Christmas is NOT coming.....

YET!

I am sorry but I am just not ready to think about it at the moment, someone pressed the fast forward button on my life and forgot to switch it off!

I have not posted for a while, sorry but my feet have not touched the ground. Am hoping next week will be calmer, until I realise that we have just hit December and then panic will ensue. I have not finished my secret santa gift yet so will have to concentrate on that as they need to go in the post soon!

Must go knitting to do........ back soon!

Home Today!

Today is the day for 'him indoors' to arrive home and I have to say I have missed him! I have been tracking the flights so I know when he arrives but we had to change the plan from airport collection to station collection as he has no mobile phone to let me know where he will be! At least at the station there is somewhere to wait (no matter how long) rather than nowhere to park at the airport. I am taking my knitting with me so at least I will have something to do while I wait. With luck it shouldn't be long anyway. Woohoo, am so pleased to be getting him back again! Will report back again soon!

Want to hear a story?

There once was a man who went to America for his new job (OK so this is about Dave). The condition was that he bring home some lovely wool and I promised not to mind too much! So on Friday he says to the nice chap giving the training, 'hey I don't suppose you know of anywhere that sells wool do you?' The nice chap says 'I know someone who will' and proceeds to phone an even nicer lady who promised to email a list of shops near to the office (and hotel which is just around the corner). She did this along with her thoughts on each shop! Dave then emailed this to me to have a looky at. The nearest and one with the nicest people (according to said lady) was quite close and their web site, although it didn't have stock on just the yarn brands etc, said they were having a trunk show last weekend with giant balls of hand painted yarn (each ball large enough to make a garment or throw) so I quite liked the sound of this and told Dave about it.

On Saturday he set off with the vague address but couldn't find the shop (silly man I would have written it down first) so he begs another nice person in a shopping arcade to look up the address on their laptop - which they generously did! This then makes it easy to find the shop and when he gets there he shows the lady at the counter the bits of yarn I sent with him and she tells him yes they have plenty of sock yarn, he also asks about the trunk show and she explains that the giant balls are all around the shop but feel free to have a good look around (he also notes that there were several ladies knitting in the shop and chatting together). So eventually he chooses a giant ball and the ladies who are knitting stop and chat to him saying that what he has chosen it gorgeous and that I will love it. That done he pays and leaves the shop. What surprised him most was how nice everyone was to him (a man in what he considers a girls shop), I did remind him that most knitters are really nice people and of course they would encourage him to get something nice for me and be supportive if his choice!

Moral of the story, 'knitters are nice - even in foreign lands' and I thank them (even though they will never know) for showing kindness to a strange man and making him feel not so silly for buying me a giant ball of yarn!

I will post pics once I have the ball in my possession but I am quite excited to see what it will be like!

That didn't kill me!

OK so firstly an apology I blogged the wrong date for me starting work (I put the 16th and it was yesterday instead), stupid me but never mind!

I don't know about the rest of you but we woke up here in Cheshire to a thick fog which didn't really lift all day eugh! Despite that I managed to make it to my class who were very happy to see me and gave me coffee and mince pies, yum yum.

After that I hot footed it home and let the dog out, grabbed a cup-a-soup and a roll and got changed for work. I walked down the road for a few minutes and to the office (I really will need to get some boots or shoes with a low heel suitable for work). I only normally wear my 'smart' shoes and boots when I am not walking too far so it doesn't matter but I have discovered that our road (small that it is) is a lot uneven, not too much of a problem on the way to work but on the way home in the dark I am all set for a broken ankle sometime soon!

My first 'day' was fine 2 cups of coffee and a presentation on the products that the company sells plus a bit of heads up on the company 'politics' - not difficult at all really (I can't really call 3 hours a 'day' but it felt more like a long meeting). I checked my phone on the way home (again nearly a broken ankle) to find Lottie had missed the bus due to the biology dissection class overrunning and I needed to collect her from her friends house (thank goodness she could go to her friends house). It was really foggy by this time so the journey was horrid.

After dinner it was then time to prepare the samples for the senior section guides I am showing micro macrame too tonight. Gosh when did my life get so busy? Roll on today!

Where did the weekend go?

It is Monday already and I am officially off to work today! I do have a quick beading class to fit in first but hey ho.

Friday night was hectic - I decided to make the treacle toffee which was fine but I was also trying to make cheese sauce to go on the pasta bake - not too much of a problem you say except I needed bread crumbs from the freezer to sprinkle on top and as Lottie moved the butchers block out of the way to get them out of the freezer the wheel fell off. So now I am making pasta bake and treacle toffee and trying to put the wheel back on my wagon! I removed all hot stuff from the heat and rummaged in the garage for the tools, all ended mostly well but the toffee was a bit harder than I intended it to be.

