Locking and Lobbing and other outings

Busy month! October 10th was indulgence day. I made my annual expedition to the Knitting and Stitching Show at Ally Pally. Determined not to spend too much - last year I certainly did - a new machine I seem to recall! Normally I go with my daughter this year I went alone so no-one to gossip and bitch with! My feet ached by the end but I did find some lovely bits and caught up with several old friends on the stands. My spoils are in the picture!
This week I went with friends from the RNA to visit Locks the hatmakers and Lobbs the bootmakers in St James St in London. Both places I have been to as a customer in my costume design days but this time I saw the works side especially at Lobbs. Fascinated by the detail that goes into making a pair of shoes, I truly never realised just how many pieces of pattern were needed for such a small item! And it was somewhat emotional to handle the wooden lasts that were used to make shoes for the Princess of Wales, Frank Sinatra and my own favourite David Niven. I did once have some boots made there for him for the Canterville Ghost years ago.
The saddest news of the month is the death of my beloved Mercedes A Class. The clutch collapsed and at £2000 to repair even I said enough was enough. I shed a tear or two as it went off to the fire brigade for rescue exercises, but even worse is not having a car at all. I have borrowed the builders van that the dh drives but it's not the same! He'll get round to finding a new car - eventually - but with finances as they are I dread to think when or what! The extension is taking up all his time and money. Finally we have some progress. The old staircase came out this week and at last I have some heat in my sewing room, not much elsewhere. The dining room had a temperature of 9% celcius the other day. I live in heavy fleeces and fur lined Uggs. Otherwise I am busy making costumes for the local music hall - again!
I have done 5 dame frocks, and am currently working on a highwayman sketch. Trying to make a 10foot diameter satin lined cloak in these filthy coditions was not exactly a breeze! But it looks good finished, now to make two Directoire gowns and loads of stocks sashes and hats

Tuscany this time

After only two days at home I was off again, alone this time. Only being me I opted to travel from Gatwick - yes I know Stansted is only just up the road but there you go! It of course had to be thick fog as we set off at 5am. The dh was NOT amused! Then of course we all get on the plane to be told we can't take off because of fog so we are to sit on the plane for TWO hours! I was OK, having opted for business class I had three seats to myself and a Hello mag from the lounge so I wallowed in gossip for eventually one and a half hours before we took off.Have to sa the pilot was very good and explained as much as he could to keep us in the picture. I was actually pleased to have chosen BA for once - and my luggage made it with me! We were a bit perturbed at Pisa to see a huge queue at Lost Luggage but ours turned up! I went to do a writing course at the Watermill at Posara along with 9 other ladies. Anita Burgh was in charge so I knew we were in good hands - and we had a brilliant time! Lots of wine and chat, slightly disappointing food in almost empty rstaurants however, but we made up for it on a train ride to Lucca on the Weds when 8 of us made for a restaurant in the guide book and had a fabulous meal. Lots of shoe/boot/bag shopping that day! We had one pretty good meal in a restaurant at the top of a mountain, luckily at lunchtime so we could see the view, but Kersten the resident housekeeper was a good chef when we ate in and we all voted her meals the best of all. Posara is tiny, no shop or even a bar but in a huge wooded valley and the village was so pretty. The apartment I shared with another girl overlooked the river and a stream running into it and we slept like logs - could be the wine of course! It came in old fashioned pop bottles at every opportunity!
The only downside was geting back to Gatwick and the dh had a rugby match at home. 'Get the train to St Albans,' he said so I did. Only to find engineering on the line. I had two heavy cases and my computer case to carry. You have no idea just how many steps there are when you have to change trains THREE times! I was finally collected at our local station as he decided he could leave the match for ten minutes and then told 'there's a party at Hertford Club because a Spanish team the guys play were playing Hertford this weekend and there was a special 'tasting' meal laid on - with booze of course! SO I ended the evening surrounded by drunken rugby players - hunky yes - but when you were as knackered as I was no use whatsoever!

