Let's sit and have a cup of coffee

 Hello!  Come on in; sit down and we'll have a cup of coffee together.

Time has sped by since our last meet up, how have you been?  I really hope you are keeping well.  

Excuse the piles of brochures everywhere; the contract on Paul's car ends in September and he's in the process of deciding what to do next.  His ecological conscience is telling him to go for an electric model this time but the reality of high electricity costs and lack of charging points is muddying the water.  He's currently veering towards a hybrid but who knows what the final decision will be?

Then we have the piles of holiday brochures - It's taken a while to decide on a destination as we don't like to return to somewhere we have been before.  Even if we've had a fantastic time, there's still so many other places to explore.  So we have finally chosen a holiday to Sicily.  We love Italy and have decided to try one of the islands.  We'll be staying in a town called Cefalu - have you been?  If so, I'd love to hear what you thought!  Have you any plans for travel yet?

Did you notice on your way in that the bulbs we planted in the front garden are all starting to grow into bud?  I can't wait for them to open into flower, I'm so impatient for winter to be over, and long for a bit of spring sunshine.  Do you have a favourite spring flower?  Daffodils are so cheerful but I think that tulips are my favourites.  Every day I say 'if it's warmer tomorrow I'm going to go and tidy the garden a bit more' and it never is!  I set off with good intentions but after about 15 minutes the sun goes in, it turns chilly and I put my gardening gloves and secateurs back in the shed ready for another day.  Oh well, I guess every 15 minutes counts, we'll get there in the end!

Thank you for popping by, it's a short month this time, won't be long until we get together in March! 

Let's sit and have a cup of tea

Our first Friday get together of the New Year!  How are you?  Can I offer you a biscuit to have with your tea or are you like me and trying to get back into good habits? 

It's been a busy few weeks since we last met for tea and I'm so thankful that we were able to do all the things we wanted to do despite the best efforts of the weather and the local water company to disrupt our plans.

The weather tried its hardest to spoil our plans to go out for a meal to celebrate Paul's 65th birthday.  It snowed heavily overnight but by mid morning the roads had turned to slush so with a reduced speed and careful driving we were able to get to the pub.

Then our regional water company (along with the weather) almost caused our town to have no water for Christmas Day!  After the snow and freezing temperatures at the beginning of the month, we had a sudden thaw when temperatures went from minus 10C to plus 10C.  The water pipes in our area could not cope with the sudden change and there were burst pipes everywhere.  We had no water at all for almost 24 hours the Tuesday before Christmas, then greatly reduced pressure for the rest of the week.  We even had to go to our local Community Centre to collect free bottled water as they thought it could go again at any time.  Fortunately all was fine on the day, but boy has the water company had a lot of bad press!  Some areas of town had no water at all for six days.

You'll notice that I've taken down the Christmas decorations, I'm too superstitious to leave them up past Twelfth Night so they're been down a couple of days now but I also felt they had been up long enough.  How long do you leave your decorations up? I think I will buy some flowers to make it seem more spring like, I saw tulips for sale this week and they always look bright and cheerful. 

You may also have noticed a lovely big bag of new wool and the beginnings of a new blanket on my hook.  

I missed having something crafty to make while watching tv in the evenings and saw this new pattern over at Coastal Crochet.  I'm a member of their Facebook group and kept seeing other people's interpretations and different colour combinations of the pattern, then I saw one which had used colours that would look good in my lounge and the rest, as they say, is history!  This first part is made with Tunisian Crochet and was a new technique for me to learn.  Learning new things always makes me happy!  Do remember the Christmas blanket I made?  

My friend saw someone taking orders to make one and charging ... wait for it ... £380.  Now, it is a nice blanket but I'm not sure I'd pay £380 for one!

Enough about me, how have things been for you since we last met for coffee? I'd love to hear your news!  And be sure to let me know if you want me to make you a Christmas blanket 😉

Let's sit and have a cup of ...

 ... mulled wine!  Let's get in the Christmas spirit on this first Friday in December!

