The Tiger and The Mother

Well the tiger is coming along, slowly but surely.... unfortunately a bit more slowly than planned, due to the start of a bad case of gardening fever. Yup, the warm weather finally kicked off this week making it impossible to ignore the pull of the garden. Who can resist being out there when the blackbirds are putting their hearts and souls into their songs? Not me, that's for sure. :0)

Here's where I left off the stripey one by the end of the week:

It's rather intimidating having those eyes staring right back at you whilst you're infilling the rest of the face, I can tell you. The expression seems to say: Come on woman, get on with it and get me finished.... this is totally undignified! LOL

I was really good at the start of last week and brought Mother Earth out again. Well, I'd spent that long under the naughty chair I was in danger of taking root there! I didn't do a great deal (just about enough to make an update pic worth posting) but it felt good to be working on Her again. Here's where I left off:

In case you're not sure where I was working: a start was made on infilling the last section of the trees on this page. I forgot to zoom in on the pic so you get to see just how disgustingly grubby the material has got along the edges. * Hangs head in shame* Still, this piece has been on the go for several years..... but I'm not fessing up as to how long or my head will be hanging even lower! LOL

So what have I been up to this time around? The usual Development Circle session on Tuesday night - this week we did psychometry. I like doing this, especially as I seem to do reasonably well at it.... though do better on personal objects that have been worn, rather than not so personal items. Then there's my weekly acupuncture session..... those little needles are wonder workers where my arthritic aches and pains are concerned and I highly recommend it. Then I had my monthly Reiki session on Saturday.... always a guaranteed chill out, and this session has made me realise that I want to pursue this avenue but from the other side - I want to take this up as part of my development towards doing healing work. I hope that Aureen, my Reiki practitioner, will be willing to teach me..... or be able to recommend someone, if she's unable to do so. I also bought a couple of plants from a local shop and planted them up in the evening, when it had gone cooler. DS had also brought back another five strawberry plants from the market so I planted those up in a large container - we should have a good crop very soon. :0)

Then I've been out in the garden quite a bit. As DH and DS were busy for much of the weekend, what with the local farmer's market and the theatre Get In for this weeks performance of Blackadder II, I had a trip out in my car to one of the local garden centres........ unfortunately a big proportion of the local population had also decided it would be good to do this too. To say it was heaving would be an understatement.... but the Angel of Parking Spaces was with me and someone pulled out of a slot opposite the doors just as I drove through the gates. Thank you Angel! LOL I had planned on staying for dinner but the busy-ness of the place soon made me change that plan.... too many rude, impatient and ignorant people around, it just wouldn't have been enjoyable. So I grabbed a barrow (the last one by the doors - thank you again, Angel!) and started the rounds of the plants and into the barrow went: a lovely Lavendula; five assorted alpine plants and two Osteospernum (sp?). I couldn't find the decorative wall planter (menopausal brain fart moment) so I found a very obliging female member of staff who took me to where they were.... and she was also good enough to show me a selection of plants that would do well on a north facing wall, for which I thanked her. I wouldn't have had a clue, otherwise! LOL So into the barrow went the wall planter, three trailing plants and two flowering plants...... but please don't ask me what they're called because I can't remember. The Angel was still with me because, when I got to the tills, the large queue that had been there when I arrived had totally gone (thank you, again), so I paid, loaded up the car, put the barrow back by the door for the next customer and exited so the patiently waiting chap could have my parking spot. I guess his Angel was looking out for him too. LOL It was a very hot day on Sunday so, once I'd unloaded everything from the car, I had a cold drink and a sit down before doing much of anything else. Later in the day, when it had cooled off some, I planted up some of that days buys. I'll post pics in another post once the planter is up on the wall.

I've also had a cardmaking session. Nothing too taxing, just making up some kiddies cards from a kit I bought from Tesco a while ago.

Don't you just love those goggle eyes?

Very quick and easy to make.... and a lot of fun. All I had to provide was the foam pads and glue dots. I shall add numbers to the cards when I send them out. Am hoping that this will kickstart the cardmaking mojo, as it's been sadly lacking this year.

The sorting and moving things into the craft room has stalled again..... the garden can take the blame for that. LOL Oh, and I'm now waiting for my new specs to arrive, to complete the new look - hopefully they won't be too much longer.

Many thanks for all the lovely comments on my new look.... hopefully it hasn't scared too many of you. LOL Hope life is being kind and you're all having a good week. :0)

Better Late Than Never

Thought that was the best approach for Night Watchman last week, seeing as how I forgot about Tuesday UFO Night after getting carried away stitching my piece for the Challenge For A Finish Blog. So he got pulled out of the bag Wednesday night for a belated stitching session and, as I tired quickly Thursday afternoon, also sat and did some more on him then as well - especially as there were some rather good documentaries on the TV. Here's what he looks like now:


It's good to see this growing nicely......... especially as there won't be another new large start until after he's finished.

