Shebafudge

Arrgghh......late WIPocalypse update - Feb 7th check in

2012-02-09T19:16:00.000Z

Since the last update, I have worked on several different designs. Below are pictures of where I am now.

Waxing Moon

RR piece

Helen and Kev's wedding sampler

Bothy Threads

All of them are things that I would really like to finish.
I will do a proper blog post when I have more time, I'm trying to write an assignment at the moment. Bye bye stitching time :-(

Theme-a-licious - January round up

2012-02-01T20:55:00.000Z

Well the first month of Theme-a-licious has gone by. I have posted my progress on my Theme-a-licious page so have a look! The plan is to stitch on Mirabilia designs from my WIP pile for Fangirl February but really need to work on some others too. I need to finish off the RR piece and I want to work on the wedding design for Helen and Kev who will have been married for 2 years in June - yikes!!

Apart from Theme-a-licious stitching, I have also stitched a little thank you card for my boss who was really understanding of my recent childcare issues and allowed me to finish early without docking my pay. She is giraffe mad so hopefully likes this one.

Mouseloft kit

This is a clematis flower bud

We have actually got a clematis that never really died back last year and so never got cut back. I was just having a bit of a wander round the back yesterday and we have a bud on one of the plants. It shows how amazingly mild our winter has been so far as it shouldn't flower until June at the earliest.

One iris in bloom

another iris in bloom

We have actually got about 6 or 7 irises in bloom at the moment. I am pretty sure they shouldn't be flowering until March. It's bizarre. I'm sure sooner or later we will pay for it being so mild. Hopefully we will be able to get up the allotment and do a few bits over the next few weeks.

I'm sure there was something else I had to blog about but can't for the life of me remember what it is. Oh well...

Just a Quickie

2012-01-25T21:00:00.000Z

First off...Amanda is arranging another exchange on tinytreasuresexchangetoo. The poll is closing tonight and is looking like being a scissor fob. Come and join in the fun!

Next...have you seen the new margaret sherry kits on the new website. There are some really cute free charts. One is ready for Christmas with a cute kitty holding a stocking and the other is a snail with a Union Jack design on its shell. It's lovely!

Secret stitching sweetheart

2012-01-22T19:22:00.001Z

Thank you to everyone who commented on my last post. We have been so fortunate and our prayers must have worked as our childminder has found out that her health problems are not currently as serious as were first thought and once she has recuperated, she will be minding again. I can't tell you how relieved we are. So we have to struggle on until 10th February but then fingers crossed she will be given the all clear to resume working. She will have to have a major operation in the near future but we are all so thankful that she is on the mend now - not just because of the childcare issues but for her and her family too.

Jo at Serendipitous Stitching is having a fun Valentine's Day activity over on her blog. The secret stitching sweetheart. Don't worry you don't need to make anything in a short space of time. All you need to do is email Jo a photo of something you have stitched for Valentine's Day in the past. When she knows who's joining in she will randomly allocate your photo to someone else. Everyone posts the piccie on 14th February and then the fun begins as you visit all the blogs to see who got yours. Once you find out you reveal yourself as their secret stitching sweetheart. Sounds good? Go and join up then - the more the merrier!!

I haven't had a lot of stitching time this week. But here is my progress for the week. I have been stitching on the RR piece mainly. I would like to finish that in the next couple of weeks. I have really enjoyed the RR as it has been very relaxed. Although it was only a small one with 4 of us, we haven't had a mailing date and have just let everyone know when we were ready to send on. Surprisingly this has worked brilliantly.

Mystery RR piece - not sure who the designer is.
The colour of the fabrice is rubbish. IRL it is lovely!

I have worked on Roots to Grow a bit too. I would love to get this finished and framed. It is a lovely design to stitch and I wish I knew what the fabric was as it is beautiful to stitch on.

This is growing slowly. I love the colours.
Waxing Moon - Roots to grow

I was really naughty in the week and ordered a chart and the threads for it. There was a design on someone's blog and I can't for the life of me remember who it was but anyway I fell in love. The design itself has been around years and has never caught my eye before. As I didn't want to tell Colin about ordering it, I will have to leave it a few weeks before he sees me working on it. Can you guess from the little I have done, what design it is? If you can, I would be seriously impressed. Stay tuned for more progress.

So then what is this mystery piece???
It's actually stitched on DMC ivory fabric.

Finally, Bronny has redesigned her blog background and looks fab. I complimented her on her talents and she reckons it's not that hard. Well I am going to try and do one for myself - see what you've started Bronny? Can anyone give me any tips on getting some really good photos of my stitching so they look a bit 'arty' close up type photos?

Theme-a-licious update 15th January

2012-01-15T16:52:00.000Z

I have posted pictures of my progress so far under the Theme-a-licious tab at the top. So far I have worked on Garden Shed and Roots to grow. Below are some photos of progress so far.

The bottom design is the final part of the RR that I am participating in on facebook. The colours are nowhere near how they have photographed. The fabric is a lovely spring green in real life. I don't know who the designer is for this one.

Our childminder has stopped minding due to health problems and as far as we can decide is unlikely to start up again, which is a shame. Luke especially liked going to her as she took the kids to the park every night that wasn't wet. Luke really needs this to burn off energy after a day at school. He is a livewire and is rarely still. Thankfully at the moment work are being good about me finishing early. It is really hard to know exactly what to do. At nearly 13 many childcare providers won't take Rachael but with her diabetes we can't just let her come home on her own. The after school club is mega expensive and we really can't afford it. To send Luke there every night for a week is about £220 a month if not more and only takes up to 11 years of age. That leaves us still needing care for Rachael. Part of me thinks it may just be easier in the long run to see if I can cut my hours and if not just start looking for another job. It's hard to know what to do for the best.

Both the children were back at school this week. Rachael was particularly glad to be back. She had her school report on Wednesday which was excellent as always. It will be such a shock if we get a bad one from her one day! She is doing really well in all subjects.

I've been playing (oh and some WIPocalypse stitching)

2012-01-08T22:50:00.002Z

I've been playing with backgrounds and stuff for my blog today and haven't really found anything I'm happy with. I would really like something that reflects me and my love of stitching. Maybe I need to learn a bit more or invest in Photoshop. So don't be surprised if you find weird colours, fonts or anything else a bit odd when you visit. If you have any hints, tips or eurgghh why have you done that's to share, please feel free.

That said...on to the stitching news.

I realised I haven't posted a picture of Sam Snowbody. This was for the second leg of the RR group on facebook and was a bit of a challenge being on a small count aida with a huge amount of fractionals in it. I wouldn't be defeated by it though and it is now winging it's way back to USA. I was really pleased with it when I finished it, it does look nice.

Sam Snowbody
unknown designer
Facebook RR group

I have also been stitching on Cut Thru Garden Shed for my WIPocalypse/Theme-a-licious piece this week. I finished the bottom middle part and have been working on both of the right hand side pages. This is where I was on Saturday night.

CutThru garden Shed
Bothy Threads

I didn't get as much done today as I hoped as I took Rachael shopping whilst Colin and Luke watched the United game on TV. We had a lovely time and after we had hit the shops we went to Costa Coffee for a hot chocolate with cream and marshmallows for a treat...mmmmmm...gorgeous!

Sewandso.co.uk have had a sale on recently and I picked up a few bits that everybody else in the family picked out for me to do. Colin liked 2 landscapes by Needlepoise which were £2.49 each so I let him have them! Rachael of course liked the Westie which has a beautifully clear chart to stitch from. Luke likes the Christmas one and I liked the halloween one.

new stash to play with!!

Tiny Treasured Diamond

2012-01-07T13:25:00.000Z

I've just realised that in my last post I didn't add a photo of the Christmas present Rachael sent me. It's really cute. Obviously she has very good taste in stitching stash!!

Tiny Treasured Diamond
Mill Hill

I have just finished the bottom middle page of the Cut Thru Garden Shed. As the last 2 pages are both half pages, I am going to work on both of them at once. I have a bit of the backstitching done but will save the rest until I have finished the stitching now.

Having joined WIPocalypse, I am now going through all the blogs and have discovered some lovely new ones that I've never found before. So not only will I get all my WIPs finished this year (yeah right!) but will also have new blogs to read too.

Happy stitching!

Theme-a-licious / WIPocalypse

2012-01-02T16:21:00.001Z

Ok...so...it's 2012...yay! Happy New Year to you all and happy stitching. I'm not doing a round up of 2011 as I am glad to see the back of it like many other people.
Anyway having signed up for Theme-a-licious and WIPocalypse for 2012 I thought I would start by showing where I am at the start of the month.

I have got the final leg of the RR I'm in to work on this month but will alternate this with working on Cut Thru Garden Shed and Roots to Grow, Wings to Fly. There will probably be more progress on Garden Shed as I would love to get that one finished.

Below is where I am before starting on them.

Roots to Grow/Wings to Fly
Waxing Moon
As of 2nd January 2012

Cut Thru Garden Shed
Bothy Threads
Progress as of 2nd January 2012

Close up of Garden Shed - bottom middle section
Only got the rest of this section and 2 small sections to the right plus the backstitching

Rachael gave me this Mill Hill Tiny Treasured Diamond as a Christmas present. I had to stitch it up and get it on the tree this year! Didn't want her to think I didn't like it.

Miche'le never received the first ornie I stitched her which is a shame so I chose another design and replaced it. The second one arrived on Christmas Eve which was lucky. The design was from Just Cross Stitch Ornament issue but I can't remember what year. I would check but they are hidden away behind the Christmas Tree at the moment.

Just Cross Stitch Ornament Issue

Christmas roundup

2011-12-29T23:57:00.001Z

I had a lovely Christmas with just Colin, Rachael and Luke. My mum decided that she didn't want to come up this year and decided to spend Christmas at home on her own. Our traditions include the kids opening their stockings from Father Christmas on our bed at 6.30am - although if they want to leave it later they can, I really don't mind! After that it's showers, dress and down to open their 'big' Father Christmas presents. Once this is done Colin makes breakfast for us all. Chocolate pains for me and Luke, crumpets for Rachael and croissants for himself. Once these are eaten it's time for teethbrushing and only then can all the gifts under the tree be opened. Each year we take it in turn to choose presents from under the tree for each person to open then once each round is opened, the next person chooses another present for each person.

Rachael being the ripe old age of 12 now decided that she wanted to buy us each a present with her own money (usually she is given the money to do this). Luke got a Diary of a Wimpy Kid book, Colin got a model car and I got a Tiny Treasured Diamond from Mill Hill. I think that is probably the best present I have ever received as she went through my sewandso.com wishlist without my knowledge and chose it before getting Colin to order it for her. Luke gave me the pair of Union Jack flag scissors that I ordered a while back but had forgotten about! Colin bought me 3 pieces of Sparklies fabric, a LK santa chart and some stamps for my collection. There were also other assorted bits and pieces. I was very lucky.

On Christmas Eve we went to midnight mass - at 6pm. The church was packed with standing room only. The children always enjoy this as they know, and usually like, the hymns for it. They found it terribly confusing though this time with the new order of the mass books and the old mass book with the readings etc in. The readings and psalms were completely different to the book. Looking around the church it wasn't just them that were confused though!

Onto stitching news...I have been working on the 2nd round of the RR still. It should have been mailed weeks ago but with my cross stitch lamp bulb going, it has been hard to stitch. There are loads of fractional stitches and it is on aida so I REALLY need my lamp for it. I have now received the new bulb so hopefully will get it wrapped up in the next couple of days. The next leg arrived today and is quite cute although looks like a hard chart to follow. I think I will need to enlarge the chart a bit when I get to it.

I have signed up for Theme-a-licious over on Its all geek to me and have a page at the top with my plans for the year which I will be combining with my WIPocalypse stitching and hopefully make a lot of progress on WIPs throughout the year.

Today our washing machine gave up the ghost. I went to get the washing out of the machine and found it all sopping wet having not spun. I cursed and tried the spin cycle again - nothing! The drum isn't spinning at all....grrrrr. Phoned Colin to let him know - "Are you sure it's not working?" Suffice to say it's a good job he was at work. After looking at the cost to get someone out, we decided that it had proved to be good value and we would send it to washing machine heaven and get a new one. Having spent the day researching, examining and removing powder drawers in the shop that I couldn't then get back in (well if I can't get it back in after I've cleaned it, it's no good) we have settled on an Indesit which seems a really good buy. We will go back and order it tomorrow.

I've noticed a few new followers in the last few days. Welcome and thank you for visiting!

