It's getting even more like.....

I'm wreathed out!

Tuesday evening came around and it was the wettest, darkest, dankest night you can imagine, and yet nine ladies managed to leave babies with husbands and spend the evening making lovely wreaths:

Then this morning dawned cold but bright and sunny

 

and another 10 ladies (and girls)  made their way to the workshop

 
and then, after a quick lunch, another 7 ladies made their way to the workshop

and all under calm instruction from Linda

and fuelled with mince pies, clementines and hot chocolate

It was a lot of fun - lots of these ladies return every year and it's lovely to catch up with everyone.  Oh, and by the way, we already have 11 bookings for next year!

Things inside the house have been a bit more tricky.  Jonathan is still in his home-decorating frenzy (although it's been calmed down a bit by his annual Christmas cold) and so last Saturday after the workshop I finally gave in and said I'd tile the bit of wall at the end of his bath.  I did most of the tiling in the house but for some reason got our friend Alan to do the last bit in the kitchen - I couldn't remember why....

I had a quick look at a You Tube tuition to remind me how it's done (noticed, by the way, that the professional had a smudge of putty on the back of his hand by the end of the job) and set to it. 

I didn't have a scraper but decided my little plate scraper would do the job.  I smeared the first bit of putty on the wall and it fell off with the paint so realised I'd have to scrape all the paint off too.  It's hard to describe the hell of the next three hours.  By the time I screamed for Jonathan, I was covered head to toe in lumps of putty,  you couldn't see across the room because of the dust, the tiles were dropping off the wall as fast as I put them on and I'd used most of the putty just putting up six tiles.  I was in despair.  Jonathan said "Well, aren't these little crosses too small?"  I reminded him I hadn't done a three year apprenticeship in tiling so how would I know?  Anyway, he started taking over so I was happy to leave him to it.  Half an hour later I looked in and he was smearing the stuff on the wall with his bare hands and using sheer force to get the tiles to stick.  It was gone 9 by the time we had 8 tiles secured.

He has sorted it out now but if ever, ever, I look like I'm about to do some DIY, I've told George to tie me up and call an expert.