Thinking ahead

I am feeling a bit better today, still very tired, but feeling as if I want to take part in the world again, my mum would have said "back in the land of the living"

So I have lit my favorite candle, and hope to do a bit more craft today.

I saw today that Christmas is only 86 days away, boy it's creeping up fast, so Monday I sat here and designed some Christmas cards, I always make my cards, an individual one for close friends and family, and a mass one for everyone else, I have already stitched some family cards, see here I thought this year I would make a play on our surname, and get everyone to keep up with the Jones's. I printed the card below twice on A4 card, I use 130grms for this size card, then I just cut them in half.
The printed box around the words is there as a guide line for a silver box, I use peel offs for this, just placing them on top of the lines, the box makes the task quicker and it is always in the correct place, very useful if you are making loads of cards the same.
On each card I am placing a decoupage, The decoupage comes in 5 levels, I use 1,3,4, and5 for the front of the card. Level 2 I keep and put on the inside of my card, this image is always a good one to use. I aways have a inside paper sheet, often in a pale colour. All I have to do in photo below is attach the inside liner to card.

I have also created the Union Jack required for the front of the cushion I am making for my daughter Su, here in UK we are very retro at this time, and using our flag alot, please feel free to use my pattern below if you wish, I will stitch this onto linen using waste canvas,

But before I stitch it on the linen I am doing a smaller one, this I will make into a tree decoration. I just need to see the dimensions are correct. I did this stitching on Monday/Tuesday.

I have joined a Christmas Ornament Exchange with Marsha and have to send my ornament to Laine by November 1st, This weekend I am going to "Past Times" where they sell all retro items and will find something for Laine, and probably for me as well.

The rest of my day is planned, I have to service my sewing machine it's still not working correct, so I will take it apart and have a look. I want to do some more stitching on my Union Jack and I have a recorded programme from last night to watch.

Not the best day

Yesterday was not good, firstly I fell asleep and burnt my Christmas cake, so I will be baking again next week. I have got together all the items I need to create my cushions, but I am not feeling well enough to stitch anything, I have had new drugs this time and I ache everywhere.

The kitty above is taken from the net and I think I will follow suit and rest. Hope to be feeling better soon, Love reading all your blogs, helps keep me going.

Sunshine in September

I am sat here in the sunshine,
our bench in front of the window works perfectly on sunny days,
with my favorite cup with hot juice.

The house smells of citrus, I have added the rind and juice of one lemon and two oranges to dried fruit, tomorrow morning I will bake my Christmas cake, I have followed this recipe for twenty years, it makes a 9" round cake. I find using the citrus instead of booze keeps the fruit moist in the cake.

I have now finished stitching my cushion cover,
I sat up late last night to finish it.
I am so pleased with the end result, it is a bit smaller than I wanted
but I will size it up with the fabric.

I am now going to start on my cushions for Christmas presents as described in my last post.
I also want to do some more small Christmas stitching.

These cards I made earlier in the year and I want to do a few more.

I have a large pile of ironing calling, I did not feel well enough to do any last week, so I am off to get it done, I hate ironing, but hate more to see a huge pile in the basket.

I had chemo yesterday, but with a change of drugs and am not feeling to bad today, I have two more sessions to go, so will be finished in November, Christmas is a family affair this year with all three daughters and their families (2 mine, 1Kev's) coming for the day, so we are planning a great time as I should be feeling much better.

Kittens anyone?

We had a very quiet weekend, popped to a garden centre and brought onions to plant in my garden, also pansies for my pots. We also popped into see Fliss, Steve and Josh, Josh gave us a jar of chutney, he had made it with his dad using the tomatoes they had grown, and had made the labels himself. We have to keep it for a few weeks before we can use it, to allow the flavours to infuse.
I have just 3 squares to go on my cushion front, so I am lining up projects, I want to make some presents for Christmas, Su has placed an order for a cushion, and I have a second one planned for her as a surprise. I will make the second one twice, I want to give one to a good friend, all three will each have a small amount of cross stitch on with some patchwork. The first is my take on a love cushion and the matching two will have the message "Home is where our CATS sleep and play" home will be cross stitch and the word cats will be patchwork using some fantastic cat material I have in my stash.

I also want to make cute kittens.

I got this Japanese book from Amazon, and I fell in love with these cute kittens.

I can't read any instructions in the book, but as always they have good pictures and the pattern pieces, so I just follow them.
I have loads of felt and want to make them in different shades, some a whole colour and others a mix of colours.
Next to the felt is my button box, I was looking for a spare button for something else, in my spare section I have loads of old buttons, I always buy a spare for anything I make and here are a few of the buttons I brought when Fliss was small, each has a memory of a dress or cardigan, most of the real cute ones Fliss has taken for her button box. Most of them are 30 years old.
I have the rest of the afternoon on my own, Kev returned to work after two weeks break. I'm not sure what I will do.