We have friends who lived in Belgium for a while and the first December they were there we went to visit.  It was such a lovely atmosphere there, and visiting the Christmas markets in Brussels was such a lovely day out.  When you bought your mulled wine to keep your hands (and insides) warm while you were walking around, you were able to keep your cup or glass. These particular mulled wine mugs are actually from Cologne; we enjoyed the European markets so much we tried somewhere else the following year. Happy memories! 

Can you believe that we are in December?  You'll notice that we don't have our decorations up yet - family tradition dictates that we do that just before Paul's birthday so we have another week or so to wait yet.  To be honest, much as I love the decorations, I am always ready to take them down between Christmas and New Year. My one concession to early decorating is this festive ribbon wreath that I made!

Do you have particular family traditions at this time of year? It's always interesting to hear how other people organise their time.  When we went to Belgium that year we had to leave our shoes outside of our bedrooms on December 5th and in the morning Sinterklaas had left chocolate gifts for us.  That's the start of the celebrations over there.

Have you heard of the statue in Brussels called Manneken Pis?  A little boy relieving himself into a fountain.  He's pretty famous over there and is dressed up for national occasions.

As you can imagine, excitement is mounting amongst the youngsters of the family.  school Christmas fairs have been visited, Elves on the shelves have arrived, letters to Santa written and soon we will be visiting the illuminations at the Enchanted Gardens at Audley End to get in the festive mood.  My Zumba Christmas party is on Sunday which should be good fun and we have a few meals out with friends in the next couple of weeks.

This year we are all going to our daughter's for Christmas Day.  It will be the first time for years that Jon and his family will be there too.  They usually join us for Boxing Day and spend Christmas Day at his in laws but they are having a break from that routine this year.  I'm always mindful of those for whom Christmas is not a time of celebration for whatever reason - we had an awful year in 1997 when my mum died the week before Christmas Day - and I really do never take it for granted.

So that is it for this month, thank you for visiting! Next time we have a cup of tea together, it will be the New Year - can you believe it?

Let's sit and have a cup of tea - November

 Image source: Canva

Hello!  Thank you for joining me again for a cup of tea on the first Friday of the month.

It hardly seems any time at all since we last met for a chat.  How are you?  I hope you're keeping well.  I've had my covid booster since I last saw you.  The only side effects were a very achy arm (made me wonder if I had developed a frozen shoulder overnight until I remembered having the jab!) and a slight headache so I am thankful for that.

I originally started this blog as a way to share crafty things so I'm going back to my roots this month to show you something I made earlier this week.  You may have heard me talk of my friend Denise who introduced me to scrapbooking, card making and crochet.  Well, the latest thing she convinced me that I needed to try was making a ribbon wreath.  She sends me photos of the ones she has made and I couldn't resist any longer and gave in and ordered a kit for myself.  I am so pleased with it, but can't decide if I should use it as a table decoration with a candle in the centre of it or to add a bow at the base of it and use it on my front door.  What do you think?

Of course, while making that my almost finished Christmas blanket was put on hold but I promise it will be ready for our next get together!

Have you started your preparations for Christmas yet?  I have bought a few presents and cards and this year I am determined to wrap as I buy so that wrapping doesn't become a huge task nearer the time.  We are planning to pop over to Cambridge later today as there are some shops that are there which aren't anywhere else nearby so I want to have an early browse.  Plus, P will be celebrating his 65th birthday at the beginning of December so I need some inspiration for that too!  

Do you have any Christmas parties or meals out planned?  I have my Zumba party very early in December, then we have a meal out with 3 other couples as a combined Christmas/birthday get together.  P is 65, my friend M is 65 and friend J is 60 so we have to celebrate all that!  There will be at least three other meals out with friends but exact dates haven't been sorted yet.  I bought a new dress to wear for all events as there will be different people at each one so I can wear the same thing each time.  I ordered it as it was too good a bargain not to get (reduced down to £24!) and I loved it on the website.  When it arrived my first thought was 'that's going back' as the fabric wasn't quite as I had imagined.  Then I tried it on and thought 'no, that's not me', then I realised I hadn't ruched the front wrap over bit correctly so it was clinging in all the wrong places 😬.  So I had a play around with the gathers and thought 'maybe'.  This morning I tried it on with natural coloured tights and sandals (yesterday I was wearing black opaque tights and slippers which really did not enhance it at all!) gathered up the front properly and I actually thought 'oh that looks nice' so guess what - it's a keeper!  But quite different to my normal style!  

