WOYWW 283

For details of how to join in the world’s most famous weekly nosey fest, please click on the WOYWW logo in my sidebar, which will take you to our hostess Julia’s blog, where you can find out what it’s all about.

First of all, I’m sorry to have visited so few of you last week. We’ve had a lot of problems with Mum who has been very difficult this week, and in between I’ve been alternately feeling extremely poorly (probably due to stress) and very busy trying to catch up with everything. My poor hubby has been feeling the strain too, and has been quite wonderful throughout, bless him. Time in my ARTHaven when I’ve managed it, has been amazingly therapeutic and stress-busting – my favourite room in the house is well named because it really is a haven from the stresses of our present life!

Here is my desk today.

On the left you will see the recycled mini-album I’ve been working on. I am desperately trying to get it finished by the end of the year but I think that may be over-optimistic! It is open at the latest page to be completed, relating to family holidays at the seaside in the 1950s and 60s. You can see more here.

Today I started on the next section, which will be about Scotland – Scottish ancestry and holidays north of the border. I have made the second tag for insertion in the album, which you can see under the distress ink pad. I coloured it with distress stains, and made a puller for it at the top with a thistle drawn on either side, and coloured with the distress inks you can see in the picture. I have done some journaling on this with a black archival pen. The tag is similarly coloured on the reverse, where the journaling continues. It will be inserted into the pocket I have created at the centre of the current signature that I am working on.

Earlier in the week I completed the page I showed you last week:

and also finished the next page.

This is the finished page, as on this week’s desk photo above:

introducing a bit more colour into the album. I am still continuing with the black and white borders throughout. I need to cut back on the embellishments from now on as the book is getting alarmingly thick and I’ve only just started the second signature! I thought I’d allowed myself lots of room for added thickness on the pages, but it’s amazing how quickly they bulk up.

This week I also hit a major milestone – I got my new sewing machine going! After I got it in the early summer, I put it on the back burner because there were other things I needed to concentrate on, but this week, I needed to alter a mattress cover to convert it from double to single size, and this was a good project to start with, as it was basically just sewing straight seams.

The machine is MUCH more complicated than my old one! The whole job took simply ages, because I took so long pouring over the book just trying to discover how to thread the thing for starters! It is covered with buttons and lights, and so far I’m only dimly aware of what they all do, but I am quite sure that before long, it will all be second nature to me. At least I’ve discovered I can turn it on, and I can do straight stitching and zig-zag, so that’s a start!!

Beatrice, our older cat, has been put on yet another course of antibiotics, and we are now trying her with a different Hill’s Science Plan diet, this time for bladder health. We’ve got to watch her to make sure she isn’t intolerant to it, because she’s been on the Hill’s gastro-intestinal diet up until now, which she is able to keep down – she has such a delicate little tummy! She seems happy enough and well enough, but we just can’t seem to get on top of the infection. I had a long chat about her with the lovely vet who calls himself “Uncle Luke” and who has a massive soft spot for Beatrice – they all love her down at the surgery because she’s such a character and such a good girl when she’s there! (I hope by calling himself Uncle Luke, he isn’t expecting us to come up with a hamper from Fortnum’s at Christmas, like Mrs. Pumphfrey in “All Creatures Great and Small” who had the overfed Pekinese and called the vet “Uncle Herriot”!!) Beatrice has started growing her winter coat and it’s amazingly soft and fluffy, but she’s way too thin underneath. We are feeding her little and often to try to build her up.

Not sure how much I shall get done in my ARTHaven this week, or how many desks I’ll manage to visit. Friends for tea on Thursday, then doctor’s appointment on Friday (another blood test to see if I’m still anaemic). I’m also in the throes of sorting out all my summer and winter clothes, to make the transition now it’s got so much colder!

Have a great week, everybody, and happy WOYWW!