A bear's tale

Once upon a time there was a sweet little teddy bear.  He was given to The Boy when he was a baby, and teddy lived in The Boy's messy little bedroom with all his other soft toys. 

The Boy did play with teddy but no more than any of his other soft toys.....in other words, this teddy wasn't The Boy's favourite, can't-live-without softie ~ which is what all teddies hope to become when they go to live with their particular boy or girl.  Still, teddy was played with often enough to wear out the pads on his paws ~ so The Boy's Nanny very kindly knitted him some lovely new ones, and sewed them in place.  Teddy thought he looked very smart with his new knitted pads but still The Boy didn't choose him as his most favourite softie.

The Boy grew older and eventually almost all the softies were relegated to the loft in a big black plastic sack ~ including poor teddy.  They all lived up in the dark, too-cold-in-winter/too-hot-in-summer loft for many years until one day The Boy's parents decided the time had come to have a jolly good clear-out.  Lots of things were discovered up in that loft, some of which The Boy's parents had even forgotten they had put up there!  

One-by-one the bags and boxes in the loft were opened and the contents examined.  A few things were kept and put back, but everything else was taken to the local charity shop or put out on the drive with a big sign beside them saying "FREE!  Please help yourself!" ~ it really is quite amazing just how much stuff will be taken away if it is accompanied by a sign saying "free" 😉

The time eventually came for the big black plastic sack to be opened up and examined.  The Boy had a quick look through all his childhood soft toys and decided that he really didn't need them now that he was a Young Man.  So The Young Man's Mum sorted through the softies; some went to the charity shop and some went out on the drive.  She came across the poor sad teddy and saw that he still had a sticky patch on his lovely yellow fur from way back when The Young Man was, well, a little boy.  Hmm, thought Mum, it looks like poor teddy must have had some juice spilled on him.  And then Mum remembered that teddy had been given to The Young Man by her aunt and uncle when he was just a baby.....and had been made by her cousin.....and The Young Man's Nanny had knitted new pads for teddy's paws.

Mum decided that with such a family history the sad teddy couldn't possibly be sent away.  So into the washing machine went teddy to make him lovely and clean again, then he did some sunbathing on the clothesline to dry off.  Mum did feel a teensy wee bit guilty about pegging teddy on the line by his ears but he didn't complain ~ after all, he had just been through a wash cycle in the big metal drum!  

After teddy had been spruced up, Mum wondered what she should do with him.  First-things-first, she decided, teddy needs a name as he had never had one when he belonged to The Young Man.  Mum thought about it for a moment, looking carefully at teddy, and the name Archie just popped into her head.  So teddy now had a name for the first time in about 23 years.....he was so happy, even though he still wasn't anyone's special, favourite bear.  Mum explained to Archie that even though she had grown very fond of him indeed, she still had her own teddies from when she was a baby ~ and so it really wouldn't be fair to have a favourite teddy.

       So now Archie lives in the bedroom which belongs to The Young Man's parents, and spends his days relaxing on their bed.  He has two new friends, Arthur and Fred, who were Mum's teddies when she was a baby over 50 years ago!  They are very kind to Archie and he now feels very special and loved 💖

This little tale happened quite a long while ago now but a couple of years back, all the teddies had a Big Adventure together.  It all began one winter's day when they were rather alarmed to find themselves packed into a box!  "Oh my goodness", Archie said to Arthur and Fred, "what is happening?  Are we all going to be given away?".  Before they knew it, their box was put in a big lorry by Jolly Men with strange-to-their-ears accents.  Suddenly the engine of the big lorry was started and a very long journey had begun.

The Jolly Men drove and drove for hundreds of miles.  The poor teddies were very frightened, especially when the big lorry stopped and they were left in their cold box all night long.  The next day The Jolly Men started the engine of the big lorry once again and before they knew it, the teddies were on a boat crossing the deep blue sea!  Poor Archie was so very frightened but Arthur and Fred, who are much older and wiser, reassured him that Mum would never just give them all away.  They were sure everything would work out for the best in the end.

And, of course, they were quite right!  The big lorry soon pulled up outside a new house, in a little town on a Scottish island.  The Jolly Men took that box into the new house and before long Mum had unpacked all the teddies once more.

So Archie still spends his days relaxing on Mum and Dad's bed with his best friends, Arthur and Fred.  They now have a lovely view out of their bedroom window of wide open skies and the beautiful sea.....and Mum would never part with any of them 😍 

A new chair for Jane

You may remember that this is the little chair given to me by my lovely Auntie Mavis many years ago, and I had originally planned on it being in the guest bedroom.  However, since my last post about said bedroom waaaaay back in January, I have changed my mind ~ "oh what a surprise, Sharon!" I hear you say 😉

It really is a sweet little chair made, I think, from oak.  I believe it could be a nursing chair, possibly Victorian or Edwardian.  According to Wikipedia:

"In Victorian times the nursing chair was a low seated partially upholstered chair.  Nursing included caring for children as well as breastfeeding.  The low seat of the chair allowed the mother, who would have been wearing a stiff corset, to interact with small children without bending over."

I hadn't really examined the underside for quite some time, so hadn't realised just how much the old fabric was perishing.  What prompted me to have a good look was all the little bits falling onto the new bedroom carpet!

I don't think this was the original fabric ~ it has more a look of the 1930s or 1940s.  Despite how nasty it was looking when I took off the loose covers, it must have been rather lovely when it was all clean and new.

