We have fire too!

Is this not the most beauteous wood stove you have ever seen, all the way from Duncan, B.C., Canada?

 Bianca approves too, although she didn't hang around to be photographed.

We had a choice of side panel colours, and chose ivory because lime green (or any other shade of green) wasn't available.  Burnished copper metallic finish was truly gorgeous but quite expensive, so we passed.

You can see some of the new floor tiles, and the draped creature in my sewing room is my overlocker.  It's covered to keep dust out when not in use.  My sewing room is now back together, and usable.

New carpet will be installed next week.  We hadn't heard from the carpet shop to say ours had arrived so Kevin rang them - and we were told that the arrangement was, we would ring when we were ready to have it installed.  We didn't know that; neither of us could recall being told such words, we were under the impression that we would be contacted when it had arrived and was ready to be laid.  Hopefully all is now sorted, and late next week we will have warm floors again.

Then there will be replacement furniture to be purchased, books and other stuff unpacked and put back in place (we won't be doing that, it will be done for us) and our house will finally be back to where it was before 25th January.

Last Friday night I made my solo debut at the local Eisteddfod and, as I expected, I didn't win.  I had the audience smiling and laughing and singing along with me although none of them had heard the song before, and the applause was very enthusiastic.  The adjudicator was also smiling and singing.  However the winner, based on the adjudicator's decision as "the most entertaining performance" was a church choir who sang two dreary dirge-like songs.  Many people said to me "you should have won", "I had you picked as winner", etc. which was very nice of them.  Even one of the main organisers was surprised as she also complimented me and indicated that she wasn't thrilled by the result.  However we agreed that the adjudicator is always right even when they are wrong, and I shall have another go next year - she said "don't let this put you off".  I don't wish to sound like sour grapes but I think the verdict had a certain amount of charity in it because, quite frankly, the choir just aren't very good; other performers were much better singers/instrumentalists, and were certainly more entertaining.

Ah well.  Onward and upward.  The uke group has a gig next weekend and I am sure we will have fun.

My brain is coming back to normal after a busy weekend.  Our quilt group held a workshop with Jenny Bowker; some of the time was spent designing, and some cutting and sewing.  It was much better than just being handed a pattern and being told to make it.  We explored various ideas for kaleidoscope quilts, made our fabric choices, started cutting and a few blocks were made......I made one whole block.  Just one, but I know where my quilt is going.  I started playing around with coloured pencils and a sheet of paper printed with kaleidoscope blocks and came up with an Art Deco-influenced design but didn't have the right fabrics with me, so drew another design of solid rainbow-coloured dripping diamonds which I started making.  The whole quilt, all 49 blocks of it, will be foundation pieced because that's what Jenny taught........I don't love foundation piecing, it's so tedious.......

Making it will be like eating an elephant, just taken steadily one bite at a time.

"Signature of ladies.
Only the letters of unmarried ladies and widows are addressed with their baptismal names.  The letters of married ladies are addressed with their husbands' names, as "Mrs John Smith".

I don't know when that custom started, but I have never liked it.  My name is "Jennifer Lastname" not Kevin lastname", regardless of whether I am Mrs, Ms or Miss.