Sunshine days

It's been so lovely to have some sunny days and actually manage to get out in the garden in the fresh air, January and February aren't very good months for me but a little bit of sunshine does wonders for the soul. 

I have a few things to show, I finally finished "Ladybugs and Bumblebees" after about three new starts and goodness knows how many changes of thread, at one point I was ready for throwing it but I got it out a few weeks ago and everything seemed to drop into place. I still don't like the pale colours, they hardly show up but it's done.

Ladybugs and Bumblebees by Country Cottage Needleworks

I know I should have ironed it but until I know how I'm going to finish it, it can stay as it is.

I also joined in with the ladies at Needlecraft Haven in their Valentine exchange, this is what I received from Deb, lots of lovely goodies and the chocolate was yummy.

 

This is what I sent to Clare, I'd had the pattern for a while and just needed the right reason to stitch it.

Happy Heart Heart Day by the Trilogy

A late birthday present came through in the post and it's just the right time to stitch it, pansies are such pretty flowers.

And a little bit of Spring to lighten the days,

I've done a little more knitting and a bit more stitching but no photos of them so they'll keep until next time.

Sue xx

It's been a while again since I've been on here but I've not been idle, far from it. We've redecorated the front bedroom which is looking lovely, just need to find some new bedding to go with the colours we picked. The kitchen has had a move round as we had to have a new cooker and after they'd installed it we found that the smalll oven door wouldn't open far enough for me to move the shelves. We decided to move it to the other wall which meant other cupboards being moved around but we managed to get it in some sort of order so that we could cook the Christmas dinner.

We had a lovely Christmas albeit rather noisy with five boisterous grandchildren running around and after three days of thirteen people being in our tiny house I was ready for a nice relaxing few days before we have another family dinner tomorrow for my birthday. No cooking for me this time as DH has said that he will do it all........we shall see.

With all the work on the house there's not a lot of stitching or knitting been going on but I did take part in two lovely exchanges which I haven't shown yet.

The first was one that I do every year with a small group of ladies, mostly all in Canada but I did get two of my daughters to join in this year. I had a lovely present from Jennifer; she sent things that represented Canada and a lovely stitched piece.

 
These are the gifts that I sent to my partner Donna.

The second exchange was with the ladies over at Needlecraft Haven, these are the gifts that I sent to my partner Dusty.

                                        
                                        And this is the lovely gift that I received from her.

I'm hoping to get back to my knitting and stitching next week when everything has calmed down, the diet doesn't start until then as I'm sure to get some chocolates for my birthday and it would be rude not to eat them.

I hope everyone is looking forward to the New year, I know I am. It's been a bit up and down healthwise this year so hoping that the new one will be better.

That's all for now,

love and hugs, 

Sue xx

Autumn is here

I love this time of year when all the leaves are turning to their rich golden colours, a fire lit in the evening and hopefully some good TV to watch while I'm stitching. The only problem is that the spiders like to visit at this time of year and I'm not one of their biggest fans.

I finished another little stitch last week,

Gingerbread House number 2, by Country Cottage Needleworks.

I also put a few more stitches into Never Stop Dreamingby Design Works. Hoping to get some more of this done during the week, it's been hanging around for a while.

While I was clearing out my craft cupboard I found this jumper that I was knitting for DH ages ago so I've spent a few hours doing a few more rows and hopefully one day it will be finished. Goodness knows when though as I am such a slow knitter.

Last weekend we had Lily and Callum come to stay, Lily wanted to make cakes but all Callum wanted to do was play on the computer so I didn't get a photo of him as all I could see was the back of his head.

Youngest grandson Alex modelling a new pattern that my eldest daughter Sharon was testing out for the designer.

And these were a present from DH, just because, one of my favourite flowers.

Lots of wind this week and plenty of windfalls from the apple and pear trees that need sorting out, we've had a good year for fruit but not so good with the salad and vegetables, I don't think they liked the hot weather that we had.

