Still Alive and Kicking..

In the last week or two I have had several e-mails asking if I was OK. It was lovely to know I was missed by a few people.

Well I am really sorry that I just have not had the time to blog recently. We had a fantastic holiday which exceeded all our expectations and we have bought back so many wonderful memories to add to our collection. Unfortunately a few days after our return my Mum had a really bad fall and split her nose open from top to bottom requiring 15 internal and 8 external stitches. She was also very badly bruised and shaken and it has taken a while for her to recover. Her nose is now fine and the bruises have all disappeared but her confidence is going to take a while longer. In the last month I have taken her out several times, just to shop or to the local garden centre, but she has not yet had the confidence to go out alone, and I think that will take a while. We are going to try catching the bus into Derby sometime next week, so that is another step in the right direction.

We have also had a lot of computer problems, well not the computer but the server we were with. Downloading or uploading anything was a complete nightmare and there were occassions when even a simple email could take 15 - 20 minutes to download. Somedays we could not connect to anything though the internet connection itself was strong. Enough was enough, every time we complained it would work again for a couple of days and then it was back to square one so we ended up completely changing the server and we are now back with good old BT and things (everything crossed) have been fine this last week.

I have also had my daughter very poorly as she contracted the dreaded Swine Flu virus and has been really ill with it. Both her and mum live about 10 miles away from us but unfortunately in opposite directions lol. Oh well thats life and we at least have been fit enough to cope, though there have been a number of times that I have sat down to relax in the evening and fell asleep in the chair.

I really will try and get back to my blog over the next couple of weeks and share with you some of my holiday pictures and anicdotes and also some updates on the stitching front.

I do hope everyone out there is blog land it fit and well, and for those who are not I send lots of hugs.

Take care dear friends until next time.


May your frogs stay in their ponds.

Just a quickie.

Today is the day we celebrate 40 years of marriage. Cant think where the time has gone but the do say time always goes faster when you are having fun, and I just hope we can have another 40 years together and enjoy them as much. This is also the day we fly off on our adventures to the Southern Hemisphere so I must be quick.

However just before I go I must share my happy dance. Started on the 4th March 2008 and finished on the 29th August 2009 here is EMS Rose Sampler, and I am thrilled with the finish.

Hugs to you all and see you in just over a months time.

May your frogs stay in their ponds.

Where do I begin....

It has been a whole month since I last had the time to blog. I have been stitching though not as much as I would like but I think I will start with updates on Water Tiger. I am now working on page 6 but this is how he looked at the end of page 5. I really am behind schedule on him so when I return from my holidays I am going to have to work, work, work on this.

The next one to show is my EMS Rose Sampler. You may remember when I last showed this one that I was looking for an alphabet to replace the one I didn't like. Well Dani suggested I use some lines from a poem instead and I just loved that idea. My only problem was finding something I liked. I spent ages but the things I could find really didn't mean anything too me. Then I remembered a little verse from my childhood, something about roses along my winding drive. It took me ages to find the verse which is called "In My Little Garden". It is a sort of counting poem and the 2nd verse was - In my little garden, along the winding drive, roses growing brightly - three - four - five. It was just the thing I wanted and so I have used that. Since this picture was taken I have finished it apart from the rest of the verse so I hope to get a happy dance within the next week or so - hoping I can get the time to finish it before the holiday.

I did also put a few more stitches into "I still do" but not enough progress to show a picture yet.

Cards - I have sent out quite a few but as a lot of them were made at the last minute I didnt take pictures. Having said that here are a few that I did take pictures of -

This one for Colly was so sparkly that I just kept getting flash back on the camera so ended up having to lay it on its back to take a picture.

The next for Moll was another sparkly one but I finally managed to get a decent picture of that.

This was for our dear friend David and though you cannot tell from the picture the little windows opened and they had acetate in them to look like glass. Also the chair is decoupaged but again you cannot tell from the picture.

The last was for my Aunt and was inspired by a conversation her and my Mum had about the struggles they had as children trying to fasten their long boots with button hooks.

Lastly the thing I need to share with you are some of the lovely cards and goodies that I got for my birthday earlier this month.

These are the lovely hand made cards I got, they were beautiful.

The little tag you can see sticking up from the white flower card was a beautiful matching bookmark which fit in its own little pocket inside the card.

Below some of my lovely birthday gifts ......

stitching things

card making things

special gooies

I was just so spoilt and it was wonderful.

