4th Wedding Anniversary

Well, we made it this far! (At least, I am assuming we will, as I am writing this post the day before…) So in memory of the occasion, here is the long awaited post of Our Wedding.

We got married in the parish church of the village I was living in at the time, rather than the church I actually attended at the time and which we both now go to, because it was bigger. We had a medievalesque theme – an inauthentic mix of various periods just for fun. Sadly, most people would not dress up 😦 including my Mum, but my Dad did me proud, walking me down the aisle dressed as King Henry VIII.

Father of the bride

I walked down the aisle to a lovely bit of Sibelius beautifully played by our organist and specially chosen by myself, but I was glad I had enjoyed it at the practice because I did not hear a note! I was surprised to be totally overcome with emotion – I even cried! I am not usually like that, but I was overwhelmed by the smiling faces of all my friends and family come for our special day, and seeing Tim waiting for me, looking so fine in the silk Viking outfit I had made him.

The church was beautifully decorated with flowers and ribbons in the wedding colours, lime green, turquoise, purple, garnet and gold, from my engagement ring. I know it is usual to have just one colour with maybe a highlight, but I am not usual!

The vows.

As well as the vows, my Mum gave a reading and my pastor spoke. We had some people from our church bless our marriage with laying on of hands. I don’t really remember very much of it, except that I was proud of Tim speaking up so clearly when I knew how nervous he was 🙂 We had some great hymns too. If I ever find an order of the service I could maybe do another post about the music, coz I have a shocking memory…

I know we had some Grieg during the singing of the register, which was done in the front of the church.

Me signing the register. I think this is the best one of me, but Tim looks worried. Nothing new there 🙂 (Also a shame about the headless witnesses...)

After the service we walked out under a sword arch from our Viking guard of honour!

Viking guard of honour.

The photographs were interminably tedious and exhausting, far too much standing around and in most of them I can see how tired and fed up I was feeling. Also it was drizzling. I might have done better to have the bare minimum here. I know you want a record of the day, but if you are recording memories of feeling tired that’s not great, and I had no chance to go for a lie down either. I will just include the one of all the people in costume 🙂

All our most co-operative guests 😀

After the photos everyone got to go and eat the splendid feast we had laid on, a carvery including venison. Oh, except us, we had to go off for more tedious photos, none of which I really like because of how tired I was feeling. Should have had those done another day I reckon.

Our cake was the most spectacular wedding cake ever. It would totally rape and pillage any other wedding cake ever made! An accurate scale model of the Oseberg ship in fondant icing! My Mum made the cake and my Dad engineered it 😀

The best wedding cake in the known universe, ever!

There is only one way to cut a cake like that…

Aaaaaataaaaack!!!

Although that is a posed photo, that is totally how we cut the cake 😀 Now I regret not taking up my mother’s offer of having the ship made of polystyrene and the sea as the cake we ate, but there you go. Hmmm, this post seems to be turning into a ‘how I could have done my wedding day ever so slightly better’ post… But we have kept the prow 🙂

From right to left, my Mum, my bridesmaid Karen and her partner.

The banquet was delicious. We made the medieval tent table decorations ourselves out of ribbons and stuff. The church hall looked resplendent hung with banners, tapestries and a roll of fabric depicting scenes from the Bayeux tapestry which is now our lounge curtains, a present from Mum 🙂

The best man’s speech made us laugh, my Dad’s speech almost made me cry again just before I gave mine. It is not traditional for the bride to give a speech but it sometimes happens and hey, I had a captive audience! Tim is not fond of speechifying, he did well to fulfil his duty, so there was room for me to add a few words… 😀

We had quite a mix of traditional and non-traditional really. The evening party was a barn dance and hog roast. It was a lovely day and it took a lot of organising, which is not my strong suit! Four years ago today. Thank God you only have to do it once!!!

Second slipper!

I am now wearing a matching pair of my own felted slippers!!! Yay! I managed to make the second one and didn’t get bored…

Two slippers!

