Stitchery Nook

2011-07-20T20:13:00.008Z

Well here I am again and doesn't time fly. We had a wonderful week in Turkey but it seems so long ago now, made worse by the miserable weather here. Im sorry Kathy, no pictures as they are all on hubbys computer but I will see if he will post some over to mine for me (lol if I remember). We enjoyed Marmaris very much and walked a lot, our favourite walk was along the coast to Icmela which is much smaller than Marmaris and very pretty. Luckily we are not beach people because the sunbeds were rather tightly packed at both resorts and if I was going to spend time on the beach I would hate that.

Holiday stitching was LHN's "School of Needlework" and this is what it was like on my return from holiday.

I was unhappy with the way the brown of the 2nd girls dress merged with the brown of the chair and all looked the same, so I unpicked and restitched it in a dusky pink/plum colour which shows up far better. Honest it does in real life even though it doesnt appear to on this picture.

I was enjoying stitching on this so decided to stick with it and last night I finished it. There are you may notice a few slight changes lol.

I have now gone back to Country Bloomers as that is close to being finished and will return to ISD next. I know I ought to be working on that but there is no chance on this earth that it will be finished before September so I decided another finish might cheer me up more.

Only one card to show you this time. It is one I made for a friend in the USA who has recently become a Grandma (I'm not allowed to call her Granny lol) for the first time. Guess you might realise she had a little Grand-daughter when you see this card as its very girly.

I am hoping the weather picks up for the weekend as its the Erewash Show at our local park and Oscar loves us to take him, but no way am I paddling round muddy fields for anyone.

Its now almost 10pm so I am off to stitch and watch a little TV before getting my beauty sleep. Thank you to anyone who has dropped in to read my ramblings and as always to the lovely friends who are kind enough to leave me comments.

Goodnight and hugs,

May your frogs stay in their ponds.

STITCHING, CARDS AND SUNSHINE.

2011-06-23T20:45:00.010Z

I am told that life is like a toilet roll and the further along you get the faster it seems to disappear. Well that certainly seems to be the case for me as I have no idea where the last month has gone. Yes almost a month since I last made it here and a busy one for lots of reasons. I have stitched but not as much as I would have liked to, I have made cards (a busy time of year for me with close family and friends celebrating birthdays and anniversaries), but what else have I done. I made a Tardis cake for Oscar's 9th birthday earlier this week and talking of time passing - where the hell have the last 9 years gone. My baby is growing up all too fast and there are not so many kisses and cuddles for Granny these days, though I do still get a few so guess I should just make the most of it. He is growing up fast, in fact far too fast for my liking. Mum has had a few hospital appointments and doctors appointments which seems to be more actual waiting about than seeing the people concerned but she is doing OK at the moment so I am not too worried about her. She is off to Eastbourne for a week on Saturday and as it was getting close and she definitely looked like she would be going we decided it might be nice to get a few days away ourselves. Result was that on Monday we booked a late holiday to Turkey and so we are off to the sunshine tomorrow morning. Never been to Turkey before but have heard lots of good reports so I will keep my fingers crossed, but whatever it will be nice and warm and relaxing.

Right now to stitching and I have to admit that I just got fed up with ISD and have put it away for a while with the 2nd large motif still unfinished. Not a lot to do on it but hey ho, it will come out again soon.

In its place I got out Country Bloomers, and since this picture was taken I have finished the yellow bloomers, outlined both them and the green ones, put flowers in the pot beneath the green ones and done another pot. This too has gone away not until after the holiday.

Holiday stitching is always a new start, I know its naughty when there are so many unfinished ones in my box but my excuse is they are all either large designs or need a lot of colours so I need something simple to do on holiday lol. Trawling through my stash I decided on School of Needlework by LHN. Its a nice easy chart, not too big and not too many threads needed to be carted with me, it will slip into my handbag nicely.

Now to cards, the first was made for a very dear friend AnnT who some of you will know though she does not blog.

Next one was for a very dear friend and my neighbour for 40 odd years Christine, again not a blogger.

The final one is actually two pics, first the front and then the inside of the card I made for my darling grandson Oscar. The decoupage was from the "Flippin' Teenage" range and I really enjoyed making this one. When I saw the decoupage sheet I couldnt resist buying it as earlier in the year Oz dressed as a Punk for a school music program which covered 60 years of pop music. It was a really fun show starting with rock music from the late 50's right up to some of the latest hits.

Thank you to all those who were kind enough to leave such lovely comments, you all keep me smiling bless you.

Hugs from

May your frogs stay in their ponds.

Ready For A Change

2011-05-29T21:36:00.011Z

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 ...

2011-05-01T18:53:00.003Z

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.

I think Im back .....

2011-04-27T18:15:00.011Z

Its been nine long long months since I last posted. I am not going to bore you with the details, most of you know my Mum had a rough time last year but I am pleased to report that she is so much better now and is getting out and about again. I am so pleased that she has become independent again as just after we returned from our annual chill out in Goa (mid Feb) I had a stupid accident and ended up with three bones broken in my spine and a very badly bruised lower spinal region, which meant sitting down was very painful, but then so was standing up so I have had a couple of months where I was going stir crazy, supposedly relaxing at home. How you relax when its hard, to sit, stand or even lie in bed Im not sure but now I too am well on the way to mending.

Stitching has been a bit hit and miss but I have had two finishes. Both are hardanger designs and both are from the Cols Creations collection. The first one was my tissue box cover which I love and I am thinking of doing another one of these in cream at some point, but this one is plain white and is for my bedroom.

Finished March 2011

The second is again for my bedroom and is a beautiful design called Tulips and Lace. I have quite a few of these Col's Creations charts in my stash and look forward to being able to do some more in the future. Oh and just in case anyone notices the little thread sticking out at the bottom (as I know some of those in my hardanger group will lol) I have now cut it off. I have to admit to having a little help with this one as Rachael did the buttonholing round the edge. I have done hardanger for a number of years now and never had problems before but for some reason I just could not get to grips with it on this one and was ready for thowing it in the bin lol. Nothing to do with the design, its just normal button hole stitch - just my head would not work around it at the time and Rachael kindly offered her services, bless her.

Finished April 2011

First things first though and my aim for this year is to finish some of my rather large pile of WIPs. The first one I have gone back too is this one, I Still Do - an Ink Circles Design that seemed perfect for our Ruby Anniversary. That was 18 months ago but as it has a habit of doing life got in the way. This is what it looked like last time I took a picture and I will try and take an update pic later today. I have now finished the first of the two large motifs I was working on and I am hoping to make a start on the second one tonight.

I am not even attempting to work on a rota at the moment, I shall just stitch on this for as long as I am happy doing so and then swap to another. There are so many unfinished projects in my WIP box that I think there will be something I can find that I just fancy doing at the time.

I was having a quick flick round my blog before I started posting and I think I am going to have to alter my WIP list in the sidebar as its very out of date. I will also try to think what else I have finished - Im sure there must be one or two in the last nine months, and they need to be recorded, after all this blog was started so that I would have a record of the things I stitched. Having said that its always lovely to know others are interested too, so it anyone does read this I would love to hear from you.

All for now

Hugs

Helen x

May your frogs stay in their ponds.

Your wishes...

2010-07-09T02:46:00.002Z

I just wanted to pop on with a quick thank you or three.

Firstly thanks to all those who sent me links to small maple leaves both here and by private mail, there are one or two which i think I can adapt for my needs.

Secondly thanks to so many who (again both here and privately) have sent me good wishes and hugs for my mum. She went to see the hip specialist, her gp had refered her too. on Tuesday. The gp had said this chap might be able to give her a special kind of injection which would ease the chronic arthritis in her right hip. However the specialist said that the problem is not the arthritis but the hip itself and that she needs a replacement. Aparently apart from the problems with her chest she is in excellent health (well some good news) but they cannot actually operate until the problems with her chest are sorted out. So that is something for the future lol - just in case i run out of things to do.

Her appointment with the Respitory Specialist is not till the 23rd August but there are a number of tests he wants carried out before he sees her, and these start a week on monday with a CT Deep Chest scan, and seem to run out at about one a week till august. One is a deep breath test - which to me sounds like one of these things where you blow in a tube - but surely they would not send a hospital appointment just for that. Oh well we wait and see and in the mean time try and laugh about all the leaflets they send with information - most of which seems to be warnings about what this that and the other can do to you and what can go wrong - and there were we thinking these things were designed to make her better.

She is at last beginning to eat a little more - thank you god for small mercies, not very significant maybe but in the last three months she has lost almost a stone and a half in weight, which for someone with hardly any fat on her to start with is a bit alarming. Mind we laugh as she keeps trying to be modern with trousers that slip down on her hips all the time. I have told her I am going to get some crop tops for her so she can show off her midriff and she has suggested having her belly button pierced.

Well its 4am and I am going to go back to bed and see if there is any chance of getting at least an hours sleep tonight, though I must admit I feel wide awake at the moment, I doubt I shall at 8am in the morning lol.

Goodnight all and will try and do a stitchy related post with piccies in a day or two - I have taken them just that hubby has not had the time to download them and I cannot do that on my computer.

Hugs,

xx
May your frogs stay in their ponds.

I need a maple leaf!!

2010-07-02T09:47:00.002Z

Can anyone help - I need a small maple leaf design to incorporate into a wedding sampler I am trying to design for a special couple. I have tried freebies on the internet and they are all too large and I have searched all my Jo Versa and Jane Greenoff sampler books and they have nothing. If anyone has anything or can suggest a chart that has small maple leaves in its design I would be grateful.

Thanks

May your frogs stay in their ponds.

2010-06-30T17:45:00.005Z

Here I am again, blogging has been at the bottom of a long list of things "I need to do" or should I be more accurate and say I want to do, but unfortunately my list of wants often has to come a long way below things of more importance.

Mum has been very ill again, yet another chest infection and as they have still not been able to clear her lungs of fluid when xrays etc look clear, they are concerned about underlying problems so even more tests are staring us in the face. The trouble is some of these stretch out until August and I assume (as usually seems to happen) they will then refer for different tests so it looks like we are going to be pretty firmly grounded for a while. Well at least until our holidays in October and we were so hoping to get some time away this year seeing more of our own countryside. The annoying part is we have such beautiful weather at the moment and it would be perfect for getting the tent out and going at short notice - oh well maybe one day.

I rather lost my stitching bug too, I looked everywhere but couldn't find it so I decided that a nice big happy dance was needed to see if that would bring it out of the woodwork. With this in mind i fished out Ink Circles "Blackwork Fantasy Garden" and started a slow nightly plod, sometimes only a few stitched but little by little the end came into site and at last the longed for happy dance arrived. It did the trick too - well that and a new start lol. I know I said I was not going to have any new starts for a while but this is a long planned Sal that I am doing with my friend Moll who lives in Norway. We are going Jingle Bells Xmas Tree Farm at the weekends and after two weekends I can tell you I am really enjoying this.

Where are the pictures I can hear you shouting, ok ok they are here.

BLACKWORK FANTASY GARDEN - INK CIRCLES

JINGLE BELLS XMAS TREE FARM

FOREST FRIENDS

I have had to adjust this one as it is an American chart and they have neighbors whilst we in the UK have neighbours and with an eight year old grandson always ready to point out if granny spells things wrong its the easiest option lol. Yes my darling boy was 8 last week, how the years have flown.

I have been taking lots of pictures in the garden which though slightly neglegted is looking rather lovely with all the sunshine. I will try and get on again in a day or so and post some for you to see.

Thank you to those who have taken their time and trouble to once again reading my meanderings. Bless you all.

Love

May your frogs stay in their ponds.

Third Time Lucky -

2010-04-02T18:11:00.018Z

- I hope. This has posted twice and deleted the body of the mail each time, so apologies to anyone who opened the last post and found nothing but my signature.

A PLACE FOR EVERYTHING

... though not everything is actually in its place yet.

Many of you may remember my craft room, it was lovely and I was thrilled when it became a craft room BUT the furniture was old and adapted to cope rather than designed to cope. A couple of old dressing table bases, each with two large draws. Three Small Wardrobes (if anyone out there is as old as me they may remember Liden Furniture which was a forerunner to Ikea), two of which had been fitted with shelves to hold my stash. Lastly between the two cupboards was a fixed shelve where my computer sat. This has all done well but it had come to the stage that the cupboards were so full I had to clear a shelve everytime I wanted something as it always seemed to be the bit at the bottom I wanted and all the excess was piling up round the walls. In short it was beginning to look more like a junk room than a craft room. So my darling hubby suggested that it was time we looked for something a little more planned for the job of storage.

Off we went to look what was available and the result was a revamped craft room with a place for everything. As yet not everything is in its place but slowly it is getting there. I have a large plastic box on the floor that is full of charts and kits that need to be filed away, and most of the files need a good sorting anyway so thats going to be an ongoing task for a while I think. Also some of the smaller boxes you will see have contents which make it hard to fit the lids on so I am slowly getting some bigger boxes and reorganising the contents of the smaller ones - again

something which is going to take a while, but who cares I now have room for even more stash if I want it.

Unfortunately there are not 48 hours in each of my days - which is something I badly need - so whilst I have been playing - oooh sorry I mean working - the stitching has been cast slightly to one side. I have done a little and I can now see an end in sight for the blues of Quiltmakers dress. I got a little more of the quilt done too.

I also did some more on I Still Do, but after frogging one section only to stitch it again with the same mistake in, it was put away in disgust for a week or two.

Now everything is organised, at least to a degree, I can start to sort out the threads to use for Jingle Bells Farm, though there is a slight problem and that is finding the chart - yep you guessed its in that big plastic box somewhere lol.

I am enjoying the Easter weekend as we have my little grandson (not so little now though) to stay with us over the weekend. He has been with us since he broke up from school on Wednesday and is staying until Sunday afternoon. Poor wee might is not feeling too well tonight though so I am hoping he will be feeling better tomorrow and the sun will shine so that we may go Easter Egg Hunting at Calke Abbey. I can now tell you that we had a lovely day at Calke and it was warm and bright. We did a second egg hunt at Kedleston this morning but though this was forcast as the best day over the bank holiday it drizzled on and off and was rather cold, but fun was had none the less.

Thank you once again to all those who manage to get to the end of my ramblings and even more so to those who make it all worth while by commenting. Bless you all

May your frogs stay in their ponds.

The Reds & Blues

2010-03-16T10:27:00.011Z

I'm here again and great news as I am now more than half way down my bloglines list. If you have posted recently and I have not got to you yet then I apologise but I will get there.

I am enjoying being back and would have loved to leave more comments but one on each blog is what I have limited myself too, at least you will know that I am alive and kicking once more. The trouble is on many of the blogs you have been so busy and by the time I have caught up and gone to leave a message at the top I cannot remember all the charts, finishes and wips I have seen, the amount some of you can do in a couple of months is mind blowing - oh I wish I could stitch that fast.

I'm quite a slow stitcher I think but then I enjoy what I do and for me I think if I tried to speed up then the pleasure would go, so I shall just plod along in my own merry little way and come share with you when I get the chancel.

Firstly I would like to show you the card I made for my Mum for Mothers Day (14th March in the UK). I am quite proud of this as it was my very first dabble with Parchment Craft. I have always loved the delicate effect that parchment gives so when the chance came for me to have a play my resistance to starting anything new just crumbled away lol.

Next what this blog is supposed to be about and thats stitching. I got my secret stitching done and it will be in the post either today or tomorrow on its way to its next lodging place. I have also done some more work (or should I say blues) on The Quiltmaker, and actually it has not given me the blues on this occassion, maybe because I was just picking it up for a nice "needleful of thread run" between doing my secret one which was a lot of colour changes and fractional stitches. I am ashamed to say that the last time I worked on this was in August 2008. I have now also made another start of I Still Do and I think for the now I am going to stick to these two things, swapping them as and when I feel like it. The last time I worked on this was in May 2009. It has been over a year since either of these have seen the light of day and I would love to get them finished. Especially ISD as it was for our 40th anniversary last year and it would be nice to finish it before the next one appears.

I have got one new start to go into the mix soon, though I need to sort out fabric and threads first. I have had the chart for Victoria Sampler "Jingle Bells Xmas Tree Farm" for a long time and I am going to stitch this as a SAL with two other friends from the A Crafty Natter Group.

When I found my last post about Quiltmaker I had a quick read through and realised that it also described my first meeting with my friend Colly. I cannot explain why, I have lots of friends some dating back from my childhood, but though Colly and I have been friends for such a short time there is something very special about our relationship. We seem to have a deep understanding of each other and it does not matter if we are chattering 19 to the dozen or just sitting together silently stitching we are content in each others company. I feel that she is more like a sister than a friend and I miss her when I dont see her for a while. I wonder what it is that makes things like that, I feel like I have known her all my life and cannot imagine life without her in it, and yet there are people on the fringes of my life who seem to have so much in common with me and yet, though aquaintances of many years, I will never feel the need to call them friend. I am not sure if all that makes sense but maybe some of you will understand what I mean.

Thank you all so much for the welcome back to blogland, for the lovely comments you were kind enough to share on my Water Tiger and my Friends Sampler, and most of all for bearing with my ramblings. Bless you all,

May your frogs stay in their ponds.

Hello There

2010-03-09T16:57:00.015Z

I am back, or too be correct I have been back almost three weeks, and this is the first opportunity I have had to visit blog land. I always seem to be so busy these days. Now don't ask me why I am so busy, the only explanation I have is that since my dear hubby retired someone has shortened the days because I am sure I used to get far more done in a day than I do now. Maybe the old addage that "life is like a toilet roll, the closer to the end the faster it goes" is true as its certainly running away from me.

