Sneaking in before the end of November

 I've been telling myself to write a blog post for a couple of week's but just couldn't drum up enough enthusiasm for it.  But as we are fast approaching December I  thought I better before It all becomes overwhelming, or should I say, more overwhelming than it is now.

You'll be pleased to know that I'm not going to go on and on about all the happenings of the last few weeks, I'll stick to just one piece of stitching for now.

 I finished the November Calendar Girl and she has been gracing the mantle all this month.

One more to go and I've completed a whole year of Calendar Girls.  (December is all stitched, I'll share that next time once I've fully finished her)

I've decided to do Blogmas again this year, just a short blog post each day throughout December.

 I have some wonderful advents to open from December 1st and would like to share all the lovely goodies with you.  Unfortunately there will be no Christmas markets to visit this year because of 'The Virus' but we are still hoping to do some festive things in the lead up to Christmas, If Boris allows.

We had booked to go away to Wales from Boxing Day until January 2nd  but with the announcements of the new  Covid tiers on Thursday we have had to cancel.  I'm so disappointed, I was really looking forward to a week away and a change of scenery.  If you have read my previous posts you will know that I was made redundant back in July and to be honest I'm still struggling to come to terms with that.  I know that may sound a bit dramatic, but on top of everything else that going on with the Covid situation I haven't been feeling the best either in myself or about myself lately and this little holiday was something I was really looking forward to.  My birthday is over Christmas so it was going to be a nice birthday treat too.  I have spoken to the people who own the place we were staying in and if the situation changes at any time between now and a few days before Christmas they are going to contact me.  I can't see it changing, but you never know.

Covid needs to do one now so we can get back to a normal way of living!

 I hope you will pop by to see me during my daily December posts 🎄

See you soon

-X-

All the Autumn things

Hello!, thank you for all the suggestions on how I could cheat in the Strictly Sock-along.  I've decided that I'm definitely joining in and I will be using some of those great suggestions left in the comments :-)

Today is another wet one.  I had the foresight to tidy the garden yesterday when the weather was lovely.  This time of year we have to keep on top of collecting all the leaves and acorns so any dry day we have we have to take advantage of, although, as I'm sitting here now looking out on the garden the top lawn is already covered with leaves again! 

I did get my October Calendar Girl stitched and finished, only just though, this one caused me problems, I don't know why but I just kept miscounting.  But she's all done now and she's one of my favourites :-)

The Autumn leaves are a gift from Bonnie 🍂🍁

I've been a little obsessed with making crochet pumpkins, I made these three last week.

The little stick stalks are another gift from Bonnie, when she walks here she likes to pick things up on the way, a pretty leaf, a nice stick, as children do :-)  

But actually the stick proved perfect to make the stalks and she was really happy that she had bought something useful

Todays gift was that lovely golden leaf in the middle.

Yes I do keep what the children bring me.  Oliver once had a small collection of sticks and pebbles in a corner of our garden, he would pick things when we were out for a walk and say, this is a nice stick / pebble Nanny and home it would come, lol

More pumpkins, these are paper mache ones from Hobby Craft, which I painted

I bought a pumpkin crochet kit from The Cotton Pod at Yarndale two years ago and it kicked my obsession off with them this year.  There was enough yarn in the kit to make two pumpkins this size (they are just a bit bigger than the palm of my hand).  I made a stalk for the other one, (not photographed) but didn't bother with the leaf and tendril thingy as I found them fiddly.

I'm going to make the most of a rainy afternoon now by starting to wind my yarn advent exchanges. 

I'm doing two swaps this year and can't wait to put all the lovely things together.

                                                                          🤶🤶🤶

See you soon

-X-

Stitching finishes

I finished the September Calendar Girl for this month.  Only three more of these monthly ornaments left to stitch now, I'm quite impressed with myself for keeping up with these each month this year.

My other finish is The Weathered Garden, I've shown my finish of this one before but I collected it from the framers at the weekend.

I'm really happy with the frame choice, and my LNS always does a great job with framing stitched pieces, but it's got a bit expensive now, this is quite small really but still cost £35, I need to be able to justify whether it's worth spending the money on framing in the future.

I'm still feeling the effects of tennis elbow but it has improved a little over the last week, I am stitching and knitting but making sure I take regular breaks, I have got a physio appointment booked, via video, face to face appointments are still not happening, I thought it was this morning but I must have got it wrong because I got no call and I accidentally deleted the text so can't check.  Never mind, it's only via a mobile video chat so I haven't 'missed' the appointment.

