The good

• My mother found the passport and the savings book that she thought had been stolen at the weekend.
• The British police were magnificent – kind, patient and very reassuring to a shaken elderly lady.
• My camera has turned up!! Thanks to Lindsay who disguised it as very un-camera-like so nobody would steal it along the way!

The bad

• My mother is still pretty shaken up – in fact more so today than earlier in the week – I think what has happened is all sinking in.
• The rotten scumbags who robbed her seem to have got away with about £500 in total – £300 of which was on a credit card which will be covered by the bank.
• A similar attack on another old lady took place on Sunday not too far away…so the rotters are still at it.
• Due to the general turbulence no gentle Advent preparations or sewing of any kind has taken place, so I now feel horribly behind.

The ugly

• Me…after two sleepless nights.

It can only get better from here…right?

Helen

Over the weekend, my 84 year old mother was the victim of a conman.

He was Irish and came to her door with a story that he was a tree surgeon and was working in a garden behind hers (where there incidentally are no trees) and had dropped one of his tools into her garden. Could he please go and find it? She let him through the garage and into her back garden and followed him into the garden while he looked – unsuccessfully – for his saw or whatever it was.

It was only a couple of hours later that she realized that her handbag was missing. While she was in the garden, an accomplice had sneaked through the garage and into the house through the kitchen door.

The police have been marvellous and she had the sense to ring the bank right away and block her account. Luckily she doesn’t use a credit card or a bank cashpoint card, so they got her chequebook and the bank card she doesn’t use, but not much else. The thief has tried to use the bank card three times and the police are hopeful that they may get some CCTV photos of him.

Luckily my mother wasn’t coshed on the head, nor was her house trashed, but someone has betrayed her trust and taken advantage of her (maybe naive) helpfulness. Somebody has been in her house and not surprisingly she feels violated and shaken up – and probably not safe in her own home anymore (although she would never admit to that). Somebody knew that she was alone – the gardener she employed a couple of weeks ago, the taxi driver who took me to the airport last week, who knows? And somebody took advantage of a little old lady who was too willing to be helpful.

Sometimes the world is a sad place.

Helen

Here is a rather sub-standard photo of Ilsa’s quilt (thanks for your concern, but no my camera still hasn’t made an appearance….sob), taken on my phone….

I can only say that I’m delighted with how this quilt is turning out – and I hope Ilsa will be too! It’s a really girly quilt – I love the purple striped borders! Having now mastered the construction of highly accurate stars and flying geese – who knew what a difference a small piece of plastic could make! – putting the blocks and the flying geese together worked like a dream and saved me tons of time. I actually felt like the fairies must be giving me a hand during the night it all went together so quickly. Amazingly my mathematical calculations were correct and everything just fell into place.

And I confess to sitting back in amazement at that point!!

So now it’s onwards with yukky basting and quilting and hopefully this baby will be ready for shipping to England by the weekend!

Hope your week is starting off well!

Helen

You know me…always trying to use up my stashes of yarn and fabric ….and mostly failing miserably. At some point I’m going to have to own up to the awful totals for this year, but not quite yet – I’m beavering away trying to get them down a bit before I have to confess my sins!

One thing is for sure though, using up the stashes and not buying more is certain to be on the New Year’s Resolution list (again, for the nine millionth time!).

Which is why I knew the moment I laid eyes on it, that Denise’s 2012 challenge was the one for me. It’s called 12 in 2012 and participants have to make 12 pairs of socks in 2012, each one made using a different pattern. How perfect is that for me? You can read more about it here – and sign up to join too. That’s Denise’s cool challenge logo at the start of the post.

Well I certainly have the supplies, so watch this space. It may actually save me from myself in moments of weakness!

My next little task is to try to work out how on earth to put the challenge logo on my blog for the year….if anyone knows the answer, please let me know!!

Happy Second Advent Sunday!

Helen

This was shamelessly stolen from what a friend of mine posted on Facebook – I have no idea who created it. I raise my hat to the unknown creator. Love it!!

Enjoy your Saturday…and please keep your fingers crossed for the safe return of my camera, which hasn’t shown up yet!

Helen