Friday Smiles 2024 Week 39

Hi again. Well work has continued apace and the end is in view. As is my way, I made lists - Things to do before photos; Things to do after photos; Things to put out on 'big rubbish' day; Things to store carefully etc, and I am pleased to say that there are only a few small tasks left to do this weekend on the first list, none at all left on the third one, and the rest is all do-able in our own time. The agent is coming to take photos on Tuesday and then we will officially be "Se Vende" or For Sale. 

Down here in my craft room all is bright and tidy. We chose cream paint for the walls but it looks more yellow in this sunny room. We also decided to paint what was Chris' office and ¡s now a dining room again, as the walls were quite marked when we moved the furniture. We have an old 'Welsh Dresser' that was here when we moved in, and we decided to put it back in the dining room but left it in the hall while the room was being painted. Poor Leo is confused by all the boxes and rooms changing and was looking for somewhere to lay out in peace, so he jumped up on the dresser and slept all day. As you can see, when he stretches out he is long now, and filled the whole table.

I have been working on one more set of loose squares that I must have started making about ten years ago. Every square was the same and I got tired of it so put it away. However I found enough squares to make up a small blanket so I sewed them all together and worked a border and had one more blanket to donate to the food bank. So that is most of my half-finished projects sorted now.

We have had some lovely weather and the men have been working hard, so after lunch they have a siesta outside (Strictly on a timer so they don't cook!). So I found two 'sleeping beauties' when I went looking for them yesterday.

One item on my list was to replace a couple of dying annual plants in the hanging boxes so there was some colour in them for the photos, so this week Tom took me to a garden centre and we came back with these.

We also bought these which look like a bit of a tangled mess but they are actually two green trailing plants, one to go on top of the little water feature on the porch, and one for the corner of the mantlepiece. They were soon untangled and trail nicely in their new homes.

The warm evenings are bringing out some large moths and Leo, who sleeps all day, goes hunting at night, and twice this week he has brought these in for us. Sadly they are dead when I find them but they are beautiful creatures. I believe they are humming bird hawk moths, and Leo does well to catch them as they can fly really fast. I wish he wouldn't catch them, but it is in his nature to do so.

Tom called me out to see the sunset last night but I was almost too late to see it. But I still thought this was a very pretty sky. The curled up cloud shows how windy it was a bit higher up.

Tomorrow we have to make another trip to the charity shop, and another trip to the recycling centre, then I just have to wash the bath mats and chair covers over the weekend, and we'll be ready.

So now I will get ready to publish this in the morning and link up with Annie's Friday Smiles.

Friday Smiles 2024 # Week 38

Another week of chaos here but quite a positive one. We now know that the agent will be here to take photos on 1st October so we have a target to get everything finished by. It will all look a lot better after the weekend when we can again put large items out by the bin for collection. Then we can rearrange the furniture as we want it. 

I had warned Tom he might be doing some painting and here he is covering the two-tone wall that was behind my cupboards. Now my computer desk is in the middle of the room and this afternoon he will paint the walls on the opposite side of the room. It has covered well and looks so much better.

I have been trying to get decent photos of the two cats to make a re-homing poster and they are very uncooperative. As soon as they see me with my phone out, they look away. This is the best I have managed so far.

This little fellow has taken up residence in my kitchen this week. I don't know where he hides away all day, but each evening he is up on the ceiling, hopefully catching a few midges etc for his supper. Tolly hasn't noticed him there, but Leo was instantly aware of him, and each night he eats his supper with one eye on the ceiling. but he can't get anywhere near it, so it is quite safe up there.

Last week I showed two baby blankets I had made and here is another. This is big enough for a pram or pushchair. I used to make these little squares with left over scraps of yarn, when ever I needed something to do at sewing because my current project was too big and cumbersome to carry around. Every square is unique. Sometimes I would take a bag of red scraps with me, another time yellow etc and I had no idea how many I had made. It turned out I had 72 in total, so I arranged them in ten rows of seven, and ditched a couple. I crocheted them together and did a simple border. It was intended to keep going until there was enough for a bed, but this is big enough to be useful for one of the food bank regulars. Fortunately I had fastened in the ends of each square as it was finished, or this would have been a much bigger task to complete.

I have one more small blanket to finish sewing up and work a border for. I also had a colourful strip of work that I did years ago to try out a pattern from Attic 24, but I found it hard to work the long rows and knew a blanket would be heavy to hold, so I had just left it. I showed a friend at sewing and said "I don't think I can do anything with this bit" and she said "Yes you can. Add a fringe along each end and you will have a scarf for one of the children's Christmas boxes." So last night I did that. It is just waiting for me to get my good scissors to level up the edges and that is it done. It is good to see all these old projects being put to good use.

And that is how this week has rushed along. Next week will probably be even busier but then we can settle down and do the rest of the sorting in our own time, though we will of course have to keep everywhere tidy in the hope that there will be some viewings soon.

Now I have to unplug my computer again and get all the cables out of the way, so tomorrow I will link up to Annie's Friday Smiles using my tablet if I can. 

Friday Smiles 2024 # Week 37

Another busy week has gone, and I am quite pleased with the progress I have made clearing the garage. Again, we have thrown out loads of black bags bursting with rubbish. There is still a pile ready to go to the charity shop, and a few empty boxes to find homes for, but considering what it was like a week ago, it is looking pretty tidy now!

