A & H Crafts

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I’ve not been on for a few weeks we had problems with the roof for our new house and lots of stress which thankfully is now sorted out.

I’ve not done any running for weeks either the last time I ran I aggravated my back and have not been able to walk properly.

But they say for a bad back you have to keep on the move so I’ve been trying to walk as much as possible I took my daughter out to the park the other day with her scooter and today I have taken her to golf and I pulled her trolley around for her.

I have opened a Folksy shop (link in the side bar) to sell some of my recent sewing creations but have not had any real time to craft at all but I have several projects I would like to start maybe someday soon!.

As the heading says just when you think all your planning is OK you find out that its not, well that’s what has happened to me this week.

As ive mentioned before we are building a new house and are having a special roof designed and made off site and when it arrives it’s basically a kit and the fitters piece it all together which means you have a watertight roof in a matter of days.

Now this roof has been booked to arrive on the 5th July since the 5th May and all the other things involved have also been booked and in place since that time, i.e. crane, fitters our builder/stone mason all working on making sure the building is ready to receive this roof on that date.

So on Monday I started phoning all parties involved making sure they all knew to arrive on the 5th however imagine my surprise when I find I cannot get an answer from my contact here in England about the roof and then my phone calls start being diverted to Ireland.

Well in a nutshell my contact here in England no longer works for the company (based in Ireland) and then I am told they still have to finalize some dimensions and my roof will not be with me until sometime week commencing the 19th July.

At this point I rant a little but not too much and after many phone calls in the day I am told someone from Ireland will be over to see me on Wednesday and my roof will be delivered on the 12th.

Sure enough the man arrives on Wednesday and take loads of measurements and assures us that  the roof will be delivered on the 12th but some steel they were also supplying he thinks will be best if we get it and have fitted as this is a complex roof with a lot of glass at the back.

He says he will get details made up and sent over to us so that we can arrange for it to be fabricated in time so it’s on site when the roof arrives and is fitted.

Thursday came and went and no details and my husband is not the most patient of men and it doesn’t help that this part of the build is out of his control, so on Friday he asks me to start chasing Ireland for this info but also can I  take a velux window (for over the front porch) to our window suppliers so that they can spray it the same colour as all our other windows we are getting from them (they said they would do this as we are spending such a lot of money with them).

I got back about 1.40 sports day at my daughters school started at 1.15 so I think ok I will just check the emails and try and get there for 2.00pm and catch the last hour, Oh no,  husband comes back you have to keep trying Ireland I need this info to take to the fabricator, well I phone many times and there’s no answer at all and bearing in mind its the world cup 1/4 finals days I assume they have shut down early but husband says please keep trying so in the end before I know where I am its 3.00pm and time for me to collect daughter from school.

As soon as I got there I could see she was upset and tired we got into the car and she just started shouting and crying ’why didn’t you come to sports day’ well I was gutted and also near to tears I had to try and explain that we had this problem all week and that I had to try and sort it out which to be honest wasn’t any help to her or me I was just as sad that I had missed her sports day and even now 2 days later I feel so bad.

I only agreed to building this new house for her future as husband said it would be far better than our existing home which we also built 18yrs ago.

He promised me this would be perfect and it would all be worth the upheaval, but how do you explain all that to an 8yr old.

In the middle of this it was her birthday on Wedneday so we went out for tea and needles to say I havent done any running for a week.

Ive done some sewing and I have posted my recent project below and we went for a bike ride last night but now we are  going out for a run before it starts to rain and I hope that this coming week will be better than the last one!

Ive decided to sell my craft robo, as now I have the pazzles i do not use it any more and its been packed away in a box for ages which is a shame as it needs to be used.

Its got about £78 worth of extras with it and I am asking £130.00 Ive put it on eBay in my shop here Here if anyone is interested.

Well I missed my run on Wednesday night so I have started my week 3 run again tonight.

To my surprise I did it all without stopping, I know I was running slower but at least I did it all so I don’t have to run again now until Sunday.

