crafting curtains

This is the fabric we've chosen for Dulcie's bedroom curtains.  It's so much nicer in real life - really bright and seventies-ish and will look great with her white walls, I think.  I hadn't planned to look for curtain fabric in IKEA, but when I saw this, I knew it was right for the room and bought it immediately.  Hard to believe, I know, but I've never made curtains before, or not from scratch.  These are to be lined and will need to be joined for width too.  Eep.  Monday is the day I have set aside for the making.  I'll have a nice, big, empty room, all clean and newly decorated, to work in.  I'm hoping this will help me to succeed...  [Please don't let me mess them up.]  Having played a relatively minor role in the DIY and decorating, now is my time to shine!  Ha ha!  Wish me luck, please, and all curtain-making tips gratefully received!

what's the opposite of green fingers?

I realised I haven't blogged yet about our garden, which (other than decorating - something else I haven't blogged about) has been my main "project" this year.  I decided I wanted to grow some fruit and veg with Dulcie since she was showing an interest in all things planty, so I invested in this raised bed and window box and planted out some seeds - carrots, parsnips, beetroot and peppers in the raised bed to begin with, strawberries in the window box.  Then our neighbours cat noticed what I was doing and decided to use our raised bed as his own personal litter tray, destroying EVERY seedling in the process.  Meanwhile, something or someone began STEALING our strawberry plants until only one was left and it died.

Undeterred (OK, a bit deterred) I went back to square one, removed all cat jobby, replanted with seedlings I'd been growing on a windowsill inside and fashioned this ingenious and stylish cat-prevention system - a net with orange and lime peel tied to it and weighted down with stones.  Well, would you believe it, it worked!  The seedlings were doing great...until the slugs got them.  Every single carrot, parsnip and pepper disappeared completely.  Around half the beetroot and one baby sweetcorn remained, but these were also heavily nibbled.  Last night I fashioned some slug-prevention cylinders (made from old plastic bottles and containers and a bit more netting) so I'm hoping to plant again today, one last attempt that I'm not convinced will work.  Really, there is not enough sun in our overshadowed plot anyway and if the slugs got through the netting of the cat-prevention system, they will surely get through the netting of the slug-prevention system too.  Duh!

Fortunately, my parents (in the process of moving house) brought us their established strawberry plant (on the left here) which has delivered a handful of delicious red berries this week, all gobbled by Dulcie.  I've also got a few carrots struggling on here in the green window box and some baby sweetcorn (yet to produce any corn) that has been nibbled by cats but looks better than the one that has been nibbled by slugs.  My lettuce is growing at a snail's pace...ironically.

I'm still hoping we might get to eat SOMETHING that we've grown by autumn, but I don't think we'll be growing edibles again after this season, not in our own garden anyway.  Next year I plan to stick to pretty flowers.

Excuse the mess through the window in the background.  That would be the decorating I mentioned.  My parents have been (temporarily) living with us for less than a fortnight and have achieved more in this time than Graham and I had managed to achieve in two years.  It's great and I'm learning to live with the feeling of being a useless lump.  I'll live with it even more easily once Dulcie has her own bedroom and we have a king-size bed - possibly just a week or two away!  Yas!

time-travelling tuesday (part 8)

7th March 1988

Today at swiming swimming I swam my first length.  Next week we are going to go on the shute.  Lynn and Garry have to stay in the shallow end because Garry can't swim and Lynn didn't manage a length.

8th March 1988 Lyndsey has a dirty bum.

At school I had a sore throat.  I watched Knowhow on childrens BBC. [A picture of two bees and a sea.]  I took Kerry to chanter tonight.

9th March 1988

This week its my turn to do the date.  [Everyone took it in turns to write the date on the blackboard at school, a week at a time.] It has been since Monday.  Don't tell Mum you might have guessed. [???]  A postman came in to see us today.  I was out on my bike today as well. yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

10th March 1988

AAACHOO!  I've got the sneezes.  You know what Donna it's a pity you don't have something magical about you.  I was at brownies.  It was the gui guides last day.

