SAL ornament finished

I have had a really busy week. Unfortunately two members of our English teaching team have been off sick so I have had to cover their classes. It was very stressful as I have never covered lessons before and all the admin (like taking the register and using the smart boards) was new to me. Although I was a teacher and am quite happy teaching I found all the setting up and admin duties very tiring. It was a huge physical jump for me too :(

I have not done anything this weekend. Yesterday we had a dog behaviourist come round to help with Ruby. She was expensive but good and we have a few new strategies to try, although both DH and I are struggling to lower our voices enough when telling her off. One thing she did say was to change her food from processed dog food (we were using James Wellbeloved) to ordinary food so Ruby now has porridge and apple for breakfast (same as mum LOL), carrots instead of biscuits for snacks and real meat for tea. Tonight she has had raw liver, cooked potato and cabbage - so now I'm cooking for 5 LOL

DS and DSGF went to Bognor Regis last week for a few days to stay with her nan - and DS is now eating meat - hurrah he might put some weight on now as he is sooooooooooooo skinny and not that healthy.

Today has been haircut day so I have done nothing again. I really needed a quiet weekend as my arms and legs were not right after the busy times and stress of last week at work.

I have managed to finish stitching my first ornament fro the Little House Ornies SAL I have done Country Cottage Needleworks 'Let it Snow' from the JCS 2008 Christmas Issue. I stitched it over one as I have fallen in love with this method - because it is so small I changed the snowflakes to DMC Perlescent Effects E3747. (The picture is sideways again - can anyone help?)

I'm going to do Peace (same designer) next - it's from JSC 2007 Christmas issue - and again I'm going to do it over one.

Have a good week, happy stitching.

TUSALand waggy walk

It's TUSAL day so here's my collection

It is finally growing again as now Ruby is quieter I can stitch yippee. She knocked over my original jar so MIL bought me this gorgeous bonbon jar from the charity shop - I love glass.

We've had our certificate today from The Dog's Trust for our sponsored walk. Thanks to everyone who sponsored us - we raised £100.

This is Philly's dress she has designed and made for her textiles GCSE. The photo doesn't show it off really, it's stunning.

I'm not posting much tonight as I am quite tired. I had to cover a teacher's classes today which I enjoyed (I used to teach and it's nice to be back in control of the class) but I'm out of practice so am completely exhausted LOL.

Off for a night of stitching :)

Snowman fa la la

I've been off sick for two days so managed to get some stitching done :) I've had a go at one over one because I am planning to do my SAL ornaments like that for the Little House Ornaments SAL

It's a Plum Pudding Needleart design and is a freebie.

Fa la la by Plum Pudding Needleart

fabric : 28ct evenweave in ecru

floss: DMC 310, 729, 761, 815, 3051, 3828, 3853, B5200

If anyone can tell me why some of my images turn sidewides once uploaded I'd be very grateful - they are always the right way round on my harddrive and some (like this one) have never been rotated.

Happy stitching

HD - my new design is finished :)

I've finished my new design - it's a whitework candle ornie:) Margaret from CrissXStitches in Wales asked if I could teach whitework (last year I taught hardanger for one of her workshop days), so I have designed this candle ornie. I wasn't ready to take it to Wales last week so I'm posting it to her this week - I hope she likes it and asks me to teach again. I've decided to call it 'Elegant in White'.

It's been a busy week at school - I don't think there will be any changes to my wages until next year, phew. Every Friday someone brings in goodies to make lunchtime exciting. I was one of the three down for this week so I made Lemon Drizzle Cake, it disappeared amazingly fast so I guess they liked it :)

I'm hoping to get stitching today on my first ornie for Little House Needleworks Monthly Ornament SAL. We have a choice of ornaments to stitch from previous copies of Just Cross Stitch Christmas issues so I'm looking forward to a cuppa and a browse this afternoon, ready to stitch tonight when watching Strictly. It's live from Blackpool tonight :) Philippa danced at the Tower Ballroom when she was 6 in a national team competition for ballroom dancing - her team came second.

I am doing ok-ish with my Slimming World diet - I lost twopounds last week which was good considering I did not stick to it too well when in Wales. This week I'm again ok-ish as in the day I'm really good but Ido struggle at night especially when DH suggests going out. Last night we went to TGI Friday's which was fabulous and I did have a salmon salad. Welldone I hear you say mmmmmmm what about the Mudslide cocktail though - Bailey's, Kahula, vodka, ice-cream and chocolate.......hanging my head now, it looks terrible written down but oh it did taste good :)

It was Bonfire Night on Thursday but as our garden is a bit smalland Ruby barks at any bang we haven't had any fireworks. Instead I bought the kids (19 and 15) some sparklers to have with their boy/girl friends. I think the photos show that you're never too old for a sparkler.

Michael (DS), Amii (DSGF), Kieran (DDBF) and Philippa (DD)

Michael, Amii and Kieran


Kieran and Philippa

I think they are off to the civic display tonight. We're staying in to watch Strictly,stitch and enjoy lamb shankfor dinner, yum yum.

