Challenge number two

This is my version of the second challenge from the Red Ribbons House Crop.

We went to Tenby yesterday as a birthday treat for me and as a bit of a nostalgia thing. We visited the Tudor Merchant's House, a National Trust property, just to see if there were any changes since last time. The nice man in the red robes greeted us by saying "We don't open on Saturdays". Now as this was Saturday morning we found this so funny we didn't hear the rest of the sentence. It seems that normally they don't open on a Saturday but because this was the last day of the Tenby Arts Festival the house was open. I got my NT passport stamped so that was good and I got a page for the challenge as well - For The Win!

Red Ribbons House Crop

This weekend ia the Red Ribbons House, on UK Scrappers, Weekend Crop. This is the first one the house has done just for house memebers and the very first challenge is a doozy! A blind scraplift!
I have never done one before so when I was confronted with instructions and no sketch it totally threw me. I read and re-read the 'structions and put together my page, leaving off the bookpaper and lace as I don't like lace on pages and I don't have bookpaper and couldn't think what to substitute.
Anyhooooo, here's my take on the blind scraplift.

The title was cut on my lovely CraftRobo. I used cream coloured card and then painted it with smooch inks. I took the picture one morning after Mr M had gone to work early and I went out to check my chickens and saw the colour of the sunrise.

There will be more pages as I catch up with today's challenges or as Shimelle told us Cha llahnge!

LSNED Friday 16th September

Falling asleep after dinner is not good when you are supposed to be online cropping!

This one is for the 2011 album. From the crop

Kinda lost the plot a bit. The daily pages are ok but remembering to come here and blog is not easy. Falling asleep after dinner does not help. Mr M and I sat down on the comfy chairs, always a mistake when there are things that need to be done. We both dozed off so that when I woke up at 9pm and popped onto my puter to see what was happening I was horrified to realise that the other members of my UKscrappers team were all busy chatting and doing the page that CoventryAnn had set for us.

This one is for the Anwyn Album

Of course, I set to immediately and did my page and even though I was continually moving between where I scrap and this room where I puter, I really enjoyed my crafting. I love the result of my work and I love how different it is to the others. Fantastic.
I did another page a day or two ago for the Anwyn Album. I have been creating albums for the youngest of the grandchildren and I thought I should begin one for the first great grandchild.
I suppose I should do a small album about me for them so that if I pop my clogs before they are grown up they will have a reminder. I am obviously more like my father than I believed, he would go through phases of being "Not-long-for-this-world" but he usually gave away his possessions. Hmmmmmm, yes I think I'll make small albums for them.

LSNED Tuesday 13th September

Watching a two-year-old learn will always lift your heart.

Yesterday we visited my granddaughter and played with my great granddaughter - I know, great grandmothers are supposed to be old and as you know Miss M has already explained that I am only nearly old, but I am a great grandma and I love it. All I have to do is stay alive long enough for her to remember me.
She is such a cutie-pie and now that she and her mum are living with the in laws I will get to see them more often.
Don't you just love the concentration on her face as she works out how to get her foot into her boot? She got it half way on and stopped. She realised that the ties should be on the outside of her leg so she took it off and put it on the right foot! Now that impressed me but the look of triumph on her face when she stood up in her boots was worth a king's ransom!

LSNED Monday 12 September

Today I relearnt that S*d's law is still working. The new washing machine arrived, yay great! the old washing machine had to be disconnected from the water supply and the drain pipe. The new machine has only a cold water intake. The old machine had hot and cold. Turn off cold valve and disconnect, perfect. Turn off hot valve and disconnect, scrabble to reconnect as the valve hasn't shut so water is squirting out.  I shut off the mains supply. they disconnect the various pipes and the delivery men take away the old machine.
Turning off the mains immediately causes a psychological reflex in me so I need to pee - desperately. Rush to loo chanting under my breath "Don't flush, don't flush, don't flush" because if I flush when the water is turned off the downstairs loo will stick so that when the water comes back on it simply runs straight through the cistern - one of the joys of old property with old stuff.
Son-in-law goes down the road to Wicks to get new valve. They remove old valve replace it with new one and turn the water on, perfect.
They turn their attention to the drain pipe thingy. We had to have an extension because of where the machine has to be. this was created by joining two pieces of pipe to disconnect Mr M simply undid the join leaving half the pipe attached to the outlet under the sink. When he came to join this to the new pipe from the washing machine he discovers that it is a different size! for goodness sake why do the manufacturers do this. We had to go to B&Q and get another pipe to join onto the new one and tomorrow Son-in-law will spend time with his head in a cupboard trying to attach it to the outlet. I just hope that the plumber didn't glue the bl**dy thing when he attached it.
I should have remembered that this sort of thing always happens when we have anything new. Plug and play? don't make me laugh. Every single time we have a new thing it entails at least two visits to B&Q or Wicks or somewhere like that. I am just glad we were doing it when the places were still open and not at ten o clock at night like we usually do.
I might be able to use it tomorrow.