Am I unusual in preferring to shop in proper shops (apart from bargain posh frocks and ribbon wreaths) to online shopping?  I try to support independent stores where I can and after having a couple of years where going out and shopping in person was either difficult or impossible, I much prefer off line shopping.  I don't use Amazon at all other than Kindle books; haven't bought anything from them since December 2021 and that was only because there was a particular toy that no where else stocked and I had no alternative.  I find that with a bit of browsing, you can always find the same thing at the same price.  I know I am in a very small minority!

Look how time has flown!  Thank you so much for popping round - same time next month?

Let's sit and have a cup of tea

 Well it's been a while since I invited you round for a cup of tea - or coffee if you would prefer - September 2014 to be exact.  We have a lot of catching up to do!  

Excuse me while I get Coco a dog biscuit while we wait for the kettle to boil, she seems to think that doing her ‘halt, who goes there?’ barking when someone comes to the front door deserves a treat every time.  I wonder if this resolves the mystery of why the numbers on the scales at the vets are going up a little bit every time we go?  

You've caught me on a tidy day.  If you were to come round on a Tuesday or Wednesday it would be a different thing altogether.  We have so many toys here that people would think I ran a creche.  I shall be packing some of them away soon.  Our routine is in for a major overhaul in September as they all move up a year in school and nursery. So my Tuesday duties will only be for a couple of hours after school ends and instead of Max on a Wednesday we will be having his little sister for the day as our daughter in law's year of maternity leave will be over.  Time to get out that box of baby toys again!  Oh, and how lovely to be looking after a little girl who still naps twice a day - quite different to an energetic three year old.

That wooly pile on the armchair?  

That's the blanket crochet-a-long I started.  Yes, it was a 6 week project and yes, it is now 10 weeks since it started it, that initial enthusiasm waned a little, then I had a holiday, then the weather turned hot ... does that sound like convincing excuses?  I've been working on it while binge watching the new season of Virgin River.  Do you watch that?  It's nice easy watching and I've come to really like all (or most of) the characters.  I have only one more row of edging to do and then 'all' I have to do is weave in the loose edges (the worst part of any wooly project!) then I will be sharing the completed project.  I have to get it finished as I shall be using it for prompt 20 of the Summertime Photo Hunt.  Nothing like a deadline to spur you on to finish!

I'm looking forward to an evening out tonight with ex-work colleagues; we used to all work in the same office. Now I am retired, one works at Cambridge university overseeing foreign students, one is a cover supervisor at the school and one is an author.  Quite a motley crew!  If past meals out are anything to go by I can predict that we will probably be the last ones to leave the restaurant as we haven't met up since March and there is lots of catching up to do.  I thought I knew what I was going to wear but then I came across a photo we took when we last met up and that's what I was wearing then - I shall have to go through my wardrobe again or they will think I only own one dress 😆

Did you notice how awful our front garden lawn is looking?  I've never seen it so scorched.  

In the interests of water conservation P has been adamant about not using hosepipes or sprinklers in the garden so our lawn has not looked good for a while.  Strangely though, the lawns of our neighbours who do use hosepipes don't look any better than ours!  I know it will grow green again but it's horrible to see it so brown.  We have two water butts in the back garden and he's been using the water from those to water the pots in order to keep a little bit of colour out there but it's looking very sorry for itself isn't it?  There is not much water left in them now and no rain forecast for the next few weeks so I don't think it will look better the next time you come round either!

Well, that last row of blanket isn't going to crochet itself is it?  I ought to do a few more stitches.  Thank you for joining me for a drink - please come back again next month!

Let's sit and have a cup of tea

Do come in, sit down and make yourself comfortable.  Kettle's just boiled and there's some cake in the tin, let's have a slice - or two! Funny how I'm inspired to do more cake baking at the time of The Great British Bake Off, and yes, this is Mary Berry's cherry ring cake.

