Tag Archives: Fun

A Meme

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I found this finished list lurking in my ‘items to post’ folder. It must have been there at least a couple of weeks. There are several other items… begun, half finished or with just a title back there. So here we go…

My variation of Chuck’s Meme

Every answer must start with the first letter of your name. 

Name – Marie
Colour – Mustard
Career – Magistrate
Hobby – Macramé
Animal – Moose
Boys Name – Michael
Girls Name – Maxine
Drink – Margarita
Food – Monkfish
Fruit – Melon
Place – Madrid
Movie – Mission Impossible
Something you wear – Muffler
Something found in bathroom – Make-up
Reason to be late – Murdered

😆 I have not been murdered. I need to reinstate my blogging routine. I have missed the daily interaction with regular readers. Intentions are good but time is a killer right now.

Sewing alterations & repairs are my priority for today.

Over the weekend I ‘hope’ to find some time to complete a few unfinished posts for during the coming week.

An alphabet of my likes

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  • Apples, apricots, artists & abandoned buildings.
  • Babbling brooks, bacon, beads, bubbles, blogging & Buffy.
  • Chocolate, coffee, cake, crochet, cross stitch & cooking.
  • Denmark, dates, denim jeans & drawn thread work.
  • Elegance, exploration, exhibitions & Elly.
  • Freshly squeezed juice, friends, fabric & fun.
  • Grapes, green, gates, good people & gin.
  • Hellos, hugs, honey, hummus & humour.
  • Icicles, Ikea, illusions, Indian saris & Ireland.
  • Jade, jumpers, jackets & jelly.
  • Knots, knitting, kindness, keys & kites.
  • Laughter, listening, love stories & lemon meringue pie.
  • Memories, motherhood, my family, moo cards & music.
  • New places, neat clothes, needles & now.
  • Old people for their wisdom & stories, oranges & olives.
  • People, photography, playing on words, & patchwork.
  • Quotes, quietude and a quiz.
  • Raspberry red, reflections, rock-scrambling & rambling.
  • Sculpture, sorbet, shadows, sketches, smiles, surprises & sunsets.
  • Talented people, texture, touch, travel & truth.
  • Ulster Museum, uncles, unity & ?
  • Virginia creeper, volunteering, velvet, vegetables & viennetta.
  • Wise words, wine, wool & wood grain.
  • Xylophones. As you can see there are not many X’s in my life.
  • Yarn, yarning, yellow, & yellow man,*
  • Zithers, zippers, ziplock bags & zip lines.

*Yellow man is a locally made honeycomb.

Planning & dreaming

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The last few days I have been “grass-hoppering” – I ricochet from job to job, starting everything, finishing nothing. You can blame excitement.

I am planning a few days in London. At the moment my destination is a secret. I’ll be meeting a fella. A kinda date. I never met him before… only on the internet. I think he is real and not like Mr Moss!

This here mystery man even organised my accommodation before telling me.

Do not worry. I’ll have a chaperone. Not like in the old days… an elderly aunt or fussing mother in a little bonnet, high necked blouse with mutton leg sleeves over her whale bone stays and skirts that polish the floor never mind her button boots. All finished off with a tiny lacy hanky to wipe away her tears or hide her blushes!

No. my chaperone will be young at heart, young in body and with a sense of humour just like mine. He chose well. All will be grand.

I know I still have a few weeks to wait, but I am already planning my packing… only one small cabin bag with wheels. No trunks with mountains of outfits that will never see the light of day.

It will be a case of one to wear, one to wash and one for spare with the undies.* I am praying the weather will be kind and not saturatingly soggy.

Outer layers will all be mix & match – the best idea the fashion industry ever came up with.

No skirts. It will be trousers all the way, I have no intention of advertising my pallid flesh, knock-knees, corns, bunions and more blue veins that a Stilton cheese!

And when the clothing is sorted I’ll need to deal with technology:

My cell phone

.

My phone

My Tablets

My Tablets

Tablets, yes more than one.

Then there in my latest acquisition…

I have joined the world of the pad. NO. Not TENA Lady, stop smirking toyboy techies, I mean something totally different and it works. Bigtime.

My Eye Pad.

My eye pad

My eye pad

Thirty seconds in the microwave and my eyes sparkle!

*  The mention of travel and undies made me giggle. A sudden memory of disposable pants that were all the go when I was a young twenty year old. You wore one for a day and then dumped them, Great for holiday packing but oh so uncomfortable. They were made of the same paper type fabric as the disposable hospital gowns that are in use today.

Can you see me?

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When did I shrink? When did I shrink

I found these Toyboys last Friday at Garden Show Ireland in the grounds of Antrim Castle, on a bright sun filled day. When I came home my cheeks were glowing.

Glowing from the sunshine… what else were you thinking? At my age even thinking about ‘it’ would wear me out!

I did have some fun with this guy I found in the Flower arranging tent.

My outdoor man

My outdoor man

An answer for Celi

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Celi at The Kitchens Garden, has issued a challenge to her huge following who read, comment or become part of the Farmy Fellowship: The deal is to post an image of where we write their posts, our comments and responses.

In my case it varies like Irish weather, I no longer have a fixed desk. In winter it is normally in my living room where I can see and warm my tootsies by the open fire.

At the other end of the L shaped room is my dining table and if I need to use my printer, that is where I work.

In the preparation for hip replacement back in 2009, I purchased a bed table on castors. It has become the most used piece of furniture in my house. I can move it from room to room as I wish, the castors on the base frame slide in under my bed and allows me to type away to my hearts content without the weight on my legs.

