CRAFTY STORAGE

So I was sorting out my cross stitch floss today and considering buying some of those stitchbows that you slip the floss around and hang up.

Well, being thrifty and not wanting to wait ages for them to arrive from e-Bay. I know patience is a virtue but I wasn't blessed with many virtues and patience has never been my strong point. This in mind I was suddenly struck by a radical idea after finding a huge box of jumbo paper clips.

After a few moments of organizing I ended up with a wonderful way of storing my floss so that it was handy and easy to use. All I need now is a wire strung between two posts and I can hang them up in order all neat and tidy. The little plastic labels even fitted snugly on the smaller part of the paper clip so I can easily see the information and have thus also done away with the need to buy stickers to label the stitchbows.

It's a much better system than my previous idea of stuffing them all into an old Quality Street tin and having to fish out the floss I needed which by some old arcane universal law was almost always at the bottom.

So there we have it, 5 minutes, some ingenuity and some jumbo paper clips that had been stuffed in a box and I have at least some small part of my craft stash neatly stored.

Now I just need to decide if I want to hang them by colour order or by DMC's appointed numbers... hmmm...

WHERE DOES ALL THE TIME GO?

Well, so far we're loving living down here by the sea, it's so wonderfully peaceful and relaxing and the people are just great, so friendly and warm.

As for health well, my mental health has improved and I've already lost weight and feel much more calmer and settled, I never really felt like that in London as it was too busy and noisy. P's Psoriasis is clearing up as the stress is melting away and his lungs are almost back up to full strength after being about a quarter of what they should be back in Summer last year. We are also feeling much more clear minded about things and that allows inspiration to invade and I have not stopped creating new things and planning future projects which will probably take me until this time next year to finish!!

WE'RE BACK AND WE'RE IN CORNWALL!

Well we're finally here in Cornwall and it is absolutely beautiful, the people are friendly and the weather... well... it's being weather... all kinds of weather!

The move wasn't without hitch, first of all our removals company tried to rip us off. After turning up at 7pm in the evening after being told they would be at our flat at 1pm they loaded half our stuff onto a van and decided that it was overloaded... it wasn't. Anyway, being 10pm by this time and very unhappy they demanded full payment asked for the keys and told us they would have to fetch another van and it would cost more money. We came to an uneasy arrangement with them and with a dreadful feeling in the pit of our stomachs we set off down to Somerset to stay with P's parents overnight and we had to be in Cornwall at 12 noon the next day to pick up the keys. It was a 5 hour drive in the ice, snow and freezing fog which could have been avoided if they removals firm ironically named Move Me Easy turned up at the time they we supposed to. They had already broken something while taking things out to the van, we heard it smash inside one of the boxes so we were less than happy already.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Hope you're all having a wonderful day or have had a wonderful Yule!

Here at Gaia Cottage, todays menu consists of slow roasted Organic Brisket, Roast Potatoes and Parsnips, Shredded Cabbage and Carrots followed by Hughs Pear and Almond Pudding Cake. Unusual Christmas fare granted but where is the law stating we have to eat turkey every year?

Brunch was a wonderful mixture of Toasted Waffles, Crushed (slighty sweetened) Organic Raspberries and a spot of cream washed down with some Bucks Fizz.

So it's time to break out the Christmas films here and Miracle of 34th Street is the first in the machine as we watched Patrick Stewarts version of A Christmas Carol yesterday. I adore that film in it's many re-makings and have watched the afore mentioned film every Christmas for the last few years! It has become somewhat of a Chrismtas ritual to sit down and watch it, I almost know the script by now but it never seems to lose it's magic for me.

Unfortunately all the snow has gone here in London so it's not quite the white Christmas we thought it was going to be but we're enjoying it all the same as it's our last Christmas in London as we are fast approaching the 8th January where we move into our new cottage in Cornwall!

All that's left is to raise my glass to you all, thankyou for reading my blog this year and I promise it will get better next year and wish you a Happy Christmas and a safe and prosperous 2010.