Hey Benners,

how are you doing? I hope you've settled into your daily routine there in Thailand, I know you're like me and love your routine that you've settled into. Pipe and slippers etc.....:)

So the weekend was busy, we did go to Luton on Saturday to see my nan. She was asleep mostly but she opened her eyes and squeezed our hands long enough for us to know that she realised who we were and that we were there. We gave her a kiss goodbye each and whispered in her ear. I told her that I thought she was just as beautiful as she always was and that God is with her inside even if she hasn't got the energy to speak.

It was sad to see her so withdrawn but I came away with a peace that she knows we love her and that God is looking after her whether we can see it tangibly or not.

We drove 4.5 hours in the morning, got to the hospital around 3pm ish, stayed an hour with my nan in the hospital then went to my mother's house to surprise her for an hour. We didn't tell her we were on our way or in Luton, just knocked on the door. She was super shocked! Unfortunately she thought we were there cos nan had passed away....oops! The fact that all three of us girls were doubled over giggling should have given it away that all was ok. After an hour with mum we drove home another 4.5 hours, stopped for a pizza to stick in the oven and then made it home just after 10pm.

We slept in late Sunday morning and didn't get up til 8.30am just in time to get ready and get to church.

After church we had a community BBQ up at the playing fields. This is the second year in a row that we've had one and I hope we continue the tradition, this is one that really was worth doing!

We took our trusty gazebo (I almost took off with it at one point!), we had three barbecues, four big tables, a bouncy castle and as many camping chairs as you could imagine!

 Check out that blue sky!!!

It was dry and sunny mostly but the playing fields are like a wind tunnel with the mountains on either side so it was pretty chilly! Wind chill factor million.


Doreen was so cold I got the blanket from the car and wrapped her up tight in it!

Today I took the morning off from work (pre-arranged, I didn't just not work!) and did some laundry, cleaning and tried to 'de-stash' a bit from my craft cupboard. Blatantly that didn't work, the doors still won't close!!

Yesterday at the BBQ I spent a little while talking with a new friend and explained about my lightbulb moment about life being full of choices and once again I came home and reflected on your comment about my being so busy being my choice. So I decided to resign.

So this morning I handed in my notice so that I can get back to what I should be doing, namely doing God's work. It almost seems as though there's this bitter resentment type competition of who's the busiest and who is the worst off. I declare myself out of that. As long as we have enough money to live on, Dus' customers are happy and I'm doing what I can to further the kingdom, who cares what other people think?

Four weeks from now, I'll be young (ha!), free (or pricey however you look at it) and single (minded lol).

It was such a relief when I handed in my notice, I can't wait to stop having to fit in everything else around working, doing a load of laundry and hanging it out on the line then quickly running to the post office AND having something to eat in a half hour lunch.

I'm looking forwards to you coming home, almost halfway there!

See you soon,
Love,

(Written Friday)

Hey Benners,

What a shock that was to wake up to an email saying 'Benjamin James has uploaded a photo of you'. Me?! A photo of me?! You're in Thailand and I'm in Wales....how on earth can you have taken a photo of me to post on facebook.

Oh yes, that's right, you found a market stall with handbags for sale. I have to say, it doesn't get any more accurate.

Today I'm grumpysaurus. Usually Fridays are good days. Usually I sleep in late and get up around 8am, do a bit of housework then begin work at 10.30am. Work is as it usually is except on Fridays you turn up around 12pm to keep me company!

My task today was to 'courtesy' call 50 customers to check they're happy with their tables without arousing suspicion for the real reason I was calling.....to check whether their tables smell of fish...it's been a pleasant week.

Today though my work day was lonely, annoying and punctuated by the screams of the children on the road who should have been indoors doing housework for their mothers. Oh, and I think they must have sung 'you're the one that I want' in their end of term play last week....I've lost count of how many times I heard it today through the window.

Yesterday we had a meeting with an accountant about taking Dusband's company limited and we were there for T...W....O... HOURS! Yes Benny, two hours. He talked really sloooooowly and rambled on and on and on....I almost lost the will to live. That didn't help my Friday mood.

Anyway, the only one good thing was that I got my pattern finished and emailed out to the pattern testers. I had to make one small edit to a diagram you did but I don't think it will ruin the integrity of the pattern.

At 2pm I finished work and by the time I had some lunch, did the laundry (yes, I do feel like I'm turning into an overworked and underpaid mother without actually having kids!) and then around 3.30pm settled down to sew a new purse for myself.

Talk about craft fail...I chose a really sturdy fabric to use cos I thought it'd be nice and hardwearing. Turns out it was too thick and I couldn't even turn it through. What a waste of 3 hours!

