A Happy New Year

This year has not been a very healthy one for me but I am so thankful for all the other things that have happened in my life. I am so grateful to my dearest OH who has looked after me so well. My three lovely daughters who have given me so much love and my gorgeous grandchildren who have brightened my life with their hugs and kisses along with the tears and tantrums (theirs not mine).

We have said a sad farewell to friends and relatives through the year and this time of year brings back memeories of those long gone but never forgotten. I look back on 2012 with thankfulness for the new friends I have made, the time I have enjoyed doing my stitching and knitting, the time I managed to spend in my garden and the love of a good family.

As tomorrow dawns I will also be celebrating another birthday so more celebrations with family.

So here's to 2013 and a wish for you all to be happy, healthy and trouble free.

Love and blessings,

A Very Merry Christmas

I'm all ready for Santa to come tonight, everything is done......hopefully.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow morning when Lily and Callum come round to open their presents, I love to see their faces when they open each parcel and hope that it puts a smile on their faces and not a frown.

Just hoping that my middle daughter, Kim is feeling better as she's come downwith this horrible sickness bug that's going around so instead of going out celebrating with her friends this evening, she's stuck at home with us.

I've nothing stitchy to show but I just wanted to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and hope that Santa is good to you all this year.

Love and hugs.

A lovely exchange and a little bit of finishing

November flew by and the way December is going Christmas will be here before I'm ready for it.

We have the Christmas tree up and some decorations but I need to put a few more up to make it look a little bit more festive. I've spent this afternoon shopping on line for the grandchildren and I can't believe how much a little toy costs but it only comes once a year and it's a chance to spoil them a little. I'm looking forward to Boxing day when all four grandchildren will be here to open their presents. Lily is 4, Josh is 3, Callum is 2 and Becky is one so it will be madness in our house, I can't wait.

December 1st was my youngest daughter's birthday and she celebrated it by coming down with a cold and lost her voice too, not the best of birthdays.

Saturday was also the day for opening my exchange from Diana, she doesn't have a blog but she should have. I've been participating in a Gift of Friendship exchange for quite a few years now with a lovely group of ladies and this is what I received, it was an ornament exchange and I received not one but two beautiful ornaments and some lovely extras too.

This is what I sent to Diana, and she said that she liked it.

There's not been a lot of stitching going on apart from a few Christmas cards that I like to do for some stitching friends. I did make a couple of ornaments up that I'd stitched ages ago  but for the life of me I can't find the other four ornaments that I'd stitched  to hang on my mantle. Never mind I'm sure they'll turn up one day.

Healthwise, I am improving day by day, still being told to rest but I'm feeling so much better in myself and so much happier.

Hope everyone else is happy and healthy,

take care,

I won

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to win Teresa's giveaway on her blog At willow tree pond. Along with the chart she sent some sticky notes and some hand dyed thread and as I'm not one to win very often I'm one happy lady.

Hope that everyone is having a happy Sunday

November catch up

I can't believe how quickly the time goes when you're busy doing nothing, and that's mostly what I've been up to, nothing. 

Still under orders to keep my leg up and rested but if that's what it takes to get it better then it's not too much to ask. You'd think that with all this time on my hands I'd have plenty of stitching or crafty things to show but to be honest after three months, I've not. I've done a lot of reading and watched TV until I'm so fed up with it that I don't even want to turn it on any more but I like it on in the background for company.

I did finally manage to finish Bushel and a Peck by La De Da, it was so easy to stitch with only four or five colours in it.

I also stitched Lizzie Kate's 2010 snowman for an exchange but Lily saw me stitching it and liked it so it might end up on her tree if I can finish another ornament in time to send to my exchange partner.

I've done another couple of little ornaments but they need putting together and I've made a new start.

Little House Needleworks Season of Rest, what could be more apt than that!

Hope everyone's ok and safe out in blogland, that's all for now,

Sue xx

Thank you

Thank you for all your good wishes for my recovery. I am feeling a lot better but am still so tired but at least I am able to walk a little further.

Tony took me shopping the other day, just to get me out, but it meant a ride in the wheelchair and all the time we were out I wanted to get out of it, I felt such a fraud even though I really needed it.

