On Monday I returned to work after my weeks annual leave. On Sunday evening I felt great and ready for anything but by lunchtime on Monday I was feeling very tired. I'm sure many of you have had the same experience, thinking your are fully fit and then finding you are exhausted by the end of the working day. By going to bed early I managed to slowly feel better over the week, enough so, that I was able to go out with my older daughter on Friday afternoon. The week at work passed quickly as I had a lot of work I wanted to finish up.
Over the week whilst relaxing in the evening I have done some work on my sashiko embroidery. I haven't got as far as I would like but I'm happy with what I have achieved. This is what I will be working on later today.
I have also been working on my knitted jumper. I had started this but it became obvious that the sizing was wrong even though I had knitted a swatch to check the tension. Therefore I pulled it all out and restarted the knitting. I now have perfect tension. My problem now is that I have done quite a lot of knitting recently and my wrists have started to be quite painful. I have restricted my knitting to 10 rows a day but I may have to reduce that for a while as the rows are quite long. It's not a problem as this jumper will not be needed until the colder weather and so I have several months to complete it. I do love the colour, pattern and texture.
On Friday I decided I needed to do some more work on my dolls house. The basement has railings and stairs down from the street level. I want to get the basement area completely finished so I set about working on the railings. These are made of MDF so first they needed sanding. Then I used acrylic paint on them, black for the bulk of the railings and then some gold. I am pleased with the result. Now I need to get some flag stones for the footpath and make some decisions about the outside area, do I want some grass or paving? I like the idea of a rabbit hutch and of course there needs to be flowers.
On Friday I had my shingles and pneumonia vaccinations. The pneumonia one really stung and I have quite a bruised arm but at least you don't need a booster for this one. By the time I needed to leave to meet older daughter my arm was feeling less sore. Katy had bought tickets for the theatre and we were meeting earlier to do some window shopping. We arranged to meet under the clock at Waterloo station. A place where many meetings have taken place in some of the older films.
We did a lot of walking rather than taking buses. We set off from Waterloo towards Charing Cross, going past the south bank theatres and Festival Hall to cross the Thames by the Hungerford foot bridge. From Charing Cross we walked across Trafalgar square, passing in front of the National galley. There was an event in the square so the fountains were behind the event barriers and there were a lot of people and noise. We continued on our walk to Piccadilly Circus. From here we walked along the road parallel to Regents Street as we were heading to Liberty but didn't want to get caught up with the crowds. The shop front is on Great Marlborough Street. The shop was built in the 1920's in a Tudor revival style and was constructed from the timbers of two ships; HMS Impregnable and HMS Hindustan. The building became Grade 2* listed in 1972. This means the building is of particularly importance, buildings of more than special interest. Find out more about Liberty HERE
We went upstairs and in between admiring fabulous dresses costing several thousand and happily stroking the Tana Lawn cotton in the fabric department ( this is fabulous fabric for English paper piecing) we leant on the balcony and I took this photo. This display ran from floor to ceiling. You can see all the heavy wood of the shop interior.
By now it was time to head to the restaurant for dinner. It involved a little more walking but not too much. Once settled we enjoyed some drinks while we waited for our food. I can't remember what we were giggling about. We chatted about Katy's wedding plans, which is in August.
Taken from the front cover of 'Being Mr Wickham' |
I'm going to make some lunch and then I can get on with my Sashiko. I might take some time out to collect together the fabrics I need for the next round on the Red Manor House quilt, but that involves going into my storage system and I'm not sure I have the energy.
You really have done a lot on your Sashiko. I absolutely love that design!
ReplyDeleteYes, going back to work is an adjustment after a vacation. Glad you could take some time off.
"Being Mr. Wickham" sounds like great fun! I was just in London recently but I didn't know about this show or I would have gone to see it.
ReplyDeleteYour sashiko looks beautiful!