PS Finishes and the Triffid

In December I jumped in and joined Jo's Stitch from Stash 2015.  I don't have mountains of stash but I did want to start using what I had and also thought it would be a good way to get me back into the mood for stitching. 

So, here we go, my first check-in.

January -  

Allowance £20

Spent £4.80  (scissors, general purpose scissors for fabric not the fancy variety)

Left £ 15.20  (to carry over to February)

I've had to re-read the extra credit part of stitch from scratch a few times and still can't quite get my head around it, but from what I understand, (and someone please correct me if I'm wrong), my Santa's don't qualify for extra credit because the chart (and the threads) were only purchased in early December and I believe the stash has to be 6 months old.  Like I said, someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

January's stitching and finishing went quite well, I've managed to stitch some of the other PS Redwork Santa's.  I'm really enjoying working on these guys, and  no, I don't mind working blocks of the same colour, yes it's repetitive, but I like that, I find it quite soothing, plus it means I can still watch TV without fear of making too many mistakes :-)

The finished, finished ones..........

.............and the finished and almost finished ones

I can't promise that February will be as productive but, I have got a couple of ornament size charts lined up to start, as well as the other two PS Santa's to do, so we will see :-)

Just before Christmas I bought an Amaryllises bulb, this is the first time I've grown this plant, to be honest I almost threw it out because it didn't seem to be doing anything, then all of a sudden it started to grow, and now it can't stop growing! I've been measuring it (yes really, I'm that sad, lol), sometimes it's grown an inch over night! I've no idea how tall it will be before it flowers, I'm looking forward to seeing it, I've forgotten what colour I chose so it will be a nice surprise.

This was how it looked a week ago

This is how it looks tonight 18 and 1/4 inches tall....a monster, lol

 It looks as though there is another flower stem growing on the other side

does anyone know if this is usual? Do they produce two flower stems? I was under the impression that it was just the one but I've no idea.

That's it for now, have a good week :-)

Take care

-X-

Off To A Good Start

Well that's the first week of January gone! How did your's go? It doesn't take too long to get back into the swing of things does it?  and to be honest, I was glad to get back to a routine, the days never seem to have any structure when you are at home, especially when I'd got a bad back and most of what I had got planned couldn't happen.

Because I had to change my plans It did mean that I got some stitching done for a change Yayyyy.

It's been ages since I've shown any stitching, so here you go, just to prove that I not only stitched, but I actually finished, (yes you heard right, finished!!) 2 ornaments.

Prairie Schooler Redwork Santa's

I'm going to be stitching all 8 of these so the actual making up into ornaments I will do once they are all stitched, so stay tuned.  I'm so pleased with these and I'm looking forward to stitching the other 6, only having two colours they are quick and easy to do :-)

Just before Christmas you might remember I finished knitting Stevie's scarf, I quite fancied doing one for myself, but I thought that same one might be a bit bulky for me, (being a lady of a certain age I am quite prone to getting rather hot at times ).
So I went in search of a freebie via the interweb and came across this crochet one.  Oooh, just right I thought.

I used the same yarn as I used for Stevie's as I had some left, Woolcraft Double Crepe DK, shade 09, if you are interested, and it came out quite well I think.
I just kept going until I thought it was long enough and used 2 100g balls.

I'm not into selfies, but just to show what It looks like on, here you go....minus my face because I take a horrid photo, lol

So, you could say that I have had a very good start to January's crafting :-)

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I've joined the Goodreads 2015 Reading Challenge again.  I have fallen short on the last two years but I like to set the challenge to keep me motivated, I read 35 last year, 5 short of my challenge, so I'm not too disappointed with that, and I'm continuing with my reading group at the local Library this year too.

To keep my stitching mojo up i've joined Stitch From Stash 2015.  I'm allowing myself £20 per month to spend on stash.  As I already have quite a few charts that I want to stitch I think most of my allowance will be going on threads and fabric, finishing items, buttons, ribbon and so on are not included this year, so that's ok.
I will have to go and re-read the rules about posting, I'm not good at reading instructions, lol

Well that's my news for the first bit of 2015, it's Friday night, my chores are all done, I'm showered and in my PJ's, the tea is all prepared so I can sit down and start another Santa :-)

Until next time
-X-

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Our Christmas decorations are down and packed away for another year,

 and as we say goodbye to 2014 I just wanted to wish you a Happy & Healthy New Year.  

We are spending a quiet night in, just me and Mark and a Chinese take away, and possible a bottle of wine too ;-)

See you in 2015 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Christmas and Birthday 2015

I didn't get chance to pop in and wish you all a Merry Christmas, things got a bit hectic.  I hope you all had a great day :-)
There were 6 of us for Christmas dinner, and even if I do say so myself it was lovely, lol.  Jenny, James and Oliver came up later in the afternoon, It was wonderful seeing Oliver getting all excited opening his presents, although I have to say that I think he enjoyed ripping open the paper just as much as what was inside!

