Friday 27 February 2009

Crikey......busy week!

There has been a lot happening in our world lately. Nothing major or earth shattering but just busy, busy, busy.
The SAT for CSC finished last Sunday so here is the progress I have made for the week on my Cotswold design. Obviously the top one is the starting point and the bottom one shows how much I got done. I think I stitched around 3000 stitches for the week this time.

As you may have noticed it was Ash Wednesday this week. The children attend a Catholic school and I work there too so we received the ashes from the priest in a special assembly. Rachael has decided that for Lent she will give up chewing her nails - so far so good. Luke is challenging himself and going for giving up bars of chocolate, fizzy drinks, helping around the house more and behaving better in class. He is brilliant with the chocolate and fizzy drinks so far and refused to have chocolate when it was offered round! Unfortunately, I don't have his willpower. I decided that I would clear my purse out at the end of each day and put all my change in a for JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation). Hopefully by Easter there should be a fair bit in it!
One of the jobs that has kept me busy and stopped me stitching this week is an application form. I have decided to apply to Manchester Metropolitan University for the Foundation Degree in Supporting Teaching and Learning. I have already applied to Tameside College for their version of this which is done through Staffordshire College and I'm waiting to hear if I get an interview. The application forms are long winded though. The one for MMU is 9 pages!! It's more thorough than most of the job applications I have filled in!
Rachael got her level 11 in her swimming this week too. Now she only has one more level to complete and she will be done with swimming lessons. Hurray!! She is thoroughly enjoying the swimming club she joined recently though and is making huge progress. Luke is loving it too and is in a small group of about 4 or 5 for teaching. He is really doing himself proud too as most of the others spend more time messing than swimming (you wonder why the parents pay!!) and he is working hard and not allowing himself to be drawn into their silliness. Maybe there is hope for him yet!!

Tuesday 17 February 2009

Rachael and Luke went to their grandma and grandad's last Friday so I have had the house to myself for a few days, well so long as you don't count 3 cats!! I spent Saturday and Sunday scrubbing the house and getting all the jobs done that are MUCH easier to do without 2 little helpers! I love it when the house looks all sparkly with all the paintwork washed and fresh curtains up etc. But enough of housework........what a waste of 2 days stitching time!!!

On the stitching front, it is the Crossstitchcrazy SAT this week. I am keeping the Cotswold design as my focus piece for the SAT's this year. On Monday I was REALLY lazy. I sat on the sofa all day and stitched my way through several episodes of Little House on the Prairie and the first two Lord of the Rings film (extended editions.) Unfortunately though I spent as much time watching as I did stitching so my total for yesterday won't be that great. It was lovely to just have a day doing what I wanted to for once and not be worrying about what the children are up to, what Rachael's blood sugars are like, who needs feeding, watering etc. That said, I can't wait to see them both tommorrow!!

I was lucky enough to win a chart in a drawing on Lindsay's blog recently. It is a really lovely crocus chart which I think I will kit up and take into work for my lunchbreak. Thank you Lindsay!

I can't post pics of anything at the moment though as Colin has the camera.

Monday 9 February 2009

Small finish

Rachael is poorly today and so I had to stay at home with her. Whilst she was curled up on the sofa watching TV, I sneaked a bit of stitching time and managed to polish off this little card for my mum. Only the flowers are stitched. This was a freebie from Cross Stitch Crazy magazine a while ago.

Sunday 8 February 2009

Manchester show and stitching update.

Well I went to the Manchester Show and it was rubbish! There were only 3 or 4 stands selling cross stitch items. The rest was mainly card craft. I did spend a pleasant 10 minutes speaking to a lady about her Japenese embroidery which was amazing. Have a look here to see some of their work. In the end, I only picked up a few bits and bobs from Trudy Anne Designs. There were lots of stitched models of L*K, CCN, LHN and others in the same vein. I absolutely adored all the LHN and CCN and I can now see why they have such a huge following. I succumbed and bought one for now but have a couple on order too. I also bought some double sided tape, card for the children, 4 little plastic craft boxes and 2 ribbons. The charts are LHN - Snowflakes, The Trilogy - Gardening and L*K - Winter Crazy.

Yesterday, when Rachael was at her party, I finished this teddy design into a glitzy ornament for her. I had bought some pretty ribbon but she preferred the tinselly look.
I also received the mount for Colin's Sunday Cricket from Smartart-mounts. I was really pleased with this. They sell on ebay but didn't have what I wanted. However, the guy got back to me with a price for it being custom made which was really good. £6 including packing and postage. Well when it arrived yesterday it was in a jiffy bag with about 2 metres of bubble wrap round it and sandwiched between 2 generous sized pieced of mount to protect it. The mount was absolutely perfect and one piece of mount board packing was easily cut to the right size to lace the design to. I was so pleased with their service!

Monday 2 February 2009

WE'VE GOT SNOW!!!

OK, ok ok, I admit it.............where you come from this may not be much.................but for us it is the most snow we have had in 13 years according to the local radio station this morning. I measured it tonight and we have 2"..........that's right...........a whole 2"!!!! WOOOHOOOO!!

I told the children to not bother with their homework tonight. Neither of mine have ever handed homework in late so I decided not to worry tonight. For how often we actually get snow, I thought a bit of snow fun was far more important!! We built a snowman and had a few snowball fights, Rachael made a snow angel and so a good time was had by all (and it was much more fun than putting spellings into sentences!)
One of our cats, Smudge, decided he rather likes snow too and came out for ages. I didn't think he would like it as he hates the wind and I thought that would put him off. Biskey was very funny though. He sat by the patio doors, on the inside, trying to catch the snowflakes but when we opened the doors so he could do it for real, he ran off upstairs. Silly animal!

Oh and on the stitching front, I started and finished a little Mouseloft kit yesterday for February's ornament. I haven't yet finished it as an ornament.

Sunday 1 February 2009

How does your garden grow part10

I have finished part 10 of this now with the exception of the beading. As part 11 sits in the middle, I thought it safer to leave the beading until this was done too.
At the moment it is trying its hardest to snow. I keep hoping but not much is happening and the little bit we have is not enough to settle.........grrrrr!

My mum's friend is getting married next year and she has asked if I will make a ring cushion for them. There are some lovely designs there but I haven't quite found the perfect one yet! I would like some fabric swatches really so I can get a better idea about their colour scheme and preferences for the theme.