How does your garden grow parts 7&8

I have finished stitching parts 7 and 8 and done the beading for parts 6,7 and 8. I am loving stitching this design. It is looking fabulous. There are some great colours schemes on the Papillon Creations website that people have sent in. I would love to stitch this again in a different colour scheme......perhaps autumnal colours. Part 9 won't be out until the middle of September so I'm going to have a loooong wait for it!

The beads don't really show up very well in the photos. They are Mill Hill gold seed beads.

I have been having a look at some of my WIPs and trying to decide which one to work on next. I would like to finish another something before I start "Trick or Treat". I ordered all the beads and Kreiniks yesterday but I still can't settle on a fabric for it.

I am going to get one of the Snappers finished next which will have me well on target for my August goals!!

Build a bear workshop

The children have wanted to go to Build a Bear for ages. This week I finally took them. We had a good look at the website before we went so they had a good idea of what bears there were etc. Luke liked the look of a scruffy dog or the triceratops. Rachael liked just about all of them!

When we got there the children had a good look at all the different bears and animal. Luke settled on the scruffy dog as there weren't any triceratops in store. Rachael decided on a gorgeous white bear with little pink bits over it. After listening to all the voices, both of the children decided that they didn't want a voice and to be honest they all sounded a bit tinny. The both watched as their bears were stuffed for them and made a wish on the heart that went into the bear.

We went and fluffed up the bears and then started looking at outfits. We had told the children that we would buy one outfit for them each but if they wanted anything else they had to buy it out of their spends. Luke was happy to choose a Man Utd kit, boots and a baseball hat with Utd on so he paid for his hat. Rachael ended up with a pair of pyjamas, a pink dress and a skirt with a top and some sparkly high heels.

After we had all the clothes, we went to get the birth certificates made up. The kids enjoyed thinking of the new names for their stuffed toys. Scruffy (very original!) and Sprinkles. The children were very impressed with the box they came home in and both of them have been busily colouring in the bears etc on the box to make a really colourful box.

July update/August goals

July's goals were as follows:

• Complete parts 5 and 6 of How does your garden grow - done
• participate in the crossstitchcrazy SAT and do at least 1000 stitches - didn't participate in the end.
• stitch on the Bent Creek Snappers - completed December and made a start on February.

August's goals are to......

• finish stitching on the biscornu.
• make up the biscornu.
• stitch part 7 and 8 of "How does your garden grow?"
• complete another month of the Snappers.
• stitch 1000 stitches in the crossstitchcrzy SAT.

Great stash week

Firstly I need to say a big THANK YOU to Kell for getting me and sending the Cross Stitch magazine I wanted for the Nora Corbett Trick or Treat design. It was a very kind thing to do and I will definitely be paying it forward to someone in the near future!! Now all I need to decide on is what fabric to stitch it on. I was thinking something like a night sky and have the following as a starting point. Country Stitch fabrics - Autumn Thyme, Cloud Burst, Cosmos, Southern Star or Twilight. If you have any ideas for something better.......let me know!

The second stash parcel was for the Crossstitchcrazy group "Rainbow Exchange". The idea is that you send a package of goodies in the colours of the rainbow to your exchange partner. I received the following gorgeous things........

• 28 ct monaco in celadon from Enchanted fabrics
• 28 ct monaco in sunshine from Enchanted fabrics
• 28 ct opalescent lugana in banana splash fron Silkweaver with GAST pumpkin patch thread.
• 28 ct cashel linen in cascade from Silkweaver with Stranded by the sea thread.
• Kreinik Balger cord - just what I need to finish my biscornu!
• GAST -purple iris
• WDW - White lightening
• DMC no5 perle (814)

I feel quite spoilt so a big, big THANK YOU to Chris for the lovely package!

Rachael's dance show

Rachael had her dance class show last night. They were performing songs from High School Musical and Rachael's group danced to "Fabulous", "You are the music in me" (slow version), "Work this out", "Got to go my own way", the Hawaiin one! (Huma Huma?) and "Every Day". For some reason Rachael was tucked away at the back for all the dances and the same children were at the front. The cynic in me says that it was all the children of Greswell's staff that danced at the front. When I asked Rachael if she preferred to be at the back she said that they had been put in their places to dance and not had a choice. The dance class is moving into the school in September and I am humming and haaing as to whether to let Rachael go after all the hassle last year when she left the school and went to St Mary's instead. The children all danced really well and the parents seemed to enjoy themselves.

