Little by little

I haven't blogged for a while, on here or my travel blog Aimetu's. I'm still not mobile and find many things too much just now; reading, stitching, watching tv, so there hasn't been much to blog.

However this last week I have finished a few things and started a new project so hopefully I'll feel like doing a bit more each day.

Little by little - it will all get better. 

So stitching, first of all I have finished the little design Vickie from A Stitcher's Story sent me - it's not made up as I'll be doing all the finishing of my church ornaments in one go. I love it - thank you Vickie it will be perfect on my tree.

Festive Greetings 

My second piece is my Summer stitching for Needlecraft Haven's Four Season's SAL. I loved doing the bright colours. The Gallery is open on NH so I can share it there too and next month we start our Autumn projects, where is the year going?

Summer - Four Season's SAL

My other piece is rather special - I had started it just before I had my fall and it needed to be completed for mid May. It was a struggle as I found it so hard to concentrate on the chart. I was very very nervous about finishing it so I did a bit at a time and I was very pleased with it.

It's a wedding sampler for our niece and her new husband who got married in Mexico on May 27th. Natalie is the first of our children's generation in the family to get married, a beautiful setting too.

Natalie & Kevin's beautiful wedding

Their colour scheme was blush and gold 

Wedding Sampler 

Corded edging and 'congratulations' ribbon

Blush backing 

I had a little surprise gift myself the other day. My stitching friend Mary, whose blog is Le Coeur Celtique and lives in France, made and sent me the most gorgeous project bag. The fabric is absolutely me - thank you Mary.

My gorgeous project bag from Mary 

The project I am working on is for the Needlecraft Haven Meet Up Exchange - this was organised at our Get Together on 22nd April - you can read about it in my previous blog here. We're making scissor keeps this time, I'm half way through the stitching then the exciting bit begins........the finishing!

Thank you for calling by, hopefully I'll be blogging again soon. 

A little craft work

Since my fall I have struggled to concentrate on sewing and reading but since last week things have improved. A have a check up Thursday at the hospital so fingers crossed it's good news.

So sewing wise - I have finished stitching a gift which needs final assembly tomorrow before it travels to its new home.

I also assembled my new stitch box. You can read about my old box and the stitching of my new top in my Upcycling post. Here's my new box with its new lid.

My new stitch box 

I also managed to finish April's Challenge on Needlecraft Haven. I made mine into an ornament for my church tree which will be in blue and white with a Winter Wonderland theme.

April Challenge

Vickie, whose blog is A Stitcher's Story, sent me a couple of pages from a magazine (Just Cross Stitch I think) with a lovely design for my tree. I've already started stitching, although I'm not doing the wording, thanks Vickie.

Great design from Vickie

My start

I couldn't finish posting without sharing a photo of these gorgeous hand made notelets - Gill made them and they were part of my goody bag at the Needlecraft Haven Meet Up - they are beautiful, thanks Gill

Gill's gorgeous notelets 

Thanks for calling by; I'll be back at the weekend with hospital news.

Nuneaton Spring Meet Up

Yesterday was Meet Up Day for members of Needlecraft Haven, I had arranged for us to meet at our scout HQ but due to my accident I decided it best to meet here at our house. I could then keep resting my legs,

Before I post about our day I'd like to say a HUGE thank you to Angi, Gill, Julie, Justine and my Mum who all helped with various parts of the day:

taxi from and back to the station

tea/coffee making

exchange organising

cake cutting

Thank you too to my stepdad for the delicious carrot cake and of course to my Hubby who is as always amazing !

As I said I was resting my legs so stayed propped up on my bed, everyone sat around in our 'bedroom' conservatory - it was cost but such a great day full of laughter. 

Gill, Justine, my Mum, Angi and Julie - oh and my toes !!

I love the Goody Bag exchange - every time the bags are so different although based on a theme. Our Goody Bag theme this year was 'My Favourite Place'

Goody Bag exchange 

I had intended to do France for mine but after recent events my favourite place is certainly my home and garden. Mum was my shopper and helped me put together the gifts. Unfortunately Jardin Privé are away so the pdf chart I have order will be sent later. I put a voucher in the bag and once the chart is her I'll post it on to Justine who was the winner of my bag. 

