Long awaited update

 Dearest blog readers, I am lay in bed whilst I write this update. I am a wee bit poorly you see. Three weeks at work and I'm exhausted. I have a very sore throat - no doubt from all the talking I do in the classroom - and I am very bunged up and full of a cold. Hubby is away again so I am left to play the single, working mum again. Poor kids have had to entertain themselves this weekend as mum has been lay flat on her back in bed. Dvds to the rescue. Yesterday, I couldn't talk at all and dd made me a fine notebook to write all my messages in to her. Oh and a little bell to ring if I needed anything. They were so good. Today I am feeling a little better but need to take it easy so I can be right for work tomorrow.

Work. Such a harsh word for this job I have undertaken. I see it more of an extended hobby. It's really great. The pupils are great. The staff are great. The leadership is great. Even though I have been away from teaching for nearly nine years now, it s as if I have never been away. It is all coming back to me. Things that I get worried or nervous about don't actually happen. There are the natural stresses and it is very tiring. Unfortnately the drive in was made much worse last week as they shut some of the roads due to the two policewomen being murdered - it was in the news and it is on my way to work - so traffic was backed up and one day it took me an hour to get in whereas normally it would take 25 mins.

My brood have settled in really well as well and don't want to leave at the end of the day. They have really made that school their own and there is such a lovely sense of belonging there. It is like one big, happy family. So, so far so good. Just need to get some extra vits in me I think to keep the bugs away.

Onto crafing then.... I have been a busy bee this month it seems. Just when I thought I wouldn't get any time for stitching, here I am with a finish. This is Ann Taylor from Heartstring Samplery.

This was such a joy to work on. I coffee dyed my own fabric - Brittney I think it was - 28 count and used the called for DMC threads. Really nice to work on and I see Beth Twist has two lovely new ones out as well... ho hum... I also managed to finish a baby blanket for my friend who has just had a new baby boy. I am not too sure if the pink makes it too girly but hey ho - modern times and all that - I have bought her a little extra thing just in case she hates it. I am really pleased with it. I used Lucy's bobble edging from Attic 24 to border it and love the overall look of it. So here is my Elmer baby blanket:

It is mostly Stylecraft special with an odd square of Hayfield bonus thrown in for good measure. I have also started the japanese flower shawl/scarf I have been meaning to do for ages as well. All this time in bed hey??? This is using Debbie Bliss Angel which is a kidsilk mohair. I am using a 5 mm hook for these ones and guess what?? This one is going to be for me!!!!! No giving this one away I can tell you. I will finally own my own flower shawl. Now sure if I am going to make it triangular or straight yet. Time will tell. It took me a while to finally decide on how I was going to crochet this so I went with cream centres. Do you like it? Do you think it will look okay?

And lastly..... since this post is going to be my September entry into the Wipcocalypse, having finished the Ann Taylor, I thought I would show you which samler I am working on next....

It's the Elisabeth Lillie sampler! She is such a joy to work on. This is a reproduction sampler by McIntosh samplers and I am stitching her on 34 ct Legacy linen in Oaten Scone and using the called for DMCs. Hopefully, I will make more progress on her this year too. Some of you may be wondering where the picture is taken at the top of this post. It was taken a couple of weekends ago when the sun came out for a final peek before the Autumn breezed in. It is the top of Mam Tor which is quite near us. We took some crackers and cheese and a hot flask of coffee and butties and biscuits for the kids and trundled off for a walk up the hill. It was lovely and so nice to have some good quality family time. Here are a few more shots. There are lots of interesting artifacts up there as it is an ancient Anglo Saxon/Celtic site.

So thats me for now. Hope you enjoyed my little update. Now I am getting back to some stitching or crochet whilst I can. I wish I could go out as it is now officially Autumn I am told. Autumn being my absolute favourite season. Snuggly times and the smell of crisp fallen leaves and that smell of leaf decay in the air mingled with frost. LOVE it. Have a lovely Sunday one and all.

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A Very Quick Wipocalypse post

Just a quick one to post August 31st's wipocalypse post. I haven't managed to finish Ann yet and time is in very short supply at the moment. Life IS good though and as soon as I get some proper time, I'll write up all my goings on.

Here's Ann Taylor as she stands at the end of August. I have managed to complete the bottom section. Just the border to go now.

Thanks for looking!

Oooh another crochet blanket of gorgeousness!!

