Living in the twilight zone...

image from Clipart Library

Well, that's another Christmas under our belts ~ I do hope you all had a super time, my lovelies, and that Santa brought you lovely things 😊  Now we are in that weird twilight zone between Christmas and New Year, where the days seem to have no definition ~ they just meld into one continuous stream of hours whilst we plough our way through the leftovers, and make vague plans for "Big Changes" in the upcoming shiny and bright new year, whilst vegging out in front of the TV 😄

We had a rather lovely, albeit somewhat bittersweet, Christmas ~ another of those "firsts" since Mum passed away back in April.  Amanda and Liz brought Dad up here on the 23rd, and they all travelled home again on the 27th.  Beverly's shift pattern meant that she wasn't working on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and Boxing Day this year, so she was here too, as was our friend, Phil.  The only person missing was Sam, who didn't have enough annual leave left after his move to Leeds in October, but we video-called with him on Christmas Day 😊  As you know, we only have two bedrooms, so Dad stayed here with us whilst Amanda and Liz booked a holiday cottage just up behind where we live.  Beverly had been going to stay with them in the cottage, too, but in the end decided it was too hot in there so made herself comfy on our sofa for a couple of nights instead 😄

It's been a few years (well, since we moved up here actually) since I've catered for more than three or four folk at a time so I was a little bit anxious.....which was then compounded by our oven conking out on the big day 😯 Thankfully the turkey was actually cooked through when the oven decided it had had enough, and only needed to be browned off (which was rather how I felt at that point 😉).  Luckily we have a double oven, and the top oven was still working fine, plus we've recently bought ourselves an air-fryer, so everything was perfectly cooked and Christmas dinner was only a little later than I had planned!  Next week we'll get in touch with the guy who replaced the element for us last year to see if it's a simple fix ~ we think if may be the thermostat that's gone wrong, so fingers crossed it can be replaced without too much bother.

On Boxing Day we left Adrian at home, pottering about making the lasagne for dinner and watching the sport on TV 😄  Amanda had hired a lovely big people carrier for the few days they were up here, so we went for a little drive around the island and for a walk on Evie beach to blow away the cobwebs.  All in all, it was a lovely few days with (almost) all of us together 😊

As for my new year resolutions.....

😉

Peace...

www.allposters.co.uk

Father, Mother, God,

Thank you for your presence during the hard and mean days.

For then we have you to lean upon.

Thank you for your presence during the bright and sunny days.

For then we can share that which we have with those who have less.

And thank you for your presence during the Holy Days.

For then we are able to celebrate you and our families and our friends

For those who have no voice, we ask you to speak.

For those who feel unworthy, we ask you to pour your love out in waterfalls of tenderness.

For those who live in pain, we ask you to bathe them in the river of your healing.

For those who are lonely, we ask you to keep them company.

For those who are depressed, we ask you to shower upon them the light of hope.

Dear Creator, You, the borderless sea of substance, we ask you to give to all the world that which we need most.....PEACE.

Maya Angelou

(4th April 1928 - 28th May 2014)  

Merry Christmas!

image from Freepik

Wishing you all a Very Merry Christmas, my lovelies, I hope you have a wonderful day!

😊

 

Peace...

www.allposters.co.uk

Father, Mother, God,

Thank you for your presence during the hard and mean days.

For then we have you to lean upon.

Thank you for your presence during the bright and sunny days.

For then we can share that which we have with those who have less.

And thank you for your presence during the Holy Days.

For then we are able to celebrate you and our families and our friends

For those who have no voice, we ask you to speak.

For those who feel unworthy, we ask you to pour your love out in waterfalls of tenderness.

For those who live in pain, we ask you to bathe them in the river of your healing.

For those who are lonely, we ask you to keep them company.

For those who are depressed, we ask you to shower upon them the light of hope.

Dear Creator, You, the borderless sea of substance, we ask you to give to all the world that which we need most.....PEACE.

Maya Angelou

(4th April 1928 - 28th May 2014)    

Little words of wisdom

 

Peace...

www.allposters.co.uk

Father, Mother, God,

Thank you for your presence during the hard and mean days.

For then we have you to lean upon.

Thank you for your presence during the bright and sunny days.

