Something Fishy?

DH enjoyed his fishing trip on Saturday. He reckons he caught nine fish and one of those was unintentional: he left the line dangling in the river, without bait on the hook, while he went for a wander round - when he came back there was a tiddler on the end of it! Someone took a pic of the larger fish he caught (unfortunately it didn't turn out) but luckily the pic with the second biggest fish did, so yes he has got some proof. ;0)


It's a carp, in case you needed to know. I wouldn't have known if DH hadn't of told me and, to be honest, neither would he if one of the regular anglers in the group hadn't of told him. LOL BTW, it and all the catches went back into the fishing pond unharmed at the end of the day. When DH first came home I had to do a double-take: his face looked like someone had been slapping him all day (no, not me - I stayed home, remember).......... he'd caught the sun big time. Luckily there was a bottle of after-sun in the house, so he applied that and it seems to have done the trick. Thanks to the weather looking so overcast and dingy before they went, plus the weather forecast predicting rain showers, no one had thought to take any sun block with them. The female engineer (nicknamed Bert, apparently) won the prize for the worst sun burn, poor lass.

While the two fellas were out I took the opportunity to give Cleo some attention and got her face and neck completed. As DH and I were both feeling a bit off yesterday (he was tired after his long day/all that fresh air and I was really headachey) and the weather was unpredictable we stayed home (good call: it severely persisted it down in the afternoon). So, whilst DH had the printer to pieces, gave everything a good clean and put it all back together again (no spare parts left over - it's useful having an engineer around who knows what he's doing! LOL) I carried on with Cleo when the headache had gone and I got the chance to sit down, in between jobs. She's shown the benefit of it all:

Not just a face and neck but an upper arm as well. :0)

Something I forgot to mention last week: the Monthly Challenge for July is the Debbie Draper Designs freebie Love. I've got the chart printed out, ready to go, and an idea for finishing but I need to check some dimensions first - if they're OK I can then go ahead and choose my fabric, threads and finishing bits and pieces and make a start. It wasn't the design I voted for (that was the Hornbook Stitcher piece) but it was my second choice, so am happy to be stitching it, especially as it will be yet another one I'll be able cross off my very long "To Do" List. :0)

Today it's my usual Monday routine of boring stuff (yes, the dreaded "H" word) in preparation for Alex coming round later. I'm hoping she remembers to bring her Japanese kimono silk fabric box - am so wanting to see it as it sounds gorgeous, from how she's described it. If she does I'll see if she'll let me take some pics so I can post them and let you see just how lovely her pieces are.

Many thanks to all who have taken the time to visit - hope you all had a good weekend and a gentle start to the week. :0)

Brass Stencils and Chat

Well I didn't quite get the afternoon of crafts I'd planned the other day because that virtuous housewife mood seemed to carry over somehow. Instead of making some cards or doing a little stitching.......... I went through my boxes of DMC threads and swapped the numbered sleeves that were slotted onto the bobbins for the little sticky number labels I bought a while ago. The sleeves had a nasty habit of dropping off the bobbins and I'm no good at guessing which colour thread is which! Maybe not overly thrilling but it was very satisfying to do and my thread boxes look so much tidier for it. :0)

At least I managed to stay awake until after I'd had my tea. LOL BTW Christine: the rabbit and venison stew tasted just as good as it smelt, even if I do say so myself. Extra pleased with it as I didn't use a recipe but went by instinct as to what to put in there. It must have been good - my two thanked me afterwards!

Yesterday I spent a fair amount of the day getting used to the new look JA/S&S forum, which has moved to Yuku, and catching up with everything on there. After initially feeling like a fish out of water at having my comfort zone changed I seemed to get my head round the technical bits reasonably quickly: I have a new siggie and avatar pic and (after a little help from Diana) links to all my albums and blog set up. Although the site profile map has me in a totally different location to where I actually live - have no idea how they've done that or if it can be altered. All told I reckon I like the new forum but I'm gutted at losing my Supreme Chatterbox status. ;0)

Cleo got a little attention last night and now has a mouth, as well as eyes - not enough to warrant a picture yet though, will save that for another time. Yes, Helen, that eyeshadow is definitely dated but they did invent the look long before the 60's and 70's models took it up. LOL

Today got off to a good start with the arrival of the kit I ordered from QVC.

