A Tiny Finish and An Almost Finished!

Now that it is Heather's birthday - Happy Birthday Heather!- I can now show my tiny finish from the other day. This is a freebie from the Victoria Sampler website called Teeny Tiny Friendship Bag.

I stitched this on 28 count antique white fabric using Vicki Clayton silks in Lavender and Rose, Blackberry and Holly Leaves, Kreinik #4 braid in gold and Mill Hill beads. I filled it with dried lavender from my garden:) I hope you like it Heather.

Now I have been threatened with nagging from Paula, threatened with Mr Stick by Julie and threatened with constant nagging by Karen and all that is motivation enough to get on with Chatelaine Summer Afternoon! Now when I was chatting to Karen on MSN yesterday she threatened to nag me all the more if I didn't post a WIP pic! LOL! So especially for Karen this is where I'm at as of last night at about 11pm!

I have only scanned the bit I am stitching on as I can't get the whole piece in the scanner. I must admit that I have been much more motivated with this the past couple of evenings and now I just have two bees to stitch and the beads to stitch on. Julie if I don't get this finished tonight is it OK if I join the girls on Tuesday evening even though it isn't officially a UFO? I may even sit down this afternoon and add the beads if I can get on the table for homework that the girls are doing! LOL!

Yesterday afternoon I made a small start on the LHN/ CCN Bee Pinkeep from the January issue of The Gift of Stitching. This is going to be for my friend's 40th birthday in October. I had a change of plan as I was originally going to stitch Just Nan Thanks a Bunch! I will probably finish it into some sort of an ornament with her name and mine on the back. I know she doesn't read my blog so I can chat about it on here:) I will have to get on with it as her birthday is the 5th!

That's all from me for today:) I hope everyone is having a good weekend. Thank you for dropping by blog {{{{hugs}}}}

In Danger of Becoming A UFO!

Help Julie and Mr Stick!!!! Lol! I have really struggled with Chatelaine Summer Afternoon this week and I'm afraid that, if I don't get it finished this week, it'll easily become a UFO! My heart just doesn't seem to have been in it since I was ill although I have completed a small piece in two afternoons ( pic will be shown later as I think the person it is for reads my blog) but it didn't take too much thinking about. So if Julie would just threaten me with Mr Stick a bit it might just motivate me to get my finger out and make a bit more effort! You there Julie?!

I forgot to mention that I have bought some DMC Variations for Ink Circles Sea Stars for when Karen and I start it in January. I thought I'd get a few at a time but I ended up buying them in two lots instead, one lot from Jayne and one from Sew and So. Now all I have to do is decide on fabric. I quite fancy a plain opalescent but will see what takes my fancy over the next few months.

Anybody else patiently waiting for the JCS Ornament magazine to arrive? I was patient but now I've seen that a lot of people have got theirs I'm not so patient! LOL! I have pre-ordered mine from Jayne so am hoping it'll arrive with her soon. I have emailed Simone about joining her Christmas ornament exchange so am looking forward to stitching one from the new mag if I am accepted:)

The weather has certainly been awful this week. We've had quite a lot of rain and high winds. Ideal stitching weather if only my mojo was fully back! Sigh!

Hope everyone has had a wonderful week. Hugs to all for dropping by and hugs to those of you who take time to leave comments. I know it is not always possible as time does not always permit. I value all my blogging and online friends {{{{{hugs}}}}} Oh and I just wanted to say Mary Ann I, for one, love reading your blog and seeing what you are stitching. {{{{hugs}}}}

A Small Finish:)

Thank you to everybody for your well wishes:) I am feeling better, not quite 100%, but my stitching mojo is back so that is a good thing! Lol! I had my ears syringed yesterday but I still have pain for all there's no infection so I'll see how it goes over the next few days.

I have had a small finish so I'm happy:) It feels good to have a small finish once in a while in amongst all the bigger stuff:) It's not made up into anything as yet but I have plans to maybe finish it up into a flange pillow. It is a La D Da freebie called Rose and it's stitched on 28 count Polstitches Nature's Grace using GAST. I enjoyed stitching this one up as it was so quick and easy. No real using the old brain! Lol! I'm not sure when I'll actually get it made up as I need to see what fabric I have I can use.

