Harrassed!

Such a lot to do, so little time, so many things dropping off the edge!

Last week I went to my first scrap booking evening at the local craft warehouse. I took all my stuff I collected from my holiday at the Isle of Wight and was given several sheets of paper to set out my first page. The paper reminded me of the trip to see Queen Victoria's house and the rich wallpapers in the rooms, so I used the pictures and brochure and a map of the island to make my display. Not bad for a first time, but I have the feeling that I will do better as I progress through my holiday and make other pages.

On the Saturday, I was back there for the full day, but only managed to make it to 1pm. My back was in two by then and I had to bring my last project back and do it at home. We were given 3 packs at the start and instructions on how to make up the projects; No.1 was a sketch book which had to be painted round the edge, papered and embellished. Then we punched holes into the pages for adding between the covers and added the ring closures and ribbon ties.

The second project was little folded card holders, such as we can buy for vouchers or gift tokens - dead easy and I made two, but having no velcro sticky dots I had to scour Barnstaple to find some to finish them off.

The third project was a photo frame, which I really wanted to do, but had to bring home with me. It was two pieces of board that were covered with good quality paper, one having an appature cut out of the middle and some acetate glued to the back of it. The cut out was used to make the stand for the back and we added two magnets between the covers so that when you put your photo between them, the magnets held everything together.

That just about finished me off strengthwise, so I spent the rest of the weekend recovering. During the week I made up my waistcoats for the market on Thursday and spent a very cold day sitting huddled over my crossword puzzles. I picked up 3 more orders so all was not lost, one being for a woman (why don't they listen?) who wanted the front to match one style but be like the other!!! Well, my designer head came up with the idea of a curved edge that should do what she wants (hopefully).

This weekend my dungeon, where I work, really did my head in, so I got going on stripping everything out, throwing away stuff I'm sure no-one wants, and hitting myself on the head with some metal bars. I now have a lovely bruise that makes it awkward to sleep at night. I rearranged everything and now have a clear cutting table to set out my fabrics on. I hoovered up all the spiders webs and spiders who got in the way and the rubbish from the floor, so it feels a lot better to work in. However, during this mega clean, the phone went - twice - but by the time I got there it went off - always the way, isn't it. Eventually I answered it and a lady asked me if I was alright - "yes, fine" I said, "well" she said "you should be here at Step2Step, you booked a book cover course today". My anguish was forcibly yelled. I had completely forgotton this course and apart from the embarrasment of not turning up, I really needed it to complete some projects. Woe is me!

Yesterday, I went to flush the loo and found there was no water, so I got onto the Waterboard, who said I should have received a letter to say they were cutting off the water between 1 and 5pm. I hadn't received any such letter, and when I asked my neighbours, neither had they, so someone's telling fibs, and my loo is decidedly unwell and making some very funny noises.

Today, Wednesday, I bought some print cartridges at the local Tesco's and the assistant took them away to have the tags taken off but when I got home they were nowhere to be found. So back I went with my receipt and complained to the Customer Services desk and after much trolling around they found an assistant who had retagged them and put them back on the shelf! Marvellous. AND tomorrow is back at the market, being frozen and wondering if I'll sell any waistcoats. I'm not a happy teddy this week.