3rd time right

 I love these flowers, but the stem and leaves are another matter, the design had them in light pink.

I stitched the first batch of leaves in pink, and not right, so I thought I would use the grey, stitched the first batch of leaves again and no, not right, again. So I plundered my stash and came up with this green, it feels right for me. I will have to study her pattern and add more green to balance the design.

 The grey panels are straight, but my work is off on my frame, and every time I try an put it right it moves as I tighten the frame. It's looking good, just two more flowers with their leave and a lace pattern above, that's this months work. it's easy to follow and I love it, very different from my normal work, I think I like stitching lace work.

Work is going well this week, we are busy so the time flies by quickly, we are planning another 5 people in our office, should be fun, there is room for them, but we are a close small department, so the next few weeks will be very interesting.
This weekend we are planning to travel back to the village where I was born, and visit my family, we always have fun when we go home and we will get to see Logan our youngest grand son.

First sunny sunday

This morning I woke up late to beautiful sunshine, and it feels warm, I am sat in our sunny office with a coffee, I opened a new pack of coffee this morning, so it's fresh, with some shortbread, what a perfect start to the day, bliss.

Parts 2 &3 have arrived for sweet flowers, so I have dropped everything to get on with it, I did think about changing the colours, but I am sticking with the designer for now.

 I love Tribal Penguin, I love the shapes so retro, I have done more white and Su my daughter loves the silver back stitch, so I'm hoping to finish this soon, and I have been on line and ordered more, I have a seahorse and a cat coming, with a few other things. I want to stitch the cat is shades of orange, we had a ginger cat for years called Tiger(Su was 2 when we got him, hence the name), and I want to be thinking of him whilst stitching.

I am having a perfect weekend,
Friday we had friends here for the evening, ladies chatted, guys played cards, it was fun so much so it was very late when they all left.
Saturday morning after having my hair done we went to our local pool to watch Shannon swim, we had a cuddle with Thomas 10months Su's nephew by marriage, then we went to see Josh and Sammy (mummy and daddy too), we took presents for Josh, he is into Moshi Monsters Josh had the best report from his teacher in the week, and we wanted to reward him for his hard work, one item was a joke book, so Josh was having loads of fun reading them. Sammy was the cute little boy he is. Later Su and Gav came over to watch Wales v England in the 6 nations rugby, which Wales won, so happy hubby.
Today after my good start, we will go for a walk soon, we will walk along the coast, to Portchester Castle and then through the castle and back home, will take just under an hour, we are so lucky in our location, I never tire of that walk.

I'm not sure

 I am so undecided about the white stitching on my penguin, 

this time I have used Paula's suggestion and gone around the outline with a silver thread.

I will show my daughter Su tomorrow and see what she thinks of it, I am making it for her, I think I would have liked it to be finer, but this is the only silver thread I have. I am hoping the more I do the better it will look, the white blobs go 3/4 the way up the front.

 On a happier note, I have done another pattern on Romantic sampler, and it's another I like, this is for my other daughter Fliss, she loves anything vintage, so she is a big fan of this.

 I am so close to the finishing line on here.

Tomorrow the next part of Sweet Flowers should be sent to me, so that's three on the go, it's hard to decide which one to do, with two getting very close to the finish line and another large project waiting in the wings.

I have a day off tomorrow, I will spend it with my daughter Su, we have nothing planned and all day to do it in, I want to do some stitching. Today was a warm sunny day and we both have our fingers crossed it will be the same tomorrow.

TUSAL Feb 2012

 My small pot is really full this month, I have done loads of stitching, Green from Laura's rug, random from Paula's heart, black from the penguin and pinks from Romantic sampler.

My jar is looking good, my girls have not noticed I have soft threads in there yet, but I'm sure they will be back soon.

I have done more stitching on both Tribal Penguin and Romantic sampler, and the next part of Sweet Flowers is due out this week. I'm spending the next two evening with Fliss and the boys, daddy is away for a few days, and I am looking forward to having Friday off to spend with Su.

I love today's date 21.02.2012, it is so balanced, have a good day what ever you are doing.

