Christmas roundup

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.

The Blog Frog

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!!

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

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!!

Daylight Lamp

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.