Rocking your World Friday - 28th of 2020

Good morning everyone, I hope you've had a good week, its Friday and time for 

So last Friday my car had its MOT, I drive a car which could be described as ancient (bless it), so MOT time is always a little disconcerting if I'm honest, so you can imagine my surprise when not only did she pass first time but she had no advisories whatsoever - surprised - yes, so hubby treated his car to two new tyres I'm not sure that's how it was supposed to work but we will call it a win win. 

On Saturday I'd booked tickets for us to go to Wentworth Woodhouse to see their glorious gardens, its the first time since the trust took the house over that they have allowed people to free flow around the gardens (previously you could only do a guided tour), there were lots of helpful volunteers around to give information about the diffeent parts of the garden which really brought it to life and we had a fabulous few hours exploring.  I hadn't realised how much difference it would make to my mental health or how big a difference doing something 'normal' would make me feel - but let's just say we had a fabulous time and for £5 per person - a bargain too. 

This was the first thing we found a sculpture done by the artist in residence.  

We wandered, getting fabulous shots of the back of the house

I loved the signs for the toilets on our way around, may they be known as bumfresh towers from here on in. 

The mulberry garden had some stunning flowers

And we've seen the Ionic temple from the road so many times but never upclose and we didn't realise it had a statue of hercules in it. 

We found the bear, commemorating the fact that an inventory from the 1800's documented ownership in the menagerie of a female American brown bear.

The blue skies were very welcome

We found some lovely colours as we wandered

The punchbowl now covered by trees and shrubbery was once the marker for the estate of something significant happening in the house, including the visit of Princess Victoria (before she became Queen) in 1835 where the bowl was lit as a beacon of her visit. 

The sweet chestnut tree was something to behold and behind the bee hives were literally buzzing with activity. 

Sunday we had a really chilled and relaxed day if I'm honest which we both enjoyed, we watched the film Knives Out which was a good Sunday afternoon film and I did a little pile of scrapbook pages.  I'm making headway on the pile of photos but am mindful that as we go out exploring again, the chances of catching up on my pages becomes a little less likely.  

The rest of the week has tripped along at a merry old pace, busy busy with work but I've made some good progress and we've had some lovely new meals that we've tried this week which is always fabulous. 

I hope you've had a grand week, if you fancy joining in pop a post together come back and link up and we can come and visit. 

As my regular ladies know there are some blogger issues at the moment, I finally got Kate's comment last week - yay, but Lisca's alas still didn't arrive.  However, I hope you've had a fab week ladies.

Rocking Your World Friday - 23rd of 2020

Good morning lovely people tis Friday and time for 

I'm still finding these weeks a little strange if truth be told as the UK starts to unlock (despite the numbers which still feel too high), I've grown accustomed to working from home and only going into the office one day per week, we are still working on our 'round tuit' list and really am starting to see some final headway which is more worrying because I'm really not sure what we will do when it has been completed.  But this week we've glossed the doors in the bathroom, sorted a tiny piece of untidy coving and filled around some pipes to name but a few, can my life get any more exciting lol. 

I've also discovered little things that I never sort, like our butter dish that has always been too shallow for a pack of butter, despite the fact that butter packs in the UK are the same size, I finally bought a new dish, we also replaced our kettle, but the new one to explode on us (it was a glass kettle), said 19 year old took it back as we'd only had it a few hours and got a replacement thankfully and it has behaved since. 

Said 19 year old also decided to use the ice cream machine that we've had forever, it didn't work and he was hacking at the build up of ice cream for hours, it did raise a smile though! 

I've continued to enjoy face timing my Mum each day and keeping in touch with family.  Our weather has taken a turn and the blue skies have disappeared for now, but I'm sure the gardens are feeling happier for some rain and it means we don't have to water the plants, so we can count that as a win. 

We've enjoyed doing our daily walk, sometimes more than once a day, the trees are fully green now and the birds so loud if we wake during the dawn chorus. 

I have also had a back issue this week, so why has it made my list of gratefuls, I had a telephone physio appointment and within ten minutes of that he'd sent me through some exercises to do.  I've started doing them and they appear to be making a difference, although he has said it could take 2-4 weeks to see a noticeable difference, so this definitely makes the list. 

