Ladies it has been soooo long, too long! early october I think. But much has happened since then….I have been through the mill and back again, sold and bought a house, been on holiday, had pnuemonia and now find myself without a craft room, well not enough of one just yet, but when it is finished….Boy it’s going to be fab! And all that without a mention of Christmas! Lets start at the beginning….
As you know in my last post (soooooooo Long ago!!!) I mentioned that I had had some difficulties with a colleague, well I am afraid to say that it took more out of me over the summer than I had thought. On top of that, in early October, we sold our house. It had been on the market for some nineteen months and we were delighted to accept an offer from a family looking for a family type home. They were people of a similar age to ourselves when we bought that house although their children are a little older than ours were. We felt happy to sell to them. But that meant that we had to start looking for something ourselves….
In fairness, over the nineteen months we had looked at loads of properties. Only one really caught our eye and unfortunately, with the recession taking the hold that it had, we didn’t feel that we should stretch our finances to the lengths we would have had to go to buy that particular house. Sad but practical. So we began searching again. Then it was our holidays, half term loomed and we had booked to go away. We hadnt heard from either set of lawyers before we went so were on tenterhooks most of the holiday. The weather wasnt brilliant either, couple nice days but that was all really. On the day before we were due home we heard that missives had finally been exchanged on ours and they were looking at a moving in date of 30th November…..five weeks away. We still had nothing.
When we got home, I madly began to book viewings in and we ran around looking at property…again. One took our eye and we put in a bid for it. then sat back and waited. After several days we eventually heard back that our offer had been accepted and we could start packing. The sellers were okay with a 3/4 December moving date….That meant that logistics would need to be worked out as we would clearly have a gap between leaving our old house and moving to our new home… We began packing.
As you will recall, I have been dogged this year with chest infection after chest infection, well by mid November I was feeling ropey again, tired, chesty, temperature and generally exhausted. A visit to the doctors ensued followed by antibiotics, this was not a good time to be feeling rotten again. By the second week, I was not feeling much better and another trip to the Doctor meant another round of antibiotics, this time with a diagnosis of pnuemonia. I was not only totally exhausted, some days I could barely get out of bed, all I could do was take each day as it came.
Two weeks before moving day and we were hardly packed. My poor Dad was working like a trojan to get us packed up, my youngest boy began his prelims and my eldest boy began revision for his pre Christmas exam. Fortunately, my good friend Moni arrived to help us with the packing and tea making etc and my other good friend Susan, came and lent a hand too. Moving day 1 arrived – we were scheduled for loading for two and a half days, but our removal men, who were totally brilliant, announced at lunch time of day 1 that they would be packed up by five that day, no need to spread it over any further days. That left us without beds, anything in the kitchen, essentially an empty house. I spent the remains of the day organising a hotel for that night. We were already booked into a hotel for our final night and for the nights over the weekend and into the next week.
It all went smoothly, and I am delighted to say we have been ensconced in our new home since 5th December which is in Carlisle. We have moved 100 almost to the foot! It is a brand new start for us, new school, new routines etc. Why have we moved so far? Well as you know, my Mum died almost four years ago (time goes so quickly) and my Dad lives with us now, so when MB asked me to consider moving to his home town so he could be nearer to his Mum, I could see no major reason not to. Carlisle is on a major motorway, a great rail link and has most of everything I like shopping wise with the added bonus of having the Lake District right on our door step. A perfect location!
There are still lots of packing boxes to deal with, but we have a delightful sitting room, the dining room is pretty perfect, the kitchen will be great once we locate the source of a niggling leak form the shower above, but my new craft room – when it is unpacked, has french doors onto a beautiful 130 garden with a small fish pond in it, some fruit trees and some fabulous plans from us!
So what does the crafting future look like? Well, I thought I would give you this update before the New Year when I intend to reveal some shake ups! I am staying with Stampin’ Up!, I think all the problems I had with that colleague are behind me, and I know there are some very exciting things on the horizon, right away into the New Year including some give aways!….So I would like to take this opportunity to say a massive THANK YOU! to everyone who has stood by me this year, helped me and encouraged me to keep going even when things have appeared pretty bleak. I hope that you will stay with me into this next year. If there is anyone who hasn’t received a Stampin Up catalogue and would like one, please,please let me know and I will get it out to your ASAP……in the mean time, have a Happy and Prosperous New Year and I look forward to writing and crafting for you and with you in 2013! Remember to stamp your place in the world! xxxx
Stampdelicious 