Back to work

Ok. So I went back to work yesterday, not today. It feels like I've never been away already! Why does that happen? The holiday takes forever to arrive, it's gone in a flash, and then you end up back in the same routine again! 

Work hasn't  been too bad so far.  Pretty much the same as usual with a few hints of the workload going up even further in the foreseeable future. Something not to look forward to. Such is life. 

Since we got home on Saturday though, I've managed to get back to my crafting - yay!!! I miss it when we're away. Is that sad?  Along with trying to get on top of the washing (that poor washing machine never stopped at the weekend), collecting the cats and making sure they were ok, I've been able to catch up a bit with my networking on Facebook, and plan some new ideas. I found a new shop close by which sells loads of craft things at reasonable prices - this may or may not be a good thing for the bank balance ...... It's all very exciting though. I thought I'd use some of my summery beads to made some bag charms with to start with ........

......and tried out a few new ideas for other gifts......

And tonight I've been wiring up more beads to make either bracelets, earrings or necklaces .........

If you like these, why not pop over to my Facebook page or my Etsy shop? Admittedly I haven't got everything on Etsy yet, but if you contact me I'll be able to sort something out for you :)

On that note I will leave you with a cute photo of my cats tonight .......and no, it wasn't set up, they really are this cute.......my 5 fur babies .......

www.etsy.com/uk/shops/CatztaylCraft

www.facebook.com/catztayl

Back with the Wifi!!! (Warning - lots of photos!)

I'm pleased to say that we're back with Wifi now - yay! Sad to say, however, that it means that we are back home and not on holiday anymore.

We left home last Saturday morning and headed south, for a change, to visit DH's daughter in Hampshire. We haven't visited since she moved there with her partner over two years ago, so we were long overdue a visit (apologies to my step-daughter if you read this). With a few stops along the way we eventually arrived at our self-catering accommodation late Saturday afternoon. I say accommodation as DD spent the week referring to it as 'the Shed' that we were staying in! It was called The Woodshed, and was just that - a converted outbuilding used as a wood shed. It doesn't even look like a cottage from the outside ………

…….but it was lovely inside, with a wood burner and huge patio doors which opened out on to the field behind. We walked Oscar on the field every day which he loved. 

The down side to the 'Shed' was that once you were inside there was no phone signal at all - zilch, nil, nothing at all. However, if you stood just outside the patio doors and just at the edge of the building you could just about get a faint 3G signal! So we haven't used the internet a lot when we've been there.

Sunday we went across to see DH's daughter in their new-ish house. They moved in last year, about November time I think, so they've been able to get some decorating done in the last few months. It's a lovely house and they have lots of plans for it, so it will look really good once they've finished. Unfortunately we couldn't take Oscar in the house as one of their cats has a few behaviour issues (just as Oscar has a few behaviour issues) so they figured if a dog went in the house it would set her back all the hard work they've been doing to help their cat. Thankfully we're in a position to completely understand why we couldn't let Oscar in the house, and we had a bit of a laugh about the fact that we both seem to have pets with issues.

Monday we went to Brighton, part of the other reason for spending a week in the South. We promised DD we'd take her to Brighton ages ago - some of the people she follows on Youtube live in Brighton, so I think she was secretly hoping to bump in to them on the street. We had some glorious weather while we were there......

......and found some beach huts which we hadn't know about! They were really pretty……

.....but unfortunately DD didn't bump in to any of her Vloggers. 

Tuesday we headed out to a Country Park to get out walking. Again, the sun was shining and it got quite hot for most of the walk. I think Oscar enjoyed himself and DD certainly seemed to for most of the way, mainly because of the obstacle course that we found and the giants chair ……….

Wednesday we just drove to a nearby village for a bit of a wander, and then another short walk with Oscar. And yet more sunshine!

At night we drove out to a pub which was roughly half-way between where we were staying and where DH's daughter lives - a good compromise to meet up and have a meal out. The meal itself was lovely but the drive home in the dark was a bit scary along the country roads.

Thursday we met up with DH's daughter so that she could show us round the city where she lives - her first opportunity to show us round and give us a bit of guided tour of the place. Once more, we had glorious weather and we all got quite hot walking by the river. It was a lovely place and we can see the appeal of it for her and why she moved there.

