A SAILOR WENT TO SEA, SEA, SEA
TO SEE WHAT HE COULD SEE, SEE , SEE,
BUT ALL THAT HE COULD SEE, SEE, SEE
WAS THE BOTTOM OF THE DEEP BLUE SEA, SEA, SEA!
Good grief, that lyric takes me back 20 odd years to when my boys were small and that was a nursery rhyme in one of the many books they demanded to be read at bedtime. Tempus fugit, eh?!
My desk has been a whirlwind of activity this week - talk about going from the sublime to the ridiculous.
It all started when I needed (yes, really!) some curtain fabric in order to make this window look a bit prettier:
It's a 3 metre drop! That horrible net curtain has been there since we moved in and as we haven't got the ladders to reach up to the curtain pole, there it has stayed - but not for much longer. Someone with the proper equipment is coming to paint our hall, stairs and landing and while he's up there, he can change the curtain!
So off to Swansea we went to a really useful pair of shops - both called Lee Mills, one is for dress fabrics, the other for furnishing. After browsing for about ten minutes, I found one I really liked:
It's a gorgeous linen fabric with enough pattern to make it interesting. I needed 7 metres (including a big allowance for pattern) match, there was 6.95m on the roll. I hadn't even asked the price, the lady said that the book price was £42 a metre (gulp!) but as it was an end of roll, they'd priced it at £13.95!!! Well, I could have kissed her :-D Was that meant to be or not huh??
So as the weather on Saturday was vile, I assigned the day to curtain making. Julia, you'd be proud...and slightly amazed... I measured AND pinned.
It was a lot of fabric to work with, but I'm not lining the curtains so that made life easier. I shall show you the finished articles when they're up!
While at the shop, I spotted another fabric in the same line as something I bought about two months ago:
I shouldn't have...but I did and made myself a big old tote shopping bag!
Beautifully hand modelled by Mr LLJ, doncha think?! I can get loads in it, it's going to be really useful.
I've also been making tiny knitted Christmas puddings in which to stuff a Ferrero Rocher choccy and hang it on the tree - this is for a fundraiser evening in November. I shall share this next week as there's enough photos here already.
Talking of fundraising, I handed over the £120 raised at the Crop to the RNLI station treasurer this week, a thank you letter will be arriving in due course. I thought I'd show you what it's going towards.
This is the current Victorian boathouse which can only house one of the two lifeboats - the other is in a shed close by:
This is where the ladies (me included) have to run the shop, getting all the stock out and putting it all away again each time. The smaller D class boat and tractor are in there plus all the crew stuff:
It's all neat and tidy...
But that's the changing area - not ideal, to say the least.
And this is what the Crop money is going towards:
Both boats will be housed together near the beach for launching, there will be proper crew facilities upstairs with decent changing rooms and meeting areas. The shop is at the other end together with a viewing platform and visitor experience area.
The shop is bottom left. It's going to be such an improvement for the organisation and is giving the old harbour a bit of a facelift. The local group had to raise £40,000, we're about £27k at the moment with other pledges to come in, that's on top of the £20k we're expected to raise every year. A substantial amount of money for a small community. So when I say Thank You, I really mean it - your generosity has got this amazing project a bit further on. The crews attended 29 callouts to aid people in distress in July and August alone, so you can appreciate how much this station is needed.
Sorry for the long post (again!) Have a great week :-D xxxxxxxxx