Stitching For a Cure Ornies

OK here we have, as promised, the post that proves this is still a stitching-related blog. LOL

Way back in around October or November 2008 I came across the Stitching For a Cure blog that had been set up by Donna, who wanted to decorate a Christmas Tree with hand stitched ornies and raffle it all to raise money for cancer research in the USA. One amazing woman who is not only busy organising this but has also stitched a lot of beautiful ornies for the tree herself.

This really touched a nerve, as 2007 had been a very bad year for my family: we'd lost DH's DSis to bone cancer (breast cancer secondaries) shortly after her 40th birthday....... followed a short time later by my Dad, to Oesophageal cancer that had spread to his stomach. And they weren't the first: we've lost other family members and friends to this bloody awful disease over the years. So helping someone in their endeavours to raise money to fund vital research into finding a cure for cancers was a given, as it's a cause dear to my heart.

The call went out last week for all ornies to be sent in, so it was time to extract my digit and get those ornies finished so they could be wrapped, packaged, addressed and sent on their way. So here's the first one, prior to going in the wrapping:

Design: Snowflakes for Cancer - Cure

Designer: Virginia Knutson of Vee and Co

Fabric: Count On Me 28ct evenweave, Aster

Threads: Carrie's Creations Boysenberry; Coats Reflecta #3031 + Mill Hill beads

Finish: Pinkeep style Christmas ornie

That's in the general cancer colour, stitched in memory of my Dad. And the second one:

Design: Snowflakes for Cancer - Hope

Designer: Virginia Knutson of Vee and Co

Fabric: Count On Me 28ct evenweave, Aster

Threads: Carrie's Creations Sassy; Coats Reflecta #3031 + Mill Hill beads

Finish: Pinkeep style Christmas ornie

Pink for breast cancer and this is in memory of Helen. They sparkle way more IRL. I've also included another ornie I stitched way, way back for the JA/S&S Monthly Challenge during Breast Cancer Awareness Week. That had originally been with Helen in mind but it is now for Aunty Doreen, who was my Mum's friend and neighbour for many years, who was also lost to breast cancer.

All three ornies are now in the post and will soon be winging their way across the pond, so they should hopefully be in Donna's hands early next week (says she, with fingers and everything else crossed!).

So looking forward to seeing pics of the tree. I hope you raise your target and then some Donna - will certainly be sending out lots of best wishes and Good Luck vibes your way. :0)

Trades, a Card and the Garden

I'm getting on with the finishing on the charity ornies: got one fully completed over the weekend and the other just needs the rest of its trim attaching, then I can take pics to show you and send them off to Donna. Until then I thought I'd show you a few pics of some more acquisitions - though this time through trades - a recent card make and of a little more progress in the garden.

First up are the nice range of DMC threads I received in exchange for an Avid Lancaster Bomber chart:


They are now happily residing in my stash, until they're needed for a project. Next was the fabulous chart I received in exchange for some magazines:


Yes, it's Papillon Creations Mary Queen of Scots. This little stunner has been on my Wish List for some time - I never actually expected to receive it as a Wish and had only put it on there as a reminder that it was there..... and one day I'd get around to buying it. Was I Happy Dancing when it was offered in trade. :0)

A trade for some plastic canvas booklets saw this gorgeous Sugar Maple opalescent fabric added to my stash:



It shouts mermaid, fairy and Angel to me........ am so torn as to which would suit more. It's going to be a whole lot of fun deciding. Once again many thanks to the ladies I traded with - it was a pleasure. :0)

When DH and DS saw stash arriving in packages again they started chuntering away on that same old theme: supposed to be getting rid of things, not adding more. Well I soon pointed out that: the threads replace a chart and they probably won't be in my stash for long because I use DMC all the time; that one Papillon chart replaces six magazines, so it takes up a lot less space and, once stitched, I don't hang onto the chart and the fabric replaces four booklets - shelf space is freed up and less space is taken up by the fabric, which I fully intend stitching something pretty on it so it'll then hang on the wall. Therefore much more has gone than has come back in says I......... very carefully not reminding them about the e**Y stash bargains received the week before. ;0) LOL Just to make sure they were totally convinced my next words were: Oh, and it gave me an incentive to have another root round my stash and add a few more bits to my Trade Album too. Yup, not only did they stop chuntering but that gained me some serious Brownie points........ and was left wondering just when I became that crafty! LOL

