It's raining again....

Box 4 is finished, I love, love this sampler.

 I have made a start on box 5, I hope to stitch tonight, next I will stitch box 7, and then go back to box 6, I have an idea forming on how to stitch 6, but I need to see the balance of 7, before I decide how different to go.

Every where is very wet again, we have had a couple hail storms,

 and it's much colder.

The back garden is looking good, so much colour, 

the crocus have not opened today.

So full of promise.

 Plants inside, just as important as outside.

It has been a hectic week, my daughter Fliss spent a few days in hospital, which was a shock and worry, she is home now, resting and catching up with all the kisses and cuddles from Sam and Josh. Today is the 1st night I have come straight home from work.
Yesterday we have a team building lunch, in the Ward room at HMS Nelson click on the link, it was a fantastic room so full of history, the silver table centres were to die for, but no photo's allowed. Every one dressed smart, after 3 hours in the old building, we all felt rather spoilt, and just a 10 minute walk back to the office.
Back to normal today, cold rain for most of the day. No alot planned for the weekend, I have started some seeds for my greenhouses, cucumbers, tomato and peppers, just waiting for the shoots to pop through the soil. With more rain in the weather fore caste, we will have to wait and see if it is dry tomorrow morning. It would be nice to spend a couple of hours in the garden.

Sunday cruising

Just for Laura, shiny red car, dream to drive, 

most of my cars have been this colour

 Steady stitching on my sampler, not much time spent stitching

7th box almost finished

I can see the pink buds on our magnolia tree again, 

I love this tree, we left the blue lights in the tree

The squirrels ate through the white set of lights 

 With the sun shine came the flowers

Crocus in loads of colours 

 Daffodils every where

I purchased a twisted willow yesterday, still rather small to be grown in a pot, it's in my greenhouse, just for a month until I see more growth and the weather is a bit warmer.
I am going to start my seeds this week, cucumber, tomatoes, strawberries, hope to get a good start on them.
Yesterdays shopping was fun, hubby stocked up on bird foods, he likes to make his own lard/seed cakes for them. I purchased a couple of glass lamps for candles for the garden this summer.
Today is a bit duller, rain is expected, but normal rain rather than the storms, so day at home, I want to do some work on my miniatures, I have neglected them for ages. But 1st I have a bit of housework to do.

Fingers crossed we will see Joshy and Sam later.

Just stitching

Progress so far...

I have left filling the boxes for the simpler stitches of the borders

 To me this is the easy boring part, so it is great to get it done

and whilst I was not fully better easy to do

 I love it

There should be 4 rows of 3 boxes

I prefer 3 rows of 4 boxes

it appeals to my sense of balance.

 I have also this week been on Pintrest alot, 

just looking

This looks to me like a great project

still a sampler but different for me

I should have most of the colours in my stash.

The link to the patterns is here

Done so very little this week, I have enjoyed the last couple of days sat inside watching the birds and squirrels visiting our back garden, we have had some sun shine most days, and this morning is sunny. I forgot the joy of sitting for a while, instead of rushing around and keeping pace with the world. I must remember to do it more often in the day time. The sun shine has helped.
The flooding around the country is not gone, the ground water levels are now dictating the pace of drainage, the standing water has no where to go.
In Somerset, the levels are still under up to 6 foot of water.
I am back to being well, yesterday I had three small meals for the first time since Sunday, so today we have planned a gentle day.
On Monday my new car arrived, we have upgraded to an Hyudai i20, still a small car, but just a bit more space, but it has sat on our drive all week. So today I hope to take it out, just popping to visit our daughter Su, but that's later this afternoon. This morning we plan to visit two shops, The Range and Wilkinson's, nothing fancy, The Range because I have not been in ages, and Wilkinson's because we need cleaning items. So a normal day here. Tomorrow more rain is planned, so a day at home, hope to see Josh and Sammy, but they had a nightmare trip home form London via our train service on Thursday, will see how they are feeling tomorrow.
I will name the person who will receive my blog anniversary give away early next week.

4 Days late

All the photo's here were taken on Sunday morning, my plan was to chat about my hour in the garden, in sunshine, doing odd jobs and plant a couple of pots. I had a great time out to lunch with a friend, came home did a bit more stitching and then to bed.

