Garden Chair

All my stitching time for the last week has gone on this, doesn't look much really does it but bear in mind the wording on the chair back is over one and I had to unpick a line because it was one thread out. Had I been stitching it just for me I would of left it but I'm entering it in the Cheshire Show (June 17/18th) and the judges are picky and I would hate it if I lost marks because of it. Same with the date on the fob, I orginally had my initials on it but the spacing wasn't right and no matter how much I played about with them they still weren't even so I did the date instead and will put my name in some form on the base.

The fabric isn't as dark as the pic shows but that's what you get for taking a pic in the evening when it's cloudy out. Left to do is the rest of the arm rolls, drawer front, parasol, seat cushion & seat base. I have to have it done by June 15th at the very latest but with any luck it'll be done by next weekend when I go away for a stitching weekend in Derbyshire with several other UK stitchers

Late Birthday presents

Yesterday I went down to my parents for tea and not long after I arrived I was handed a large white box and something wrapped in alot of bubble wrap which turned out to be one of these and the 8-10'' side Stretchers along with the 16'' & 24'' bars of one of these . I'd seen it at the NEC in March and decided that I had to save up for one over the next couple of years to make working on scroll frames easier, after I'd met back up with Mum and Dad for a brew and told them about it they texted Mel on the quiet to find out where we'd seen it and went back to buy it!!!!!
I'd seen the box as we left but they told me it was framing supplies for my Dad, my parents can be very sneaky at times

Then this morning the postman brought a padded envelope for me from Sharon who's my Floss mom. She not only sent me the chart for Peacock Tapestry but the floss for it and the silk's for Just Nan's Peacock CypherI'm totally bowled over by her wonderful gift and feel honoured to have her as a friend

Birth Sampler progress

I don't think I've posted a progress pic of this since I first started it in Jan so just prove I am still working on it.......

I know that Caleb is almost 2 months old now and that alot of stitchers would of handed it over within days of his arrival but not me, I like to be different and Heather knows that I'll finish it and hand it over at my own pace.

Tessellations update

After the huge mistake I made back in March it's taken me a while to be able to face this again and unpick the 2 cells. I gave up trying to unpick them in the end and just cut the lot at the back so I ended up surrounded by all these little tiny orts of silk but it made a pretty pile. Once I started to stitch them in the right colour and I'd reached the waffle stitches (the one's that look like a square with a diamond on top in case you don't know the stitch, love doing them sooooooo much easier than the Jessica's!) I thought I'd try doing the 2 cells that form the diamond on either side in reverse as I had the silk cut and ready to go so I'll see how it goes with those before I decide which way round each cell will be done

Flatfold Exchange

I heard from Velda that the flatfold arrived safely so I can now share a pic

I picked Heart in Hands Wee Angel for her and really enjoyed stitching it, not bad for a first effort at a flatfold

Birthday start

I did say I'd post a pic when there was something more exciting than a lilac G, more to look at would of been better :)
Not the most exciting of things to look at but it's really fun to stitch

It's My Stash is Bigger than your Stash from Forever in my Heart, I'm using the called for Crescent Colours and cream Murano.

This morning I've done my weekly hour on my UFO for the SAL and with luck I'll finish it next month, it'll be nice to clear a UFO off my WIP list and I already know which one I'll work on next. Now I'm off to finish the stitching on my Fantasy exchange project

Reaseheath Open Day

Yesterday we went to Reaseheath's Open day (the college Mel has a place at in Sept), because I was there to demonstrate spinning I didn't get to wander round much but after lunch Mel dragged me to the Zoo area of the college which is also where she will be studying.

