My Week

Apologies for the quietness of the week here at WhyNotSmile; I got rather caught up in making things for the church Craft Fair, and then with being at the Craft Fair, hence the silence.

Anyhow, this is what I made for the craft fair:


Some kittys, which may look like Hello Kitty, a little bit.



Some baby booties and a hat.


Some Christmas decorations.

The Craft Fair itself went well (it's a proper Craft Fair, with proper craft people and everything, not just tat); there was a momentary burst of exertion when it was realised that the Saturday dance class which normally uses the church hall was going to have to be relocated. Since the Craft Fair was basically everywhere, there was nowhere for them but inside the church itself, so I was roped into helping to shift 200 chairs out of the way, and then putting them all back in place afterwards in time for the service today. I don't wish to complain, but I think I sprained something.

In this week's Other News, Papa Smile came up on Tuesday night and we fitted loft insulation. This, naturally, meant we had to clear the roofspace, and, since this house has been in my family since it was built in the 1930's, we were expecting to find all sorts of gems; we were not disappointed.

There were the usual family portraits, old vacuum cleaners and an ancient Family Bible with no names in it (which is one up on the Family Bible we found after my other granny died, which was full of names, births, deaths, marriages, all fairly recent, but not a single one that anyone recognised). There were the kind of hideous pictures that all houses in Belfast probably had at that time: nice Victorian people meeting in woods, falling in love, cuddling babies etc. Our particular favourites were the 'Guardian Angels' ones: small girls with no shoes being guided over bridges and around cliff paths by angelic beings floating a few feet away.

We found much evidence of my ancestors' Loyalist sensibilities - a large Union Flag (the one they used to put out for the Twelfth), and another one which we didn't recognise (red background, circle of white stars, Union Flag in the corner - anyone?) and some leaflets from the Royal Family detailing their testimonies (I'll get these typed up some time soon, they're worth a read!).

Lots of this was wrapped up in old copies of the Belfast Telegraph, which I will also peruse and report back on - we have lots of July 1968 ones (the Twelfth fortnight, grandparents must have put the time off to good use by tidying the house and putting the broken vacuum cleaners and old pictures (carefully wrapped in newspaper) into the roof space).

You will hear more of this.