A Long Overdue Post (And a Future Give Away)

I didn't intend to leave it so long between posts but sometimes there are not enough hours in the day, or any progress to show ;-) But I'm back with finishes and progress and a bit of catching up.

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We had a lovely time in Halkidiki, the tan has faded and it is all but a distant memory now (even the sunshine as we have none of that here at the moment!) but, it was very relaxing and i managed to do nothing much but sit by the pool and read, getting up for the occasional dip in the pool to cool off - just what holidays are made for really :-)
Everything felt a bit 'flat' when we came back, even though we were only gone for a week, getting back into some sort of routine was hard, it took a while for me to pick my stitching up again at night and at work i was finding myself resenting being there. Anyway, all that's passed, my mood has lifted and I'm stitching again and, i have proof!

LHN The Merry Skater

Isn't she cute? I had done the stitching on this before we went away but finished it off into a little hanging ornie when we came home.

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Next up is something that had been thrown into a corner to await reverse stitching after my inability to follow a chart.

Rubie Owl

The offending part (on the left) re-stitched, and I've finished stitching all those leaves on the tree, even though i think they have left me with a permanent twitch and the paranoia that i may have left one out or miss counted and they are all off. Please, please do me a favour and keep me in ignorant bliss if you spy a mistake, because i ain't ripping anymore out!, lol.

Here's the whole wrinkled thing so far

I'm now at the mindless filling in stage, but after all the mishaps with this chart i care not a jot and shall happily, mindlessly fill in! (note, i did not say mindlessly stitch, as that's what got me in trouble last time, that and concentrating on Without a Trace instead of what i should have been doing!)

Right, that's me just about caught up, but just before i go the last bit of my title -The Give Away will be the Rubie Owl chart when I've finished with it, so stay tuned and hopefully in the next couple of weeks I'll post it up.

Thanks for visiting me and have a fantastic week whatever you are up to :-) x

Catch up Friday

Thank you for all your lovely comments on my Christmas Tree ornament, i really appriciate your visits. I'm really getting into these cute little finishes :-) My LNS had The Merry Skater and The Red House LHN charts in last week so i made a start on MS, i should finish it off tonight and will share photos next time. Rubie Owl is still banished to the cupboard waiting for me to rip out my mistake, still can't face it yet!

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The weather here has been lovely again this week, hot enough for Molly to do her thing in the garden~~~~~~~~~~

Seriously, she can only manage a few steps out there sometimes and then she flops, legs akimbo, lol. While Molly lounges in the sunshine outside, Millie, (who is much 'posher' and more refined!!) prefers my bed, she will venture out when it's cooled down, though not at night, I'd never let them out at night.

That's it for this week then, we are going on holiday on Monday, to Halkidiki, just for a weeks R&R, can't wait for a dip in that pool and time lounging on a sunbed with my book and a glass of something cold:-)

Until next time x

I Should Pay More Attention!

Not a lot to show this time, I've hardly sat down to stitch at all this week, Marks at home and i find that by the time dinner is over and cleared away it's too late to get anything out. Having him at home these past few weeks has upset my routine, lol. Having said that i pulled out Rubie Owl last Sunday intending to devote all afternoon

to her only to find i had made a mistake, a HUGE mistake, in fact 2 Huge mistakes!! first off, as soon as i put her in the hoop i noticed this -

See the Rubies section? can you see any Rubies? no, because i happily went on filling in that section!! i also carried on with a full border at the bottom which should not have looked like this! Mistake #2 came to light as i was looking at my thread colours, I've been using Buttercup when the chart called for Butterscotch DOH!! Where was my mind! clearly not on my stitching!! OK, so the colour doesn't matter too much and I'm not going to change it, but i will have to take out the section and stitch the 'rubies' because that will bug the hell out of me! If I'm in the mood i may start to rip it out tonight, or i may just carry on with the leaves and do it when I'm in a better frame of mind, i has put me off a tad i can tell you, not looking forward to ripping out stitches.

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On a happier note, i did have a finish the week before last but neglected to show it so here you go.