As you can see, the dining table/craft table is a bit messy which shows that there is a new project underway!  Let me explain ... Part of my job is to help compile the school newsletter.  This term's edition is an interesting one as the students who went on overseas trips in the summer holidays write up their experiences.  There are two big trips: one to our partner school in Uganda and one to Cambodia.  Both are life changing experiences as the sixth formers help in schools and orphanages, build houses, help dig wells and all manner of things to help improve the lives of those who live in the villages where they stay.  One of the teachers who went with them to Cambodia is a textiles teacher and she wrote an article for the newsletter about a charity project she is working on with her Year 10 Textiles students.  They are making dresses for Dress a girl around the world and their dresses will be going to the village in Cambodia where our students stayed this summer. 

Can you imagine only having one dress?  Can you imagine the pride you would feel when wearing that dress?  How very special that dress would be to you?  We take so much for granted don't we?  In their words - Imagine a world where every girl owned at least one dress.  Imagine if that dress were made by you.  Please do click on the link and read about the work that is being done. 

I hardly need tell you what my project is do I?  I am going to be making a dress to give to the teacher organising the project because I love to think of how happy receiving that dress will make a girl somewhere in Cambodia. I've made the basic dress, now I just need to make a pretty pocket.  I'm thinking white with a red frill along the top, what do you think?

Linking up with Abi to share a cup of tea on the 27th of each month. Yes, I'm a day late!

Let's sit and have a cup of tea

I will be at the door waiting for you as I see you come up the garden path.  The dog will be doing her crazy, twirling dance to show just how excited she is that we have visitors again.  She'll want to be showing off the new fur-cut she had this morning at the groomers!  Let's go through to the conservatory, the sound of the rain on the glass roof is somehow relaxing and calming.  The kettle's boiled, the cups are ready, how do you fancy some ground coffee that we brought back from a rather lovely Italian deli in Edinburgh?  I'll just put a few biscuits on the plate and apologise for the fact that Rachel's birthday cake is long gone!

We have definitely passed from Summer to Autumn haven't we?  The temperature has dropped and it's obvious that it's time to dig out those warmer clothes.  The change in the air makes we wonder ... Can I ask you what your feelings are towards change?  I sometimes find it hard to accept the need for change, yet once changes have been made I wonder what I was bothered about.  There are a lot of changes on the cards here and it is not until I contemplate what is about to change that I realise how secure in my routines I am.

Firstly I have got to get my head around the fact that I have to go back to work next week! So things have got to change to accommodate that - I am going to have to get up and get myself more organised earlier in the mornings.  No long post-breakfast dog walks I'm afraid.  No more leisurely days spent on a sewing machine.  But there does come a point where I do feel I need more structure to my days and going back to work will certainly achieve that.  I've taken on a few new projects at work and it will be interesting to see how they dovetail into my existing jobs.

This weekend our son returns from Edinburgh along with all his worldly possessions.  Where will we put it all?  We have had two years of arranging our routines around 3 of us and a dog and it will take a little while to change those routines to factor in another person (who may not want to wait for his dinner until the 6.18 from Tottenham Hale arrives back in town with his sister on board).  Grocery shopping will definitely be changing and different ingredients bought to accommodate another person's likes and dislikes.

 

Trying to make space for all Jon's possessions has led to much clearing and sorting in his room and one half of the garage.  I need to apply this de-cluttering to other areas of the house; the study in particular.  There is a corner in there that houses two large storage bags of scrapbooking card, a tote bag full of equipment and another bag - I'm not sure what's in that one, it's buried beneath the others and hasn't seen the light of day for quite a while (which probably indicates that I could quite easily live without any of the forgotten goodies inside).  I've changed the way in which I channel my creative skills.  I haven't scrapbooked for months yet my sewing machine is almost a permanent fixture by the dining room table.  So perhaps I need to tidy those unused paper related things away somewhere safe, and replace them with fabrics, ribbons and threads which are being used regularly.  I'm not ready to discard them, who knows when I might change my mind about what to do in my spare time?

