A Lovely Easter

Well the Hen Party date rolled round pretty quickly, you think you have ages to get something done then wham! you're there!!

Friday night was the Greek meal night, all but one person turned up so that was a relief.
With Stevie's help I managed to get all the part bags sorted, I put her in charge of decorating them while I finished off the brooches, which, if I do say so myself turned out ok :-)

They ended up taking far longer than I expected, and I was so glad when they were finished and the bags were filled.

It was a typical Greek night, the food was fantastic and there was dancing and plate smashing thrown in too, the restaurant is only small and has a really nice atmosphere, the staff get everyone up and dancing and joining in so that it becomes like one big party.

Saturday morning we had to be up bright and early to get the train to London.
The trip wasn't without it's dramas, Joanne is our drama queen, always has been and we really didn't expect to go the whole weekend without one, thankfully she got it out of the way on Saturday evening so that we could enjoy our afternoon tea at the Savoy :-)

Finger sandwiches for the first course, scones with jam and cream second course, plates were re-filled as soon as they were empty, as was your tea cup :-)

There was a choice of afternoon tea or high tea.
Jenny and Joanne opted for afternoon tea so the third course consisted of a selection of French pastries

 Me and Stevie had the high tea, so our third course was brioche with salmon and egg, OM Goodness it was so lovely!!

 The final course was yet more cake, this time a choice of one of their signature cakes, I had rum & raisin and the girls had carrot cake, again both cakes were to die for.

We had to go in the M&M shop of course!

This bus made me feel old, I remember going to school on a bus just like this, lol

And the most beautiful bridge in the world, (well I think so).

I love everything about London, every time I go I am always amazed.
The old blending with the new

We walked from the Savoy all the way to Saint Paul's passing St Brides in Fleet Street on the way, did you know that this building was the inspiration for the tiered wedding cake?

The blue chicken in Leicester Square has been replace by a dinosaur.

HMS Belfast.

Old and new again

We walked so much this weekend but it was worth the aching legs :-)

Easter Monday was a beautiful day, the warmest this year so far, t shirt weather :-)
and the garden is finally showing signs of life, this is the first time we have seen the garden at this time of year and I'm pleased to see so much yellow.

And lots of purple too, this is sprouting up all over.

Some things are almost in flower

And some things are well on their way

The prickly one I almost dug up because I don't like where it is has the most beautiful and unusual flower

A little closer, they look like sprouts, lol

 I treated myself to this miniature rose last week, I like to have flowers in my bedroom and I thought this was a perfect alternative to keep buying fresh flowers, I think once it's finished flowering I will be able to put it in the garden too

The flower head is beautiful, and I do prefer this or yellow roses to the more traditional red.

As the weather was so good on Monday we had a little Easter egg hunt in the garden for Oliver

He had fun looking for the little bunnies I had hidden around the garden, and once he discovered that where there was a bunny there was also a chocolate egg there was no stopping him, lol

I hope the weather has been kind to you too and you have had a blessed Easter.

Until next time

-X-

Note To Self.....

I must be a better blogger!

I had a post all ready to go 3 weeks ago, I really did, (actually did it my 'spare' time at work), all

I had to do was add the photos when I got home, easy peesy, unless you get distracted by other things, as I clearly did :-)

What I wrote is so out of date that it's not worth posting, I've finished one, and almost finished another two of the crafty projects I was going to show you, (so more photos need taking), so until that task is done I'm satisfying myself with a Stitch From Stash report.

Report Month:- March

Carried Forward From February:- £35.20

Earned:- £0

Spent:- £11.70

March Allowance:- £20

Balance to Carry Forward for April:- £43.50

I asked the question last time, are you putting actual money away each month, or do you count the monthly allowance as "virtual" money? But I never told you what I was doing, just in case you are wondering, I am putting my £20 away each month and will take the money out as and when I need to buy anything.

This little pot is hidden away in my craft cupboard.

My spending was the result of a visit to the Hobby Craft Show at the NEC at the weekend, where my only stitching related purchase was the necessary threads to start these charts, which were a pre Christmas present to myself :-)

I resisted all other temptations of charts and aids to stitching :-)

However.... I did purchase yarn for myself,
(knitting and or crochet supplies do not come out of my stitching budget ;-)
And as daughter #2 has taken up an interest in sewing recently I bought her 4 sewing patterns, which in all fairness were a really good price at just over £3 each - the stall was 3 people deep for most of the afternoon!!

One of her gifts to me this Mother's Day was a lovely owl she made.

Isn't he lovely?
(His feet look odd on this photo, but they are perfectly fine and the same size, I think it's just the way he was hanging)

She shared a photo of this on FB the day before Mother's Day, I didn't know then that she would be giving it to me the next day and I was thrilled to bits when I opened it, he has a place on my wardrobe door at the moment and he makes me smile every morning :-)

looks like she has unlocked a hidden talent don't you think :-)

Well, that's it for now, short and sweet this time and, at least it's an up-to-date blog post, lol

Have a great week

-X-

A Bit of This & That (and Stitch from Stash)

Well February turned out NOT to be the month for stitching!

