Sleeping in sunbeams

 We've had a spell of warm weather this week, up to 22C, although it has stayed fairly breezy.  So instead of doing anything productive, I have spent several hours in the afternoons reading or dozing in the garden.  It's nice to be retired.

I did finish my little cross stitch house, and turned it into a little display pillow with a velvet back.

I felt like sewing something, so I drafted my own pattern for a scissors case, based on one that I saw online some time ago, which was designed by Charise Creates Sewing Patterns.  Mine is a different size, made to fit my fabric scissors.  Just a bit of fun. I used one of the metal zippers I bought in Japan, and one of the little charms from Korea.

I've continued to work on the 1:24 scale retro caravan project.  I've made a base for it, and also 3D-printed various accessories plus a folding table and chair set for the outside part of the scene, and designed and printed the exterior window and door frames so that I could install the windows.  It's so cool to think 'I need a hassock' and just design and print a flat-topped mushroom shape in the right scale, ready for upholstery.  I can't see myself working much with wood in future.

I spent some time this week working on the long term plan to relocate in England somewhere.  We plan to sell this big house with all its maintenance needs and garden in probably six years or so, before I get too old and feeble to look after it properly or to manage the stress of a house move.  Ideally we would find somewhere a little smaller that's all on one floor, without too much of a garden.  However there is a big shortage of bungalows (single storey houses) in the UK compared to the huge demand from retirees and people who need accessibility.  New bungalows aren't being constructed because developers can get far more money building a house (or several houses) on a plot.  So I spent some time researching climate (winter lows and summer highs) and looking on property websites for single storey houses with access to shops, health care and a train station.  Sadly the places in the south that have the mildest winters and coolest summers, tend to be rural areas not so great for retirees because of limited transport and long distances to health care facilities.  Anywhere remotely suitable has been long ago overrun with buyers and housing stock is scarce and expensive. We may end up just staying in our current town, even though we don't love it here but it's alright.  I anticipate difficulties in selling our house because it is not a typical family home, so I think we will probably have to sell first and then rent while we trawl the market.  Not looking forward to it at all but it has to be done.  We have seen DH's parents become more and more feeble and incapable, trapped in a home they should have moved out of years ago that they just can't manage now.  So we want to do some futureproofing for ourselves.

I'm more or less packed up and ready for the airport tomorrow.  I hope the tapestry retreat will be good.  If I like doing tapestry, I think I can also do it on my little table loom but I'm not sure how much access you need for weaving the various patches of colour.  I'll be back next weekend so DH gets a week on his own - he is looking forward to having the 3D printer all to himself for a week, lol.