Thank you for dropping by,

love and hugs,

Sue x

40 years on

Last Saturday me and DH celebrated our Ruby wedding. 19th August 1978 was a lovely sunny day and we got married at our local registry office in Burton on Trent. It was a quiet affair, neither of us wanted the big white wedding but it was a wonderful day. Our honeymoon in Wales started off badly as we ran out of petrol and had to spend our wedding night in a car park in Bala waiting for the garage to open so we could finish our journey but it's a memory neither of us will forget along with the thousands of other memories that we've shared over 40 years. 

I'm still trying to keep up with some stitching and I managed to finish this one, a lovely quick stitch.

Strawberry Sampler by Lizzie Kate.

My latest book which is a lovely read if you like wartime sagas, the next one in the series is
Telegrams and teacakes which I'm eagerly waiting to read.

There's not a lot left in the garden, everything has been given a good haircut in the hope that it might produce a few more flowers before the end of the season.

And the pond has needed a lot of topping up over the past few weeks.

And just to finish off a couple of photos of the cats, Gizmo at the top and Troy  underneath. Neither of them have liked the hot weather so they are both enjoying the cooler days at the moment.

Thank you to those who keep popping by and I'm sorry if I haven't replied to some comments, it took me a while to start getting them through again.

Until next time,
love and hugs,
Sue x

Keeping busy

 It is so hot and I'm not enjoying it, I love all the sunshine but the heat is really getting to me. The garden is in desperate need of rain, we are lucky in the fact that ours is an old house and we have a cestern underneath the kitchen that collects all the rain water so we should be ok for a while, it's just pumping it out thats the pain and filling endless watering cans.

It has been too hot to get in the room where my computer is, even with the fan going and the windows open it is still stifling. I am now grateful that our drive is like a wind tunnel and whatever breeze there has been has filtered through the open windows in the lounge so at least we have one room that's cool enough to sit in.

I've been trying to get back into the habit of stitching and I'm finding smallish patterns with a fairly quick finish are what I need at the moment.

This is one of Dany's that was a freebie with another pattern that I purchased. I've not decided how to finish it yet, probably a job for next week.

 I'm also hoping to get some dressmaking done. I used to do a lot when the girls were growing up, this is a quick summer skirt that I just wanted to practice on and it's not turned out too bad, at least it fits.

 I've just finished reading this, a follow on to The Bookshop in Rosemary Lane, a lovely light heaarted read.

 Not many flowers left in the garden, they flowered and that was it. I've got new plants growing but I've noticed that a lot of the petals are coming through distorted so perhaps it's lack of rain that's made them like that.

 We are due some rain over the next couple of days, we had a quick shower tonight but it dried as soon as it hit the ground.

Well that's about it for now,

love and hugs, Sue x

July update

Well six months have passed since my last blog post, it wasn't intentional to leave it but life has a habit of getting in the way of catching up with things.

My back problems lasted longer than expected and even though it gave me more time to stitch, I just couldn't get into doing anything, I just felt sorry for myself. At the same time DH was told that the place he'd worked for for 30 years was closing so that was another worry. 

With no work for him to do we had a lovely two months getting the garden sorted, going out and about and thoroughly enjoying time together that we'd never had chance to do before.

Thankfully the back problems have calmed and DH has started another job so I thought it was about time I spent some time on my little blog. There's not been a lot of stitching and what little I've done hasn't been photographed. The garden was looking lovely until this heatwave but I'm sure once we have a little rain again it will soon perk up. The flowers haven't lasted this year so I'm hoping for another show later in the year.

I did join in with my "Gift of Friendship" exchange that I've been doing for years.

This is what I sent to Cathie

And this is to me from Marina, lots of lovely goodies.

We cleared out the pond this year and added some new fish, lovely to watch them splashing about.

And a few flowers from the garden

 

That's all for now,

Sue x

January update

January comes full of good intentions and expectations but neither seem to have worked out this year. I've been having computer problems since before Christmas so the last thing I wanted was stress at such a busy time so I decided to have some time off while I got Christmas sorted.