Well that's it for now. Happy New Year if I don't make it back here in the next couple of days.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

2011-12-25T10:53:00.001Z

Merry Christmas to everyone! I hope you all have a great Christmas with everything you need. Thank you for reading my blog over the last year. If you're not celebrating today, just enjoy the break and spending time with family or friends.

Nearly missed it!

2011-11-05T22:58:00.000Z

Today is Guy Fawkes night, bonfire night or fireworks night depending on your age! We have a small box of fireworks in our garden each year. Nothing too mad. Watching the sky around us, I hate to think how much some people must spend....perhaps I'm getting old!

I have been busy trying to get my assignment written today as I'm still not happy with it. I need to get a move on though as it is due in next Friday. So unfortunately I haven't managed to take any photos to show. Maybe tomorrow?

I'm eyeing up something...

2011-11-04T22:19:00.000Z

...what should I do??

I really like Chatelaine designs but I've never stitched one. There's a new one starting soon - Deep Blue Sea. Now Colin has said I can if I want to but I can't decide. I wonder if I would be able to keep up with the parts as they come out or would it end up being an expensive UFO? Is anybody else signed/signing up for this yet? Decisions, decisions.

I've been doing a paediatric first aid course today, day one of a two day course. I wasn't really expecting to have to put it into practice quite so quickly though. Luke came home from football training tonight with a lovely gash on his knee. First aid at school looks to have been minimal so I had to clean it up properly and steristrip it together. Honestly though, the way he is hobbling you would think his leg was in danger of dropping off!

Tomorrow I am planning on getting some pics of my WIP's and updating my page so perhaps there will be something to look at for a change!

Day 3 NaBloPoMo

2011-11-03T22:00:00.001Z

Well, I've made it to day 3!

I have been trying to write an assignment for the last few days all about Bronfenbrenner and his social ecological model. Why on earth do I want a degree when I could have been stitching instead of stressing! I must be completely mad!

At the moment I am working on the second part of the RR from the facebook group. I am stitching - when I'm not writing assignments - on Sam Snowbody which is a Jeanette Crews design. He is cute but it's on aida and the are millions, well it feels like millions, of fractional stitches where the aida block obviously needs splitting.

I thought I may have had loads of advice on stitching on linen from last night's post as sometimes I feel like the only person in the world not using it. I was really surprised not to see a single comment.

Help needed with linen please

2011-11-02T19:56:00.000Z

I have a problem, well I have many but this is a particular problem. I only ever stitch with evenweave or occasionally aida. I never ever ever stitch with linen...I'm to scared. The problem is you see that once upon a time, long long ago, I started stitching Mirabilia's Cottage Garden Fairy on a piece of linen.

I can't remember what it was but just about every stitch I put in was 'hiding' under the threads. I don't know if that's because I stitch 'the wrong way' meaning \\\\\ and then ///// or if I was doing something else wrong but now I am scared to try again. I have got some gorgeous hand dyed linens that people have given me in exchanges etc that are just sat in the drawer and admired until I realise it is linen. So the question is what SHOULD I be doing with this linen....yes ok...obviously stitching on it...lol. Surely someone can help me with my fear! Is there a particular linen type that would help me overcome this problem?

Just in case it makes a difference - my favourite evenweave is jobelan 28ct.

And here endeth the second day.

NaBloPoMo

2011-11-01T21:05:00.000Z

Ok Dani has challenged the world - well her blog readers/followers to join her in NaBloPoMo this month. All you have to do is post to your blog every day. I accepted the challenge, after all, how hard can it be..hehehe.

Well that's one day done anyway.

Still stitching!

2011-10-21T12:38:00.000+01:00

I know I haven't posted for ages but I have still been stitching a bit.

Once the children go back to school in September I have far less time to stitch what with being back at work, running the children to and from activities etc. This year I am having a lunch break at work which I have always managed to avoid so far. The downside is that I now work til 4 instead of 3.30 but I can generally have 30 minutes uninterrupted stitching at lunchtime, if I am lucky!

I have signed up for a new module with the Open University which started a couple of weeks ago. So far I am enjoying it but there is an exam at the end of it so that could change...lol. It is 'Working with children, young people and families'. After that there will only be another 2 modules and I will have a degree! Sadly that is still 2 and a half years away because of start dates for them. I could do 2 modules at the same time but I don't think I could cope with the work and still have a life!

Amanda is trying to get Tiny Treasures Too up and running again and organised a Christmas ornament exchange for us. This is the exchange piece I stitched for Miche'le (Hoki Quilts) but she hasn't received it yet. I'm getting a bit worried as I posted it on 27th September but I suppose it does have a way to go!

Joyeux Noel ornament from here
stitched with recommended threads
exchange piece for Tiny Treasure Too

This is the ornament I received from Melissa which is gorgeous. The photo really doesn't do it justice. She said that it was the first time she had made cording and has done a smashing job of it. I really wouldn't have known. Thank you Melissa.

Ornament received from Melissa
Tiny Treasures Too Exchange

I originally stitched something completely different for Miche'le. I saw these charts in a cross stitch magazine and made a back to back ornament for her. However, when I stitched the two sides together I wasn't happy with my making up so decided not to send it to her. I didn't want to bin it so made it up into a little Christmas scissor keep for myself instead. It's not the best thing I have ever made but it will do!

Below is one of the Fat Flakes Snowman - Pam's RR piece. I have these to stitch in my stash (one day, when I get round to them...hehe) and had forgotten how cute they were. I really enjoyed stitching him and will be looking forward to seeing the finished RR in a few months time.

Fat Flakes - Jeanette Crews Designs
Pam's RR
Recommended threads (DMC)

Poll is up

2011-09-04T10:09:00.000+01:00

As mentioned in my post last night, the poll is now up for what to do with Plum Pudding. Hopefully no one will choose the last option but you never know! Please leave a comment here if you have another idea or a link to how you finished yours if you have stitched this design. I would love some ideas. You can choose several different finishes in the poll if you want to.

Thanks for voting!

Good News, great stash and other news!

2011-09-03T21:58:00.002+01:00

I'm going to start with our day out yesterday. We went to a National Trust place called Sudbury Hall and Museum of Childhood which was fab. We parked up and had our picnic on a grass bank near the car park to save having to carry it round the Hall. The kids wanted to do the museum first but unfortunately you couldn't use flash photography so there are no photos of it. The exhibits were brilliant. There was a room where you could pretend to be a chimney sweep with 2 fireplaces that you crawled up one, along and down the other one. Rachael has reached that awful preteen age where something like that is 'so not cool' and wouldn't do it. Luke didn't want to go on his own so didn't try it either.

Then we went to the Victorian Schoolroom for a 'proper' Victorian lesson. Rachael waited outside as that wasn't cool either! We had to sit down and clean our slates. The teacher (Miss Savage) then came and inspected our hands/nails - I got told off for wearing jewellery. We had to write the date in neat script, then had to do a 'reading' exercise followed 'spelling'. Colin was picked out as a good speller of today's words and had to go to the front to say them for the rest of the class. Miss Savage then asked him to do yesterday's spellings which of course he didn't know. He was then given the dunce's cap and told to stand in the corner. It was so hilarious....I so wish I had the camera to hand. Priceless!!!

In another gallery there were 3 bedrooms on the ceiling all done up to look like authentic periods. I think it was Victorian, 1970's and around 2000. The room guide asked Rachael if she could come back on Tuesday to help change the sheets. Bizarrely Rachael later asked me if she was joking.

The back of Sudbury Hall

A VERY, VERY rare photo of me

There was this amazingly huge chair in the grounds.
Just so you can get some idea of the size, I'm 5' 7" (tall not round!)

I ordered some fabric earlier in the week from Pelenna Patchworks ready for finishing a couple of items. Unsurprisingly, the Christmas pudding one is for the Plum Pudding design that I finished stitching last week. I can't decide how to finish it though. If you read this far, I have put a poll up for ideas on how to finish it so please help me decide. The one on the right is for my Tree of Stitches (which you can see an update on further down the page.)

Pelenna Patchwork fabric

A really lovely surprise this week was from Colin. I told him the log in for my wishlist at Sew and So just to allow him plenty of time to organise himself for Christmas. He had taken a look and ordered me some things for a treat. Bless his cotton socks!!

Colin's treat to me! The fabic is a large piece of white jobelan which
is my favourite fabric and a colour I had run short of.

Each week, WOCS has a Friday freebie on their facebook page - or did until facebook decided that it was no longer allowed. All you had to do was to 'like' the freebie post - so I did - and out of 1430 people, I won!! I got a laplight. I am so chuffed! (chuffed means pleased if you're not local!)

My prize win. A laplight!

With everything that has been going on all week with getting ready for me and the children going back to school, stitching has had to take something of a back seat. There has been a few stitches put in my Tree of Stitches which I really want to get finished now I have the backing fabric for it. I love this design but I'm having such trouble with the cushion stitch, I don't know why but it is just really hard going. One of the silks I am using is really springy which is part of the problem I think, but it really shouldn't be the most difficult stitch.....grrrrrrrr.

Tree of Stitches - Abi Gurden
This was a SAL on The Stitch Specialists Yahoo Group

Close up of the stitches. I have unpicked the cushion stitches at the top as I wasn't
happy with the coverage with one strand. They are being restitched with 2.

It might be possible to see a little progress on my Cut Thru Garden Shed. I really love this one and will be sad when I finish it. Oh well I have several more Cut Thru's in my stash! Congratulations if you made it all the way to the bottom of the post.

Bothy Threads - Cut Thru Garden Shed

Stitching and pickling

2011-08-28T21:44:00.000+01:00

Thankfully my back is much, much better. It's not quite right yet but I can move reasonably freely. Standing or walking for very long is still difficult but I'm getting there!

This week I did something I've never done before - pickling! We harvested some of the beetroot from the allotment. Colin boiled and peeled them, so I pickled them. The first ones we had were delicious!

Our first 2 jars of pickled beetroot!

Stitching wise this week - I have completed Libra for the RR but forgot to take a photo before I posted it. I also did a little bit of stash shopping too - you know the way your finger 'accidentally' presses checkout whilst looking!! I ordered 2 JBW designs: Plum Pudding and Christmas Bells and some new gold needles. Once they arrived I couldn't help but have a look to see if I had some fabric for Plum Pudding...and then of course I had to check the threads too. Well...whilst I'm getting everything together I might as well put a few stitches in as well. So here is my 'few stitches'. Oops - well at least it's not going to be another WIP/UFO lol.

JBW Designs - Plum Pudding
Fabric - unknown was just lurking in my stash
Threads - GAST / WDW as charted

I did a little bit on She sells seashells...but not much!

And that's it for stitching this week. I'm going to pick up Garden Shed in a minute to work on. My eyes are feeling a little sore so aida will not strain them so much!

Hurricane Irene

2011-08-27T22:22:00.000+01:00

Just want everyone in the path of Irene to know that I'm thinking of you and hoping that you all stay safe. Luckily we don't get things like this in England so I can only imagine what it is like for you but I hope you all come through it safe and sound. Remember possessions can be replaced but YOU can't so do what you need to.

This week's progress

2011-08-21T23:22:00.000+01:00

This week has been a bit on and off for stitching. I hurt my back earlier in the week - by getting washing out of the machine. How ridiculous is that? Honestly, who injures themselves sorting out laundry! I have tried resting it and gentle exercise and so far neither have made much difference.

Colin took the photos for me this week and you can have a guess as to which one he described as "that's probably the most boring photo I have ever taken in my life".

I have worked on my RR piece this week which is now going to be the remainder of the Zodiac cats RR. As it is just a blob of white on white, I spared Colin having to take the second most boring photo of his life too!"

I have ~~worked on~~ started CCN "She sells seashells" but haven't made an awful lot of progress on it so far. I am stitching it on Kiwi Illusions 'bourbon' which is gorgeous and has a lovely feel to it (I think it is Jazlyn). It does look slanted on the photo but it's not really.

Possibly the most boring photo Colin ever took!
CCN - She Sells Seashells
Fabric - Kiwi Illusions Bourbon
Threads - CC called for

There has been some progress made on the Wedding Sampler this week but not a lot! This design is really growing on me the more I stitch it. It's still not something I would want for myself but I am enjoying it a lot more than I was. Interestingly it made me realise the other day that I never stitched anything for our wedding day or for either of the children being born!

Helen and Kev's wedding sampler
Janlynn - Married this Day

Whilst blog hopping recently, I have seen loads of lovely "Tree of Stitches". I am in love. Thankfully Abi Gurden who runs/moderates/designs The Stitch Specialists yahoo group let me in! I have made a start on my Tree of Stitches and so far I'm loving it. I chose to go for a dramatic, contrasting look and am using a piece of Sparklies fabric in 'fire' with The Thread Gatherer silk. I am using another silk but the name escapes me at the moment.