My problem has been I have just got up again, hit by a really nasty bug.

 I did finish this pattern on Sunday night and made a small start to the 4th design. Yesterday I did do a few stitches, but just added to the outside boxes for 5,6 and 7, nothing I could go wrong on. The light today is so poor, I won't bother with photo's.

 I have a new jar for my ORT's, I have had this candle for a couple of years, 

so it's part of the household, now with a new purpose.

 My garden from Sunday, so full of promise. 

Spring is so very close now.

We have had a couple of dry days , but today is more rain, and a new worrying problem. In a couple of locations here in Hampshire, homes are being flooded by ground water rising through the water mains, so instead of water disappearing into the drains, it is flooding out of them, our sub soil is chalk and it is full of water, any water now has nowhere to go. I think we are safe, but one location not to far away has no rivers or local water, but is under almost a foot of water. This winter has to go down in history as the weirdest, wettest I have ever known.
My plan is to stay inside, rest and feel better, I'm not great yet, but I feel well enough not to stay in bed. I plan to go back to work on Monday, on the plus side I have lost 6lbs since Sunday. So today I can catch up on a couple of films and do some simple stitching.
As always, loved reading your blogs, thank goodness for my ipad.

Stormy night

Last night we had the worst of our weather, 

after a day of heavy rain and blustery winds, the gales hit 70 to 80 miles per hour. It rattled the whole house all night, cat flap and letter box had to be taped down.  I sat up to 2am with our cats, Purdy was not happy and would not settle, Grace snuggled on my lap. They are still both in, watching everything blow around, we have trees at the bottom of our garden, and the wind is still blowing them around, but for now they look safe.

 On the plus side, I finished another pattern and made a good start on the 3rd. 

I have such a calm feeling whilst stitching this, it's lacy and pretty with such lovely colours. Stitching at it's best.

 We are having our special meal tonight, 

we never go out on Valentine's day, 

and I am making the desert, you can have anything you want I told hubby, 

his reply.....................Trifle

So I am jazzing up trifle, jelly, white and dark chocolate hearts.

 I have not put the cream on top, this will last more than one serving, and with cream on the top, it will get messy, we can add the cream in our dishes. 

My diet is gone for this weekend. 

Nothing much planned for the weekend, if the weather fore caste is correct for tomorrow and we have a dry day, it might be nice to get out, but we will make that choice in the morning.
I had Thursday with Sam, we went shopping together, he's been a good boy so Nanna wanted to get him a toy and book, we had lunch together, how cute is a small lad eating chips with tomato sauce. Josh had football stickers, I do wonder just how much we spend on these stickers, but best not to think about it.
Family at home in Somerset are safe, the water is getting closer to them, but everyone is lucky, our village still has it's flood plains, so most homes are safe.
I will sort my giveaway from my Blog anniversary post later this week.

I hope you are warm, dry and safe, have a good weekend.

WOW

I am so very pleased with this stitching

My photo shows the colours well

 It's a joy to stitch, did you notice the small diamond of blue, I will have something small stitched in blue in each of the 12 boxes. I am hoping by using three colours I can keep the the designers style, but whilst making it mine and hope it does not get boring to stitch.

 It's Valentine's day tomorrow, we always have a special evening, but I do not like to go out for a meal, sharing my special moment with loads of other people in a restaurant is not for me. So yesterday whilst we were shopping for our special meal, hubby spotted this, Aechmea Blue Rain, native of South America.

It's stunning, all I have to do is keep it alive.

We survived yesterdays storm, the wind was very strong, it was scary walking to my car after work, most of the dock yard was closed. Today we have had a couple of hail storms and sun shine in between.
Tonight and tomorrow morning we have another storm arriving, with another following on close by. In this week they are expecting a months rain. So many people flooded, last night loads were stranded, the railways were shut due to the weather. Many in Wales had no power, lines brought down by trees.

When is it going to end?

We are very lucky, living in the driest part of UK, our ground water levels were much lower, but now every where is so wet, my lawn squelches when I walk on it, and after the storms the water is taking longer to run away.
Pop below and read my Blog anniversary, I am having a give away, I will leave it open for another week.

Blog birthday

Today I am starting my 6th year, how time flies.

