More rain!

 It's still raining here, non stop for days, good for the drought, good for the garden, not so good for people, we are sick of getting wet.

I have done loads on patchwork sampler, there is not alot else to do, any thing outside is out of the question.

 This patterns just keep getting better, I love his style and his love of colour, this just keeps growing and looking better. I am stitching through page 5, using colours I normally would not use.

The weekend has been great, yesterday we had lunch with Fliss and Su, just the four of us, it's years ago we all sat together and had so much laughter, went went to our local ASK restaurant, for Italian food, and was not disappointed, they catered for Fliss and her Gluten and wheat free diet. We also did loads of shopping for our holiday in 3 weeks, I have some new summer clothes and pretty bra's. Today we popped in to see Fliss and the boys, they are all bored being inside, it's no fun being a child on a rainy day.

On a positive note, I am wearing my wedding ring again, I had to buy one in a larger size, but now I'm back in my original one, which pleases me, another small mile stone.

One in one out

 Sweet flowers is done for this month,

 in the stitching above I have moved the colours around, I felt this area was a bit dull using so much grey so I changed it to pale pink, and of course I have added the green, which I think lifts the colours. The next part comes out on 25th May

 So Patchwork sampler is back out!

I love this and sat last night with a smile whilst stitching, it's coming along well, this is my 5th page, the large box is for text, it's the only text I am adding on here. Page 6 has some great designs so I can't wait to get going.

 Another photo of Logan and Sammy, they played so well, they live 100 miles apart and don't get to see each other enough, is that double trouble or twice as cute!

It's Friday again, another wet day here, our weather is manic, we have flood warnings whilst we are in a drought, it's madness, we are OK, flooding not near here.

We have a weekend at home just the two of us planned, I have to sort my car insurance for my new car, I hope the new cost is not going to be a shock!

Tomorrow we are hoping to take Su and Fliss out for lunch, it would be nice to have our girls to ourselves, and then a bit of shopping, I need some summer clothes for our holiday next month.

Hope your weekend is good, laugh and have fun, I will 

Is that me

 Denise at Riverside stitching posted a photo of herself in her Prom dress, well in Somerset in the 70's we did not have proms, in fact I was almost never in a dress, but I found out this photo.

I was just 16 at the time and we are on a visit to Stonehenge, those were the days when you could walk through the stones and touch them, now you have to walk around the outside, and never allowed near them.
I don't remember having legs that long, or was it just the very short dress. My mum looks smart, but then she always did! and my two younger brother were never that cute.

 I have finished the bottom block on sweet flowers and am getting on well with the middle block below, almost every thing is different, the pale pink out pattern should be grey, the flower should be the darker pink and the green was not even on the designers pattern, but I felt it needed a bit of a mix up in the middle.

 I just thought there was too much grey in the middle, I am also going to change the next layer and mix up the colours. I am stitching it on one over using Zweigart, Lugana, 25ct it's better than aida and more even than linen.

It's been a busy afternoon, had my check up in the hospital, after my big operation, and all is great, I will need another small op in August, just to balance my size, which will be just one night in hospital, but I am feeling good. My tummy tuck is healing, all 19" of it, and I am loving my figure in my jeans, no muffin top! Going shopping this weekend for clothes for our holiday in 4 weeks.

Later I brought myself a new car, which I pick up next Wednesday, feeling guilty regarding my 307, it's been the best car a girl could have and I will miss it, I had loads of fun in that car.

Busy weekend

 It's been busy at home this weekend, most of the time we had a house full, and Grancha loved being with our two youngest grandsons, Sammy and Logan, Sammy is 3 months older than Logan, but they played well together and shared Grancha. I got some time with Josh, who once again kept away from the camera. Shannon also popped in, Josh is now loving Lego Ninja's he had a sticker book and I was shown all the different people, they are either Lightening, Earth, Ice and Fire, I not sure about the last one.

We had a perfect weekend.

 I did a a bit of stitching, not enough, but I hope to do a bit more later, I love these flowers, the next part I am totally going away from the design, I will use the same colours, but I will place them in different places, can't wait to get started.

Please don't forget Fliss, my daughter is having a give away here there is still time.

My Tribal Penguin looks as if he is going to Canada, Kathy names came out of the hat, I will send you an e-mail for your address, and post him to you, and as an added bonus, I have the threads for you as well.

Wow I'm up to 99 follower here, which is great, I feel another RAK coming on soon, watch this space.

TUSAL - and a giveaway

 My TUSAL monthly pot is almost full, two weeks of being at home stitching, both Patchwork sampler and Sweet Flowers are coming along nicely, I'm just over half way through this months design on the latter and itching to get back on the sampler.

I will post on Sunday Sweet flowers, not much stitching time now, we have our youngest grandson Logan visiting with mummy and daddy for the weekend, fun and laughter is promised.