A quick repair and it was up and running again until the beginning of the year when it went again so another trip to the pc doctor and hopefully we are all mended and ready to tackle 2018.

But then, just as all was well with the world, the sun was shining so I started out in the garden picking up leaves when my back decided to pack in as I was bending over. A weeks rest either in bed or on the sofa and I'm eventually feeling less pain and less like an old crock.

I thought I'd put a few pictures up just so I don't forget what I've been doing.

First is the Sewandso Christmas SAL which was a nice quick stitch and I managed to finish it in time. There's a new one starting next week so hopefully I shall join in with that one too.

And finally, Celtic Christmas is finished and framed, I can't remember when I started this but it was a long time ago.

                     The light isn't very good and neither is my camera but I'm pleased with the result.

Flowers for my birthday on January 1st, I also had a new phone and a little hedgehog kit to try out some needlefelting.

The hyacinths are blooming and smelling lovely and the poinsettia is still going strong which is unusual as I can't normally keep them.

I managed a walk down the garden after lunch, it was so nice to get out in the fresh air. Lots of signs that Spring is on her way and maybe this year we might have some daffodils that flower and not just leaves.

One thing good about having to rest was that I had time to read, both of them were good books but I'm a bit biased as I love Dilly Court and Rosie Goodwin.

Thank you for dropping by, until next time,

Sue x

Inspiration, motivation.............

 .......whatever it is that's lacking, I definitely need some. I very often sit down and think about my little blog and what I could write about but then while I sit here poised to type something, my mind goes blank. What have I been doing for the past three months, where have I been, what have I made?

Well, this post is just a reminder for me that I have been doing something.

 I have been doing some stitching.

Celtic Noel is coming along and it will be finished for Christmas, there's not a lot left to do. The top part that you can't see is all finished so it's just this bottom piece that needs finishing.

DD Rachel and I have both joined in with the Sewandso Stichalong, for me just so that I can have a quick finish each week and for Rachel because it's her first SAL. I do wish that I'd done it on evenweave though as it's a while since I've used aida apart from card making.

Earlier in the year I started stitching CCN Ladybugs and bumblebees but twice I changed the thread because the writing wasn't showing up on the fabric so I changed the fabric and I'm still not sure about it, it seems to blend in too much.

DH saw me looking at some HAED charts that I liked, I've never bought one as I don't think I'd have the patience to do one but later in the week this turned up in the post. I don't know if it will ever get done, it's a bit of a project. It's called the little dreamer's tree at least he ordered the one with just 90 colours and not the 200 plus one.

Another pair of socks have been knitted  though not yet pressed and a few more rows put into DHs jumper which I'm hoping to finish for Christmas.

We had a lovely day out in Trentham Gardens and I managed the walk right round the lake. It's so beautiful there and we just had to stop and say hello to these lovely creatures.

And we managed to get to the monkey forest just in time for feeding. It was a bit scarey walking through the monkeys but apart from the odd scuffle they behaved.

I've stitched cards and paper crafted cards, read loads of books and decorated two rooms so I've not been idle there's always so much to do.

This is my eldest daughter Sharon during her 10k run in Salford. Her group raised over £1000 for  Alzheimers. I am so proud of her as she had never done any running before


She also does some model stitching too and here's her son Alex showing off his new clothes.

During the good weather the garden has taken up most of my time but there's not a lot to show out there at the moment as everything is dying down for Autumn. I love Autumn, I love the colours, I love swishing my feet in the fallen leaves, love that the grass is green and love the fact that I will soon be able to put the lawnmower to bed until Spring. The daffodils, tulips and hyacynths have been potted up ready for their time to shine next year so the garden is getting ready to have its annual rest.

Well that was my summer, we did lots more but no more photos to show so I'll leave it till next time.

Love and hugs, Sue xx