Tree of Stitches - Abi Gurden - The Stitch Specialists on Yahoo
Fabric - Sparklies Fire 28ct lugana
Trunk - GAST Blackcurrant
Leaves - The Thread Gatherer Blue Violet and HDF unknown

Small change to Rachael's westie

2011-08-20T12:30:00.000+01:00

All week I have been looking at Rachael's westie with a sort of a hmmmmmm........not quite happy sort of a look. I decided that I didn't like the puffiness of the cube or the way the fabric round the sides didn't look tight enough and the bow didn't look quite big enough either. So I took it all apart and made another cube. For the cube I used a piece of the insulating foam that came in Rachael's CGMS sensor box which is really dense although quite easy to cut.

2nd attempt at making a bow. It's a bit bigger this time which Rachael said she wanted

Colin has said that he will take photos of me making a bow to show how I did it - so what this space for a "tutorial" if you're interested. I have to warn you though I am left handed which will probably make a difference!

I will post some pictures of my week's progress later - the camera battery died after this photo so it's on charge at the moment.

A new finish

2011-08-13T22:40:00.000+01:00

This must be a record - 3 posts in one day!

This afternoon Rachael was having a root through my WIP/UFO box which I'd left out and discovered the Westie I had made a start on for her. She was so thrilled with the progress so far that she gave me a big hug, big kiss and told me I was the best mum EVER! Well who could resist carrying on with something after that. I knew that it wouldn't really take long to complete the stitching, it was only a diddy chart after all. The funniest bit was the countdown from 36 stitches 27 to go, 24, 17 etc.

Cross Stitch Crazy magazine
Westie

Once it was finished she had a root through my fabric and ribbon boxes having decided she wanted it finished the same way as 'love you to the moon'. The cube was one I had bought at some time and I didn't find it as easy to work with as the one I made. It seemed much softer.

Rachael chose all the colours for this.
Incidentally the cushion behind is one Rachael made at
school last year. Her first ever attempt!

I have never made a ribbon like this and although it isn't perfect, I am really pleased with how it turned out. Rachael is ever so chuffed with it so I am glad I caved in to her and finished it. Of course now I need to do something small for Luke so if you know where there are any free charts of Man Utd players or at least in red, let me know!

Progress this week

2011-08-13T15:12:00.001+01:00

I have been concentrating on the wedding sampler for most of the week although saying that I haven't managed to get a lot of stitching done. This is my progress so far. There are constant colour changes in this - 3 or 4 stitches and I'm snipping the threads again. It does seem to be stitching up quite quickly though once I get in the flow of it.

I mentioned previously that I was going to participate in a RR again for the first time in ages. As there was only going to be 3 of us in the group, I chose a trio of sunset designs from World of Cross Stitch magazine which are gorgeous! We have now had another lady join us to make a 4 so it is back to the drawing board - what a hardship to have to go stash fondling! This is how far I had got with stitching my part of the designs. The colours are so vibrant and are a real joy to stitch. I must make sure this doesn't become a UFO.

Last night I fancied a complete change from the wedding sampler and decided to root through the WIP/UFO box. Roots to grow, wings to fly caught my eye so I managed to put a couple of lengths of thread in that before needing an early night. I can't for the life of me remember what the fabric is but it is absolutely gorgeous to hold as you're stitching. Might be a Silkweaver possibly but no idea which one.

Scissor Update

2011-08-13T09:31:00.000+01:00

'Spoke' to Jo and abcstitch.com have got them. Woohoo! Thanks for the advice! I'm a happy bunny.

Dinky Dyes Patriotic Scissors - UK

2011-08-12T17:57:00.001+01:00

Arrrrggggghhhhh! I have been trying to find somewhere that is going to order/stock the Dinky Dyes scissors with the Union Jack design over them. I can't find anyone! Does anyone know where I can get them from? I don't mind whether it is UK or US. Please help!!! Thanks!

WIP update

2011-08-07T22:20:00.001+01:00

I have been working on the wedding sampler all week - on and off, in the hope that it may be finished soon. It is driving me mad though with all the colour changes every few stitches. The design isn't really my cup of tea (it was chosen bySIL and hubby) which I don't think is helping matters. Still it's getting there slowly! If you compare it to the Wip's page it is possible to see progress.

Helen and Kev's Wedding Sampler

I have recently joined a RR group on facebook and will be starting that in September. It is ages since I have been involved in a RR so I am really looking forward to it. I haven't decided on a theme yet though so need to get my thinking cap on!

Lyme Park and a finish!

2011-08-03T20:57:00.002+01:00

Back in March/April we joined the National Trust for the year but so far we haven't been anywhere! All that changed at the weekend when we took a ride out to Lyme Park which was only 30 minutes in the car. It was a pretty hot day so we had a gentle stroll up to The Cage which is an old hunting lodge. It was all boarded over so there wasn't much to see but the views were amazing!

On the walk up (and back) we could hear grasshoppers and Luke was desperate to find one. We kept telling him how hard they can be to catch but he wasn't for giving up. I was watching the path as I was walking as it was a little rough when suddenly one jumped across right in front of me!!

Rear of the Meadow Grasshopper

Front view of the Meadow Grasshopper

Meadow Grasshopper - side on

With Colin being the least squeamish of us all, (I don't mind looking but I'm not holding) he managed to catch hold of it.

The estate was used for Pride and Prejudice where Darcy meets Elizabeth.

On to cross stitch news. As you may have noticed if you've visited in the last week or so, I have been tweaking my blog. One thing I have added is a WIP/UFO page. It was quite an interesting couple of hours sorting through my projects that have been started and taking photos of them all. Hopefully I have managed to find them all from their hiding places! Taking the time to do this has actually led to two small finishes. One has been 'filed' for finishing up later but the other I got the urge to finish up today.

Waxing Moon's "I love you to the moon and back" has been a WIP/UFO for...... errrrrrmmm.....well let's just say a long time and leave it at that. As far as I could remember there wasn't a particular reason other than time/life putting a halt to it.....or so I thought!

Actually, once I picked it back up again I remembered that I hated the fabric it was on, hated trying to stitch neatly with 3 strands of thread and wasn't enamoured with the 'unbalanced' feel to the outer design. I decided to persevere with the first 2 and ploughed on with it. However, I really couldn't get over the swirls and stars not being symmetrical. So I changed it! Down the sides where the pink stars are should be a star at the top and a swirly bit underneath. I recharted this to make it 2 stars instead. I also changed over the colours. The stars in the corners should have been stitched with the yellow but I thought they would match the moon much better if they were nearer that colour. I was really pleased with how it turned out.

As for finishing it, I decided that I would like to do my first ever cube finish. So armed with Hannah's finishing tutorial I got cracking! I have to say I am really thrilled with how it turned out.

front view

I love this little moon button

Side fabric and ribbon

backing fabric

The other finish I had was a santa design that I was going to do for my first ever ornie. Not sure how many I have made in the meantime but it finally got finished!

Should have been my first ever ornie...but wasn't to be!

That's all for now! Congratulations if you have managed to read all the way to the bottom!

Progress on Cut Thru Garden Shed

2011-07-24T19:11:00.001+01:00

I have been working intermittently on my Garden Shed. Yesterday I decided to make a start on the back stitch as I hate back stitch and thought it might become a UFO once the cross stitch was complete. Once I started the back stitch I found I couldn't put it down. I was amazing how the design sprang to life as each little bit was outlined. So far I have completed 2 pages of back stitch and once I have done the last page on the left I will finish stitching the middle bottom section and back stitch the middle column too. As a leftie this means I won't have to hold what I have already completed then.

So without further ado, here's my progress...

Rachael finished school on Friday and was voted pupil of the year in her form which was a lovely way for her to end the year.

Not quite a year....but close!

2011-07-21T20:59:00.001+01:00

Hi everyone/anyone

I was abducted by aliens and have only just managed to get back to planet Earth...er no...that's not it. Ermmm no, I'm afraid I don't have a good excuse really. I just was too busy to stitch and because I wasn't stitching, I didn't blog either. Quite a lot has happened over the last year.

I have completed E111 with the Open University and am just waiting for the results of my final assignment. After that I will be having a break from studying - basically because I can't afford another £770 for the next module at this moment in time. I'm loving my job and will be doing only special needs in September. I won't be helping in class unless the Year 6 teacher needs me particularly. The only downside is that I have lost 'my' room and will be working in whatever space I can find around school.

Like many people Colin (DH) is up for redundancy or redeployment at the moment. Neither of these are a good prospect as his job would relocate to Preston instead of central Manchester. He has to make a decision by Monday as to what he wants to do. Apart from that, he's fine.

Rachael has completed her first year at High School. She has thoroughly enjoyed Year 7 and has made fantastic progress. She had an awards ceremony last Monday and got the RE attitude to learning award as well as a trophy for 100% attendance. Out of approximately 500 pupils there were only 10 that got their 100% award. The teachers and staff at school have been amazing with her diabetes and have really kept an eye on her to ensure everything is ok whilst giving her independence. If there is anything out of the ordinary, they always ring unlike Primary school who expected her to get on with it and didn't support her in any way, shape or form.

Luke has had a great year at school too with a real turn around in his attitude and progress. He has had an amazing teacher who has only just qualified but is dedicated to making a difference. His school report was straight A's and behaviour rated as excellent (highest possible). This was something I never thought I would see on Luke's report! He has been involved with loads of sports this year and made the swim team at school. His football team have done well and made the cup final - they lost. Luke has been an ever present on the A team this year though and won Most Improved Player of the Year award.

A couple of weeks ago, I was sorting my stash and being brutally honest with whether I would ever stitch things although probably still not as honest as I could have been! I found a couple of charts that I had forgotten I had and decided to see if I could pull the threads for them. I stitched up "Stressed..." in a couple of nights and then got the other one out and did that. On Monday I decided I wanted to stitch a little something for Luke's teacher to say thanks. As they broke up Wednesday I had to hurry but managed it. Luke said she was delighted with it.

I really won't be leaving it so long to blog next time! Thanks for still reading if you have!

Cut Thru Garden Shed - update

2010-08-05T17:27:00.003+01:00

Thank you for the comments about being missing. It was great to know that there are still people reading my blog.

Here, as promised, is my update on the Garden Shed. I have to admit that I have really enjoyed getting back to this one. It is a nice easy stitch with some blocks that are a good size and the odd fiddly bit just to keep my interest. I would like to finish page 6 before the children go back to school in September.

No longer missing in action!

2010-08-03T20:06:00.006+01:00

And I thought that not posting for 2 months was bad when I posted last time! With coursework, kids activities and all sorts of other things stopping me from stitching I haven't blogged because I'm not sure that anyone else wants to know what else I am up to!

I have been trying to make at least 15 minutes a day to get a bit of stitching done. I have made a ring cushion for my mum's friend. She got married on 26th July. This was the first time I have done Hardanger on such a scale and the thought of actually cutting the threads had me shaking every time I got the scissors near it! The photos have come out really dark but it is a really beautiful design from Col's Creations. The bride and groom both loved it apparently!

I also made a wall hanging for Rachael's teacher as she was leaving primary school and he has been a fantastic teacher. He is a huge Nottingham Forest fan so I got a chart of their badge and used that as well as personalising it for him.

Mr Whittle seemed to be pleased with it too according to Rachael.

I am absolutely determined to finish something biggish this year. I am concentrating on Bothy Threads Cut Thru Garden Shed. The chart is over 9 pages and so far I have done 5 pages of actual stitching. There is masses and masses of back stitch which I will have to do after the stitching is finished. I will post a progress picture after tonight' stitching and then try to do an update once a week.

Arghh......it's over 2 months!!

2009-12-30T16:17:00.002Z

Oh Crikey.........2 months!!!!

I haven't done hardly any stitching at all with doing my autism course. It is proving to be a bit more demanding that any of the other courses I have done. I suspect that is because I haven't got any previous knowledge of the subject to draw on. It is a very interesting course though and I would recommend it to anyone.

Lindsay sent me a gorgeous PIF a while ago. It is a cute little biscornu. Thank you Lindsay and sorry it took me so long to let you know. She also sent me some lovely threads to go with it. The batteries are flat in the camera so I will have to get some new ones to post a pic.

As for stitching goals this year, I really failed miserably with them! I have revised them for 2010. I kept the ones that I haven't managed to do and would like to stitch an ornament a month again (think I managed 6 this year in the end).

I WILL NOT START ANYTHING NEW UNTIL I HAVE FINISHED AT LEAST 6 THINGS.

Anything that is a WIP/UFO currently is fair game to be worked on during the year.

