Well my name did. A few months ago I saw on the NASA website an offer to add your name that would go on an SD card that would be carried with the astronauts on their trip round the moon on Artemis II.
The SD card with me and over another 5 million names was put in a little mascot Rise and was taken on this exciting journey around the moon.
When I submitted my name I was sent a boarding pass with my name on it also. Ive been watching the journey live stream and feel proud that I got to see NASA go for another trip round the moon.
I remember watching the grainy pictures on TV fifty years ago when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin first set foot on the moon on 20th July 1969.
I was at college and we were all allowed to go up to the conference room to watch. Its been exciting to once again see action around the moon.
Have loved watching the four astronauts do their interviews and go about their work but its about to all come to an end when they splash down on Friday (US time) which will be Saturday our time.
The trip has been pretty much faultless except for the loo which they had a few issues with. Amazing all that money and the loo has been the problem! This week my designs are both DL size card suitable for Mothers Day or a Birthday.
My daughter loves to play a joke at home, at work, given an opportunity she will do it. So imagine when I get a message been keeping a secret Mum go to my page. Now Im past playing jokes and wasnt even thinking about it being April Fools day.
I might also mention she also loves making little videos. So I go to her page and there is a little video with the Australian Survivor logo. It is a real shame I cant put the video up but it was exactly as they do the promos for the competitors on the real show.
Now with her athletic and sporty background I was convinced theyd picked her to go onto the show. So here I am congratulating her on her big secret and telling her how great shed be on the show……I was so excited.
She let it go for about 10 mins and then piped up……Mum its April Fools Day.
I was a bit deflated at that point but laughed hard at her joke. Oh well…….it was good while it lasted! She did manage to fool quite a few people though so Im not the only April Fool!!! This weeks designs are two lovely swan designs.
Our Golden Retrievers suffer from seasonal allergies, which make them very itchy and can cause hot spots. So we decided to try to feed them healthier snacks to replace their shop-bought dog biscuits. This can work out quite expensive, so we decided to make our own.
Hubby has been making them a chewy biscuit, made from carrot, oats and honey, which they absolutely love! Then the other day I made them Peanut Butter & Oat Sticks. I added a little chunky apple sauce too. They are nice and crunchy. Both got Billys nom-nom seal of approval.
Well as its Easter weekend It would be appropriate to feature Easter Bonnets or in Harrys a hat. Now I remember as a child in the 1960s making Easter bonnets at school and they were nowhere near as elaborate as what the kids do today.
Mine was a paper plate with a couple of long strips of crepe paper attached to either side so the hat could be fastened my head.
To decorate we had seed scrunched up coloured tissue paper glued to the top to look like flowers and VOILA!
Easter bonnet made. At Harrys school its a competition for the best and they are quite elaborate as competition is fierce.
Themes are thought out and whilst parents can help the children have to be involved and have the concept. As Harry goes to boxing he wanted a boxing ring with Harry V Eggy. Of course eggs and easter decorations had to be used and this is what him and his dad came up with.
He didnt expect to win at all, but he did in his age group and was rewarded with a chocolate Easter egg.
I think it was a fab idea and very unusual, but he did say it was heavy to wear on his head.
…. Youngest Son, Paul Wright was, representing The United Kingdom & competing in the European 800 metres masters race in Torun, Poland this week.
We were able to watch his heat live on YouTube on Monday, and we were also able to watch the final live on Tuesday!
Ohh myyy getting the right YouTube livestream was rather worrying … but …. Once Id got it set up and started the screen recording I could almost relax! lol Paul led both the heat and the final …. and is now the European Masters Gold Medalist!, ummmm ….
I might just be a bit of a proud Mum at the moment! Lol
The other day, we had the pleasure of looking after our little grandpup, Cookie, who is our daughters dog. As you may remember, she was a rescue, and as you can see from this picture, she has really blossomed over the years.
She is a little princess and loves her family. While she is still nervous around new people and still dislikes the postman, she has become much more content overall.
Its heartwarming to see her relaxed at our house, even when her family isnt here, because she trusts us as well.
Witnessing her transformation has been truly lovely.
Im currently very much into a vintage vibe in my home. For years I kept my home quite modern with neutral aesthetics.
However, because I dont get out much I was getting fed up with this neutral colour palette, everything was just beige and I have been watching a lot of vintage home decor videos from Provincial French Farmhouse to Arts and Crafts style.
I wanted to have a modern heritage style. Now Ive always loved William Morris designs so I was going to bring that into what I wanted to do.
Its a work in progress but my latest little project was making a plain little birdhouse into an old vintage style taking inspiration from William Morris Strawberry Thief.
I completely repainted and distressed it, added moss and handmade clay strawberries. I found a couple of cute little birds to finish it off. I love how it turned out.
