Safeguarding and chores.

Today I had to attend a training for Guide leaders on the new safeguarding laws and regulations. Not  much had changed since the last training I attended but it's well worth staying up to date with the policies and procedures and generally refreshing the old memory. Lucy attended the same training last week and hopefully it means that we should be able to spot any issues early should they arise and get the person the help they need more quickly. The training took most of the day and all the discussions and activities left me feeling drained. Unfortunately once I got home I had to go straight out again as I needed to do a major grocery shop. It's always depressing when there is very little food in the house. Now sitting here writing this I'm feeling very pleased as my training is all up to date and I've a full food cupboard and fridge. Time to relax.

For Christmas 2015 John bought me a dolls house. It's a wooden house, 1:12 scale and you need to decorate it and put it together. I didn't start making it in 2016 because we were busy decorating and finishing the work that was needed on our own house. I'd planned to make it last year but there just never seemed to be the time when I had the energy to do it. So here we are in February 2018 and both parts of the house are still in the boxes. The house comes as two separate parts. The main house is two floors plus the roof also opens. In addition there is a basement that you can add to the house. John bought both parts. It's now time to get this project started so Richard and I opened the box with the basement pieces and set it up on the floor.

We just set the pieces up to see how it would look. There are grooves to help the pieces fit together which helped it all stay in place. I love the railings in front of the house. The front opens along the split to the right of the stairs so you can access the rooms. The rest of the house will sit on the flat top of the basement. It was so much fun seeing how it all fits together. It's now got to be painted inside and out before we finally put it together. I'm currently making decisions about whether to paint the outside walls or to use brick paper to cover it, plus I've got to decide how to decorate the basement rooms. I think I'm almost there with my final ideas.

Last week I received my quilty treat box. This is only a small treat box and arrives early each month. You don't have a choice what's in it but I've now had it for a year and I've always been very happy with the contents. This month there was some beautiful batiks.

Each month they give you a pattern plus any additional items needed to make up the pattern. This month it is a sew tidy. I don't think I'm going to make this as I have several zip lock bags that I use to keep my projects tidy but I have a couple of ideas for the fabric. For now I'm just enjoyed stroking the fabric and feeling the happy vibes from the cheerful orange.

This week I've driven myself slightly mad trying to find the grandmother's garden quilt I'm working on for Lucy. I have all the flowers for the next row but couldn't find what I'd already made. Eventually earlier this evening I found it in a box with the other fabric that had been sorted to use in this quilt. It's supposed to make life easier when you keep everything tidy but I just forget where I've put things. Now I can stitch the next colour ring on. This quilt is very slow but it is all hand stitched so I don't feel so bad about the speed.

This is a totally scrappy piece. Each round moving outwards from the middle is one of the colours of the rainbow and the round I need to add is Indigo and Violet. We decided to combine the two colours in the same round as they can be quite similar. The hexagons are 1 inch in size so it's going to take a little time to complete this project.

I have been working on some sewing but it's getting a little late now so I'll tell you about that tomorrow and if Richard can get a good picture I show you how Scamp and Picasso have decided to share my lap in an evening.

Lyndsey