I will not buy any new stash other than magazines this year but I would like a piece of fabric for a halloween project so hopefully someone (Colin are you reading this?) will get me that for my birthday.

Not much has happened really in the 2 months I haven't posted.

I started my new job which is challenging but enjoyable.
Rachael became a junior playleader at school and helps at dinnertime to keep the younger children amused and happy.
Rachael is training as a peer mediator at school so she can help children with minor counselling issues at playtimes etc.
Luke was voted onto the school council to represent his class (25 votes to 7 as he keeps telling me!)
I passed my last OU course which I was pleased about and was only a few marks off getting a distinction which would have been nice.
Rachael performed in her first recorder concert which was brilliant and we all really enjoyed it.

If you have made it this far feel free to give yourself a pat on the back! I will try to post more regularly in 2010 - perhaps that should be one of my goals too!!

***** HAPPY NEW YEAR *****

Halloween Exchange received

2009-10-23T20:58:00.004+01:00

I received my Halloween Exchange yesterday and it is absolutely gorgeous! The green and orange fabric is much brighter in real life - the flash washed it out a bit. The cross stitch is perfect, I wish mine was that nice! The teddy has been named as Pumpkin by the children and so far I have been allwed to keep him! The variagated thread is a lovely colour too and will come in handy once I get back into some hardanger. There is also a piece of the green backing fabric too.

Thank you for all your kind thoughts on my car trouble last week - they really are much appreciated.

What gives them the right to....

2009-10-20T14:04:00.003+01:00

...smash my car window and see if I have anything worth stealing? I took the children to the cinema on Sunday afternoon and came out to find my window smashed. It was little consolation to see several other cars in the same predicament.

The cinema staff were great, the manager filled out a report and filed it with the police and sent two members of staff to clear all the glass so we could drive home. We had forensics come out yesterday and they found several sets of fingerprints, however, I'm guessing that one set will be mine, one set Colin's and probably the other set will be the guy who fixed the glass in the window.

The insurance company were good too. The window was repaired Sunday night, the cheque for my personal belongings will be in the post in the next couple of days and the garage are collecting the car tomorrow to repair the bit of the door where the thieves had prised it. So if you are renewing your insurance LV are now highly recommended in my eyes!

I was really surprised that the police have taken it so seriously. I was expecting it to be a case of here's a crime number and off you go. They really have been really helpful and although I don't actually expect them to catch anyone at least it is being treated well. Amazing really when they have so many more serious crimes possibly to deal with!

The two ladies who came to do the fingerprints, obviously took mine as elimination but they also took Luke's for him too because he was so interested in what they were doing! They don't take prints like they do on TV though!

The Blog Frog

2009-10-17T23:09:00.003+01:00

After seeing the link on Daffycat's blog, I have signed up for Theblogfrog too. It should be great to see everyone's blogs and hopefully I will discover some new blogs too.

How's this for customer service? I emailed The Daylight Company about my bulb dying on me so shortly after purchase and was told that they don't guarantee the bulbs because it depends on how often and for how long they are used etc. In the post today was a new bulb free of charge from them. Fantastic customer service from them and I can get back to some stitching...woohoo!!

Thank you for all your comments on my new job, I really appreciate them. I'm really excited but a bit apprehensive too. It's very different to what I have been doing in school but is going to be a role where I could really make a different to someone's achievement in school.

Fantastic News!!

2009-10-15T20:00:00.002+01:00

I had a job interview today........and.........I GOT IT!!!!!

I start on 2nd November as a teaching assistant working one to one supporting a lad who is one exclusion away from permanent exclusion. Should be a challenge!

I go in next week to thrash out my exact hours, role and whatnot before starting. I'm quite excited.

On a not so positive note...I can't do any stitching at the minute because the bulb has gone in my lamp. My eyesight these days is not good enough to stitch on anything other than 14 count aida in the dark and gloomy evenings so no stitching til I get another bulb!

I finally posted off my final assignment for my last OU course. Now I just have to wait until the end of December for the result. In a couple of weeks the next course starts which is Understanding the Autistic Spectrum. Should be interesting and relates to work this time.

Think Pink

2009-10-07T21:28:00.002+01:00

This is just a little quickie for anyone that lives near a Hobbycraft. They have got a fantastic pink bolt of fabric for breast cancer awareness. It is pink - obviously - with tiny little pink ribbons on it. Would be a fab backing fabric. It was £13 something a metre but I think you can get as little as 10 cm unless that has changed. I know a lot of ladies stitch for this cause. If anyone wants me to pick some up for them email me and let me know.

My bulb has given up the ghost in my lamp - I'm so cross as it isn't very long since I bought it. I have emailed Daylight to see what they say but I don't expect to hear anything much back. We shall see!!

Thank you for all the comments you leave, although I don't tend to respond to them generally, I do appreciate every single comment. It is always nice to discover new blogs through the comments too. Thank you for visiting!!

Halloween exchange

2009-10-05T20:23:00.003+01:00

I have heard that my halloween exchange arrived safely, so here is what I stitched for it. It is the Brittercup Designs ornie from Just Cross Stitch Halloween issue 2008. I left off the heart in the end. It was fun to stitch but was actually the first time I had stitched a whole design over 1. I would still like to do this one for myself sometime too.

Rachael went back to school today. She is still complaining of earache but is much better in herself and has finished the antibiotics. Hopefully the earache will keep clearing and not get worse again!

I'm still stitching the needlebook for the exchange so can't show that. Well actually I say still stitching, I found one that I liked even better so I have started stitching that for my exchange partner instead. Summer in Sussex is comming on great and hopefully I will be ready to begin construction by the end of the week. I will take some photos tomorrow when there is decent light and post my progress.

New stash to fondle

2009-10-02T11:04:00.004+01:00

Long long ago...well March in fact, I received a gift certificate for Downsunshinelane.com which is definitely my favourite ONS. As I wanted the JCS ornament issue, Amy held the rest of the order for me until it was in. Today it arrived!!!

I got some finishing forms to try as I would like some round ornies but there isn't much chance of me doing that with my finishing skills without a bit of cheating! L*K Housework never killed anyone, Winter thread pal and Winter Wonderland chart to complete it, CCN Mermaids, Nora Corbett Bluebell and Letter R, Blue Ribbons Behind the Gate and of course the magazine too. Our postie must have wondered what was up with me. I had rung the sorting office this morning to see if they were delivering it today as I had paid the customs charge on Wednesday so I knew it was on its way. He knocked on the door and I opened it with a huge grin on my face and near enough snatched it off him! Well it makes a change from bills and junk mail!!

Rachael has been poorly all week with an ear infection and flu symptoms. She was seen by the doctor on Monday and given anti biotics that are apparently her first lot since she was 1. I find that really hard to believe although in truth I can't remember her having any. She is 10 now so I suppose that must show she is a pretty healthy child - well apart from her diabetes...lol.

I am working on a needlebook for the Tiny Treasures Too exchange at the moment so once again my stitching is secret. I have also made a start on Summer in Sussex but have only done half the roof so far which means it is not really worth a progress piccie at the minute.

Don't forget there is still time to vote in the poll over on the right. It seems people mainly start in the middle still at the moment.

Poll added

2009-09-28T11:53:00.002+01:00

I just want to be nosy, so I have added a poll to the top of the right side bar. I am curious about where people start stitching from when starting a new project. If you want to comment to explain your reasons for where you start from where you do please leave a comment on this post. If I am using a frame and my stand, I like to start from the bottom left. The reason for this is because I stitch with my left hand under the frame and my right hand on top. That way I don't put my hand on the stitching so much whilst stitching. However, If I am stitching in hand, I prefer to start from the top left and work down and then across so that my left hand is stitching and my right hand holds the fabric so again there is not too much contact with my stitches.

Autumn exchange arrived

2009-09-27T15:01:00.003+01:00

Lisa posted that her autumn exchange has arrived so I can post a pic of it now - thank you for letting me steal the pic Lisa. I finished as a pin keep. It was the first time I had made one and as it was so easy I think I will be making more of them now. Unfortunately I just couldn't make a bow that looked half way decent so it ended up without one. If anyone knows of a "complete idiot's guide to making a bow" please let me know where it is!!

I have finished the exchange piece for the halloween exchange and that will be on it's way to its new owner tomorrow. Once it's received I will post a pic.

Luke was substitute for his team yesterday. They were playing one of the better teams in the league and he came on just before half time. Unfortunately about 5 minutes after half time he gifted the opposition a goal for them to go 2-1 up. He was determined to make up for his error and then played a cracking 15 minutes of really good football and one of his team mates scored to make the final score 2-2. It was actually a really fair result as both teams played really well and neither deserved to lose.

I have signed up for another Open University course which will start in November. This time I am going for Understanding the Autistic Spectrum which although covering just about every issue surrounding the various conditions also covers education so should be helpful with job hunting too.

Baptism

2009-09-22T17:22:00.005+01:00

Rachael and Luke were both baptised on Sunday. It was a lovely ceremony and the priest at our new church is great. He is always cracking jokes. His sermons are really interesting too which is good for the children! They will both be making their First Communion next year and I got to go to the first sacremental programme meeting last night. Somehow I managed to volunteer to do a reading in church...it's not just God that moves in mysterious ways, my mouth does too sometimes! Luckily I have until 19th December to practice and get word perfect!! Both the children are looking forward to making their First Communion but Luke is particularly excited because all his friends did theirs last year and he felt a bit left out. Rachael is at the back (obviously!!) and on the left. The girl on the right is her best friend who was also Baptised at the same time.

This week and next we have the joy of trawling around the local high schools to try and find one that is good enough to send the kids to for the next 5 years. Unfortunately they are a bit thin on the ground round here. The worst one has only recently come out of special measures (for international readers - that means it was so bad they got someone else to run it and improve it!) and it is merging with the half decent one at some point in the next couple of years. The one at the end of our road is fab and we are really hoping that Rachael will get in there and that Luke can then join her in 2 years time. We have to apply by 16th October but don't find out until March where she will go.

I have been stitching for exchanges recently so there is no stitching progress to show.

continued...

2009-09-16T10:27:00.003+01:00

Arrrgghhhhh.....what is going on with blogger???

With the last post I kept trying and trying to load another photo of my other finishes and it really is not having it!

So here is the photo of them! The middle one is off centre but not as badly as it looks in this picture! The other 2 still need making up before they can be added to my ornie total for the year. I am really behind with my original idea of one a month!

I have also been stitching for the autumn/halloween exchange but as they haven't reached their new homes yet I can't share them for the moment. One though became my first ever pinkeep which was much easier than I thought it would be.

Some finishes

2009-09-16T09:45:00.003+01:00

I really don't know what has happened with my blog. My photo was uploaded the wrong way no matter what way I orientated it before uploading and now i can't rearrange my photos so that I can put my stitching first. So if you want to know what I have been stitching first you will need to scroll past the first bits!

Rachael always walks in the Denton Carnival each year with her dance group. This year they were dressed as zombies and performed to Thriller and the Monster Mash among others. We had great fun making the costume. Here's a tip if you ever need cheap dye for costumes - washable paint doesn't wash out properly! No matter what black poster paint I have bought the kids it has ever washed out when they have got it on clothes. So to save buying dye I put half a pot of black paint in an OLD washing up bowl with a bit of water to cover the clothes and left it to soak overnight. I then put it through the washing machine a couple of times to make sure that it if rained Rachael wouldn't end up with paint streaks running down her!! The clothes ended up a great zombie grey/black colour. We used a whole tube of black mascara on her hair with talc over the top of that and white facepaints with dark grey eyeshadow all around her eyes.

I joined the halloween/autumn exchange on Exchange Heaven and received my autumn exchange from Chris. It is fabulous and beautifully finished. I love it and it matches the walls in our lounge perfectly.

I have been doing a bit of Christmas stitching and finishing lately. Below is a very old design I had stitched but never done anything with. As I don't like Winnie the Pooh any more, I'm not sure what will happen to it now!

Happy Dancing!!

2009-09-01T10:36:00.004+01:00

I finished My Child last night! I don't know how long this has been a WIP/UFO but it was uploaded in my Webshots in September 2004 as a WIP so a fair while...lol.

Now this is finished I have decided to find another WIP/UFO that has been going for a while. So now I am working on It Never Rains which is a Country Companions design. That one has been going since at least October 2003 so it really is time it was finished. I have also signed up for a Halloween/Autumn exchange so will stitch something for those too. I think I have found some nice designs so I need to just narrow it down a bit.

2009-08-30T21:13:00.006+01:00

I have absolutely no idea why this photo is on it's side. I have uploaded it several times with different rotations but it still it comes up on its side!!