For then we can share that which we have with those who have less.

And thank you for your presence during the Holy Days.

For then we are able to celebrate you and our families and our friends

For those who have no voice, we ask you to speak.

For those who feel unworthy, we ask you to pour your love out in waterfalls of tenderness.

For those who live in pain, we ask you to bathe them in the river of your healing.

For those who are lonely, we ask you to keep them company.

For those who are depressed, we ask you to shower upon them the light of hope.

Dear Creator, You, the borderless sea of substance, we ask you to give to all the world that which we need most.....PEACE.

Maya Angelou

(4th April 1928 - 28th May 2014)    

Pottering about

image from Clipart Library

I really don't know where the time goes, especially since it feels like we haven't been doing much of anything since I last posted.  I guess simply pottering about takes plenty of time, though 🤷  And that is just what we've been occupying our time with, getting little jobs done that don't seem to have much to show for them at the end but still take plenty of time to actually complete!  I had been hoping to completely finish the big craft room tidy-up before Christmas, but that looks increasingly unlikely now as I have to start channelling my inner housewife ~ who, as you know by now my lovelies, tends to keep herself pretty well hidden most of the time 😏  Still, hopefully it won't take too long to get it finished in the New Year, and then I can recommence work on Augusta Lodge. 

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that the patio roses were putting out new buds.  This variety is Emily Bronte; she has more buds than Sceptred Isle, in the middle tub, who I didn't actually photograph 😯

The two blooms on Eustacia Vye that got caught by the snow did in fact open right up, and there are a surprising amount of buds on the plant too, considering we are nearly halfway through December.

It really is a beautiful rose 😊

One of those "little" jobs was to finally get some more of our prints framed.  I bought the one above as a gift for Adrian way before we moved ~ and we've been here nearly seven years!  He lived in Kingsland Road until he was 13, I think, when he and his family moved out of London to Borehamwood.

These two prints were a gift to myself 😉 They are by Rachel Grant ~ I really like her artwork, but was particularly taken with these two.  How could I possibly resist the gorgeous blue and white chickens in particular ~ two of my favourite things combined together 😄  They are now hanging in the kitchen, replacing a set of four prints that I'd grown out of, just visible in this post from 2020.

This is another print that I bought whilst we were still living in Hitchin.  It's now been framed and is hanging in our porch.  When I finally get Augusta Lodge finished (!) and moved out here, I'll move the print further over to the left.

Another gift to Adrian, of our lovely Nikki and Matty who have both been passed away for a number of years now.  The picture was done by a local artist, Donna Spence, who specialises in pet portraits.  I didn't actually have to buy this frame as I found it lurking in the stuff I was sorting in the craft room!

We haven't taken our prints and pictures to a "proper" framer for a good few years now.  Instead we get the frames (and mounts if we decide the picture would look better with one) from an online company called EasyFrame.  I was surprised at how easy the process was ~ I guess the clue's in the name, eh 😏  All you have to do is accurately measure the size of the image, choose the frame/mount, and they do the rest.  Adrian still has a few more prints he'd like framed, so that makes my gift-giving to him pretty easy for a while 😉

I may well not be doing much posting in the run-up to Christmas.  We've got family coming up this year for Christmas 😍 so as I mentioned earlier, I've had to fire-up the 'ole inner housewife to give the house a bit of a spruce-up ~ wish me luck!

Little words of wisdom

 

Peace...

www.allposters.co.uk

Father, Mother, God,

Thank you for your presence during the hard and mean days.

For then we have you to lean upon.

Thank you for your presence during the bright and sunny days.

For then we can share that which we have with those who have less.

And thank you for your presence during the Holy Days.

For then we are able to celebrate you and our families and our friends

For those who have no voice, we ask you to speak.

For those who feel unworthy, we ask you to pour your love out in waterfalls of tenderness.

For those who live in pain, we ask you to bathe them in the river of your healing.

For those who are lonely, we ask you to keep them company.

For those who are depressed, we ask you to shower upon them the light of hope.

Dear Creator, You, the borderless sea of substance, we ask you to give to all the world that which we need most.....PEACE.