Sunny and cold

I love the shapes in this stitching, when I was in school we used to decorate our excise books with patterns like this, we would try and make them into shapes, we used a Biro, and in my case always black, so this feels very retro to me.

This is just a small ornament, but I just love it

 Very easy to stitch, it grows so quickly.

 Just a few shapes to finish on the back in black, I have done three of the white shapes, but I am thinking I might change the white, either to a shiny white or a pale grey/white, I will have to pull them out and look  to see which I think is best. This is going to be a hanging ornament for my daughter Su, so I am going to stitch another and stitch them back to back,

 We have flowers in the front and the back gardens, my garden is not looking great, I could do with a day outside, but I find the wind to be so very cold, I have always been a warm weather gardener, so roll on March/April once the temperature rises a bit I will be outside. I hate the coloured gravel on my front plot, I hope to move a lot and turn half the garden back to flowers, I have to leave a space to park my car,

Craft club was a bit disappointing yesterday, only 3 people and they had put things in front of the windows which made the light not so good, we then had some young girls pop in who chatted and made loads of noise, so all in all not a good afternoon, but I did get alot done. I also popped in to see Fliss, Steve and the boys, which was loads of fun, Josh showed us the games he had purchased from saving his pocket money, he is a good boy for saving his money.

Today is a day at home, hoping the girls will pop in later, I have some house work to do and then I want to look at Somerset House, I was please Laura enjoyed her rug which was one of my February RAK's, and thank you Laura for linking both of my blogs in your post. Paula I sent your parcel to you yesterday, It should be with you by Friday, I am also going to e-mail you some of the heart pattern's I have used, most come from magazines and the net, so they are Ok to share.

 Look what was waiting for me at home last night, after 27 years together he is still a big softie, we have a nice meal cooked by Kev at home and watched a couple of films.

I have not done much stitching this week, Monday we had a glass of wine with our meal and I never stitch after drinking wine, and last night after all Kev's effort I could not do any sewing.

 But I have been good doing some more on this Romantic sampler, I have finished all the beige, and have loads of flowers to stitch, I'm off to see Su and Gav tonight, they have almost finished their kitchen, so no stitching tonight.

 I did allow myself a few stitches on Tribal Penguin, I just love it and I'm thinking of doing another but using random and different colours on the body, making it a bit funky.

Bad news tonight, my op has been put back 2 weeks, which is going to cause problems at work, my time off will clash with holidays, and I am unable to get a clear 4 weeks without anyone being on holiday, so I will speak to the hospital tomorrow and then my boss, I have a feeling my boss is going to be OK, but it will cause problems.

Paula I have not yet sent your parcel, I will get to the post office on Saturday, please forgive me, last weekend was a bit hectic.

Every thing else is good, the weather is warmer, I have spring flowers showing through in our gardens, Grace and Purdy are both doing well. I have started walking more each day and I feel better, not losing to much weight, but my tummy is looking less flabby, hoping to have a better figure before we are off to France in May.

Loads of finishes

Firstly thank you for all your kind comments on my last blog xx

More hearts, they are now hanging on my heart tree, on the dining room table, I still have room for more. Not showing my ABC heart, want it to be a surprise when Paula receives it. 

 Not a heart, but far to nice to pack away, think it will hang here until I get the Christmas tree out later this year. It has the design on both sides, so it can be seen from every angle.I love this design!

 I have done a small amount on Romantic Sample, my drive for this is going, but I am going to have another go at it this week. It's for Fliss so I want to finish it, she has had a poor start to their weekend, so I am trying to cheer her up.

 At craft club I started a small project, and stitched more last night, this is Tribal penguin by White Willow Stitching, I have done some of the white, but it does not show very well. I will leave this until next Saturday. We had a another new member, and more popped in to see what we are doing, so our numbers are slowly growing.

 Grace is doing the right thing, staying in in her warm basket, she is home most of the day with us, Purdy is out hunting, bringing home mice, mostly dead, once a stray always a stray.

We have avoided the snow, had a flutter on Thursday night, but most was gone in the morning, but it is still very cold, loads of ice about, it does help most of our days have been sunny, from the inside it makes our garden look nice. My spring bulbs are coming through, not many flowers yet, but it is a bit early.

