Stash and Grab 2016

[Rose]

Glad you got the work finished and with no issues. I am sorry but I had to laugh at your dilemma. The reason I do not do Hardanger is because of the cutting. I am petrified of the cutting but I love to see the beautiful work that others create.

[Serinde]

Rose, I'm not surprised you laughed at all. It turned out especially funny, as I had to do the whole hem turning thing in double quick time at the class with the second piece of linen (I had naively thought it would go onto the whatever-we-were-making as a plain piece of cloth...). But I can confidently say, "Now I know how."

Lovely first day of class yesterday, where I was totally my comfort zone, completing quite a bit of necessary 4-sided stitch. Looking forward to today. Our leader is a lovely teacher, and her baking... the same ranking as her Ruskin lace: very high!!

Came in last night, tho, for a gin!

[lavenderbee]

Good for you Serinde, look forward to seeing your accomplishments when finished. I am like you Carole about the delicate cutting. My hands are not as steady as they used to be. Found that out a few years ago when I decided to make cards with stick on things. I have not made since then. Prefer to stick to x stitch. Oops, sorry about the pun

[Serinde]

Set 'em up for mags! 10,000 posts!

[mags]

Wine and cakes all round

[lavenderbee]

Thanks just what I needed. Had new pipe put in gas boiler yesterday morning. Late afternoon we realised heating had gone off & no hot water either. First thing this morning rang up for repair men to come & fix it. Had to spend morning under a duvet catching up on TV recorded programmes, cos it is cold. Fingers got a bit cold so not able to knit or stitch. Men came a short while ago, just before 12 noon. Apparently boiler had tripped itself & they have shown me how to sort it out if it should occur again. Flat warmed up again now - no more cold hands or toes. Hurrah. Still snow on the Snowdonia mountains & it was very windy & cold yesterday, damp too. Thanks for wine & cakes Mags, helped warm me up inside & cheered me up too

[wendywombat]

Just what I needed! I've just spent more time away from my relaxing stitching talking to Social Workers and a care home manager who suggested that I spoke to the Old Relic as well!!

It's more difficult when it all has to take place 'over the water' from here!
I shall slide in here for a moan and grumble when I can....don't take any notice when any of you come in here of a whinging Wombat in the darkest corner having the odd

[lavenderbee]

Glad you have stopped by for a while to get some relief from your problems & recharge your batteries. A few & company will help. Whinge all you want, that's what friends are for. If it helps you to release the stress, that's OK. Sorry you are going to have a difficult time & hope you can get some relief 0ccasionally by doing bi of stitching. Sounds like it will be tough but we are always here, someone will be stopping by to make sure you are keeping or spirits up, in one way or another.

[Serinde]

Whinge away. It's really hard dealing with care situations when you are so far away.

[wendywombat]

Thanks! It's good to be able to whinge away here as you aren't directly involved as my D/H and family are. It helps to be able to bleat on. Just writing it down here is therapeutic and doesn’t waste paper.

Saturday I had a call from meals-on-Wheels service. I explained that my Dad is still in a care home so didn't need that service yet. I told 'Susan' that I would contact them when a discharge date was arranged......SO why yesterday did I get a call from 'Susan' saying that they'd tried to deliver a meal to my Dad's house and were worried because they couldn't get an answer!! I explained, again, that he was still in the care home! "Oh! We didn't get that message" said 'Susan'
Words fail me!!!

[rcperryls]

and and more and anything else you need is here any time you need it. This is a great place for letting off steam!! I was so very fortunate to have a step-mother who could take care of my father as his health and mind were failing since I was about 600 miles from him and my sister is on the opposite coast. Having to deal with home health care is hard enough when you are there, let alone trying to deal with it by phone. And having an uncooperative parent (which my Dad was towards the end of his life) makes it worse.
"We didn't get the message" or "We never said that" are often lame excuses but unfortunately the communication at those agencies is often horrible. A friend of mine went to a charity shop one time and bought a fairly large amount of cheap dishes and glasses so when she got off the phone after dealing with exceptionally difficult beaurocracies she could go out to a corner of her yard (I think she had a patio) where she had partitioned a space and could smash them to her heart's delight. An extreme measure, but it worked for her. She didn't, unfortunately, have a Stash and Grab.

Carole

[lavenderbee]

Sorry you have had all that bother Wendy. At times words fail you & jus want to yell down the phone or scream a people for nto listening to hat you tell them. Puts your bp up no end! Sooo frustrating. Hope things can b sorted out soon. Meantime, have a few drinks on us like Serinde said. We'll line 'em up on the bar for you so when you come in they'll be ready to drink. If course in Stash & Grab no drinks become warm so nice cool wine, brandy or whatever. Just name it, we'll get them ready.

[Serinde]

Not sure how Meals on Wheels is run in England, but in Scotland it was necessarily pretty bureaucratic. There was also a real push by the councils (who wanted to keep this charitable service running -- saved them doing it) to include anyone who might be coming home from hospital right from the start. Luckily for us, we had a truly wonderful local coordinator who dealt with "them indoors", and there were rarely cock ups such as you describe.

It's awful being so far away -- a difficulty for me with parents in the US.

Let's have and this morning, and save the hard stuff for later, eh? Oh, and since these beverages are very wet, may I suggest ?

[wendywombat]

was perfect....thanks! and that little with the toasted flaked almonds on the top ......!

I'm now trying to chase the Social Worker who saw my Dad on Monday and has so far remained elusive, despite several phone calls and emails!
All I want is an answer to the question....."who will go and assess my dad's house to make sure that it's safe and hygienic for his return or will the temporary placement in the care home be made permanent?''
If that's the case I need to get his house sorted out.
Any more of this I'll be needing a bed in St Cross Stitchers!!!

[Serinde]

Can I just sit here and nurse a glass of something for a bit? I've spent most of the day researching PicScout, bad bots and why you really, really don't want to find yourself on the receiving end of an email demanding quite a lot of money for an image thought to be creative commons. It's a real-time David and Goliath lesson in copyright law. Even my straight hair is definitely starting to curl having spent the day reading about how a company is able to make one particularly pathetic excuse for a business model pay.

I may need to repair next door to a darkened room with a cool compress!

[wendywombat]

Oh dear! Bad bots andSocial Workers! Not a good week for either of us.
bottle opened and the dark corner prepared...we'll sit and put the World to rights between us!

[Serinde]

Boy, wouldn't it be nice to really be able to do that?

[lavenderbee]

Serine & Wendy, Hope you soon recover from your stressful times.

[rcperryls]

and hope you can

put the World to rights

! If not, at least spend the time here with as much or other liquids as desired and whatever sustenance you will need to deal with annoying stresses!

Carole

[Serinde]

Mabel Figworthy is back online. She's been in business for 5 years! 5! And in the Netherlands that's significant, well, the multiples of 5 seem to be, so we should raise our glasses to Mabel and her wonderful designs, with hopes for many more lustrums.