The full verse will read:
I hope that my child looking back on today
Remembers a mother who had time to play
Children grow up whilst your not looking
There'll be years ahead for cleaning and cooking
So quiet down cobwebs; dust go to sleep
I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

The photo above is the start of sunflower fairy - yes I know I was supposed to finish My Child first but it was calling my name too loudly!! The one below is of the floss toss to choose the fabric. It's quite peachy looking and made me think of a background of blurry flowers for her.

And finally, this is Luke playing for his football team in a tournament. He only signed on for them recently. His enthusiasm is greater than his talent but he started 4 of the games today and came on as substitute for another one.

Lost kitten

2009-08-29T19:33:00.005+01:00

We found a little lost kitten last Sunday, or rather it found us. The poor mite wandered into our back garden during the afternoon. It poured down all afternoon with it just sat under our car to keep dry. We all hummed and haaed as to what to do with it - obviously we were hoping that it would toddle off home again. Unfortunately it sat there and sat there. Eventually we decided to pop it in the shed. We can't have it in the house because we already have three cats and we didn't want to upset the balance. We found an old box and some jumpers and towels to make a bed up for it and got some food and water. He was quite happy to spend most of his time in the shed although he had open access to the outside. We didn't close the door completely. He settled down immediately and was quite happy there. The kids are absolutely besotted with him. Rachael gave him a really good brush through and cuddled him to bits. I have never seen a cat or kitten so friendly and so obviously craving human company. You only have to look at him and he starts to purr.

On Monday we put up posters and made some flyers. We took them all round the houses (in the pouring rain!) We rang all the rescue shelters, police station, vets etc and no-one has reported him as missing. One of the rescue shelters wanted £20 to take him in! Finally today, a lovely lady from the RSPCA came to the house and she has taken him. She thinks there will be no trouble in rehoming him as he is so friendly. The fact that he is so good with the children will stand him in good stead and he has such a loveable face too! I am so glad that he will be going to a good home in the next couple of weeks. Rachael was a little disappointed that he was gone when she got home from her sleepover but both the kids are glad he will get rehomed.

On a stitching front, I am working on a very old WIP/UFO. It is called My Child and has a lovely verse that for some bizarre reason makes me cry every time I read it in full. I wanted to put a piccie up of it but Colin has got the camera at the moment. I have completed the border and am about half way through the verse. Hopefully I will have it finished in the next week, but I need to get my assignment done too so may not! It's so gorgeous though, I have been wondering how it ever became a WIP in the first place!

First Prize

2009-08-20T12:30:00.003+01:00

We got a letter from the Garden Competition organisers today. Colin has won first prize in the Best Patio/Yard competition. We get to go to a presentation ceremony on 10th September to collect the prize. I am not sure what it is but when he won second prize 2 years ago, he got £50. The children were really excited and want to know if they can be in any photos that are taken. It's nice to get some good news for a change!!

Sunflower Fairy

2009-08-19T14:59:00.002+01:00

My Valdani threads arrived today. They are gorgeous colours and I can't wait to start Sunflower Fairy. I did a floss toss this morning to decide on a fabric and I think I will problably go with Day Dream from The Blended Needle which is an orangy pinky colour. I can't find where I put the camera at the moment to put a piccie up but as soon as I do, I will!!

Our Garden

2009-08-11T18:58:00.004+01:00

I thought I would show a few pics of some of the flowers in our garden at the moment. Colin got some amazing shots with a wasp in them.

The rose above is my second favourite in the garden. I think it is named Nouveau or something similar to that. This is the second time it has flowered this year.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

2009-08-11T08:05:00.003+01:00

I spent most of Sunday cutting and sewing the border for this and it is now finished and hanging in our lounge. It looks so much better in real life than this photo but unfortunately it is miserable and gloomy again today and I can't get a decent picture of it.

Stitching mojo may have returned

2009-08-06T21:44:00.003+01:00

Well I finally picked up a needle and thread on Monday night. After contemplating a new start and then deciding I had quite enough WIP's as it was, I decided to do the last part of How Does Your Garden Grow? This was really quick to do. I stitched it all in one evening and then beaded it Tuesday morning. Now I have a problem - it needed washing and off course needs ironing. The trouble is I used invisible thread to attach the beads and if I iron it I suspect the beads will all drop off! Any ideas what I can do??

After finishing that, I decided to finish off June Zooms as there wasn't a lot to do on it. That got finished Tuesday too.

On Wednesday I finished January Snows and started March Blows, which I finished today. Finally, more than 5 years after it was started, the whole series is finally stitched!!

I contemplated a new start and even picked out a chart and found the fabric for it. Unfortuantely I can't find where on earth I put the threads for it!

Lost my mojo!

2009-07-19T19:25:00.002+01:00

Well...I have officially lost my stitching mojo. I haven't picked up a needle in months and nothing is working. I treated myself to a couple of new charts from Down Sunshine Lane in the hope that would help...but no...nothing.

There has been so much happening lately that I have no desire or energy to stitch I suppose. If anyone has any suffestions on how to find the stitchy bug again please let me know!

The big news is that as of yesterday I am officially jobless. There was no funding for my post, or 4 others, this year and so we were all out of jobs. Although we were told about 2 months ago, there haven't been a huge amount of school jobs around. 2 of the ladies were lucky enough to find a job this week but the rest of us are still looking. With Rachael having diabetes, I don't want to be too far away in case of any problems which limits where I can go for work really.

Unfortunately with having no job comes the fact that I cannot take up my place at uni in September. Part of this is due to the fact that I need a placement in a school that will also provide someone to act as a mentor and partly because I can't afford the fees (nearly £1000) without a job. Colin apparently earns too much for me to receive any financial help with course fees.

On a happier note, I passed my Volcanoes, Earthquakes and Tsunamis course with Open University which I must confess I was really surprised to do. I have completed 2 of the assignments for my Personal Finance course. The first one I got 73% on and was quite pleased with this, the other I am still waiting for the result.

My stepdad is having a bad time of it. He has recently been diagnosed with asbestosis (if that's how you spell it!) and near heart failure. He is waiting to see a cardiologist to see whether it is worth him having an operation with all his other health problems as well. My mum is considering the possiblity of moving up here a bit now. There is a house 10 doors up the walk from us that is up for sale and I think this has concentrated her mind a little now. That and the fact that she is getting no help whatsoever from her son in law and his wife.

We are having a few problems with school at the moment with Rachael's diabetes. Obviously with me not working there any more they are going to have to take a little more responsibility for her. Unfortunately no-one seems to want to do this and we are going to have a bit of a fight on our hands I think. She has a residential trip to Robinwood this September and the school are describing her as "high risk". We had a meeting with the Head Teacher and the School Nurse last week which was dreadful. The school nurse didn't know the first thing about diabetes and even less about insulin pumps which considering she was supposed to be advising the school was a bit of a joke really. Honestly if they just took a bit of interest and used common sense there is no reason to be so worried about her. Thankfully when we phoned Robinwood they were much more helpful and have sent us meal plans and activity itineries etc.

Rachael swam in the Tameside schools swimming gala a couple of weeks ago. Her team won the Denton Schools Gala and so went forward to the Tameside competition. There were supposed to be 5 teams but 2 didn't show. St Mary's got 3rd so it is lucky that the others weren't there. The girls team is quite strong but the boys are not as good. She enjoyed herself though and that is the main thing.

Luke has been playing in some friendly tournaments for Denton Youth the last couple of weeks and he too is really enjoying himself. His football is really coming on and he is turning into a cracking defender. He isn't afraid to get in and tackle anyone and isn't bothered in the least as to how big they are. He has been promised a pair of Ronaldo boots when he gets into the team proper!!

Well anyway that is some of what's been happening lately. Let me know what to do about my stitchy slump. I'm off to read some of the blogs I have been neglecting to see if that can give me some inspiration!

Hey....Remember me??

2009-04-24T19:55:00.003+01:00

Wow........it's been so long since I last posted that when I went to sign in an error message came up with "who the h*** are you?"................lol.

I'm not sure why I haven't blogged other than life getting in the way. I had to finish my Volcanoes assignment for my OU course and that took up more time than I anticipated. We have been clearing up the garden, getting it nice for the summer. We had Rachael's birthday on Easter Sunday which was great and she was thrilled to bits to get a laptop. It seems to have been a hard year for choosing presents as she is kind of coming to the end of toys but not quite into gadgets and other teenie things. Oh and I started another OU course too, must be a glutton for punishment! This time it is called You and Your money: Personal finance in context. It looks more interesting than it sounds.

My really big news though is that I have got a place at Manchester Metropolitan University in September for my Foundation Degree. It will be a lot of money and a lot of hard work but hopefully it will be worth it in the long run!

I haven't been stitching much lately either for the same reasons I haven't been blogging. I need to get cracking on a design I am doing for someone who is leaving work this July. I seem to have lost my mojo though.........if you find it let me know!!

AND THE WINNER IS..........

2009-03-29T10:51:00.006+01:00

......or really that should be and the winners are........

Giveaway 1 - Kristin
Giveaway 2 - Bev
Giveaway 3 - Cindy Mae

Ladies if you could email me your address details I can get your prizes in the post! sharonjstevens @ msn .com
If you have any huge dislikes, let me know. I would rather send you something you can use!!

Thanks go to Rachael and Colin for selecting the winners!! (Luke was on a sleepover so I couldn't ask him!)

My apologies for being late in posting this.

In celebration of my first year of blogging, I am giving my blog a little makeover. Thanks to the cutest blog on the block this is a lot easier than I thought it would be. They have a great section of "how to" which meant I could change to a 3 column layout in about 5 minutes flat. There are plenty of other bits for me to change too so watch this space and let me know what you think!

OOOOOOOOH and I just realised that this is my 100th post too!

1 Year Blogaversary

2009-03-22T21:08:00.004Z

I am amazed that I will have been blogging for 1 year on Thursday. I never kept a diary when i was younger and even now my diary has far less in it than it should have!

As is customary with these significant blog dates, I am going to do a giveaway to celebrate - well actually I'm going to do 3.

1 - I am going to do a drawing JUST for the people who follow my blog CURRENTLY. If you don't and your reading this it is already to late to qualify. The reason for this one is that YOU are the people who encourage me with my blogging because I know that you are interested in what I write.
2 - for all the people who have visited my blog and commented. You guys encourage me, empathise and sometimes keep me going on the right track with both life and stitching. You keep me smiling at times and share YOUR life and stories with me too. Thank you!
3 - this one is for everyone else. Whether it be your first visit after just discovering me, you have just typed in "giveaways" for a search and will never return and for anyone who just wants to enter.

Of course, you may fit into one, two or all three of the above giveaways so you get extra chances.
With giveaway 1 and 2 there is no need to respond, I will do these automatically. Of course if you think my tasted in cross stitch is awful and you really don't want to enter the drawing, let me know and I will take your name out!!

If you want to enter givaway 3 then leave a comment ON THIS POST ONLY!!

I will do the draw for all 3 on Friday night after swimming. Each person will get a piece of fabbie, thread and a chart.

Good luck to you all and thank you for all your support over the last year.

Long time, no see

2009-03-15T09:16:00.009Z

Hello to anyone still out there and still visiting!! I honestly can't give a reason for not blogging for 2 weeks - the time seems to have flown by. Lots has been happening here so I'll try and remember it all to fill you in.

I received my ABCstitch order and got hammered for customs. £15!!!! The annoying bit is that £8 of that was a Royal Mail handling fee. I used up the last of my Christmas gift certificate for this order so I haven't really been spending! I treated myself to several charts and the threads to complete one of them.

I have to admit to being naughty and getting the 4 charts below but they were in the sale and were something like £2.50 each. They did get put in the "Oh look what you just bought me for my birthday" pile. (That's where I see something I like and buy it to put away for whatever the next event Colin needs to get a pressie for!)

I can now use my laptop to use the internet. This is huge news as it means that I have successfully set up our home network!! Virgin media supplied us with a new wireless router for free, upgraded our broadband speed and managed to save us £20 a month in one phonecall - not bad service for a company these days. The wireless router was dead easy to set up too.

The 8th was my birthday - my BIG 40. The children and Colin spoilt me rotten and really went out of their way to ensure that it was the best birthday I have ever had. They made me a fabulous chocolate cake with marshmallows on top and decorated everywhere downstairs with banners and balloons. They took me to Frankie and Benny's for lunch which was delicious and the staff there made it a special meal too. Some of the presents I received were a Build a Bear called Daisy (pink with flowers on), Wii balance board, DVD's, Gift certificate for DSL and more stamps for my collection.

