Phew! What a Scorcher!!

I think we finally have a taste of summer here in the Midlands, it's scorching!! but shhhhhh, i don't think the sun is aware that it' Bank Holiday weekend, so lets not say anymore in case it changes it's mind!!
I didn't see too much of the big round yellow thing in the sky yesterday except through the window, i was painting my daughters room all day, didn't come up for air until around 6.30 and was in bed for 10.00, knackered! Mark picked up all her stuff from uni yesterday, it's all now in boxes in the cellar waiting to be sorted. she has come home earlier than planned that's why we've had the rush with the bedroom, she had a falling out with one of the girls that she shared with at uni, I'm not sure what exactly happened, and to be honest, i haven't gone into it in great depth. Sorry if i sound a bit un sympathetic, I'm not, it's just that Joanne is a bit of a drama queen and i don't want to get involved in the argument, they are adults after all, Joanne is 21 and the other girl is 22 or 23, so big enough to not have school girl fallings out - you would think!


The last 2 weeks I've redecorated 2 bedrooms and i can tell you i ache in places i didn't even know i had! Do you ever wonder how one family can accumulate so much stuff?? I'm through with hording, so the local charity shop is going to get some new stock in the next couple of days!

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I have managed so stitching in amongst the chaos that has been my house this week - This is AT with part#5

I love working on this piece! part 6 is due out around the 1st of June i think. I was in a slight panic about the threads but i'm happy to report that i have gotten my eager little mits on 3 more skeins from Sew and So. I had to wait a couple of weeks, it seemed that as fast as this colour came in it was delivered out in back orders, obviously I'm not the only one in love with Bleeding Hearts 1089!! I can see no difference in the shade either now that Threadworx have taken over NN, good job! as much as i love this piece i don't think i could have gone back to the start!

I've also finished part 2 of the ABC SAl - this is how that's looking.

It's not a great photo, it looks as though there is a staining on the fabric, there's not, i think it just must be shadow from the thread. I think there have been 6 parts released for this one now so I'm going to be way behind on the finish.

Thank you for all the lovely comments on my Paris photos in my last post, i've still yet to make a album of the others, i may get around to it this week as i have the week off work Yayyyyyy!! so looking forward to that, a whole week at home to just please myself!

Hope everyone has a wonderful Bank Holiday, and enjoy the sunshine, (shhhh) Tara-a-bit x

Bonjour Mes Aimees

Don't panic I'm not about to start speaking French, anyhow from what i remember of my school taught French i would be hard pressed to utter a complete sentence let alone write it down!, how embarrassing is it when us in the UK visit France and have to resort to asking people on the street if they speak English? very i can tell you! and the reason i know this is i have just come back from a visit to Paris!

It was Joanne's 21st birthday in December so this was her belated present from us, Mark stayed at home with Stevie, so it was Joanne, Jenny & me who hit Paris on May 1st.
We did all the usually touristy things, first on the list was the Eiffel Tower, Joanne was a bit disappointed because it was a brownish colour and not the silver colour she was expecting! The ques to go up were stupid so we didn't bother, just had a walk around and took quite a lot of photos.

This is what Joanne meant by the colour, i don't think it looked too bad, if you look close though you can see green netting, there was work of some sort going on, maybe that's why the ques were so long.

We walked up the Champs-Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe, i didn't realise that you could actually go to the top until we got there, you have to climb a billion steps though. OK slight exaggeration but by the time i reached the top it felt like it! Well worth it though for the view of Paris.

The Sacre Coeur was well worth a visit, the church is the second highest point after the Eiffel Tower and yet again there were more steps to climb to get to the church, my legs and bum have not had this good a work out since i stopped going to the gym!

You can also climb to the top of the dome, 300 steps!! and yes i did do that too! Again, great views and worth the pain!
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We had to que to get inside Notre Dame and i must say that i was not blown away by the inside. It seems that you can climb to the top of all the buildings in Paris and this one's no different, however i didn't feel inclined to join the que this time so can't tell you what there was to see. there were several beggars around this area too; 2 women on either door of the church, one approached us while we were queuing, others were around the bridges.

