A bit of this....

This is good

 So pretty, but I've not had much stitching time this week

 Spare bedroom is finished

 I was going to clear the bed

but let's not lie, it's a bit of a dumping ground

hope to get my plants out soon.

Hubby has done a great job in the spare room, I just have to clean the carpet and it's all done, we decided to change the bed around and not have the book case in there. It does have loads of space now, I do have to find somewhere to put my books. Most of my crafting items are in the bed drawer, nice and easy to get at. Next is the bathroom to be decorated.
I have been outside in our garden most evenings, which is very pleasant, not too much to do, still a bit early for placing tender plants. I have been measuring the back section, I have enough space for a green house, but not much else, for years I have said I like my two small lean too greenhouses, but we have enough space for a 6' x 8', so I would have room to have my raised garden inside and have a longer growing season. Not made the decision as yet, I have made plans to scale and it would all work.
Today at work our summer timetable starts, so until the end of August we finish at 3pm each Friday, simple quick drive home, it's nice to miss all the motorway traffic, with the lovely sunshine a nice way to start the weekend.
Nothing planned this weekend, I have a haircut tomorrow morning, but that's local in the village.

Yea stitching

Another new start, I was not inspired to stitch, so I thought I would start this heart, my second one from Rovaris, but I thought purple would be a change from red. This I should finish over the weekend, I know where it will hang.

 Hubby thought our garden needed more lights, so the garage is now flashing, 

nice to see coloured lights

 Our bedroom is finished, 

hubby took our four wardrobes and created a walk in area.

 We moved the dressing table

 purchased the glass shelves to hold a few of my treasures, 

I do like things neat and tidy.

 The four doors from the original wardrobes created the front on the new system, the two outer doors are fixed, it is how I wanted it to look, just as if it was just four simple wardrobes in an alcove.

 But once you open the doors, it's magical, he has created almost double the storage space we had before, adding more hanging space and loads more shelves. Yes I know I have far too much clothes, but now it is all in one place. He spent most of his weeks holiday to make this, and I am really pleased, he is a bit of a perfectionist.

We have just a week to go, and we are as ready as we can be, just the fresh food items to get early next week.
All our presents are behind the sofa, no room under the tree, they are sat there waiting for a special family Christmas.
My brother Martin will arrive on Friday, he is staying with us for a couple of days before going on to his daughters house for Christmas. My main task this weekend is to top ice my Christmas cake, I like to leave it late to enjoy it as my last minute task.
Work is going well, Friday we are having our Christmas lunch, and most of the day will be fun, Monday will be our last working day, we are having Christmas Eve off, which pleases me, I can see both Josh and Sammy longer and Logan is set to arrive earlier with mummy and daddy.
The festive spirit is here with me, I hope it finds it's way to you all as well.

PS the storm has started, loads of rain and wind fore caste again, might be a long night.

December in the garden

Our magnolia tree, every year I love this view, it's our wildlife food table.

Hubby fills the coconut shells with his own lard mix and with dried worms and nuts, there is a feast here. We still see loads of birds, Starlings swoop in numbers. Our squirrels are back, watching all the time for next doors cats. 

 The garden is in winter mode now, most of the leaves have dropped from the tree. It's nice to see the Pansy's in the pot, a little extra colour.

 Typical for the cats, Grace out watching me, Purdy inside watching me, are they thinking " strange woman is always taking photo's".

 These pots by our back door are colourful, the primroses are coming into bloom, wrong time of year, but loads of plants are mixed up. I still have flowers in my front garden, they don't look their best, but it's nice to see. We have had some rain yesterday, it has been dry for weeks and my pots needed the water.

 Angela my dear friend set me a challenge, she gave me this Poinsettia, I have bad history with these plants, they drop their leaves very quickly. I have been on the net and found out where I was going wrong. I was given this on last Sunday 08.12.13, lets see if I can keep this one longer.

 My Orchid, Amaryllis's and Hyacinths are all behind this year, so I should have beautiful flowers in January, which will cheer the house up after all the decorations are packed away.

Hubby is having a week off work and he is working in our bedroom, turning 4 tall wardrobes into a 7 unit walk in wardrobe, with the original doors on the front. This large alcove is perfect for this. He is hoping to complete on Monday. So I have had a huge sort out, loads of things going to our local charity shop.

I have not stitched any thing, it's very busy here, with loads of invites from friends and the house sort.On the plus side I had all the presents and they are wrapped, yesterday we did the big Tesco shop. Today I am out with a friend for a couple of hours.

Every thing else is normal, family are well, our grand sons keep us smiling and we will have them all together again on Christmas Eve, it's turning out to be a great Christmas season.

Our friends.............

         were great on our anniversary, we asked for no presents, after downsizing our home just under 2 years ago, we really did not want more things to display, so we asked those who wish to pop something into our art fund. A bit cheeky but it suited us.  We have been looking for art for our sitting room wall for ages, our problem was two fold, Kev and my taste differ and most every thing we see was expensive.

But in our local art shop I saw this in the corner, not the best photo, the colours called, I had said I did not want any prints, I wanted something in oils. but as we looked closer we saw....

 its pair, London and Paris, they are by Henderson Cisz, he has done loads as you can see here we have been looking at New York as well. So we are very happy to have two prints on our sitting room wall, now we need to get our friends back to show them off!