10 on the 10th September

I forgot to do this yesterday because I had to go out and buy a washing machine and this led to SO MANY complications... anyway, here's my ten on the tenth
Biographies and autobiographies that I want to read

1. Wait for me: Memoirs of the youngest Mitford. by Deborah Devonshire
2  A Journey by Tony Blair
3  Storyteller: The Life of Roald Dahl by Donald Sturrock
4  Can't Stand Up For Sitting Down by Jo Brand
5  The elephant to Hollywood by Michael Caine
6  Before I forget by Fiona Phillips
7 It's Not What You Think by Chris Evans
8  Letting Go by Robert Lindsay
9  Waiting for Princess MArgaret: Memories of Andrew Devonshire by the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire
10  And Furthermore by Dame Judi Dench

LSNED Sunday 11th September

When your senses of taste and smell have been gone for over a year it is VERY exciting when you are out for a drive and realise that you can smell manure! Good country air!

Last year at half term Miss M came home from school with a cold. being a generous child she shared it with several of us. It wasn't until she went back to school after the summer break that I really noticed that I could not smell things. I took notice and realised that I had lost my sense of smell and also that my sense of taste was practically nonexistent. I visited the doctore who prescribed steroid spray for my nose. I used it once and decided that squirting noxious chemicals into my brain through my nose was not something I will ever do again. The Doctor said that I might regain full smelling potential, or I might not. So obviously not something that has received much research funding.
I asked why this had happened. He didn't know. It could be the result of the virus or simply that my body had shut down that function - this is medicalese for "It's your age and we don't care why"
He did say that some function might return but it could result in somethings tasting odd. That's not an easy thing to accept when you like to cook. I can't try new recipes unless Mr M is in the house at the critical tasting moment. I always sniff eggs when I crack them - an old habit from when we kept chickens and they used to lay in hedgerows. Sometimes we didn't find the eggs for a while so you crack them, sniff the cracked egg and if you can smell it you throw it away. Fresh eggs hardly smell at all when first cracked. Same with milk. Sniff it and if you can smell it then it is old and as it has been pasturised old smelly milk is not safe to drink. So there I was, cracking eggs and sniffing them only to realise that I couldn't smell them anyway so I had to wait for Mr M to be there before I could bake!
I can taste grapes, pineapple, and coffee but not oranges... how strange. So the senses are coming back slowly. Perhaps I will even be able to taste chocolate before long.

LSNED Saturday 10 September

my puter - as it was three versions ago

Buying a new washing machine is no fun! First we trawled the intarwebby, then we went to Comet. They didn't have a machine I liked - not even the all singing, all dancing, extremely expensive models were what I wanted. I want a top loading machine that isn't one that has a horizontal drum inside masquerading as a top loader! I can't get one. I also wanted one that didn't have electronic controls. I know, I know I am asking for the moon. I want a machine that will do a cool wash a standard wash and a hot wash; that will spin the clothes to get rid of most of the moisture and doesn't cost the earth. I don't want something that has a gazillion combinations of temperature and length of wash because that means circuit boards and that means trouble because they hate me.
I kill computers. I don't mean to but I do. Mr M has had three computers since his original PC back around 1994. I have had six, not counting the three laptops, so I suppose I should say nine really. They die. I use them and they die. They don't get a virus or any other outside influence they just keep over and stop working. Mr M says it is constant use that causes it (and my static-filled fingers). Anything that has a circuit board in it is subject to my lethal powers so the last thing I want is a washing machine that will breakdown because I switched it on.
On the other hand I could get the one with all the whistles and bells and make Mr M do the washing... now there's a thought!

