Frank and Josie's House

It's real and now there is no backing out. We've said goodbye to good friends and our family and friends who are like family. There have been tears of anxiety and sadness and also the smiles and giddiness of excitement of things yet to come. We've had an awesome farewell party, given away plants and toys and been ruthless in our sorting of the house. The ferry is booked and our new house lease signed. In one day's time we will no longer be resident in the U.K. Our friends won't be just around the corner and our family won't be less than two hours away. In amidst all the goodbyes and endings it can be hard to see the reasons we're doing it. We've built an amazing life here in the city of Bristol and this is my little farewell to all those people and places that have made this our home. We want to say thank you. Thank you to the many people who have taken us into their hearts, thank you for being sorry to see us go! Although this has made it harder to say

It's the hard part of moving - packing up your life and throwing stuff out. Some stuff is easy to sort and part with, credit card bills for example, I've never had trouble letting go of those! Other things are really difficult. Do I keep all the kids school work? Will they hate me because I threw some stuff out? My eldest loved looking through her learning book for reception year. Did I I make a mistake? Or should I look at this as a chance to let things go? Clear things out and clear my mind, right? I made a rule when we started the clearing out: if it's either covered in dust or you've forgotten you have it or it's broken it goes. Now I've donated stuff, lots of stuff, and recycled like crazy (our paper recycling could make several new books) I've even donated some old bras! Little aside for a moment: I found, via a link on Facebook, a U.K. charity that recycles bras for women in Africa. Follow the link  here , a very worthy charity and easy to donate to.

Here it is: the crochet ukulele that I made for one of the kids' teachers. (Surrounded by the ruffle scarves I made for other teachers). Now this teacher was special. He'd taught both our kids and they had loved him and flourished under his tutorledge. He's one of those teachers who is special to everyone. Whenever I mentioned anything to him about the kids, no matter how trivial, he took it in and knew it was important to me. My concerns where valid and he got that. I also taught alongside him for a while when he asked for help with the school choir. He's a very enthusiastic musician and got many a child involved in the ukulele club and when other teacher got attention with glockenspiels or bells he used his ukulele. He is well known throughout the school for his ukulele prowess. So when I knew his goodbye gift needed to be something special I went straight for the ukulele link.  I used one of our ukuleles as a base for my pattern and found a couple of pictures online