I have not unfortunately had any time to read blogs and I am quite lost as to what is happenening to everyone but you are in my thoughts often. I have made so many wonderful friends both from stitching and blogging and though I have not been to visit does not mean that you never pop your heads into the corner of my mind. Once my holiday is over I am going to clear my bloglines and start again with it. When I first started I just seemed to pop anything and everything into it and it has become unmanagable - well if i wish to do anything else with my life it has lol.

Thank you once again for visiting and especially those dear friends who understand and still leave comments - bless you each and everyone. I hope you are all well and happy and I am sending loving hugs your way just in case you are needing them.

May your frogs stay in their ponds.

I'm Here Again

I am still in the land of the living and I do keep popping in from time to time. With the start of the school holidays though this could be even less over the next few weeks so please bear with me.

Not a lot to tell, though I do have some update pictures for you. The first of course is Water Tiger and I am really pleased with the progress I am making on this one.

I am working him 1 over 2 on 32 count but decided to try the eye in 2 over 2 to give it more intensity and I am really pleased with the results. I had intended trying to do the eye with a rayon thread to make it shine but there was just too many colours in it for me to try altering them, but maybe it would not have turned out right and it does look so life like as it is.

Rose Sampler is also progressing nicely. There is another alphabet to go in where I have left the gap but I do not like the one on the chart so need to sort out something else to go in its place.

The other thing I have been working on spasmodically is a hardanger set. The needlecase and scissor fob have been designed by my dear friend Colly of Col's Creations, and the new top for my work box I have designed using Colly's idea and extending it. I just loved this design and I have been looking for something for my workbox for ages. This just fit the bill as it was in the traditional hardanger which I love yet seemed to have a modern feel to it which appealed to me, so I decided to play. I was a little worried that Colly might be cross but bless her she was full of approval and didnt mind me borrowing her brain power at all. Thanks Colly. If you like hardanger then go and have a look at Colly's site she has some really beautiful designs. My favourite is The Lace Garden but I have three or four of her designs now.

The first picture is the needle case (sorry not brilliant pictures),

Then the scissor fob.

and lastly the workbox top.

and silly me has just noticed that i missed the centre kloister blocks from the top left hand box centre lol. How many times have you noticed an error when you put a photograph up, I know I have on several occassions.

Well I think that is all I have to tell you for this time. I have been making some more cards but I cannot show them to you yet, so thats a treat you will have to wait for lol.

Thank you all for taking the time to read my blog and thank you agian to those precious readers who take the time to leave me comments they are so much appreciated.

One last comment and that is to all those who said they wished they could come and stitch with me in my garden, my little haven of peace. I so wish you could all come and it would be quite some party with people from Canada, the USA, Australia, Germany, Holland and Spain to name just a few. Who of us thought when we started blogging that we would make so many friends from so many parts of the globe. Oh how I wish you could all come, and all my UK friends too of course.

Hugs,

May your frogs stay in their ponds.

Hurray...

I have had a good week this week stitching wise and at last feel that progress is being made, so three cheers for that. Page 4 of the Water Tiger is almost complete and as page 5 is about half done anyway that brings me to almost the half way stage. I am going to have to work like a trojan now to get the other half done in time. 5 months to go but as I will be away for one of those months it only leaves me with four to stitch in for a comfortable finishing time. Here is a picture of him taken this morning. Progress on EMS Rose Sampler was not so good but a lot better than I have managed for the last few days and I am beginning to feel back on track with that too. I have really enjoyed my stitching again this week and I am not sure if that is why I have made such good progress or whether the good progress is why I have enjoyed it, lol who cares as long as its happy stitching thats all that matters. I have been blaming my stress on the lack of stitching done but maybe the stress was stopping me stitching, I dont know but I have felt so much more relaxed this week.

I spent a day with my dear friend Colly and that always puts me in a relaxed mood - though we started off well by the time we had lunch I think the stitching was just sitting on our laps lol, neither of us made much progress but we do laugh a lot.

I do hope Karan will not mind but I have borrowed this picture from her blog as I forgot to take one myself. So here is the card and gift I sent to her.

The chart was one I had not seen before its by a firm called In The Gentle Fashion and is called Somethings are Loved. I know Karan loves things with meaningful words and could not resist getting it for her. The verse reads

Somethings are loved because they are beautiful

and somethings are beautiful because they are loved.

