Proud Parents

Our last guest have gone home, and it's just Kev and me at home.
Su and Gav have gone to north Wales for a few days,
Fliss is home from hospital on bed rest, we will pop in again today to check she is OK, she is still upset she missed her sister getting married, but Steve her hubby is looking after her and Josh.

I wanted to show you a couple more photo's,
above is us, with Su and Gav
and below is Gav's mum and dad.

Today is my third chemo day, so I have nothing planned for the rest of the week. I will sit and sew most days, I have done very little on my cushion front, I have 15 squares to stitch, I hope to finish it in the next week or two.

Sunshine and Smiles

Yesterday the sun came out, first time in over a week.

Su and Gav had a perfect wedding and we all had a great time.
Below are just a few photo's of our day.

Su's style was very simple and it suited her,
ladies wore their beautiful summer dresses, a very colourful day.
The church is in the background of these shots.

The photo is taken from inside the church looking out.

We are the most proud parents, and our new son-in-law is such a special person.

Shannon was not a bridesmaid, she was a princess. Josh and her walked with Su up the isle looking sweet.

Josh with Grancha, before we left for the church, he was a good boy and did all his duties with a smile.

One very sad note, Fliss was taken into hospital on Friday for bed rest, we are all sorry she missed her sister getting married, both Fliss and the baby are Ok, but we are looking forward to her coming home, we have kept loads form the day for her.

Today we are having a BBQ, it's a drop in day, before everyone starts their drive home, we have family who came from Somerset (over 100 miles drive), The sun is shinning again, we are so very lucky.

Shhhh!!

I am not sure if this is allowed, I am not allowed to show the wedding dress to any one, but I'm sure I can show you bits of it. the silk looks very pale in these photo's, it is champagne in colour.

Su has a shrug, in case she is feeling cool at any point.

This sad looking garter, was first worn by me at my wedding and when Fliss got married to Steve, she used it, and now it's Su's turn. It supplies the following from the rhyme,

Something old
something new
something borrowed
something blue

I have had time to stitch, but spent most of my time unpicking, you can see a dirty square in the middle of my work, I do like the pattern I was stitching, but felt it would be too dark, so I have removed it. Look at my last post to see what I had stitched. At this point I can't decide the last pattern.
Yesterday, Su, Fliss Josh and I went out for lunch, we don't often have lunch together, so it was fun, we enjoyed pasta, salads and pizza, with loads of chatting and giggles.

This morning Josh is coming over for a couple of hours, he is bringing Woody and Buzz, so we should have fun, this afternoon we have to pop to the hotel to ensure the tables are done correctly. This evening Su will be home, she has already booked a chicken pasta for tea,

The weather forecaste is good, in as much as there is no rain promised, family members are traveling to Fareham today, and we are looking forward to seeing everyone, most will pop in tonight to say hello.

On Sunday we are having an open house and BBQ, we will be able to catch up with everyone, share photo's and ensure everyone eats before their journeys home.

Woody, Buzz and party food

Yesterday was Joshua's 5th birthday, Grandma and Grandad visited from Manchester. Mum and dad planned a meal out, but Josh wanted party food, so we stayed in and shared a party tea with birthday cake. I did not get many photo's, Josh was fed up with camera's, below he is wearing his Woody outfit, and yep he is into Toy Story 3.

Almost every present he had was something about the film, we had a very happy little boy!!

My cushion is coming along I have just 16 squares to finish, I love the pink candy stripe I have stitched as pattern 9, you can also see my last design, which I am making up as I stitch. My photo's are not that good this time, the problem is with me not my camera.

Today it has rained all day, so I have been inside, the forecast for tomorrow and Friday is the same, but the forecast for Saturday is dry, so fingers crossed.

We had our stair carpet fitted, it is two colours, pink and grey, each is plain, I have done one step pink, the next grey and then the next pink, it looks good, kev likes it, and it makes the stairs, a dark area a bit more fun.

I think every thing is ready for the wedding, Su has finished work, and will pop in tomorrow, we have a few things to do, ie, collect wedding cake and pop to hotel. We have planned to go to lunch together, the calm before madness takes over.

Wedding fever

Well it's the week before the wedding, and can you guess the mood of this house, yep we are all gearing up for the weekend and a double family party.
Gavin has a lovely family and we all know each other and get on well. Both dads have motorbikes and all four of us go for rides together, we spent a great day together in the New Forest a few weekends ago.

Below are some of the wedding items.

The invitations were designed by Su and myself, Su knew what style she wanted,
also above is the table name places.

