A Saturday Train Hop

No stitching or crafting of any sort to share this week, I managed a bit of knitting but ran out of yarn so that has been put on one side until I can get to the shop.  Mostly my week has been taken up with more sorting and trying to get organised for the move.  We signed our contract on Friday and a provisional date has been set for completion on April 30th, but as our solicitor pointed out several times this is only a provisional date because our buyer's solicitor has been very elusive and no one is sure how far they have progressed with searches etc. We have everything crossed that it really won't go much beyond the end of the month, we just want to get in and settled now.

On Saturday Mark had to be at work in the Lake District and asked if I would like to go with him, it was only for the day but it would make a change and we could stay over and come back Sunday morning.  So while DH worked all day I went off shopping :-)  

He dropped me off in Ulverston which is only a small place, a few nice shops, (which didn't appear to open until 10am even on Saturday's!!) and a rather nice old fashioned indoor market, which thankfully was open so I could get out of the cold!

Ulverston is the birthplace of Stan Laurel  (so Mark informed me as he dropped me off), the slimmer half of 

Laurel & Hardy, I came upon the pair of them as I was walking around the town.

From there I caught the train to Barrow in Furness, not your typical English seaside town, it was more or less like most of the towns in the UK now, lots of charity shops, £ shops and others shop front's boarded up.  They did have some of the bigger store names there though and I treated myself to a new handbag (of course) and a couple of books :-)  Mid afternoon I hopped on the train again, to Grange Over Sands, this time the only shopping I did was for some food supplies for dinner, but I did have time to walk around a few of the shops and their pretty park.

The lovely train station at Grange

The day started off quite dull, cold and windy but you can see it ended with some beautiful sunshine.

View from the train station at Grange with the sea

in the distance

I jumped back on the train around 5.30 to go the couple of stops to Cark where Mark picked me up.  We set off early this morning to get back home before lunch time so we could have at least one day's rest before work again on Monday, It's made a very nice change but we are both shattered now!

I was going to share some of the books I've read lately, but I will save that for another post, It will give me something to share if there is no crafting going on :-)

Have a great week!

-X-

Wonderful Monday

Unlike many people, I have always quite liked Monday's.  To me Monday's are like a fresh page, a new start.  
When the girls were little I used to love getting their school uniform ready and shoes polished on Sunday nights all ready for the new week.  Now they have flown the nest I don't have that to do but I still like to get things organized on Sunday night ready for the new week. 

 Monday starts early for us, Mark has to be on his way by 4.45am so I'm up too around 4.30.  

Very occasionally I will go straight back bed and grab another couple of hours shut eye, like last week when the hour went forward, I was shattered, so I headed back to bed for another couple of hours.   

Big mistake!  I over slept, woke up in a panic and was late for work, really late, like 25 minutes late!  Luckily no one mentioned it when I got in, so I think I got away with it, lol.  But, that set the tone for the whole week, I didn't make it to work on time one morning last week, I was playing catch-up with everything, all week, it was a complete disaster. 

I blame it on that lost hour myself :-)

 So this morning I was determined to have a better week,   Once Mark had left for work I set about doing the housework and got as much done as I could before it was time to get ready for work.  I arrived at work with 5 minutes to spare,  (that shocked a few people lol).
With chores out of the way I had some guilt free stitching time to finish off last months NH challenge, (see, told you,I'm always playing catch-up ;-)

Apologies now for the photos, dull days and electric light = crappy pictures 

Now these monthly challenges are supposed to be ornament sized pieces, but as usual I went charging in not thinking about stitch or fabric count and ended up with something too big to be made into an ornament, (sigh).  Never mind, I love the design and will have to come up with some way of finishing.
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I'm doing my best to get organised for the house move, and decided to have a go at tarting a few things up in readiness.  I've had this little plain white tray for ages and gave it a pretty make over with some wrapping paper and decoupage glue.

And we have a step stool which we bought from Ikea years ago, we have high ceilings and tall cupboards so it has always come in useful.  It was just a plain old brown colour but it's come up lovely with a rub down and a couple of coats of wood stain.

