merry christmas all

Well this is the only stitching i have managed to do this month - a faberge ornamenet from CrossStitcher mag done on plastic canvas, havent used this before but i am liking it for ornies. just got it finished this afternoon and up on the tree - phew just in time! But December has been a bit full on, we got our new kitchen fitted and living room floor and doors done as well

These are the before pictures









and then these are the after. Sorry they are not the best pictures but it is just a small kitchen and hard to get any decent pictures but you can get the general gist. I am so pleased with it! I can actually move about and have so much more worktop now - it's just brilliant (didn't know i could get that excited about a kitchen lol...)











We've also bought a new stereo which is basically just a fancy hard drive and so the last few nights have been spent uploading all our rather grubby old cd's. Been having great fun with this though as rediscovering loads of tracks we had forgetten about.

So things are finally settling down now just in time for Christmas Day. Am going to get a new rotation sorted out for the new year and obviously a new start thrown in there for good measure.

I hope you all have a fabulous Christmas .. will be back in the new year.

Well I got this back from the framers yesterday and although i was having a huff and puff about the cost of it last week, I am so happy with it this week lol! I've now got it stashed in the back of the car so that dh doesn't see it but I cannot wait to give it to him, i wonder if I can hold out till Christmas .

also got the background done for the advent calender so should have that all finished up this week as well. After that i think my stitching time will be slightly diminished as we are getting the new kitchen starting week after next and the electrics rewired so chaos will ensue for the next couple of weeks - bring it on ....

Advent

Okay. All my little advent pillows are stitched and sewn up. Now just to get the background made and should be good to go for 1st Dec.

Took lee's present in to get framed.£80 effing quid! Nearly fell over, as i know it'll look great and it will be in the house I can just about cope with it but reckon I will have to just frame stuff myself from now on.

Only two weeks to go
till meet up with the girls from friendly stitchers in harrogate-cannae wait!

And then getting my new kitchen fitted in December , its going to be a busy few weeks coming up.f

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the perils of wearing socks

It would appear that wearing socks while walking down the stairs is not the most sensible thing to do. One tiny slip and off we go, one leg going one way and the other going in the completely wrong direction lol! Hobbled about on it on Sunday but decided by Monday that i should maybe get it looked at, so went up to my local accident & emergeny department (my old work - where they all had a good laugh at me) and came out wearing this ridiculous big stookie! apparentely i have a subtle fracture of the lateral mallelous but this requires a completely unsubtle plaster.

The most annoying bit was that we were due to go away for a few days over this week as it is the school holidays but me being the only driver this has had to be cancelled - we shall just rearrange for the spring instead.

The good part is though that i am getting lots of stitching time yay! Working away on my advent calender which is making up 25 little pillows - only got another 5 to do and then the fun begins of sewing them all up...

take care all and remember don't wear socks going down stairs!

yay! a finish...

Finished up pressie for dh. now just to put it away and remember to get it framed before Christmas. I have so loved working on this sparklies fabric, defo getting some more in the future.

now going to do a few more squares for an advent calender, mind I'll be pushing it to have it ready for this year but I can try.

at least I'm off work tomorrow as it's a local holiday, taking the kids to xcape in Glasgow for a bit of sledging - might even have a go myself for a laugh.

right off to watch corrie. night night.

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first symbol update

well this is my first update of hubby's pressie. He has a huge led zep fan and has been wanting me to do their symbols for ages. i finally got round to choosing the fabric and went for Ink from Sparklies - I am loving it, just the colour i wanted, it is a bit darker than shown here. Guess where i'll be stopping at first when we hit Harrogate this year!

Some more pictures of our trip to Culzean and yes Gillie, this is where the Eisnhower Apartment is, this was given to him after the war. However as far as I am aware now you can actually stay there as it is part of the National Trust and they have various residences as holiday lets.

Am now back at work but back off again next week - here's hoping the weather actually improves, it has been so miserable here for the last few weeks, the day i took these photos has been about the only time the sun has been out lol!

neve at culzean

Okay just a- little experiment to see how easy it is to upload my photos from my new phone. Just been down to Culzean County Park -this is my dd Neve posing up on the castle walls.

White Nights

I finally got round to doing a bit more on my Chatelaine White Nights in St Petersburg and am making steady progress on part 2 - only 10 more to go lol! I love it though - so sparkly ..

july update - all the two's

right -i have not fallen off the face of the world but with various stuff going on stitching has taken a bit of a back seat. on top of that the pesky IT people at work have banned blogs! so am struggling to keep up with everything going on in blog world - it's just not fair, what am i meant to do with lunchtime now.. so piccies now as to where i am at

first off - two bent creek snappers, April and July

- should get July finished up tonight

second page of bramble rose done as well

on to second page of Twilight Shimmer from HAED

and this week going to work on second page of Chatelaine St Petersburg .

