So I'd love to say I have had a lovely break but I would not be true ! For starters we just had heatwave number five ! Yes FIVE! This after the local water company have put us on a hosepipe ban. o the garden is slowly dying from the heat. We have had no decent rains for weeks/months, so even the shrubs that have deeper roots are beginning to falter .
Decent sized plants that were moved into the garden having out grown their pots are nearly dead if not all ready dead. We are watering where we can but also having to hope that plants will survive and return once any decent rain falls. but it will be touch and go for some of them.
On another front, Adam had his operation on his heart and seemed to be recovering well , only to suddenly get a tic and start slurring his words. A trip to A&E saw him admitted and then go through a loads of tests, MRI, bloods etc. He was in for four days and then allowed home just for the weekend, now my daughter had looked up his issues and found that after being on a heart/lung bypass machine it can cause something called post pump chorea. The hospital he was in had never heard of it, the hospital where he had his op, knew all about it but no one was ready to say that was the cause. So another two days in the local one before an appointment at the London one that did the op. Only for them to then want him back in on the Monday for more tests, finally after another four days, they agreed it was probably caused by the heart op and would treat it as such unless once all the results came back and showed something different. So at least they are both back home, Adam and his stressed out mother, able to finally digest everything that's gone on in the last three/four weeks. He will start taking some meds and working towards, hopefully, a full recovery but it could take six months or more.
But he is the most determined little boy and between his hospital stays, was carrying on as best he could despite , as a nurse said, walking like Jack Sparrow. Only went he gets tired does he get frustrated at not being able to talk clearly or manage.
In all of this I spent a week looking after Princess C , where I was soundly beaten at connect four twice a day with my biggest defeat being her 22 to my 3 wins, after that she's beat me at snap, where you lay the cards out and take turns and need to remember where you saw the connecting card. The only game I came close to holding my own was snakes and ladders and that was all down to the dice throwing!
We made some bunting and it turns out she is good with a needle , so we made a big long bunting for either outside or in their playroom and then the next day a small doll/bedroom sized set. I had taken a box of vintage fabric I'd had for twenty years or more and it turned out she is a fabric lover and was enjoying the different fabric's. Some that we could not use for the bunting due to it being more furnishing that cotton.
These are the fabrics we used for the first big bunting and I cut enough to make a second set. So these are the leftovers with more variety in the set we made.
This vintage Laura Ashley fabric , she came in with it wrapped round her waist saying how much she loved it. But I had to explain that it was too big a piece to cut a strip off. So later when we were putting the unneeded fabric away, she said it would make a good table cloth ! So I held one end and she the other and we held it over their table and it would just about fit, so I said I would make it into one for her but I will add some other fabric around the edges to help it to fit better, probably some plain green as it's my daughters favourite colour.
Finally she loved this scrap of William Morris heavy fabric , that was left over from a cushion cover I made. Again it was too heavy to work with the bunting so I said I could make her a bag from it, if she'd like? She loved that idea, so another little project to do.
It's been great to finally use up some of this old Laura Ashley fabric and others. I did sell off a few of the bigger pieces years ago but there is still a bit around, so I'm going to either sell off more or find a use for them and use them up. That would be one less box sitting around with the contents getting older.
While I was away Paul got on with the bedroom getting some lining paper on the walls and painting the woodwork, even with the heat. I'm hoping if it stays a bit cooler , he may get some of the actual wallpaper up !
Now on the doll front despite everything going on I did sell a couple of dolls and a few other doll bits and pieces. So that was good however once I was back home I slid back down that slippery slope and bought a few others !
Two of them were too much of a bargain to miss , they are non Sasha's but the other was a Sasha I just fell for and sometimes you just need a treat.
This is the Sasha I bought , a 68 blonde , who I have put into a new Ruth dolls dress set that I bought just before I had to go off to look after the princess. Along with some Rosie b's she just needs some socks, which I am supposed to be making!
I'm still trying to settle on a name for her, hopefully she'll have a name soon.
However because I bought her a Sasha has to leave. The babies are also in the adoption line .. .. . . .
Meanwhile the massively hot days have stopped and we have even had a teeny tiny bit of rain ! Nothing that did anything to save the garden but there is talk of more arriving on and off over the next few days and I for one will be more than happy to see a big long heavy downpour of several hours but that seems to be the stuff of dreams in Hertfordshire.
With that I'm away to search for things to sell to help cover all my spending and dolls plus there is a bag that needs making along with a table cloth ( once the extra fabric arrives ) I've been watching the Sewing Bee ( a programme sewing competition ) and getting inspired , so that machine needs to be on the kitchen table ready and waiting for all my plans. . . . . .
Enjoy the rain if you get some
Dee
