lovely things

I've had some lovely postal stuff lately (well, lately and not-so-very-lately. apologies for the tardy thankies...) and just generally lovely stuff, too. Firstly.

A while back there was a stale stash swap. My stale stuff went out and I got these lovelies back!!!

One pile of beauties from Sarah (look at the precious squirrel! Never mind the space invaders..)

 and this bundle from **nicke. Skulls!!! And spots and stripes. You got me pegged, the two of you! Thank you!!

On a less textiley but just as important front; tea. I had to give up coffee a year ago and returned to my first beverage love, the leafy one. Now, I admit I still miss the coffee but after reading a post that Kerry made I splashed out on some very expensive but cute-as-anything tea. I'm about halfway through drinking them and while nothing will convert me to camomile (not even a cup full of daisies coz it tastes horrid) I have a wee list of favourites to reorder.  My only vice. How terribly sad.

And also on the foodie subject, a blog post by Katy reminded me I never did try my free coupon for Graze. Course, I couldn't find it but ordered one anyway. Bloody hell, I made the mistake of taking it home (it gets delivered to my work) and the gannets landed. Needless to say, there is now a second box being delivered home for Chookie every week. Beats crisps and chocolate though, eh?

I turned my first spot of embroidery into a living-room-matching mug rug. I'm rather pleased with its loveliness - although I'm trying not to put my biccies on the birdies which kinda defeats the purpose! I got most of my boy Siblings Together quilt quilted today but ran out of thread 3 lines from the end. Harumph.

And my last lovely thing is also my favourite and most important. In her finery for the summer school disco.

I can't tell you how happy I am that although she looks older and older (we're not into double digits for heavens sake) she picked that candy striped dress herself. And the baseball boot/frilly sock combo. Still a wee girl!!!

I do hope your weekend was awesome. I was Cub Scouting yesterday (pot holing!) and Chook was horsing around today instead so my weekend is all over the place and I can't believe it's Sunday night already. Still, the ironing is done and NetFlix beckons. I'll see the entire (only!) series of Firefly if it kills me!

a Beary nice day out.

I never did come back and share my "Bearwood Bonanza" photos, did I? So called, BTW, because our local Scout campsite is called Barwood. Do you see what they did there?

There's actually very little I can share. Most of my photos have other people's kids in them (safety first!) but I got one of the man himself. This is just before Chook missed his high five.

And the girl. Gotta love her style - her favourite riding rugby shirt, boys trousers and feathers in her hair. None of me, I'm afraid, I managed (yet again) to have not one pic of me. I think I just about got everyone else, though. Despite forgetting my big camera!

What I was really going to share, though, was our mascot "Bear Growls." All the groups were supposed to have their own mascot and guess who got landed making ours. However, our leader had an old shirt she kindly donated to the cause which I fashioned into a bear-sized shirt. I was quite pleased, dressmaking not being my thing!!

Here he is,complete with his own green security wristband and emergency handmade neckerchief after the ordered one didn't arrive.

I even salvaged the Scout embroidery for the sleeve. You can see the shoddy necker sewing here - we couldn't have a solid coloured one, could we? He lives with me now, too, but is always ready for an outing with the sections!

So, more up to date. I tried my hand at some embroidery yesterday. I had time to kill at Chook's riding school since she wanted me to watch her later lesson. It is hardly worth me coming home since we're a good 25 minutes away but it left me with an hour and a half to fill with some handwork. I haven't embroidered since I was about 12 and was fairly happy with my efforts. I can see this becoming a mug rug for the living room since I have NO blue ones! Photos on that transformation soon, too, for all you nosey types (love yoooo) - as soon as the final bits arrive!

And here is the girl herself having her jumping lesson on her favourite pony, Nutmeg. I had to laugh, I was editing photos for composition, focus, expression and all that boring stuff. Chook was editing for reigns, jumping position and where her feet were!

