tracking progress....

Ok, this will probably seem really obvious to many of you and you will no doubt read this and think "What? Has she only just worked that one out?" Some things take a while to seep into my brain - there are too many other thoughts taking up space in there, thoughts such as "how many days have I left to meet that deadline at work?" to more  mundane ones such "what shall we eat for dinner tonight?"

But my little eureka moment dawned on me yesterday, while I was sat cross stitching, and this was it - isn't blogging a great way of tracking progress? And tracking progress of almost anything you care to consider from your crafting projects, book reading, gardening, changes round the house, to your growing children!

For me I guess I am mostly interested in tracking progress of my crafting projects as I have way too many unfinished projects as well as a stack full of projects and ideas yet to be started. But with pretty busy weekends of sports I don't get much time to craft (as I have said before).

Yesterday (Sunday) was an exception. I took my daughter to football and when I got home I sat down on the settee, took out my cross stitching and barely moved for the rest of the day (my husband cooks dinner on Sundays!). It was extremely self indulgent but I actually didn't have the energy to move, it was almost as though my body was saying "ok, that's it for now, let's sit and have a bit of a rest today". And the bonus of this was that firstly I read quite a bit of my book which I am enjoying and introduced here but also I managed to crack on with my cross stitching which I also blogged about here.

So here is the photo I blogged last week...

 

and here was a photo I took this morning after my lazy day yesterday.....

... quite a bit more red jumper has appeared. It isn't a large project, so I'm hoping to finish it within the next few weeks.

And I was inspired by a post I read recently, but I'm sorry I've forgotten whose it was, to pick a few spring flowers from the garden.

All quite small flowers individually but they give a big impact en masse.

So pretty....

I hope you had en enjoyable weekend - were you very lazy this weekend? It's fine for a change isn't it?

xXx

this week...

...hasn't seen much activity by me in terms of crafting or reading so first of all I thought I would show you a few photos of our little Easter decorations.

It's tricky to get a decent photo of them and I've had to move them to the kitchen to get enough light. On the right you can see one of the little hanging items I first showed you in this post.

I have managed to do a little bit more of my cross stitching this week. I started this kit some time ago - my daughter chose it once when we had a trip to Hobbycraft.

 

It's quite a cute kit and fairly easy to do. The kit came with aida but I prefer to use evenweave. 

This is a photo of what it should look like once complete.

And here is a similar kit I completed for my daughter a few years ago. In truth, the frame is actually silver, and so the blue mount and silver frame really complement the colours in the kit - I'm not always so successful in my choice of mount and frame!

In this close up you can see in the bottom right hand corner that I finished this kit in 2012  - I'm not sure why I always date my work in roman numerals.

Tomorrow night I have book club and guess what - according to my kindle I've read 4% of the book! So I've got a lot of reading to do tonight!! We are reading 'The Cuckoo's Calling' by Robert Galbraith (better known as JK Rowling - the worst kept secret in the literary field!)

My excuse for not completing 'The Cuckoo's Calling' was that I re-read 'The Book Thief' by Markus Zusak which I really enjoyed. I read it a few years ago for book club and I'd forgotten the story and as a few work colleagues were reading it I decided to read it again., Now my daughter is reading it too - and enjoying it. I'm hoping to see the film.

I also finished this book  'Bad science' by Ben Goldacre which was very entertaining. You will never listen again to another piece of media spiel based on one published study (such as this week's "eat 10 portions of vegetable a day") without a very critical eye.

So what have you been doing this week? Have you been reading? Or have you been heading towards the finishing line with one of your long unfinished craft projects?

Enjoy your day

xXx

yellows and greens?

Hello

Yesterday was the first Saturday in months when the young people in our family had neither a cross country race or a football match which was brilliant timing as several months ago, long before I knew the sporting timetable, a friend and I booked a day's workshop at our local yarn store to make a patchwork cushion.

We were both really looking forward to our patchwork day but oh my goodness, how stressful it was! The first stressor was to decide on material - not an easy task when there are 10 women in a well-stocked shop nudging and squeezing round each other while carrying rolls of potential candidates and trying to find coordinating patterns and colours. After some rather hurried deliberations, as the longer we took to decide the less time we had to sew, I decided to go for spring colours of yellow and green to match the bunting I made a year or two ago. Work in progress can be seen below.

We had 6 hours of patchworking and the time flew by - we hardly dare stop for lunch. We all worked so intensely and enthusiastically. A later photo of work in progress can be seen in the photo below, along with my friend's cushion cover  - she chose browns, creams with a hint of turquoise blue and it looked fantastic

We finally finished at 4pm. We left the shop, our completed cushion covers folded in our bags and walked out into lovely warm sunshine feeling slightly foggy in our heads - we had spent 6 hours focused solely on our sewing. It was such an extravagance for me to spend a whole day crafting but I did enjoy it and would love to do more - the challenge of a patchwork quilt beckons. 

