HD and a competition

I have just finished Lynn's RR - Stitch and Stash Round Robin. Her theme is butterlies and I chose to do the lilac one - it was lovely to work on.

and this is it so far - it's off to America next for Dusty to stitch on :)

I bought a new book and have made some fab bread - you can read about it in my Food blog. I won't be making it too often as it's not good for my Slimming World - and I have not been very good lately :(

I spent today sugar soaping the hall, stairs and landing ready to paint tomorrow. It took ages as there are 8 doors, all the surroundings, skirting and bannister spindles. I managed to get the panelling on the landing done but not down the stairs so that will be my first job tomorrow. Ruby is going to the kennels for a few days so I can get it painted, the main problem with her here is leaving the bedroom doors open as she likes to sneak under the beds and pinch things - especially DD's cuddly toys.

I have my large knitting needles so might do the tension square tonight on my new cardigan - it's a free pattern from Prima. The wool is not the one to use so I'm not sure if it will work or not.

The spring flowers are just poking through in the garden, another couple of weeks and it should be full of flowers. The rest of the garden (and we don't have much)  is still mud but once the other plants come through ti soon fills up.

And now for my competition 

 As you know I don't stitch every night as I am so tired. I have done no stitching, or any other craft,  on 27days so far this year so my question is ...

How many non-crafting days will I have by December 31st 2010?

Just add your guess to a reply to this post. All votes must be in by October 31st.

Reveal day will be January 1st 2011 and I will put together a little parcel of goodies for the winner.

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Good luck and happy stitching everyone :)

Thank you :)

I have been awarded a Sunshine Award by Elaine and Chris - thank you so much you cartainly made me smile

This award is for bloggers who inspire others with positivity and creativity.

The rules for accepting the award are:

1. Put the logo on your blog or within your post.

2. Pass the award to 12 bloggers.

3. Link the nominees within your post.

4. Let them know they received this award by commenting on their blog.

5. Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award.

I always find it hard to choose who to nominate for awards but these bloggers inspire me in many ways and are my sunshine friends.

Julie
Karan
Barb
Hazel
Elisa
Dusty
Christine
Lesleyanne
Jan
Diana
Lynn
Kathy

Enjoy your awards - happy blogging :)

Ships, Lambs and more cards

We have had a lovely weekend (well one night) at our caravan. The weather was a bit drizzly on the way up but by the time we had unloaded the car, put all the supplies away and cleaned through the sun was shinning. It always takes a while the first trip, as we have to restock the food cupboards and put all the bedding and linen back.

DD had lots of work to do and just wanted to sit and be quiet so DH and I took Ruby along the sea front. This year we will not be allowed on the beach as they have a major refurbishment to redo the sea defences. It is a mammoth job. At the moment they are delivering large (over 3 tonne each) bolders by sea.They were scheduling a drop at 8.30 last night so we (along with many others) went out well wrapped up and watched the boat manover right onto the shoreline and unload four containers of rock. Fantastic to watch - DH managed to get some photos.

We took this photo this morning- the piles in the foreground are the ones delivered last night - they certainly came in close to the shore.

DH and I also popped into the town - I needed to go to the stitching shop. Unfortunately there was not enough interest in the whitework course so I won't be teaching it there this year. I was disappointed but it's my hobby not a job so really it doesn'tt matter. I will still be charting it up to hopefully sell some for charts for my charities.

I also popped into the haridressers to book a manicure for DD and a facial for me - it's our treat when we go away. DH and I also decided to pop into the pub - just to make sure the beer/wine was still ok :)

On the way back to the caravan there is a field on one side of the road and there were some absolutely gorgeous lambs running around. Ruby was fasinated but didn't bark. The lambs were jumping and skitting all over the place - so cute.

It was lovely to go back to church this morning, I do miss it when we are here at home. No-one knew we were up for the weekend so they were surprised to see me - very welcoming as always. Next time we're there it's the Bank Holiday Monday so I have added my name to the tea/coffee morning rota and have promised some cakes.

Saturday night - when we got back from watching the ships - I made a few more cards. These are best wishes or new home ones,

and these are birthday ones.

It was lovely to be back in Wales, and it's only 14 sleeps until we go again.

