I'm All Behind!!

No ladies, I'm not referring to my posterior, although some might be inclined to say otherwise :O The behind i am am referring to is the blogging & blog reading, where on earth does the time go?? I've been full of good intentions but something always gets in the way. Last week i tried my hand at scrap booking, a completely new thing for me but my friend who is into scrap booking in a BIG way asked me to go to her crop as they were having a 'taster' session, all i was to bring along was a 6x4 photo and £1 for materials. I thoroughly enjoyed the night and my friend gifted me with a scrapbook to put my first page in:-) We got the chance to try our hand at stamping, (the bird & the flower thingies) and the little frilled edge under the photo was done with a cool little tool that did the frilly bit for you!. I dread to think how much could be spent on this hobby and I'm a little reluctant to go down that road, but it did make a really pleasant change. Stitching has been a bit hit and miss, most nights i really haven't felt like getting anything out. This is my pathetic progress on my ABC

I think the roses motif is the only section I've finished since i last showed it

I think perhaps i am getting a bit fed-up with the same old, same old, so to try and get back a little enthusiasm i made a new start yesterday - on this

I've had this ready to do for a while now and it seems to be stitching up quickly (famous last words, lol) no photos today though, I'll show next time.

My photo class is going well, really enjoying it so far, i was a bit worried i was going to be stuck with a load of men, but only 2 men in the class the rest are a mixed age range of women, all it seems with more or less the same objective, to become a brilliant photographer and earn loads of money, lol. I will try and get around to posting my photos somewhere so you can all have a good laugh for next time, but i took this today in my garden, trying to bring together what we have covered up to now

Thanks for stopping by & have a great week whatever you may be up too x

Wanna Join Me in a Happy Dance?

Because today i picked up my AT from the framers! I really love the way it's turned out and so glad i went for the red frame

Alla Turca Available from Stitchers Heaven Yahoo group

Designed by Pelin Tezer

stitched on 28 count with threadworx 1089 (Bleeding Hearts)

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Next up is something i haven't shown in a while, my ABC. Since i came back from holiday i haven't spent quite as much time stitching, but the times i have stitched has been on this.

I'm quite close to finishing, but way, way behind most that started this SAL, i keep thinking that i will get it finished by the end of next month, but at the snail pace that I'm going lately that's probably a bit ambitious!

This is also on 28 count, with Anchor threads 1013 & 1014. Please excuse the slightly washed out photos! And, speaking of photos, I've enrolled on a photography course this week, I've been looking around for a course for a while and came upon this one happening at the Botanical Gardens near Birmingham. I'm quite excited about it! The course starts next Saturday afternoon, so it also gets me out of the grocery shopping, lol. I shall bore you all with how it went next time, lol. For now, i hope you all have a lovely weekend whatever you are up to :-)

Catching up & I Have a Finish!

It's been a while, but there hasn't been much stitching going on here to show, except i finished AT up when i came back from holiday It's still waiting to be framed though. It has a small mark on the fabric at the bottom, not too noticeable but i know it's there therefore will always notice it! As the threads are not colourfast i cannot wash it, i have some carpet & upholstery wipes I'm going to try later and hope that works. and then i can take it to the framers in the week.

This past week I've spent my afternoons after work in the garden because the weather here has been absolutely beautiful every day, I've chopped & trimmed everything in sight, lol and it now looks so much better, most of the bushes we planted had somehow taken on a life of their own, it was like The Day of The Triffids in parts!

The right hand side on the corner there was a huge bush which although lovely when it was in flower had gotten just too big, all that's left now is the trunk of it and i have filled that area with daffodil bulbs and covered it in bark, so hopefully i shall have a lovely display next spring :-)

I've planted up my hanging baskets and window boxes with winter pansies too.

Now I've got the garden in order i shall hopefully be able to get some stitching in next week although i have to finish off my Power Point for the I.T NVQ I'm doing at work because the assessor is visiting the week after and i really want to get it out of the way (the assessor has been a bit of a nightmare from the beginning). Talking of work, we have had a series of shock redundancies. Back in April when we had the end of year review we were told that although things were tight (like most companies i suppose) they were going to save money through things like cutting back on spending, tighter reigns on expenses and there would be no spending on company fun days, but they were not going to make redundancies. Well that was then! so far, one of the girls has gone from Sales and one of the service engineers, then a week ago 8 of the design and CAD lads had letters and they made the decision this week to make two of them redundant, one of them was past retirement age anyway but the other one was a young lad, he and his wife have a young baby, it was him i felt most sorry for, he got upset when he was saying his good byes, i hate it when people get upset and could have cried with him!! We don't know if there will be any more, they never even announced these last ones! It's all made worse because all the lads are a really great bunch and everyone gets along, but i suppose with the economy being they way it is it can't be helped.