I received my stash ambush package in the week and was thrilled to bits with it. There was a chart (Crabby all year) which I have had my eye on for a while and hummed and haaed over and 3 pieces of Silkweaver solos with a co-ordinating thread for each. Thank you Chris it was a fab package and I felt very spoilt!

In work we have now had the results of the pay and grading review which has been rumbling on for about 5 years. I can't believe this originally started in 2004! I am one of the lucky ones. As I haven't been in my current role for very long I am at the bottom of the pay scale and so have recieved a pay rise. Unfortunately people who have been there for years are finding that their pay has been cut. This has varied from about £60 a year to £2500 a year. It is really hard when everyone is discussing it at work. I am one of about 3 or 4 people that have had the rise. People are quite obviously upset about it all even though their pay is protected until 2011. Frankly, I think the council are treating everyone dispicably and it won't be a huge surprise when the best staff leave for neighbouring councils who all pay more than ours does! If this was happening to teachers there would be uproar, as TA's no one is bothered!

I think that will have to be enough of an update for now, otherwise anyone who isn't asleep soon will be!! I need to catch up with 2 weeks worth of blog reading!!

I will be doing a giveaway for my 1 year blogging birthday in the next few days - so watch this space!!

Daylight Lamp

2009-03-01T18:56:00.002Z

Yesterday, I turned on my stitching lamp and all it did was flicker a few times and die on me. Arrggggghhhh, I thought. Is it the bulb or is it the actual light? Thankfully on closer inspection, the bulb was black near the bottom end. Just a new bulb needed then! A quick search online reveals that the bulbs are £14.99 each!!! I can buy a new lamp for £30, how can a bulb so much?? Still never mind, I NEED my lamp so a quick trip to Hobbycraft this morning and I am back stitching. Just as well really because the Cross Stitch Crazy month long SAT starts today.

Crikey......busy week!

2009-02-27T21:50:00.004Z

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!!

2009-02-17T20:01:00.003Z

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.

Small finish

2009-02-09T14:13:00.003Z

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.

Manchester show and stitching update.

2009-02-08T14:48:00.005Z

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!

WE'VE GOT SNOW!!!

2009-02-02T20:54:00.004Z

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.

How does your garden grow part10

2009-02-01T14:20:00.004Z

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.

Giveaway - Manchester cross stitch show ticket

2009-01-31T11:04:00.004Z

Just a very quick post.

I have won tickets for the Manchester cross stitch show next weekend. I will be using one ticket but if anyone would like the other one please leave a comment below. First to reply gets it!! I will need you to email me your snail mail details and it can be in the post that day. The ticket is valid for any of the 3 days (Friday, Saturday or Sunday)

CSC Stitchathon

2009-01-25T11:22:00.006Z

This week has been the CSC SAT (what a lot of initials there!!). I have worked on the Cotswold design from Cross Stitch collection this time. In fact I think this is going to be my SAT project this year as I want to get a good chunk of it done by December. I know I should start from the middle but I don't have a frame big enough for this one so I am stitching it in hand. If I start from the left, I don't have to hold the fabirc anywhere I have already stitched. (Yes, I'm a leftie!) The whole design is 30" x 8" when finished. When I started this week I had stitched 0.5% of the design, now I have stitched 6%.

This is my before SAT...............

..........and this is after. I have given up on the SAT now despite today being the last day. I MUST do some of my coursework. I am absolutely thrilled with the progress this week although I was missing a few threads which is why there are a lot of gaps in the stitching. I have been very fortunate to have some of the kids activities cancelled which naturally equals more stitching time!! I don't suppose I can be that lucky every month!

I just wanted to say thanks for all the offers of help for finding the TW chart. I am hoping that something is sorted for it now but if not, I may be taking you up on your kind offers.

Teresa Wentzler design help needed

2009-01-18T12:20:00.005Z

I'm sorry for the begging post but I have seen a design that I have fallen in love with and NEED! It was discontinued YEARS ago and the only place I have found it is an ebay seller in US who will only ship within the US. If anyone knows anywhere I can get it or anyone else that is selling it or has it to trade, I would be ever so grateful if you could let me know. (edited to add - I suppose it helps if I tell you the pattern. It's TW's Floral Bellpull)

On the stitching front, not a lot has been happening lately. What with the children back to their activites now the holidays are over and trying to get some coursework done too, there doesn't seem to be much time. I have been working on How does your Garden grow and am about halfway or maybe a bit more through part 10.

This week is the CSC stitchathon and I am going to work on the Cotswold design for the week. The before picture is in my post for my yearly goals a bit further down the page and I will post after pics next weekend.

Luke had his Beaver's belated Christmas party last night. His Beaver's group closed down a while before Christmas but the leaders decided to organise something so that all the children could get together again. We had a really lovely night with lots of games organised for them and a lovely buffet. Luke is adament that he doesn't want to join another Beaver group and we are currently fighting to get the group reinstated.

Sparklies fabric arrived

2009-01-04T18:41:00.004Z

I ordered a couple of pieces of Sparklies fabrics the other day after seeing them on the blog. They arrived yesterday and are gorgeous. They feel like they will be really nice to stitch with. I only ordered the small cuts of 9 x 13 as I wanted to try them before committing to a bigger piece. The 4 I ordered are Thalia, Shades of Autumn, Pumpkin Patch and Fire. The service was great, with lots of communication at every stage of my order. I was impressed to receive it so promptly and would highly recommend using them.

Also today, I finished part 9 of "How does Your Garden Grow?" Only 3 more parts to complete now. I have decided to focus on this now until it is completed.

Oh dear.......I have been BAD today!

2009-01-02T16:39:00.009Z

Well actually you can blame my hubby for this one. A while ago, I left my gluegun on the side in the kitchen to cool down. he didn't move it before cooking dinner and burnt the lead. As I thought it probably wasn't a very good idea to use it, it got binned. I had forgotten this and when I came to make up my ornie this morning spent half an hour searching before the penny dropped. A quick trip to Hobbycraft was called for as theirs were on special offer at the moment. To cut a long story short, I ended up buying a new gluegun, sticks, backing fabric, felt, mountboard, 5 Mouseloft kits, some new DMC perfume threads and some stitchbows. Ooooops!

Ok, I admit it...............it was my fault for leaving the gun there after it cooled and I deserve to go without. TOO LATE!!

My mum gave us a Wii and some games as a family present this year. Rachael was doing absolutely rubbish at bowling, getting really upset because she couldn't do it. After a little gentle coaching in how to change the angles etc she managed to get 8 strikes on the trot. WOW. Her final score was 267. I'm not playing HER again..........lol. This is a screen shot of her 8th strike.

Anyway, whilst she was busy annhililating her brother, I was in the kitchen finishing off the ornie I stitched last night and here it is............

(Mine's the Christmas Tree not the angel!!) That's January's ornie stitched and finished.

Well I suppose I had better think of something nice for tea to sweeten hubby up a bit.........lol.

Woohoo...........first finish of 2009

2009-01-01T23:22:00.007Z

This afternoon I got a little stitching time and as I still don't have my light until I get my stitching corner back (tree comes down on Saturday, so normality will be restored). Anyway, I thought it would be easier to stitch something on white aida to ease the stress on the eyes. I started a little Mouseloft Christmas Tree kit. It was a very quick stitch, probably taking about 3 hours including backstitch. Tomorrow I will make it up into an ornament but the decision then is do I put it on the tree for a day or put it away safely for next Christmas?

WIP and new start pics for 2009 - part 2

2008-12-31T17:37:00.003Z

This is the second part of my WIP's and starts for 2009.

This flower and bear card has really naff floss with it. In fact I think it would be nicer stitching with tooth floss than this so I plan to frog it and start over with some DMC.

These are some of my new starts for 2009. The 2 mouseloft kits would make cute ornies and the unicorn card is for my good friend's birthday in November. Summer in Sussex will be my first 3D kit and looks fun.

This unicorn design will also be for Debbie's birthday but I need to change the colours as she wants it in blue and not pink.

WIP and new start pics for 2009 - part 1

2008-12-31T16:56:00.007Z

These are more for my own reference than any other reason. I thought I would post pics of where I am with my WIP's as of the start of 2009. It might be interesting to see what progress actually gets made on some of them by the end of 2009!!

Snowy Days Sampler from Cross Stitcher magazine.

Bothy Threads Cut Thru Garden Shed. I REALLY want to finish this one this year.

Maggie the Messmaker. I want to make real progress on this one this year.

Last 3 Snappers need doing. Started January then March and June to do.

Cotswold Design from Cross Stitch Collection magazine. Again I would really like to make a lot of progress on this one this year.

Part 9 of How does your Garden Grow is started and I really want this finished by my birthday in March.

2009 goals

2008-12-29T22:59:00.005Z

I have been thinking about my goals for 2009 and getting my blog cleaned up and tidied in preparation for the new year.

I have sorted my goals into 3 different categories and have tried to keep them simple as I have to finish my Open University course and I hope to start a Foundation Degree in September. I imagine there will be a lot of home study for this so I don't want to commit to too many goals and end up disappointed with myself. These are not in any particular order.

projects that I want to complete which are already started at the moment are:

How Does your Garden Grow? - Papillon Creations
January Snapper - Bent Creek
March Snapper - Bent Creek
June Snapper - Bent Creek
Bear and Flower card - free kit from a cross stitch mag
Cut Thru Garden Shed - Bothy Threads
Christmas Tree Sampler - Cross Stitch Collection magazine

projects I want to make substantial progress on but realistically won't finish are:

Maggie the Messmaker - Dimensions?
What's up Doc? - ???
Cotswold design - Cross Stitch Collection

New starts that I want to finish in 2009 are:

Unicorn design for Debbie - Cross Stitcher magazine? (by November 30th)
Unicorn card - Mouseloft (by November 30th)
Summer in Sussex - The Nutmeg Company
PIF for Robin Titan (before October)
One Christmas ornament each month including finishing off.

I think I will put a gadget in the sidebar with a list of these to help to keep me focused on what I need to be doing when I am not studying!!

Whatever your plans for 2009, I hope it brings you everything you need for the year ahead and that you and yours stay safe and well. Thank you all for reading my blog over 2008 and I hope to get to know you all better during 2009. One of my New Year resolutions is to leave more comments on blogs that I read as I know how much I love to receive comments on mine. I am also going to make sure that I reply more often to the comments I receive so that people know I am reading them!!

Santa Sleighs

2008-12-22T13:57:00.004Z

I bought a book last year full of Christmas activities. A few weeks ago we were looking through it and the children wanted to have a go at making Santa sleighs. Well this morning we decided to do them. The children did a fab job, ok there was a bit too much icing on them but it is all their own work, following the instructions whilst I just unwrapped various biscuits etc. They even mixed the icing themselves to make the 'glue'. They are not so impressed with having to wait until Colin gets home tonight before they can start on them!! Rachael wants me to tell you that the red things on the floor of her sleigh are presents that Santa needs to deliver. Luke has put some sour snakes to make bigger armrests and a footrest for Santa. Luke's are the top 2 pics and Rachael's are the bottom 2.

What a couple of weeks! (no stitching)

2008-12-21T21:13:00.003Z

First the good news, which has been pretty thin on the ground lately. I got an achieved for my OU maths course. As the result is only either achieved or not achieved, I am pleased! I am also on target at the moment with my Volcanoes, Earthquakes and Tsunamis course.

Luke has been pretty poorly the last few days. He woke up on Thursday morning about 6.00am with a dreadful cough that sounded just like croup although according to the doctor he grew out of that when he was 3! He was also holding his throat and slightly gasping for breath so I rang NHS Direct. The man on the other end of the line could hear Luke and after a brief conversation with him, he decided we needed an ambulance........pronto! The fast response car (which is probably the wrong name) was here within about 4 minutes. The ambulance was here no more than 2 minutes later. By 6.35am we were at the hospital which is usually a good 20 minutes drive. I cannot praise the ambulance staff enough, they were great and really put Luke at ease. The hospital however were completely different. We were greeted by someone who I assumed was a nurse. He asked the ambulance crew what was wrong with Luke not because he was triaging patients but because "he is a nosey sod" (his words not mine!) He then said to Luke "I give you a 50/50 chance of making it to Christmas" followed by "Have you have a sense of humour transplant?" Once we were in the cubicle Luke said he didn't want that man treating him. Can't say I blame him really.
Following from that, Luke needed the toilet which was heavily spattered with blood. Later on Luke said "There is blood marks on the floor" When I looked down I saw he was right and there was also a blood soaked dressing on the floor under my chair too. It was disgusting. The stupid thing is that I was so worried about Luke at the time, it never even occurred to me to complain to anyone. One of the nurses/auxillaries commented that she wasn't going to deal with another patient because he stinks. If we EVER need to go to hospital by ambulance again, I will be asking if we can go to St Mary's instead. If they say no we will get there under our own steam or not bother!
Luke was discharged about lunchtime with one dose of steroids and calpol to take but he has been poorly for a couple more days. His temperature has remained about 39-40 degrees despite best efforts to reduce it. He has been a lot more like his normal self today thankfully.