I lightly sanded it down again once the stain had dried, but I think it may need a coat of clear sealer to finish it off.
This Friday we have an appointment with the solicitor to sign contracts, so fingers crossed it won't be long before we move, I'd better get a wriggle on with packing, all I seem to be doing at the moment is sorting and throwing away!  Hopefully we will get more of an idea of moving date on Friday so I can make a start.  There probably won't be much crafting time over the next few weeks, but I'll pop back and keep my blog up dated, I think I've lost a few visitors being away so long, although blogs in general seem to be a bit quiet, some that I used to read have not had any updates in a long, long time, but I've quite enjoyed getting back into it so I hope visitors will return eventually :-)

Until next time
-x-

Oh Happy Days :-)

Second post in 2 weeks, I might just be getting back into this blogging thingy :-)

So today is Mothering Sunday here in the UK, and what a lovely day it was for it too, the sunshine has been beautiful and very welcome after all the wintery rain we've had.

My lovely daughters always buy beautiful gifts on such occasions, and today was no exception, I was really spoilt this Mother's Day with all these lovely goodies

I even got some of my favourite chocolates and flowers off the little dude :-)  And as if all this wasn't enough I was treated to a lovely afternoon tea at a local Bakery.  

I guess I can kiss goodbye to loosing any weight at this weeks 

weigh-in, lol but it was worth it, everything was delicious :-)

I've had some crafty goodness going on this week too, In my bid to clear out in preparation for our move I found a couple of things waiting to be made up which I will be trying to get done over the next few weeks, first to be tackled though was this lovely angel.

On knitting needles I found a slipover that I started for Oliver

I had only knit the back before abandoning it in favour of something else, (I imagine, though can't remember what!), luckily it was a size that will still fit him.

And just so that I will have something else to carry on with I started another sweater for him

It's an easy knit and something I can do and watch TV at the same time :-)  The yarn is Sirdar Baby Crofter and is oh so lovely work with, produces lovely even stitches and gives a mock fair isle effect (it's a great cheat, because I don't think I would ever be a good enough knitter to attempt a real fair isle pattern).

I've had one more stitchy start this week, Needlecraft Haven forum have a monthly ornament challenge, I've yet to finish one and this month is no different, but at least I made a start :-)

It's a free design you can find here 

I didn't take much notice of the size and number of stitches so mine will be too large for an ornament so I need ideas for finishing please!

That's about all for this week except for one more bit of news, well, big news really.

DD#2, Joanne, got engaged!

Gavin proposed last week when they went on a trip to Dublin

She had no idea it was coming but we did as Gavin had phoned Mark a few days before to ask his permission, bless him, he is such a lovely lad, I hope that they will always be this happy.

Until next time

-x-

There's Something About Mary

Mary Glover that is.  

Can you remember when Emmanuel offered up this lovely SAL, way back in 2011?  There were so many stitcher's taking part, it seemed that everywhere you looked you would see Mary. 

 As usual I started with great enthusiasm but, also as usual, fell by the wayside. 

First it was the over one stitching, I hate over one stitching, although it does look fabulous when it's done, so I suppose it's worth all that effort.

Next it was the rice stitch that sent me into a panic, but there was no need for me to get into a flap because it was actually quite easy once I started it, and very enjoyable to do :-)

Finishing the rice stitched panel spurned me on to finish the sampler, that's when it I came a cropper yet again.  

I trotted off to the framers with my newly finished piece, got her all laid out to choose a frame but all the time I was thinking that something wasn't quite right, so I took her home to check.

When I came into the SAL I think others were already on the second part and for some reason, (and I have absolutely no idea why) I started stitching down a way from the top and never went back to finish, so I was 3 lines missing!  Thank goodness I noticed in time otherwise it could have been an expensive mistake!

I promptly banished Mary to the cupboard in disgust where she lay forlorn and forgotten for nearly another 12 months.

A couple of weeks ago whilst having a clear out I once again came upon poor forgotten Mary and decided that I had punished her long enough, she deserved to be finished and put on show.

I left off the two little straight stitched motifs at the bottom because I preferred the look without them I also dabbed a tea bag all over the finished stitching to give a more aged look. 