This week I'll be stitching on Chatelaine Summer Afternoon and, hopefully, get it finished. I picked it up last night but didn't get much done as my heart just didn't seem in it somehow. I think I've lost interest in it a bit. Don't get me wrong it's a lovely piece but I think I've been stitching it way too long! I also need to get started on a birthday present for a friend who is 40 early next month. I have no idea what to stitch as yet so I need to get looking through my charts and get my mind made up! It'll be here before I know it!

We'll be getting a new front door in about 3 weeks time! Yay! No more drafts and no more having a door that sticks in winter! It took us a while to decide which one to have as there were so many different ones to choose from but we got there in the end. It'll certainly make a huge difference to the house. We actually had UPVC windows put in 16 years ago but couldn't afford the doors as well at the time:(

Hope everyone is having a good week and that everyone where there were tornados etc yesterday in the UK is safe. We are certainly having some freak weather this year.

Anybody Miss Me?

No??? Oh well! LOL! Had one of those weeks that I don't want to repeat in a hurry! I've not been well since Monday evening and am still nowhere near 100% as yet but am hoping I soon will be. I haven't stitched since Sunday but last night I did manage an hour before I decided I'd had enough. Now I'm sure my DH and kids will tell you that if I don't stitch I am really not well at all! I have spent my time extremely bored staring at the walls, sleeping, or reading Dan Brown's Angels and Demons. I finally went to the doctors yesterday and have to go back Monday to see the nurse, have my ears syringed and see if that helps. I sure as hell hope it does because this is no fun at all. For two days I daren't even go out and I have net curtains to put up for my Dad and I daren't do that either:( Oh well he will just have to wait a little while longer.

As I said I haven't stitched since Sunday evening until last night so HAED Winter is not getting a look in this time in my rotation. I've given up on it for this time and, finger's crossed, Monday I will move onto the next piece which I think is Chatelaine Summer Afternoon. I am hoping I will feel well enough and have my mojo back. I'd like to have it finished by the end of the week but it'll depend very much on how I'm feeling plus I've just remembered we have somebody coming round Monday evening to show us some brochures for UPVC doors. We desperately need a new front door and the UPVC ones they sell in the DIY stores won't fit so we're going to have to have one made. Anyway back to stitching ( I'm rambling and losing track!) last night I made a small start on a La D Da freebie. I am hoping to offer up the finished piece as a thank you for visiting my blog but I will post more about that when it is done and dusted. I stitched quite a bit of the wording on it and it felt quite good to be stitching again.

On Thursday I received a gorgeous scissor fob from Karen. She had asked me what my favourite colour was and I had no idea why:) The fob is purple and pink with a dolphin charm on the end:) You can see it on her blog. Thank you so much Karen. I now have it attached to my scissors.

Oh yes before I go I'll report on the General Studies saga with Jess! Jess went to see the head of GS on Monday but didn't get any further to dropping the subject. He gave her his number for us to ring him so DH rang him when he got in from work. The outcome of it is that Jess is carrying on with it for now to see how it goes but he is prepared after that to let her drop it. He says that GS could be the difference for her getting into university or not but we would never actually know either way. She only has until half term though as after that they can't drop any subject at all. There has been quite a few of them that have dropped it though. She has been much happier this week though and is settling down well to life in 6th form.

Right that's it from me for now. I'm going to get caught up on blogs ( I use Google Reader and I have over 100 posts to catch up on so apologies if I don't comment on every single post). Message boards have gone by the wayside as there's no way I'm catching up on the two I visit as there are way too many posts! Have a good weekend everyone.

A Finish!

I have another finish to share with you today:) I didn't think that I'd get this done completely this week but here it is in all it's glory!