Thank you all for visiting and all your lovely comments, it makes my day to read them and visit all your lovely blogs :-) Have a lovely week whatever your getting up to. x

Home again Home again!

Back safe and sound last night from holiday, I've had a lovely relaxing time doing nothing much but reading, a bit of stitching and dipping into the pool to cool off every now and then:-) Just the kind of rest i needed to re-charge my batteries. I'm back to work in the morning, although I'm not really looking forward to it, but as my lottery numbers still haven't been drawn i suppose i will be up at 7am, (sigh).

Here's a little look at the in laws house in Cyprus - i spent my days sitting in the peace and quiet reading my book here

This is the side looking towards the pool
and again looking towards the front

This is where i sat to do a little stitching, it's part shaded so was perfect, believe it or not I've never stitched outdoors before ........

...............but i could get used to it with this setting!
Here's a little glimpse through those trees
Towards the hills...there is actually a proper tarmac road over there now, years ago it was just a dirt road and of course Mark just had to drive over there! it doesn't look much but believe me it is high up and there were boulders everywhere at one point which we had to keep stopping to move out of the road! Below is looking right and towards the sea, although i think it is just about out of view from here.
Although i didn't stitch as often as i would have done at home i did make some progress on MW

The majority of part 2 is complete, although that little critter caused me some trouble! i think i stitched him 3 times before i got him right! the little mystery motif above the squirrel kept us guessing, lol, to my mind now it's stitched it looks like a turtle with something in it's mouth, Stevie thinks it looks like a (tiny) camel, lol. From this photos it just looks like a splodge! I'll take a better one next time and you can see.

I'll save some photos for my next post and just leave you with a couple of Stevie-Leigh for now.

These two were taken at the harbour in Paphos

and eating out one night.
I have been reading your blogs while I've been away but didn't get around to commenting, I'll catch up with you all this week, have a wonderful week and thank you for all your lovely comments, they are truly appreciated :-)

I'm Goin Where The Sun Keeps Shining!

I'm so behind with blogging & blog reading, i had every intention but the last few weeks just haven't been flowing right for me, i seem to be continually on catch up mode and have been generally out of sorts with most things, it happens sometimes though i suppose we all get fed up! I really had my heart set on finishing AT this week and at the framers this weekend but that just didn't happen, how can such a small amount of stitching take so long, i swear the chart was growing the more i stitched! As for Mary, well she was abandoned this week in favour of AT, but because i neglected her I'm taking her on holiday with me (hence the title of the post lol) she is as i type sitting in my suit case ready to travel. this is where i got to, page one all finished.

A couple of people wanted to know what threads I'm using, well it's good old DMC, 3777, 839 & 840. I'm stitching on 18 count with one thread. It's a bit strange stitching with one thread but I'm slowly getting used to it.

So it's off to Cyprus for me & Stevie this morning, it was a bit of a last minute thing, only booked it last week, our flight is at 9am, we are staying at mother & father in laws for 2 weeks! Mark isn't coming with us this time, he won't be able to have time off now until the end of October so it's just a girly thing this time. I will have Internet access while I'm away so may try and catch up a bit in the next 2 weeks.

Right, I'm off, we have to be out the house by 6.30, see you all after the 23rd, have a great weekend / week whatever you are up to and thank you all for your lovely comments, i really do appreciate them :-)

A Win, The Eagles & Mary Wigham

A few weeks ago Ginnie (Jayne) held a blogoversary give away, and guess who won :-) As a rule i don't win anything so it must have been my turn :-) The funny thing is that Jayne lives just a few miles away from me! and for her daughter to draw my name out of entries from far flung places was amazing. This is what the postie bought on Saturday morning .

