Well folks, here she is; I was going to call her polly, but it appears her name is Hannah, so Hannah she is. Quite pleased with myself, first time I have managed to make a doll that actually looks like a doll when its finished!!!

A dullish morning, I nipped to Aldi for a fruit top up and to get a swede for Monday, its St Andrews day and we always have haggis.

When I got back OH helped me carry the sewing machinee in that I had put on free cycle. It came from the house next door when they were clearing it out, too good to put in the dump. It took me the rest of the morning to clean it; the lady who had owned it was a heavy smoker and the machine and table were covered in a layer of tar. With a lot of scrubbing I managed to get it looking presentable and decided to try it out to make sure it worked ok, my goodness it sounded like a traction engine on a bad day. The oil can was called for. Once oiled it sounded much sweeter. So I decided to sew with it to see what the stitches were like. I put a new needle in and could not thread it, I was trying to thread it from the front, and it should have been threaded from the left hand side....whoops The bobbin tension was a bit iffy so I fiddled with it until I got the proper stitch out of it and gave it a good run, lovely stitcher. Its a good job that I remembered what the technician taught me all those years ago about adjusting machines and correcting bobbin problems....... this is the machine ready to go, it was a pretty shade of mushroom, not the dark brown it was when I first got it inside...... so a good job done.



Two ladies came to collect it, it was for one of then, she had been using her daughters machine and the daughter wanted it back, so thats my good turn for today.

I managed to get quite a few more christmas cards made up, but I still cannot find the dark green envelopes for them. I have looked in the catalogue and they only sem to have white ones, think they must have been a special offer......I need 10 whites ones.

OH is bowling this afternoon, he has been ok for the last few days.

Supper liver and bacon casserole, potato, cabbage and carrots.

Lovely afternoon at Cotton Reels, she gave me a piece of high calorie lemon cheese cake from Marks and Spencer which was delicious......s** the diet......

The doll now has arms attached and is standing in the chair in the sitting room holding her quilt for every one to see....... I am pleased with her, the first doll I have managed to stuff which actually looks like a doll now she is finished. I could get hooked!!!

Boy its cold outside, think we might have a frost tonight.......

This is the orchid I was given 2 years ago after I cooked Christmas Lunch at the apartments, the flowers are bigger this year, I started to feed it with orchid food as soon as it started to put the flower spikes up, its such a pretty colour.


Lovely bright morning; I did not get off to sleep too well last night I had taken my medication and it started to fight in my stomach……thankfully it subsided after a while and I was able to get off to sleep.

A load of whites in the washer now dancing on the line in the breeze….its very cold, I think we had a slight frost last night; certainly walking round this morning there was a distinct ‘nip’ in the air. We could do with a week of hard frost to kill off some of the bugs that are flying round.

Swine flu seems to have taken a back seat, less people are talking about it on the internet.

Off to cotton Reels this afternoon for tea and a chat. Hope she has a long needle that I can use to sew Polly’s arms on with.

When our next door neighbours daughter cleared the house she gave me an old electric sewing machine in a table, its quite rusty in places on the body but I think it will clean up ok, its just a straight stitch but will do for a learner, so I put it on free cycle, someone has asked for it, so I need to get it in and check that its ok……Something to do tomorrow whilst OH is bowling.

Fish and chips for supper tonight, oh is having some left over baked beans with his, I will have salad with mine and a few chips.

Nothing of real note happening, I need to get myself into the sewing room and finish the Christmas cards. I still cannot find the green envelopes for the little cards, they must be somewhere, I know I bought enough for the cards….ggggggggggrrrrrrrrrrrrr…………..

OH has been ok for the last couple of days, he had palpitations yesterday but they went off. I am getting rather blasé about the situation although I do get quite depressed some days. I have booked for us to go to France in April, I just hope they have sorted him out by then……..

The backing fabric for the braid quilt.


The doll, not finished as you will see, the arms and sleeves are pinned on, I need to see if Cotton Reel has a needle long enough to go through one arm, the body and the other arm and back again.

As I am going to Cotton Reels tomorrow afternoon I decided to do the Friday clean today….so the sitting room, hall and kitchen have been cleaned to within an inch if their lives…….I even cleaned the kitchen window and washed the café net I have at the window. I have cleaned out my old breadmaker ready for it to go to its new home; I have it in the paper for Saturday.

OH spent the morning clearing room in the garage for the chaps to deliver the freezer. I think DS2 will come over and help us sort out the old freezer next week, I have an old straight stitch machine in there I am going to put it on freecycle see if anyone will take it off my hands. Its an electric one, in a table. I also have a fiddle bed machine, it still works, but I cannot get the shuttle out of the torpedo to re-wind it; I might try and pass that on too. I used to have it on display in my sewing room.

OH and I have just got back from a very chilly half hour walk, the sun may be out but the wind is cruel. We seem to be walking a bit faster each day, so working out a few new routes.

We have just switched over to paying for our gas and electric monthly as we use it, and we have a refund coming, so that off sets some of what I paid out yesterday for the new freezer.

No rain today for a change, sun is out but ssssooo cold!!

Just got back from the meeting, I have lost 1 1/2lbs, better than a slap in the face with a wet kipper.

No rain this morning, it was quite sunny, but it was the wind, gosh it was strong.

I got OH to drop me as he went to bowls and I walked on into town to John Lewis. I got a bit carried away I bought a new bread maker. The one I have is quite old and I have a feeling it’s going to give up the ghost. When I was in John Lewis last week I priced it up at £115.95, today I bought it for £87.50….some saving. It was too big to carry so it’s being delivered, possibly tomorrow. I also purchased the freezer which will be delivered a week on Monday, so we have some serious moving to do in the garage.

After lunch I took the bull by the horns and went to Tesco to do the monthly shop, the shop was manic, had to wait ages to check out. I had some gift vouchers which brought the bill down very nicely. I was very tempted to buy a box of Thorntons chocolate reduced from £12 to £6, but bearing in mind my weakness for said chocolates and trying to loose weight I desisted, although I may not be so strong willed if they still have them when I go to get the last minute stuff in a couple of weeks. If I have lost some weight by then I think I will deserve a couple of choccies!!!

Weigh in tonight, I will be interested to see if I have lost any weight according to the scales at the club……..mine say not!! I have been so good as well……..I really think I need to cut out carbs for a while, although the Slimming World diet says you can eat carbs……we will see…….

OH has been ok today, thankfully.