I might pop back later in the week to share some knitting

See you soon

-X-

The last of the Jolly July stitching

 I managed to get two more pieces stitched during Jolly July.  Oliver asked if he could have a reindeer ornament this year, I took this Rudolph from another chart, it's not the sort of thing I would usually stitch but I think it looks quite cute 

I also finished Button Tree by The Drawn Thread.  I  decided to use buttons from my stash in the end rather than buy some specially, now I need to find a frame for it.

I'm quite chuffed that I managed to finish all my Jolly July stitching.  The only one that I didn't get to work on was Jacob's Christmas Stocking.  That was a none starter really as I was waiting for threads which only came in the last week of July.  That will now become a focus for me during August.  I've already made a decent start and I'll share that in another post.

I was way ahead with my August calendar girl having finished her in June.  Although I made a boo boo in the making up.  Can you spot it?  I forgot to make a bow by the button!  

I kept looking and thinking something didn't look right, it was on display a couple of days before I realised what was missing.  I don't have enough thread of that colour left to make more cording so it will have to wait now until I put another thread order in

We had Jacob for a few hours on Saturday while Joanne and Gavin took Bonnie to a drive in cinema to watch her favourite film, Frozen.

He's seven and a half months now and sitting up, he also cut two teeth this week.  Growing up far too quickly

Joanne only tried him with this cup the day before, he soon got the hang of it though.

They found out recently that he has an intolerance to milk and now his formula is on prescription.  It only took about four months of Joanne keep saying that he made a fuss over having his bottle and didn't settle or seem comfortable after, and the fact that he only pooped a couple of times a week for the doctor to say well yes it could be!!

He is much more settled now and sleeps better and poops, lol.  It does mean though that now he is eating solids she has to be careful not to give him anything that contains milk or milk products.  

 But as you can see by those chubby legs and hands, he's not doing too bad on it and from what she has been told babies usually out grow it by the time they are toddlers.

See you soon

-X- 

Half way

Wednesday marked the half way point in the year, and what a strange year 2020 has been so far.  

Who would have dreamt at the start of the year that half of the worlds population would been asked to stay at home and put on lockdown to save lives.  At times it all seems so unreal, thankfully everyone I know has stayed safe and healthy, I don't personally know anyone who has had Covid19 although you have only to watch the daily updates to know that it is indeed real.

We can only hope that the situation continues to improve and that the next six months will be better.

Like a lot of others I'm still not venturing out too far, I still only go food shopping when I need to, and try to go when I think It will be less busy,  I do get nervous when there are too many people about and have come across people who seem to have trouble with keeping their distance.  

In a shop this week a lady asked if she could squeeze past me, I said no, we are supposed to keep a distance, she gave me a look and said, well I've got a mask on!   That's why I don't wear a mask, or gloves, to me they give a false sense of security.  I've lost count of the times I've seen people with gloves on but still touching their face, (or in one case, pulling them off with their teeth!!) or a mask pulled down on their chin so they can speak!  I have nothing against masks or gloves and would definitely use both if I had to use public transport but I'm more aware without them.

Anyway, doom and gloom aside, all this time at home has given me more time to do all the crafty things.  Last week I finished my July Calendar Girl.  I still love these girls, I think so far January and April are my favourite

These are all my finishes in the first six months of 2020.

Loved making these rainbows, and I used up a lot of my little scraps of yarn in the process.

Mine is still hanging on the front door

I've enjoyed all my stitching this year, but I especially enjoyed stitching that cute snowman 

 I didn't think I'd done much knitting until I went though my photos.  Can you have too many dishcloths do you think 😉

I'm joining in with Jolly July this year, stitching Christmas charts throughout the month.  I made a very small start on Jacobs stocking yesterday and have chosen ornaments to stitch for the grand-kids.  Apologies to those who don't like to speak about Christmas until December but most of my posts in July will be Christmas related 🎅🎄🎅 

Still no news on the job situation.  I was called into another meeting on Monday, a very short meeting in which I was told I would get a call within 48 hours with the outcome.   I thought that was it, I came home and was really upset for the rest of the day.  But there was no call until today and that was to say that there is a board meeting tomorrow and the final decision will be made then.  I know they usually have the board meetings in the mornings, so hopefully around lunch time they will let me know, I hate being in limbo.

