A tribute, a chuckle and Moi giving out blog awards!

Hello everbody! Hope you have all had a good week so far and are looking forward with relish to the weekend! Thank you all for your lovely comments again. I have tryed to keep up with everyone this week, but I have had/have the dreaded lurgy, so have not been feeling too springy. Obviously, I out sprang myself last week! I have a head full of cotton wool and a sort of a spaced out feeling!

Hang on folks, I look better here than I usually do!!!!

I have been lucky this week, to be given two blog awards! The Bathe my soul award is from Mummy Boo Bear at Stitchery Pockery and the Over the top award is from Heartniki. at Notebook ch@os.  I am so happy that they like my blog enough to want to! Thank you both very much girls!  The details of who I am passing them on to and everything else connected to it, is all at the end of this post!

 

 This week saw the anniversarys of  my parents deaths, my Mum on the 4th 11 years ago, aged 65 of cancer, and my Dad on the 7th 16 years ago, aged 63 of cancer. I can not believe how fast the years have gone since, and yet it seems like a minute ago and I still miss them terribly.  I like to imagine Mum and Dad are looking down on me everyday and that thought gives me comfort on a daily basis. My Mum told me that I could still talk to her even when she is dead. Thats lovely Mum,  but I don't half get funny looks!

 

What you all looking at? Me? Can't you see who I'm talking to here?!!!

                                  I feel like watching these movies now!

My parents married in 1954. A time when people would visit the beach wearing pearls and their best clothes! True! Look at these pics! No jeans and flip flops then!

Bits and bobs about my Mum.

She was a teacher and all the children loved her.
She had my weird, slightly twisted sense of humour, or rather I have hers!
Years ago, when young, she told a man on a train that her name was Arabella Teapot!
I think she was a feminist, but never knew! She was strong minded and could not bare male chauvenists!
She was naughty! But you always forgave her anything!
She was strong and yet fragile, forceful yet sensitive. She was kind.
She was 5'7" and had size 7 feet.
She had a thing about shoes!
She was brave.
She was outgoing and would do anything for anybody.

Of her two children, my brother was the sensible one,  Mum said that I needed watching! She was so understanding of my imaginary world though!  Once in Canada, Mum bought me a new winter coat, it was green. A practical colour. Hmmmm, I thought, I think it would look so much nicer in RED!
Yes, red, just like that large tin of red paint in the shed outside! I don't think I need to tell you what I did next. Have you guessed? Oh dear!

       A drawing I did of the coat painting! Don't like the way I did her face though!

One of my fond memories is of baking with her. If ever I was sad or upset, she would take me off into the kitchen, keeping busy. You know something, it always worked too!

As I got older my Mum and I more and more became best friends, we would go for coffees together and sit and talk and talk. We always used to laugh a lot, both of us used to cry laughing brought on by our slightly warped senses of humour!

Bits and bobs about my dad

He was an Engineer
He used to be in the Merchant Navy.
He loved cars and worked on them in the garage.
He had a strange sense of humour which made him laugh til his face turned red and tears streamed down.
He was extremely soft and gentle, but rarely showed it.
He was a tad anti-social, disappearing into the garage if we had guests! Which always amused me!
He found me very amusing. And I knew it!
He was 6' tall.
He started to go bald in his early twenties.
He was one of a kind!
If he was around it was always him who would bathe my wounds if I hurt myself.

  We're in the Navy now!

On the night he died, he was drifting from lucidity to somewhere else. We listened carefully to hear what he was saying and realised that he was working out an engineering formula, he had obviously gone back in  time and was busy where he was! He was of that generation where men were meant to be strong and keep their feelings firmly to themselves. When he drifted back to the here and now, he was mouthing something else, and I leaned in to listen, and he was saying "I love you".  That meant everything to me.
When Dad was alive and kicking, he was absolutely convinced that his father had invented perpetual motion.

I know! I know!

He told us that his father had written it all down but he had never found the 'secret'. So in some of his spare time he would take himself off to the gargage and perform experiments. You could hear him clanking, pinging and whirring out there. One day I came skipping home from school, and fancying going out for a ride I looked for my bike. Where is it I wondered? I went into the garage, looking about me. Nope, not here. Then, my eye caught a glint of metal in the sunlight. It came from the wall. There hanging on the wall, disembowelled, was my bike! My Dad had obviously had a sudden brain wave and my bike had become his next victim! I was completely unphased, even a little amused. That was my Dad! So funny, and when I asked him why, he said, he would put it back together again later, and laughed and laughed. My husband George says that my dad was looking in the wrong place, all he should have done was to look to my mouth to find perpetual motion! Thank you George!!

