An Owl and More Flowers

Well here is the Night Watchman update and, when I added the pic to my Webshots album and compared it to the previous one, there's actually been more progress than I thought: I set myself a goal of stitching all along the top edge to the opposite corner before going on holiday - goal achieved. Yay! I'll be taking this and the small Cleopatra kit with me. I'm not sure how much, if any, stitching will actually be done whilst we're away - we tend to have evenings playing Trivial Pursuits and nattering with Uncle, Aunty and cousin (with liberal quantities of wine and nibbles always available for those who want to partake) - but at least I'll have a choice of pieces if there is a chance to sit and stitch.

I've made a token start of the holiday packing but can't do any more until DH is here, so I know what he wants to take - normally he would have today off as well but he had to go into work this morning because the Italians are over here again and he had to be there for the morning meeting with them. The problem is the weather is nice at the moment but it isn't guaranteed to stay that way, so what shall we take - mostly summer or mostly winter clothes? Oh, the joys of holidays in England. ;0) LOL

Thought I'd follow up with a few more pics of my garden. As we step out of the back door and face down the garden this is the area we first see, which is to the right of the air raid shelter. DH put the pots on the board hoping it would deter the slugs and snails from eating them but, as you can see, it hasn't worked. Look closely and you will see an orange tub in the top right corner of the pic: that's the beer trap, which is highly successful. I don't like killing critters but we can't have the slugs and snails thinking we're planting all these flowers just to give them a hugely varied diet - at least with the beer trap they die sozzled and happy!

The rose tree, called Friendship, was given to me for my birthday at least ten years ago by a friend - I knew her through her DS and mine being friends at school but, unfortunately, I no longer saw her after she started working full time. You can also just about see one of the lavender plants my Dad gave me - looking forward to that blooming later in the season. :0)

To the right of the above area is a path that leads down the garden, to the old shed, and the privet hedge between our garden and the neighbours. These pots sit along the wider bit of the path:

The little garden ornaments were gifts to DS, when he was little, by his Nana and Grandad (my Mum and Dad) . There's an owl, a bunny, a hedgehog and a tortoise (who is hiding behind the bunny). The large green pot has a bay tree in it, along with a rocket plant (DH likes that - I don't, yuk!) and some spring onions. The little brown pot has a fern in it that I hope will recover after it was frost damaged earlier in the year. The two bushy plants to the left and right of the big pot, plus the Lupin in the blue pot, are waiting to go in the front garden. That tatty old fencing is at the base of the privet hedge and just about helps to keep the neighbours rabbits in their garden. :0)

This is my Lady pot: She is to the right of the front door and is planted with the trailing violas we bought last weekend. Aren't they pretty? They are also doing much better than the cyclamen that was in there previously - another casualty of the late frosts.

This is the corner of the front garden:
The bluebells are trying to take over the place at the moment....... as are those pesky little dandelions. We haven't done much with the front as we need to do some work here: firstly putting in a new water pipe to the house, then having the driveway block paved. We'll be keeping that garden area around the edges of the walls though. :0)

That's all the pics of the bits that are fit to be seen, so I won't be boring you with any more of those. :0)

Right, that's me off to have a pre-holiday catch-up with Blog reading while DH has a sit down and a cuppa, then it'll be on with the packing.

Thanks again for visiting. Hope you all have a great weekend and an enjoyable week - be good while I'm away! ;0)

Our Garden

No stitchy pics today I'm afraid, as I can't show one piece until after it's arrived in its new home and I'm leaving a Night Watchman update until tomorrow. Thought I would share some pics of parts of our garden instead.

I've often mentioned Arthur and Guinevere and here they are:
Usually he looks a little sterner than this, so I guess he didn't mind having his photo taken. Guinevere, on the other hand, is looking a little coy. LOL
They are either side of the back door (well, actually, it's on the side of the house but leads into the back garden) and the flowers are Lemon Pansies.