See you soon, take care

-X-

A Tuesday catch-up

Looks like the hot sunny weather is back with us again.  I've had a lovely quiet day so far, all my chores are up to date and I've had some time sitting in the garden listening to my audio book.

Yesterday I managed to finish stitching July's calendar girl and will have a go at fully finishing her tomorrow.

I knitted five new dishcloths last week.  I'm a fairly new convert to knitted dishcloths and have developed a bit of an obsession with them

Yes, there are a couple of Christmas ones in there too 🎄🎅

I've wanted to knit the Dandelion cardigan for quite a while now so today I took the plunge and cast on.  Yarn is Drops Nord from stash

I haven't heard anything from work regarding my job.  I had to go into a meeting last Friday which didn't really tell me anymore.  There was another new position on offer which at first looked promising but I have since found out that it is more specialized role for which I do not have the qualifications.  The role of PA / Admin is no longer an option either because they have changed the goal posts and decided that the person who takes on this role will need to have I.T qualifications to assist in the day to day I.T issues .  That leaves the Service Coordinator position which to be honest I don't want.  So, It looks very much like I will be made redundant unless by some miracle they find another role I can fill.  I'm not holding my breath.

On a more pleasant note, I went for a lovely walk last week, up to the Wychbury Obelisk.  This is another local to me walk and there are several paths you can take to get to the top of Wychbury Hill, this time I took the public footpath not far from our house.

The Obelisk Is 84 feet high was built in 1747 under the instruction of Lord Littleton.  

The graffiti, Who put Bella in the Witch Elm first appeared on the obelisk in the 1970's and  refers to a local murder mystery from the 1940's

Apparently on 18th April 1943 four local lads were poaching or bird-nesting in Hagley wood and they came upon a skull in a hollowed out trunk of a wych elm tree.  The younger of the lads confessed the find to his parents and the police were told.  An investigation was launched but apart from discovering that the remains were female the body was not identified.

The views from the top of the hill are fabulous, you can see for miles and is well worth the climb