I have also sorted through all my wool now and have two big crates that are going back to Uk with me, and two more to offer to the sewing group. I found about six ongoing projects and kept out a few I thought I could finish here. One was this blanket. It is only half done, but I have stopped it at a place where it makes quite a nice blanket for a cot or pram. The lady who runs the food bank likes to have a few blankets etc ready for when a regular family has a new baby, and they love the colourful blankets. 

I also found a bag full of blue, crocheted squares. They have been at the back of a drawer for a few years and I have no recolllection of making them. They could even have been given to me during the time my 'Knit for Africa' project was running. They were very grubby but lovely and soft, so one evening I sewed them together to make another small blanket. Then I found some soft yellow cotton to make a border and added a few flowers randomly. I washed it by hand the next day and it came out nice, so those two will be delivered next week.

I had to miss sewing this week because I had an appointment with my dermatologist. I have had an ongoing skin problem for a few years and it got considerably worse during the hot weeks of summer. Nothing the doctor or hospital gave me helped at all, so in the end we paid to see a private dermatologist. She took two biopsies and arranged a blood test and yesterday I went back for the results. The condition has a long name that I will never remember, but the creams and tablets that she gave me last time have improved it dramatically. Even she was surprised when she saw it. So I still have them with a decreased dosage, and hopefully it will clear up completely soon, though she did warn me it could re-occur.

The blood test also showed I have very low vitamin B and iron, so I went to my doctor this morning and  have more pills for that now. I take so many pills I rattle and I am greased up like a pole to keep the squirrels out of the birdfeeder, but if it works....

During the water ban we have not been able to fill our pool but we needed it full and looking good for when the house goes on the market, so last week Chris almost drained it and replaced and grouted a few missing tiles. Then on Tuesday a huge tanker arrived outside. (Inox means steel). It was full of water from the Cabrera mountains. 

It parked as close to the wall as possible, and the driver threw a large pipe over the wall, and soon lovely clean, fresh water was pouring into the pool.

After about half an hour the pool was full, and yes, we did both have a swim that afternoon, and it wasn't as cold as I had expected. Tom will be pleased when he arrives on Sunday.

Tonight Chris and I were sitting out on the porch eating tea when we noticed a lovely pink hint in the sky, and the white half moon shadow of early evening.

Hoping it was sign of a lovely sunset round the other side of the house, I followed it round the back where the sky was pinker. But when I got right round, as so often happens, the sky wasn't pink, but a pale and very lovely yellow. This deepened into a rich gold, and I stayed watching until it turned a deep, bright red, and then it was gone. One of nature's miracles and I love it. So  here are a few photos I took.

We are not there yet, but I think we will be sorted ready for the photos to be taken at the start of October.  But for now I will prepare this for linking with Annie's Friday Smiles and  publishing tomorrow.

Friday Smiles 2024 # Week 36

I can't believe another week has flown by. I guess being busy helps the hours run faster. I am happy to say the chaos in my craft room is over. I now have a lot of space, and several shelves of well sorted and packed craft supplies in 'Really useful boxes'. Chris has filled the crack in the wall though there are still several holes to deal with. Then it will be painted and all the shelves will be arranged neatly on one wall. I shall keep one desk set up as my computer station, and the room will be described as "bedroom three, currently being used as a craft room"

Our big bin on the street has never been so regularly full. The bin men must be wondering what is going on. 

After a not very pleasant visit to the dentist to have impressions done for some new teeth  today, we took several boxes of useful items to the Lions charity shop, and my friends at the sewing group enjoyed going through all the things I took there on Wednesday.

Yes I had enough craft materials to open a craft shop, and probably enough wool to open a wool shop too, so sorting wool was my task yesterday and today. It is all sorted now into boxes I am keeping, a bag for a friend who knits jumpers, hats and gloves to sell, a box for my friends to go through, and just a small amount to throw away. I also have kept out four half finished projects that I will try to finish off before we move. After a busy day it is nice to relax in the evening with something different to think about.

It has continued to be quite hot here most days though the evenings are drawing in now. This is my two cats laid out in front of the fan. I am going to miss them so much, but it will be better for them if I can rehome them soon. They are quite disturbed with all the boxes, and everything being moved around, and there is no way we can take them to UK with us. To start with we will be staying with our son in London and he lives on a very busy road with constant trafic, which Leo and Tolly are not used to at all. Plus our son has two elderly cats of his own who probably wouldn't welcome any newcomers.

We have been threatened with rain on several days but only had a good downpour once. But each day there are clouds gathering and then dispersing again. This was the sky today and it was really nice to see it as we get very few days when it looks like this. But note how brown and dry the land is. Normally it would be covered in weeds/wild-flowers at this time of year.

But we did manage one nice sunset on Sunday night, when the sky was a lovely shade of pink for a short while.

I have had several nice long video chats with Ben this week and today Tom called from Denmark to say he has got three weeks off work to come over and help us. He is arriving on Sunday 15th. It will be good to have a strong pair of hands to lift things from the high cupboards, and move the furniture around. He might get handed a paint brush too!

The boys and their families have all had lovely holidays while the children were off school. Now it is back to routine for them all, but for me the best holiday picture is this one. My littlest great-grandson Reuben, with his sandy face and cheeky grin, who obviously had a wonderful time in Ibiza with his mum and dad and two big brothers.

Now I will prepare this for linking up with Annie's Friday Smiles, and publishing it in the morning.