My New HAED Start

Unfortunately my new start for the HAED forum New Start SAL didn't quite go to plan as my headache and neck put a stop to me actually starting it on Friday:( My planned gridding on Thursday evening did not happen as my head felt so bad and I'd taken that many paracetamol over the week I didn't really want to take anymore and I won't take anything else. By that time I was feeling very sorry for myself and even the girls having a bit of a falling out made me burst into tears which had both of them running to me throwing their arms around me. I'd just had about as much as I could take struggling all week to carry on so we could have some time out and do jobs etc.

Anyway on Friday we did as we had planned and went into Hull to do some shopping. Abi bought herself a new mobile with a bit of help from my Dad as she didn't quite have enough money for the one she wanted so she is now the very proud owner of a Samsung E250 in lilac:) DH rang the network we use and managed to get the airtime she'd had to buy transferred onto her old number plus there was an offer with her phone for 200 free minutes which we knew she wouldn't use as she's more of a texter so he got that transferred to his number. Then yesterday he logged into his account and noticed one number that had £5 credit on it which was on the sim card that came with Abi's last phone and we hadn't realised so he rang and got that transferred to her number too! I told her that just because she had all that credit now she wasn't to use it up quickly! Jess took a couple of her old Gameboys and a game into Gamestation and got a trade-in against a game she fancied but when we got back to the car and she looked at it the bloke had put the wrong disc in so DH had to dash back to the shop and get it sorted! We also bought Jess a new backpack for when she starts 6th Form as apparently she'll have a lot of heavy books. We had no luck getting Abi another pair of trousers for school that would fit right or looked nice so I've resorted to my mail order catalogue and am hoping that they'll get them back in stock. I treated myself to a new lightweight jacket from Matalan which'll be ideal for cooler but not Winter weather and DH got a new pair of combat trousers.

Friday was the start of the SAL on the HAED board and I gridded the first page on the fabric and that was all I could manage with my head and neck. I had hoped that being out for the day would take my mind off it and make it go away but it only worked to a certain extent. Thankfully it had just about gone the next day so Saturday evening I made a start. I managed nearly 10 rows on the first page, then Sunday afternoon I did a bit more and by the time I went to bed Sunday night I'd managed another 10 rows. Last night I didn't get as much done as I was busy messing about with my mobile phone trying to put some songs on the Walkman on it! Anyway here is my progress on Heaven and Earth Designs quick stitch Girly Gothic. You can see what she will look like here I am pleased with the amount I did although I could have done more:) Tonight I'm going to make a start on the 9th part of Chatelaine Christmas Mystery IV. My rotation is out at the moment but I will get back to it soon, probably once the girls have got back to school:)

Saturday DH fitted our new shower while I went grocery shopping. We had a problem with the one we had and it needed replacing so we bought one from Focus while they were on offer and it's so nice now to be able to have a shower without it losing power and going cold! When I got back from grocery shopping we decided to pack up some food and head off to Cruckley Farm. We had a brilliant afternoon there, saw lots of piglets ( some doing the great escape from one pig pen to another!), lambs, baby donkeys ( anybody know the correct term?!), calves and my highlight was handling chicks and having them feeding out of my hand! I also took a fancy to a calf and some sheep! LOL! I have put some photos that were taken with the digi camera in my Webshots album and if you'd like to have a look you can see them here Still no photos from Knowsley Safari Park as I've only just sent the films off to be developed today!

On Sunday we decided to go out for Sunday lunch to celebrate Jessica's GCSE results. Thank you to everybody who left comments of congratulations for her:) We had a lovely meal but to be honest the service wasn't as good as we've experienced there before and that kind of spoilt it. We didn't have long to wait for our main courses but between finishing those and having our plates cleared away was 3/4 of an hour and half an hour after ordering desserts DH complained to one of the waiters about it and the lack of desserts! Anyway the food was good and that's all that matters I guess. We opened up a bottle of wine in the evening to toast Jessica's success:)

Yesterday we took Jessica's bed to bits in readiness for her new bed and mattress arriving today so she had to sleep on the blow-up bed last night! Thankfully her new bed was delivered as promised today and I'm just waiting for DH to get home from work so we can put it together!

I forgot the other day to tell you that my Dad had treated me to a new mobile phone. For all we only have them mostly for emergencies the one I had was a nuisance. One phone call on it and the battery went right down and I found myself having to charge it up more and more. I had seen the one I wanted but with the car needing all the work doing on it earlier in the year and other stuff it was bottom of our priorities so I'd put it on my Christmas list! LOL! Anyway we took my Dad to pick his new glasses up and DH nipped into The Carphone Warehouse and had seen the phone I wanted on offer. When I said we couldn't afford to get it and I'd make do my Dad said he wanted to buy me it. At first I said no because I really don't like taking money off him but he was insistant and said I do plenty for him. Of course that store didn't have them in stock but on the way back from Knowsley last Tuesday we stopped off at Glass Oughten at Castleford for something to eat and there was a Carphone Warehouse there and they had just one in stock in the colour I wanted. So I am now the proud owner of a Sony Ericsson W300i in lime green!