I haven't been solely concentrating on stash acquisition though. The cardmaking goodies that Lynn very kindly sent were put to good use to make a card for Clare. Now her birthday has been and gone I can show you what I made:


It was good to finally do something creative, after what seemed like an age. I now have another two cards to make for FIL and an Uncle so I need to get my thinking cap on for those soon.

As for the garden. Well, remember how it looked at the end of the last tidying session:


The blue metal panels gone from against the privet hedge but still with those others leaning on the side of the shed and the one between us and the neighbours? We had another session out there after DH decided all the panels had to go and this is how it looks now:


No more blue metal panels. Yay! Doesn't it look bigger? By the way, those black plastic downpipes are there temporarily, to make a bit of an obstacle course should any scumbag from the local criminal fraternity fancy trying their chances - although now our neighbours have put up a good fence between them and the neighbour the other side there's much less chance of that happening. They seem happy enough with our plans for that end of the garden and may well not bother putting up a fence panel until after we've taken out the old shed and put the new summer house in its place.

The bonfire heap is still there - DH has been very restrained - so I may well suggest that we leave it until the impending Autumn Equinox and have it then. :0)

As for the garden bed along the side of the new fence.... well Mother Nature did her thing while we were on holiday and all kinds of things have sprouted....... and boy, have they flippin' well sprouted! We have no idea where most of it has come from either. This was one of the biggest surprises:



We think it must have been a stray sunflower seed from one of the bird feeders. There were a few more but DH got brutal and pulled a fair few out. That pink flowered thing in the background is so rife it's definitely at weed proportions. That'll teach DH: he's been threatening to do the weed killing session since the new fence went up and still hasn't gotten around to it, now it's twice the job it would have been. Men! On the other hand, the Pete's next door are really motoring on in their garden: in the last two weeks a new back fence has been put up, the old wooden workshop demolished and all the wood burnt, the area flattened and a new concrete base laid and the wood framework for the new one built and put up. The weekend has seen the roof area be boarded and insulated, the outer roof boards added and a start made on the waterproof covering. These guys really graft...... they have got to be on three Shredded Wheat! ROFL

Saturday we had a day at my DSis's....... we decided it was a bit to soon after her motorway detour to suggest that she came over here for the day. Sunday DH made a small start on replacing some of the damaged floorboards in the little bedroom before going to the Festival of the Plough. I didn't fancy it so had a quiet afternoon watching Stargate Atlantis re-runs and doing the ornie finishing instead. We both enjoyed ourselves in our own ways. :0)

Right I'd best be off to finish the last ornie so I'll finally have something stitchy related to show you in my next post, otherwise you'll be wondering if this really is a stitching blog! LOL

Hope you all had a good weekend. Thank you for taking the time to visit and for all your lovely comments. :0)

Auctions

There's still a lack of any stitching progress to show here just yet..... that holidaying mojo has finally turned up again but only after being forced to. LOL What prompted things is the sudden realisation that those cancer charity ornies I stitched whilst on holiday in the Lake District (waaay back in July) now need to be fully completed and posted off over the pond to Donna very soon if they're going to make the deadline. Yikes! That sort of crept up and surprised me so, as I hate letting anyone down, some serious stitching is going on - despite the mojo regularly whining: but I don't want to. I'll post some pics when they're done............................. yes, some proper stitching pictures at long last., won't that be something to look forward to? ;0) ROFL

