Garment finished yippee

Hi fellow bloggers and fans!

I have now finished dress number 2....and now I know I'll never be a seamstress.  Dress has been headache - looks ok now and at least I can wear it and know that it wasn't made in a sweatshop by low paid Indians or children (suspect they'd make a better job than I though). On the first dress fitting I discovered bodice too small so had to unpick seams and undo darts to salvage some fabric to fit round my rather rotund chest. Because of that the bodice seams no longer matched the skirt seams to I had to chop top of skirt off...oh bum de bums. Still, its kept me out of trouble for a couple of days.  Dress needs black pointy shoes and thick black belt. Photo not do dress justice. Paid visit to Thing Two's teacher today and presented her with Thing Two's diary  - I told thing two to keep diary for 2 weeks about her experiences with friends in playground and in general.  Tis damning evidence of daily bullying.  Bullying by Little Miss Ratbag. Little Miss Ratbag exceedling jealous of thing two regardless of Little Miss Ratbag living in enormous house with electric gates, a swimming pool in garden, being driven round in giant car with tinted windows worth more than my house and possessions put together, she also gets to holiday in Florida for 3 weeks every year.  I could go on but why she should be jealous of thing two God only knows. Also had follow up phone call from thing one's school regarding my meeting where I complained about lack of teaching and teachers especially in History and Geography.  Anyway school rang to let me know something will be done so I pointed out that this weeks History lesson had consisted of all class members being hande a word search on Henry VIII - lesson done. How appalling is that!!!

Cannot wait for weekend.  Have an event and a party to go to, so have been sunbathing all week in order to glow...not red but a nice glowing shade of caramel would be nice.
bye for now xx

Good day, bad day

I've knocked up another little dress for thing two.  This ones is a bit more day to day than the French Toile dress.  I might put some rick rack at bodice level..but as she likes dress as it is I don't really need to.

I've also been buying items left right and centre from e-bay, including 3 books.  Two of them are books from my childhood, had to buy an expensive vintage copy of The Tree that Sat down by Beverley Nichols.  I've bought it for Thing two but am reading it myself to remind myself why it was so special to me. I've also picked up a copy of When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit as Thing Two has a fascination with WWII at the moment and a copy of Green Smoke.  I read Green Smoke when I was about 8 and it spawned several years worth of holidays to Constantine Bay in Cornwall and a life time thing about King Arthur.  I insisted on going to Tintagel and used to dream about Sir Lancelot,  the round table and Camelot.  Camelot in my mind being a huge magical castle (think disney but made of bricks and mortar in the Cotswolds oh and of course a huge moat).

All round its a been a better week than last week.  Last Monday Thing One refused point blank to get up and go to school.  Waged War on thing one and managed to get her there in the first break.  Managed to do this by confiscating her phone, she somehow managed to get hold of my phone and hid it.  I was actually meant to be at work at this point!  Anyway, phone situation caused bit of a stale mate but not for long.  Hurled her school bag, shoes and blazer out of front door and told her she was next if she didn't get going of her own accord. She went.  Was so distraught by events that I organised big meeting with her school who have promised to support me, have also got a report from all her teachers which was surprisingly good. Teenagers eh!!!  Also had cause to visit Thing Two's head teacher re the bullying in her classroom.  I mentioned in my last post or maybe the one before that her best friends mother had said that Maddie was not to play with Thing Two....totally baffled by this. Anyway, she then proceeded to remove Maddie from the school completely.  Total havoc from Thing Two.  So many rumours, all of them unpleasant some of them involving thing two, quite a nighmare. Tis settling down now.

This week we are eating only food cooked from scratch.  What this means is that I spend ages in the kitchen and end up binning most of it.  Yesterday we all made together 3 huge home made pizzas with a zillion toppings.  I ate mine, they left theirs....why do I bother?

x

Mixed Bag this Weekend!

I've had a rollercoaster of a weekend and am quite glad its over.  I'll start with the good stuff.  First of all, check out the photo of the dress I made for Thing Two last week.  It's made of French Toile from Laura Ashley and cost about £8 to make.  The second photo is of my Luffa plants with their home made wigwams for support made from the chopped down eucalyptus which is still need of removing from garden.  Lets hope they grow some and give me a big harvest of luffa sponges, general idea of growing them is to replace my synthetic sponges and that of my friends and family with something a bit more natural.  I've also been visiting antiques centres all week and have selected the above vase as although its retro, designed by Anita Harris and is called Izzy the Owl, I've been watching antiques programmes for yonks and decided to collect a few pieces as investments for the future. I picked this one up for half the price it would go for currently if I were to auction straight away.  It wont always sit out of the way in my room, this is just temporary till I find a suitable place.  So, I've been pretty domesticated all week and then I hit the town with the Prawn on Friday night which ended in total disaster, now the Prawn always drinks wine to my vodka and it always goes straight to her head and she quite often is twice as drunk as I, Friday was no exception.  We went to a singles night just out of town, it got to about 11:30pm and I could see she was on her way so I put her in the smoking area (not for smoking - but to get her out of club and sat on bench while we waited for taxi) anyway the owner of the club came and told me she'd had an enquiry about me so off I went for 5 minutes to meet suitor.  Came back and the Prawn was gone - turns out she had slumped forward and slid onto floor face first, unfortunately smashing head on concrete floor.  Oh God!!! That was just start of it all, we had to get her from the loos into a soft seating area then wait for an ambulance.  Once at the hospital she was put into a cubicle with a rehydrating drip and we were left till 5am.  I sat in chair and tried to sleep but couldn't. She snored till 4am then woke and had major concussion.  Was like being with totally crazy person.  We had the same conversation about 30 times, which always began with her saying "Why am I here", I'd explain it all and then 5 minutes later she'd ask me again.  I managed to get back to my house at 6:30 am.  What a nightmare.  She seems to be in a place of denial and is telling everyone that her drink had clearly been spiked.  Yeah righto!! I am so glad she is ok though - they kept her in last ngiht and she has some fractures in face but nothing that wont settle.  Major wake up call. Went to visit twice yesterday with various items and will pop and see her tomorrow night. 

On a much lighter note I did The Race for Life today.  Had a brilliant run.  Really enjoyed it.  Just what I needed. 

xxx

Bank Holiday Monday

Today I woke up and finally feel better. Can't tell you how glad I am. Had a quality day with the Prawn and Thing Two at the Fun Day in Much Hadham.  Blossoms galore and the sun was out, albeit not very strongly due to winds. I picked up some vintage Wade Whimsies for 50p for two on a stall - Bargain. Apart from that the Fun Day was a bit of a flop so headed to very beautiful garden centre where they serve free tea and coffee. See - there is a God! I also had a slice of fruit cake, since I'd woken up with a craving for it. Am giving stomach whatever it requests for a few days and so far thats been limited to Heinz tomato soup, cornish pasties and rice crispies.  Did attempt a roast dinner last night but ate very little of it. Whilst I've not been well Thing Two has been creating pastels and today she displayed them for me to purchase. I chose 4 which came to £2.90. I received a proper receipt, care instructions and a voucher for 15% off my next purchase.  Am very pleased with my buys and have framed them ready to put up already. Last night I had a huge burst of energy and made her a dress.  It's finished all for a button to be sewn on.  Photo to follow.  Am planning to surprise her with a dress in same fabric (French toile from Laura Ashley) for Coco the bear.
xx