I was playing last week and I also made the little bookmark that you see tucked in with the chart as another thing Karan loves is reading. If you have not visited her blog then do pop over and see her as she is always interesting and amusing to read.

Now last but certainly not least, the postie put a great big smile on my face on Friday when he bought a little RAK gift from Angela in Canada. She had made me this beautiful little pin keep picture. Both the stitching and finishing are fantastic and though she stitched this because it is her favourite design she could not have chosen anything more perfect for me. I love both my garden and all my friends and I am very honoured that she chose to stitch this just for me.

Thank you once again to all who read and leave comments - you are my inspiration.

May your frogs stay in their ponds.

I've made it again...

I have been going to post again all week and just not got around to it. Here was me thinking that when I retired I would have more time on my hands and 18 months down the line I find that I have even less time than when I was working. Busy, busy, busy but I sometimes do not know what I am busy at as the stitching time gets less and the card making sessions are few but I guess I have lots of friends and either I am visiting them, they are visiting me or I am with my Mum and having friends and family surely cannot be a bad thing.

Well despite what I just said I have managed some more on Water Tiger and I am pleased with the progress I have make on this one so far.

Also a little more on EMS Rose Sampler though my progress on this is not what I had hoped for.

I am sorry that my photographic skillare are not very good but at least you can tell its growing lol.

On the card front I made this one for my darling hubby who celebrated his birthday on Wednesday. The family all came round in the evening and it was lovely to be able to sit out and share his cake and laugh and chat together.
What else have I been up to - well with the beautiful weather comes time in the garden and we have spend a lot of time out there, Earlier in the year I shared some pictures of my spring garden so I hope you will be indulgent and allow me to show some of my summer garden now.

These last two pictures were taken of the yard at the side this morning and I have been intending to sit out there and stitch - you might be able to see my stitching ready on the table - unfortunately 15 minutes later we had a small thunderstorm and it is still raining heavily so guess I will either have to stitch inside or find something else to do - lol like catching up with my blog. Catching up with the blogs I follow seems almost impossible, my blog reader is telling me I have 172 blogs with new postings and as fast as i seem to read one another two pop up, so please forgive me I am doing my best - even if my best aint good enough.

Thank you to all who visit my little world, and to those who leave comments - you all make this little journey through life so much more interesting with the things you say, encouragement you give me and tips you share.

Just one last thing before I go - one or two of you have asked how my food diary is going - well typically and without trying to tempt fate - since I have started it I have not had one tummy upset so at the moment I cannot tell if it will shed any light on the problem or if it has cured the problem lol - I will keep you updated if any developments occur.

Hugs for all those who need them,

May your frogs stay in their ponds.

Cards, Cakes and Good News. (lots of pics)

First I just have to show you some pictures of my beautiful boy who celebrated his 7th birthday on Sunday. I can hardly believe that he is seven already.

..... and pictures of the cake I made for him too.

and to end his birthday theme I will share the card I made too

Have you seen my new ticker bar at the top - I am thrilled to say that my darling hubby has decided to have an early retirement and will be finishing work on the 28th August. Also on the 6th September we will have achieved 40 years together - just think we could have murdered two or three people and served less of a sentance lol. He says when he bought the wedding licence he thought he had the option to renew each year like we do for the tv, its a good job I didnt tell him beforehand that it was a one off job. We have been talking about having a holiday to celebrate both events and on Friday night he asked me to look through a travel itenary and let him know what I thought, my eyes were popping as I read and I said oh that would be fantastic if we could do it. His reply was "Good because Ive booked it today and we fly out on our Anniversary", oh I knew I married him for some good reason. We are going to New Zealand the one place in the world I have always dreamed of going. We are going to Singapore and Australia too and also either Hong Kong or Bankgog for a stop over on our return but its NZ I am so excited about.

Oh Helen come back down to earth and get on with things lol. Right another card I made was for a friend who was getting married (for the 4th time)

I also made a very pretty one for my friend Ann but silly me forgot to take a picture of that one.

And on the stitching front just a little bit more on EMS Rose Sampler to show you.

We unfortunately had another death to deal with last week as my neighbour and friend for 40 years passed away on Thursday evening after a long fought battle with cancer. May you rest in peace Anita, your family will find life hard without you and you will be missed by many.

Well thank you all for once again bearing with my ramblings and visiting my little blog, and for the lovely comments you continue to leave.

Hugs to all

May your frogs stay in their ponds.