We had a lovely relaxing holiday and I came home with two Almost Finishes. My blackwork house was technically finished but I just felt that it needed some chimneys to finish it off, and its still waiting for them lol. An evenings work if that but it keeps getting pushed to one side. The other I have finished and will share with you some pictures.

This is "Come and Share" by Lorri Birmingham (with a couple of slight changes by me).

The first change was the colour of the writing which I changed to pink (it was blue). The next was the word Tea was changed to Coffee as I dont drink tea. I really enjoyed stitching this and am thrilled with the finish. I had intended finishing this as a bell put but now its done I think I would rather have it framed, so it will be a while yet.

I also wanted to share a picture of Water Tiger now he has come back from the framers, and I am happy to report that my brother was thrilled with him.
I am hoping to get on here a little more often now - though I am afraid life does seem to get in the way of all my good intentions so we shall see. I have also made a pledge to myself to try and start reading the blogs again. It feels like there are so many friends out there and I have lost touch with what is going on in their lifes, so I am going to try to make amends.

Thank you to everyone who comes to visit my little world you are all very welcome and I guess if you got this far I had something of interest to say or show, at least I hope that is the reason lol.

Look forward to keeping in touch, sending hugs to those that need them, and warm wishes to you all as I finish with my little saying below my signature,

May your frogs stay in their ponds.

Happy New Year

2010-01-11T09:36:00.005Z

... to all my readers and friends in the blogging world.

Christmas for us was a peaceful and quiet time spent with family or stitching and the New Year too was spent with family.

On the 7th January 2010, almost a year from when I started, I eventually put the last stitches in Water Tiger, and here is a picture I took - unwashed and unpressed.
He has since been washed and pressed and given to my brother who was thrilled with him. When I get back from my holiday I will get him framed and let you see him one more time. I was so relieved to get him done in time and though I love the finished picture I am really, really glad to say goodbye to this one.

What next, well I have sorted out a few of my WIPs to take with me to Goa (in India), The Blackwork House, Friends of the Forest, and Cup of Tea. I am also taking a new stitch but as this is for a gift and I am not sure if the recipient reads my blog I cannot tell you much about that one. I would certainly hope to get at least a couple of these old WIPs finished within the month I will be away for so hopefully there will be more finishes to share with you when I get back.

It has been so cold and slippery under foot here for the last weeks that I cannot wait to get away to the sunshine and feel warm again.

Sherry asked about my Gracious Era (which incidentally is my UFO piece in the stitching group I belong to) and asked if she could see a picture of what it would look like when it was finished - lol I would add if it ever gets finished as I have been working on this for about 5 years now.

Anyway just for you Sherry this is what it should be like

I will try and put up a picture of my latest update before we leave, either on Thursday night or Friday morning.

For all of those in need of a hug - I send you lots. I hope Karan is now recovering well from her Op and that the rest of you are all well and busy stitching. Now that Water Tiger is done I am hoping to have more time for once again reading and writing in Blog Land. I feel like my life has been on hold for the last few months as every second I had to spare was stitching on him. I am not the fastest stitcher in the world at the best of times and when panic sets in - lol well just be glad you were not in my house.

Bye for now,

May your frogs stay in their ponds.

Still Alive and Kicking..

2009-12-12T23:40:00.003Z

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.

2009-09-06T08:52:00.002Z

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....

2009-08-24T10:11:00.019Z

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

2009-07-23T23:27:00.009Z

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...

2009-07-12T11:14:00.002Z

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...

2009-07-03T08:06:00.012Z

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)

2009-06-23T07:27:00.011Z

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.

Hello Again

2009-06-12T23:43:00.002Z

Goodness me its been almost a month since I last wrote in my blog. Firstly my computer was dying on me - the internet was cutting out every couple of minutes making it very difficult to do anything at all - the cd/dvd drive had caved in and would not play anything - and then to top it all the poor wee thing got a bug and when the internet did connect I had adverts for porn sites popping up every other second. Now with a seven year old who stays a lot and likes to play on my computer that really became the last straw. My hubby teased me something wicked about what I might have been downloading whilst he was out but I hadnt honest. We could laugh but the risk of our darling grandson seeing and asking questions was, as I said before, the last straw and not a risk we were willing to take so it had to be sorted. As you can imagine with no cd drive to download the things I wanted to save this was a long task with my dearest doing just two or three files at a time onto his USB and transferring the things on to his computer. This finally completed he cleared the whole main drive thingy and reloaded all the correct software. In doing so he decided it was time to upgrade me to Vista which was a pain from the point of view that some of my programs were old and would not load into Vista. My photo editing program being on of the things. Oh eccles cakes, I had to go searching for something else but actually found there is some pretty good free stuff out there for editing so I have downloaded one of them and seem to be getting on reasonably well with it.

Unfortunately it was not only the computer that kept me away from blogging but lifes little dramas too. Mum was ill, then my dear aunt became very ill and I was taking Mum to the hospital everyday to see her. Sadly she lost her battle for life which has left us all feeling very empty.

On a far more cheerful note, with the computer out of action what little time I did have was spent stitching. Not a lot done for a months work, but progress I can see none-the-less.

So firstly an update on Water Tiger which has had the most of my limited attention

I am now almost half was down the 4th page and I have also done some more on page 5 as I have been working across to join up with the central bit, which was where I started this project.

I also have made quite good progress on EMS Rose Sampler despite the pesky frogs who seemed to delight in visiting every time I got this out recently.
Next week I am hoping to finish the dividing line across the left side and make a start on the next alphabet - the first half of which goes between the two dividing lines. Once that is done pages 7, 8 and 9 will be complete and I will only have three more pages to do. Joining the Crafty Natter UFO night has really helped with this project.

I also have one more card to show you. This is the one I have done for my sister-in-law but as she does not read my blog it is quite safe to show it to you.

I have been trying to keep up with blogs but with little success as I have only been able to read them at odd times in the day. I will keep trying to catch up but you are all so busy and have so much I want to see and read that it is a hard task lol.

I notice during the last few posts that I have had some new readers who have been kind enough to leave comments. However a few of you do not appear to have blogs so I have been unable to come visit you and thank you in person so I want to take this opportunity to both thank you and welcome you to my little world. I just love to get your comments and I really do appreciate them but I also appreciate all those people who just want to read. I know from my tracker how many people do just come for a quick read and I appreciate all your visits too. I just love looking at all the places round the world where my visitors come from. One day when I have the time I will write you a list of the many many countries that my visitors come from. Oooh wouldnt life be perfect if I could come visit you all.

Well its almost 1.30 am and my eyes are beginning to droop. Also my darling grandson is having a stopover this weekend so we will be expected to be up and about by 8am at the very latest so I am going to say goodnight and leave you for the comfort of my bed.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Hugs

May your frogs stay in their ponds.

A Little More Progress.

2009-05-22T19:25:00.006Z

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.

Progression

2009-05-14T16:04:00.006Z

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

Not A Lot Of Stitching - But Lots Of Pictures

2009-05-06T22:50:00.020Z

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.

A Garden Full of Flowers And A House Full of Frogs

2009-04-28T06:43:00.007Z

What a long title but it just about sums up this post.

First of all the garden where the bluebells and whitebells are the best they have been for a few years now. The lavender and wisteria are just coming into flower, and the forget-me-nots are as always running riot through everything. When Keith is at work I like to use his computer as it looks over my little garden. Yesterday despite it being a grey rainy morning everything looked so pretty and fresh so I could not resist taking a couple of pictures to share with you.

And now for the frogs. Oh my gosh where is my head this week. Although I have had very little time for stitching I was pleased that my secret project was going well. I was trying to make a covered tape for my daughter - just a little extra for her birthday which was on Sunday. Friday night I put the last stitch in, most of which was 1 over 1 on 32 count (I know that is big for some of you but with my eyes I can assure you that is really hard work). I started to whip stitch the top to the side and by the time I was half way round I knew I had a problem. Either the top was too small or the side too long as it was quite obvious that I was going to have side to spare by the time I got round the top. I got the tape out to check against it and OOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH the top was far too tiny to fit it (which meant the bottom was too). How did that happen I hear you ask - well doing things in a rush is the short reply. I have done these tapes several times now and because I like to play and design for the person to receive it I have a template for the border and for the top/bottom section on my computer in fact i have two sets one for 28 and one for 32 count and yes you guessed, in my haste I had run the template for top and bottom off at the 28 count size. Not all is lost as I still have the border but the top and bottom are binned and I will have to do them again - but not for a week or two I can assure you. Just to add to the fun I have worked two lots together as I was making one for a friends birthday too, so that means I actually have two lots of tops and bottoms to do again.

Saturday I had a wonderful day at the Crafty Natter meet-up in Derby, but when I finally sat down at night to do an hours stitching before bedtime I fell asleep in the chair, and as there was more talking and laughing done during the day than actual stitching I think I had about a total of 12 stitches for the day lol.

Sunday evening and the house free of children and dogs and all back to normal I wanted to get back to some sort of routine, therefore pulling out "I Still Do" was a real pleasure. I stitched the G and the little heart motif close to it and then went to start on the H - wait a minute something is wrong the H is not going to go where it should. Back to the map and I eventually realised that the orchid motif had been placed two low - thank goodness it was that one which I think is not too much work to restitch, but the rest of the evening was taken with the frog hopping up and down on the arm of my chair whilst I reverse stitched the orchid. One think that I was really worried about was with the thread being a dark red there would be some bleeding of the dye into the fabric and it would leave a mark but luckily this did not happen and after using sticky tape to clear the area of all the fluffy bits its hard to tell there was ever anything stitched there so tonight the orchid will be redone and I will carry on. Just crossing the fingers that the frogs are back in the pond.

It is now 8.30 so I must rush off and get dressed as its Mums shopping day and I have a good bit to do before I go out.

Hope everyone is well, I am doing my best to keep up with blogs but sadly I am again well behind so please forgive me, I will eventually catch up with myself and get my hectic life back on track.

Thank you to all who visit and leave comments. I have had a few new visitors recently but as they do not appear to have blogs of their own I would like to say a special welcome and thank you for the lovely comments to each of you.

Hugs

may your frogs stay in their ponds

More Than A Week

2009-04-15T17:10:00.005Z

Yes its been more than a week since I last spoke to you all on here, though I have been good and tried to keep up with blog reading and commenting.

Well what have I done, stitch wise not an awful lot. Last week I had my grandson for three days, on one of the days we went to Rufford Park and did an egg hunt, the eggs were mainly hidden in the trees high up and though some where easy to spot some were really difficult to see - and this is meant for children. Still we all had great fun and thats what matters. Thursday was wet so we headed to the museum in Derby. The highlight of the visit was making a Peregrin mask.

I have only had him for a couple of days this week yesterday we were hunting garden centres as I wanted some nice pot plants for the garden. Luckily Oz enjoys going to the garden centre and seems really interested in flowers and plants, maybe because its not something he does with his parents who both hate gardening and the sum total of green in their garden is some trees at the bottom and a square of lawn - the rest being hard landscaped.

I have managed a bit of stitching on Water Tiger but I thought I had better give a before and after picture to see if you could spot it lol.

BEFORE

and AFTER

I am pleased to say that I have done rather more on I Still Do

though the extra motif I added on the right hand side was such a pain - I had more frogs visiting during stitching that little thing than in all the rest put together. I was so fed up after I had finished it that I moved across to the other side and I am glad to say that went far better, two motifs and seven letters so I feel really pleased with this.

I would like to move onto the Village next but I have some things that really do need to be done and I have kept putting them off and putting them off until now I feel that I must make the effort so for the next week everything is going to be put aside whilst I get some bits out of the way.

Oz is back to school next week but we are having the dog for the week so I will still get no peace. My DS and DIL are having a lot of work done on the house and next week the plasterer is coming in for the week so we are keeping the dog out of the way, which means lots of walkies and not much stitching time - oh I am so going to cry lol.

Thanks to everyone not only for the comments on my stitching coming home but also on the good wishes for the fast recovery of my nasty cold. Thank you so much they must have worked as it seemed to go pretty quickly. It did leave me with a bit of a cough but even that seems to have abated today thank goodness.

may your frogs stay in their ponds

Welcome Home

2009-04-06T10:45:00.005Z

At long last I am happy to welcome home my Secret Garden. I actually finished this in May last year but i could not find a frame to fit so ended up taking it to be framed, and thereby hangs a tale. If you are not a regular reader and want to know the saga you will have to look in last months posts.

So - blast of trumpets - and here it is It was supposed to have had a double mount with a dusky pink peeping out about a 1/4 inch on the inside edge of the green. Than had not happened but I was not about to complain as I was just greatful to have it back at long last.

Not a very good picture I'm afraid which is in part due to the fact that it was difficult getting something without it being obscured by reflections or flash light and also by the fact that I do not have very good photographic skills. If you would like to see it as it was when I finished it then click here.

On Friday afternoon I had a lovely RAK suprise in the form of a little pillow ornament from Tammie (A Stitch In Time). I was quite amazed when I opened it and saw the tulips as they were almost identical ones to what I had in my room. Unfortunately mine have opened right out now so they do not look quite as alike as they did at the time but I wanted to take the picture in daylight so that you could see them together so it had to wait until this morning. Thank you so much Tammie and I can assure you it will be treasured. It always feels so special when you get something which has been handmade just for you.

My little bit of stitching - just for me this weekend has to remain a secret until the end of the month as I have done it as a special little gift for someone. All I can tell you is that I enjoyed stitching it so much that I will be doing it again next weekend but this time it will really be just for me..

Whilst chatting to a friend the other day she asked who had won the draw for the Flapper charts. Well unfortunately no one asked to be entered in my draw so there was no one to win them. I will have to have a think and maybe put something else up that people will like better for my next competition draw.

I have done no stitching at all this morning. I have no excuse other than I am full of cold and have a sore throat and really cannot be bothered. I am going to have another Beechams hot lemon and go back to bed shortly and then maybe later I will feel like it. I certainly hope to feel better by tomorrow as my darling little boy is coming to stay for three days and I am really looking forward to us doing things together. The forcast is not so good, I am thinking summer has been and gone now and rain is supposedly on the way again - which is really annoying when I had lots of plans for us to go to outdoor places over the easter hols. Oh well such is life, the best laid plans and all that bumph lol.

Thank you all for the lovely comments which I am sure by now you know really are appreciated.

Replying to some recent comments

Oh Julie I do wish that the sewing machine was conqured but I think I still need a lot of practice.

Colly - I think I have a way to go before I attempt quilting - though I admit the bag has whetted my appetite for trying more.

A few of you - asked about the "Spot of" seasons. Firstly they are all seperate designs (Spot of Spring, Spot of Summer, Spot of Autumn and Spot of Winter) from The Drawn Thread whose designs I just love. I just chose to stitch them as one long project and I intend doing a pinkeep type finish for them to hang on the wall in my bedroom. I also intend doing the pinkeep type finish for the Sheperds Bush, Be Attitudes which I am stitching. I love this finish and for our bedroom I think (I hope) they will somehow look softer than frames.

may your frogs stay in their ponds.

It's In The Bag..

2009-04-03T18:21:00.007Z

Oh I am so proud of myself. I am useless with a sewing machine normaly but under the guidance of my dear friend Colly just look what I have made -

My Stitching Bag

with contrasting inserts

and inside out so you can see the handy pockets

I actually took it with me shopping today and its amazing just how much it holds.

I have been stitching this week though not as much as normal and we are away down to Wellingborough to see friends this weekend so there will not be too much done then either but I will post updates on Monday. Will also post a pic of the lovely RAK I got in the post this morning so that is something for you to look forward to.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Hugs

may your frogs stay in their ponds.

Another Happy Dance

2009-03-30T10:35:00.003Z

Here are my Spot of - seasons which I finished last night. I have so enjoyed stitching this and now I just need to get the four little charms and then I can finish it off.

Having this weekend to stitch what I liked has been fun and so I have decided that I will do WT and ISD during the week and keep the weekends for "me" stitching. I have a few more things that are not far from being done and it would be nice to get them out of the way. This will also give me the chance to pull out things from my rota and even have a few new starts if I feel like it - though I will keep anything new to fairly small things.

Yesterday I went off to my hardanger day and Keith and Oz went off to the National Space Museum. We all enjoyed our day in different ways. Mine was as always great fun though to be honest I was not in a stitchy mood for some reason and I got very little achieved. Still the company was good and we had as always lots of fun and giggles.

Its very dull here today and I have been busy tidying up and dusting round after the weekend. I am now going to pull out WT and make a start. I hope I get on well with it this morning as this is the only day I will be home all day this week so its the only chance I will get to make an impression on it.

NOTE FOR KAREN AND JULIE
(karens place in webspace and julies stitchyknitter journal)

I have a couple of cottages going free in my village. They are next door to each other and every time I see them I think of you two living there. Have either of you any objections to living in my village - I do hope not but let me know.

Thank you once again for to all those who visit and for all the lovely comments which I so much enjoy reading and do appreciate so much.

may all your frogs stay in their ponds

The Flappers Are Dancing....

2009-03-28T16:02:00.002Z

...Or at least I am because my flapper girls are done at last. I decided to take a little respite from Water Tiger until after the weekend firstly so that I could get Jasmine done; and secondly because I have my grandson here for the weekend which mean any stitching I do needs for my concentration to be divided. Well she was such an easy stitch and I actually got her finished before I went to bed on thursday night (just with about 10 minutes to go until Friday morning).