I have tweaked this one a bit and added a TTV filter and think it might end up as a new photo for the wall art in the living room. They haven't been hung yet and could do with a few new pics for a change. I've a stoater of a pet rat one, too (longtime readers will remember my old rat header) so need to have a search for the best 12x12in printing available.

And now to enjoy the sun! Actually,  I've grown a bit tired of it. I know, I know, hush thy mouth, child. But I'm not a sun-worshipper and my wardrobe doesn't run to shorts and I hate smelling of sun cream (15 minutes over lunch on Friday and I was burning!) so a drop in temperature would be lovely. Think we can have that with no rain? Unlikely, eh? Enjoy it while you can, amigos!!

such a busy weekend...

This was the weekend of our first Cubs sleepover in the Scout hut and I can one hundred percent admit I am totally gubbed. Knackered to the extreme. It started well enough. They were very well behaved and fun was had by all. Making pirate hats, playing pirate games and doing a treasure hunt I spent hours preparing. Do you like my clue letters and maps?

 Here's my wee pirate - the only one I can share for obvious child protection issues. Do you like how her skull and crossbones became a pony and crosspole jump? Heh heh.

 Anyways, everything was going well. They had supper, got ready for bed and after about 2 hours most of them were sleeping. By about half one in the morning we adults were about to retire when a wee body appeared in the kitchen.

"I don't feel well..." he whimpered. Oh dear. There's a definite pattern emerging where it's me that launches across the room - it happened at camp with a distressed girl as well - to an upset child. My reflexes seem to propel me past everyone closer while they're still doing god knows what. Anyway, our wee Cub emptied his stomach down the loo (I hate other people being sick but I'm getting quite good at not breathing while it's happening!) and a call to his parents revealed they'd made the most of their kid free night and had been out having a drink. Which is how I found myself at 2am dropping him off home. *sighs*

By 3am another Cub was crying because he couldn't get back to sleep! Three visits to him, a change of bed (the sick boy's roll mat was still lying out) and we were settling down a little. Of course, it was after 4am by this time and I still hadn't had any sleep. Funny how all the other supposed light sleepers in the leadership team are dead to the world when there's stuff going on! I got one whole blessed hours sleep. And then a wee wraithlike figure appeared at the door to our room a bit jittery and snivelly. Not with a sore tummy like I was imagining but looking for his mum. Who was our parent helper and sound asleep! He'd got a fright the wee man and then couldn't find her in the dark and was SO upset. So that was another hour lost while she calmed him down. I did squeeze in one other hours sleep before getting up at half 7. Needless to say I slept the whole afternoon on the couch when I got home!

And then I discovered my mail. Sarah was giving away some "hideous" fabric last week on her blog. I think she's mental coz I loved this check! And just coz she's a total and utter sweetie pie she sent a fabulous tidy that she'd made (skulls!!), perle cottons (drool) and the Single Girl quilt pattern which I'm planning on trying in the spring. What a doll, eh?

There was also some scrapbook papers I'd picked up last week in an online sale. Sassafrass Lass - my favourite!! And 6 metres of Kona Ash for my brother's Christmas quilt. Job for this week - start it!!

Today was Remembrance Sunday so we were all at the wee village over from us for their service (Scout related, that's why not at the one in our town) and Chook and I were in the parade with the pack. I forgot to get a photo of us all smart in our uniforms. Doh!

But before that I'd been doing a treasure hunt in my jammies! Chook spent hours this morning making up a load of clues and hiding them all over the house while I was catching up on my sleep. Here's one of her clues on the loo!

Bless her wee socks, it was so cute! The treasure was gold coin wrappers (as in sans chocolate!) left over from Friday night but the thought was there! And this afternoon we checked out her new riding school! Where she rides currently are having trouble with their arenas. They are both unuseable so for the last 6 weeks she's just been hacking out and is so bored with it! I tell you, the recession is obviously not affecting riding because I had to contact FOUR places before I got a reply. This place looks great, though! It's farm based again but really organised and they have an indoor ring, too, which is a boon when you ride in Scotland! AND - this is an exciting one - a coffee shop!!! So no more waiting in a freezing cold car. I can get a hot chocolate and a cookie and they have free wi-fi too! SO hopefully her assessment lesson on Saturday goes well and she likes the place and instructors and we should be all set! Fingers crossed anyway.