Whilst the mojo was missing I made several attempts to kickstart it again by having a nosey around blogs and stitching sites.... but that didn't work. OK, time to bring in the big guns and go have a trawl on that well known auction site (Clue: it begins with e and ends with Y...... as if that's needed - bet you've all got mega feedbacks on your ID's from all those goodies you've won on there. LMAO). I didn't really expect to see anything that would appeal but duly started trawling through the cross stitch section anyway - well, it would be a pleasant way of spending an hour or two, wouldn't it? So I almost spilt my herbal tea when I spotted a floorstanding fluorescent magnifying lamp - just the type I'd been thinking of splashing out on if I could find one to try before I buy and get my head around spending that amount on - on there with a starting price of....... wait for it.............. £20.00. That's right, just £20.00 - though it was a Pick Up Only auction. Well nothing ventured, nothing gained so I went for a closer look-see. Jaw drop moment - it was only over in Lincoln, a half hour car trip, if that, depending on where in the city the seller was based and though it had a little damage to the base was in otherwise good and full working condition........ and it was a No Reserve auction. OK, the angels had to have guided me to this little beauty so I slapped it on watch and shouted DH to come have a look (it was the Bank Holiday Monday, so he had the day off) - he thought it looked OK and said he didn't mind driving me over there if I won. So I kept checking it out during the remaining time it had to run (only about 30 minutes, if that) whilst having a look round at some other auctions, then went back and bid on it during the remaining few minutes. I couldn't believe it when no one else bid and I actually got it for the basic asking price. WhoooHooo - that's what you call a result! We arranged to go over and pick it up the following day and had a pleasant run..... though the heavens opened just as we pulled up, so I got a dousing going to the door but I didn't mind, it was well worth it to get my hands on this:


I still have to give it a better clean up (it was stored in a shed for a while) and repair the damage to the base - otherwise it is ready to go. :0)

Mind you that didn't really kickstart the old mojo but what it did do was kickstart the old auction bargain hunting bug again instead. The next goodies were from a good seller I've bought from many times over the years:

Some black and coffee coloured fabrics for my stash; I want to stitch the blackwork cushion design and the Bless the Seeds kit for the sunlounge (when it's finished); the fob kit will make a nice gift and the peg angel I wanted to do for my Aunty D, as she loves rocking horses.

Then I came across these goodies:

The thread bobbins, especially the coloured ones, will be good for adding to floss tags; the thread rippers are always useful and the bag was a real bargain (£1.50 or £2.00, would you believe!) and is just the right size for my smallest scroll frame, plus the attendant threads for whatever project I have on it - spot on for grabbing to pop in the car to take with me when I go to my DSis's or on holiday. Am now looking for just the right design to stitch on it - any ideas? :0)

Another day I had a look-see and came across this delightful little batch of cuties:

Aren't they adorable? Well I couldn't resist them - certainly not at 99p + p&p (which was at cost). I thought they might just help me get a wiggle on with the Christmas Ornie SAL....... the last one I did was June's. Oops!

Then I came across someone called thredfairy selling lots of silk threads. Now most of them were for the serious embroiderers, as they were all different kinds and thicknesses, but this little lot were suitable for cross stitch:

The thicker skeins are Italian silks and the thin ones (in bags to left and right) are Chinese but all were really reasonable prices. I've been wanting to do a monochrome piece in silk for quite a while and I thought these would be a nice way of achieving that without the cost being exorbitant. I shall check back at some point and see if she's got some reds too - might be good if I decide to stitch Quaker Christmas at some point. :0)

The haul isn't quite over yet though...... I found someone selling some pieces of hand dyed felt on Buy It Now. I occasionally like to use hand dyed felt for backing ornies, as well as them being good for pages in needlecases, but since Kate of Kate's Kloths shut up shop my stock has been slowly dwindling - so I thought these were a good chance of giving it a little boost.

Am not quite sure what happened though, as the fabrics just seemed to jump into the basket too. ;0) The one on the left shouted mermaid and the one on the right fairy or angel so I really couldn't resist. LOL DH and the CC were glad that was the last of them - though he was pleasantly surprised at just how much I'd got for the amount I'd spent.

