New Years Day Finish

Happy New Year! The first morning of the new decade was a frosty one here in my part of the UK, we were promised snow a few days back, but it never arrived, am i the only one who was disappointed??,lol.

Looking back over December it was, (as it is every year) a very busy time in this house, we have celebrated 5 birthdays and a wedding anniversary since the beginning of the month, starting off with my Niece on 1st December quickly followed by my DD#2 who turned 22 on the 2nd, my DD#1 turned 27 on 22nd, little ole me celebrated (not sure that's the right word) my 48th birthday on 27th! and my brother turned 55 on 28th (omg, my family is getting old, lol) and just to add a bit of variety it was my wedding anniversary on 20th, what ever possessed us to get married so close to Christmas i do not know!

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I'm not a fan of making New Year resolutions, but this year i am setting myself some goals, the first of which is to have a healthier lifestyle and get fitter, notice i didn't say the dreaded 'diet' word, i have in the past rushed to join Weight Watchers or Slimming World in January only to have my interest wain by February, so this year I'm doing neither, i know what i need to do in order for the scales to go down, eat less crap and take more exercise! i just need to put it into practice and I've already started on the second one (come on its Christmas, I'm allowed to eat some crap for now!) so to combat some of that Christmas food I've been going for a brisk walk everyday over the holiday, it's a start and I'm not looking for any 'quick fixes' this year, it's taken me 4 years to put on this extra weight so I'm being realistic this time that it will take me a while to shift it! My aim is to loose 18lb, that will make me just 7lb heavier than i was 4 years ago, (I'm older now so i figure that i need some fat to help plump the wrinkles out! I'll post my progress here more for me to keep track, but i wont bore you with it at every post, promise :-)

So, here is my very first finish of 2010 and I'd like it to be known that more than once it was flung to the other side of the room in utter frustration and very nearly consigned to the kitchen bin on several occasions! i don't know what happened, i must have lost brain cells or something with all the lounging around over the holidays, Christmas may be over but this is staying where i can look at it and show it to everyone who will look, lol.

LHN, Fa-La-La on 28 count with DMC threads

I added beads around the edge and finished it off with red organza ribbon, the beads were a first for me, and boy did i make a mess with them!

I want to thank you for visiting me in 2009 and i hope that you will continue to do so in 2010, i look forward to visiting all your blogs and seeing all the wonderful work you do, i love to read the comments you leave for me here, they truly make my day :-) Have a fantastic New Year, I'm going to finish off the first day of the new decade by picking all those dropped beads off the carpet, lol...wish me luck (or i may just get the vacuum out!)

Merry Christmas!

I have no new stitchy finishes to show, i just wanted to wish all my blogging buddies a merry Christmas! I finished work this afternoon and can now look forward to 12 lie-ins, lol, no alarm going off at 7am, nothing to rush for in the mornings, bliss :-)

It seems ages since i had any stitching to show but I'm hoping to get plenty of stitching time in and maybe finish off a couple of ornaments over the holiday so i will be able to prove that i do still stitch, lol.

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Here in my part of the UK we are still experiencing quite a cold spell, we had a dusting of snow last weekend which amazingly is still with us, which just goes to show that the temperature has not been above freezing the whole week, i know that in some part of the world that's not unusual, after all it is December, but for us in the UK it is rare! I must say that i much prefer this cold, crisp weather, give me this over rain any day! We may, fingers crossed be in for a white Christmas after all, it's been snowing a little again this afternoon so lets hope so.

That's it from me this side of Christmas, i will be another year older the next time we speak :-0

Till then, have a very Merry Christmas

And may Santa be very kind to you all. xxx

Beatrix Part 2 & a Stinking Cold!

I didn't mean to leave it so long before posting the rest of the photos of our weekend break. Much to the amusement and relief may i add of my DH, i woke up on Sunday morning to find i had lost my voice in the night, the rest of this week i have been battling a stinking cold and coming in from work at lunch time just to go straight off to bed for a couple of hours. Finally tonight i think the worst is over, thank goodness.

Anyway, here are the promised pics - first up are some i took of Windermere, very pretty village and it was nice enough on the Saturday for us to go on a boat trip on Windermere itself, although by the end of the trip we were both chilled to the bone lol.
Love these houses right on the edge, but apparently this area was quite badly flooded the week before, you can still see that the water is quite high

This is looking towards the town
Taken while we were on the boat trip, the little orange boat caught my eye and you can just make out the snow on the hills in the background
I love the next 2 photos, it looks so peaceful, don't you think?
This is the entrance to the garden of Beatrix Potter's house, Hill Top. The garden is still set out as a very cute veggie garden
And this is Hill Top, looking every bit the English cottage

This was taken from the garden

Some bits & bobs in the garden

The path leading up to Hill Top, you reach this via the shop, which was open but unfortunately the house closes to the public from November 1st - a good excuse for another visit another time!

I remember reading somewhere that when Beatrix P died there was a stipulation in her will that no one should live in Hill Top after her death so i assume that her furnishings are still there, pity we went so late in the year i would have like to have seen inside.

A few weeks ago you will remember that in the UK we were having lots of rain and there was major flooding in many parts (including the Lake District), below is the sort of weather we had to drive home in.

Good job DH was driving, the motorway was like this until we almost reached home and I'm sorry to say that we have still had much of the same horrible damp weather since!