I hope you all had a great weekend - maybe a bit less frantic then mine! Monday already, gah!

Happy Halloween!

Anyone who knows me IRL knows I am married to the worst photographer in the world. Officially. He is awful. So apologies in advance!

It was Cubs tonight and being a leader requires some dressing up. And since somone had nicked my goth fairy idea *harumphs* I opted for a nice lady pirate. With zombie leanings. It's actually really hard finding a costume that isn't too....erm....adult. If you know what I mean.  Everything is sexy this or slutty that. I quite liked some of them but they're hardly Scout leader appropriate!

Here is my lovely left hand side. I made a rather buxom pirate! I nicked the bandana from Chook - it's her Menorca one for in the pool!

And here is my zombified right hand side. That's about 6 layers of latex make up and some red face paint. We left the blood off and didn't go wild with the peeling coz I was creepy enough for little kids.

Here's a good one of my dodgy right eye! I'm wearing a sunglass contact lens I've had for a loooong time. It made everything look really weird only having one in but it gave the Chook the willies so was deemed worth the discomfort! What a great Mum, eh? *grins*

The party was a roaring success. We even managed to get the boys all doing the Timewarp by the end!! Can't day that happens very often! And my right cheek had been beautifully waxed by that damn latex coming off. Oooow!

from green to red.

I've been busy taking all my green accents out of my living room and kitchen and sticking some autumnal red in its place. Turns out I haven't got much red! I did scrape enough red and pink to do the dresser nicely. I do have lots of Disney stuff that matches!

 I used the very last of my Japanese charm swap (all the pinks) to make a new matching table runner.

And I was okay with burgundys to do the table in the living room.  I need more oil for my fragrance lamp - note to self, shop tomorrow!

I also got round to finishing this teeny squares cushion that's been on the go since about May!! Those ickle pompoms are from Seamstar, they have loads of awesome trims just now!

I've been at the local fire station tonight with my Cub pack - they had an absolute ball! I did too, I admit, the firefighters were so nice (and no, not like that! I'm weird - uniforms don't do it for me!). There were hoses being blasted everywhere, rides in a fire engine (with hats on) and fun with the infra-red camera in a dark training house. What more could you want at 8 and 9 years old!

Randomly random

Ooh, I've been a bit half assed at the blogging this month, haven't I? I've been quite busy with work (boss has been on holiday all week so I'm a one-woman lab again) and end-of-term stuff but not much sewing. We got a new computer at home and have had all sorts of issues with wireless adaptor compatability so I'm really behind with blog reading and e-mail answering and all that stuff that builds up. So thank you so much for all the really, really lovely comments on the hexagons quilt. And forgive me for not replying - while my phone does for emergency internet surfing and communicating? It's a real PITA to e-mail with. Damn little screen and chubby fingers....So.

Cubs finished for the summer last Monday. We were at a local wildlife reserve where one of the rangers was showing us shelter building. Real Bear Grylls stuff, the kids had a ball. Hell, I had a ball!

Other news? Err. Chook only has a week left of P4. Her school report last week was excellent, as usual. What else......I finally made a decision on the quilting for my mahhoosiv Earl Bob dresdens quilt. I've opted to not go for quilt-as-you-go and have pieced it all together into one big (huge!) top today. I finished my doll quilt for the Brit Quilt Swap. I never did get round to blogging about the Brit Quilt group, never mind the swap! Maybe once it's got where it's going I'll do a proper introduction thingie. Ooh, and Spouse needs an operation on some dodgy cartilage in his knee. Hallelujah for private healthcare!!

