Making the most of

We are still being spoiled by glorious sunshine here in the Midlands, there is still a bit of a nip in the air early mornings and in the evenings, but I think we can cope with that if it means such beautiful blue sky days.
Our garden continues to surprise us with new things and I love sitting out there
with a cup of coffee in the afternoon when I finished work.

A couple of miniature roses came home with me this week too, from Home Bargains would you believe, at £1.49 each I could hardly pass up the opportunity :-)

They are a lovely pale yellow, which is a bit hard to see on the photo.

My lilies are growing too.  I bought these in a pack with the pot from Tesco back in February, they were with the Mother's Day gifts.

Oliver is enjoying Nanna's garden too, although his idea of enjoyment is more
energetic than mine I have managed to focus his attention for a short time filling the watering can or a bottle to give the flowers a drink :-)

 I love how he is enthusiastic about everything and wants to help, even though it will take me twice as long with him "helping" that's ok, I don't mind, the important thing is that he has fun and learns things along the way, he will only be two and a half once and I want to make the most of it, even if it means when I take him to the soft play area he shouts "come on Nanna" and I have to climb in too,
(now that's a sight you don't want to see, lol)

When I haven't been playing on the slide or feeding the ducks this week I've managed to do some more stitching.

A few weeks ago I sorted the fabric and the threads for the Lizzie Kate Flora McSample stockings.

I was itching to start these but told myself I couldn't until all the PS Santa's were stitched, 

I still have to make the Santa's up but I will have to set aside time for that because the making up part is not something that I really enjoy doing.

So I'm one stocking down, (so to speak!).  

It turned out to be quite a quick and enjoyable one to stitch.

I'm using the recommended DMC threads.

 The fabric is 28 count, (unidentifiable because I've had it ages)
There are some little buttons to add to the centre of the flowers but I will do all the embellishments together.

I know a lot of you stitch in some sort of rotation, while I admired your dedication I always thought that it wouldn't be for me, but when I was stitching last Friday I got to thinking, I have the most time from Friday night and over the weekend and perhaps I could use those days/evening for stitching and fit in some knitting or crochet the rest of the time. 

I find that i'm tending to flit about on various things lately and not getting much finished.

I'm going to give it a try, Friday through to Monday will be stitching on whatever I happen to

be doing at the time. Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday will be knitting or crochet.

The only exception would be when we have stitching group, which is the last Wednesday in the month and I shall probably take whatever stitching I happen to be working on then.

This might just work ok for me, because if I've got Oliver then a yarn project is more portable, less to pack when I am at my daughter's.....Can't hurt to give it a go anyway.

This week we also had a special birthday celebration.

Stevie Turned 21 on Tuesday!

This was taken around her 3rd birthday,  she would kill me for showing this, but it's a mothers prerogative to do these things :-)

Although we didn't see her on her birthday she was back home at the weekend and we went out for

a meal with my other daughter's and their boyfriends and I sent her back with a cake and 21 presents to open on her day :-)

She finishes uni this year and job wise was very lucky in getting the first post she applied for as a Nursery teacher.

In the meantime they offered her 2 day's per week until we come back from holiday when she will go full time.

I'm so happy she got what she wanted, ever since she was little she has wanted to work with children, (when she was small she used to tell me that she wanted to have at least 5 babies and 2 exactly the same!! :-O
I'll settle for her working with them in the nursery for now, lol)

It's been another busy week and I'm ready for the weekend, we are going
to an clothing outlet village on Saturday to look for wedding outfits.  It only 5 weeks on Sunday until we fly out....eek!!

Until next time
-X-

Stitching, Knitting, Crochet, Garden & Cats, Phew!

DH has been at home all week, his latest job, a holiday park is finished and there is nothing starting again just yet.   Me, I've been at work in the mornings leaving him having a lie-in.  I think his days have consisted of a walk to the shop to get the paper, tea and toast, reading the paper, more tea and generally waiting for me to come back home at lunch time, lol

I must admit that I'm ready for some alone time, having him around home all the time is not what I'm used too.

The weather has been glorious and we have tried to make the most of it by getting in the garden.  We bought a new patio set, so hopefully the weather will hold out long enough for us to sit out and enjoy it.

We made a trip to the garden centre and bought a couple of new plants for tubs and came across a tiered planter on sale so that came home with us to.

And Mark cleaned the shed out, got rid of all the junk we had accumulated in the short time that we've been here and gave it a spruce up, and of course I had to 'pretty it up' by hanging some bunting :-)

We have plans to get rid of this shed next year, we have been looking at summer houses but need to get inside the house finished first.