At the back of the house we have a sun lounge that has double patio doors that look straight onto the back garden. We have a tiny patio area (to be extended) and these are the pots that share it with a couple of plastic chairs:

As you may be able to tell, I have a fondness for pansies and violas. :0)

These two pots (the one on the left is the new one we bought a couple of weekends ago) sit to the right and in front of the patio area, by the side of the old air raid shelter, but the narcissi are now past their best and the other flowers aren't yet properly established: Yes, we have an actual old brick built air raid shelter in our back garden, a remnant of WWII, when the local steelworks was on the Nazi bombing list. The old door (at the back) was bricked up, a new one put in facing the house and the floor partially filled in so it could be used for storing things. I guess it was decided it was too much hassle to knock it down because of the solid concrete roof - we also use it for storage but most of it is hidden under a mass of ivy, honeysuckle and winter flowering jasmine. :0)

This is the little bit of planted area at the bottom of our garden which is between DH's workshop to the left and the old shed to the right:

If you look closely you may just see my Green Man peeping out from all that mass of greenery. There are also bluebells and even some white ones (harebells? though they didn't quite make it into the pic). My Dad gave me the shrubs a couple of years ago - don't ask me what they are though, I can never remember, but they'll be covered in small pinky/red flowers a little later in the season - and since we put the Green Man up they've just gone mad. Look again and you may even see those triffids I mentioned in my last post. LOL

There's much more garden but it needs a lot more work doing to it before it's fit to be shown here - we've had a long-term problem with ground elder and have been trying to sort that out before going ahead with any new planting - so now you know why we have so many pots to satisfy my flower cravings. ;0) I prefer gardening without chemicals but DH is a weedkiller fiend..... I've had to admit defeat and give in to the inevitable because continually digging it up hasn't worked so far and we're just not able to keep doing it. If anyone knows the best stuff to zap this weed with please let me know.

On the car front: we are now owners of one Honda CR-V........ or, at least, we will be when we get back from our holiday. They can't get it serviced, valeted and the paperwork sorted in such a short time span, so we decided it was best to let them hang on to it for the week we are away as it will also give them time to fit a towbar to it. There isn't a problem: DH decided to keep the Trooper anyway, for going to work in, until he can find a smaller, more economical car. Due to the state of the roads and the layer of corrosive muck that the cars get covered in on the works it's made him adamant he's not taking the new car anywhere near there - can't say I blame him really as I've seen what it's done to the Trooper's bodywork over the years. Boys and their toys though, eh? ;0) LOL

Guess that's about it for now........ if you've got this far you deserve a medal. :0)

Oh, nearly forgot! Kyri: if it's the Love Is You piece you were asking about it's by Carol Tinson of Heirloom Embroideries. It was a Limited Edition piece (only so many available) and, if I've remembered rightly, was only available through her Yahoo Forum for a short time.

Many thanks for taking the time to visit and for all the lovely comments girls, you really do make my day. :0)

A Tuesday UFO Night Update

Well, despite the JA/S&S Forum having technical glitches, the regular Tuesday UFO Night went ahead as normal......... I tell you, that Julie and Mr Stick are real hard task masters. ;0) LOL Here's where I left off:

Not as much progress as I'd have liked but my eyes were tired last night, so the 1 over 1 was a bit hard on them and took longer to do as a result. Still progress is progress. :0)

I actually had a late start with my stitching last night too. While we were out car hunting on Sunday we spotted one we liked but couldn't go back on Monday for another look because I wasn't feeling up to it. So, last night DH had a flyer from work, picked me up and we went to the garage to give the car a test run. We liked it even more after that and got them to take details of the Trooper so they could give us a trade-in price for it. When we'd done there we decided, as we were going to drive past it anyway, to stop and call in at the Malt Shovel for our tea - the steak pie, chips and veggies were very nice and made a change from my usual choice of salmon.
The garage phoned this morning with a trade-in price and DH is now deciding what to do next - fingers crossed we will have a new car very soon (as in: before we go on holiday on Saturday!). :0)

I realised after posting last night that I forgot to include a pic of the card I sent to Helen, although I guess most of you have already seen it on her blog already - but because I haven't got any other stitching pics to share yet I thought I'd post it anyway:
Here's one I also made and sent to Dawn, as she also had an operation recently:
I hope it arrived OK and that she's recuperating well.

