The Day After

Today life almost got back to normal. We managed to have a shower, do some washing and, at last, we have food. This is thanks to Mr Tesco and his van. We have been so frantic that we've been living out of the freezer for ages, so last night we thought we would eat out to celebrate the book's arrival. In the end there was a minor panic on the Julia book and I had to raid the freezer again.

I have to tell you that we mined the culinary depths with the 'been in the bottom of the freezer for years' crumbed haddock, twinned with Auntie Bessie's Yorkshire puddings (ran out of potatoes) and frozen peas. Not a combination to be repeated in a hurry!.

I shall make a Jamie Oliver 'special fish pie' tonight to redeem myself.

Julia's book has gone to the printers. Hooray. It looks so colourful - here is a spread.

More on that another time. I also had a visit from Jane Wild today, which was great. She has been on a painting holiday and the work she did was wonderful. I'll see her again next week so will take some pics for you. I was making up a board for the K&S using some of the work she loaned me for the book and, deep joy, she gave me one of the pieces. I think she despaired of getting it back, actually. I do like to drool over Jane's work. Here it is.

And this is the board for the stand. Not glued down yet, but looking interesting.

Just a by-the-way: Clive has put up a new, big taster for workshop on the web so have a look. There may be a back issue you haven't seen before. http://www.workshopontheweb.com/

Thank you all so much for ordering the book and for the enthusiastic feedback.

Diane is so right. When I first edited the Embroidery mag we had some very iffy printers and I know what she means. Our printers are fantastic and have done a great job. Michael is very particular about colour matching.

You will just love the Embellisher, Wabbit. I have a course on it running next month and I am longing to get back to it and do some new samples.

Ibbygee, your course subject sounds fascinating. I think I told you that Clive and I were very involved in our local Mencap and we used to arrange sessions using aromatherapy, together with music and a light show. It was amazing how it calmed everyone down.

Smudge hasn't said anything about the book but he is getting to be less of a handful. His behaviour is more catlike - if nothing is going on he goes to sleep. Having said that he knocked over a big box of paints this morning and savaged a wrapped pipe-cleaner that was stitched into a piece of work.

Lynne - don't think that the book will be at this Harrogate show but it will be at the next, I'm sure.

Edie - yes, let's stop watching the news. It's all so depressing. When I worked for a insurance company we went in mortal fear of the financial watchdogs and now it seems they were not watching at all.

Sharne - I'll put one by for you - introduce yourself, won't you?

Penny - the encaustic wax is a very solid block. Needs a lot of heat to melt it. I must dig out some of my old samples. I used to use it a lot. Will do a post on it after the show.

Thanks so much to all who have said they like the book. So good to hear - thank you.