Mother's day

I am pleased with the card I made my mum today......[My mum doesn't follow my blog or have access to the Internet]. The pink roses on the card resemble the pink roses that will grow on the rose bush we are buying our mum for mother's day. The rose will be named Lou in the memory of my brother, the bush comes with an official certificate as well as a laminated smaller one which is attached to the bush identifying the name of the rose.

Builder's Yard......

Quote for today:-

"Positive anything is better
then negative nothing".

Elbert Hubbard [1856-1915], USA

Let the work begin....

Vin has never been one for sitting down or hanging around and true to his word [as usual] the work at home has begun.

The skip has been filled and removed and the footings for his workshop are underway.

On Thursday our new heating system is being installed so it's busy busy busy..for Vin anyway!!

I have cards to make, mother's day will soon be here, so will an important 50th birthday and a special friends birthday.... oh and there are invites to design and make.

Today I purchased a cup cake maker that makes 9 small cup cakes in ten minuetes and a giant cupcake in silicone which of course helps produce a giant cupcake bought along with other essentials on line in preparation for baking with my granddaughters. I am looking forward to blogging their achievements...I am sure they will be good.


Quote for today:-

"I try to avoid looking forward or
backwards, and try to keep looking upward".

Charlotte Bronte, Writer.

Flowers

Quote for today:-

"A soul cannot live without loving. It must have
something to love, for it was created to love".

Catherine of Siena.

My brother Lou:

Sadly my brother Lewis...who liked to be called Lou passed away suddenly on Saturday the 4th February. His funeral took place on the 14th which as you can imagine was a very difficult day for all of us.

Lou was very special to all of his family for many reasons, in particular he had many kind and caring ways that he demonstrated to many, including elderly neighbours. He loved, and worried about all of us:.... my parents my sister and myself as well as our spouses, our children and our children's children.

He was very popular especially when he was growing up. He loved sport and was talented at various sports. Amongst other achievements he won The Yorkshire schoolboy championship for boxing on more than one occasion until girls became part of his life.

Lou was very popular with the girls they kept him and his friends very busy as did his passion for Manchester United football team, he was definatly one of the lads.

He later married a lovely girl called Denise whilst he was quite young, they bought a house together, however after a few years unfortunately the marriage ended in divorce.

Anyone who knew Lou know that he had a sense of humour all of his own.

Lou faced several challenges during his lifetime especially towards the end.....

I wanted to write more about Lou and what I loved about Lou, how we all loved him and how special he was and how he's missed so very much. But I am finding it too difficult at this moment . I hope you can see from the photo's how special and lovely he was.


Quote for today:

"We could never learn to be brave and patient
if there were only joy in the world."

Helen Keller [1880-1968], USA

Let the work begin

The skip we ordered earlier in the week arrived yesterday afternoon. It's a very cold and frosty morning this morning and snow is forecast later today!!

The weather does not deter Vin though who was up bright and early as usual, he is well wrapped up and is busy filling the skip. In fact the skip is already a third full.

Once the skip has been removed we are free to begin. We have had offers of help with the footings for the conservatory. However the first job after the skip has been removed will be taking down the sheds in preparation for building Vin's new workshop.


Quote for today:-

"Nothing great was ever achieved
without enthusiasm"

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Jade's rose bush

Last year would have been Jades 18Th birthday this rose bush was named after her we planted it in the centre of our front lawn.

Garden and Home

Another busy but exciting year ahead ...... my card making has started to take over our home so it was decided to change a bedroom into a dining/crafting room. Where the window is at the moment will become patio doors leading onto a conservatory adding space and light to what is at the moment quite a small room. There will also be a futon bed in the conservatory..... our grandchildren are already looking forward to sleeping in there.

Our intentions are to build cupboards and a dresser/book shelves along the left side of the room. These will house my crafting materials etc.,. We were quite restricted when choosing the dining room furniture. However we have bought one the size we need that we can adapt to the style we required IE:- by changing the legs and part changing it's colour.....as I go along I will be blogging the changes.

My husband also has both many crafting and artistic skills/hobbies so as you can imagine we need all the storage and working space we can spare without it taking over our home. As well as not being visible when we are not crafting.... The loft bedroom doubles for his crafting room.

Here are photo's of how I store my materials at present and how when I card make in the living room it takes over.

As you can see the porch we have added to the side of the bungalow is almost complete. We also have stacks of bricks in both front and back gardens ready for the conservatory and also to build a separate housing for the bins. We have been fortunate as neighbours have had new walls built. The bricks from the old walls match the bricks of our bungalow, this has saved both time looking for them as well as the cost of buying them.

Our back garden is to be re-vamped, the sheds are to go and in there place will be a patio. At the top of the garden next to the potting shed will be a summer house and a workshop for my husband. The remainder of the garden will become minimal maintenance with open decking and will include re-vamp of Jades garden.

Once complete!!!! our final work will be the front drive/lawn and side garden.

I am looking forward to blogging each stage as it happens.


Quote for today:-

"You cannot plough a field by
turning it over in your mind"

Author unknown.