Enjoying, 17!

Hello, 

Enjoying, and with disbelief, that daughter celebrated her 17th birthday on Friday!

Daughter has a habit of never being at home for her birthday. 

Her birthday usually falls during the autumn half term and sometimes we have been

 away as a family but last year daughter was away on a school trip so we didn't 

see her at all on her 16th birthday. 

This year she was at a two-day football tournament in Cambridge. We eventually 

caught up with her late afternoon on her birthday.  

Next year she has vowed that she will spend all her 18th birthday with us, and 

has already requested that brothers must be present too.  

Enjoying Cambridge in all its autumnal glory. 

We used to live here...I miss it. 

Enjoying two football matches, daughter in action .... playing central 

defence for a change and outrunning the forward!

Enjoying mid air antics to clear the ball - number 6!

Enjoying her cake belatedly. I had promised to bake her favourite birthday cake but 

being away for two days scuppered these plans. 

Enjoying the reflections on my new candle holder.  

Enjoying more of those autumn views and late sun from the bedroom 

windows as I vacuumed and dusted.

Enjoying all those nostalgic moments invoked by dusting my dressing table - 

daughter has brought back these tins for me from her school trips, she knows my taste!

Enjoying the possibilities these little goodies promise - bought from 

John Lewis in Cambridge. Definitely a rosy, Christmas theme going on! 

Enjoy your weekend.

xXx

This weekend...

Hello

What a gloriously warm, sunny weekend it has been - and I have made the most of it. Did you see the lunar eclipse last night? I put my alarm on and then lay in bed watching it - quite spectacular!

Today, a few random photos of the weekend and a few accompanying words

Umm, I'm not really a fan of Halloween so why on earth, I ask myself, am I cross stitching

 Halloween motifs? I think I was just drawn to the zingy and fluorescent colours (a devil to photograph to get a true depiction of colour). 

Sitting outside reading and eating lunch. 

We bought crumpets for the first time in years - toasted and dripping with butter of course.

And then of course, buttery fingers on the lens of my camera lends a soft focus to subsequent photos!!

The lens cover is broken on my Nikon, in fact, I'm a little disappointed with it because

 I have only had this camera 3 years and it is is limping along now - the zoom has a

 mind of its own which makes for tricky photography!

I desperately needed a new peg bag. 

No, I don't usually store my pegs in a bowl - this is where I threw them while 

I used the old bag as a template. 

The peg bags I saw in the shop were incredibly flimsy so I decided to make a new one. 

(please excuse my shadow)

I made kitchen curtains for our last house with this material.

 It was a complete fluke that the stripes matched up down the front of the bag. 

I didn't intend to spend long on this project - I had a football match to watch. 

(Daughter has now been signed with a local Midlands city senior Ladies team - YAY!) 

That looks much better!

Goodness! Given the muck in the bottom of my old peg bag

 I wonder my clothes ever came off the line clean!

I spent several hours chopping back the hedge at the bottom of the garden - 

this is in the field at the back of the hedge and the pile of cuttings on the left 

(no, that is not also a hedge even though it looks like it) is as 

high as the hedge on the right! 

It was lovely in the late afternoon sun in the field. 

Hope you had a good weekend. I'm looking forward to seeing lots of Yarndale posts!

xXx 

Richard III and my 3 day weekend

Hello,

I was lucky enough to enjoy a three day weekend this weekend - and it has been a pretty busy one, a complete contrast to last weekend! And what a contrast of activities too!

On Friday a friend and I went to the NEC to the Hobbycrafts, Sewing and Knitting Show.

 I had never been to a show like this before and my goodness, there was a whole array of

 very tempting goodies to buy - and a fair number of people even had shopping trolleys with

 them to carry their purchases!

 I thought I was very restrained buying two DMC cross stitch kits

 and two other small craft kits. 

Oh, and a light complete with a magnifying glass and large clip to hold an embroidery hoop. I can't believe I haven't bought one of these before, considering the time I have spent sewing/knitting 

over the years, and sadly (and I hate to admit this!) my eyesight isn't as good as it used to be!

I'm hoping this new light will last me many years. 

On Saturday, daughter and I tried out an orienteering course, not very far from us. It was in a

 beautiful location, that I didn't know existed. 

Daughter has recently started orienteering in an endeavour to maintain her interest in cross country running; and she has a big race coming up so needs all the practice she can get. The course took us 1 hour 45 minutes. I can see the  growing attraction to orienteering - fresh air, exercise, discovering new places, and relying on your map reading skills to work out where you are - not easy in dense woodland. 

Saturday afternoon we picked up both boys from University - so the poor washing machine is on

 over drive at the moment - and plenty more washes to go too!