The second one didn’t felt quite as much as the first though. It fits fine, but not quite the same as the other one, a bit looser and not just because I made it a little longer coz I also made it narrower, which it is not. Ho hum. Still better than the manky old synthetic ones that make my feet sweat so bad…

Now I shall just go order some more felting wool so I can make a pair that match better… 😀

In other news, it is our wedding anniversary tomorrow, so in honour of that occasion you can expect a long and photo-full post tomorrow all about it. I have written it and scheduled it, so this is not an empty maybe I’ll get to it – I have done it! 🙂 And now I am tired…

Heat and biting flies!

It’s hot here. Probably not as hot as in hot places, but hot for us. So we waited for the cool of the evening to go for a pleasant stroll round the lake followed by sitting on a bench enjoying the peaceful view. This seemed like a good plan.

And it was a good plan, until the last quarter of the walk, when a fly started to annoy me.

I was sure it was following me.

I brushed it off and did the fly avoiding dance. You know the one, it involves a lot of arm flapping. And then hurried off, but it was still there.

It was fairly big and brown. Not huge or particularly scary, just annoying. I dislike bugs.

Then it seemed to go away for a while, but it hadn’t, I just couldn’t see it. In fact, it must have found my leg, because the next thing I know I felt a sharp nip on my left shin!

Not especially bad, but I hadn’t known the wretched thing was a biter. No wonder it had been following me. I was dinner!

And no sooner had I brushed it off than I felt another nip in my other leg and there were two of its mates!! Horrible things. So our relaxing stroll became a race where I had to escape from these evil villains. I’m not a fast mover, because of the arthritis, but I tell you, I haven’t shifted that fast for 3 years!

At least with the heat, my joints seem to work better.

But having worked up a sweat fleeing from the enemy and also no longer feeling it would be safe to sit and enjoy the scenery within their territory, we went home and ate ice cream instead.

Do the calories out from 20 minutes of gentle strolling + 2 minutes of feverish fleeing = calories in from 1 Mars ice cream bar? Probably not, but I don’t care 😀

I think it was a horse-fly. Apparently, the female needs a blood meal to reproduce, and they lay their eggs by water. The pictures look plausible. There are 30 species in Britain. Yuk!

A horse-fly, by Dennis Ray, Wikimedia commons.

I made a felted slipper!

Sort of like Cinderella, only not glass and not fallen off, just not made yet… It seemed sensible to felt the first one before possibly wasting yarn making another the same if it didn’t work 🙂

I did test samples of just the toe, which made cute little pots:

Trial before felting.

And after.

 

I love that one 🙂 And I showed the other one a few days ago, which is the colour I have made my slipper. It seems totally ridiculous before felting!

Gigantoslipper!

It was like a boat!

With some trepidation I ran it through the wash at 60 with sheet and towel type washing. I ran the eco-cotton programme, which after thinking about it, told me it would be 2.03 hours and then proceeded to take far more than that I’m sure. Maybe it just felt like it, but I’m pretty sure it kept saying just a little bit longer!

So when it finally beeped I rushed to see what I had! It was hiding lurking in a corner of the duvet cover, but husband managed to chase it out 🙂 It seemd a poor little wrinkled fuzzy thing, but when it was pulled a bit into shape it seemd quite foot shaped! In fact, it was ever so slightly too short!!! Although also slightly too wide. But I poked the toe a lot with a blunt pointy thing and managed to get my foot in it fairly comfortable.

I trimmed a little off the opening, which helped a bit.

I tied it on so it would dry in the shape of my foot.

I probably didn’t need to tie it on, but it seemed like a good idea at the time…

This is how it looks standing on its own:

Slipper!