Don't mind if I do!! Here is my latest finish. I am soooo happy to have another finish under my belt before I go "back". Back to work that is. Now if I could just get Ann Taylor done as well....... oh and A Most Noble Pursuit and A Quaker Christmas and Helen Bell's Multiplication Sampler.... and ..... and.... oh you know.... all those ones I started way back in January....

But this will do for starters. I started it way back here.I was inspired by Lucy's blanket here although mine has two rounds in the centre not one. It is crocheted in Sublime Cashmerino Silk DK mmmmmm.... utter loveliness. Sublime indeed. Now I am manking a cushion to match withe the remnants. :)

I'll be back with an Ann update soon... very soon.

Muchas Lovas xxxxx

Summer 2012

I can hardly believe that this summer is nearly over! I have to say that this has been the best summer yet. Last year was a total washout. Weather wise it wasn't great. Kids were bored. Nobody was around. Holiday was, well, hard to endure. But this year has been great! Kids have played out lots and lots although there has been buckets of rain here and there. We have visited tons of people and been on several mini trips which has worked out brilliantly.

One day we headed up to Formby for a trip to the seaside and it was lovely. Golden, sandy beach. Hot sun. Buckets and spades. Warm sea. We could have been abroad.

One weekend we headed up to the Lake District for a mini trip and, once again, the weather proved glorious. We stayed in this lovely place in Eskdale. The food was great and staff were helpful and friendly.

We walked the kids up Irton Pike (one of the smaller mountains) and went to the beach and just crammed so much into 2 short days. It was wonderful. Just being together as a family and doing family things was refreshing and did everyone the world of good.

Wastwater views

View from the top of Irton Pike

A little spot of fishing in the river

Husband has been away a lot again and during one of his latest trips to Japan, I decided to do the four hour drive to South Wales to go and stay with some friends I haven't seen in a few years. It was just like visiting old relatives. They made us feel warm and welcome and it was a relaxed and restful time.

Llandovery in the evening

It is a beautiful part of the country and as our host's Uncle owns a lot of land and farm land down there we took ourselves off for a little visit.

There were plenty of dogs and puppies to go around and the children enjoyed the Quad bike rides and tractors!

Goodbye folks. Thanks for a lovely time. See you soon.

In between all the holidaying, we have visited Lyme Hall park, Staircase House (oldest house, now museum, in Stockport - well worth a visit) and Larkhill Place (victorian street and museum in Salford - free and definitely worth a visit). So, all in all, we have had a fun filled holiday and I am looking forward to getting us all back in to a routine.

Going back to work is going to be a major change for all of us this year. Daughter is moving to my school and son is just starting school as well so we will all be travelling together in the mornings. I am so looking forward to starting back to teaching. I have loved every minute of being a stay at home mum for the last eight years but I have a definite need to be doing something that takes me out of the home environment. I have developed a lack of confidence and insecurity and dependence on staying at home all the time. I became almost reclusive or was verging on it. This job opportunity has definitely come at the right time and has given me the kick up the butt I needed to move out and move forward in life. It is honestly God given and I feel well and truly blessed. It is a Christian school, which reflects all the values I want my kids to be taught, the staff are so supportive and it feels so very exciting. Am I prepared? No, not quite but getting there. Am I kitted up with uniform, children and myself? No, that'll be next week's job. Am I nervous? Oh yeah. Am I happy? Most definitely. A lot has happened to me this year but I can honestly say things are on the up and up.

So, it's onto pastures new and although I will do my very very best to keep up with stitchy and crochet projects, I think my posts will not be as many as they have previously been. I do hope though, that you will join me in my new ventures as I let you all know how it goes. I'll be back very soon with some crafty finishes. Thanks for the friendship and all the smiles.

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1st August Wipocalypse

It's been a while since I posted. Sorry peeps. Just been incredibly busy with children and summer hols and preparing to return to work - that sort of thing. I am okay though and enjoying the summer. So far we have picknicked, visited museums, baked, made friendship bracelets, decorated journals, watched "Spiderman 1, 2 and 3" several times over amongst other dvds during rainy days, visited the cinema, visited friends.... and were only in the second week!!!

In fact, I got so busy, I almost forgot that this month has TWO Wipocalypse posts!!! So I figured I better get my progress in pretty quick before the next one comes up.

I have been working steadily on Ann Taylor by Heartstring Samplery. I think I am just desperate to get at least one thing finished before I go back to work because I just don't know what sort of state motivation and energy wise I will be in once I go back. So here she is up to now:

A reasonable amount of progress I think.