I had great plans and they all came to nothing, that'll teach me, lol

At least my Stitch from Stash report is on time, (just).

Here's February's Report

January carried over = £15.20

February Allowance = £20

February Spend = £0

Carried Forward for March = £35.20

As before I haven't 'earned' anything from my stitching because I'm still working on my PS Redwork Santa's and the chart and threads were only purchased in December so don't count.
Actually, I have a question about the earning part, (and I hope you don't find it a silly question), if you're taking part in sfs are you paying yourself in actual money, i.e.. squirrelling it away in a little pot, or, are you just counting it as virtual money, and keeping a tally? Just curious nosey, lol.

So just the one stitching finish to show for February, I still have one more PS Santa to stitch, but I won't jinx myself by promising to have them all finished by the end of March :-)

I mentioned before that a co-worker was pregnant and had asked me to knit a blanket for her, well she had her gender scan and it's a boy!
She asked for the same cable pattern blanket I'd knit for my grandson.
I made a start at the weekend, it's chunky yarn so is knitting up quite quickly.

She left the colour choice to me, just specifying that she wanted blue, I hope she likes what I chose, it's not a true blue but I thought it was a bit more modern looking.

We are edging ever closer to DD#2  (Joanne's) wedding, but more importantly at the moment is the hen 'do'.
We arranged a meal at a local Greek restaurant, as she is getting married in Cyprus this seemed appropriate, nice civilised meal and night club afterwards for those people wanted to go, we also suggested a weekend in London with afternoon tea and perhaps a show.
We thought that the two suggestions would leave no one out, right?
Wrong!!
We have had people making all sorts of excuses.  I understand (and so do Joanne & Gavin) that a lot of people wouldn't make the trip to Cyprus to see them married, we expected that, but we tried to arrange the hen party so that everyone would be included.  So when my older sister turned round and just said she wouldn't be coming to either the Greek restaurant or the London trip I was non too happy, in fact I was extremely angry, her excuse?? she doesn't like Greek food, (she has never been to Greece or tried Greek food) and she doesn't like the London underground, she has never been to London!!!  I can't bring myself to even phone her at the moment because I feel I will have to say something and I really don't want to cause ill feeling.
Anyway, deep breath.
Apparently hen party guest have to be given a party bag, really? did you know that? It was news to me, lol.  So we have been in search of  some appropriately tacky, goody bag items , (which I won't subject you to, lol) but as a little keepsake I decided to make a crochet flower brooch.

These are my first attempts, not sewn up yet but what do you think?
I must confess I really like them :-)
I have to make about 20 but will probably make more and choose the best ones.

Unfortunately I cannot take credit for the pattern, it's a free one I found on line, I will share the link next time, I printed it off to refer to and can't put my hand on it just now.

Hopefully it will be a more stitching related post next time, I really want to get those Sants's finished :-)

Until next time
-X-

At Last, The Amaryllis Flowers, and a Walk

I thought I would stop by tonight and show you my amaryllis flowers.  

Who would have thought that from just one bulb such a beauty would bloom!

I love the colour, so delicate

It's very hard to show you, but there are 4 flowers on this one stem

The second stem is catching up, I wonder how many flowers will be on this one?

I've really enjoyed watching this grow, 

I will definitely be planting more next year.

Not a lot of anything crafty to show this week, February's stitching has got off to slow start, see, I knew I shouldn't plan! I've started knitting a cardigan for one of the girls at work who is expecting, she has asked me to knit her a blanket, which I was very pleased about but she is waiting for her gender scan to choose colours.

I've been trying to go for a walk in the afternoons when I can, my back is still quite sore, sitting is more uncomfortable than standing or walking, and I could do with the exercise,:-0

Today I went in the direction of a little church which is a few hundred yards from us, St Peter's.  I took these on my phone today, it was quite overcast but I think you can get an idea of what a pretty little church and well kept church yard it is.

There are so many churches boarded up, but this one is still in use, there are always lots of cars at the weekend

I loved the door, see how worn the stone faces are either side?

Next time I will have a look to see if there is a date.

Some of the graves were very old and the inscriptions were hard to read.  

I like to read the inscriptions, some of them are so very very sad, but I find it interesting and not in the slightest bit morbid, what do you think?

I noticed that I have some new followers, which is lovely :-) Thank you for choosing to follow me.   Deb, even went back through my previous posts and left some lovely comments thank you Deb! (pop over and see her amaryllis, it's a beauty :-)  

I hope that new followers will return often and perhaps leave a comment sometime so that I can return the favour :-)

Have a good rest of the week

See you soon

-X-