I've got a new project prepared, ready to take with me on holiday in case I get bored with Night Watchman and want a change. No, not one of the ones mentioned in a previous post (I love your idea of how to choose which one Helen - may try that after I get back, if I still can't decide) but another kit from my stash. It's a small'ish piece by Lanarte called Cleopatra .Yes, I know.......... another Egyptian piece. All I can say is I'm a glutton for punishment, although this one is waaaaay smaller than ET, so won't give me as much hassle............ hopefully! LOL

Well, if I'm ever going to have that Blog catch-up I'd best get on with it - last count there were over 50 new posts to read! What have you all been up to? ;0)

Hope you're all having the same lovely weather I'm enjoying at the moment. Thank you for visiting. :0)

Bank Holiday Weekend

I forgot to share pics of the new goodies I received on Friday morning - Plum Street Samplers charts I'd pre-ordered from Jayne: A bit of a surprise, as I didn't expect them to arrive for a while yet. I so love the tongue-in-cheek type of humour in these designs. :0)


The BH weekend got off to a good start with the arrival of more new stash on Saturday morning, my May's Monthly Clubs from Jayne's Attic:

Another lovely rainbow of colours and the fabric is another lovely one. :0)

So what did we get up to over the weekend then? Well, the short version is: a wander down the local High Street to post a couple of packages, do a little shopping and have dinner at the Il Sorriso cafe, followed by a couple of house jobs on Saturday; dinner out at a local garden centre with some plant buying (flowers and veggies) after, then a look round a couple of local garages at cars, then potting up the plants in the evening on Sunday; a quieter day Monday, as I was feeling very arthritic and had to take pain killers, so I finished the making up on a stitched piece - DH mowed the lawn and did a few other jobs in the garden. After such lovely weather and so much time spent in the garden the brown recycling bin is well and truly full, so it's a good job it's emptied this week! Unfortunately, despite all the attention it received, the garden still looks like there's a triffid or two out there. :0)

The Monthly Challenge piece, the Caron Keeper, I stitched last month has safely arrived in it's new home with Helen, so I can now post some pics. Here's a view of the front: The fabric was an unlabelled piece from my stash (28ct, I think, and a sort of mix between milk chocolate and milky coffee - difficult to describe) and the thread is Carrie's Creations Polar Bear. The edges are decorated with cream Mill Hill beads and I made a little hanging loop from the same beads too.

The back view:
I added a little "Made with Love" charm close to the hanging loop but you can't quite see it in the pic - I'm still learning as I go along with this digicam/photography lark. Each time I picked this piece up I kept thinking of Helen, so knew I had to send it to her. I was very nervous about it though, I must say, and am so happy she likes it. :0)

The stitched piece I finished on Monday is all wrapped, packaged and addressed ready for a trip to the Post Office, to be sent to its new home. I'm very nervous about this one too as it's the first time I've used the sewing machine to finish a piece - me and sewing machines don't get on that well! I'll post a pic when I know it's arrived.

The JA/S&S Forum is still not recognising me as a member so it's full-on cold turkey here at the moment and it's not nice. :0( I miss reading the news and seeing all the pics of the beautiful pieces everyone has been stitching. Those Yahoo forums just aren't the same, so I hope the technical glitch is fixed soon because I'm really missing everybody. :0(

Stitching wise: I've been working on Night Watchman since finishing the gift piece but I'll leave an update pic for another time. It just doesn't seem to grow very fast.

I've managed to get behind with Blog reading and commenting again, with being out-and-about so much, so hope to have a catch up in the next couple of days.

Thanks again for taking the time to visit - hope you're all having a good week. :0)

Don't Panic! Don't Panic!

That's what I'm busy telling myself right now in true Corporal Jones/Dad's Army fashion. Why? Because, due to changing servers, the JA/S&S forum is currently down. Shrieeeeek! No stitching buddies chat since yesterday afternoon and I'm having withdrawal symptoms and going through separation anxieties here - so hope it's back up and running soon because I'm missing everybody. Sob!