So may I present Jasmin (with perfume) and Amber (with compact) -

Do you like them, would you like to win the charts for this thoroughly modern pair. If so please state "enter me for the draw" in your comment on this post and I will draw the name for the pair of charts next weekend.

Last night I did this - uh I can hear you saying and what is that meant to be! Well its my homework for the hardanger group this week. I do not like the colour I feel it is far too vibrant for my sort of hardanger, which is why I decided to use it on a small learning piece. Also I hate wrapped bars. I would far rather to woven bars they are so much easier and look so much neater, but alas we have been told it must be wrapped bars. I cannot remember the names of the stitches we are to learn but I will show you the results next time I post.

I will be back to WT on Monday but I am going to use what stitching time I get over the weekend to work on Winter Spot and see if I can have another HD before the month is out.

Hope everyone is having a lovely weekend doing whatever they enjoy doing. Till next time -

Hugs

may your frogs stay in there ponds

Kathy's New Home

2009-03-24T12:31:00.005Z

VILLAGE NEWS

I do hope Kathy (Kathys Sit & Stitch) will like her new home. She wanted it to be close to water - a stream was the best I could do, and she wanted a blue front door - well that was easy enough lol. I have also tried to add quite a few nice bright flowers as I know Kathy likes bright colours, but I have avoided pink (she is not a pink lady).

I had several applicants for the bank job (sounds like im into crime) but Angela was the first to apply and so her name is now on the bank. I have also recruited a School Mistress for our village school and Rach (a real life school marm from the Crafty Natter group I belong too) will be in charge of our local children - all very well behaved ones I can assure you.

The Hair and Hat shop is still up for auction but I am hoping my friend Beatrice (Stitching with a View) will agree to take that on as I do think of it as her shop.

Also there are still one or two cottages up for lease.

I am not sure which direction I am going in next. I guess I should return to the middle and finish this side before moving round the corner, but we will have to see - a bit of me wants to go round the corner lol.

GENERAL STITCHING

Well as you can see I have been stitching on The Village but this is not a kitted up project - just a choose the colours as I go along type thing. I have all my boxes of DMC at the side of me and pick and choose as I go but that is quite a distracting thing to do in the evening when I am watching tv and the lack of daylight also means I am not always sure about the colours. For this reason I have been working it in tandem with ISD which being all the same colour is easy and relaxing for the evening time. So here is the progress on ISD this week - two little hearts, an orchid motif, the round motif (under the R), two tall flowers and the flower and ribbon motif. I am really pleased with how this has gone.

I rather enjoyed having the two projects in tandem. One in my den for daytime and one by the sofa for evening stitching, so I am going to continue with that starting tomorrow. This time I will be doing Water Tiger in my den and something of my choice downstairs. The first thing of my choice I have chosen is Jasmine.

and this is where I left her in January. Eyeless and chinless but about half way through so hopefully by the time you see her again she will have lips and eye and chin and her earring finished. If I am really good and the sparkly thread does not give too many hassles then she may have a necklace too but we shall see. I do not like setting targets as if I do not reach them I get disappointed with myself and then start to lose the bug.

AWARDS

I have recently been given a couple of awards but you have not seen them in my blog. I do not want to hurt anyones feelings but whilst awards are meant to be fun and not to be taken seriously there are people who get hurt because someone they thought of as a friend has not passed an award to them. I find it very difficult to choose blogs to give awards too. I have over a hundred blogs in my reader and they are all for different reasons ones I enjoy, how can I choose who to pass these on too. I find I am skitting through looking for people who have not got one and trying to name them so that they do not feel left out. I blog for the same reason I stitch - because I enjoy it and not for any accolade. So please do not send me awards as I find it difficult to turn them down without risking hurting the person who chose me and I just cannot choose five from all the wonderful people who visit me and who I visit. I am sure I am not on my own here - lol maybe we could do with one of those little button things - you know the one that says "I am not obliged to blog" or something.

Thank you for taking the time to read my posts and thanks for all the very much appreciated comments.

may your frogs stay in their ponds

Tigger's First Ear

2009-03-12T07:27:00.003Z

Tigger now has all of the ear from page 1 which is now complete as I have decided that for the now at least I am not going to do the background. With that in mind, yesterday afternoon I frogged what I had done of the background, which I admit was not much lol. I really did not like the limey greens that were used and as the fabric is a shaded sagey green colour I think I maybe able to get away with out tackling this. Unfortunately on the picture you cannot really tell either the colour or the fact that the fabric is shaded. This is one of the fabrics I bought at the Harrogate show and I think it is probably a manufactured shading rather than a hand dyed but its lovely to work on. He is now going away for a few days whilst I work on The Village and then he will be out again.

No stitching today as Mum and I are off to the garden centre for some retail therapy of the garden variety - shrubs in my case. I am not sure what Mum is after, probably some plants for her pots and hanging baskets.

I am still trying to catch up with blogs from my holiday but please forgive me if I have failed to leave a comment. At the moment its just catching up with all you have been up to and once I am up to date be assured I will leave comments again.

Hugs

may your frogs stay in their ponds.

Quick Report On Investigations....

2009-03-10T23:24:00.002Z

I was a bit disappointed when we arrived at the address in Friargate to find that it was also a closed down shop. We then (mum and I) went off to the market hall to have a chat with some of the stall holders and one of them was able to give me an email address for the chap who ran the stall. When I got home I sent an email just saying that I was sorry to find they had closed and I wondered if it would be possible to get my stitching back.

Tonight I had a reply from him. He apologised for the delay, due to the close down of the shop things have got behind but he is now back trying to get everything framed at home. He asked me to confirm my telephone number and the best time to catch me in, as they had tried to ring me but had not reached anyone. I wrote back confirming my number and he wrote again saying that as soon as he had completed the framing he would contact me and arrange a mutually convenient time to deliver direct to me.

Tonight I am feeling much happier. Thanks to everyone for there supportive comments and helpful advice, you kept me going my friends.

may your frogs stay in their ponds

Happy Progress Report

2009-03-10T07:39:00.003Z

Just a quickie this morning but wanted to let you see my progress report on ISD. I was really pleased with what I achieved this time as the heart round the 40 was finished and two more motives added - the two bottom ones on the far left.

Its now back to Tigger but then I will be on to my village which I am looking forward too - it seems an age since I was building there.

I am off into Derby today to see if we can find anything either at the market or at the address the website was registered too, so wish me luck.

Thanks for all your lovely comments and support.

may your frogs stay in their ponds

Holiday, Gifts and Stitching

2009-03-06T09:03:00.008Z

But before any of that may I thank you for all the support and advice given regarding my missing stitching. I now have the address that the company was registered at and will try there at the beginning of next week. Of course they may have moved from there too but it is certainly worth a try and thanks to the two people who took the time and trouble to find that address for me. I will try with my own investigations first but if they do not work then I will certainly contact the local newspaper and as again advised the local radio station. Your support has made so much difference. I know this is not important in the scheme of things - its a piece of stitching and its not life and death, but none the less logic may tell me not to get upset about it but logic has nothing to do with how I feel inside.

HOLIDAY

We had a wonderful and relaxing holiday spending many hours sitting by the river watching these little fellowsisn't he beautiful. While Keith was happily occupied taking pictures of the birds (this was just one of the four varieties of Kingfishers we saw on a daily basis), I was busy stitching and I achieved quite a bit this holiday. The only downside to the holiday was that going two weeks later than normal it was so much hotter and the humidity was quite high on several days too. Next year we will definitely be going back to our earlier slot at the end of January or beginning of February. We also spent time catching up with friends that either live out there or that we meet in Goa each year so all in all we had a lovely time.

GIFTS

A few days before we went I recieved this lovely coaster from Mylene. It was a blog draw prize and I feel so honoured to have one of Mylenes beautiful pieces in my home and being used on a daily basis.

On arriving home I had two more gifts waiting for me. The first from Susan at Afford Your Passion was these two lovely Lavander & Lace charts which I had won in her blog draw.

I also got this beautiful chart of Winter Blues by Just Nan. This was from Concetta (an Italian Scots Stitching Journal). Concetta stitched this beautiful design a short time ago. Though I am a big JN fan I had never noticed this one before but fell in love with it when I saw it on Concetta's blog. I mentioned it would be going into my wish list and Concetta contacted me to ask if I would like it. Oh what a silly question - I would love it - and I do. So big hugs and thanks for that my friend.

STITCHING

I stitched these three projects from the Shepherds Bush, Be Attitudes Series whilst on holiday, they are Be Nice, Be Busy and Be Sweet. I still have Be Strong to Stitch and I am hoping that will be done soon so they can all be framed together.

Also while on holiday I stitched Spring, Summer and Autumn and made a start of Winter of the Drawn Thread Designs "Spot of" designs. I am stitching them as one big project so I will finish winter before showing a picture of that.

I have not had too much time for stitching since getting home - catching up with family, washing etc have all got in the way, but I did manage a bit more on Water Tiger.

He now has the start of an ear. Although it does not show very well on the picture this is stitched on a lovely fabric that is shades of sagey green. I made a small start on the background but its limey green shades and I really do not like them - I feel they should have been darker, more jungle like greens. I am now wondering whether to even bother with the background at all, so for the now I am just going to concentrate of Tigger himself and will make a decision about that later in the day.

Because Water Tiger is my biggest priority and due to all the confetti stitching I am finding it quite hard going I have decided that it will be my every other project for a while. I am now doing I Still Do and when I have had enough of that will go back to Tigger. So it will be

TIGGER

ISD

TIGGER

VILLAGE

TIGGER

MY CHOICE (*see below)

* I have a number of things that are close to finishing, Jasmine, Spot of Winter, tissue box cover etc. I also have a number of quite small projects I want to get done like the other Be Attitude, and I still have my blogoversary gift to stitch, so they will come into the My Choice section. Hopefully with this section I will get enough finishes to keep me motivated whilst ploughing on with the three big projects.

I think the other things that were in my rota have for now to officially be called UFO's but they have not been cast aside to be forgotton. Each and everyone is something I would like to finish but for now these things are more important, though I may even fish something out from the UFO collection to stitch on from time to time in the My Choice bit.

I am sorry this has been such a long, long post and do hope you have not found it boring.

Thank you for all the comments and especially to the new people who have left comments recently.

may your frogs stay in their ponds

I want to cry....

2009-03-05T16:51:00.001Z

... I feel so frustrated.

Just before I went on holiday I took my Loopylou Secret Garden in to be framed at Easy Frames in Derby. Today I went to collect it only to find the place had closed down. There was a phone number for people to contact them but unfortunately this seems to be out of use. I contacted Derby Trading Standards who told me I would need to contact the Council (as this was in the Eagle Centre Market which is run by the council) and get an address. Unfortunately the market is run under a blanket licence so they do not hold addresses for market stall holders. They did have a website address but I have just tried that and it is just saying the site is for sale and you can place a bid but not contact the seller.

I left a £20.00 desposit but thats not bothering me its just all that work which appears to be lost and I cannot see how I can contact these people to recover my work. I feel so upset by this and I am at a complete loss as to what else I can do. Sorry for the moan but at least I know the people on here will understand about the amount of work thats put into a project.

If anyone has any idea how I can proceed I would be grateful.

Where do you start?

2009-02-11T23:52:00.003Z

Normally if I am stitching a largish project that is solid stitching I would start at the top left hand corner and work across and down from there. For some unknown reason when I started the Water Tiger I started in the middle. Silly me it was OK at first but by the time I was about half way down the middle page I was bitting and bobbing from side to side and seemed to have no aim. I also began to wonder when the page was complete which page i would go to next (its a 9 page chart). I have never actually done a multi page chart starting from the middle before, and I wonder if others do work this way and where they proceed from the central page if they do. I do not think the problem would have been there had it just been one page. Anyway this afternoon I had a little stitching time and decided that I was going to try and work up and across to that top corner and then I would feel that there was some structure to the work. So here is what I have done so far. It still doesnt look like much though when I look at it against the chart I can tell what I have done.

The Gift Shop in my village has been taken over by Sally; and Lisa if you are reading this then please can you send an application form to Karan as she would like to work for you in the craft shop. I still have the flower shop, the hair and hat shop and we still need a bank clerk/post mistress or we will not be able to get any money for stash buying or send off our gifts and exchanges so this is a very important person for the village. I actually think Christine would be the ideal person for the flower shop as I know she is a dab hand at flower arranging.

Anyway my dear friends this will be the last post for a couple of weeks as we are off on our jolly holidays on Friday and tomorrow evening I will be busy packing. Take care all of you and I shall look forward to catching up on all the blogs when I get back. Thank you again for all your wonderful comments.

Hugs

May your frogs stay in their ponds.

Village Progress Feb 09

2009-02-08T19:07:00.004Z

Here is the latest progress picture on my Village. The landscapers have been completed for Ann's Garden, though there is still a little to finish on the far side of Terri's garden but that will not be done until the cottage on the other side of her is built.

Lisa will be taking over the care of the Craft Shop and plans to run classes and workshops there and Shiela will be taking over the Tea Room, with plans for many kinds of tea and home made scones - as I am not a tea drinker I do hope she will be serving coffee and hot chocolate too. Maybe she will have a little counter selling nice chocolates and sweeties too. Lisa the tea rooms are not quite next door but there is only the florist between you.

Building work has now been halted as I do not think there will be much time for building this week and the contractor has other tasks that need to be attended too. I did promise to show the plans but unfortunately blogger refuses to upload these so I am sorry about that and will try again another time.

Thank you for all your lovely comments on this project, I am so enjoying it. Angela thank you for the info on Beadle the Bard. Also thanks for the comments on my Interview and Lisa I will try to get my questions to you before I go off on holiday but if not I will do it when I get home so please do not think I have forgotton you.

Hugs to all my wonderful blogging friends out there.

may your frogs stay in their ponds

Interviewed by Kathy -

2009-02-07T20:19:00.002Z

Kathy was interviewed recently on her blog and she asked for people to volunteer to be interviewed by her. I have to reply to her 5 questions and then ask if anyone would be willing to be interviewed by me. If you would like to be interviewed then just leave a note in the comment section and I get to ask you 5 questions. Nothing too personal I promise.

Here are the questions that Kathy asked of me.

1. What is your favorite cross stitch piece and why?

Oh goodness that is hard. I am not sure I have a favourite, I really like most of the things I have stitched.

2. What was your very first cross stitch piece and where is it now?

My first ever was a little kit I bought whilst on holiday in Sussex. It was a Teddy Bear holding a goldfish bowl and as my daughter did lovely cross stitch I was going to ask her to stitch it for me so that I could give it to my (then future) dil's niece for her first birthday. On a wet night with my book finished I decided to have a go myself and came home from the holiday with it complete. I have no idea where it is now. The next piece I did was the DMC Mother and Baby and I still have that on my wall.

3. When did you learn to stitch and who taught you?

LOL self taught - see above.

4. Where is your favorite place to stitch and why?

Another hard one. If I am at home then its in my den as the light is so much better there than anywhere else in the house. Anywhere in the world and it would be Bella Vista where we stayed when we were on holiday in Chang Mai, Thailand. It was shaded by the trees but lovely and warm and so so peaceful, I got more stitching done that holiday than any other I think.

5. I can tell by your email address that you love being a grandmother - please describe why it is such a special relationship for you?

In short I can't. I just adore my little grandson more than I ever thought was possible. He is a lovely, well behaved and well mannered little boy of 6 years old and he wraps my heart up in knots. I think you have to be a Granny to understand lol.

Well Kathy I hope I have done well in my interview, your questions made me think and maybe I have not been able to reply very well to some of them but I have done my best.

I do hope someone will now ask me to interview them as it was good fun.

may your frogs stay in their ponds.

Ann's Cottage

2009-02-07T05:38:00.004Z

Here is my second cottage in the Village Of My Heart. Ann put her name down on this one quite early on but I still have quite a lot of properties free if any of my dear cyber friends would like to put there name down for one. I also have a bank/po, a florist, a hair dresser/hat shop, a tea shop, a craft shop and a gift shop that need owners if anyone is interested.

At the stitching meet up last weekend I managed to acquire a book called The Village which I was thrilled with as the church on the front was a much better size than the one I had (mine was more like a cathedral than a village church lol). When I got home and looked at the book more closely I found it contained three shops which were far prettier than the original ones I had, so they were replaced too and I added a couple more to make up what I wanted.

I am now working on the landscaping for Ann's cottage and will stick with that for the rest of the weekend and try to get that completed before my holiday.

Not much else to report on the stitching front. I have completed the main part of my tissue box cover and keep picking it up and doing a little more of the blanket stitch which has had to be altered slightly as I made an error when stitching the outer kloister block, still that will just make it "personalized" lol. Once the blanket stitch is completed it is just a matter of cutting and wrapping the bars then it will be done.

I will try and post after the weekend with both an update of the village and also a map of my village as I have now managed to do a printable plan - mainly so I can keep track of who lives where.

Have a lovely weekend everyone and thank you once again to all those who take the time to visit my little corner of Bloggers World.

may your frogs stay in their ponds

Just like the buses

2009-02-04T23:31:00.002Z

This is just a quickie but I had to share my news. Just like buses that always come in threes I have won another blog prize today. Can you belief it I have won the beautiful Lavander and Lace chart "Angel of The Sea" on Susans blog.

I have had another lovely day today with my dear friend Colly. I did more frogging than stitching (those pests must have crept out the pond while I was not looking), though to be honest I think my concentration was rather lacking as we were laughing so much.

