A blanket saga, more animals and some snow

Hello again!

As you know I've been making a hexagon crocheted blanket. I crocheted 100 hexagons and then sewed them together in rows of 10. And therein lies my mistake. I should know better - this is the third hexagon blanket I've made. When I  finished sewing the hexagons together I laid the blanket out on my bed and it was the most peculiar shape. Not squarish but trapezoid; I couldn't work it out at all. Then after a while I realised that I should have staggered each row as I sewed the rows together.  Not sew them in a straight line...never mind, I said to my self, I can unpick 5 from the top on alternate rows and add them to different alternate rows on the bottom. It took me hours and I do mean hours to unpick 5  hexagons and put them at the bottom and it still wasn't right. 

I had had enough of the hexagon blanket by then so I sewed a simple border in yellow and started sewing all the hundreds of ends in. OH has claimed the blanket for his car and I am furious with myself for making such a fundamental error in the first place! Still it will serve its purpose which is to keep someone warm and that's the most important thing.

We had a great time in Leeds. We didn't get there until it was starting to get dark so we didn't see as much of Leeds city centre as we would have liked. There were some fabulous buildings and next time we go we'll make sure we get there in daylight! We found only three charity shops and they were not very interesting. I didn't buy anything.

Here are some OOTD I've been wearing...

Necklace 1.50 in 3:16 charity shop. Earrings, new 3.50 in 'All Ears' Bedford. Scarf charity shopped.

 

Everything charity shopped except purple leggings - online retail. Knitted tunic; Dorothy Perkins, can't remember where; M&S blouse 99p rail, Barnardo's in Ampthill. Boots bought in the Reuse Centre for 2.99 a few years ago.

I wore this outfit last Sunday to travel back from Leeds. The matching skirt and top are Peruvian and made of a lovely soft, warm material. The outfit was a bargain at 2.99 from the Cat's Protection League because there was a grease spot on the skirt, but I got it out with stain remover! I bought the jacket by Roman from a £1.00 rail in Wellingborough, Age UK about 2 years ago and I wear it a lot. I'm wearing OTK boots underneath. I found the weekend weather quite mild after our freezing previous week.

All jewellery charity shopped. The earrings were 1.00 from 3:16 shop and the necklace too, 1.50. Bangles and ring also charity shopped.

Last Tuesday's outfit for volunteering...

Everything charity shopped except the boots - present from daughter.

Shirt, 1.00 rail Red Cross. Tunic; White Stuff, can't remember where or how much nor the jeans.

All jewellery (except earrings; brought back for me from Spain by the eldest grandson some years ago) and scarf charity shopped.

Tunic; Sainsbury's retail. Jeans, boots, scarf and shirt all charity shopped.

Necklace; 2.99 from Oxfam in Newport Pagnell a few years ago; earrings Sainsbury's retail. Bangles charity shopped.

As our weekend rummage was not very good I went to Newport Pagnell last Wednesday afternoon after going out for a short walk and doing some errands in town. I bought one top for 1.00 and one (below) from M&S for 1.50; a ring and two pairs of earrings all 1.00 each.

This is the coat I bought in a Devon charity shop last year for 3.50, I think it was. It had that funny musty smell. I had it dry cleaned in the end. I wore this outfit to do the food shopping on Thursday and got several compliments - both from other women! The patterned top was 1.00 in Newport Pagnell Keech Hospice shop.

I tried this jacket with it first; it's a Jaegar jacket and I got it from the 99p rail in Barnardo's. Great Denham.

On Thursday evening we went to see 'Young Marx' which was showing at the Bridge Theatre, London. The Bridge Theatre is: Nicholas Hytner and Nick Starr’s intimate new South Bank theatre, where the focus will be on new writing, opens in riotous, melancholy style at home with Karl Marx 

Picture courtesy of the Guardian newspaper

Only we didn't go to London to see it. 
We used our complimentary tickets from the new Vue cinema in Bedford and watched a live screening of it. What a fabulous idea. Both OH and I enjoyed it so much. It was witty and funny and informative. There are a couple of Shakespeare plays coming in 2018 and a production of Lady Windermere's Fan; all of which I want to see. I checked the ticket prices for the Bridge theatre production of 'Young Marx' and the cheapest tickets were 15.00 and the most expensive 65.00!

On Friday I went walking with the Ramblers. We walked 7 miles from Carlton and across the fields to Turvey. We walked around Pict's Hill House where they have a collection of animals; reindeer, llamas, red deer and water buffalo.

A reindeer running

A llama and some young reindeer.

The person leading the walk had recce'd it a few days before and said that  one of the llamas was a bit frisky. It certainly was! We had to keep it at bay using walking poles and it still managed to jump up at the back of one of the walkers and almost knock him over...he was fine but a bit shook up.
The path we were walking on was a right of way so the owner of the llamas should have kept them under control.

The past few weeks have been very, very cold. I've had to keep the heating on all day and know my bill for this quarter will be big. We had our first snow on Sunday 10th. OH had to dig my car out of the car park as under the compacted snow was several inches of ice. Neither of the grandchildren's schools were opened on Monday by which time all the snow had turned to ice.

Someone in the flats at the bottom of my road is very artistic: can't work out what it is meant to be - a snow dog?  A snow bear? But it's very clever! It only melted on Wednesday.

Tuesday's volunteering OOTD

All jewellery charity shopped. I was wearing 3 green bangles but had taken them off by the time this photo was taken.

Everything charity shopped. Boots, 1.99; cord trousers and cardigan from the 1.00 rail, all from the Red Cross. Black and green jumper; 1.00 rail in Barnardo's, Ampthill.

On Wednesday, it was the Ramblers Christmas Walk followed by Christmas lunch. We walked from the village of Old Warden where this building, Shuttleworth House, with its 425 acres of parkland is located. Built in 1875 by the prominent Victorian architect Henry Clutton; it's also where the Shuttleworth Collection is housed and the Swiss Garden.

There is also a collection of animals! Alpacas, wallabies, goats and an emu were spotted on the walk. This is the third consecutive walk I've done where unusual animals have featured.

The Christmas lunch was lovely; we sang carols with the women singing certain verses, and men the other. A fellow walker played the keyboard to accompany us. It was all very enjoyable.

This is what I managed to change into for the lunch - in my car! I wore the headscarf with my walking gear to keep my ears warm and wore tights  under my walking trousers. I changed into my velvet trousers (M&S retail); removed my walking fleece and slipped on the charity shopped Next lace top, and topped it with this colourful kimono also charity shopped.


Boots; present from daughter

Scarf, bangle, beads charity shopped. Earrings; Sainsbury's.

On Thursday I paid my last visit to the Guild House to say goodbye to my colleague. I drew up a garment pricing guide for them to use to help with the pricing of donations to the charity shop. I also picked up a lovely silk mixture cardigan in a riot of lovely colour; 2.25, my one and only charity purchase this week. I've been too busy to look in any charity shops! I finished off my Christmas shopping in the afternoon.

Photo courtesy of youngest grandson - the quality is slipping - no dinner for you, young man!

Everything charity shopped except OTK boots; online retail. Skirt Mc & Co; Red Cross, 1.99. East top; 1.00 rail same place. Hobbs cardigan; charity shopped but can't remember where. Scarf 1.00 Whitechapel Road (London) stall.

All jewellery charity shopped.

I'm still sewing the ends in on that bloody blanket I should have it finished by this weekend   year.

I wish you all a happy Christmas or happy holiday and I'll be back again once all the festivities are over and done with...