This is La D Da Love is Patient stitched on Sassy's Fabby's 28 count Cheryl's Wild Rose using Crescent Colours. I love the way this had turned out after all the frogging on the heart I had to do plus there was no alphabet or numbers for adding your initials and the year and it was charted for the designer's initials and the year she designed it so I had a bit of changing to do there. I think this will end up being framed but I may well do it myself if I can find a suitable frame. Next time on this slot in my rotation I will have a new start and I think I will make the smalls week:) I need to start thinking about Christmas!

Another photo to share is, at long last, of HAED QS Dragonette framed. I finally managed to take a decent photo of it using the digi camera! Jess chose the frame and mount with the help of the framer.

And last but not least is a picture of Just Nan Royal Blossoms made up into a card for DH's auntie.

This week in my rotation it's HAED Winter by Sara Butcher. I haven't stitched on her in what feels like ages ( and it probably is!) so I'm looking forward to getting back into it and, hopefully, getting page 3 finished!

Jess' first week in 6th Form seemed to go OK apart from a slight hiccup early on in the week. I did not know until Wednesday when she got in that she had been crying on Tuesday night when she'd gone to bed. I knew there was something wrong on Wednesday morning but she said she was OK so I didn't push it. Anyway she was worrying that she wasn't going to be able to cope as she had already had a lot of homework and, let's face it, it's a bit of a shock to the system when you're not used to being bombarded with such a lot of work. Anyway she felt much better about things the next day and once she gets into a routine I am sure she'll be OK. She did decide that she wanted to drop General Studies so that she could concentrate on her other four subjects and use those two hours she gets G. S. to do homework and study but some of the students have already tried to drop it only be told no you can't or you'll be "ruining your life if you do" and one of her best friends had gone to see about dropping it and the head of the subject had ranted at her for 20 minutes ( Jess was actually there with her) so she daren't broach it! So DH and I have discussed it with her and have decided we are behind her 100% and have written a letter to the head of the subject so Jess is going to see him with it today. Keep your finger's crossed that he doesn't start ranting at her! Please!

Abi was in the wars Wednesday evening as she fell in the bath and hurt her back in the region of her ribs. I am sure I should wrap her in cotton wool as she can be so accident prone! Thankfully she didn't do any serious damage to herself although she is still a bit sore. She decided she was going to be brave today and have a go at PE:)

Hope everyone has a good week. Thanks for dropping by:)

Stuff; Stitching and Otherwise!

Nice, rivetting title I know but I couldn't think of anything else! Lol! Things seem to be settling down OK here. Both Jess and Abi are now back at school. Jess went back on Monday and seems to be enjoying 6th Form so far although she's not too chuffed with the homework! Once she gets into the swing of things she can use her free periods to do her homework so won't have to bring quite as much home. Today is the first chance she'll get as she has one free one today so she said she was going to do her Maths. Thankfully she has teachers she knows and likes and doesn't have the same one for Maths that she's had the last three years ( Yippeeeeeeee!). DH behaved himself and took a couple of days off work and has rested his ankle! Yes I'm surprised he behaved himself although he was thinking of going to back to work yesterday but I put my foot down. It's OK thinking his ankle feels fine but once he starts being on it all day again I think things might be different. The swelling has gone down a lot more this time so finger's crossed it'll be fine. He is supposed to be in the office today and tomorrow so that may give it a bit more time to heal.

On the stitching front I have finished Just Nan Royal Blossoms. I thoroughly enjoyed stitching this and it made a lovely change to stitching on HAEDs and a change to be stitching something small! When I finish another piece in my rotation ( not the HAEDs but one of the others) I think I shall replace it with a smalls week so that I get more pieces finished. I really miss stitching on small stuff. Unfortunately I've just realised how much off centre the bee charm is so I think I'll have to take that off and redo it!! This piece was stitched on 28 count flax linen using DMC. I replaced the beads with metallic thread and also had to use #12 perle thread instead of #8 as I didn't have it in my stash! I will be making this up into a card for DH's auntie as it's her birthday next month.

