Park walks

It has been a beautiful autumnal day. The wind has been blowing and the trees are starting to turn. I LOVE this time of year. My favourite season. We have had a few stormy days and they thrill me. I have seen the devastation done by Irene in the US and that is bad bad bad. No I don't mean those kind of storms but gentler ones where the wind and rain lashes down on your window and ALLOWS you to stay cozied up inside with the heating on and a hot drink. Today though, there is no rain. Just scuddering clouds across the skies and a whooshing wind that refreshes you. Summer for me is too hot - even in this country. I never do go abroad on HOT holidays. It just isn't me. No I like the Autumn with the wind and the cooler weather and the changing leaves. So Boy and I took a little stroll in the park while Lily was swimming. I have been playing around with the Hipstamatic on my ipod touch and I am not great with the camera but I like the effects. Here are a few pics.

This week I learned to do a new crochet square and sent three of them off to SIBOL. Sue is needing more of these squares and they are not difficult to do. If you want to help then please email Sue - you will find details on her blog. Sue makes up the squares into blankets for the elderly and has made 80 odd of them now. She has been written about in magazines. A very worthy cause. Even if you just made one then that would help.

I have been browsing the blogs and have been inspired by so much recently. A couple of crochet projects have really stood out to me and I would like to have a go at them. Here for example and here.

Well, the next part of the Istitch mystery is out today so I will be getting on with that - oh and I have done a little on my Fragile Heart HAED too so will post updates of those soon. Next week will see me going into a primary school to help out with the kids' reading. It's been about 7 years since I have been in the classroom and I am a little nervous but excited as well. I need to make small steps to get back to work so hopefully this will help.

Thanks for reading and commenting. You are all so lovely and positive and I appreciate them very very much.

Back to school..

Well the summer is over and gone and DD has gone back to school today - year 4! Wowza. She is looking so grown up, so old. DS has also returned to nursery and as he walked in, he told his dad, "I want to go home now". It breaks your heart but I know he will be fine and will be loving it in there, back with all his friends and doing lots and lots of exciting crafty things.

But, before they went off on their merry way, we decided to make some friendship braids. DD was our teacher and she enjoyed the process of showing us how to make these easy peasy sweet bracelets. She made some for her friends at school and for each other too. Even little man made one for Dad as well.

I have been doing a little bit of this and that and made a flower square for - well, I am not sure if it is secret or not - I don't think it is but it is to go towards a blanket for a lady who is suffering at the moment. That is all I will say. I really love this flower square and you can find the pattern here.

I have finished my little red bird as well. Been very hard at it trying to get a few finishes in but I am so slow. I now need to make this into a little door hanger cushion thing. I think it will look rather nice in my red, living room.

Bird in Hand Blackbird Designs

Also been working a little bit on Dandelion Dreams. Such a sweet design. I should have this finished soon I hope.

You will have to excuse the folded and creased look of my wips. You know I don't iron till I am ready to do the finishing on them. I am enjoying working on some slightly smaller projects at the minute. My head can't cope with big wips or BAPS at the moment. There is still a lot going on at home and I have spent too many days in floods of tears. Every day is a day where I am not sure of the outcome and just glad and relieved if that day has gone okay.

I have also been doing a little tidying - well, when I say tidying I really do mean shoving things out of sight and out of the way so don't look too closely. But do you remember my messy table here:

Here it is today:

How long it will stay like this for is anyone's guess. It has made me realise that this table really could do with a lick of paint. Tidy table - tidy mind??? We'll see.

Hope you are all having a marvelous week. Off to catch up with you all now. xx

Oh my - just had to edit this as I have just had a marvelous gift through the post from Amanda who I made the square for for her friendship blanket. Ooooohhhh sooo excited and they have really cheered up my day honey. I told you not to!!! Tut tut. But I really love it. Thanks so much.

istitch mystery

Hellooooo!! Nice to be here on this rather dull, moody Bank Holiday Monday!

I recently stumbled across the istitch mystery SAL and was very disappointed that I was too late to join as I am a fan of Carol's charts. They are simple to stitch and very pretty in sampler style and also the charts are very clear to read. I think it must have been when I was away on holiday and didn't have any internet access for a week. Anyway, to cut a long story short, Carol agreed to put me on the waiting list and a couple of days ago, I received an email asking if I would still like to join.

They were already up to part 2 so I had to hurry to catch up. Carol sends out the next part as soon as she has had a picture of each previous part stitched. So, into the early hours I sat and stitched and now I am up to date with everybody else. I decided to go small with this one and am stitching on 25 count lugana and using a very pretty DMC 4190. I am either going to make into a pinkeep or a small box top - if I can find a box of the right dimensions.

So here is my wip so far. You will have to forgive the bad photo as I have lost my battery charger for my camera - or should I ask whose tiny fingers have been playing and misplaced it??? So that is on order but until it arrives I am having to use the camera on my ipod touch which isn't great.

I have to say, and I may very well be in the minority here, but I love the cold weather and the rain and the nights starting to draw in. I feel very Autumny! I think it is about time to bring out those blankets and get cracking on them. Back soon folks.