I am still doing well on the chart stash wagon. I am very proud of myself for getting this far although I must admit that last Thursday with the way I was feeling I was tempted but I am over that now:) I must say that I am looking forward to treating myself come December although choosing what to get off my wish list is going to be a nightmare! Lol!

I had a lovely surprise yesterday. Jess went to Beverley with some friends and when she got in ( after missing the last bus due to a mistake at the bus station and having to get her Dad to pick her and one of her friends up! Lol!) she'd bought me a present:) I was so touched and very tearful when I saw it. It's my very own guardian angel:) Isn't it gorgeous?

Well DH has just got in so I'm off to cook some tea and then we can Jess' bed put together. I'm sure she'd prefer to have a proper bed to sleep in tonight rather than the blow-up bed! If you have read all this thank you for reading:) I think I was writing a novel! Lol! Thank you so much for visiting my blog and for the lovely comments you leave. Whether you comment or not I love you all visiting and it means a lot:) {{{{{hugs}}}}}

Very Proud Parents and Other Stuff!

GCSE results day is here and DH and I are very proud parents today! Jessica's GCSE results were nothing short of brilliant! She got an A* in History, 9 A's ( 2 in IT, English Language, English Literature, Maths, Chemistry, Biology, RE, and French which she did last year), 2 B's in Physics and Citizenship, a C in Italian ( which was only about a 6 month course) and a D in Art. She is very pleased but disappointed in the D in Art as she thought she might get a C. So she is now clear to go into 6th Form and study Maths, Chemistry, Physics and Biology starting 10th September. She has to go in on 4th September and enrol and have a 10 minute meeting with the head of the 6th Form. We'll be celebrating her achievements at some point but it won't be tonight as DH is going to a speedway meeting at Sheffield which is a benefit night for Garry Stead who was recently paralysed in a speedway accident.

The holidays have been a bit of a wash out really as far as going out is concerned but we have managed one day out so far! On Tuesday we went across the country to Knowsley Safari Park and had a fantastic day out. I will have some photos at a later date when we get the films developed. Unfortunately the digital camera batteries ran out before we had a chance to take any decent photos! We were lucky enough to see a new born buffalo out in one of the fields. It was still very wet and very wobbly on it's legs! Lol! It was lovely too see all the different animals in as natural a habitat as possible. I will add some photos when I get them back.

Tomorrow we are going into Hull as I think the girls would like a bit of a shop up and we still need to get some uniform bits for Abi and stuff for Jess. Saturday we're going to Cruckley Farm. As old as they are the girls still love seeing farm animals etc and it's years since we last went there as we've always gone to Honeysuckle Farm which is just outside of where we live. Keep your finger's crossed that the weather is good!

Some of you have asked for piccies of Abi's bedroom so I took a few with the digi camera. Wish we had a better one as the pics are not brilliant!

I haven't got a great deal of stitching done this week due to a tension headache plus I found a mistake on La D Da's Love is Patient when the heart border did not meet at the top. When I have had my stitching out I've been unpicking a bit then stitching it back up until I found where the mistake was, which, as it turned out, was about 3/4 of the way back round the heart! As you can imagine I was not too pleased but it's done now and I'm onto the wording. This is stitched using one strand of Crescent Colours on 28 count Sassy's Fabbys Cheryl's Wild Rose which a beautiful colour. I might do a bit more on this tonight or I might get HAED Guardian back out. Tomorrow is the start of the New Start SAL on the HAED board so I'm taking part and starting quick Stitch Girly Gothic. I am all ready to go barring gridding my fabric so I might do that tonight too!

Well I had better go as I think DH is in a mood with me:( Hope everyone is having a brilliant week and thanks for reading and commenting:)

Christmas Mystery Again!

Time for an update on Chatelaine Christmas Mystery IV! Part 9 is due out a week on Saturday so I thought I'd better get on and get part 8 stitched! Funny how when this mystery came out I was keeping up nicely and stitching on it as soon as each part came out but now I'm stitching close to when the next part is coming out! I think this design has now redeemed itself a little. You may remember after I stitched the little girl that I hated it but have to carry on with it as I can't afford not to. Well this month was snowflakes again and although I'm now extremely bored with stitching them I do like them and the effect. This picture shows the snowflakes from both parts on one side of the design. Not a very clear picture. I think I'd have done better scanning it.It will be interesting to see what the next 4 parts will be! Please no nutcrackers!