Jaunting and Jollies

I've finally been away this year - and to two places in Europe in two weeks
The dh and I wizzed off to Valenca to visit our old friends from the pub in Benington who moved to Spain earlier this year. They now live in an aincent hill village an hour or so from Valencia and it was so emotional seeing them waitng at the airport for us. Their house is a typical village house and hundreds of years old, all nooks and crannies and hidden courtyards, as a designer I loved it. We were taken all over the area, to mountain viewpoints a castle topped hill town where the houses were built into the hillside (literally - when the owners wanted more rooms they tunnelled back into the mountain!) We ate really well - since Barb was the pub's chef! and had a fab tapas meal at a bar on the dh's birthday, with battered calamari to die for! Another visit was to the local Bodega/Cooperativa to buy wine and local honey. 'Oh', I said after we got back to the house. 'We can't take it back to the UK it's a liquid!' And we had 10 litres of wine in boxes. 'No problem,' said the dh. He took all the shoes out of the case and packed the lot. Needless to say I gave dire threats about what would happen if my clothes were covered with wine, but despite being JUST on the weight we made it back. The wine is great and the honey the best I've ever tasted!

Bucholic Frolics!

Well it's all been happening in our village the last couple of months!
July saw our 'Wheelbarrow Race' a happening unique to Braughing. Usually it rains which adds to the fun but this year it held off - well mostly! It consists of grown men dressed up often as 'ladies' pushing each other n decorated wheelbarrows round the village past two pubs and drinking at each before wheeling themselves through the ford which has been dammed up for the evening. Everyone gets soaked, the kids throw paper bags of flour at the contestants and then everyone drinks and dances in the street till the early hours - even if it rains. Somehow it remains amazingly good-humoured and happy. It's rather nice to wander the village street, glass in hand and chat to friends and neighbours!

This last weekend we went to the local pop festival! Well I say festival - some friends open their garden to an invited audience to picnic - drink (of course) look at paintings in their house and listen and dance to a band called Soul Kitchen who are a brilliant Soul and Blues band and great entertainment. We met up with some friends and danced happily all night AGAIN!

Fun today collecting dd and family from Stansted after their hols and returning here for a quick family supper. Naomi (nearly three) entertained us with the new song she had learnt in French at the kids club - great accent by the way! We were way impressed, maybe next time she will learn to speak English!

Escape Time - off the the Romantic Novelist Conference

Finally after 18 months of planning we had to call off the Robin Hood Ball. We just couldn't sell enough tickets. I was pretty pissed off as you can imagine, but there was a silver lining. It meant I could go to the RNA conference which I had thought I was going to miss as it was the same weekend. So off I went to Chichester University with the car loaded to the gills. Well the weather forecast was so bad I took everything just in case.
Booking so late meant I wasn't in the main complex but tucked away in a student house one of 12 or so empty houses behind a line of huge trees. Just me, four bedrooms and a bathroom straight out of Bates Motel. I took one look at the shower and quickly decided I would wash instead. God! It was so scary! I chose a downstairs room and hoped for the best. Fine, until I got back from the bar and as I was getting into bed realised I had left the car lights on. So...I got dressed again and then found the dodgy front door lock (which even the uni man had struggled with) had locked itself, locking me inside in the process. I tried the back door but couldn't get round the wire fence and trees, so finally I climbed out of the very narrow, very high window ending up at one point with one foot somewhere round my ear and the other on the ground! Thank goodness I was once a dancer! Then I had to spend another 20 minutes trying to unlock the front door. And where were the security men when you needed them? Mind you, it might have taken some explaining!
Apart from that it was a great conference. The only photos I took were in the bar on night one, this one is M&B author Cathy Wade alias Kate Walker getting into the routine - (sorry Cathy!!) Lots of old mates to gossip with, some super workshops - and of course lots of books to buy apart from the goody bag full of them. I got Katie Fforde's new one Marraige Season and Giselle Green's Pandora's Box as well as Jane Wenham Jones's Writing Guide. Jane's talk was such a hoot I had to have it. Her story of the yoghurt and cucumber has us all howling with laughter - and in a chapel as well! And no - I won't tell all the story suffice to say it involved an Egyptian massuesse and the afore mentioned ingredients. Never have a Spa Experience in Egypt, girls!!!!