The order of service is below, I have just shown the front and back pages,
the photo's are of the church and in the castle grounds.
These were done by Su and Kev.

The little jugs are part of the table decorations

We brought the jugs back in March and the flower's I got yesterday, I would like to have some green hearts on wires coming out, but I think Su won't go for it.


Today Su is with me all day, last Wednesday she tried on her dress with all the accessories, and well she was not totally happy with the bodice, so today I am putting it right, it should not take long, she said it was alright, but alright will not do for me. I did not have a pattern for the bodice and had to create it myself, scary thing to do for your daughter's wedding dress.

I have done more on my cushion front, I have done 76 squares and have just the white background to do for the final 4 squares in the pattern. I am so excited the finish is now so close.

It has rained most of the weekend, so I have not done anything in the garden, I hope to spend tomorrow afternoon, planting and giving it a tidy up. We are hoping for better weather this weekend coming.

After only 10 months since we moved here, with exception of the office the whole house is decorated, kev has worked hard to get all the painting done, I have photo's in two blogs , click on the either link to see. It does help to have your daughters wedding as a dead line, Kev has a couple of weeks off in September and we will do the office then.

Good days

Yesterday was fantastic, I am feeling well and getting excited with Su and Gav's wedding next weekend. I popped to the hairdresser and had my wig cut, results later, I popped in to see Fliss and Joshy, did some baking, all in all a good day.

I even did some stitching, most of the work I have done is the white background, every part of this cushion is being stitched, I am at 74 squares with 26 left, I think I know what the last two patterns are, and can't wait to get to them. Click on the photo to see the detail.
I also spend an hour looking at books, showing the village Cannington in Somerset, where I grew up, below is how I remember it as a child, I spent lazy sunny days, fishing with nets in the brook. The countryside in Somerset in the late 60's was stunning. Click on the village name to see more.

I was so pleased tucked in the book was this book mark I made.

In a second book I found this photo, it is my mum's brother George, mum used to tell us of how she would help him prepare the horses manes with ribbons on special days, my uncle's were farmers, Uncle John once gave us a piglet when we were younger, I remember it we all got excited, but mum would not allow us to keep it in the garden so it had to live on the farm.

Our local Town Bridgwater, has a carnival each November, as does many towns in the area, Bridgwater is classed as the top venue, my sister Leanna brought this book for me for christmas, and the photo above is in it. Click on the word carnival to see the official website it is amazing.

I wanted to show you my new hair style, I am so very pleased, it looks like me again.

Yesterday I also baked Veggie Lasagna, which is a favorite dish of mine, with Su and Gav coming to tea I was able to bake a large one, the main problem I have with this dish is Kev is allergic to cheese and therefore can not eat it, well yesterday I made him a separate dish without cheese and he loved it, so the forward plan is to make it without cheese, once cooked I can add mozzarella cheese to mine and grill.

I am now waiting for Fliss and Joshy to pop in, then I can go to my other blog, Somerset House and have Joshy choose the winner of my giveaway. Also today my niece Tracy, hubby Taylor and baby Riley are popping in.

Feeling better

Today I'm feeling better, I have just had most of my side effects for my second chemo, and now I am back in the world.

Yesterday I went to our local McMillan centre in Portsmouth to attend a Look Good Feel Good session, major cosmetic companies all get together to offer this service, we spent the afternoon with makeup artist, and just cleansed, and then did our make up. The tips were great, and each lady was given a large bag of products, in fact everything required for the afternoon. We all looked good afterwards and had great fun. The site is here My daughter Su works for Estee-Lauder and she was very keen for me to attend.


Above is one of my "silly cow" items, this sits on my desk, I love the look in their eyes! It was created by Caroline Shotton, part of her Great Moosters collection. I just like to see a photo in each of my blogs.

I have not done any sewing this week at all, I did finish knitting my second hat, but I have left my cushion front for fear of making a mistake. Today the sun is shining and I want to spend an hour in the garden, I hope to get some stitching done in the next few days.

Just 10 days until Su and Gav's wedding, Su popped in after a visit to her hairdressers last night, she looked beautiful, almost everything is now ready. We have just one task for next week, Su wants plants, in small retro jugs, probably small roses on each table so we will pop to a good garden centre to buy some, I have grown some plants for her, but they are refusing to flower and Su does not want to add paper flowers to these. We already have the jugs.

I am also looking forward to Thursday evening, we are having Su and Fliss both over for tea, not their partners just our two girls, after tea we are having a girlie evening going through all Su's wedding items and having a family evening. Next Tuesday it's Joshua's 5th birthday so more family plans there, so I have a busy week.