As you know last week I was stitching HAED Guardian and I showed a mid-week progress picture. Well I carried on through the week and am now onto filling in all the metallic on the page. I have tried my Thread Heaven and absolutely love it! It really does make a difference and the thread seems to sit much better and tying the thread onto the needle stops it fraying so I'm happy with it now. This is my end of week progress pic although the sparklies don't show up very well. Although if you click on the picture you may be able to see them better. I love the way this is looking so far and can't wait for the next time it comes up in my rotation.

I feel like I'm wavering a bit on the chart stash wagon but I'm not going to crack as I'll just feel a failure and feel like I've let myself down. I think some of the stuff off my wish list will be going on my Christmas list and hope that DH buys me a few bits:) My first buy come 1st December will definitely be Ink Circles Sea Stars as Karen and I are doing a SAL starting 1st January 2008! I want to start collecting threads for it soon though as I'm thinking of stitching it with DMC Variations. I fancy different colours rather than lots of greens so have picked out what I want to use. Now I just need to find somewhere that sells them at a cheaper than retail price and that has the colours as there are some new ones that Sew and So don't have. Another SAL I'm doing starting around the end of November is Just Nan Queen of the Needle with Helen but I have the chart and embellishments so only need to get some fabric. Not sure yet whether to go for the correct one or something different.

We finally got our phone and broadband problems sorted on Monday after having no decent phone line at all for the whole of Sunday and, thankfully, it was still acting up when the engineer came so he could hear what it was like. DH also explained to him about the broadband. So he started at the main phone socket in the house and there was nothing wrong with that so went out to check the wiring. The wire that goes from the socket to the connection box on the outside up the top of the house wall was very brittle and one of the wires had broken which was the cause of all our problems. Had to laugh as OneTel said there was no fault with the line! Makes you wonder if they're just reading everything off a piece of a paper and say the same things to everybody! What makes me mad is that all this could have been sorted mid week last week if an engineer had been sent out then. God only knows what they had actually done then! Anyway it's all sorted now and the phone and broadband is back to how it was before but we are not really happy with OneTel's customer service at all and we're going to go back to BT.

I received a surprise in the post today:) Julie sent me an Altoids tin ( full of lovely, strong smelling mints) so that I could try a tin finish:) Thank you so much Julie. It cheered me up no end as I'm feeling a little low and lonely today. I shall be having a go with it in the very near future:)

I have been feeling a little off it since late yesterday afternoon. I get this every now and then. I feel full of energy, go hell for leather having a clean up; tidy up etc then suffer for it. At least I think that's what it is! I just feel as though I could flop at any moment. My body doesn't feel as though it wants to go, I ache and I just want to cry:( So I'm being very selfish this afternoon and treating myself to an afternoon's stitching as I haven't had one in a while.

Right time to go and get on for a bit before lunch I think. Hope eveyone is having a good week:)

An Evening in A&E

Yep I spent a couple of hours in A&E last night with my DH:( To cut a long story short he cockled over on a rough piece of grass just over a week ago whilst at work and hurt his ankle. At the time his colleague wanted to take him to hospital as he couldn't move it at first but my DH refused and carried on working best he could. ( Silly man!). When he got home and took his shoes off his ankle was very swollen and very black. I wanted to take him to the doctors the following day ,as for all he could walk on it with a struggle I was convinced it was broken, but he wouldn't go and said it was just a sprain. He rested it last weekend and has been going to work as normal as he hates letting people down. Late yesterday afternoon we were trying to get the broadband/ phone line issues sorted and he was rushing about and cockled over again and ended up in absolute agony. This time he didn't refuse when I said he needed to go to hospital so straight after tea I drove him to our nearest A&E three quarters of an hour away. I must say I wasn't looking forward to Friday evening in A&E but when we arrived at 7pm it was relatively quiet and no sooner had we sat down they called his name. He was gone ages but had been for an x-ray and then we had to sit and wait until a doctor was free to look at it and see him. By the time the doctor had seen him and a nurse had strapped his ankle up it was 9pm and I was glad to be getting out as it was filling up. His ankle is not broken, thankfully, but badly sprained so he's been advised to rest it as much as possible and take a couple of days off work at least.

