London, birthday and stitching

We've had a great weekend in London with our friends.The journey down on Friday was not so good, 4 hours in total, the last 8 miles taking 1 hour 45 minutes :( The Travelodge is always good, we use City Airport which is quite new and has a bar downstairs. Saturday morning we walked around South Bank and had a quick visit to Tate Modern. There was plenty of time to enjoy lunch at our favourite Thames side pub, Dogetts, before popping into Selfridges to buy my Nespresso glasses. We saw Graham Norton there doing a book signing.

The Tesco Wine Fair (our main reason for going to London) was great; there were 55 stands with five or six samples at each. It's great to get to try wines we wouldn't buy and using the guide book we now have ticks and crosses against wines to buy when we go shopping.

We had a lovely meal at Pizza Express before taking the tube back to the hotel - another very good trip but I did struggle to get around and have rested yesterday and today :0

I have worked hard on the summer basket on my  RR tablecloth, I don't get to do much stitching each day but it's coming along.

I have also finished another cross but it needs the silver lines adding, I have added the silver to the other four.

DH is off this week as well and hopefully we'll get to the caravan for a day or two. We need to close it down for the winter, hopefully we'll get to use it more next year as we didn't really visit that often in 2010.

Thanks for reading my news, happy blogging x x

Lots of news

It's been over a month since I blogged - the only reason is lack of time. I can blog today because unfortunately I am off work; I've had a very bad cold which has affected my MS so now I need a couple of days to let my body recover.

Home news: my dad is in hospital after a fall on his mobile scooter, he's been in a week and is improving but seems so tired. He has always looked good for his age (84 in Dec) but this fall has definitely aged him. I'm off to the hospital to see him again this afternoon.

Philippa has settled well into Sixth Form college, and has survived the two weeks her boyfriend Kieran was away in America. She has changed from netball to volleyball and now plays for Nuneaton Ladies.She is now Gold Ambassador for the Sports Academy and is one of the leaders on a netball course for younger girls over half term.

Michael is enjoying his new job - he is working hard at promoting the Nature Reserve. Ianthe Badger is the facebook account - please have a look and become a friend.If you are based in the Midlands it is a great place to visit and enjoy a day outside; wellies and binoculars recommended. They do have some events on over half term, just click on the facebook events tag.

Stitching News

I had a great day on Saturday at the Stitch and Stash meet up (I did just sit and stitch though). Julie, Rachel, Tina (and her three friends), Angie, Vikki (and her daughter India), Jackie, Kathy (who organised a fab day), Lynn, Jacqui, Tracey and Hazel all travelled to Nuneaton for the day. We had a great time sharing ideas, wips and finishes. We also spent some time planning Round Robins and ideas for updating the forum; pop along and see, it's growing :) One thing I've added is a gallery to show off work we've done over the week - a great way to see things growing.

The rest of my news is in picture form - enjoy :)




Dusty's Round Robin - I was the lucky stitcher to complete this, I stitched the birdhouse above the writing.




This is my Round Robin - it will be a table cloth when it's finished. I am currently working on the summer basket.



Julie taught me how to crochet - this was my first attempt (it's a new design as I did it wrong but it looks ok)

My second attempt and this time it's right :)

Dusty sent over these gorgeous crosses for my Cross Stitch tree at church's Christmas Tree Festival.

Mum made all these too, mainly card but two tatting ones and a knitted cross.

and I've done a new centre on this one; it was an accident as there is no centre hole so I did a double line but I'm very impressed with it and will be doing the others the same way.

This is a Ruby Wedding sampler for my Godmother, I think I'll make it into an ornament with white lace and red ribbon.

Thank you for reading my blog - I'll try to keep the news flowing a bit more often :)

Birthday Thank you :)

I've had a fantastic birthday - truely spoilt and would like to thank my fantastic hubby Nick, Michael and his girlfriend Amii, Philippa and her boyfriend Kieran, mine and Nick's families, friends, neighbours and colleagues - your kindness and generosity made me feel very humble - thank you all so much.

Here are just a few things that happened for my birthday.

I have already blogged about my car, party and coffee maker but didn't show piccie of my lovely red machine, so here it is :)

When I got home from work on Friday (my actual birthday) Nick had decorated the house and laid the table for a special dinner :)

and what a special dinner we had - it was lovely to be all together.

After dinner we went to the Praha in Hinckley as Michael had a gig - the bands before him were not quite our sort of music but it was great to see him play and sing. As you can see we did have fun :)

I had some gorgeous gifts - mum and Keith bought me this fabulous table cloth back from their trip to Austria, and I had a huge amount of cards and gifts - thank you everyone :)

and Julie made this fabulous mat - you're so clever Julie - I'd love to learn how this is done if you fancy showing me at the Nuneaton meet up.

The post still keeps arriving - Saturday I had a lovely parcel from my friend Brenda in Canada, some Monaco fabric and DMC Linen Embroidery Floss - oh and a doggy biscuit for Ruby from her dog Toffee (Toffee used to send to BJ and vica versa so now Toffee sends to newbie Ruby)

Yesterday we went to our bridesmaid's wedding - she looked great aged 11 at our wedding and absolutely stunning yesterday - congratulations Sarah and Ian, hugs and wishes for your future together x x

Nick took this photo at the wedding yesterday - Philippa, Dad and me - one to treasure !