The back issue means the crafting has stopped for now, hopefully it can restart soon as I'd started making headway with the photos and my scrapbooking. 

I hope you have had a great week, if you fancy joining in pop back and link up, I've gone back to the legacy format on blogger as the other one simply wasn't fun (and no Mr Linky), it does say on what I've read this morning that the legacy version will still be available after the end of June as an option, so hopefully I can continue in this format. 

Rocking Your World Friday - 22nd of 2020

Rocking Your World Friday - 21st of 2020

Good morning lovely people tis Friday time for 

So another week of lock down, we have been a little sporadic with our walks, but when we have manage to go after a long work day it has been most welcome. 

I was mini book making last week but didn't get chance to share, these have been made with minimal paper and all the scraps from the bigger books that I've been making, they measure around 5 inches by 5 inches and were great fun to make, I'm grateful I have a time consuming hobby that provides a product at the end of it

The embellishment on the last one came from a pack of embellishments I picked up in Aldi recently, it was nice to find some scrapbook things whilst doing our weekly shop.

For Mother's day said 19 year old and his GF bought me a basket of plants, whilst they looked lovely they are always impractical for watering and as one was definitely looking grim I decided to repot them to give them at least a small chance of survival (I'm not known for my green fingers when it comes to house plants), unfortunately I was lacking on the plant pot front but had saved some yogurt pots, so hubby drilled some holes in them and here they are with my peace lilies, I'm hoping they flourish, but time (and watering regularly) will tell. 

Last Friday my Mum had ordered a skip (whilst the recycling centres have reopened they are limiting what you can get rid of) and I had volunteered us going and getting rid of the stuff for her, we were in an outdoor space so when I got there I asked her to identify what needed to go and she left us to it, within a couple of hours the items were loaded up, the skip was full and she was much happier.  

Said 19 year old then went on Monday and spent time clearing a piece of land and putting together and positioning her new greenhouse, it isn't massive and is fairly lightweight but it gives her a focus outside that she hasn't had in a while and she was mighty giddy to get it put up.  It came complete with internal racking so she is most giddy and we managed to get her some seeds both flowers and vegetables.  Said 19 year old also got some compost picked up and when we were on our walk recently we spotted a sign at a house saying 'free tomato plants' so hubby went and knocked and the lovely lady gave him 4 plants.  If there is anything to be said about lockdown it is the community spirit that has become so apparent recently. 

So some of you will remember that a few weeks ago we had a VE day social distancing picnic on the  close we live on, a few of us took a few photos that day and I had some of them printed, I decided to create mini book for each of the neighbours including one for a neighbour's Mum and Dad who were there that day.  I knew the papers I wanted to use but knew my stocks were greatly depleted (Papermania's Portabello Road), I went browsing places like Ebay and whilst I found some to buy most were part packs.  I was chatting to my Mum about it on the phone and she said "I've got some of those, I'll find them out for you, it makes a change for me to be able to provide you with scrapbooking supplies rather than the other way around" and so she provided me (at a distance of course) with a bag that not only contained the majority of a 12 x 12 pack but giddy as you can get a pack of 6 x 6 too, which was the size of the mini book - happy days!

So last weekend was spent creating 9 of these little beauties, I literally spent all day on them on Saturday (which in hindsight felt a bit much)

A view from the top you can see they are all made up of various pages of differing size

I had to use a few additional papers from my own stack to finish them off but I was pleased with them overall. 

Once completed I wrapped them in brown paper and string (like parcels from the second world war and hubby delivered them.

The ladies sent messages of thanks and it was lovely to find that they all liked them it was definitely worth all the effort. 

The rest of the week has been mighty busy work wise, three out of the four days spent working and one at work itself which is as busy as ever.

Next grateful has been the lovely weather and whilst we've been busy inside working we have still managed to enjoy the early evening sunshine and blue skies.  I took this on our walk yesterday, I love the palm plant flowering. 

I hope you've had a grand week too, if you fancy joining in pop a post together come back and link up so we can come and visit. 

Rocking Your World Friday - 18th of 2020

Good morning lovely people tis Friday time for 

Well I think this is week 5 of lock down and ours is due to be reviewed next Thursday, the weeks are still tripping along at a merry old pace irrelevant of the lock down if I'm honest and routine gains ground. 

