At Last an English Summer

Hello everyone,  I have been noticable only by my abscence for the last few weeks.  I blame the beautiful English summer that we are experiencing in the UK at the moment.  For the last few years our summers have been very wet, but this year is wonderful and we have been out and about, lazing in the garden or doing day trips and enjoying what our lovely country has to offer, when it is not raining on it.  I have done very little stitching and hardly been near the computer.  When I have been near the computer it has been to make cards for the Summer Fete at the Nursing Home where Mum resides.  It was the fete today and I made £43,  with most stalls being almost a sell out I think quite a bit has been raised for the Residents Fund, which pays for things like trips out for them.  Luckily too today, although it was lovely and warm the sun was for once hiding behind the clouds so the residents were not overly hot sitting in the garden and watching all the fun and the entertainment. 

A few of you my have noticed that my when you clicked on my blog recently it said it had been closed down.  I am afraid that someone tried to "hack" the email address that this blog is linked to.  Luckily my server noticed that someone abroad was trying to get into the account and for safely closed it down.  It was not till my friend Ann asked why I had closed my blog that I realised anything was wrong.  I managed to find something that told me if they had closed the account due to a violation an email would be sent to me to explain why.  Of course I then went in search of the email only the find that account closed too.  It has all been sorted now thank goodness, but though it was very inconvenient I cannot fault Googlemail for acting as quickly as they did. 

I have also been doing a little knitting, something Ive not done for over 20 years.  I am making myself a summer sweater, though if this weather continues I do not think it will get much wear - hurray.  I have reached about half way up the back so far.

A little stitching has been done from time to time and I have been working on the Water Pump but as you will see from the picture below, its not grown a lot since you last saw it. 

I think I am going to stick with this for a bit longer, who knows I may even finish it soon as there is not really that much more to do.  We shall see.  

I am now heading back to the kitchen to collect a nice cold drink and then back into the garden for an hour before tea.

Hugs to all, and to anyone who is around to read my ramblings a big thank you.

    xx
May your frogs stay in their ponds.

I Made The Connection

Here I am again and it hardly seems two minutes since last week (ok im a couple of days late too).  My days seem to fly by and I am not always sure when I climb into bed at night just exactly what I have done to use up all the time.  That said, apart from the last couple of hours before bedtime, when I sit down to relax, watch tv and stitch, I am always busy doing something. 

I was disappointed with the Minecraft cake, so much so that I didnt even bother taking a picture.  Oscar however was thrilled with it and his friends thought it was cool.  Not one of my best but obviously not a complete failure lol.

Not a lot of stitching time last week, which is why I am late posting.  I was determined that I was going to stick with fairies until I connected the border round it.  This is now done, it still need backstitching and some other bits and bobs but I am pleased I managed to make the connection. 

So here is my latest offering for Fairies At The Bottom Of My Garden -

now that the border is round it I am beginning to feel like I am getting somewhere and the end is within the bounds of possibility.
I had a new visitor last week and went to check out her blog, she had some beautiful hardanger and sampler work and I am so tempted to start something new.  However as I only stitch on one piece each week I really mustn't start something else or it will just delay my finishing those pieces.  I have been scanning through blogs when I have had the time but I really must apologise for not leaving any comments this last week - so many things to do and just not enough time.

Thank you so much to those who visit and take the time to read my ramblings.  God bless you all.

Hugs,


May your frogs stay in their ponds.

Up In The Attic (hardanger house)

It was Carnival Day in Long Eaton on Saturday so my darling grandson came to stay for the weekend.  A lovely morning and we walked down to the park to watch the carnival parade arrive. Not only did the parade arrive but the rain did too and  the heavens opened.  We were drenched, so only a quick look round the park,before heading home again. 

I have been so tired this week and do not seem to have done much stitching in the evenings, however I am quite please with progress made on Hardanger House.  I really need to have a go at stitching the door posts on a scrap before I do them on the real thing, but as I couldnt be bothered I went up to the roof top and did the chimneys and the attic instead.

I love doing hardanger

There isnt much else to tell you today Im afraid.  Fairies, will hopefully, be coming out again tonight, but we are having a new carpet on the stairs and landing on Friday so we have decorating to do this week, and I also have a birthday cake to make for my grandsons 11th Birthday which is also Friday.  He wants a "Mine Craft" cake and I havent quite worked out how to tackle that yet lol.

Thank you for taking the time to read my ramblings and to all the lovely people who take the time to leave a comment.  

Hugs to all

May your frogs stay in their ponds.i

I Just Want To Share...