Father's Day tomorrow, I'll share my makes then (if I remember to take a photo!!) Hope the weather's been better with you than here. Summer?!?!? Really?

Camp rock!

Well, okay, just camp. Not so much of the rock. But Scout Camp was awesome! I know, I know. Lynz and camping? In a tent? But it really was fabulous fun and my pack were so well behaved - we were so proud.

I can't show many photos because they all have other people's kids in (bummer) but I have a few of Chook so they will have to do.

First up, the camp entrance. This is looking OUT of camp into the surrounding countryside. Pretty, eh?

Me an' the Chook! Slightly strained looking - an eight year old was in charge of the camera and she was taking an absolute age to hit the shutter! I match my tent. Heh.

Part of the afternoon's planned activities on Saturday was a nature walk which took us past the reservoir. We were so lucky, the weather defied the forecasters and stayed very fine!

My girl, first over a six foot stile! One of the boys has vertigo and had to go back round the whole way we'd come, bless 'im.

And Chook making a quick, sneaky phone call to her Dad on Sunday morning. I'm standing by the first of our tents. I was thrilled by this point that despite dire warnings, none of us had any ticks latched on. *shudders*

So, there you go. Mention has been made of camping as a family in the summer so we shall see. We need a tent first! *g* Plus, Scouts plan another in August. I've not seen the last of my bad-hair-day-no-drying-facilities headband/bandana combo!

narky Nan revealed.

Howdy! Some brief waffling and then I'm off to...do something. Prolly sit in front of the telly and have an early night. I am on the humpty side and feel the need to blog so apologies in advance. So.

I'm going camping. In a tent. Shut it, you lot, I can hear the sniggers. The Scout district camp is a week on Saturday (nice bit of notice, huh?) and our Cubs are going overnight. Under canvas. Therefore and ergo? So does yours truly. Haven't camped ever, haven't a clue what to take for me OR Chook. Info not forthcoming. Hoping I don't have to shop for anything as time is running out. But rather looking forward to the whole thing if getting a bit cheesed off with the Paris Hilton persona I seem to have adopted. At least in other people's eyes. Yes, I like a shower in the morning. No, that doesn't make me high maintenance or someone afraid to get her hands dirty or a complete wimp. I think a lot of people are mistaking a love of sewing, clean hair and pretty things for just that. They are totally missing the sporty tomboy that loves zombie t-shirts and climbing trees. Grr.

Anyway, in anticipation I've been checking out other leaders' badge blankets. As in, camp fireside wear to show off your badges. And I remembered I had these.

 My Brownie badges! There's at least one missing and I wasn't a Guide so I don't have any more but they're thirty years old. Knew I was hanging onto them for something!

It was a Bank Holiday here on Monday. I was working but spouse and Chook were off. They went to see Gnomeo and Juliet (spouse said it was honking bad!), KFC for lunch and some shopping. New ponies were bought and this for me!

 Heh heh. Very me, huh? I'm thinking about taking it camping for my mid-morning elevenses with cucumber sammiches and a cream cake. Not really. Bitter much, Lynz?

And my splurge arrived!!

A full fat quarter bundle (my first of an entire line!) of Denyse Schmidt's Picnic and Fairground range that she's designed for JoAnn's. You obviously cannae buy it here in backwoods Britain - these are an Etsy purchase. I missed out on Katie Jump Rope (as in, wasn't quilting then!) and never did get round to Hope Valley (apart from the odd FQ which I dearly love) so didn't think too hard about nabbing these guys. I'm really chuffed with them and they can happily sit on my shelf until I find the perfect project for them.

And so I bid you adieu and go off to do my......whatever. With my pink diamonds and chihuahua. I promise I'll have buried the Mizz Hilton comparisons by next time and be less......narky. Ciao!

projects, projects everywhere...

...and not a one to finish! I thought I was making some headway in the work-in-progress department with all the work going on with the Scraptastic Strings quilt. But it seems not. There's just piles of stuff everywhere!!! Still, it's pretty stuff, right?