We did finally manage to put up the Christmas tree, but to be honest I didn't put a lot of effort into decorating this year.  I transferred all my stitched ornaments to my skinny tree and dotted a few of my stuffed Santa's about the place and strung up the cards, that's all.  I did enjoy looking at all my ornaments again though and thought you might like a closer look at some of my favourites, (even though you have probably seen them all before).

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Yesterday was my birthday, my (cough), my 53rd :-0
Thank you to Julie and Clare for your gifts.  If it wasn't for the internet and blogging I would never have me these two lovely ladies, I'm glad for both inventions so that I got to know you, thank you for thinking of me xx

Family also spoilt me with lovely presents, I've had a PandoraCath Kidstonjewelleryperfume birthday, and I loved everything :-)

We are both enjoying our extended holiday, neither of us go back to work until January 5th, it's nice to not worry about getting up early and to be able to spend some time together.  This afternoon we are going to the cinema, we haven't done that in a while, and I always think going to the cinema in the afternoon feels more like a treat :-)

Tomorrow I have a doctors appointment because since Christmas day I've had terrible back pain, the sort of pain that has made me shout out, hardly be able to walk and in a couple of instance actually reduced me to tears.  I can only think that the last batch of painting, (a ceiling), that I pulled something.  I thought It was a bit better this morning but I only did a couple of jobs and now am in pain again.
I plan on taking my wheat pack with me to the cinema, assuming that I will be able to get in the car, lol

I have enjoyed getting back into blogging over the last couple of months, I am going to try and keep up with regular posts next year, I have noticed that blogs in general are quieter these days with people switching over to Instagram, but I still prefer to read and visit blogs, I noticed that I have a couple of new followers, which is great, welcome :-) please stop and say 'hello' sometime so that I can visit your blog too :-)

Wishing you all a Happy and Health 2015

-X-

Christmas Ornament Swap, a Scarf and a Blanket

I've been catching up on blog reading this morning and drooling over all the Christmas trees, decorations and the beautiful stitched ornament finishes you all have.  I'm afraid the only decorating that has been going on in this house is the wallpaper hanging kind.  

Stevie will be home on Christmas eve and we are frantically trying to get everything done so she can wake up on Christmas morning in a proper bedroom rather than the store room it has been for weeks. The furniture was ordered yesterday and will be delivered next Tuesday, Mark has put up the paintable paper, so my task this week while he is away will be to paint that so that he can hang the "pretty" paper next weekend.  I went on another shopping spree yesterday for new bedding, pillows and a quilt, so hopefully it will all come together by the time she comes home.

There are some lovely ornament finishes out there and i'm disappointed with myself that i really didn't manage to stitch much this year, the only ornament i managed to stitch and finish was one for the Christmas ornament exchange on the Needlecraft Haven forum.  Christine organizes this exchange every year and I was to send to Casey, (no blog).   I knew what i wanted to stitch because I've been wanting to stitch this for ages, it has all the elements I love, alphabet, snowman and red :-) I was hoping that Casey would love it too, thankfully she too likes snowmen so I think she was happy with what I chose.

Winter Sampler "Snowman" free design by Marika Belfiori.

I was the lucky recipient of Christine's ornament, this is what she made for me.

The design is by Olde Colonial Designs and from this year's JCS Ornament Edition.

Isn't it lovely?  Thank you so much Christine.

Whenever I've had time to sit down I've been knitting away on a scarf for Stevie.  When we were in Worcester a few weeks ago she saw this scarf in White Stuff, it had a ridiculous price tag so I said I would knit her one and took a photo to remind me of the stitch.

Below is the Moss stitch scarf from White Stuff

And this is my re-creation of it.

Worked in double moss stitch with a request for the band to be in purple.

I'm using Woolcraft double crepe yarn held double.
Double crepe should withstand even student washing! and it is lovely and soft and won't be scratchy to wear. 

There has been a little bit more progress on the Granny Stripe blanket, it's growing, all be it slowly. 

I'm still loving the colours :-)

We are still lacking a Christmas tree, that will not happen until the weekend now, it's the first year in many that my decorations haven't gone up on December 1st, so just to add a little bit of Christmas cheer around the place I've hung some of my stitched ornaments on the metal tree, (which didn't make it into the loft and was still in the garage after the move).

Once we have the tree down from the loft they will be hanging on there, for now this will have to do.

Hopefully I will get another blog post in over Christmas when the madness has settled down.

Have a good week whatever you are doing :-)

-X-

Bonny Scotland

Wow, December already! Where has this year gone?  The months have whizzed by so fast this year, Is it only me that finds it hard to keep up with everything? or do you feel the same?  I need more hours in the day, more day's in the week and more weeks in the year, lol.

At least I had a break from work this past week, well, all told, including weekends I had 8 days, it was lovely, no early mornings, no alarm calling me to get up, bliss.  I'm really not a morning person, I prefer to come around slowly, a couple cups of tea and then I might be sociable, until then I prefer to be quiet.  So when my co-worker asked if i would swap and work her afternoon today of course I said Yes! Yayyy, one more lie-in, lol.

I really needed this past week to re-charge my batteries but we still have 2 more bedrooms to get ready before Christmas, so it didn't look as though there would be much rest!