So no stitching for me last night, although had I thought on I'd have taken something small with me! I was hoping to get all the metallic done on the page on HAED Guardian before I put it away and thought with three evenings left on it I might just manage it but now I only have two and it's doubtful that I'll get it done. My Thread Heaven arrived yesterday but I haven't had chance to try it yet but on Thursday evening I did try tying the thread to my needle and that helped a lot.

My latest WIP is Just Nan Royal Blossoms which I made a start on on Thursday afternoon. I should really have got much more done than I did as it's only a small piece but I had a visit from the frog and my eyes felt so tired I decided to frog where I'd made the mistake then put it away. So this is my progress so far stitched on 28 count Flax linen. I love the colours of the blossoms and this would be perfect for a lavender filled mini-pillow:)

So the saga of our broadband continues. Still getting cut off and the speeds get lower and lower each time we connect back up again. DH rang OneTel yesterday and the phone line was so crackly he couldn't hear them and got cut off twice. He eventually rang them on his mobile ( God only knows how much that would cost) and got nowhere fast. They reckoned that the engineer had checked the line on Wednesday but as it was no better ( in fact it was worse) we weren't happy. They said that we should contact our ISP ( another waste of time seen as we already have done and they say it's not a problem their end). Within no time we had no phone line at all, no line in and no line out. So we found another phone and connected that to the test socket of the main line into the house still to no avail. It was at this point that DH did his ankle again! So I went to his Dad's down the street and rang OneTel only to be told to remove all objects from any extentions we have ( Sky box etc) and try the phone in the test socket. So I did this and for all we had a dial tone the line was still crackly. So back to his Dad's and another phone call and they are sending an engineer out on Monday morning to check the external wiring. We think that something has been done when engineers were up the pole near our house a few weeks ago and our line is no longer set up properly for broadband or something. My Dad rang us this morning and the line was so bad I couldn't hear a thing he was saying and I had to ring him back on DH's mobile ( thankfully he has so many free minutes to 01 and 02 numbers so it won't cost anything). I must admit with the messing about we have had we are seriously thinking of going back to BT. At least that was we're speaking directly to them. OK rant over!

Well I am going to catch up on blogs then I might go stitch for a while. Have a great weekend!

Guardian Mid-Week Update

Especially for Paula I am posting a mid-week piccie of Heaven and Earth Designs Guardian by Selina Fenech! I know how she is getting a wee bit excited about seeing the male angel so here he is! LOL! Just a little bit of him but doesn't he look good?! Michele of HAED's charting skills never cease to amaze me and he looks so lifelike! At the moment I am stitching on the parts where there are DMC as there is a LOT of metallic on this page. I have done bits of the metallic stitching but have found that my thread is splitting more than I would like and it's making me mad so no more stitching with the metallic until I get some Thread Heaven and I just hope it's as good as I've heard it is!

Yesterday I sorted threads and fabby to stitch a birthday card for DH's auntie. I have stitched her one for several years now and she once she said she's so used to it now that she'd be very disappointed if she didn't get one! LOL! So I am going to stitch Just Nan Royal Blossoms for her. I think that's what it's called anyway! Thanks Karen for sending me the chart a while ago. I didn't get started on it but hope to this afternoon unless something else crops up:)

No picture of Dragonette framed yet. I took a couple this morning but they were so dark I will have to have another go later on.

I had some problems on Sunday with a CD I'd saved all my issues of The Gift Of Stitching to. I went to save the latest issue onto it only to find that everytime I tried the D drive window froze up then the PC wouldn't recognise the D drive at all! Needless to say I got very frustrated and at first thought it was something wrong with the PC. No not my PC as other CDs worked fine so my GoS CD had become corrupted somehow. I was very downhearted as I thought I'd lost all my issues and what a waste of money it had been as I had only printed out the Chatelaine Lavender Garden as I stitched it. On the off chance I got in touch with Kirsten, the editor of GoS, and she has very kindly allowed to me to download all the issues again. So they are now all saved to a brand new CD as well as my new memory stick. Thank you Kirsten:) This led me to think about downloaded charts etc and if they really are a good idea. There has recently been a lady on the HAED board who's CD of HAED charts became corrupted so she has lost the lot. All that money down the drain so to speak. I would be devastated, as I'm sure she was, as I have a lot of HAED charts saved to CD although I do have some of them printed out. So are downloaded charts really a good idea and should we print everything out just incase a CD becomes corrupted? Kind of defeats the object of downloads and the ability to save them onto CD and only print them when needed doesn't it? From now on mine will be saved to a CD and my memory stick and I'll be very careful with that too!