What is MVP you ask? It is the Most Valuable Player that is awarded to one of the team each week after their inline hockey game.
It is done for all the teams in both ice and inline hockey.
This week my daughters team (Dragons) won their match 4 – 2 against the home team Skate Paradise. Skate Paradise is the name of the rink where they skate also. This week my daughter was named MVP for scoring 2 of the 4 goals.The reward, a puck that has been spray painted gold on a Mr T type chain.
She gets to keep it for a week and then it will be given to someone next week after their game.
They have a tradition that whoever wins the MVP has to put up a photo on their club page in a most unusual surroundings or with another VIP.
Whether the two she put herself with (AI) are VIPs is up to the individual to decide!!
This weeks designs are Anniversary cards where a couple reflect back on the wedding day.
I was spoiled by my kids this Mothers Day. My son sent me a couple of gifts. A tin of biscuits and a giant Toblerone! And of course, a comical card. My daughter gave me a pretty heart-shaped cake, an orchid, and another fun card.
As it was our granddaughters 15th Birthday on the same day. We all went out for a fab lunch in our favourite cafe, which does VERY generous portions!
The garlic vine that is on the fence with our neighbour never fails to deliver when its in bloom. First the flowers start off as a very dark purple, then turn to lavender and then go white. When all three colours are on at once it is spectacular.
Its a fierce climber and as well as being along the fence, it has climbed up the trees right to the top (about 40 feet) and puts wonderful colours amongst the greenery.
The flowers have no scent but if you crush a leaf you get a hint of garlic smell. It loves tropical and sub tropical regions and hailing from northern south America it is used by people in the Amazon as food and for healing properties.
It is also considered to ward off evil and bring good luck. As for the western world it has been used in herbal medicine. What a pretty plant……..unless you are a vampire of course! This weeks designs are a couple from my Watercolour Floral and Cats designs
I feel spring is just about making an appearance now. Its my favourite season, new life, new beginnings, buds appearing and beautiful spring flowers.
It seems to have taken ages to get here, we seem to have had non stop rain or just dull cloudy days, so its nice to see a bit of sunshine with some warmth.
In the village where I live the roadside is always lined with beautiful daffodils and in the garden beds outside the bungalow weve had crocuses, tulips and now hyacinths.
There were a few which had flattened out and broke at the stems so it cut those and put them in a vase, the fragrance was beautiful, better than any air freshener.
There still was a lot very array in the flower beds and I just had to take a picture.
Hi everyone hope you all had a great Mothers day ,My son booked an Egyptian escape room for my Mothers day ,i had never done anything like it before,so didnt know quite what to expect, we were locked in a room and had to work out the clues to get out of each room to another room in 1 hour they gave us an i pad with a countdown clock on ,as a team we worked things out really quickly to start with and soon got to the second room and then the third room getting harder and with 10 mins to spare we thought we wouldnt make it but with did with 4 mins left on the clock ,cant wait to do another one .we finished off the day with a nice meal, perfect .
I live in a retirement bungalow which is lovely. It has everything we require and the insulation it boasts is great in winter not so much in summer. Our heating bills are low because of how well insulated it is.
However, when it comes to fresh food storage it can be a nightmare especially with bread storage. We are limited in space so only buy one loaf at a time and store it in an airtight container.
This does have problems as we dont eat bread every day annd would go mouldy very quickly so there was a lot of waste and also after watching a documentary about shop bought bread it put me off eating it.
So we decided to invest in a bread making machine and making our own to our requirements and size. What a difference it has made, the smell alone was lovely but the taste and texture was a game changer for us.
No more shop bought and hello to freshly baked bread and no waste.
We have just cut another bunch of bananas off our trees. They are Sugar Bananas and everyone loves them. Last bunch we cut about 2 months ago had 180 bananas on it and this bunch has 176 bananas on it.
Each hand has about 16 bananas on it.
There is no way wed get through all those bananas so we give them out to family and neighbours as well as keeping some for ourselves of course.
The neighbours love them and always look forward to when we cut them. They are very sweet and dont have that claggy sticky taste like other bananas do. We have another two bunches on the trees at the moment. As we cut one bunch, there is another bunch growing.
By the time its half grown another appears so we have a constant production line. The marks on the skin are only on the skin and dont affect the actual banana inside the peel. This weeks designs are cocktails and could be used for a few different occasions.
I just finished sewing my latest bag, and it took me quite a while to complete. At one point, I really disliked it, but then I grew to love it.
The process tested my patience, as there are a lot of straps and hardware, and I kept losing track of the rivet holes.
Thankfully, I had my trusty awl tool to help me. Im very happy with how it turned out, especially the beautiful blue fabric. However, the sheer amount of hardware makes it quite heavy, so I might not use it very often. Its called The Meridias by Country Cow Designs.