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!!

:)

Finished!! Goodbye, hello!

Mario is finished!!
I'm so happy to have done this for Joe. I got it finished yesterday. Now I need to get frames this week for it and a pokemon character I did for him (Blastoise) and they can both go on his wall.

It will look alot straighter once it's off the frame I hope, but I'm so happy to have finished it for him.
I used rainbow gallery petite treasure braids 'black' (metallic) and some glissen gloss metallics on the eyes of the star, so that they sparkle.
I'm pleased with it now it's finally finished.

I also got my new cooker yesterday, so I plan to cook a roast dinner for our tea tonight. I've never really used electric before, so this will be a challenge!

The old one was taken away. I would have been a little sad to see it go after 14 years together if it hadn't tried to poison me, LOL.
It was in quite good condition generally for it's age, except a scorch on the door from a faulty thermostat, which you couldn't get off. Notice the condemned label hanging from the grill.
Bye, bye cooker!

And this is what I have now. I only hope I get on well with it. Everything is SO different to what I'm used to.

Will I manage an eatable meal?  I'll let you know!

:)

Bad blogger!

I've been a bad blogger! But I do have a reason.
Joe is unwell at the moment. This is always extra worrying until you know whether it's going to just be a simple illness or if it's going to go into something nasty.
At the moment I'm sat next to him on the bed, as he likes me near him when he feels so horrible. He's got a bad head, keeps getting high temps and today has started to cough. Am hoping it isn't going onto his chest. That's never a good thing for a child with his condition.

Last night though, while he was sleeping, I took the opportunity to do some more on Mario. I only have a coin and a mushroom box, the green at the base to finish along, plus three other colours at the base of the design left to do now!
Have taken a quick snap of it with my phone.

Actually, I could have got quite a bit more of this done while he was sleeping, but I was really bad and found myself on the sewandso website with quite a few items in my basket!
Thankfully I managed to leave them all in it and dragged myself away before heading to the checkout.

I am a bit tempted to get just a few things though ...

:)

Typical me.

I'm not going to order anything else off the internet right now.
I'm so useless!

First I did an order for my mum that I keep putting off sending for, because I was trying to get her to buy something for herself as well. Finally persuaded her, did the order and it was more than expected.
Turned out, when I looked, I'd ordered 1 extra and it was such a complicated process, she told me not to cancel, but keep it myself.
She now says I did it on purpose! LOL.

Then, back to the cooker saga.
What a nightmare it's been to find a replacement the correct size. It was getting to the point where we thought we were going to have to alter the kitchen cupboards to make room, as if we wanted to use the vouchers, we can only go to a particular shop.
We can't afford to not use it, so no choice really.
Today I looked again and they've added a cooker to the website that is our size!!
So I decided to order it.

The first time I did it, I got to the payment page and started to dither, am I doing the right thing, as this cooker is electric and I've never really had electric.
Finally decides to go for it and the payment page crashes on me.
Had to run out for a quick trim at the local hairdressers, came back to try again.
Again it crashes on the payment page.
So this time I phone the shop. We go all through it again and she puts the order through and it won't accept.
She says we need to phone the bank and see why they won't allow payment, then phone them back.

Steve goes upstairs to get the phone number and the phone rings and its the banks fraud department!
Seems with the dithering and crashing and multiple attempts, they decided to stop the payment and check it was genuine. (Am pretty impressed with them really).
Finally get it all sorted, go to phone the shop again and redo the order when Steve says to me, 'You haven't used the voucher!'
EEK!
Had to redo and the girl said it was by now late, so she will sort it all out and phone me tomorrow with the confirmation.
Poor girl, she probably couldn't wait to get rid of me!

So typical of me!

Anyone want me to order anything for you?
:)