Happy Dancing

I have some good news all round - firstly it looks as if DS has a job :) a local care company have accepted him and he is just waiting now to do his training. He has also been asked to go to a meeting at the local hospital radio (Anker) which will hopefully lead to doing some voluntary work with them.

DD is dancing at the Royal Albert Hall in May and we now have the tickets - phew. The coach is booked and the dance school are getting excited but it will be a long day, we will not be back until after midnight and it's a Sunday. It will be so good though to watch her dance at such an amazing venue.

I have also managed to lose my 2 stone at Slimming World - I have really struggled to get the last 7 pounds off but managed to lose the last few pounds a couple of weeks ago. However since then I have been very poorly with a flu like cold and I just ate whatever as I did not have the strength to cook properly. I'm so much better now but we've had Mother's Day so I had a few chocolates, some wine and a huge meal at the chinese - oops. I think I've put somebackon but the scales will tell on Tuesday.

I have started the Fabulous Food blog to motivate me to concentrate on good healthy food, if you would like to join please email me :

I have finally finished my Travelling Stitcher -  for the Travelling Stitcher SAL - mainly through being off sick which just shows everything has a silver lining. I love the colours and am hoping to make up my project bag soon with some matching fabric I bought from the Fabric Guild when I went with mum.

(why does Blogger turn some of my pictures round - they are not edited at all and are saved the correct way round on my hard drive - and it doesn't do it to all of them as you can see)

I am now working on Lynn's RR from the Stitch and Stash Round Robin. Her theme is butterflies and this is the piece so far. Lynn has plotted it all out and Tina has stitched the first one - beautiful work.

We are off to open up our caravan tomorrow. We need an early start so we can get there mid morning. The caravan will need cleaning through and of course everything will need airing especially the beds. We have just bought a new oil filled radiator which will help. It's always a mammoth shop to set it up again as we need all the usual cleaning stuff and food cupboard things like tea, coffee and sugar. Each autumn we empty it so each spring we have to fill it again, paying particular attention to the wine rack ;)

Happy stitching everyone, thank you for reading my HDs x x

Fabulous Day

I went ot the Fabric Guild today with mum, it's a huge warehouse that sells stitching materials and quilting fabric - all at bargain price.I got al of this for £25 - yes really. (Blogger is turning my photos again -sorry)

I was so pleased with the wool. I spotted a long jacket in Prima yesterday and thought I'd send off for the pattern, then today they had this wool at just 40p a ball - amazing. It's not quite the right sort of wool but I will knit a sample square to ge the tension and size right and it should then be ok.

I have been busy this afternoon making cards for my charity funds. I used some of the card bits (and I bought loads) and made these cards this afternoon.

and I've made these for Mother's Day :)

I have alsomade a new blog today to help encourage me with my Slimming World. http://aimetufood.blogspot.com/

I made a yummy breakfast and lunch, and DH's dinner was good too.

Off to do the Tesco order now, happy reading.

Gift, Travelling Sticher and Slimming World

I had a lovely gift in the post this week- Jules (over the pond) sent over the Quaker Medallion chart, it's lovely and definately high up on my to stitch list :) I have a return something ;) to send over, hopefully I can get it inthe post Tuesday so watch out for postie Jules - it may take a few days to get to you.

Now I have finished on Tina's RR - and before the next RR arrives which should be in the next few days - I am going to work on my Travelling Stitcher. This is from Chris' SAL. This should have been finished in January oops :( but I am only managing about half an hour stitching a day and not every day so this year I am really slow and behind on my usual amount of HDs.

This week I finally managed to achieve my 2 stone award at Slimming World :) I lost 3 pounds which also meant I was given Slimmer of the Week and because I have been logging my walking with Ruby and my once a week at the gym I also achieved my Bronze Award for the Body Magic.

Life here has been very busy - nothing special just normal family life

and work.Today we went to Fenstanton again just outside Cambridge forPhilippa's dress fitting. We had a lovely lunch on the way back at a pub we found last visit - so of course we can do the same again when we go backina few weeks to fetch the finished dress :) We bought a beautiful hair clip as Philly wasn't too keen on a tiara, I just need to book her into the hairdressers at Easter for a practice on how to have it up.

Well that's all from me for today, thanks for popping by to read my news, happy blogging :)