A few answers.

Haven't felt much like stitching this past few days, we've been more concerned with what will happen over Steve's job. At last though we have a few answers, albeit a bit late in the day! Tomorrow should have been his last day, so they've not been quick to let us know what's going on.

Anyhow, they have a temporary extension until the end of June, which has been a relief. They plan to try and sell them off, which if it comes off, means, hoping he gets kept on by the new company, he will still have a job, but this will mean he loses all his years of service (been there since he left school) and redundancy terms.
So as you can imagine, everyone there is feeling unsettled, unsure and unhappy.
This is also going to happen right as Tom leaves college and so we lose his money at that point as well (that's going to hurt) and with employment the way it is, it's a worry what will happen for him as well.

Well, no point worrying, can't change it, so am going to get back to my stitching and will hopfully have an update for you all soon.

Hope all is good with you all! Take care!!

:)

Three's company?

I'm off out in a minute to look at washing machines, but while I'm waiting to go I thought I'd quickly do an update.

Toni's rose is now finished and in it's coaster!!

I like it :)

Here's the three together.

Nice?
I am really pleased with them I have to say.  I've made a start on the pink rose now, but I didn't have time to take a picture to show my progress.  There isn't really alot to show at the moment anyhow.

Hopefully I'll get an update for you on that soon and also I can then get caught up with your blogs, I want to see what you've all been up to!

Have a lovely day, whatever you're doing.

:)



Toni rose and projects to come!

I got a little done on my Toni rose yesterday, so a small update for you all to see.
At first I wasn't sure of the browny yellow, the darkest colour, but I think as the greens are going in and I look at the overall design, it adds definition, so I'm happy with it.

What do you think?

I should hopefully get some more done on this tonight.  I can't wait to see the whole set completed.

I have a few more small projects that I have lined up waiting before going back to my larger ones. I know I keep putting the larger ones off, but I think I'm just having that much fun with these smaller finishes at the moment, and they don't require the amount of concentration that the larger ones would, so it's better for me at the moment.

Poor Steve still has no idea of his job situation. As things stand at the moment, he has 8 days left of employment. The contract ends on 31st of this month and they were meant to be getting a one year extension until March 2012, which would allow time for things to be sorted out with what would happen to the employee's. Now they can't agree terms for the extension, it could all be over.
I just wish we knew either way, the not knowing is the worst part.

Anyhow, to keep things on a brighter note rather than being a down, I'll show you the patterns for my next little projects. Sorry for the rubbish pictures, but you'll get the idea.
:)

I'm so excited to start on these.

:)

More repairs and a small update.

Such a busy weekend, I haven't even been able to look at my stitching, let alone touch the sewing machine!
Anyhow, things should be better this week I hope and I should get time for both.

We had the car at the garage for it's MOT on Saturday. It passed, but the brake pipes are corroded and need to be replaced. That wasn't expected.  We have to save up for that, so will get it done asap.

Well speaking of repairs .... this morning I had the repair man out for my washing machine and guess what ... it's unrepairable!  *cries*
They can't get the parts anymore, it's too old and at anyrate, it would cost more to repair than to buy a new one.   :(   So I'm waiting for a call to tell me how much the cover we have on our appliances will give us towards a new machine.  I can't believe we have to get another new appliance, why does everything go at once?

One good thing though. Remember my cooker? Well, I'm far from expert with it still, but I have to say that I absolutely LOVE it! I really was worried about changing from gas to electric, but the only wish I have, is that I'd done it years ago. Oh, and you're right Midge, it's SO easy to clean! Do you have a cover on your hob? I was looking and they do glass covers (not expensive either) that you can even stand things on if needed (hot dishes from oven) and that protects the hob when your aren't using it. I was wondering if they're any good.


So now onto nicer things ... stitchy stuff. :) :)
I've made a start on Toni's yellow rose. It's such a bright happy colour. :)

Only a small update due to the weekend I've had, but hopefully I'll be able to really get on with it now. Three colours of yellow in there. Doesn't look it though does it?
I'm enjoying stitching it anyhow.

