Showing posts with label Home Sweet Home. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Home Sweet Home. Show all posts

Friday, December 22, 2023

Of Birthday Flowers, Christmas Trees, And Dried Lavender

I never got around to sharing my birthday photos.  So, here are the flowers I got:


 

The yellow ones in the bunch are from Kelly, and the pink ones are from a friend named Dara.

 

And here are my birthday cards:





 

*~*

 

We went minimalistic with decorations this year, but one thing we did get was a real tree.  We don’t usually, but I love the idea of real trees, so  Dara helped Kelly to arrange it for me as a special treat.  And here it is:



 

One photo shows it during daylight, the other after sunset.

 

Also, here are the Christmas cards we’ve received so far:



 

*~*

 

When Dara went to pick up the tree, they were handing out dried lavender, so she grabbed me some…


 

My living room smells like a cross between a lavender field and a Christmas tree farm, and I love it!

Friday, November 03, 2023

Celebrating #Samhain 2023

Despite still feeling pretty unwell, I was determined to try and do a little something to celebrate Samhain )otherwise known as Halloween, or Nos Calan Gaeaf in Welsh).  So we hung up an Autumn themed reef on the door...




Kelly helped me make sure there was a Mr. Pumpkin-Head (what I always call my carved pumpkins, ever since I wrote the poem of that name years ago) to put in the window...





And I enjoyed some tea in my new 'Witches Brew' cauldron-shaped mug (brought a couple of months ago, but not shown to you at the time, to match the teapot I got a couple of years ago)...

 


 

While we watched episodes of "Wednesday" on Netflix and waited for trick-or-treaters.

 

There were very few trick-or-treaters (even when compared to recent years, when we've had less than there always used to be when I was young) between the rain and our minimalist approach to decorations, but I'm sure Kelly doesn't mind finishing off the Halloween chocolates.

Friday, September 15, 2023

Of Blog Posts, Cards, Cuddly Toys, And The Clock

I’m sorry I’ve not been around the blogs lately.  Between struggling with energy levels, health issues being a constant thing I have to deal with, and dealing with the mental/emotional aspects of the past couple of months, I’ve not been very productive.  And our recent heatwave didn't help matters.  I’m trying to get back in to doing things – reading blogs being one of those things – but I’m having a rough time adjusting to how things are now.  I’ve popped by and read posts from time to time, but not commented, and I know I missed several posts.  So… Sorry.  And if there’s anything you spacifically hoped I wouldn’t miss, please tell me about it – or direct me to the post where I can read about it – in the comments section of this post.  Thanks.

 

*~*

 

I got a couple of nice cards from Deanna from Life WithDee.  One after she learned I’d been in hospital, and the other after she learned about my Mam’s death.  Here they are:




 

Thanks, Deanna.

 

*~*

 

Kelly got me a glittery pink unicorn cuddly toy as a get well present when I was in hospital.  Here I am holding it:


 

 

And my Mam brought me this bear holding a heart:


 

It turned out to be the last thing she ever brought any of us, since it was right after that she went in to hospital for the last time.  When we were sorting her stuff after she died, I grabbed the little pink teddy bear that was the last thing I ever brought her (which I got her during one of her recent hospital stays) and the two teddy bears are now sat together on one of the shelves that my cuddly toys are stored on.

 

*~*

 


 

Mam got this clock when I was really young – Maybe about five years old or so? She’s hung in my Mam’s home ever since.  I made it known years ago that when she died I wanted the clock, so now she’s mine.  I thought I’d share  her with you, and let you hear her chime the hour.

 

Yes, I did mean to say “she” and “her” in the previous paragraph.  Mam said she was a Grandmother clock, because she’s a small Grandfather clock, so she’s always been a “she” to us.

 

Anyway, here’s the video of her chiming the hour:

 


Friday, May 26, 2023

Random Ramblings - May 26th 2023

We’ve had several quite warm days recently, which they say will stick around over the next couple of weeks, and at some point after that it's meant to get hotter.  I'm glad it's not meant to get hotter yet.  But with it already at the high end of the temperature range I can tolerate, I’m not looking forward to when it does one bit.

 

*~*

 

    Anyway, as you likely figured out from last week's post attempt, May hasn’t been going quite as I planned.

 

It started OK.  Then we got to about the middle of the month.  I thought we might continue some of the de-cluttering and organizing.  Maybe even finally look in to getting the things we need removed that need to be disposed of rather than given away removed from our house.  But none of that ended up happening after all, and I’m so drained from the past couple of weeks that it won’t be happening any time soon, because my spoons are long since used up, and I don’t have the energy to deal with anything non-essential at this point.

 

My Mam ended up back in hospital.  This time she was there for ten days.


