Fourteen Weeks To Go

I really could have done without the announcer on Classic FM mentioning that yesterday afternoon. There are many tasks I would like to complete before I begin thinking about Yuletide. I shall have to sit down and make a proper list. 

• I plan to enjoy and Autumn, the changing colours of the season
• I hope to do my summer/winter wardrobe sort
• I intend to have a short holiday soon [one without trips to A&E]
• I want to make another batch of Shed Aprons
• I need to prepare some good meal plans for colder weather
• I must get regular exercise and be diligent about weight loss

And if I can tick those things off the list, maybe then I will apply my mind to preparations for the Festive Season.  Come on, it's only September and we haven't reached the equinox yet...Mincemeat and wrapping paper and holly wreaths can wait 

The Future's Bright, The Future's Orange

 That slogan is thirty years old. Do you remember it...

I've harvested the last of my lovely orange carrots from the raised bed. They have been delicious. I also took out the remaining chard  and salad leaves and made a big batch green soup to portion and freeze. Warm lunches for cold days... 

The Bone Cancer Research Trust sent me a thank you card, and bright orange tee shirt. I continue to knit at least 30 minutes a day, often more. And there are lots of satsumas and easy peelers in the shops, a favourite snack. And those orange autumn leaves are everywhere...

The Future's Bright 

Weekend Round-Up

What a crazy week...

MONDAY -Bob's birthday. A lovely day, ending with a meal out at Cote Brasserie in Norwich. I love my ear-rings [they were Gill's] but not happy with my straggly hair

TUESDAY - Dentist Visit. New tooth and scale and polish from the hygienist. Smiling a lot! Watched the voting on and off all night.

WEDNESDAY - I was invited to join some of the local Mothers' Union for Communion followed by coffee and cake. More on that later [not mentioning the US election result]

Bob had very positive session at the Medical Centre*

THURSDAY - last minute change of plans, asd I was due to meet a friend in Norwich and she broke her wrist. Went into the city anyway, and had a haircut

FRIDAY- Volunteer Visiting at Hospital. Will miss the next 2 Fridays due to Grandparent duty

* this was his regular blood test etc to monitor his diabetes. Thrilled to report he is doing really well. His better eating habits resulting in ongoing weight loss, have made a significant difference. The Practice Nurse was very pleased with him. Pilates is helping the back issues, although one ankle is taking a bit longer to heal.

I have been doing a lot of knitting, as I know I shall not manage so much in the next couple of weeks. In the first 7 days, I exceeded 900minutes [30 x 30] And my generous sponsors- online and in person, have pledged over £450. I am so grateful for their support.

I hope you have had a good week too

What A Night!

The weekend went incredibly well. So goid to meet up with so many friends. Here's a crowd of flower folding females!

The food was excellent, bedrooms comfortable, staff cheerful and helpful. 

On the first evening we had the usual "housekeeping" information.

• Wear your keycard-lanyard whenever you leave your room
• No fire drills planned, so if you hear the alarm, go to the assembly point in the car park
• There are two other groups, we each have designated meeting/dining areas
• Clear your room by 9am Sunday

All good. I slept really badly Friday night,don't know why. Saturday night went to sleep easily. Woken around 4am by loud noise. I thought it was my alarm clock. Fumbled for light switch. Thumped alarm. Noise continued. Spotted red overhead alarm was flashing. Opened my door to find two friends in the corridor "What's happening?" "Fire alarm, come on!"

I'd put out my Sunday clothes and packed most of my stuff before going to bed. So there I was trotting down the corridor in pj's, best blue suede heels, and my biker jacker. I'd remembered to take the card out of the power slot and tuck it in my lanyard. But I didn't put in my two little partial dentures, or remember my watch, phone or glasses! 

My friend had let her door slam behind her. So was stuck in the corridor without a keycard to get back in. Just in her nightie, no shoes or coat. Someone lent her a cardi. We all trotted outside to the meeting point, following the line of women ahead of us. Sarah kindly took my arm in case I stumbled on the steps [with no glasses it was all a bit blurred in the dark] 

Top marks to Lori from our planning team who had a list of Thrive delegates on her clipboard, and a pen to tick us off. We were all present, if not correctly attired! We stood around for ages. The other conference delegates were in their groups. 