So, what do you do when you can't have your daily forum fixes? Well...... there's Blogging catch ups and crafting and, if you're feeling really desperate......... eBay! Eheheh. ;0)

In the end I wasn't in the mood for the planned cardmaking session yesterday but the mood did take me today, so I made this:I don't actually know anyone who is retiring any time soon but there do seem to be a few ready for the off at the steelworks, from what DH tells me, so it will probably come in for one of the chaps there.

This one is all set for our Wedding Anniversary in July:

That's providing I haven't panned him in the meantime, that is. ;0) LOL Panned = heavy based frying pan/skillet to head, in case you were wondering. Unfortunately you can't swear blind to the police officer that it was an accident: "What, he hit his head on the floor a dozen times?" says the PO. "Oh, yes Officer, it was the weirdest thing - he just kept bouncing" says the wife. LMAO Only joking: if I haven't done it in the last 23 years it's unlikely I'll do it now. Anyway, knowing me, I'd be more likely to drop the darned pan and break my own toes before getting anywhere near DH! LOL

Another of yesterday's plans that didn't happen was stitching the central motif on the For Amanda SAL. When it came to it I just didn't feel like tackling it, so picked up a small 1 over 1 piece I started some time ago and stitched on that instead. That's another one I can't show you though because, if it turns out OK when I've completed it and done the finishing, it'll be another one going off to a new home. :0)

Well DS announced yesterday that he'd had a look at the holiday calendar at work and he can have the first two weeks in August off: where are we going? There was me and DH thinking he'd finally decide to trot off with his mates for a holiday, leaving us to have a quiet week or two somewhere by ourselves, taking things at our own pace, and at a time when the kids would all be safely back in school. Don't get me wrong, we love kids (had one of our own, enjoy seeing our nephew and nieces and I even used to be a playgroup supervisor) but we've got to the stage now that we would prefer to go places and not have to listen to someone else's badly behaved little monster/s having a tantrum when all we want is a quiet meal. DS didn't go off like that when he was little, so we don't see why we should have to put up with it from someone else's kid/s. We also don't want to have to avoid going to places at certain times just because we know it'll be heaving with families.
Help! I think we're turning into a pair of grumpy old f*rts! LOL

Weekend plans involve making sure everything we need for our week away at Rural Roosts is washed and ironed, ready for packing - so looking forward to the peace and quiet there. Must take the binoculars with us, as it's a birdwatching paradise. :0) Hopefully the weather will behave so we can get some gardening jobs done and I have a feeling DH may want to have a look at a couple of cars as well. Am pretty sure I shall also manage to fit in a bit of stitchy time here and there too. :0)

Thanks again for stopping by and for the comments - hope you all have a great weekend. :0)

Beltane Blessings.....

....to one and all - hope you are all having a happy May Day. :0) Here's a lovely pic I snagged from the internet of a pretty May Queen.It's been a lovely sunny day so far and the birds have been singing their hearts out - a wonderful day to be alive and certainly one to be out in the garden, enjoying Mother Nature at her best, which I've been doing throughout the morning. :0)
For the curious out there here is a link about Beltane and how some Pagans may choose to celebrate this happy occasion. Oh and just to set your minds at rest, so you aren't left with any traumatising mental images: the only times I do sky clad is in the shower or bath 'cos I don't consider getting arrested for flashing my booty at the neighbours a great way of celebrating any occasion. ;0) LMAO.

A great way of getting any day off to a good start is by receiving a stash parcel and here are some of the goodies I ordered from Thread Bear:

Can't show you the others as they're going to be pressies - the rest of my order will follow at a later date and I'll share pics of those when they arrive.

I completed the finishing on the Monthly Challenge piece last night - finally! Yay! I've taken a couple of pics but, as I said in my last post, I can't show them yet as the piece is off to a new home. This is the first time I've sent anything bigger than a stitched card to a fellow stitcher so I'm pretty nervous about it - all I can say is I'm quite pleased with how it turned out and just hope the recipient likes it.

