THE BLUE PETER MOMENT

so here we are a week on...

i can't tell you how much the lovely comments have helped in the darker moments. i feel very very lucky to be on the receiving end of such friendship...what a wonderful and supportive community to be a part of. so thank you again. i wanted to get in touch with you all to say it personally but there were a couple of you that i didn't have a contact email address for so please know that your words really meant a lot to me.

and as life moves forward i am enjoying some creative distractions. the 1st project being a flower festival that i'm taking part in this week along with my mum and auntie rosemary.

it takes place in a sweet norfolk church every year...raising funds for the church itself and the flower club that my mum belongs to. this year's theme is fairy tales. the display will be open to the public over the bank holiday weekend and hopefully there will be lots of visitors.

i chose hansel and gretel for my arrangement. which leads me on to the post title. besides the beautiful flowers that we have a budget of £25 for we also provide the props and foliage from our gardens for each piece. last night i thought i ought to get to making a gingerbread house!

the real thing wasn't really an option so i had myself a blue peter moment with cardboard...stanley knife...sticky back plastic...pva glue...and a few doilies for luck. i'm sure these things work out better in the world of martha stewart and indeed the bbc programmes that i used to love to watch as they turned cereal packets into sindy doll lounges. indeed it took a while to get my brain into gear but once i got going i ended up having rather a good time.

the downside came this morning.

for as i stuck those dolly mixtures on to the roof and jelly tots round windowframes i must confess i nibbled 1 or 2. in actual fact i made a pig of myself. and i had an accomplice...yes c had a weak moment too!

(evidence part one :: the blurry sugar rush photo)

so anyway the tale goes along these lines...mr and mrs mcclorey (who don't normally eat sweets) overindulged in confectionery before heading up the wooden stairs to the land of bedfordshire. they then had an awful nights sleep of waking up and feeling warm...only to get up in a tired and dizzy state like that of a horrible hangover. a cautionary story of the scary additives out there in the land of coloured food. be warned good people!

needless to say i'm not going to be able to look at my gingerbread house with quite the level of fondness that i had hoped. but i am really looking forward to spending time in a peaceful environment with 2 amazing women whom i adore...surrounded by flowers and enjoying the process of the project together (even though i am nervous to be part of something that i have little experience of!)

i'll return later with some photos of how it all went. xxx