Quaker Row All Framed Up

Hello Peeps! Thank you for all your wonderful comments on the results of my first attempt at tea bag splodging! Being the conservative type i did feel rather reckless but as i love the results, especially when i saw it framed, you can be sure I'll be trying it again :-)

I picked Quaker Row up this afternoon, and once again Sharon & Mark at 'Betty's' did a great job!

As I've been plagued with a migraine for the last couple of days not much stitching has been done, two days running i had to come back from work and go to bed for a few hours, thankfully this afternoon i have finally got a clear head, such a great feeling after migraine pain.

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I finally got myself organised enough to have a sort out and decided to start a 'swap / trade' blog if you want to have a wander over the link is in the right side bar, I've put some charts up for now but i have loads of magazines that i will be sorting through over the next couple of weeks and adding too, and I'm certain there are other charts lurking somewhere. I've added some wishes, likes & dislikes too.

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For my birthday at Christmas amongst other things my eldest daughter bought me Quaker Diamonds with the required Valdani threads and i made this my new start last weekend, this is not going to be a 'quick stitch' and i haven't made enough progress to show, I'll share it next week when I've been able to fit more stitchy time in.

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I'm thrilled that so many of you enjoy Philippa Gregory books too, I'm getting blank looks when i mention them at work and a sort of wrinkling of the nose when i say they are about the Tudors. I seem to be on a bit of a history fest at the moment and was chuffed to bits today when i came across two books in the charity shop, 'Elizabeth The Great' by Elizabeth Jenkins about

Elizabeth I and 'Mary Tudor' by H.F.M Prescott, about Katherine of Aragon's daughter, Mary.

They both look brand new and a bargain at 90pence each!

I'm behind on my blog commenting because of the 'head thing' but i will get to you all this weekend to see what wonderful things you have been up to :-)

Until next time xx

Quaker Finish

Greetings Peeps :-) first up is my second finish this year, finished within a month, i can't believe that i finished something so quickly, but here's the proof.

You may recall that i wasn't too sure of the thread colour, it has grown on me and i had several comments saying that you liked it so it stayed. As i put the last stitch in yesterday evening i spread it out on the table to admire (and pick faults with, as you do!). I can't say that i immediately loved it but then i had an idea, now I'm not good with original ideas and i don't mind saying that i nicked this one!! i had read on Siobhan's blog that she had aged her her stitching of 'semi naked' people by rubbing with wet coffee grounds. We only have instant coffee in this house I'm afraid, but off i went and make a strong cup of coffee and a cup of tea and mixed the two together, squeezed out the tea bag and dunked it in the cocktail, squeezed again took a deep breath and rubbed it on my stitching - this is a closer look at the effect.What do ya think? I'm loving it!! I just went to have another peek at it when i came in and i defiantly think it's improved the piece, so i want to say a big "Thank You" to Siobhan for her post which gave me the courage to try my own ageing process!

It'll be the weekend before i can get it to the framers now and I'll share another piccy with you when i get it back.

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Four of us girls at work have got together to participate in a healthy eating/fitness plan and today was our second weigh in, two girls stayed the same, one lost 2lb but i am so pleased to say that i have lost 5lb. Remember i said it was one of my goals to loose some weight this year? this weight loss is just the result of me not eating crap, no chocolate, no cake, (tell a lie, I've had one egg custard!) and the one that i think has helped most I've started to eat breakfast as soon as i get to work at 8.30 (can't face anything any earlier) and I'm sure it has curbed my hunger. I'll let you know if there is less of me here again towards the end of February.

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I've put a reading / read list in my side bar now as i discovered a 'new to me' author just before Christmas - Philippa Gregory, I'm so enjoying reading these historical novels of hers that i ordered all of them off Amazon, I'm finding she really brings the characters such as Anne Boleyn (what a naughty girl she was!!) her sister Mary Boleyn (what a tart!!!, lol) and Katherine of Aragon to life. If you've read any of her other novels I'd love to know if you enjoyed them.

And finally, i have a blogging question, I've tried to add more blogs to the ones i read but blogger won't put them on my list, anyone know why? is there a limit to the number you can put on i wonder?

Thank you for all the lovely comments you take the time to leave, they are wonderful and very much appreciated x..till next time xx

New Start, Snow & Daft Cats!

School was out again today because of snow over night so Stevie had yet another day of sledding. Last night was only about the 2nd time I've parked in our street in a week because of the weather, just my luck, i managed to inch my way down this morning, sliding the last bit, luckily there were no parked cars for me to hit towards the bottom of the road! The main roads weren't much better, I'm sure the gritters haven't been in our parts. This afternoon after work i left my car out of the street again, just in case!

I know this is a pathetic amount of snow compared to other countries but believe me, even this amount causes havoc in the UK, we are just not used to it and don't have the resources to cope with it, no snow ploughs and we are running out of salt and grit!

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When i was uploading some photos i remembered that i hadn't shared my framed Zippity-do-da with you, so here you go. Hard to get a photo of all of it with my small camera, but you get the idea, the frame i chose in the end was a white-ish distressed one which matched Stevie's room.

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My new start for 2010 was actually started on Boxing Day

Quaker Row by Midnight Stitching
I'm stitching on 28 count with Threadworx 10342. Still not really sure about the colour but it's staying put now! I just realised that i haven't quite finished the squirrel stitching. (does anyone else think that squirrel looks a little crazy?)
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Finally, this is my snow cat, molly, insisting on going out to catch snow flakes

She didn't wander too far from the door though i can tell you!
That's it for now, except to thank every one for their lovely comments on my last post and Fa-La-La, even though the stitching caused me so much greif i'm glad i stuck with it now, it's still sitting on the mantle in my bedroom just to remind me, and i did get the beads up of the floor, well, most of them anyway :-)