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!