Then somebody said we could go back in, false alarm! But nobody was quite sure who had said it,. The women by the door said the alarm was still going off, and they could smell smoke. Back to our muster station... 

Shame I had no phone, I'd have rung Bob for a chat [at 4.20am? He'd not have enjoyed that!] Shall we sing "My favourite things" to make us feel better? Or a rousing hymn [like "Send the Fire"] Tried not to think about needing the loo.

Finally we were sent back inside at 4.50. It was definitely a fault. No fire or smoke anywhere. I got into my room, visited the loo, put my little kettle on, made a cuppa, and did a sudoku. This will go down in Thrive history as "The Conference With The False Alarm" 

Decluttering By Date And Design

Bless, a blogfriend for many years, is doing a declutter-by-date this month. That is, on 1st of the month you declutter one thing, on the 2nd discard two...until the end of the month, when 465 items should have left the home

.She has given herself permission to stop when she reaches 300 items [that should be 24th Sept] unless she gets carried away, and manages 500 in the month. 

After Liz sorted out the kitchen for me the other week and said I did not need to keep every empty glass jar, so she'd put them in recycling, I decided I needed a concerted plan of action. I would attempt to declutter in categories.

one belt. I have a lovely leather belt for my jeans, using my M&S tokens. But it got mislaid when the jeans were washed. I grabbed this one [roiled up it the drawer behind my pjs. Why?] I wore it for one day, till best belt resurfaced...but it is cheap and old, and disintegrating. It has gone [ok I admit the buckle is in a tin with other fastenings]

two potato peelers. Both brand new [bizarrely they arrived with other online kitchen purchases] They will go to CS, and thus free up kitchen drawer space 

three cracked terracotta flower pots from the back garden. They were stacked up, waiting to be smashed and used for drainage in other pots. But I have plenty of shards in a bucket in the garage already. My Grandad used to refer to daft people as "crackpots" which always made me giggle when I was little. Binned

four brown cardboard boxes. Not flattened into recycling bin, as usual, but torn into small pieces and added to my compost as a layer of "brown waste" [recycled into garden]

five out of date make up items. I don't wear a lot of 'slap' - and I had a load of freebies which were old, half used, and not exactly healthy looking. They have gone. Since the Dundee fall, and my lip developing an interesting paler patch, I do wear lipstick more. But those will get used up quickly. Bin 

six plastic Huel bottles. We both have these protein drinks occasionally. But as I am not making any more Technicolor-Joseph-models at a Holiday Club, I don't need to hold on to all these bottles! recycled

seven magazines, all freebies, which were cluttering the coffee table, recycled

eight glass jars with lids. There are still some in the cupboard, because I will be making marmalade shortly- I'm down to my penultimate jar! recycled

nine split, cheap plastic flowerpots. Horrid thin things which had been in the greenhouse - with equally pathetic tomato plants inside.  No recycling triangles. Gone into regular bin.

ten cardboard egg boxes. Intended originally for seedlings. Unlike Carol Klein on Gardeners' World last week, I do not spend every other moment propagating new plants, I won't need 120 little cardboard 'eggcups' this autumn. Another layer of brown compost 

So that was 10 groups - 55 items gone up to Tuesday evening. 70% purposefully recycled. I have decided to start this again for the next ten days.Thank you again, Bless, for your inspiration!

That Dress!

 

A number of people mentioned my African print dress. Here's the story... When we lived in Leicestershire, I sometimes went to the nearby village of Anstey. They had two two primary schools, and I did quite a bit of supply teaching in one of them in the early 2000s. In the centre of the village was a square - round it were a variety of shops; bakers, butchers,coffee shop, newsagent, PO, hardware store, hairdresser,  building society, chippy and florist. But also a charity shop and a branch of Nat West Bank. It was quicker and easier to drive to Anstey, park for free, and use that branch, than to go into the City Centre for my own bank. And back then, we occasionally had cheques to pay in. And if it was open I'd cheque out the CS. 