I ate some potato zoo animals for dinner with leftovers from yesterday and then two bars of galaxy. I feel fairly justified though and considering a third. I don't feel that would be too extravagant. Just don't tell my nutritional therapist!!

We're off to Luton and back in a day tomorrow to see my nan. She had a stroke on May 25th and is still in hospital. We saw her the day after her stroke but we've not seen her since so we're going up for the day tomorrow. It's around an 8 hour round trip which I'm really not looking forwards to. If I was still a child my parents would describe me as a 'bad traveller'. As it is I'm an adult and Dus would just ask at every single services if I need to stop :)

It's so long since we've seen her I hope that she enjoys our visit and we don't tire her out too much.

Just to show my bitter side, going back to the photograph you shared of bags in Thailand I was a bit annoyed at the two women who I don't know commenting on your photo that they wanted you to bring them back a bag. Really....is that how we women are these days? We see a bag and we expect a man to buy it and bring it halfway round the world back for us?

I feel awful myself that Dus earns the lion's share of our money and yet I don't even have time to do the housework. This guilt is starting to get to me and in your absence I'm finding myself pondering on a comment you made a couple of weeks back. I'm sure it wasn't a deep and meaningful comment at the time, but I'm still thinking about it.

I think I was complaining about being crazy busy and you made a comment about my choosing to be so busy. I find myself envious of people who sit playing games in their spare time because I don't feel like I have any spare time at all. Dus is a workaholic because he feels the obligation towards clients who need work doing but I seem to be turning into a busyaholic because I feel the obligation of other people's expectations.

I need to re-assess my priorities and choose which things I keep and which I reject.

Anyway, enough rambling, hope you're having a good trip and haven't bought too many handbags!!

Lots of love,

APPLICATIONS ARE NOW CLOSED, thanks all for volunteering :) xx

Hey all,

I have a few spots still available for those wishing to pattern test my new bag, the Rosie Patchwork bag.

If you're interested, please leave your email address below. The pattern is ready today to be tested and feedback needs to be back with me by the end of Tuesday 31st July. I'll accept applications right up until Tuesday 31st as long as you can have the bag done by the end of the day. It takes around 3 hours to complete.




Thanks!

Hey Benners,

how are you getting on in Thailand? I saw your check in this morning on facebook that you'd arrived in Bangkok airport...boy, that was a long flight!!

Today's been a pretty usual Wednesday. It started as it always does with me frantically trying to do as much housework as possible before I began work at 10.30am. Work was as work usually is and then at 2pm when I finished I hot-footed it to the post office and then back to pattern writing.

It's been fairly humid here today...nothing to what you're feeling at the moment I'm sure but humid for us anyway.

You know how you are always telling me that you should leave the bathroom as you wish to enter it? You know, change the loo roll when one runs out so it's all nice and neat? Well.....nailed it!



It appears that the swimming pool in the next village up has been refilled if the youth group wandering round half naked with towels round their necks is anything to go by. Wait, change that, swimming pool is maybe a slightly too generous description....

We've got an appointment with an accountant tomorrow to talk about going limited with the company. Every time I receive an invoice payment and have to transfer so very much into the tax savings fund it's almost painful. Hopefully they'll help us to manage what God gives us a bit more sensibly!

Sitting here trying to write all my news ready for when you come back to read it I realise how much rubbish I probably talk with you because we somehow manage to fill hours with 'chitter chatter' when you're here but trying to find interesting worthy things to write to you in a letter is impossible!!

I'll keep a notebook tomorrow so that you won't be disappointed again!

Hope your mission trip is going well,

Love

I'm sure this is nothing new to a lot of you but I'm wanting to increase some of the little bag making tutorials I have on my blog so thought it was about time for a how-to.

So...how to fit a magnetic snap.

You will need your pieces of fabric you want to fit the snap to, your snap and washers (should come as standard with these) and two pieces of thick stabiliser such as fusible fleece or felt around 1.5" square.


Step one: Mark your fabric



Step two: Cut your fabric and poke the prongs through to the wrong side of the fabric.


Step three: Cut the other bits of fabric you forgot to earlier.


Step four: Layer up the wrong side.