 Close up of the frame

So, yeah, there is something about Mary, she's beautiful, and I love her, but was also a pain in the ass, lol.

-x-

Catching up

It seems that time has been my demon again, I'm full of good intentions, honestly, I am, I'm just not very good at time management lately.  I have been busy though, with crafty things as well as the normal everyday things that seem to steal all of my time (as I'm sure they do yours too).

One of my Nieces is due to have her second baby in April and has requested a blanket like the one I knit for Jenny when she was expecting Oliver.  

I've been knitting this on and off for a while, far longer than it should have taken really, but at last it's finished!

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A new crochet project is on the go.  I'm choosing the colours more or less at random and so far I think they look ok. 
A few days ago in a quiet moment at work I was browsing the internet and admiring various granny squares and one of the lads came into reception, saw what I was doing and told me that I must stop this, It's not 'cool', (apparently) 
er..... I'm 52, I think I'm old enough to not give a jot if anyone thinks I'm 'cool' or not, lol.
So here is my new un-cool hooky project, which, as it happens, I think is pretty cool :-)

I've only finished about 18 squares so far, so there will be loads more to tell on this blanket before it's finished, and I'm trying not to think of all those ends to weave in yet...eek

I have to say that I am getting immense pleasure from working all these little squares :-)
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Stitching is still sort of taking a back seat, larger projects have been abandoned in favour of smaller ornaments, which is about all I have the attention span for at the moment.
I've stitched up two freebies but only managed to get one made up into an ornament.

Free chart found here

As usual the finishing was a challenge.  I swear I could have stitched it all again in the amount of time it took me to make it

 up, and we won't even go into the mess I made whilst sewing!

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The only other news to tell this time is that we are on the move.  A couple of weeks before Christmas we put our house up for sale, It was something that had been talked about for a few years but never put into action, but now the time seems right and we were both ready to do it.  
We were very fortunate in finding a buyer after only being on the market for about 5 weeks, and a few weeks later we found ourselves a new property.  My initial reaction to selling so quickly was shock, and to be honest I was a little scared, but now that we have found somewhere to go to I'm really excited and looking forward to getting things moving.  I will keep you posted on the progress

I'm a Hooker!!

For the longest time I have oohh'd and aahh'd over the wonderful crochet projects on Lucy's blog.  

I've Googled, You Tubed and borrowed books from the library in order to learn how to crochet, but always found it very confusing.

But then by chance I found out that a class for complete beginners was being held at a local craft shop.  Joanne, DD#2 had wanted to learn too so off we went to sign up!

Joanne picked it up almost right away, I struggled and only managed to come away with a small (very small) granny square.  Not to be defeated, I practised granny squares for the rest of the weekend until I was happy that they looked, if not perfect, then at least ok.  

My youngest daughter, Stevie put her hand up for a blanket, but I was daunted by the thought of sewing all those little squares together, (besides, I haven't done the class that shows how to sew them all together :-)  So, I just kept going...

And going

Until I almost ran out of yarn!

As you can see, It fit's atop my double bed perfectly :-)

More by luck than judgement and measuring though I must say!

So, now I'm a hooker, lol, and I'm so happy with my first hooky 

project, and my first finish of the year :-) and Stevie is happy with her new blanket.

  I'm missing working on it already!!  I guess some more yarn will be purchased very soon :-)

There have been lots of things happening while I've been away from blog land and I will think of them and try to include them in my posts as I go, but I just had to include a photo I took of this little fella today.   

While most of the UK went back to work this morning I had another day because I was looking after this amazing little dude

.

Can you believe that he will be 15 months old this month!

His Momma went back to work part time in October and the days that she works I take off my job to look after him.  

It's working ok at the moment, sometimes I have him in the day time (that's when I have the day off), sometimes I have him after I finish work in the afternoon and sometimes we have him at the weekend, It's not every day so It works out fine and I just love having him :-)

Well, that's about all the news for now, I'm still trying to catch up on blogs and blog reading but I will get around to you all sooner or later.  Thank you for reading my ramblings tonight, you are all so kind to have stayed with me.

Until next time

xxx

Wishing all my blogging friends a Happy & Healthy New Year

May you have all you wish for

xxx