Sentimentalities part 2

At the weekend my Mum brought over for me something very special indeed. I remember this being with my Gran all of the time since I was really really tiny. She would always wear it. I don't think she ever took it off - she wore it day and night and it was something very special to her.

It's this locket.

The outside still looks exactly as I remembered it from when she would wear it all the time. It's a bit grubby and looking slightly closer at it its actually bent across the middle but I think it's perfect. I really love it and can't believe that I have actually been given it.

Inside, I remember there was always a photo of my Grandad that she would hold so close to her. From what I remember it was always a lovely photo of him standing just outside their patio door at their house in his garden which he was always so immensely proud and fond of.

When I got the locket I have to admit I was ever so slightly disappointed as you could only vaguely make out the outline of my Grandad in the photo. It had acquired so many years and years of muck and dirt which formed a layer over the picture and made it difficult to make it out too well.

I could still tell that it was him and that it was definitely the photo that I remembered as you could still make out the patio door in the background but it seemed such a shame that it looked all scratched and scraped to pieces. Realistically it's almost impossible to even see that it is my Grandad in there if you didn't know that it were.

I know that it can't be helped and I was just pleased to have the locket to be honest. I guess it is lots of years old so I can't expect it to be perfect.

Just as I had put the locket away, my hubby had an idea that it might actually not be the photo that was damaged and that it might just be covered in a layer of the years and years of dirt and grime that it has probably gathered, especially as my Gran wasn't too well for a number of years before she passed away.

He asked if I wouldn't mind and I said that as long as I had the photo above, before he did anything with it, then I was happy for him to give it a gentle go at trying to clean up the picture a little bit. He actually used just a tiny amount of my facewash to clean it on some little cotton buds. It's fairly gentle so we hoped that it wouldn't damage the photo too much. After such a gentle clean, it has turned out pretty well. I couldn't quite believe the difference it had made when I saw it.

There he is! That's my Grandad!

I am so pleased with it. You can see that there is still some dirt around the edges but I would never be too sure with something of this age if that was all that was actually holding the photo in! I daren't clean too much off it for now. Maybe I will have another go some other time if I am feeling brave.

I have thought about cleaning up the outside too. I might give it a gentle clean as we have done with the photo but I don't want to clean it properly with silver polish or anything like that and make it look too good. I love that it looks a bit battered and well loved. It really was!

I'm so pleased now as well that it can be well loved again. I know that I probably will never actually wear it but I like that I have it and can look at it whenever I want to. It's got to be better than it being stuck in a box in someones loft and never being looked at or appreciated.

Do you have any family heirlooms that you have received or that you know will be passed on to you?  I would never wish to have any of these things as I never want to think of any of my friends or relatives not being around but I do love that in this instance I really have something very special to remember my Gran and my Grandad with.

Sentimentalities part 1

Recently I have been becoming a little bit sentimental. I'm not sure what's brought it on really - perhaps I'm just getting older or I am seeing some changes in people that make me really appreciate what I have and how lucky I am, or something, I'm not sure. But anyway there have been a few things that I have wanted or got recently that I have acquired for sentimental reasons.

I think there will be a series of posts about the sentimental bits that I have acquired but here's the first instalment for you today.

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to be able to take a day trip up to Yorkshire - our favourite place. I had an appointment up there mid afternoon but that gave me just enough time to pop into the best pub in the world as it opened for a drink and my lunch.

I got to see the Moors at their best with the heather out which I had never seen before. I couldn't believe how purple it was everywhere. The camera really didn't do it justice at all but it's the best that I have that I can show you.

I started off with the whole pub all to myself. Unfortunately as I made the trip on my own I was on soft drinks.

 I got my lunch - definitely the best butties in the world.

And well and truly stocked up on sweets from the shop next door before I set off back on my travels.

My appointment was in Pickering which is a small town not too far away. I got there in plenty of time and got parked up leaving me still with some time for a wander around the shops. I'm not sure what it is with this part of the world but there seems to be a good second hand book shop in almost every village and town.

I remember when I was a kid my Nan loved Rupert. She used to save me the comic strips out of the news paper every day/week until I would go in the school holidays to stay with her and we could read them together.