My daughter Fliss has a beautiful blog called Joshy and Belle, and she is having a give away and has asked me to send you to here  you can win a $50 voucher for Novica, with loads to choose and shipping any where, have a go, you might be lucky.

I have not done anything with the Penguin, which I want to travel around the world and be stitched in every country, I promise on Sunday I will start him on his journey, if you want to add your name leave a comment here

I'm off to start my weekend, enjoy yours what ever you are doing.

 I have finally got into the swing with Sweet flowers, this time I have the two centre panels to stitch, again I have added the green for the leaves, I think it looks more colourful than shades of pink.

It is another pretty design, the left hand side is the same as the right, just a different style of flowers.

It has been hard to put down Patchwork sampler, but it's packed away until this is done, I'm on a time limit, I have to finish each section before the next is issued.

I have been shopping and brought the ultimate item, a new car, a small new car, mine is 10 years old and now is the time to trade in my dear friend, so in two weeks it's goodbye to my Peugeot 307 and down sizing to a Hyundia i10, which is a baby car, and it's blue, I am known for my love of red cars. 

Work is much the same, moments when I could cheerfully do someone in and then the rest of the day fine, it's always the same person, she will never change, oh well I am always on the look out for a new job. 

April showers are here for sure, still not enough rain to help the drought which has engulfed the south half of England, and the breezy weather has removed most of the buds  and flowers on our magnolia tree. So not much walking being done, but evening spent inside snug and stitching.

Catch up

 I managed to do a bit more on Patchwork Sampler, I finished the purple design and the red and black, I can't fault this sampler, I have come across a few pattern errors, places where I have added a stitch to balance the pattern.

I love these three circular designs, there is a fourth, which I have not stitched yet, waiting to check all the designs around it to check the shade of green to use. I have had lovely comments regarding this work.

I did on Wednesday night start Sweet flowers, but after stitching for an hour and a half, I realised I had yet again miss counted, so I have unpicked it all, and as yet I have not picked it up.

Work went quickly and was OK, I have been tired all week, so I am not stitching, yesterday I rested for most of the day. I am sleeping on my back, which is not my normal sleeping position, so I wake up a few time each night, which does not help. I have been watching both series of Downton Abbey, I am half way through the 2nd season. I did watch them on TV, but I am enjoying watching them again. I am also reading "Lady Almina and the real Downton Abbey", a friend has passed it to me, it's based around Highlere Castle, the location for the filming of Downton Abbey, and the family who own it, set in a similar time frame.

Today we are at a friends house for lunch, there will be about 12 of us, we all get on well together, it's sunny but cold, so we will be inside for most of the time, I won't see Fliss and the boys, they have a tummy upset, and we are keeping apart, I do miss not seeing Josh, but we speak on the phone, he has been a very good little boy, whilst mummy has been ill.

1st day back at work

 Today went well, my 1st day back at work, after 3 weeks off, I felt a bit like the new girl, came back to no problems, I work in an office, sat at my desk most of the day, plenty of time for walks around the other offices. But most of all I have a very comfortable chair, Kev was worried, but it went well.

Patchwork sampler is racing along, it rained all day on Monday, so I sat and stitched for most of my time. I will stitch some more tonight, but the next part of Sweet Flowers has just arrived, so I will be back on that from tomorrow. As for poor Tribal cat, it's way down my list.

 My garden has still loads of colour, yesterday was very breezy and the lawn was covered with petals from the tree. But the gardens will love the water, it's the most rain we have had this year.

 Below is a Christmas present from my daughter Su, it's a bee bell, you place it in the garden and the bees use it as a resting place, I love it, made of pottery, I think it adds an interest into my garden, we sat it under the rose bush which we are training up the fence.

Paula  made comments regarding my last post, where we visited our local castle, which is 10-15 minutes walk from the house, it's the closest we have ever lived to a castle, even a ruined one, we have always live close to the coast, we are lucky it's a very nice part of the country here. This summer we hope to walk all around our area, we have already found a couple of new walks.

My weight loss is doing well, I did put a pound on last week, but it was Easter, all that chocolate, but with all the rain, we did not get out much to walk. We did a short walk at lunch time today, just two of us, but it was sunny and felt warmer the wind had dropped.

A different entrance

 After a wet morning, with lots of fun with Josh and Sammy, Fliss and Steve, which involved chocolate eggs and tales of the fun had with Grandma in Manchester. The weather dried up and we decided to have a walk.

We drove to our local castle here in Portchester, but decided to miss the crowds and walk a different way, this lane takes you down to the sea, and past these lovely bluebells, a true sign of the warmer weather to come.

Giving us lovely views of the coast line as we walk down the lane, this one toward Gosport with the navy boats in port.