DS, on the other hand, could regularly be heard muttering something about supposed to be decluttering, not fetching more in. Sorry kid but I'm looking at it this way: if DH does decide to opt for redundancy then I won't be splurging on stash for a long time.......... so I'd better stock up now, hadn't I? Eheheh

The decluttering has still been ongoing though and a bag full of ornaments and various other things went down to Help the Aged last weekend. Then DH chucked out his old wellies (they were rotting - eeeeeuuuww! Doesn't say much for his feet, does it? LOL) and the new ones he'd left hanging around in the kitchen are now out where the old ones used to be. I found a couple of bits of rubbish in the garden that went in the bin as well, to keep them company. The past couple of days I've been finishing off sorting out my wardrobe.......... I think I should have tied a safety line on today though, as I seemed to have lost most of the morning in there. LOL It was a voyage of discovery though, with regular cries of: Aaaahhhh, so that's where that went! and Oooooo, I'd forgotten I'd got that!

Result of all that: 6 handbags waiting to go to the charity shop and 7 pairs of shoes bagged and going into the charity collection box thing around the corner. Some of them were my Mum's that I knew I wouldn't use/wear but hung on to anyway - it's now time to let go - and some of the shoes were from my younger days....... in fact I took one look at the heels on one pair and not only wondered how on earth I didn't break my neck but also about my sanity at that time. ROFL The shoe boxes are in the red recycling bin, which is getting a bit full, but the space that ousting those generated meant I could rearrange the things on the shelves and accommodate some of the stuff that's been stacked in the bedroom. My half of the room is starting to look a lot less cluttered now.

Oh, and the pile of feral coathangers, generated when I ousted all the too big clothes, that mugged me every time I opened the wardrobe door are now nicely tamed and contained in a carrier bag, ready for use. Sorted! LOL

Many thanks to Nicola for clarifying: it was Michael Miles on a programme called Take Your Pick that the "Open the box!" catchphrase comes from. Wonder why Hughey Green came to mind? I didn't like watching him on TV at all. LOL

Right, those ornies are calling so I'd best listen and go work on them.

Many thanks for taking the time to stop by for a visit, it's greatly appreciated. Hope you've been having a good day too. :0)

A Surprise

Well I'd planned on showing pics of my recent eBay bargains this time but a surprise package in the post changed all that, as I felt the need to share that instead.

When the postie knocked I thought: Ooo my goodies have come - nice man. :0)
Well they had but among them was a rather big package. OK, I know my brain can have as many holes in it as a sieve at times but I definitely would have remembered ordering something of that size..... and I knew I hadn't.

OK, a quick look at the basic address details on the back and no Eureka moment hit. Oh, dear: maybe some poor eBayer seller had a severe brain fart moment and sent me the wrong goods?
Well, only one way to find out.... so I opened it. Now that did get me worried as this was the box I found inside:

Now I know the two fellas in this house can sometimes behave like a pair of big kids but I knew 110% that I hadn't ordered this just to prove that point....... not even in my most cynical mood. (Well, OK - maybe I might have got as far as popping it into the cyber basket...... but that's as far as I'd have gone. Honest! LOL)

None the wiser thus far there was no other choice: time to tackle the sticky tape holding the flap down and hope there was a name and address inside. Well I couldn't have some kiddy in floods of tears because he hadn't got his boxing thingy, could I? (I can hear you all shouting: Open the box! Open the box! Wasn't there a programme on TV with that? Hughey Green or some-such hosting? Sheesh, is that showing my age!) Carefully peeling back the tape so I wouldn't damage anything I opened the flap and peered in and spotted........... not a boxing thingy at all but a box of what looked like cardmaking goodies and a card. This was the fun card:

I never knew there were so many kinds of shed - did you? LOL Inside it revealed that the sender was none other than Lynn. She'd been having a sort out of her craft corner and knowing that I'm a keen card maker kindly thought of sending the surplus my way. How kind is that? Even kinder, knowing that we both share a love of owls, Lynn also included a rather nice kit of a barn owl too. Here are the contents all spread out:



Was that a collective chorus of "Finally!" I heard then? LOL It was like opening up Long John Silver's Mum's Treasure Chest for Crafters because, as you can see, there's a good mix of really useful bits and pieces. It took me quite a while to look at everything......... and some of those items I've already put to good use. :0)

Kindest of all were the lovely words that Lynn wrote in the card and they reduced me to a tearful, tissue clutching heap in about 10 seconds flat.

