At last I've finished it!

As stated in an earlier post I have finally mastered the crochet Granny square, with help from you tube participants who kindly give their time and expertise. I've been beavering away any time I sat to watch TV or listen to an audio book. The book you can just see on the ipad screen on the left is Hearts of Gold by Catrin Collier, great book and am enjoying listening whilst crocheting.

As you can see I didn't use my brain and work the ends in as I went so had a very tedious time doing it all in one go.

I now have enough squares to make 2 cot blankets and have joined one lot together using this link bobwilson123 . I stayed up until 3am this morning to put the border around it. When we get home I'll  wash it, I've named it 'Pastel with a hint of bold'. I'm really pleased with it, my very first one.

I'll get the other one made up hopefully in the next few days.

You'll probably notice there's been a bit of a change in the van's decor, I've really loved the van since we first saw it but the curtains being deep terracotta and the upholstery tan and brown I felt it needed lightening up. Before:

 Sooo I've recovered the seating in the dining area in a light two tone beige check and made new cushions, the larger sofas at the other side I will cover in a fabric which has a larger check and deeper beige. As you can see Nunu approves
Now:

Below shows the new curtains, I took the pelmet boards down and recovered them in a deep pink chinz lined with curtain lining. On the board top part it the fabric is straight but the bottom half I made with pleats you may be able to click on the photo to enlarge it and you'll see the pleats. I need to line the curtains I have the fabric but wanted to put the curtains up to see the effect. On the right of the photo you can just get a peek at the cushions I made for the other sofas. They have a patchwork center I'll reveal those when I've made the covers for the other sofas. The table on the right trying to get in the picture and chairs are normally in front of this seating not in the middle of the room :o). I'd love to have laminate flooring but Mr B like his carpeting ;o)

We've managed to have 12 days here this time with it being a bank holiday here in the UK I was hoping to get the other sofas finished before we went  home but it may not happen until we come next time. I will share when I get it finished.

I had a text message on Saturday evening from my eldest son his younger daughter Molly had been asked to be a Brolly girl on pole position at the World Super Bikes held at Donnington Park the following day. She was over the moon, he was ecstatic because he & Philly got pit passes to go with her because she's under 18, so they spent Sunday mixing with the stars of the race track as well as both UK & USA actors. They had a great day.

Molly, on the right in Pole Position

A fantastic day!

Oohh surrounded by the paparrazi ;0)

I'm really enjoying myself Nan

How envious I was :o)

I've also bee enjoying catching up on some blogs I've not had chance to read in the past months and have really enjoyed myself. There are some amazing blogs out there.

Take care

hugs Peg xx

A less stressful life

Hello lovely fellow bloggers, I'm sorry I haven't posted for almost 2 mths, life has taken a new turn for me and mine. My health took another unexpected nose dive pushing me to the decision that I needed to change the way I was living my life.

I've been involved with rescuing dogs for a long time in one way or another but as most know I became one of the directors of the Little Dog Rescue in 2009. We began small taking in small dogs be they pedigree or 100% mongrels the emphasis being on small.

I was taking an enforced break last year due to ill health and had some concerns about some of the goings on by one of the directors. This sadly revealed she was committing fraud, misusing money given for the dogs,  it unearthed the fact she was not the person we loved and respected. It led to a police investigation which despite her saying differently is still open and she hasn't cleared her name.

We were left with 4 remaining directors after hers and other staff members resignations, one of those is Mr B. I just couldn't carry on as things were the work load became to much 24/7 and I had an ultimatum from my consultant. Sooo after talking to the other directors and a staff member who is giving her absolute all to help out it was decided that rather than resign and step down I would remain a director but the everyday running of the rescue would  be taken over by Sam and Clare and we have some excellent staff members who are proving to be worth their weight in gold. I will continue to order and distribute medication and order special diet food for some of our lifetime foster dogs.
I am really grateful for the others allowing me to take this option, I said goodbye to my last foster dog recently, a little Shiddie girl who came in from a home in Ireland. She is blind but this doesn't hinder anything she does. She's been well looked after and loved very much by her previous owners it was ill health that caused them to reluctantly give her up. She has been adopted by one of our lovely staff members and is living the life of Riley with another Shiddie girl the same age and 4 little KCC's girls.

I had a change of medication and with that and the stress being lifted life is taking on a far better route. It now allows me to see more of my family, get back to doing my crafts, enjoy my own dogs, I now don't feel guilty coming to the van leaving others to deal with the constant phone calls, emergencies etc.

I will however be making some goods for the rescue to sell and raise necessary funds, we can assure people now that all monies given to the rescue for the dogs is used for their benefit not ours. All members from the newest to the directors as all volunteers and not paid for their services.

I'm going to end this post now before it gets into an essay and will write another one after it to share some other news.

Keep safe
hugs Peg xx