All sorted!

Yes, the unpacking is now all complete. Having visitors arriving tommorrow night was a good incentive to get on with things, and except for a few finishing touches, we had the main house in order last week. But arranging my own 'special space' was a daunting task, not the least because the room was so full of boxes that I couldn't move in there. But it is now all finished. There's 'a place for everything, and everything in it's place' as mum used to say. Things are arranged differently from what I am used to, so I need to make lots of labels to help me find things when I want them. I have my big desk to work at my craft on, and it will be very convenient to have the computer in the same room as I often use them together. Chris didn't think I would ever get it straight so he was quite surprised when I brought him down to see it last night. His contribution was to play with the magnets on my cupboard door so they are smiling at me! He did then put up a few picture hooks for me, so I could hang two pictures that Jonathan and Ben did in their final year of primary school, and I think for eleven year olds, they did pretty well. I've also hung a picture of daisies, that was painted by the lady who is visiting us this week. Jenny illustrates childrens' books, and Chris commissioned her to paint some daisies for my birthday several years ago. My final picture is a flower made up of hand prints of all the children who were in my nursery when I retired. Sadly the original had to go when we moved but I took a photo of it and have now printed it out for my wall. It was such a lovely thing to do for me. The staff knew I was always facinated by the childrens' hands. All my boys had big hands with long thin fingers, and it wasn't until I worked in the nursery that I discovered how much little hands can vary. Some are so small and delicate and others are soft and podgy with short, fat fingers. We were always printing with hands, drawing round them, casting them in plaster and pressing them into playdough, so the staff knew what they were doing when they collaged them all for me, when I left. I am so lucky to have this lovely room to 'do my own thing' in. I can't wait to get started, and as I have a grand-daughter who is seventeen at the end of the month, and a niece getting married in May, I have some cards to make.

And to finish off the house today we hung a big multi-frame above the fire in the sitting room which I have filled with photos of the boys and the grandchildren. There was nowhere to hang my 'rogues gallery' - individual pictures of each of them, that has always been on my wall, but it is getting increasingly difficult to get recent photos of them all, so this frame is a good solution. Chris also put up my butterflies on the outside walls of the house. He bought two for me on our twentieth wedding anniversary, from the workshop where they are made, near Llangollen. Later we bought one for Peggy, Chris' mum, and when Mary cleared the house out to sell it after Peggy died, she gave it back to us. So we now have two flying on the side wall and another one landing on the rehas on the front window. They look quite at home there. I also found time today to make bread (French bread, not Spanish!), and a ginger cake, and do some gardening, but I think I'll write about the flowers tomorrow. The clock is just striking midnight, and as I stripped the bed for the wash this morning, I had better go and put some clean sheets on before one of us wants to crawl inbetween them. Good-night all.