Maya Angelou

(4th April 1928 - 28th May 2014)    

Little words of wisdom

 

Seeing where I've been

image from Freepik

When I last posted photos of my progress in the craft room it was, admittedly, pretty hard to see what had actually been done in there 😏  I was finding it very frustrating, to be honest, as it seemed that no sooner had I cleared a surface than it was covered in stuff again!  Then suddenly I was clearing a surface ~ and it was finally staying clear 👏  

In our previous home this desk was used for our computer, up in the smallest bedroom.  When we moved here, though, the only place we could put the computer was out in the hallway and this desk was just too wide for the space.  I was able to fit it in my craft room quite nicely, though.  It's now what I think of as my "clean" work area ~ no dolls' house construction/deconstruction on that lovely pine desk top 😉  Having said that, though, I'll be happy to do other "messy" crafts on the desk as I have quite a supply of puppy pads, that I kept when Matty passed away, that I can use to protect the surface.  It's now back to being the ideal space to write down all my ideas and plans for working on the dolls' houses, not least because when I lift my head to do a spot of thinking I have a lovely, albeit distant, view of the Orphir hills 😊

The table to the right of the desk used to be on the other side of the room and was where I had clamped my scroll saw, although it wasn't as stable as I would have liked.  It fitted in this corner perfectly, though, and has made very good use of the space as two-tier storage.  The space beneath the table is now being used for a few things that were a bit large to fit elsewhere, along with my little vacuum cleaner.

The crate and box currently on top won't be there forever.  They contain bits and pieces for Augusta Lodge which will, obviously, be used as the build progresses.  I do have some "permanent" storage beneath the wall sockets, which I've rearranged slightly since I took this photo.  I've now got my collection of buttons there, along with the jar of vintage sewing threads, which used to be on the bookcase near the door.  Moving them has freed up some more shelf space for my craft books, which I desperately needed!

When the crate and box have finally been emptied out, I shall leave the space bare ready for the next build.  It's really useful to have space to keep my working pieces close to the project currently being worked on.  

The work tables are now all set up, too.  As you can see, I moved the crate of wood strips up from the floor so that I could put my heater there instead.  I decided to use this slightly smaller table to store my tools so that they are all close to hand and easily seen.

The larger table is where I will be doing all my dolls' house construction/kit-bashing.  The pieces of MDF beneath the table are all connected to Augusta Lodge, so won't be languishing there forever 😉  Ooopsies, look at all those bits on the floor ~ I must vacuum when I've finished sorting and tidying!    

You may recall that I have a tall set of white plastic storage drawers opposite the work tables.  I sorted through them last year, filling them mainly with small dolls' house-related items.  The drawers were absolutely stuffed, mainly I think because all the bits and pieces were in little plastic bags.  I came across this set of clear plastic storage drawers in a pile of stuff that I was sorting through.  It is actually supposed to be for storing washi tapes, but I bought it earlier this year as it seemed perfect to store little things in.  I decided to use it for all the little dolls' house ornaments ~ and other bits and pieces that could be used as ornaments ~ that I've gathered together over the years.  

I have quite a collection, as you can see!  I've since squeezed in a few more pieces that have come to light during my sorting out exercises.

The things in the rear section of this drawer are more hobbies and pastimes, rather than ornaments.  I've got a few things in this drawer in particular that weren't specifically dolls' house items, but they are small enough to be used in that way.

I wasn't sure if I would fit everything in it, to be honest, but once the pieces were out of their little bags they slotted in very nicely.

It now sits on the white plastic drawers, the perfect place for me to "shop from my stash" for those little finishing touches as I complete each of my dolls' house builds 😊

 

Peace...

 

www.allposters.co.uk

Father, Mother, God,

Thank you for your presence during the hard and mean days.

For then we have you to lean upon.

Thank you for your presence during the bright and sunny days.

For then we can share that which we have with those who have less.

And thank you for your presence during the Holy Days.

For then we are able to celebrate you and our families and our friends

For those who have no voice, we ask you to speak.

For those who feel unworthy, we ask you to pour your love out in waterfalls of tenderness.

For those who live in pain, we ask you to bathe them in the river of your healing.

For those who are lonely, we ask you to keep them company.

For those who are depressed, we ask you to shower upon them the light of hope.