It's a combination of paper pricking and embossing that can be done on light card, paper or thick vellum, then embroidering some of the motifs with the metallic threads. There's lots of choice with this, as you can make up a central panel as the focus of your card or just add borders or occasional motifs to be combined with decoupage (3-D layering of pictures) or other images (rubber stamped, stickers or other 3-D embellishments). Basically, it'll add another dimension to my cards and I can make it as easy or as complicated as I feel like. :0)

This is the original kit I bought, that set this craze off:

Those are decoupage papers at the top and I reckon I can guess who will like those. :0)

DH was out bright and early this morning, off on a fishing day with some of his work colleagues. He isn't normally in to fishing but this is one of those male bonding things: they realised they only got to see each other at work, usually in quite stressful circumstances (Disaster 5 is the jinx job on the Works) and that it would actually be nice to get together for the occasional social session outside of work. When he phoned me at dinnertime he'd caught a fish - not a tiddler but a reasonable sized one........ or so he says. I know all about those fishermen's tales - my Uncle and cousin regularly go angling - so am hoping he brings back a pic of his catch to back up his claims. :0)

DS was also out early as it was Brigg Farmers Market today. He's come back with lots of our favourites: smoked salmon; smoked and peppered mackerel; three lots of fresh fish plus crayfish tails (go well in kedgeree); lots of organic fruit and veggies (looking forward to sweet strawberries and creme fraiche later); a rolled beef joint; butty bacon; various types of cheeses; venison and other assorted sausages; bottles of sweet chilli sauce from the Gringley Gringo and some chocolate earthquake and choccie flapjack. Are you feeling hungry yet? LMAO

DS is now getting ready to go out, as he's babysitting for Alex and her husband tonight, and DH won't be back until around 7.30pm. The TV remote will be mine for a little while at least and I'll continue to make the most of the peace and quiet while it lasts. After I've had my tea it'll be feet up with a good documentary on TV and some stitching in hand......... bliss!

Hope everyone has had a great start to the weekend - enjoy the rest of it. Many thanks for visiting. :0)

Another Ozark SAL Instalment

Glad to say that last night's plans worked out well and I managed to complete the second corner motif on the Ozark SAL. Here's a pic of how it looks now:

I rather like those motifs and it's another lovely colour - can't wait to see what the next pack brings. :0)

I didn't get the chance to stitch on anything else though, as that one motif took me all evening to finish. I don't know what it is with me and Ozark thread but I'm finding that it regularly knots up as I'm stitching, delaying progress while I have to fiddle it undone. Never known anything quite like it and it is soooo annoying when it happens for the umpteenth time - if it wasn't for the fact that I love the colours and am enjoying watching this mystery develop it would have gone orbital last night, the first unmanned stitchy mission to Mars! LOL

I also finally caught up with all the blog reading and commenting, as of last night. Yay! It was a pleasure to see all the lovely WIP pics, finishes and some beautiful exchange pieces - a real feast for the eyes. There are some new starts and soon-to-be new starts that I'm going to really enjoy watching develop in the coming weeks too. :0)

I got a good start to the day today, due to being up with the proverbial early bird. No worm catching for me though - it was to get all the preparations done for a rabbit and venison casserole that has now been simmering away in the slow cooker since around 9.15 am this morning. The smell is Mmmmmmm! There's also a full load of laundry out blowing on the line under the car port - the weather kept going really overcast, so I wasn't going to risk putting it out on the rotary drier (good choice: it's just started persisting down) - there's another load sorted ready to go out when this lot is dry. The downstairs loo has been scrubbed and polished so it's as fresh as a daisy plus a multitude of items have been tidied up and/or put away............ men seem to be allergic to doing that, I've noticed. When I've finished blogging (multi-tasking here: I'm also having my dinner) I'll be off to wash the pots. After all this virtuous housewife stuff an afternoon of crafts seems well in order, don't you think? ;0) That's if I don't fall asleep first! LOL

Jane: that book is his first in this series - he's since written two more. Don't think he's had much publicity as I also hadn't heard of him before finding this book.

Helen: I remembered Dawn had said she wouldn't have internet access for a while - had just wondered if anyone was in touch with her by phone/text and knew how the move had gone. She had said she would be glad when it was all over as things had been a nightmare so far, bless her.