Hope you all had a good weekend and were able to enjoy some lovely stitchy moments.

:)

And then there were two!

Last night I really thought I'd have chance to get on with some sewing practice on my machine.
I thought wrong!

Everyone seemed to need me for something last night and coming in at different times for tea, then it was a lovely mild night and Steve wanted to go for a walk.

So by the time I came back and got everything sorted, the evening was gone!

I did get time for one thing though ...

I finished the Lilac rose!

And so now there are two!!

Yellow next!!

:)

Stylish!

Thanks so much to Linda at 'Stitches by Kryss' who gave me this blog award!

So exciting!!  Now to follow the rules of the award:

1. Thank the person that awarded you:
            A big thank you to Stitches by Kryss.

 2. List 7 things about myself: 

1. I'm blessed more than I deserve by the lovely family and friends I have and I appreciate and love them all, so much. :)

2. I'm originally from London, but my husband is from here, Cumbria.

 

3. When I was leaving school my teacher tried to make my parents talk me into staying on and training to be a teacher, not what I wanted at all ... I never dreamed I'd end up home schooling my own boys!

4. I don't like having my picture taken, so I'm not in many of our photo's. 

 

5. I’ve never broken a bone in my body ... so far at anyrate.

6. I'm 5ft tall and my boys and their friends love to check their height against mine!

 

7. I can drive, but I don't see much of my car anymore, since Tom passed his test.

3. Pass the award to 15 other stylish bloggers -

 

1. Toni's favourite things.

2. Midge's crafty corner.

3. Bec's cross stitch creations.

4. All I want is everything.

5. Flossy bobbin.

6. Home is where my heart is.

7. Adrienne's cross stitch adventures.

8. The world according to Agi.

9. Cross stitch and crochet.

10. Social Sue.

11. It's Daffy cat.

12. Alley Cat's Corner.

13. A Stitchers Nook.

14. The pink whisk.

15. An itch to cross stitch.

 

Congrats to you all!!

 

:)

Nine seams later ...

Having got my machine on Saturday, I was really excited to finally get to try it today.  At last by the afternoon I'd done everything everyone needed and my time was almost my own (except for a little supervision of Joe's lessons).

First up was mastering how to wind a bobbin and then thread it all up! You get instructions, but I found them a bit confusing in places. However, I found a video on you tube of my machine being threaded!  Amazingly, even though it was in Russian and I couldn't understand a word, the video was really helpful and I soon had a threaded machine sat waiting for me!  :)

Total newbie to this that I am, I then got a scrap of material and started to try to sew. I soon discovered it was a good idea to set the stitch pattern I wanted to try, so the poor machine had an idea of what was expected of it.
Clueless as I am, I couldn't follow the instruction book on it's own, so back to my Russian video, I just copied what they did and hoped for the best.

It worked!!

I sewed 2 seams on the scrap material and impatiently decided to jump in and attempt a cushion cover!
HA!
Quite a few mistakes followed.

I didn't cut the material completely straight. I marked it out in air erasable pen and it erased within 2 minutes! Mid cut! EEK!!!!
I also didn't realise what the grid by the needle tells me, until half way round, mid seam when I suddenly worked out, that I could use it to do the size of seam I wanted.

Many mistakes and realisations later, I was the 'not exactly proud, but amazed it looked even vaguely like it should' owner of an envelope cushion cover!

The front:  As you can see, I hadn't even thought about centering the pattern or anything like that.

The back: Due to bad cutting out and not working out how to judge seam sizes until half way through, the envelope isn't as good as it would be.  The cushion isn't exactly the right size to what I was aiming for either.

But considering I am totally clueless and am just learning as I go along ... it's not a bad result after having only sewn a total of 9 seams on my own. 