I know that she did have at least one of the annuals as well, I am not sure if there were more. In the little shop in Pickering I had a look through at the annuals they had. They had several different Rupert ones so I couldn't resist buying a few.

It's the one in the middle of this picture that I definitely remember Nan having and me reading with her when I was really small. I don't recognise the other two covers so I am not sure if Nan would have had these or not. I'm looking forward to having a read through these. I think it will just be a nice chill out time and it won't matter really how long I have as they are all really short stories with lots of pictures. The joys of comics! I've not really read comics much but I am looking forward to it.

While I was there I also found this series of books - His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman. I remember reading these as a young teenager and I know that the final one was the first (and if I remember correctly, the only) book that has ever made me cry at the end. I remember being in absolute floods trying to hide from my mum and dad and get through the final chapter, struggling to read it through the tears that were streaming down my face.

Again, I am looking forward to re-reading them. I guess I'll see if they still invoke the same emotional response in me at the end as they did when I was younger.

Have you ever read a book that you have been so engrossed in that you actually are brought to tears?
Do you have any memories similar to mine of your grandparents that you will treasure forever?

I want to make the most of my Nan now while she is still around and make some more of these kinds of memories with her as I guess I will have to admit at some point that she will not be around forever.
Treasure every moment that you have with your friends and relatives as you never know what time you may have. We all need to make every day count. Take care and I hope you're having a good week.

It's all over / half way done

Well, last night I finally gave in and we watched the last few episodes of Awkward. It was a good ending and everything finished as it should have done really. There were no silly outrageous plot lines made up just to try to finish everything off. It was all tidied up very nicely but you were left guessing a little bit but also left to believe that the right thing would happen eventually and everyone would be happy.

There will be that gap in our lives now tonight - I'm not totally sure what is really going to fill it as we were so invested in those characters but I'm sure there will some new characters and therefore new people that we feel like we will get to know in whatever we decide to watch next.

So last night was a little bit emotional. I knew that I would be upset anyway just that it was over - I know I'm pathetic like that but there was also the soppy ending (or nearly soppy ending that turned out good anyway) that I wanted. To distract myself just a little bit, I picked up my crochet and at some points had to REALLY concentrate on what I was doing with it (not at all a distraction to stop me crying, honest!)

I have been wanting to catch up with this for a long time now and I wouldn't say that I am fully there but at least I am half way. I managed to catch up with the rows to the end of June and that means to the end of this piece at least. For those of you that haven't ready my blogs from the beginning, or at least for a fair while, the last few years I have been crocheting a row a day with the colour depending on the temperatures for the day. The post that I have linked to later on explains how I have worked out the temperatures but here also is a picture of the page in my BuJo that I record it all.

For 3 months, I use the high temperature of the day, 3 months the low temperature and the remaining 6 months I use an average to determine which colour to crochet my row. Once I have done my row for each day I then colour in the corresponding square in my book too to show that I have done it.

I think the crochet's looking pretty good so far this year. This shows up to the end of June.

The colours really have changed from the beginning of the year with the purples and blues to June being a lot of red (we had a really warm week) and orange.

Let's see how it compares to last year. Here is the same blog post basically but from last year which also explains the scale for the colours too if you're interested.

I guess I didn't finish the ends of the runner off in quite the same way last year - there is more of a white border this year but otherwise they are looking pretty similar. I guess we had slightly more really cold weather this year (less than 0) as there is a bit more purple in this years runner, although having said that last year it maintained the cold for longer periods when it did get down that low.

There seems to be a bit more green in the middle this year so perhaps it was slightly warmer around March/April time this year. The summer is looking pretty similar too really. Again maybe slightly warmer for longer this year as there is a bigger red block I think but only slightly.

I love the way that they turn out and both look very similar but also that little bit different too each time I make them.

Looking at these does remind me that I really need to get a move on with sewing last years crochet strips together into a cushion cover. I think I have managed to sew in all of the ends already which is an achievement in itself so now all I have to do is to sew the two strips together and then fold it into a cushion cover. I will make that my mission over the next few weeks so that I can show you a finished product and before I end up getting the 3 strips in a muddle. I only have photos to distinguish which is which so the muddling is a distinct possibility.

