Posy

New Year's Eve 2009

 Well another year is almost done. I have spent this last week recharging my batteries, sleeping and sitting for longer than usual. Oh yes, those pyjamas of mine have had a lot of wear. I have been enjoying my fireside and have even made a start on crocheting next year's Christmas presents. The Rowan yarn in the picture was bought on my birthday weekend back in November. I started a new 'Janie' tradition last Christmas by having a new, but small, crochet project to do over the Christmas/New Year period. Last year's was my round crochet cushion; this year it was going to be the coasters from my Japanese crochet book, but as yet the Rowan yarn remains untouched as I'm prefering to do something a little more simpler which allows me to still follow Heroes/Strictly Come Dancing/Cranford/Turn of the Screw (which we missed the first 20 minutes of.Grr.) without the rest of the family getting cross with me for not keeping up!
I would like to take this opportunity to thank you dear readers for joining me here on Posy.  In January it will be 4 years since I started keeping this small space and I can hardly believe I am still here twittering on about nothing in particular. I appreciate the emails, comments and interest you show, but most of all I really treasure your friendship even though we have yet to meet face to face.
And from all of us in this house, we are wishing you all a very Happy, Healthy and Joyful 2010.

Housey bits :: Christmas 2009

 Here we are now in the no-man land that is the time between Christmas and New Year where, in our house, the days merge into each other and you find yourself still in your pyjamas at 3pm and doing such things as having a clapping competition with your brother!
I didn't take many photos on Christmas Day or on Christmas Eve when the house was looking clean and tidy ready for the family to arrive and all my new sewing projects were put to use; so I took some today when some of the family had gone home or gone into town to find a Keira Knightley calendar..mmm I wonder who that could have been...

Anyway, now I can show you what I have been making for the last few weeks as everyone has been given their gifts. It is Tif's lovely Crochet Popcorn Garland. I had grand plans to make it for everyone this year but despite making at least 100 metres of it I didn't think that there was enough for seven 6ft Christmas trees (I roughly estitmated that that would be the tallest tree most of them would have.) so my plans were changed and only 2 friends got a Garland. I used the yarn that belonged to one of my friend's mother who is no longer with us so I was very excited to give it to her because of the sentiment attached to it.

On Christmas Eve I finally put on my new CK bedlinen I bought in York.

 It's called Bouquet and I really love it as it goes well with our yellow Sanderson wallpaper as there is some yellow in it. (It looks a bit crumpled now as it has been used for a night or five.) I'm still not sure that I like the bed painted blue but I'll give it a go for a while.

In my sewing spree I also made the red spotty cushion/pillow from a large hankie I bought for £6 from Cath.

 

And here, on the floor, are the new books I got for Christmas. There is something so satisfying about a pile of new books by your bed just waiting there to be dipped into.

 

 

And let me show you my earring tree given to me for my birthday. I love it so much but I'm hesitant to hang many earrings on it as I don't want to detract from the lovely pattern and birds.

 

Righty-o let's move onto the kitchen and I will show you how I have disguised the black draining board that is so warped it looks like Mt Kilimanjaro with the help from some Sarah Smith cloths. Thank God for Sarah Smith I say.

 

Last week I bought a pack of her red with white spots large as a T towel cloths. What a difference it made when we covered the mouldy, sloping draining board. The cloths are super absorbent and which meant we didn't have to use half a roll of kitchen towel to dry the draining board down. We had hoped to have changed the damaged board before Christmas. It looks so bad I'm ashamed when people come over so why I hadn't thought about covering it with absorbent cloths goodness only knows. 

I also made the curtain that covers the washing machine with an old dusky pink thrifted table cloth and a crocheted doily/smallish table cloth.  And lastly, I made a throw for our sofa

 

 from some linen union called Paris Rose from good ol' Cath again. So that is it folks - all my recent sewing projects. Phew, now you must excuse me as I need a cup of tea and I have already made a start on next Christmas's presents. xx

Christmas 2009

[opening stockings Christmas morning : note new Christmas Eve pyjamas!] 

I hope you all had a good, joyful and peaceful Christmas. 