Because of my stinking cold and fear of stabbing myself with the needle every time i sneeze and the fact that i could not see through my streaming eyes, there hasn't been much stitching time this week. Before the bugs attacked me i did finish off another Santa and picked Zippity up from the framers, but i show you those next time.

Thanks for stopping by and all your lovely comments, i really do appreciate them:-)

See ya next time x

Beatrix Potter

I've been MIA yet again, busy stitching away on Santa's but not this weekend. This weekend i was 'Living the Dream as Seen on Screen' For those who do not know, this is a UK TV programme dedicated to showing us how the other half live in houses that have been used in film or TV.

The house we stayed in now belongs to the National Trust but was once owned by Beatrix Potter and was the very house that was used in the Miss Potter film!!

If you re familiar with the film you will recognise this porch. Can you see just on the floor they have still left the slate Hill Top name plaque?

Hill Top house in the Lake District was the first house that Beatrix Potter bought with earnings from her books and she did live there. When it came to making the film Hill Top was totally impractical for filming and a search was made to find somewhere suitable. Yew Tree Farm was chosen for the job and it was here that we stayed this weekend.

Yew Tree Farm in Coniston was owned by Beatrix Potter, she bought it when the National Trust could not afford too as she did with many, many properties in the lake District, she eventually sold them back to the National Trust when they could afford to buy. She helped set up tea rooms at Yew Tree Farm and she picked out the furnishing and bought them with her own money.

Isn't it the most idyllic looking place you could imagine?

On Saturday morning when we got up there was snow on the hills, making it even more picturesque, if that's possible!

This is the view from the dining room, taken on Sunday morning when it was teaming down with rain and impossible to take more photos outside.

A view of the dining room through the mirror. This is where the furnishing that she chose now live. It's very cosy, there are just 3 tables as there are just 3 room to let here, the log fire was lit for us in the morning. Can you see the lovely dresser with the plates and the corner cabinet? So lovely!
There was a gorgeous sitting room, again the log fire was lit for us and a bottle of port sitting on the window to help yourselves to (yes i did partake in a glass!!)
Lovely panelled wall and leather Chesterfield

Cosy corner with local magazines to browse and a collection of old books, there was gentle music playing in the background too, not a TV in sight...bliss!
Warm fire, just what you need on a chilly night

another view of the sitting room, how cute is that little window!

The next few photos are not the best but i had trouble with the light.

Now i now where the saying 'Up The Wooden Hills' comes from, the house had lovely wooden stairs and panelled walls leading up to the bedrooms.

Our bedroom was call the Tarn Hows room and was just lovely, there were 2 windows like this, one on each side of the room.

And a fabulous four poster bed

The door way you can see on the other side of the room leads to the bathroom, the doorway was very low and there was a sign above saying 'please mind your head' but guess who banged his head at least 3 times? yes DH has a sore head to go back to work with!!

I have just too many photos to show in one post so I'll show more next time of Hill Top and our boat trip on Windermere. If you want to click here to visit Yew Tree Farm website and have a browse, there is a bit on there about the filming of Miss Potter and how Yew Tree Farm came to be chosen to portray Hill Top.
In the meantime, i have one more day holiday from work tomorrow so will be having a lie-in tomorrow and plan on some sitting and stitching..Until next time x

Pere Noel x 2

I love Friday evening, the house work is done, i can sit down and relax and there is no getting up early for work tomorrow! Saturday is a day for 'me'! Mark will do the grocery shopping in the morning and i will spend a lovely couple of hours at my photography class in the afternoon, the weather forecast is not good for tomorrow so i think any photos will be taken in the hot houses.

My evenings this week have been taken up with stitching some Christmas ornaments, the Santa's from Gazette94 blog are so cute! hopefully i will get them all done and ready to hang on my tree this year

Can you see the fabric frayed on the one above? I made a bit of a boo boo and trimmed it too close, i might just get away with making into a hanging ornament if I'm very careful.
Next week I'm going back to working on Zippity to try and get that finished.

Thanks for stopping by and i hope you all have a great weekend whatever you are up to!

Gouls Night Out

Just when us mear mortals are thinking of getting some sleep my DD#2 and friends are going to a Halloween Party - this is them in their costumes

Jo is the one in the black & red. They will probably be coming in as i get up in the morning...Oh to be young, lol. My big night out (well in!) will be a cup of coco and bed in a while!

Happy Halloween! Have a great week x

Zippity do da

It's getting late so i will keep it short and sweet tonight, Friday is my 'downstairs' cleaning day (Thursday is 'upstairs', yes i have set cleaning days!!) and yes, people think i am quite strange because i quite like housework! I even, (dare i say this) like ironing (shock horror!!) i can hear a chorus of "OMG the woman is MAD" echoing around the world, lol. Anyway the point is I'm shattered and will be off to the land of nod soon, but before i go here is my progress on

La~ D~Da Zippity do da

Remember the excellent The Time Travelers Wife? This is Audrey Niffenegger's new novel, Her Fearful Symmetry. It's been my bedtime reading this last week. It's set around Highgate Cemetery in London and without giving anything of the story away it's essentially a ghost story and although i enjoyed it it's nothing like TTTW, but that is a hard act to follow!

Right, i promised it would be short so I'm gone...till next time, have a great weekend! x