Thank you all so much for the lovely comments I received on my last post, they were very much appreciated :-)

The new parents are getting used to endless rounds of feeding, changing, sleepless nights and the general chaos that baby's bring.  Jenny commented that she always wondered why her friends with children said they never managed to finish a cup of coffee - now she has first hand experience of why it take so long to do even the most mundane task, including drinking coffee!

They still haven't settled on a name for the little fella, nanny is calling him TP (tiny person) for the time being  They have an appointment on November 5th to register his birth so better get their thinking caps on!

First picture with Nanny 
(please ignore my double chin, it's why I don't appear in many photos, that and the fact that my nose always looks wonky!!)

He's all snuggled up in his car seat after Granddad rocked him to sleep :-)

We spent the weekend of Marks birthday visiting the Cotswold's  I had booked us two nights at the White Heart Royal Hotel in Moreton in Marsh as a surprise for him, the weather was kind to us and we were able to visit Chichester on the Saturday which is a lovely town with some great shops, I even managed to find a great little yarn shop which was crammed full to bursting!  We stopped in Bourton- on-the-Water later in the afternoon for the obligatory Cream Tea :-)
As you can see the weather was really good for October.

The stream is only ankle deep and in the summer they hold a fete and for a few pennies you can buy a yellow plastic duck and enter it into a race which is held later in the day when they put all the little yellow ducks in the river, if i remember right, they race them from one bridge to the other and the first past wins a prize - It's great fun for the kids and such a lovely sight to see all the yellow ducks bobbing down the stream.  They also hold a football match in the water, when i first heard about this i thought it was a joke, but no, they do actually play football in the stream!!  It's ,such a laugh because as you can imagine it is hard to run in water and to stay up right, there is lots of splashing going on too so you have to be prepared to get wet!
Sunday morning after breakfast we went to Stow-on-the-Wold where there was an Italian market selling wonderful Italian food and again some great shops for browsing.

We started for home Sunday afternoon and I'd arranged for the girls and their partners (and new baby) to meet us for lunch as another surprise for Mark, he had been in London all week so had not met his new Grandson yet!  
They walked in with balloons just a few minutes after we sat down, the timing couldn't have been better!  The girls had bought him a Stig (of Top Gear fame) cake and the waitress bought it in with candles on after our meal and everyone sung Happy Birthday, most embarrassing for Mark  as he doesn't like fuss, still, i think he liked his birthday weekend,  he phoned me at work on the Monday morning and thanked me for a lovely weekend, which was nice :-)

The 'Stig' Cake

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I've had very little time for stitching or knitting the last couple of weeks, decorating is still at the top of my list of things to do and I'm on track to finish the majority of it by this weekend, (famous last words, i know!!)  I've been neglecting my blog reading too but i hope to get around to catch up reading later this week.

I will get a little break from the paint brush on Wednesday though because It's our monthly stitching night, so maybe some updated stitching next week to show :-)
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If you are anywhere near storm Sandy I just want to say that I hope you stay safe and well

Until next time x

I'm A Grandma!!!

Say Hello to my new beautiful Grandson :-)

Jenny called me at work Yesterday morning to say her waters had broke and we made it to the hospital just about 12 noon.

Her contractions didn't start until 9pm last night and she was a real trooper, managing with only gas and air until 5.30am this morning, she was having some real strong pains but this baby wasn't having any of it, so it was decided that after so long she would have to go to theatre and have a forceps delivery.  

I felt so sorry for her because she had been so brave all along and ended up having an epidural for the last half hour or so - you can never tell what's going to happen can you.

Baby was born this morning at 6.20am weighing 7lb 15oz.

Thankfully everything was ok and Mother and baby are both well and happy, and none of us can stop smiling :-)

Mum and Dad have yet to settle on a name, although they have a few they like.

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I'm off to try and get a few hours sleep if i can, we have all been awake for around 27 hours now it's just adrenalin keeping us going :-)

From one happy grandma :-)  Until next time xxx 

To Celebrate The Cooler Weather.....

.....I have a finish

If you've been visiting me for a while you may be forgiven for thinking that I had given up on cross stitching, but no, I just needed to find my enthusiasm for it again.