I'd let her loose with my camera earlier in the day so she's guilty for some of these pics :)

I had to talk nicely to this guy to get him to turn his head

Ring Tailed Lemurs

Meerkats, the outdoor group

Tapier

Serval

And this is Pete the resident Peacock, you never know where you'll find him as he's the only one allowed to roam free. We found him in with some chickens and I had to talk nicely to him as well to get him to display his tail

Then he decided we should see him from behind as well

They have Otters, Llama's, Alpacha's, assorted Birds of Prey, Spider Monkeys, assorted snakes, Rabbits and loads of other animals that I can't remember

Happy Birthday to me

I'm a year older but no wiser today :)

It's been a nice quiet day with nothing exciting happening. I started my Birthday present to myself this morning and have worked on it when I've been home today, been to town and done my food shop, had phone calls off family wishing my Happy Birthday and Mum managed to sing it without laughing this year (she rings us all up and sings first thing in the morning but normally doesn't get more than half way through before she starts laughing) and I've now got an oven full of cherry scones ready for the WI coffee morning tomorrow.

I'll post a pic of my start when there's something a little more interesting than a lilac G to look at at

An almost my birthday meme

A Meme - Stolen from Suz

1) Go to Wikipedia
2) In the search box, type your birth month and day but not the year.
3) List three events that happened on your birthday
4) List two important birthdays and one death
5) One holiday or observance (if any)

Events
1568 - Mary Queen of Scots flees to England.
1920 - In Rome, Pope Benedict XV canonizes Joan of Arc as a saint.
2006 - A large earthquake (7.4 on the Richter scale) occurs near New Zealand

Births
1905 - Henry Fonda, American actor
1969 - David Boreanaz, American actor (can't think of anyone better to share a birthday with!)

Death
1990 - Jim Henson, American puppeteer

Holiday
Middlesex Day

Capesthorne Hall (pic heavy)

I spent a very enjoyable afternoon today wandering round Capesthorne Hall with around 400 other members of Cheshire WI. First up was tea and cake & a scone (really healthy lunch for a diabetic!) along with chatting to ladies from Croft WI (Warrington) about things you won't think WI ladies would talk about and normal things like recycling and bins
I didn't take many pics in the house partly because some of the rooms were dark (for good reason, one in particular has a 300 year old black silk coat in it) and partly because it was so busy

The centre section of the house

The rear of the house from the Garden

I thought this lamp shade was really pretty and unusal


This is a Roman chair that was dug up in the grounds when they were putting in a new drainage channel

The State bedroom, the wedding dress is the one worn by a member of the family who married in 2000, I overheard someone say it's by Vera Wong but how true that is I have no idea

The alter in the family Chapel

The Bluebell wood, it's almost the end of the season for them now

A bluebell :)

I've got no idea what this is but it's pretty

And a close up of the pretty flower

The gardener's out there are probably falling off their chair's laughing now because I've got no idea what the last 2 pics are of but I'm not a gardener and have a tendency to kill plants rather than grow them

Question of the week

I took this from Chris' blog who found it elsewhere :)

Topic of the Week May 5, 2008: How did you choose the name for your blog? Is there a special reason behind it? Please share.

When I started this blog way back in 2003 I called it Diary of a Domestic Engineer simply because at the time that's what I was, a full time Mum and housewife (A title I've always hated, I didn't marry the house!).
When I revived it last year there had been some major changes in my life, I'd seperated from my H and was now my Mum's Carer as well as being the family member that was most able and available when my Gran needed help so a new name was needed and after some debate and suggestions from friends Caring Stitcher was born

It's not a good idea .......

to bake a fruit cake late on a Sunday evening so that you don't take it out of the oven until almost 1am.
Those that know me well will think nothing of my being up at this time of day instead of tucked up in bed fast asleep but for once my bed is calling and has been for the last hour or so now shame I can't answer it's call until the cake has cooled down enough for me to take it out of the tin. The purpose of said cake is the same as it was a couple of weeks ago a Cheshire Show committe meeting and while this one has turned out better I doubt very much that's it's going to be up to WI show standards, still it keeps my famliy happy as they all get a chunk of it to munch on afterwards (I'm not a big cake eater and would never get through it on my own, heck the one I won yesterday is half the size and Mum's already had a chunk of it)

Another UFO RR round complete

This time it's Misty's Skeleton Crew and even though it's not my cup of tea I've quite enjoyed working on it