Home and Garden - my Favourite Place

I was the lucky winner of Gill's bag - she had also picked home as her favourite place, My bag was full of lovely items: a mug with tea and coffee, notelets, framed saying, a book, wine, seeds and a beautiful stitched coaster - thank you Gill

My gorgeous good bag from Gill 

At all the Meet Ups we have a book exchange, everyone wraps up a book which can be new, charity shop, previously enjoyed, in fact from anywhere. The books are raffled making sure no-one ends up with the one they put in. 

Our book exchange

My book was from Justine - The Muse by Jesse Burton, who wrote the Miniaturist (which I have read and did enjoy) Since my fall I haven't done much stitching or reading, I cannot seem to focus but I have already started this book (5am this morning as I couldn't sleep) so fingers crossed my reading will return, I did do quite a bit of stitching yesterday too so that may be improving too.

My book from Justine 

 At each Meet Up we always organise a stitching exchange - an item to be stitched and posted to a secret partner. We each complete a notelet with details of our name, address, the item to be stitched, date for receiving and any relevant notes to help choose designs/colours. The notelets are put in envelopes and we each pick one making sure we don't have our own. We don't open the notelets until we are back home so it's a real secret as to who stitches for who until the items have been stitched, sent and opened. 

This time we are stitching a scissor fob, either to hold scissors or to hang from the handles, the only restriction is it must be in the colour written in the notelet by our partner - exciting!

Last meet up we had to stitch a needlecase - have a look at my Needlecase post to read about it and my tutorial post on how I made my needlecase for Gill.  

Everyone had brought their needlecase with them. It was lovely to see all the beautiful items in person, such lovely stitching and finishing. 

The front side of our beautiful needlecases

The reverse side of our beautiful needlecases

It's always a lovely day when we get together and yesterday was the perfect boost for me - thank you again to my Needlecraft Haven friends, and my Mum. 

I have been extremely spoilt since my fall, so many beautiful flowers and gifts includng these lovely ones from Angi, Gill, Justine and Julie yesterday - a surprise bouquet from Brittany Ferries - and another surprise from our scout group. 

Thank You Justine

Thank You Julie

Thank you Angi & Gill

Thank you Brittany Ferries

Thank you Nuneaton North Scout Group

Update on my legs: I have had the stitches out of my left leg and it's now in a solid cast for 4 more weeks. My right leg is still in a boot and as my foot mends I am increasing the amount of weight so by the time my left foot comes out of plaster into a boot I'll be able to walk on my right foot.

Thank you for all the kind messages - they are very much appreciated 

Happy Easter

Happy Easter - enjoy today with lots of treats, time making memories and celebrating new life as we move into spring

Happy Easter

It's been very tiring and taken all morning but I have got myself
Washed and dressed, helped DH washmy hair, dried it and put a littld makeup on. I feel so much better in myself but totally drained now, I didn't appreciate before how much we use our legs (not just for walking) and how much energy is needed to lift and hitch using my arms.

Anyway another big step (metaphorical) achieved !!

Exhausted but pleased to have done so much

Today is Opening Day at Needlecraft Haven for our Easter Exchange. We had to stitch an Easter themed ornament for our partner, send a card and a little treat for Easter.

My lovely goodies were from Christine, thank you.

Christine sent a lovely card, a very much appreciated bag of Kindle and beautiful ornament with crochet flower fastener.

Beautifully wrapped gifts from Christine 

My gifts unwrapped

My Easter Ornament stitched by Christine

My parcel travelled north to Justine. I enjoyed stitching Gill's needlecase so much I used a similar design but with beads. I had not made a flat finish before so I was quite nervous but it turned out really well.

I included a card, a bag of Daim mini eggs, two Lindt mini rabbits and the stitched egg.

The parcel I sent to Justine 

The beaded egg I stitched for Justine

I have been running a little competition on Needlecraft Haven involving the number of posts members made from January to the end of March. A fair bit of maths involved but Justine had the highest post percentage increase and Julie the highest number of posts. I sent them each a little prize - the fabric I found in Tiger was perfect for Spring.

Spring prize

Spring prize

Just before my little 'trip' I made a 65th birthday cake for our friend, he loved it - I think I'd take the younger age option !

Add caption

🐣🐇🐣 Happy Easter 🐣🐇🐣

Easter Treasure Hunt Blog Hop 2017

I nearly decided to pull out of Jo's Blog Hop (read my blog post from yesterday) but I'm so glad I didn't as doing stuff is so helpful in many ways.