We ended up visiting Bath twice in May as my MIL was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and died with 5 weeks of diagnosis. It was all so quick it came as quite a shock to all the family. However it was also good catching up with all the family and friends in Bath and made us realise we really must make an effort to visit more often .. Lee does get quite homesick at times and me to (even though technically not my home lol!) but alas with the cost of living there we have no chance of ever being able to live there again, so Scotland you are stuck with us.. heading back down there in October though

one more week for me at work and then two glorious weeks off, back for a week and then another week off. waiting to see what the weather does, hopefully okay and we can get the tent out but if not it's going to be a long couple of weeks at home ..

a finish a finish

well two finishes to report one stitching, one book:

1. homer- will get him off to the framers next weekend and then it'll be on it's way down to Wales.

2. The Fiery Cross - finally got it finished lol! I'd had it out since january and i couldn't renew it any more so it had to be done - now on to the next one...

now doing a bit more work on Ink Circles Bramble and Rose

and this was what i received for my stint as calender girls over on Friendly Stitchers - what a great selection i got , thanks girls!

have a good week all..

sunday morning

thankfully spring has finally sprung here and it promises to be a glorious day and best of all i'm on holiday from work till Thursday - yay! here's hoping it lasts till then. so now a quick summary of the last few weeks:

stitching

i have been steadily stitching away, mostly on Homer as i am desperate to get this off but only got a couple of pages to do now.. made a couple of purchases this tote bag which is really really bright, i went for green - have no idea what design to go for but I am sure inspiration will hit me one day and also miracles happen which just always makes me laugh.

holidays

we enjoyed ourselves at Disneyland paris, a good few days were had by all. I even went on a couple of reasonably scary rides - well scary enough for me lol.

Lesson of the week learned - just because kids can get on a ride does not mean it is a "kid's ride"! As i found out on Crush's coaster which took me a bit by surprise to say the least...

the kids of course went on anything they could get on - fair play to them. It was hideously expensive in the park though - £6.50 for a pint of beer! - and the food was pretty dire. But all in all we would probably go back for a couple of days as it so easy for us to get to.

as for the summer holidays we have bought a tent, we've never really been proper camping before but only planning to go for a couple of nights at a time and not too far from home. Just need to get a bit more practice getting the tent up and we'll be off. That's if me and dh can manage that without too much arguing...

plan for the week

• finish another page on Homer and maybe sneek in a bit more on HAED Twilight Shimmer
• get my front garden sorted
• get stuck in The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon - i am halfway through but it feels like the never ending story at the moment.

well that's all for now folks - thanks for stopping by and commenting, all much appreciated.

disneyland paris - day trip to paris

While staying at Disneyland we took the train into Paris as the kids were desperate to go up the Eiffel Tower - we all walked up to the first floor but only Joe and Lee made it up to the second floor -I'm still too much of a scaredy cat and decided that the first floor is perfectly good enough lol! I swear it's got bigger since i was there last.

We took the open top bus around the city which was great as you get such a great perspective of all the stunning buildings - also a good laugh watching the manic traffic and suicidal bikers..they just drive wherever.

it's saturday

Just a couple of WIPs piccies - here's homer

- going to take him with me on holiday next week. Now can you answer me this - are all stitchers like me in that when it comes to packing the first thing that gets decided is what stitching to take lol! nothing important like passports or tickets or clothes lol..

did a little bit more on my HAED but have now added this and my Ink circles back into rotation so i shall be showing them both a bit of love in the next few weeks, they have been poorly neglected..

we enjoyed ourselves immensely at my cousin's wedding - the venue was lovely, food great and best of all great catching up with my dad's family as we don't seem them that often - we stayed over in Glasgow which meant i could indulge in a couple of drinks or five and got back down the road first thing on Sunday

off now to pick up my car - just put it in for a service and it now needs a new tyre as got a nail stuck in one -aah! and a mount for the engine needs replaced - it is neverending - thank god for credit cards...

hope you are all having a good weekend

framed

Picked up my scottish heart from the framers last week - now just have to remember to get some wrapping paper before saturd'llay.

Been running around like a headless chicken recently between working extra hours and making sure that the kids are kitted out for this wedding - finally got round to getting myself something to wear at the weekend there - i'll be glad when the weekend is over!

Still only three weeks till our disneyland paris holiday, so just hanging on for that -yaay!!

scottish heart

This was a quick finish and is now off to the framers today so that it is back in time as i have suddenly realised the wedding is in two.

weeks - where are the days going?

Other than that been doing a bit more on Homer and now going to start on Ally's round robin.