And Friday, our last day, and our last chance to go walking in the country. We set off walking from the 'Shed' itself and headed across to the nearby hill. It was quite overcast when we left but it was still quite warm. After skirting the edge of a field with cows in, which I'm quite nervous in, and another one with horses in that DH is nervous with, we headed for the local pub, hoping to have a quick drink before going back to the 'Shed'. 

We got there just at 3pm to find it had just shut!! Typical. Thankfully we didn't have far to go back, so we took advantage of the nice weather and sat outside for a while before getting changed to go back to DH's daughter's for a takeaway curry night. Lovely.

And today has been time to come home, back to Lancashire. And, it appears, to also leave the nice weather behind as it rained on the way back!

We've had a fabulous week in sunny Hampshire, and seen some very pretty English villages.

Next stop - Scotland in Summer for DH's birthday!!!!!

Sunshine!

My internet access has been really limited this week, hence the lack of posts. But I'm aiming to do a full catch up when I get home. 

We've had a glorious week weather wise - sunshine every day which has been fabulous. 

We've been out and about and met up with DH's daughter a few times which has been lovely. 

Oscar has been behaving himself for most of the time and we've even had him off his lead in the field a few times, to let him have a good run, something we don't get chance to do at home. 

So, time for a drink and decide what we're going to do tomorrow ......

Internet black hole

I'm a bit late posting this, but we appear to be in an Internet black hole at the moment. Visiting family in what we thought was going to be an excellent signal area, we've found ourselves in one of the many Internet black holes in rural England. Typical! If there's going to be a black hole, we'll find it. Nevertheless it is a pretty area that we're in. 

Wednesday wander

Mid week again. But this week, instead of dreading a long day at work tomorrow, I can enjoy a bit of a lie-in as I'm not back at work until 28th April!! Yay! 

I've had a busy week as usual, with line dancing on Monday, which was fun, and dog walking and helping DD sort out some clothes for our holiday last night, and a bit of crafting after dog walking tonight. It's been two lovely nights for taking Oscar out, and it's nice to see the blossom coming out on the trees now. 

I had a brief trip back to the vets after work today too. For some more medication for Gizmo who appears to have had a mild reaction to the antibiotics that she's on. I just can't keep away from the place this year! 

The planters are looking quite good outside the house at the moment. There's some lovely bulbs coming up now. 

I think it might just be starting to feel like spring at last!

Crafting weekend!

Is it really Sunday night already? Where does the time go?

After spending all day Friday and yesterday helping my friend again with the plants on her nursery, I have spent most of today doing what I love best - crafting :) I started the morning by mixing some resin and glitter to make some more cool buttons using the mould I bought a couple of weeks ago. I'd done some last night so I was able to take them out of the mould and see how they came out. They were fab :) So I thought I'd make some more in different colours! I must remember to take a photo to show you this week. 

I also made another framed 'Home is Where….' paper cutout design. This one is for my step-daughter when we go and see her next week - a sort of 'Welcome to your New Home' present. I just hope she likes it.

I also had a go at painting some different shapes to make other things - hanging plaques and hearts for frames. 

So I've been busy, busy, busy all day. As well as making tea (roast turkey with roast potatoes - very yummy), feeding the cats, giving Gizmo her medication and clipping the cats claws ready for them going to the cattery on Friday this week.

Not forgetting the two new stretch bracelets I managed to squeeze in before calling it a night tonight! 

No rest for me today! But I've enjoyed it all :)

If you want to see what other things I've made, head over to my Facebook page where there's a 'shop now' link to my Etsy store. 

www.facebook.com/catztayl

Wills and cars

Back to work on Tuesday, reluctantly. I think I enjoyed having the extra day off a bit too much! DH left after me this week too - no early start, yay! He was heading for Swansea instead of Nottingham this week, just for one night, and only needs to be there later on. 

So, work done for the day, DD off work all day, and DH on his way to work. And then the text came through from DH telling me that another driver had driven in to the back of his car on the motorway, as he was in standing traffic. He was spun round in to the outside lane where luckily there was no traffic, and he managed to get back on to the hard shoulder where he could ring for help. And the other driver? Sounds like she practically threw her details at DH and drove off, despite having damaged her own car! Bizarrely, when DH rang me to let me know he was ok, DD got a message from her boyfriend to say he had broken down on the same motorway DH was on, just a few junctions earlier! You couldn't plan it, both of them on the same day!