Have a great weekend everyone:)

SALs and Books

I've signed up for two SALs already for 2010 LOL I think with Ruby letting me stitch quite a bit this week I have the bug !!

LHN Travelling Stitcher SAL

I haven't bought the chart yet as I'm having a good look round at all the online suppliers. I am tempted to buy the ready made bag but it is quite expensive and I'm sure with my new overlocker I can make it up myself.

Little House Needleworks Monthly Ornament Stitchalong

I'm going to do this for next years tree (yes I know - this years hasn't happened yet LOL). I don't know what theme or name but love these designs and justfancied joining the stitchalong. The charts are being sent from Down Sunshine Lane as a special offer which will add another dimension to the SAl - a postie surprise every month :)

I am busy working on my new design - as usual it's changing as it grows LOL but hopefully I can finish it today. I need to chart it up then which is the bit that takes ages. Fingers crossed I will be teaching it next summer in Wales - I really enjoyed the teaching day last year.

Although it's early for New Years Resolutions one thing I would like to do next year is have my own web site - at the moment I use my other blog for my chairty designs but it has its limitations so I might branch out into the world of web sites.

We went to Astley Book Farm on Friday - oh my I could stay there for days never mind hour. These are the books I adopted this time :

I guess the dog choice is obvious LOL; breakfast with God sounds good to me :)

Tracy Chevalier wrote "Girl with a Pearl Earring" which both DH and I loved so I couldn't leave her book behind.

Kate Morton is a new author to me but these two jumped out and it's never a good idea to buy one and not the other as when you go back it's always gone - excuses, excuses, hee hee.

and this one is for work :)

So I will have loads to do this half term.......... wellI can hope for another one can't I? I hope you all had a good Halloween; the festive fun is about to start so happy stitching.

Stitching news

At last I have some stitching news - I managed to stitch two nights running whilst we were at the caravan :) I am working on a new design, I'm quite pleased with it so far, hopefully I can show more soon, if Ruby lets me get on.

Whilst away I treated myself to World of Cross Stitch - I haven't bought an issue for a long time as I was finding it a bit samey. I was very pleased with the charts in this issue - I especially love the freebie booklet and the gorgeous Maderia thread - I can feel some Christmas stitching coming on (Ruby allowing).

Talking of Ruby she has been a little nightmare over the last few days at the caravan - heaven knows what gets into her sometimes. Today she has been "helping" me do some cleaning upstairs - I had to rescue a few things she thought she would like to use but she wasn't too bad. She has finally gone to bed - all on her own, into her cage and is lying down. I am surprised although I have had to put the radio on as she was waking and barking at any little noise. I wonder how long it will last :)

We're off out to a Chinese restaurant tonight; just me, DH and my dad. It's quite a posh one but worth it for a treat. No special occassion but dad has been unwell so we thought it would boost him up a little - not sure it will do my Slimming World much good though.

Happy stitching everyone, and enjoy half term for those of you who are off.

This week's news

It's been a bit mixed this week.

I had been waiting all week to have a meeting with our new Head (he wanted to see the five Learning Mentors altogether).We have all been worried our job roles would change, listening to other colleagues and previous meetings with senior management lead us to think this. Anyway he finally asked to see us Friday, which was a teacher training day. Worry over for now anyway - he wanted to discuss our job titles and salaries as we have to all be inline with other school (we're paid more at the moment) and he was just warning us things may change sometime next year. Although this is not really mgood news I was expecting far worse so left feeling quite relieved.

My dad has shingles so this week I have been looking after him again. He hasn't needed much really just a few more visits but it all takes time. We saw him today (you'll see later) and his rash looks much better.He is also more chirpy and not so tired. Hopefully he is well on the mend.

My weight is going up again :) I cannot seem to get back on the diet but I must. DH, Ruby and I are going the caravan for three days (yes no kids) so I'm going to really try hard and do lots of walking too.

Yesterday we went to Reading to watch London Irish v Leiester Tigers. A colleague at work had some free tickets but could not go and gave them to me. DH, DD, DDBF and I set off just before lunch - good job as the traffic was terrible, probably because of the half term hols. The match was ok but Tigers lost - I'm not sure I like seeing them in their away kit either, they look like Coventry City Sky Blues LOL. We all had a good day though :)

Today is DS 19th birthday and we've had a lovely time. MIL and her partner popped round earlier (they did not want to stay because of dad's shingles - I'm sure he's ok but they do worry). DSGF and DDBF came round as did my mum, step-dad and my dad. I cooked New York chicken with jacket potatoes and veg, and did lemon meringue pie or autumn fruits pie for pudding. We had a good laugh playing on the Wii sports and Ruby was very good. The four youngsters all get on well and it was nice to hear lots of laughter around.

No stitching news but I am hoping to get some done at the caravan - hopefully :)