I took a day's TOIL last Thursday as our boss is insisting that we make sure we run our TOIL down so there is much less at the end of lock down (the last thing she needs is for us to have lots to use after this). 

So I decided to paint out bedroom (on my own as hubby was working), I know crazy right, it seemed like a good idea at the time.  I moved furniture (I didn't I slid furniture but hey it worked), all day back and forth, covering, uncovering and recovering bits of furniture as I made my way around, the biggest issue I had was the gothic handpainted border near the top of the room which was an absolute pain to obliterate, hubby popped in mid morning and said I was doing an awesome job, until I pointed out the gothic arches had had 5 coats of paint and were still as plain to see on the walls. 

Thankfully he finished at 3.30pm, got changed and gave me a hand as I hadn't managed to do the centre of the ceiling and he helped me put another coat on those arches. 

We then sensibly made tea and when we came back the paint had dried considerably and the arches were almost gone, there were just a few areas where it needed repainting. 

Friday was spent doing the minimum glossing and repenning the quote above our bed and we received the new duvet set that I'd ordered, so I swapped the bedding over, it is such a happy cover, I've also ordered it in a different colour way but that hasn't arrived yet, I'm hoping it doesn't fade too much in the wash. 

It definitely has a Morroccan influence, it makes a lovely change from our usual dark covers. 

I'm really pleased now the room is done, the only issue now, is I'm looking around the rest of the house thinking - that needs painting - you can imagine the rolling of eyes that are occurring with hubby at the moment can't you. 

Anyway I've got my sights set on said 19 year old's art room next as I've paint left and he isn't at home currently, but hubby is insisting I have fun on Thursday (when I'm typing this) and set to on the room on Friday as he can finish early and give me a hand and for once I've agreed.

We've been enjoying some fabulous theatre recently, Saturday we watched the Handebards Macbeth which was great although the noise from the traffic in the background when it was filmed a few years ago was a little frustrating at times

And Sunday night we treated ourselves again with some Shakespeare when we watched NT Lives Twelfth Night, which was brilliant, we are looking forward to Frankenstein this week with Benedict Cumberbatch and Johnny Lee Miller, apparently they both played the key roles and NT Live are going to swap the recording over mid-week so you can enjoy both, my sister has seen it twice but both times was the same, so is looking forward to seeing the one she never managed. 

Evenings are still being spent being creative, at this rate I'm going to have to open an Etsy shop as I've had to stack them up now as they keep sliding around on my desk. 

First up is a Minnie Mouse book, I was struggling for something for the front page and then realised I could cut down the giant Minnie on the 12 x 12 paper as an image for the front, I added glossy accents to the black pupils and nose and some red glitter stickles glue to the centre of the bow

The book was created with the same principles as the ones I've been done recently, so they fold out from their concertina

You can see from the top that each page is actually a pocket with a pull out tag. 

I had three sets of these square covers to use, so I did another one using an 8 x 8 pack I have

and another that I've added beads to the front, I ended up handpainting the main rose on the front in situ, as it originally had a cream tone which clashed with the papers. 

I am really pleased with all three.  This week I've been working on a frame book and generating the inside myself, the downside being that it has taken a huge amount of paper to actually cover it, far more than these other books, but it is coming together now so hopefully I will get it finished today. 

As those who read this will know my sister who is a nurse is currently working on a Covid positive ward, she came home on Monday morning with a cold, which then turned into a fever and aches and pains, so she went for a test, which came back negative, however, she has had a few colleagues with negative tests who then two days later tested positive.  If she is no better Thursday she may well go for a second test, please keep her in your thoughts and prayers. 

Apart from that there have been other positives 

11am coffee time with hubby has been lovely 

I've been a twit with food at night this week, I think others bad habits are rubbing off on me, so I need to sort that out but I have enjoyed having a bit (a lot) of chocolate. 

Me and hubby re-establishing our daily walk - it wobbled when we changed family face time but it is now back where it belongs. 

Good weather at the weekend, meaning we could kick back and enjoy and create. 

Getting house jobs done. 

And that my lovely people is it for this week, I hope you've had a grand week and have managed to stay safe.  If you fancy joining in pop a post together come back and link up and we can come and visit.