11th March 1988

At school I was making the mothers day present I told you about.  [Perhaps this was the secret above?]  It is a bunch of flowers in a doily witha  ribbon tied round it.  I made a card as well with flowers on it.

12th March 1988

Today is Saturrrrday as Rigadon would say.  Kerry and I are going to might start a club.  I was outside all day long.  Well nearly all day.  Kerry tiddled her pants.  [Har har har!]  I couldn't tie my button because my hands were numb.

13th March 1988 ttto from

Y Yesterday I made a vote for Opotunity knock knocks.  Bob Monkhouse Monkhouses voice was recorded on a tape to speak on the phone.  Mothers day you know.  I was at Sunday school.

[I don't know who I voted for, but I certainly remember doing plenty of impressions of this muscle dancer around that time!  This week was pretty classic, non?]

scarlett fever

Today Dulcie went to meet Baby Scarlett for the first time.  I secretly already met Scarlett last week, but don't tell Dulcie that if you see her!  Dulcie had been so looking forward to this meeting all week.  Last night she sat bolt upright, just when I thought she'd dozed off, to exclaim, "Where is Baby Scarlett's present?!"  My dad gave us a lift over to Scarlett's house and all the way there Dulcie was saying, "Where is Baby Scarlett's house?  Where is Baby Scarlett's house?  Where is Baby Scarlett's house?" She was so delighted when Scarlett's mum said she could have a cuddle.  She'd been practising gentle cuddles and kisses on me for days for just such an opportunity.  Bless her cotton socks.  Hopefully this scene is the start of a beautiful lifelong friendship :)

[In a bid to stick to my vow to be less revealing/depressing, I have deleted a couple of hideous sentences from this post, but I can't resist telling you that they were there.  This could have been worse, people.  Jeez...]

time-travelling tuesday (part 7)

29th February 1988

Today I went swimming swimming.  We got a lady called Joyce or maybe she spells it like this Joice.  She gave us a little test.  We had to swim one breadth without stopping.  We got a certifacate.  Only Julia Garry and I went.

1st March 1988 [and some faces drawn here - see picture above]

Today when I did my writing I had to write William walks to school then the poem that is going to be on the cairn.  The Ythen welly boots had to go home early.

[I'm guessing the Ythen Welly Boots were the children who travelled from the neighbouring village, not even a village, of Ythenwells, though I had no recollection of ever calling them this.]

2nd March 1988 [more faces drawn here - see picture above]

Tonight I write two ballets and I am going to write one more.  [Prolific or what?!]  I went over to Julias house to play.  Toby was there too.  Mummy made new curtains with the sewing machine.

3rd March 1988

Now then today I made a game and played it with mum.  She was sulking because I won the game.  I finished The Firebird.

4th March 1988

Today there was no dancing.  I discovered that Gary L, Gary W, William R, Robert Hunter, Garry N, Gordon B, Jhon W and Toby R all love me.  I won a game of jump the blob.

[Wow!  I was so popular, no?  My school was tiny and that's nearly 50% of all the boys!  Perhaps it was my Jump The Blob skills that attracted them all...?]

abcmafexyz to from 5 t e 5th March 1988

Today it was snowing so naturally I went out to play.  Mr Scott brought up some skis.  Mrs Scott let me let me have a go.  I was very good at it.  I watched a very good film.

e e e 8 6th March 1988

Right now I cant think what to right.  I know I'll give you a name.  Donna Diary.  I was doing my writers badge for Brownies on Thursday.  I was baking.

multiple mailings

I'm still off work for now, but feeling a good bit better after some tweaks to my medication.  This is the second batch of snail mail I've managed to write and send in the last week.  It feels good to pop pleasant surprises in post boxes :)

Now I must go and find some nailvarnish remover...

six today!

This card available here.

My blog is six years old today!  What shall we do to celebrate?

In some ways, my blog hasn't changed much over the years, not in any meaningful way.  In other ways, it has mutated into something of a monster that I can't quite control.

Goals for year seven?

More: making and blogging about making.  

Less: revealing!