It's been a while since I blogged about my stitching and what's been going on but I have been keeping busy. Still stitching away and knitting for the grandchildren though no photos to show as my camera has died and I'm hoping that Santa will bring me a new one. We've been busy decorating, not just a lick of paint but new plaster in a couple of the rooms so it's been a bit disorganised to say the least but I am ready for Christmas apart from a little more baking. We have a full house on both Christmas day and Boxing day and I'm so looking forward to the grandchildren opening their presents, I just hope they get all that was on Santas list, it was beginning to get rather a long list this year now that there are five of them.

Hopefully in the New Year I'll be back blogging once everything has settled down, until then I hope that you all have a very Merry Christmas .

love and hugs

Sue x

Our new arrival

Oh I wish I could get myself better organised, you'd think that being retired I'd have plenty of time to sort myself out but time keeps rushing by and I get nowhere. But, never mind, I still manage to do the important things.

First of all let me introduce you to Alexander Samuel Lee, born on September 4th, our 5th grandchild.

He weighed in at 7lb 7 and a half ounces on what would have been my Dad's birthday and he is gorgeous. Sharon had to have a caesarean but she is doing well, I can't wait for another visit so I can have a cuddle again.

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to win Gaynor's giveaway, the prize was a $25 gift certificate from 123 stitch and this is what I bought.

These will keep me busy now that Autumn is here, sitting warm and cosy by the fire stitching is one of my favourite things to do in the evenings.

I was also lucky enough to win a chart that Julie was passing on over at Needlecraft Haven.

This is LHN Little House on A Hill and as you can see I couldn't wait to start it, thank you Julie.

I finally finished LHN Season of plenty so now I have to decide what I want to do with all four of them. They are made up into cushions on the chart but I think I might try and frame all four together.

I loved stitching this one the colours are so pretty.

L&L Noel is coming along, I have managed to put a few more stitches into her, not as many as I'd have liked but she's taking shape.

DH and I have had a few days out which has been lovely. Apart from a visit to Chester to visit our new grandson we also spent a few hours visiting the National Motorcycle Museum looking at the old bikes and bringing back many memories from my youth, oh those were the days!!

On Saturday we spent the evening on a steam train on the Great Central Railway at Loughborough. This was a Christmas present from our daughter Kim and included a six course meal which was delicious. We arrived to be greeted by this old steam train.

And this is a quick peek at the dining car.

Although we didn't travel very far, the whole journey and meal took three hours as we stopped along the way to eat at different spots which was a good thing when they were handing out the soup.

So all in all the past few weeks have been really good and I got discharged from the hospital too.

Life is good,

take care all,

35 years on

We had a lovely day yesterday remembering our wedding day and all the lovely people that were there to join in our happy day. Sadly a lot of those people are no longer with us but they are always in our thoughts.

I had a lovely bouquet of flowers from DH

and another from DD Rachel, (I do wish I could take better photos)

from DD Kim we had these, very naughty but so yummy.

Not a lot of stitching going on but I did manage to sew a little on LHN Season of Plenty.

I love the colours in this one.

It's a lovely sunny day so I am heading out to the garden to see if I can pull a few of the ever growing weeds out of the flower garden.

Have a lovely day all,

hugs,

Finally

Doesn't time fly when you're busy, July passed by before I knew it and here we are in the middle of August already. Life has been hectic for the past few months, not with anything special but with doing things that I wanted to do or needed to be done.

I have been enjoying the garden this year as I do every year but more so because I'm feeling better. The panic attacks haven't gone away but I'm coping with them even though it's always there in the back of my mind but I've beaten them before and I know I will do again. I'm just trying to stay positive and not let them rule my life like they have done before, I will not let them rule my life.

This is the first of my lilies to bloom in the pond isn't it pretty. We have found that we have two visitors to the pond, two little frogs that have been playing in the water and lying on the stones but the trouble is that the cats have found them too. Luckily there are lots of places for them to hide so they should be safe. It's the first year that we've had frogs so quite a nice treat for us. The garden has come and gone so quickly this year, especially the flower garden where most of the blossoms have faded despite my efforts to keep deadheading, there are still more plants to flower so I shall look forward to seeing them bloom. The veg garden is keeping me busy bottling beetroot and making jam and the blackberry is full of fruit almost ready to be picked. We have had a good harvest this year and there's still more to come.

The end of July was my daughter Kim's birthday and we had a lovely BBQ to celebrate with all her friends. It was touch and go whether it would go ahead as early afternoon we had a downpour but after that the sun came out and most of the guests were still sitting outside at midnight.

August came and so did my grandson Callum's third birthday.

Here he is all smiles with his Fireman Sam birthday cake. For the past three weeks I have been looking after his big sister Lily while she is on school holidays, next week they are both going on holiday so I shall have a weeks rest.