Thursday night was Sea Stars SAL night and I didn't feel I got a huge amount done so sat and did more on Friday night as well. Here's where I got to with that:

Would have liked to have finished that larger motif but didn't quite manage it. Never mind, it should get finished this time round and hopefully a few more smaller motifs along with it too. :0)

Saturday DH and I went into the Town Centre determined to finally get me a new mobile phone. My old one has served me well but the battery has been slowly dying for some time, meaning it developed a nasty habit of switching itself off whenever it felt like it - not good when I'm on my own down the High Street and want the reassurance of knowing I can contact DH if I need to. A visit to Car Phone Warehouse later and one dinky little flip-lid silver Nokia with a basic camera, Bluetooth capability and MP3 wotsit was chosen and paid for. Not bad for just under £20.00, thanks to an offer they had on and a trade-in of my clapped out old phone (Bye bye little phone). Now all I've got to do is learn how to use the darned thing and its gizmos..... LOL. Next was a visit to the Health Food Shop to stock up on lots of healthy organic goodies, then home. When we'd put the shopping away and had some lunch we had a trip out to Uncle Henry's Farm Shop for more goodies from there, then home again.

That night I picked up the CFAF piece and completed it. Yay! Two Challenge pieces stitched - just the finishing and one more Challenge piece to go. After changing my mind several times on how to finish the Monthly Challenge piece I've now settled on one and hope to get that done some time tomorrow. The CFAF piece has to be a heart shape, so that's decided - just need to decide exactly how I want to achieve that/what look to go for. Will post pics as soon as it's OK to do so. :0)

Sunday it was really cold and didn't tempt me out of doors at all. DS and DH disappeared off to help with the Wilton Get-In at the theatre (another amateur group in the area). No stitching while they were out though: I've really got into my latest book, Hiding From The Light by Barbara Erskine, and have spent quite a bit of time with my nose well and truly stuck into that. LOL Not much choice about that though, as my computer suffered some kind of glitch whilst DH was out, tried to reboot then crashed and then wouldn't boot up again. Aaaaaaarrrrggghhh!!!! DH had it apart after he got home: hoovered out the dusty bits, checked all the electrical connections with a meter (all normal), waggled a few bits then put it all together again. This time it decided to play nice and booted up OK so he cleared out all the Temp Files etc then ran a scan on it - all is OK there and it seems to be running fine now so we have no idea what the problem was. Fingers and everything else crossed that it stays that way! I did a little stitching on my ornie for the Christmas Ornie Challenge in the evening.

DH had Monday and today off, using some of his holidays. Monday was jobs day whilst DH pottered around getting a few things sorted: picking up his prescription and getting it filled at the Chemist, popping to Aldi and the like. Alex came for a natter in the afternoon and brought a few things to show: her finished patchwork/embroidered piece, which was gorgeous, and a knotwork garden piece that is stitched with french knots in variegated threads which was very pretty and really effective (both Embroiderers Guild projects). She also brought some bargain felt kits she'd bought from the Viking Loom in York. These were felted pics: four were of seasonal flowers and the fifth of a lily - all are designed to be embellished with embroidery to give them detailing. Can't wait to see them finished as they will look amazing. I will have to start remembering to take pics to show!

Today has been a bit of an off day for me so I spent it at home pottering and stitching whilst DH had trips out: down the High Street for a haircut and to do a little shopping, then to Wickes and Screwfix to get some DIY bits, for us and my DSis, followed by a Governor's meeting in the early evening. After the past couple of days stitching the Christmas ornie is really starting to take shape now, so that'll soon be another piece needing finishing. Yay! After all the Challenge pieces are completed I will be able to concentrate on some other smalls I want to do for Clare's Miss-Tree and for Stitching For A Cure...... plenty to keep me busy when DH goes off to Italy again next week. Yes, despite saying that the last few trips should be the last up pops another one. :0( At least it won't be for long (Monday to Wednesday) so I shouldn't complain....... especially as DS will be out in the evenings, which means that I'll be in charge of the TV remote and can finally watch some of those DVD's I bought in the Amazon sale. LOL You're welcome to join me for the veg out ladies - just bring your favourite nibbles and your stitching. :0)

Clare: it wasn't Ashby-de-la-Zouch - Ashby is our local High Street. This town was originally separate villages, of which Ashby was one, which all grew and merged into the one town due to the growth of the steelworks (there used to be several, all major employers, and they built housing for the steelworkers - now there's just the one). It used to be a boomtown, believe it or not, and was the country's youngest town until Milton Keynes was built. How's that for a potted local history lesson? LOL

Well it's Tuesday UFO Night again so I'd best be off to get some more done on NW - got to keep on the right side of Mr Stick. ;0)

Many thanks for taking the time to visit. Hope you're all having a productive stitchy time. :0)