First though a little bit of R&R was called for, so our soon-to-be son in law was left in charge of hanging wallpaper in the spare room while I swanned off to Ayr in Scotland to spend a long weekend with DH.  I caught the train on the Friday morning, it was 2 trains and about 5 1/2 hours, so plenty of time to work on my blanket both getting to and travelling back home.

  I can't remember the last time I sat for so long, it made a pleasant change to just crochet and not to have interruptions.

On the Saturday we had a leisurely  browse around the town and I managed to get another couple of Christmas presents then we had some lunch in a pub that was in an old church, the alter was even still there, it felt very strange!, I should have remembered to take photos.  On the Sunday we decided to go to Robert Burns house and museum as it wasn't too far.brig

The house where Robbie Burns was born

Entrance to the Robbie Burns Monument 

Robbie Burns Monument

Brig O'Doon was just over the road from the monument

Such a lovely bridge, now just a foot bridge still with the original cobbles

Monday came around all too quickly, but it was nice to get away for a few days, can you believe this was my first ever visit to Scotland?  I would love to go again sometime, the people were extremely friendly everywhere we went and the scenery was amazing.
I took these from the train window on the way back so they are not the best, but you can get the idea.

Except for one shopping outing to Worcester, (where DD#3 did a bit of damage to my bank card), most of the rest of my week off was either spent painting, or collecting pretty things from Ikea and Dunelm, at least the end is in sight for the finish of another bedroom, we're getting there, slowly. How I wish we could wave a magic wand and it would be all done, either that or win the lottery and go away somewhere while someone else did all the work, lol.

Apologies if this post is a bit disjointed, I've been trying to publish it since yesterday but my internet connection was playing up, hopefully it will publish now.
Until next time
-X-

Granny's China Cabinet

I only ever knew one of my Grandparents, my Granny Cox, dad's mum.  I have a very vague recollection of my Granddad Cox, sitting on his chair in the corner of the kitchen, but can't remember any more of him than that. 

My Granny's name was Cissie and when I was young I spent lots of time with her, I always spent the weekend with her, not because I had to but because I wanted to.   She let me help her around the house and do little jobs for her and she was always patient and very appreciative, telling me I'd done a wonderful job.  If ever I didn't turn up at home after school mum knew that I'd be at Grans. 

In the afternoon she always went for a lie down and sometimes I would sneak in and lay the table with tea and cake, (there was always fruit cake in a tin in the pantry), then go and wake her and tell her I'd laid the table for tea.  I never felt in the way or that I was doing something I shouldn't or doing it wrong, I hope I was never too much of a hindrance.

When you're young you just don't appreciate how hard it was back in the day, but  as I've got older I realise how awful it must have been for her.  She had 3 sons, my dad was the youngest, Uncle Jack, who's real name was Elijah John was the oldest and Uncle Ralph in the middle.  Both my uncles fought in WWII, Uncle Ralph was in the Middle East, Uncle Jack was in Singapore when it was taken, and was captured and was put on one of the so called Hell Ships as a prisoner. He was a Japanese Prisoner for the rest of the War, working in (we think the salt mines.  I have a few details of the camp he was in and his release papers).  There was a time during the war when my Granny and  Granddad didn't know if their two sons were dead or alive, like thousands of other parents.  

My dad was in a reserved occupation but wanted to enlist never the less, but, he had an overlapping toe and none of the forces would take him except for the Navy but he must have his overlapping toe amputated first.  The legal age for anything then was 21, and as he was under-age had to have his parents consent, which my Gran refused, saying that she didn't know where two of her sons were and she wasn't going to sign for my dad to go as well.

Both my Uncles came back from the War but it had already done it's damage.  Uncle Jack who was well over six feet tall came back weighing a mere 6 stone, he married and had a son but he died aged just 34.  Uncle Ralph also married but divorced, there were no children, sadly he to died in his early 50's .  This is not the way things should happen, my Gran must have carried that heartache around with her every day, yet she was never angry, not outwardly anyway.

I was around 13 when my Gran died, she had a stroke one Saturday night while we were watching TV.  I'm glad I was there and that she was not alone.

So, Granny's China Cabinet.  It always sat in the same spot in her living room with various bits and bobs in, including a china tea set of course, in those days people didn't swap and change furniture all the time, they looked after what they had, and the cabinet was polished and loved.  

After Gran died my eldest sister had a lot of her things, the cabinet being one of them, but for the past, oh, I don't know how many years the cabinet has been sitting in her garage and when she had a recent clear-out she was going to throw it away.

Considering how old it is it wasn't in bad condition really.

The back board was a different matter, this had definitely seen better days

 I couldn't let it be thrown away, so took it back home and gave it a new lease of life.

It's now in my bedroom with my treasures inside.

Sitting in the corner looking like it has always belonged there.

 And I've got something to remind me of my Gran, who just wasn't around long enough.

Thank you for letting me share a little of my Granny's story and, If you are watching Gran, I hope you like what I've done :-)

-X-
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ps. For those who are interested  the cabinet is painted by me using Annie Slone chalk paint, waxed and then distressed.