I'm not one for sitting about so it's driving me mad having to rest my leg and let Tony look after me, he's been so good but he's back at work this week and it seems such a long evening sitting here.

Hopefully I'll feel a bit cheerier soon and get back into my crafts......all this time on my hands and I don't feel like doing anything. Perhaps a look in sewandso might help!!

Take care all,

I am feeling proper poorly........

and sorry for myself. I went to A&E last Saturday because my leg had been swelling up since a week last Wednesday and by Saturday it looked like I had swapped a leg with an elephant. I was diagnosed with a DVT and a significant blood clot in my stomach from my groin to the top of my stomach.

I am now sitting at home watching tv as I can't move very far without pain. I can't even stitch as I can't get comfey so I watch and nod and find that the beginning of one programme has merged into the ending of another, but I am so pleased that it has been found and something is being done to get rid of this unwanted visitor, lol. My stomach looks like a dartboard from the injections but a small price to pay to be well again.

I am missing the grandchildren as they have kept away to give me some rest but I can't go without showing you this picture of my granddaughter Lily on her graduation from nursery,

Take care all and have a lovely weekend,

 

A new start, a birthday and a foggy Tuesday

Hello all, and a very wam welcome to my new followers it's lovely to have some new friends. It's been a really damp day so much different to how it was last week when the sun was shining and I was out in the garden every spare minute that I had even though it was so hot.

Yesterday was my middle daughter Kims birthday, those 31 years have gone by so quickly. I went into labour on the 29th which just happened to be the day that Prince Charles married Princess Diana. I made my way through the wedding ceromony on the tv, went to see my Mum and then decided that I'd better get to the hospital.

Everywhere was decorated with bunting and balloons so it was a lovely calming feeling. I didn't have Kim until the early hours of the 30th as I was booked in for a c-section and here we are 31 years later and I feel so blessed.

I have made a new start in my stitching; it's the La-D-Da Bushel and a Peck that I picked out months ago to start. It's an easy stitch with only four colours so it's good for me to ease my way back into stitching again.

         and I've already picked out something else to stitch so my stitching bug must be coming back home.

As for the foggy bit.......that is my head. I've been on my new pills for about ten days now and my head is so fuzzy, I wish the sensation would go away.

I'll leave you with one last pic, this is Gizmo enjoying himself rolling on the lawn in last weeks sun.

Love as always,

 

New Beginnings

Walking down the garden the other evening I nearly tripped over a tiny hedgehog taking an evening stroll in the veg plot and it wasn't long before we spied another two joining in the fun. I wish they'd been out a few weeks ago to catch the slugs that have stripped my dahlias bare. 

Since then I've noticed them lying out in the sunshine in the afternoon which is odd as I always thought that hedgehogs were nocturnal. We have a large slate trough in the garden and they must live under there as that's where they seem to scurry to if they hear the cats about.

The garden is looking lovely at the moment.

The roses are blooming though a lot of them have been damaged by the rain.

and the clematis that we cut down and moved has had its best year yet.

 

I've had a couple of little finishes and have started on a new stitch, it's been lovely getting back into the swing of things.

and now for the meaning of the blog title

Just like the lily in our garden pond, I feel that I am starting out in a new chapter of my life. Some things have been happening lately that have made me change my outlook on things.

I've realised that family and friends need more of me than I've been giving; I had a wake up call a couple of weeks ago that really shook me and since then I've tried to make sense of what a really matters. I've always been a believer in God and there have been quite a few long talks going on so I hope He's been listening.

I'm sure He has.

Sue x

My poor neglected blog

It's been such a long time since I've posted, a long time since I've had anything really interesting to blog about though there have been times when I should have come on here and chronicled a few life events that have happened in the last four months.

Time has a habit of stealing away from me, I never have enough hours in the day to do what I set out to do but I have fun getting there. As usual the grandchildren and my family have taken up a lot of my time, either visiting or being visited, lots of playtime in the garden and lots of aches and pains when I've "played" too much.