I am not sure if Wendy or Polly read my blog but if they do they will understand completely when I say I was sat in the "naughty chair".

I have just popped up to my den to let you know my news whilst Keith watches the highlights of the Derby Forest Match, he is in seventh heaven as Derby won. Now I better get back and do some stitching and make up for all the stitching I did not get done at Collys. Thanks for a wonderful day Col and all the hugs you need dear friend.

may all your frogs stay in their ponds (and may mine go back to theirs).

Baby Its Cold Outside.

2009-02-03T00:09:00.005Z

We had snow today, nothing I know compared with what they get in some countries but for us it was major as I cannot remember the last time we had snow that settled here. Not a very good pictures but this couple were huddled up trying to shelter on top of the bird table.

First off I want to show you a finish - really it is a finish this time. Back in December I showed a picture of Off To Plough saying it was my last finish of the year. It was not until I published the picture that I realised I had not added the long stitching to it - silly me, so on Thursday I took it with me to Mums and added those missing bits.

On Friday we headed off down to Andover for me to attend the Crafty Natter get together on Saturday. While we were busy stitching my DH went off with some of the other hubbys to spend the day at a local steam railway so I think he enjoyed the day just as much as I did. The get together was great fun, there were only 9 of us there so we really got to know each other which was nice. I am not sure that a lot of stitching was achieved but we certainly had lots of laughs and good fun and we raised £22.50 for fabric for the Rainbow Childrens Hospice Quilts. We also raised £15.00 for the PTA of the school where our meeting was held.

Due to the weather forcast we wanted to set off for home early on the Sunday and so we managed to reach here for lunch time which gave me the perfect excuse to go and meet the ladies at the Hardanger group. Lots more fun and laughter there too, but then there always is with this group which is why i love going.

I had intended being very good and taking one of my WIPs with me to the meet up but at the last minute changed my mind. I had kitted up the "Be Attitudes" from Shepherds Bush, ready for my holidays so I took them with me and had fun stitching Be Calm. This should have fancy buttons but I am not sure yet what I want to add so will wait until I have them all finished. Which reminds me - Does anyone have a copy of Be Happy. I am told that this was a freeby but would love to add that to the others I am doing. I do not mind whether it is just a loan (I will take good care of it if this is the case) or if someone wants to do a swap with me for something.

Anyway here is my finished Be Calm - using colours from my stash rather than those called for.

All in all a super weekend and to top it off when I went onto the computer today it was to find that I had won, not one but two blog draws. First I have won a lovely coaster stitched by Mylene and then I have also won the draw for Chiloe's 2nd Blogoversary. I do not know yet what I will be getting from Chiloe so that is a suprise I have in store and I just love suprises. If you do not know these two blogs they are certainly both worth a visit.

Thank you to all the lovely people who visit my blogs and to the ones who comment. I am sure if you have a blog yourself you will know just how much a comment means. I know we all rush through and have a quick read and sometimes do not leave a comment (yes I have done this especially when trying to keep up with you all in this busy world) but remember if we never left a comment then no one would have the pleasure that such a small gesture gives.

Hugs to all

May your frogs stay in their ponds

Another Finish

2009-01-26T22:15:00.002Z

I finished Amelia's Birth Sampler on Sunday evening. Changes, well yes I did make a few. Although I stuck basically to the colours, I did choose my own choice of threads. The only one I changed completely was the ballarina at the bottom right hand side. She should have been in green but I am not fond of green for anything other than leaves and trees so I changed her to lavander. Also I could not be bothered messing about counting for the confetti spots so I just placed them as and where I thought. I also added some sparkle to the petticoats on the blue and lemon ballarinas.

The rest of Sunday evening and tonight I have been working on Water Tiger and although I have achieved quite a bit there is not enough of a difference to be bothered taking a picture of it. Tomorrow night I think I am going to go back to my village and finish the landscaping for house No 1 before starting on the next cottage. As none of these will be really suitable to take away at the weekend I also have to decide what I am going to take with me. I think it might be Jasmine as it would be nice to get a finish on at least one of my wips. I might also take the hardanger tissue box cover as thats also not got an awful lot left to do on it. Mainly the eyelets and the blanket stitch, then its cutting and weaving - no fancy work there just plain woven bars. Its the blanket stitch that will take the time on that one.

Mum is a lot better and I am hoping she will feel like a little trip out sometime this week, if only to do a little shopping.

Well its now just after 1am and I really must get to bed.

Thanks to those who visit and leave comments and thanks to those who just visit, I do hope you like what I do.

Hugs to you all,

may your frogs stay in their ponds

Have I Misled You....

2009-01-22T05:27:00.004Z

It certainly was not intentional but I have to set the record straight. Neither of the two new babies I am stitching for are related to me in anything other than friendship. Jamie is the son of my DD's best friend and Amelia is the Grand-daughter of my dear friend Lesley. I would love one of them to have been a new grandchild for me but that seems highly unlikely so I will just have to make the most of our darling Ozzie.

I did not stitch a birth sampler for Jamie (my usual baby gift) because I knew my daughter was doing one, hence the towel and bib set.

Amelias birth sampler is now over half done so I thought I would share a progress pic.

I am using just normal DMC threads for this though I have added a little twinkly thread to the petticoat of the girl in blue.

Nothing much to tell at the moment. My mum has been poorly and I have been at her house everyday, but she is now well on the mend so I am hoping that next week I will get a little time to get my house clean and tidy and get everything ready for going down to Andover at the weekend.

may all your frogs stay in their ponds.

Things To Share

2009-01-15T20:18:00.006Z

The first thing to share is my very first finish of the year. It is the gift I have done for baby Jamie.

Before Jamie arrived I had been working on I Still Do, and felt I really made good progress this time. I managed the small square motif, the no. 40 and made a good start on the heart motif that goes round the number.

After finishing Jamie's gift I made a start on The Water Tiger, this one just looks blob like at the moment though when I compare it with the picture I can see where it is going. Its very very confetti so I think its going to need a lot of going to get in done for January next year. It looks quite a lot on the picture but in actual fact it is less that half a page of a nine page chart.

Yesterday I had a lovely day with my friend Colly stitching, chatting and doing a lot of laughing. I had to choose something to take with me to stitch and of decisions, decisions. The Village was too big, I Still Do on 36 count was definitely out, Water Tiger with all its confetti needed too much concentration and though the stuff was all ready for the birth sampler for baby two she had still not put in an appearance. In the end I decided to take Jasmine. She had been started way back in July last year but I only had the top of her head done then. She isn't very big and is a nice simple stitch so ideal to do while chatting and I carried on yesterday evening and did a little more.

At 7.15 I got the long awaited message that baby Amelia had finally arrived at 6.15 pm and Mum and baby were fine. A later call from her Granny told me that she is a lovely dinky little 6lbs 10oz and her second name was to be Chloe so I am now working on the birth sampler for her and will carry on with that until its done and out of the way. I have not done enough of that to show a picture yet but its a very girly, girly type design.

Thanks to each and everyone of your for visiting and reading my blog. A big thanks to all who leave comments (yes even the cheeky ones lol), they all mean so much and though I enjoy composing my little posts it makes it so much more fun when I know that there are a few of you out there reading them. On the reading of blogs - I am slowly getting through and catching up but my time on the computer has had to be greatly curtailed for health reasons and so please bear with me.

Hugs to you all

may your frogs stay in their ponds

Bids Are Now Being Accepted

2009-01-05T11:58:00.002Z

As you can see the builders are now all gone on this plot. The landscapers have moved in and have I think made a promising start. There is a ball on the lawn area (the turf is still being laid), but this gives me the feeling that a doggy lover will be the right person for this plot. I must stress that this cottage is on the plot that is furthest from the Village Main Street so whoever bids for this will also need to like walking. There may at some point be a bus in the Village but at this point I have been unable to find a bus company to take this on so I would also say that the owner needs to enjoy a walk to the shop. Also there is as far as I know only one plot that has a garage so this village is not really for car owners. Colly I have reserved the plot with a garage for you and Kathy I have reserved the plot next to some water for you. All other plots are up for auction but please note there could be a year or two or three before plots are completed.

- o - o - o - o - o - o - o -

I am slowly catching up on the blog front (please be patient with me but I am trying to read and reply to a few each day). For the rest of today I will carry on with the landscaping at plot one but tomorrow I am going to get I still do out for an airing. I feel really positive at the moment that with only three major projects on the go I will see some real progress. I am amazed at how much of the village I have done in less than a week (though holidays have meant more stitching time than normal). This in part is I am sure due to the fact that I have really tried to keep away from the computer to a great extent, as I am sure that is the main reason for not getting much done this year. I come here for 5 minutes and the next thing I know is two hours have past. I am sure you will all know that feeling. I am amazed by how much stitching you have all done over the holiday period and the pictures of all your new stash make things very tempting - I have enough charts now - I have enough charts now - I have enough charts now. Do you think if I say it often enough I will really begin to belief it lol. But talking of tempting - just peep at this http://www.victoriasampler.com/Catalogue/VS_Samplers/p0100HeirloomStitching.aspx
isn't it beautiful, and I am sure you would agree that I am going to need that one or my life will really be incomplete.

On that note I will end for today and get some work done before lunch so that I may sit and stitch this afternoon.

Hugs

may your frogs stay in their ponds

The Village of My Heart

2009-01-03T20:17:00.007Z

My Neighbourhood has been started. I have the verse on two sides and the first cottage has walls, door and windows though no roof as yet.

The reason for the title is the verse that runs around the inner edge of the tablecloth.

I have so many special friends, but they live so far apart

So I've gathered them together in a Village of My Heart

They all live on a shady street in perfect harmony

And flit from porch to porch just like a robin or a bee.

I found this verse when I was searching the internet for cottages and fell in love with it.

Here are a couple of pics just showing the start, though since taking these I have started on the first cottage and it is about a third of the way to completion.

I have also started on The Water Tiger (pre New Year) but not done enough to show a pic yet.

The Christmas Day baby arrived in the early hours of this morning - a boy weighing a whopping 10lbs and as soon as I know what they are going to call him then I will stop stitching on The Village and stitch my gift for him. Once that is done I am going to spend some time on I Still Do before going back to the tiger and the village. Unless of course the other baby arrives and upsets my plans lol. The other thing I want to fit in between my major stitching is the Tissue Box cover which is well on the way to being finished but I do not feel any pressure with that one (maybe why it has been such a joy to stitch).

I am slowly trying to catch up with my blog reading though in some cases I think it will only be the latest one I read as there are some very prolific writers out there - gosh Rachael you have about 20 for me to read lol. Please forgive me if I am slow getting to you but I do always try to leave a comment. I love to read the comments left on my blog and feel that if I am in too much of a rush or cannot be bothered to leave a comment for others then it would be selfish of me to expect them to leave a comment for me. Having said that in recent weeks I have not been visiting at all and quite a number of you have still been kind enough to leave me comments so I thank you from the bottom of my heart for that.

Hugs

may your frogs stay in their ponds.

Friends and A Dance

2008-12-30T13:06:00.006Z

Do you like my new header? I received it earlier this month but was assured it was not a Christmas present and I was to open immediately - and when I did it was definitely a wow for me. It was made by my dear friend Ann but as I have made so many friends both through being here blogging and from the couple of chat rooms I belong too (Jaynes Attic Stitch and Stash and A Crafty Natter), I knew at once that I wanted it for my header. For me this is what blogging is all about - Friends.

Here is another stunning gift I received a couple of days ago and it was my prize for winning the Blogoversary draw on Dani's blog a while back. It is hanging on my living room wall at the moment, too nice to be hidden away on the tree. Dani chose this for me as I had admired it on her blog a while back. Isn't is beautiful and once again Thank You Dani.

Last but certainly not least in the Friends catagory is the picture of all the stitching stash I received at Christmas. The Fiskars Scissor Sharpeners and the Floss away bags were part of my present from my son and his wife but the rest are all from friends. I must make mention of the beautiful hand stitched items, needleroll from dear friend Terri, little box with hand stitched lid from our own Colly (Col's Creations) and new scissors with a lovely fob (that is a great match for the needleroll) from the lovely Rachael. I felt so very spoilt.

The dance of the title is for my happy dance as I finished "Off To Plough" yesterday. I will not be framing this one for a while as I have another two (First Post and On the Beat) to do and would also like to get a couple more of these too and I want to frame them all the same so they can hang as a group. I actually bought this as a kit but because I hate Aida and because the other two I had managed to get as "chart only" bargains I have not used anything from the kit. Its DMC threads which I have and I substituted the fabric for a 28 count DMC linen. I have enough to do them all but would not recommend this linen as I found it quite difficult to stitch on. It is far finer than any other linen I have used which meant that you could see through it and I found that this meant it was distracting to stitch on, though thankfully the holes are quite distinct which is a bit of a bonus on a Heritage Chart. I find that Heritage uses a lot of horizontal and verticle half stitches which while not difficult seem very time consuming but the results are really good. Where else on such a small chart would you get the movement that you can almost see in the horses and their leader. LOL just sitting here typing and I glanced at the picture and realised I have not added the long stitches lol. Still there are very few of them so for the now I will leave it. Oh well an almost HD. Also an almost HD though I do not think it will make it now is the Hardanger Tissue Box. I was feeling very content as I put the last stitch (or so I thought) in the body of the work - just the buttonhole stitching round the edge to do!!!! before I realised I had not done all the tiny algerian eyes. I have done three sets of them this afternoon but my eyes do not deal well with white on white so no stitching on this one tonight. So it will go away for a few days and come out to be my first finish for 2009 I hope. Tomorrow our little darling is coming to stay and spend the night so that he will be here when all the family arrive for dinner on New Years Day. This means that not much stitching will get done and also I really want to start on my Neighbourhood tomorrow, getting all the prep finished and maybe even making a start on the verse.

Oh I almost forgot that I was to tell you my plans for next years stitching. I am going to try to concentrate on I Still Do, Water Tiger and My Neighbourhood Village to start with. I know that with two new babies due (the Christmas Day one has decided its too cold to arrive yet) things may get a little side tracked. Also I will fit in some of my smaller and quicker projects I have been wanting to do for so long. I will continue working mainly with these three projects as and when I please up until my holidays (mid feb) and then will have a review again. I guess at the moment that means all my WIPs have become UFOs as there will certainly be a couple of months when they stay in their box in the dark - but I hope to draw these in a little at a time.

I have happily worked on a rota system for over 10 years and for me it worked - or it did until last year when for some reason I just felt as though I was getting nowhere fast and began to get rather despondant about the whole stitching thing. It was not doing the stitching but the projects themsleves that I was getting bogged down with. As soon as I started on something instead of relaxing and enjoying the stitching a niggly little worm in the back of my head was saying - get on with the next one this is taking too long - and so the thought came that it was time for a change. I am sure I will return to the rota but my problem is I like big projects and as I have now been working on at least one of them for 5 years it was getting out of hand. I could bring in a small project and complete it but instead of feeling the elation that once accompanied these HDs it was more a feeling of guilt for not getting on with the big projects - so as guilt and hobby are not two words I wish to put together - well time for a new approach and see how things go.

I want to take this opportunity for wishing you all a VERY HAPPY AND HEALTHY 2009

and to thank you once again for visiting and reading my blog. Also to the many of you who I have over the last few years come to call Friend, thank you from the bottom of my heart - you are all treasures.

may your frogs stay in their ponds

Some Bits To Show ....

2008-12-24T11:29:00.003Z

.. at long last.

The secret stitching got done. Well almost done, I gave up on the last one, it was for my daughter but I can stitch it for her birthday in April when I hopefully will have more time.

One thing I can show if the ornament I stitched for Mum as it is now hanging on her tree.

I cannot remember where the chart was from now but i am sure it was a freebie I ran off back in the summer. I know I replaced one of the little green trees with a charm and I loved stitching this as it was a mixture of stitches, 1 over 2, 1 over 1 and speciality stitches, a real easy and fun stitch. I never thought to take a pic of the back but it was a dark green fabric with light green trees and holly and little penquines on it.

Last weekend was Hardanger day and we started a Tissue Box Cover, its a really pretty design and I have enjoyed stitching on it though it has had to go away for a short while because I want to get another small design finished and out the way too. Here is how far I have got with it so far. I just love the fact that hardanger grows so quickly.

I have another WIP but it is so close to being finished I thought that I would leave it and show you when its done. Depending on the amount of time I have to stitch I am hoping it will be done in the next few days. Its only a very small design but if I tell you its a Heritage design then you will guess at just how much work its taken. Thankfully I am now past all the quarter stitches and elongated horizontal and vertical half stitches and all that is left is 1 over 2 in nice plain crosses.

Over the Christmas holidays I am hoping to a) get the Heritage finished, b) finish preping my neighbourhood so that I will be ready to Start on the 31st and c) get some more done on the tissue box. Though with two new babies due, one Christmas Day and one New Years Eve, I may have to put things aside for the stitching I have planned for them.

I have made my stitchy plans for the start of the year but I will tell you more about those in my next post. For now I just want to

WISH EACH AND EVERYONE OF YOU A WONDERFUL AND PEACEFUL CHRISTMAS WITH FAMILY AND FRIENDS.

FOR THOSE WHO DO NOT CELEBRATE THE BIRTH OF CHRIST I WOULD STILL LIKE TO WISH YOU AND YOUR FAMILY PEACE AND HAPPINESS WHEREVER YOU ARE.

and last but not least -

may your frogs stay in their ponds.

Just a Quickie

2008-12-09T23:06:00.006Z

I have been so so busy but thought I would just give a quick post to let you know that I am in the land of the living still.

