Crafting

 I was extremely pleased to see an email from the publisher I use with a great discount, so I checked 2024 blog for the last time, uploaded it and paid for it to be made into the book, the saving was over £40, so waiting for the right discount is always worth while. November is always a good discount month, Black Friday is best, I am doing well with 2025 and will send it for printing then, which I have said would be my last printed blog book. I am happy with 2024, so far I can't find any mistakes, there are normally one or two, which is OK, I'm not perfect.

I decided to stitch the whole of the top line to enable me to gage the size of my work, the line should be straight, but the frame has pulled it wonky, I am enjoying this part, it's an easy design to stitch, this is called counted cross stitch, the linen is blank, I have a printed pattern to follow, I have to count the stitches to ensure they are placed in the correct position, sewing one stitch in the wrong place can cause huge issues, with a smaller repeat pattern it so simple. 

This is the first of three stars in the middle, they will tumble down, it helps ensure there is no clash in the designs, often when putting patterns together they can cause issues where there are not enough space for the whole design, so if I pop a 'star' in the way it hides any issues. 

Look what I found in B&M, at £5 each these smaller plastic pots were not such great value and slightly a different shade, still perfect for my tulip display next spring, I will order from Farmer Gracy, I got bulbs from them last time and they all grew, I will NOT purchase anymore pots. I need to cut holes in the bottom for drainage.

I did get my sewing machine out, I had a bit of mending to do, I prefer to do it and not let it mount up, plus Molly unicorn rucksack's strap required mending, she does love it, so I wanted to get it back to her. Most evenings now I have a video call from George and then sometimes another from Molly, Friday night she wanted to tell me she made a giraffe for the man's 100 birthday, I said oh Sir David Attenborough,  bless her she said 'do you know him'.

We are staying in an apartment with hubby's younger sister and her husband, his older sister is on a trip with her daughter, staying in a local hotel, older sister is 80 this week, so we decided to join in the fun and ensure she has a good birthday. We have visited Llandudno a few times, it's a lovely town and beach, we have been to the top of the Great Orm, sharing a space with his younger sister is very different, she does love to read, and shop. Plus we get time away from the work in the garage, which is coming along nicely. 

Our local councils have not changed much, most people know when something is working its best not to change, the area is a mixture of Tory and Lib dems, most of them had less votes this time, hopefully we should not see many changes. The cities of Portsmouth and Southampton have had the biggest changes.