Crewe Boot

Shocked to see the empty market square at Crewe - a notice nearby saying because of refurbishment the Wednesday boot sale has moved to a car park some half mile away on the other side of the town. A short trek later and I find it - a shabby back street and a few stalls littered about - a shadow of it's former self. I didnt find much - a PS2 game of Bust-A-Bloc.
So then a wander round the charity shops where thankfully some bargains were to be had. A great Face Dough CD software thingy that made the collage grimace above. I have been having fun playing about with it. It sounds better than it really is. The manipulation is pretty basic and just revolves round two features- stretching point A to point B or morphing. I havent tried the morphing yet. Pushing faces round like dough it isn't though! Some other software we had did a better job but seem to have lost it.

Also got a pile of tin badges of various ages. My favourite is the one that says "Ferrets Are Fun!" with a silohette of a ferret on it. Archie choose the MAD badge to go with his increasing collection - a lot he's made himself from plastic dinasaurs and sharks with pins glued to the backs. Got him some insects which he is also utilising in this manner.

A History Of The World

In some parallel world somewhere they may even be using the Currant Drying Shed, who knows? Hazel made this back in the late 80's whilst at the RCA along with a number of other gadgets for doing daft things to currant buns. Pleased to get this onto the BBC website in conjuntion with the 100 Things series thats going on now. It fits in nicely too with the Mary Gregg project that Hazel is doing with the Manchester City Art Gallery. She tried to upload her box of String, Too Small For Use that got rejected for being not daft enough one presumes!

The rest of the week seems quite dull compared to this latest news-

Scott and family are moving from next door because of the damp which is a shame. The land lady too tight to do anything about it. We shall miss little Harvey - a cute 2 year old who enjoys using his growing vocabulary on Hazel as she pops out to the workshop for something. Its always a bit nerve racking when new neighbours move in - you are never quite sure who will turn up. We have been pretty lucky with ours so far. Fingers crossed!

Too wet to go for a walk at the weekend. We stayed in to watch the FA Cup matches on TV - at least I did. Archie seems to have grown another metre and devouring biscuits, cakes and toasted sandwiches like a big long lanky hoover!

Postcards and Pins

A week has whizzed by and not much to blog about. Found these great old photos at the antique place in the crafts centre, bird display, gnome sanctuary, candle shop place not far from us. The signed postard of Jack Lorimer "The Highland Laddie" was a measly pound and the badge of unknown gent was the same.How could I resist? Doing some delving on the internet it turns out that Jack Lorimer was Max Wall's father! So that was a nice surprise and a good investment I'm sure not that I'd ever sell it.
We have several signed photos and portraits of "celebrities" dotted around the house so this will join Roy Hudd, Ivor Cutler and the others.

The snow has melted - turned to grey slush and then the rain came and washed it all away. It feels a bit warmer now - not more doubling up on socks and shirts!
Archie has been doing some "A" levels including Chemistry, Biology and General Studies. He's been swatting quite hard so hopefully he's done o.k. He seeemd quietly confident despite the nerves and dizzy spells. He's grown a bit lately so that may account for it. He's almost as tall as me now.

Let's see. Monday - went to town. Hazel back to college.
Tuesday - dubbed some Jacque Tati films onto DVD for Tony who expressed a wish for some before Xmas. Better late than never.
Wednesday - Went to Aldi - nearly put some of our shopping in somebody else's trolley by mistake - o how we laughed!
Thursday - Town again . Made some more collages. New year's resolution of at least one a day going well. Parents evening at Sir John Deans- Archie's tutors seem happy with his progress, well all except the chemistry lady who had just come back from maternity leave so didnt know he intends to drop chemistry at end of year! She seemed positive despite this bombshell.
Friday - celebrated Archie's hard work with a take away curry.
Saturday - more collaging. Putting old cine film onto DVD. Incredibly nostalgic viewing those old baby films and Lambeth Walk etc. We wus poor but we wus 'appy!
Sunday - Trip to antique centre. Also got my late Crimble present of Flip HD camera which I have been playing with. I let Archie have the old one.
Today was the town again and a nice walk there and back. Got some cheap DVD's "Ben Hur" and "Passage To India" - two classics that I don't remember ever watching in their entirety.

Gem Polishers

A new collage for the Scrapiteria theme of "Gems". A nice weekend with visit from our new friends Adela and Will who live the other side of Northwich. We met them over the road at Rob's house warming last Autumn. Then they had a house warming which we were invited so our turn to entertain which we dont do as much as we should. I made a vege lasagne and Hazel made some delicious olive bread. For pudding I made a readymade puff pastry strudel type roll-up with apple and currents and lemon juice mixture of my own concocting and jolly nice it was too ( with ice cream ). Adela gave us a lovely etching and aquatint she made a few years back. This afternoon I found a frame for it and hung it on the landing. Shifted a few others around. Some collages have been up there for far too long so needs a good re-hanging.

Slipped and sloshed into town this morning in the slush. I didnt find much but good to get out after what seems like days cooped up indoors due to ice and snow.
Hazel has started back to college and Archie is back to 6th form . Two or three A level exams this week and next so he has been revising a lot.
He has found time to knock up a new animation though which you can find HERE.

Twenty Ten

The cold snap continues and not really gone anywhere due to the icy conditions - staying in and catching up with the blogs and doing a few collages, some of which you can see here.
hazel has been venturing out to her workshop once it has reached the optimum temperature. She's also been making lots of bread with Granma's and Audrey's breadmaker we borrowed over the festive season.

The bread has been really delicious which just makes her make more ofcourse. the Olive bread is particularly nice despite the olives being mashed to a pulp during the kneading process. She tried putting them in at a later stage and poking them with a stick and that seemed to work slightly better.
Archie started college agin on Monday but on Tuesday the really heavy snow came down and college was closed at 11 the next day. So he's been enjoying going sledging and snowballing with his mates. The sldege hit a rock yesterday so it has a big crack in it! Ouch!
Archie bought me a boxed set of Absolutely - one of my favourite comedy series on C4 in the 80's. A real bargain at 15 quid for 8 DVD's and the postage was free! We watched a couple last night as there was zilch on TV. Not quite as funny as I remember but it had its moments. I think they took a while to get into their stride and later episodes were funnier.

Woken to thick ice everywhere so looks like another day indoors. The garden does look very attractive in its snowy coat but feel sorry for the birds. The water we put out freezes almost at once and the fat balls are as hard as rocks - they are bending their little beaks on them!
We have taken the decorations down now and the house looks very bare despite all our junk and clutter! The tree looks happy enough back out in the garden decorated with icicles.
I slid down to the docs. yesterday to have my 6 monthly medication review. It seems the blood pressure pills are working as my BP was normal. "Keep taking the tablets" she said. "I bet you say that to all the patients" I said. "Well I have to have some fun" she replied laughing.