One summer day I found the dress on a sale rail. It was less than £5. I liked the cool cotton, and the vibrant print, and the amber 'glass' beads round the neckline. It was originally from Primark. There was a lot of fabric in the dress and I thought that even if I wore it just for the summer, I could recycle the beads and fabric for other makes. That was 2007! And every time I wear it, I receive compliments.

But the best was in 2008. I'd been at a Garden Party on a very hot day - but felt cool and comfortable. On the way home I was passing the big out of town M&S and I stopped to buy fresh milk in the Foodhall. 

As I queued, I realised two Rather Posh ladies behind me were discussing The Dress "it's exactly the sort of thing I want for the wedding. Bright, but cool, and comfortable. I love the print, and it's a flattering style... The beaded neckline is gorgeous" I turned round and smiled. One woman blushed, the other said "Please, where did you buy it? I'm going to a society wedding next month and that dress is so unusual, it would be just perfect..." I  admitted that it was from a CS. [didn't mention Primark, they didn't sound like they'd shop there!]

When I recounted the tale later, one friend said that my response should have been "Look, we are in M&S. Buy me a dress in here, and I'll put it and give you this one" I thought at the time that would have been a brilliant solution. But 16 years later, I'm glad I've kept my dress. It still sparks much joy.

Thanks for the kind words for Bob. He is learning to cope with his crutches. But it is both tiring and frustrating at times. George and Jacob decorated his big black boot with stickers to cheer him up! 

Girl Bands [A DIY Tutorial]

Rose went to a craft fair and tried on a headband. It was an animal print fabric, with a little knot on the top. She looked gorgeous, and she really wanted it. But it cost £14. Mummy Liz suggested she should see what Grandma could do. I searched on line, and found a number of video tutorials and DIY patterns. I bought a pack of simple hairbands, and a pack of 6 polycotton squares. Here is my template, cut from a cereal packet.

The tie is a strip 1½" x 8" cut to a point at each end.

The main band - 16" long, 1½" at each end, and 3" in the middle. You will see the pattern is half length, you need to place it on the folded fabric. Cut two pieces of each shape

Right sides together, sew round the edge of the tie.
Turn out and press. Sew up the gap neatly

On the band, right sides together, sew just along the LONG edges. Turn out, press. Now slide the band through the tube, and tuck in the raw ends at each end. make pleats to gather up spare fabric.Sew across neatly by hand.

Now tie the tie round the centre, pull tight  [Fold in spare fabric on the top of the band - this loose fabric adds to the effect] Hold tie in place with a few stitches on the underside.

I polished off half a dozen in an afternoon. The girls were delighted, and took the spares back for their friends.

If the fabric is fine and floppy, the use iron on lightweight interfacing on just one of the two tie pieces, and on one piece of the band strips[the upper strip] Total cost about £1 per band, and I have lots of fabric, and a loads of bands leftover.

Take It With A Pinch Of [Sea] Salt

 A couple of weeks ago,  I posted about mending my favourite yellow SeaSalt Jacket, by taking one of the pockets to use as fabric for patching. I subsequently had an email from one of the Sues, thanking me for the tip. She'd subsequently been able to fix her favourite linen Seasalt dress by using the pocket.

I'd just ordered some socks [gifts] and a belt in the SeaSalt 80% off sale, and replied to Sue's messaging telling her about this.

I went off to Paris, thinking no more about this, and was expecting to find a parcel on my return. It was not here. But when I checked my emails, there was one from Sue, warning me it was all a scam.

Am I embarrassed to be caught out in this one! I am usually so careful about these things. I have bought goods in their genuine sale in the past - and I just did not check it clearly. It was a fake site and I completely fell for it.I am so grateful to Sue for alerting me to this. I checked my credit card transactions, and there was the right amount - to an unrecognised company.