Bent Creek's Summer Basket which she made into a cute little hanging ornament , thank you Jayne, it is now sitting in my fairy light sticks :-)

Last Wednesday was the Eagles concert, it was a good job Mark checked the tickets because I'd been telling him it was at the NEC and it was at the NIA!!! same sort of venue but in a completely different part of Birmingham, lol. It was better really, the NIA is a bit smaller and the acoustics are better. We were actually sitting in the gods we couldn't have been any higher up, but it made for a great view and considering they are pensioners (or almost!!!) they were brilliant! I hadn't played the 'Long Road Out of Eden' CD more than once before we went, now it's my new favourite CD :-)

After much browsing of all the Mary Wigham's out there i finally made a start, but not with the threads that i bought on my visit to The Nimble Thimble a few weeks ago, I've gone for something completely different - well a girl's allowed to change her mind isn't she ;-)

I came across this colour combination from one of the Ladies across the channel and thought how well it would go in my house so I'm afraid i am guilty of plagiarism, lol. I have no idea what DMC numbers they used so i just went in search of 2 browns and a red (ish), I'm really pleased with the way it's looking at the moment. There is one thing that's worrying me though, if your stitching this are you correcting the mistakes and making it symmetrical? or are you stitching it as it comes? I'm a bit scared of making changes, so mine will probably be stitched as it comes, or it will for now anyway :-) Right, I'm off because Mary is calling from the corner of the sitting room, your visits and comments are much appreciated so thank for stopping by :-)
Till next time - Tara-a-bit x

Chart Is Ready For The Off - Names Sorted

Thank you for all the lovely comments left on my last post :-) It's now time to pass on this Simply Live chart, i will enjoy seeing it travel around and all the lovely stitching, amazingly it's only visiting 1 person from the UK!

I put all the names in the Randomizer and this is the order it came back with:-
1) Cindy
2) Mylene
3)Kathy
4)Eliza
5)Loraine
6)Lena
7)Gillie
8)Karan

Congratulations Cindy, your first up to stitch! the chart will be winging it's way to you on Monday - Karan, as you are last on the list to stitch and i have no further use for the chart you will get to keep it when it reaches you! I will e-mail everyone early next week with addresses and what not, in the meantime i have put a list in the side bar of the order of stitching so we can keep track - If when you have stitched you could e-mail (or leave a message on here) that it's ready to go to the next person and i can update the list in the side bar :-) The list of names above should be clickable.

Remember the quiet week i was looking forward to with Mark being away? well the best laid plans and all that! my bum has hardly touched the seat to do any stitching, lol. I had to pick Stevie up from school at lunch time on Tuesday, she had been having pains down her right side, they recommended taking her to the docs, which i did, the doctors then sent us to hospital to get her checked out for appendicitis!! I'm happy to say that i was not appendicitis but they kept her in over night so they could give her a scan on Wednesday (the doctor explained that sometimes girls of her age can get small cysts on the ovaries that can cause some pain and the scan would tell us) If she stayed in overnight she would get a scan next day as an in patient, if she went home she may have to wait up to a week for a scan. Of course we opted for her to stay in overnight to get it over with, we waited all day on Wednesday but by 4pm we were told there was such a back-log of scans that she wouldn't be done that day after all! (none of the 4 young girls on that ward were done either!) So we were told she could come home, she still had a bit of pain, but not too much. We are having to wait for a letter now booking her an appointment for the scan, which will end up being about a week later anyway! She has been fine since, isn't that just the way.
I had one of Marks bosses at my door on Monday Night desperately trying to get in touch with him, he had a job that he wanted him to start the week he comes back and to go to a meeting in London this Monday and Marks phone wasn't set up to receive calls abroad. I felt such an idiot, i didn't even have his parents phone number in Cyprus, how bad that must have sounded! they are all on Marks mobile and i never thought to write it down before he went, he was going to phone me everyday as it's cheaper to make calls from there to here. I ended up going to his sisters house and getting the number off her at 9pm on that night, and no, i didn't have her number either! Marks family are not ones for keeping in touch with each other, lol.

Hopefully next week i will not be playing catch up all week and will be able to get some stitching time in. Me and the girls are going for lunch tomorrow and i will be meeting Mark at the airport tomorrow evening. The only other thing i have planned for next week is a concert on Wednesday at the NEC near Birmingham to see the Eagles, how cool is that!, i can't wait! we've had the tickets for ages and they cost an arm and a leg, so they had better be good, lol. I shall let you know next time, for now I'm off to stitch!
Thanks for visiting, take care - Tara-a-bit x