Now I just need to make another one, almost the same but a smidgy bit longer and narrower…

It’s pretty comfortable. I’m hoping being natural fibres my feet will sweat less than in my current cheap rubbishy slippers whose soles got flattened in about 3 minutes 😦 so also the felted soles will be better cushioning. Although for really good cushioning I need to use the really thick yarn. I tried making an insole, but it came out a little too small! Insoles are not great if your foot kind of spills over the edge…

The crochet stitches are totally invisible, so this would do for re-enactment, as long as nobody objects to the variegated yarn. I may do another pair in a colour I am more confident about. Felted boots were apparently worn by the Russians as outer footwear for centuries, so I can get away with it if I don’t mind them getting soggy and muddy… (And I might try making some of those boots…)

It has been a fun project! I hope I don’t get bored and run out of steam before the second slipper is done… 😀

Ask me a Question

Go on, any question (PG only!)

Not guaranteeing to answer every question, but I will answer at least one question left in the comments.

Or suggest a topic you’d like me to blog about.

There, that was an easy blog post 😀

And possibly generating others…

Cheating? Who said cheating?! It’s not cheating, it’s audience participation, interactivity, conversation! 😉

Trying to live with anxiety

I’m getting fed up with this stupid condition, it’s really annoying. I can think I might be OK when I’ve had a few days without feeling anxious, but then I get it again and I realise I was maybe just not feeling anxious on those days because I didn’t try to do anything scary.

That’s why I like crochet, it mostly doesn’t make me anxious. In fact if I feel troubled, I am calmer after about 20 stitches or so. Not totally, but any improvement has to be good! I say mostly, because on a bad day I can find it problematic deciding what project to work on, what yarn to use, anything really.

Today was a bad day, after several days of feeling calm, tired, not exactly well, but not anxious. I was especially pleased that I didn’t feel anxiety on Saturday, as we had a family day out and I did get tired and there was a problem with my meal which I did not handle well. I felt bad about that, but not anxious in the way I have today. It’s quite a specific feeling and can strike out of the blue. It is often related to thoughts of stuff I ought to do or haven’t done or time running out, but it can also just happen with no obvious trigger.

The key word there may be obvious, but I haven’t always managed to figure it out. Sometimes it is the thought of going out, even somewhere I like, but only half the time. I suppose usually when I’m feeling tired or a bit unwell. But it is a nuisance.

I think today may have been that I felt a bit better. Saturday wiped me out and I was good for nothing on Sunday, couldn’t even consider going to church. Yesterday I felt much better, but had no need to go out. And today I didn’t feel as tired, but the anxiety struck. I suppose that might be to do with having no excuse to not consider doing stuff. After all, if you’re ill, exhausted, recovering or whatever, you can’t be expected to do anything problematic, especially if you managed to do something useful like the washing.

But I’m fed up of feeling either tired or anxious! It sometimes seems I have one or the other. Energy levels have been a fight for so long now because of the arthritis, so I seriously don’t need another complicating factor. If some part of me, some reptile brain or whatever they call it, is learning that it can avoid anxiety by making me feel tired then I will have an even bigger problem!

How long have I been waiting now for my appointment I was supposed to get in 3 months? I can’t chase it up, it’s too stressful! I can’t even check. I know loads of other people have the same problem, because of the current economic climate, but then there should be more counsellors employed by the NHS. I don’t want to jump the queue, I’m sure I’m not worse than the other people in the queue and maybe in a better position to wait than some. Husband is being very tolerant about my crapitude and yarn addiction, but he does feel frustrated at the unfairness of my lack of contribution to the household, which was never half due to my disability.

I had a visit from one the church elders, a nice chat about theology etc and we prayed. I felt tired after that, but less anxious. It came back though when husband suggested going out for dinner. I think I must have felt too tired to want to go out. We had fish and chips instead 🙂

But the weather was lovely for an evening stroll, so when he suggested that a little after dinner, I thought it sounded nice. But the anxiety hit me again, so I decided to stay in. Except it didn’t go away. So I thought, stuff it, if I’m going to feel anxious whether I stay in or go out, I’ll jolly well go out and enjoy the fresh air! So we had a nice stroll round the lake. And the anxiety reduced as I enjoyed being there in the beauties of God’s creation.