Colin's works recently announced that they would be making approximately half the workforce at his office redundant. The remaining staff are being relocated to another office that will be a little further away from the city centre, still he is just grateful to have survived the 2nd round of redundancies this year. Fingers crossed that is the last of the job cuts for him.

I am suffering from cross stitch withdrawal symptoms. Unfortunately our Christmas tree goes in my stitching corner and I have nowhere to put my lamp. This means that I am reduced to stitching on 14 count aida with my eyesight. Also I can't manage very long without my eyes hurting so there is nothing to show at the moment. I have however been thinking about my goals for next year. I will post them at the start of 2009 though!!

As this is likely to be my last post before Christmas, I would like to wish everyone that celebrates it a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS. If you do not celebrate this one, I hope you have a safe and restful holiday period.

Still not much stitching news

2008-12-03T19:31:00.006Z

I can show 2 things I have stitched recently. One is an exchange for Lori through Cross Stitch Floss Swap. Her info said she liked red and dragons so I combined the 2 to make an ornament for her.

The second one is of a Mill Hill Tiny Treasured Diamonds which I made for my mum. She sent me a text today to say it arrived and she was absolutely thrilled.

On Monday I was part of a group of teachers and teaching assistants who took about 60 children to MEN arena for the Young Voices choir which is where around 8000 children and young people come together for a concert. We have been practising all the songs since September. It was long night in the end. We left school around 1 ish and arrived back at just gone 10pm. It was really fabulous though and the children were all brilliant.

Girlie shopping trip

2008-11-23T18:43:00.004Z

Last week I asked Rachael if she would like a girlie trip out somewhere to buy her some trendier closthes. She was thrilled at the idea and so today we left the boys at home and headed to The Trafford Centre for some retail therapy. The first stop was Lush where we got some bath bombs and new lip salve. Rachael was completely overwhelmed at all the different aromas, textures etc of their products and would have spent a fortune if allowed. That was as far as the shopping got as Rachael decided she was starving so we got lunch. We both had pasta which was delicious and then headed back to the shops!

We ended up with a few clothes for Rachael but not a lot. She got a LBD from H&M for £10 which looks fabulous on her, makes her look really grown up. 2 cardigans from Gap which were a bargain at £31 for them both (should have been about £47). In next she found 4 pairs of trousers which she needed age 11 for the length of her legs. They will be loose round the waist but hopefully she will fill out a bit soon. We also picked up 2 pairs for Luke too so he didn't feel completely left out.

We went in the Build a Bear store but after seeing the queue snaking right round the store, decided to order online instead! In the Disney Store there was a soft toy that Rachael had wanted last time but decided it was too much to spend her money on. Today it had 33% off so we bought it and it will go away for Christmas, even though she knows.

We had a brilliant time and it was so nice to spend some quality time with Rachael on her own doing something that she really wanted to. I am going to try to think of something to do with Luke in a couple of weeks so we can have some special time together. I can't see him wanting to go shopping for the day.

I have had a couple of finishes recently but one is for an exchange so I will post it in a few days. The other is an ornament I made for my mum but the camera is low on batteries so I can't post that one either.

I have had a new start too which was in Cross Stitch Collection and is a gorgeous Christmas Sampler. There isn't enough progress to make it worth showing yet.

World Diabetes Day draw

2008-11-14T23:01:00.004Z

Drum roll please..............and the winner of the draw to celebrate World Diabetes Day, as selcted by my hubby, is................................

******* Jennifer *******

Jennifer, could you email me your snail addy please and I will get your goodies in the post to you a.s.a.p. Congratulations!

Thank you to everyone who entered. It was amazing how many peoples' lives are touched by diabetes in one way or another. Thank you for sharing your storie.

A few finishes

2008-11-14T22:20:00.006Z

I still have a couple of finishes that I can't show but there are some I can. This week I have finished both February Glows and September Brings. Only 3 left to do. I will probably leave them until after Christmas now.

I finished this ornament a few weeks ago but as it was for an exchange I couldn't show it. It is one of my favourite designs from the ornament issue of Just Cross Stitch and I fancy stitching it again for myself. It was the first time I had finished one in this way.

This one is one that I stitched a long time ago but only just got round to finishing.

Robin Titan can you please email with your snail mail details so I have them to hand when I am ready to send you your PIF. For some reason I can't just click on your email link!

2008-11-12T23:19:00.010Z

I've been tagged by Ashley to share 6 random things about myself, according to the rules.
The rules are as follows.

link to the person who tagged you.
Post the rules to your blog.
Write 6 random things about you.
Tag 6 people at the end of your post.
Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
Let the tagger know the entry is up.

So here are 6 random things about me.

I would rather die than eat a tomato in its natural state.
I prefer to swim under water than on top in the pool.
My first ever "crush" was on Martin Shaw who played Doyle in The Professionals.
I laugh when I am nervous.
I cry at anything that involves children being hurt or even the thought of being hurt.
I love to study. If I don't know something I will read a book on it.

I have tagged.

Carolyn
Amy
Shari
Nicki
Carol
Sharon

Open University

2008-11-11T22:48:00.003Z

I must be mad! I have signed up for another OU course. I was going to wait until I got the result of my maths course before worrying about another but this sounded interesting and was starting next week so I took the plunge!! I don't find out the result of the maths course until about 12th December which still feels ages away yet.

2008-11-08T19:58:00.001Z

So far I only have one taker for my PIF. Sign up here if you want to join in. I will leave it open for a few more days to see if I get anyone else.

I am going to do a giveaway. My daughter was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes on the 22nd November 2005. Unless you have been there, you cannot imagine the impact that diabetes can have on a family's life. Realistically there is not likely to be a cure any time soon. They may be able to do different things to control it but they won't be able to cure it. Many people think that Type 1 is pretty much the same as Type 2 but there are HUGE differences. Many (not all Type 2's) get it due to diet and lifestyle choices. Type 1's DON'T. It is because their pancreas stops working and no longer produces insulin.

On 14th November it is World Diabetes Day. This is to raise awareness of diabetes. They try to light up the world with blue lights - there may be one near you! So in honour of this, I will be giving away a little "goodie bag" of cross stitch bits which will have a blue theme! If you would like to enter the draw for this leave me a comment on this posting. I will do the draw on Friday 14th November. Good luck!!

October review and November goals

2008-11-08T19:57:00.005Z

October's goals were........

to complete TOT in time for Halloween. (well a couple of days late but done!)
complete fancy fiber exchange (done)
complete autumn/halloween exchange (done - lady didn't bother to let me know if it arrived or not)
stitch unicorn card in time for Debbie's birthday (not yet)
at least one Snapper (half done)
some of Cut Thru Garden Shed (not touched it)

November's goals are.......

complete 2 snappers
complete 2 Christmas ornaments (1 for exchange and 1 for my mum)
stitch unicorn card
start Historical Sampler design from CS Collection
catch up with How does your garden Grow?

Halloween update

2008-11-04T23:07:00.006Z

Better late than never I suppose!!

Luke had a party at Beavers on Friday - officially known as a Monster Ball so no parents were upset at us celebrating Halloween, yes, really!

I said I would do some of the food for the party so Colin and I were cooking and preparing all morning. The picutres are of the cakes and biscuits we made between us. Below are the oranges I carved like pumpkins and filled with jelly.

Luke was a devil and Rachael was a vampiress.

Thank you to everyone who commented on my Trick or Treat Fairy. She is currently hanging on a wall until I can decide on the frame for her. I am toying with the idea of adding some spiders and bats to her but can't decide.

I have finished a couple of small projects in the last few days. Both of them were on my WIP/UFO list so I am really pleased. Firstly there was a blackwork butterfly and today I finished an ornament for an exchange.

Trick or Treat finished

2008-11-02T14:00:00.007Z

Trick or Treat (Cross Stitch and Needlework magazine - September 2008)

Fabric - Picture this Plus - Monet lugana

Trick or Treat is finished!! This now becomes my first ever Nora Corbett design that is finished. Unfortunately it is 2 days late for Halloween but never mind. Now I need to find the perfect frame for her. She also becomes my 20th finish of the year.

For the rest of the year I am going to try to finish up some old WIP's/UFO's that are on the list and see if I can't start 2009 with less than 40 projects started. Yeah right!!

PIF

2008-11-01T15:39:00.005Z

I signed up to a PIF that Lindsay is doing over the next 12 months so I in turn need some willing victims. In case you've not done one before the rules are really simple.

If you would like to receive something handmade by me sometime in the next 12 months then leave a comment saying so on this post and by doing so you're committing to do a similar offer on your blog. I'm offering this for 3 people and should I get more than that interested I will get Rachael and Luke to pull 3 names from a "hat".

I will leave this open until Sunday 8th November and post the winning recipients on Monday night. If you want to have a look at all my stitching go to my webshots.

PIF stands for Pay It Forward.

CSC Christmas ornament exchange

2008-10-31T15:30:00.004Z

I received my ornament today from Meari for the CSC Christmas ornament exchange. It is gorgeous. Thank you so much Meari, I can't wait to get my tree up now.

A little bit of everything!!

2008-10-30T20:37:00.006Z

Crikey, it is ages since I updated my blog. I have had my mum staying with us for a few days so I haven't been on the computer much. It was lovely to have her here as with one thing and another we haven't seen each other for about 3 years or so. My Auntie Angie, mum's twin sister, looked after Dudley so that mum could come up. He has Alzheimer's among other medical problems and it was too much trouble for his son or DIL to have him. The children were absolutely thrilled to bits to have her here and Luke in particular howled like a baby when we saw her onto the train on Tuesday. We didn't do a lot whilst mum was here but it was nice just to chill and catch up on news.

Rachael was taking her gold challenge in swimming this week. She had to -

plunge dive and swim 100m using 2 strokes in 2 and a half minutes
tread water for 3 minutes with her hands above her head
sculling head first and feet first with a 360 tucked turn
10m swim, forward somersault, 10m swim
800m swim using 3 strokes, minimum of 200m on each, in less than 25 minutes
exit from the deep end without assistance

SHE PASSED!!! WELL DONE RACHAEL

I received my fall/halloween exchange from Jackie a while ago but I had to wait until the 27th to open it. The package she sent me is fabulous with loads of lovely goodies and some beautiful choccies. I feel very spoiled indeed. I got my first ever scissors keep too which is gorgeous and won't just be kept for Halloween. Thank you Jackie. (There was a cute little halloween teddy too but Rachael has decided she wanted it.)

I have been emailing my partner to see if mine has arrived with her yet, but there has been no contact at all from her. I sent 2 packets as I couldn't get it all in one and I would have thought they should be there by now. Below is a photo of the ornament I made her. I was going to save it until it arrived but as I don't know if I will ever find out it arrived I thought I would post it now instead.

I also received my Fancy Fibres exchange from Lindsay. I didn't know that Kreinik made silk threads. They feel gorgeous and I have been playing with them all day. There were also 2 Threadworx threads which I have already used to cord an ornament I was finishing. The other thread is a Thread Gatherer thread which I haven't tried before either and feels gorgeous. The blue colour is wonderful too. Thank you Lindsay!!

Colin carved our halloween pumpkin today. It's just a basic one because we have 2 more to do with the children tomorrow. Mum bought the children a decorating kit for their pumpkins. It's a bit like Mr Potato Head for pumpkins so it should be fun tomorrow.

Not much to tell you

2008-10-19T20:51:00.004+01:00

Almost all the stitching I have been doing lately is for one exchange or another. So there is nothing to show you until they all reach their new home. I have not made much progress on Trick or Treat lately but here is an update anyway.

My mum is coming up next weekend so I have been frantically turning out cupboards and tidying everywhere just in case she brings her white gloves. We are all looking forward to having her up here as she hasn't been able to come for about 3 years. I have been planning some special meals for her - all her favourite things that she doesn't make for herself.

I am going to have a little drawing in a couple of weeks time so keep an eye out for further details around the start of November.

