Friday 22 May 2009

A Little More Progress.

Wednesday should have been UFO night, and I should have been going on a visit to my friend Colly but unfortunately the dreaded tummy upset was back. I have come to the conclusion that something I eat disagrees with my but I cannot work out what as I never seem to have had the same thing twice. However a friend suggested that I keep a food diary of everything I eat and that way I may begin to see a pattern so I think that is what I am going to have to do, boring as the prospect is. I will try anything if it gets to solve the mystery of what upsets me.

Anyway I did my UFO on Thursday instead and made a little more progress.








I have also managed to finish page three on water tiger so that warrented a little cheer one six more pages to go lol. Unfortunately there is a lot more work on them than on the first three and I only have 6 months to go ......... ahhhhhhhh and I thought stitching was to keep me sane.








On the card front here is the card I made for Rachael's birthday.

And here is what I stitched for her. I designed it myself though it is loosely based on the SB "Be Attitudes".
















I finished it as a pinkeep style picture and was really pleased with it but silly me forgot to take a picture.
I am now off to try and get some more of Water Tiger done before my bed calls me. Hope you all have a lovely weekend - especially those in the UK who have an extra day on Monday for the Spring Bank Holiday.
may your frogs stay in their ponds.

Thursday 14 May 2009

Progression



I am going to start with a picture of the card I sent to Wendy for her birthday last Sunday

As all the cards I am making at the moment are for up and coming birthdays I cannot show you each one until the person has received them, especially as most of those who will be recieving them read my blog sometimes.

Next is Water Tiger, not a lot of progression but his second ear is beginning to take shape, if I stopped gadding about I might get more done on him but then I wouldnt be having so much fun lol.

Yesterday I went to visit with my friend Colly, lovely as I can take my stitching with me when I go there, though we do too much laughing to get a great deal done. Anyway WT is definitely not the thing to be taking when my concentration is not going to be full on so a quick scout in my WIP box and I came out with the EMS 2008 Rose Sampler. This is such a lovely one to stitch and does not need too much in the way of concentration so it was ideal. I had not touched it since November last year but I really enjoyed working on it and decided that I would join the UFO group at Crafty Natter and try to finish it. As the groups UFO day is Wednesday and I usually go to Collys on a Wednesday it also means I have a nice easy piece to take with me and I am fulfilling my UFO obligations too. Anyway this was how it was when I left it last night. I got R, S, T, U, V, W and X done so I was really pleased with my progress. Now if only the Tiger would grow so quick.
Today I took Mum up the the garden centre and we both bought some more plants for the garden. We enjoyed looking round but I had to get a wheelchair for Mum as her foot is giving her a lot of pain at the moment. This was a great concession on her part as she is a very independent lady who lives by the rule of "Use it or lose it" and she hates giving in to the pain she suffers. Unfortunately there is nothing the doctor can do apart from give her strong pain killers and she doesnt like taking them unless she really has to.
The weather has been really quite dull here and cold too but I am hoping that it will cheer up for the weekend as we have Ozzie and we were hoping to take him to Biddolph Grange. Its not somewhere he has been before, though we love the gardens there so I am keeping my fingers crossed.
Thank you for all the lovely comments I am sure you know just how much they are appreciated. I am trying to keep reading blogs but unfortunately I have so many I love to follow and as fast as I read a few a few more pop up on the list so its slow going lol.
So bye until next time dear readers and friends
may your frogs stay in their ponds

Wednesday 6 May 2009

Not A Lot Of Stitching - But Lots Of Pictures

As this blog is supposed to be about stitching I will start off with what stitching I have to show you, but it's not a lot. What time I have had to stitch has been mainly in the evening so its been on I still do. I frogged the orchid that I mentioned in my last post and restitched that, got some more letters done and have made a start on the first of the two big motifs - boy is that slow going. Anyway here it is.
My other hobby is card making, something I have been doing for family for a while but only recently started doing on a larger scale so that I can send them to friends too. My daughter said that I should take pictures of the cards I make so here are a few I have made recently.

This was for some friends who were celebrating an anniversary



The next one is for their grandson Harry whose birthday will be next month..














This one is just to keep in stock for an emergency













Next I have to thank everyone for the lovely comments they left on my garden pictures, so I thought I would be a little indulgent and show you some more. Many of you said that it would be a lovely place to sit and stitch but when the sun is out it is on the back garden for most of the day so I usually sit round the side of the house in my yard to stitch, and here is my stitching seat.
This is also the working area of the garden where I potter about repotting etc and though it may look clean and tidy from that angle if I show you the view from the chair you will see my pile of clutter heaped in the corner near the compost bin.
Here is a picture of the corner - the trellis here hides what we loosly call the potting shed but which is in fact the place that holds all the junk we seem to have aquired over the years - we really do need to find time to clean this out and get it back to its original usage.
The next view maybe shows it clearer
and now for some fun ones.... this is the cricket team - my mum bought these for my DH for Christmas, hes a huge cricket fan. Although its hard to imagine from this picture the rocks you see on the left hand side are my waterfall which has a really good flow of water coming down it. It comes from across the top of the rockery approximately in the middle of this picture then down the waterfall and across a little stream - which is just the other side of the cricketers and into the pond (another feature you never seem to see on garden pictures lol, but it is near the greenhouse and comes just under the lilac tree.
Lastly I thought I would show you Mrs Blackbird having her morning bath...



This is a ritual which she enjoys doing and I love to watch, it never tires me and I have been watching her have her bath for years during the summer months. I am not sure how long blackbirds live so maybe it isnt the same bird every year but its always the female and the ritual that is followed is always the same.
I am as you may have guessed well behind on the blog reading again but I do keep trying to read some and leave comments as often as I can, so please do not think I have forgotton you all. Thank you once again for reading and leaving so many lovely comments. The comments so often make me smile and I find myself leaving the house with a big grin on my face many a time from something one of you has said.
Bless you all and Hugs
may your frogs stay in their ponds.