I'm still knitting

I have started my second hat, I have enough wool to knit four. I love the random wools and have four different colours, they do not take to long to knit, I found this time it is better to do the patter on normal needles and I will change to the four needle when I reach the crown.
I am using the same pattern as before, but I want a different lace pattern on each one, this time I have chosen to do the pattern below, it is very easy to do.
I have the book below, which allows me to use any type of design, I have used it before, it is a good book to have on my book case.
I also have loads of beads still to stitch on Su's wedding dress, they are going down, I should have them done over the weekend.
I am tired after my second chemo, but the side effects are not that bad at this time. I heard some real good news on the radio this morning, pop here if you want to read, my outcome has always been good after catching it early. The sun is shinning here today, I did manage to cut the dead heads off my flowers, but at this time my garden is just for looking at. With 16 days to Su's wedding we are in full checking everything mode. I am proud of our daughter, she is not stressed and is taking everything in her stride, I think it does help like me she is a list maker.

My goodness it's August already

It was again a busy weekend, the time is passing so quickly, today we have 19 days until Su and Gav get married, everything is ready for them, just hoping for a sunny day.

I have managed to do some stitching on my cushion, I have added the next new design, and have stitched 71 out of 100 squares, this design has a lot of white stitches, which is hard on the eyes. I have not yet decided on the last two patterns, I have a few ideas in my head, but will make the decision when I have finished this last design.

I also brought wool at the weekend and knitted my first hat, I got the pattern from the internet, it knits on four needles, and does not require sewing together,I love the random wool colours, now I have the pattern details I will make a couple more with different lace bands. It is so easy to pop on a hat, than tie a scarf.

On Sunday we went out with Su, Gav, his daughter Shannon and his parents, she has just turned four and this was her day out, she loves birds so we went to a wetland centre at Arundel, had fun feeding the very tame ducks, I enjoyed seeing all the wild flowers on the site, and had the very British Sunday lunch at a pub. Below is Shannon playing.

The garden is looking good, below are flowers out at this time.

I am having my second chemo tomorrow, the past three weeks have not been too bad, I am aware the side effects get worse the more sessions you have, but fingers crossed it won't be too bad.

Changing hair

Yesterday my hair started to fall out, I knew it was coming, I have always had thick hair, so even as I have lost about half of it, I still have a head of hair. When I look in the mirror I see my mum looking back at me. I have beautiful hats and scarfs ready. I thought today I would show you a gallery of me alongside Kev with different hair styles over the years.

This one was taken about 1998, not reason for it, we just wanted a posh shot.

This was taken in 1992, I had a short while when I had curly hair,
Kev had more hair then.

This was taken in 1984,

This was taken in 1973, I had long hair for all my childhood, finally having it cut at 19.

My first hair, it's not a great photo the light reflected on the glass, the photo is black and white, but mum at the time had the colour painted on top. This hangs in our hall.

I have not done anything to my quickie, but I have done some more to the cushion front, most days I am tired so I do only small amounts, I have to pop to the hospital today for a check up but have no other plans.

Coffee and Muffins

It's another sunny Sunday morning, Kev is on the golf course and I am feeling good, so I am starting the day with home made lemon and poppy seed muffin and coffee. Which taste very good, I have been only able to drink water for the past couple of days due to a very sore mouth.


I did some baking yesterday and made three types of muffins, cup cakes for Josh and quiche for lunch with Fliss and Steve. I was enjoyable, but by the evening I knew I had done a bit too much.

The roses below was sent to me in the week by friends from a company I worked for 18 months ago, they were a complete surprise and beautiful, I do keep in touch with them but not as much as I should, I hope to pop in this week if I'm up to it.

My quickie is going slowly, I have done a couple ribbons, but I am stitching my cushion front, I am addicted to it, I have done 64 with 36 squares left to stitch. I did make a mistake one evening last week and spent the following morning unpicking and reworking it, so now I only stitch in the day when I am not so tired.

Grace is not happy with me, I always have her blanket on the sofa, and she only is on her bed when we have visitors, last weekend she was happy to be on her bed while Kate and Ian was here, but as I have friends popping in for coffee, I decided she should stay on her bed, but she is not happy with me and I am sure she is sulking!!

The flowers have opened on my orchid, I hope they last until the last weekend of August, Su's wedding, I would like to have them on show.

We hope to go for a short ride on the bike today, but have nothing else planned. Next week I have a few days booked, my plan is to gain strength for my next round of chemo. This one has been a challenge and I know I will have stronger side effects as I have more, but it is something to endure, I still have my hair for now. We are all looking forward to the wedding and all the family being together.