I've turned orange ....

... but it's only my blog, I haven't been using fake tan or been out in the late summer sun too much. We are having some lovely autumnal sun here just lately which is good because it means Hubby and I can do the front garden at Dad's. I have a second coat of paint to do on the fence but it's looking so much better.

New fence at Dad's

I posted a photo of how the garden used to look in my last post - you can see the fence was falling down. I need a good dark covering now as not all the wood is the same so looks odd at the moment.

Sunday I had a lovely morning - Mum and Keith invited me to their church as Lubeck Boys Choir was singing at their Benefice Service. They were amazing especially when singing unaccompanied. That evening they were singing in Coventry Cathedral and that would have been amazing with the massive interior and acoustics as the were just brilliant in Witherley Village Church which is tiny in comparison. We had a shared lunch for the boys and took along my chocolate Guinness cake. It didn't last long - what was interesting is the boys take on English food as the ladies took typical buffet food (egg sandwiches, sausage rolls, quiche) and of course the German boys were unsure to start with what everything was - even our crisps have different flavours to those in Germany. It was a great opportunity for us to hear them sing and a great opportunity for the boys to experience typical English food instead of restaurant food.

I did some baking this week again - two things, both cake!! I made this

Schokogugelhopf

It's an Austrian cake taken from The Hairy Bikers Big Book of Baking - they cooked on at the top of the Grossglockner in Austria - it's the highest mountain and one we've been to the top of with my Dad and the children when they were very young.


..... I'm back - but you didn't go anywhere I hear you say ... well I did, I've just spend half an hour finding old photos :) so here is Dad with the children at the bottom before we travelled up and the other photo is Michael, Philippa and me at the top of the Grossglockner in 1999.

Philippa, Dad and Michael at the start of the Grossglockner road 1999



Philippa, Me and Michael at the top of the Grossglockner 1999

I think where I'm standing with the children is where the Hairy Bikers were to cook their Schokodgugelhopf. Nick and I would love to go back to Austria - maybe 2015.

Finally a little stitching - I can't share much as my HD this week has been the Autumn Exchange piece for Needlecraft Haven The forum is quite chatty at the moment which is lovely to see - it is such a friendly place, I am so lucky to have such great members, they make it a very easy and very pleasurable forum to host.

My other piece is an UFO which was an RR with Needlecraft Haven. Julie and Mr Stick are in charge of keeping us motivated to complete our UFOs and because it's Stricty season we are stitching whilst watching on Saturday and Sunday. For anyone of my overseas friends this is the link to BBC Strictly Come Dancing.

We're on week 2 and this week I added some of the pink flowers to my border. I do have trouble as I have a pair of glasses for stitching/reading and another for the tv and driving. SO I stitch whilst the talking bits are on then swap glasses and watch the actual dance - I can see without my glasses (or by peering over the top of my reading ones) but I miss the detail on the gorgeous costumes.

Angel Blessings

Tonight Hubby and I are going to see French Can-Can at Bedworth Civic Hall - oh la la. I'll tell you all about it next time, thanks for popping by today, it's always lovely to read your comments.

October is here !

Autumn is here - if only on the calendar because we still have some gorgeous sun, although the weatherman says the rain is coming.

On the way home from taking Philly back to University in Wales we stopped at Abergavenny  The indoor market was amazing and had veg hanging from the ceiling - all made of fabric.

 

 

 

They were absolutely amazing, so real looking. I do find the Welsh towns have great community ideas - but Nuneaton did have a successful sunflower trail this year for the local hospice so hopefully more will happen here next year.

It was Orts Day on Needlecraft Haven yesterday - here's my growing collection for this year.

September Orts

I have been decorating at Dad's and we nearly have the upstairs done :) we have some major work to do downstairs before I can decorate there but it gives me a chance to sort out the garage/shed/outhouse before the real cold starts. Over the weekend I did the front garden, we decided to gravel the rose bushes as the weeds seem to grow so quick. The roses are very old and this year had a caterpillar munching on them but hopefully they will recover next ear - we did replace two.

The garden in the early summer

And now we've gravelled it

I don't have any stitching news as I am busy stitching the coaster for the Needlecraft Haven Autumn Exchange - and then I have a spooky ornament to do for their Spooky Exchange.

I hope October starts well for you all and the weather doesn't bring us too much change. Thanks for calling by, I do love reading your comments, thank you.

