I do hope not...

"Looks as if there's going to be a bit of a barney this week with a lover/partner/spouse. Venus facing up to Mars on Thursday means lots of shouting, but lots of pleasurable making-up, too."

Thanks Caroline. Really appreciate that. We actually had a 'barney' the week before last, if you must know. I won't go into details. That wouldn't be kind but it was the usual thing, I open big mouth, say something not very nice at exactly the wrong time, fireworks ensue, developing into stalemate and ultimately a return to normal service. All a bit pointless really and exhausting alongside everything else that happens in our weekly routine.

Thursday is not a good day for a barney. It's E's birthday. Her 9th. There will be fish pie followed by sticky toffee pudding (her 2nd portion of the week as Granny provided the first portion on Saturday just gone. This feast is just for family. Friday is the party day. Lots of 9 and 10 year old girls making a lot of noise...for three hours. It will be fun as long as I remember to ship in some earplugs and the temperament of a buddhist monk. I'm thinking a few cups of valerian tea or perhaps a couple of nytol beforehand should do the trick.

Enjoy your week.

is making the new buying?

I've just read my last post. I am having an epiphany (no, that's not a character in Eastenders - silly). It's a moment of revelation.

I have tipped my personal balance from the thrill of finding the perfect outfit/handbag/haircut/cushion/duvet/ginger-chocolate biscuit to the love of making and knitting and stitching and faffing about with tiny scraps of fabric and paper.

It's been obvious for a while, of course, but Monday's trip to Bath (tragic) to today's stitchy workshop in Stroud (magic) has made it crystal clear. I'd much rather be making things than buying things.

That's not to say I can't be tempted by a bit of art/craft retail therapy. Take me to any market town and I'll sniff out the stationery/art/craft/fabric related establishments within 30 seconds of leaving the (usually very expensive) car park.

However, rails of identikit accessories and generic garments just leave me cold. There is, however, a problem. I am neither young enough, slim enough or stylish enough to carry off outfits made from a pair of curtains and some ironmongery - I am not a Von Trapp. What am I to do? When I wear vintage, it looks like charity shop. I stick to boring jeans, the occasional interesting piece of knitwear and my rapidly thinning boots. I am, frankly bored with my clothes but don't know where to turn.

I want, somehow to transfer my love of making objects and things, to making clothes but although I love(d) the handmade quality of the clothes made for me as a child. Something tells me I will have neither the patience nor the skill to turn out something that looks OK. I don't want to make shirts or trousers, just something simple in amazing fabric. Something that looks interesting and well-made.

I can knit and hand-stitch till the cows come home. Clothes are a different matter.

PS: Just cried at 'Strictly' when Laila's leg gave way. How emotional is that?!

stargazing update

No sudden influx of cash to report. In fact, rather the opposite. I wish I knew when 'just in time' was so that I could make plans to spend my unexpected bounty. There wasn't even a minor discovery of change down the back of the sofa. I am not astrologically blessed this week, or so it would seem.

Apart from my astrological charting, all has been well. Lots of work, lots of kids stuff, panic about Christmas and not having even thought beyond 'it's *(&%ing/?> Christmas in 6 weeks and I've done *&^%$ all about it'.

I love Christmas. Or rather, I love Christmas day. I like getting the food together, the house decorated, the general sherry-ness of it all. What I don't love is the shopping. In fact, I think I have lost my shopping mojo.

I took a trip to Bath on Monday and found nothing to tempt me. I found presents for others but nothing for me. This is most unusual. In the run up to Christmas I make great attempts to sabotage all present buying by picking up a few extras 'pour moi'. I know it's not right but it's just inevitable. Not this year.

Even wildly expensive items that I occasionally long for did not inspire any sense of longing or desire. Maybe I need to get out more.

start the week stargazing....

Here is the prediction from this week's horoscope from the Daily Telegraph's Stella magazine and written by Caroline Pryce:

"Venus moving into the wealth corner of your chart bodes well for the bank balance. Librans are not known for being big savers, so this extra cash comes just in time. Don't run it so close in the future."

Do you see what she's done there? Given me some hope and told me what I already know, all in three sentences. I would make a rough guess that 2 out of every 3 horoscopes for Librans warns about spendthriftery and general financial ineptitude. Why is that?

I will review my week in the light of these three sentences and analyse whether they have reflected the activities and events of the next seven days. Just to see.

***

On a more terrestrial level, I am reading 'The Great Gatsby' at the moment. For book club. I am sure I did it for 'O' level, possibly even 'A' level. It's kind of brittle. I love the way the characters talk to each other with their eyebrows and their head tilts. I'd forgotten that it moves between the country and the city, too. I have to make myself finish it tonight. We're looking at Sebastian Faulks 'Engleby' tomorrow, too. I am not sure we will be able to compare and contrast very easily. I'm not too anxious about it as we are not requred to discuss the book(s) for very long. Sometimes I wish we were.

