Here ... have a kiss!

After days and days of cloudy dull and damp, drizzly rain, heavier rain and mizzle, finally we awake to a lovely clear autumn day. I had my breakfast this morning looking through the kitchen window and smiling at this lovely kiss in the sky that travellers to far away places left for me.

However, winter's breath is not far away ...

This was the first time frost has reached the roof of my beadmaking studio.

Seven degrees on my kiln as I turned it on is the coldest we've seen so far this season but the compensations are the lovely colour the beech has gone.

The willow hasn't quite finished shedding yet ... that's my excuse for not raking up the leaves and I'm sticking to it!

Little crochet project and hall update

I like to have a few projects on the go at a time when I'm in a manic knitting or crochet streak (crochet at the moment!) The blanket is still continuing to grow but I just finished this little tablecloth and doily for my partly redecorated hallway.

I still have to rub down and undercoat the doors and there's some filling to be done around one of the light switches, two light individual switches have been converted to a single with two switches so I'm having to build that up in layers. I'll do a photograph of the other end of the hallway when that's finished!

At the moment, finishing the hallway decoration is having to wait because we have ordered a carpet for the dining room. It's being fitted on Friday so we're all hands to the deck to get everything as finished as we can before then!

To do list:

• Rub down the door
• Undercoat door
• Gloss architrave and door
• Tiling to fireplace
• Put up curtain pelmet
• Make curtains
• Shelf over fireplace
• Wiring up new sockets
• Fix telephone socket to wall
• Buy new light fitting and get it fixed
• Touch up ceiling where masking tape to get a nice clean line has pulled some paint off
• Fix pre-made bookcases into alcoves (not arrived yet but ordered)
• Clear all the furniture out before fitter arrives

Some of these like making curtains and the shelf over the fireplace and probably some of the others are definitely not going to get done by Friday but those can be done after the carpet ... I'd better get on with the rest of the jobs I'm down for!

Dusty Springfield has made me breathless

I'm a music lover, I really like music, my favourite kinds are rock and blues but I listen to other kinds as well (not rap, NEVER rap). I listen to Planet Rock quite a bit when I'm beadmaking and have it on when I'm in the kitchen cooking. On Thursday nights at 7pm, they have a brilliant show called Blues Power hosted by the urbane, stylish and most wonderful Bernard Doherty. It's only an hour and we listen in every week. He's always asking for suggestions from listeneners and so Geoff and I sent some in. We were thrilled last night when he played some Shuggi Otis as we asked for and mentioned our names!

Well obviously, after such a momentous occasion, we had to celebrate and both of us drank rather too much red wine. Later, I put the TV on because there was a programme I wanted to see (which I cannot recall now) and soon afterwards fell asleep. I awoke to see Dusty Springfield on, she has such a wonderful voice, I was transfixed and had to watch the rest of the programme. I remember really liking Son of a Preacher Man and was hoping she would sing it but perhaps it was on earlier (before I woke up!)

First thing this morning, I downloaded it onto my MP3 player along wth 5 other of her songs. Whilst I was working in my studio, I played them 4 times straight one after the other other singing along at the top of my voice. There's not much of a musical interlude in any of the songs and they're all quite short but she sings practically all of the time. I suddenly felt dizzy and I realised this was because I wasn't breathing properly.

"Dusty Springfield has made me breathless" is a phrase I never thought I would mutter to my husband when he asked me why I was so pale. A cup of tea made me feel better but perhaps I'd better stick to listening to rock and blues from now on!