So a public and heartfelt thank you Lynn, for this unexpected but much appreciated kind gift, the lovely words and the boost it has given me - your timing was perfect. Cyber friends really are the greatest! :0)

May you all be Blessed with good friends, kind words and thoughtful acts. :0)

Nice Surprises

It's been the time for a few nice surprises since we returned from our last holiday so I thought I'd share them with you......... especially as there's a severe lack of my stitching progress to show at the moment! I guess my mojo is still away on holiday *sigh*.

The first surprise was one we had on the Saturday we returned home. We unloaded everything from the car and took some of it upstairs, where we noticed the little bedroom door was shut. Unusual, as it's nearly always left ajar.... so we opened it........ and found that not only had DS cleared out the rest of the stuff in there but had also: dismantled and got rid of the cabin bed; taken down all the shelving, cleaned it and stored it elsewhere; stripped off all the wallpaper and sugar soaped it (these with the help of our friend Alex, for which we're extremely grateful) and painted the lot! It's gone from Thomas Tank wallpaper to this:


It's Dulux Gentle Lavender on the walls. They are all the same colour - the shadows are making one wall look darker. This is the back corner of the room which (at least on my screen) is more true to the colour:


You can just see a little of the ceiling which is white. The woodwork and radiator are all in Jasmine White:


That's the new curtain track we bought from Wilko's on Saturday, which is yet to go up. The window and UPVC all need a really good clean first though - with it being the junk room it was impossible to get to the window so the grot has built up over the years. :0( DS did all the painting himself and made a really good job of it. It was a fantastic surprise to come home to and I'm so excited that having my Craft Room is so much closer...... I told DS he was a little beauty! LOL

We spent some of Sunday looking round the DIY stores at laminate flooring and ceiling lights - we didn't find a suitable light but did get the flooring, a nice light oak colour. DH plans on running a couple of cables and doing a few repairs to some damaged floorboards before putting that down - hopefully over the next weekend. :0)

We're also on the hunt for a new computer desk as the one I'm currently using is very basic and very grotty. I'm after one that has room to put not only the monitor and keyboard on it but also has dedicated spaces for the tower, printer/scanner and laminator. So far we've spotted two possibles........ watch this space. :0)

A lovely surprise that arrived this week was my giveaway win from Lisa. I was really pleased to have won a cute Santa chart but when the envelope arrived here's what I found inside:


Yup, not only the chart but a great postcard and also the fabric and the Weeks Dye Works threads to stitch the piece. I have to say my jaw dropped when I saw everything as it is amazingly generous. Thank you again Lisa - it really did make my day. :0) So when do you want to start the SAL? LOL

And last, but not least, was the gift of a stitching magazine from Alex:


She doubled up on the magazine when her subscription kicked in earlier than anticipated, so thought I'd enjoy the magazine. Aren't those little felt booties adorable? The biscornu is a tad tempting too. I haven't had a good browse through this yet - am saving it for another day, as I've been a bit busy sorting other things out and been out and about a bit lately too. DH and I attended a Complimentary Health event last night (Monday), which I've written a bit about on my other blog and I'm out at my newly restarted Development Circle tonight (Tuesday). Now that I have really been looking forward to: there's a new group of ladies going to this, one of whom I met last night, and it definitely feels more like the right time for this to go ahead. I'll do a write up about that on my other blog at some point too. :0)

