Tuesday 28 November 2017

"Bed Rest"


There are a couple of new additions to the white dresser - the little picture frame front left (I will put a picture of my mum in it) and the green-jacketed mouse.  Isn't he CUTE?  I have a very small collection of these Christmas meeces, and when I was in TKMaax yesterday I spotted this one and just couldn't resist him.  He is even a sort of match for the greens of the things on my white dresser.  I needed something to cheer me up as I had had a bit of a testing weekend . . .

The asthma medication I am on has a side-effect of heart arrhythmias.  These are quite scary as they only happen in the night and my heart either suddenly doubles in speed or else skips beats.  Anyway, I had got wound up over doing two VERY cold Fairs back to back last weekend, and when you are stressed, your body reacts in some surprising ways.  Your mind might THINK it is coping but your body says otherwise, and I started to get chest pains and it felt like I was having a heart attack.  I phoned 111 and to cut a long story short, spent Saturday day and night in A&E and then on a ward having various tests done which showed I wasn't at death's door, but anxiety-ridden and the pains I had didn't show up at all on the ECG.  Phew.  SO GLAD to get out on Sunday morning though, before I starved to death as all I had to eat on Saturday was a yoghurt and two slices of toast - I really DID NOT fancy the meal choices I had inherited from the previous occupant of my room, who must have been an old Welsh farmer because they were a bit strong on the mash and mushy peas or mash and boiled swede!  YUK.

Anyway, we had to miss the Saturday Fair (which turned out to be a blessing in disguise as folk were keeping their hands in their pockets and buying nothing except food . . . Keith did the Sunday Fair on his own and that also dive-bombed.  We have made an executive decision not to do any more winter fairs in unheated halls/outside and cancelled the Christmas Fair we were due to do.  Not too much of a hardship as this one has been going downhill for the last 18 mths and folk just aren't buying.  All the stall holders are complaining.

I have taken a couple of nice things which haven't sold, out of stock and I'm keeping them.


One is this lovely old German spoon rack, beautifully decorated.  I have put some dried Hydrangeas along it and moved the blue Hydrangeas in one of my late friend Annie's hand-made (by her) baskets over on the pine dresser:


Then there is this absolutely stunning enamelled and hand-painted stand.  It is ceramic beneath the enamelling, and has chip on the base (which you can't see unless you turn it upside-down).  This has put folk off buying it, but I am looking at the pattern, not the base, so it is now housing a wonderfully-scented Christmas candle on the sideboard in the living room.



I needed the stone coloured fabric for a cushion I am making, and somehow the other bits just took my fancy too!  For the Christmassy ones and the gold piece, we are going to have a one-day session at patchwork class to make a Christmas runner or something, and I was short on greens.


The cushion is coming from this book, which is one of the sort you want to make EVERYTHING in it!


I was sent "Where the Poppies Grow" by my good friend in Hampshire, who knows my tastes well.  The bottom two I found in a Church Bazaar in town yesterday, 20p each.  First though I have to finish reading:


I'm at the sad part, so it is slightly sidelined until I am feeling a bit more cheerful, and I have started re-reading one of Phil Rickman's excellent novels "The Fabric of Sin".

Right, this won't do.  I need to go and get the paper and top up the bird feeders, which are emptying fast this weather.

7 comments:

  1. BB, what a lovely collection of things. Love the spoon rack. Make sure you rest up and make the most of the books and hope you are feeling more like yourself soon.xx

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  2. I'm ok in the day Louise, but I had a bad night again. I can't wait to see my Respiratory Nurse and come off this inhaler. Blasted thing. Off to sew now (Yippee!!)

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  3. So sorry to hear you have been unwell - try and rest with those lovely books and hope you feel better soon.

    Love the mouse :) By coincidence I treated myself to "Where Poppies Blow" when I was Christmas shopping yesterday.

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  4. RR - I am now developing a cold which I probably picked up Horspital! There was one visitor wearing a face mask and I thought (and probably everyone else, especially the staff!) what a prat, but now I am thinking "I bet he hasn't got a cold!"

    Enjoy where Poppies Blow. I have just dipped into it so far, as some of the passages are very heart-rending, especially when it comes to the horses and mules.

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  5. I so enjoy looking at all your lovely corners BB and I'm glad you're keeping some of your nicest things. I caught a mouse on camera yesterday as he was jumping out of a green sack in my allotment shed. The naughty mouse had already started chewing my gloves and netting to make a nice warm winter nest. (I was collecting netting to bring home because badgers are digging up my front grass again! Hope you're feeling rested and a little better. Stress is very bad for promoting illness. I turned my back on everything this morning and went on an Annie Sloan painting workshop, but right now I'm sewing together my 288 HSTs, listening to choral evensong while watching fieldfares feeding on my Sorbus tree. Four o'clock and it is almost dark.

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  6. I loved the roundup of your life Sarah. Glad you like my nice things. I just won't waste them on folk who don't appreciate them. I guess mice are like stray cats - they make the most of what they can find. Smiling at badgers enjoying your lawn! You obviously have lots of worms and grubs in there for them.

    Stress is a horrid thing and I will be honest and say I gave in yesterday and just had the afternoon off, watching catch-up tv and relaxing and felt so much better for it.

    What did you think of painting with the Annie Sloan paint then? I just got on with it at home and found it was a bit like painting with porridge - too thick. I have clay paint emulsion for the outer walls here and that is thick but is like painting with custard and goes on beautifully, unlike the AS which was a bit resistant to the brush.

    Your final words conjured up such a picture for me. The Fieldfares here fly over and only appear in the garden when the weather is dire (snowy) so we may see them ere long . . .

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  7. Glad to see you back to your old self Jennie, but don't 'bustle' too much, rest, rest, rest. Talking of mice we had one build a nest in the engine of the car not so long ago, they are a pest in the garage after the bird food, peanut butter and a humane trap used, so we deposit them around the countryside.

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