It was my wee boy Joe's 6th birthday yesterday so much eating of cake was done and then a trip to Mcdonald's - i still feel full up this morning! So got a busy weekend coming up as he is taking some friends bowling and then has another party to go to on Sunday as well as tennis - i reckon i'll be glad to get back to work on monday for a rest..

thanks for stopping by and commenting - always appreciated.

homers getting an arm

Stitching:

just a quick update of wips:

homer is coming along nicely though taking it slowly as all that yellow gets pretty tedious

I have started this for my cousin's wedding - it is a Scottish heart - a freebie found here

Books

On Thursday me and Ally went to see Diana Gabaldon talking about her new book at our local library - by luck i had been in town the week before and saw it advertised in Waterstone's and quickly snapped up some tickets - she was really interesting and friendly and we did learn that if it wasn't for Doctor Who Jamie Fraser might never have existed! Am now rapidly reading The Fiery Cross so i can get caught up on the series but have just found out that Twilight is going to be the next book for our book club, can't wait for that..

Life

Spent last week in a very snowy and cold Edinburgh, courtesy of a comp win - we stayed at Channings, a really lovely Victorian Hotel in the west end who very kindly upgraded us to a superior room with jaczuzzi - nice.. it was just so good to be away without the kids and just relax with a rum or few..

back to work

Back to work today – yuck, I have so enjoyed being off and not having to listen to my alarm and then woke up at half six this morning to find the world had gone all white again, at first this seems quite pretty now it is just getting plain annoying! Still put up my Bent Creek Snapper January Snows which for the first time in a long time is true for us.. I plan to actually have all these out this year – so far have only made it to March oops..

Have now realised that body is trying to rebel against me – recently I’ve been suffering from bad indigestion and heartburn and have now concluded that the main culprit appears to be chocolate (as I found out today when I ate a Rose’s chocolate that was still in my desk from before Christmas, that’ll teach me) – it is just so unfair! Still maybe it is my subconscious just telling me to stop being such a greedy gannet or I’ll never get into the dress I need to wear to my cousin’s wedding in February lol..

Found this over on Cheryl’s blog and have shamelessly stolen it as thought it a pretty good way of summing up a year:

1. What did you do in 2009 that you’d never done before? Meet more of the ladies from Friendly Stitchers
2. Did you keep your New Years’ resolutions and will you make more for next year? No and no
3. Did anyone close to you give birth? No
4. Did anyone close to you die? No
5. What countries did you visit? Turkey, Wales, England
6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009? A pair of size 12 jeans
7. What date from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory? It was all a bit of a sameness
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Finishing Joe’s stocking in time
9. What was your biggest failure? Not getting the size 12 jeans lol..
10. Did you suffer illness or injury? A rather irritating irritated nerve in my neck
11. What was the best thing you bought? A new bed
12. Whose behaviour merited celebration? The kids weren’t too bad ..
13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed? The government
14. Where did most of your money go? The house, the car, groceries – nothing exciting at all..
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Going on our free holiday
16. What song/album will always remind you of 2009? Florence and the machine - lungs
17. Compared to this time last year, are you happier or sadder? Happier
18. What do you wish you’d done more of? Spending time with kids
19. What do you wish you’d done less of? Work
20. How did you spend Christmas? At home with hubby and kids and then a friend came over to join us later for dinner
21. Who did you spend the most time on the phone with? Husband
22. Did you fall in love in 2009? No – just stayed in love
23. How many one night stands in this last year? No real ones but do fantasy one night stands count?
24. What was your favourite TV programme(s)? Fringe, Coronation Street, reruns of Gilmore Girls
25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? No
26. What was the best book(s) you read? Liked Time and Chance by Sharon Penman
27. What was your greatest musical discovery? Florence and the Machine
28. What did you want and get? New bedroom furniture
29. What did you want and not get? Nothing springs to mind
30. What were your favourite films of this year? Only seemed to have seen kid’s movies this year
31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I was 38 but it was last January so really can’t remember
32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? A little bit more cash
33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009? Jeans and stripy tops – I just can’t stop buying stripy tops
34. What kept you sane? Stitching, diet coke
35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? Will have to a wee think about that for a while .. though Bruce Springsteen was looking pretty good
36. What political issue stirred you the most? MP expenses – aaah
37. Who did you miss? Still miss my mum
38. Who was the best new person (people) you met? Meeting the Friendly Stitchers in real life
39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009? You can get through most everything and I really need to get out the house more..
40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year? “Money’s too tight to mention”

No stitchy pictures as i just haven't got round to it - currently working on Homer and Mylene's piece of the round robin , this should be onward bound shortly.

Thanks for stopping by and wishing you all a good 2010.