The famous Moulin Rouge, it would have been nice to see a show but at €150 a ticket we gave it a miss! Something else that i didn't realise was that all along this strip there were lots of adult shops, if you know what i mean ;-) But not in a tacky way, they were just there.

And just to put a face to a name this is moi outside the Louvre.

This is Joanne picking said pyramid up. There were these little stands all around and we could only think that they had been placed there for people like us to pose for silly photos like this!

And Jenny doing this!

Back to a full week at work tomorrow, only did two days last week so that will be shock to the system, plus i will have to get the bus a couple of days while my car is in the garage, it failed the MOT and has to have some work done, nothing major but i hate the inconvenience of not having a car to jump in. I have a dental appointment on Wednesday too, the dentist was able to save the tooth i broke and is fitting a crown which i am expecting to be diamond encrusted going by what I'm having to pay for it! Hope you all have a good week whatever you may be up to, thanks for stopping by, Tara-a-bit

Everythings Coming Up Hostas!

Well at least in my garden! I love these plants, i have two fairly large variegated ones planted in the garden and 3 containers, i managed to pick up some of the dark green ones at the farmers market last week, someone was selling them for a £1 each, bargain! so four came home with me

and have now been planted in tubs. They all have a fair bit of growing still to do, but this is them

today.

Last year the slugs and snails feasted on them, i have to be careful what i put down to stop them nibbling because of my cats but a friend recommended egg shells because apparently they don't like or can't crawl over them, so that's what I've done this year and so far so good...bye bye beasties, lol.

It's a lovely day again here in the Midlands so Ive planted up some hanging baskets ready for our scorching summer, (yeah right!). It's still not warm enough to leave out all the time so they will be put in the shed every night until probably April is out at least.

I'm having one more go this year with tomatoes and if they don't happen this time i will give up, last year i think i was just too wet for them outside and i don't have a green house. I'm having a go with some peas too, it says 'patio peas' so I'm assuming they won't grow too big. This is how the rest of the garden looks at the moment.

Everything looks very green but the dandelions in the grass add a bit of colour! now these i can grow without even trying and they don't need any maintenance at all! there will be splashes of colour come the summer from plant too...i promise.

I have been stitching this week but I'm not going to post any photos this time as i only have Alla Turca and Grand ABC to show and you must be fed up with seeing those right now ,so I'll be showing my progress another time. I do want to say a BIG 'thank you' to Sandra though, she sent me some NN thread for my AT so at least i can carry on until my LNS has more in stock. Soibhan, thank you for passing on the message you got (you didn't say what her name was) but Sew & So was my first stop for the NN thread, they had been waiting for it for 3 weeks when i phoned but i may give them another call this week, thank you.

I've nothing else planned for today except to sit and stitch and watch Twilight, it came last week from the DVD club and i haven't got around to it. Wishing you all a lovely weekend whatever you are doing & thank you again for visiting me and leaving your comments, they are very much appreciated. Tara-a-bit x

New Start & Updates

So what's been keeping me quiet? My laptop, that's what! it was my own fault, i installed a new programme not realising that i should have uninstalled the version i didn't want first, and it caused a few problems but luckily it's been righted by the guy who sorts out our laptops for work and everything is fine now. I'll know to ask before i do anything again!

We had a very pleasant Easter weekend, my family came round for lunch on Sunday, what started out as being 5 of us ended up being 10 of us! It was nice to have everyone together but i can now understand why the air is blue in restaurant kitchens! We had the full turkey dinner with all the trimmings and everyone presented me with a clean plate :-) and no one has got in touch to say they suffered any adverse affects, lol, Dessert was home made Key Lime Pie, (the first time I've tried this and i was surprised at how easy it was!) it went down particularly well so i will defiantly attempt again, my eldest daughter contributed with a lovely Easter cake made with whole cadbury caramel bars which was really yummy, even the weather was unusually kind to us seeing as it was Bank Holiday. I really should have gone for a nice long walk on Monday to try and burn off a few of those calories but my sofa and stitching was calling me and i couldn't ignore them! This is my progress on Alla Turca, the fabric looks lighter on this photo, it's actually more of cream colour.

