Friends Are Treasures

Just a real quick post this morning as its "THE DAY" and I am off on my holidays and some much needed sunshine later today. I just wanted to share my latest progress before I went.

This is Victoria Sampler "Friends are Treasures" which has been suprisingly quick and easy to stitch. I am just over half way down it which is far more than I had hoped for as I have not had much stitching time. I have used Dinky-Dyes colours from my stash and not the colours called for.

I have now completed the first round of my rota for this year and had one finish this time round and feel I have made good progress on the others, though sad to say some still have a long way to go.

Thank you to all those who visit and read my blog and to those who are kind enough to leave comments. One lady has kindly emailed me to say she cannot leave a comment so if anyone else out there is unable to leave comments then please will you email and let me know as I am not sure if this is an isolated problem or not. My email link is in my side bar.

See you all in two weeks when I will have time to catch up on all those blogs. I have managed to read all the blogs in my blogline reader this week but have not had the time to leave comments so I do apologise and will rectify that when I get back, feeling I hope all refreshed and ready to go.

Take care and happy stitching,

A Change of Colors

Being English the word "colors" in the second verse looked really odd to me so I just had to change it and make it into "colours". Another personalisation lol. I also added the four missing stitches. And isnt it amazing what looking at a photo can do because this time I realise that I have missed the two little butterflies. I meant to go back and add them at the end. Well it has now been put away so they will just have to stay missing until after my holiday. I hope someone will remind me if I forget about them when I get back.

I actually got a couple of hours this afternoon to do this and so this evening I have made a start on my Friends are Treasures chart. There is not enough done on this at the moment to show a picture but I hope I will find a little more stitching time in the next couple of days and be able to post a picture of it before I go.

Not long ago I was feeling frustrated at going through every blog on my list each time I came on and maybe only finding one that had an update. I happened to mention this and someone (sorry I cant remember who) pointed me in the direction of Bloglines. It has been a revelation as now I only go to a blog when it is updated. This has also meant that I have had the chance to browse new blogs and add them to bloglines and I now have about 60 blogs I visit but as some only post occassionally it doesnt take up that much time now. I am amazed at some of the stitching and finishing I have seen. One lady I visit is making the most exquisite christening gown with hundreds of the most beautiful little rosebuds. Another is doing a beautiful abstract design in lovely bright colours but working on black. Some of the finishes that these people do also amaze me, brilliant boxes, baskets and needlecases, I could go on and on. I am just so glad that I have discovered the world of blogging and it has made me realise just how much I still have to learn.

Also though I havent said it for a little while I would like to say a big thank you to those who visit my blog and especially those who leave comments for me. You are all so kind and encouraging.
Bless you all and hope you have lots and lots of stitching time.

UFO Update

Im really pleased with the progress I have made on this with stitching on it most of the week. I got some of the top border, some of the side border and the butterflies as well as the letter F. It is now going away until after the holidays but I am really back into this one now and enjoying seeing it grow. It gives me hope that it might actually get finished one day so big thankyou to Mr Stick for making me get on with it.

I am going to try and get the second verse on queen done today. If it doesnt get done I will probably stick with it as I would like this bit done before I go.

I dont know if I will get to my rota or not but if I do it is going to be a new start called Friends are Treasures by The Victoria Sampler.

The sun is shining here again this morning so hope everyone is having a sunny and good weekend.

Gigi part 2

I just couldnt resist. Once I had downloaded this it had to be stitched at once and I love it. This times was a very quick stitch so it didnt take very long. If there is anyone out there who has not seen this chart if it the new freebie from Papillon Creations and all you need to do is add your name to the mailing list. You will then get a newsletter with a link to the freebie. There are three different versions of it, the one I am doing is the speciality stitch version.

It has been a beautiful day here and we have spend most of it clearing the garden. I never clear my garden at the end of the year as the dying back growth, the flower seeds etc all help to keep our birds and insects safe in the winter. For this reason the spring clearing is an added bonus as we strip things away to find snowdrops and crocuses and all sorts of other little plants starting to peep out - or in many cases busily producing their flowers in the warms beneath last years growth. The only thing against leaving the seeds on the plants like this is they often just seed themselves where they want so you never know what is coming up where. This doesnt matter to me as I love the gay abandonment of my garden but it would not do for those who like everything in its place. If I find a foxglove coming up in the middle of the path I just step round it, I would rather see it flowering in the breeze and providing honey for the bees than see the path nice and clear.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, and I am now going back to ufo for the rest of the day so will hope to post a pic of that for you tomorrow.

