A Bit of This & That (and Stitch from Stash)

Well February turned out NOT to be the month for stitching!

I had great plans and they all came to nothing, that'll teach me, lol

At least my Stitch from Stash report is on time, (just).

Here's February's Report

January carried over = £15.20

February Allowance = £20

February Spend = £0

Carried Forward for March = £35.20

As before I haven't 'earned' anything from my stitching because I'm still working on my PS Redwork Santa's and the chart and threads were only purchased in December so don't count.
Actually, I have a question about the earning part, (and I hope you don't find it a silly question), if you're taking part in sfs are you paying yourself in actual money, i.e.. squirrelling it away in a little pot, or, are you just counting it as virtual money, and keeping a tally? Just curious nosey, lol.

So just the one stitching finish to show for February, I still have one more PS Santa to stitch, but I won't jinx myself by promising to have them all finished by the end of March :-)

I mentioned before that a co-worker was pregnant and had asked me to knit a blanket for her, well she had her gender scan and it's a boy!
She asked for the same cable pattern blanket I'd knit for my grandson.
I made a start at the weekend, it's chunky yarn so is knitting up quite quickly.

She left the colour choice to me, just specifying that she wanted blue, I hope she likes what I chose, it's not a true blue but I thought it was a bit more modern looking.

We are edging ever closer to DD#2  (Joanne's) wedding, but more importantly at the moment is the hen 'do'.
We arranged a meal at a local Greek restaurant, as she is getting married in Cyprus this seemed appropriate, nice civilised meal and night club afterwards for those people wanted to go, we also suggested a weekend in London with afternoon tea and perhaps a show.
We thought that the two suggestions would leave no one out, right?
Wrong!!
We have had people making all sorts of excuses.  I understand (and so do Joanne & Gavin) that a lot of people wouldn't make the trip to Cyprus to see them married, we expected that, but we tried to arrange the hen party so that everyone would be included.  So when my older sister turned round and just said she wouldn't be coming to either the Greek restaurant or the London trip I was non too happy, in fact I was extremely angry, her excuse?? she doesn't like Greek food, (she has never been to Greece or tried Greek food) and she doesn't like the London underground, she has never been to London!!!  I can't bring myself to even phone her at the moment because I feel I will have to say something and I really don't want to cause ill feeling.
Anyway, deep breath.
Apparently hen party guest have to be given a party bag, really? did you know that? It was news to me, lol.  So we have been in search of  some appropriately tacky, goody bag items , (which I won't subject you to, lol) but as a little keepsake I decided to make a crochet flower brooch.

These are my first attempts, not sewn up yet but what do you think?
I must confess I really like them :-)
I have to make about 20 but will probably make more and choose the best ones.

Unfortunately I cannot take credit for the pattern, it's a free one I found on line, I will share the link next time, I printed it off to refer to and can't put my hand on it just now.

Hopefully it will be a more stitching related post next time, I really want to get those Sants's finished :-)

Until next time
-X-

At Last, The Amaryllis Flowers, and a Walk

I thought I would stop by tonight and show you my amaryllis flowers.  

Who would have thought that from just one bulb such a beauty would bloom!

I love the colour, so delicate

It's very hard to show you, but there are 4 flowers on this one stem

The second stem is catching up, I wonder how many flowers will be on this one?

I've really enjoyed watching this grow, 

I will definitely be planting more next year.

Not a lot of anything crafty to show this week, February's stitching has got off to slow start, see, I knew I shouldn't plan! I've started knitting a cardigan for one of the girls at work who is expecting, she has asked me to knit her a blanket, which I was very pleased about but she is waiting for her gender scan to choose colours.

I've been trying to go for a walk in the afternoons when I can, my back is still quite sore, sitting is more uncomfortable than standing or walking, and I could do with the exercise,:-0

Today I went in the direction of a little church which is a few hundred yards from us, St Peter's.  I took these on my phone today, it was quite overcast but I think you can get an idea of what a pretty little church and well kept church yard it is.

There are so many churches boarded up, but this one is still in use, there are always lots of cars at the weekend

I loved the door, see how worn the stone faces are either side?

Next time I will have a look to see if there is a date.

Some of the graves were very old and the inscriptions were hard to read.  

I like to read the inscriptions, some of them are so very very sad, but I find it interesting and not in the slightest bit morbid, what do you think?

I noticed that I have some new followers, which is lovely :-) Thank you for choosing to follow me.   Deb, even went back through my previous posts and left some lovely comments thank you Deb! (pop over and see her amaryllis, it's a beauty :-)  

I hope that new followers will return often and perhaps leave a comment sometime so that I can return the favour :-)

Have a good rest of the week

See you soon

-X-

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-