This is looking from Stevie's bedroom window.
Please excuse the green garden bin, I really should find
somewhere else to hide it.

It hasn't been a week for starting new projects, but I did finish the last of the PS Redwork Santa's last Sunday....Yayyyy, three are already made up, all I have to do now is make the last three up.  It could be a while before that particular miracle takes place ;)

I finally finished the granny stripe blanket which I had abandoned in favour of something new.  I'm pleased with how this one came out.

The cable blanket I was knitting for a work colleague has been finished and gifted, she seemed happy with it :-)
(excuse the crappy photo, it was still being blocked here)

And something new I started a month or so ago but had forgotten to share.
A blanket for Autumn.  I know, I know, we haven't even had summer yet, but I'm thinking It may just be finished in time for Autumn  if I started early enough :-)

The lovely weather has bought more life to the garden, I'm really enjoying seeing all the different plants and shrubs coming to life.  I've been having difficulty settling into this house to tell the truth, I know I will feel better when we have put more of our stamp on it, but for now the garden is making me feel better :-)

The Pieris has really come to life

The Camelia is flowering lovely

Hostas, Mark hates these plants, I love them, if you have been reading my blog a while you will know I have 2 giant tubs of these and I LOVE them.
(Unfortunately so do the slugs and snails)

Millie, wondering if she can climb that tree :-)

Molly, who has no interest what so ever in anything
as energetic as climbing trees :-)

Well that's my weekly round up, there is a nice glass of wine with my name on it so I'm going to put my feet up.

Until next time
-X-

A Lovely Easter

Well the Hen Party date rolled round pretty quickly, you think you have ages to get something done then wham! you're there!!

Friday night was the Greek meal night, all but one person turned up so that was a relief.
With Stevie's help I managed to get all the part bags sorted, I put her in charge of decorating them while I finished off the brooches, which, if I do say so myself turned out ok :-)

They ended up taking far longer than I expected, and I was so glad when they were finished and the bags were filled.

It was a typical Greek night, the food was fantastic and there was dancing and plate smashing thrown in too, the restaurant is only small and has a really nice atmosphere, the staff get everyone up and dancing and joining in so that it becomes like one big party.

Saturday morning we had to be up bright and early to get the train to London.
The trip wasn't without it's dramas, Joanne is our drama queen, always has been and we really didn't expect to go the whole weekend without one, thankfully she got it out of the way on Saturday evening so that we could enjoy our afternoon tea at the Savoy :-)

Finger sandwiches for the first course, scones with jam and cream second course, plates were re-filled as soon as they were empty, as was your tea cup :-)

There was a choice of afternoon tea or high tea.
Jenny and Joanne opted for afternoon tea so the third course consisted of a selection of French pastries

 Me and Stevie had the high tea, so our third course was brioche with salmon and egg, OM Goodness it was so lovely!!

 The final course was yet more cake, this time a choice of one of their signature cakes, I had rum & raisin and the girls had carrot cake, again both cakes were to die for.

We had to go in the M&M shop of course!

This bus made me feel old, I remember going to school on a bus just like this, lol

And the most beautiful bridge in the world, (well I think so).

I love everything about London, every time I go I am always amazed.
The old blending with the new

We walked from the Savoy all the way to Saint Paul's passing St Brides in Fleet Street on the way, did you know that this building was the inspiration for the tiered wedding cake?

The blue chicken in Leicester Square has been replace by a dinosaur.

HMS Belfast.

Old and new again

We walked so much this weekend but it was worth the aching legs :-)

Easter Monday was a beautiful day, the warmest this year so far, t shirt weather :-)
and the garden is finally showing signs of life, this is the first time we have seen the garden at this time of year and I'm pleased to see so much yellow.

And lots of purple too, this is sprouting up all over.

Some things are almost in flower

And some things are well on their way

The prickly one I almost dug up because I don't like where it is has the most beautiful and unusual flower

A little closer, they look like sprouts, lol

 I treated myself to this miniature rose last week, I like to have flowers in my bedroom and I thought this was a perfect alternative to keep buying fresh flowers, I think once it's finished flowering I will be able to put it in the garden too

The flower head is beautiful, and I do prefer this or yellow roses to the more traditional red.

As the weather was so good on Monday we had a little Easter egg hunt in the garden for Oliver

He had fun looking for the little bunnies I had hidden around the garden, and once he discovered that where there was a bunny there was also a chocolate egg there was no stopping him, lol

I hope the weather has been kind to you too and you have had a blessed Easter.

Until next time

-X-