I did make this, just coz I saw one like it on Flickr (I can't find the link - let me know if you recognise it, please!!) and loved it. Dead simple but a fun hour or so playing. I've tucked it away for when the Easter/green colour scheme gets whipped out in the next few weeks.

I received the last block from my Bee Mental 3x6 Bee. I have a rough plan for this one, it should be a simple top to finish but the quilting will be another story.

And when I got paid last week I finally succumbed to a "Hideaway" layer cake. At least I had a purpose for it though, eh?

I've been busy all weekend following a new pattern (can you guess what it is?) and making a mess all over the house. I'm normally closeted away in my wee room but brought my machine down to the kitchen so I feel more a part of the house. It was lovely doing some sewing, having a chat to Chookie, doing some pressing and trimming, making a cup of tea. All while listening to David Tennant read "How to Train Your Dragon" on my iPod dock. Which was bought for Chook's Dental Hospital visits (more on the latest one tomorrow) but is really, REALLY funny and I'm loving it.

One other not-finished-yet-but-working-on-it thing? I got my full appointment with the Scouts through last week. So I am no longer a provisional assistant leader. Go me! I've a ways to go before I'm all done with training but we'll get there!

gaga for Gaga

Today was "Celebrity Day" at school raising funds for....actually, I haven't a clue what it was in aid of. But the P7's organised it and everyone was to come dressed as a celebrity of some sort. Chookie, of course, decided Lady Gaga would be her impersonation of choice. Have you any idea how hard it is to come up with a practical, easy to pull together and, most importantly, suitable-for-an-8 year-old outfit of Gaga's?!? We did okay, though.

Her mate is a St. Trinian's girl and apparently there were 3 Gaga's in her class alone. *grins* But they had a ball although there is synthetic hair all over the house. It's making me gag(A)...

I had my Appointments Advisory Committee meeting last night, too (waves to Mel!) which went okay, I think. So I am now officially a provisional assistant leader. I plan to be non-provisional as soon as I can! Spouse gave me a celebratory multi-tool. Who says romance is dead?

something started and something finished.

Round 9 (nine!?!?!) of the Old Red Barn quilt group is being led by the lovely Dolores and is a ticker tape quilt (as widely popularised by Amanda Jean of Crazy Mom Quilts) which I am so late in getting to grips with! In my defence I've been a single parent the last three or four weeks (busy Spouse with all that overtime) and I've also booked us 2 holidays! One just a long weekend in the Highlands to go see the Cairngorm Soapbox Extreme event and a week in Menorca in the summer. Yay! So that's kept me busy. Plus Scouts stuff and general living and there's not much time left for the good stuff! Anyways.

Here's my supply pile. Batting, Kona Bone, my backing fabric and a pile of scraps. Which I thought looked loads but is barely a quarter of what I need. Rats. I have cut more since but am still woefully short - not that I'm lacking scraps (the aforementioned Miz Dolores keeps me well supplied!!) they're just not square. *le sigh* I'll get there!

And this magnificense is my backing. It's Opal Owl by Tina Givens for FreeSpirit and I thought it was some sort of trees and woodland damask effect doo-hickey. But, no, it's wee animals playing!! Cool!

And in other news, there's been a few jobs getting finished about the house. Hooks in my bedroom finally (no photos yet but they're mirrored butterflies), the storage from Ikea for the cupboard-under-the-stairs fitted and this picture from our weekend in Portmeirion hung.

I gave up trying to find a frame to match and when I came accross this giant peg in a local shop I knew it would be perfect. We just needed to shuftie Butch and Sundance down a bit and all was rosey. Result!

It's a big night at Cubs tonight, we're having a large scale investiture (for long and boring reasons there's a lot of our Cubs not had their joining ceremony) and we're expecting parents along. And I must remember my camera for a photo!!

a snake by any other name

Yeah, so those cubs? Either like pythons or think I look snakey or could only remember one name coz my new assistant leader name is Kaa. *g* Which at least is easy to shout!