HAED Guardian is going OK although a little slow as there is lots of metallic in this page and I have been having bother with the thread splitting etc. I don't have any Thread Heaven and I'm not going to do an order just for that so I've tried using a needle with a bigger eye than I was using and it does seem to help. Last night I just concentrated on doing the non metallic stitches on about 20 rows and have some of the angel's hair done. Tonight I think I'll carry on doing that then do the metallic.

Abi's bedroom is coming along well. The polystyrene tiles came off without too much of a problem but the glue was a nightmare! We had to wet it several times and scrape it off! Yuck! Yesterday we sanded down all the paintwork, then glossed, and today Carl and Abi are painting the walls. Yes I did say Abi! She wanted to paint the walls ( infact she tried her hand at glossing with me yesterday) seen as it's her bedroom so we are letting her! The walls will need a couple of coats though so we may not get totally finished today.

Hopefully Jessica's new bed should arrive towards the end of next week so we'll be having great fun taking her old one to bits and scrapping it!

Only a week to go before Jessica gets her GCSE results and I think I'm more nervous than she is!

Guardian Page 1!

I promised Julie that I would post a picture of Heaven and Earth Designs Guardian when I'd finished page one so here it is:)

I have made a start on page 7 as well but it's not very clear as a lot of it is metallic ( oh joy!!!) The reason I have started on page 7 next is the angel ( male angel:) ) is started on this page but a fair way down. No drooling Paula or you'll make a terrible mess on your keyboard! I have decided to keep going with this for this week even though I should be moving on to something else. It's really calling to me at the moment ( must be the hunky male angel!).

It looks like the weather is going to bad tomorrow so we'll probably finish getting Abi's bedroom ready for painting. We need to take the tiles off the ceiling as they're polystyrene but they should come off easily ( we hope) then we can start painting the ceiling and skirting boards. She picked some paint for the walls today today so we have everything we need to get going.

Not sure what else we'll be doing while DH is off but a trip to Knowsley Safari Park has been mentioned and it is several years since we last went.

Have a great week everyone. Thank you for dropping by my blog:)

Nothing to Show

LOL! No stitching updates I'm afraid as yet! I've been stitching on Heaven and Earth Designs Guardian since finishing Dragonette as I just had the urge to stitch on it. I've almost completed the first page and the temptation to carry on next week is overwhelming me! I really should move on to the next piece in my rotation ( have made changes this time) but I do fancy getting maybe another half page done on Guardian. I shall see how I feel come Monday:)

I have also been busy reading Harry Potter! I decided that I could still read Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince even though Abi was reading it as I could use my bookmark and read it when she wasn't! Well I was amazed as I was addicted from chapter one and read it in about five days and am now onto the last one. No spoilers here but I will say it's brilliant so far!

The girls and I have had a quiet week this week just going out for walks on the beach and around town. We planned a picnic on the beach for Thursday and went shopping Wednesday afternoon and bought some bits and pieces to eat. Thursday comes and it's cloudy and cold and the forecast for Friday was no better so we put a blanket down in the living room and set the picnic up in there!!! DH laughed when we told him what we'd done! Of course Friday was a glorious day so we could have gone then but we'd eaten everything! Lol!

DH is off now for two weeks so we're hoping to get out the odd day. We have Abi's bedroom to decorate but we have had a change of plan and will, hopefully, just be painting the walls rather than stripping all the paper off. She wants dark pink and purple as I've bought some Punky Fish curtains and bedding for her:) Next job is getting Jess a new bed as hers is falling to bits! I have visions of it collapsing during the night!

Thank you to everybody who wished Jess a Happy Birthday:) She has read all your comments and thanks all of you. She had a good day, got lots of lovely pressies and money. Karen, she is now heavily into the Harvest Moon game we bought her! Any tips? Lol! Thank you also for all your lovely comments on my finish of Dragonette. I have asked Jess what she wouild like doing with it and she has chosen framing so I'm going to ler her pick the frame etc.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend. The girls and I will be having another quiet day tomorrow as DH is off marshalling some motocross up at Wilberfoss!

Happy Birthday Jessica & A Finish!

Happy Birthday Jessica!!!!!!!!

My beautiful "not so little anymore" girl is "Sweet 16" today so please join me in wishing her a very Happy Birthday:) We have been so blessed to have a daughter like you and hope all your hopes and dreams come true for you sweetheart. I don't know where those 16 have gone!

Last night I finally finished Heaven and Earth Designs quick stitch Dragonette!:) This piece has taken me way too long to stitch and I am so pleased to have it completed! It was stitched on 25 count fabric using DMC.