I'm gradually getting back into my stitching, just in the evening when I'm usually on my own. I finished LHN Season of Growth and started the final one in the set of four, Season of Plenty.

I've also managed to finish three more motifs on Beatrix Potter too, I'd really like to finish this as it's been on the go for too long. Celtic Noel has also had some stitches put in but I'll leave that for another time.

My final effort for last month has been this, a little cardi for my grandson who is due on September 10th though the doctors think he may make his arrival before then. Sharon only finished work last week and she's had to go to the hospital three times already to check on the baby and now Josh, her eldest, has come down with chicken pox so she's not going to get much rest before the baby is here.

Well I think that's about all for now, we are going to have a day out on Sunday looking at vintage motor bikes. DH has a classic bike made in 1932 which he used to show but this year he's just looking and he says it will be a day out for our anniversary on Monday! I was hoping for something a little different but after 35 years of marriage I don't think he'll change.

Take care all, hugs

Catching up in June

Well it's been a couple of months since I last showed my face in blogland, I have been reading now and again but haven't felt at all like writing. I had a bit of a set back due to some different tablets that the doctor prescribed which meant that for the best part of May I was either in bed or cocooned on the sofa under a blanket hoping that by sleeping my way through the day and night the panic attacks that I was having would disappear. After a month when she kept telling me I would get better and no it wasn't the tablets making me ill my DH had a word with her and she put me back on my original tablets and by the following day I felt so good and I've been getting better every day. I still feel a bit nervous especially if I have to go out but it's so good just to want to do something again. On the plus side I lost nearly a stone in weight as I couldn't eat much, I felt so ill, but at the moment I could eat for England so I'm trying to keep busy so I don't think about food all day.

The past week, while the weather has been so nice I've been out in the garden every day. I love being out there even if it's been a bit tiring but the smell of the roses and newly cut grass do make me feel so good.

These are just a couple of the sweet smelling roses together with the peony which have grown huge this year, the flower heads are so heavy that we've had to put supports in. The other picture is of the pond which we've just cleaned out as we no longer have fish in there, it's looking a little bare but it will soon fill out again.

The top right photo is of the fruit patch; at the top we have blackcurrants, then the autumn raspberries and then the blackberries. The bottom left shows the potatoes and onions and in the greenhouse we have tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers growing.

Troy and Gizmo taking a rest from chasing the bees and butterflies, it was hard work and the bottom right photo is where I sit and relax when I take a breather from the garden.

I've hardly touched a needle and thread for the past month so there's not a lot to show.

This was the April monthly challenge with the ladies on Needlecraft Haven, it was a freebie from the Snowflower Diaries blog and it was the first time that I had actually done one but I never got round to posting it as I felt so yuk.

This is my new start, well it was new in April!! Celtic Noel by Lavender and Lace which has been stitching up lovely though I'm not too sure about the gold thread and all those beads that need stitching on.

Nothing else to report so I'll love you and leave you,

love and hugs,

Sue 

April already

Whatever happened to March, it seems to have passed by so quickly but hopefully we may now have some Spring weather. The problem is that April brings with it, according to custom, showery weather so lets hope that we get some sunshine in between.

I'm longing to get out in the garden but it is so wet underfoot that it's not worth even trying to do anything for the time being. The few seeds that I've sown are sitting in the conservatory waiting for some heat from the sun to start them off and not one has braved the cold so far.

We have had good news that my daughters baby that she is expecting later in the year is fine. Right from the start her pregnancy has been a worry but after numerous scans and blood tests she's been told that the baby is growing well and "it" will be another boy to join Joshua and Becky. So why am I knitting in pink? well this is a little cardigan for one of Sharon's friends who has just had a baby girl, I just need to sew the buttons on and then it can be on it's way. I've already started knitting in blue but there's not much to show yet so I'll leave that for another post.

I've put a few stitches into LHN Season of Growth, just Season of Plenty to do after this one and then I'll decide how to finish them off. They are finished as pillows on the charts but I seem to be getting lots of little ornaments lying around so I might have to think of another way of finishing them.

Beatrix has been out for another airing, I'm just stitching on this when the mood takes me, I'd love to see it finished this year.

 

We've had a lovely Easter weekend with all the family here, I can't believe how the grandchildren keep growing, I only notice when they all get together and see how much taller Lily, the eldest is, compared to Becky the youngest.

Nothing much else to tell, so I'll get back to my stitching,

love and hugs,

Happiness is making cakes

I had the grandchildren round on Sunday and they decided that they wanted to make cakes as it was so cold outside, not the weather for playing in the sand pit or on the swings.

We made lots of fairy cakes though Callum tried to eat the mixture before it even went into the cake tins, his mum, DD Rachel had a habit of doing that too.