But it’s not sustainable in the long term. I need to somehow become more functional. And I don’t know how.

Now where did I put that crochet?

I am a Wombat

Wombat (from Wikipedia, PanBK)

This is me. Metaphorically of course.

And why am I a wombat? Because for nearly 4 years I have been labouring under the misapprehension that I did all my washing at 30 degrees C. I now discover that this is not in fact the case, so I am not as eco friendly as I thought I was 😦

I think I know how it happened. I read the manual when we got the machine and worked out what setting I wanted to use for the general washing (at 30 degrees C). Thinking about it now, it is entirely possible, even likely, that the setting I chose had 30 degrees C as an option, but that that its standard setting was in fact 40 degrees C. Such that I would need to specifically choose 30 every time. Which I haven’t been doing.

The reason I came to discover this was because I wanted to do some more felting. In fact, this time I wanted to wash at 40 degrees C! So I made sure all the clothes were happy at that temperature and went to set the machine, to work out how to change my usual setting to 40. Only to discover my usual setting was 40! I was really annoyed with myself!

I wanted this load to be different to the first! It actually only matters for one of the samples, so I switched that for redoing the one I did last time and it should be OK. But now I need to do a load at 60…

Husband is very happy about this new branch of my hobby! In the interests of being eco friendly of course I do not do the washing as frequently as some wives, which he sometimes finds annoying. So he is all in favour of a hobby which makes me want to do extra washing! Even if it means buying more yarn… 😀

My plate

Here is the plate I painted the other day.

Jellyfish plate.

The rim is a special glaze. It is interesting how different it looks fired – the darker green was almost black going on, so I didn’t put it on thickly enough! I might try doing a medieval one next time, as mother wants to go again in a couple of weeks 🙂

We went to Joddrell Bank for fathers’ day yesterday, which was fun but tiring, so today I am resting. That’s why no post yesterday, I was wiped out. It was nice to spend some time with family.

Painting a pot

Mum and I went to a Paint-A-Pot shop today and decorated plates. There were loads of other things we could have chosen, but we both went for plates. I think it’s the combination of the usefulness of the item and the large flat area to paint on which made us both think it was a good choice for a first go.

Yes, I say first go because there is a very good chance we will go again 🙂 Maybe for me it depends a little on how it comes out, although I do have ideas for lovely medieval designs…

But next time I want to have made some decisions before I go! I spent ages dithering over what item to pick then even longer staring at it, the paper with a circle on it to sketch ideas on, and the sample of what the various glaze paints would look like.

In the end, perhaps influenced by having just shown Mum my crocheted jellyfish, I decided to paint a jellyfish swimming through seaweed with starfish and sea anemones. And a gorgeous speckled glaze round the rim.

If it’s not completely embarrassingly awful I’ll post a pic when we get them back!

Having a life!

You may (or may not) have noticed that I didn’t blog on Monday. This is because we went out for the evening with friends, for a pub meal and chat, and stayed for the quiz, so it was really late by the time I got back. I could just about have squeezed in a quick post, but I decided not to.

So I have failed the blog a day challenge.

But I actually had a RL (Real Life) instead, for a change! 😉

You may be familiar with the old geek expression ‘I had a life once, but I traded it in for a faster processor and a bigger hard drive’ 🙂 Not that I’m quite that bad or anything, but it was kind of nice to feel that my RL was more real than my web life!

We didn’t win the quiz, but I impressed my friends by working out that emetophobia was a fear of vomiting! I think everyone was able to make a contribution to one or another question, a proper team effort, which is much more fun than when one person dominates and everyone else feels like a dimwitted appendage. And my dinner was very tasty. We laughed a lot, which is the best 🙂

My decision means I’m going to lighten up a bit about my blogging obligations. I shall still post most days, but I may miss the odd one. I’m sure you won’t miss me too much! Not that I anticipate having a life regularly… 😉