ROCKING YOUR WORLD FRIDAY - 35TH OF 2026

 Good morning lovely people tis Friday time to clock the silver linings and positive moments from the last seven days. 

On Friday I dropped hubby off for two boat trips he was covering and ventured to Ikea to meet my sister for a catch up which was overdue and much needed.  Sometimes you need to be able to be really honest about things and we were and whilst it made for a hard discussion we were both sensible enough to listen to each other and thankfully came full circle by the end so back on an even keel as they say. 

I then headed home for a short while before picking hubby up from his destination.

Saturday was a quiet day where we spent some time plotting and planning for the autumn, booked some tickets and then enjoyed sitting outside enjoying the fine weather (particularly given the fact we had rain forecast for the following weekend)

We noted last week that we had done little off the 'to visit' list for the summer but I'll be honest this doesn't differ from previous summers.  I think because it is always much busier with the children being off and because the summer has been hellishly warm that we really didn't want to venture particularly far. 

However, one of the things to do was a day trip to York.  There is always so much to do in York, places to visit, shops and streets to wander, but our main reason for the visit was to find 'The Watchers of York' based on the gargoyles/grotesques on York Minster this was a small trail of 12 around the city which is more than doable in a day.  In addition to this we wanted to see the wave exhibition at York art gallery which we had only recently learnt about but was due to leave at the end of August. 

So last Sunday we set off for York less than an hour of motorway and we had arrived at the park and ride and headed into the city.

We got off at the train station and immediately found our first watcher, and then proceeded to find the next one in the Milner Hotel next. 

We worked our way across the city, surprisingly finding some new places that we hadn't come across before and had great views of the river. 

At almost 11.30am we walked past the minster down High Petersgate and into the art gallery which was really busy if I'm honest.

Three huge rooms showed the history of Japanese woodblock, how it had been at a time of isolation from the outside world, how the prints had to be given a seal of approval (and what happened if they weren't). 

We saw prints of courtesans that were revered, prints of plays and famous actors, prints at night to include bright moons and dark skies and finally we also saw one of the original wave prints, whilst tens of thousands were created only 111 remain and this was one of those.  It was surprisingly smaller than I had anticipated.  

At the end we had the opportunity to make our own wave print which was good fun and then we ventured upstairs for their normal art exhibitis.  There was a glorious one with new artwork which I enjoyed and then two huge rooms full of pottery including a ceramic armchair and some rather disturbing pots by Grayson Perry, the vases were ornate enough but the imagery was very challenging. 

Back out into the sunshine and we completed the trail 

Before hopping on a bus back to the car and heading home. 

Monday through to Wednesday I had busy workdays due to the financial audit we had at work, I was glad when I was finished on Wednesday if truth be told as it had been mentally quite taxing.

Thursday and we decided to deep clean the TV room, we knew an Aragog (giant spider's name in our house) had come into the room earlier in the week, we just had no idea where he was, so a deep clean was very much needed and so we spent a solid few hours sorting, hoovering, dusting, wiping, cleaning and sorting. 

I swapped the cushions on the sofa for orange and purple as I lean into my autumn mode and in the evening we popped to Ikea, I bought two replacement rugs, a little basket for bookmarks and some Kallax boxes to house my wool (with a further promise to hubby that it won't exceed the 4 boxes (fingers crossed I can keep to it). It was a joy to sit in the room on Thursday evening as the room felt so much positive. 

On Thursday afternoon (post TV room clean, pre-Ikea trip) my sister popped and we sat and chatted for several hours catching up on our week and enjoying a coffee, it was a really lovely catch up. 

I hope you've had a good week too. 

Hugs 

ROCKING YOUR WORLD FRIDAY - 34TH OF 2026

 Good evening lovely people tis Friday time for

Well last Friday I was working which is most unusual but I'd swapped my week around due to my niece's wedding.  I was working from home and managed to finish a little earlier which was great.  

I had the weekend planned as hubby was boat training, my plan was to craft with Bridgerton playing in the background which is exactly what I did.  I have a friend and I make mini books for her two girls' birthdays each year and so I put together a new mini book. 