Step five: Bend (the prongs, not you)



Step six: Repeat as necessary. (No rinsing required)

I know you only got on the plane less than two hours ago but I thought this would be a fun way to not have to tell you all the things when you get back and it would keep Her happy. I like to keep Her happy, who knows what Her would be like if she were not?!
(Please note that Her would rather I called her Her than her real name on here as she likes to not be plastered all over the internet, so if you read this and get offended on Her's behalf, please don't, Her is a very good friend of mine and has enough to gripe at me about lol)

Anyway, so you've gone....you were talking about it for long enough that I still couldn't believe it even when you went yesterday to get your travel wash and face wipes. By the way, you're welcome for the tip about those, I suspect you'll bring me back the besterest gift from Thailand ever in the world because you had a squeaky clean face for two weeks unlike the other members of your group. No, actually, I suspect you'll share, you're a sharing kinda guy.

Do you like how I 'shared' your photo you put on facebook of your view waiting to take off?

So being the one left behind (I have no desire to accompany you fyi) I had a pretty fun filled afternoon without you. It was a pleasure to keep you company online this morning as you prepared to fly and I hope I took your mind off any nerves or anxieties you were feeling. It's a shame I had to keep ignoring you to answer the phone and 'help' customers but as you told me yesterday, it's good to work.  Hey, I've had a brain wave, you could pay me to work as your online company keeper when you're not working....genius hey?

So this afternoon then, by the time I get to it the suspense will be so incredible you'll be disappointed. What's that? You already are? Never mind, by the time you read this countless others will have so hopefully your disappointment will build to such a crescendo that it levels out at around normal. During my lunchbreak I decided that it was time to pull the garlic and onions from their comfy warm home nestled in the slug infested soil that is our back garden. It was hot and sunny see?

Probably not as hot and sunny as where you're going to be for the next two weeks but for us here in Wales 24degrees is HOT! I know it was 24 degrees cos we have a thermometer in the garden so that I can look at it and say to Dusband, "guess how hot it is" and then he does....accurately....EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. Have no idea how he does it...amazing.

Those feet and those slippers don't belong together...one pair are mine, the other's dus'.....can you guess which?

Apparently when you pull your onions and garlics you have to leave them to dry out on the bed for the day (not the bed bed, the vegetable bed bed) and then take them into your shed or garage to dry out some more for a few weeks. So we left them to dry out on the bed (veg bed) for the day. Then we went to church. Then we got home around half past nine and prepared some tea. (Fried cheese sandwich for me, fruit salad for Dusband....) Then we watched some telly and eventually around half past ten we decided it was time for bed so went to brush our teeth.

And then.....we remembered the onions and garlic sat out 'drying out' in the dewey moist world of night time in Wales. On went our 'garden shoes', torches went on and we picked up a basket. (Told you baskets have a place in any and every situation!) We collected them all in and now they're sitting stinking the kitchen up 'drying out'. One day we might own a shed or a garage for them to sit in but for now, the kitchen it is. I suspect Dus has left the door to the bathroom open so our bathroom will also smell rather pungent.

Our basket of 'garden delights'

I've written about 2/3 of the newest pattern and managed to find a diagram that I forgot to ask you to draw for this one in the folder for the last one so that was a bit phew....thought I'd have to recall you to do me one more diagram! I really do appreciate you spending so much of your free time in the last week or so before you go drawing diagrams for me, I'd love for them to actually start selling sometime soon so that I could give you something for your effort. Something other than bother. 

In Wales here though (locally rather than nationally I guess) it's nice to bother someone. For example I could say "I have a big sister called Lizzie" and someone would say "Do you bother much with her?" and they would mean are you close, do you see each other, do you talk often? So my very good friend Benny, I'm proud to bother with you, you're such a kind hearted soul who thinks only of how to keep others happy.

I wish you well on this trip and will be praying for 'travelling mercies' (as my church would say) and some kindly soul to share a mint with you at take off and landing.

See you soon Benners,

Lots of bother,

Have you seen the new pattern website Sew Set?




I've just uploaded my Bow Pleat pattern and I'm super excited to see all the other new patterns and tutorials being listed.

It's like one big blog party but categorised and sorted to help you search for what you want....lemon peasy.

Go check it out, you won't be disappointed!

* Edited to protect the innocent :)*


It was a pleasure to get to know Di from Mad Cat arts & Jewellery a bit better as we were next to each other on our stalls. 


Here are some photos of the 7 or 8 craft stalls inside the tent.

Can you guess what task my DIY Dusband could possibly have been doing to 'NEED' all of these tools....?


.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
..
.
.
.
..
.
.
.
.
.
..
.
..
.
.
..
.



One small but attractive hanging basket of trailing petunias and ivy. :)

It had been sheltering in the back for a while but it was time to introduce it to the crosswinds in the valley and make our house look a bit more beautiful! (I'm not sure terraces can ever look truly beautiful, but a hanging basket helps, right?)