Wet Wet Wet

Not in a Marti Pellow stylie sadly (phwoar!).
Piddling down, weather here in the UK in general is dire, lots of flooding, a lightening strike this side of the country and gales. Not good. Lashed it down all yesterday and all night, looks a touch better today so far but still very windy.

So perfect knitty weather!

The pink beady shawl is almost finished, am aiming to get that done by tonight - I repeated the middle section and maybe didn't need to, it is looking quite large! Piccies to come when the world brightens up a bit.

The living room revamp is moving on - at the moment it is in the 'almost finished' chaotic state.

Posh eh.
This set needs selling asap, have had some interest but no response to my reply yet. As my new old table (makes sense to me) came last night I really need to sell this lot quickly, it is looking a bit like Steptoe's yard at the moment.
The little set of drawers is painted and painted and painted, and ready to be titivated:

Nicely naff and bland at the moment but I have ideas (has had another coat of paint since this was taken). They involve my printer which is out of ink, so please hurry up Mr Postie and deliver the new ink! The tall cabinet behind this one is next in line but a much bigger job, I plan to cover the bottom door with vintage photos.

My sense of style is very muddled lately - once upon a time I had a fairly clear idea of what I liked Then I maybe grew up a bit and it all become so much more complicated!
I like neutrals very much, these sorts of things:

Neutrals with pinks, bliss. But thanks to my landlord and his absolute lack of taste I have this godawful carpet to live with. Yuk. One day I will invest in something better, even if it's a huge rug over as much as possible.
But as well as neutrally I also like this sort of thing:

Gorgeous.
So I am half plannning to have white painted dining chairs with patchwork seats. Maybe.
Things I do like and that are achievable are these:

Easy. Painted bottles and jars, similar coloured blooms. I really like this.
And this:

Apparently these are cheap artificial flowers in water - I suppose it would also work in a gel of some sort.
(All piccies taken at random from my piccy folders, sorry there are no credits).

Right, my knitting is calling me softly - be right with you my dear!

Enjoy the weekend.
Toodles.

Pah.

Still ill and will have to admit defeat and ring the Dr tomorrow I think.

In the meantime, the sun shone all day today (rain forecast the rest of the week I think) so have some pretty piccies.

Peony Rose, the first time I have grown these. These were free plants (well, postage to pay) and are gorgeous. This one went from bud to fully open in the space of a couple of hours this morning. I love the heavy yellow pollen against the delicate petals.
And these - just look at the colours! How fantastic is the splash of yellow!

Love love love.

The tiny garden is currently full of these, what I would call fake pinks. REAL pinks to me are the heavily scented - er - pink flowers that my mum and my nan always grew. I have a tub od them in bud, but these little loves flower every year in all shades of deep red and pink. Today when I had an hour sitting on the bench I realised that they DO smell lovely - not quite as strong as 'pinks' (dianthus) but very lovely. So my little charity shop find vase is now full of herbs and pinks from the garden, tis the simple things that make one smile.

Kniting has happened on and off - a small shawl from the lovely wool my mum bought for my burpday.

Very straightforward and clearly written pattern so far, at some point I want a long deep v shaped shawl but these smaller ones are great for wrapping round your neck. And of course relatively quick to knit, bonus.
The only problem has been the beads. I ordered pink and silver from Debbie Abrahams, arrived quickly, perfect colours. Threaded loads randomly and happily knittyknitknit - then realised all the colour had come off the pink ones!

I emailed about it and have had an immediate reply, apparently some of last years faulty batch seems to have been sent out this year, so hopefully something will be sorted out.

Frustrating but not a crisis.

The pink coating had started fading even after being threaded.

And pretty much all gone.

Some house changing going on at the mo, much as I love my dining table and chairs they were a mistake and simply too big for this tiny room. So only fleabay it has gone and hopefully will sell, I don't expect to get back what I paid for it but anything around £100 will do. I won a replacement folding table (one of those old carved heavy wood ones) and have Plans.
Plans have already started with a much loved but dark wood set of drawers:

why yes it is a mess. Thank you.

No I couldn't be bothered to move the telly.
Yes I did paint just half of it last night.
Yes I do do things spur of the moment.
I am planning all white with maybe birds and eggs on the drawers. Or old keys.
Then there is the matter of the front door which is in absolutely dire need of painting but I don't know what colour, Piccies to come when I dare (it is seriously awful at the moment).

So things have been happening, and things are Planned. Just need a bit of a break in this illness thing please.

Toodles.

Poor puddytat

Not good at the moment, has been a tough week (fainting, sickness, dashing to the loo) . The hospital have told me to stop the Leflunomide for at least a week to see if I pick up a bit, then try it again once on alternate days.
It's either the tablets or some sort of bug (and of course I have a compromised immune system now) - whatever it is I wish it would bugger off. ME too, nice mix.

So not much else to report - was supposed to be having an Out tomorrow with really lovely friends but that's highly unlikely (especially with the risk this is a bug).

All I want to do is lie in bed and try to sleep, I managed to get to the shop today but had a funny turn and had to grab a bottle of Lucozade from the shelf and swig it, no way did I want to end up on the floor of the local Co-op, would have a million more germs than I started with!

My worry about the tablets is that there is apparently just Gold injections to go if the Leflunomide is making me ill and I really do not want those. Amazing how much your life can change isn't it, I never for one minute thought things would be this rough when I was happily teaching those lovely bonkers kids in the PRU. But sweet FA anyone can do about it so not much point in complaining.

Right, bedtime I think.
Toodles x

Bon jooor.

Bad night last night so apologies in advance for more than usual typos. Something is upsetting my poor tum quite badly, I suspect it is the Leflunomide so cannot really do anything about it - will mention it to the consultant next month when I am next at the hospital.