I had a wonderful day yesterday when my friend Nicola came for a visit. We had a fun morning at my house and then went off to our friend Colly's for lunch. We ended up spending the rest of the day at Colly's laughing and joking and sharing stories. No stitching from any of us which considering the amount I still have to do before Christmas was naughty but nice (just like the cream cakes).

Tonight I have been to see my darling grandson in his school play and that was another non-stitchy but very enjoyable time.

As I have no stitching pictures I thought I would show you some flowers. Despite the frost and cold these are flowering outside my door and these pictures were taken yesterday.

Please accept my sincere apologies for not visiting blogs over the last few days. I know you are all beavering away at your stitching projects just like me and I will catch up as soon as I have my pressies finished.

Also thank you for visiting me and for taking the time as so many of you do to leave a little comment, it is really appreciated.

Hugs

may your frogs stay in their ponds

I'm Two Today...

2008-11-26T19:14:00.003Z

..... or at least my blog is and here is the Birthday Bunny just to brighten the page up because I still have no pictures to share. The Hat shook up all the names of those lovely people who commented on my last blog and drew out a name

guess who won?................

Why it was Debby from Stitch Wizard. I am so pleased it was Debbie as she has been going through the mill a little lately with her health and I hope this will cheer her up and give her a great big smile. I shall be a little apprahensive stitching something for Debby as she does lovely stitching herself. Please email me with your address Debby (my email link is in my sidebar).

I am still beavering away at both the stitching and the card making as and when I can, though I did have my card making things spread all round my den floor so I thought I had better put them all away this afternoon. I am hoping the electrician will not have to take floorboards up but in the event I did not want to be just stuffing it away quickly and not knowing where things were.

On the MM&IRR front then I think I now have everything as I want it. Of course there may still be a little tweeking, in fact I am sure there will, especially with the landscaping. I am rather sparse of little creatures and critters and would like to fit more of those in but its not important at the moment and they can be added when found. I do feel I need some people and pets, I want it to be a happy and close neighbourhood where all my friends will want to come and live. I have the fabric ready and my friend Col has a overlock machine and she has kindly said she will run that along the top and bottom (there are selvedge down the sides). I do think this is going to be a major project and you all know I am desperately in need of a new major project (about as much as I am in need of a hole in my head) but nevertheless I am really excited about it. I do have a worry, it is a very minor one but I really would like to use some hand dyed threads. I know anchor and dmc both do washable ones but what i need is something far more subtle than those. More shading rather than varigated for walls and roofs etc. Although it is going to be a table cloth it is going to be (if it ever gets completed) more of a decorative than a useful item, so it will only need light washing and i am wondering if i use something like Caron threads they are going to be less likely to run than the cheaper ones to be had. If anyone has any advice or experience regarding washing of hand dyed threads I really would appreciate it.

I am now going to crawl into my bed as I will need to be up early for the electrician tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed that my house does not end up like a bomb site.

Hugs to all who need them and thank you once again for visiting.

may your frogs stay in their ponds

It's That Time Of Year..

2008-11-22T14:35:00.002Z

When no one has much to show. I did to a little more of EMS Rose and I did start to do some knitting but suddenly I realised how near Christmas it was. Very few pressies, three stitched cards and that was about my limit so I have been busy stitching and card making in the little time I have had for these things.

I have not been too good recently, one dose of sinisitis after another and glands going up and down like yoyo's till in the end I could take no more and decided to make a doctors appointment. It's just a virus and we cannot treat a virus - I knew what to expect but I was beginning to worry in case it was not just a virus. The doctor could not have been nicer, my glands were at there very best on the day of the visit (I mean they were mega painful and very swollen). Doc admitted they were a mess and that both my throat and ears were very red and irritated looking - however she could find no sign of infection at all. She said there clearly was infection somewhere to cause the reddness, swelling and pain so decided as they may be an underlying cause of something entirely different she would give me a course of penicillian. Five days on and I feel so much better the swelling has gone, the sinusitis seems to have settled down and there is just a small amount of tenderness rather than pain in the gland area of my throat.

To top that on Tuesday I had a small op to remove a wart thing from my side. The op went well but the bleeding wouldn't stop so I came home well padded and had to go back the following day for another inspection and the dressing changed. I was told I must not wear a bra for a week until it had started to heel so I have felt a bit self consious about going anywhere this week. I should have been going to visit with my friend Colly on Wednesday but she cancelled as she was not feeling well and as I too had not been feeling well it was a relief really, even though I had been praying I would feel well as I always enjoy my days with Colly. As it turned out I would not have had much time with her anyway as I was between the doctor and the nurse for what seemed like most of the morning.

By Thursday luckily I was feeling both the benefits of the Penicillian and the bleeding had eased so we did not have to cancel the Harrogate show. I just chose a nice big baggy jumper and hoped no one would notice I had joined the "burn your bra brigade". I started off by driving but Shiona took over when it was getting a bit much for me. We had a lovely day. She saw a Dimensions kit which she fell in love with (Sandcastle Dreams) and as Mum had given me some money so I could get her something for Christmas I bought it for her - though I have told her Granny will have to send it away to Santa lol. We also got a couple of cheap kits each which we bought for the linen and the threads rather than the design, some fabric and some card making bits and bobs. I also bought myself a new pair of scissors to take to Mums as her so called needlework scissors get used for anything else that happens to need a pair of scissors. Oz cutting out, a broken nail, some string to tie a plant up - you name it and the same scissors do it all. Before taking them I will make a nice big fob to tie of them preferably with a warning about the consequences of using them for anything else (which could be murder lol).

Friday we had the Electrician come to put in a new Mother Board and he has found some problems which mean we are going to have to have the house partially rewired. Not cheap and can be a lot of mess (he has promised that he will try and keep this to a minumum but just what that means is anyones guess). This is just what we need before Christmas but at the end of the day we cannot put it off as it is potentially dangerous. At the end of the day our house is 40 years old and lots of sockets etc have been added since it was built. Even a big extension on the back which apparently has its electrics just running off the exsisting supply chain. I am just crossing everything that all the floorboards do not have to come up. Oh well such is life and as long as no one gets hurt we will cope.

I have my second blogoversary coming up on the 26th November. I would like to make a small gift for someone as a thankyou for visiting my blog and having the patients to read all my ramblings each time. Especially like now when there isnt even a pretty picture to look at.
If you leave me a comment on this blog I will draw a name out of The Hat on the 26th and will stitch a little something especially for you.

In the mean time I hope you are all having a wonderful stitchy weekend.

may your frogs stay in their ponds.

28 today

2008-11-12T21:20:00.003Z

Sure they were the numbers lol. Happy birthday Mum hope you had a wonderful day.

This is the card I made for her it was an adaptation of the Brooke Publishing freebie for Breast Cancer but as soon as I saw the one that Elisa had stitched I just knew that was what I wanted to do for Mum. I made a card and then cut a piece of cardboard the same size, covered it with light wadding, laced the stitching over it and stuck it to the front of the ready made card.

Its nice to have another finish so close to the last one, even if it was only tiny.

Chiloe is having a blog giveaway if anyone would like to take part then please give her a visit.

xx
May your frogs stay in their ponds

Tagged

2008-11-12T09:51:00.002Z

I have been tagged by Becca to write 6 things about myself. I am then supposed to tag 6 more people. Well I hate these things so all I will do is write the things about me and then say if you would like to tell us 6 things about yourself please feel free to do so.

1. I have more stash than I will ever be able to use but that doesnt stop me wanting more (sure you will all associate with that one lol)

2. I married a very dear friend and even though next year we will celebrate 40 years of marriage he is still my best friend.

3. I have always been known by my middle name.

4. My son was born on the shortest day of the year and my grandson was born on the longest day of the year.

5. I have always enjoyed designing my own bits and pieces and next year I hope to launch my own site with a few of the designs I have done.

6. I hate talking about personal things which is why I always have such a job with these things.

May your frogs stay in their ponds

Roses and Rambles

2008-11-10T23:42:00.004Z

Well I have had another HD but like so many people at this time of year I cannot share. Mind this one I will be able to share in a day or two but I have other things in the pipeline (or in the hoop may be a better description) which will remain secret for a couple of months. There will be so many pretty pics floating about after the fat man has been to visit.

My SS (secret stitching) is rather hard on the old eyes so it is being saved for the day light hours which seem to be few and far between. I know the shortest day is fast approaching - how can I forget it is my sons birthday and for me was one of the longest days of my life lol - but thats another story. The last few days here have just been so dark that we hardly seem to have seen any daylight at all some days. Mind I did spend most of the weekend in bed with the dreaded flu bug. More of a really severe cold and an attack of sinusitis combined mostly gone now though i still keep getting sneezing attacks. I think this is the third time that I have had these symptoms recently and I just seem to recover and its back again. Whilst I was working I was considered to be in a vulnerable situation and was given the flu jab each year. This year for the first time I have not had one and I am wondering if this it the cause. Maybe with having a jab each year I have failed to build up a natural immunity.

On the stitching that I can share I decided to make EMS Rose Sampler my priority for this week and here is a picture of my progress thus far. I am working across between sections 7, 8 and 9. I know it might be easier to do one page at a time but I am enjoying doing it this way so shall continue to do so. I would like to get this section finished before I put it away.

I have come to the sad conclusion that Heirloom Christmas is not going to be finished in time for this years celebrations. It is not that I could not get it done but I cannot see the point in rushing to finish it when I know it will not get framed in time. My framer usually asks that you allow about 6 weeks near Christmas as its always a busy time for him and therefore I think its better to leave it and finish it after Christmas having it all ready in good time for next year. Also I do feel that I need more practise with the ribbon roses and I do not have the time for playing about with that at the moment. Oh well I am sure it will be worth waiting for.

I need to get my SS done and then with those out of the way I have three smaller Christmas projects that I would love to do all of which I can either frame myself or do as large pinkeep finishes. I rather like these large pinkeep type finishes - can you tell LOL.

On the decorating front I am afraid we still do not have anything on the walls. My DH kept to his end of the bargain and the ceiling is painted, all the gloss work is done and all the doors have been done in Satinwood. We have the paper but unfortunately my other half only tackles the pasting when it comes to that part of the job. I am the one who actually sticks it on the walls and the only think I was capable of sticking at the weekend was myself under the covers, so we still have that to do and to make it even more fun we have Oz this weekend so I cannot see a lot getting done then.

Well my dearest is telling me that its after midnight and hes bought me a nice hot drink up to bed so I better shift my butt and go get ready to join him.

Thank you for all your lovely comment and for taking the time to visit and read my rambles.

Hugs to all those who need them

xx
May your frogs stay in their ponds

I Have A Happy, Happy, Happy, Dance.......

2008-11-05T23:17:00.003Z

Oh yes it's a happy dance for me and I am really happy with the results. I just finished it tonight and the picture has just been taken so its not in the best light by any means.

This is Cottage Dreams by Judy Dixon. Started on the 1st July and finished 5th November. I have not been stitching on this for 4 months, if you follow my blog you will know that I am (or was) a rotation stitcher. These days I am more of a flitter stitcher lol. There are a few small changes. I was not happy with the Pearsall Silk and changed that for a Caron Waterlillies and I also changed the Gloriana silk called for (Gloriana Green Gables a lovely thread but it did not show on my fabric) was changed for another Caron Waterlillies thread. I cannot remember the thread colours and they are downstairs so if you are interested let me know and I will look them up for you. The other changes were with the beads changing the cream beads called for to tiny pink pearls. I kept to the gold ones called for but drastically reduced the amount there was supposed to be. I like a little bling but felt that it would have been too OTT for me with all those beads. I want to finish this one in a large pinkeep for my bedroom which is awaiting redecoration so just for the now it will be tucked away and will be finished at a later date.

I have almost finished the first of my secret stitching - though i have a few other bits I would like to do if its possible, we will have to see. I have not decided what is coming out next. I want to spend the weekend on some of my secret bits and then I next week I will make a decision on what is to be next. I have my eye on a few things in my wip file so you will have to wait and see.

I do have one more update but I keep forgetting to take a picture of it. I bought Ink Circles, Blackwork Fantasy Garden back from Mums last week. The "knot garden" is now completed and it is just the blackwork flowers to do. I did try doing a bit of the blackwork at Mums but notice I have made a couple of very minor mistakes as I find it difficult to concentrate . Mum would be good and sit quitely while I stitched to allow me concentration time but to be fair I go to keep her company and asking her to be quite while I stitch is hardly doing that. Instead I have taken the Silhouette Sampler over. I am about half way done on this one anyway, its not big, and it doesnt take much concentration so think that is an ideal project. I do not really get much stitching time anyway sometimes half an hour, sometimes less than 5 minutes but its nice to just keep some there for when I do get the chance and Mum enjoys seeing things grow.

Right I am now off to bed but I did want to share my HD before I went.

Goodnight all and sweet dreams.

May your frogs stay in their ponds

Heart Warming

2008-11-01T18:04:00.002Z

Yesterday I had two lovely gifts in the post.

First my dear friend Karan from "Karan's Craft Corner" has just finished stitching this beautiful Heartwarmer Bell Pull. I was full of admiration for this piece from the minute I saw the first little snowman appear and Karan kindly forwarded the chart on to me when she finished. She said the chart was a nightmare to follow and I can well understand why having seen the chart. The three snowmen are on three seperare little charts and there there is a square chart with the 4 spacers in it. Apart from telling you there is 4 fabric threads between each chart there is no indication as to placing and each of the snowmen charts are slightly different sizes. Luckily I have a cross stitch program on my computer so i spent a couple of hours on my computer working out the placements and I am all set (AND ITCHING LOL) now to start on this project. Unfortunately I have a few other things that must come first - sob sob.

Secondly Jacqui from Smoking Needles, kindly sent me two 100g balls of lovely BabySoft double knitting wool for my charity knitting.

I have done a little stitching - just two corners on my Cottage Dreams, not enough for a picture yet unfortunately. I won't be stitching tonight either as we are - being completely mad - off to a Barn Dance in a tent. LOL my dear friend Jen (no blog) was 60 yesterday and she is having the dance in a marquee on her lawn, but it is freezing out this evening and pouring with rain. Yes I have my thermals and lots of layers ready to put on before we go.

We are up to our elbows in decorating at the moment but tomorrow Sky are showing the local Derby match between Derby and Nottingham Forest, my kids and grandson being Forest supporters and Keith being a Derby supporter they are all going to watch together over at Davids house so that means I will have about three hours of uninterupted stitching time. I am hoping I may get the first of my secret projects out of the way while I have peace.

I hope to be back with some stitchy pic updates in a day or two. In the meantime I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend and at least some of you are getting to stitch. LOL unfortunately this is the time of year when everyone is busy but no piccies for the blogs as there is so many secrets.

Thank you as always for all your lovely comments and a big welcome to the new visitors to my blog - I have had three new blogs to go check out this week, it's been great fun though I have seen even more things to tempt me.

Hugs

xx
May your frogs stay in their ponds

Seeing Red

2008-10-30T20:05:00.002Z

Five more small motifs on this side so I am really pleased with my progress. Having said that I am now seeing red red and more red and need a rest so I have put that away for a while and bought out Cottage Dreams. I chose the next one as I thought it would be nice to have a change from cross stitch but still wanted something fairly easy. Its lovely to really be enjoying my stitching again, and tomorrow I will also be able to get back to my secret stitching as Ozzie has now returned home. I love having him but when he is here then he occupies my time and stitching takes second place.

Not a lot else to tell you at the moment so I will not ramble on for the sake of it but say goodnight and have a lovely weekend one and all.

may your frogs stay in their ponds

A Blonde (or Senior) Moment

2008-10-29T23:01:00.002Z

Well that is my excuse for the completely idiotic mistake I made in my last post. Thank you Chiloe for pointing out the Staci's blog is Snippets and Stash and not as I said Stuff with Things which is actually Marita's blog. My only excuse being that I had just been reading Marita's blog before coming on line and it was obviously still on my mind.

Anyway I would like to apologise to both ladies for mixing them up and to thank Chiloe for so kindly pointing out my mistake.

xx

My Dying Win And Other Things.

2008-10-28T18:25:00.004Z

First to reply to a couple of comments on my last post - the little things I used for the concealed hangings are just normal paper fastners - yes the little things with a split pin at the back like your kids made cardboard clocks with.

The title - lol my dying win was just that. Recently Staci from Stuff With Things told us about dying threads and had a draw to win a couple of white and a couple of ecru threads to try dying threads ourself. I was lucky enough to be chosen and my threads arrived the other day, and here are the results. The top two I dyed with coffee and the bottom two i dyed with a tomatoe that was going soft in the fridge. I just squeezed the juice from the tomato on to the threads and left them to dry then gave them a good wash afterwards before drying and winding. I was thrilled with the results of both these dyes. The last one was an ecru thread I had spare and I was in the mood to play then but the results for this were far more subdued than I had expected. What did I use - beetroot juice. It was very vivid until I washed it when it virtually disappeared, it never does that if it lands on a tablecloth or down one of my tops. I put the beetroot juice on cold and was told afterwards i may have had better results if i had boiled it first so might try that when i open my next sleeve of fresh beetroot. After all the results are barely noticable now so I might as well try a redye at some time.

Lastly because the secret stitching I am doing is on 32 count opalescent (and it seems smaller than that) I cannot stitch it at night so I got out I Still Do a couple of nights back and I am pleased to have now finished the corner motif I had been working on. I am enjoying this so with my "Little of What You Fancy" theme for the moment I am going to stick at it.