When cooking or baking, I can access my recipe folder on the laptop by wheeling the laptop through to join me. It sits neatly under the counter top until I need to check something.

My corner for several weeks now has been in a comfortable armchair near the window for the light and surrounded by my latest crochet project – More on that another day.

 Life has been busy

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In Never neglect a Fall, I wrote about my friend breaking the neck of her right femur on 20th January. Since she lives alone, I have been shopping, doing little tasks and spending time with her to break up the long days indoors.

It means my own routine has had to change about a little for the moment. I have been busy in the background.

I played with…

  • Emulsion brushes and a roller.
  • Washing wall tiles.
  • Reinstated a piece of needle art.
  • My sewing machine and some fabric.
  • Began a project in crochet.
  • Did some hand sewing repairs.
  • Made some bows.
  • Baked Guinness wheaten bread. Yummy.
  • Guinness Pizza bases. Double Yummy.
  • Made a batch of pancakes/crêpes for the freezer.
  • Bought more paint.
  • Bought more heat logs for my fire. The evenings still get cold and with the fire lighting, I am more inclined to sit and knit or crochet. I have a feeling in my gut that with Easter being early, it might be a cold one.
  • Planned the menus for meals when Elly brings some of her friends to visit next month. It will mean, I can sit and talk to my visitors and not spend the time in the kitchen while they are here.
  • Planned for future social events.
  • Bought an evening dress.
  • Sorted items to go to a charity shop.
  • Cleared two cupboards

 

The list is more to prove to myself that I have actually been productive and that life is just not slipping by.

Now where do I start next?

Thoughtful friends

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I have some very thoughtful friends.

Clair is one of them.

Even when she goes shopping she has my best interest at heart. She saw a bargain that was right up my street and she let me know.

Not alone the perfect bargain, but at two for the price of one…

AND

With 33% off the price, how could I refuse?

Perfect Man

I might have the answer to my warm cold toes… 😉 😉

Five Firsts

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The idea comes from a post by Nick at nickhereandnow 

First day at school aged four. I remember standing on a chair as mammy dressed me and put a large bow in my hair. She was taking my older brother to school and decided to bring me with her and register me for the following year. The headmistress said she would take me that day, so I went to class and mammy went home alone.

My first boyfriend. He had a makeshift stage in the garage, the family had no car and we put on shows. My party piece was singing ‘How much is that doggy in the window’? We spent evenings collecting mushrooms and at the weekend he took me to the pictures/movies on the crossbar of his bike. He had a summer job in a grocery shop and bought me 4ozs of Kimberly biscuits every week when he was paid. I was all of SIX!

Meeting my sister for the first time. She was twenty days old, I had spent the summer in Sligo on the west coast of Ireland with an aunt and uncle. They brought me home in time for the new school term in September. I had not known the baby was expected (I later learned that like the rest of us, she arrived two months early!) and figured she belonged to one of the many visitors to our house that day. It was only when the last visitor was leaving without ‘his baby’ that I was told she was my sister and would be staying! I was Eight.

First time I was bridesmaid. It was February 1963 in Worcester, England and the worst winter in nearly 20 years. Low temperatures meant snow was thick and solid on the ground.  It was difficult to smile for photos in my long dress with teeth chattering. I was to become bridesmaid three times despite the old wives tale ‘Three times a bridesmaid, never a bride’. Thankfully they were warmer occasions with plenty of sunshine and I eventually met and married my true love, fourteen years later.

First weeks wages. I had to stand in line, sign a register and then I was paid in cash counted into my hand! A total of £6.14, as my mother said, it kept me in nylons for a week! It was the height of the Swinging Sixties; hems were shorter, music was louder and even back then I preferred to hear the words than the loud noise.

♥♥♥♥

Since I have only reached the age of eighteen, I might well return to this topic with a few more ‘firsts’… there are bound to be a few more.

In the doldrums

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Not me.

I have been busy making up for lost time.

My eye surgery was a wonderful success and I have found a new joy in craft work that had been neglected for the past year or so.

There was a t-shirt that Elly threw on my bed one morning, way back last year.

“Could you alter the neckline for me mum, it is far to high and tight? You know me, I hate tight necklines they make me feel like I am choking. I think it needs to be shortened about three inches… and the side seams taken in”.

I love how my non ‘needle’ daughter sees her mother! 😛

The t-shirt is well on the way now and I have a morning’s hand sewing left to finish it off… photos to follow.

I emptied, washed and refilled my heat packs and made a new one to Elly’s specifications. I use a fleece fabric.

I washed and re-corded my kitchen blinds.

Fabric that I bought over a year ago for bathroom curtains, has now reached the top of my sewing bundle. And I still have a fitted sheet to alter.

I completed some crochet items, a star knee blanket, a jacket – which you have seen, two berets and a third is at the final stage.

These tasks all take time. I am slower than I used to be and the late, but welcome Gypsy summer as my friend Celi calls it, gave us extra daylight for the past month. The first of November was a wonderful bright and sun filled day, so totally different and warmer than 1st of June – our high summer.

I am also enjoying driving again. For quite a while it was local and utilitarian. I am venturing further and even had a week in Dublin. Elly suggested their late bank holiday weekend and she stretched it by taking an extra day’s holiday on the Friday. We did Girly things – shopping, eating, visiting friends and an evening at the Movies. George worked in the background and my car was given the works, a complete Valeting – it looked like it was just out of the showroom. Pity the skies cried all the way home to County Antrim!

I do have photos, but need to sort them out.

I am back! And hope to return to regular blog reading and commenting, although I missed it, the weeks away from screens large and small, was good for my soul. I knew you would understand. Good friends do.