The garden has taken up a few of my hours, as I get older it appears to get bigger. We've only planted a few vegetables this year and we've almost decided that next year the veg plot will be set to lawn; Tony doesn't have the time and I don't have the energy.

Doesn't it make it all worthwhile though when something like this opens up and greets you on a rainy morning.


 Now the proud grandma bit,

Lily has taken up ballet and she's loving every minute of it while Callum is taking after his daddy...

Sharon and Carl are in Cornwall with Josh and Becca so I'm hoping to get some more photos to show.

I'm still stitching on and off, not a lot but when I feel the urge or want to unwind.

That's all for now.......take care,

 

Goodbye Chester

It's been a sad week this week as on Saturday we had to say goodbye to my loving cat Chester. He was almost 16 and although he'd been looking his age for the past couple of months he still had the energy to race around the house when the mood took him.

 

He had to go to the vets on Thursday as he had an intestinal blockage, they sorted him out but he never really got over the procedure and by Saturday morning we knew that he wasn't going to recover so we took the only choice that was left and had him put to sleep. I miss him already as he sat on my knee most evenings or at the side of me if I was stitching, but I know we made the right choice and as much as we didn't want him to go, it was the kindest thing to do.

 

I did manage to finish my ornament for this month, it's been a lovely quick stitch to get me back into stitching. I've not had chance to finish it off as I'm waiting for some trimmings that I need to do it. It's a freebie pattern found here.

I've also done another bit on my Beatrix Potter, I really think that it's time that this UFO was finished. I was hoping to finish this pattern this month but didn't quite make it.

I've also nearly finished knitting a cardigan for Becca my granddaughter, just the button band to do so all in all not a bad month for my crafting.

Now that the girls have all left home I've made the small bedroom into my craft room, another "work in progress" but I'm getting there. It's been lovely having all my stitching and cardmaking stuff on hand instead of looking in drawers or in boxes under the bed. I even felt inspired to make some cards again and really enjoyed myself.

I can't wait for some sunshine, we seem to get rain most days or it's freezing. It's my check up at the doctors tomorrow for my depression so I hope the sun is shining so I feel ok about cutting back my tablets. If the sun's shining I can cope with anything.

Love and hugs,

A finish and a new start

 Hello one and all, I hope that you're all having a happy stitching New Year. I've been looking at so many blogs catching up on what everyone has planned for this year and it's really made me feel that I want to stitch again.

 It's been lovely having the grandchildren living here for the past six months, even though it's gotten a bit stressful at times but it hasn't left much time for stitching and my other crafty hobbies, So, now that I've got the house looking something like a home again I want to spend some time on me and my hobbies; the house needs decorating all the way through and it will soon be time to plan the garden so busy times ahead.

We have daffodil bulbs showing by a good three inches and for saying that I was late planting them they are really looking good but the garden is so wet and muddy that even if it was fine outside I wouldn't be able to do much. I can't wait for Spring, I love Winter for sitting cosy by the fire but I tend to hibernate and get to the point where I don't want to go out so a touch of sunshine is so welcome.

My first finish for 2012 is one that's been hanging around for the past few months waiting to be finished but never having the time to do it so I needed to get it out of the way before I could start anything else.

 CCN Summer Garden

I decided that my next start would be La-D-Da Bushel and a Peck, I bought this last year and couldn't wait to get started on it but other things took priority.

 I realised that I was missing a couple of the threads needed so while I've been waiting, this week I started stitching Small Token by Blackbird Designs and I'm loving doing it.

 I forgot to add a photo of a present that I had for Christmas from my daughter Sharon. She's started doing crochet at the end of last year and entered  a Christmas ornament exchange and I loved what she'd done so she tucked one away in my present. Unfortunately the girl who she crocheted the original one for never sent her anything in return so she was a bit disappointed that no one would see her handywork so I thought I'd put it on here.

The base underneath the skirt was a bell so there have been plenty of angels getting their wings this Christmas.

One last photo and this is of my birthday cards from the thread exchanges that I'm in at Needlecraft Haven and a little group called Threads of Friendship that I've been in for a few years.

Well I think that's all for now, hopefully I'll be a better blogger this year, I need to keep track of what I've been doing!