All at Sea - with a bucket and spade!

Emma was very excited in the run up to concrete day. The garden’s her thing really. I mean, I like sitting in it. But to be honest I don’t really care what it looks like. Not at all in fact. Which is good. I have my Uni stuff and my craft stuff to fill my time and express my creativity. Emma has the garden and DIY stuff. So it kind of works.

Sue and Baz came. Bless them. They didn’t stop. Thankfully Jeanette and Ian and Leah came aswell. I think Sue and Baz may not have made it home in one piece otherwise. Leah got stuck in aswell. Even Steve from next door jumped over the fence and pulled us all through the last hour (well he didn’t really jump the fence but it sounds more heroic than walking down his garden and coming through into our garden through the garage door). Anyway, this is what we acheived. Baz was naughty and spent an hour or two the next morning picking out stones and bits of rubble and brick. Emma blogged it here.

Next Thursday (10th) some (hopefully) hunky men are coming round to shift the piles of broken concrete and bricks and broken paving slabs. Who knows what Emma’s gonna do then. The world’s her oyster. Well, the garden’s her canvas anyway.

Thank you everyone!!!

Everything was a mess. I can handle either my bedroom or the craft room being an absolute tip but not both. Anyway, a week or so ago, I gutted my room and the craft room. The easter bunny gift bag  has been recycled as a storage container for one my many little collections of stuff! Tesco cake tins have been drafted in. Decorated yoghurt pots. Little origami boxes I made myself for the really tiny things. I pretty much know where everything is now. All very satisfying.

My bedroom wasn’t quite so difficult although it did get completely gutted aswell. I like my room. It reminds me of the palace made entirely of chocolate in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Contrary to popular belief, that’s why I lick the walls.

I think they look good. Especially as they were almost a third of the original price! I also bought the two peter rabbit tins on the shelf - the bunny shaped one and the green square one. Not from Cath Kidston, from Wiggler, a toy shop in Chipping Norton. I need to be organised when my life is changing. I’ve been tidying and sorting for almost 36 hours straight

My bedroom has never really been tidied since I decorated it a couple of months ago. Well, half decorated it. It isn’t actually finished. I’ll carry on gradually over the next couple of years with what little spare dosh I’ll have

And I found a good use for hama beads. I bought them for Leah but she wasn’t remotely interested. Then I got given another load. I got cherries in kirsch for Christmas. They were lovely. I ate them on New Years Day. With cream. Anyway, I put a couple of fake flowers (posh ones not cheap ones) in the ‘cherries in kirsch’ bottle and filled it with hama beads to hold the flowers. I like it. It’s pretty.

This was my bed as I left for work today. I’m wearing my cheap primark jimmies at the moment. They cost £3 because they’re kids. And they were sewn in a sweat shop somewhere. If they were adults, they’d have been £4. They’ve lasted me a couple of years so far. I’m impressed.

The book is ‘when you walk’ by Adrian Plass. It’s a daily bible meditation type book. I’m enjoying it. This morning I read his take on ‘blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled’. It gave me a lot of food for thought. I know lots of people who seem hungry and thirsty for righteousness. Some of them are Christians. Some aren’t. And I know plenty of people who don’t. Some are Christians. Some aren’t. It’s taken me down so many trains of thought as the day’s gone on. Some safe, warm places. Some uncomfortable emotionally. And some uncomfortable theologically.

And here’s a picture of me when I was 4. Someone brought a bag of second hand clothes round and I remember being really excited by this dress. I used to wear my brother’s hand-me-downs so I felt very pretty trying it on.

I’m really glad we never got much in the way of nice things because I really appreciated the stuff we did get. I used to feel really excited by any presents. The kind of excited that means you can’t sleep. I think it was a real blessing in my life that we didn’t get lots of ’stuff’ - clothes/toys/treats - as children. I’m sure it makes you much more grateful and happier as an adult with what you do have in life.

1 - Pete with his new hairdo. Bit like Marge Simpson don’t you think?!! 2 - Little Em having her head stroked

3) My dinner on the right. Emma’s on the left. Mine’s more colourful!

4) I actually really did give Em a piggy back. 5) And Emma opening the door for the Burnetts (they came back for coffee  )