When I've made them up into cushion covers I think I should sew a year into them or something to show when they are from. Or maybe I should use funky buttons for the years. Ooh - I might need ideas for this one. If anyone has any suggestions then please let me know what I can use to differentiate.

Does anyone else do anything to distract themselves while they're watching TV? I know that I much prefer crafts that I can do on the sofa to ones that I have to go and hide away in another room to do, although I guess sometimes they do have their uses.

Awkward!

Following on from the TV shows and movies post from a couple of days ago, I decided to make this spread in my BuJo.

I added pictures from the series and filled the rest of the space with definitions too. As it's about teenage kids and at that, American teenage kids there are lots of abbreviations used to describe things that without this, I would be far too old and uncool to understand!

They didn't quite all fit onto the one double page spread so I added an extra piece of paper to increase the space for the remaining definitions.

And a second onto this for the final few.

I know I shouldn't be enjoying this show as much as I am but it is definitely a guilty pleasure at the minute.

We have now got to the final series of the show so there are only a few episodes left. I think that we are both dreading getting to the end.

I know that I am dreading it anyway, not only because I still want to know what's going to happen. I feel like I am invested in these characters now and I want to know what happens to them in the future. Do you ever get so into a TV show where you almost feel like you are living a life with them and you are a part of their group of friends? I don't want to just leave it with them going off to college and then not know what happens with the rest of their lives.

Also, when you get really invested in a program and you watch it so regularly, do you ever find that it leaves a hole in your life once that show has finished? I know that we end up feeling a little bit lost and not really sure what to do with ourselves for a while until we find something to fill that gap. Does anyone have any suggestions for how to overcome that gap?

Have a good weekend all.

Nothing better than a good movie night

We have a lot of catching up to do - again, I have left this for ages and haven't managed to write. I have a list so we are all good. I will get there eventually!

I'll start with a really really old update - we made these almost a year ago now when we had a clear out and wanted to make a bit of space around the house. We love our DVDs/Blu Rays and have quite a few.

In their boxes and subsequently in DVD racks in the living room then later taking up a whole book shelf in our spare room, it was just getting a bit silly with the amount of space they were taking up.

Our solution was to throw out the boxes and store all of the actual disks in a big disk box.

We do however loan out a lot of our disks and weren't sure how this was going to work without any boxes so we did keep a few and make them into these.

Welcome to Happy Henlow Crafts rental store!

Red boxes can be for DVDs as that is what we have the most of and yellow for Blu Ray.

We also kept a couple of double boxes for those movies that span more than one disk or for loaning out series'.

So this leads to a few questions that I have for you guys out there:
What is your favourite movie? You know the one that you turn to whenever you need a little comfort watching - the one that makes you laugh and cry and altogether somehow make you feel better about yourself. I have to answer with 2 different films for this question. It has to be Pretty Woman and Coyote Ugly. Both make me laugh and cry, sing and always come out of the other side feeling much better.
What was the last movie that you watched? Mine is Harry Potter - we are working through the full series again at the minute. We have watched the first 3 films so far and number 4 will hopefully be over the weekend.
What are you watching at the minute? Are you watching a series on TV or catchup. We're watching and American sitcom called Awkward. It's a bit of a guilty little secret. It shouldn't be good but I will have to admit, we are totally hooked!

Sometimes there is nothing better than curling up on the sofa with a good movie or TV show. Have a good week and enjoy the time that you have to chill out.

New carry bag for BuJo supplies

I saw this advertised on Facebook of all places. It was one of those things that popped up in the news feed of one of the groups that I follow. Normally I would just scroll past this kind of thing thinking that it is someone just trying to sell something that I clearly wouldn't want but on this occasion something made me stop for a second and look a little closer.

The person who was saying about it wasn't a store and therefore it wasn't his/her product that was being sold. They were actually saying that they were someone who had got this and had liked it independently of the store itself.

It was only after seeing a few very similar posts that I thought I would look a little closer as it possibly wasn't even the shop owners mate posting about the product.

When I read the post properly, I saw that magical word that everyone likes to see...

...FREE!!!...

Awesome! That had definitely convinced me to go for it.