New Toy

2008-10-08T20:23:00.003+01:00

For the last couple of weeks I have been humming and haaing over whether or not to buy a carpet cleaner. Argos have one on offer which is reduced from £140 to £70 so I finally decided to go for it and get one. Of course as soon as it was home I just had to try it out! It's fabulous. I tried just doing a small area to compare it to an area that wasn't cleaned. All I can say is WOW! Are my carpets really that dirty? So now I have a big job on cleaning all the carpets in the house after seeing this. It says that it gets rid of pet odours too so hopefully it might remove the smell of cat as well.

Exchanges

2008-10-05T23:39:00.004+01:00

I have gone from not being signed up to any exchanges, to now being signed up for 4. There is the fancy fiber one - on order at the moment, Halloween/Autumn ornament exchange - finished today and 2 Christmas exchanges. The Halloween/Autumn one has been a real first for me. My first hand stitched backing, first cording and first corded hanger. I just hope I have done a good enough job on it for my partner to like it. Once she has received it I will post a piccie.

September review and October goals

2008-09-30T21:34:00.005+01:00

September review first, she says hanging her head in shame.

complete and make up the biscornu if the threads turn up. DONE!
work on Madonna of the Garden as much as possible until the end of September. No
Stitch part 9 of How does your Garden Grow? when it is released middle of September. Started but miscounted and all needs to be unpicked and restitched.
Complete another Snapper month. No

Umm not very successful. In my defence though all the supplies turned up for trick or treat fairy and it just has to be stitched before Halloween.

October's goals are........

to complete TOT in time for Halloween.
complete fancy fiber exchange
complete autumn/halloween exchange
stitch unicorn card in time for Debbie's birthday
at least one Snapper
some of Cut Thru Garden Shed

As it is a month long SAT with crossstitchcrazy, I hope to get loads of stitching done.

Like Father like Son

2008-09-27T21:29:00.006+01:00

If this is my last ever post, you will know my hubby wasn't to pleased with me posting this pic and has throttled me......lol. We were watching X Factor tonight and in their defence they were both up late night because Luke was a little off colour. Or maybe Simon Cowell lulled them off to sleep.

Rachael didn't want to be left out so here is one of her and Biskey snuggled on the sofa.

With the sun we have had the last week, the gazanias have finally blossomed. I couldn't resist a couple of piccies of them too.

And finally.........here is a progress pic of Trick or Treat. She has kept her promise to behave herself and I am flying through her now. I should have her stitched for Halloween and will hopefully get her framed in time too.

These don't count!

2008-09-26T21:53:00.003+01:00

A couple of days ago I received my 3 magazines from Amy at Downsunshinelane.com . I ordered the Christmas ornament preview, the Halloween issue and the 2008 Christmas ornament issue. I was really pleased with all 3 magazines. The halloween one has 6 or 7 designs that I want to stitch and the 2 Christmas ones have *loads* of things I want to do. Although I said that mags didn't count for my stash challenge, they double don't count as they were ordered before it started............so there!

We have this gorgeous plant that we bought earlier in the year. I can't remember what it is called but have a sneaking suspicion it might be Boston Ivy. Anyway it is green through the summer but turns red in autumn and wow is it gorgeous. I can't wait to see it next year when it is more established. It should spread to about 10m eventually apparently.

This is a slightly blurry photo of our little wanderer - Biskey. I am wondering just why he thinks he is joining us at the dinner table tonight for his tea. Rachael was not impressed when she came to the table!!

And finally............

A while back I joined a site called Postcrossing.com The idea is you can exchange postcards with people. You send to a random person and when they receive their card, your address gets given to someone else to send to you. I took a photo of all the cards people have sent me so far. I may put an album on Webshots with them all.

10, 25 or 50 project challenge

2008-09-21T15:07:00.005+01:00

I have seen this on a couple of blogs that I have "discovered" recently and thought it *might* be a good way to reduce my stash a bit. I am going to try a 10 project challenge first and base it on my WIP's and up to 5 new starts.

The rules (as posted at www.hasturtorres.blogspot.com) are:

1. Have fun reducing your stash.

2. There is no time limit- people have different size projects they would like to work on.

3. Thou shall not purchase any new patterns until 10, 25, or 50+ projects have been stitched. Pattern size does not matter. (10 initially)

4. This challenge can also apply to knitting, beading, sewing and crocheting patterns.

5. You can make some exemptions - I am not placing limitations on this due to commitments that people might already have. Remember, though, the goal of this challenge is to reduce stash so too many exemptions will sabotage these efforts. (magazines don't count, neither do items bought to finish a design off.)

6. Gifts, gift cards, trades, RAKs and patterns bought with gift money are not a violation of this challenge. This also applies to purchasing patterns for gifts to give other people.

7. Freebies count as part of your total and you can acquire them at any point.

8. The offical start date of this challenge was Sept 1, 2006 but I’m starting today, 21st September 2008.

My projects to start with are any 10 from the following listof my WIP's (brackets indicate how much or little has been done)...............

Angel of Cross Stitch (0.5%)
Belle (15%)
Blackwork Butterfly (40%)
Bunny Birth Sampler (5%)
Cat tapestry (0.5%)
Cotswold design (0.25%)
Cottage Garden Fairy (15%)
Cut Thru Garden Shed (30%)
Disney Princess RR (5%)
Edward (5%)
Felicity Wishes (20%)
Fish RR (98%)
Flip It's February (3%)
Friends are like Angels (15%)
Garden Bugs sampler
Garden Tools (3%)
Gordon (30%)
HAED Spring (0.5%)
Henry (30%)
How does your garden grow (part 8)
I love Cross Stitch bookmark (10%)
In the Rain (2%)
Just Good Friends (60%)
Love you to the Moon (0.5%)
Madonna of the Garden (20%)
Maggie the Messmaker (1%)
Mouseloft Robin (2%)
My Child (15%)
Petal Fairy (10%)
Roots to Grow (5%)
Santa ornament (85%)
Snappers - February
Snappers - January
Snappers - June
Snappers - March
Snappers - September
Snow Days (10%)
Sweet Pea Coaster (5%)
Trick or Treat Fairy (30%)
What's up Doc? (30%)
Winnie the Pooh (20%)
Winnie the Pooh card (20%)

Any 5 new starts, one of which will be Summer in Sussex but the other 4 are optional depending on what I fancy. So 47 to choose from.....I must be able to finish 10 from that, surely?

A much happier post!

2008-09-14T20:49:00.007+01:00

First I would like to thank all of you who have sent me messages of support both here and via my email. They really helped to cheer me and make me feel better. Thank you!!!

Now my first bit of good news................Biskey has returned home! Saturday morning and the children were downstairs first. Colin and I were woken up by Rachael squealing at the top of her voice "He's back........he's back.......Biskey's back." Hilariously we leapt out of bed but Colin must have been sound asleep as he was going "uuuhhh..........whasss up........whass wrong.......whassgoinon." Apparently he was goggle eyed too the children tell me! It was so funny. Naturally we all charged downstairs and scared the life out of the poor cat as we were all so excited and thrilled. I would imagine he has been locked up/in somewhere as he looked very clean and not at all as though he had been roughing it for the last week. He has lost some weight but nothing substantial.

The next bit of good news is that Trick or Treat and I have sorted out our differences and she has sworn to behave herself from now on!! I think I have done more frogging on her than on all the other pieces I have stitched together. However stitching is progressing nicely and here are a few pics.

This is all I have stitched so far. I wouldn't normally stitch the metallic and bead it until all the cross stitch is finished but there is so much of it I thought I would make an exception this time. I am toying with changing the colour of the Trick or Treat writing to the same as in her dress (the diamond bit) as it is the most gorgeous metallic red ever and I think it would really brighten the design a bit too. What do you think?

This next one is of the moon that for some reason has caused me SO much trouble.

And finally we have a close up of a section of beading simply because I have finally worked out what the macro button does on my camera!!

And finally..................it was Denton Carnival today which is getting bigger and better every year. Both Rachael and Luke were walking in the procession today. Rachael's dance group were dancing to Singing in the Rain and others. We spent ages decorating an umbrella for it. All the girls were dressed in black and danced with their brollies. They were fabulous. Luke's Beavers group dressed as characters from Monster's Inc and were about 3 groups behind us. I haven't any pictures of Luke as I walked with Rachael but Colin took some with the old 35mm camera. Hopefull I can post some of Luke once we get the pics developed. Strangely, although Rachael looks as though she is posing for this photo, I was just lucky to catch her like it.

Oh................by the way....................I have added a gadget that lets me know who follows my blog. Please feel free to add yourself it you would like to.

The most miserable post in the entire history of blogging I should think!

2008-09-12T21:27:00.003+01:00

This is going to be a miserable post so if you are already feeling down, come back for the next post!

So far in the last week or so we have had.........

Sheba, our 11 year old cat diagnosed with diabetes. She is having twice daily injections and needs to have a glucose curve which is a blood test every 2 hours to check her blood sugars. The needles and insulin are going to cost about £100 per month which is money we can ill afford. However, we can't have her put down for what is in effect a very treatable condition and if we did what sort of message would we be sending to our daughter who has diabetes. We also have to collect a urine sample which is proving very good fun.........not!

Biskey, Rachael's 1 year old kitten/cat has vanished. He went missing last Saturday night and we can find no trace of him. Colin spent most of Sunday out looking and thankfully found no evidence of RTA's etc. We have put up posters and rang all the vets, rescue centres etc that we can find but nothing at all has turned up. I thought we might at least get a couple of crank callers but nothing.

At work I have been "promoted" to assistant resource manager. This means that I am allowed to tidy out the cupboards under supervision!! Not quite what I had in mind. I also work in the mornings with a teacher who doesn't actually know what to do with a teaching assistant and has me mostly glueing and sticking.............ok for year 1 but not so good for year 5's who should be capable of doing it themselves!! I am feeling very under utilised at the moment and quite bored which I have never been before in school!

And finally on a cross stitching note, TOT is turning into a nightmare. So far, the bottom half of the moon has been stitched 3 times as I made a real hash of it. The swirls have been stitched twice as have various other bits. It is a mark of how much I like this design because anything else would have been consigned to the bin by now! If this was my first ever Nora Corbett design, it would put me off for life!!

That is all my current woes. If you now feel miserable, I apologise. It is quite unusual for me to be feeling this fed up!

Where has the time gone?

2008-09-06T14:23:00.004+01:00

Crikey it's ages since I wrote anything. Back to work this week which has severely cut into any stitching, blogging and everything else time.

I have worked on Trick or Treat this week. I have focused on the moon. A few days ago I managed to stitch half the moon and then frog half the moon. Today I finished the Kreinik on the moon and found from the backstitch that I am out...............grrrrrrr! I think I am going to have to frog the entire moon and restitch it because I can't for the life of me see where I have gone wrong. I suspect that the reason for this is because I have been stitching when I am tired which is never a good idea.

My September goals have kind of gone by the board as I really want to complete Trick or Treat in time to hang her for Halloween. The next part of "How does Your Garden Grow?" is released soon and might have to hang on until this is done.

I have been asked about the fabric for TOT a couple of times. She is being stitched on Monet from Picture this Plus. (28 count Lugana.) It is a really beautiful could and a joy to stitch on.

The children started back at school this week which has seen them being tired and grumpy. A nice moment yesterday happened though. Luke's teacher from last year asked him how he was enjoying Year 3 and he said "It's well good" with real enthusiasm in his voice. As he said it though his teacher for this year came past and overheard. Year 3 is when they are put in houses and he is really pleased with getting house points for good work and behaviour. I didn't think he would be interested in house points as it would be too abstract an idea for him but he is really up for them. Rachael is enjoying being in Year 5 but I think she would rather not have me in her classroom.

My timetable got changed yesterday. I am going to be in charge of managing science and maths resources. Woo hoo! Oh wait that just means I get to tidy the cupboards out! Still at least it will give me a little break from the classroom. Supporting Year 5 is VERY different from Year 1 and I feel a bit of a spare part at times. For instance in Year 1, when the teacher is giving the input (that's teaching to my generation) I would be ensuring children are paying attention on the carpet and not distracting others or messing. In Year 5 I just sit there like a lemon. I am so used to being hands on with the little ones that it feels very odd to be in a calm, orderly class.

Trick or Treat?

2008-08-30T22:17:00.005+01:00

Well I have made a good start to this one I think and so far I am enjoying her. I made a hash of her face and had to unpick and restitch it. The fabric is lovely to stitch on. Unfortunately it's back to work on Monday after 5 weeks off for the summer holiday so stitching time will be severely limited. All the childrens activities resume too so back to running around left, right and centre.

It's not a very good photo and the fabirc looks darker than it actually is. Interestingly the fabric looks more like I wanted it to look. More like a twilight sky. I am still missing 3 Kreiniks and DMC451 so I will have a trip to Hobbycraft tomorrow and try to pick them up.