My highlights:

2.55 pm Christmas Eve. Just saying goodbye to some dear friends when there is a knock at the door. On opening the door I see a young man in a florescent jacket. I look at him waiting for him to say what he wants. Our friends behind me also look at him. A number of seconds pass that feel like minutes so I say something like," Yes, what do you want.how can I help you?"
Silence.
5 pairs of eyes look at him. I begin to feel slightly uncomfortable on his behalf.
 Silence.
  After what seems an age he then says to me,"Er,is your mother in?"
We all erupt with loud screams and laughter and I almost clutch him to my ample bosom.
Anthony then pushes through the throng and deals with the poor bewildered man while we still laugh and tell him how much he has made my day/Christmas/year.

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3.04 pm Christmas Eve. Standing in the kitchen preparations almost done, family on their way, listening to the first bars of Once In Royal David's City from Carols at Kings. Thanking God that I can enjoy my favourite moment of the year once again.

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Hearing the laughter and watching everyone interact.

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Loving Tom's generosity by discovering that Tom had secretly bought the family a Wii with his earnings from his part time job. 

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Seeing dolphins from Berry Head on our Boxing Day walk.

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No migraines despite laughing and working hard.

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Loving my new CK bedlinen and tidy bedroom! But more about that tomorrow.

What were your favourite bits?

wrapping,happiness & relief

::Wrapping::  Wednesday 23rd December 2009 at 11.10am in front of the fire. 

::Happiness::  Grocery shopping done with Anth at 7am this morning, which was actually rather stress free and enjoyable. Sewing done. Dull,icy cold weather. Roaring fire.  Anth's last day at work. Christmas music playing. All my children in the house. Thought of family arriving tomorrow. 

::Relief::  Unbeknown to me as I wrote my blog post yesterday morning, Anth fell off his bike in front of a car on his way to work. Life could have changed for us all in just a few seconds and today could have been a very different day.

Preparation

Decking the halls..well, mantel.

 

Some Christmas sewing. 

 Seeking out the stockings/pillowcases. 

Discovering a lot of naughtiness.

How's your preparation going? 

December so far

Goodness, here I am blogging at 11pm but I wanted to try and post today and this is the first opportunity I have had!  I didn't finish last night so here I am at 8 pm a day later. Life is still very full my friends but the term is drawing to an end and then I can concentrate on this poor undecorated, neglected house and some preparations for Christmas. But here are a few bits and pieces that I have enjoyed over the last week.

::: Plastic Holly :::

       

    I seem to have discovered a passion for plastic holly. Probably very uncool and naff but I can't seem to help myself...

::: My new love affair with blue :::

     
  Because it has been at least 6 weeks without having a paint brush in my hand and I don't have any time to do the essentials - I decide I MUST paint our bed. My eye keeps being drawn to blue things ando I felt our bed needed a make over. It was going to be bubble gum pink - that's what Anth wanted. Yes, you read that right he wanted pink, but I was leaning more towards blue as it will go well with my new CK birthday  duvet (which will be put on the bed on Christmas Eve). I should have listened to Anth and stuck with my original plan because I didn't have a 'Whoa..Jane Goble's on fire' moment  when I stepped back to check on my handiwork.  I don't really like it and feel quite disappointed as I was sure it was going to look great. I am really a green person and not a blue one but I have some blue doily cushions etc to make so it might end up looking good if I put some more blue things into the room. Watch this space.

::: My name :::

I could write a whole post on our surname - the toe curling embarrassment when it has been mispronounced as Gobble (think crowded restaurant waiting for a table and then a loud voice saying 'a table for Gobble,  table for Gobble' and the whole place erupting in laughter! I hissed to Anth out of the corner of my mouth, 'Don't you dare move!!!') 
But I'm proud to be Mrs Jane Goble and actually call Anth, 'Gobie, Gobler or the like as a nickname. This week I have been very blessed to receive some Christmas cards from the children at school and had to smile at all the different spellings of Goble. There's Mrs Gobal, Mrs Gobble, Mr Gobll (yes, even Anth got his own card which he loved!) Mrs Gobe, Mrs Global and today a new one..Mrs Gobey. Bless.

