Things are not good - normal service suspended for the time being!

Things in my life are not good at the moment and it is all caused by my job. I have decided I need some 'time out' in order to sort out my priorities in life. Not sure it will do any good especially as I can't see the job situation getting any better, but I feel I need to do something. One aspect of my life that I feel I can do something about is my use of the pc. Blogging, facebook and other sites are taking up far too much of my time. Therefore I am going to restrict my time on the pc and am going to stop blogging for a short while. I will be back - not sure when but you haven't got rid of me, I can promise you that.

First Suffolk Meetup

Five of us met up this afternoon at Southwold - Vicki, Dawn, Tracey, Shirl [plus husband, daughter and dog] and myself. I got there first and nervously awaited the arrival of the others. Next to arrive was Vicki and Dawn, shortly followed by Tracey. Soon we were all chatting away about numerous subjects and then Shirl arrived with her family. We then left the pier area and went to the boating lake as Vicki had seen a picture of the tea shop there. Despite having visited Southwold for the last 25 years I had no idea it was there:
As we went through the gate way we spotted the 'lake' minus boats but it had at least two families of ducks swimming around.
As we walked closer we could see the chairs outside but it wasn't til we got closer we spotted the variety of seating and the blankets and cushions scattered around.

I'm afraid I didn't take any close ups so you will have to wait for Vicki's photo of us all together and Tracey's photo of her scone and tea.
Thanks for a lovely afternoon, ladies and a special thank you to Tracey for a little gifts and to Vicki for arranging it
Snape Maltings next time, I believe

St John's Street Fair

We started the day by stopping off at our friend, Jo's stall for coffee and cake:
And I couldn't resist taking some photos of her shop window:
Later I did go in and buy some red spotted lidded bowls, some dolly pegs and some gorgeous vintage design napkins
Could have bought loads more but maybe another day.

Then it was off to the top of the street where it meets the main part of Bury for the first dance.
Harry in action with his stick....


In the background of the photo above , you will see Jo again - this time playing fiddle in the band that plays for the dancers.
After the dancers had finished we went to one of the pubs for lunch and then it was back for more dancing and scaring of the crowd.
We ended the day listening to the Bounty Hounds
And yes, you are right.....there is Jo again - one very talented lady.

It was a super day despite it raining several times

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Only 6 weeks til the summer holidays then its 5 and a half weeks to recharge my batteries, get the house, my office and my classroom back into some sort of order ready for the new school year. I hate disorder and yet seem to spend so much of each year in that state.

Anyway for the time being I just need to try and keep on top of things the best I can. Have bought three of the large beech bookcases from Argos this morning and, now I just need to clear the spare room a bit so there is room to put them against one wall. That will then, give me a lot of space to put all my books etc. Kitchen also needs a good sort out and the washing and ironing doing. No peace for the wicked, as they say.

Sorry if I haven't commented on your blog recently - I will try and do better next week. Also there are several people I need to contact - again a job for next week....

Great News!!

I am finally allowed to tell everyone that I am going to be a proper Grandma [rather than step-grandma] in January. I am so excited and am busy trying to decided what I am going to make first for the baby. Thanks to the fabric addict swap I have already got some children's fabric so I now need to look for some coordinating fabric to go with it. So glad I an at last share the news with you all.

Charlie and Elvis Jewellery

Some of you may know that my eldest son. Joe and his soon to be wife, Emma make jewellery which they sell under the name of Charlie and Elvis Jewellery. They are at most of the vintage fairs in Sheffield, Leeds and surrounding areas.
This week they were part of the Pop-Up Boutique in Meadowhall. A promotional piece was done by Meadowhall TV



I am a very proud mummy.
Joe and Emma appear several times in the video. The first sighting is of Emma at 13 seconds in when she appears walking in [she has her hair tied back and is the one on the left. The first time Joe appears is at 1min 15 seconds when he is in the background with Emma [Joe is wearing a black jacket].
The stall is seen at 2min 43 seconds and then Joe is seen at 3min 34 seconds going through a rack of clothes. They are both seen together behind a counter at 3 min 41 seconds.

Fabric swap and new shopping trolley

Two exciting happenings - discovered the above in a local hardware store and it just had to come home with me......
Also the postman delivered my fabric swap from Sue at Vintage from the Village .


Sue had wrapped it all beautifully:

First a photo of all the contents together:
Some wonderful large squares of green and pink fabric that coordinates wonderfully:
A tin of buttons in a tin in a little bag[more about the buttons later], various ribbons, a lavender sachet with an appropriate ribbon tag and two super mags that I had never seen before:
Larger pieces of fabric - two of which are children's prints and I hope I'll soon be able to tell you all, why this is so appropriate but I am sworn to secrecy at the moment:
A lovely card and some super brown coordinating squares:
And finally the contents of the button tin:
Haven't I been lucky?
Thanks so much Sue, its all wonderful and very ME.

Update on Charlie

Thanks everyone for you best wishes for Charlie. He is much better now and much more his old self. Think it will take some time to get over the memories for both him and his younger brother, Samuel, who witnessed the accident.

Tacky Felixstowe and Dad's Army

You might wonder what the two [Tacky Felixstowe and Dad's Army] have in common. The answer is May Bank Holiday Weekend. The rain kept us at home a lot of the time but on Sunday late afternoon I collected all our 2ps from the piggy bank and we headed down to the tacky end of Felixstowe to play the machine followed by fish and chips:
One of the advantages of Felixstowe is the opportunity to watch various ships come in or out of the docks - this time it was a Stena line ship bound for Harwich:
So you can really see how tacky this part is I took the following two photos:

Don't worry, not all of Felixstowe is like that - I love old Felixstowe and will show you that another day.
On the Monday with the weather not much better, Harry had the brain wave of visiting Bressingham. I must admit, not one of my favourite places but I could come up with no better idea - so off we went. First we looked round the garden centre - the plants there are really healthy but so so expensive. Then it was into the museum and before going on the trains, we visited the Dad's Army display:



Then it was time to visit the rest of the place -I love the painted horse!
A train ride:
Then we took a different train around the gardens:

Overall not a bad day but an expensive one.....