Boy It's Cold Outside!!

Well, another frosty morning yesterday had me hunting frantically through my drawers for my thermal leggings and shirts. It gets very cold at the market in winter and thermal undergarments, while not especially glamorous, are pretty much essential. The last few days have been quite sunny but bitingly cold and I'm now up to three layers of clothes and a sleeveless puffa jacket meaning that I resemble something along the lines of a Michelin man! Still, if it keeps me warm I don't really care how ridiculous I look. After 3 or 4 very quiet weeks at the market, this week has been a very good week. It seems that the people of Cornwall are now in Christmas present buying mode and quite frankly, it couldn't have come at a better time. I discovered yesterday that the water treatment system that we have in the loft, that makes the water we get from the borehole safe to drink, has stopped working and I am now having to boil all my drinking water before I drink it. It's not really such a hassle because most of it is used in tea or coffee so it's boiled anyway and I have just nipped out and bought some 5ltr bottles of water for actual drinking water for me and the dogs and cats. The problem is that it's going to cost at least £500 to replace the system so I'm going to have to wait until after Christmas to get it fixed. Never mind, in the greater scheme of things, it's a trifling matter and things could be a lot worse ..... gosh I'm philosophical today :-)

It's starting to feel quite festive at the market too and you can always tell when it's getting close to Christmas because one of the lovely ladies at the market suddenly turns into this mad, wreath-making lunatic who runs around the place armed with secateurs and bags of foliage constructing gorgeous wreathes form holly, ivy, tree branches and pretty much any other greenery she can get her hands on. By Christmas eve, her hands are chapped and sore and full of holes from being pricked by the vicious holly leaves and she is totally sick of the the sight of wreaths. Last year, she made almost 400 in the month before Christmas!!

She basically turns this 

This 

 And this

Into this

And then this 

All in about 10 minutes :-)

I've asked her for a wreath with carrots and sprouts and broccoli on it this year and I get the feeling she isn't quite sure if I'm joking or not ..... I'm not :-) I really want a quirky wreath this year and I can't think of anyone better to make it. 

Oooooo and guess what arrived in the post on Thursday morning, right before I left for the market ....... my printable fabric. I am so beyond excited to give it a go I can't tell you but so far, I have been utterly thwarted in my attempts to have a play with it. People kept buying loads of stuff from my market stall on Thursday and Friday and I had to spend both evenings frantically sewing like a mad woman to make more things to sell. I will be putting everything on hold on Monday, though, to print my first piece of fabric. I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to it. I will of course, be posting pictures of whatever comes out of the printer ..... good or bad ..... hopefully good so fingers crossed :-)

Mid-Week Frustrations

Well, It's been a frustrating week so far. My iPad, my lifeline at the market for checking facts, reading the paper and general online boredom-reducing activities when the market is quiet, has had to go back to be fixed ..... TWICE!! It sort of freezes if you touch the screen too fast and then I can't turn it on or off. Despite the fact that I paid an extra £58 for an extended warranty, they didn't actually fix it the first time it went away and when I got it back, it lasted a grand total of 7 minutes before it froze again while I was trying it out. It went back again the very next day and it's due back again this afternoon so I guess we will see if it's fixed. I intend to video the opening of the box and the testing of the iPad this time because I got the impression that they didn't believe there was anything wrong with it. 

I'm also still waiting for my printable fabric to arrive. When I ordered it from Amazon, I didn't realise that it came from America. It was only after I had paid for it that I noticed the delivery date was quite long, a major giveaway that it's coming from far away. I do think that they should make it much clearer up front when the item is not coming from the UK because if I had realised, I would have chosen another company to buy it from, a UK based one. I have so many ideas that I want to get started on and it's frustrating to be waiting for it to arrive. I know .... I'm too impatient :-( Trust me, I do realise that these are all very small and petty things in the grand scheme of things but added to everything else that's gone wrong in the last two weeks, these just feel like the last straw. 

I'm also starting to panic about Christmas. I can feel it rapidly creeping up on me and I'm nowhere near ready for it to pounce. There are Christmas adverts all over the TV, the shops are full of Christmas gifts and toys and cards and food and booze and not 1 but 4 Sky Christmas Channels have suddenly appeared in my movies package ..... it's all very disconcerting! I'm not a Grinch ....... honestly I'm not, but when I have very little money, like this year, I find Christmas very, very stressful indeed. 

And, to top it off ....... I have rats in the garden! They have taken up residence in the bank that houses the borehole pump so I am now faced with the task of getting rid of them! I live in the middle of the countryside and as such, I know that there will be rats and mice and bugs that I don't particularly like and I accept that but, although I know they're there and although I know it's part and parcel of country living, I'm sorry but I don't want them in my house or even my garden if I can help it! Luckily they aren't near the house at the moment but it's getting a bit too close for comfort and I need to sort them out before things get any worse. I spoke to a farmer friend of mine who said that the weather had been perfect rat-breeding weather this year and that there had been a bit of a population explosion. I am loathe to put down poison so, unless I can man up and bring myself to kill them that way, I will need to come up with a plan B. Maybe humane traps. I don't know. The only thing I do know is that they have to go! Actually, any helpful tips from you people out there in Blogland who have dealt with this kind of situation would be very much appreciated. 

So .... that's been my week so far, what have you all been up to? Hopefully yours has been a better week so far than mine :-)