the price of buying new.  She has also recently discovered vinyl.  I have a fairly substantial collection from the days before CDs and she has been buying up every record she finds in the charity shops in town.  Apparently the Relate shop is the best for vinyl.  Whilst she is in bargain heaven, it has proved rather expensive for me as I have had to invest in a USB record player for her to actually play all of these records!