LSNED Friday 9th September

I like this picture of the houses across the road

I learnt today that when new people are moving into the houses across the road, I am just as curious as ever about who they are and why they are moving here. Having said that I should also say that we have lived here for 30 years and I am on first name terms with the immediate neighbours on either side of us, The family that live next door but one on our right and Brenda from the cottages.
There are 47 houses on our road so you can see that Mr M and I tend to keep ourselves to ourselves. I used to have a wonderful neighbour in the house to our left. He and his partner were ...... I was going to say wonderful neighbours but they weren't really. They built a roof over their back garden and called it a carport. The fact that it blocked the sunlight into my garden and doubled the drying time for my washing just made them laugh. So while we mostly got on well and I wouldn't complain too much for fear of losing him as a friend no, he wasn't a good neighbour. I wonder if he would have complained about my chickens?

LSNED Thursday 8th September

Clicking on send is the best way to get an email where it needs to go.

Enough said I feel!

LSNED Wednesday 7th September

growing your hair is SLOW

Spontaneous laughter is the best kind!

Today was the first day back at school for Miss M. She had to be called back and reminded to kiss Mummy goodbye and she had her hair in a bobble because she wants to grow it and that's one of the conditions. She has to have it tied back off her face or it gets cut.
at3.30pm we were in the school yard waiting for her to come out and we both had to smile because the bobble was still there, just. The clips and slides were hanging on but most of her hair was loose and flopping around her face.
A conversation followed about what she had done during the day and how pleased Mummy was that the bobble was still in her hair even though it was only just in her hair.
"You can plait it tomorrow, mummy" she said even though her hair isn't quite long enough to plait yet. "Oh good,"said Mummy, "one plait, I think I can manage that" OH no Mummy, two plaits, it's got to be two". "Oh good" said Mummy, turning to me "two plaits!"
Don't worry Mummy, you'll soon have lots of practise and get very good"
My laughter followed them along the pavement towards their home. I went into my house feeling so much better than I have for days.

LSNED Tuesday 6th September

No sleep at night makes the following day miserable. I made a rice pudding and curled up under the bettermaker blanket and snoozed. Going to bed now.

LSNED Monday 5th September

Being angry is a pointless waste of time and energy, but it still makes me cross. No way I can enlarge on that without going too far into too personal stuff. Suffice to say that I don't like the way I feel right this minute and there is b*gg*r all I can do about it until late tonight.

Sometimes I hate shift work.

Freebies ar Good!

Shimelle pointed us to a blog today where the blogger has made some downloadable (the words we are creating on this here intarwebby are amazing aren't they?) files with lovely things to use in our LSNED album this year - and they are FREE! now isn't that kind? Take a look at this blog
I am just going to read the prompt for today and then see if I can begin to make my album. Yes I am that far behind and I didn't realise until last night when I decided that I might as well start.
This kind of tells me that I am still rather half-hearted abot joining in this year, and I don't know why. My down time has always been February and I don't remember ever being this low in September. I should be eagerly awaiting my birthday but I'm not. I should be bouncing with energy in my favourite time of the year and I'm not. Going to make a cuppa and have a good wallow in misery for a while and THEN I'll make my album and do my first page.

Learn Something New Every Day

It has begun. Every year I say I won't bother this time but I don't opt out of the prompts and I don't delete them when they arrive so it seems I secretly enjoy this particular class very much. Last year I completed the album although I didn't share it with anyone. It became more and more a serious look at how I was feeling and coping with things and I decided that it can stay in the drawer in my bedroom so that when I am gone and my children are sorting through the junk they will find it and it will make them feel guilty help them understand their mum a bit more.
Today the sun is shining, the chickens have been fed and the eggs collected (two chickens, two eggs but it sounds good) Mr M has gone to work on afternoon shift and Miss M is at the neighbours bossing playing with the three children. G*d's in his heaven and all is right with my world.

Let's see what the Karma Pixies will do to fix that!

There would have been a blinkie but I can't find it yet.