Meantime the sort out has continued and binders full of two part works magazines have been re-homed via Freecycle. One lot of them was to do with all aspects of fishing and DS decided to offer them to a guy for his three grandsons to use: the guy was delighted and the grandchildren even more so. It was good to know they were going to be well loved and appreciated...... much better than sitting on a shelf gathering dust! I have to continue with the sort out: some of the boxes of stuff that were in the little bedroom are now scattered around mine and DH's bedroom - not conducive to restful sleep, so they've gotta go. LOL A few more ornaments from my chicken collection have gone in a bag, ready to go to the Hospice shop and another bag full of clothes, the old set of curtains from the little bedroom and a set of bedding was collected last Thursday - another bag is to go to my DSis's next time we see her. The wardrobe now only has clothes in that fit me or are only slightly big on me...... that shop for trousers is now desperately needed. I've yet to go through my t-shirt drawers but if I turf too many of those out it'll be a struggle to find anything to wear! LOL

I've also been having a bit of a sort through some of my stash. I've added some of the charts from kits I've stitched to my Webshots Trade album (I rarely stitch things twice, so there's no point in keeping them), along with a few other charts. Since then I've had another ferret and found a few more things I know I'm not likely to stitch now, due to my tastes changing, but can't add them to the album yet...... the printer/scanner developed a fault so is currently in electronic hospital, otherwise known as CRAM Computers shop. They seem to be taking their own sweet time about it too, so will have to ask DH to ring them up and chivvy them along some. :0) There's limited space in the Craft Room and things need to be organised for going in there, so it's the best time to wheedle out those things that are no longer needed and find new homes for them. At least, that's the theory....... unfortunately I seem to have developed a bit of an eBay habit in the last couple of weeks. Will share pics another time. ;0)

Thank you all for taking the time to visit and for all the lovely comments you leave - they're very much appreciated. Hope you're all having a good week. :0)

Farm Cottage Holiday

Well we've been back a week and the laundry and cleaning is all caught up with, along with a few other things that needed doing, so there's finally time to get back to Blogland and the fun stuff again. :0)


This time we were staying in a newly built cottage on a farm site in Maltby-le-Marsh which is just outside of the seaside town of Mablethorpe (less than 5 minutes car journey away). From our home it's just under a three hour drive to get there, mostly on winding B-roads that were very picturesque at this time of year, so a pleasant journey.

This is the view of the back of the cottages - my DSis, DH and I stayed in the one on the right:



Apologies for the naff photos - I forgot to pack the digicam so these were the best of the ones taken with my phonecam. These were relatively new builds, about a year old. The block you can see in the background are part of the original development that forms a U-shape - our Uncle W, Aunty M, cousin M and my cousin's youngest son J were staying in one of the bungalow sections, just across from us. Aunty M and Uncle W both have mobility problems so that was ideal for them.

The whole site was lovely and peaceful, despite being relatively close to the road into Mablethorpe. Here's the view from the far side of the largest fishing pond, looking back at the cottages:

As you can see there were also a couple of static caravans on the site, with a little play area for the children. Here's another view of the main pond - tried to capture the full length of it in this one:

Plus another angle of the pond, looking towards the statics and the farmhouse beyond:

Plus a view of the small fishing pond which was to the far left of the cottage, more or less behind the farmhouse:

It's a popular site with keen anglers, as the ponds are well stocked with varied sizes of fish. Aunty, Uncle, cousin and his son fished regularly through the week and caught quite a few good sized fish. Here's one of Uncle W showing off one of his catch:


DH took this (and the next one) with his much better phonecam. That's Aunty M sat behind him - also a keen angler. My cousin's son J enjoyed the fishing too. He had to watch the farms old sheepdog Emma (Em for short) though as she had a habit of going into the water and waiting near the line:


She did this one day just as J caught a fish..... and so we found out why she liked to do this: she promptly whipped the fish off the end of the line and ate it! Apparently it's one of her favourite occupations. That's definitely one dog that thinks it's a cat. LOL As you can see we had some nice weather through the week. :0)

One of the nicest things about the site were all the critters. Every morning there was a parade of chickens past the cottages with occasional feeding frenzies when someone chucked food out for them:

In the pen in the background were a rabbit and a family of guinea pigs which we think were pets of the farm owners grandchildren. There were also a few families of chickens. here's a proud Momma with her babies:

I used the zoom on this one and it ended up even worse than the others, unfortunately. There were also a couple of small ponies, lots of ducks (though the Momma duck was really warey so I couldn't get a pic of her with her babies). there were also the occasional seagulls stopping by and we heard a couple of owls most nights - Uncle W and cousin M were lucky enough to actually see a barn owl swoop along the tree line at dusk early in the week which I was extremely envious about, as I love barn owls.

During the week we had a couple of trips into Mablethorpe. The first trip was to have a look round, a meal and to do a little shopping. We made it into the New Age shop there and I came away with this little gem:


As you can see I've already started reading it. :0) The second trip was so DSis and I could have a card reading with a local reader which proved to be very interesting. On the Tuesday and Friday we had trips into the nearby town of Alford: those being their market days and we fancied a nosey; there was also a regular Craft Market in the Corn Exchange and we had a look round that too and we didn't come away from there empty handed either.

The belt was a necessary buy for me: one of my pairs of jeans has suddenly become very baggy around the waist and I needed the security of that belt! LOL The bracelet is tigers eye, a truly gorgeous piece with a very strong energy - it was one of two I tried on, the other one being a bit too strong an energy, as it made me feel very "spacey" when I had it on. The ring is amber and it replaces the amethyst ring that broke a couple of weeks ago, which replaced the triple amber ring that was lost when it slipped off my finger somewhere - so hoping to have better luck with this one! LOL The salve and balm are all natural products which I'm tending to use more of now, as I'm finding mass produced chemical based toiletries are constantly drying out my skin. The Green Man plaque was DH's choice as he liked it as soon as he saw it and the plan is to have him on a wall in the sun lounge, once it's been decorated, facing out towards the garden and towards my Green Man at the top of the garden. :0) We also bought a little something as a gift for our DS:

He's a sci-fi buff and we thought it very appropriate as his star sign is Scorpio. He seemed to like it, though was probably wondering where he was supposed to hang it...... there isn't an awful lot of vacant wall space left in his bedroom. LOL

After Tuesday's trip into Alford we went on to Skegness to meet up with the rest of the family but soon abandoned that idea (due to them leaving early, the crowds and our not liking the place much anyway) in favour of visiting Gibraltar Point instead, where DH thoroughly enjoyed himself using the binoculars provided in the viewing area. We had hoped to do some walking but got rained off big time, so opted to go back to the cottage. After the Friday trip into Alford we stopped off at the Windmill for a look-see. There was a small shop inside the mill itself and I bought some organic porridge oats to take home and DH treated himself to some wholemeal fruit scones and real ale chutney.

We also had plenty of time for just chilling out and DSis and I managed to get quite a bit of reading done between us........ though I didn't once manage to do any stitching, due to the evenings being taken up with some very competitive sessions playing Trivial Pursuits. :0)

We arrived back home on Saturday 29th with my DSis following us to our house. This is the first time she's visited our home since our Dad died so am hoping it has helped get her past the mental block she seemed to have and that she will start to visit us occasionally now. :0) Unfortunately her drive back to her house was eventful: she opted to go back on the motorway which she'd never been on before....... and promptly took a slip road off too early and took a detour down the Immingham/Grimsby bit of the motorway. We ended up having to drive out to find her in the lay-by she was parked in then get her to follow us all the way back along the motorway to her house. DSis has always said she has no sense of direction and couldn't find her way out of a paperbag.......... now we have proof, Bless her. ;0) I don't know if she's dared to tell Uncle W and cousin M yet - boy, will they rib her big time for it when she does! LOL

We also came home to a lovely surprise but I shall share that in another post as this one is already long enough.

Thank you for stopping by for a visit and for all the lovely comments. I shall be having a blog read and catching up with all your news soon. :0)