Ten days with four dogs (Lilie and Logan, plus Mam’s two: Izi and Cai) in the house is too much, especially when two of them (Izi and Cai) aren’t used to hearing the comings and goings of people going to the nearby shop, two of them (Lilie and Cai) are easily excitable, one of them (Cai) is an untrained puppy, and one of them (Logan) isn’t a big fan of too much play time.

 

We ended up with me and the dogs camping out in the living room so that at least Kelly could get some sleep.

 

This is what it sounds like when four dogs are in the same room, barking because someone decided to use our driveway to turn a lorry around in (which is what the beeping you may be able to hear over the barking is).


 

 

At least, I hope the clip will work for you.  It wouldn’t go on YouTube properly, even after I converted it to a format that should work, and I haven’t tried doing this kind of clip directly in to a blog post before.  I figured it was worth a try though.

 

Either way, by day four Artemis was hiding in his cave or tucking himself in his shell in an attempt to get away from the chaos.  By day six the dogs had decided they’d had enough of each other’s company, and Lilie especially was opting for sleeping upstairs with Kelly rather than staying in the living room with the rest of us.

 

Don’t get me wrong, Izi and Cai are adorable dogs.  But, like I said, four dogs in one house is too much.  Sure, we have a reasonable sized house.  But without a large back yard for them to tire themselves out in, and with people constantly forgetting that a private driveway is not a place to park when you’re goint to the shop, even if it is very convenient to park there, four dogs definitely started to feel like too many very quickly.  So everyone was extremely glad when Izi and Cai went home on Wednesday evening.

 

Anyway, my Mam is doing as well as can be expected.  That’s all I’m going to say about it though, because she specifically requested that nothing more than that was said, especially online.

 

*~*

 

In other news, I made these little flowers in a crochet class a couple of weeks ago:


 

 

~

 

Also, they were teaching Tunisian Crochet in another crochet class.  I wasn’t going to do it.  I mean, do I really need to learn another fibre art? After all, I already do needle knitting, loom knitting, and crochet, and want to learn tatting.

 

But it was the crochet group doing it, and I like spending time with them on their Zoom calls.  So I figured I’d go along to hang out with them anyhow.  I figured I’d work on my blanket while they learned Tunisian Crochet.

 

For those who don’t know: Tunisian Crochet is a kind of hybrid between crochet and knitting, which uses some of the stitches for both, plus a couple of its own, and where you often have several loops on the hook at any given time (hence needing special hooks, because they’re longer than the usual crochet hooks, with a knobbly bit on one end like a knitting needle has to stop the loops sliding off that end).

 

Anyway, I think you can guess where this is going.

 

Yep.  I ended up giving it a go.

 

I had to use a regular crochet hook, since I didn’t have any of the longer ones for Tunisian Crochet, but I wasn’t the only one doing it with a regular crochet hook.  Here’s the little sample piece I did while learning:


 

 

Our wedding anniversary was this past Monday (May 22nd) and Kelly had been asking if I wanted anything specific from him for our anniversary.  So I ended up asking him  buy me a set of Tunisian Crochet hooks.

 

Yeah, you saw that coming, didn’t you? LOL!

 

Of course, with dealing with the four dogs, I haven’t had time or energy to play with them yet.  But when I can I’m going to make more little squares like the one I did to try Tunisian Crochet out, and then they can be part of the blanket with squares done with the different fibre arts that I plan to eventually make.  "Eventually" being the key word here.

 

~

 

Oh, and... In case you're wondering... We had pizza for dinner for our anniversary.  With the dog chaos in full swing, we didn't have the time or energy to do more than that to celebrate.  Not that we do much anyway, if I'm totally honest.  We really aren't big on large celebrations, as regular followers of this blog likely already know.

 

*~*

 

I like having fun bottles to put water in to drink.  In a weird sort of way it encourages me to remember to drink more, because I like the bottles.  Whatever works, right? And I just got a new one.  It’s a Harry Potter one.  Spacifcally, it’s a Ravenclaw one, and here it is:



 

 

One picture shows the whole bottle, and the other is a closeup on the Ravenclaw crest.

 

Kelly wants a Slytherin version, so I’m going to get him one soon.

 

*~*

 

Speaking of Harry Potter things: one of Kelly’s birthday cards was a Harry Potter themed one.

 

I actually meant to show you his birthday cards, but I forgot.  So, here they are:


 The Harry Potter one is from my Dad, and the other one is from my Grandma.

 

Most people we know don't tend to bother with cards these days, hence him only having two birthday cards.


 

*~*

 

I think that covers the main points of the past couple of weeks.  And I need a nap, so I’m going to let this do regardless.

 

I hope you’ve had a more relaxing couple of weeks than I have.