Last Dance of 2007

Provence Sampler from Toad in a GardenStarted Jan 15 and completed December 30 on SMF Golden Turret with Caron WIldflowers in Wildberries (3 skeins in case you want to do your own one)

A close up of the year to give you a better idea of the colours

Provence Sampler again

I took this first thing this morning before I picked it up for the day, I did manage to reach my goal of getting one band done on Friday (the top one of the bottom lot) but now this pic is way out of date because I finished it about an hour ago!
I'll be posting the Happy Dance in the morning so check back then

Provence Sampler update

I got 5 hours in yesterday and as you can see I've got all the remaining bands on the bottom section started, the very bottom one I've worked on a little this morning. Today I'm aiming to have at least one band done all the way across, I don't care which one!

Tonight I'm going to watch The Golden Compass so I'd better get my skates on and get stitching if I'm going to reach my goal for the day

Another little finish

Another square for SOLAK that was left half done, well actully it was more of a barely started one but it was still on my WIP list and I try and carry as few newer WIPs over to a New Year as poss.
On that note I've picked up Provence Sampler, this was one of my GFJ start's this year and there's only a few bands left to do at the bottom.
Since I took this pic this afternoon I've spent 3 hours on it and finished the border on the left and the section of band that's started

Merry Christmas

I hope you all have a fun filled day

Another little finish

At this time of year I try and finish as many WIPs as I can, Floral Bellpull was top of the list and now that's done I've moved on to other things.
This little guy is for SOLAK and for some reason I left him as a green blob for a few months, he only took me a few hours to finish yesterday and makes my 30th finish for the year.
I've moved onto another half done SOLAK square and may have it finished tonight so check back tomorrow to see if I have

Today's advent gift was a skein of Dinky Dye silk

The pic is here

Started in early 2003 after I'd had a dream about having a completed one and encouragement from a friend to start it and finished on Dec 19 2007 after taking part in TW Monday's on the TWBB

Oh and today's advent gift is a fancy box to store my lace bobbins in, speaking of which I received a Christmas RAK of a bobbin yesterday with a purple dragon handpainted on it

Wooohooooo

Floral Bellpull is finished, the last stitches went in just before midnight on Wednesday but no pic yet.
Thursday I had a very last minute (as in less than 24 hours notice) Christmas shopping trip to Birmingham with a very dear friend and I'm so glad that I could arrange things so I could go, we had a wonderful day, spent to much, drank Mulled Wine at the German market and all while we slowly froze :)
Today I've not been home in daylight to take one, I've been busy being a taxi for various people through the day and doing the last little bit of Christmas shopping that I couldn't do on Thursday along with the food shop.

Puter is now fixed so I'm back up and running at full speed instead of plodding along behind a tractor but of course the main advantage of not being online so much is all the extra time I got for Floral.

And of course with not being online so much I've not been telling you what's been in my advent bags so....
14th - Kreinick #8 braid
15th - Chocolate Snowman and skein of DMC
16th - Needlepaint
17th, 18th & 19th - Chocolate Snowman & skein of DMC
20th - Does this make me look fat? Pocket Dragon
21st - Skein of Dinky Dye silk

Really I could open the 22nd one now as it's after midnight but then I'd have nothing to look forward to in the morning

Things that go bang in the afternoon

AKA my new puter that's only 6 weeks old :(

Yesterday morning not long after I got up but before I cam down I heard a bang and didn't think much of it as I couldn't see anything that had fallen over when I did come down.
I was greeted by a smell of burning by the kitchen door but though my neighbour had burnt her breakfast (it's happenned before) went about things as normal and booted the puter up.
It worked perfectly ok, downloaded updates and restarted just fine I turned it off and went out for the day.
Came to turn it back on in the early evening and nothing so I checked cables made sure the other things that are plugged into the socket tower worked and tried again, this time it went pop pop I swore and EX who I was on the phone to at the time asked what I'd done cause he heard it go.
I ring up about and after speaking to 2 people get told if it's easier take it back to the store so off to Chester I go.
They look and start fiddling about and are on the way to fixing it when he looks at my paper work and because I have insurance they would have to charge me for it!
So it's now back home sat in a corner of my living room awaiting for a guy to come and replace the power pack on Wednesday and my old one is hooked up but it's so slow I won't be spending much time online.
The good thing about that is I'll come back with a nice new pic of Floral Bellpull well along the road to being finished

Floral Update

First off let me say that I'm ever so slightly gobsmacked by today's Advent goodie off ExH, A digital camera!!!!!

