Me and My Machines

Well, I have the official answer for the question I sort of asked yesterday. It takes two people approximately three hours to laminate 200 A4 sheets, plus numerous cups of tea and lots of natter. Mostly from me. Sometimes I just need to be told to shut up be quiet - but my friend was nice and put up with me with very good grace. Now we are almost ready for the PTA Easter Egg Hunt 2011. Bring on Monday.

'Monday?' you gasp. Yes, Monday the 4th of April for an Easter egg hunt indeed. If you live in another country you might be shocked to hear this (I know I was and I live here!) but my children - and their classmates - only have eight days of school in April. Yes, eight, that is it! Next Friday is a teacher's training day, which leads to the weekend (obviously) and then into end of term holidays. Easter happens before those holidays are done so they are not due back until the 26th of April.

It gets better than that though. It does! Friday the 29th of April is 'the Royal Wedding' which has been made a national holiday. And if all that has tired them out then the first Monday in May is a bank holiday so they have four days off to recover from those three days of school at the end of April. I am hoping and praying for good weather because we are not going anywhere. Please, please let them be able to play outside.

And this is what 200 laminated bits look like -

It will be me, my scissors and those babies tonight.

Just in case you are worried I failed to get any sewing time in today, I didn't just get to play with a laminating machine for hours on end. I got to play with my sewing machine too. I put my head down and concentrated. No mean task for me at times. I squared off, cut endless strips of borders in various fabrics and I sewed and ironed like a little trooper. Tomorrow I am going to sew all sixteen of these squares together. Not necessarily in the order shown below. I haven't completely made my mind up yet and every time I walk past that array on the dining room carpet I change some of them around. Eventually I am sure to come back to the original order.

I have also pretty well finished two more crocheted baby blankets. Well, one was finished ages ago. Only I ran out of yarn right near the end and was annoyed and decided I wasn't sure if I even liked the thing. A friend assures me it is very nice and I have the hump with it but I am still holding a grudge. I shall have to redo the final row of stitches and get over myself. The other blanket I love. About half an hour should provide enough time to finish it. That will be me tonight - crochet hook, blanket and tv remote. How very exciting! She says without a tinge of dry sarcastic wit. How envious of me people must be. Not really, but it keeps me happy - and out of trouble which is far more important.

Susan