House

Well we are finally beginning to have a new chunk of house!! The photos show the progress from timber frame to a building of sorts. OK, so far it is a glorified drying area cum toystore but the bones are there. However we are now stuck, thanks to our antiquated planning system. As we are Grade II listed we have to ask permission for everything to do with the appearance of the house even if we disagree with the verdict of the planners.surveyors/listed building surveyors - and they charge us for every letter so if we argue it costs!!??! The dh won't let me anywhere near them in case I upset them. Upset them? I'd hang the lot - preferably from our unfinished extension. We are informed we have to have 4 different roof finishes. FOUR - I ask you. No way are we allowed to thatch the new bit so it blends in with the old, oh no. It has to have clay tiles, and then slate on the second section of roof (another listed buildings requiment) This plus the small area of felted flat roof - you get the picture? Look carefully at the picture of the back and you can see the problem. Oh, and in this age of climate change and sky high heating bills we are NOT allowed double glazing - SINGLE ONLY.
Our lovely 16th century cottage was rescued from dereliction in the sixties by an eccentric, alcoholic, caftan-wearing American, who helped it along by putting picture windows all along the back in a long dormer. Consequently this was part of the listing. So we have the perfect cottage on the street front (see the pink one in the picture)and a sixties nightmare at the back.
The pictures show the extent so far of the building inside and out, and a view of the garden so far being protected from the ravages of building. There is a line across the lawn that the builders are not allowed to cross and so far it is working. In fact the dh has worked so hard on the garden that he is trying very hard.
Speaking of that, we had our 25th Wedding anniversary this week with a party held at my daughter's house (in the circumstances a brilliant idea - thank you Caroline)
It was great to see lots of friends and family we haven't seen in a while and for once the weather was great. I wil post pictures eventually but I have to rely on others as I didn't have time to take any - too busy talking! But we did get given several presents of roses bushes from my favourite David Austin and a really cute statue of a little girl. Of which my little g-d kept going up to and saying 'hello little girl'!
Today I finally had had enough of dust everywhere after yesterdays onslaught on th side of the existing house - there is only so much 16th century dirt a girl can tolerate, so I had a major clean-up. Washed rugs and windows, polished furniture, I felt great and can look the house in the eye for at least a day! But they'll be back...

22nd May Off to Chelsea

Today dd and I sneaked a day off and hightailed it up to the Chelsea Flower Show. I made a really strong decision NOT to buy anything! And in fact I was prety good, a pair of small topiary shears for my box hedging (mainly because dh always leaves his so blunt I can't use them) Oh and some hyacinth bulbs for nest spring. I have a thing about hyacinths, they smell so gorgeous and pop up out of no-where just before evrything else. I got a deep blue and a very strong pink to go with the pale pink and white I got last year. Somehow we have developed a routine when we go to the show, straight to the big marquee and David Austin roses, the Caribbean stands, roses, pinks, the dutch bulbs, delphiniums and orchids. The scent in there is fantastic you just breath flowers, and it never seems too crowded, it's easy to see everything and talk to the stand holders. I took a mangled sample flower with me and the lovely man at David Austin gave me a name for it in seconds - and a quick lecture on its history! Naturally we had to have a glass of Pimms, it wouldn't be Chelsea without that! However we took sandwiches this year, the restaurants are SO expensive and take ages. This was my second trip to London in a week, last week I went up for the Romantic Novelists Annual Summer party at the Institute of Mechanical Engineers Library in Birdcage Walk. A huge impressive building full of gossiping novelists. I caught up with lots of old friends I hadn't seen for some time and really enjoyed it.

Finally we have lift-off!

After FOUR years of planning applications we finally got started on our extention! All we wanted was one small room on the back to house a new staircase thus freeing up the dining room of stairs, you'd think we were asking for the moon!
Anyway, the dh and his oppo got going this week, knee-deep in wet concrete and the back garden looks like the Somme, it hardly seems to have stopped raining since. I am consolling myself that soon I will have more space and his office willl be out of the livng room - and I will be able to watch the telly I want to watch. Why is golf, football, snooker, etc the mainstay of men's lives? It is never off the TV and when it is it's University Challenge and Mastermind closely followed by Jeremy flaming Clarkson!