I've still got part 4 to stitch to be caught up, but think i should manage that this week. I'd been trying so hard not to be wasteful with the NN thread i'm using because my LNS only had 2 skiens, she didn't think there would be a problem getting more and i thought i wouldn't need much more anyway, i should have known my inability to count would have tripped me up, I've had to un-stitch one bit, well, actually rip it out while muttering under my breath how stupid i am would be more accurate. knowing i will need some more thread i go in search the next day only to find that NN is now Threadworx and the name & number have changed, fortunately they are still dying the same as NN so shouldn't be a problem, except the particular one I'm using is not to be found anywhere in the country! i have tried several place in the US too with no luck, one place told me that Threadworxs was having trouble obtaining the thread from Anchor that that is used as the base for this particular colour and it was not expected for another 2-3 weeks. Last week my LNS said that their supplier is due a shipment in 2 weeks and she will let me know as soon as she gets it in. Fingers crossed that i won't have to start all over again with something else, i prefer not to think about that at the moment so we'll say no more for now!

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I made a new start with the Grand Abecedaire SAL on Gazette94 blog, this is how far along i am this week. I am using Anchor threads 1013 & 1014 with 28 count evenweave (again) i seem to get on better with evenweave than linen, it's kinder on my eyes too, lol.

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My evenings have been turned upside down a bit at the moment, my husband, Mark (bless him) who usually works anywhere in the country and who i am used to seeing from Friday night to Sunday night is working closer to home for about the next 2 months! (that's 8 weeks, or 60 days!!!), you get the idea, he is here EVERY evening and i have had to resort to wearing my earplugs every night because of his snoring!, if anyone has found a good remedy to stop snoring please, please, please share it with me i would be eternally grateful!

Tonight I'm having a night out with some girlfriends so off now to get ready, hope your weekend is great whatever you are up to, thank you for taking the time to visit me and leave a comment, i love to read them :-)...till next time, Tara-a-bit xx

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I Joined a New Yahoo Group!

And i couldn't resist joining the SAL they have going on, the group is Stitchers Heaven, the SAL, Alla Turca. There have been 3 parts released so far with another due out on 1st April, i managed to finish part 1 last weekend, I'll start part 2 tomorrow and try to get caught up by the end of April.

I'm using 28 count evenweave and Needle Necessities floss, number 153.This is the first time I've used NN and i'm loving the effect.

I'm not going to show my progress on Yesteryear this time, it really is too pathetic to show!! i did get settled down with it a few times but i was struggling, it started off in a hoop then i put it in a frame, then back to a hoop, I'll persevere with it in a hoop now. It seems i couldn't count either! but I'll put that down to the fact that i was without my reading glasses for most of the week as they were having new lenses fitted, now they are back with me so i wont have that excuse next week :-) I have the weekend to myself this week as Mark is away working, all my chores around the house and the weeks laundry are done so apart from the usual Sunday morning ironing i can please myself and sit and stitch all day if i want too !, can't be bad :-) So until next time, I hope you all have a great weekend whatever you are up to....Tara-a-bit xx

Hobby Craft Show & Sunshine

What a lovely weekend we've had here in the UK, the sun was shining and at last it really feels as though Spring is on the way! There is a rumour that it's to continue for the rest of the week too, how good is that! My weekend was just as good, i visited the Hobby Craft & Sewing for Pleasure show at the NEC in Birmingham, what a great day! it was just lovely to have the day to myself and browse around the many stalls. The Hobby Craft show was filled with lovely goodies for scrapbooking & card making, although i love the idea of scrapbooking i am really not that imaginative, nor could i be surrounded by all that equipment, as lovely as it is :-) The Sewing for Pleasure show was filled with the stitchy type goodies i was in search of and i came away with just a few essentials ;)I treated myself to a new magnifier (i just cannot stitch without one of these now!) this one is a little larger than the one i already have and with a longer bendy bit (see I'm so technical, lol). Two charts, LHN 'The Bookshelf' which i've been looking at for ages, & 'Simply Live' which i thought was simply wonderful after seeing it on someones blog:-)
I bought two more storage boxes, you can never have enough of these, right? There was a really cute cat needle minder that begged to come home with me.... and who can resist a cute kitty :-) Lastly i bought a sheath for the scissors my daughter bought me last year and I've just started using.
I did meet with a couple of non stitchy things, the little wooden box & peg board are to be painted and decorated with decoupage, never tried this but it looked fun to do, and the wool is for a cute knitted bag, these little bags looked great and the instructions say they are a weekend project (I'll let you know if that's true lol), the kit came with pattern, wool, lining material and button, so there you go, that was my day's haul!

