Not a Lot....

to share with you all this week, at least stitchy wise. You might be relieved to realise that there's no update pic of Mother Earth to show - between stitching on the tiger, spending some time in the garden, a weekend on a course and general tiredness (stitching + tiredness = frogging) resulting in early bedtimes I just didn't get around to picking Her up even once. Never mind, I shall make sure I spend at least one night putting a few stitches into that background this week.

There is an update on the tiger to show though, so at least there's something stitchy-wise to share. LOL Here's where he's at now:

Can you make out the start of an ear? He doesn't seem to grow very fast and I guess that's because there are quite a few colour changes. At least I've managed to get it up to the top edge of the design, so I can now work outwards each side, then down. I'll be putting a bit more time in on him this week, to make sure he grows much faster..... G needs him in her home asap.

Other news to share: well I've now had three solo drives in my car. :0) The first drive was just down to a local supermarket and back... but it involved driving down the local High Street and ended up a bit of a baptism of fire. There were cars and vans parked where they weren't supposed to be, with buses and lorries trying to drive round them, as well as other cars, plus buses coming up the street... and, just to make it even more interesting, kamikaze pedestrians leaping out all over the place. I didn't get out of second gear all the way down.... which suited me fine. LOL A steady wander round the supermarket for the shopping calmed me down enough to attempt the journey back up the street...... I had contemplated a detour to avoid it but I could hear my DS's voice calling me a wuss, should I fess up to that, so decided I wouldn't give him the opportunity. LOL Thankfully the journey back was way better.

The other solo drives involved journeys out to a local village and back, where I went to attend a Healing Course. The journey on Saturday had me passing a nasty accident that had happened just minutes before I got up there.... very nerve-wracking. I did debate stopping to help but there were plenty of folks around who already had, some on mobile phones calling the emergency services, so thought the best thing was to carry on and not clutter the road up anymore than it already was. So hope no one was seriously injured. I was shaking a tad by the time I arrived at my destination..... one of the ladies gave me healing, which calmed me down nicely. Sunday's journey was uneventful and much quieter....... I like Sunday driving. LOL  :0)

The course is proving interesting and is already having some positive effects. It's involved a lot of meditations and what the chap taking the course calls activations, which are designed to help us start channelling the healing energy. There's been the opportunity to use self-healing techniques and healing on others. My first hands-on experience (literally) was on W, the chap giving the course. Afterwards I asked if it had been OK (what I meant was: did I do it right?) and he boosted my confidence no end when he told me I was a natural and described what he'd felt and seen whilst I was treating him. It's also good to interact with the other participants outside of the Clinic and Development Circle setting. Next weekend I've been asked to take my drum and Tibetan Singing Bowl with me.... not sure yet what we'll be doing with those but it'll be fun to find out. LOL

Last week DS and I had a couple of sorting out sessions (another reason for the lack of stitching time). The first was in the caravan and resulted in a few things going in the bin, a few others being taken out to store elsewhere... and a pile of stuff within the caravan that we are keeping but need to work out where it's going to be stored before bringing it in, as we want to avoid having piles of stuff plonked all over the place that's to go away "when we get around to it".

The other sort out session was in the old air raid shelter in the back garden, that is currently used as storage (remember the door to the Secret Garden pic of it? LOL). More stuff for the bin (which is pretty full now), a bag of scrap tins and cans went into the recycling box, another bag of scrap metal bits went to the scrap skip at DS's work on Friday.... along with a bag full of rubbish that went in their rubbish skip. The BBQ charcoal was rescued and put into proper tubs, to keep it dry, the place swept out and everything that we decided to keep went back in tidily. You can now go in there and not fall over stuff... and actually find whatever you want. Roll on to when we can give DH's workshop the same treatment! LOL

DH has treated himself to a new lawnmower and christened it by giving the lawn its first cut of the season. The old lawnmower will be Freegle'd this week, so we don't end up with even more unwanted stuff cluttering up the place. Hopefully the caravan clear out/putting away session will continue too. Last week DH also managed to find the time to go to the office furniture place to get replacements for those three damaged shelves, plus the screw fittings we were short of, so that's no longer holding up the job. :0)