STATS:
Started 19 th July 2006
Finished 6th August 2007.
Artwork by Vicki Visconti-Tilley
18,150 stitches

It is for Jessica as she loves dragons. I'm not sure how it will be finished as yet as I want to do something different to framing maybe.

So I will replacing this with HAED quick Stitch Girly Gothic in my rotation and possibly be replacing Summer with Guardian but I am not sure yet about that. I might just carry on with that as and when in an afternoon if I get chance.

I am now into my third month on the chart stash wagon ( or stitching from chart stash as I prefer to call it!) and am doing really well. I do miss having stash through the post, I must admit, but I am not going to give in as I really don't want to feel a failure like I normally do. I have just bought some charms off a seller on Ebay that Dawn recommended to me and am waiting for those to arrive. They were posted last Friday but as Royal Mail are having strikes here and there they may take a while to arrive.

DH and I went out on Friday night; the first time we've been out as a couple for ages! He had seen a show, "In Dreams" advertised in one of the local papers and as he is a huge fan of 50's and 60's music he fancied going. I wasn't all that fussed if I'm honest but I am so pleased we went. The singers "impersonating" Buddy Holly, The Everly Brothers and Roy Orbison were absolutely brilliant as was another bloke whose name I can't remember! Lol! The guy doing Buddy Holly had appreared in Stars in Their Eyes and The Buddy musical. I must admit that I liked him best as I do have quite a soft spot for his music. It was shame that it hadn't been advertised very well as the place was only half full.

On Saturday we finally got to see Harry Potter and The Order of the Pheonix! I have been desperately trying to finish the book before seeing the film but I didn't quite manage it as I'd found it really hard to get in to and I really didn't enjoy it as much as I had the first 4 books so I was a bit unsure as to whether I would enjoy the film. I had heard many people say that it was quite dark, even more so than the last film but I didn't find it so. We all really enjoyed it although I will admit to being a bit scared right at the beginning when the dementors were attacking Harry and Dudley and I remember thinking to myself if this is what it's going to be like I'm not sure I want to sit through it! Lol! We're all looking forward to the next two films now although I must get the books read first this time! I was going to start book 6 but Abi has decided that, as she's seen the film, she's not reading book 5 and has started the 6th one! So I'll have to wait for her to finish that one before I can start it!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful week. We're spending much of the time just chilling or walking on the beach as it's too hot to do anything else! DH starts his hollidays next Monday and I think we're decorating Abi's bedroom! Not something we're looking forward to doing as it's the smallest bedroom and she has the most stuff!!!

Serendipity etc:)

I finished up part 8 of Papillon Creations Serendipity last night so here is my piccie:) I couldn't for the life of me work out how to position one of the speciality stitches on this part so I ended up doing cross stitch instead, but I did do the smaller speciality stitches on it. I don't think my mind was quite on the job in hand last night. Having said that my concentration has not been good for a few weeks now:(

My second piccie is of my framed Heaven and Earth Designs Summer ACEO which I picked up from the framers yesterday. As always I am delighted with the job my framer did and his prices are really good. This piece was £14:)
I'm not quite sure where I'm going to hang her yet as I want somewhere I can hang all four of the set together. I need to win the lottery so I can have a bigger house! LOL!

Tonight I'll be getting HAED quick stitch Dragonette out again and will, hopefully, have her finished by the end of the week:) I have some fabric picked out and the threads sorted ready to add HAED quick stitch Girly Gothic to my rotation:)

We have had some lovely weather this week but it looks like we could get a shower or two later today. The girls and I have been on the beach this morning messing about. Jess and I were trying to push each other into the sea so Abi decided to sort us out and tried to lightly bang our heads together! Mmmmm she ended up hurting my neck! It gave a huge crunch and pain shot right up into my head:( Thankfully it is OK now and I don't think there is any more damage to what is already there. Phew! Why is it somebody always gets hurt when you're play fighting! Lol!

I was a bit peeved when a certain TV presenter/ writer etc wrote in his column in one of the Saturday newspapers that a certain government agency was government speak for KGB! My DH has worked for this particular agency for 2 1/2 years now and gets great satisfaction from doing the job he does. Of course he and his colleagues come in for some stick. He has had rude gestures made at him whilst on road checks etc from passers by, has a stab vest just in case, and has also taken a lot of verbal abuse but it does not deter him as he is helping get dangerous vehicles off the road. Mr TV Presenter would have something to moan about if they didn't do the job they do as there'd be more overweight wagons etc on the roads, more drivers who have gone over the hours they are allowed to drive and more unsafe vehicles on the road. I think the problem is that people do not know exactly what they do and just see them as more authority to rant at. Anyway rant over:)

Hope everyone is having a wonderful week:) Thank you to everybody who commented on my stitcher's pocket. I loved stitching it and making it up:)