Thank you to everyone from a very grateful lady - hugs to everyone x x

New car, new job and a party !!

Wow what a lot has happened in a few days - but firstly I can finally say I feel well, although I have not been eating properly and have put on a lot of weight (hopefully I can get back on track soon)

So my news - I have my new car, a lovely white Citroen C1 Splash. This is me just leaving the sales garage :)

It is lovely to drive and it is so nice not to have to walk to school or ask others for a lift :)

On Wednesday Nick took me to Birmingham for a day out and we went to Selfridges and bought a new coffee maker - a Nespresso. Oh it's lovely, the coffee is so much nice than instant or the old coffee maker we had. I need to buy some more pods; I'll get some in London in October but I think I'll be buying online before then lol.

We went to Cafe Rouge for lunch because I had a voucher for free champagne. I joined their online club and we had to spend £30 on food but the champagne was free and should have been £30 - amazing offer :)

Then Friday Michael (who is the one with a new job - after a year on the dole :) ) passed his cbt motorbike test and now has a moped hired from the Job Centre to get him to work. He is working at Brandon Marsh Conservation Centre and is their marketing and media person for a six month placement.

And I picked up my new car - so it was a busy day :)

Saturday was my birthday party (but not my birthday lol) I had a fabulous time, our music teacher and her band played the first hour and then a disco. I said no pressie but to bring a plate of food for the buffet - and what a fabulous buffet we had, so much variety. My Slimming World lady also makes cupcakes and birthday cakes (doesn't quite fit does it lol) She made me lots of cupcakes instead of a large birthday cake, they were delicious. I was very brave and wore leggings, a tunic top and very high heels lol, not bad for 45 (well in a few days)

and my friend from school made this cake for me - isn't she clever, amazing detail.

So my birthday is later this week, and although I said no I do have some pressies to open. And on Saturday our bridesmaid is getting married next Saturday so I am really looking forward to that and then the following weekend DH and I are away for a quiet weekend.

On the stitching front I made some hostess badges for the tea ladies at St Cadfan's Church - and I used the idea to do another one using the design from the GOS #8 Challenge although it's only tacked together so far.

These are the church ones 

 

and my Gos #8

and finally today Ireceived my Stitch and Stash exchange gift from Edda - Iorganised an online shop exchange where we had to use an online shop and purchase £5 worth of goodies to be sent directly to our partner. Edda sent me Polstitches Designs heart Pyramid Ornament kit and a skein of Rajmahal Art Silk shade 111 - thanks Edda it's a lovely kit and one I'll be doing as soon as I have time.

Well that's about all from me  - hopefully I will have Dusty's RR finished soon, thanks for popping by :)

More good news :)

Michael has got the job at Brandon Marsh Nature Reserve, he will be working there for 6 months helping to promote them on social networks and will be working on a long term project.

We have to sort out transport now and he is looking at the Wheels to Work scheme from the Job Centre which involves getting a small motor bike. It's great news :)

Philly has a telephone interview onTuesday for apart time job in Debenhams so fingers crossed for her.

And I signed the papers today for my new car which will be available next Friday for me to collect - whoo hoo a brand new Citroen C1 Splash in white - I can't wait.

All finished off with my birthday party next Saturday and my birthday a few days later.

Life is good - thanks be to God

Philly's results

Just a quick blogging to say how proud we are of Philly :) She had her GCSE results on Tuesday and she achieved an amazing 7 A*, 5A and 3B - she also passed her AS English a year early getting a grade B.

We are so proud of her - she did work really hard and revised any spare minute.

and today Michael had a job interview which went really well so fingers crossed x x

At last it is a stitching post LOL

I have changed my plan for the church Christmas tree. This is because I have not done anything yet and time is running out :)

So as I said before my new plan is a 'Cross Stitch Tree' with lots of hand stitched crosses. I have made a start using plastic canvas and some tapestry wool I had in my stash. 

I only did half stitch as the wool is quite thick and the edges is simply overlapped. I have added a row of beads to give some definition - I think all the beads will be silver and then I will put clear white lights on the tree and silver tinsel.

For each cross I have matched as closely as I can from my stash the ribbon for hanging - I'm really pleased with them and they don't actually take long to do.

These are the materials I am using: plastic canvas,tapestry wool and ribbon (which I've attached with double sided tape)

These need finishing with beads and ribbon.

These are my first two completed crosses.

I am going to back then with felt and when I've used all my canvas and wool I'm going to have a go using some 14ct aida and edging it in tent stitch so hopefully it will look simillar to these.

Non-stitching news: this photo was taken about 14 years ago when Michael was 5 and Philippa 3. They entered the school fancy dress as 'The Owl and The Pussy Cat' and won first prize. Michael and I spend ages cutting the tissue feathers the make his mask and wings - I think the outfit is still in the attic. We were looking through old photos at Dad's (it's a photo of a photo so a little blurry)

Don't they look cute :)

Happy stitching, thanks for popping by x x