 

I've changed my eating habits and that's a good thing.  I've now lost 12 pounds at Slimming World and feel much better for it.  I'm close to my goal now and am happy to find that my clothes fit much better; those pounds creep on one at a time and it's easy not to notice until all your waistbands are a little snug!  Another bonus is that some of my clothes are now too big which means a little retail therapy is in order - happy days!

 

I guess it is good to shake things up a bit now and again and start of the new academic year is a good place to start.  With that in mind, I guess it won't be long until Abi is heading back up north to uni again so let's pop over there to see how she is getting on. 

Let's sit and have a cup of coffee

Have you just been to have tea with Abi? She thrilled to be home relaxing after a busy time with exams so I'm sure you've enjoyed catching up with her news. 

 

The coffee maker's ready, and I have a new supply of Nespresso pods, so choose your colour and we will be good to go!

It's been a little while since you popped in, and I can't believe we are more than half way through the year.  I am counting down the weeks to school finishing, but there's still a lot of work to be done.  I don't work in the long summer holidays so I have to leave my desk ready to jump straight back in on September 2nd.

Enough of work! Let me show you the wonderful quilt squares I've received from around the world

Aren't they fab? I still have four to come but I am already loving how different they all are. Although I'm still excited about the ones that are left to make, I am a little bit sad that there are only a few more squares to make.  I need someone to come up with another sewing related swap!

I've bought a new batch of fabric that I want to turn into a quilt and think that I have finally decided on what to have as a pattern.  I loved the wonky log cabin design of Jackie's quilt square and plan to have a little go at that to see if I could make a whole quilt of them.  Needless to say I've been googling a lot of patterns but, as always seems to be the way, everyone has a different way of doing them.  Have you ever had a go at that pattern?

Are you joining in with Rinda's Scavenger Hunt?  I've managed to track down a few of the 'easy' ones I knew I would be able to find and was thrilled to tick a few of the others off when we went up to Edinburgh a couple of weekends ago.  Can you believe that one of the elusive ones seems to be the 'welcome to your home town' one.  Seems that my town isn't very welcoming!  We live on the borders of Hertfordshire & Essex - literally.  There is a street in town where one side is Herts and the other is Essex!  So we have a welcome sign for each county but not the actual town.  There must be one somewhere, I shall have to check the less obvious routes into town, there is more than one way!

I've just added my name to join in Sian's latest swap - it's postcards this time.  Are you joining in too?  Go on, pop over there and read all about it, it sounds fun. 

Whilst offering you biscuits you may notice that I am restraining myself from taking a second, please help me out by finishing them up.  I joined Slimming World and am now 4 and a half pounds lighter so I will be grateful if you eat them up.  As the saying goes, 'I can resist anything but temptation'! 

It's been lovely chatting, but there are more people for you to visit so I will say goodbye and look forward to seeing you again, same time next month! 

Let's sit and have a cup of tea

Come in, come in.  The kettle's just boiled and I've got the mugs out ready. I see you looking at the one I've set out for myself.

It was a Christmas present from Coco.  Apparently I am officially the best Nanny and puppy hugger in the world!  Do you fancy some homemade biscotti?  I'd never made it before but it has been a great hit, especially with all who love pistachio nuts and cranberries.  If you're interested, I can give you the recipe.

 

I would ask you if you came to me by any route that brought you past the river.  There was some kind of chemical spillage at the weekend and a large stretch of the river turned into one gigantic foam bubble bath!   Quite a surprise to people who live in homes that back onto the riverside I would think.  Thankfully it was harmless to fish.

 

We would have to clear the table in the dining room before we could sit down.  The sewing machine is still in good use.  I've made 14 of the 20 squares I need for the quilt I am making and I'm now impatient to get onto the next part.  The only problem is that I have never made a quilt like this before which needs 'sashing' and I'm a little concerned about how to approach it. I will be asking you for your opinion and advice!