Abi went back to school yesterday and was so excited about one of the teachers she has she texted me at lunchtime to tell me! Lol! Wonder if the excitement will last! Actually this particular teacher taught me, and taught Jessica too for her GCSE and he is brilliant! She has settled down into the swing of things again for all she wasn't terribly keen on going back and keeps asking when the next holiday is! Jess went in on Tuesday to enrol but won't know any of her teachers until she gets her timetable when she starts next Monday. We are keeping our finger's crossed that she'll get certain teachers and not others!

No luck as yet on getting our broadband issues sorted. We are hoping that we'll have heard something by the end of the week and be back up to full speed. It was painfully slow re-downloading the GoS issues earlier on and I kept going away and doing something else!

Thank you for all your wonderful comments and for visiting my blog. It means the world to me that there are people out there reading and I hope you all continue to visit with me:) {{{{hugs}}}}

Christmas Mystery IV Part 9

I am here! We've been a bit busy these past few days with last minute stuff for school plus we've had problems with our broadband connection and have been trying to get that sorted. Our ISP were next to useless in sorting it and after three phone calls to them they said it was nothing to do with them so I rang our telephone provider today but could not get anything sorted properly because I didn't know the password so had to wait until DH got in so he could ring them! He didn't remember setting a password but he got there eventually. So Onetel have lodged a fault on the line with BT and they'll try and sort it out. It's been so damned annoying getting so far through something on the net then getting disconnected and each time we reconnect the speed drops. Also if the phone rings it cuts us off which is not right. We've replaced splitters, and connected up a new modem all to no avail! So finger's crossed BT sort it out otherwise I don't know what we'll do.

Last week after I'd done with the SAL on the HAED board I decided to stitch part 9 of Chatelaine Christmas IV rather than go back to my rotation. I must admit that I love this part. I've been a bit undecided, as some of you know, since the part with the little girl but I think this part does give it something more to take your eye away from her. It does still look a little thrown together to me but it is growing on me more each month now. Excuse the lack of a picture of the whole thing but it didn't come out very well. I can't wait now to see what the last three parts will be.

While I remember, Patty, I have looked on my Summer Afternoon chart and the symbol you mentioned is on my key and it's Rainbow Gallery PB01. Some of the symbols on the chart where there are halfstitches are difficult to see. I had particular problems on one part but it is lovely when it is stitched so it's worth it. I did leave a message for you on the Chatelaine Yahoo group as I saw your post on there.

After I'd got the mystery up to date I decided to stitch on HAED Guardian for a few days and have decided to carry on with it and start back at the beginning of my rotation! I've got a bit lost with it with doing the HAED SAL and other stuff and Guardian was calling to me a lot ( male angel {sigh} ] and I'm getting towards his chest! LOL! Jessica asked me if he was going on her wall so I told her no!!! He's definitely going on mine. I will post a WIP pic in a few days when I get a bit more done.

The girls and I have been to Beverley today. DH dropped us off as he went to work then we got the bus back later. I don't do buses if I can help it as I don't travel very well on them but I managed to get back here without throwing up! We didn't buy much but I did get a new top ( I nearly hung myself trying it on as it's one of those with two layers!), Abi got a pair of shoes for a fiver, some lip gloss, and a lucky bag in Claire's Accessories. I got Jess a couple of files for school as she's been told she'll need planty for biology.

Well that's all for me today. I am hoping to catch up on visiting blogs tonight. I'll be back later in the week with a piccie of HAED Dragonette as I picked it up from the framers today. Hope everyone has had a good start to the week. I'm not looking forward to Wednesday as Abi goes back to school. I go through the same things every September!