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Progress on Yesteryear has been almost non existent this week, so no photos to show, i couldn't seem to get back into any sort of routine for anything last week, I've now caught up with the washing ironing & cleaning so this week i shall be able to get back to my normal nights stitching starting right after tea tonight.

On that note, DD#3 has just come in from school which is my cue to start tea.

Thanks to all who take the time to leave a comment, i love to read them and they are much appreciated, hope everyone has a good week....Till next time, Tara-a-bit

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Four Days in Prague

What a wonderful place! if you have never been to Prague let me urge you to book a trip as soon as possible, you won't be disappointed :-) Here's a taster of what we saw starting with our hotel. We could not have chosen a better place, it was a great place and we were very well looked after. It was central to everything being just around the
corner from the Old Town Square.

This is the reception area, it's like a conservatory the lift is to left, you could only gain access to your room with a card which operated the lift and the door to the stairs so it was very secure.

The hotel has a great history and dates from the 13th century, the story of the building, which at one time used to be an ironmongers is told in the walk way from the entrance to the reception. The front is decorated by the 19th century artist Mikulas Ales and looks fantastic.

Our hotel room & the view from the window to the Square

As we rounded the corner from our hotel to Old Town Square on our first night this is what met us

The Church of Our Lady before Tyn What a sight all lit up at night, it look magical
One of the other great sights in the Old Town Square is the famous Astronomical Clock

Crowds gather to watch the clock strike on the hour. First the skeleton (figure of death) pulls on the rope he holds in his right hand and then raises and inverts the hourglass he holds in his left hand. Two windows at the top then open and the Apostles move slowly around, at the end of this display a cock crows and the clock strikes the hour. The other animated figures are Tuck who shakes his head from side to side, Vanity who looks at himself in a mirror and Greed adapted from a stereotypical Jewish moneylender.

The Astronomical Clock was not supposed to tell the exact time but to imitate the orbits of the Sun & Moon about the Earth. Legend has it that when a master clockmaker rebuilt the clock in 1490 the town did not want him to recreate another one anywhere else so they blinded him! poor man, what a thank you!

You can go to the top of the clock tower, the views are great, and i did brave it to get some photos, although i am not very good with heights, the last time i climbed a ladder OH had to come up and fetch me back down again

Wenceslas Square - New Town

Looking down Wenceslas Square, which as you can see is not a square! The monument is St Wenceslas and the large building is the National Gallery in which we spent a lovely couple of hours browsing around.
Charles Bridge

As bridges go this is one of the lovely ones :-) it is pedestrianised so is pleasant to walk across, although at the time of our visit there was a restoration programme going on and some of the one side is being worked on, still, it doesn't spoil this view which i took when we climbed to the top of the Observation Tower (another scary climb!). The Observation Tower is on Petrin Park which we reached via the Funicular Railway, which is well worth a visit even if it's just for the view at the top. For those of you still with me at this point, (thanks, you all deserve a medal, lol,) you will have got the general idea that i loved this City, it has such history and the most amazing buildings. We visited many more places, and i would be here forever showing you and i have the dinner to get ready!! so, i have many more photos in my webshots album to share if you want to take a look the link is in the sidebar. I will leave you with one more photo of a really funky building.
"Ginger & Fred" building, or "The Dancing Building" Whichever one you choose to call it it's a cool looking building! We didn't go in there but apparently there is a restaurant in there somewhere! Thanks for taking time out to visit me see you soon, Tara-a-bit x