Monday 18th

[Caroleecrafts]

Morning all

Very cold this morning but dry, hope dry your end Linda but the temperatures do not look good for you. Harvest chutney is a perfect name and the right time of year.

Your new decorations are beautiful Mo and am sure they will sell well, if not the public have no taste, lol.

Dave busy as always.

Shelley hope to see pic' of your cards when you get the chance.

I did a lot of nothing yesterday. Managed to put my finger in the way of the needle on the embroidery machine, ouch and blood every where. Think I must have been tired as selected the wrong size bee for the compact. Did get that done and some more sorting for the fair. Do not seem to have much out sorted this year hate to say it but my heart is not in it atm must pull myself together. Normally when I feel like this not going to be a good one or if not a good ones is it my fault? Or could be that Lee has distracted me with all this moving of furniture for the decorating. did clear out the shower room cupboards and drawers though. Surprising what you find.

Off to Homebase for some paint today, have to go to Godalming as Lee will probably want the orange mixed! May pop into Sainsburys as not having a delivery this week. The rest can get local.

HAGO and BBL x

[craftdancer2]

Morning all! Had a very short shower a few minutes ago Caroline, and it's going to take months for everything to get back to what passes for dry in this area; even roads, paths etc are still wet and lots of puddles and swimming pools in the fields. However, the general forecast is for no rain for the next few days, so hopefully give time for water levels in dykes etc to subside a little.

One good thing I forgot to say about yesterday's event is the organisers had a word with a few of the regular craft attenders and asked to be informed of any stalls packing up before 3.00pm (several packed up very early last time and a number of us registered our dissatisfaction). I know at least two stalls were "reported" and organisers were straight there having a word. Glad to say all tables remained occupied until 3.00pm.

Today, general clearing up, unpacking, stock lists, finance etc. I have decided that, despite intending to leave a major sort out/rearrange of jars until after all the current batch of fairs I need to do it now and am in the mood to do today. I also need to go out and collect a bucketful of cooking apples which I have been offered from someone in the village (jars of jam will be left in exchange). Think that will be enough for today, with another very early night in the hopes of catching up with a bit more sleep.

Caroline - you must have been tired to get things wrong with the bee yesterday. Hope you get everything done today and the right shade of paint acquired.
Shelley - shop closed today, so you'll be able to take your time sorting, tidying and doing a bit more to the cards hopefully
Mo - another foray into the world of "donations" at the shop - fingers crossed you find another little treasure to make the rest of the dross ignorable (is that a word?). Love the latest decorations.
Dave - what are you up to today? Still catching up with the cutting/framing/mounting etc. How is the water/rain situation in your area?

HAGO
Linda

[3dDave]

Morning all....

Just got the chimney sweep here, need to grab some more logs...
Flood defences were up, now gone again.
Finished a cut for the Christmas craft fair and printed some labels off...
Cutting and framing later on....
That’s all for now, everyone sounds as busy as me, BBL..

Dave.

[craftdancer2]

It never rains but .....................

And now my car has gone wrong and I daren't drive it anywhere as virtually no power; spoke to the garage and they are going to try and get it to them, even though they don't do recovery. Thank goodness for individual businesses and excellent customer service.

Update: Two mechanics/engineers appeared, together with a van big enough to tow my car if necessary, within an hour and a half of my phone call to the garage. Now awaiting phone call to tell me the situation and potential repair cost.

Update to Update: Car just been delivered back to my door at 4.45pm No invoice ready yet, but if the computer diagnostics are correct it was spark plugs which have not only been replaced but whole area in the engine has been cleaned, but much lower cost than I was fearing. I shall be calling in the office tomorrow morning to pay the bill - with a generous tip

And MIL rang to say she's home - appears she's been in hospital because her heart was out of kilter, but hospital didn't bother to ring and let us know even though she asked them to do so.

Head scrambled now!

Linda

[MornieG Jewellery]

Evening all.

Shop day and masses of donations, 40 bags to be exact. Some nice stuff thank goodness and lots of dross. At least if you get a lot the law of averages says some of it will be nice. Still people trying to get rid of the half term clear out of toys and kids stuff ready for Christmas. Refusing it now as mainly broken toys and manky clothing.

Small victory about the Sunday working up to Christmas, we have been let off the first Sunday but have to open for the last three. No messing about on this one, whoever works the Sunday has the Thursday off in lieu and if the person working on Thursday without any help is only able to man the till and do a bit of sorting at the desk then so be it.

Pleased with the last two Christmas painted pendants, they have polished up nicely. Hope to be able to do two more bling ones as they will be less expensive than the full on painted ones, take less time and therefore less expensive. Pete has made four more for me to play with but don't think I have the time to do all four. There is lway next year LOL Should have started them sooner, need more days in the week.

Sorry to hear about the car Linda but as you say thank goodness for local small businesses.

Agree with you Caroline when something isn't going to plan best to leave it and go back to it later and review. Have some ME time then look at things again, no good if your heart isn't in it.

Shop again tomorrow then Wednesday off so I can et on with the new pendants.

Have a good evening all.

Mo.XX

[Lilly42]

Evening all,

Its been a nice day off if a bit unplanned. Earlier Simon jumped my car battery and suggested I go for a bit of a drive, well I had to get some cat food they don't sell in Sainsburys but they do in Waitrose or Pets at Home. seeing as how PAH is much further away and right across the road from the range...Thats where I went, surprise surprise

I got the cat food and went across the road and bought myself a couple of new bone folders one much bigger and better than the one I had, some nifty storage boxes, a brush and mat to help get the bits out the dies and some xmas sparkly card. Car started first time, stopped at Sainsburys on the way home, stocked up and got home ok. I will see if the car starts tomorrow if so it may be ok, I just have to remember to take her for a long run every so often, next time maybe HC, what a shame It doesn't like these very short hops in the winter, Sainsburys is less than a quarter of a mile away.

My light box arrived late in the day, no time tonight to use it, tomorrow afternoon. It is just the right size and the lights are excellent. Looking forward to using it.

Ouch Caroline, hope it wasn't too deep and you haven't got blood everywhere. Hope you have got the house mostly back to normal.

Linda did you get your car to the mechanics? Hope its nothing too serious/expensive.
Now here's a thing, in the Chinese forum I am on we have one member who is our resident cook and font of all things about chinese food. He was talking about fruits and what is eaten at what time of year. I asked if jams/marmalades ect were part of chinese cuisine. He said not really but they have adopted western preserves and use them to make fruit teas. They never eat them on toast etc. This struck me as a fantastic idea and the idea of steaming hot mug of something marmaladey or maybe plumy etc sounded delicious.
You could do a range of your standard preserves in smaller jars (to give a feeling exclusivity) with instruction to put 1 or 2 teaspoons in a mug and add hot not boiling water for a tasty winter warmer. In the summer you can add ice cubes to the hot version and serve as cold summer refreshers. You could start a new fad and maybe get the vegans, health nuts and similar hooked.
It sounded so good to me I am going to buy some shredless marmalade and anything else that looks like it work and give it a go, if only I had known before I went out.
Glad your MIL is ok.

Dave hope the chimney sweeping went well, glad you are keeping busy too.

Mo, 40 bags .. whah I hope they weren't too manky. The new blingy decorations are looking very beautiful, sparkly but done in good taste. December sounds like a very busy month for you, as it is for us and hopefully everyone else. At least you won't be trying to get ready for events.

Have good evening and sleep well everyone.

Shelley