I rang M&S who provide my card.The woman was so helpful - when I read out the name, she said "oh, yes, we are investigating that one, they've caught a lot of people out" . Because they have my card details, that has been cancelled and I will get a new one in the post shortly. Fortunately there have been no dodgy transactions on the card in the past fortnight, but maybe they wait a while before trying anything.

So please don't get caught out like I did. I'm not the sort of woman who buys off the internet late at night and ends up with a lot of pointless purchases. I thought I was genuinely thriftily stocking up on quality stocking fillers, well ahead of the Christmas rush. I feel really stupid.

If you are scrolling through Facebook, and you see an ad for a company you know and trust - do not make the same mistake as I did, and click on the link to the website.Go directly to the genuine store site from your browser, to see if this is a true sale offer. Seasalt of Falmouth are really upset that this fake website has been conning people. Especially that the ad implies they are selling off stock 'because they are closing stores and going 100% online when in fact they are planning on expanding their High Street Presence.

I hate to admit I have been an idiot - but if this stops even just one other blogfriend being caught out, I'll put up with the red face.  Thank you again, Sue, for alerting me.

An Odd Sort Of A Week

It has been very wet and windy, the back lawn remains sodden and muddy - and yet on Saturday we spent all day on the beach at Wells. Jess was busy filling little cones with sand, and presenting us with 'ice creams'. She claimed they were strawberry, caramel, chocolate or pistachio flavour - then giggled when we 'tasted' them and found they were just sand.

It was one of those magical family days when we all had fun, and shared a picnic, and played games - then returned home for hot drinks and fruit loaf. And the weather was really pleasant -not too hot, nor too cold, and no rain.

The wind was getting stronger by the time we got to Cornerstones in the late afternoon. Patrick, my little Irish Airman on the garage, was whizzing round at top speed. We were not too troubled by Storm Kathleen - the garden chairs were blown about a bit. 

I was glad the summerhouse roof was secure.

The dentist's visit went well yesterday - he is very pleased with the way my lip has healed following the Scottish fall last May - he said I came through that really well all things considered. Furthermore, my gum has healed beautifully following the extraction of That Troublesome Tooth in January. The only question is now is "what do we do about the huge gap?" There are three options. 

1. Live with it, and give up TicTacs [they get stuck in the space]
2. Have a partial denture which will fit over adjacent teeth
3. Have an implant

Pros and cons

1. I am very conscious of the gap and food gets lodged there. No pros.
2. I have two PDs already. Minimal discomfort to have them fitted. They are OK but have to come out at night [toothless crone mode, as Bob calls it] 
3. As near as you can get to a 'real' tooth. Roshan assures me that the pain will be less than the discomfort of the extraction. And will last me 20 years or more. 

Cost implications 1- free, 2 - £450, 3- £2500

I am thinking it over and will tell him my decision next month when I go for my hygienist session. 

Do any of you have an implant tooth? Is it OK? Does it feel 'odd' in your mouth? It seems a huge amount of money to spend on my mouth. On the other hand, the dentist it will improve my chewing. I'd appreciate some tooth-reviews, please!

On Sunday, I was preaching and leading worship at Church, as the Minister was on holiday, Bob was preaching at another church, The service went well, apart from computer playing up., We sang the first two hymns a capella. But I was so busy first thing in the morning, thinking about the service, that I didn't really think properly about my outfit. I opted for a navy dress, navy tights, and navy shoes, with 'pearl' necklace and earrings. [Classic, understated style, I thought]

As I turned off the main road into the village where the chapel is, I suddenly realised I had no jacket, and no pocket - so nowhere to put the battery pack from the radio mic. I ended up threading the cable down the neck of my dress, and tucking the pack inside the waistband of my tights. 

Pastor Nick clearly has a larger head - the headset mic kept slipping, and at one point, I pushed it back into place, it caught on my hair, and my earring pinged off onto the carpet. 

But afterwards, over the coffee and chat, people seemed very appreciative - and I drove home. As I took my key out of the front door, I dropped it on the door mat. And realised I had been to church  wearing ODD SHOES! Nobody said anything, so I hope they didn't notice. [They were both navy, and the same heel height]

Bob thinks I probably should not be let out on my own...

