Stair surfing

A bit late on blogging this week as I managed to slip and fall down half a flight of stairs yesterday, surfing through a bunch of tools on the way, and ending up at the bottom bruised and battered.  It's my own fault as I had left the tools there after working on my walk-in closet alcove, plus some lace stuff. I think I actually slipped on an empty plastic bag left over from building the two IKEA units for the closet.  As I have had back issues before, I was worried that I had done something to my back, and for the first few hours I was having trouble moving and walking because everything hurt.  But after lying on an ice pack a few times and taking ibuprofen regularly, it's not too bad today.  Just a big bruise on the impact area (my butt), sore but not wrenched back, and strangely a very sore neck.  So feeling very fortunate that I didn't do anything worse.  It scared the heck out of DH who was at his desk a few feet away when I took my tumble.

I only have one photo this week because everything else has been a work in progress.  I finished the little baby cardigan and I'm going to post it off to the pregnant work colleague today along with two other baby knits that were in my stash from past makes. This is a free pattern from an Australian blogger and is a quick easy knit in DK.

What else have I been working on this week?

• I'm re-knitting the fourth attempt on the Peerie Floores fingerless mitt.
• My closet alcove in my room is now kitted out with two IKEA units I assembled to hold clothes and shoes, and I bought some fabric to make a door curtain at the Mill Shop in Northampton on Saturday.  Just waiting for the curtain rod which is on order.
• I've cut out the 'kits' for the next four section of my Cynthia England Featherweight wall hanging and I am working on assembling section B.
• I've chosen and pricked out two Bucks Point lace sample designs from my Alex Stillwell book and have started one of them which will include my first corner attempt in Bucks. I'm using Egyptian Cotton 60 thread for the first time and managed to snap four threads at the beginning, it's not nearly as strong as the DMC Broder Machine I usually work with.
• I have tested and rejected the three Liberon wood stains I ordered for my Japanese dollshouse. They were all a reddish-brown, completely the wrong colour compared to the cold dark brown I was using.  I tried mixing in some yellow pine stain which toned down the red but tended to make it a bit orange instead.  Now I have ordered four small tins of Rustin's spirit based stain in the hopes that one of them will be a better match for my previous stain, they should be coming this week.  Other than that I haven't done much apart from working on some sliding Shoji screens.
• I'm trying to learn at least a few Japanese words every day but I'm struggling with my ageing memory deficiencies.

We've spent a lot of time out in the garden the past few weeks as it is looking lovely this year (if I do say so myself  :)  ).  All the rainy weather coupled with the longer days and growing season has been perfect for our garden, which has poor sandy soil and usually suffers from drought.  So it is a green oasis out there with lots of lovely flowers.   We feel like the work we've done out there the past three seasons including the hard landscaping has finally come together.  I still don't feel like a gardener and am often floundering but nature and the weather have been helping me out a lot. Even DS is amenable to eating out on the new patio whereas at the old house he never wanted to go outside.

We're both home from work this week, taking some leave to relax at home, so I'm hoping to get some solid time in on my various hobbies.  We've invested in some frozen ready meals for supper, which we don't normally buy, to maximise hobby time. Looking forward to a relaxing few days!