Yesterday started quietly enough.  Having no plans until late afternoon, I decided to start sewing together the small felt shapes that have sat on my desk since I got the urge to make these little Russian Dolls

 

 

They are so cute and in spite of there being several free versions around on the internet, for just over £3, the very detailed pattern was well worth downloading.  Being me, of course, I had to make them half size which might not turn out to be as good an idea as I thought, since felt isn’t the most robust fabric for a teeny tiny seam allowance.  Oh well, they’re meant to be decorative !

 

 

Whilst sewing Russian dolls together, several emails came in and needed serious consideration, for this was the day of the Big News.  Would I still have a job or would my work be considered a luxury we no longer have the budget for?  Having read confirmation of what I had already understood to be about to happen, I settled back and made a start on our Christmas Cards by punching out a couple of hundred circles.

 

 

That took me into my Christmas box, which was put away at the end of last January and contained one or two treasures I’d forgotten about.  I thought it was about time I began to prepare my Christmas Journal and gather together a few new things I’d squirreled away, including a sheet of chipboard shapes I bought online.

 

 

I was a bit disappointed by the quality of the print registration though and emailed the company to say so.  Full marks to them however, for almost by return I received a concerned email reply and an offer to replace, which was more than generous I thought.

 

 

After lunch and a little light ironing, it was time to get my act together and buzz off to Gloucester, where we had a tutor evening scheduled on a “cultural” theme.

 

 

Called into Staples on the way to get supplies for our Christmas cards and forgot how much traffic there is in a city centre at five o’clock!  Still, I arrived at the warehouse in the nick of time and enjoyed a chat with colleagues before the main event.

 

 

A salsa lesson! 

Mario, a young man from Cuba, ably assisted by our tutor Laura, did his best with the assorted bunch of women whose ability didn’t quite match their enthusiasm!  We stepped heavy-footed from one leg to the other, trying to match his rhythm and keep up with the steps.  He shimmied and swayed, his arms moved in sync with his legs whilst the crowd behind him wondered how something which appeared so easy could be so difficult.  We had a great time but after half an hour, we were exhausted, our brains full of side steps, rotations to the right and to the left and that last travelling “step three” to the left and right followed by a turn.

 

 

We stood back and watched the masters dance as it should be done, marvelling at their ease of movement and total coordination.

I’d love to learn more!

 

 

But the evening didn’t end there.  The second Thursday in the month is my WI meeting and we had a flower arranging demonstration planned: “Christmas on a Budget”. I rather wanted to see that that so I left the culture evening early, missing out on the chance to learn a bit of Mandarin or Japanese to drive to Avening, where our speaker showed us a few ideas of how to make great decorations using greenery form the garden and a few supermarket flowers. What magic she created from hardly anything at all and we all left inspired to go home and raid the garden for a bit of this and a bit of that, in the hope that we might manage something similar.

 

You know the day that began so quietly?