Kev is healing well, we have been told his bike is a write off, so he has to decide if he wants to purchase another, but I'm not sure he is ready to make that decision yet. I am walking and eating well to get myself ready for my op, just three weeks now, I an excited and a bit nervous, but it will be great to get it all done.

Where has it gone

my garden

I have not lost any thing, today I have been blogging for 3 years, and from my first post where I sat thinking, and  rambling on to myself, to today where on this blog I have 88 followers, it has been fun, reading your comments, looking at your work, and enjoying my time. Popping in each day to see what you all have been doing.
It has also been a very good life line, in 2010 when I was suffering with cancer and unable to work or even go out, I would sit here and know there were ladies, who loved my passions, of stitching, gardening and family. On my sick days I never felt alone, there was always a new post to read, comments to be left, pictures of my stitching to show.

 Here are some of my favourite photo's from my blog

Josh and Kev

 The men in my life

Josh with Sammy

Fliss and Su

 Daughters and my cat

Grace

So I hope we can blog for years to come, it's fun

It keeps me in touch with ladies from around the world

Thank you so much for being here

and please be there, I love reading your news

and seeing your projects

1-2-3 finishes

 This heart is finished, and I love it, I have changed the position of a couple of letter's, so there is not another any where like it. It's very hard not to put another piece of linen in a frame and do it again, but I have other things to finish first. Paula, send me your address please, this is for you as a thank you for your lovely comments.

The rug is finished as well, this is for Laura I was hoping it might help out in your witchy cottage, it is stretching at the mo, I will glue the edges and cut it at the weekend, this is to say thank you for all your words of encouragement on this blog, you have left the most comments.

 I have to sew the beads on this tree, 

but I will sew them together first, to stop them becoming tangled whilst sewing them up.

 They both look good, I will sew them back to back, with a little hanger on the top.

 And the newest member to my heard, she does not have a name yet, but she looks a bit mad, which goes with the rest of them, I just love cows.

I now have to get the sewing machine out and make them all up.

What a difference ......

A day makes, 24 little hours, as the song goes..............

I am having such fun stitching this piece, 

it's not for me it's the second of my February RAK's,

 Don't you just love the colours, 

it's Weeks Dye Works, NOEL, 

and I just love it

 I'm going to have to stitch another, just for me, 

I love the texture of the thread, it has no sheen, 

which suits the shades, it's just perfection.

We have not had snow, last night was rain, and it's still wet here today, but it has got warmer, which often means the snow is on the way, we have weather warnings in place for the whole of today and tomorrow morning, so we are not in the clear yet. Martin has to drive 108 miles home to Somerset this afternoon, so we are hoping it stays clear or just wet.

As for my title, the weekend is a great one, went to craft club with Fliss, only three people there this week, but we are hoping the weather stopped people coming, they are going to advertise more and try and grow the group. Su spent the evening with us, Gav was out with his mates, last night we watched Real Steel, with Hugh Jackman, it was about robot wars, but don't let that put you off, the story line was great.

Yesterday I also go a letter from the hospital, I now have  my op date, 5th March, so finally I can plan and work towards putting every thing behind me. I will have most of March off, which sounds great, plenty of stitching time, until payday, which will hurt.

So loads of plans, but for now, I'm off to enjoy my Sunday.

Thank goodness it's Friday

My rug is coming along well, it's fun to stitch and easy pattern, so it grows quickly, should have it finished in a week, but tonight I am going to start another small project, my third start this year, I need the therapy of stitching some fun.

This week has been long and tedious, and all because of one person, I work in an office of 4 people, it's a quiet office, and I like it, but we have one woman, who has been there the longest, who forces her will on everything and everyone. Most of the time I can pop into another office and have a laugh, but this week and today she has got to me, she can be mean and petty, having an opinion of everyone, and mostly not a good one. She has family working around the company, which she favours, and loves to point out every ones failings, so thank goodness it's Friday.

My brother Martin will be here soon, he is with Tracy his daughter, but will stay at ours for a couple of night's. I intend to have fun this weekend and enjoy myself. There is snow fore caste for the weekend, we will have to see how much, often we miss the snow, so fingers crossed, but it is so cold.

I'm off to stitch, show you next time, if it works out.