Spring has sprung (kind of)

Spring is trying to appear here in Scotland, the daffodils are peeking through and the nights are definitely lighter but having just been out in town I fear that winter is hanging on for a few days yet.

So exciting stuff - I have a finish - yay!! My Leicester City Football Club badge is now done and framed to boot.  This is for my husband's uncle who we will be seeing in April at a family wedding so that's one more thing of my list to get done before we go

I've got a couple others of these to do for hubby's friends but will get to these after I finish the wedding sampler I am doing for a friend - it's all go this year..

Other than that I've been carrying on with some wips but nothing much to show as yet.  I'm off now to enjoy my last day of leave for this year, thankfully my new leave year starts next week so I don't actually have any full weeks now till end of April - result...

What I did in January (and a bit of February..)

Well January has come and gone and we are now well into February. I celebrated another birthday and my boy also turned 11.

I've had a couple of trips to Edinburgh - one to see the Britain's Got Talent auditions (a lot more fun than I thought it would be) and one to the zoo (again much more enjoyable) for Joe's birthday.

I've had some good competition wins of vouchers so treated ourselves to a shiny new TV, a chromebook and some smart new clothes for hubby  but karma can come back to bite you in the backside with a heart-attack inducing car bill... I've only just got over the shock lol!  But we need our car so it lives to see another year..

Stitching wise been plugging away on my WIPS,  and hope to get a finish soon with my Leicester City badge.  A friend has asked me to do a cross stitch for her nephew's wedding so we had fun last week deciding over colour schemes, I'm looking forward to see how it will look in the end.

So here is some pics for you

Haed Mini Sea of Roses

Leicester City FC Badge

Before & After - four pages to go 

Ink Circles - The Bramble and Rose
(honest there is a tiny bit more in the bottom right..)

Chatelaine White Nights in St Petersburg (one more house finished and another started)

This was my new start for the year - to be truthful it hasn't seen much daylight yet  

And finally some of the gorgeous creatures from Edinburgh Zoo (and my darling son and his pal engrossed in conversation lol)

New year new starts

So I spent the last few days of 2014  finishing off some pages on my WIPS so I am starting the new year with lots of nice new page starts as well as one completely new start.  So these will be my projects for 2015 - which are very familiar as they were my projects for 2014 and before that lol!

HAED Mini Sea of Roses - two pages done, four to go

Leicester City FC Badge - five pages done, five to go 

Haed Rapunzel - two pages done, two to go

Chatelaine White Nights in St Petersburg,  5 parts done, 7 to go 

Ink Circles - Bramble and Rose, six pages done, three to go

And this is going to be my new start for the year, I have had this design for years, literally years (it was from a Crossstitcher mag from about 2005) and thought it would go nice in my new bathroom so have got it all kitted up ready to go

November - December

So another year is coming to an end - all in all its been a good one, nothing dramatic happening, spent lots of money on a shiny new bathroom so now permanently skint but hey whats new!

In November I took a trip down to Harrogate in Yorkshire to visit some stitchy friends and attend a stitching show. Myself, Mouse, Ally and Sandra spent a great couple of days in a lovely little house just off the centre of Town.  We ate and chatted and actually did some stitching..   As for the show I visited it on the Saturday morning but it was very busy and hard to get round all the exhibitors.  I did get what I was after though which was from fabric from Sparklies .   Mouse was laughing though that I went all they way to Yorkshire only to get one piece of fabric but to be honest I have all the stash I need at present and I really just like to go for the chat!  

So with the fabric I bought I started one of Nora Corbett's Reindeer "Donner" stitched on Sparklies Charcoal Slate Opalescent (which is just perfect - thanks to Kate for picking this one out) and stitched on it throughout December - I didn't get it finished in time for getting it up with the decorations so have popped it away until next year. I really can't stitch anything Christmas related once the day is past.  I am a bit bah humbug and just want it all over and done with come Boxing Day!

I am now trying to finish up a page on my Rapunzel Haed so I have all new page starts for the new year along with a new start.  