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Some stitching to report!

Hello everyone. It's nice to finally be here and be able to do a blog post. My, how the Summer keeps us busy! I have been keeping the children busy too as much as I can. We have spent most of the time having long, lazy lie ins and going out to see a museum or two once or twice a week. DD has been busy with her craft group once a week and also some workshops.

She made a sock puppet:

and some pots and Hama coasters:

I have felt much better this summer than any other I think and I believe it is because I have stopped putting pressure on myself to do so much and to not compare myself with other people. It has been nice to just chill and wander down to the local park and playground when the weather has been kind. I'll miss them when term starts... and I'll miss the lie ins too!

So here's a few snaps of what we've been up to.

We recently went to the Hatworks Museum in Stockport. A little gem of a place and it's free too. Nice little cafe that is reasonably priced as well.

I loved this felted den that was there. Fantastic!

So, onto some stitching news. It seems a while since I did a decent stitchy post so here's what I have been up to stitch wise.

Here's a little project that I have recently started. It is A Bird in Hand by Blackbird Designs. My online friend Karan gifted me this chart last Christmas and I love it! It took a while to get the thread ordered from Sewandso but finally the arrived. The thread is WDW Baked Apple. Doesn't that sound lovely?? Mmmmm Baked Apple. I could just picture the colour before it came.

See I have nearly finished it and then I will probably turn it into a cushion.

I received my ornament from the HOE Lizzie Kate ornie exchange through from Kathy and Rory the dog! I really love this and love how Kathy has stitched two designs back to back. Looks fantastic and really well finished too. Thanks Kathy!

I, also, have finished some more ornies to go on my stitching tree this year. These are both taken from the 2007 Just Cross Stitch ornament magazine.

This is also from the same magazine but it has gone to Cath as a piece of angel stitching as the chart went missing in our last round of Stitch and Pass it on. I added a few extras for her too:

So that's all the stitching news. I managed to get a picture of my brother with his crochet blanket on his birthday. I think he likes it although it is very hard to tell as he is severely disabled and doesn't show much emotion. The picture is not of great quality as I took it with my ipod whilst at my mum's.

So there you go peeps. That's me for now. Hope you enjoy the rest of your summer!

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HOE ornie

Just a quickie as Becky received my ornie in the HOE exchange and I have pinched her pic to show you all. Hope you don't mind Becky!!! I completely forgot to take a picture before I sent it off. Anyway, here is Becky's lovely pic showing the front and back.

Lizzie Kate Juingle ornie from Tidy Tidings chartpack.

A little update

Well hello peeps! It has been a while and I am okayish. Thank you for all your kind words of support. Things have not been great around here and the problems have been of the marital type. Stress and anxiety takes its toll on people and can make them behave in less desirable ways - not me by the way. So times are a little rough at the moment but it is good to keep positive and blogs are always a breath of fresh air to read and ponder.

I have been away. We took a little holiday to try and spend some time as a family during the first week of the UK summer hols. We went to one of our favourite places - a town called Abersoch in North Wales. It has some lovely beaches - a sort of mixture between sandy and pebbly.

We stayed in this beautiful place which was a converted stable and it was pure luxury. Just a five minute walk to the beach. Perfect.

The views were magnificent and Abersoch is famous for its sailboats.

We managed to get away on a few daytrips. One was to the Welsh Highland Heritage Railway.

Little lad appeared not to like all the noise coming from the noisy engines and whistle and had his fingers in his ears the whole way through.

He did manage to get one hand free though to do the signal change. Very important job that.

and doing this... both hands free by then!

So onto some finishes. I have finally a big Ta Daaa on my brother's blanket. Goodness it seemed to take forever to go round this rectangle. Fortunately, my mum had said she didn't want it as big as a bed size so I did it a bit smaller. I think the size is just right.

Ta Daaaa!!!

Jacqui's lovely double V edging:

It is his birthday soon in just a couple of weeks so I will be taking it up to my parents to give to him. Hope he likes it and doesn't throw it off his knee when I give it to him!!

Onto a little stitchy news now if you can bear with me...

Recently, Tina (no blog) and I have decided to do one stitchy Christmas ornie a month from last month till Christmas so that she and I can get some finishing practice in. One month I pick a design and the next month she does etc. I chose a really easy peasy one from Just Cross Stitch 2007 ornie ed. It's the Lizzie Kate one. I wanted it to be a quick one so that Tina could spend more time on the finishing. Here's mine:

I also have finished one for the HOE and sent it off and only just realised that I haven't taken pics grrrrrr!!!!!

But the ornie bug kind of got to me and I finished the stitching on this one from the same magazine:

Just need to finish this one.

Also I have been working on Dandelion Dreams which has been a pleasure to work on. Very simple design. I should be finished with this soon. I apologise for the usual unironed state of my wips!!

So that about all from me for now. Hubby is away for a couple of weeks now so should get lots of stitching done. Thanks for staying with me during my bad times.

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