 I used the prints to make our thank you card, 

We have nothing planned this weekend, Su and Gav are away at a wedding and it's Fliss and Steve's 12th wedding anniversary, so we hope to see them, just rest a bit of gardening and sew and I have another book to read, I will finish my little heart as well.

Bournemouth in pictures

 A couple of Victorian views

 Sunny Bournemouth, from our hotel at West Cliffe.

 The Pier

How does your garden grow

We are having a weekend at home together, and Kev knows how to cheer me up, we had a visit to our local build and garden centre, I love our local Homebase.

I have two projects in mind for our garden, I want to have roses in our front raised bed, and I love yellow and white flowers. I will use the bulbs below in this area. The climbing rose Kev loved, not sure where we will plant it yet.

I have wanted to have fruit in our garden, I grow strawberries, but I love raspberries, so I now have 3 raspberry canes and a black berry bush, I will make a small fruit area.

This bracket just fell into our basket, and we have hung it on the garage wall, we will have to decorate the garage this year and replace the window. The nut ball is for the squirrels, we are hoping they might visit again now we have moved it away from the fence and the cats.

We also brought a new rug for the sitting room, until now we could not find one we both liked.

I have not done to much stitching this weekend, we decided we would have time together, last night we saw the film dinosaurs, it was a good film but not one to take young children to see.

Today we are having roast beef for lunch, and then we will potter in the garden, in other words, Kev will do all the little jobs I point out to him. We are going to cover my small veg plot with a net to stop the cat's using it, I have covered all my flower beds with bark, this stops the cats digging. I won't plant any of the things we brought today, it's a bit early, but I can grow them stronger in pots before planting.

Late to the party

Last night the snow arrived, our garden looks just great, all our bird feeders are full with loads of different treats, we are snug and warm inside.

Most of the country is snow bound, we are lucky, here along the south coast and normally miss most of the snow.
Our street looks magical, shame it's three weeks early, would have been perfect for Christmas, the weather forecaste is for it to get warmer over the weekend, so I expect most of it to be gone.

Family are all well, Sammy is growing each time I see him.

I have just had my 6th session of radiotherapthy and I am feeling OK, just another 8 to go. Still not done much craft, but I am looking for something to stitch, and I must start wrapping my christmas pressies.

Friday catch up

Yesterday I did some more baking, I am enjoying having time to do more things. I wanted to show you my collection of baking items, I love the colours. They are brilliant to use and each is dishwasher safe, so a perfect solution.


I made muffins, they did not rise as much as they should have, but they tasted good, I made lemon and poppy seed ( normally I get one at Cafe Nero with my coffee) and cranberry and white chocolate.

I am on square 52, out of 100, I am still very happy with this cushion front, I try and do one square per day, but I don't always have time.


This harlequin design was not on my 10 patterns I had chosen to use on this cushion front, but as I finished the 5th design, I knew I wanted a bright design next, so I got out my sketch pad ( I'm not good at art) and came up with this design.


I have also cut out Su's wedding dress, I waiting until now, because she has been loosing weight and I wanted it to have a good fit, Su gets married in 7 weeks, I hope to do most of the machine sewing in the next few days, then I have to sew on loads of clear beads, but I have asked friends and family to help so everyone can say they had input into it. Su loves the idea everyone is helping. The pattern does not have many pieces, but the design has loads of folds along on side to allow the silk to drape across the front of the dress.

Colour everywhere

We have been in for 4 months, and have been very busy.

Here you can see our new kitchen, even though it is half the size of our old kitchen, I am very pleased with the finished look, very light and with clean lines, the old kitchen was so bad, we had to renew this one as soon as possible.

The down stairs bathroom just had a toilet and basin in, so it was always planned we would have to re do here, I love the tile top edging, it's very art deco, the bungalow was built in 1930's so it's a bit of the right era inside.

The spare bed room needs the curtains to be made, which I will do by the weekend, it's not the greatest of picture's, but it does show the colours, I am going to make two cushions for the bed, both will be a cross stitch patchwork, I will buy the kit in red, as it is sold and then make a second with yellow, both for the bed. The room as loads of African items, from holidays, with my Lion and my Tiger ( I do know he should not be here).


Last autumn I showed my Spanish sampler finished, well I have not done much stitching since we moved in. I have not been able to find a project to get started, I wanted to make my sampler into a cushion, but it was not big enough.
So I decided to make my sampler much bigger. I used photo suite on my computer to create what my sampler could look like.
I took the picture I had of the sampler and cropped it to one panel size, which I then saved, after I had made each panel as an individual smaller picture and then I placed them on the sampler picture until I found a combination I liked, below is my work in progress, I will add one extra panel each side and the a small edging.



I will keep you upto date with my progress, it's great fun to be doing more with it.

New House

We are in, after a long hard day of moving, two weeks ago, we are settled in the bungalow.
Everything not in storage has been unpacked, our cats have become settled, found warm places to snuggle and are having fun discovering all the new gardens around.

Today we started the "builder game" I re packed the kitchen and downstairs bathroom, we are renewing both, and yes you guessed it, our well recommended builder did not turn up this morning, oh how I dislike this game. With a new kitchen and bathroom due to arrive with in two weeks, please keep your fingers crossed for us.
As for craft, forget it, loads to do, I am looking at designing a sampler, so each evening, when we finally sit down I am sorting through my stash of magazines.
I will try and post some photo's soon, but my camera charger is in storage.