Stepping Out

The Start Rite company of Norwich claims to be the oldest shoemakers' company in Britain - founded in 1792. In 1955, they received the Queen's Royal Warrant, having supplied shoes for Prince Charles and Princess Ann. A second Royal Warrant came in 1989 from Prince Charles - Princes William and Harry had StartRite footwear too. Altho the warrants were withdrawn in 2003 when production moved overseas - although Prince George was wearing SR shoes in the official photograph for Queen Elizabeth's 90th birthday.

As a child I remember the distinctive advertisements showing two children walking hand in hand. I always wanted a pair of my own [too expensive, my Mum said!] But I thought of the ad again this week, when Steph sent me a lovely picture of the boys walking into nursery together

Update: I sent this to StartRite Customer Services and had a lovely, prompt email in reply saying they rarely got such nice messages, and it was much appreciated 

Use It Up, Wear It Out...

... Make It Do, Or Do Without 

It seems that everyone in the family is having a wardrobe sort out. 

Bob has sorted through all his teeshirts. Two from 2004, our Silver Wedding trip to the States, have finally gone to the ragbag, totally "worn out". Others have been designated not good enough to "wear out" [ie out in public] and will become either pj tops, or "Old clothes" for messy jobs.

Steph has had a major sort, recycling old bras for charity, and selling some stuff on Vinted. 

Liz finally admitted her costly Howies cycling base layer [bought pre Rosie, a decade or more ago] has too many holes to be wearable. The merino fabric IS really warm. Could I make it into a neck warmer? 

I took it to bits - it was indeed very holey. I found I could make a piece 50cm square from front and both sleeves. 

I sewed it into a tube [25 x 50] the same size as my buff. I hemmed to edges on my overlocker. I even managed to include the Howies logo! 

We often swap garments with one another before they go to CS, Vinted or the ragbag. And mending and remaking are too important skills. 

Nobody could accuse our family of being wasteful with our clothing! 

More Money Than Sense?

This green outfit was in the window of Jarrolds. Would you pay £118 if one leg of the trousers was a couple of inches shorter than the other? We looked at it very carefully, and that does appear to be the case.

We walked to past a charity shop which has "designer clothes". They were selling a "distressed look" designer garment. A man's cardigan with damage to the ribbing - only £120, new price usually £580-£680.

This all seems utterly crazy to me. Who spends this much money?

I looked at Pigs' Ears in the supermarket, and considered attempting to make some silk purses from them. 

In other news, our MP us stepping back from his role as a Government Minister, in order to take other jobs in order to make ends meet. He is getting very little sympathy from his constituents. 

He earns £118K per annum!

Perhaps he should take some lessons in budgeting from the ordinary Norfolk people he is supposed to be representing. 

Boxing Day

Last weekend a friend gave me a bag and asked if I could replace the broken zip. "It's just a cheap old thing, but it is a useful size. No rush" he said. I said I thought I had a suitable zip in the loft. Well I went up on Monday and after twenty minutes of Tetris with the boxes, I gave up.  In our loft space we have around 50 plastic storage boxes. Around half of them contain fabric, the rest have 'other craft stuff', teaching materials [from school and church children's work] Christmas decorations, and costumes...

Bob helped me lift down the fabric boxes. There were a lot! I spent all Wednesday sorting them out.

In the end I'd got all the fabric categorised neatly.

How did I come to possess so much felt? And a whole box of 'ethnic' fabrics - African wax prints, Indonesian batiks, and sari silks.

Christmas prints and random 'fat quarters'

I have been listing and making labels.

I found my wedding dress [which was shortened in 1989 for Steph to wear at her baptism] That's gone into the dressing up box now,

And I found this one. I made it when Liz was three, and a few years later Steph wore it. I spent hours  doing the smocking.I was so proud of my efforts. I cannot see Jess wearing a dress like this. I'm really not sure what to do with it,

And this was the project bag we made in school [1967?]. A long strip of evenweave fabric, we had to do about twenty different stitches - then fold it up to make a bag, and sew a strap. I think I shall wash and iron this, and fix the strap more firmly, and use it for my current knitting project. 

