Hot, hot, hot...

I wasn't going to do another post about our heating situation.

Passion by Margot Allen

But when this arrived this morning from a dear blogging friend, I couldn't resist. It sums up perfectly how good it feels to have the heating back on... and it put a very big grin on my face! Thank you Jackie!

We have heat!

The heating was switched back on at 5.45 this evening... and it feels wonderful! Thank you for all your kind comments offering encouragement, sympathy and help which were heart warming if not toe warming! Normal blogging will be resumed as soon as I've cleared the backlog of washing.

I'M COLD!!!!

And I'm having a bit of a sense of humour failure...

I believed him... I believed him yesterday when he said "No problem, we should have heat back on by Friday evening." But he's gone home and we still don't have heat. What's more the water has been off all day too so I didn't even get the washing done... no clean sheets for me tonight.

Which is just as well really as I've not managed a shower today either!

The pub is beginning to sound like an attractive option this evening.

Good news, Bad news

Good news:

The new boiler is installed

Bad news:

It's not working yet

Good news:

The washing machine is fixed

Bad news:

I've got this lot to deal with and I've not even started on the towels and bed linen

(is this washing one's dirty linen in public?)

Good News:

Clean sheets and a warm house by tonight?

We don't like snow!

And neither do I! Our new boiler was due to come at 9am today. Delayed by the weather, it arrived at 4pm - too late to do anything with it, so it's sitting in it's box in the garage. Looks like another night for wrapping up warm in front of the fire.

... maybe tomorrow?

The Long and Winding Woad

Last August, you may recall my tale of growing woad in my vegtable patch, which was chopped up and boiled to make woad dye. You might also recall the subtle but somewhat disappointing results. Never one to overlook an opportunity my friend Jude suggested we split the fabrics between us and our Christmas challenge this year would be to make each others presents from the woad dyed fabric.

By October my pieces of fabric dyed during the summer were no longer subtle but had faded to the colour of sludge. Grey, mucky sludge requiring drastic action. There were still woad plants left in the garden, strong and green and so not to be beaten I decided to try again. This time I decided to try a different reducing agent and so I ordered a package of "Spectralite" thinking this might be more reliable. However while I waited for the spectralite to arrive there was trouble afoot!

DECIMATION!!!

And I know who the culprits were...

The hens having been given free range of the garden spotted the strong green woad plants and decided it was a feast for the taking! With no woad left I felt I was well and truely on a woad to nowhere.

You can run away but I know it was you!

So Art Van Go to the rescue...

And my sludge coloured fabrics were transformed to a lovely blue.

And so finally, a little later than planned (i.e. a little later than Christmas) and with a bit of cheating, I used the woad dyed fabrics to make Jude's Christmas present... a customised peg bag...

With a little message...

designed to hold these rather snazzy pegs!

Meanwhile, Jude tried to cut off her thumb to avoid having to do anything with her woad fabrics. A little drastic but it worked! Fortunately it is getting better.

Fresh start.

A new year and a fresh start... the Christmas decorations are down and packed away and I've been on a clearing up frenzy (mostly to keep warm) and I've transformed this...

into this! I still need to reorganise all that shelving but at least I can see the surface of my desk again and walk across the floor without tripping up.


Which is just as well because tomorrow I start my next degree module...

Embroidery for Fashion.

I'm looking forward to my bedtime reading!