holiday time

Off work for a week - yay! Plans are :

1. not setting the alarm for 9 whole mornings.
2. having a girly day with my dd Neve
3. painting Neve's room
4. stitching
5. getting the house into some sort of order
6. spending a romantic weekend with my dh Lee - staying at a lighthouse keepers cottage here

So, made it to Berlin and back, it was short but sweet, would really have liked to spend a couple more days there to have a good wander about - the hotel we stayed in was really nice, actually a one bedroom apt, me and Kim (my friend who came with me) were ready just to move in - no kids, no husbands, no cleaning - seemed good to us..  the Bruno Mars gig at night was surprisingly good - lots to sing and dance along to and of course we had to indulge in a few beers (we were in Germany after all).

Stitching wise, managed to get a wee bit done on my Chatelaine White Nights and the Solar System and this weekend i have signed up for International Hermit and StitchWeekend - looking forward to having a look at everyone else's progress, always good to find more blogs i haven't come across yet, you can never have enough blogs to read!

Okay pictures:

Chatelaine White Nights in St Petersburg

Solar System

Ink Circle - Bramble and The Rose

Reichstag

Brandenburg Gate

Berlin Cathedral

Right off to enjoy some more hermitting and stitching..

aarrgghhh!!!!!!

that is how i am feeling at the moment - I am now into week 3 of no washing machine and going slightly demented!  It is not even a year old so still  under guarantee so am stuck waiting for Comet to pull their finger out and get it sorted.. they sent an engineer out after they had diagnosed what was wrong with it from me telling them "it was making a horrible screechy noise" and funnily enough it turned out to be something else, and they are now still waiting on the part to fix it - between trips to the laundrette and the goodwill of friends and family we are just about keeping the washing under control but it is seriously pissing me off!!! 

Ok rant over lol!

I got my needlebook finished for the exchange over on Friendly Stitchers - actually got it finsihed last week but it is still in my car waiting to get posted, sorry Gillie - it will get to you eventually... I am normally terrified of finishing but this wasn't too scary, will post a piccie once i know it has been received.

Got a bit more done on HAED SK Rapunzel - am stitching this on 18ct aida and really loving it, my other HAED is on 25ct linen, so this makes a nice change, not quite as demanding. 

this week am back to working on Chatelaine White Nights - aiming to get at least the west gates done but between fat club, book club and Neve's skating, it'll be a bit of squeeze getting much time on it. 

Off to Berlin in two days - very excited now! 

100

Goodness i've made it to 100 posts - it's taken me a bit of time but got there in the end lol!  Been working away on Bramble and The Rose for the last few days - don't know what it is about this piece but the frogs certainly love it - drives me to distraction,  anyway it is now away for another month - here's hoping october is a frog free month.. 

am now working on a needlebook for an exchange over on Friendly Stitchers - and been printing out instructions on how to make it up - making up things is not my forte but these instructions seem pretty foolproof to me - (famous last words lol!)

right, off to watch The X Factor now - loving this series with the new judges, specially Gary - he has certainly matured well ha ha...

night night all

 

Well it's a new month so time for a bit of an update with this and that -

Family

The kids went back to school in middle of August and along with that goes all the out of school stuff - Beavers, Guides, swimming, parent association stuff, and Neve is now a full member of the figure skating club which means she can go up to four times a week - I don't think lol, two or three at a push is enough for us!  I am all for her practising and doing well at it but i still want her to enjoy it not think of it as a chore.

It's now getting very autumnal here i.e grey clouds, rain, wind - not much different from our summer actually just a bit colder - very dreich as we would say - had to actually give up and stop wearing my sandals and get into shoes - a sad day..

A wee bit of good news

Yesterday I got a letter to say i had won a trip to Berlin to see Bruno Mars in concert - am not too fussy re the Bruno Mars bit but quite excited about seeing a bit of Berlin, although it will be just a wee bit unfortunately as it is only for one night and the flight is quite early coming back, - i shall have to go and learn a wee bit of German as it is pretty non-existent at the moment..

Being a stitcher of course my first thought was - wonder if there are any good LNS in Berlin lol! Does everyone else think like this when they head somewhere new?

Stitching

A couple of WIP's progesses for you: 

I joined up over at Love 4 Stitch Alongs forum as a bit of an incentive to work on a couple of pieces i have been neglecting recently so have adapted my rotation somewhat to fit them in - managed a little bit on my chatelaine

And this is where i got to for the summer exchange on Needlecraft Haven - just a wee bit more to go

okay that's me for tonight - off to watch The Soprano's before bed. 

giveaway results

Ok folks -  i have used the tried and tested sophisticated method of sticking everyone's name in an envelope and pulling one out - works every time!

So for "Irresitible Gifts to Stitch" - we have Christina in Miami

and for "Christmas Card Ideas" - we have Teejay

i will be in touch for you snail mail address.  Hope you both enjoy these.

time for a giveaway

Okay folks - got a couple of chart books which i received which i thought i would be better off offering as a give away as i am not likely to use them and would rather they go to a good home!

  first up is "Irresistible Gifts to Cross Stitch"  -lots of lovely little gift ideas 

if you are into card making next up is Papercrafts' Christmas Card Ideas

Will keep this open till 5th Sept - please just leave a comment stating which one you would like and i will draw a name at random - easy peasy! 

Please feel free to spread the word around the blogging world.

wip update

Right thought it was about time to actually have some stitching photo's. These are the current four pieces in

 my rotation

The Solar System which i am doing for ds Joe

This is the summer exchange piece from Needlecraft Haven - just loving the green fabric which is a bit brighter than it  shows here

 This is for the consultant i work for who is off sick at the mo and she does love her coffee

and this is the HAED BB SK SAL - i chose Rapunzel and have made a tiny start so far on page 1. 

Have felt very productive this weekend, cleaned the car and got the garden sorted as much as I could yesterday till the rain started, tackled some of the iron mountain and then got some good stitching in and then managed to actually watch a whole film last night - Sherlock Holmes, really enjoyed it as well..

Today got Neve to skating and then sorted out the credit cards - well, moved them all about to % transfers - maybe one day they will actually be paid off, - (oops watch out for that flying pig)  and now going to pick up dh from work, get dinner sorted and get another couple of hours stitching in and back to work in the morning - the joys.

thanks for dropping by