Spooky Time

Happy Halloween

 

You've already seen my gift to Philly but just in case her it is again.

Philly's spooky gift.

I sent this to her at uni and included this that I found in the attic.

 

Philly's cushion.

She made this in 2006 when she was just 12 - not sure how her uni friends have reacted but her main worry was the photo when I put it on Twitter hee hee

 

I also stitched a little something for Michael - I think he has hung it in his room.

 

Michael's gift.

Now I have my Dad's table next to my sofa I have a free mantle as before I would use it for my coffee cup. This annoyed me as I like things symmetrical and it made the mantle odd. Now I can put my ornaments out and have decided to keep it themed with the season.... so here is my Halloween/Autumn Mantle.

 

Halloween Mantle

The ornament top left is an autumn exchange (2006 or 2007) from Chris who used to run Aion. The centre piece is a box finish gift but I can't remember who from or when, maybe overseas exchange, the same for the autumn one.

 

My two pumpkins are Partylite houses from when I used to be a consultant. We have many of their ceramic houses so you'll be seeing more over the year. The two scarecrows are two ornaments I found in France and the two coasters at the back are again exchange gifts but I've forgotten when (part of the trouble of exchanging for over 10 years LOL)

 

Here's a close up of the my stitching gifts - if you recognise any please let me know

 

Autumn/Halloween gifts.

Finally I have blogged our weekend away in my other blog - it's something I have wanted to do for

 a while and so far so good. It's called Aimetu's - hope you enjoy it too.

Tree ornaments

Another blog from me already - I must admit I seem to have a BIG stitching mojo at the moment which is a good thing as I have so many things I want to do.

It's great to see stitching friends pop by to read my news and see my photos - please leave a comment if you do call in - every :) is lovely to see.

So my news is ..... I have finished ALL the tree ornaments for the Christmas Tree Festival at St Lawrence's. Here they all are:

22 ornaments for 'Family Tree'

I have also finished stitched a mini pillow for a very good friend - it's on its way with Mr Postie so should arrive soon - they have no idea it's coming so I will share as it will be a surprise when they realise it's for them :)

Surprise mini pillow

Finally I have to say you are in the company of a film star - yes really - and yes really me !! When we went to the Tesco Wine Fair in Manchester they had a W Factor stand where you were filmed talking about wine. My friend Colin and I gave it a go and we're on their video - can you spot us !!!!

Tesco W Factor

I'll be back soon with all my Halloween news and stitching - see you soon x x x

Joining the Parlour

The lovely Barb hosts The Little House in the Country with the Sampler Girl SAL on Needlecraft Haven.

The Parlour is where we meet every Wednesday to show our progress on any Little House Needleworks, Country Cottage Needleworks or Sampler Girl designs.

I have wanted to join for ages but haven't had the time and then didn't have a chart :( My very good friend and fellow Parlour visitor Julie has very kindly lent me A Place We Call Home so tonight I am ready to stitch.

Here is my fabric (28ct blush rose I found in my stash), my threads (all DMC as near to matches as I think) and my chart.

and to keep my work safe and tidy I am using my new project bag which was my autumn exchange gift from Mary.

So off I goto stitch in 'The Parlour' I go :)

Fabulous Saturday

Yesterday was another Meet Up for Needlecraft Haven members and we had a great time. The members were Clare (me LOL) Julie, Jane, Lynn, Ursh, Mary, Jacqui and Vicki - as well as Kate(Jacqui's daughter) and Keeley (Jacqui's granddaughter) and India (Vicki's daughter) who was a star helping me with the goodie bag exchange.

Goodie bags

We had a lovely time stitching and chatting - I managed to get lots done on Michael's Halloween gift (but more of that in my next post).

There were times when we were silent but as we said it was a contented silence of like minded people happily 'doing their thing'.

After the meet up Lynn and Jane joined me and DH at The Abbey (where DS works) for a meal. It;s a nice place, good food and lovely puds which is the main thing LOL

Today we've had a lie in - I haven't had a good week health wise so it was lovely to rest in bed whilst the F1 was on. We gave Ruby her breakfast and I made coffee and grabbed my stitching before we all returned to bed for a couple of hours - Ruby at my feet, me stitching and DH watching tv, an excellent way to start the day.

We have fixed my 'dripdrip' system up today too - it's an irrigation system for my baskets outside. We have always had trouble keeping them watered as it gets direct sun, this system has a timer on the tap and tubes with drip points. We have set it at 2 minutes every 12 hours so we'll see how that goes.

Drip Drip

 We also popped to Dad's with the water butts from home that will now live there. We returned with a small table that Dad had in his lounge and I wanted by my chair. The table was bought for my Mum by my Dad's step-mum when they got married. I love it and it's perfect,especially as now I can have a bowl of 'sticthing'.

Dad's Table

My Cross Stitch bowl

Quite an exhausting weekend in someways but it is always so lovely to meet my NH friends. Thank you for calling by x x x x

Trick or Treat

I have been busy all week stitching a Halloween ornament to send to Philly at Uni. I'm not sure she's doing anything but knowing students there will be something going on. I need to back it and add the ribbon for hanging - I loved stitching it.

I've already picked out something to do for Michael to hang at work - I'm not sure they are doing anything but it might spurt them into an idea ;)

We've had a busy but lovely weekend. Yesterday morning we went to Dad's to do some work in the garden. I need to get the last bit cleared before half term so I can have some turf delivered and lay the lawn. Dad didn't have grass 'you can't eat grass' was his saying, but if we are renting out it makes sense to have some lawn.


This is how the shed used to look

Shed today - sorry it's blurry but it was on my phone

DH today managed to get the tree root out and I cleared down the remaining honeysuckle. I will take some photos on my camera next time. Ruby enjoyed it yesterday running up and down the garden, but her favourite trick was to pinch sticks from us. She ran off with them like she'd won the best prize every LOL.

Yesterday afternoon we went to Birmingham and had a lovely meal at Cafe Rouge (Mailbox). It really is my favourite restaurant although I do think I could help at their next training day as they don't always know how to serve Ricard my favourite drink :) It's an aniseed based drink the french have as an aperitif - served on a tumbler with additional glass of ice and jug of water so you can dilute/chill to taste. Yesterday it came in a brandy glass - no ice or water - it did make me chuckle. The waitress was so lovely though, she changed it and my second glass came perfect :)

I did try a new starter - fromage bleu, walnut and pear salad on a bed of chicory - oh it was gorgeous,I might do this at home but with rocquefort cheese instead of stilton :)

Sorry another phonephoto but
 you get the idea

We then went to the New Alexander Theatre to see the Hairy Bikers Live. It was very funny - quite different to their tv show - lots of banter, some cooking, dancing, singing and escapology !!

Next Friday we're going back to the same theatre with my Mum and Keith to see Great Expectations - we're eating at Miller and Carter first too (my first time there - hope I can actually manage to walk past Cafe Rouge to get to them LOL)

AND THEN ..... Saturday is the Needlecraft Haven meet up - ooohh I can't wait :)