Dear Creator, You, the borderless sea of substance, we ask you to give to all the world that which we need most.....PEACE.

Maya Angelou

(4th April 1928 - 28th May 2014)   

Christmas-Every-Day

image from Freepik

I trundled over to Kirkwall yesterday to pay my annual "Mother Christmas" visit to Beverly, where I then spend time hanging the fruits of my gift-wrapping endeavours for her to open one each day during December.  It's a rod I made for my own back tradition that I started a good number of years ago, before Adrian and I moved up to Orkney.  Beverly very rarely came south for Christmas, a combination of her working shift patterns and the unpredictability of the weather for travelling at that time of year.  I came across the idea when I was idly surfing Pinterest one day, and thought it would be a lovely idea to do for Beverly to remind her that we were thinking of her even if we couldn't be together 😊

I can't show you all the little gifts laid out ready for wrapping, just in case Beverly takes it into her head to read my blog for once 😉  Suffice to say, the two bags above were stuffed with all the little goodies I came across for this years Christmas-Every-Day.  I keep wondering when she will grow out of it but she shows no sign of doing so thus far ~ and she'll be 34 at the end of this coming January 😏

Ta-daa ~ everything hung up ready for this year's tradition to begin!  It didn't take too long to get the job done, despite the "assistance" of Belle, one of my grandkitties 😉  The cats are also the reason why the little parcels are rather bunched up, rather than dangling more elegantly 😄

Adrian and I had both planned on going to see Beverly but unfortunately he wasn't feeling too well.  He had the first of the two shingles vaccinations on Wednesday and it's left him feeling very tired and "flu-ey".  He would normally have carried the stash of little gifts for me, of course, but I was able to get everything packed into my trusty shopping trolley.  There was plenty of room on the bus over to Kirkwall, so I had a seat near the front and tucked my trolley in beside me 😊

I had a lovely couple of hours with Beverly, and got the 12.26pm bus home again.  I get on and off the bus at Tesco in Kirkwall, and I suppose it takes me about 10 minutes or so to walk from there to her flat.  By the time I'd got home and had some lunch, I didn't really feel like doing much else so had a lazy afternoon.

I did finally get something done with my little air plants, though.  I bought them when we were down south back in September, and managed to get them home unscathed!  I propped them up in a pot with one of my succulents until I'd decided how to display them ~ and there they sat for three months 😏  As you know I'm currently sorting out my craft room (aka the dumping ground 😉), and in one of the boxes I was emptying out I found the perfect little vintage container for them.  It was something I came across when I was sorting through stuff at Mum and Dad's earlier in the year.  Dad had no use for it and said I was welcome to take it 😊

It's stamped on the base "Hillstonia" and although I haven't been able to find much information online, it would appear to have been made by a company called Moira Pottery.  I was a little confused when I read the Wikipedia article as it said that the Hillstonia range was for forcing bulbs and containing plants ~ I couldn't quite see how you could get bulbs into the very slender opening along the top of the container!  However after I did a general search for Hillstonia pottery, I came across an identical container to the one I have on Etsy.  The seller there describes it as a posy vase, which makes much more sense 😄

I don't know where my Mum got it from but I suspect it came from my Great Aunt Mary, who had some interesting items.  I now have a number of things that were both hers and my Grandma's (Mary's older sister), none of which are worth very much monetarily but are nevertheless a lovely link to that older generation.

My little air plants sit in the posy vase beautifully, with that narrow opening firmly holding them upright.  I've placed it on the kitchen windowsill, which should hopefully remind me to check them regularly to see if they need spraying/soaking! 

Little words of wisdom

 

And there it was...

all gone!

The wind and rain disposed of the snow, thankfully.  Snowy scenes are very lovely to look at ~ rather less lovely to try to get out and about in!  And now that I'm in my 60s, I'm much more conscious that a fall could do more damage than it might have done a few years ago 😳

I mentioned in a post a couple of weeks back that there were still a handful of flowers to be seen in the garden.  Before the snow arrived the patio roses were putting out some new buds, and Eustacia Vye had two that were opening.  All the unopened buds seem to have come through the snow unscathed but the two above are looking a tad brown on the edges of the petals.  I deliberately chose repeat flowering roses, and I'm really pleased to see them living up to their descriptions of flowering into early winter 😊

With the snow all washed away, I had no excuse for not getting out to the craft room yesterday 😄 I just took a handful of photos to share, as it really doesn't look like I've done anything much out there at all ~ despite working for a few hours both in the morning and after lunch!