This was the one I completed on Saturday 

It was a different design than I'm used to so it was fun to create something different. 

and this was the one I did on Sunday

I was using an eclectic mix of papers as I'm in 'using up' mode.  Hopefully the girls enjoy filling them with birthday memories. 

I've been busy at work this week, swapping my days back to normal, so it was nice to go and harvest some of the items I've grown this year on Wednesday night. This is my first heritage striped tomato, some orange cherry tomatoes and cucamelons (which are very strange and fun to grow but definitely an acquired taste). 

and this raised a smile my first successful strawberry plant with a flower. 

and I'm going to leave you with these smiley photographs of my grandson

can you believe he is going to be one next month. 

And that my lovely people is my week, a quiet one but fun nonetheless. 

I hope yours has been grand.  

ROCKING YOUR WORLD FRIDAY - 33RD OF 2026

 Good Evening all time to clock the silver linings and positive moments from the last 7 days. 

Well what a week it has been, last Thursday I spent the day with my niece and my daughter-in-law and Grandson as we spent the day making floral displays from artificial flowers for my niece's wedding which was imminent.  We were worried that we wouldn't get done everything that we wanted but to be honest the day went like a dream, my niece's vision was in line with what I had thought she wanted and we carefully worked our way through and managed to make the floral displays easily.  I didn't take any photos on the day (we were busy) but my hubby captured them in situ on the day of her wedding. 

So she wanted a display next to the mirror they had which had words on it. 

She wanted a display on the top table

And four plinths at the end of the aisle this was taken the night before so it is quite dark

this was on the morning of the wedding but you can see the bar as they were setting up at the time, obviously the doors were closed for the ceremony

Then we had a quiet Saturday pending our journey over for a two day stay over where they were getting married. 

We spent Sunday afternoon (the day before the wedding) setting up the flowers, ribbons and displays in readiness for the wedding. 

All the tables were set, table runners, flowers, candles, placemats, name cards ribbon bunting at the far end. 

Top table 

In the evening I asked her what she wanted to do with regards to the bouquets for herself and her bridesmaids as she'd taken fresh flowers and she was quite happy for me to make the bouquets up for the bridesmaids. 

So I started one and she was happy and so two more were added to the mix. 

I decided to leave the bridal bouquet until the morning of the wedding as I genuinely wasn't sure how the flowers would fair in the heat and didn't want rework.  So whilst everyone else was having their hair and make up done. 

I set too making the bridal bouquet, putting ribbons on all the bouquets and creating eight buttonholes for the groomsmen.  By then end the bouquets and button holes looked great, everyone had fabulous hair and make up and I looked like Cinderella sat on the floor not a morsel of make up and my hair scooped up in a clip. 

Thankfully an hour spent curling my hair and putting on some make up and we were all good and then the momentous occasion was upon us.  These are two of the photos that the bride and groom have shared on social media by a photographer called Jodie, who genuinely was an absolute star.  On Friday my niece got an email indicating that her original photographer was cancelling and so there was a mad rush on social media to try and find a photographer in budget that could help, the photographer on the day who travelled all the way from south Wales to Goole genuinely pulled off the most amazing day photos wise.  Her business is Click Photography and she genuinely travels all around the country for days like this, so if you need an excellent photographer then this business is highly recommended. 

Photos of me and my sister

Me, son and daughter-in-law (who was one of the bridesmaids)

Me, son, daughter-in-law and hubby

Son and daughter-in-law

Me and the stunning bride

In the ceremony room a chair had been saved for where my Mum would have sat, to say it brought a tear is an understatement, with one of her cardigans hung on the back of the chair. 

Rings shot

And the crochet bags that my niece asked me to create for the bridesmaids, not sure if I've shared them before but they were used.  Hindsight - I would have lined them, but hey they were made which was the main thing. 

And then it was done only the packing away to do on Tuesday and then back to normality and wedded life for them.  Wednesday become the start of my working week (rather than the end) and so that is the reason for my tardiness today.  

My heart is full and I feel eternally grateful that I was able to help in whatever way helped the day go so well.