I hope you all had a good Christmas and are looking forward to a happy new year xx  

Before and after - bathroom makeover

Back in the summer we got our old rather horrible bathroom ripped out and a shiny new one put in.  It then sat with bare plastered walls for the next six months before I got round to getting it painted but now that it is we are so so happy with it - I chose a duck egg colour which sets off the white furniture great and also we have a blue marbled tile floor .  Sorry for the pictures but my bathroom is tiny and really hard to get decent pictures in..

Before the chaos commenced

After - so happy with it 

There's a nip in the air

Having had a relatively mild year so far it has come as a bit of a shock that it is cold now and wet and windy = ah the joys of autumn in Scotland but a great excuse to stay indoors and stitch which is my plans for today.

A quick update of what I've been up to since the summer - some wips and a couple of finishes, throw in a wee week in Tenerife and that's pretty much it - all quiet really.

I'm off to Harrogate in a couple of weeks to catch up with some stitchy friends and visit the Stitching Show - getting excited now!  Will have a quick look through my stash in the next week or so and see what I need to pick up when I'm there..

 This is my latest start - which is going to be a Leicester City football club shield for an uncle , I've got another couple to do for friends - pretty easy and effective

This is Bent Creek's October Snapper - I started this series years ago and I am finally down to two to do - this is my computer at work - I've moved into another office now at work and plan to have lots of cross stitch up on the walls to make it more cheerful for me, after all  I spend a lot of time there - thankfully now I get a view out of the window - it's not much of a view but at least I get to see some trees and sky and see the seasons change - otherwise the days pass without ever noticing the world around you, it's dark in the morning and dark at night

This is the first two pages of HAEDs mini sea of roses finished

Some Tenerife shots - nice to get a wee blast of warmth before the winter

This was my Tunnock's teacake bag which I managed to get finished up in times for my hols and it got plenty of use there.  So pleased with it as it actually looks and works really good!

I should really keep this blog up to date a bit more now  and catch up with reading everyone else's  as I've got more time on my hands now with DD having given up skating so got my weekends back - yay!   My bank balance is appreciating it as well.

Spring in summer happy dance

As I am currently on my hols have been having some quality stitching time and have even managed a finish.
Mirabilia Maidens of the Seasons Spring. She has been neglected over the last few months and only needed beading . Here she is

And here's my girls enjoying a bit of sun. Am planning in framing them in the coming weeks so decided they needed a little freshen up first. They certainly brightened up my washing line.

Took a trip over to my sister's yesterday and went to check out the Kelpies. Having seen them from the motorway it was good to see them up close to get a real idea of tbeir scale.  I will admit to generally being a bit of a philistine with art but when it comes to pieces like these which break up the mundane landscape I am a total fan.

Holidays

So I have two weeks off work now - bliss!  Just staying at home and catching up with all the mundane things like dentists and opticians but hopefully squeeze in a couple of day trips as well. Am also looking forward to some quality stitching time, lots of TV to catch up on and Tour de France to watch..  over the last couple of weeks have managed a wee bit.

Before:                                                          After:                                                                                                                                                        

Before:                                               After:  

This week I hope to get the beading finished on my Mirabilia which has been sitting neglected for the past few months

Bathroom is now done all bar the painting - am loving it, loads of room in the shower, don't miss the bath at all (especially the hole lol!), so much easier to keep clean - will get some pictures up shortly

Summer time

It is now apparently summer, we've had a few nice days but as usual now that the kid's have broken up for the summer holidays the temperature has plummeted lol!

We spent a great weekend down in Bath this month catching up with family and friends to celebrate DH Lee's 50th birthday. While I was there I gave my friend's mum her present of Owl by LoveThyThread. Frustratingly I forgot to take a picture of it in it's frame but here it is when it was finished - I ordered a frame online to fit to exact size with a mount and managed to frame it well myself, was really pleased with it and this is a much more economical way as having them professionally framed it just too expensive.  Maybe I will actually get round to framing some of my other finishes now...

 
Now that Owl if finished I have made a start on a project I am wanting to finish for my hols in September (a week in Tenerife - can't wait!) - planning to make it up into a tote bag to carry all my beach essentials.  Can anyone work out what it is going to be?

