Hello All!

Hello everyone! How are you all? I've missed blogging so much, it feels very nice to be typing away again. Although saying that, I know I made the right decision to have a little break from blogging. I was doing six-hours of History revision every day a couple of weeks ago, which doesn't sound like much but I was always exhausted afterwards. My History exam last week went very well, my English exam yesterday went well too I think (it's harder to judge) and I've got my Drama exam next Wednesday. However, today is my first restful day. I'm up to date with all my Drama revision so I thought I'd have a day to myself, doing all the things I enjoy - like blogging!


I have lots to tell you. First and foremost, it's been manic in my household at the moment, and not just because of the exams. My great-aunt has made the decision to leave her home in Richmond and move into a care home in my village. She was in and out of hospital for awhile and needed an awful lot of care. It's sad on some degree that my mum is now having to sell the house to pay for care etc. but it was my great-aunt's decision. Although she's 92, she's very much in control of her own mind. And she really likes the care home!
So my family have been sorting through the house and its belongings, which believe me, is a truly mountainous task. My great-uncle, who has passed away now, had a habit of keeping every single scrap of paper he obtained. We're having to sift through everything to deem what is rubbish and what might be valuable. It doesn't help that they were both housebound for about five years, so the house really isn't in a good state. My great-aunt's instructions were to "chuck everything out." My parents are looking into all the antiques and stuff that we found to raise more money for her care, but we were each allowed to pick one item that we'd like to inherit. My mum took all the photo albums, my dad got an old clock, my sister chose some beautiful vases and I got this!

My dad reckons it's a 1960s era sewing box, and it's in a gorgeous condition. I've spent time dusting it and going over it with anti-bacterial spray and now it's looking so nice!
I'm thinking I might take it to Uni to store all my projects when I'm there, but it really is the most lovely sewing box. It has a flat work surface and then can be opened up . . .

. . .To reveal a lovely curved middle part with a drawer.

Unfortunately, all the needles/buttons/threads etc. had to be thrown out because some were mouldy and all of them had that musty smell that wouldn't have made for good crafting. I'm just so happy my parents let me keep this wonderful heirloom. I know I will treasure it for always.
I also got to keep a couple of other trinkets. This is just a couple of pieces of costume jewellery; I think the necklace is very pretty but the clip on earrings are really for when we're dressing up in Drama :)

I asked to keep these rations books because I did a project in History on the Ministry of Food and thought it was really cool to keep a little part of history for myself. My parents are uncovering loads of things in the house, like WW1 medals and letters from the Queen! I'll post again if anything really interesting comes up.

I haven't really been stitching as much as I thought I would during the exam season. To be honest, after I finished my day of revision, all I wanted to do was curl up in a blanket and watch a movie. But I am really close to a finish on Nature's Beauty that I will hopefully finish within the next week or so. Because after my Drama exam, IT'S SUMMER! Which means I'll have all the time in the world to sit and stitch. That sounds so lovely, doesn't it?
I'm going to spend my free day catching up on my blog reading too, I can't wait to see what you've all been up to. After the Drama exam, I hope to be going back to much more regular blog posting.
I hope you are all well,