Anniversary and my Dad's stitching

We had a wonderful weekend away on our ten year anniversary. We stayed in a hotel called The Samling in Ambleside in the Lake District and it was just perfect. Here are a few snaps of our room and the great view we had from our window:





I have never stayed anywhere so posh in my life! The men came up to you with umberellas when you stepped out of your car so you wouldn't get wet whilst you walked up the steps! Apparently it was where William Wordsworth used to go and pay his rent. Oh, and Tom Cruise stays there quite a bit apparently!

Whilst in the Lakes I decided to take a trip to Fobbles which I have heard so much about on Su's blog. After following the Tomtom to the wrong place and phoning them up for directions, we finally did arrive and who should be there, surprise, surprise... but Su herself who was helping out with the stocktaking. This was a great surprise and it was so great to meet Su at last. I have stitched an exchange for her quite recently and am a great admirer of her work. She does some "unique" stitching. I managed to get a pic of us both:



Can I also say what a great place Fobbles is as well? They have everything to suit my taste from gorgeous fabrics to French Sajou bits and bobs to charts from the USA. Superb shop and well worth the visit. I had a little spend. Well, it was my anniversary after all!

Now my lovely Dad has been burning those needles again on my "I am Half Sick of Shadows" piece and has completed another page. Here is his update that he sent me:



How super fast is he??? Go Dad go!!

I have finished the stitching for one of my pifs and just need to "finish" it. One down, four to go. I am planning on doing one a month if I can then I will send them all out together. As they are gifts, I cannot show the pics yet.

I am sure there must be more to share but it escapes me right now. So have a good week everyone and happy stitching.

Drawn Thread from Cathy!

I have not been a very healthy bunny of late. My boy was unwell all last week with conjunctivitis and I have now got it. So I have sore, bloodshot eyes and feel like someone has punched me in the eye and nose and generally feel rubbish. So when this beautiful exchange arrived yesterday you can imagine how much of a "pick me up" it was. Cathy had recently organised a Drawn Thread exchange and she happened to be my partner. I was stunned by the awesome finishing on this piece and amazed by all the lovely goodies:









She sent me two charts off my wishlist, two skeins of Crescent Colours, box of pins, chocolate and coffee and a lovely card as well. Cathy, you know me so well and Thank You from the bottom of my heart.

I am trying to do the rounds on the blogs and I always read my commentators' blogs first before anyone elses so I'll be popping your way shortly.

Happy stitching everyone. I am working on some pifs this week and also gathering supplies for the Birthday exchange. xx

Nuneaton, BP, Christmas ornie and DT exchange

Nuneaton meet up March 2009

Here is a little slideshow of our meet up in Nuneaton. Everyone brought their finishes and wips to exhibit and there were some real beauties! It was so inspiring to see all the wonderful work. Great to meet new people too and to see some old friends!! It was a great weekend and I'll definitely do it again. Thank you Clare for organising it all.

I worked hard on my BP whilst I was there and it helped to get me going again as I was in a bit of a slump before I went. I have worked out that if I stitch three motifs a month and then stitch four every third month then I will get this sucker finished by the end of the year. So this is my plan. I am on target to do this now. Here's my progress on her so far:



And I also worked on my March ornie for the Christmas ornie challenge. I am stitching these up first and then making them up altogether at the end:



My Drawn Thread exchange arrived in good time to Becky K in OK! I am really pleased with the finishing on this piece. I saw someone do a mattress pincushion and stitch the sides so this is what I did.







The Drawn Thread
Spot of Spring
36 count Belfast antique white linen
DMC Threads

I want to thank all of you for your kind words from my last post. It means so much to me that there are sincere people out there who really do care enough to take the time to build me up. Things are okay at the moment. We are trying to keep our heads down really. The ex boss is in serious trouble though as someone has blown the whistle as it were.

Next weekend is our ten year wedding anniversary and we are going staying in a very swish hotel in the Lake District - just for one night. Really looking forward to that.

This week I am planning on starting something for the Birthday exchange which is coming up in the next few months. I have an idea of what I am going to stitch. Just need to gather supplies. Has anyone signed up for the new Papillon Creations SAL "Castles in the Air"?? It looks really pretty. I have purchased both the cross stitch and speciality version but the speciality version looks very complicated to me. I haven't even started last years one yet although I do have it all kitted up ready to go.

Hope you all have a lovely week. xx

Last month...

Last month has been a busy and strange month. I seemed to be doing a lot of stitching and lost my mojo a bit. I have some lovely projects and SALs on the go but have been struggling with the motivation to get going on any of them. I think I may have taken too much on at the start of the year so I am going to have to cut back on a few things. I have not signed up for the second round of the Prairie Schooler exchange for example and although HOE are running some great exchanges at the moment, I have resisted signing up for any of those too. I am doing a Drawn Thread exchange which is due out a week tomorrow so I'll be having a break from exchanges after that I think. I need to get on and start my pifs too as Elisa sent hers to me last week.

So here's the PS exchange that my recipient received from me.

Prairie Schooler exchange





Here's my finished "mustard scarf" I started. Not the best pic but I hope you get the idea. This was a freebie from Ravelry.

My Mustard scarf



Here is Elisa's wonderful pif that she sent me. It is my first circular pinkeep and is so cute. Some great extras too. Thanks Elisa.

Elisa's Pif



I do have a pic of my biscornu from february too but as usual my camera is on the blink so will have to wait to download it.

Now, I mentioned this last month has been a strange one. There are some things happening to our family at the moment that are quite bad. If I told you details you'd think we were in the middle of a thriller film. That may sound overly dramatic but non the less true. One thing is that our "best man" has turned against us (for no rashional or apparent reason) and has been sending both of us some pretty nasty hate mail and is set upon ruining our reputations and confidence. He has cut himself off from us and hopefully we won't hear from him again. It has been extremely hurtful and hard to bear and very tiring to boot. The other thing which I can't share a lot about is to do with dh's last job. He left there due to some rather unscrupulous business practices (let's say) and his ex boss has just been arrested and charged and the police want dh to make a statement. However, doing so, could put us in a (let's say) dangerous and vulnerable position. You get the idea. Sounds like a drama right? So all in all, we've been having a tough month of things. To top it off, one of our close friends has been taken into hospital with blood clots in his leg and lung and has a shadow on his heart. So taking all of this into account, it is probably no wonder that I have very little motivation to stitch or blog which is why this post has been a long time coming. It has left me feeling extremely drained and dh has been away for most of this year which hasn't helped. I have also "left" facebook because of some of these things and other reasons too so sorry to all the stitcher facebookers out there.

Thank you so much for the awards. I got one from Sally and one from Elisa. They mean so much to me to know that I have been thought of by you guys. I pass it on to my regular commentors.



I am away next weekend with some of the Jayne's Attic crew on their yearly meetup. Hopefully, it will give me the refreshment I need and the motivation to get back into my stitching. Hope you are all doing a bit better than me at the moment.

xx