I have also resurrected one of my HAEDS,(Mini Sea of Roses) I haven't worked on any of these for months and I forgot how small it is, stitching 2 over 1 on 28ct. Took my a wee bit to get back into it but now back up to speed, albeit a very slow speed... this is where I am at just now.

Better get off now to have a shower as they are due to be ripping out my bathroom this morning so will be bathroomless for a few days but this time next week should have a shiny new bathroom - so excited, my poor wee bathroom complete with hole in the bath lol was in desperate need of a makeover.

April wipocalpyse

Another month has flown by and my owl is coming to life..  I am stitching this for a friend's mum and am hopeful to have it done by June so I can hand it over when we go visit but time is slipping away so that is all I've been stitching

March

April

With regards my stash organising it is pretty straight forward -  all my DMC on bobbins in boxes, charts etc in folders and WIPS in separate folders - I don't have a huge amount of stash, I tend to just buy fabric as and when I need it.  I have enough charts as it is to last me a lifetime.


Other than that life is ticking away nicely - between using up annual leave in March and then days off for school hols I feel that I have hardly been at work - I could certainly get used to working less, only another twenty five years till retirement lol..

Am very excited though as we are finally getting a new bathroom fitted in June.  We've been in this house for ten years now and never touched it and it has gradually been falling apart, the duck tape holding the bath together though has been the spur to actually get it sorted now  ..getting a complete refit from ceiling to floor - now just need to decide on what window to get in - decisions, decisions..

Thanks for dropping by.

March wipocalpyse

Okay life has been a bit hectic for the last wee while - I feel that I can actually take a breath this weekend.   DD has been competing in a figure skating competition this week (she came a respectable 9th out of 17) which has involved a lot of time (and my bank account haemorrhaging money) so stitching time has been few and far between.

However  not all is lost -  I will start with a finish - yay!. Finished this up a couple of weeks ago and it is now hanging on daughter's wall, which is an achievement in itself. The amount of finishes I have that are still waiting to be framed is growing.

This was from Cross Stitch Collection last year - there is a border that goes round it but I preferred it without.

Owl (from Love Thy Thread) is now down to the second row - this is being stitched on Autumn Gold from Sparklies - it is a slightly darker colour than it shows here.














Finishing off my Mirabilia spring - beading, beading and a bit more beading




Topic this month is favourite places to stitch .  I am an at home in front of the TV stitcher, I very rarely stitch out of the house. Even on holiday I always have great plans to stitch but find that reading is always my preferred activity -  So this is usually my view from my recliner in the living room.  I will admit I am a bit of a TV addict, love a good drama series - at the moment I am hooked on Line of Duty - the last episode is this week and I am still none the wiser as to who did what!

A bit of a mini disaster

In  the last post I mentioned that I would post a pic of my Owl piece by Love Thy Thread
 I had done about a page and when I took it out of the hoop I had the sudden realisation that it was in no way going to fit into the fabric I had - after much checking and recalculating I realised that I had been stitching it over 2 instead of 1 - aaah!! To say I was a bit annoyed would be an understatement - let's just say the kids made a hasty retreat at this point.  I was for chucking the whole thing but was sensible and have hid it in the cupboard for a few days and will then attempt to frog and restart in a few days time.

I'm behind in my first wipacolpse posting but will do a little intro for those that don't know me. I'm Maureen, just turned 43 and live in Ayr on the south west coast of Scotland along with my hubby Lee, kids Neve 13 and Joe 10 and Poppy the cat.

I've been stitching for over twenty years now(scary!) and am really a fan of BAPs - finishes are a rarity in my world... I love HAEDs, Chatelaine's etc

I've been blogging for a few years now - not very frequently to be sure but enjoy looking back and seeing my progress over the previous few months.

Below are a couple of updates on what I've been doing over the last week - nearly finished the unicorn - just ran out of one colour and then need to get some beads. Plan to get this in February.

HAED Mini Sea of Roses

Cross Stitch Gold - Winter Unicorn