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.