::: The letter my mother never got :::

 It has been a life time's ambition of mine..to be Mary - but I was always an angel. Always. But the Mary we had was absolutely beautiful and her lovely Mummy was rightly proud. In fact being part of the nativity play has to be one of the highlights of my job.

::: The large envelopes I actually got from my mother :::

This year's advent calendars. Thank you. 

And lastly possibly the saddest photo of all

 

 

Lucy rang me on Friday afternoon. A boy at her school was selling his tickets for a rather inflated price. Should we do it? Yes we should. For an hour I thought we were going, then Lucy got a call to say that he wouldn't accept our offer because he wanted to get more money. There are some tickets being sold on ebay for over £1000. So no concert for us.

Message to Brenda from Australia  - Thank you a thousand times over for your wonderful package. I don't seem to have your email to write you a speedy note so please contact me.

See you soon xxx 

Emergency Family Meeting

 Can you guess what has got us all in a stew? What has caused such HUGE stress, panic and hysteria that Matthew came down from Winchester for the weekend to attend the Emergency Family Meeting? You can't?? Well, who has the power to turn my life upside down and inside out at the very thought of seeing and hearing him? Who is coming back to his home town of Exeter, less than 30 miles from our home for a one-off intimate (an intimate ahhhh!!!) concert(with 2 other acts) of 500 (only 500...sigh) people? 

Yes, my best beloved Chris Martin. Coldplay are playing in a winter wonderland marque in the grounds of Exeter Castle on the 19th December. The tickets are being sold on 3 different days a 100 or so at a time.
Oh my. The. Stress. Of. It.
 Yesterday at 4pm Lucy on her laptop, me on mine and Matthew in Hampshire in his surgery (between patients) counted out the seconds ...Lucy and I feeling so sick with nerves..clicked on to buy tickets with the rest of the world and of course didn't get any. ABSOLUTELY GUTTED. 

We then moved onto Plan B which was to camp out over night tonight outside the Exeter HMV store as this is where the next batch are being sold tomorrow. Lucy texted me at lunchtime to say that some people had been there since yesterday morning already and there will be more people than tickets by the time we can get there. 
So that just leaves Plan C - Friday morning on line our last chance but I'm not holding out any hope in that. I don't want to bleat on about how upset we are - but we are. Very. Very. Very much.
As we're talking whinging -I haven't been good company this week. Oh no. And the reason I have not been able to blog is because I have been given some extra work at school and it has to be all finished by next week before we break up. So all my free time has been taken up with that. I whinged all day on Monday when I went into school (on my day off) to do some of it. That's not really like me as I am usually a positive person but all I could think of was everything I still have to do at home for Christmas. Yeah, those presents are still not finished!! Some things never change.....
But hey-ho, I do have some wonderful things to look forward to like painting our bed ready for my new Christmas Eve pillowcase tradition which will actually be a CK duvet cover as well this year; and some doily/other cushion making. I just need to get passed all my deadlines, oh yes and my disappointment. I will soon. It's just obviously not our time this time to be at a small Coldplay concert in our corner of Devon. 
But it will be one day. I just know it.

York Minster

  Anth and I spent a happy few hours in this majestic place. What struck me most was the size of the building - it is so big. The stain glass windows are huge. Even the Advent Wreath in the picture was enormous. 

 

It was also a poignant visit too. In the North Transept, under the Astronomical Clock there is a special Book of Remembrance. It has more than 18,000 names of airman from 15 countries who died flying missions from RAF fields in Yorkshire and the North East. My grandfather was one of them.

 
It really touched me seeing his name there amongst so many and I shed a quiet tear or two.
The light faded very quickly so I was unable to take any more photos inside but Anth went back the next day and climb to the top of a tower.

 

And then it was on to Little Betty's for a well earned cup of tea (after we queued for quite some time..)

 

 It was dark by the time we sat down and were blessed to have been shown to a window table where we were able to see the street below where, at last, the hustle and bustle had died down a bit.

 

A little bird had mentioned that it was my birthday and the kind waitress bought me out a cake with a candle.

 

And not for the first time that day my heart was full of gratitude.