And I am definitely going to take some of my haberdashery supplies over to the Big C - I think their Craft Emporium is the right place for them, and it is a really good cause.

I'm sure the stuff is multiplying up there in the dark- after all, I got rid of my body weight in fabrics before we left Dorset!

Trading A Duster For A Dior Dream

A friend lent me a DVD over the weekend. I watched it on Monday evening whilst Bob was out at his Parish Council meeting.

Mrs Harris goes to Paris  is based on a Paul Gallico story. Set in the 1950s, it is the story of a  Cor Blimey Cockney Cleaner, who dreams of wearing a Dior gown as glamorous as one owned but one of the ladies for whom she works. Mrs H - played by Lesley Manville - comes into money, and flies off to Paris to buy the dress and live her dream. 
Yes it's predictable - her inability to understand French, and total naivety about how the great fashion house operates, snobbishness and sweetness, sadness and success. And triumph and tragedy. The plot sweeps along, frothy as a ballgown, with moments of sparkle. And ultimately friendship and hope triumph as they should... 

Maybe not "great cinema" but definitely a feelgood movie. I enjoyed it enormously - working on those prom gowns last month really put me in the mood for such a film!

*****

Earnest Hemming Day*

The end of term approaches. This year I'm not involved in School Plays - but I AM helping out two teenagers with their Prom Dresses. As usual the frocks are too long, and even with their new high heels [which they are not used to wearing] the hems are trailing on the floor. So I'm adjusting the length

There are five layers to each gown. Three outer layers of floaty tulle, two inside layers of opaque soft satiny fabric. In my childhood this was call Art Silk. I was so disappointed when I discovered that meant artificial. Nowadays I can't decide which is worse - weaving non biodegradable acrylic, or boiling poor little silkworm cocoons.

There are metres and metres of fabric to be trimmed away - a 10cm strip round the bottom of each layer. 

Fortunately the tulle does not need to be hemmed, just trimmed. The silk frays, and even with a Teflon foot, it's hard to control the machine. So I prefer to hand stitch. Slower, but you get a better finish.

Top Tips:

1. Get the wearer to stand on a stool [or her Dad's work platform!] so that the dress hangs right down and measuring is easier
2. "Pin" the hem of the lining layers level with the bottom of her heel, so it clears the floor and won't get caught by the heel of the shoes. 
3. Use knitting clips or clothes pegs rather than pins which may snag the fabric. 
4. Make sure scissors are sharp
5. Hang the dress from a high hook [or curtain rail] gather up ALL the layers except the innermost, clip them out of the way and sort 1st layer. Then let down layer #2, etc, until you finally get to trimming layer #5. It looks odd, while you're doing it, but it works. 
6. Have plenty of space to drape dress whilst you are pinning hems - I stand at the sofa, and drape the rest of the dress over the sofa. When I'm handstitching, I put the hem on my lap, and the rest of the dress is spread out on the coffee table in front of me to support the weight. 
7. Remind wearer to practise wearing the shoes round the house in the week before, and also to sort out underwear. Stick on bras are very popular. [Anne Summers, 3 pairs of cups for £6 are good value, especially if there are a group of you]

This is going to be a busy Saturday as I complete the task. I'm glad I can contribute to their special evening. As the song says... Momma's little baby loves shortening! 

*I couldn't resist this play on words either 

Tardis Tuesday [On A Wednesday!]

[This post was delayed, because yesterday was Jessie's birthday]

If you follow Kezzie's delightful Blog you will know that she is into "Dr Who Cosplay" - finding outfits to match the various characters in this long running TV series [It celebrates sixty years this year- way before K was even born!] Because I love sewing, and working on costumes, down the years I've tweaked quite a few garments for her, including these...

In 2015, I loved doing the ? on the collar, and the red collar band, for the shirt worn by the 5th Dr, and also Petronella Osgood

And then in 2019 there was the challenge of turning the green collarless dress into the screen accurate dress with collar and short sleeves for Clara.