Thankfully both men are fine. The cars aren't, but they can be replaced. DH has also since found out that the driver of the car that hit him wasn't insured!!! Aargh! I think it's up to the fleet company to look at that now. 

I've also been to see my mum yesterday, to see if we can sort her Will out. There were a couple of queries on the draft copy that we needed to clarify with the solicitor. That's all done now.

And I've managed to get just a bit of crafting in this week. I redid the picture frame that I posted earlier ......  

...... and also did another design .........

What to you think? I like the paw on the edge of the frame giving it just that something extra. 

I've also noticed that the seeds I sowed not too long ago have started sprouting, so we might still have some homegrown veg this year....... courgettes .....

..........cucumber .......

........and my lovely tomatoes. .......

Weekend walking

I think we've managed to tire Oscar out completely this weekend! We decided that we'd have a night away on Saturday night. I'd been helping out at my friends all day while DH packed the van. Rather than try and find a room in a hotel, we opted to go back to what is becoming our regular pub/hotel, and stay in the van in the carpark, using the electric available to make sure we could have a bit of heat in the van overnight. DH booked a table for 8pm for us, and off we went.

It was a lovely night, and both of us slept really well in the van - even Oscar had a lie-in! The day started off a bit misty, but by the time we parked up next to Wet Sleddale reservoir to make breakfast, the sun was shining and the mist was clearing - perfect.

We left the van at 11 am and very quickly decided that we didn't need coats or even fleeces on as the sun was so warm. We've done part of the walk before, about 6 months ago when we had Molly with us. This time we just kept walking. And what fantastic views we had!

Eventually we stopped for lunch next to a stream, after squelching over mud, streams, up and down boggy ground, so it was quite a relief to sit down next to a lovely stream and have lunch.

By this time it was about 2pm - we'd gone too far to just turn round and go back (and would have involved climbing up quite a steep and muddy hill) so we carried on to what we thought would be a straight forward route back to the van.

Did I say straight forward? I don't think so! We don't even know what happened to the path! We followed what we thought looked like a path, but very soon become clear that we weren't going in the direction we needed to be heading if we were to get back to the van any time soon. So we trudged across what felt like miles of boggy moorland. The views were fabulous, but not quite knowing where we were, and finding it quite hard going across the very wet moorland, made it quite a difficult last part of the walk. Poor Oscar kept trying to rest whenever we stopped to check the map and he looked quite put out when we carried on!

Eventually we could see the reservoir and we were back on familiar ground. Phew! And 7 hours after setting off we made it back to the van for a well earned cup of tea and piece of cake (yes, the Christmas cake is still going - just).

A fabulous walk. A very long walk. A walk which I am so glad we did even if we were both exhausted by the time we'd finished. DH mapped it when we got home and worked out we'd done about 11 miles - our longest of the year so far, and I think Oscar's longest walk ever. No wonder it took so long and Oscar was so tired!

Good Friday

I know. It's been a few days. It's not like me. But I have an excuse. Gizmo.

I took Gizmo to the vets early Tuesday morning and left her to have her dental work done while I went to work. The vets rang in the afternoon to let me know everything had gone well and I could pick her up at 5pm. Now at 17 1/2, which is a good old age for a cat, you would expect a few teeth to be missing. Gizmo now has the sum of 7 teeth!!! With the teeth she'd already lost, and the ones they had to remove, she doesn't even have any fangs anymore, which is really sad. She wasn't very happy with me when I collected her, and didn't really 'talk' to me for a couple of days!

So, for the last few days I've been busy before and after work making sure that Gizmo has all her medication - antibiotics twice a day, strong painkillers twice a day, and her now every day medication for her kidneys. Thankfully the painkillers have finished and the antibiotics have one more day to go. 

I've also helped my mum with her phone this week. She seems to be doing really well with using the Internet and texting, and wanted me to help her get an email address set up 😊 I'm very impressed! 

On top of all this I've managed to take some photos of some of my jewellery and finally get them on Etsy. We had a bit of sunshine Wednesday afternoon when I got home, so I grabbed the camera and some jewellery and went snapping! Have a look on the link and see what you think…... there's more to come soon....

www.etsy.com/uk/shop/CatztaylCrafts