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:)