Pulling up the drawbridge

It feels like siege mentality this week, with most of my limited free time going on measures to combat the vandals.

On my day off I spent about 2.5 hours setting up the CCTV just on the dining room table.  The instructions that come with it aren't much help but there are several Youtube videos which show other people connecting it up which were much more help.  Then I spent another couple of hours planting out our new hedge at the front that I am hoping will grow up and over the low wall to prevent people sitting on it (eventually).

And today we spent around 5.5 hours installing just two cameras.  That probably sounds totally inept, and I'm not saying it wasn't, but it took us the first 3.5 hours just to drill a hole big enough to accept the camera cable through our foot-thick brick walls.  Our porch wall seems to be a double sandwich of bricks with a middle filling of rubble/more brick/cavity, not sure which.  We had to break out the longest drill which is about 15 inches and it only just went through.  We were attempting to make a hole right at the top of the brick peak where it meets the wood roof, hoping for a weak point.  It worked well on the inside and outside, but we were stymied for about two hours by the middle rubble bit which kept collapsing and blocking the hole.  The middle bit was too deep to be tackled with normal stabby tools like screwdrivers, chisels or crowbars, and the fragments were too big to dislodge and rake out.  It took an exhausting marathon of hammering with various implements and drilling with the big drill before we finally broke through a sufficiently wide hole to pull through the camera connectors which are about the diameter of my ring finger.  I thought we were home and dry then, but it took more than another hour to get the camera adjusted  because once it was screwed to the soffit (the wood bit) then the screws that would let you adjust the camera angle were inaccessible.  We settled in the end for an adequate camera angle, not perfect.  We might try again later (next year...)  It was still light out by that point so we put up a second camera on the corner of the house so the picture overlaps the first camera slightly.  DH is exhausted because he was doing all the heavy work like moving the enormous ladder multiple times and hefting the massively heavy giant hammer drill. We've just brought the cables into the house for now and haven't made any decisions about where the equipment is going to be kept, so there are cables draped everywhere and the equipment is still all over the dining table.  We are eating our meals perched on the far end.  There are two more cameras to install next time we have some free daylight hours, hopefully drilling into the brick to mount those cameras will go alright.  We always have trouble drilling into brick.  Either it's too hard and you can't drill at all, or the drill hits a hard bit and deflects and your hole is in the wrong place.  We'll have to drill as well to install the trellis that will raise the height of our side gate wall. Sigh.

So not a huge amount of crafting this week.  But I did get to have a day out yesterday to the Makit Lacemaking, Quilting & Needlecraft Christmas Fair at Cranmore Park in Solihull, going on a coach trip with the Nene Lacemakers. This was my second time visiting the fair and it's quite an enjoyable day out.  It's a good size and well laid out with lots of room to move about and get up to the stands.  For a multi crafter like myself, it's a good event because there are fabric stalls, yarn stalls, beading stalls, silk ribbon embroidery, cross stitch, a fabulous stall of antique textiles, some craft book stalls and of course lots of lace suppliers.  The only thing on my shopping list was some more fine pins for Bucks Point, and I also picked up some more blue film for covering patterns.    But on my way around I also acquired some pretty bobbins and a couple of useful divider pins:

Some fat quarters - the printed ones were only £1.50 and I liked them.  The Kona Solids were £2 and are for my 30s Sampler Quilt.  I also ordered three more solids from Doughty's this week because I didn't have the right shade of purple for the pattern, plus I ordered a red and a pink.  Funny how I am supposed to be using up scraps to make this quilt but I'm having to buy additional fabric to do so.

And I got this wonderfully made 1/12th scale lace pillow stand from Brian Goodwin. for my dollshouse  He makes full size lace pillow stands and other wood items, but randomly had these intricate miniature duplicate stands and also lacemakers candle stands to go with them.  I just need to make a lace pillow to go on it.

I bought a pretty embroidered small linen cloth and an oval crochet mat (top picture under the bobbins) from the antique textile lady as well as some of her antique buttons. And I even found something for DH for Christmas:  some shadowbox frames which were being cleared for only £3.99 each which he can use for his models.

As yesterday was the first of December (how did THAT happen???) I  put up a few decorations when I got home: the garland up the stairs (this year enlivened with some battery-powered twinkly lights) and the door wreath, and a couple of advent calendars.  I've made my own personal advent calendar this year by recycling the clever cube that the sockyarn calendar came in last year.  The little compartments behind the doors are perfect for popping in fat quarters, small craft supplies, sweets etc.  That's where some of the things I bought yesterday have ended up, and will be a surprise later in the month (because for once my erratic memory will be a bonus!).