If you craft, no matter what kind of crafting you do, I am sure you know the feeling of always trying to think up new storage solutions.  I know I certainly seem to sink under the accumulation of stuff on my work table but if I clear the table and put it all away, then I waste half the day trying to find it all again.
So today I have been playing and now I have a lovely tidy work area and all my "use all the time" items are in easy reach.

So here is my nice clean work space

The little jars you can just about see on the window ledge are these

and they contain my assortment of card candy which i love and use a lot.  The little jars were from Ikea and were only £2 for a set of four - so not expensive.  The little blue spray bottle was a lucky find last summer.  I first saw it in the garden centre at Denby pottery but as I had spent up on plants I didnt have enough money left.  Imagine my joy when the following week I found the identical thing in the local £1 shop.

Next as we no longer need the veggie rack in the kitchen that has come into use as a craft rack

My craft bag on the top shelve used to stand on my table but it was so full I couldn't find anything in it, now its all need and tidy.

The other things that are now removed from my craft bag are in my new craft station

I made the craft station using the tubes from the centre of wrapping paper rolls, a sheet of A4 card and some pictures cut from old craft magazines.  The pretty boarders came free in a card mag, and the little pin cushion was a gift from a friend some years ago.  The only cost was for the decopatch glue (which I already had anyway).  I am really thrilled with the result, so now I can keep my craft table all neat and clutter free - well thats the theory so far lol.  Most of the card, paper, toppers and embellishments are on the Billy bookcase at the side anyway so they are not hard to pull out and put back.  I glued the tubes together but I havent fixed them to the A4 bottom piece - I left them so that I could decide if it needed any more bits adding first but as it stands quite secure I will probably never get round to a permenant solution.

The other bit of crafting I did this morning was on a cheap ornament I bought in Dunelm.  A few stamps and a bit of bling and here it is.

and here it is on my kitchen window sill.

Sorry there was no stitching to show today, that will be on Monday or Tuesday as usual. It's just been so long since my work table area looked tidy I was all excited and had to share lol (its maybe my age but it doesn't take a lot to excite me these days.

Take care and see you again in a few days


May your frogs stay in their ponds.

Appleblossom and Fairies

Hello and welcome to all who are visiting my world.  First I would like the thank you for the lovely comments, especially the ones about my garden, its not very big but it is pretty and I love sitting in it - so peaceful and relaxing.

On that note I thought I would start my post with some flower pictures I took the other day in the garden.
The first three are of my begonias.

This one is called Appleblossom and is my favourite

I have no idea what the others are called but they are still pretty

and finally this lovely flower - I think its called a mimulus but I love the way this one looks

like it has been splashed with paint

This week is a double update as we were just so busy last week that I didn't get the time to blog.  I have been stitching though but as I usually stitch in the evening it rarely gets in the way of other things.

Now for the stitching bit and my first one is the progress from the previous week on fairies, which I was pleased with, though with so many leaves I was feeling rather green by the time the week was over lol.

 Last week it was the water pumps turn for an airing.  I was a little disappointed in the progress I made on this.  I did manage some stitching most evenings but somehow it does not seem to have grown very much.  The good news is I have now reached the bottom of the chart.

Last night Hardanger House came out again.  Time goes so quickly and it does not seem like two weeks have passed since I last put it away.

I would like to say thanks to Mylene for telling me how to remove the verification thing, I have done what you said so hopefully its not there anymore.  I know how you feel, sometimes I write a comment and then have to go through all that typing stupid words it drives me mad too lol.

Off now to make a coffee and sit in the garden for an hour before dinner.  Take care everyone and hope to see you again soon.

Sending hugs to all who need them,


May your frogs stay in their ponds.

A Lovely Weekend

Hello and welcome to everyone, I only hope your weekend has been as lovely as mine.  The sun has shone and its been lovely and warm for the bank holiday weekend.  Also my monthly stitching group met at my house on Saturday, so I had a lovely day with wonderful friends.  To finish off in the evening my hubby and I went for a meal with a couple of the other girls and their hubbys it was a good evening, lots of laughs and excellent company.  Sunday morning we all met for coffee before Jan and Mike had to return to Andover.
Warm sunshine, lots of naughty food and excellent company - now thats what I call a lovely weekend.

My garden has enjoyed the warmer weather too and is beginning to look nice with the Wisteria starting at last to make its way along the house and the Lilac Tree in full bloom and wafting its perfume round the garden.  I have taken a couple of pics for you to see - though as with my stitching pictures I am not a photographer of any skill but I think they turned out ok.

lol I have just realised that my refection was showing in the utility room window as I took that last picture.