As it arrived

20 hours later

Cookie Dragon

As I said yesterday with being sick I sat all day and stitched on Cookie Dragon, because I didn't post a pic in April here's how he started off

And 10 hours later he can still only fly in circles but at least most of his cookie jar is done now

I was so tempted to carry on with him today but I need to get the UFO RR done and my exchange piece started so I'll finish him next month

Oh and I'm all better today :) now I can move about with feeling sick I guess my excuse for sitting and stitching all day is out the window

What I did on Saturday

At last :)

I'm still a little off colour today, my head no longer hurts but I feel sick whenever I move so I've spent most of the day stitching and watching Heroes (the upside is I've done my hours on Cookie Dragon for this month in 2 days!)

So to Saturday, first off we went into Conwy to visit the jewellers so that Mel and I could pick out a piece of Colgau gold Jewellery. Almost as soon as we were all out of the car Mel decided to go up in the world and stand on the wall so being the mean Mother that I am I took a pic of her :)


After a wander round a few shops and lunch in Anna's Tea room we headed back to the car and Mel kindly went up on the wall to take this for me

So we headed to Llandudno for the Extraveganza they hold every year on May Bank holiday weekend, as always the first port of call for me is the Carousel

And because I love this particular one so much you get another pic:)

I think it's the Ashley Gallopers but I do know that's it's one of the few remaining steam driven Carousels in the country

Next up was a ride on the Chair-o-planes, see the guy on the ride? I've got no idea what his name is but he remembered us from Malpas steam fair last Sept (prob. cause Mel and I spent a fair bit of time on the Carousel)

As you fight your way through the crowds on Mostyn Street they have an area sectioned off for bands etc to perform in, we happenned to get there as this group started.

Their called Batala and you wouldn't think that you could get such a fantastic sound out of drums, they were amazing and you could tell that every member really enjoyed playing

No trip to Llandudno is complete without a walk to the end of the pier browsing in all the little huts along the way selling alsorts of stuff, my personal favourite one is about half way up and everything they sell is connected to Wales in some and a huge amount of the stock has the Welsh Dragon on it.

We bought doughnuts on the way back and munched them while we watched Punch and Judy then I fulfilled my goal of embarassing Mel at least once when we go out for the day (It's what us Mum's are suppossed to do to our teenaged daughters after all )

This is just a few of the pics I took during the day and as I said to Mel on the day, this blogging lark is bad for me becasue it means I take my camera with me when I go out for the day now so I've got something to bore people with. I never used to bother with a camera at all after years of my parents photographing everything that moved when we went anywhere

Flatfold Exchange Received

Look what the postman brough this morning from Kell We both took part in a Flatfold Exchange on Cross Stitch Crazy and she had me to send to


It's stunning and like me it's her first attempt at making a flatfold but you wouldn't think it to look at it.
I've not been very well the last couple of days and I'm still off colour today but this has cheered me up no end, Thank you Kell. Mine will be going in the post today, once it arrives at it's new home I'll share

Had a Houseguest

Heather and Caleb came up on Wednesday for a visit.
She was here to find out if she'd won her wedding at a local posh place, the local paper ran a competition to win a wedding for 100 people with everything included so she entered.
She didn't win but while she was here she caught up with a couple of friends and I got to babysit while she went to find out if they'd won which for me was the highlight

April Progress & May Goals

I'm on time this month :)

For April I said
UFORR Done but I mailed a day or two late
Make progress on Birth Sampler Not much but any progress is good progress
Stick to UFO SAL I missed one week

For May
UFORR
Make progress on Birth Sampler
Stick to UFO SAL
No new starts other than my Birthday one and an exchange I'm signed up for
As much progress as poss on the Garden chair

Overall I had a really good month, I stitched for 102 hours and 18 mins which is way more than I thought it'd be
I had 3 new starts - Exchange piece, The Peacock and the Garden Chair
And 2 finishes - Be a Dragon and the exchange piece (I'll be posting a pic of that once it reaches it's new home)