A Present, Man Flu and Other Stuff

Look what I received in the post, all the way from South Africa. Remember I mentioned a lovely surprise last Saturday when I got home from the craft fair, well this was it.
It came from a lovely lady whom I met through blogland, I am not sure if she would mind me telling you her name so for now she will be anonymous. The card is one of Catherine Young's (Bumpkin Bears) and is just beautiful and such quality. The little fella I have named Huggles, he is so soft and squiggy, he is made in South Africa (not China) and is embelished with little roses. There was also a key ring embroidered with a taxi on, which I am told is the source of some fun in South Africa and a gorgeous piece of mini bear fabric. I am not sure what I really did to deserve these things, I only offered a little advice and some support for a new bear maker. She really has a talent for this bear stuff and she is already making very sweet lovely bears and she has not been making them for long. So go girl............................................................................I have met some lovely people in this bear business of ours, who are willing to give encouragement, advice and tips. The help I recieved in the begging was invaluable and without it I would not have gotton this far, so to all the bear makers out there who do give freely of their time and advice I thank you from the bottom of my heart and to the lady in SA I thank you because you didn't have to, but you did, and it was wonderful to know you appreciated my words.

Well this weekend was quite, after the last few weekends I chilled out at home, only venturing to do the supermarket dash. We have an invalid at home at the moment, hubs has had a "cold" or "man flu" for the last few weeks, you now the sort that lingers, never to completely come out nor disappear. To be fair he has been in a lot of pain with his face, nose and joints.....................................actually EVERY BIT OF HIM HURTS, don't laugh he really is ill!!!!! Whilst I am sympathetic, I am getting fed up with having to raid our local pharmacy every day for potential remedies, of course it isn't a simple cold with the added problem of the rape flowering in the field opposite, its a chest infection, or "I don't know what I've got" infection. My opinion is he is run down, its been a rough few years since we lost his mum and I did warn him he was pushing himself too hard, not sleeping etc BUT I have been gracious and not said the "I TOLD YOU SO"................................................................don't worry I will get it in at some point. One thing he did do was pull the caravan out for an overhaul.................................not sure why as we can't afford to go anywhere at the moment, like everyone else we have very little spare money, in fact we are on a minus each month.....................come on Gordon Brown, sort it out. I felt a little teary eyed I must say, for years we didn't go on holiday, you don't miss what you have never had and then friends suggested we go with them on a Sun holiday (the newspaper) they are great and very very cheap. Until then we didn't realise how important it was to have a break away from your everyday life, you see the holidays stopped again when we got our GSD Dixie, we left her once with my mum and we spent the whole week worrying, we could tell things were not hunky dorry at home. Dixie had ripped the wall paper, demolished the bathroom carpet, growled at my dad and mum had to sleep on the settee with the dog for the first 3 nights. We then didn't holiday that next 18 months and it was aweful. So last year we bought a caravan from ebay, its a cracker, a biggy. We had to buy an older 4x4 to tow it but there is 3 of us and a dog. Now before you all mutter carbon footprint, we use this 4x4 for holidays and the thing does about 1500 miles a year so not a lot of carbon. It is currently off the road due to no MOT or tax, I let it lapse at the end of last year........................christmas coming and all that......................bad move, as we now have to spend money on that as well. I totted up how much money we needed and then screwed it up again...........................................................:(

I have also re-listed William on ebay............see I told you ebay and I were a bit at odds with each other. I have lowered his reserve and listed him at that starting point. He did get a lot of watchers, bless him and some bids but ebay seemed very quite this week, with several artists not selling. I told him (William) it's not cos they don't love you, I am sure there are a few collectors out there that would love to give you a home BUT its the way of the world at the moment, don't cry!!!! Hehehe!!!

Bye bye for now

Huggies Sue xx