Friends, Decorating and Les Mis :)

This Saturday is the meet up in Nuneaton, it is open to everyone but is mainly friends from Stitch and Stash. If anyone would like to join us you would be very welcome, any questions please email me clare@hearnden98.freeserve.co.uk. Nuneaton is in the Midlands and has a trainlink to Birmingham, Leicester and Coventry (lifts from the station are not a problem). We are also close to the M1, M6 and M69.

I love these days - we all bring finished items to look at; wip's to work on (if we stop chatting long enough); and swaps and sells.This year we are going to do the bookmark I designed as an afternoon SAL. Somepeople do stay for the weekend and after the meetup we go out for a pub meal. I am really looking forward to seeing all my stitching friends again:)

The decorating is finally finished - phew.It was a huge job, much more than I had thought. I did struggle with it, I don't think I have the strength I had before. The painting in the hall,stairs and landing was not hard but there was so much of it. The emptying of the lounge was a huge task. We have four bookcase size units that we had to empty, remove the shelves and glass doors, move into the conservatory, replace the shelves, books and ornaments and the doors. It took ages.

The new carpet does look good, we're really pleased with it - just waiting for the new sofas now. The old lounge carpet looks great on the stairs and it saved quite a bit of money reusing it. My house looks clean and tidy again - I think the ripped mucky stair carpet made everything lookdrab and because I had given up with it I was a bit light with the rest of the cleaning lol. (Ruby wanted to be in both photos, she ran to the stairs when I went to take it lol)

I was amazed to see my stitching in the top 5 in the GOS Challenge 5#. I had stitched this really quickly and the finish was not as good as I had hoped. The stitching in the challenge was amazing, well done everyone.

My own stitching is very hit and  miss - I am finding I am too tired at night and drop asleep mid-stitch sometimes. I used to stitch first thing in the morning but it's not so easy now we have Ruby and I am finding my eye sight is taking a while before it's ok enough to stitch early. I am very very lucky with my MS - I still have a full time job, I am active in my life and I feel ok (not great but ok). However I am noticing how much weaker my body is becoming. The decorating was a bit of an eye opener for me, and everything seems to take me longer. I am also finding that when I've been busy I am affected by the confusion side of MS and some nights after tea I just sit and stare at the tv but I'm not really taking it in.The hardest thing is MS is an inside problem. No-one can see how I feel, how fatigued I am (it's different to being tired), how I  struggle to find the words to make my speech work (quite a challenge some days when teaching - the kids just think Miss pauses a lot to make a point lol), how I look at something a few seconds before it registers. I seem to be affected by the emotional side of the condition more than visable physical problems - so outwardly I look like I am ok and am managing really well lol ---- good job I'm not a seahorse with my insides outside - I'm thinking it would look very messy :)

So carrying the emotional theme .....Les Misreables ..... I was blown away. I love thismusical, I amconvinced I was French in a previous life and all the characters in this touch me in various ways. The music is so stirring, the emotion of the characters, the actual story (Victor Hugo was certainly a great writer) and the fact that people are performing live right in front of me.

We met some of my colleagues at the station and travelled to Birmingham where we met the others (20 of us in total) for a drink before going to the matinee performance. I had put together a theatre pack for everyone - tissues, chocolate and a  lolly.Some people had not seem Les Mis before and asked if it was a weepy hee hee well it is for me, two notes in and tears are rolling. I used 12 tissues in all and I think most of us had a few watery moments (or goosebumps as the chaps wouldn't possible cry now would they, wink, wink). All the performers were brilliant, Gareth Gates was amazing.

Afterwards we went to the Big Wok for a chinese buffet. There was so much food, not good for my Slimming World - which I am going back to tonight although I know I have put quite a few pounds back on. We were all tired but smiling on the train back, and we were very good and did not sing lol

Finally this is my TUSAL jar - I have no idea when it's supposed to be shown as I have not kept up with any of my other blogs - something I must do soon. My jar is growing so I must be doing some stitching lol.

That's about all my news for now, thanks for visiting, I hope everyone is enjoying the sunny weather we are having.

To everyone coming on Saturday - see you soon, I'm so looking forward to it :)