Well that sink full of pots aren't going to wash themselves (I wish!) so I'd better get moving. OK, OK - busted........ what I really mean is: that afternoon crafts session is calling loudly and I want to get the pots out of the way so I can get on with the fun stuff. No pulling the wool over anyone's eyes, is there? LMAO

Many thanks to all who take the time to pop by - hope you're having a great day and that life is treating you well. :0)

Thank You's, A Queen and a Card

To all you kind folks out there: many thanks for the well wishes. Thankfully whatever I had was short-lived and I'm now back to normal (well..... as normal as it gets round here! LOL)

Also thank you for the nice comments about my Challenge piece - they made my day. :0)

After my nasty start to the week I decided to slide back gently into my regular routine. So, after doing a couple of house jobs, I took time out to watch Dawn Bibby's two hour slot on QVC yesterday afternoon whilst completing the first corner motif on the Ozark SAL piece. An enjoyable session as I usually only stitch in an evening. I'll fess up now: I did give in to temptation - only once though. ;0) I've ordered an embroidery on card kit that has brass stencils, metallic threads and a booklet on how to use the goodies - it'll go with the other kit I bought a while ago that I haven't used yet as it didn't have a book explaining the techniques. I'll enjoy experimenting with it all when it gets here.

As it was Tuesday UFO Night yesterday the Queen came out for another outing in the evening:

Am happy with the progress made but I reckon I'll be seeing that dress pattern in my dreams before it's completed! Think I may have a break from the black next week and start on the blending filament infill in those gaps instead - it should brighten it up quite nicely.

Thought I'd also share a pic of a card I made and sent to Dawn last week:

Hope the house move went smoothly and she's nicely settling in by now. Has anyone heard anything?

DH had a brain hurting start to this week: he was on a two-day course, held at the Admin Centre on the Works. He didn't object as it meant an early finish each day, although that didn't mean him getting extra time to chill at home, as he also had Governor's meetings to attend both evenings: one at the Juniors and the other at the High School. It did mean I was in charge of the TV remote, as DS was also out both evenings, so I avoided the usual mix of Dad's Army/Pie In The Sky (DH) and Scrubs/Fresh Prince of Bel Aire (DS) repeats. Yay! I'd much rather be watching a good documentary. :0)

Did I tell you that DS decided, in the end, to go for a small part in the LTC's production of Shakespeare's Henry V? He got it. Not sure how happy he is about it but it'll keep him busy and out of mischief and, who knows, all that flowery Shakesperian language may just grow on him. LOL

My stitching plans for today are to get the second corner motif on the Ozark SAL stitched and, if that doesn't take too long, either do a bit more on the other Queen (Cleo) or put some stitches in to Night Watchman, who has been sadly neglected just lately.
Non-stitching plans are to have a catch up on blog reading/commenting and have a few minutes pottering in my garden, in between the rain showers, at some point today - I need the fresh air and to get close to nature to re-charge myself, so I can work up to having that library trip before too much longer. :0)

Thanks again for all the lovely comments and for taking the time to visit. Hope you are all having a good week and are stitching up a storm. :0)

June Monthly Challenge Reveal

Belated Solstice Blessings to one and all. :0)

I'm a little late with posting pics of my JA/S&S Monthly Challenge piece: things were a little busy over the weekend and by Sunday tea time I was feeling really off with a stomach upset - today it gave way to a bad headache which kept me in bed for most of the day. Thankfully I'm feeling much better now, so am having a catch-up.

Here's the front of the piece I stitched:

I chose to stitch the freebie by Blue Ribbon Designs: A Christmas Wish of Health and Happiness. I've used DMC threads throughout and a piece of 32ct linen from my stash - I don't know what it's called but it's a blue grey colour.
Here's what I did on the back:

I love the little pillow ornie finish - it's easy to do! I had the charm and some gold cording in my stash. I wrapped some of the burgundy thread (used for the holly berries) around the cord in a criss-cross pattern and added little rows of Mill Hill beads to the side in burgundy and gold to brighten it a little. Am quite pleased with how it turned out and that's one more ornie to add to my Yule decorations. :0)

It's been a pleasure looking at the album - the pieces stitched and the finishes are varied and a couple made me want to try them, like the scissor pockets that Helen and Terri finished their pieces as. Beautiful work ladies! The July choices are up (four of them) and choosing was difficult: they were all lovely designs but I particularly liked two of them. I eventually made my choice and voted and am now looking forward to finding out which one we'll be stitching.