Now to the important stuff - stitching.  I worked on my Hardanger house over the last week and though progress is not major, as there is a lot of speciality stitches in this piece which I am slow at, I am pleased with what I achieved.  I love doing speciality stitches and love the effects they create.  As I almost always do I am tweeking this to suit me lol.  Although you have the choice of doing an Everyday House or a Christmas House the only difference the designer makes between the two is on the inside.  On the outside of the house there is supposed to be garlands along the fence and a wreath on the front door and I am missing these out as I feel they look christmassy. I have also realised that I may have to make up my own design for the inside of the house as the inner layer is supposed to be stitched on 36 count and I am not at all sure that my eyes (even with the aid of my magnifiers) would be able to cope with anything that fine. I have a feeling I may have some 36 count in my stash and if so I will give it a go - but wont hold my breath as I cannot see the point in struggling and therefore not enjoying my stitching. Anyway in case you missed it here is a picture from an earlier post when I fished it out my wip box.  And (bad grammer to start a sentance with and but I cannot think of anything else to start with) here is how it looked this morning when it was light enough to take a picture of it.

I tried taking a close up but it just looked a blur.  The little knobs on the top of the fencing are in queen stitch, the steps are in a mixture of long arm crosses and four sided back stitch, and the entrance posts are in twill stitch, the effect is really pretty and I do wish I could show you more clearly.  My hubby is off doing the garden at Mums house as we want it to look nice when prospective buyers turn up, but when he gets home I will see if its possible for him to get a close up for you.


Cards are supposed to now be going on a seperate page and you will notice at the top of the post, there is a tag for home and a tag for cards.  There is only one problem with this, I managed to do the page and put in a couple of photos but I am at the moment completely at a loss as to how to make a new post on that page.  I used to be very good with technology but alas the older I get the worse I get at figuring things like this out lol, or it's maybe just that technology is getting more complicated.   Hubby will help in most cases but when I ask him about this he just replies that he knows nothing about blogs - or probably just doesnt want to know about them lol.

Replies to comments.

Mylene asked if I could take the verification thing off my comments page.  I am really sorry Mylene but I didnt even know there was one on it and I have no idea how to remove it.

Chris asked about the designer or the Fairies.  I have replied to your email regarding this Chris.

Thanks for all the lovely comments though unfortunately no-one knew what to do about the highlighting and I have no idea if it will happen again (as it didn't show until I actually post and though I went back to see what was wrong there is nothing on the original to show any highlighting).  All I can do is apologise if this post is also highlighted - its that technology thing again lol.

Back to fairies tonight so until I see you all again, please take care and if you need a hug then consider it sent.

Love to all



May your frogs stay in their ponds.

A New Addition

Good Morning to all my all the dear friends both old and new who are taking the time to visit. 

I have been in a real stitchy mood this week and working hard on The Water Pump so here is a picture to show you how much I have done.

It's quite a dull picture for some reason but I think I am making good progress.

As both Fairies and Water Pump are going really well I thought I would add a new addition to the mix.  Another of my wips has come out (I refuse to call them ufos as that sounds like I have given up on them, which I most certain haven't yet lol).  I fancied a change from normal cross stitch so Hardanger Everyday House is being added to my rota.  It was not the best of starts - Saturday night I did about an hour and Sunday when I looked I realised I had been using the wrong thread so I had to frog (again - my frogs are definitely not staying in their ponds).  That being said, i did not actually take long to get back to where I had been on the previous day and so I am looking forward to having a couple of hours stitching after lunch today.  I went to visit Mum this morning so now I can relax and stitch in peace. 

I have also been busy with card making this week but I cannot show you any of them as they are all for birthdays of friends and family and some of them may peek in here from time to time.  Talking of cards has reminded me that Andrea has put a papercraft tab on her blog, so that those who are not interested in cards do not have to be bothered with them.  I think this is such a sensible idea for although I try not to put too many cards on here, I do get friends who ask to see more and if they had their very own page I could put more up and stop worrying about boring those of you who are not interested.  So I am now off to play and see how to put another tab on my blog.

Sending hugs for all those who need them especially as there are a couple of my readers who I know could use a big hug at the moment.  Thanks once again to those kind people who have taken the time to leave a comment.

Edited to Add - if anyone knows how I managed to highlight half of this post and how to remove it please can you tell me lol.


May your frogs stay in their ponds.