choices

You know, as each year passes and each new problem occurs, I look back at the past ones and think 'If only I knew what was coming'.
Right now I'm trying to find a way to advise my daughters so that they make the right choices for them and accept that those choices may not be the right choice for me.
A way to balance their view of the world with mine.
A way to explain why I see things differently without making them feel guilty for not seeing it the same way.

And a way not to worry that I'm making it too easy to opt out just because I don't want them to just do what _I_ want.

Pieke Bergman

I fell in love with these vases when i was flicking from site to site a couple of days ago, then went back today to look more closely at her site http://www.piekebergmans.com/ and found so much more lovely stuff.
Each section I looked at had me more excited.
I love ALL of her designs.
So take this as a poke with a sharp stick to make you go and look too.
And if by any chance you can afford to buy any of the lovely lovely things...*flutters eyelashes*...
;D

Rainy day headaches

It doesn't matter how great a nights sleep I've had, if its raining when I wake up I feel tired, listless and thick-headed.
It doesn't happen if at starts raining AFTER I wake up, but surfacing to that tick tick tick of drops splating onto my neighbours flat roof is guaranteed to make me want to dive back under the covers and cocoon myself in the middle of my bed.

What it DOESN'T make me want to do is jump out of bed, throw my clothes on , drive Em to work, plug the BIG lantern in to charge and get up in the loft to investigate the rather noiser TAP, TAP , TAP that can be heard against the ceiling in Ems room.

So I'm procrastinating.
Well, not really.
I AM waiting for the lantern to charge up, because no matter how often i say we need to make sure its charged regularly it doesn't get done.

I'm also wondering if the thought of leaving it till Dave gets home so he can get up there is totally wimping out.
No...I KNOW its wimping out.
I just hate that bloody ladder in to the loft.
I really need to get a proper loft ladder installed, but its pretty low on my list of 'things that need doing to the house so it won't fall down'
And if there is a leak then it will have just slid down the scale of udgent jobs even further.

*girds loins*
*picks up crampons*
*wonders how big the spiders are up there*
*adds a BIG hammer*

Erm....if i don't check in for a while ..........

Go Apple

Well I'm a happy bunny, and quite unexpectedly so.
I've been having problems with my macbookpro's power cord.
It's been gradually seperating at the joint where the magnetic connection meets the cord.
There is a little collar that covers the area, but it didn't seem long enough to hold it securely, and when I looked on the Apple website sure enough there were a fair number of complaints about it, along with the info that it wasn't covered under warranty.

So when i walked into the Apple store in Bluewater , brandishing my burnt out cord [ yes it got that bad ] ...
See :(


... I didn't expect to get away without a dent of £59 in my bank balance.

But joy !
They've re-designed it

If you look carefully you can see that the collar is longer on the new one.

So they changed it under warranty.

*does a happy dance*

more on the quilting front

The quilting is progressing slowly and um, slowly.
Nothing sure about this baby.
I suppose that its only to be expected that I'll make mistakes, but as I'm the kind of person who really doesn't believe that, I get frustrated when I do.

So, here is a pictorial diary of my efforts.


The cutting out of these lining squares of flannel took me about 2 hours.


This is one of the layouts I considered using with a simple chequerboard pattern set in diagonals.


And a similar one but in lines.


Pinned ready for stitching


Change of mind re the pattern, and again pinned before stitching.


First strip completed.


First panel completed.

Not much to look at really, but this has so far taken me more hours than I can remember.
It should have taken far less, but I've ripped it back 3 times.
Once a whole panel had to go [ uneven stitching and the wrong direction for the pattern ]
I could have worked around it, but the more i looked at the mis-match on the seams, the more irritated i got, so it had to get taken apart.
Then I stitched a smaller panel with the stripes reversed.
It didn't show if you didn't know i had planned a patern to the stripes, but I DO know, so again, it had to go.
And finally i stitched the last 4 square to the wrong strip.
At that point i gave up, grabbed some coffee and did some housework.
[ and anyone who knows me realises reading that that I must have been REALLY in need of a break...housework+me=only when I have to ]

Hmmm, that makes me sound like a slob, but I really cant find it in myself to enjoy doing it.
Housework i mean.
Its a chore.
One to me made a simple and short as possible.
Its why I end up getting so annoyed at my family who seem incapable of taking stuff off and putting it in the right place.
Hell, i don't care if the place is messy, but it means that someone has to move whatever it is to the right place.
See...it has to be dealt with TWICE.
Not good.
Put it in the right place first time and it only has to be dealt with ONCE.
Ipso facto, less work, more time to have fun, less stress for me.

Anyway, i'm getting off the track.

So I had the coffee, sorted the laundry etc etc, and returned to the quilting.

And it went right.

Yay, go me!

4/15ths down, 11/15ths to go.
Unless i decide to give it a single colour edging ......