So most of last night was spent on the settee in a warm nest (downstairs bathroom), am still in my dressing gown and planning to post this, hang the washing out and probably go back to bed.

Sooooo ... what's new?

Fopr my birthday my lovely mum sent me wool as a surprise extra gift (she bought me perfume earlier) - she has NEVER bought me knitty things, my family tend to leave me to it and send the dosh instead, so this was a fantastic surprise!
Even more so as we had seen this wool when I was last home and loved how close it weas to my hair colour. Mum must have gone back and bought me two skeins:

I appear to have my camera on fuzzy setting again, sorry. But the wool, Malabrigo, soooo pretty.

Hair! Excellent match. I had plans for beads and a shawl, bought beads - and forgot comepletely which shawl I was going to make. Hey ho.
So while I try to remember (ie start looking all over again) I will order better beads, silver lined ones ideally. This might involve a trip to the city centre so won't be happening anytime soon, too tired for that carry on.
Then I started looking around for matching pink things - bearing in mind that contrary to popular belief my house IS NOT a haven for pink and is suprisingly neutral (boring) there were quite a few piiiiiink things - taken exactly as they were with no tweaking or tidying.

Brooch / hair clip - perfect match.

The still flowering Christmas Cactus.

Nicely out of focus grainy Sweet William (adore these flowers). I am now wondering if there is any point in continuing this post as the photos really are pretty grim. Erm.
Might carry on then play with the camera settings and try to work out what the hell I have done and retake them.

Inner of handbag (pink velvet), next to slung on the table inside of jacket (zebra).
Nope, I really can't cope! Will abandon the pinks and retake them.

Non blurry:

This is what I am working on at the moment, it is perfect for when my brain / hands are just not up to knitting. This is a week or so of stitching. Bought from a Ravelry destash, destined to become a cushion cover. Tapestry makes me ridiculously happy (I am beginning to admit to myself that cross stitch is simply too much for my hands now).
I suspect the orange tulip at the back is going to become pink.

A part explanation for fuzzy photos and poor typing is linked to both the reasons for this and the side effects of this:

My monthly medications. They now arrive in a huge sack and weight a flipping ton. Grrrrrr.
As I said to the (lovely) pharmacist I used to be concerned if I had to take paracetamol more than once a day , how things change.
Right - washing is on the line now and I think I hear my bed calling. And then I need to sort this camera out .

Toodles

Sun, rain and a Right Royal Do.

Apologies in advance for yet more garden piccies - as this is first and foremost a visual diary for me that is the only apology you get ;-)

After the mad weather of late - seriously hot, then cold enough for winter woollies then torrential rain then another warm day today, the humans don't know what the hell to make of it or what to wear but the plants are thriving!

Look! Proof that there are colours other than PINK in my garden.

How pretty are these? Thank you Wilko, land of cheap bulbs. Some reddish ones are just about to open too.

This is a small plant but laden with flower heads - and the nasturtiums behind it are ghropwing like - well, like nasturtiums. My usual 'bung loads of things in all layered and hope for the best' method of planting is going (or growing) well so far.

See - not pink. Nope, not pink.

Definitely not pink.
I love these poppies - mum gave me an envelope of seeds from her garden so I can have loads!
These ones are from several years ago, I don't collect the seeds usually and just let them do their own thing.

The mini greenhouse is earning it's keep this year. Last year it blew over .....
The plants in the orangey pots were what I was carefully nurturing as tomatoes. They are actually cabbages. Nuf said.
I know these are way behind a lot of peoples plants but what the hell, I don't try and grow to any schedule but just let them do what they do.
Cabbages (not tomatoes), baby turnips, beetroot, spring onions and others in there. 4

In the veg patch there are green beans, peas, sweet peas, cabbages (not tomatoes), broad beans, parsnip, all sorts. I will have to do some splitting up when they get a little bit bigger and have two large plastic pots ready for transplanting.
They are currently nasty orangey but I am going to paint them PINK.

It is lovely to see the sun today - yesterdays downpour was pretty grotty.
Did you watch the Jubilee flotilla? I was really looking forward to it - I love all the pomp and pageantry and although I have no interest in the lazy, ever- holidaying others I do think the Queen is a total star.

How the hell she stood for the entire thing I don't know, I went to bed for a snooze and came back down and she was still going strong. I do worry - I doubt ANYONE is looking forward to Charles and That Woman on the throne (I am certainly not looking forward to Waity Katie and Will.I.Am either). Wearing bright red trying to upstage the Queen pretty much said it all.

Fantastic - I LOVED the choir absolutely drenched through singing their hearts out, bopping to the hornpipe etc. Very British. I loved all of it except the godawful BBC coverage - turned over the Sky who had the novel idea of SHOWING THE BLOODY BOATS instead of inane talk in a studio. I flicked between the two - Anneka Rice? What? Why??

Loved the little boats being towed towards the end by the larger boats, loved the old boats, the Dunkirk boats, the Maori boat, the gondolas, the rather appealling Yorkshire tug (I know the bloke in that from somewhere but cannot think where). Most impressive was the sheer amount of people who turned out, whenb this lovely country is in such a mess and a muddle it is brilliant and reassuring to see so many prepared to not just stand in the puring rain and cold all day but to actively enjoy it, just to celebrate the Queen.

Blimey, I never thought this pink haired punky person would be praising the Queen in a blog.
This is my favourite photo from the whole thing - can only assume there are some younger fitter blokes / women in the boat as security, because these old fellas really do not look like the SAS to me.

To end, this is a peep at what I am working on at the moment, just in my head so far - it is something I have wanted to do for a very long time and never got round to.

Like the colours?