3rd December - Ornaments for the boys

 You may have seen two of these ornaments when I was stitching them in Jolly July but I don't think I have shared them fully finished.

Oliver requested a reindeer for this years ornament.  I had bought a magazine chart off ebay a while ago, it was quite vintage looking, a round finish in a hoop with Santa in the middle and all the reindeers around him.  I chose to stitch Rudolf on his own and finished as an oval.

Isn't he cute?  I think this is one of my most favourite stitched finishes and Oliver loved him when he opened him this afternoon.   I may have to stitch another reindeer this year too :-)

I chose a snowman for Arty.  This is Frosty Flakes by Little House Needleworks.

I think he came out really cute too

Arty has two ornaments this year because being a bad nanny, I didn't finish his for last year.

I think this is a Lizzie Kate one, although I can't find the chart now so i'm not certain.

This was all stitched up last year but I didn't like the trim so this year I took the trim off and replaced it, I think it looks much better now.

I've fallen behind with finishing and still have Bonnie's and Jacob's to make up, hopefully I can do that at the weekend.

There are some lovely goodies in todays advents.  I opened a Mr & Mrs Rabbit Yarns one today which included a lovely lavender sachet and an angel charm, along with the one from Jo and Lisa.  Jo also included a little container of bulb stitch markers.  I do love the bulb ones, thanks Jo.  The tea light is from my candle advent and is a Winter spice, very nice.

There was also a little recipe included in with the lavender sachet and angel.  It sounds lovely.

I might give this a go nearer to Christmas.

It's been so wet and dull and dreary all day today, I really don't mind the Winter months but I prefer a cold crisp day over rain.  We have more of the same predicted for tomorrow as well.

See you tomorrow

-X-

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- 

Week one of Jolly July

I haven't joined a SAL for quite a while, mainly because I'm not very good at keeping up and I prefer to do my own thing when I feel like it.  But this year I've decided to join in with Jolly July / Christmas in July.  It's not strictly a SAL because the only thing required is for you to stitch something Christmas related.  I don't have a problem with that as it's my favourite season to stitch. 

So, in no particular order, these are my Jolly July starts for the first week.

LHN Frosty Flakes

I'm stitching with the recommended colours on a mystery piece of 32 count fabric.

32 count is not my favourite, I think the stitches look a little bulky using two stands of floss but I'm taking it slowly and I think it looks ok so far.

Next is The Button Tree by The Drawn Thread

Again I'm using the called for threads on some pale grey 28 count evenweave. 

I only started this one yesterday and am already almost half way.  I don't have enough pretty buttons to finish it so will have to search Amazon or ebay for those.

This is Country Cottage Needleworks Gingerbread House #3

Another chart I've had for ages and never stitched before.  

I'm stitching this on 28 count fabric in pale blue with the recommended threads.

  I really love how this one looks 💗💗

And finally, Jacobs Christmas stocking.  

This is Brett's stocking by Shepherds Bush

 I'm still waiting for some of the threads to come for this one, hence the small amount of stitching, hopefully they will be here within the next week.  I could carry on stitching further down the chart but I'm scared of miss-counting and having to rip it out again, I'd sooner wait and get it right.

Next week I plan on having another three or four starts and then I'll work on them all in turn until the end of the month, obviously Jacobs stocking is going to take me longer than a few weeks to stitch but as long as I get the stitching done on it by around the end of September that will give me plenty of time to make it up.

I got the call from work last Friday afternoon, it was what I had expected from the off.  Redundancy.

I won't go into the all the ways that I feel hurt and betrayed by the company I've worked at for the last fifteen years, but lets just say I've shed a few tears because of it and that the Directors are not the people I thought they were.

At the moment I don't feel in the right frame of mind to go looking for another job, I've never been in this situation before and I need time to get my head round it and feel better about myself.

In the meantime I'm enjoying a slower pace to the days and as you can see, getting lots of stitching time.  I know there are going to be lots of people who loose their jobs before we are through with this pandemic and I do feel for you If you are one of those people too.  I count myself very lucky in that we didn't rely on my money but I know i'm going to miss the routine of work and the office banter.

I hope you are all staying safe and well

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-

Fully Finished

I spent some time at the weekend fully finishing a couple of  ornaments.

Summer Bird by Heart in Hand

Stitched on 32 count (mystery) fabric with the recommended threads

Calendar Girl for June, by Little House Needleworks

I'm stitching all of these on 28 count vintage country mocha but on the plain side, not the variegated side of the fabric.  I'm using the recommended DMC threads

And as my sewing machine was out on the table, I made up two cross stitch project envelopes

 like the ones I've made previously for myself, using Vonna's tutorial.  

These will be for gifts this time though

I'm still only buying things when I need them, everything except the bee button and two threads came from stash, I'm happy with that :-)

Stay safe, see you soon

-X-

April is a cutie

 The Start of another month and another Calendar Girl to display.

  I think this one is my favourite so far :-)

I found a cute little wooden flower button in my button box which I think goes really well :-)

Well, we've managed to get through the first week of lock-down without doing each other any harm, lol.

To be honest It's been ok, we get jobs out of the way when we get up, Mark will help around the house, (although to be honest, I would rather do things myself) but he has been helping, neither of us are untidy people so there is not a lot to do anyway.  Later we just sit together, he will read the paper and I have been either knitting or stitching.  I've been going for a walk late afternoon, Mark isn't one for walking just for the sake of it, so I've been striding out on my own and listening to my audio book.

Talking of books, I've read quite a few this month.  I decided that I would pick 'real' books from my shelves for a while, I just got a bit fed-up with reading on my Kindle.

I've also listened to two audio books, The Perfect Wife by JP Delaney and The Giver of Stars by Jo Jo Moyes.  Both of which I really enjoyed.

On Monday, I made us a quiche with butternut squash, peppers, and caramelised onions and used some cottage cheese, cheddar and feta in there too.  It was lovely, if I do say so myself, lol

I had mine with salad but there some mash and veg left over from the day before so I made Mark some potato cakes to go with his, he was sceptical when I said what I was going to do, but he said they were lovely :-)

I made myself a Weetabix cake for snacking on too - sounds weird but is really nice, a bit like bread pudding, but without the stodge.

Being at home has given me the time to get another couple of finishes, which I will save for another post, one of them is so cute and is for a little boy who will be two in a couple of weeks :-)

Stay safe, see you soon

-X-