I think I might need to research an easier way of marking and cutting out fabric more accurately.
Oh and to practice getting seams a uniform size using the guide by the needle.

Now back to the Lilac rose!

:)

Oh Wow!

I forgot to show you the threads I got awhile back, so I took a quick picture on my phone this morning while it was in my mind.

I got these off ebay as one lot. £2.99 including postage, so I was really pleased with that.
Perle # 5.

These also were a lot I got from ebay, these came to around £3.20 as I remember including postage.
10 balls of perle # 5 and 2 of perle # 8.

I wanted them purely for practicing hardanger designs with, so I was happy to be able to get them cheaper.

Now to other news, very WOW! type news actually.
Well first off, a Lilac rose update I think.
Due to the 'wow' news I have for you, I got a little sudetracked from my poor rose over the weekend. I had hoped to finish it and probably would have in the normal way of things.
Still the rose itself is finished, so just the stem and leaves to go now.

I don't like the white on it so far, I wish they'd done a lighter lilac.
I like the rose on the picture of the design though, so I'm hoping that once the greens are in, it will show the white parts off better.
More progress on this soon!!
:)

Now, for the news!

This weekend Steve has bought me the most amazing present.  I've been a little down on myself for some years now and it's only recently that I've made the effort to accept myself as I am and to pull myself back to the 'me' I used to be, years ago. and I'm really starting to feel better already.
So this weekend he took me out and bought me a SEWING MACHINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have been so overwhelmed by this.

When we first got married I had an old one given to me and a friend started to teach me to use it. Well I wanted to make all sorts with it, cushions and table cloths, doilies, things for the home.
The machine was old and complicated and I couldn't really get to grips with it, So I decided I was stupid and useless and confined it to the attic.
I ended up giving it away.  :(   I always wanted to try again, but didn't have the confidence in myself, plus it's the expense if you don't get on with it.

This weekend though, Steve says he felt I was making such efforts recently and trying so hard with myself, he wanted me to have something special and so here it is!!!

He'll be working a week on call now to pay for this.
I'm SO grateful to him, but also terrified I won't be able to learn it. I've been looking around the internet trying to find simple instructions, in the hopes I'll be able to produce something good!

My mum was so excited for me when she heard that she got me a box of assorted threads for the machine AND a bag to keep everything in, as the machine comes with a little dust cover only.

Everything fits so easily, with a little room to spare even and the pocket at the front take the foot and cable, but there is still room in there as well.

This is it all packed away.

I feel SO spoilt! I've been quite tearful at their kindness and so now just want to learn to use it.
I want to make some pretty table covers and cushions and things for the home.

I haven't even been able to try it yet as I have no fabric, LOL.
I'm going to cut up some old curtains today though, to practice on and hopefully then I'll be able to go round the charity shops and pick up some bargain material that I can transform!
:)

If any of you know any good 'idiot proof' tutorials, I'd be really grateful.

I hope you don't mind, I just wanted to share my excitement over this with you all.
:) :) :)

Lilac Rose

So a quick update of the Lilac Rose.
This is progress up to last night. I go to our bible meeting tonight but will hopefully get an hour or so to work on it again afterwards.

So not a massive amount of progress, but I'm hoping to get it finished over the weekend.

The car went into the garage today for a little job to be done on it. Tom took it up for me on his way to college to save me some time, as I was going out this morning.
He was there in time, that had they have then taken him onto college, he would have been on  time. However, he had to wait almost 30 minutes for his lift, so he was late in and the tutor was not at all happy.

I'm feeling very guilty about that as he only did it to help me out.  :(

The garage are picking him up from college this evening and then taking him back, so he can then collect the 'hopefully mended' car and come home.
Let's hope they pick him up on time, as we are rushing to go out tonight.