I found it when I dug this cute little piece out that I started some time earlier in the year.

I seem to remember stuffing it back into it's zipper bag In disgust when I miss counted the stitching on the roof.

When it did finally see the light of day again it really only took a week to finish it off.

I'm so pleased with it, and I have Mark at my local stitching shop to thank for the lovely framing, again.

It's yet to have a hanging place because I'm knee deep in decorating at the moment and all my walls are bare, so for now it has a place a top the fireplace in my bedroom.

DD#1 and #2 took ourselves off  for the day on Saturday, It was Jenny's due date and we thought a day out would keep her occupied, (and maybe help things along!)

We did a trip to some farm shops looking at all the goodies on offer, the fruit and veg looked so much better than what the local supermarkets have on the shelves, I wish there were farm shops more local to me where I could buy my green grocery, but sadly we don't have a lot of choice now. 

We had a lovely drive in the countryside and ended up at Webbs of Wychbold.  

They had the most wonderful Christmas displays out, I couldn't resist taking a few photos.

Wouldn't it be great to have this in your garden?

or these cute little fellas?

We called this the 'Home Alone Tree'

Because it looks like the one in the Home Alone film :-)

My favourites are the Santas though.

So many different ones!

Don't you just love their happy chubby faces!

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I've been having a bit of a clear out because of the decorating.

Lots of things I've taken to the charity shop but I came across this craft book and wondered if anyone would like it?

It's brand new, and there are lots of projects to try out.

If anyone would like it just say, If more than one person shows an interest I'll put the names in a hat (or something like) and draw a name.

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Jenny is 2 days over her due date now so we are all on alert for a phone call, every night I'm going to bed expecting to be woken up.

I hope he or she makes an appearance before Sunday, It's Marks 50th birthday and it would be nice to have his first grandchild here for that :-)

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Until next time xx

Empty Nest

Last night was Stevie's College presentation night, she is now a fully fledged Nursery Nurse :-)

It was a shame that more people didn't turn up to formally receive their certificates, there must have been only around 30 students.  The ones that didn't attend missed out on a lovely meal which was served to us by the catering students, a bunch of flowers and a balloon!

(Stevie's class group)

My baby is all grown up now :-(

She has now started her degree course at Worcester uni, (she wants to go into teaching eventually), although she is not too far from home, she is still away from home, the house is quiet, very quiet, I'm used to boom boom music wafting down from her bedroom and clothes and make-up and bags and shoes littering the house - it's all very strange this empty nest thing,  with Mark working away from home too for the first time I am totally on my own in the evening.

The first night my mum phoned me to make sure I was OK and to 'make sure i locked the doors' , (yes i had).

The second night she phoned me to ask if i'd been OK on my own and had i been frightened ?  No mum, I'm fine, I told her, I didn't like to remind her that I was 50 years old, lol, it was sweet of her to think of me - I guess you never stop being a mum :-)

Cookies (this is for you Gill)..and a very quick update

Gill asked if I would post the cookie recipe that I mentioned in my last post, I've got a few tried and tested recipes so I thought I'd put them on a page of their own, so I've created a separate page which you will find as a tab at the top of this page.

Unfortunately the last time I made these I forgot to take a photo, so no photo of them, next time I bake them I'll remember.

Let me know what you think if you try anything out :-)

I've had a busy week and next week looks like being just as mad so no stitching or knitting update, but I have been stitching, yes, I know It's been a while but i picked up LHN Winter Band Sampler again and in no time at all it was finished :-)  It's been whisked off to be framed and i can pick it up at the end of next week.

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We are getting ever closer to Jenny's due date and i'll soon be able to share photos of the new baby, in the meantime I'll leave you with just one more of Jenny and her partner James.  They were off to a wedding on Saturday and popped in before they went to the reception.

I took a few, but I particularly liked this one of them both.

Until next time x

PS. Sorry but I've had to add word verification to the comments, my in box has been just full of anonymous comments over the last few days and it's a pain!

Phew, i think i need a holiday to get over my holiday, lol.