Rehearsals for Blackadder are picking up now, so DH and DS are disappearing off to those a little more regularly. The performance is in May and I really want to go and see it, so...... despite the fact that I won't have anyone to sit with, have decided I'm going to go anyway. I can drive myself there and back (DH and DS will be going far too early for me to go with them) and sit in an aisle seat, so I don't feel hemmed in by all those people - that will be a test to see how far I've come from being that panic attack ridden agoraphobic. LOL If it does prove too much I can soon pop out for some fresh air from an aisle seat without causing too much of a disturbance. Wish me Luck. :0)

Thank you for visiting and for the kind comments. Hope you all had a good weekend and a pleasant start to the week. :0)

Weekend Stitching

Well that theatre Get In was a long one and I didn't see DH again until around 6pm and DS didn't show his face until around 10pm - so it was a long, quiet day with the TV and my stitching to keep me company. The TV was pretty dire at times but it was nice to have the voices in the background......... guess it makes a change from the ones in my head and talking to myself LOL. By the end of the night Heartwarmers looked like this:


Pretty pleased with that progress. Still got the arms and a little birdhouse to stitch but the eyes and mouth and holly berries are all beads and I'm going to leave all those until the end and add them when I add the charms.

DH liked what he saw of the rehearsal after the Get In yesterday and reckons it will be a good production to go and watch, so it looks like we'll be having a night out some time this week. That'll make a nice change as they normally only let me out at the weekends. ;0)

Many thanks for all the kind comments on my stitching and for the well wishes. I'm feeling way better than I did, although Sod's Law struck at the weekend: while I was out in the garden helping DH some nasty little critter bit the back of my right leg (ankle height) twice and the bites have gone a bit iffy, so I've got a limp - again! There's a patch of inflammation that's slowly spreading around my leg, despite not scratching and copiously daubing the bites with TCP. At least I have the satisfaction of knowing that whatever it was that bit me has more than likely died of food poisoning since........ and serve the little bugger right! LOL

Today I've been hobbling round, getting my usual jobs done ready for Alex dropping by. I popped out and filled up all the bird feeders earlier but I didn't hang around long - the midges are rife and I didn't fancy adding any more bites to what I've already got. Can't believe just how nice the weather is at the moment though, can you? Now why didn't we have some of this during the summer holidays?! As for tonight, I shall probably carry on with the bellpull for now...... unless I decide to break off and do another Halloween ornie instead. Hmmm, decisions, decisions.

Hope you all had an enjoyable weekend. Thank you for taking the time to visit. :0)

Flowers, Another Award and an Owl.

Would you believe it, with all the holiday unpacking/jobs and the excitement of starting Sea Stars and finishing Guen I totally forgot to post the flowers that Lynn gave me and the award from Miss 376 I received whilst away. So sorry for the delay.

The virtual flowers are so pretty:

Thank you so much for giving them to me Lynn, they and the sentiment behind them mean a very great deal to me (((((hugs))))). It's always a pleasure to visit your blog to read your news and see your stitching. :0)

The award from Miss376 is a thank you for visiting and commenting on her blog:

I'm amazed at getting an award for doing something that gives me such pleasure anyway. I love to see all of your varied crafts and will admit that I envy your wide needlework skills. Thank you.

I am going to hand the award on to all the people who take the time to comment when they visit my blog. I do appreciate all visitors taking the time out from their busy days to come and visit but extra thanks have to go to those who also go to the trouble of writing a comment....... it lets me know that I'm not just wasting time, waffling away to myself, and that others are interested in the crafts I love and wish to share. So a big thank you to you all - consider yourselves duly awarded. :0)

Last night, knowing that I wouldn't sleep that well with DH being away, I settled in front of the TV for the night with Night Watchman. With several good documentaries on and a new programme called Lost In Austen (that's Jane Austen, author, and not a city in the USA) there was enough of interest to keep me glued for some time and NW really has benefited from it. Here's an update pic of where I left off at around 3am this morning:

Yes, 3am! I also found an awful lot of rubbish to have on in the background after Lost In Austen finished, keeping going until I'd reached that brain numbed state where I knew there wouldn't be a problem with dropping off to sleep. OK, so today I feel much like the zombies in the Resident Evil rip-off film that was on Zone Horror in the early hours (not scarey - just carp!) but it sure beat laying in bed for hours, hearing every noise in the neighbourhood, and constantly getting up to check that it wasn't some scumbag breaking in to the cars/caravan/house. I fell asleep about five minutes after getting into bed and only woke up a couple of times through the night, going back to sleep more or less straight away each time. Result!

Tonight it's the second outing for the Sea Stars SAL. DS has another rehearsal so the plan is to have tea then, when he's gone out, settle in with more documentaries and stitch on SS. I doubt I'll be pulling another 3am finish though!

The first part of the Friends Count JA SAL arrived in my inbox today and the winning Challenge piece for September has been announced, so there would be plenty more to get on with on Friday if I had a printer that worked! I am going to have to forward the email and the link to DS so he can print out the charts for me, as DH has the memory stick (the easier transferral method) with him in Italy at the moment. Typical! Didn't he know I would need it? ;0) LOL

As for DH: he is busy, over in Italy, with lots of meetings on various technical bits to do with the equipment etc that the company out there is supplying to the steelworks. He sends me a text at dinnertime and phones in the evening. Today's text tells me that the weather out there is warm and mostly sunny and they're walking round with rolled up shirt sleeves. Go on, rub it in, texts I, as I'm shivering in decidedly autumnal colder weather and currently looking out at yet another downpour. Fat chance for getting those cyclamens in the pots, so it looks like you're right Christine.

Well I've since had my tea, DS has disappeared for the night and SS is calling loudly so I am off to get some stitching done.

Thank you, once again, for taking the time to visit - hope you are all managing to stay warm, wherever you are. :0)

Seeing Stars?

No, not quite......... but you can see my first Thursday Night SAL WIP pic of Sea Stars by Ink Circles:

The colour isn't quite right but it will give you the general idea. Unfortunately the scanner has come out in sympathy with the printer....... it's also gone on the blink (it makes a couple of crunching noises and I get a pretty rainbow band across the middle of everything that is scanned) so I had to take a pic with the digicam in the evening with poor lighting and the flash going off.

The fabric is one of Jayne's own hand dyes (like a tropical sea) and is from one of my favourite colour ranges (the other being autumnal colours). Jayne also did all of the hard work by converting the colours to Carrie's Creations for me: the one I'm currently using is Antique Slate and that's the motif in the top left corner of the design.
Barb and Rosanne have made good starts too: all three of us are using quite different colours, so it's going to be fascinating watching the pieces develop each week. :0)

Last night was the first of a three night Most Haunted Live event which gave me a perfect excuse to sit and stitch in front of the TV for much of the evening (yeah, like I need an excuse! LOL). The project receiving some attention was the Ozark Mystery SAL. I started the first band a little earlier in the week, so completed that and went on to stitch all of the second band:

Again we could choose two out of six different band patterns to stitch with the two threads from the pack: Blueberry and Spring Green. I opted for the ribbon band, to slightly echo the scrolls in the border, and hoping it wouldn't end up looking like an epileptic tapeworm..... think it's avoided that. The top band was a no brainer: a thread with the name of Spring Green meant it had to be the leaves border. LOL I like how it's worked out to having alternate bands of nature motifs - that's happened more by pure luck than actual design. :0)

MH Live is on again tonight, so that'll be another evening of stitching, but am not sure yet which project to do. It's tempting to carry on with Sea Stars because it's a lovely stitch but, as it's a once-a-week SAL, it's a no-no. As I didn't do lots on Night Watchman earlier in the week that should probably be my focus......... another stitching session should make it worth doing a pic then. Guess I'll see what mood takes me later. LOL