I read about a book club recently that themes their discussions. So, for example, they might do 'power' and everyone can choose a book they think reflects that theme and then talk about it at the next meeting. We have a list, everyone gets to choose a title and we read through them over a period of months. It's been a really enjoyable exercise. Most recently we've been alternating classics and more modern fiction. I'm a bit of a modern girl myself. I dragged my way through 'Wuthering Heights' and didn't get further than the first paragraph of 'Frenchman's Creek'.

There are a rolling number of about 12 members. Some always finish the book, no matter whether they enjoy it or not. I am of the other persuasion. If I don't like the first chapter, I don't persevere. I am far too old and impatient to waste my time reading something if I can't find something enjoyable within its pages.

***

I am very excited to be spending the weekend at a workshop with Julie Arkell and am looking at the materials list I need to collect together. I am a little concerned that I won't be visually compatible with my fellow students. I have done a couple of Embroiderers' Guild workshops recently and my pieces never quite look like anyone else's. This workshop will involve vintage buttons and carefully sourced antique textiles. I am not sure my motley collection of items will pass muster. I suppose all I can do is take and see. The experience of working with a real-life textile artist will outweigh any potential anxiety about showing and telling of my bits and bobs.

***

transformations

According to my stars in last week's Sunday Somethingorother, I am to turn into a pumpkin this weekend. I've never been on time. I believe this is something to do with Saturn.

I read every astrological prediction that passes before me, sometimes taking it all quite seriously. I have no understanding of the logistics that result in the predictions, nor do I understand what most of the terminology. Indeed, I can't participate in what I would call proper astrology as I can't remember what time I've been told I was born. I'm sure I used to know but that little part of information has been put to the bottom of my mental filing cabinet.

However, I read every inch-long prediction that appears in relation to Libra and the 12th of the population (including myself) that must be Libran.

Starting this weekend I am going to keep these predictions and see what happens, just in case they are actually accurate. I am sure that the more scientific readers of this little blog will make me aware of the pointlessness of this exercise. I'm sure it won't last long. I think it might amuse me until Christmas and we shall see how we go.

To give you a sense of that I think will happen, most of my predictions involve being bad with money, procrastinating and seeing things from all points of view until it is too late to actually do anything about them. Now Saturn is on the horizon, perhaps this will change.

ghostly appearances

'Spooks' starts in about four minutes time. It has been one of my favourite TV series for a long-time but, as usual, at the beginning of a series I can't remember who is alive, who is dead, who is on our side, who isn't, who has been cavorting with Russian lovelies and which of the leads has been the most lovely

I am hoping to be made a nice cup of tea as I watch our fictional heroes run about combatting anti-establishment-global-terrorist network with their surveillance wotnots and their speedy running arms.

fun (guys) in the woods

The short red wellies are mine - a birthday attempt to become a proper country girl - they're Hunters you know!

A skyscraper of welly-proof mushrooms.

A chipped mushroom, love the edging on this one - is it magic?

The only puffball I've seen that isn't a skirt.

I've discovered photo-cropping. I know, it's taken me a while to catch up with the rest of the blogosphere. I do like a mushroom, more to look at than to eat. I like the undersides better and recently treated myself to a mushroom guide. Of course, I haven't looked inside it yet but it sits on my desk, waiting patiently for attention.

The sun is shining today. I am not, in theory, working today but as my car is being serviced and MOT'd (total so far £249 + VAT) I am gathering and collating my week's working necessities so that I can increase the possibility of a good night's sleep before I go back into school.

My early wakening continues - this morning at 4am - a record! I did notice, however, that a milkvan drives past our house at 5.30am which may have been the culprit in my pre-hour-going-back early awakening. That's one mystery solved then.

Why 4am? I do not know. I have made a conscious decision today that I will embrace the extra hours in my day for as long as it takes for my biorhythms or whatever is going on rights itself. It seems to me that if I am going to be awake at ridiculous hours in the morning, I might as well do something enjoyable, like knitting or writing or sewing. Perhaps I have just tripped into older-person's sleep patterns where I just don't need as much sleep anymore. Perhaps my well-known capacity for sleep has topped my sleepbank up so much, my hypothalmus or whatever is self-regulating.

Another tactic I am going to employ is 'mood mapping' which I read about yesterday. Written by a Dr. Liz Miller 'Mood Mapping' looks like a very sensible approach to thinking about and recording daily moods, activities, energy etc. I need to buy the book really but, as I said, am housebound and I don't want to go on Amazon as my MOT/service is going to wipe out any ad-hoc purchasing power I have for the month.

To go back to Sussex....I loved this water carrier that was hanging in the scullery of one of the tudor houses. I love the elongated shape and the neck would make a great clasp mechanism. Oh to be a handbag designer.