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I am so flattered by your kind comments on my dressmaking. Thank you. I think I might wear it tomorrow night when I go into Norwich to see Ellen and the Escapades.
Hasn't the weather been glorious today? I sat out in the sun and started making a sunny necklace. Note the vintage Spot tray? It must be about 23 years old. I am amazed, it has survived three children, outdoor picnics and indoor high jinks!
More sun is forecast tomorrow - hurrah!
I decided to retrieve my dress (see previous post) from the bin and salvage it. Your comments on waste and my own frugalness dictated my actions.
I ripped out the zip and sewed up the seam. I knew there would be enough room for me to just wriggle into it. I then made some mock fastenings from some spare material to draw attention away from the lack of pattern. Popped on some buttons and Bob's your uncle - just like a born again Christian the dress is saved.
I even put a couple of matching buttons on the front. And now I'm pleased with the result. Something I can wear.
Success, snatched from the jaws of defeat!
Flushed with the success of my first tunic. Bad photo shown below. I decided to make another one.
BUT I didn't check the pattern properly and once I had cut it out I realised that the embroidery didn't go right to the edge. I was hoping it wasn't going to show too much but now I've tacked in the zip, I'm afraid it is a bit obvious.
I think I'll carry on though and maybe carry the pattern on by hand or machine, as suggested by a friend. Or maybe just accept that it's a 'second' and wear it anyway.
Actually the zip has gone in so badly that I think I might just jettison the whole project!
And I have - it's in the bin.
On Friday I learnt that there are gold prospectors in Norfolk.
As many of you know I have been clearing out my mother's house over the past few months. It is in fact all finished now but I have still a few bits and pieces to sell or store. I managed to shift four or five things at the auction in Leicester and our local auction house, Keys, in Aylsham has sold quite a few of the items of furniture for me.
On Friday I went down there with a few dregs and a couple of spoons I wasn't sure about. I thought they were silver and it wasn't until I got down to Keys under their lights that I spotted the spoons were indeed hallmarked.
The man there told me the were old Dutch imports and as the price of silver is so high they would probably sell for around £50 each.
"Really?" I said.
"Oh, yes," he said. "They will be bought and then taken to Birmingham to be melted down and sold for cash. We get a lot of people coming to the sales for that purpose. We call them the gold prospectors."
Needless to say I hung on to the spoons. I didn't really want to be responsible for them being destroyed. Mind you I am thinking of making the bigger one into a bracelet if I can think of a good way of doing it.
P.S. Dave is thrilled that some of you liked the colour of his hair, or, as my daughter so kindly put it the non-colour of his hair!
Remember the bed I started digging out at the beginning of the summer when we had all the hot weather? I've just checked I posted about it way back on June 26th and I just couldn't raise the energy to finish it off.
Well, last weekend I found the solution. I asked my OH if he could do it, and hey presto, no sooner the word than the deed. Off I went to football and when I came back it was all done - talk about role reversal.
Today I started the easy job planting it up with heathers and little hebes! The man on the market stall assured me they would be safe over the winter. But now of course I need to buy lots more plants and collect lots more stones to get the desired effect.
East Anglia seems to be a good toad area judging by the comments on my last post. Thank you for adding your toad stories.
Look what greeted me in the back porch first thing in yesterday morning when I went to put on my walking boots - a toad.
At least I think it's a toad. It was quite slow moving and was walking rather than hopping. I've done a little research and discovered that toads can live to be 40 years old if they are not squashed by a car or gobbled up by a hedgehog or snake! This looks to be quite a young one.
It's quite normal for Norfolk to be invaded by wildlife.Recently when one of my daughters returned from university she put as her facebook status - "you know you're back in Norfolk when you come home to a bird trapped down the chimney" - but that's another story.
Today is our 29th wedding anniversary! Where have the years gone? Warning: don't blink, your life might pass you by.
And what a sky we were treated to this evening as a celebration.
Thank you everyone for your comments on our costumes in the previous post. And yes, it was a wrench to return to normal clothes. I am already thinking of an excuse to dust off Athos again.
At the weekend my friends and I dressed up as The Three Musketeers for a friend's party. She was celebrating 25 years of her bookshop, Norfolk Children's Book Centre, being in business. Not a bad achievement nowadays.
And here we are in our outfits. From left to right Porthos, Aramis and Athos (me).
Surprising what you can do with a trip to the charity shop, a cheapie shop and of course a fancy dress shop for the feathers and rapiers. My rather unruly hair was actually right for a musketeer. The moustaches were drawn on, I hasten to add!
Where has this week gone? I'm just off now to help and support a friend who is setting up an auction of studio pottery and decorative arts in Leicester. Read about it here- Knights Studio Pottery And Decorative Arts. You might see something you fancy bidding on .
This is her first auction and she also has some stuff from my mother's house in it so let's hope she gets some interest.
I'll have to stop myself from bidding on this dog.
Isn't he gorgeous?