Of course I had to christen it and since I was due to update my progress on Floral Belpull that's what I used it for first

The completed Pansy Block

Peony block after 3 days

And as a whole

Updates

First of all I finished the Pansy block, YAY me (I'll post a pic in the next day or two) and the Peony block is well under way

Yesterday I had my 6 monthly Diabetic check up and not only am I well under control but it's so good that my average blood sugar reading is too low!
Last June it was 5.6%, 2 weeks ago it was 5.3% and it should be around 7% so the nurse was going to talk to the Doc today about getting my meds reduced down to 2 or 3 a day instead of the 4 I'm on now, to say I'm happy is a understatement

Advent update
7th - DMC 869
8th - DMC 3801
9th - Kreinik BF
10th - Stardust compact notebook and pen (The front cover is purple and sparklie and it pops open when you take the pen out)
11th - DMC 746
12th - DMC 154

DD#1rang me this afternoon as I started to scrub the bathroom to tell me that she'd just had a phone call off a housing association, they are waiting to get the keys back to a 2 bed house and as soon as they have done any work that needs doing DD get's first refusal on it.
So hopefully in early Jan she'll have a house she can make into a home rather than the temp house she's in now that's she can't do anything in (she's not even allowed to have her sister stop overnight because she's over 16 and classed as an adult!)

Hello

I shouldn't of said on Saturday that I must be ill, I tempted fate and was ill Tuesday!

I woke up feeling sick and my head didn't feel right all day, yesterday was no better but I wasn't going to let that stop me going to Chester Cathederal for the Cheshire WI Federation's Christmas Carol service!
I felt lousy the way through and by the time I'd done the rest of my Christmas shopping after I was fit to drop last night
But after a really good night's sleep, a very late rise this morning and little pink & yellow pills yesterday I'm right as rain today

Anyone want to know what I got in my pressie advent calendar?
Well even if you don't your about to find out :)
Sunday - Lindt chocolate snowman and a card for gift # 2 (red bauble with a snowman handpainted on it)
Monday - Earrings
Tuesday - Snowman ornament for the tree
Wednesday - Krenick Blending Filament, # 8 braid and a lucky crystal cat to go in my purse
Today - Skein of Needlepaints in purple

I did manage to get the ornament done for DD #1 and handed over on Sunday when we went down, in the process of making it up I've come to the conclussion that me and my sewing machine don't like each other very much!
But with not being well on Tuesday and out most of yesterday I'm still trying to get my hours done on Zoe's UFO, they will be done today if it kills me!
I'm out tomorrow morning, then have to come home and pack for the weekend before driving to to Alsager to pick DD#2 BF up so we can all go to The Austrian for Crampus on Saturday (He's in a tent befor eyou start wondering) so I have to get the hours in today or it's going to be another week before I can send it home and that's just not fair on Zoe as it's already a month late

Floral Update

Wow 3 posts in one day, I must be ill!!!!

Anyway I did get round to taking a pic of the Pansy block, it's not the best of pics but I'm using my Mum's digicam cause my new puter doesn't like my scanner and I'm not very good on the zoom

I know I'm getting off the Wagon next year but in theory I should stay on it so I can save up to get a new all in one for the puter and a new digicam of my own

Nov Progress & Dec Goals

I post these on a couple of BB's every month but I've never done them here so we'll give it a go and see how well I remember about it

For November
Get The Riddle at least half done by the 18th (so there's a good amount to show at Harrogate) Yep did that and it was well recieved
Make good progress on the Pansy block All the XS is done
UFORR In progress
Put a few stitches in every day during the Celtic Fair If knitting stitches count then I did
Work on something other than those listed above I got 2 1/2 hrs in on Prov Sampler

I stitched for 70 hrs 29 mins the bulk of which was on The Riddle, had 3 days with out a single stitch and had no new starts or finishes

For December I would like to
Finish Floral Belpull
Finish The Riddle
Get an ornament done for my parents and DD
Decide on Jan starts
Pick WIPs for first 6 months of 08

Tree guy is no more and other stuff

After not having touched Spyro since I put him down after my last post I beat the evil tree guy that gave me such a headache and the annoying this is it only took me about 6 attempts this time compared to who knows how many over about 4 hours last time!