Almost there

I have just five squares to do and then the stitching is finished.

I am very pleased with the design.

Each square has 900 stitches, a total of 90,000 stitches.

Each square took approx 4 hours to stitch, x100 squares, alot of work.

I hope to finish it this week and make it into a cushion for the spare bed. I will also make my Spanish sampler into a cushion for our bed.

Today the sun is shinning, it's a bit cool, but we are off out for a while, hope to find a local market.

Sunshine and gardens

Today Kev is finished most of the office, the bench is in place under the window and my computer is set up, so I am happy, whilst he was labouring inside I spent time in the garden.
I have loads of flowers still in bloom. The tiny pansies below are new, I planted them last month.

I love begonia's and this one is about to bloom, it's a bit late, but I will bring it inside if the weather turns colder.

This fuchsia is by our back door, Grandad watches our door for us.

The flower bed I created this spring is still going well, the dalia has bloomed for months, all I do here is cut away the dead heads. I am very pleased with this area.


My veg plot has some very bare brussels sprouts, the caterpillars have ate all the big leaves, but the sprouts are forming, so I have left them to grow, I planted leeks, Steve my son-in-law grew me some for seeds, I want to get some spring cabbage for my plot as well.

All the painting in the office has been done and the furniture is back in place, Kev worked very hard to get it all done. All we have to do now is bring every thing back in from the spare bedroom.

Home sweet home

On Thursday we drove to Somerset, to stay with my brother, he still lives in the village where I grew up. Friday we drove to south Wales for the day to visit Kev's sister, who still lives in the town where Kev grew up.

Friday was a damp day, I wanted to get some photo's of the mountains with the low cloud, but this is the only decent photo I got, just after we arrived it started to rain heavy and did not stop. The rain in Wales around the mountains is often heavy, and if there is snow we always make a dash for the road before the snow settles. We had a great day catching up with family and friends.

Through the centre of the village flows this little stream, when I was growing up, this was a focal point for the local children, we used to paddle, fish and have loads of fun here. They have widened the flow of the stream, so the water is not as deep as I remember. We had great picnics on the grass here, it was always a sunny place.

Su brought her mum a present, and I love it, I have placed it on my key ring.

Kev has almost finished painting the office, my desk is in the middle of the room, Kev is playing golf this morning. We hope to put the new window blinds up today and look at cutting the bench to fit. My dolls house has been moved, later I will tidy it and rebuild the basement and gardens. We took so much out of this room and I want to sort and get rid of some of it, I would like it to look less cluttered than before.

Decision is made

I have not been able to do much stitching, I have been so very tired, but yesterday my thoughts turned to my cushion. I could not decide what to stitch as my last pattern, so all afternoon I made sketches and looked at books. I went to my favorite book, below, for inspiration and found the design which fits, so the decision has been made.
I have made loads of designes from here, I do each in cross stitch, the patterns are still the same once stitched. My favorite one being here.I have half stitched a square covering the dirty patch where I unpicked the dark pattern.

It has small light and dark pink squares with the centre stitch done is white or bright red, these two colours are sparkly, they show in my photo. I am now pleased, I have 3 candi stripe squares to finish and then the final 10 squares in this new pattern. I was hoping to finish it by this weekend, but that won't be possible, Kev has a few days off and I am not stitching so much.
Su and Gav have come back from their mini moon, they spent a few days in north Wales, below is their postcard sent to us and a stick of rock they brought back, I love seaside rock. They are now planning their honeymoon for next spring, they want to go to south America, and the spring is the best time for them.

Today Kev is taking me shopping for a short while today, nothing special just a chance to get out. It has rained for a few days and is raining now, the fore caste is not good, so Kev's holiday is a bit of a wash out. We hope to visit Somerset on Thursday to see family and will pop into south Wales on Saturday.

Next week we empty the office and decorate it, so I shall be a few days off line, I can check your blogs via my phone so I will keep up with you all.

Happy Birthday Kev

Yesterday was Kev's birthday,

Whilst he was at work, Joshua came to help Nanna make birthday cakes, we made same chocolate ones with shortbread. Mummy was having a hospital check up and went home early and Su and Gav are still away, so small ones were the best to make.

Josh also made Grancha a card, he was sure he did not want to buy one, he coloured his fave group The Wiggles,
Joshua managed to do all the cooking and still look clean, we also did a few things in the garden and picked some tomatoes and beetroot.
On the wall we have this picture of Fliss when she was four, we are on holiday and she is watering my feet, Josh loves this photo and sits on the stairs to look at it each time he visits, so yesterday I took it out of it's frame and took a photo of it, it has worked well and now Josh has a copy of it at home.
My cross stitch is slow at this time, I have done a bit more on my cushion, but I am undecided what to put as the last pattern. So in the week I thought I would have a go at my quicky, well I am on the third start for that one, I can't focus on the pattern and keep making mistakes, so for the mo that's filed under my WIP.