Ready For A Change

Its been almost a month since my last post and I haven't really got a lot to show. I have been working on I Still Do but not so much as I have had two small gifts to make too. Hopefully I will be able to show you them soon but as they are both for people who probably read my blog (well one certainly does, not saying who but the one who usually leaves the cheeky comments), then I cannot show them yet. With regard to ISD I am over half done the 2nd of the larger motifs, and will try to plow on until that is done. edit - Oh dear I should that written plough but too much Farm Town must be rubbing off on me and I am using American spellings lol. However I am feeling ready for a change now and having recently seen Kathy's stitching on Fairies At The Bottom Of My Garden, I have a yen to get mine out and do some more on that. Lisa asked what thread I was using for this - its Carrie's Creations, Hearts on Fire which I thought very appropriate. The chart is actually meant to be stitched in a variety of different reds but I just fancied doing it in the one varied colour. Anyway here is how it looked when I took a piccie this afternoon.



The other thing that keeps me busy and out of mischief nowdays is card making. I spend hours designing what to do on the computer before actually printing out bits and bobs I need to actually make the cards. Mostly I use bought card stock though I do print off my own card stock at times too. I know this is supposed to be a stitching blog but card making is just as much my hobby so I thought I would show you half a dozen of those I have made recently but if you don't want to see anymore in the future let me know or I may bore you to death with them as I certainly produce a lot more finished cards than I do finished peices of stitching.

Thank you for the wishes for my health which I am glad to report is continuing to improve. I started driving again and this weekend was our stitching group meet up, to which was my furthest drive so far. Only about a 30 - 40 min drive away to Wendy's house but it felt like a real achievement. As usual we had a lovely day, made even better by the fact that Rachael had bought her daughter Lucy who was celebrating her 11th birthday so we got cakes too. I think she enjoyed her day with the adults too.

Today we took our Grandson to Alvaston park. Its years since I have visited this park and its well worth checking out if you live in the area. Lots of ducks to feed on the lake (and we hadn't thought to take anything to feed them), and lots of ducklings too. A nice new cafe opened there a few weeks ago, nice and clean and not too badly priced for meals and snacks though we only had a drink today. Best of all there is an Addizone there, which is designed for over 12,s though there were a few like Oz who were under this age range, and a few like us right at the other end of the scale, all having fun checking out the outdoor gym - and its free too.

I think thats all I have to tell you for now. Thanks to all those who are kind enough to have left comments.

Hugs to all,

May your frogs stay in their ponds.

ps Oh I forgot to say thank you to Sally for sending me the link to the signatures, I will check that site out Sally, thanks. xx

I lost my name ...

Well not quite my name but certainly my signature here in blogland. I tried going to the site I originally got it from but that seems to have died, which is probably the reason for my signature going walkabouts. Does anyone have any good links to free blog signature sites, if so I would be grateful to know where they are. Of course this is the lazy option lol, I could go to google and would probably find one there, but the word "Free" seems to be used when things are certainly not free just lately. I used to type in Free Clip-art and got loads, now what comes up is Royalty Free and they still want paying. Also a lot of so called free sites just mean that you seem to be able to view they for free. Oh well moan over............ sorry about that.



I promised you an update picture of I still do and so before I go any further I think I had better show you what it was looking like last night.

I am quite pleased with the progress made, I know it doesnt look an awful lot but as its on 32 count after a while my eyes start crossing so I cannot do too much at a time. Also I need to concentrate, now my usual stitching time is when I sit to watch tv in the evening. Ok I get into trouble because I sometimes lose the thread - on the tv programme not the stitching - but as most things we watch are pre-recorded then I can (or hubby can for me) rewind. However because this is finer than I normally do when I look up at the tv, its the thread of my chart I lose so I have to keep working out where I am. I do use a "working copy" so that I can mark it off but you cannot mark off after every stitch. All this said I am still enjoying stitching on this and so whilst the enjoyment lasts I shall stick at it and try to watch things on tv that dont need a lot of concentrating on.

I had a lovely day on Saturday as my little stitching group met at my house. It was a Hardanger Group when I originally joined it but people had deadlines to meet for normal stitching and so bought that and this week there were three of us doing cross stitch, one doing crotchet and one teaching herself Tunisian Crotcheting, a sort of cross between crotchet and knitting. I think we are really now just a group of friends who enjoy having a get together once a month, a bit of stitching, a lot of gossip and lots of laughs so who cares what excuse is made for actually meeting lol.

Oh I was asked how long it took to do my hardanger pieces. I started my Tissue Box Cover on the 8th December 2008. Tulips and Lace has been a lot quicker but I cannot recall exactly when. I have no note of starting it on my blog so it must have been started after i last blogged in July last year. I have a feeling that I started it to take with my to India in October, but sorry cannot be more accurate than that.

Thanks for the lovely folks who left me comments and welcomed me back,

Hugs

Helen xx

May your frogs stay in their ponds.