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Seventeen children were off in 'protest' yesterday from my class alone. It was a very lovely quiet day! The remaining 13 children admitted even though they were missing their friends, they loved the fact they had "more help quicker" in lessons! 

Yesterday afternoon was fun. One of our teachers registered us to take part in this >>

It's all very exciting. The class planted some rockets seeds last Tuesday, half of which have been IN SPACE with Tim Peake to see how they grow basically! We have no idea which half are the space travelling seeds - maybe all will be revealed once all the results are in! They are already at the two leaf stage, in one week! 

It's all to do with how humans can grow food in Space and you can read all about it here....should you want to! 

Right, a quick squizz around my craft room! We braved IKEA on Sunday. We got there for it opening.  Best plan of action. By the time we'd got round and found my oak Billy bookcase in Aisle 3 Location 8, the queues at the tills were epic and the car park wars for spaces were extremely volatile and hostile.

 I also got a new table. Now, I had planned to reuse our old computer desk with the top bit cut off. The two issues with this; 

A) it's still full of stuff

B) it's the wrong colour

I could have lived with B to be totally honest. But I couldn't live with the stuff off the desk being in boxes in my room till it got sorted at a later date. 

So whilst in Gateshead IKEA last Saturday with Miss 21, I saw 

Isn't it beautiful? I fell in love with it straight away. I love the fact it folded flat to give space for when we have guests ( Miss 21 and the beau ) staying over. I love the storage drawers. However, it costs £150 and I did have doubts over the gate leg being in the way somehow, though I'd have coped with that! I would have preferred it in oak to match the room but I did like it. 

We saw a few alternatives and hadn't decided really. So I was going to look at them again. 

One alternative we saw was 

Which folds flat against the wall. Size was an issue really. It'd be no good for laying out large pieces of material etc. Also it'd be in a permanent position. I still preferred the table above. 

But £150.... 

Alas, Warrington did not have them in. I bought a plain oak large table top and four height adjustable easily removable legs instead. Cost was £25 for the top 

and £10 each for the legs.

£65 bargain! I still love the little white table more. But what I have looks perfect. Great for cutting. I can have both machine and over locker out at the same time with space to work. I can easily adjust the height to assist with bad backs or chair heights - being only small, thus is a big plus point. The legs just screw out and then it can be stood against the wall when need be. I can store things under it. 

Here is it in the room. 

That's my Stanley tool box with sewing tools in it! Not pretty but vair practical! I think I could sew a cover to hide it!!! 

Here's Billy, next to the solid oak wardrobe That. Will never. Move. Again. Goes perfectly. I've not filled the shelves properly yet and there's still a shelf to go on. 

I've started filling the wardrobe with stuff already. Those boxes of wool are underbed box size so you can imaging how large it is - the stash AND the wardrobe! 

This is an empty corner yet to be filled! I bloody love this room! 

Here's a little shot of part of my garden. I adore these tulips. They are the ones I showed you a few posts back but they are now almost black in real life. I'm definitely going to get some more in September to double my display. You can just see one of my peonies peeping in at the corner. They are coming up nicely now. My bluebells are just coming into bloom. The plastic fascia board you can see is for a future garden project of the HG. Just when in the future us anyone's guess. I'm not holding my breath. I know better!! 

This is my new Japanese Acer in its new tub by the front door. I planted some little trailing purple flowers round the edge. Once the soil has settled ice some blue glass flat marbles to put on the top so it looks extra pretty and helps with dehydration. The little purple tub is full of yet to bloom tulips. I can't recall what colour they were.....( as if! ) I need to go move one of those little plants because it's not in the middle enough! Just spotted that looking at this photo! 

Right, my 'show and tell' spot is up but a little extra news is I did 11,606 steps yesterday. I managed over 10,000 every day last week. I'm quite pleased with myself over this!

Who else has got some 'news' to share? 

Lots of love from 

Rachel *happy with her lot right now* Radiostar xxx