I don’t really like Halloween

I’ve just been chatting to a friend and colleague with young children who feels much the same about it, too.  But she responds to the pressure in the same way as I do and she will set off with two excited children to make pre-arranged visits to friends and relatives in her neighbourhood before taking them home again when they are cold, over-tired and cranky. 

At least I can stay home in the warm and dry and simply welcome the scary-cute gang with a few fun things before waving them goodnight and forgetting all about it for another year. 

The Travellers Blanket

I’d seen the online announcement from Dijanne that she was about to begin another Travellers Blanket project.  I’d even dithered about joining in the fun but hadn’t done anything about it.  But then Paulene said that she had signed up, Nita did as well, then Maggie, Mags, Carol, Sue, Lynn and Dorothy.

I couldn’t let them have such fun without me.

The original intention was to use what I have, to create this masterpiece without buying another thing, but that was soon overcome when I found that I didn’t have any pieces of fabric large enough.  As soon as I’d got them, though, the dyes came out of the box and I risked a few purple fingernails in getting the colour I had in mind; a deep, rich purply blue.

The colour of Marion’s coat, in fact!

I waited a couple of hours before rinsing and drying.

Not what I had in mind.  The bump interlining might have slurped up the dye in the bowl but it didn’t hang onto it for long and what had looked like a rich violet rinsed out to a scary pink.

But trying to look on the bright side, I thought that it could be quite interesting to sandwich between the two darker, outer layers, especially since one of them is fairly transparent.

But first, I had to overdye them with navy blue, to knock back that pink.  It was partly successful, though there are still some rather pink areas which might need a little work.

I’ve decided to go with it as it is, having successfully survived two days of dyeing with pink, blue and navy without one single leak in my rubber gloves.  The maroony-purple layer on the left is the thin, gauzey top, the bright pink is the flannel middle and the bluey purple is the soft cotton backing.

I tied the three layers together with my tag gun and am now thinking about the next step.  I’ve not dyed a grid of any kind into the base fabrics, thinking that I don’t really want to be tied to a particular shape – I’m still working on one or two ideas for that.  But I think this is really going to be a travellers blanket in the traditional sense, because the extensive and very detailed travel record I’ve kept on the Passport Stamp website for years seems to have disappeared altogether and I fear is lost.  What better time to begin recreating it in a more tangible and long-lasting format?

Scary times

With Halloween just around the corner and a promised visit from our scary-cute friends, I thought I’d better get my act together and prepare something.  As usual, I don’t have a great deal of time to faff about, so used a couple of Rhonna Farrer’s Spooky Brushes to create a wraparound for some chocolate bars I bought in the supermarket this afternoon.

If you haven’t much time but have a few sheets of orange paper to put through your printer, then drop me an email and I’ll email you the .jpg

Oh and I pinned this to my Pinterest page ages ago and came across it again, so there will be a healthy alternative to the chocolate.  Well, at least, I’ll try.

Unexpected diversion

We went to a fun party in London yesterday and having planned what to wear, I picked out a grey clutch bag to take with me. 

I well remember when I bought this particular bag and it’s quite some years ago.  I bought it for a special occasion, needless to say.

Here I am carrying it on the steps of Buckingham Palace, following my father in law’s investiture in 1986.  Yes, it’s a real oldie, but the soft grey leather and plain design doesn’t date and it was just right for yesterday’s do, I thought.

Especially when I looked inside, because there I found a whole bunch of relics from an earlier age.

The first thing I came across was a credit card statement, also from 1986.

Not only had I shopped at Comet, I filled my car up at two different filling stations, each time for less than £16.

I’d obviously used the bag since 1986, because I found the Order of service and a sweet thank you card from Caroline and Tony’s wedding in 1989 too.

Like all parents of young children, I’d gone prepared, because there in the pocket was a small book, a notebook and pencil.  Yes, I left it in there yesterday afternoon, because Edward was going to the party as well…

But best of all, there in the zip pocket was a small bundle of negative strips wrapped in a photo printer’s folder, with a list of enlargements required.  Oh my goodness!

Out came the film scanner this morning and having remembered how to use it (and found all the requisite negative strip holders, USB cables and suchlike) we’ve scanned the photographs.

Sweet! 

No £50 notes tucked in there but treasure of a different kind, some of it now safely included in my Project Life pockets, but others put back into the bag to be rediscovered in time.  I mean, is there ever an occasion when a Richard Scarry Busy World book doesn’t prove an entertaining diversion?

My day

I came downstairs this morning to a heap of lovely email.

So many friends remembered my birthday, I spent most of the morning emailing my thanks, replying to sweet Facebook greetings, talking to family and friends on the phone and opening presents.  I had cards from some of my oldest friends, women with whom I grew up, went to Brownies and shared so many happy days.  How lovely to hear from them still.

I had a lovely collection of parcels to open including a couple of interesting books.  One is particularly apt.  It’s a beauty and the perfect antidote to those pictures of perfect studios.  I mean, who couldn’t love a book which celebrates images like this one?  I’m looking forward to sitting down and reading through it page by page, rather than just dipping into it as I have done so far.

This one’s an interesting book, too, and definitely one to spend time with.  I’m not sure about some of the animal images, but there are some fascinating concepts in there.

So, I’d opened cards and replied to emails.  I’d read the paper and spent the morning being busy but doing nothing when there was a knock at the door.  A HUGE parcel arrived!

My hero had ordered a rocking chair for me!  Not an old lady rocking chair though, but a super cool Eames rocking chair which we’ve both coveted for a while – but guess who’ll get first dibs on sitting in it?    Love it – and I was given the perfect “dove grey book” to read whilst I try it out, too.

Then, just when I thought all surprises were done for today, a young man arrived in an Interflora van with a gorgeous bouquet of orchids from Tra – a real sense of Asia on a wild and woolly Autumn day.  I’ve put them on the kitchen windowsill in the hope that some of that oriental heat will miraculously radiate from those stunning pink petals. 

What fun it is celebrating being just one day older than I was yesterday!