Saturday was a tidying frenzy as we were having a sleep over to go with the village bonfire and it is a good job I did as I landed up feeding 6 teenagers instead of just 2 plus they all came home again with us afterwards (thankfully only the 1 was actually staying). Then came Sunday morning and the dash to church for remembrance Sunday, Lottie was in the flag parade and her friend sat with me in church (I don't go very often but this service I go to every year). I really like this service as it makes me feel so grateful for what I have.

After a further frenzy of returning said friend to rightful parent we had a nice long walk with the dog and then a bit of a game playing frenzy on the Wii. I have discovered that I can't shake my Maracas in time to the music (on the Samba di Amigo game that is) but I can balance a broom on my hand quite well (Wario smoothmoves).

And here we are at Monday morning! I have a great story to tell you about a huge ball of wool and a certain man in New York but that will have to wait until tomorrow!

2nd Post!

Not quite literally - the box arrived before the letters today! But that is what I am trying to let you know - the box has arrived woohoo! Plus this is my second blog post of the day!

I would love to be able to show you a picture of my goodies but my camera is currently in a woolly hat in New York (I don't have a pouch or bag for it so him indoors improvised)!

I can however say that I chose some lovely sock yarn from the yarn yard, a crochet beaded necklace kit (lets not mention beads again today) and some helpful little flick booklets about western and combination knitting. Thank you to all of you who contributed these goodies.

I will be off to the post office on my way to collect Lottie (it is after school art tonight) and we are then off to the library - I need something to keep me company until Dave gets home!

I know I am not mentioning small round things again but just in case Claire is panicking that she will have a huge van of beads arriving - fear not I have not added any to the box this time - I may bead bomb you all instead.

Ha Ha Beads are small!

"Beads are small" says Allison, yes they are unless you are buying them in 250g or 500g bags! plus little plastic boxes to package them all in! At one point I was teaching 3 -4 classes a week and I had a huge stock of beads so that I could do this as there was not very much locally available but I still have quite a large stock left and I only teach classes occasionally but when I do I have to haul out the boxes and baskets that hide in the office cupboard and it usually leaves a huge mess behind! Plus the dining room is filled with my own selection of beads and samples and works in progress and my fairly small but growing stash of yarn!

Any suggestions on how to deal with all of this? I wish I could vacuum pack the beads but I don't think it would work somehow. On reflection I think I should just set up a web site and sell them that way - I am just not sure I have the skill to do this yet.

Actually I could just put them in a box and send them out as a secret Santa - anyone fancy that?

Not so grumpy today!

It is true, I am not so grumpy today - sorry about yesterday it was a bit nerve wracking as I knew there was no way for Dave to contact me until he arrived at his new office today (he will not get a new mobile phone with this lot and the last one went with the job), we didn't have time to sort out one before he went away and usually he would at least use it to email me. Good news he has arrived and has a dinky new net book that he can at least email from when he is the office. I hope I will sleep a bit better tonight.

The holiday was great, the weather was warm and the sea was splashy - we managed a good walk every day and even had a trip to Holt (I got a new Joules gillet in my favourite bright pink). I have just got to get to grips with the office now - rather too many beads for his liking I think. Anybody need any beads????? Or a futon maybe?

It wasn't supposed to be like this!

Hi all - I missed you!

You might be wondering about my title today - well the story so far is this.....

After announcing my new job, him indoors was a little bit miffed that I might have beaten him to the post so while we were away he finished negotiating the contract for his new job and has flown off to the USA this afternoon (he is in the air as I type) so that he can have 2 weeks training and then come home and get on with it! As a result of this hasty work we arrived home from our 'week' away on Saturday and I then had to start organising his 'stuff' for the next 2 weeks away. Plus I now have to tidy out his office all by myself (not part of the plan) and attend bonfire night and Remembrance Sunday all by myself (Lottie will be part of the last 2 things though) as will a group of her friends - I will be allowed to tag along with them as I am apparently a 'cool' parent!

I should be grateful for our change in fortunes but another week to get myself organised and come to terms with it all would have been appreciated - that is not how it works though is it! Plus I don't know about everyone else but it seems that it has got a lot more dark and dingy all of a sudden - I walked the dog in the dark today (how did that happen it wasn't this dark so early in the day last week).
OK so there you have all of my grumbles for the day, am going to bed now (I know it is only 10pm but I didn't sleep very well last night - too much on my mind). I guess that might account for some of my grumpiness - sorry you got the brunt of it, will try and be much better tomorrow.