I mentioned previously that I'd bought some vinyl cloths to cover the old work bench and the new work tables.  The cloth on the old work bench is in a grey linen effect, and makes a nice surface for the dolls' houses to sit on as it sort of resembles concrete.  I think I will buy some more pieces to lay beneath the houses that will be displayed on the other cabinets.  It'll probably be better to get the cloths bought sooner rather than later so that they match the piece I've already got.  Wow, look at me ~ thinking ahead for once 😉   

It was a tad chilly in the craft room, so I wheeled out my trusty little oil-filled heater.  I haven't used it very much since I've had it so I had to have a good look at the instructions again 😏 It's very efficient and soon warms the room very nicely indeed.  It isn't in the most convenient position here, though, so I think I will shuffle things around when I've got more space cleared.

The two new work tables are now covered with vinyl cloths in a rustic brown oak plank effect.  You'd think it would be a simple job to just chuck some cloths over the bloody things, but there was a fair bit of tugging and shuffling involved to get said cloths laying how I wanted them 😒 The cloth to the right is all tucked up, by the way, as I decided to leave my Dremel scroll saw permanently clamped to the table.  I may scoot it along more towards the middle of the table, though, as it's rather close to my working area.

The two little white (bedside!) cabinets fit perfectly beneath the table, with some space left on top of them for storing other things.  I've had them for a number of years and the drawers are very handy for storing smaller items, although I was thinking yesterday that it might be a good idea to label said drawers with their contents 😄 

This was another "little" job that took absolutely ages to accomplish.  All these odds and ends had been just stuffed haphazardly into a cardboard box previously.  I've decided that if I'm going to make my craft room a comfortable space to work in, then I first need to get to grips with sorting and tidying everything in there.  It's very frustrating trying to find things that I'm sure I have but just can't find.  Anyhoo, all the pieces in this crate are now taped like-with-like, and the oddments are all together in a separate pot within the crate.  I also placed another plastic box in the crate as well to keep the lengths of wood better corralled.  It actually started life as a shoe box but the front flap broke ~ I simply flipped it on it's end and it became perfect for the job 😊  (Further up the page you can see a second repurposed shoe box, again due to the front flap breaking, which I'm using for dolls' house wallpaper beneath the old work bench.)

This would actually be a more convenient place for the heater, so I may see if there is enough floor space to squeeze the crate beside the left-hand work table.

The contents of these two crates had been in one very much larger crate.  I'd just used it as a dumping ground for odds and ends of wood ~ or so I thought.  Once I'd decided that it would be more workable to have a couple of smaller crates rather than the big one, I obviously started to empty it out.  Yes, there were indeed the odds and ends that I thought were in there.....along with quite a supply of dolls' house windows, doors, and stairs 😮  I was very annoyed with myself, as I bought a load for Augusta Lodge that I wouldn't have needed to had I been keeping everything tidy 😒  Oh well, I suppose they will be made use of at some point with other kit-bashing projects 😏 

Hopefully I'll continue to make progress in the craft room this week, and have more to show for my efforts!  In the meantime, I'll leave you with the beautiful sight that greeted me when I opened the bedroom curtains this morning 😍

Peace...

www.allposters.co.uk

Father, Mother, God,

Thank you for your presence during the hard and mean days.

For then we have you to lean upon.

Thank you for your presence during the bright and sunny days.

For then we can share that which we have with those who have less.

And thank you for your presence during the Holy Days.

For then we are able to celebrate you and our families and our friends

For those who have no voice, we ask you to speak.

For those who feel unworthy, we ask you to pour your love out in waterfalls of tenderness.

For those who live in pain, we ask you to bathe them in the river of your healing.

For those who are lonely, we ask you to keep them company.

For those who are depressed, we ask you to shower upon them the light of hope.

Dear Creator, You, the borderless sea of substance, we ask you to give to all the world that which we need most.....PEACE.

Maya Angelou

(4th April 1928 - 28th May 2014)