Had to laugh last night, I went to babysit my daughter's children and the littlest one (nearly three) bounced into the house back from nursery with 'hello Nanny where's Ho-HO?' Why she calls the dh Ho-Ho we have no idea but she has done ever since she could get the words out. He even answers to it now!

A village evening

Last night was just a bit different. We went to a church service and re-newed our wedding vows along with a few dozen other couples. Really touching, until the dh - being told to kiss his wife - was discovered to be chewing gum!!! We even had champagne afterwards, and wedding cake served at the back of the church, so civilised!
Saturday was different too. Our favourite pub landlords have finally decided they have had enough of battling breweries and the chancellor and are going to live in Spain. So Saturday was their send-off and leaving do. Lots of tears and laughs, loads of wine and hugs. We shall really miss them as it has become such a nice habit to just run over to Dave and Barbs and be sure of a welcome any time. We used to live very close to the Bell but now we are further away it is more of a journey but it was well worth the effort.

The pattern comes to life

Finally I have finished the dress and jacket I made for the SWAP (sew with a purpose) challenge on UK Sewing group. Needless to say, once I started I couldn't stop so I made tops and a skirt and trousers adding another jacket and skirt along the way. So I now have the ideal Spring wardrobe, all I need now is somewhere to wear it all! Though I did wear the dress for my dinner at the House of Commons, and the dres and jacket for the trip to the British Museum so they have had an airing

My Dolls Houses

I signed up to Yahoo Regency yesterday and found tre first posts I had to read were about dolls houses I felt right at home! So I decided I would post a few pictures of my own on here as it is meant to be about me and mine
I've been collecting and making houses since the seventies, when there was only one shop in London and evrything had to be made from whatever I could scrounge.I even spent hours while in America searching out doll house shops with my lovely old aunt (long since gone)
Since then I have passed a couple of houses on to my grand-daughter and my brother's grand-daughter as the space has become limited since we moved to the cottage but I still have three good sized ones and quite a lot of room boxes - and there is another room box sitting on the bottom of the stairs waiting for 'someone' to cut the shapes out for the walls!

The First Emperor meets Mills and Boon

Today I trundled up to London to add my contribution to the 100th anniversary of Mills and Boon by lending the British Library items for the centenary exhibition of M&B at Manchester Library in June. Typical of never throwing anything away! I had gift items and even old rejection letters! It was also a chance to see the fabulous Terracotta Army assembled by the 'First Emperor' of China 2000 years ago and they were awesome. I was really taken by the painted replica of how they would have looked at the time glistening with brilliant colour in their thousands round his tomb. What an amazing sight they must have been!
The downside of the afternoon was then walking down Oxford Street to get to my favourite haberdashery store just off Bond Street. OK from Tottenham Court Road tube to Oxford Circus has never been exactly smart but it is more like a third world street than modern London, filthy pavements and tacky stores and not one person looked even faintly smartand most simply didn't look clean. I was very pleased to reach MacCulloch's premises. That place has not changed in the forty years I've been going there! I swear it hasn't. And it is still full of fashion students bumming samples for their projects (London School of Fashion is just across the road) Happily I found just what I was looking for - and a few bits I really wasn't but simply had to have - well - I have sold off a lot of stash so of course it needs replacing!

Why Anna Melinda?

Some people have asked why Anna Melinda? Well it's the name I use on my dress labels when I make clothes for other people as well as myself. I prefer a label as the dry cleaners take the item seriously! I put a size tag in as well (and no - I don't cheat!!) I had the labels made some time ago I think they will last for years, great excuse to make new perhaps?

This week I have been selling un-used fabrics on ebay and making up some my daughter had going spare. I now have yet another dressing gown and another nightdress, neither of which I need but whatever... The fabric was sitting doing nothing! I am getting quite a tidy cupboard - for the moment.

Memories of things past

I found some very old banners in the cupboard today - made for the TV production of Antony and Cleopatra which Trevor Nunn did for ATV in the seventies. I made them as my ex was the designer and he didn't know anyone else daft enough to tackle them. Now I am wondering what to do with them!