The empty scroll frame (the one that had ET on it) is shouting louder and louder to me to fill it with a new project but the ditherer in me still can't decide which one it'll be. I've crossed this years L*K charts off the list because I haven't got all the threads needed and really don't want to go buying anything else now until after our holiday this month - it would be nice to take a little spending money with me. LOL There's the Papillon SAL, though that needs a floss toss on the COM Jonquil fabric before that can be started, but everything is kitted up and all set to go on LDS Rosemarkie, IC Tanglewood and Chatelaines Autumn Dusk......... those three are so different it's difficult to know which way to jump. Shout up ladies: which would you go for?

In the meantime, the perle thread for stitching the heart motif on the For Amanda SAL has arrived so I'm planning on tackling that some time today........ plus my card stash is calling, so a few cards will have to be made too.

Thanks for visiting and I hope your day is filled with Blessings and joy, whatever you are doing. :0)

Introducing.......

my new Tuesday UFO Night piece, Carol Tinson's Heirloom Embroideries Limited Edition Valentine design Love Is You. I last picked this up in February, so it's not my longest term UFO, but it was the one that shouted the loudest last night! LOL
Where I left off in February:
This is how it looks after a bit of attention last night:
It's stitched 1 over 1 (main reason it fell by the wayside - hard on my eyes before I got the clip-on magnifier) and is stitched on Permin 28ct Lambswool linen, using Victoria Clayton silk: Heart Wood (border, heart and diamond shape in capital L) and Kaalund silk: Poinsettia (everything else). Just another three or four UFO Night sessions should see this one finished........ another reason for choosing it, as it would be nice to get another piece finished and out of the way. :0)

Sunday was Reveal Day for the JA/S&S Monthly Challenge pieces. I haven't posted pics of my piece yet because: 1) I'm still finishing it and 2) when it is finished it's going to a new home and I don't want to spoil the surprise. No 2 has resulted in No 1, namely: because it's going to a new home I want it to be a really nice finish and that's been making me dither over choosing what to do. I am my own worst enemy sometimes! LOL
I have had a look at the album of all the girls' finishes and they are gorgeous! The variety of threads, fabrics, colours and finishes is always amazing and there are also plenty of "Now why didn't I think of that?" and "I'm definitely pinching that idea!" moments. I must say that, though I really liked all of the finishes, this month Terri's little banner really stole my heart, as it was both an unusual finish and just so pretty.

Many thanks for all the kind comments on my last post, they've really been appreciated. Monday was the first anniversary of my Dad's passing, so DH booked the day off and we went over to Doncaster for the day. After picking up my DSis we visited Rosehill to lay some flowers - of course it rained while we were there but stopped later in the afternoon. We spent some time in the garden then, doing a little weeding and planting up some pots with a couple of flowering bushes, setting some marigold seeds in a trough type planter and also planting two hanging baskets with strawberry plants - her first try at growing fruit, so fingers crossed they do OK. Dad would have approved - he did love his garden. :0)

I've wanted to spend some time out in my own garden since then but it seems to have done nothing but rain so far this week. OK, slight exaggeration - there have been some breaks in it - but everything is so wet and soggy out there it's making it impossible to do anything without getting wet through and/or muddy, so it's no fun. Guess I'll just have to stay in and stitch instead then! ;0)

A few bright spots today though: a pinkie from Jayne, containing the next batch of L*K Double Flips, arrived this morning. Yay! Then Kate from Thread Bear rang: the order I made back on the 17th has been awaiting delivery of two of the charts I'd ordered - unfortunately there's going to be a delay on them, due to waiting for them to be shipped from overseas, so in the meantime the rest of my order is being sent on. That means I'll be able to finish the middle heart motif on the For Amanda SAL when it gets here, as well as being able to get some birthday pressies organised. Double Yay!
Oh, and CRAM rang yesterday to say that my new PC tower was ready and DH popped there in his dinner hour today and picked it up. He's going to gradually transfer everything over for me from tonight so, hopefully, it'll all be done and ready to rock and roll by the weekend. Triple Yay! LOL

Right, if I'm ever going to finish the Challenge piece and send it off to it's new home I'd better go and get on with it!

Thanks again for all your kind wishes. I hope you are all having a good week. :0)