This year I've had two challenges from Kezzie - to produce the logo on the back of an Ace jacket, and recreate Sarah-Janes 'Andy-Pandy style dungarees. Kezzie sent me a plain black jacket. I made the logo as a patch using fabric and bondaweb, edged with satin stitch on the machine, Then I stitched it in place by hand.

The patch can be easily removed if Kezzie wants just a plain jacket. I am glad she didn't want me to recreate all the badges from the front.

The dungarees were perhaps the most challenging. Kezzie supplied a pair of candy strip dungarees- but they had spaghetti straps, straight legs, and simple pockets. To be screen accurate, they needed wide straps and dungaree clips, ties at the waist, patch pockets outlined in red piping and red piping and stars on the bib, as well as gathered ankles.

I took off the thin straps and put them at the waist, piped 'faux' pockets, made straps from a similar fabric, piped a rectangle on the bib and then used my embroidery machine to create 2 stars which I handstitched in place. And threaded elastic through the ankle hems;

I am really happy with this one - everything I needed for the alterations to these two garments were already in my stash. The only thing I needed was the software for my embroidery machine to create the stars.For £3 in Etsy I got a great pattern which has 2 styles of 5 point stars, a 4 point [Star Trek style] star, and a 3 point star [as per Mercedes logo] - and these all come in 9 sizes. So I hope to get lots of use out of this star pattern.

I am looking forward to seeing pictures of Kezzie in her new outfits.

Top Tip if you are going round the edge of a patch in satin stitch, you may find that the machine does not stitch evenly and you get lumpy sections. Instead of using wide zigzag with shortest stitch length, use a slightly longer stitch length and just go round twice. 

In 1984 when I was pregnant with Steph, I made some red and white striped maternity dungarees just like this, and a mini matching pair for 2 year old Liz. Sadly we have no photos of these outfits!

Girls' Day Out

The greatest outcome of my visit to the Castle Museum in January last year was this amazing, ongoing stitching collaboration with Kirsten. But another thing was that I was given a free ticket for The Museum of Norwich.  But as a Museums Season Ticket Holder, I did not need it for myself. It has remained in the back of my wallet for nearly 18 months. 

This place is a little gem- packed full of stuff about the history of our fine city. So on Thursday, when Bob was on Hospice Chaplaincy duty, I took Rosie into the city centre so we could look round the museum together. She's great company. We had sandwiches in M&S [children's meals are free at the minute] then walked down to the Museum. The building has a fascinating history

Rosie loved all the exhibits- carefully laid out in a way which is accessible for children, with signs saying "look in the drawers" - where you can find other intriguing objects. She loved the Spitfire Cottage Doll's House.

There were baskets of toys in many rooms, appropriate for bored toddlers - and opportunities to dress up. Be a city gent in one of the coffee houses, in a powdered wig and tricorn hat. Or try on a hat from the store of the eccentric but talented Norwich entrepreneur Rumsey Wells.

Let's dress up! cried my companion gleefully, and who was I to demur? She selected a top hat for herself and a pith helmet for me. And grabbed the curly wig to wear under her brown tricorn.

If you look very carefully, you can see there is still some swelling [but not much] on my lower lip, and really close inspection will reveal the temporary repairs to my incisors. But honestly, my mouth has healed up incredibly well in the 2½ weeks since it happened, thank the Lord.

I was able to enjoy my M&S prawn sandwich. Rosie explained that she has to be careful with food too, as she has a number of wobbly teeth at the moment.

It was a lovely afternoon together - we walked back to the Forum and read books in the children's library as we waited for all the family to arrive. 

Jess was very cheerful in the library, finding Hey Duggee books for grandad Bob to read to her. The place was packed with families enjoying the books and other activities. 

I nipped into the American Library . Last time I was in there, I mentioned to the staff member that I wished they stocked "Real Simple" in the magazines section. She took the details - and lo and behold, now they do have it there on the shelf. Brilliant!

What a great day out with a great little girl.