Although the loose covers were not to my taste, they were made extremely well.  The cover on the back was fastened with a row of hooks and eyes, affixed to cotton tape, down each side ~ no velcro in sight LOL

Ta-daa!  Doesn't the chair look wonderful with it's new upholstery!  The lovely Doris from Orkney Upholstery has done a fabulous job, using a pair of vintage curtains I spotted on Ebay a few years ago.  I never got round to using them in our old house, and the windows here at St Abbs are too tall for them.  They are not an upholstery-weight fabric but as the only person sitting on the chair will be Jane, Doris was happy to use them 😊  

I decided not to do anything about the finish of the wood in the end, other than give it all a good clean and polish before it went to Doris; the wear is part of it's vintage charm and shows how well used it's been over the years.

The underside now looks neat and tidy ~ no more bits of perished fabric falling on the carpet.

And here's the little lady herself 😊 Jane is very pleased with her "new" chair and has a grand view of the bedroom.  Although she still looks like a baby I've had Jane since I was two, so she is at least 59 years old now.  The teddies (Arthur and Fred who I've had since I was a baby, and Archie who was Sam's when he was a baby) hang out on the bed, so Jane has the perfect vantage point to keep her eye on them and make sure they behave themselves 😉

A teensy wee bit of yarn!

Before we moved I thought it best to have a good sort-out of my yarn stash.....

.....and this, my friends, was the result!  I gathered together my little hoard of yarn from all over the house ~ and my craft shed, too ~ and just dumped it all in the middle of the guest bedroom!

I hadn't realised just how much yarn I had in my hoard, but I took a deep breath, pulled up my big girl panties, and got stuck in.

It took me a surprisingly long time to get it all sorted into some semblence of logical order!

But I plodded on and gradually it started to look more like a carefully stocked yarn stash.....

.....and less like an indiscrimate hoard!  I found a few UFOs which I decided to keep and actually get finished this year.  I also donated a fair bit of yarn that in my heart-of-hearts I knew I would never use.

Jane and Archie were very impressed with all my hard work 😊

And once I'd relocated my cotton yarn, I put some oddments to good use by making myself a new dishcloth!

Living in St Abbs

Another photo-heavy post, I'm afraid!  I should have taken photos of the piles of removal boxes we had to unpack but I completely forgot.  Oh well, suffice to say there were an awful lot of 'em 😉

We have lovely views from St Abbs of the Bay of Ireland and the Orphir Hills.  The light constantly changes ~ oh, how I wish I could paint!

The living room is much larger than in our previous house ~ the TV is now a fair bit further away LOL  The boxes behind Adrian's and my chairs are full of books.  We don't have any shelving to put them on yet.

Once our new heating system has been installed we will have the old storage heater removed, and the sofa can then be moved to the wall opposite its current position.  Eventually we are hoping to have a small multi-fuel stove installed behind where the sofa is at the moment.

I do love having windows on two sides of the room ~ my houseplants love it, too 😊

I did manage to unpack some of the books.....my dolls' house, knitting and crochet books LOL

Matty seems much more settled now.

There is more space to move about in our new dining room.

I was very happy to get my blue and white china back in the cabinet.  Mind you, I had a serious cull as I was unpacking the boxes, only keeping the pieces that I really love.

The storage heater in here isn't working, so it's a relief to have the electric fire to warm the room when we need it.

I even have enough space for two of my dolls' houses in here, even if they are unfinished!

There is a terrific draught through this window, a combination of a rotten unit and cracked glass.  Oh my, I am so looking forward to getting our new windows installed!

I wasn't going to inflict photos of the bathroom upon your delicate dispositions, but thought it would be a good "before" and "after" exercise.  Well, it will be once the bathroom has been sorted out 😉

The walls are terribly damp.....

.....because the loft-space above is so wet.  This is the side of the house with the leaking chimney.  Like I said previously, the dampness runs right down this side of the house.  We will feel much happier once the chimney has been repaired.

The washing machine and tumble-dryer are a bit "in-your-face" at the moment, but eventually I'm hoping we will be able to make a little utility room by altering the floor plan of the bathroom.

I'm using the white cabinet (which I had in our old house) for its original intended purpose, as a little larder.

We are making-do for now with a mini oven and a hotplate.

I'm dreaming of one day having a double butler's sink 😍

This rug, quite literally, took up the whole of the centre of our old kitchen floor ~ it actually touched the base units!  I have never had such a large kitchen as this LOL

Hubby being very industrious at the computer 😉

I love the way the bannister curves round the stairs.

It will be wonderful when this window is replaced, too.  The cold air drops down the stairs ~ I sit at the computer with a blanket wrapped round my legs!

It does let in lots of light, though.

The guest bedroom is stuffed with all my craft things at present.

Arthur, Archie and Fred like to take life easy LOL

I've got plants spread out all over the house at the moment!

Jane has a lovely view out of the window, especially now that the tree has been taken down.

Belinda, Bunty and Bertie also believe in taking life at a leisurely pace!

Adrian has now stripped off the wallpaper in the boxroom.

More plants!

We had fitted wardrobes in our old bedroom, so I bought a couple of hanging-rails to tide us over until we get round to having built-in cupboards put in.

Our bed is opposite the window, so we face the rising sun each morning 😊

When we have had the new windows fitted, we will have some simple Roman blinds put up.

Yet another little group of houseplants!

And to finish off yet another photo-epic post, this little chap was found by Vernon when he was taking out the hedge in the front garden.  He got a teensy wee bit caught in the chainsaw and was altogether in a very sorry state ~ goodness knows how long he had been left abandoned in the hedge.

But look at him now!  I felt so sorry for the sad-looking little mite, and just couldn't bring myself to throw him away.  So I stuck him in the washing machine with a load of laundry and hoped for the best.  He came out looking so much better than I could ever have hoped for!  I need to do a little bit of surgery on Tiny Ted's burst seams, and I may have to give him new pads on his hands and feet.  He looks very happy to be indoors now, though, living in the bowl of shells 😊