And onto other crafty makes..... I learned to do the continental method of knitting! Quite by accident but seriously, this method makes me knit quickly!! I can knit fast. Well, faster than I was anyway. I don't feel like I am a knitter even though I have knitted longer than I have been crocheting, but this method is very much like crocheting and so cometh a lot easier for me. I learnt it whilst also learning how to do the log cabin knitted blanket which I was first inspired by Kirsten at Cozy Things who also provided a link to here which totally blew me away!!! So, although this little piece doesn't look like anything much now, I am hoping that it will do soon - very soon.

Crochet has had a little look in as well. I have been busy crocheting up some really simple squares that I want to make into a scarf with a nice edge along it. I was originally going to edge all the squares in cream but now I am not sure if a darker border might look better. Any ideas??

So that's me folks! Short but, hopefully, sweet. Thanks for all the lovely comments and bits of encouragement you send my way. See you all soon.

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Day out with the Girls and Flower Blanket Ta Da

On Saturday Lynn had organised a fab little meet up for some of the NH forum girls at Nimble Thimble near Oswestry. I took dd and Gran and Grandad had the boy for the day so I was able to go!! DD took knitting, a book, some stitching and some colouring in. I took my Ann Taylor and beavered away on her. It hasn't changed much since the last time I went so here are a few pictures of the shop from a couple of years ago.The shop is so quaint and set in the most stunning environments. As you can see these last pictures were not taken in the lush summer as it was on Saturday. The river was flowing, the grass and trees were green and lavender and flowers popped around each corner. It was stunning and I am sorry I didn't take more pictures on Saturday. It is a needleworker's haven and is filled will beautiful stitched pieces and some very unusual things too. If you need a day out then this is a great place to go.

And a few shots of US girlies!!

Tina, Leslie and Pat

Lynn's dd, Pat and Tina

Jane, Lindsay and Lynn

Michelle and Lily

Me and Ursh

Can I also add that Chris the owner made us all feel so welcome and treated us superbly! The food and cakes were most excellent and I would definitely go again should we have another meet up. Thanks so much for organising Lynn!

Finally, I have a photo of the Flower Blanket I have been making for dd. I could very easily, pop another few rows onto this to make it drape a bit more down the sides but it is fine for now and dd was harping on and on whether it was finished or not so I decided that, for now, I will take a wee break from it and let dd have some use of it.

I used Stylecraft Special in the following shades:

Candyfloss

Fondant

Wisteria

Raspberry

Cream

Violet

Grape

Lavender

Clematis

(I think that's the lot of them!)

Thanks for popping by to visit. Take care all.

ETA: The flower pattern is from a book which you can buy from this etsy seller:

here

It has the instructions in diagram form for the pattern and instructions for joining. She is a lovely seller and very easy and reliable to deal with.

July Wipocalypse post

I'm quick to get in my post this month! I have been working on Ann Taylor all week and have a fair bit of progress to show. Determined to try and get as many of these wips finished as I can, I have been beavering away, one at a time. I am loving this one. I especially am loving the eyelet alphabet I am working on right now. The fabric is my own coffee hand dyed though you probably can't see it properly in the picture. The original fabric was white (Brittney I think). I am using the called for DMCs.

Happy July 4th for our US friends and happy stitching/crocheting everyone else.

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Wonderful giveaway...

Pop on over to Nancy's blog for the chance of a wonderful giveaway.

Homey things

This week I have been busy baking these:

and these:

and I am feeling the pounds piling on!!

But most of all... I am so happy to have received this in the post today.....

My new petticoat!!!! I LOVE it!

Just thought I'd take a moment to share. What are your happy moments this week?

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Baby Blanket Ta Da!!

Well, it is only small - more like a car seat blanket or a pram blanket - not very big at all. But, a finish is still a finish. I did a lovely picot edge around it to finish it off and even managed to work out how to make the ripply edge straight. If you are doing Lucy's ripple pattern from Attic 24 then I worked 4 slip stitches along the peaks, 2 SC, 2 HDC, 2 DC, 2 HDC, 2 SC, 4 SS and just repeat it like that. Don't ask me about corners as I am rubbish at corners. Just try to put a few extras in with some chains!!

Anyways, here's the proof:

I'm on a roll here, better see what else needs finishing off. Take care all.
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