I made a start on the next part of the Ozark SAL but that has ground to a halt as I didn't feel much like stitching this weekend, what with one thing and another, but am hoping to get back to it tomorrow as it shouldn't take very long to do. I have been doing a little more reading instead (when my head wasn't aching) and have finished a second book this month - that's good going for me, as I usually only read a little at bedtime. This book was a historical whodunnit - see first item on the list in the side bar if you want a nosey - and I hope to get my hands on the next two books in the series (time for a trip to the library again, methinks). :0)

Saturday DH and I had a walk down the local High Street where we sorted out a little business at the building society before going to the opticians. Result of my eye test: a slightly stronger distance bit needed, alteration to the close up area (hopefully I'll be able to focus on my stitching whilst leaving my specs on, so I can watch TV as well, like I used to be able to) and the addition of prisms as my eyes muscles or lenses or something have weakened. Sheesh, did I feel old when I came out of there! LOL DH neded stronger lenses and treated himself to a new pair of frames with transitional lenses - so we'll also be quite a few quid poorer when that bill needs paying!
We went to Il Sorriso for dinner afterwards, then home. In the afternoon we went to the Pink Pig to do some shopping, then on to Screwfix to get a new tap for the bathroom sink (yet another DIY job to do - doesn't everything seem to go wrong at the same time?) and then on to The Range. There I bought some storage items for some of my cardmaking goodies (still trying to organise stuff!), a large circle punch , a CD storage unit, a DoCrafts Goody Bag, three Celtic rubber stamps (a bargain at 99p each) but only came away with one lot of flowers - they had very little in that line which was disappointing but I can't complain as the other bits more than made up for that. LOL :0)

Sunday DH popped out to do a little shopping at Tesco, otherwise it was a stay-at-home day - there was a Grand Prix on. I'd also been feeling a little iffy all day, which is why I didn't fancy going out anywhere, and by tea time I found out why. :0(
Thankfully whatever it was has been short lived - although it did mean cancelling Alex's usual visit, just in case it was catching. The long sleep I had today really helped - just hope I can sleep tonight! LOL

With all that I've managed to fall behind with blog reading again (just for a change!) so hopefully I'll catch up with that in the next day or two and see what you all got up to over the weekend.

In the meantime: hope you all had an enjoyable weekend and a good start to the week. :0)

A Card and The Other Royal

I definitely left my brain in bed yesterday as I kept forgetting to do things. One of the things I forgot to add yesterday was a pic of the card I sent to Lynn (although I guess most of you have seen it already on her blog). I wanted to post a pic though as this is a particular favourite, one of those cards where I thought of the person it was to go to and everything just flowed together: I love those PaperMania (larger) and Prima (smaller) flowers, though I don't have very many in my stash (NB Must have a trip to The Range some time soon to rectify that. ;0) )

Here's the other Royal currently visiting my house - Cleo, as promised: She's looking a whole lot less freaky now, isn't she? LOL I had wanted to stitch the full size version of this design but there's only so much wall space in this house...... and it's already had one room extension built on the back. That's definitely one very messy and expensive way of generating extra display space, so we won't be doing that again any time soon. This smaller size was ideal, as it meant I could also go for the other kits in the same range - I can display four of these pieces in the same space that one large one would have taken up. :0) See, I can be practical when I have to. LMAO

Last night's plans went to pot: I didn't get off from behind the computer to go start the next part of the Ozark SAL after all. I decided to go check my emails, then remembered I'd half started an order for household bits we needed from Lakeland Ltd so went to complete that and check out their Sale items - there were some rather nice cardmaking goodies going very cheap and they proved to be as bouncy as Jayne's stock. Of course, once those goodies have decided they want to come and live at my house it would be rather harsh not to let them now, wouldn't it? ;0) Then I called in at JA/S&S Forum for a final check round and by then it was bedtime. Still, it made for a pleasant evening and there's a nice parcel on it's way - can't say I'm overly excited about the new mop and bucket, defrosting box etc but that cardmaking stash will be most welcome. LOL

I should get quite a bit of stitching done the next couple of evenings though and I'll be in charge of the TV remote as well. Yay! DS has asked DH if he'd help out with the technical/lighting side of a Stars In Their Eyes event (children's dance/performance group that have links with the LTC) and he's said yes. He used to be involved with the LTC back when he first moved here and he's always wanted to get involved again, so it's just the excuse he was looking for. As I haven't got a technical bone in my body I shall be happily staying home to stitch and generally chill. Anyone want to join me? LOL

Right, I am off to go fill up the bird feeders, to keep those ram-raiding sparrows happy, then have a catch up with blog reading and find out what you've all been up to - lots of lovely stitchy pics to look at, I hope.