When I linked onto the website there were a number of products on there that were very similar to this one and that were all being sold very legitimately. They actually all looked very similar if not identical (I guess the sizing was slightly different but that's all I could fathom was the difference) to the one that was at this point in time, free.

So it could all still have been a big scam. It wasn't totally free, I still had to pay postage and it was coming from the states so it wasn't just a pound or so.

I only had to sit with fingers and toes crossed for a few days before it turned up. A lot quicker than I was expecting and it looked pretty good.

Now for the fun part - filling it!

It didn't take me long to figure out that I was going to use it for my BuJo (bullet journal for those who are new to my blog) and all of my writing supplies.

The book itself - well the one that I am going to use to record my 30 before 30 anyway and some spare paper (you never know when you might need it) went into this big central pocket. I was pleased that there was also space in there to store all of my pretty wash tapes that I use for decorating the edges of my pages too. I know it sounds daft but they are a bit of a weird shape to store so I hadn't quite figured out the best way to store them up until now. This doesn't leave quite as much space as I would like for other things - it would have been nice to be able to keep my daily journal, iPad and kindle in here too but I guess there isn't really any need as they will always be in my handbag and with me anyway.

There was a little space in here for me to add my holiday postcards from my trip away the other weekend too. Lastly in this central section, I added a little ring binder clip to one of the handles and made a shorter piece of the plait that I had used to tie the postcards together. Hopefully I can add a different coloured piece for each trip away that we go on as another little memento of the trip.

The zipper sections down each side I used to keep my pens in - one side for the finalisers that I use in my journal everyday and the other for the brush pens that I got for my birthday and so far have just used for the fancy lettering on the front postcard of my last trip away.

It really has filled up fast but is a really useful little bag. It has made it a lot easier to keep all of my pens and everything together. I was quickly outgrowing my normal pencil case to keep these in. I love that it means everything is in one place and it's so easy to carry as well.

Lastly I have stuffed the smaller, outside pockets with the other little bits of stationary that I might need as well as things that are waiting to go in my journal or to be kept someone safe as memories.

I know that this isn't one of my most exciting of blogs so if you have got this far then thank you and well done!

I hope you are all having a good week and I will see you again soon.

Treats from Heather

This is a really delayed blog writing and post - sorry Heather!

It was actually at my Dad's birthday party back in May that I saw an old family friend who I have not seen for a really long time. She's one of those people though that you can not see for years - it literally has been as the last time I saw her was, I think at my wedding which was almost 6 years ago now - but you can still pick up where you left off as if no time has been spent in between.

She is also amazing with all of the things that she makes. I think this might be where I have got a lot of my crafty-ness from. I spent a lot of time, during school holidays etc around at Heathers house making things when I was a kid. There would always be something new to make each time I saw her and she would always have a new toy!

When I saw her a couple of months ago she came bearing gifts! Exciting considering it wasn't my birthday and yes, I did check, they were definitely intended for me rather than Dad.

My first prezzy was in this little red bag.

I wasn't sure what it was to start with but when you look through it, all becomes clear...

It's a kaleidoscope! And how pretty is it too?! Heather has carved the cream surround herself on her lathe. I haven't looked through one of these for years too - this one has little multi-coloured beads inside and is really really pretty when you look through it.

My other prezzy was this.

I think that this has to be the nicest and prettiest pen that I have ever owned. It's really heavy and feels dead nice and posh to write with it. If I'm honest, I never really thought that I would have a "favourite" or a "good" or "nice" pen. I just never really thought that I was a posh pen kind of person - I know some people love their parkers or whatever but I've just never really been into that kind of thing. I have to say though - this might have changed my mind. It is really special.

Here's a bit of a closer look:

It's so colourful and pretty!

I love the material that Heather has used to make it - again turned on her lathe - and the best thing. It's called Heather!

Thank you very much to a very special friend and I hope, even though I am now that bit older and don't need babysitting during the school holidays, we can have another crafty day at some time again soon. There will be hundreds of new toys that you've got and I would love to have a play with since I last saw you!

Hold on to those special people in your lives folks - if you have some friends that you've not spoken to for a while - now is the perfect time to pick up that phone and to make that call to them just to say hello. If they're a really good friend then you won't even notice that the pair of you haven't spoken for a while.