Time Off, Days Out & Baby Naming

I've taken some unpaid leave from work, I had planned to anyway when Jenny had had the baby, but I needed it anyway as it turned out to re-charge my batteries and just have a break from certain goings on.  I don't want to go into details, it's too long and would bore you all, but lets just say that there are some people that were telling tales and stirring up trouble for us girls on reception, It was related to work and wasn't true, if only the person they had gone to had bothered to hear what we had to say the matter would have been cleared up, but they didn't want to hear us, they just sent a rather nasty email and refused to see us.  I'm trying to forget it, but it's not easy, it upset me, a lot.  I hope I feel better when I return next Thursday, we'll see. 

In the meantime I've been out and about and trying to catching up on some chores and trying out some new recipes (which I will share later on my recipes page).

  Yesterday I went with Jenny and James to Blenheim Palace, there was a Christmas craft fair on and we had a little walk around the house too.  The day was very damp and misty but I did get some photos on my phone.

Just a couple of photos of the lovely goodies on offer

a lot of the stalls request no photographs though

You are not really supposed to take photos inside Blenheim Palace, but as I'd only got my phone I managed to sneek some, lol - although they are a bit grainy.

The next two are taken in the Library which is the second longest room in England in a private house

at 183 feet long.

I was waiting for this random woman to move to take the photo, but she wan having none of it, lol  Still It does help you to see just how tall this fireplace was.

Inside the chapel

I played around with this one in Picasa to bring out the colours more

Despite the bleakness of the day there were still a few signs of Autumn around.

This tree still had most of it lovely orange leaves.

And a lot of the ground was still covered with beautiful coloured Autumn leaves

I've been stitching a little too, something for TP (who by the way has a name now :-)  

Please excuse the terrible photo - It's Bent Creek, Baby Row, or it will be when it's done, I've made more progress since this was taken and as It's not too big I should be able to get It finished in time for Christmas.

As I mentioned baby TP now has a name here he is with his mum last Saturday, getting bigger every day :-)

Baby Oliver James (and mum)

Today is another day out, this time with Joanne and her boyfriend, we are going to Laser Quest, I think I may be a bit old for this activity, but I'll give it a go, lol.  

Have a great weekend, until next time x

Days Out & New Starts

My week off work has finished, it will be back to being awakened by the alarm in the morning, i could so get used to getting up when i feel like it and pottering around the house, and the weather have been very good to me too. i don't do sitting in the garden really, much prefer there to be a pool i can dip into to cool off when it gets a bit much. On Monday we went to Blenheim Palace, which as you probably know is the birth place of Sir Winston Churchill, and a very impressive building.

How about this for a back garden! don't think I'd fancy the job of mowing and edging though!

Capability Brown designed the gardens, which are huge and very beautiful. We didn't look round them all, this is the water garden.

And i was dead jealous of the Hostas in the Secret Garden - they were HUGE!
Inside the rooms were very large, as you would expect, no photographs were allowed (why i don;t know) i usually get around this by disarming the flash and holding my camera in front of me then no one can tell! best not to share those photos though, i don't want to get done for breech of copyright! We were able to exchange our 1 day pass for a 12 month pass on the day we went so we will definitely try and go back again - I'd love to go again at Christmas time and see the rooms decorated.
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I've been getting lots of stitching time in this week too, usually i only stitch in the evenings but I've been parking my butt down in the afternoon and getting a few hours in! I made good progress on my ABC, which I'll show you next time, this time i wanted to show you my new start. i bought this when i went to the Craft show at the NEC in March

The Primitive Needle -Live Simply

I'm using 28 count with Gentle Art threads - I'm loving the way the threads are giving it a faded subtle look & I'm surprised at how fast it's stitching up. I now have 4 WIP's, and this from the woman who not so long ago said that she couldn't cope with more than one project at a time! I blame you lot out there leading me astray, LOL. The next part of AT has been released so I'll be working on that for a few days next week. Hope you all have a great week, the sun is shining beautifully again here but i am going to sit in the cool of my sitting room and stitch, i may venture out into the garden later with the hosepipe and give everything a good dousing. Thank you for visiting me and all your lovely comments, see you soon..Tara-a-bit x