Now that's it's December my Christmas socks have come out as have my large(ish) collection of Christmas earrings and it's time to kill a WIP or two before the end of the year
Top of that list is Floral Bellpull, all the XS is done now on the Pansy block so I just have to do the BS and the border, I really owe you a progress pic and I'll try and get one done today.

This year I have 2 advent calenders to open each morning, one is a Lindt chocolate one (yes I know it's naughty for a Diabetic) and one that Ex has put together for me.
He bought a wooden one with Snowmen on that comes with little bags for you to fill yourself, last night he came down to set it up along with a bag of presents that goes with it (too big for the bags!).
Some of the bags have very odd shapes in them and I can tell by the feel of some that they contain a skein of thread, I will resist the temptation to peek in them (I hope!!!!)
So in the early hours of this morning on my way to bed I opened number one and was greeted with a skein of Dinky Dye silk (Sherbet Lemon) and a little card telling me to open present 1 which turned out to be a Bauble

I got The Riddle back from Chris early in the week and she told me that at least 3 people spoke to her at Harrogate and said that they knew I was stitching it for her, I know how one of them is and poss. a second but can only assume that the third person is one of those rare things..... A person that reads my Blog :)

Grrrrrrrrrr

I've spent all morning playing on Spyro but 2 of those hours have been trying to beat one boss!!
I reached the point of wanting to throw the controller across the room so I've switched it off, I can set his feet, head and right hand on fire but I struggle with the left hand and of course the two times I have done it and gone on the next bit of beating him he gets a nice new shiny health bar while I still have my almost gone one.
I know exactly what I need to do but I jus can't do it :(

In other news, Chris rang me to say that The Riddle had arrived safely and she thinks it's beautiful :)

Now I'm off to have some lunch and pick up Zoe's UFO for the afternoon instead of making cards to take with me tomorrow

Riddle yet again

But the last one for a while, I'm off to the Post Office in a while to send it back

It now stands at 55 hours and it's just about half done. If your in the UK and going to Harrogate at the end of this week stop by The Nimble Thimble stand, say Hello to Chris and tell her you saw it here :)

More Riddle

I didn't get much stitching time Thursday, Friday and Saturday so it wasn't worth doing a daily update, this is from this morning before I started. I have to post it back tomorrow so want to get as much as poss done today

My new puter is now up and running but Vista doesn't like my scanner and Lexmark haven't done a new driver for it cause it's old so I'm now on the digicam and the pics won't be as clear for a while until I'm used to playing with new software

More Riddle

I had a good stitching day yesterday so thought I'd share, I may do daily updates for the rest of this week if I remember

Riddle update

It's coming along quite nicely don't you think?

The flower pot on the right has my first ever Queen stitches on it and they were alot easier than I thought they'd be

Feeling pleased...

With myself right now :)
For quite a while now I've wanted to add a Blogroll but everytime I've tried I just couldn't figure out how to do it but this afternoon light finally dawned and it's now added (although it's taking it's time to update, I fixed a spelling mistake and added more blog's to it)
I know it's a simple thing but when your not very technical minded and you figure it out all on your own you can't help but feel pleased

Floral Update

This is the pic I should of posted last week before TW Monday and it's how it looked at the end of TW October, I didn't work on it much during the month because it was just too complicated for my grief stricken head to cope with

So last Monday (the first one of Nov) I got 4 1/2 hrs in and combined with a couple of days at the end of Oct it now looks like this

I'm hoping I'll get it done this month then I'll just have one block left to do in Dec to meet my goal of finishing by the end of the year

A new WIP

Drawn Thread's The Riddle

I'm stitching it as a model for my framer (Shameless plug coming up) Chris of The Nimble Thimble

For those of you in the UK going to Harrogate later this month you'll be able to see it in person there although it's doubtful it's going to be finished by then

A Finish

Meet Tiggy from the Simply Heritage range of Cats, I had to get this one when I saw it a few years back as at the time we had a cat named Tiger who was frequently called Tiggy
It's my 26th finish of the year, not doing too badly am I

It's been a long week

Starting with my huge disappointment of Lewis Hamilton not winning the title in Brazil,oh well maybe next year (but at least Alonso didn't win it either, my option of him has changed drastically the last few months!)