Pumpkins for Cathey

Today is a special Pumpkin Day for Cathey - her blog is Pumpkin Patch & Co

 

It's her blogoversary - and blog land is celebrating by making it a Pumpkin Day for a special lady, Cathey.

 

If you want to know more visit Daffycat's blog and read all about it.  

 

Just a bit of fun

Philly goes back to Pontypridd today to start her second year at uni - it's now called The University of South Wales and this year she is the University Officer for Sport. She'll be so busy doing her studies, job and volunteer work for RCT Council but she enjoys it.

This year she is sharing a house wit four boys - I have stitched them a door plaque each which I have laminated so they can write messages on for each other hee hee. I used Mr Men designs and did their initial rather than character, although two are phonic ( 'appy for Adam and fun for Philly)

It was a rush but I finished laminating at 12.30 last night - just need to wrap them. I have a dry marker each for them, some blue tak and cleaning wipes - hope they like them

I made a batch of cookies too just to get them going :-) Students love homemade goodies - well anything they haven't cooked really.

Birthday Thank You

I had a lovely birthday and was definitely spoilt. Hubby bought me a Nexus tablet as my iPad was works. This is my first blog post using it so fingers crossed.

I had so many beautiful cards including this stitched one from a friend from school who is just beginning on our amazing hobby. It's beautiful

Hand stitched by Kat 

Thank you to the members of the 2013 Birthday Thread Exchange on Needlecraft Haven. Once the final few threads arrive I will stitch the chosen charts for this year :-) 

Thank you to my stitching friends for my lovely gifts - Julie, Karan, Tina, Barb, Christine and Gill.

My stitchy gifts 

And finally a thank you to Sally for selecting me to be next to have the gorgeous Lizzie Kate chart 'Not All Of Us' I am midway through a secret gift and have a UFO for the NH Strictly UFO stitching, and my Santa Village stitching but this one will be stitched soon. 

Lizzie Kate - Not All Of Us

Well that's my first post using my Nexus, not all smooth running but hopefully readable. 

Thank you for popping by, happy stitching. 

June, Orts and a little bit of holiday

We had an amazing time in France - far too much good food, speciality beer and wine. Here's a few photos:

The view from our bedroom window

 

Nick snapping the harbour

 

Our favourite bar

 

On our picnic on the last day

 

Me and the Chemin de Feu steam train

 

These are the benches we sat at most evenings with a beer or
bottle of wine (the photo is taken from the other side the estuary -
the benches are the beige squares under the trees)

We really did have an amazing time - especially trying many beers in the Au Vieux Port (not all in one night) I did put photos on facebook and there are some in my online album AimetuClare.

Whilst away I stitched The Drawn Thread - June - but I'm not finishing it until I have stitched July, August and September so I can finish them altogether. I am very behind with these but they will all be ready for next year :) 

The Drawn Thread - June

I have not started another project but have one ready to go (and I might get a bit done after writing this) As always it's a gift so I can't share it just yet BUT it needs to be done quite quickly so you won't have to wait long.

Needlecraft Haven is very busy at the moment - we have just finished the Holiday Exchange but I have to finish mine off so no photos yet. The Autumn Exchange and Spooky Exchange are both open, the September monthly challenge is up and the 31st Orts jar photos are up. Julie hosts the UFO stitching and now that Strictly is back we are Strictly UFO-ing - I have mine ready to go on Saturday.

Here's my Orts jar - I'm very surprised at how full it's getting - but then I have stitched an huge amount this year already.

Orts Jar - August 2013

And finally an apology - I am very out of touch with everyone's blog with being on holiday - I will be blog reading now I'm back but only new posts or it will take forever. I'm sure there will be lots of stitching news.

Thanks for popping by Aimetu's Stitching and reading my latest news.

Birthday Gift

Just a quick update before our hols next week. After stitching all the gifts for school I had a very very busy needle working so hard to stitch a very special gift for a great friend.

Julie reached her half century birthday last week and as soon as I saw this sampler I knew I had to stitch it for her - we live about 16 miles away from each other and often pop up or down the road for a visit - hopefully a few more now I've retired.

I used Picture Frame Express - ordering online with their custom frame calculator is really easy and as they are only in Coventry I can collect (usually next day). The only difficulty is colour matching for the mount and frame when looking on the pc.

Friend's House Sampler - Moira Blackburn

I did not stitch all the borders on the chart but had a double mount and a mustard coloured frame.

Many thanks to Julie for the photo - the ones I took did not look very good.