 We are now at the waters edge and viewing the castle and its fortress walls. There is a dry moat just past the mounds of earth.

 At the point are the fishermen, a popular place for them. Opposite, across the water is wasteland, a small marina and the Portsmouth naval base, with the dry docks and the historical part with HMS Nelson, HMS Warrior and The Mary Rose.

 This is a popular place for sailing, there is a small yacht club next to the castle, so the fishermen have boats sailing by all day, plus all the walkers, very interesting place to spend time. I have not shown photo's from inside you can find them here

 It was great fun, nice to get out, I am avoiding garden centre's because I will want to buy items to plant, and gardening is not allowed, yet! Later I was able to do a bit more stitching, here is my progress, I did more work on page 3, finishing another circle and bits around it. I love the colours. I have half a circle pattern not started, the design has an error on the colour to use, every one I have seen stitched shows green here, so I will stitch all around it and then decide which shade of green to use.

Su and Gav came here for a meal last night, it was fun, we chatted most of the evening, no TV which is great.
Today is Easter Monday, so we all have the day off, and it's raining, too wet to go out, so a day planned inside, no jobs to do in the house, so fun time, I was hoping to do some finishing of a couple of projects, but I'm not sure I will be comfortable enough, so I have pencilled them in for next Saturday. So more stitching and watching a couple more episodes of Downton Abbey. I love lazy days at home, not sure about Kev, he dose get bored, will have to wait and see how we get along.

Normal Saturday

 It's just a normal Saturday morning here, been to the hairdressers for my haircut and blow dry, I am booked in for every 4 weeks, quick look around our farmers market and home for coffee and internet. Loads of blogs read, whilst drinking a mug of fresh coffee. Bliss, I like normal.

Patchwork Sampler is coming along, above was Thursdays work and below Fridays stitching. I am getting on great, but on Tuesday I'm back to work so no stitching in the day time. I hope to finish page 4 today, not alot to do now, and just 8 pages left.

 I purchased another basket for Purdy, so in true feline style she stole Graces basket, and therefore Grace just took over Purdys basket, Grace is so laid back. Both baskets are by our patio doors, so they can sleep in the sunshine and see out into the garden.

 Hubby playing games on the computer, sat next to me, he is hooked on "Zuma"

The rest of the day is home together, we went shopping on Thursday and I purchased my first fancy bra in two years, still not able to wear it, but it waiting in my drawer, just a couple of weeks to go. I am healing very well, our bodies are amazing, and the surgeons who put us back together are artist. I am feeling so very good, my tummy tuck is fantastic, and the skin used form my tummy to construct my new boob is doing well.  I have so much more movement in my left arm, I feel as if the cloud has gone and there is sun shine all the way, after two years I feel free.

Page 4

I have done the top level of the fourth section, this completes the top line,  

 You have seen the purple before but I love the design and colour, the red in the corner is very bright, my aim is now to complete the whole of the 4 top pages, I am finishing off the second page, I purchased the thread I required on Monday. It would be nice to have 4 pages done before I go back to work next week.

I had a great time out on Monday with Su, firstly I was able to fit back into my jeans, I hate going out in jogging pants, we had visited a favourite shop for both of us and then had lunch in my fave bistro, after wards we popped to our local village centre and then home to drink coffee and chat.

I have a couple more days at home this week, most days I have friends popping in but this afternoon I am going to visit a friend, it's nice to get out, but it does cut back my stitching time.

Snow is back in the North of England, but here in the South it's another sunny cool day, we had rain yesterday, enough to help our gardens, but we are still in drought.

Stitching weekend

I spent loads of time stitching, I am totally hooked on this sampler

Each bit I add I love, it all works so perfect together, I have to buy silks today, I require 11 of them, but I had all the colours, except 4, makes stitching this cheap. I am stitching on Zweigart, Lugana, 25 ct, the fabric has perfect squares, I purchased a few packs, a couple of weeks ago, it was on special in our local Hobbycraft.

 Stitching so far, I am working on the third page of the top row, it will fit in my frame with inches to spare.

I am having my first day out today, Su my daughter, has the day off, we are going for a small shopping trip, with a stop for coffee, and then back home, not out for long, but it will be nice to be out. Hubby Kev has a days golf planned with friends, they have left early to go to a different course. Fliss is home with her boys, they are off to see Grandma tomorrow who lives 5 hours drive away in Manchester.

Yesterday Fliss, Steve and the boys came to visit, it was another sunny day and we sat in the garden, it was pure pleasure to watch the boys play football, with laughter and giggles they each had a ball to kick about.

My weight loss is coming along, I am steady losing 1-2lbs each week, I use "myfitnesspal" on my iPad, it records all my food and real excise each day.Today I will also start wearing my pedometer, all I hope will help me increase my fitness.