Monday was the first day all month that I really wanted to stitch all day for and so I did, I was aiming to finish one project (which I did but still haven't scanned!) and then move on to Floral Bellpull but the finish took me alot longer than I thought it would so I never made it :(

Tuesday, I went with my Mum and DD up to my Gran's to work on clearing her house out some more and in the process we managed to lock ourselves out of the house despite having 2 sets of keys!
I also had the beginnings of a cold so being locked out in the cold didn't help, DD helpfully pointed out I had my coat with me then it dawned on her that it was locked in the car and the car keys were locked in the house

So Wednesday dawned bright and frozen, I felt OKish but had no energy and I still went on the braid making workshop I was booked on through the WI.
It was good and I would of enjoyed it more if I wasn't bunged up and suffering with a bad head

Thursday day was spent with ExH and DD at Cheshire Oaks and after a bit of shopping we went to watch Stardust, hugely enjoyable film and if you get the change to watch it then do
That night was knitting group at the Trafford Centre, the first one I've managed to make for several months now so not a single stitch was made all day :( but my cold wasn't too bad :)

Friday DD had asked me to take her into Chester so she could meet a friend for the afternoon and rather than come home then have to go back again I stopped and wandered round the shops.
I picked up a few Christmas presents and a couple of baby things for #1 DD in the sale and again the cold wasn't too bad
Oh and I won £7 on a scratch card, £27 on the Euro and got a RAK that left me gobsmacked!

Yesterday was DD's belated Birthday day out.
First stop was back to Cheshire Oaks to exchange some jeans that were way to big on her then onto Llandudno for the day.
We had a walk up the pier emptyhanded and came back loaded up with Dragons, most of the little shops/stalls on the pier were open for the last day of the season so we had a look in them.
DD found alot of Dragons that she talked nicely to her Dad for and we both bought a couple of daft things as Christmas presents.
Last night we went to The Austrian restaurant in the mountains above Conway (I can say the name of the village but can't spell it! but it's near Fairy Glen if anyone knows the area) the back wall is actually the mountain.
We embarrassed DD once more having told them in advance it was for her Birthday so they had put up banners and ballons over our table then after dessert the lights went out and Judith came in carrying her cake and the entire place sang Happy Birthday to her, boy did she go a nice shade of DMC :)

Today I've spent almost the entire day playing on Age of Empires, my cold is back with a vengence and my head is pounding so stitching is hard but I've done a couple of hours on and off
Hopefully I sleep better tonight than I did last night, being woken up at 6am by a barking dog is not fun when you only dozed off around 2.30am despite being so tired you feel asleep on the way home from Wales and had a job to keep your eyes open while cleaning your teeth.

Happy Birthday Mel

My Baby is 16 today, it really doesn't seem like 16 years since she looked like this

And now she looks like this, isn't she pretty

And because she's now a teenager and I've made it my mission to embrass her as us Mum's are suppossed to do, one of her as a toddler

WIP update

I finally got round to scanning Floral Bellpull, bear in mind that I haven't touched this in 10 days now so I'm quite pleased with the amount I did in 4 days

I will get back to it soon, maybe the end of this week after the funeral

Another finish

Finished yesterday afternoon, French Country Lamb by JBW Designs

A Finish

Snow Swirls from Dragonfly Stitches, finished yesterday

On Light Blue Murano and using #12 perle

I can't concentrate enough to work on my TW's right now so there's going to be a few little finishes over the next couple of weeks

Stitching helps keep my mind busy or I'd be a wreck on the sofa surronded by piles of used tissues

R.I.P Gran

Edna May Jones passed away yesterday afternoon from Pneumonia.
I was at her bedside and holding her hand when she left us

WIP Update

I should of added this last week really as a weekly update but never got round to it, any it's not changed since last Monday so it makes no difference.