Mixed media

Had a great day yesterday and spent a day off visiting the Thames Valley Sewing group at a get-together in Reading. We all took lunch contributions and bits of stash(in the hope of slimming it down) and gossiped all afternoon. What a treat to talk sewing without anyone's eyes glazing over! Needless to say I brought back more than I went with! Some great silk dupion from Gabrielle and Jap silk from Pat, navy velour and loads of magazines too.


Today I thought I would take some pictures of my various hobbies and here are the results. I haven't included knitting or the cross-stitch box I have just finished, or the crewel work chair covers I have just started - those are for another post!
I started the dragon in the seventies (from Golden Hands) and never finished it. My daughter (then a baby) finally finished a year or so ago, so it was a UFO for thirty years IS this a record?!!!

My books I have postedto remind me to get going on High Kicks and Harvest Festival, because I have booked myself onto the course dear Annie Burgh is running at the Watermill at Posara in Tuscany. I have until late August to get a respectable amount written and edited into shape - more later...

Dinner with the Stars

Well not quite but last night we went to the House of Commons for dinner with an MP.The grandeur of the building quite takes your breath away, soaring gilded ceilings and marble floors (must be hell on the legs after a day) and lots of staircases with green (for Commons) and red (for Lords) carpets. We ate in the Churchill Room overlooking the river and walked the famous terrace afterwards before going in the gallery to watch a division take place with all its rituals. Being an important bill even at 10pm the House was packed, Ken Clark, William Hague, Michael Howard,Peter Hain, David Cameron and Kate Hooey. And Ian Paisley was tottering about being very aimiable to everyone. Certainly a special evening

Music Hall Medley

Last night (and Friday night) I helped out at the village music hall. I did some costumes for them and seem to have been sucked into the group! So Saturday night found me behind the bar and I even pulled my first ever pint both of lager and beer! Lager was harder because it is so fizzy but I did it, and no-one complained. Wallking home through the village at midnight after a few drinks with the cast and crew in the hall I suddenly thought how lucky I am to live in such a safe place. Even though we have only three street-lamps in the whole village it is totally safe to walk around even at that hour - and we have two pubs in the village street. Mind you most of the punters are still in them at that time!
It is good to have entertainment in the village. The group performs for local clubs and charities, last night was the British Legion and Friday it was the Tennis Club. They sell the tickets, the guys perform and everyone has a great time, on their own doorstep and very few need to drive home. Actualy the more they consume the better the performance - according to the Master of Ceremonies!
Braughing is a very social village, there are umpteen societies and clubs most meeting in the village hall or the quaintly named 'Old Boys School' (which was used as a location for Foyles War a few years ago. A lot of local people care for the village. One old gentleman trots up the street regularly collecting litter in his plastic bag and the two pubs keep their frontages immaculate. It has got harder for them since the smoking ban as the smokers cluster outside the front door for a fag now instead of smoking inside. It gets a lot noisier than it was before as they have also had a fair bit to drink but so far we haven't had any real trouble

The pattern I'm using

A sewing frenzy

Well today I really got down to it and sewed a grey flannel dress as part of UK Sewing's SWAP challenge. SWAP (sew with a purpose) is meant to make sure you have wardrobe of clothes that work together. I have loads of clothes I admit and more than most they work together because I buy a lot of black and white to make sure, and of course the SWAP is black and white but I have added grey and a lime green as well
I intend to make trousers, two tops, a skirt and at least two jackets in the next few weeks depending on time

New Year New Hope

Well the new hope is that I can keep the blog up. I haven't done so well so far...
I have started playing with my new toy, an embellishing machine and have downloaded some examples onto the embellisher swap yahoo group. I have a Pfaff 360 and love it.
New Year resolution is to sort out my fabric/wool/trimmings/lace stashes, get rid of what I don't want and use some of the rest. It would help if I kept off my favourite web-sites like Emma One Sock however!

This year my husband and I are working on a fund-raiser ball for his rugby club
It is called THE ROBIN HOOD BALL and is on July 5th. Inspired by the sexy Richard Armitage from the TV programme. So far I have booked the venue and chosen the menu. I am currently trying to find a band and work out the decorations. Will post up the invite when I get it finished'
During the later part of last year I made eight full length evening dresses for our local music hall group (photo shown here - I hope! Great gang of people!