Helen asked to see the crystal wand I mentioned in my previous post. I'll just point out that a crystal wand in no way resembles anything as seen in any of the Harry Potter movies, so I hope you're not going to be disappointed. ;0) Crystal wands are generally worked and polished lengths of crystal, usually no more than 6" long, which can have pointed ends (for focused use) or rounded ends (gentler). Some Pagans and Wiccans do use such crystals as wands, charging them with their intention so it enhances their spells, assisting them in achieving what they wish for, but I'm not into spellwork or heavy rituals and prefer to use mine for healing......... and sometimes just for pure decoration because they are naturally beautiful. :0)

The large piece at the top is a rose quartz point which I keep on my bedside cabinet - a gentle, loving, soothing crystal that helps with sleep (it's also the best crystal for soothing babies and children). Below that is a rutilated quartz point and to the right of that is (if I remember rightly) a smokey citrine (a bit of an unusual one that I can't find a listing for, but it's popular with healers) and both of those sit on my bedroom altar - I haven't worked properly with these yet, I mostly just enjoy looking at them. The rose quartz and fluorite wand is bottom right: not only has it the rounded ends but it also has a worked twist along it's length - this I have used and it worked wonders on my neck and shoulder and sleep! :0) The bottom left piece is a kyanite blade that is useful in meditation and is another piece I seem to have an instant reaction to when handling - sort of a quick swirling sensation, mildly disorientating, similar to what you get when you stand up too quickly. I guess it's a sign they are working. :0)

Apologies for the not very good pic - it's hard to catch the inner look of a crystal on a camera that isn't that great, especially when it's being used by an inexperienced photographer. Guess I could do better if I actually knew what I was doing, for a change! LOL

DS was up and out first thing this morning to take Alex to a hospital appointment and he hasn't put in an appearance since, so she must have fed him afterwards. DH and I were going to go out to a garden centre for dinner but changed our minds when we realised how warm it was today. Staying in has it's benefits: the lawn has been mown and the edges strimmed and a little weeding has been done and I've had time to blog. If he feels really enthusiastic we may even get a bit of conifer trimming done too. Tomorrow we are off to visit my DSis as I haven't seen her since about a week before we went on holiday......... it's been a while so there'll be loads to catch up on. :0)

Thank you for the kind comments on Guen. :0) It will be good to have her as my first HD in September............ the HD's have been few and far between in 2008, due to having quite a few BAP's on the go, so it's been nice to spread them through the year. ;0)

Many thanks for taking the time to visit and I hope you are all enjoying a happy weekend. :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)

Night Watchman and Windy Weather

No, not a new job but the project I concentrated on over the weekend, in between coughing bouts. Looking on the bright side, there are some benefits to not feeling too great: you aren't expected to shift yourself to go out anywhere; you're not expected to do any jobs around the house instead and there's a perfectly valid reason to sit and stitch for as long as you feel like it, totally guilt-free. ;0)
All that guilt-free stitching has seen Night Watchman develop quite nicely - here's a pic of where I left off last night:
The problem with it being an "as and when" project meant it didn't grow overly fast for much of the time, so it actually feels like I'm getting somewhere with it now.

Last night's sleep was a bit disturbed, thanks to both the windy weather and my chest. I got woken up around half a dozen times by some of the bigger gusts of wind but went back to sleep straightaway when they weren't followed up by any sounds of something having dropped off the house, thankfully. Woke myself up another few times by making the weirdest noise when breathing - it made me wonder if DH should go and fetch the WD40 because it definitely sounded like something was squeaking badly and in desperate need of oiling! If that's what having a couple of spoonfuls of Meltus at bedtime does for me I reckon I'd best leave the stuff well alone. ;0)

The yukky weather is continuing here today with occasional rain and more gusty wind - definitely not conducive to having a lay-in, so I was up early and have been getting on with my usual Monday jobs, ready for in case Alex comes round. I've just been taking things at a slower pace than usual so I don't cough too much and do myself a mischief. LOL Thanks to all for the well wishes: as you can probably tell I'm not too bad in myself, the chestiness/cough is more of an inconvenience than anything else - having a quiet weekend seems to have helped. I've got a bit behind with blog reading but hope to catch up in the next couple of days.