My Dad!

They are both so missed. I feel proud to have had them as my parents, they were very special people with strong personalities. They both suffered a great deal with their illnesses and yet neither one of them ever complained or moaned. Both put others first and were true stars through it all. My Mum discussed what would happen before and after her death with me, and put money to one side for the funeral, etc. They both laughed in the face of adversity. My Mum, walking down the hospal corridors after finding out that she had Lymphoma and lung cancer, held onto my arm and laughed, saying that only she could have two terminal
illnesses, and one way or another the powers that be, were telling her it was time to leave!

This is the way I remember my Mum! Always up for a laugh!

They were magnificent! This has been my little tribute to the memory of their humour, spirit and warmth. Thank you for reading it!

On the sewing front, Here is the finished Christmas stocking. All stitched, fully lined and embellished, ready to go on it's journey to the new owner!

 

 

 

Fully lined with a tiny heart embellishment.

On the learning to crochet front, I think I have almost got it. But not quite hey?! I know....Its rather pathetic really!

Yes, it is rather pathetic isn't it?! Well I do try! Need a tad more practice me thinks!

As I said at the top of this post, I have been given two blog awards this week, yes two! What kindness! I am thrilled of course, but now I have to choose 10 or 12 blogs to give them to, which is the part I don't like, it is horrible choosing!
The first award I recieved was from Notepad ch@os, (this is the Over the top award above, so called I think, because your blog is over and above!) pop over and visit heartniki at Notebook ch@os!  The lovely blogs which I have chosen to recieve this award are:

A day in the life...
Gramarye
Cloudbusting
Fairy footprints
I can't sew

There are two parts to this award, the first is to finish this quiz and the the second is to pass it on to 5 or six other blogs that you love!

To see the quiz click here QUIZ 


The second award (above too) is from Mummy Boo Bear She made this award herself and I think her reasons are uplifting and beautiful, another fab blog, so go and take a look at Stitchery Pockery!  There are two parts to this award too. The first is to make a list of 1-6 things, places or people who as Mummy Boo Bear says in her post that quite literally bathe our souls. Isn't that gorgeous!

Here is my list:

The Special people in my life - My husband George, strong and abiding, always there to support me no matter what. We have shared many sadnesses and trials in our 25yrs together, and he has been my safe harbour. My Friend Susan, who I have known for about 37 years! She is so on my wave length, a deep and spiritual person. Both of these people also allow me what I love the most--freedom and space, when I need it!  Other friends of course , who I love, Ro, Lorranie and Anne being a few of them!  My children, who because our 'family' is not the usual type of family, and life has been interesting, I am glad they were brought to me!

The Gift of creativity - I am so lucky to have been blessed with my creativity, my ability to draw, sew and craft. I do not see myself as being special because of it, but lucky to have it. After all, I never did anything to get it, I was born that way. So I am humbled by whatever gave it to me, be it genetics, the universe or something more spiritual!

The wonders of Nature - Everyday I marvel at all of nature around me, I am in awe of the beauty and miracle of it. I love the seasons , the tall wise trees, clouds, all of it!

Music - Thank goodness for music, I need it for my soul! All types, any type, I love it all. I use music to soothe me, to uplift, to cry to, to laugh to, scream to, it serves just about every emotion and mood that I could possibly have. I think music touches something deep within us and connects us with something beautiful.

Fabric - Ooooh yes, I adore fabrics, all those colours and patterns! The different feel of them under my fingers. I actually feel on a kind of high sometimes when I see them all together, dancing about in front of my eyes like sweets in a candy shop!

The blogs that I would like this award to go to are:

At home with Mel mel
Coco Rose
Lissy Lou and the two little boys
Little blue door
My vintage party
Joshy and Belle


Like I say I don't like choosing, but I think eventually all the blogs I follow will get one off me! After all, I follow them because I like them!

Sorry for a rambling post today! I hear shouts of, what do you mean today? Hee hee, but I only post once a week though don't I?  I don't feel on form at all today, I am worrying it is a bit miserable, so if it is, sorry! Will try to do better next week!

Have a wonderful wistful weekend everyone!
Suzie. xxx :)