Its my birthday in a couple of weeks and as Ive started sewing again after about a 30yr lay off Ive treated myself to a new machine.

I bought one a few weeks ago and all though its a perfectly good machine I am struggling with my eyesight and couldn’t see to do a button hole properly so I will be selling the machine and have bought this

http://www.sewingmachinediscount.co.uk/special-offers/brother/ms6nt/9273-c0-v0.htm

This beauty does it all for me and more even some nice fancy patterns. I dont even have to use a presser foot or peddle what ever its called, just push a button and it sews.

I am sure I will have lots of uses for it when the new house is ready.

Well just thought i would pop on and say Hi its been school holidays in our house this week but we have had great weather too so thats been nice.

My daughter has had lots of time to play in the garden and the weather has been great for our builders who are building our new home.

Ive been doing my ‘Couch to 5k’ runs and I am on week 3 again I am still struggling with the 3 min runs of the session but I will get there and am repeating the week 3 runs again starting today this will be my thrid go at them and i am hoping that by the time I have completed the 3rd run this week I will have cracked them!

I dont want to move on to week 4 until I know I can do all the sessions of week 3.

Ive been and bought some batting and backing fabric this week  to go with the fabric I posted about last week, which is for a table runner I am making for the recently painted toy box.

Its raining here today and I am hoping to get out for my run and once Ive done that I may do abit more sewing. I cannot do alot of crafting at the moment as I have still got most of my stash boxed up ready for moving again.

OK, what do you think to this new blog. I think I like it but will have to see if I change my mind in a few days.

this is my entry for the fathers day project over on my pink stamper

A few weeks ago I came across a thread on UKscrappers which lead me to this blog

http://jengrantmorris.blogspot.com/search/label/decorating

I was so inspired by the projects this lady had recycled by painting that i decided to set to myself.

We have just moved house for 6 months whilst our new house is built and have donated to charity and thrown away loads of stuff.

I had kept a couple of  lamps wondering what I may do with them, well here is one newly painted and varnished, this lamp started out as Mahogany but I think it looks a lot better now, I just need to find a nice shade for it but I am going to wait until the new house is ready so that it can fit in with the new colour scheme.

Also this old fashioned blanket box is years old and has been painted once in red to match my little girls bedroom when she was  a baby, she had a Winnie the Pooh theme, hence the ‘ABC’  knob that you can see in the picture.

Well again Ive painted it Antique White and I have to say I love how it looks.

I may put it in our play/craft room again in the new house that’s why Ive put the ‘ABC’ knob back on.

However we are building a self contained holiday let next door to our new house so I may put it in there with spare bedding in it and then I will change the knob.

I think they look ok.

Hi all Ive not been on for a few days Ive been busy painting furniture and happened upon a thread over on UK scrappers about running.

So when i started reading this thread it mentioned a podcast called ‘Couch to 5k’ it seems you can download these inspiring podcast to your ipods and use them as motivation for when out running.

I downloaded the first 4 weeks on Friday night and went for my first run, you have to do three runs a week and they progress each week getting longer which in turn is supposed to make you fitter.

Now I hate running (well frankly to even call it that the way I do it is a travesty) but I thought I would try it out.

You walk briskly for 5 minutes then run/jog for 1 and then walk briskly for 1.5, then run again for 1 and so on until the end of the challenge.

The guy who talks to you through the podcast to encourage and time you recommends you do three a week on say friday, sunday & wednesday or days to suite you but you must have a day off in between.

I started on friday night as soon as i had downloaded them and have been for my second run today.

I am finding them a challenge but once i have finished and have got over the fact I cannot breeth!  I do feel better.

So I will try and persiveer there are several people doing them from UK scrappers so that also helps.

Heres the link to the podcast for you to download and save. I like them as you have the encouragement to listen to whilst doing the challenge.

Here

See what you think.

This is my latest bag project its bigger than the first one i posted a few days ago and I love this ‘Me & My Sister Fabric.

Its available to buy in the Blog Shop