Park picnics

I have been moping around the last couple of days feeling very poorly and very sorry for myself. You know how it starts with a bit of a sore throat and you think, "Ack!" and then it suddenly turns into something so very nasty that knocks you off your feet literally for the next few days? It has gone from a bug like flu with nausea and tummy ache and shivers and aches to a full on head cold. However, trying to stay positive I thought I would post about our recent pinic in Lyme Hall last Sunday. Do you remember my post not so long ago about the same place where the snowdrops were budding? I thought it would be nice to show you what it looks like in the heart of spring. We got there around 10.30- 11.00ish - a good time to go as it gets really busy after then. Found this lovely spot by the lake:

and settled down on the Ugly blanket which proved to be a great picnic blanket as it is massive and so there was no teetering on the corners on those small roll up blankets people use. I would have been using mine but I lost it in typical ME fashion and was kind of forced into using theUgly blanket.

Nothing posh. Just what we had in the house. Butties, pringles, fruit and juice and some chocolate mini rolls. There's nothing like eating outdoors is there? Then into the house and the gardens and here are some snaps of how the garden is looking now: Hyacinths everywhere and the smell so fragrant.

And these were taken in the arbetorium:

So colourful. I can't wait for summer. I have been doing some crochet too and finished off Clare's scarf and she now has it and loves it thankfully. Cream centres this time with more pinks and purple shades:

Also had a go at Julia Crossland's Popcorn Flower:

Really like this and will be making more shortly.

And another flower square by Rose Hip:

So there you have it. That was last weekend. This weekend I am staying home sulking! Thanks for all the lovely comments and especially new readers and followers. I will be heading over to read your blogs soon. Have a lovely weekend whatever you are doing. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Stuff

Just a quick post. Many many thanks for all the lovely comments. I think my Dad is blushing! Some questions to answer. Firstly, the count of the fabric is 16 count aida which is probably why it came out so big. I started this a good few years ago before HAED and before I had even contemplated stitching over 1 on 25ct. I have the chart in very good condition as we used a working copy and only used the pages containing the symbols. It is spiral bound with a plastic cover. If anyone would like to purchase the chart I am asking for £10 + pnp. It is 49 pages of chart (not all full pages). Just send me an email if you are interested in buying it. I accept paypal.

Well, my first flower scarf got finished and purchased by my lovely friend Tina (no blog). Thank you Tina for paying so promptly! Here it is in all its glory. I have another one on the hook for my good friend Clare.

Yesterday, I FINALLY got a ball of yarn through from First4Yarns that I ordered way way back in October. Let's just say I shan't be ordering from them any time soon. Anyhow, the wool I was waiting for was some Rico Poems Aran and I had 2 different balls of the stuff. So I wasn't sure how I was going to use it but last night I made this:

My first slouchy beanie!!! Thanks to Aisyah from My Tinker Space who gave me the link to the pattern here. I am sooooooo pleased with the result! I think dd is too. This will def not be the last one I make.

I got the most wonderful surprise the other day. I had won a giveaway from Cath over at The Stitchin' Chicken and I was only expecting the chart. Then she emailed me to say she had to buy some threads for it. Bonus. But, when it actually came, she had popped in some extra goodies too. Made my day! Thanks Cath. Brilliant!!

And.... finally just a bit of stitchy. Here is my HAED Fragile Heart update after my SAL with Tracy on Thursday nights:

On the bunting front... I finished my blue bunting but not yet strung it up. Also I have finished some red, white and blue bunting too - good if you're a royalist. I'm not particularly so I see it more as American theme for little boys' rooms. Either way, it looks good but needs some blocking and hanging then I'll snap some pics.

Thanks for reading folks and all your patience. Be back soon. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Ta daaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you Dad. x

Beautiful spring weather we have been having here in the UK. Sunshine - at long last and even a bit of warmth to boot. These hyacinths were worrying me somewhat as they seemed to take ages to flower but flower they did and the scent was magnificent!

Anyway, onto this major, fantastic, happy dance ta daaaaa.... As some of you know, I was working on the John William Waterhouse piece, "I am Half Sick of Shadows" for some time before I asked my dad if he would like to have a go at it. The aim initially was that he would work on a page then I would work on a page and pass it to and fro to each other. My dad had other ideas and once he got going with it that was it! See here for the post where I first passed it onto my dad way back in 2008/2009 - just over 2 years ago!

Well, I am finally pleased to tell you that the piece is completed! It is amazing, stunning, beautiful and errr..... massive! Not sure how much this is going to cost to get framed but I reckon if I start saving now I might manage enough for 2020!!

Here's my dad proudly holding it up:



You can understand why he is laughing! And some more close ups...









So please raise your glass with me and join me in, well, my dad's happy dance!

Last weekend, I joined all the other lovely ladies from Needlecraft Haven in Nuneaton for our stitchy weekend. Tracy and I go up on the Friday and stay for two nights so we get loads of stitching done. I didn't end up taking any pictures this time but here is a little finish I did. It is a little repro from Margaret and Margaret called Sampler Sisters. It was a fun stitch to do.




I also worked quite a bit on Ann Taylor by Heartstring Primitives. This is so nice and easy to work on.



Since coming back, Tracy and I decided we would work on our HAEDS every Thursday together and last night was my first night back at it. I decided to work on the Fragile Heart SAL. Not much change but just starting to fill in all the gaps. Little by little this piece will get done. You can see Tracy's progress here.



Now, I haven't abandoned my hook either. I just can't seem to get enough time in the day to do all I want to do! But I started some Crochet Bunting which Bunny Mummy kindly gave the pattern for. Super easy and super quick. This will be for my blue bathroom. I will let you know when it is finished.