See you again soon

-X-

Miss May

First of all, thank you for your condolence messages.  Father in-laws funeral has now been arranged and as per the distancing rules only ten people are permitted to attend, which is a shame but that is the policy.  Mother in-law is coping well, considering, Mark is very quiet.  He is a typical man and doesn't talk much, he will find his own way of dealing with it.

~~~~~~~~~~~ 

I finished May's calendar girl super quick at the beginning of the month because of being at home and then my Kreinik Corder broker and she had to sit there without her trim for a while I waited for a new one to come in the post.

I haven't been out many times for a walk this week but was up nice and early this morning and once my jobs were done I decided to go out before I made any more excuses.

Just a few yards away from the steps I talked about in this post is a gate which leads on to the adjacent field

I walked all around the edge up to the top

Over one more field and there was the view of the Rapeseed field again.  

There was a beautiful wild flower meadow behind me and a man with his camera and tripod taking photos so I didn't like to stop and try to take pictures with my phone

.

I did come across a huge patch of buttercups though

And someone had attached a knitted rainbow to the gate, that made me smile :-)

Until next time - Keep safe and well

-X-

In Threes again

I took a few minutes this afternoon to sew the buttons on another In Threes cardigan I made for Bonnie some weeks ago.   It's a little too big for her at the moment, I knew it would be, but Joanne can put it away for her to wear later in the year.  

I used some drops yarn I had in my stash, so no money spent again :-)

I used three buttons I bought from Wool@13 last year

I finished stitching my April Calendar Girl on Thursday,  I sorted through my fabric bits for the backing, I don't have many blues, which would have been better, but I think this polka dot one will be ok, what do you think?

I'll set aside some time in the week to put it all together, I have to get some threads to make the cording anyway.

The weather was lovely yesterday so we had a few hours tidying up the garden, the grass is still really wet and because we have mostly clay soil, the borders are still sodden.  Mark managed to get another layer of leaves up but there are still many that are too wet to suck up.  I did manage to get all my Dahlia's planted up in pots, I bought nine tubers this year, I don't know if I'm going to put them in the ground or in pots yet, the slugs had a feast on them last year and they didn't thrive very well.

It's lovely to see a bit more colour outside after all the dull weather we've had, although the Tulips I planted and looked forward to seeing are not doing very well this time, a combination of pesky squirrels and wet weather I think.  There are some along the edge of the path that might come good, we will have to wait and see.

Thank you to those who commented on my last post, it seems this panic buying is not limited to the UK alone.  

The announcement on Thursday to close all pub's restaurants, cafes and so on from Friday seems to have lead people to panic buy wine and beer now, there was no wine in Aldi on Thursday and the beer isle was almost empty in Tesco too.  I really do find it hard to believe some people.

Today I've seen posts on FB showing the crowds of people waiting outside Tesco and Asda, more akin to football crowds, it's crazy.  The closure of places of public gatherings was to protect people and to try and slow the spread, so why do people think that this sort of crowd does not fall into that description?  

I'm trying not to dwell on the news so much because I'm thinking about it too much afterwards, Friday I felt particularly down about the whole thing, not helped by the fact that someone has left a very nasty anonymous comment.  I guess they are not brave enough to leave a name, I do wonder at the mentality of those that feel the need to do something like this.  It did bother me for a little while in as much as I couldn't understand why someone would be like that, and then it annoyed me that I couldn't answer back and call them out for what they are 😠

If anyone knows how to block anonymous comments please let me know.  For now I've left the comment there, you can read it if you go back to my last posts comments.   If they come back I hope they're shamed, (but I don't expect they will be).

Stay safe and take care all

-X-

Hello March Calendar Girl

I'm really enjoying stitching these calendar girls each month, they are quite quick and with only a couple of changes in thread colour between each one I've been able to kit the ones I've done so far out of stash.

 The backing fabric I've used for this one and the previous two finishes was from stash, as were the buttons.

My aim this year was to spend less, on everything in general, but on craft supplies in particular.  I've reached a stage when I want to use what I have rather than keep adding to it, there are only so many charts you can stitch in a year after all.

I've got April all ready to go, I had all the threads apart from one :-)

Have a lovely week

-X-

January's Calendar Girl

A very Happy New Year to you all, a new decade, I wonder what changes we will see in the next ten years?  The years go by so quickly, I said to Jenny the other day that the next time we are at the beginning of a new decade Oliver will be 17, that's scary, but I will be 68 and that's terrifying, lol

Anyway, lets not dwell on that rather large number, we have lots to fit into this decade first, we need to make the most of our time don't we.

I got around to fully finishing my January girl on New Years Eve, I had everything ready, it was just a case of setting the time aside to do it.

Instead of using glue, which I seem to get everywhere, I laced the stitched piece onto the backing board and then used a small amount of glue to attach the fabric to the back of the second backing board.  I whip stitched all around the edge of both pieces before attaching the cord.

It was a bit more time consuming doing it this way but I think I managed to get the edges neater than I do when I just use glue.

I did fiddle about with that bow and attaching the button for far longer than It should have taken!

This is the way that Vonna finished them while model stitching and finishing them for LHN, and I think it's perfect for them, so why change it :-)

 Oliver stayed over on Wednesday night so we had a day out on Thursday to two local National Trust places.

We have been to Packwood House a couple of times, once with Oliver when he was small, he can't remember, but we went in the summer and had a picnic in the lovely grounds, you can see more photos of the inside of the house in my post from 2016  The upstairs was closed to visitors due to refurbishment works and it was not picnic weather but we still had a lovely walk around the less muddy parts of the grounds.

They still had the Christmas decorations up and it was nice to see how they used things from the garden and handmade things to decorate the trees.

 Baddesley Clinton is a moated Manor House dating from the 13th century and is just a five minute drive down the road form Packwood House.  It has a very interesting history, It has three Priest holes and was raided in the Civil War where solders spent four hours searching the place, I would have liked to read more about it but Oliver had other ideas.

This was my first visit to Baddesley and I would love to go again in the summer, I loved the kitchen garden and the grounds.  Again they still had the Christmas decorations up.

The Inner court yard

 The kitchen garden, even in Winter looks lovely and neat!

It was nice to get out in the fresh air, even though it was cold, I've been cooped up too much over Christmas, It helped to clear my head of this cold, and yesterday I felt so much better for it.

It's back to work on Monday, I really don't feel as though I've had a break, I had so many plans for stitching and knitting and I've hardly done any!
I will be glad to get some routine back into my days though, I do function better with routine, when I'm off work there is no structure to my day and I feel like I waste time.  

Give me a week or two back at work and I'll be wishing for a holiday again though, lol

Hope your year got off to a good start

See you soon

-X-