I hope all in the UK are OK and haven't suffered any problems/property damage in this latest bout of bad weather. Stay safe all. :0)

Card Exchange and WIP Update

I am taking part in the Stitch'n'Stash/Jayne's Attic stitched Christmas card exchange and received my beautiful card from Hayley today. Isn't it lovely? The scan makes it look so flat and lifeless and it isn't - the hand dyed fabric and threads glow and the charm and snowflakes sparkle. I love it and, as I know that Hayley has had her hands full looking after her poorly baby just lately, it is doubly appreciated. If you're reading this: thanks again Hayley. :0)
Now I just wish my card would hurry up and arrive with my partner: it was posted air mail to the US back on the 23rd. Maybe I'm being a tad impatient but air mail is usually a lot quicker than this - I guess at this end of the year I should be allowing for all the staff parties in both postal services and customs at either end. ;0)

Here's an update on my WIP.

Well done all - looks like you all guessed in the end LOL. Yes, it's the Christmas Chickadee by Valerie Pfeiffer - one of the extra goodies that fell in my basket when I had a shop at Sew and So recently. This is now a bit further on, as I stitched on it again last night. I would have got a whole lot more done if it hadn't been for a visit from that darned frog! Three flippin' times I ended up pulling different bits out, thanks to those fractionals, and re-stitching them - I finally gave up in disgust and went to bed as I was obviously tired and not concentrating properly because of it. It's UFO night tonight so I shall be stitching on ET later - it'll give me a nights break from the chick which is probably a good thing........ by the time I'd ripped out for the third time the air had turned a horrible shade of blue and DH was thinking of fetching the gaffa tape. ;0)

Saturday we had dinner out at a local garden centre, called at a farm shop for some veggies, then came home to do a couple of small jobs before our big Tesco delivery turned up. Sorting that out and putting it all away took a while but now my cupboards, fridge and freezer are nicely re-stocked. We had fun and games paying for it though: we were talked into joining up to that VeriCard scheme, designed to make online fraud with your card more difficult for the scammers, which means you have to go through an online verification process, keying in a password that only you know............. simple, yes? Yeah, right: it is if you can remember the flippin' password. Could I? Nope. Could DH? Nope. So three tries later each and we were kicked off and given a message to ring up the help Centre...... except the HC line shuts at 8pm and we were doing this around 10pm. Luckily we hadn't registered the debit cards for the scheme and Tesco didn't delete the order so I was able to pay with mine. Needless to say we won't be registering the DC's any time soon. >rolleyes<

Sunday was a busy day: we went into town to do some shopping; next we popped to Screwfix to get the light fittings and bulbs my DSis needed and some new hinges for our downstairs loo seat; then on to Poundstretcher for some more bits and pieces and finally a quick trip into The Range. We managed to get a few final Christmas gifts, a few goodies and some of the home bits I needed that were on my non-Christmas list - I call that a good result. ;0) Later DH felt inspired and fitted the new hinges to the loo seat. A good job too, as using that loo got to be about as scary as one of those white knuckle rides: sit down and the seat would suddenly veer to one side and either your bum cheek would get pinched by the seat or be burnt by the radiator - if you were really unlucky you got to experience both, one after the other. As my proportions are, shall we say, somewhat generous in that area I generally ended up being really unlucky most of the time.

Monday I got all of my usual jobs done and had my regular coffee and a natter visit from Alex in the afternoon and stitched on the chubby chick in the evening. The other half of my Christmas pressie from DH arrived too: I ordered the Dawn Bibby DVD's from QVC last week, to save him the hassle of looking round for something - thoughtful, ain't I? ;0) LOL. I had hoped to update my Blog and catch up with everyone else's as well but didn't manage it, so will hopefully get that done today.

Hope you all had a good weekend and start to the week and thanks for visiting. :0)