Queen Update

For some reason the flowers either side of the crown were not wanting to grow in my garden and for every three stitches i did I seemed to frog 2 of them. To make matters worse(curse, curse) I have just noticed I missed 4 stitches in one of the flowers on the bottom left hand side. Its amazing how you can look at something and not see it, then you put a photo up and hey presto it shouts out to you and you wonder how you could ever have missed it. Thank goodness the rabbits (they look more like hares to me) were well behaved. I did not carry on and do the verse as I want to alter it slightly (well you know me, I have to alter everything).

I am now doing my UFO and have been good and done two of the ivy leaves so far. I must admit I am bored with stitching them but I will try to be good and do at least one more before moving on to the next letter.

With only a week to go and so much to sort out before my holiday then I dont think there will be much stitching done. I am just going to stick with the UFO (make up for the weeks I will be missing) and maybe try and do Queen next Sunday instead on Monday.

Thanks to all those who left comments, especially about the Pirates Pie lol. We have lots of them daft names, it took ages for him to work out why he could find no eggs in After Egg Casserole (chicken lol). His mum thinks I am daft but to my mind it doesnt matter what you call it if it gets the child to try it. When david was little he loved turkey but wouldnt eat chicken at any price, that was until I found the one shop that sold "baby turkeys", from then on we never had any bother and it was years before he realised that he had been eating chicken all along.

Taj and Other Things

This is my progress on Taj Mahal MG. I am so disappointed that the colours do not show well on the scan as they really are pretty. I saw this one done on black the other day and it was stunning, I felt very tempted to start again but just hadn't got the heart to frog what I had done. It may not look a lot but it has taken quite a long time to get to this stage and I do love it.

To those who asked did we get any snow. Im afraid not; it snowed quite heavily a couple of times yesterday but just didnt settle. Oscar spent the morning reading stories and silly rhymes to us from a book he got for christmas and this afternoon he and keith spent their time making a space station and all the vehicles from Lego. Tonight we watched Shrek 3 before bedtime. We had Pirates Pie for tea, one of his favourites - this started when he would not eat fish. I made Pirates Pie and he loved it, once he was used to it we started a discussion on what sort of things might be in it - I mean what would a pirate be able to get when he was at sea all the time. The penny slowly dropped and now he likes to come to the fish monger and choose what fish goes into it - tonight it was cod, smoked haddock, salmon and a few prawns.

I am not doing this months challenge as we go away in 12 days and I just dont think I am going to have the time, but I will look forward to seeing what the others have done when I get back.

Thank you for all the lovely comments on The Alphabet Garden. Hope you are all having a lovely stitchy weekend.

Wow I got an Award

I got a "You Make My Day Award" from Jamie at Lavender & Lace Stitches. Thank you Jamie I never got an award before and you have made my day be giving it to me.

What A Night !!

After having trouble over the last couple of days to get anything to download in webshots I eventually succeeded earlier this evening and then as if in complete shock the whole internet went down. It was very frustrating. I eventually went to bed feeling really tired and then wham as soon as my head hit the pillow I was wide awake - ahhhhhhhhhhhhh why does that happen. I tossed and turned trying to get comfy and settle but in the end admitted defeat and got up again.

Hurray - the internet is back on. Off to webshots so I could load a photo into S&S forum and would you believe it - Webshots have closed down while they back up their system.

Oh well if thats the worst life throws at me then I think I can cope.

I managed to finish the E in my EMS Garden Alphabet and got a couple of little bees and a butterfly done but doing them was a good excuse for not working on the border. I think next week I will have to bite the bullet and tackle some of that border but those ivy leaves are oh so boring.

I got a phone call from our doctors tonight and the hospital have contacted them so I have to go for a liver function test in the morning. Not sure but think it is only a matter of a blood test so it shouldnt take too long. Two weeks today we are off on hols and when I get back I have an appointment for a pre-op assessment so hopefully this gallbladder thing will all be sorted pretty soon.

I have been working on Taj Mahal Mandala Garden all day and really feel like I have made progress this time. No picture as yet because I intend doing it tomorrow and Saturday if I get chance to stitch, though I think stitching will be a strictly evening affair as Oscar is coming for the weekend. They have forcast snow and he is getting really excited about it but I have warned him that he will only be throwing snowballs at Grandpa as Granny will be by the fire with her stitching if the snow comes. I hate the cold and there is no way I will be venturing outside even for my beloved Grandson.

Thank you for all your lovely comments, a couple of people have asked me about the EMS 2008 Challenge so hope this might be of help to anyone interested.