BUT .... do I like my finished cushion? I'm really not sure. I'm not sure whether the colors go together/work/coordinate or not? What do you think? 

And just to finish this post - some photos of our elderly guinea pig on the patio today eating (*cough cough*) weeds, yes the patio needs weeding.

Here he is hiding under the table tennis table. 

And some beautiful roses from the children for Mother's Day.

I hope you have all had a lovely weekend. 

xXx

this week's books

Hello

My reading has been a bit slow the last couple of weeks. In the evenings I have that difficult decision to make - do I read or do I craft? Do you have the same dilemma? Except, of course, when I am tucked up in bed either at night or in the morning there is no decision to be made - out comes my book (and, as of late, my reading glassess too!)

At the moment I am reading the above book, 'Bad Science' by Ben Goldacre. Ben is a medical doctor who unpicks the scientific and medical claims made by many drug companies and other advocates of less conventional medical treatments. A whole chapter of his book is devoted to Gillian McKeith. This book is a highly enjoyable read; Ben introduces and explains the process for conducting scientifically sound trials of 'new' medical/nutritional treatments but in a way that lay people can understand. It will certainly change your thinking of all those sensational high impact articles in the media loudly proclaiming that Vitamin X or pill Z will make you more intelligent, live longer and give you a better love life!!

I recently finished the above book 'Brideshead Revisited' - I blogged about it here saying how much I was looking forward to it but in truth I was a bit disappointed with it.

Like many other converts to the kindle,I absolutely love mine. It is so convenient for reading in the dark, on those winter mornings when I am awake before the sun rises and great for popping in your bag - you never know when you might get a moment to read!

The book above is one I picked up from a charity shop, 'Now we are sixty (and a bit)' by Christopher Matthew.  The book cover has been designed to look a bit tatty. The book itself is full of amusing poems and pencil drawings. Here is one below.

And here is another example - you may just be able to read it.

And of course, being a lover of yarn, I do like the drawing below - the London underground marked out by wool!

Do you like reading? Have you a favourite book? What are you reading at the moment?

Happy reading

xXx

A nip in the air...

A beautiful morning - a sharp frost and bright sunshine

 

 

 

Wishing you a beautiful Monday morning!

xXX

Tools for a half

An update:  according to my watch I ran a PB of 1hour 57mins and 36 seconds!! A big surprise as I had decided that as I didn't feel 100% prepared for the race that I would take it gently!

Hello dear reader

Sometimes when I am struggling up a hill - note I didn't say "running" - I ask myself "why am I doing this?" It really does seem such hard work to keep fit as the years creep on to my age. But I do try to keep fit and one way I attempt to do this is by running. And occasionally madness completely overtakes me and I find I have entered a race.

A few weeks ago I had such a moment of madness and entered a half marathon - this will be about the 7th I will have run. So here I am getting ready for tomorrow's local half.

These are the 'tools' I take with me when I run.

1. Runinng shoes - I really need a new pair, so maybe I will buy a new pair once tomorrow's race is done, they are looking rather well worn and muddy (sorry!)

2. A pedometer - I wear this all the time so I pop this into my back pocket when I run.

3. My nike+ sportwatch GPS - I love this watch. I upload run data from my watch to the computer and can see where I have run, pace, elevation etc.

 So I think I'm ready for the off - tools at the ready!

xXx

One down, one to go

Hello dear reader,

Yes, I have at last finished one of my blue stripey socks. I have been having a bit of a break from my longer term project, the crocheted stripey blanket that you can see here. In the photo below I have just started the shaping for the toes.

I enjoy knitting socks and this is now my third pair {correction: 4th pair, I forgot about the first pair that I knitted that my daughter promptly decided to commandeer as her own!}. My sock knitting is my 'portable project' - a very handy project to have.

When it comes to sock knitting I always use Regia 4 ply wool as I find it quite hard wearing. This current pair were knitted using wool from Regia's Erika Knight range, this blue is called 'Kind of blue' shade 06454, but I do like the look of the colours designed by Kaffe Fassett.

I am so tempted by some of the lovely socks I see other knitters have made using other yarns but I am going to be very disciplined and not buy any more sock wool until I have knitted up the sock wool I have in my stash....and here it is.
 

And here I have a confession to make. Yes, I am one of those crafters/knitters/crocheters who has a far from healthy stash of wool, patterns, materials and most importantly ideas waiting to be made into completed projects. My confession is now public!

So I have reached the point with this pair of socks of  'one down, one to go'. I know some people talk of the 'second sock syndrome': they can't face having to knit a second sock after finishing the first but thankfully this has never been a problem for me.

So I knit my socks cuff down. I'd like to try toe-up but I am so familiar now with the cuff-down technique that I feel trying to master the toe-up method will take more time to master than I have available at the moment.

Do you like knitting socks? Do you knit toe-up? What is your favourite sock wool?

Have a good weekend!

xXx