Thank you all for taking the time to visit me and for leaving comments when you can.

may your frogs stay in their ponds

This & That...

2008-10-21T17:46:00.004Z

Sunday Night I had intended starting one of my small secret stitches but unfortunately the chart was small too and my tired old eyes need it big so I had to wait until hubby could get it enlarged for me. Instead I decided to finish the bottom on Heirloom Christmas, but by the end of the evening I hated what I had done, it looked to my mind untidy and overly fussy. Whether I was fussing on this when I went to bed I dont know but I just could not settle so ended up getting back out of bed and frogging what I had spent the evening stitching. I then decided that as I am a plain simple girl and thats the way I like things to just do the bottom section with plain woven bars, I was so much more content with the results. As that was the last of the main stitching I had been going to move back to the top and start adding the embellishments but unfortunately Monday morning I ended up feeling like something that had been kicked by a donkey. Yes having been up stitching all night I was tired but it was more than that. Every bone ached, my throat was swollen and sore and I ended up spending most of the day asleep. You would think after that then I would be awake all night again but no I slept for England and didn't wake until just after 9 this morning.

My throat has certainly gone down though its still a little sore and i definitely do not ache like I did. I was not really in a stitchy mood though so I have had a fun day, making cards (which I cannot show) and finishing off both winter whites (above) and the Friendship sampler Ann made me a while back. I did them both with the large pinkeep type finish which I must admit I am rather fond of.

I am rather pleased with this one. I tried to show you how I do the back for hanging but its not shown up very well. Maybe if you click it you will see better. I like this concealed way of hanging them.

Well hubby got my chart sorted out for me so I am going to sort the threads out and make a start on that tonight. Once that and another little item are stitched then I will definitely be back to Heirloom Christmas, I can't wait to start on embellishing it now, though what the ribbon roses will turn out like is anyones guess despite doing lots of practice ones.

Thank you for all the lovely comments on Winter Whites and I am glad the instructions for the pin head start were helpful. I struggled with this a little at the start but once you get into it then its just so easy, saves on thread and helps the back of your work look neater too.

may your frogs stay in their ponds

HAPPY SUNDAY

2008-10-19T15:10:00.002Z

You all know what its like, you appear to be almost done but those last few stitches take days, there is always more than you anticipate. So when I sat down this afternoon to do a bit of stitching I did not expect to finish today but here it is done. The last few stitches went in just before four o'clock so I am feeling well pleased with myself. I even remembered to put my initials on it. The only down side is that although its quite warm today its very overcast which does not make for wonderful photography. Apart from the fact I used my own colour scheme and I added some little reddish pinky beads at the bottom for the berries this one is stitched just as the designer intended.

I have really enjoyed stitching this and I liked the fabric I was stitching on. Hopefully there is enough left to stitch CCN Forest Snowfall too as it would be nice to do them both on the same fabric. A couple of people asked about the fabric but I cannot tell what sort it is. I bought it at the Harrogate show last year from the fabric stall there (the one where you buy so many pieces for £10.00 or something) and I know if the same stall is there this year I will be getting more.

I have a couple of small but secret bits I want to do next and then we will see. At the moment I have my eye on doing some more to Heirloom Christmas but I am not going to tie myself down to anything.

Thank you for all the lovely comments you have left, you have all been so encouraging, and I do so appreciate you taking the time not only to read my ramblings but to leave a comment.

xx
may your frogs stay in their ponds

Pictures of Egypt

2008-10-18T20:46:00.003Z

For those of you have been patiently waiting for my pictures of Egypt, a small selection of them can now be found here. There are only numbers under the photos but if you play them as a slide show or double click on each photo you will see that most have there destination written on them. Hope you enjoy.

LHN is still progressing nicely. We have had friends over to dinner tonight and have been in the garden most of the day, so not much stitching has taken place but the alphabet is now finished so I feel that I am on the homeward trail with this one, and feel sure I will stick with it to the end now. It would make a lovely weekend if I could get it done tomorrow but we will see, I do not want to rush the last bit and end up with having the frogs jumping out the pond in great big leaps.

The new header picture was taken about 5.30 on our last morning. We opened the curtains in our cabin and this was the view that met us. It was so lovely watching the balloons rising up to meet our final Egyptian sunrise.

Fingers crossed that there might be a stitching picture to share with you either tomorrow or Monday. Thank you once again for all your lovely comments and I hope you are all having a wonderful weeking.

xx
may your frogs stay in their ponds

Are You Bored?

2008-10-17T12:14:00.002Z

I do hope not because I am still enjoying stitching on this little design. This picture turned out better than the last as you can see the individual snowflakes this time though the colour of the fabric was probably more true on the last photo. I have not forgotten the snow on the tree by the way I just fancied having a go at stitching the letters which I have not done in plain white but in Dinky Dyes Mother of Pearl silk. Angela asked "I've never worked out how if they are in the middle of an otherwise unstitched part of the fabric how you stop them coming undone without creating knots." I do not find this a problem but then I usually start with a pin head stitch then make my cross and put two tiny stitches in the back and cut the thread. I have never had any problems with doing individual stitches this way. Also once you get the hang of using a pin head stitch, which is incidentally a very strong starting stitch, it is so much quicker and easier and far less wasteful than starting with a waste knot and though I sometimes use a loop start to begin this is not possible when using varigated and hand dyed threads. When I first started doing this I left a little "tail" which was cut off afterwards, but now i just pull the thread to almost the end so there is nothing there to cut off later.

Well Keith is home, he finishes at lunch time on a Friday, so I am off to have a chat and a coffee with him whilst we decide what the afternoon plan is.

may your frogs stay in their ponds

Winter Whites update.

2008-10-14T16:57:00.004Z

I have now completed the top section of Winter Whites and as I am still enjoying it I am going to stick with this for the time being. The hardest bit is not even visible as it was all the little individual stitches needed for the snowflakes but they are all finished now thank goodness.

Thats all for now - though I would like to thank everyone for the lovely comments and to say to both Nicola and Lynn if you are reading this - say hello LOL - that will be enough honest.

Hugs to you all

xx
may your frogs stay in their ponds

Great Day & Lots of Goodies

2008-10-12T14:40:00.009Z

Yesterday was the Derby meet up of the Crafty Natter group. I really looked forward to this as I had never been to a meet up before and I was not disappointed. It was great fun and I met lots of nice people that I hope to meet again soon. Lots and lots of laughter and fun, two pieces of Tammy's chocolate fudge cake (extra yummy I can assure you) and lots and lots of goodies.

I was very good and only spent £15 but I think you will agree I got good value.

I also did 2 swaps and got these two lovely charts

There was a lovely little chart for each and everyone of us from Colly as a memento of the day.

And last but certainly not least was a wonderful Goody Bag from Hayley.

Missing from the picture of my lovely goodies was a big tube of Maltesers. These just happen to be hubbies favourites so as soon as he saw them they were lost - though I know he will share them - LOL more than his life is worth not too.

On the stitching front I have not got a lot done but I have made some progress on LHN Winter Whites and as I am enjoying this at the moment I am going to stick with it.

I hope everyone else has enjoyed their weekend as much as I have.

may your frogs stay in their ponds

A Little of What You Fancy Does You Good.

2008-10-08T22:46:00.003Z

I picked up Gigi the other morning only to realise that the whole of the left side needs to be frogged before I can start again. Why I did not see this before I do not know. Anyway I threw it on one side in utter disgust and then just could not seem to settle to stitch so ended up on the computer doing some more to the design for my Neighbourhood.

At the moment stitching time is very limited and with three SALs and UFO day that only leaves 3 days for the rota the result of which is i am trying to work on too many things in too little time and getting nowhere which is leaving me feeling really frustrated. So I have decided to follow the old phrase of "A little of what you fancy" and just stitch on whatever takes my mood at the time. Apart from my own designs which I am trying to complete and photograph for the website my son is designing for me I will not make any new starts but will probably work with the smaller things in my rota or those that have not too much to be done on them and try and get some finishes. I think that the fact it has been so long since I had a finish is not helping either as it all adds to that getting nowhere feeling.

Having said no new starts there will be one very small one at the weekend as I am going to the Crafty Natter meet up in Derby and Colly of Cols Creations is going to be doing the prettiest little tin topper as a class, so I just have to take part.

Hope to have some pictures for you soon.

xx
May your frogs stay in your ponds.

A Little of What You Fancy Does You Good.

2008-10-08T22:46:00.000Z

Sun & Stitches

2008-10-05T17:29:00.003Z

It seems such a long time ago since I came here to write my blog. We had the most wonderful holiday in Egypt - the hottest holiday I have ever experienced. Although we have been to Egypt a couple of times before it has been to the Red Sea area and the heat down by the Nile was so much more intensive which was lovely in the shade but a bit too powerful when you were out looking at temples etc. I have changed my header picture so you can see the two largest of the Pyramids which were fantastic. Keith went down inside one of the Pyramids but I chickened out of that experience as I know it would be much to claustrophobic to me. We had two very hectic days in Cairo before flying down to Luxor to join our cruise. Lots and lots to see but my favourite had to be the temple at Philae Island. We are still sorting out photographs but once they are sorted I will put some in my webshots album for anyone who would like to see them. I know Karan will be looking forward to that bit and one or two others have said they would like to look but they will be tucked out the way so I will not bore anyone who is not interested.

I did some stitching whilst on holiday and got approximately half of my Shadows sampler done.

I also made a start on LHN Winter Whites but I have not really made enough progress on that to show any picture yet.

Unfortunately since getting home I have hardly had the chance to touch a needle.

Thursday I had a lovely day at my Mums as my cousin from Ontario, Canada was visiting his parents and he came to spend the afternoon with us. Its four years since I last saw him and its lovely to catch up in person.

We have had Oscar for the weekend and I have still not finished all my holiday washing, but hopefully sometime next week I am going to be back stitching with great vigour. My "mojo" is jumping up and down with excitement but I just need to find some ME time, either that or go on holiday again - now there's a good idea though I think I have something like 18 or 19 weeks for that pleasure to arrive again.

This morning i went to the Fabric Guild in Leicester - ooh I spent far too much LOL and this afternoon we popped into Derby where I got a lovely book called Countryside Views in Cross Stitch from The Works. It has a lovely little row of cottages which will be just perfect for my Neighbourhood. I had finished designing it but I have one bit I am not happy with and this little group of cottages will replace that bit nicely. Once I have sorted that out I will just need to order my fabric and grid it up and I will be all ready for the New Year start. I am going to use mainly DMC threads though I would quite like to use some varied threads for certain parts but I will have to see how that works out. As I intend doing my neighbourhood on a small tablecloth then whatever I use is going to need to be washable which rather rules out the hand dyed ones which is a shame.

I think next week if I can get some stitching time I really must use it playing catch up with my two monthly SALs as I am so far behind with them at the moment and with the neighbourhood looming for next year I would like to be finishing them on time.

I hope you have all done lots of stitching while I have been away and I am looking forward to catching up with all those blogs during the next week to two.

xx
May your frogs stay in their ponds

GO WISH JANE HAPPY BIRTHDAY

2008-09-14T18:14:00.006Z

Would you like to win all this wonderful selection of finishing fabrics. All you have to do is visit Jane at
and wish her a happy birthday before 8 am on the big day which is the 16th. What a lovely way to celebrate and I think she deserves a lovely birthday.

May your frogs stay in their ponds

Hurray

2008-09-12T16:47:00.002Z

For the first time in I don't know how long I actually feel as though I have made some progress on Gracious Era. I have only had a couple of days to work on this but I think because I can see some structure in the fact that you can start to see the outline of the buildings it feels like I have achieved something. Of course like most of these things it always looks better when you see it as a photo, or from a distance as nothing looks as sharp when its right under your nose. Anyway I am happy with it and I cannot remember the last time I felt happy with this one.

The rota is now going away until after my holidays. I will have very little time for stitching this week. I have quite a few engagements with friends and my aunt has come down from Scotland so I will be off to take her and mum out on a two or three days. Also everything to sort out for packing etc. What time I do have I am going to spend on doing some catching up. I have not done the July/August Papillon Sal yet and the next part is due this week. Also I am still on the July section of EMS Rose. There are a couple of other bits and bobs too that I really want to get finished and then if I have time (not sure if I should laugh, cry or just choke on that comment) there is UFO and ISD both well behind schedule.

I had sorted out my holiday stitching but now I am beginning to wonder if I maybe should take some of the things I need to catch up on rather than starting something new. Well logic tells me I should but then one of the things I love about holiday stitching is its always something new that I have been wanting to start for ages. Oh decisions, decisions, decisions why does life have to be so complicated lol.

I had a panic this morning when I heard that XL the firm that had gone bust was a Yorkshire based holiday company. I knew the company we had booked our holiday with was based in Skipton in Yorkshire, but it seems for the time being at least we are OK. It is so sad for those who have been looking forward to their holidays and then its snatched away from them. There is some good new though as if you paid with your Credit Card or booked with an ATOL protected agent you will not lose your money. Cannot compensate for the disappointment though can they.

Before I go there is something I need to ask - do you have a stitching blog and if so is your blog registered with Teejay at The Passion Of My Needle. She is trying to register every stitching blog in one place so that if we are looking for one in particular we will be able to go there to search for it. Please go look.

Thank you once again for all your lovely comments and for taking the time to visit me it is so much appreciated.

May your frogs stay in their ponds

Can you help please?

2008-09-11T06:52:00.004Z

My friend’s husband is taking part in JailBreak 09 to raise funds for Endometriosis UK. She has produced a very special Hardanger Chart to sell off to help with his total, which to date is £84!! The price per chart is just a £2 donation (via the link below). 100% of the donation goes directly to the charity - more if you Gift Aid it!! Please leave your name and a little message saying you would like the chart – the boys will be notified of your email address and your chart will be sent on so for safety sake DO NOT WRITE IN YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS . I hope you like her design, and will help to raise money in the process!!!

http://www.justgiving.com/darrenandmark

may your frogs stay in their ponds

Under Construction...

2008-09-08T21:39:00.004Z

The fault for this lying firmly at Vonna's feet. I blame her completely I have to say. In my own defence I will admit that I have often looked at and even admired all the Neighbourhood Round Robins. I have never, not once, not even for a second thought "I ought to do one of those". Then Vonna mentioned on her blog something about the Me, Myself and I idea and of course being inquisitive (some might say nosey but i will stick to inquisitive), I just had to go and peep. I admit it was an interesting idea but not for me. I came away from the computer untouched - but a little seed had been planted while I was there and it started to niggle and grow. That night as I lay in bed I started thinking about what I would do if I had been going to join, but it was only in theory I was definitely not thinking of joining. I think it took two days to cave in and I did it I signed on the dotted line. We drew up a contract and I agreed that I would endeavour to construct a very nice neighbourhood where the friends of my heart could reside.

I freely admit that where housework is concerned maybe no-one will notice any difference but where stitching is concerned they certainly would. I stared on Blackwork house last week and continued with it through the weekend (mainly because it was out and I could not be bothered to look out anything else). In all that time I achieved the little bit of roof on the right hand side and almost half a column again on the right. Its dreadful I know. Today was ISD and I dare not even take a picture of that as I think I have done all of 10 stitches.

The trouble is when I start to stitch it leaves my mind free to wander and I then have to put the stitching down so I come on here to get my ideas in order and do some more designing. I cannot afford to buy the charts I would really like (unfortunately sold as kits for about £24 each) but I have found a number of magazine charts of cottages I like and with the help of EasyCross I have managed to change each of the cottages I have done so far enough to use them at least twice and without it looking like the same thing. I am having such a great time and so enjoying the fun of making my neighbourhood come to life. How I will be when this actually goes from the planning department to the building department I am not sure but I can only hope that the building of my Neighbourhood is as much fun as the designing and just in case you are wondering the name of my village is Stitchery Nook ;o)

This week I have had two lovely suprises. The other day an envelope dropped through my door from my dear friend Sally (stitchyangel treasures). A while ago she stitched the lovely Dinky Dyes satin stitch Christmas Tree which I admired and she sent me the chart saying that she would send the other part of the chart when she had stitched the little tree ornament. Anyway she decided that she would not stitch the tree ornament so sent the chart and the threads to me as a suprise. It came at just the moment I needed something to put a smile back on my face so bless you Sally and thank you.

I also got this lovely Glendon Place chart from Tracey (The Passion Of My Needle) just as a thankyou for leaving nice comments on her blog. What a lovely thing to do but I really needed no thanks. If you have every visited Traceys blog you will know she does some beautiful and varied work and she works so quickly too. Although you cannot see on the picture the words on the centre of this chart are "Fill Your Years With Life, Not Your Life With Years" such a beautiful sentiment and one that clearly reflects my own theory.

I have also had two other lovely gifts this week and though not suprises none the less the kindness of the givers is wonderful. First Kathy (Sit and Stitch blog) sent me a lovely dragonfly chart. She had said on her blog that she would give it to someone who wanted it and as it was so pretty I asked and got - lucky me. Also Tammy (no blog) from the Crafty Natter board put up some charts that she no longer wanted and asked if anyone was interested. I said I would like a little Seraphine birth sampler with elephants if it was available and she took it with her on a visit to a mutual friend so I collected that this morning. I love elephants and these are just so cute I think I am going to make a little sampler of them.