I have had some stash delivered as well!!!!
Remember when I got my last lot of stash, these coasters and the frame and hardanger book, I said I had enough money left to get a few threads for practising with the hardanger?  Well I got some off ebay. I was really pleased as they worked out very reasonable.
I haven't got a picture at the moment, so will try to add one either later tonight or sometime tomorrow.
Also, one of the set of 'How to train your dragon' books arrived for Joe as well.
I've been collecting them for him gradually. Only two left to get now!!!
He was straight off to read it! lol.

So I'm off to make tea now ... Stitchy time later hopefully!!

:)

Catch up.

This morning I thought I'd catch up on my blog.

So as you know, I went out Saturday evening and I really didn't want to go, but as it happens, I really enjoyed it alot.
We actually ended up with front row seats as well, almost centre to the stage, so we had a great view.
They played music in alot of different styles and wasn't at all the 'organ' type music I'd been expecting.
:)

I finally got a picture of the red rose in it's coaster to show you.

It was the best I could get with no glare on it, but it still has shadows from the sun. At least you get the idea though.
I'm really happy with it.

I've made a start on the Lilac one. Not much to see yet, and it has white in it, which doesn't show much at the moment. Hopefully as the darker colours come in the white will look better.

I had a wonderful gift this week, from one of the girls on the forum. A biscornu!
I have long admired these but am totally terrified of attempting one. I know I'll mess up on it.
Anyhow, I am now the VERY proud owner, of the most beautiful biscornu in the world!!
My pictures do not do it justice at all, but I have to show it off anyhow.   :) :)

A bar of chocolate with a chunk taken out! This is totally 'me' LOL and the button in the middle looks so eatable! YUM!

The other side is my favourite colour and the middle part has sparkly thread and the most beautiful button!

A closer view to show the sparklies and button.
It has lavendar in the filling as well and has a delicate, fresh fragrance. It really is so lovely.
I don't know which side to display, I think I'll just keep turning it so both get an airing.
Hasn't she done a fantastic job of this!!
:)

Home wise, I've been kept busy with things. Both the boys have been unwell. I can't believe we all got ill now. Poor Tom has been in alot of pain with his wisdom teeth on top of feeling unwell. I think they're impacted.
We all go to the dentist tonight, which is a good thing as Tom can get sorted and hopefully get something to help the pain for now. Steve has chipped a tooth while eating, so he will probably need a small filling or something.

I want to make some coasters to put ornaments and plants on, on my tables. I haven't the talent to crochet any right now, so I thought maybe to stitch something.  Years ago I made some and handpainted some flowers round the edges, but I have no idea now where they are and they weren't terribly good anyhow, drawing not been a strong point of mine.

I'm going up in the loft later to see what I can find!  If I find them I might show you, depending just how terrible they are! LOL

Have a great day everyone and thanks so much for reading my blog.
:)

One done, three to go!

A very quick post just to show that I finished the red rose when I got home last night. I couldn't resist.
:)

I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

So votes now for the next colour I do. I'll do whichever get most votes. (If I don't get any, I'll just pick myself! ha,ha).  Yellow, pink or Lilac?

I'll update my blog about last night this afternoon, as I have to run out to a bible meeting this morning. I just wanted to show you my completed rose.
I'm going to start the next one tonight hopefully.

Hope you like it.
:)

Appointments and the rose.

Thank you all for your concerns with Steve. I really appreciate it.

I phoned the hospital to discover the specialist is on holiday for a few weeks and then booked up until the 11th April! The receptionist said for him to go back to the GP who referred him. I asked for an appointment for the 11th anyway as I said if the GP sends him back again, I want to get the appointment now, not have to wait longer.  She didn't want to give it to me, but I assured her I would phone and cancel if not needed.

So I phoned the DR, he couldn't see his own GP until next Thursday. He could see a different one in half an hour, but Steve was at work and that's 3/4 of an hour drive and considering I would have to go pick him up and then bring him back, that wasn't an option. Anyhow, after much deliberating, I finally got him an emergency appointment with a different DR this morning.
He has given him an antibiotic cream to stop infection and to dry it up hopefully, but he has to go and see his own GP again next friday evening, incase he wants to do anything else to it. Then go to the hospital on the 11th.  At least he won't get it infected now though.