When I look back on my fist post without any photo's, an interesting start to my blogging journey

I now record all my blogs in books, I am almost ready to have 2013 sent for printing

Stitching next, getting on with my boxes, I now have 4 along the top row, which for me is more balanced. I will stitch the contents of these boxes next.

 Daffodils in the front garden, they don't look the best, but it is nice to see colour, last night we had another storm and very high winds, so it is great to see any flowers in the garden. 

 Our Magnolia tree is in bud again, as is our Acer, and we have loads of bulbs pushing through the soil in gardens around our house, promises of the arrival spring

With this post I am having a give away, if you want to take part, please leave a comment, it's a surprise parcel  just for my followers, so please no need to put it on your blogs, just a thank you for those of you who pop by. I have a second parcel, not sure who I will send this to, I will check my statics and find someone.
Thank you to every one who pops by, I love to read all your words and soak up all your photo's, loving your stitching, gardens, families and hobbies. I feel lucky to be able to interact with ladies from all over our world, sharing our stitching, gardens, wild life and family's.

Here, we are very lucky, we live in what is the driest part of the UK, and even with the record amount of rain we have had since the start of December, we are warm and dry. Now the trains are not able to travel through to the South West, with land slides and floods, and the rail being washed away in Dawlish, life is very hard in Somerset, Devon and Cornwall. My niece lives on the northern edge of the Somerset Levels, and to get home to see our family she had to drive 30 miles in the wrong direction to avoid all the water. 
So stay warm and dry, we have another storm due tomorrow, and no signs of them stopping, not sure how much more water the South West  and the rest of UK can take. 

Little boxes

Guess what, it's raining again, we are in the middle of another 2 day storm, 

tomorrow is going to be wetter that today. 

The wind is gale force so every thing is flying around.

 On the bright side, more stitching time, and I am getting on well with this, I decided to stitch the boxes first, all the same colour, DMC 3042, using one thread on 28 count even weave. I'm doing the simple stitching first, I do have an idea forming in my head on how to work this.

 I am not happy with it being long and thin, so I will stitch 3 rows of 4 boxes, I prefer the balance and shape it will give me. I do like the blue stitching and will not change it, but I have seen it stitched with a different colour for each box.

 Amaryllis time

 Stunning, some bright cheer in such a dull and wet time.

Nothing much happening here this week, just to horrible to go out, work is busy, we have a conference on Saturday, so a working day for me, I am looking forward to meeting so many people, hard work but fun.
I have also been working on my next book 2013, just the checking and rechecking to do, before I send it to the printers.

So I sit and stitch

Hope you are warm and dry.

At least blogger land is open, I do so enjoy reading every ones post. 

2nd Finish and a New Start

My second finish this year,

 I had to stitch both birds shown in the photo below, 

neither took long to do, so without the design.

I just looked at the opposite bird and reverse the pattern.

 I changed some of the colours in this design, 

adding the purples and the yellow of the flowers, 

it's bright and very me.

To carry on with my WIP.

 I put my cat back in the frame, but the shades of grey are so close, I need better light to stitch, so I got out Tree of Life which I last stitched in September 2012, but the shades of brown were too close, so I packed that away.

I decided to start something new, I got out Rachel Jarratt,  a beautiful sampler, but looking at the design, some stitches are stitched over 2, so I will have to get the correct fabric before I can stitch it. 

So frustration set in.

 Back to Pintrest, I found a design from Janita 12 designs, each in a box and started it, it is stitched in just one colour, but I hope to add colours as I go along. I thought I would do the three boxes along the top first. I will show the whole design next time. At least I am stitching. The fabric is white not blue.

 My Amaryllis is almost there, just one more flower to open,

 it is stunning in my sitting room.

It's been a mixed weekend, yesterday afternoon was very wet, so I spent loads of time stitching.
This morning I cleaned my house, not my favorite job, but now it's done I am happy.
This afternoon we went to Whiteley it's an out door shopping centre, met Su and David for a coffee and did a bit of shopping, hubby was looking at mobile phones, me nail kits. Later back home Fliss and Josh popped over, Josh is now watching rugby, so we left them watch Ireland V Scotland and we chatted.
I have just done my second set of gel nails, and have navy blue nails, very dark for me, but the gel does not chip, I enjoyed using the LED lamp, it is not hard, just have to be careful and neat.