Thank you for taking the time to visit and for the kind comments. Hope you're all having a good day. :0)

The Queens' Visit

Yup, I'm still talking about Guenevere. Here she is once again, after a second Tuesday UFO Night visit:My brain seems to have "clicked" with the pattern this week, as it definitely flowed better than it did the first time out. Result: I got quite a fair bit more done this time around, so I'm a happy bunny. :0)

I had a second nice surprise in the post yesterday, this time from Helen: some red fluffy "feather boa" stuff (sorry, don't know its proper name). Remember the Heritage Stitchcraft Christmas Chickadee we both stitched? Helen finished hers with this and I so loved the look because it was such a fun finish - now I can dig mine out of the drawer and finish it. Thank you so much for your kindness Helen. :0)

Last weekend went well. On Saturday we went to the Motorhome place at Kirmington and had a look at a couple of models that interested us. They didn't have the Adriatik Izola I fell in love with at the Show but there was a nice 4 year old Burstner that, although it looked a tad dated inside, still had the same good use of space and had a good feel to it when we sat in it. It was really useful to go and have a look-see, as it firmed up our ideas about what we do and don't like/want: the small van conversions are out because, although they are great for weekends away, they just aren't big enough for longer holidays (unless you add on an awning - rather defeats the object of us changing from a caravan to a motorhome for more convenience/quicker set ups) and we definitely want a fixed rear bed, with a separate sitting area up front and no over-cab bed (too claustrophobic). We stopped off at Humberside airport on the way home so DH could do a little plane spotting....... luckily I'd remembered to take my reading book with me. ;0)

Sunday we visited my DSis and laid Father's Day flowers at the Crem. It was lovely to see all the flowers there and the wildlife was quite happy to carry on as normal, totally unbothered by all the extra visitors to their haven. We went back to DSis' for dinner and decided to stay in so DH could do a little supervising of the two chaps she'd got round to put up her new garden shed (they needed supervising!).

Monday was my usual busy day. Alex had been to an Embroiderers Guild workshop for making a fabric box the previous Saturday and was telling me all about that. She's used two types of Japanese kimono silk fabric for the box and is now trying to think of a way to finish the lid. It sounds gorgeous and I've asked her if she could bring it with her when it's completed, so I can see it and take some pics to post here - hopefully it won't be too long before she does that. :0)

Stitching wise: I still have the finishing to do on the Monthly Challenge piece (I will get around to it soon!). I've managed to get back to stitching on the other Queen, Cleopatra - will share a pic next time. The next Ozark SAL pack arrived today: another lovely colour and nice pattern, so I shall enjoy making a start on that tonight. As I haven't got any other stitchy pics to share today I thought I'd show you some of the goodies I received in my last Thread Bear order:

The Elizabeth Design piece I'm thinking of stitching for our 25th Wedding Anniversary, only two years away now. The Seasons of my Life I just couldn't resist when I saw it: it so brings to mind the Goddess as maid, mother and crone and the Pagan take on life that it's a must stitch piece. The fabric is R&R 30ct Goldfinch, to be used for the LHN needlebook and Always and Forever, a chart I got last time around. The Halloween piece is another one I love. BTW, if anyone knows where I can get some hand dyed orangey coloured fabric similar to that in the chart pic I'd be much obliged if you could point me in the right direction, thanks. :0)

The last couple of days I've been doing a little organising (don't all faint in shock! LOL). I unearthed a QVC TSV cardmaking box of goodies whilst looking for something else (as you do) and in it I found one of those plastic, expanding crocodile files. Result: a nicely organised 12x12 and 8x8 paper stash in that and the better paper and fancy card stock has been organised into the smaller file I bought from The Range some time ago. DH and DS have yet to notice..... but that's par for the course. ;0)

Lynn: so glad the card etc arrived safely and that you liked them. Glad the notepaper gave you a smile - whenever you look at it remember that there's another "red hot mama" out in cyberspace who is thinking about you. :0) Unfortunately I still can't comment on your blog - luckily I'm able to read it via Bloglines. I'm convinced it's a problem at my end, which I hope will be solved when DH sets up the new computer tower for me and I can get all the Windows updates (whenever that will be - we've only had it a couple of months so far! LOL).

Well, if I'm going to make a start on the next part of the Ozark piece I'd better get out from behind this computer.

Hope you all had a good weekend and that this week is treating you well. Many thanks for visiting. :0)