Well, that is all from me for now folks. I am going to be taking a little blogging/forum break for a while to recharge my batteries. I'll be back soon and as ever, thank you all for your beautiful comments.

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Pride and Prejudice finish and some Granny Goodness.

Woot! Here's another little happy dance. This was so lovely to do and as I stitched it I realised that I do not have or have never had any of Tanya's charts in the UFO pile! I get her charts stitched up ever so quickly. I have quite a few of them now and I am thinking of a The Sampler Girl wall. Speaking of walls, I will show you what has gone up on my wall later if you stick with me.

Pride and Prejudice

The Sampler girl

Now what I want to discuss with you is MISTAKES. Do you ever make them, intentionally or not?? Well, I mentioned in my last post that I had made a few with this piece - some intentional and entirely deliberate - some not! So I thought I would share. This is what comes of not reading the instuctions prior to starting stitching!!

Mistake no.1.



See that green border... supposed to be worked in Satin Stich. Was I going to unpick it? No never. I like it just as it is.

Possibly another mistake is the blue bonnet. I used the correct code given but in the picture it is a pink colour, not blue. Never mind I like it and I won't count it as a mistake.

Mistake no.2.



Mr Darcy has longer legs than he should have! I had stitched the tree above him miscounting a stitch and whne it came to stitching him, his legs came out too short so I added a stitch. Woops! I did frog and restitch the tree so it sat inline with the other one but I kept Mr Darcy as the slightly taller version. I prefer my men this way.

Mistake no.3.



The little pink border had an extra stitch somewhere but I didn't see it. Carried on blindly along as they say. Anyway, I just needed to make sure my letters to the right of it sat okay and had to watch I didn't line them up with the top half of this pink border and everything worked out fine.

Mistake no.4.



This one was deliberate. The instructions said to do the diamonds in rice stitch - not my favourite stitch. I must also add that the chart looks like it is all cross stitches and doesn't show where spec stitches go. Seeing as I had not done the satin stitch border, I decided to opt for simple crosses. Which leads me to the next mistake...

Mistake no.5.



Here the instructions call for Herringbone stitch but I could not figure out how to do them both horizonatally and vertically as again the chart was just in stitch symbols. By this time I felt that there was no point in doing any of the spec stitches as it would stand out too much (ahem!) so I carried on the theme of plain old cross.

So there you have it. I put my maiden initials and my dh's and our wedding date too.





So you see, mistakes can be darling and personal and I love them. I loved every stitch and have a few more TSGs in my stash to look forward to for my wall.

Speaking of which, I had this idea a while back but it has taken all this time for me to actually do them.

Here are my granny square pictures..







It was really hard to get the pictures as there were reflections all over them. The point was that I wanted something white to break up all the red I had painted the walls in. I love the red but it needed something to break it up and this idea just popped into my head. I think it works quite well.

Well, thank you for staying with me if you got this far. On my next post I am going to be having a MAJOR party so please pop by soon. Big thanks to every single one of my readers and commentors. I know what an effort it can be to make just one comment on a blog and I want you to know I appreciate every single one of them and don't take them for granted.

Have a good week, y'all.

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Winter Whites finish and Pride and Prejudice update.

So at last I have a stitchy post! I finished Winter Whites by Little House Needleworks about a week or so ago but just haven't got round to ironing and taking pics of the piece. So here it is at last. I am really pleased with how it has turned out. The fabric is Star Sapphire wichelt 32ct and I was worried about how the lettering would look on it so I decided to use DMC 800 for the actual words in between the letters. I also used Crescent Colours Wild Oats instead of the called for Oatmeal.





I have also been beavering away on The Sampler Girl's Pride and Prejudice and I am really enjoying it although I have made one or two mistakes on it. Shhhhhhh... I'm not telling and you won't notice ;-). This has been an SAL on NH headed up by Barb who has been graciously giving me reminders each week!! Such pretty colours in this one. I am using DMC. I thought it was kind of apt after my visit to "Pemberley"! Also they have been showing Mansfield Park on tv so I have been in an Austen mood.





Here is also a small update of Fragile Heart. I haven't been working on her much but the second page of the SAL is out now so I need to get cracking on her. I must say, I love how the pink kind of POPs out on the black lines:



Can I just say a big thank you to everyone who gave me a comment on my last post. I had some lovely ones and some really unmerited praise for my photography! Thank you so much. I don't rate my pictures very well at all. In fact I am very critical about it but I do my best and just hope they turn out. Hope you all have a lovely stitchy/crochety week.

ps. I am making a booklist of interesting things I should read. If you have any good reads then let me know. Ta.

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Coffee cakes and Lyme Hall Park

Just a quickie post. I wanted to show off some coffee and walnut cakes I made. My MIL bought me the most thoughtful gift at Christmas. I have been wanting one of those cake stands for ages and also loved the look of silicone cake cases as well and guesss what?? She got me both! The cases came in a box with an icing bag and a gorgeous cupcake book. Here is what I managed to create.





Sorry... there's none left ;-)

Half term was a bit pants. Weather was bad and dh was working... a lot. Then dd gets sick on the Saturday night which scuppered our plans for the weekend. She had Monday off as well as inset and so we toddled off to Lyme Hall, park and gardens. I love it there. It is one of my favourite places to go. It was the setting for Pemberley in BBC's Pride and Prejudice. We went inside the house as there was a display on about Mary Queen of Scots. The room next door was the nursery and now the NT are letting you actually touch some of the stuff in the houses and so the children played happily with the doll's house and toy soldiers. There was the sweetest, old bear on the bead and a lovely children's book.





Some snaps of the Orangery and gardens and of the house itself:











Snowdrops were cropping up everywhere:



Ahhhh breathe in Spring....

I will be back with a stitchy update soon. Just trying to catch up with myself. Thanks for all the lovely, sweet comments. You make my day