We're off to the dental hospital again this afternoon to see about the zombie tooth. The gum above it has started to get sore so I'm really glad we're going. I see more antibionics in our future. *sad face* Spouse and I are both really starting to wonder if this is worth it. In fact, he was wishing he hadn't found the fang when it bounced into that ditch. I can't believe it's only been 9 weeks - feels like about 6 months since it happened! But I keep telling myself it could be much much worse than a silly wee tooth. Some people are dealing with very sick kids so I am really very lucky. Enough moaning!!

10 days til Santa!!! *jaw drops* Really? Oh, hell........

enough with the snow!!

We were just about getting back to normal after the very early snows of last week. Roads were clear, poeple were getting to work, schools were back (people were still panic buying bread and petrol but they are nutters...). And then we had several more inches of the white stuff overnight. Grrr. It's pretty, though, and I haven't ever seen our phone lines look like Christmas garlands!

I was lucky(?!) enough to be able to walk into work this morning. The roads were pretty slippy (there were stuck lorries at the end of our road) and while we reckoned our "man car" would make it (that's spouse's moniker for our Forester!) I was worried about getting stuck at work in the car park. So on with the Doc Martens and iPod and off I went. It was really lovely - white and calm and hardly a soul about as the snow fell. And, even better, I got sent home at lunchtime when we closed the shop. Result!! Isn't my back garden bonnie? That snow looks like frosting - it must be the thawing/snowing/thawing process that makes it all fluffy like that.

The bad news is Cubs got cancelled tonight. So no naming for me or reindeer making. But we've also had to cancel the Christmas 10 pin bowling next week so we may do reindeer if it's on! Chook is really disappointed so I foolishly said I'd make Nigel something to cheer her up. She's picked a nice easy (!!!) bathrobe. Made from leftover minky. Eek.

teeth and snow and foam.......oh, my!

Man, this is definitely the longest I've gone without blogging for 18 months. I've just had nothing doing, really. I've made some bits but they're Christmas gifts so I can't show you and I've been a bit distracted with the visit back to the dental hospital yesterday with the Chook's tooth. It went okay. Not really, a bit rubbish actually but not for the reasons we were expecting. She needs the dressing changed every 3 months for the next 2 years because her tooth (being a new tooth - as in, only been erupted for a year) isn't the right shape for the root canal to be finished. We knew all this already but they wanted to see her after only 1 month to check the progress since they didn't think it was going to take at all. So, the lovely dentist took out the dressing and it wouldn't stop bleeding. Which it really shouldn't be doing. So after 15 minutes of mopping up she went for a word with the consultant. Who said she's seen this a few times before and - get this - the tooth (being a new tooth full of beans) is trying to regenerate itself! Bless its wee heart, it's trying to produce pulp since it's all been cleaned out. It's a dead tooth but it's trying so hard to live - it is in effect a zombie tooth! There's not much hope it's going to succeed and it leaves us in limbo a bit because they can't put the dressing back in while it's wet. Which blood is. So it's packed with cotton wool, she's on antibionics and we're to trek back in a fortnight. Blah. But, on the upside, I reckon if it's trying so hard to be healthy then it might just stick. Pleeeease!!!

What else. Um. We've had some snow. I've never been so glad to have a 4x4 car! There was no school here Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday even though most of our roads were clear. At least in our county they were. It's very pretty - I may take photos if I'm about in the daylight - but we're all getting a bit fed up of it now. We can't remember a time when it snowed on so many consecutive days, usually we get a couple of days and a whump of 6 inches in one night and then we're on clean up. But our 6 inches have come an inch or 2 at a time for the past 6 days. We're very lucky, some of our neighbouring regions have had serious falls and people really are stuck in their homes. And if you've a git of a manager like the Spouse then you need to take a days holiday if you can't get out and about (no wonder so many desperate people are getting stuck on the roads!!) but luckily I have a lovely boss who told me to take the whole day off yesterday instead of just the afternoon for the dental shenanigans. So I got my tree up!!