Christmas Tree 'freebie' from Claire stitched on a scrap of 28 count using Threadworx 1089

I added beads to the edging and i think it turned out pretty cute :-)

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If i can motivate myself i could get loads of stitching in over the next few weeks, the World Cup has kicked off this weekend, with England's first match tonight against the US. There again i might be sitting shouting at the TV like the rest of the country, lol

Thank you for your continued visits and comments, they make my day:-) Have a great weekend whatever you may be up to!

How Much Can You Fit Into One Weekend?

We had a lovely time in London at the weekend, although Saturday it rained for most of the day by the time we went to have afternoon tea it had cleared up. This time we sampled the delights at Fortum & Mason and came out completely stuffed, lol, because I've been trying to eat more healthily it's been ages since i have eaten cake - but it was wonderful! Not such a 'dressy' place as we went to last time but that was OK. I think it's just so decadent to dress up and have afternoon tea! not something that we do very often so it feels very special.
This was our little appetizer, bread sticks with cheese & pesto, salmon and some sort of pastry we couldn't quite work out what but decided it was a 'posh' sausage roll.

We opted for the afternoon tea which consisted of a selection of rolls and finger sandwiches and a lovely selection of cakes, together with a glass of champagne and a pot of tea each.

We had to go for a walk afterwards to work some of it off!

Sunday we caught the train to Hampton Court and spent a great day out, and the weather was kind to us. I was really looking forward to this visit being a recent convert to Tudor novels and everything Henry VIII and i wasn't disappointed, If you are English you will know that usually it cost a fortune to get into these Historic places, although lovely they may be. We spent all day at Hampton Court and the admission was only about £14 absolute bargain! there was lots going on from jousting to demonstrations in the Tudor kitchens, which i must say had THE biggest fireplace i have ever seen - and it was alight. We took advantage of the headset (no extra charge) which gave us a guided tour of everything inside.

Walking to the entrance of Hampton Court Palace

The astronomical clock which is in base court & is 400 years old. This clock has been mentioned a few times in the book I'm now reading so it was nice to place it.

The Grand Hall
Which was lined with the most amazing tapestries

The Palace from the side showing one of the beautiful gardens. Jenny liked the fact that it was symmetrical!

This is a newer part added on by William of Orange.

Apparently he wanted to knock Hampton Court down and start again!
Thank goodness he didn't!

Fancy having this view from your back door!

On Sunday evening we had a table booked at the Ivy, this is the place to celeb spot, not much to look at from the outside is it?

Very nice inside though and the food and the service was excellent, unfortunately we didn't spy any celebs :-( They have a policy of no cameras or mobile phones in the restaurant so no photos of our food!

To round off our weekend we went on a walking tour of Westminster Abbey on Monday morning - if you are ever in London and thinking of doing this tour it's well worth it, our guide was great very knowledgeable, and quite funny with it. I didn't realise so many people were buried there including Henry VII, Elizabeth I & Mary Tudor (Mary & Elizabeth are buried together, strange as they were complete opposites!)

So, how much can you fit into one weekend? well quite a lot it seems! I'm glad i booked yesterday off work to recover, i was, as they say, knackered!!

Hope everyone had a fun Bank Holiday, thank you for stopping by and all your wonderful comments, i really do appreciate them:-)

Sunshine & Winter Sheep

The UK has been basking in summer sunshine for the past few days, how long it will last is anyone's guess, but as anyone in England knows we have to make the most of it while it's here!

Everything is growing like mad in the garden including these beauties

As i think i may have said before i love Hostas! My husband thinks they are boring plants, but what does he know, he just mows the grass ;-) I took these photos about a week or so ago and they are even bigger now. Last year they were plagued with snails and slugs, but this year they have been free so far, i have my defences in place, #1 defence - is copper band around the tubs, (electrocutes the little blighters if they try to climb the tub!) #2 defence - is wood pellet cat litter sprinkled around the base of the plant, (the slimy suckers can't crawl across it!) #3 defence- apparently they like cheap larger! don't laugh, it's true! poured into small containers just sunk into the soil, they party all night and you have a collection to dispose of the next morning!