It has been that cold that I've not moved far from the fire, I've been doing some stitching and some knitting though when I tried to take photos today my camera had died and wouldn't you know it, we'd run out of batteries so I'll update with pics later on.

I can show you a finish that I did last week when I joined the ladies in the parlour over at Needlecraft Haven.

 

This is the second in the series, Season of Hope by LHN and I've just started  on Season of Growth.I've enjoyed doing these as they are a quick stitch just right for stitching on a Wednesday evening.

I had a sort through my charts as I wanted to start something new but picked up my Beatrix Potter Quaker sampler that I seem to have been doing forever. I only have two UFOs and this is one of them and I don't know why I keep leaving it as I really enjoy stitching on it once I get going.

On the knitting front I've started a little shawlette with the wool that I won on Barbs blog and it's coming along nicely.

Healthwise, I've had some really good news about my leg. I went to see the consultant yesterday and he was going to discharge me until he realised he was still waiting on a ultrasound scan that I had back in January so I have to go back in six months as long as nothing goes wrong. But the best thing is that he said that as long as I still rest my leg regularly I can carry on as normal. I can't wait for some sunshine so that I can get going in the garden again, I have missed being out there.

I hope that everyone is well and thank you for visiting my little space in blogland, I do appreciate the company,

love and hugs,

Five years ago

Yes, five years ago today I was holding my youngest daughters hand in the delivery room at our local hospital waiting for my first grandchild to be born. It's an experience I shall never forget and I'm so glad that Rachel let me share in this miracle.

Here she is today, proudly showing off her newly pierced ears.

I can remember having my ears pierced when I was 15 years old; my eldest sister took me to the jewellers and after he'd done one ear he asked if I was ok. I said yes but I knew that as soon as I got out of the shop I wouldn't be able to make it home and sure enough I didn't make it. We had to call in at the grocers shop where in those days they had chairs for customers to sit and wait, and sit and wait I did until the dizziness had passed. Our local butcher still has chairs in his shop and it's lovely to pass the time of day, he's always got a lot to say and he always knows what I want.

I've almost finished LHN Season of Hope but I've either run out of or lost the thread that I need to finish it so it will have to wait until I order some more. I think I'll kit another couple of charts up while I'm ordering, just have to decide what I want to do next. I have a L&L lady that I'd like to stitch but I'm not very good at sticking to big projects but I might give it a go.

Not a lot of other stitching going on. January was a month where I played around with all my craft stuff; I've been card making with my cuttlebug and I've found a load of stamps that I'd not really used so I've had a play with those too. I did finish the pair of socks I was knitting and I've put a few more rows into my cardigan, maybe I'll finish it one of these days.

I was determined to get my sewing machine out as it's hardly been out of its cover since I bought it apart from doing a few alterations or sewing up my cross stitch. It just seems a waste to leave it lying in the cupboard so I made a little bag to put one of Lily's presents in.

It was only stitched up quickly but Lily was thrilled with it so I think I might have to use it a bit more and get used to it again.

And to end on a happy note I've just found out that I've won a skein of wool on Barbs giveaway so it looks like I'll be busy making socks again, aren't I lucky!

Until next time,

love and hugs,

A very cold Wednesday

I'm sitting huddled by the fire which is roaring up the chimney and yet I still can't get warm and it's so cold outside that I've not even been out to see if the bird feeders are empty. I'm sure they won't mind missing a meal or two especially when there are still berries on the branches. Even the cats won't go out so it must be cold but if they keep on fighting like they have been doing they will be out of the door like it or not. I think all three of them must be bored as they lie in wait for one another and then the fights start, can be quite amusing at times but not when they're hanging off the curtains or trying to hang on for dear life on the arm of my leather chair.

I've been keeping busy researching my family tree; my youngest daughter Rachel bought me a subscription to Ancestry for Christmas and I'm loving finding out about my ancestors. I did a lot of our family tree some years ago but it's been good to be able to update it and add some photos and new additions to the family, sadly there were some passings too but it's good to know that they won't be forgotten by future generations.

I finally finished "Season of Rest" just after Christmas it was lovely to stitch.

 and last week I joined the ladies in the parlour over at Needlecraft Haven to stitch on the next one. "Season of Hope".

I'm also half way through a pair of socks as the ones I knitted last year are, although still wearable, a bit on the baggy side.  I said I'd never knit another pair as I couldn't get into it until I'd almost finished the second one but this time I'm finding it easier.

I've also done a little bit more on my cardigan that I started last year and as I'm still supposed to be resting I'm making the most of the time while I can as I know that once the warmer weather gets here I'll want to be out in the garden. Even if it's just keeping the garden tidy or sowing seeds I'll be out there........I hate being stuck indoors.

Until next time,

 

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