STRANGER IN OUR MIDST!

Life is never short of surprises.  On Saturday afternoon we got a phone call from a lovely (elderly) couple in our church, inviting us for Sunday lunch.  To give a bit of background to this, one of the members - and part of the leadership team - in our church is a chaplain at Harmondsworth Detention Centre at Heathrow, which deals with illegal immigrants/refugees/asylum seekers coming into the UK.

For the past two years, we have had several Iranian guys turn up at church as a result, and various members of the church take it in turns once a month to host Sunday lunch for them.  Anyhow, we were invited to have lunch along with some of the Iranians.  In the event, only one of the Iranians was able to make it, a fella called Omid who we have got to know fairly well over the months that he has been coming to church. 

At different times we have wondered about offering him accommodation with us but it has not been practical at all as we have not really had a spare room (or rather we did but it was full of my clutter and needed occasionally when younger daughter is at home and has to have a ground floor bedroom.)

On Sunday we heard more about his heart wrenching story ... he is still going through the long process of trying to get a status in the UK.  We also discovered that in two weeks time he would  have nowhere to stay and so during the course of lunch, we also decided that we would offer him the opportunity to come and live with us!!!!!!  

We did not say anything to Omid on Sunday, but invited him to come round for supper on Tuesday instead.  (That would give us two days to realise what a rash decision we had made!!!).

On Monday morning I went into a frenzy of clearing out the room, ending up with 3 bags of *junk* and trying to make room for various bits of craft stuff which themselves had become asylum seekers!!!  We also needed to try and find another home in the house for a displaced tumble dryer that was also happily residing in the downstairs bedroom.

Yesterday (Tuesday) was spent at the council tip, getting rid of the stuff that did not make it as far as passport control!!!  Then came dinner (spag bol and chocolate pudding!) which was all going really well .... until we made the offer to Omid of living with us.  He started crying and even more alarming, elder daughter also burst into tears (even though she had only just met him and rarely shows emotion!).  Even the cat started flirting.

The long and the short of this is that in two weeks time our household will suddenly have grown by one ... and I will need to start learning how to cook Iranian food and speak Farsi !!!  Where crafting will fit into all this remains to be seen.  

*THE BOX* was duly finished and posted to my Mum who thought it was wonderful.  However, there is only one problem, which was that her Easter card was too big for it!!!  You can please all people SOME of the time ............... !!!!!!!!!!!!

TTFN,

Mandi xx

THE BOX!

Thankfully I don't think that my Mum reads this blog, otherwise she will find out what I have been up to.  The plain MDF box has now been transformed.  I have taken piccies of the lid (see below) and I am just waiting for the mod podge to dry on the base before taking a photo.

The paper and German scraps are from Calico Crafts.  I do miss their bricks and mortar shop (and my visits with Sarah C!!) but they still have some good stuff online.  These items were bought specifically with the box in mind so I didn't feel too bad at having a little splurge!  I also dunked a length of  white lace into a mug of tea (without milk or sugar!) to dye it to blend in with the background!

We had an interesting weekend.  We spent Saturday cleaning out the gutters for someone (well to be more specific, hubby cleaned them out and I just stood and watched for moral support!!!) and thankfully the rain held off until after we had finished.  Last night we went to the Anglican church that we have started attending in the evenings.  They had an ordination service, complete with 3 Bishops, and about 7 other clergy in frocks!  Thoroughly enjoyable (the service I mean!!).

Not much else.  Misha has slept all day, having taken one look at the weather and deciding that she would prefer to stay dry.  That suited me fine as I was not having to clean up muddy pawprints the whole time.  Our next door neighbour has decided to start breeding pigeons (in London for heaven's sake!!!) and so everytime Misha wants out, we have to toddle down to the end of the garden to see if the pigeons are on the loose.  Very stressful!

That's it for now, enjoy the box!

Mandi xx

AAAAAARGHH TO THE BLOG!!!!!

It has been two months since posting, and as ever I have not really known if I am coming or going.  Both daughters have had medical *incidents*, Bex has had her kitchen and bathroom gutted and re-done and I went to the rescue afterwards with a mop, bucket and copious numbers of old knickers (aka dusters!).

Even more frazzling is that yesterday when I went to try and catch up on a bit of blogging I was horrified to find a load of black warning triangles where some of my pictures had been so I am now in the process of trying to rectify that and restore the images.  I thought that the pics were saved somewhere in blogger but that doesnt seem to be the case.  The only trouble is that I have got rid of some of the photos!

In between times I have done a few bits and bobs in the way of crafting. 

The latest piece was a never-ending card which I did for my Mum for Easter.  Having declared that she didn't want anything and chocolate seems to get stored away in a cupboard, I thought I would try something special in the way of a card.  She loved it ........ but asked me not to make any more *nice cards* as she has nowhere to keep them!!!!  I am not quite sure what to make of that ..... and will probably continue to make them anyhow!

........ Since writing the above I have been to the Ally Pally show and bought an MDF box which will be altered in due course and given to Mum to keep her cards in!!!

  

TTFN

Mandi xx

Sesame Street - "The First Time Me Eat Cookie"

Gotta love Sesame Street!!!!!  Just for fun ........

TFL!  Mandi

ANOTHER QUICKIE

Good morning!  I am not sure where this year is going but we are now in the second month already.  Maybe I should start planning Christmas so that I am actually organised this year lol.

Ever have one of those days when your best made plans go awry?  I was just about to embark on climbing Mount Everest (AKA tackling the ironing pile!) when my darling daughter phoned up and asked if I could make a card for her boss!!!  (She makes better cards than I do ... the daughter not the boss!).  What was worse was that it was a Wedding Acceptance card, and had to be in lilac!

A few cuts and punches later, I came up with something that was reasonably presentable.  

Poor old Misha is still feeling under the weather after having her bits removed on Tuesday, so I will be phoning the vets today for some advice.  We had to cut her collar down and alter it with masking tape to make the edges a bit softer as she could not get her head in her bowl to eat or drink!  The up-side of all this is that she has become really cuddly and affectionate ... at the time of blogging she is curled up in our bed asleep!

  

Do I LOOK like an Elizabethan???

Keep warm and have a good day!  TTFN

Mandi

A GET WELL CARD

Just another quickie .. this time a get well card, although I am not sure if I should have made it for Misha as she is feeling very sorry for herself after being spayed yesterday.  For the first time in 5 months I haven't had help when making a card, which seems very strange, she just isn't up to doing a bit of crafting today!

I covered a Sizzix embossing folder in ink and ran it through the Big Shot, together with a Spellbinders shapeability label die and a few home-made paper flowers.

TFL, I will be back when the cat is better!

Mandi

BOX CARD

Just one thing to *show off* today ... which doesn't involve toastcrumbs or wicks for that matter!

I found some instructions on how to make a box card over the weekend and have been playing with my footprints stamps from Our Daily Bread.  


The box opens up to reveal the Footprints poem, and the front is embellished with gold flower soft for the sand, and miniature seashells.  The back has a pocket for a tag. 


I made it for some friends who are going through a bit of a tough time at the moment so this is one to give away rather than hoard!

TFL!  

Mandi xx