Feeling More Sociable

As the heading says I'm now feeling much more sociable than I was, so it's time to return to The Land of Blog. I've missed you all and all your news. :0)

Thank you for all of your caring comments and condolences, they mean a great deal. The funeral for FIL was conducted by two Minister's who knew him, so it was both a personal and moving service and a fitting goodbye to someone who gave a great deal of his time and energy to his local community and Church. MIL was appreciative of the start we made on clearing out the garage for her over the weekend. We tackled slightly less than a quarter of it and still managed to totally fill the back of the estate car with stuff to go to the amenities site. Thankfully DH only brought back two small items, both of which will be used... believe me when I say that that was very restrained, for him. BIL, his wife and two girls had the idea of buying a kitten, as company for MIL - a stroke of genius, as it was love at first sight on both their parts.... and that tiny little furball seems to know why it's there and would go to MIL as soon as she sat, climbing up the armchair and into her lap where she'd sit purring and happy, bringing much comfort.

I have some more thanks and birthday gifts from way back in July to share with you which didn't get posted about before this hiatus.

First of all I need to put Barb's curiosity to rest by sharing what I used her garden voucher birthday gift for:

I love lavenders, and love the fact that the bees love it too, and have always wanted to add more varieties to my garden and when I saw this French Lavender: Deep Rose at the garden centre it had to come home with us. So there you go Barb, that's what I got, and thank you once again. :0)

The lovely Clare sent me this:

Her own lovely bookmark design and the fabric and threads to stitch it. I often have several books on the go at once, so if you knew how often I have to go hunting for bookmarks you'd have an idea of how appreciated this is. A lovely handmade card too. Thank you again Clare. :0)

Next is another lovely surprise from Tina (no blog), a fellow member of the Stitch'n'Stash Forum:

Don't you just love that cute owl. The times I've almost bought it then changed my mind... and now it's in my stash. Yay! Another project will be grateful for the needle magnet, as it'll stop me from parking it in the fabric. The charm is an owl and the thread is a Polstitches called Friendship. Thank you Tina (hope you saw my post on the forum!) - think you read my mind with these goodies. And now the mojo seems to be putting in an appearance (at last!) the owl is hooting at me to stitch it. LOL

There was also a package from Dusty, in the USA:

Dusty read my post on the forum about my having difficulties getting hold of this magazine, now that Jayne's Attic is closed.... and kindly sent me a copy for my birthday. Thank you so much Dusty, you're a star.... and my Must Stitch List has increased since seeing several of those ornies. LOL

Last, but by no means least, was the parcel of goodies from my long term PenPal Maggie (no blog):

A very useful mix of cross stitch and cardmaking goodies. She must have read my mind, too, as I was looking for a coaster and fridge magnet in my stash beforehand and had come up empty (was sure I had some too), so now I can go ahead with those projects. :0)

There was also a birthday in the blogging world and this was the card I made and sent to Helen:

While I was in the mood for cardmaking I set to and made another one for my "Just in Case" stash:

Sorry, the scans aren't that good.... but you get the general idea. LOL

I've also been doing a little stash acquisition at times, courtesy of the Wimble Bees closing down sale - nope, I just can't resist bargains! LOL - and good old eBay... but I'll share those another time, as this is going to be a long post as it is.

I've also been spending quite some time out in the garden, whenever the weather permitted - it helps me greatly, especially when grief comes to call, to connect with Mother Nature, bringing a timely reminder of the cyclical nature of our existence: life, death and rebirth. When we visited the garden centre the French Lavender seemed awfully lonely on the trolley, so we added a couple of other plants that were also a magnet for the bees and hornets:

The purple one is Stokesia: Klaus Jelitto and the one to the right/front is a Dianthus: Raspberry Sundae... and the only reason I know their names is because I kept the labels. LOL The one in the middle is one that my Dad gave me the year before he passed away. Am glad to say that all seem to be thriving and enjoying the nutrients from that well rotted horse manure I dug in, earlier in the year. And, because I'm really pleased with it, here's a pic of the alpine pot, now it's better established:

We dug up the smaller of the two fuschias from the garden and put it in a pot and will be doing the same with the larger one (again, given to me by my Dad) and have bought a pot, ready for it to go in once it's finished flowering. We decided they would probably do much better if they were in pots, so they could be overwintered in the greenhouse. DH has been busy laying the greenhouse base (pics next time) and the greenhouse itself is going to be delivered and erected on Sunday 12th. Yay!

DH and I had a trip over to the Elsecar Heritage Centre, near Barnsley, to go to a Mind, Body and Spirit event over the Bank Holiday weekend. It was a last minute decision but we were both happy we'd been. We attended two talks, one by Barbara Meiklejohn-Free and another by George Fryer. The one by Barbara was about us all being psychic... and she surprised us by making us move round, so none of us were sitting next to people we knew, and getting us to do some psychometry. I was so glad when I managed to pick up on some things for the lady who let me hold her gold chain and crucifix, despite the fact that it wasn't in Circle and was noisy.... a sign that my skills have improved a tad. :0) DH also picked up something relevant for the person he was sat next to... this being the man who is very scientifically minded and a bit leery about things like that. I also had a Spirit Guide portrait done... and got a surprise. Not much retail therapy, compared to usual, but it proved to be a very interesting and enjoyable day all round. :0)

I've been having my usual weekly acupuncture sessions, to help with the menopause and arthritis symptoms as well as helping me Spiritually, and have just had my monthly Reiki session. I also attended the monthly talk session, that's held at my Herbalist's home, on Bank Holiday Monday. This time we were to discuss dowsing rods, pendulums and numerology.... but the dowsing rods and general chat proved to be so interesting we didn't get onto the other subjects. We've already arranged the date of next month's meeting... to talk about pendulums and numerology, to make up for not doing them this time. :0)

As well as buying on eBay I also dipped my toe into doing a little selling, thanks to a recent free listing day. I'd got quite a few craft items that I no longer wanted, so added them and hoped I'd sell a few. It was a good idea, as over half of what I put on went to new homes........ unfortunately what I made has almost been spent. Not all on replacement craft goodies though..... I bought several crystal/gem items that I've had my eye on for a while. Will post a pic when they arrive. :0) The unsold goodies have gone into my Webshots trade album, along with a few more things I've sorted out since. Now roll on the next free listing day. LOL

The stitching mojo has been on a looooong holiday, only putting in the occasional appearance. I put a few stitches into the Tiger over the weekend at MIL's, then did a bit more a week or so later.... then picked it up on Friday night (3rd) and had quite a good session on it... and that's been it since. BUT the thought of wanting to stitch is there, so it's not a total abandonment this time...... fingers crossed! I shall keep you on tenterhooks for a little longer though.... this post is already pretty photo intensive and long, so I'll save a pic of the this until next time. * evil laugh* ROFL

As you can probably guess, from the lack of comments recently, I'm waaaaay behind on blog reading (over a 1,000 posts in my Bloglines list!). I'll be having a gradual catch up over the coming weeks, so please bear with me while I get round to each of your blogs..... it may take a while but I will get there in the end.

Thank you again for all your kind thoughts. Hope you're all well and have lots of finishes and new WIP's under your belts since my last visit. :0)