On Saturday my dh and I celebrated out 39th wedding anniversary - I feel sure there is a mistake in the figures somewhere as I certainly do not feel old enough to have been married for 39 year lol. Anyway in the afternoon we went to meet Nicola (Tales from My Needle) and her hubby and had a lovely afternoon together, with drinks and cakes of course as Nicola is an expert on good Tea Shops lol. I find it hard to believe that I have gone all these years without knowing any stitchers close to me and suddenly I seem to be meeting lots and so far they have all been lovely. I feel so priviledged to belong to such a generous and kind community.

Well I am sure you have had enough of my ramblings so I will go and make the bedtime drink and then away to get my beauty sleep lol.

Thank you for reading this and for all those who leave such lovely comments in my blog. Can I just ask that if you are new or have not left a comment before that you do so. It can just say hello im...... but if you leave a comment it means I get to come back and visit you. I have found some lovely people just because they left a comment on my blog.

Goodnight all

may your frogs stay in their ponds.

Come & Share

2008-09-03T14:07:00.002Z

I managed to get the cottage picture done this time and I am so glad as I cannot say I enjoyed that bit of it. That done it is now going away until next time when hopefully I will enjoy this stitching a bit more.

Next in the rota is Blackwork house so I am going to do a couple of days on that.

Saturday I would like to play some catch up with either Gigi or EMS Roses both of which will soon be lagging well behind but as it is both our wedding anniversary and the day we go to meet Nicola and hubby so I am not sure anything will get done at all. Never mind I do at least feel as though some progress is beginning to be made and I am back on track.

I must tell you I am really excited about a new impending start - well not until the new year but I am having really good fun at the planning stage. I have joined the "Me, Myself and I" blog. It is a sort of square robin - similar to a round robin but it doesn't go round LOL. I know I am not making myself very clear - but basically if you have seen the neighbourhood RR's and would love to do one but do not want the commitment then this is for you. We are each going to design our own neighbourhood and then after the 31st December (the only rule as far as I can see is that you are not allowed to start actually stitching before this date) we will start. We will work on our own Neighbourhoods and at our own pace - no set day - no set time - no set anything but we will have the fun of taking part with others as if it was a real RR. If anyone has any charts with houses or cottages on that they no longer want then they will receive a very big welcome at my house. So far I have the LHN ones - Home of a Needleworker, The Counting House and Over the River and through the woods. I have an Elizabeth Designs called Garden of My Heart and I have ordered another one called My Country House. On top of that I downloaded a load of freebies from a french blog but the trouble so far it they are all different sizes and getting a dozen or so houses that are all a similar size looks to be impossible. Sure it wont be but just at the moment it feels that way. I shall start trowling through all my mags shortly.

Hope everyone is busy stitching and that you are all keeping well.

Thank you for once again visiting me.

May your frogs stay in their pond

An Hello, A Goodbye and I Still Do...

2008-09-01T22:59:00.008Z

First the picture that would not load last night, K for the Kalanchoe flower. Sorry Julie I did not take the ivy leaves and anyway one looks much like another lol.
We got our holiday confirmation but I think I was having a senior moment when I mentioned it last night. I said the date was the 21st July - errrrr where did that come from - silly me it is the 21st September; yes just under three weeks to go. We are off to get some much needed sunshine sailing down the Nile. I would say some culture too but maybe you need a brain for that bit and mine seems to have gone on its own holiday just lately.

I did stick to my plan and worked on I Still Do today. I have got another year (on Saturday) to get it done but I will have to do more than I have managed to day if I am to be finished in time. I did spend quite a bit of time on it and only frogged a couple of stitches but the end result is not very impressive. I achieved what you see of the top right side motif. I enjoyed stitching this but just feel it doesnt look much for the time I put in - oh well such is life.

Back to Come & Share tomorrow. Sorry Rachael, Andy won't let you come to my house again if you start buying all the charts you liked lol. Oh never mind just blame me I have broad shoulders.

Today my family all arrived back from France where they had enjoyed a lovely holiday and I admit it was lovely to see them again, especially my darling grandson who seems to have shot up - can a child possibly grow that much in three weeks?

Their arrival home also meant the departure of Jules from our lives. She was so thrilled and excited when they arrived at our house but when it came to them going home she was rather reluctant to leave - oops have we been spoiling her too much. I must admit the house has seemed very empty tonight without her as she always seems to pick the most inconvenient place to settle down.

This photo was taken yesterday up at Beacon Hill.

Christine - Shiona said that the only needlework shop they found seemed very expensive and did not appear to have anything very different to what we can get here far cheaper.

Another nice thing was that Nicola (Tales from My Needle blog)phoned me tonight. Unfortunately it was just as David and Debbie had arrived to collect the dog so I was unable to chat for long, but we are going to meet up with her and her DH on Saturday so will have plenty to chat about then. It is very exciting after all these years to suddenly be meeting so many stitching friends. I am really looking forward to it.

Tomorrow I am picking Oz up and then my mum and we are all going out somewhere for the day. Oz is looking forward to a day with Granny and Great Granny wonder if he thinks he might get a little spoilt lol.

Well my eyes are closing and its well past my bedtime so I will say goodnight to you all.

Thank you for visiting my blog.

may your frogs stay in their ponds.

Kalanchoe and Ivy

2008-08-31T13:58:00.005Z

Blogger has decided it is going to act up today and will not allow me to put a photograph in though i will keep trying to add the picture to this post.

I have not done a lot of stitching this week, or at least not a lot that I am willing to share at this moment. I have on and off all week worked on my UFO. I am really pleased that I got not only the Kalanchoe flower done but also managed a little on the ivy too, though i have not bothered to show you the boring ivy. I quite enjoyed this flower - mainly as there was not b/s involved. I am going to print off the next flower before moving on and will try to keep to once a week on this one.

I am trying to get back into my routine now and will work for a while on Come & Share tonight but tomorrow I want to try and make it back to Mondays being I Still Do day, and I will return to Come & Share on Tuesday. This is not one that seems to be grabbing my attention so unless things alter over the next few days then I will be moving on Wednesday to whatever comes next in the rota.

I do have quite a number of other things in the pipeline but I think rather than upset my routine I am going to work on those first thing each morning for an hour or two and then spend any other time i have in the day on rota matters.

Yesterday we went to Rutland which is the smallest county in England. We took Jules for a good walk but had to back track as we would have needed the whole day to get round the lake and we only had about 4 hours. It was lovely, warm and very enjoyable walk though.

Today we didn't go quite so far afield but headed for Beacon Hill near Woodhouse Eaves. Unfortunately the weather was not so kind to us and by the time we had got half way round the rain was falling steadily. We did get rather wetter than we need have done but it was just so warm neither of us could be bothered to get out coats out of the bag.

This week I have been given another three awards this time by Karan, Angela and Henny. Thank you ladies they are much appreciated ( though i will not bore everyone by adding them again they are all in my sidebar anyway) ot is just so nice to find so many people really like my blog. No one has actually said to me - you have been given this because no one else gave it you, however I have seen that written in some blogs. How sad to give someone an award not because you admire their blog but because you feel sorry for them - lol this to me rather seems to take away from the point of an award. Am I the only person who feels like this?

I do hope Kathy, Dani and Beatrice are having a wonderful get together weekend. I do not feel quite as envious as I have done in the past as now I have my weekend get together for the Crafty Natter forum to look forward to.

Keep your fingers crossed for me - we have booked a holiday for the 21st July and we are just awaiting confirmation that one part of it is available to us. I will tell you all about it next time if we get that confirmation.

Oh and one last thing I got these beautiful virtual flowers from Lynn during the week just as a thank you for being her friend, arent they lovely and isnt that a lovely thing to do. It made my day.

... and just to prove how arkward blogger is I tried again to put in a perfectly normal photo and it still will not let me even though it has allowed this. Silly machine.

Hope you have all had a wonderful weekend doing whatever it takes to make you happy. Thank you once again for being kind enough to visit me here in my little corner of the universe and most of all thank you for all your lovely comments which never fail to amaze me.

Hugs to all,

may your frogs stay in their ponds

HC Update

2008-08-23T17:59:00.004Z

The hardanger cutting is all done and the hearts have been infilled with doves eyes - though not as neat as I would have liked. I do not know why but try as I might I never seem to get two eyes that look anything alike. I still have the bottom part to infill but I am giving it a rest and will then do that. I am not putting it completely away as I really would like to get this one done for Christmas this year (we shall see). Once the bottom is done then I have all the beads to sort out and put on and the ribbon work to do.
There are ribbon roses on the tree and also some colonial knots in ribbon which i have been trying to come to terms with and having no success, but now I have hope. Thanks to Karan I have found a brilliant site showing video footage of different stitches and it makes the Colonial Stitch look so much easier than all the diagrams do. If you click on the video library of stitches on the menu - top right - there are quite a good selection of stitches and the instructions are very clear. Anyway I need to practice both those and the roses as I have never done any ribbon work before.

As we have been without a printer for the last month I have been unable to carry on with my Tuesday UFO at Stitch and Stash forum. I run each bit of chart off as I need it so when the printer went crazy I was stuck. We had only had it 11 months so it was still under guarantee but it took over a week of doing different tests each night and downloading alsorts of bits of software before Kodak decided we needed new printer heads. These of course were out of stock so took well over a week to reach us. I was so pleased when they arrived and then ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh they did not solve the problem. More tests and download patches and then finally they agreed that we needed a new printer - mind this was the person on the other end of the phone but they could not sanction this only recommend it - someone "upstairs" had to say yes. Three days later they phoned to say yes we were getting the new printer and to tell me what to do when it arrived and give me the instructions for returning the faulty one. And that decision made the new printer arrived the following day - amazing. It is now up and working and when Keith gets back from yet another walk with the dog he is going to do whatever it takes to connect it to my computer too. So tonight I am going to do some on my UFO and I am really quite looking forward to it.

Hope you all have a great weekend and if you are in the UK then I wish you a really great Bank Holiday Weekend.

And lastly as always thank you for the wonderful comments you leave me they are so much appreciated.

may your frogs stay in their ponds

A Little Finish and A Lot of Chat

2008-08-19T20:16:00.006Z

Well here at last is Tatty Teddy which has been a nightmare to stitch. The rug /shadow at the bottom should have been grey too but I would have screamed at another grey stitch LOL. I would love to tell you I enjoyed stitching him - I didnt I spent so much time dealing with the frog that decided to visit and began to think he would never get done. Still he is out the way and I am leaving my charity stitching on one side to go back to my rota for a while - I need to regain my sanity. TT will be washed tomorrow (a condition of the donation) and then I will let Colly have him for the Rainbows Childrens Hospice Quilt.

Yesterday Rachael (Brokenfairy) came to spend the day with me. She had bought some of her stitching with her. One of them was CDC which looks fantastic, I liked it in her blog but wow it looks so much different in real life. She had also been very brave and dyed the fabric for it herself and it was lovely. I really must have a go at that soon. I then bored the pants off her showing her all my finished pieces and all my wips - after all these years with no one to really share these things with I feel like the man wandering the desert and suddenly coming on an oasis.

I am off to walk the dog this morning - it looks quite nice out so that will maybe take an hour or two and then I am hoping to have a peaceful day stitching on Heirloom Christmas.

In the meantime I will leave you with a picture of my beautiful flowers which Rachael had bought for me. Oh I just love flowers.

may your frogs stay in their ponds.

Another Award, A Bit Of Fun & A Lot of Exercise

2008-08-17T22:24:00.002Z

Firstly I have another Award, this is the "I Love Your Blog" award and is from both Rachael and Mylene, thank you to you both for giving me this honour. I have decided to put the awards in my side bar so that they can be seen but I will not nominate anyone. If I read your blog then I will leave a comment, if not every time I visit then at least most times. If I read your blog it is because I like it - I have almost a hundred blogs I visit on a reasonably regular basis, like the people who write them they are all so different even though most are about stitching, if I do not like something I am not going to waste my time reading it as I have plenty to do without that, so if I read your blog please help yourself to this award because I can honestly say "I Love It".

Next I pinched this little bit of fun from Rachael's blog while I was there and hope you will take part.

I do wonder if there is anyone who reads but doesn’t post comments, I don’t mind as I do read some blogs but don’t comment as well. But it would be nice just to say hello and maybe come and read your blog as well
So who reads my blog?
1. As a comment on this post, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn’t matter if you know me a little or a lot, anything you remember! And if we’ve never met in real life, leave me a comment of your favorite post I wrote and why it was your favorite.
2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It’s actually really funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I’ll assume you’re playing the game and I’ll come to your blog and leave one about you.
3.Do you read my posts from a reader,blogroll or is this your first visit?
Thank you

On the news front I have almost finished my square for the Rainbows Quilt. This seems to be taking ages but I have not done a lot of stitching - even less than when I have Oz I think LOL. Jules may not chatter on all day but she does like walking and we have been lots and lots of nice long walks. One nice thing about this is I am really beginning to discover so many new places right on my door step. You stop to speak to someone walking their dog and the next thing is they are saying have you walked such and such a way, and so next time we go out we head off in another direction and along another footpath so its been quite an adventure. Another result of all this walking is that when I sit down to stitch in the evening I fall asleep so that is why my square is taking so long. I do hope it will be finished in the next couple of days as I so want to get back to my rota. Also I had been doing really well with my UFO and that has hardly been touched during the school holidays. The family have phoned from France twice already and they only went on Wednesday - I had been hoping for peace and quiet LOL.

And lastly I was gifted Winter Stitches by Jeannett Douglas this week. I was thrilled when Jan from A Crafty Natter contacted me to say that she had seen this on my wish list and if I would send her my address she would send it too me. Thank you so much Jan this is a lovely chart and I will look forward to stitching it sometime in the (I hope not to distant) future.

I do hope I will have a stitchy pic to show you soon but in the meantime enjoy your stitching and thanks as always to the wonderful people who visit and leave comment so often on my humble little blog.

may your frogs stay in their ponds

Dangerous Cake - be warned....

2008-08-12T21:40:00.003Z

This is copied direct from the recipe as written on the Crafty Natter forum. Ozzie and I shared it and he couldnt finish his and I must be honest and admit I struggled though it was delicious. I think it would be better shared with two or three others. Also I made mine in a small pudding basin as all the pictures I have seen done in mugs its gone over the top (I didn't want to waste any). The other thing I would say is it does need cream, ice cream, custard or such as like most chocolate cakes it was a little on the dry side.

One other thing - I was warned that the cooking time seemed to be too long, my microwave is only a 700 watt and 3 mins seemed just right.

5 MINUTE CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE
4 tablespoons cake flour(that's plain flour, not self-raising) 4 tablespoons sugar 2 tablespoons baking cocoa 1 egg 3 tablespoons milk 3 tablespoons oil 3 tablespoons chocolate chips(optional) a small splash of vanilla essence 1 coffee mug
Add dry ingredients to mug, and mix well Add the egg and mix thoroughly. Pour in the milk and oil and mix well. Add the chocolate chips (if using) and vanilla essence, and mix again.
Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts. The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed!
Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired.
EAT! (this can serve 2 if you want to feel slightly more virtuous).
And why is this the most dangerous cake recipe in the world? Because now we are all only 5 minutes away from chocolate cake at any time of the day or night!

Enjoy

may your frogs stay in their ponds

Another Week....

2008-08-11T21:21:00.004Z

... and still not a lot of stitching. What has been done this week has been on The Quiltmaker and yes it was more blue 823 again. I have done a fair bit really but there is just so much blue its hard to feel you make an impression on it.

Yesterday we went to Bakewell to visit the Wye Needlecraft show. Well when I say we I use the term loosely as Oscar and Keith dropped me at the door, went off to park the car and then went into Bakewell to look at "boys" things. I spent a leisurely hours or two wandering round, admiring all the stitching that was on show but only buying 5 new ThreadworX threads. They are just so delicious I would have love to have bought more but they don't come cheap. Whilst there I stopped to have a look at the Loopylou display and though I had no intentions of buying any charts I do like to see what Linda has that is new - for future reference lol. Anyway imagine my suprise when I found the lady on the stall was Linda herself. It was so lovely to meet her at last. I have contacted her by email once or twice when doing her charts and getting stuck or needing some advice but it was lovely to actually meet. We had a lovely long chat.

Browsing done I phoned Keith and we arranged to meet just over the river, it was a beautiful afternoon so we sat on the wall watching the fish and eating icecream before having a wander round the town. I do not know if I lost my bearings of if it has now closed but I could not find the lovely patchwork shop that used to be there. As well as lovely patchwork fabrics this shop had a good selection of little charms and I had been hoping to get a little heart charm so that I could stitch it to my Friends Sampler and get it made up. If anyone knows where it is or if it has gone please tell me and put me out of my misery.

Also while Keith and Oz had been scouting round Bakewell they found a jigsaw shop (well expensive but some fantastic jigsaws) so Oz and I decided to go and see what the charity shops had on offer this morning. We bought three jigsaws that he liked but as the smallest was 500 pieces they are rather beyond him to tackle alone. I had been hoping to find some in the region of 100 pieces which is really about his limit at the moment. We came hope and made "Scooby" snacks (revolting jelly type sweets covered in sugary stuff) and then had lunch. After lunch Colly came. David picked her up and I told him to ask for Mrs Daisy Bumbleroot (her name on the Crafty Natter forum). Oz had heard this and shortly after being told Aunty Colly was coming this afternoon he came and asked - please can I call her Aunty Daisy 'cause I keep forgetting that other name LOL so Colly will now forever be Aunty Daisy in our house. We had a lovely afternoon, I cannot believe that a couple of months ago we had never even spoken on the internet, we just seem to hit it off from the word go. She is such an easy person to be with. Look at the beautiful flowers she bought me. The afternoon just flew by and Oz bless his was as good as gold, just leaving the two silly ladies to giggle away together. Colly also bought 4 new designs to show me - ooh girls you are in for a treat when these come out as they are really pretty, and not too big so nice quick stitches too.