Lastly, it's my first day as ACL (assistant cub leader) on Monday. I've got my shortlist of monikers for the cubs to pick and then we're going to do some Chrimbo crafts. It's hard finding cool but quick things to do with a mixed group! But Spouse spotted this wee chap on the internet and me an' Chook made him up as a test on Tuesday.

You draw round your hand to get the basic shape, cut him out of fun foam and stick some bits on. There's a peg on the back so you can clip him to your tree or onto your card strings or wherever you like. And hot glue guns and pom poms are the business!! So hopefully he'll be fun for the pack on Monday and I'll come home full of good cheer and with a new name!

be prepared!

I'm not sure how it happened. Well, no, that's not true. I know exactly how it happened. I've been helping out at the Chook's Cub Scout Pack for about the last 6 weeks. It started with the making of the Fimo punkin keychains. And then I spent a couple of weeks keeping an eye on Miss Clumsy after the tooth disaster under the guise of helping out  (10 days til our next dental hospital visit - oh, joy) and then a few weeks just having fun and helping out. And now? Well, now I've started training to officially become an assistant Cub Scout Leader.

It's a LOT of work, y'know!! You want to see the modules I have to do, never mind the safety checks. But it does mean your kids are left with properly trained, safe adults which I think is a great thing. So the sewing will most certainly be taking a back seat over the next wee while. I'm ridiculously excited about the whole thing coz I've really been enjoying my time with the kids. And I get a cool name from the Jungle Book and a uniform with a woggle! Dyb, dyb, dyb!!

a happy (if belated) Halloween!

I'm just SO unorganised just now!! Imagine just getting round to blogging Halloween on November 2nd - especially since the Chook's first party was 6 days ago! SO. In about July she decided that this year she would be Harry Potter for the holiday. "Excellent," thought I, "finally a costume that I can BUY!"  - unlike  last year's unicorn or the year before's "cute, Mum!" bat. And then the homework came home. To make a costume from recycled materials for the class party. Ergo and therefore - no buying of costumes. Rats. I thought we did okay, though.

 The robes are bin liners, wand a garden cane, specs rescued from the charity box at my work and painted black and the wig is an orange net that I lovingly "rugged" with black wool. And Hedwig?

 SHE is all the Chook's own work. Papier mache on a fabric conditioner bottle. She looked up a snowy owl online and even drew the markings on her wings, head and body herself. Not bad, eh? The DVD's were newly purchased for Halloween last week since (because of the tooth situation) she was going to miss the disco at school. And at the weekend she carved er first punkin. I got to do the yukky bits-out-the-middle bit. I hate that bit!!

 But I think she made a really good job of that bat!

It was her Cub Scouts party last night, she was thrilled to win musical chairs since I seem to have passed on the "never-wins-anything-EVER" gene. Sorry, Chook. I haven't even gotten round to replanting my winter bedders, yet! Those poor front door pots - do you SEE how unorganised I am!

We were also at the Glasgow dental hospital yesterday for our first visit about the tooth-that-got-shoved-back-in. It's looking good so far, the blue stuff is off and it is straighter than it was before!! It looks amazing, actually! But we go back tomorrow for the root canal treatment. Eeeep. It's being done under sedation, though, since she made such a song and dance about getting the blue-glue and bracing off. Such a chicken, the wee lamb. And unfortunately because it's a young tooth and the apex hasn't properly closed (check me with the dental jargon - that's the top bit inside your bone to you and me!) they can't complete treatment for about 2 years since it will take that long to close. So we need to go back every 3 months for 2 years to get the dressing replaced. Drat. And bother. No, honest, that's what I said. Really. Positive vibes, please, for a terrified 8 year old and her Mum!!

P.S. I did finish a quilt, though!!!

P.P.S. Have you seen Pleasant Home today? There's some mug rugs there. One of them may be by me. Just sayin'. *g*