FINISHING OFF THE CRAFT SHED - FURNISHING

Once I was back at work following the refurbishing of the shed, I wasn't in too much of a rush to move in but started in the meantime or free time, sorting out the furniture and storage.  I dunno what I was thinking, in my head I had a much larger shed than in reality!  Still, the more space you have, the more you have to fill up!  That's my rationale!  What amazed me the most is how on earth did I manage to actually store all that stuff in the house?  It is no wonder I hadn't managed to do any real crafting in the last 3 years!  It was all in storage in the shed as my bedroom had undergone a huge transformation.   

LOCKDOWN 2020 HAS SOME POSITIVES STAYCATION WEEK 2

I undertook finishing off the internals of the shed in the 2nd week of my annual leave which I chose to split from the 1st week.  I had 1 week annual leave and did the lining/panelling; went to work the following week and then the 3rd week I had the 2nd week of my annual leave. 

I don't think there was any part on my body that did not hurt following a day of working constantly on the shed during both weeks of annual leave.  

During the week I was working [in between my split annual leave], I used my spare time glueing and building my paper storage shelves designed to fit in the Ikea cubes. 

I'd bought some fabric from Ikea some time ago actually for upholstering some free office seats I'd got via gumtree however the gas lifts in them weren't working so I ended up binning them.  Instead, I embellished the Ikea blind with the fabric.  The window in the shed isnt a standard house type window and the blinds were either too small or too big!  Now that I had a new jig saw to my tool collection, I was able to trim the length and breadth of the blind and the actual workings of the roller using said jig saw!

Meet "Lou"

Meet "Lou" our 10mths old GSD. He's goregous isnt he? After much deliberation and almost 1 yr following the loss of our other GSD "Sunny", we adopted him from a couple with very young children back in November 2009 - at which time he was almost 6 months old. They had found that they didnt quite have the time to spend with him so unfortunately we have taken on someone else's mistakes with regard to training Lou! He was originally named Balou [as in Balou the bear!] but he most definitely didnt reply to our calling him that - perhaps we hadnt mastered his previous owners 'pitch' if you get my meaning! He's quite a handful - quite a large dog for even bein 10 months old people don't realise he is still very much a puppy.

Apologies

Apologies to all who follow my blog! Not been on much - lots of things going on, good and bad.

I've kinda lost my mojo of late craft-wise - hopefully that will pick up again as I've joined a Scrappaholix group 1st meeting on 7th June scrapbooking related. I'm also trying to get the camera out again and start taking those all meaning pictures!

So onwards and upwards!!

Oooh heck!!

I've been extremely busy since I passed my driving test plus having little spates of 'lost mojo' etc in the last couple of months. You crafty people will know what I am on about!! Having lost my mojo, has meant I haven't really been spending much time online either - not like me at all. I'm the woman who feels one of her limbs have been chopped off whenever I haven't had my daily internet fix. Hopefully my mojo is starting to creep back a wee bit.

Up until about 4 weeks ago, I'd not really had much opportunity over the last couple of months to put my new driving skills to practice. It had been 4 weeks following the passing of my driving test that I eventually managed to get out and drive the Mondeo of all cars. I must have taken my bravery tablets that morning cos it went from bad to worse on that maiden journey completely finished off with someone who overtook me at the entrance of the car park!! I had stopped to let the school kids cross the entrance as they had the 'right of way' only I hadn't moved fast enough for another female motorist who assumed wrongly that I had indicated to park up on the left which was all wrong as I knew I would have been too close to the car park entrance. It could only happen to me - if I didn't have any bad luck, I'd definitely have no luck at all LOL!! It would be another 4 weeks before I got to drive over a couple of days whilst the car was in the garage getting fixed.

So not too great a start to my driving career and a painful excess of £400 to fork out.

Busy times again

I am trying - honestly I am - in aiming to keep this blog updated LOL!!

I just have so much on the go that time seems to have whittled away from me recently. I am still taking driving lessons - I have come a long way to give them up [and way too expensive!]. I am determined I want to be able to drive by the time I am 40 - something to score off my list!

Took the kids to see the new Hannah Montana movie which was only released a couple of days before hands - gosh that was about 2 weekends ago! Alwynne loves Hannah Montana so needless to say it's never of the telly when she watches it and there are some episodes I have seen so many times they just 'grate' on me now lol! The actual movie was really good I have to say. A couple of tracks I enjoyed most "The Climb" and "Butterfly Fly Away" being 2 of them. I bought the album last night to download them - for some reason the album won't transfer over to my Ipod - the Ipod library tell me the tracks are there but I cannot find them on my actual Ipod. Strange though as I also bought and downloaded U2's new album and Lady GaGa's fine! Another track you should listen to [search on You Tube] "Ready, Set, Don't Go" sung by both Miley and Billy Ray Cyrus - the lyrics are just well, meaningful.

Last week I brought my lesson forward an hour taking it at 8.30 am to 10.30 am. OMG!! I felt shell shocked - no idea why I felt different having the lesson 1 hr earlier! I felt as if I had forgotten everything. I seem have moments like that - just hope they won't occur too often - scary feeling LOL!! Donna my instructor said I did okay. I didn't do anything that Donna had said she had planned to do at the lesson as per what she said the lesson before. I'll be honest, I am kinda panicking about the hazard perception part of the test. There 3 parts of the driving test nowadays. 1st test is the theory - you get asked multiple choice questions related to the highway code with some first aid perhaps thrown in. 2nd part of the test follows the theory. There are 14 film clips of real street scenes with traffic such as cars, pedestrians, cyclists etc. We have to be aware of what is developing on the road ahead - that is problems that could lead to an accident. As soon as we notice a hazard developing, we've got to click the mouse. The sooner you notice the hazard, you get more points. This is the part I am concerned about - will I be able to react quickly enough and not too quick to be clicking needlessly?! You have to pass the theory/hazard tests in order to sit the actual practical test - ie driving the car.

On Saturday I joined Weight Watchers again. Let's just say I am working my way to losing 5% of my current weight as my 1st goal. So this week I have been actually eating MORE food believe it or not and making time to prepare and cook. It's made more difficult that Stewart works night shift cos sometimes I just can't be bothered to prepare and cook a meal if you get my meaning. 1st week of weight loss will be recorded tomorrow! I want to have lost at least 2½ stones by the time I celebrate my 40th!

I am still a parent volunteer at the kids' school doing 3 sessions of paired reading. Helping out in the P1 class on a Wed morning. On and off over the last few weeks I have been helping the P6 classes design an 'aural sculpture' for the exceptional needs kids to go in the courtyard of the school. It is some undertaking and the artist Susheila must have the 'dream job'. I had a go at actual carving on Wednesday afternoon which was pretty cool! That was unfortunately the last session/involvement that the kids have with the sculpture. We'll look forward to it being put in place at some time.

I've managed to get a couple of card making sessions in this week having cleared the living room and other areas of the house the week before. I can tell you the living room never looks tidy whenever I've got the table up. This where I wished I had my own craft studio/shed :o(

I'll pop some images in another post.

I've got another 2 hr driving lesson today at 12 midday - in the hope that I can get some time to swot on my highway code etc. and also in the hope that I won't be quite as shell shocked as I felt last Friday lol!! Once I am back from the lesson, I've got to make another card for my chum Denise's 40th birthday in which we are all meeting up for a meal tomorrow evening which I am looking forward to. Apparently there are quite a few of us going!