 

If you had read my previous blog post, I am sure you will be asking me how my breaking up with 'meh' was going.  I would tell you how I was convinced that 'meh' had followed me to school on Friday and listened to me listening to the calls on the 'absence line'.  That way he would have heard that a virus was going round the school, and I'm sure that he rang up that virus and asked it to visit me on Saturday so that I felt drained of energy and just a bit 'bleurgh' all day.  He's also been in cahoots with my knee which has got progressively more painful.  So much so that I have booked an appointment with a sports massage therapist on Wednesday.  Hard to keep away from 'meh' when you can't begin to drive anywhere much or sit comfortably for any length of time.   Just be aware 'meh' that in the words of Taylor Swift 'we are never, ever, ever, getting back together' and I'm not giving up without a fight! The weird thing is that I climb stairs like an elderly woman with arthritis yet I can still do my hour long Fitsteps class fine.   This is a strange injury!   Have you heard of Fitsteps?  Do check out their website here and if you decide to have a go yourself, let me know what you think. 

 

I would tell you about the Christening that we went to yesterday.  My great nephew was the star of the show and it was lovely to see all the family.  He was such a good boy.

 

As normally happens when you spend any time with a Brit at this time of year (any time of year actually!) we will discuss the weather and when we thought we may get our first snow fall.  Although the temperature has dropped, I don't think it's forecast for the near future.  Who knows?  At least in this area we have escaped the flooding that other places have had.  No flooding, just a 16 feet high wall of foam!

 

It's time for you to brave the elements and pop back to Abi's where I know there's a warm welcome waiting for you.  I'll help you back into your coat/hat/gloves and Coco will definitely be around to say goodbye.  Same time next month?  It's a date!

  

 

Let's sit and have a cup of tea

August has been a busy month so it's lovely to sit and have a cup of tea together and share our news.  I think we had better sit inside today as it's a bit cooler today and there seems to be a fine mist in the air.  Autumn is probably on its way.

As I put the kettle on to boil, I feel sure that Coco will be excitedly greeting you.  She loves visitors, especially is there is a chance of some cake crumbs to share with her.  There is a tiny piece of my daughter's birthday cake left from the weekend.   

I can't believe that I have a daughter who is 27, it makes me feel old!  She had a lovely birthday despite being under the weather on heavy duty antibiotics. She had a crowd of her friends over for drinks, then they hired a minibus to take them to Kanaloa Club in London.  It's owned by Sarah Harding from Girls Aloud and they had a great time.  Came home with their Hawaiian Lei around their necks.  Which may have ended up as a blog header and certainly ended up as a dog decoration.

 

I'd try not to bore you with tales of our holiday, which already seems so far away.  But I would certainly show you the quilt that I have made to give to my son's girlfriend for her birthday in October.  I'm really pleased with the way it has turned out.  This is the third one I have made now and I think that with each one I find a new way to do something and improve.  I'm already planning a chevron one to make with the off cuts from the one I have just finished.  I've been so inspired by Abi's fab quilts and the chevron idea is definitely copied from hers.  I do hope I don't have to email her too often for help and/or advice! Have you tried any new skills this year?  I do love to learn something new. Isn't it amazing what tutorials you can find on YouTube?  But oh, how time flies when you click on 'just one more'!

 

I'll be offering you a top up and would probably be telling you that this time next week I will be back at work.  Taking part in a CPD day and not feeling happy about it.  Secretaries have never had to take part before and so we enjoyed an extra couple of days holiday just as the students do, but the head had an idea that teachers and support staff should be treated exactly the same so we are lumbered with having to go in.  You can tell I'm not keen.  It's pitched at teaching staff and I'm not convinced that non-teachers will gain much from being there.  I hope I'm proved wrong!

 

I'd ask if you were taking part in Rinda's Scavenger Hunt this year and tell you how I have all my photos now.  I am going to a crop in a couple of weeks time and intend to have them printed off so I can spend the first part of the day working on the mini album I bought to keep them in.  The hunt is so much fun and there was a part of me that was sad when the last one was found.  I wonder if we can talk her into doing a Winter one too?

 

Well, the pot is empty and the cake is eaten; the dog is scouring the floor for the smallest crumb and eyeing up any drop of tea left in the bottom of the mugs - she does love a cup of tea!  But if you are still thirsty, pop over to Abi's and see who else is taking part this month.