Easter Treasure Hunt Blog Hop is organised by the lovely Jo at Serendipitous Stitching 

Spring Needleroll

There is a  great line-up of blogs for you to visit and collect a letter from each one. 

Here's my letter:

The letters will form a short phrase if you visit the blogs in the listed order on Jo's post, or you can follow the trail from blog to blog - after me pop along to 

http://astitchersstory.blogspot.com and discover which letter the lovely Vickie has. 

We usually put up our Easter Tree which is an old branch from my Grandmother's contorted hazelnut but this year it will stay in the shed :( there are so many bits and bobs around with me now being downstairs and it's more for DH and DD to do, Easter will pass by quietly for us this year. 

Sending you all Easter Blessings

Oops - missed the step

Just a quick update - I'll be back tomorrow with Jo's Easter fun and back Sunday as it's opening day for Needlecraft Haven Easter Exchange, so this is just a quick post to give you the latest news.....

... I've broken my legs !!!!

Friday should have been the start of a great weekend away with friends at Stratford-upon-avon. Unfortunately within minutes of arriving I fell down a step I didn't see.

Everyone has been so kind:

• the Ambulance teams were lovely at getting me out and off to Warwick Hospital
• the A&E doctors amazing at realigning my dislocated left ankle
• the Ward nurses so caring in looking after me
• the surgeons brilliant at resetting the three broken bones in my left leg and fitting a plate
• the physiotherapy team so kind in showing me how to wear the big boot on my broken right foot 
• the Occupational Health team for providing the equipment so I could come home. 

So home I am, moving only from bed to bathroom on my speedy chair. Our bed is downstairs now and will be for at least 6 weeks.

View from my bed this morning 

I've had so many messages and cards, thank you. I'm hoping to pick up a needle tonight and do some stitching.

See you all again tomorrow when the Easter fun begins.

Cake, flowers and a small bit of stitching

Every year I take part in the MS Society Cake Break fundraising event. You can host a cake bake anywhere, previously I've done this at school on a teacher training day but this year it was 'open house' at ours from 10am until late.

I baked five cakes for enjoying with tea or coffee on the day and an extra cake for the raffle prize. in previous years the MS Society have sent out a black out card which has always been popular and I always baked a cake for the winner but as there was no card this year I raffled a Coffee and Walnut Cake.

Donation pot - raffle prize - gift aid form
all very important at a Cake Break event

I have to pace myself with the baking so made two cakes ahead of time and popped them in the freezer, and the others I made over the few days before.

I find if I bake two or three that's enough. I usually mix one and whilst it's baking mix the next - then have a rest while the first cooks. I mix the third when the second has gone in again having a rest until it's done - and a long rest whilst the third cooks.

The decorating is done on the day and I try to make it similar so I am not making lots of different things. This year I baked:

Victoria Sponge Cake

Ginger Cake

Chocolate Guinness Cake

Carrot Cake 

Coffee and Walnut Cake 

Cake Break Table 

Victoria Sponge Cake and Coffee & Walnut Cake

SGinger Cake

 

Chocolate Guinness Cake

Carrot Cake

The day itself was great fun, I had many friends call by throughout the day for a cuppa and a slice (or two) of cake. Some friends I haven'r seen for quite a while so it was nice to sit and chat, it was also lovely to see new friends who came to support my Cake Break, thank you.

As well as baking for the day from 1st March to end of April I have been taking orders for cakes charging £5 a cake. I have made 11 so far with 6 more to do - it will add a little more to the donations pot.

One of my ex-colleagues from school won the raffle prize - well done Jane.

I have not added all the money up as yet but it is looking as if it will be over £150 when I have finished baking, which is not bad for a few cakes.

Spring has certainly arrived in our garden, last autumn for the first time I planted some bulbs in containers. I was very worried about them as the squirrels seemed to be digging in the tubs either burying or looking for their nuts. However we do have flowers, in fact the garden is looking quite colourful.

 

And I have some beautiful flowers inside, from our lovely daughter for Mother's Day. She gave them me when we visited her in Cardiff for the weekend - you can read about our visit on my travel/wine blog Aimetu's 

My gorgeous lillies

And finally a little stitching, and it is little. It's last month's challenge on Needlecraft Haven; Christmas Joy Pinkeep by Pineberry Lane. It's for my church tree, perfect for Winter Wonderland.

March Challenge

Thank you for reading my news - it will soon be Easter, have a good time everyone x x ociety