A little project

 I got ahead of myself this morning by prepping all the veggies for tonight's dinner, they were done by 9 am.  Now I'm about to make a big pan of chicken chilli, to be portioned up and frozen.  Husband's out at the gym so I've got a nice peaceful hour or two, to get on with my work.  Once the chilli's made, then I want to get a couple of my boxes of craft stuff out of the cupboard in my bedroom, there are 2 empty drawers in the Ikea Kallax unit in the hallway for the things to go in.  I specifically want my waterproof drawing pens, I know they're in one of the boxes, I have a little project in mind.  

The house number/sign on the front of our bungalow was very faded and scruffy - I was going to buy a new one but didn't find any I particularly liked - well, not in our price range anyway.  So, having had a good look at the original one, I decided to refurbish it.  Husband got it off the wall and cleaned it up, washing all the cobwebs off it and sanding it down (it's a wood base and had a plastic numeral and some kind of very faded decorative thing stuck on, he took those off at my request).  I got him to spray the wood base with several coats of white enamel paint.  We bought a plain wood numeral from someone at the car boot sale who makes them, I've painted it black using several coats of the nail varnish I bought specifically for the job, husband's stuck it on the base.  Now I want to paint a few flowers on it, using my waterproof pens, then finally cover it with a coat of clear varnish.  

Whilst having a quick browse on FB yesterday (I'm getting totally fed up with FB actually, it's getting more and more adverts on it for things I'm not remotely interested in), I saw a photo of a baby blanket someone has made, using a crochet stitch I've not seen before, it's called Block Stitch.  I googled it and found a youtube video and written instructions, it's easy enough to do and I really like the effect of it, it's sort of like a basket weave.  I usually use a type of cluster stitch for baby blankets, or granny stitch if I want to make a quick one, but I do fancy having a go at this Block stitch, so I'll do that in the next few days.  Anyone made anything with this Block stitch?

My sister informed me yesterday that it was just 17 more sleeps until she comes down, she's really looking forward to it, as am I.  I'm a bit worried about sis actually, she really needs a break from her responsibilities.  I'll make sure she has a lovely week here, with fun things to do, a couple of meals or cream teas out, sitting in the garden enjoying the (hopefully) sunshine during the day or the fire pit in the evenings, and some quiet time together in my bedroom with a coffee, if she wants to talk.

Oh, incidentally - K, the deer park is quite high up in the hills so we're probably unlikely to go there (I don't even know if one can get near it or visit, actually), but I'll try to get some photos the next time we go shopping....don't expect too much though, I've only got my phone camera (and I'm not very good with that!! 😂).