Daughter had football this morning...

and Richard III grabbed our attention this afternoon. 

 Elder son and I drove to a village to watch the procession of Richard III's remains from Market Bosworth to Leicester. I was surprised by how many had come to watch. 

We only had a fairly quick glimpse of the cortège as it passed, but it did feel like we were

 observing an incredible piece of history. 

 

 And I thought I would finally finish with a photo of the view from my office window, taken one

 day this week. It's not a particularly inspiring view but that glimpse of blue sky every so often, 

during a working day lifts my spirits no-end!

Hope you had a great weekend and I wish you a good week, whatever your plans!

xXx

Hello 2015!

Hello,

Happy New year to you all and I hope you all had a cheery, peaceful Christmas.

The boys returned home from University a few days before Christmas and as you can imagine it has been great fun having them home again - despite the 7 loads of washing they brought home with them (this did include bed linen!).

We had a relaxing Christmas, but alas the snow arrived one day too late to make it a white Christmas. The snow fell heavily on Boxing Day evening  - we had tickets to the theatre and when we finally arrived home late in the evening our car struggled the last few hundred yards to our door.

The snow hung around a long time, it didn't melt until New Year's Eve. However, the roads and pavements were very icy, so hardly pleasant conditions for venturing out either by car, cycle or foot.

Oh dear, that means we will just have to sit in front of the fire - what a terrible shame!!

(A grainy photo taken late in the day)

We have had some beautiful clear days with lovely bright sunshine - and this is the view

that greeted me several times when I opened the curtains in the morning.

Please excuse the washing line and football goal that completely ruin the charm of this

 photo - we have a hard working garden and thankfully you can't see the football goal

 and the huge rebound net on the other side of the garden!

(And talking of bright clear days - did you see the International Space Station whizzing by on Christmas Eve? Incredible to think men were flying above us at such speeds!!)

I do find that at this time of year I feel a bit guilty though, because as the Christmas
holiday rolls on, I tend to get lazier and lazier. 

My excuse is that this is the only time of year when I am quite so sofa-bound. This inactivity culminated in me spending much of New Year's Day sat in the armchair cross stitching - this was pure, unadulterated luxury, a whole day spent stitching - how often does that happen?

And you'll never believe what I was making?

Christmas decorations!! Nothing like getting myself prepared for next Christmas!

On New Year's Day I completed this Santa...

... which would partner nicely with the snowman I had completed just before Christmas.

 I find these little kits ideal for making into Christmas cards and are great when you

wish to complete a project quickly or want some small stitching to take on

 holiday with you. The kits come with everything you need but when I'm making little

decorations I substitute the aida for evenweave fabric as it is much softer and more pliable,

making it easier to work with.

I had already purchased some gorgeous backing fabric - a rich blue decorated with white

 snowflakes - and spotty ribbon and buttons.

So this afternoon I hauled out my sewing machine from the bottom of my wardrobe,

set up station on the kitchen table and set to.

 Santa was completed first.   

Then it was time for Snowman. 

I couldn't take a photo of them in situ on our little tree because it was too dark by the time
 I had finished.

Sadly these two will be taken down and packed away tomorrow but at least I've

 finished them in plenty of time for Christmas 2015!!

On to the next project....

Happy New Year!!

xXx 

My 3 year table runner!

Hello again,

Yes, I was pretty happy yesterday because I finished a Christmas table runner that I 

started 3 years ago! I'm so happy to finish an uncompleted project.

This was a pretty simple runner - I bought a selection of Christmassy fabrics off the market at a very reasonable price and literally cut rectangular/square shapes from the fabric and sewed together in a very rough and ready patchwork fashion. 

My aim was then to quilt it but that went disastrously wrong and I ended up unpicking all the quilting stitches and I finally decided on just using an old flannelette sheet as wadding to give it a bit of body and folded the plain green backing fabric over to the top side to act as an edging. 

 

Please don't look too closely as the edges are not straight!  

It's quite long! 

It's far from perfect but it will brighten up our table and it is FINISHED - YAY!

I also finished four cross stitched Christmas cards - two of which are now winging their way to far corners of the globe! The other two are staying nearer to home.

And my final completed project for now was this little cross stitch kit purchased from Hobbycraft, I think last year, which I made up into a little hanging ornament with a few added embellishments. 

 

 I enjoyed making this so think I may make a detour home from work one evening this week and call in at Hobbycraft to see if they have any other little kits of interest. 

 I am enjoying all the project ideas I see bloggers sharing on line - it gives me so much inspiration.

 I hope your Christmas project making is going well - have a good week

xXx