It's TW SAL month on the Wagon and this is going to be my main project for the month with the aim of getting the Pansy block done, I've got 2 blocks left and 3 months to do them in if I'm going to meet my goal of finishing this year.

Fingers crossed I'll remember to add a weekly update pic

I've spent my morning at my Gran's waiting for the Doc once again, she rang Mum this morning said not well and put the phone down! Mum rang her back and she doesn't remember doing it anyway her vision is alot worse than normal and she felt really ill so Mum called the Doc.
Doc thinks that going on her past history and the last 2 visits when Gran has been very confused she has yet another water infection so she has yet another round of antibiotics to take.
It would help if she changed her 'nappy' more than once a day but we can't make her understand that, sometimes it's like talking to a brick wall with her (at times I think we'd have more luck if we did!)

It's been one of those days today where no matter what I've been doing there's been some sort of hold up.
Started out with Mum not being ready on time to go to our weekly beading class, so we were late arriving there then we were later than normal leaving so we got stuck in traffice that we normally miss.
Then on the way to the weekly thing with DD our normal route was blocked by Police so we went through the village and discovered that the other route was bloacked off by Police as well so I had to turn round and go through town which meant hitting the start of rush hour.
Then there's the bridge to get over that's traffic light controlled as it's only wide enough for one car at a time and there's always a queue to get over it the size of which depends on the time of day.
As I got to the thing my phone rang and it was someone calling to find out where we were and of we were caught up in the accident that had caused the first route to be blocked off.

Once at the thing my hands decided that they weren't going to play ball and I sat there for the biggest part of an hour unable to move more than my thumbs until a bowl of warm water was brought for me.

I'm glad I'm home with my needles and floss now and I just hope the frogs don't pick today to make a visit

Ooooo, well that was interesting
There's just been a van full of Policeman in full riot kit outside my house!
I was stood in the kitchen being nosey and one of the PCSO's saw me and said something so I went out and he said it was nothing to worry out about, I wasn't worried just nosey.
Anyway it turns out they were there to break the door down on one of the house's across the way under the misuse of drugs act.
It appears that there has been several reports from neighbours about it, well I never get to see anything because I'm off to the side and my living room doesn't over look the parking area so had no idea about it.

I've had quite along chat to him about a few things and he's told me that sometime over the next few weeks a speed trap will be appearing somewhere along the main road I live off and on the main dual carrigeway through the centre of town and it's about time too.

A second finish from Thursday, my first Biscornu. I can see there being more of them in my future

Hot off the scanner, my latest Happy Dance.

Back in June I went on a weekend GTG with some of the UK girls and while there I mentioned that I'd like to try stitching on 40 count and would have to try and get hold of small piece, anyway one of the girls there rarely stitches on anything else and told me to cut a piece off her stash she had with her.

Yesterday I finally got round to doing something with it and that's the result

Well I found out that the MG failed it's MOT, it needs a small patch of welding doing somewhere so I didn't have to go back and pick it up today which I'm glad about in a way cause it damp and cold outside!

I've spent the day doing some housework (well I hoovered up) and I've put a little under 2 hours in on my SL Daffs but that's it on that one for today, over one is hard going
Now I'm off to have a brew and decide what I'll work on this evening around my Bellydancing class and doing my Gran's food shop before I go and pick DD up from her after school coursework class/help session

I've had to take my cousin's car in for it's MOT today, nothing unusal about that you may think and you'd be quite right, however it's a classic MG and I've only been a passenger in it once never mind driven it!
It took me ages to get it into reserve so I could get if off the drive and boy I thought my car was heavy to drive, well this has it beat hands down and it feels like you have to brake 5 miles from a junction so it'll stop in time
I didn't half get some funny looks as I went down the road, not sure if cause I was drivning it or because it's so loud

Just the border to go and then I've got 4 out of 6 done

I'm no longer a full time Domestic Engineer so I think I need a new name, time to put the thinking cap on

More playing about and I've managed to add a calendar to the side bar (only because they had an idiots guide on how to add it)

My latest Happy Dance and a pratice at posting a pic, if I do decide to start using this place more than my current blog then I really need to make sure I can do this