A finish and update

I have finished another one of the Bent Creek Snappers - December. I am now half way through stitching the series. I had to order a couple of threads for the rest of the designs but now the kids have broken up from school I should be able to get the rest of these finished fairly quickly now. I want to finish this as a wall hanging and am thinking about making my own bellpull ends as I can't find anything I really like.

I have also completed Part 6 of How does your Garden grow? but I decided not to bead it yet as part 7 and 8 are both filling in the gaps of part 5 and 6. I thought it may be easier without the beads in the way. I am really enjoying seeing how this is stitching up.

Luke painted a pot a while back and planted a sunflower seed as part of his Beaver scout activities. Yesterday was the final meeting before the summer holiday so we were going to take his sunflower in to show towards his badge. However it was too big to carry so we took a photo of him and it and took that instead. There is a photo of it below.

It won't be long before it is taller than he is!!

Luke was also awarded 4 badges at Beavers last night. He got his Creative, Experiment, Healthy Eating and Imagination badges. Not a bad haul as he hasn't been going to Beavers that long really.

First home grown potatoes

Today we have had our first ever home grown potatoes! They were the tastiest potatoes I have had in years. We had roast chicken and tossed the potatoes in a little butter.........mmmm. The children helped Colin to dig up the potatoes this morning and seemed to really enjoy themselves doing it. Colin weighed the potatoes at 2.4kg. Luckily we still have another tub to dig up in a couple of weeks.




We have been eating peas straight from the pods for the last couple of weeks so there weren't enough of them to have with dinner and the carrots are a bit late and are not ready yet. The strawberries have been good and the children have enjoyed picking them straight off the plant and eating them.

I went back to Weightwatchers this week and was glad that I got back there before I put it all back on again. I was a bit upset that I have put on most of what I lost last time but will try to lose it all again! I have put a ticker for my weight loss journey at the very bottom of my blog.

Woohoo!

I have just finished Part 5 of "How does your garden grow?" It was really hard. I haven't tried many speciality stitches before but they had been relatively easy going for the first few parts. I really struggled with these though especially the buttonhole bar and the bullion knots. Any way it's done and you can see it below!




Part 6 looks like it should be fairly quick and easy with some straightforward specials in it.

Kids Fun Ideas Show in Manchester

We saw this advertised in the local press a while ago and thought it would be fun to do and might give us some different ideas of things to do with the kids in the holidays. The tickets were really well priced. It was £6 for an adult but another adult could go free of charge. Kids were free! The show ran from 10-4 on the Sunday (not sure what times it was for the Saturday.)

When you got there you could go and collect goody bags. One for the parents and another for the children. They were full of money off vouchers etc and came in very handy. Actually in the hall itself were various stands some with free competitions to fill in, colouring sheets and all with loads of information regarding different areas including Bolton, Bury, Stockport, Manchester, The Wirral and loads of others and some from specific companies - Haven, NSPCC etc. As well as all these there was a stage for 20 minute presentations by various exhibitors. The first one we watched was "Chemistry with cabbage". It was fabulous! We got loads of ideas for chemistry experiments using things around the home and kitchem. Have a look at the website chemistrywithcabbage.co.uk for the recipes. They are well worth a go - especially the elephant's toothpaste one although that may be best done outside............just in case!!! My 2 can't wait to try them.........what a shame we don't break up for another 3 weeks yet.

There were also some singers and dancers from a couple of shows that you could go and see in or near Blackpool who were pretty good too. The overall favourite though as far as the children were concerned were Haven. A few of the party dances from our holiday soon put them back in the holiday spirit. It seems ages since we went away.

All the staff on the stands were very friendly and knowledgable and made it a great day out. The only downside was that we hadn't anticipated being there for so long and hadn't taken a packed lunch with us. The food and drink was extortinate! Can of coke £1, chocolate muffin £2.05, chocolate cookie £2.10, small roll with various fillings £2.50, Mars bar 80p and get this one.........£1.60......that is not a typo...........£1.60 for a bag of crisps!!!! Needless to say we had a late lunch elsewhere in the end.

Hats off to the First Aid team. My daughter has Type 1 diabetes and needed to do a finger prick to check her levels. They gave us somewhere to sit and even gave us a sharps bin to use! Well done guys!!

This is the first time we have seen this show advertised so I don't know if it is a new thing but it was a fantastic day out and we will definitely go again next year if it is on.

Good news!!

I found out late yesterday afternoon that I got the job!! My original contract at school was from the start of December to the end of March. This was then extended to the end of July but I then had to apply for one of the year long contracts starting in September. I had a really awful interview which I became a gibbering wreck in but obviously I work hard enough to warrant a job!! There was a choice of 30 hours or 15 hours and I got the 30 hours.