I haven't been idling my time away in all this sunshine, i have been stitching.LHN Winter Sheep Monthly Ornament - stitched on a scrap of 28 count even weave with DMC threads substitute was made for writing as i hadn't got that particular number.

This stitched up really quickly, it probably took me longer to make it into the ornament - something i still struggle with, that's why they will all most likely be hanging pillow ornies as I'm more comfortable with that finish and the tree I'm planning on putting them on if big enough to take them.

That's all for now - next week is Bank Holiday weekend so an extra day off work again (yippee!) and I'm off to London with my eldest daughter for a few days for our 'posh' weekend, afternoon tea and dinner at the Ivy restaurant mingling with celebs!! so hopefully lost to share with you next time. In the meantime lets hope for the sun to continue to shine so we can all spend more time in the garden like this -

Molly the sun worshiper - unfortunately she forgets she sports a rather heavy fur coat!

Until next time x

ABC Framed & Prom Photos

Stevie had a wonderful time at the Prom on Friday, it was great to see all the kids dressed up, they all looked really glamorous:-) and thankfully the rain held off. Here's Stevie and two of the lads in all their finery.

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I collected my ABC from Betty's on Saturday.

Abecedaire free chart from here

Stitched on 28 count with Anchor threads 1013 & 1014

I was surprised when i looked back that I've been working on this on and off for a year - eek! time flies when your having fun, lol

The past week has been very busy with other things, so not much stitching done, hopefully I'll do some catching up this week and I'll have some progress on Rubie Owl to share with you next time.

So that's it for this time, short and sweet!

Speak soon x

Just Another Bank Holiday Monday And It.....

Was a very typical one for the UK, not very warm and ending in rain. I knew i was being optimistic when i bought a new patio set last week, might be weeks now before we get to use it! Being Bank Holiday we had an extra long weekend so we decided to drive out to a car boot sale and have a rummage - i love a good rummage, do you? I was to be disappointed today though, nothing worth rummaging in, seemed like everyone was just getting out last years 'un sold's' and my only find was another Tudor book - The Queen's Sorrows, Suzannah Dunn, (yes, i know, I'm becoming obsessed!) If only I'd known how interesting the Tudors were when i was taking History at school i might have fared better than a C in my exams (or was it a D? been so long i forget!) either way it was not good.

Wednesday this week bought on another throat infection which really knocked me for six, i went into work only to come home again mid morning because i lost my voice, not a good thing when you work on a switchboard, Thursday i managed to go to work but absolutely had no life in me whatsoever and come Friday morning i woke up as a mutant with a second set of eyelids, the result of something that did not agree with me again, so instead of going to work i made a trip to the doctors. I'm to take antihistamines for a month to try and settle it down (whatever 'it' is).

Anyhoo..you didn't come here to read about my ailments so how about a stitchy photo?

LHN Snowy Pines

DMC Threads on a mystery piece of linen

I don't know what count the fabric was i used but this one came out smaller than the others, and i think now i do prefer them a little bit bigger. I also managed another finish on my ABC, no photos until it comes back though, i was so eager to get it up to Betty's for framing i forgot. I hadn't realised how long this one had been going until i looked back through my blog, it was last April i started it, where does the time go!!

Stevie has her School Prom this Friday so a busy few days ahead being filled with hair, nail, tanning and makeup appointments. I'm not going to sit down and tot up how much this Prom has cost, it's just a lot, an awful lot, but i am so looking forward to seeing her all dressed up, I'm sure it will be worth every last penny:-)

So, next time hopefully lots of photos of Stevie in her glad rags and my long awaited ABC finish, which incidentally i have dedicated to Stevie as it will mark some milestones in her life, she turned 16 in the week i finished it, officially left school last Friday and of course her Prom.

Well that's all folks, except to say that i have added some swaps / trades and some freebies on my other blog, the link is in the sidebar if you want a wonder on over to see if anything takes your fancy...if it does, give me a shout.

As always, thank you for your lovey comments which really do mean so much to me as do your continued visits to read my ramblings. x