I had two days when we got back to get the washing and ironing (and the cleaning after leaving my house in the hands of an eighteen year old!) before i went into work again on Friday, Mark was back to work on the Wednesday, he's away working in London, smack bang in the middle of Leicester Square for the next couple of months doing a re-fit of the Odeon Theatre.

  To be fair Stevie did a good  job at keeping house, it's just that i don't feel back in control until I've done the housework myself, (call me strange, most people do :-)

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We threw a little baby shower party for Jenny on Saturday, just a few friends and family but it was fun.

I made tons of cup cakes which Joanne decorated beautifully and i also made some of the famous 'just like millie's cookies cookies which were a big hit, (if anyone want's the recipe just say and i will post it here).

I also made her a cake

I must confess that I cheated with the booty decoration, i bought that from a local cake shop, aren't they cute!

The little daises are just some sugar paper decorations

We bought a pinata , which was a big success and gave us all a good laugh :-)

Jane gave it such a whack that it came flying of the hook, but it still took a bit of bashing before it finally caved in! 

I'll leave you with a few photos of the mum to be opening some of her gifts.

You can see some of our holiday photos on a slideshow here, for those who are interested.

That's it for now, sorry no stitching , yet again, but i have ordered a chart which hopefully will be here soon and i can show you, in the meantime i've started knitting another cardigan for the little one (only 4 weeks to go now!!!) 

I'm off to get myself set up for watching the much waited for NEW series of Downton  tonight, that's Sunday nights sorted for the next few weeks :-)

Until next time x

I've come to the conclusion that I'm not very good at this blogging thing, I have good intentions, but then the excuses start, I can't be bothered to take photos, I can't think of a title, I haven't got anything interesting to say.  Some blogs you read and the words just seem to flow, they have intriguing titles that make you want to read on and an interesting post to follow, most have lots of lovely stitching finishes.  

I  have only picked my stitching up once in the last month, I worked on Sampler aux Chats for 2 hours at stitching group last Wednesday, no progress photo, see too lazy to get it out and take a snap!

The stitching group is going well by the way, we still meet up on the last Wednesday in the month, they are a nice bunch, there are six of us that show up every time and a few more that just turn up every now and then, and that's OK, keeping it small means we can all have a good old chin wag together :-)

I'm still knitting away and still finding it easier when i sit down at night than getting all the paraphernalia out that i need to stitch, although I really did enjoy the stitches i put in last week, perhaps i should just force myself and my mojo will come back.

Anyway, this post is not all about me moaning about my blogging laziness, I do have some knitting finishes :-)

Remember the Hip To Be Square blanket I showed you way back in June?  The one I got over half way done and decided to un-ravel?

It's finished!

This thing is HUGE, it fits my double bed

The second time around I added a moss stitch border as I went, which I think looks much better than my attempt at the I-cord edging.

Here it is hanging over the bottom of my bed post.

I made It bigger than suggested, mine Is 7 squares across and 10 squares down, knit in Aran weight with the yarn held double it makes for one snuggly blanket :-)

I also finished a couple of cardigans for the coming grandbaby, (which I still need to add buttons to)

The one above is knit in Wondersoft Pearl DK, which was lovely to knit with.

The one below I used King Cole Smooth DK which was equally as nice, I just hope they both wash well.

What no one tells you when you start knitting is that knitting  and sewing up are two entirely diffident crafts!  There are tips and tricks that the patterns don't mention, so after struggling with the sewing up I passed these onto my sisters friend who kindly put them together for me :-)

I found a free pattern on Deramores website and thought it would make a lovely blanket for the moses basket.

It's not too big and only took about a week, It's the first time I've tackled bobbles and I loved doing them!

There is however a mistake and I didn't notice until I'd cast off :-(

It's right at the beginning and I don't know how I missed It, grrr 

I think the only way I can get around it is to put a few stitches in to disguise it.  You can just see where it is if you look close.  

I've still got the ends to sew in and to block it when I get chance.

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We are off on holiday next week, destination Croatia, never been there before but we have been told It's very nice and the hotel looks good, I'm looking forward to a little R and R, no work, no cooking, no cleaning, for one week it will be bliss :-)

Speak soon xx