38/365 Moss

Still no sign of the builders, have we done something to upset them? Or is it just that we have picked good ones and they are in demand? When will we see them?
Watch this space.




In the mean time, the trapezium roof was covered in moss, so Rog climbed up, swept it all into a pile and handed it down to me a bucketfull at a time and I tipped it into the green bin. There was so much we filled the green bin, and an empty water butt as well! Now at least Rog can see that the roof is in good condition and wont need replacing yet awhile, phew.



Oh, and I should mention that my friend Nimlet, the foodie writer, whom I know some of you are following, has changed the URL for her blog, so to continue to follow her please click on her name. If you are not already a follower then please have a read. This lovely lady is the daughter of a professional writer and photographer (her mum) and her dad runs a hog-roast business so writing about food seems to be a natural thing for her to do. If you visit the highlighted link for the hog roast and then look through the gallery you will see both myself and one of my daughters-in-law at my 60th birthday party.

37/365 MISI

Today you get a break from my photos, as this blog is all about MISI (Make It Sell It) a wonderful on-line crafting community. MISI has been going for a couple of years now, I'm not sure when it actually started, but I discovered it back in September of last year.
It is first and foremost a shop, well I suppose its really more like a department store, with over 7000 members who make all the items available for sale. And what a range of items, you can get anything from hand-made personalised greetings cards, exquisite jewellery, fun jewellery, soaps, candles, knitted and crocheted items, adults and childrens clothing, artwork, photographic prints, wedding accessories and much much more. So if you want that perfect individual gift for someone, then MISI should be your first port of call.
As well as being a place to buy and sell it is also a real community, most of the sellers, who also tend to buy from each other, take part in the forums which are very supportive. If someone is having a bad day or just feeling a bit low they have only to go on to the forum and have a little moan about life in general or something in particular, and lots of others will come along and give them a few words of encouragement.
When I first joined MISI I opened my own little shop to sell some of my knitted items, but I was encouraged to join in the forums, and since then have made many, many friends, most of them virtual only at this stage, but also some of us girls who live close to each other have met up on a few occasions to share lunch and put the world to rights.
I'm not going to suggest that you go to my shop, as most of my knitted items are winter wear so I dont have much listed at the moment, but several people I would recommend you visit are listed here, with clickable links to their shops. If you are a fellow MISIan who would like me to include a clickable link to your shop then please leave a comment at the bottom with your speciality and the URL to your shop, and I'll add you to the list.
MornieG makes fabulous jewellery, and also has a destash shop for fabrics
Talking Beads and Craft Cupboard (one lady, 2 shops) sells beaded and other lovely crafted items
Rosytint knits and sews the most beautiful items
Jewels of Isis is another beautiful jeweller
Magic Making Hands has numerous skills, just take a look at her shop
Miss Mary Elliot, another unique jeweller
CMCrafts makes beautiful cards
Mimi is an artist with a unique style
Hennie, another knitter and sewer (read stitcher rather than drains here!)
JustKJewellery makes really interesting items using resin.
Spratsie is a modeller with, again, a unique style.
Tazbride makes and alters wedding dresses
House of Istria specializes in wedding accessories, but as she is a relatively new crafter doesn't yet have any stock in her shop.
This is just a very short list to give you an idea of the variety of items available on MISI, but the best way to find out is to visit yourself, either through the main link at the top, or through any of these shops.

36/365 New shoes

New summer shoes, six quid, Tesco, brill

35/365 I wasn't going to

Back to some sort of normality now after my trip to exotic places.
Quite close to us there is a new development of houses (although personally I think they are more like large rabbit hutches) and the developers have been laying drainage pipes along Quakers Walk. I spotted this dumper truck yesterday, which looked quite incongruous just inside the Lodge gates - then I noticed what was on the back!

34/365 Theydon Bois

My Mum lives in Theydon Bois, its the penultimate station on the Central Line, and when I asked at Kensington station for a single ticket to Theydon Bois the girl had to look it up in her book, as she had never heard of it!
Jan (my sister) and I took Mum out for a birthday meal at the Sixteen String Jack, a lovely pub recently taken over by new people, super meal, very friendly and helpful lady (Carol), if you are ever near Theydon Bois (almost at the end of the Central Line) I suggest you pop in for a beer, a meal and a chat.
Now my Mum lives for her garden, and I'm not exagerating when I say that if you were able to pick it up and transport it to Chelsea it wouldn't look out of place amongst all the designer gardens, here is just a brief glimpse.





One of the main things Theydon Bois has going for it is its proximity to Epping Forest. Mum loves to walk in the forest but as she lives on her own she doesn't get much opportunity, so grabbing me by the hand she hauled me out of the armchair and took me for a stroll. I was born in a nursing home at the edge of this forest and spent many happy years of my childhood playing (and later courting) in amongst its ancient trees.





The deer used to roam free but now they live in a large sanctuary.

My stay in Essex was brief, little more than 24 hours, and soon it was time to make my way home to Wiltshire, courtesy of the London Underground and First Great Western out of Paddington.

33/365 Friday morning in London

Kate and I stayed at the Premier Inn at Kensington, I would recommend it to anyone needing to stay in that part of London. Unlike most of the Travelodge type resting places, this one had its own restaurant and did a reasonably priced meal deal, which included a starter and main course in the evening and an "all you can eat" breakfast the next morning. The food was good quality, the only quibble I would have is that my medium steak was on the rare side of medium, but apart from that the meals were fine.
We were to go our separate ways on Friday morning, me off to Essex to see my Mum and Kate back to Suffolk after having a mooch around the West End Shops. But before we parted we realized we were quite close to somewhere I have always wanted to visit, but despite having lived within 30 miles of Central London for 60 of my 62 years had never been. So we set off and made our way to Cromwell Road, walked past the Natural History Museum



continued into Brompton Road, and eventually we came to Harrods



We had to wait for a while for the store to open (at 10am) but, boy, was it worth it! Wow, what a store. I was gobsmacked!
It was only a couple of days until my Mum's birthday - the reason for my trip to Essex, and I wanted to buy her a little something that I could give to her in a Harrods bag, so I bought some lemon bon-bons in the sweetie department.
Wandering round the rest of the ground floor we came across something else which I bought, I cant mention it here or show a picture because it is for my as yet unborn grandchild, but believe me, it is lovely.
The visit to Harrods means I have crossed another thing off my list of 100 things I still want to do before I die, only 96 left!

32/365 Chelsea, dessert

Here is the third, and final, course of the feast which is The Chelsea Flower Show. See if you can find me, 4 times (the fourth is easy) answers below.














The last picture shows my very dear friend Kate, who gave me the ticket as a birthday present (thankyou soooo much, Kate xx) and me. I also appear in two spherical reflections, one water the other not, and you will see my feet in a mirror. Hope you have enjoyed this Chelsea feast, my next blog will be more images from the rest of my trip.