Thank you once again to all those who visit and especially those who leave comments. If you have never left a comment please do as it allows me to return the compliment and visit your blog too. Many of my favourite blogs have been discovered just because their author left a comment here.

ooohhh and just must tell you Oz and I are going to make The Worlds Most Dangerous Cake tomorrow. I will let you know how it turns out and if its as good as it sounds then I will post the recipe here too.

may your frogs stay in their ponds

Happy Birthday To Me...

2008-08-05T19:35:00.012Z

It's my birthday today and just wanted to share some of the beautiful stash I had from my stitching friends.

Needlerolls from AnnT, Terri and AnnP.

Charts to keep me busy for a while to come
Ribbons, threads, beads, charms, fabric and yummy goodies

Some of my beautiful hand made cards.

A big big thank you to Terri, Aunty, Annie, Karan, Rachael, Sally, and to many others who have sent me beautiful e-cards. Also thanks to the girls from Jaynes Attic and from The Crafty Natter group who have sent me lots and lots of lovely birthday wishes through the respective forums. You have all helped to make this a very special day.

may your frogs stay in their ponds

Help! I'm Exhausted

2008-08-03T22:06:00.005Z

Later this month my son and dil and Oz along with my daughter are all off to France for three weeks. Peace you might think - not a chance Mum & Dad are being left in charge of Jules.

This is Jules and this weekend we had her to stay for a couple of nights - a sort of trial run as she has never stayed overnight with us before. She came Friday and we took her for a good long walk before bedtime. Saturday we were up early and following breakfast we went for another long walk. Home, some shopping and some lunch and then off for another long walk. Home tea and another long walk. Today and a little longer in bed (well it is Sunday) and a more leasurely breakfast and then off out - yes you guessed a long long walk - finally home again for a quick cuppa, pack her things up, take her home and collect Oz. Its years since I last did that much walking - probably since Jules did that much walking too - i think she was relieved to go home for a rest lol. I have come to the conclusion that when she comes for three weeks we will all be a stone lighter at the end of it. She looks a real old lady but she is only about four years old. The grey face is what does it but she has been like that since they got her when the RSPCA thought she was about 10 months old. She is the loveliest nature you could wish for and though not quite as obedient for us as she is for her master she is still reasonably well behaved and polite.

I have been stitching on ISD this week, with not a lot of stitching time it seems better to just stick to one thing at a time at the moment.
I got my DHs initials done and finished the long motif that runs across the centre at the top. I am quite pleased with the progress this time round.

Not sure what to do next. I have Gigi to stitch and there are two parts this month but neither is very big. I also have to finish stitching this months section of EMS Rose. And there is also The Quiltmaker which is the next thing in my rota. I also have several small things to stitch, two for charity and two for gifts but I really do not feel in the mood for stitching little fiddley bits at the moment. Will just have to see how the mood takes me when I next get to the stage of having five minutes to stitch - which I am hoping might be tomorrow evening.

Hope you have all had a wonderful weekend. I am slowly trying to keep up with blogs and to a degree managing this by leaving one big reply which covers several posts. Please forgive me if I have not got to you but I will get there eventually - promise.

Thank you for continuing to visit and leave such lovely comments, they really keep me going.

may your frogs stay in their ponds

Four Friends, A Design and An Abbey

2008-07-30T22:51:00.006Z

Four friends - me being the only blogger amongst them - and one design. The design being "Stitching Friends" by Elizabeth Designs. This is a beautiful design but really needs to be stitched for a friend not for yourselve so we all decided that it would be fun if we drew names for who sent to whom and then all stitched the design much as we do when stitching the monthly challenge at Jaynes Attic. We would use the chart but would each decide of our own fabric and threads, colour scheme etc. Terri was sending to AnnP, AnnP to AnnT, AnnT to me and me to Terri. So first here is what I did for Terri... Stitched on 36ct cream belfast linen, using Dinky-Dyes silk apart from the sheep which were stitched in Wisper thread in a sort of off white shade. I know Terri well and in 12 months time this would have still been lying in the draw waiting for a frame (which she will of course deny LOL) so I decided to make a pinkeep type finish. I rather like this finish and for small things its a very inexpensive finish.

And here is what Ann has done for me. I am sorry but cannot tell you what Ann used but its a really pretty hand dyed fabric. She also decided to colour in one of the sheep which is really quaint. I think I might finish this off in a similar fashion to the one I made for Terri. Though I am pretty certain I have a frame that will fit I like the idea of the pinkeep finish.

Edited - Ann has let me know the fabric is Polstitches - "Fairy Footprints" and the threads were good old DMC.

An Abbey - Well not as you think of an Abbey but Calke Abbey in Derbyshire. http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/w-findaplace/w-calkeabbey/w-calke-photo_gallery.htm

you can click at the side of the main picture to move it on and see more.

This is where Oz and I spent the day. I had hoped I might be able to hold his interest in the house for about an hour but he was fascinated with everything and we ended up being in there for two and a half hours. He had a paper given him when we entered the house with a list of things to look for on the way round, so his interest was sparked immediately (he loves puzzles). It was really enjoyable and he made it more so for me too by his enthusiasm. When we finally came out we were both ready for a drink and a snack so off to the cafe - only complaint was the cobs excellent value at 4.00 if there were two of you to share one but there was no way I would have got through a whole one they were enormous, so I ended up with a cheese scone and an ok sort of coffee. Oscar had a childs box which at 2.95 was good value, a cheese cob (well filled), a drink, a home baked cookie and a nice apple. Then we paid £2 to take part in a treasure trail. £2.00 well spent as we spent the next two hours searching for clues (not too hard for him), taking part in activities (skipping and hulu hoops) visiting the craft tent where he enjoyed sorting out how to decorate his plain carrier back, which contained a list of things that had to go in it (somehting green, something prickly, something rough, something hard, something soft etc) he really enjoyed doing that on the remainder of our time on the trail. There were more clues to find and a treasure chest to have a lucky dip. We arrived home just after 5 both tired but having had a great great day.

No stitching today but what the heck lol.

Goodnight all.

may your frogs stay in their ponds

Every Little Stitch....

2008-07-30T06:36:00.004Z

......counts and as I still havent had a lot of time for stiching it has needed too.

Firstly I did manage to do The Monthly Challenge at Jaynes Attic. This is a little freebie called Love by Debbie Draper. It was stitched on an oddment of fabric (probably 28 count antique white) using Carries Creations "Shadow". I was really pleased with how this thread stitched up, though I was not so thrilled with my finishing - the little bow is supposed to hide the fact that I just could not seem to get the hook to hang from the corner. I did that corner about three times and each time it looked fine until I hung it when it suddenly seemed to have slid round the corner. This one is destined for a charity stall that is being held to raise funds for the home where my friend Terri's (no blog) MIL stays. I am not sure if I will get next months challenge done or not with so little stitching time at the moment, but if I do it will probably be heading the same way.

Over the weekend I managed to stitch a wee bit on EMS Rose Sampler though this is not the whole of the August section it has cut a good swath into it and I do not feel so behind now.

Last night I made a bit more progress on ISD, but though I now have my wonderful Ott-Lite which makes everything so clear and once again allows evening stitching, I am just so exhausted by nightfall I am only fit to crawl into bed lol.

I am loving having Oscar, we have walked to town along the canal, we have been to the park and today we are off out either to Calke Abbey or to Sudbury Museum of Childhood. He is good company, full of fun and so well behaved and well mannered he is a pleasure to have. My big worry is though that a little boy of six should not be walking sedately beside his Granny everyday but should be running wild with other little boys of six. Unfortunately we do not have other children in his age bracket living close to us. He also has very few children in the area he lives and as he travels out of area to school this seems to isolate him into the company of adults for most of the time. I have seen him in the school environment where he is popular and just as full of fun and life as he should be and I do feel he is missing such a lot. Oh well guess life doesnt give you everything and I so enjoy having him.

I have had several requests recently to become friends on Facebook. Please do not think I am ignoring you. A while back someone sent me an invite to join Facebook and I registered - thats as far as I got and I now cannot remember how to get in or what my password was and I have not had the time to go looking,

Thank you to all who visit, to all who comment and to all those I have received awards from in the last week. I listed the first two I got, but I cannot keep listing them or my blog will be quite boring, though I am very very flattered that so many of you think I am worth an award so many thanks.

may your frogs stay in their ponds

Nothing to Show

2008-07-23T14:37:00.004Z

I have nothing to show :o(. At the weekend I think every frog from every pond in the district was in my house and in the end I threw my stitching to one side in disgust. Since then I seem to be struggling to get back to it. The only thing I felt like stitching was my EMS Rose and the flower from this times chart is all I have stitched - no stem, no leaves just a small rose.

I have been asked about the Ott-lite. When I ordered from the USA I thought it would be relatively easy to get an adaptor that would plug in here and then allow me to plug the US fitting into that. How wrong I was. I can get ones for plugging into the US system - even Asda (Wallmart) sell them but they are for UK people who will be wanting to use them while they are on holiday in the US. What do US citizens do if they come here on holiday???? May be I would get them in the tourist areas like London, Stratford etc but Long Eaton has obviously never had a visiting American lol. So my US Ott-lite is still sitting in its little box waiting for an adaptor. However as I was really quite upset about not being able to find an adaptor my DH decided that I should have ordered from the UK in the first place and went ahead and ordered one. Actually the one he ordered is brilliant it has a flexible neck (same as on the magnifier) where as the one from the US is more ridgid. I am not sure what I will do yet, if I can find an adaptor I may well keep the other too as it is a lot lighter and would be ideal for taking with me when I travel. So my great saving didnt turn out as I hoped.

This week I have been awarded two . One was awarded by Tammie and one from Elisa.

I am supposed to award 5 people and here are the 5 I have chosen.

Erica - at Bits of My Own

Brigitte - At Brigittes Place

Chiloe - Chiloe's Corner

Cyn - at Cyn Stitches

Lisa - Lisa's Stitching Addiction

I do not think there will be much stitching done for the next few weeks as school broke up today and Oz will be staying with Granny & Grandpa on and off for most of the holidays. He will be arriving shortly so I am now off to get ready for his arrival.

may your frogs stay in their ponds (and may mine stay there too)

A very busy week

2008-07-19T09:50:00.004Z

I have hardly had time to stitch this week.

Monday I went to visit Colly and ended up staying for lunch. I did a little on ISD in the afternoon but certainly not enough to take a picture of. Monday night we were over at Mums helping to shift furniture out.

Tuesday I spend most of the day doing the dreaded house work - but after proving to my grandson that I could write "I love you" on the furniture I thought it was really time I had a good clean. It was all neat and tidy but all the furniture needed a good polish and a lot of my ornaments needed a good wash. Tuesday night I went out for a meal with some old and dear friends - lol I dont mean the friends are old but that they are friends of long standing.

Wednesday and Thursday Mum had the decorators in so I fetched her over to my house in the morning and had to run her all the way home again in the evenings. I managed a little stitching but not much.

Friday morning I did a little h/w and a little stitching and then went to meet another friend for lunch - I seem to have eaten rather well this week lol. My Mums decorator had finished on Thursday night and the carpet fitter came on Friday morning, so friday afternoon was spent replacing the furniture and then Keith had to reconnect and set up the TV and DVD again for her and also reconnect all the computer stuff. We didnt leave her house until 8pm and we hadnt eaten. As we were both in jeans and rather hot and sweaty we would not have felt comfy to pop in somewhere for a meal so it was back home to cook and a very late meal.

Cannot go to bed on a full tummy so nothing for it but to sit down and relax. Keith went of to play on his computer and I came up here to my den, got all snuggly comfy and stitched. It was the turn of hardanger house this week and though I havent had a lot of time I do feel as though I achieved quite a bit also and more importantly I have really, really enjoyed this weeks stitching. I did the chimney and the large diamond leave design down one side of the apex and I also managed to do almost all of the inner border edging. There is about and inch left to do of that but I will do that next time as I do the diamond leaf down the other side of the apex. I did try taking a bigger pic but it just doesn't show up.

I really must apologise that I am so far behind with reading everyones blogs. I do keep trying to read a few each day and I am trying to keep them in order so that I get round to everyone eventually. The main problem is once you get behind it takes twice as long as there are two or three posts to read and nearly always leave comments for on every blog I visit. I often think I will just read them and not take time leaving comments and then I like what I see and just have to say so LOL.

I hope you each and everyone have a wonderful and peaceful weekend with lots of stitching time.

may your frogs stay in their ponds

From Sculpture to Stitching

2008-07-14T08:47:00.005Z

We had a wonderful weekend in Yorkshire. Saturday the weather was cold and windy but at least dry, so we wrapped up warmly after lunch and went to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. We walked for miles and returned to base feeling very hungry. Luckily our hostess is one of the best cooks I know so it was not long before we were fed with an excellent meal. Sunday we awoke to the sunshine, it was a beautiful day and we spent the morning in the garden - with three boistrous dogs there was no chance of sitting back and relaxing lol, there was always a ball or a stick on your lap and an appealing face wanting you to play. After an excellent lunch we went of the The Victoria Tower where we had excellent views of the surrounding countryside.

We got home about half past six yesterday and I think the stitching break had done me the world of good. I was just bursting to stitch and out came UFO. I got the wee bee (he has lovely twinkley wings its such a shame you cant see them) and the bird done AND I stitched two Ivy leaves, so Julie and Karen should be pleased. As for Mr Stick well I think he can forgive a lot of sins for that.

Cyn asked a while back if she could see a bigger picture and not just the letter I was working on,

so here it is just for you Cyn.

On a completely different thread I went to meet Coll this morning of CollsCreations and we got on so well I ended up staying for lunch. She is coming to me next month and I am really looking forward to meeting her again. It was lovely to meet someone who was on the same wavelengh and we talked stitch, stitch and more stitch all the way which was lovely. We also did a lot of laughing and I always think that is a good thing and I am sure we are on our way to becoming firm friends in time.

xx
may your frogs stay in their ponds

Guess What?

2008-07-11T11:38:00.004Z

I am not quite sure what this looks like LOL - but it is Jasmins head. Well the top of her hair and her hair band. I am quite pleased with the progress I mad on this though a little disappointed that the picture looks so dull. the red and silver of the stones is all in metallic thread and really twinkles.

A couple of months back I saw this chart in Asda. It was a special done by Cross Stitcher and I bought it for two reasons. Firstly I rather liked the picture of Tutankhamun but mainly I have two friends who are mad on anything Egyptian and there were several small designs and two lovely card mounts included. Earlier this week it was Karan's birthday and I did this card for her, and I was really pleased with how it turned out. Karan wrote to tell me she loved it so I was really happy with that.

We are going up to Yorkshire for the weekend so as the friends we are staying with are not "stitichy" people there will be no stitching done (sob sob).

Monday will be I Still Do of course but much more exciting than that I am actually going to meet a stitching friend who I have found out recently lives quite close to me. Even better the following Monday I will be going to meet another stitching friend who lives quite close by. As I have never met either of these ladies before I am quite excited.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend, though it looks like its going to be a rather wet one in the UK. Bliss if you are reading this please will you send me some more sunshine - pretty please.

may your frogs stay in their ponds

Monday Update

2008-07-08T07:10:00.003Z

A very unimaginative title but my head is just not in gear this morning.

Here is the picture of yesterdays work on I Still Do. I was really pleased as I completed the initial and got the little motif done, also just a little bit more of the fuchsians (well thats what they look like to me lol). It may not be a lot of progress but I was happy with what I got done in the time I had. I am looking forward to getting my OTT light which will hopefully allow me to stitch more at night which is usually when I get the most time to sit down and stitch. I have so missed having a good stitching lamp.

I am now off to the dentist - ugh, but first I wanted to thank you all for the really lovely comments you left regarding Cottage Dreams.

xx

may your frogs stay in their ponds

HANDS ACROSS THE WORLD

2008-07-04T12:10:00.006Z

I wanted to start with a Great Big 4th of July Greeting to all my friends on the other side of the pond. I hope you are all having a great day doing whatever you do to celebrate.

Next I want to show you my progress on Cottage Dreams. I could have carried on until this evening but I thought with each of the side motifs complete it was a good time to stop. I really have enjoyed every stitch on this. The central blocks are filled with a four sided stitch. The outer squares with a sort of pulled tent stitch.

I had all the correct threads for this but did make one change. The pale rose called for was a Pearsall silk. I had this and did the first inner flower with it but frogged it as I neither liked the way it looked or handled when using it. I felt as though it both looked and felt like a rayon thread. Although it is called silk I am wondering if it is one of the "Art Silk", like rajmahal. Don't get me wrong I have no objection to rayon threads and have used them several times in cross stitch projects to highlights in hair etc but if I am doing a project that uses silk then that is what I look forward to using. Anyway I replaced it with a Caron Waterlily that was almost identical in colour, though the Caron has a little shading in it and the Pearsall was a solid colour.

I have several things I am hoping to get finished over the weekend plus doing some UFO on Sunday and if I get time I would like to make a start on part 7 of EMS as that was released on Tuesday. Well I can dream lol but Ozzie is with us for the weekend, so it depends on him as to how much time I get for stitching. Oh I can't wait for my new lamp to arrive and then I can stitch the night away Lol.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend with lots of quality time.

may your frogs stay in their pond