I worked on my rose again last night and made some good progress with it. I now only have some touches of light green left to do. I'm really enjoying stitching this. :)

Tonight I'm going out for the evening with Steve and his parents and their friends. It's so weird though ... it's years now, since I've had an evening out and I'm really not looking forward to it! I would rather stay home with my family and do my stitching. Isn't that strange?
I'm quite content at home.
I'm sure once I'm there I'll enjoy it (organ music but very lively and wide variety of music) but given the choice now, I'd stay home.

Well I'm off now to clean, do washing and feed all the animal's. Hope you all have a great day, whatever you're doing.

:)
x x

Update

I'm phoning the hospital this morning.
Hubby has a red mark on his face and we had seen the specialist towards the end of last year to check it wasn't cancerous.
They felt it was ok, but told us to contact them again if if changed or got itchy or bled.
Well the last week or so it looked different. The middle of it got darker and then it's been itchy the past few days.  Last night, when Steve was washing his face before bed, it burst open and blood just poured out. It took a good half hour before we could get it to stop. This morning as he got ready for work it started again, but stopped quicker this time thankfully.  So I'll be phoning the hospital this morning and hopefully they'll have another look at it.

I have a rose update to show as well.

Bit blurry and dark I'm afraid. I think my phone was on the wrong setting. 

All the red is now done. So just the leaves and stem left. I can't wait to see it complete!
Then it'll be which colour to choose to work on next!

:)

I really didn't mean to, but ...

I only opened the pack to look.
I had every intention of gridding up my haed and looking at my other two abandoned projects.
:(
I just couldn't resist though ... just a few odd stitches to see how it looks ... then just another colour to see how they blend... then, I'll only get a bit of the shape done.

Well that's as far as it's gone so far, but I don't see much hope for me holding back much longer.
These coasters are just too cute to resist!

Progress so far:

It's great fun to do though.
:)

18ct aida and 9 colours.  I think it's going to look cute.
I started the red, but I still have a yellow, pink and lilac that are going to be calling me now.

I guess I'm just keen to see them finished and displayed!

:)

Stash splurge!

It's been quite awhile since I was able to get any large amounts of stash, but I have had a real treat!

I was given some money by a relative and told I had to spend it only on me and on something nice I'd enjoy (as I don't really spend much on myself).
Anyhow, Tom was off for two weeks to Bible school and was a bit short on being able to buy the laptop he'd been saving for. I knew he so wanted to take it with him as he could load it with research tools. So I gave him my money.

Now he has saved and has enough to pay me back so I visited sewandso and had a wonderful stash splurge!!
I'm SO excited!

I have bought a snap frame lap frame I have wanted to try for a long time now, also the hardanger book I have been wanting. 2 packs of my favourite needles, John James petites. Size 28 (my absolute favourite) and size 24.  I should have got a pack of size 22 as well, as I'll need them for hardanger, but I can get them once I get some threads.
Lastly 4 Rose coaster designs I wanted for my front room.

I'm over the moon and in total stashy drool mode!

Close up's ... plastic snap frame, the table/lap type, plus the hardanger book.

Needles and coasters!

And the good part of all this is, I still have a little money to get a few threads to use on the hardanger designs!


Back to cooking news ... Last night I made roast beef with roast potatoes, yorkshire puddings and lots of vegetables.  Apart from the fact I was a bit stressed with the timing of things, I actually preferred this oven!
I think once I get used to it and learn it, I'm going to LOVE using it.
:)
The oven being this high energy and different from the normal electric makes it a bit tricky, but overall, I think it's just a case of getting used to it.

Homemade lasagne for tea tonight, plus lots of vegetables. Let's hope it all goes to plan and I still like the cooker by this evening!
Haha!!

:)