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did manage to reach my goal of getting one band done on Friday (the top one of the bottom lot) but now this pic is way out of date because I finished it about an hour ago!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 :)