And breathe...

Yesterday was a day of chaos, and surprisingly exhausting.  The two fitters turned up promptly to replace our eleven failed windows, and the first surprise was that they wanted internal access to all the windows. The estimator had implied that it would all be done from the outside, so we had only cleared windowsills in preparation.  In between explaining to them which were the failed windows on various floors (I had to draw 'X' on panes with sharpie marker), I had to hurriedly clear internal access  with DH's help.  This was difficult in rooms full of clutter like the attic storage room and the former knitting room (chock a block with all the stuff I cleared out of the adjoining room to create space for my long arm), and my office. In fact we got so carried away that we hurriedly cleared away in front of my sewing room window, only to realise later that window wasn't being worked on!  However that did reveal a terrible amount of dust bunnies and unneeded clutter so more stuff to get rid of.

So we had a day of various windows disappearing in a flurry of hammering and dust cloths, men coming in and out, the noise chasing me from room to room.  Even the estimator unexpectedly returned unannounced via the back door and surprised me when I ran into him upstairs. Meanwhile the normal builder turned up and needed various windows opened for painting and also our driveway door - which  ended up having to stand open the rest of the day due to wet paint - which was rather nervewracking as it opens onto the road although we put plywood across it.  To add to all of this, the broadband suddenly went out mid-morning while DH was in a work meeting - a BT crew had started a few hours of work on the pole in front of our house. A Facebook purchaser came to collect another bit of stuff I was selling, the car had to go in to the shop for a few hours, I was making so many cups of tea for people that we ran out of milk and I had to run out for some more...  By the end of the day I was exhausted. Meanwhile DH was holed up in the spare room trying to work amidst all the noise, which was difficult but I think less stressful. Even the cat was hiding for most of the day. Then after they had gone, came the hoovering up of construction bits and putting things back where they belong.

no window!

So today we are gratefully enjoying a quiet house that noone is coming into (although I am expecting a few Facebook buyers shortly). Also it has cooled right down to more normal autumn temperatures which is a relief.

I haven't had time for much crafting this week, apart from evening embroidery on the vintage embroidered quilt blocks that I started in Japan. I have been working on creating a little cylinder-shaped fabric box with laced-on wooden ends. I bought the wood discs at Festival of Quilts last year, the stall that was selling them also had attractive kits for redwork inserts but I have used some special sampler-style linen that I bought from Jane Greenoff. I didn't have a pattern so it took a little while to get the circumference right. I've stiffened the fabric with Bosal foam and will sew on a magnetic closure. I sewed a little pocket at the back and I may add some felt inside the little for needle storage.

I spent a lot of time this week working on my Round the World trip scrapbook until my printer ran out of ink forcing me to stop until more ink arrives.  I suppose in some sense it's a waste of time, nobody else cares. But it's actually been somewhat cathartic, and also a bit of an enjoyable puzzle hunt to piece together what I was doing 35 years ago - it's brought back a lot of memories. Not so much of what I saw, but of how I felt then and the wanderlust I used to have. It makes me feel more motivated to work on my planning for my New Zealand trip next year.  I had fully intended to do a lot more world travelling, but then I came back to the UK and met DH and somehow life happened. It's nice to be retired and get a second chance.