A Wonderful Christmas time

We have had a lovely christmas. Our dinner was yummy, I cooked the turkey and ducks and of course made the gravy! Mike did the rest!! I had made the christmas puds ages ago and very nice they were too. My youngest son came and stayed and my eldest son and fiance came on Boxing day with Asia her akita dog, which is so big there was no room in the lounge for all seven adults and that big dog!
Here is my dh ready to cook, sorry about dyson behind him we had moved it out of the cupboard to get out the wines and I took the photo without noticing it hadn't been put back!

So now its a new year ahead and I am looking forward to new ventures. My son Simon's wedding is planned for April 30th and I will be back on my food plan this week. I only put on 2 pounds over Christmas, but we have had an awful lot of biscuits and chocolates given us, although I can resist chocs and I only have one biscuit when I have a coffee so they will last for quite a while.

I am concentrating on my WIPs this coming year with one or two other pieces each month eg. there is the Travelling Stitcher SAL and also the Stitch and Stash Monthly challenge and the SS RR. So still quite a bit to do each month.
So my saying for this coming new year is..........

The hope of a new day peeks through my window!

Happy Christmas to everyone!

My birthday was last sunday and I had a lovely day, We went to Essex to meet up with my three sons, and we had a truely scrumptious meal together. Mike bought me some beautiful earings, three coloured gold hoops with diamonds. They are lovely and if I was buying myself earings I would have bought those. I love them. Simon's Tracy and I had a giggle together in the pub toilets as you do about my sons and the fact once together they all revert to car talking bores!! Such a laugh, they haven't changed that over the years, but I can cope with them as its lovely to see them all getting along and having a laugh together.
And so I am a year older and in fact I am old, but gosh I don't feel that old but not 21 any more. My friends the same age as myself are all admitting to aches and pains so I am happy to join them and say I too have the odd ache, but only the odd one!
And what have I been doing as the day draws nearer?
This is my little freebie from Blue Ribbon which was the SS December challenge, don't look too closely as I made mistakes.. The red birds were half stitches and I just couldn't do it on the loose linen 28C I used, so I just did them as well as I could and tried to make them the shape they were.

And here are the socks finished for my DH, I increased the stitches on the pattern I had as directed but it didn't then say how many stitches in the heel turn etc, so just as well I am a veteran sock knitter, but it pushed my maths ratio knowledge to its limits and I have got bits of paper with lots of scribbly figures on them! LOL

And some of our christmas efforts.Our side board with the cake and chocs and of course Crofts Original sherry, which I like to have christmas morning with the smell of the turkey cooking. The little silver tray I bought one year from an antique shop on one of our Nurses Reunions. Our next is planned for 2011 when it will be 50 years from one we started, whew, we are all getting old!!

Our mantle piece in our lounge

And our tree, the cost of which was much too much and if we hadn't had vouchers from the garden centre where we bought it, we wouldn't have bought it. But it is one that keeps its pine needles so thats good, it means it will last till 12th Night. And Emily, Mike and myself dressed it together, we have lots of very pretty little ornaments that Mike and I bought together from the christmas shop in Stratford

So here we are Christmas Eve.. we have everything done, we think! I made Rocky Road choc slab and mince pies yesterday, the cake is iced, Mike has made ice cream and is making the merigne base for the pavlova today and I shall make the Boxing day trifle. We have the turkey and ducks, lots of veg and all the trimmings. My son Michael is joining us and my eldest son Simon and Tracy are arriving Boxing day and they are all staying for a day or two so that will be great. We are looking forward to the day now and the cooking doesn't faze me one bit as Mike does most of it I just hover and supervise!
So HAPPY CHRISTMAS ALL and I hope 2010 will be your best year ever, with good health and every blessing and happiness through out the year.

Wintery weather, just right for stitching

Don’t you just love how it all looks in the snow, trouble is when you have to go out in it! Fortunately ours was just a light dusting and as the sun is out now, it has melted.
However it is really cold and it was -6 here this morning and it felt that it way too, the dog came in from the garden with freezing paws, bless!
Still we are all geared up for Christmas day and if we go out again to shop we will have enough food till Easter!
Tomorrow we are driving south to Chelmsford to meet up with my three sons for my birthday so hope the roads will be clear. The forecast is for icy cold here again but not snow, we will be driving into it! My middle son is travelling from West Wales so hope his roads will be clear as down there the lanes can be blocked by drifts.
Just the weather to be in stitching!!

Ta-da.... Beatrix Finished!!

Some very happy dancing going on here I have finished my Beatrix Potter Quaker design! It is stitched on 32C Linen, antique white with VC HDF colour Dried Roses.
I am very proud of it and amazed that I have finished

It needs a good press which I will do tomorrow and then sort out a framer. This is going to be my Family Heirloom!!
So what now??? Well I have already started Lavender and Lace, Celtic Lady and I have ' The Convent Herbal Garden,' by Chatelaine all kitted up, but I am scared to start it!!
In the new year there is my Sal for the LHN 'Travelling Stitcher' and I thought I might start off another blog called Only from my stash, where members take turns to chose 'a small' and the others have to stitch it up but only using stuff from their stash! And also to keep me busy I am in the SS (Jayne's Attic) RR organsided by Clare.

And I am also starting off a travelling chart?? I think. So busy time ahead!

Really poorly but a finish and moving on!

This last week has been a slow recovery from a horrible UTI, I have seen more Drs in the last three weeks than I have seen in three years. I hate taking anti-biotics but needs must and thank God for them as I was in considerable pain.
Once I started feeling better it was a very quick recovery and I stitched! Although last saturday I stayed in bed till lunch time, yes I was ill!
But here is my lastest progress on my Blue Ribbon design, called 'Between the Lines' I am loving this and could just stitch this all the time, but I want to finish my Beatrice Quaker sampler so have to stitch some of that too, when it is finished I'll post a pic, I had quite a few frogs call and it was so hard to get back to it after unpicking a whole motif!

And here is my Cat Sampler made up into a cushion!! I would never have finished this if I hadn't joined the 2009 Sal with Gaynor and Co, so thanks to them it was stitched and now a lovely cushion.

AS well as this stitching I have started knitting my DH's socks and have one completed. I had to adjust the number of stitches and altho the pattern said how many stitches to cast on according to measurement around the ball of the foot, all the rest was left to you to work out. So my ratio maths was pushed to its limits and I had to undo one part! I was worried that I may not have enough wool for the second sock, but I have weighed it and it weighs 50g so should be enough, otherwise Mike will have one sock short in the foot!! LOL

He loves the colour which is like a heathery shade and I have some other wool on the way for a pair for moi!
Happy stitching all

An amazing early birthday present!

Last evening I had my birthday present from my Mike, my DH. It was all his own idea and doing, he booked it all.

The beautiful Nutcracker Suite ballet and it was wonderful The dancing was superb, it was The Birmingham Ballet Company.
The scenery and costumes and effects were amazing. In fact so clever they made the little girl small by scenery changing to larger than life so she looked small.

The opening scene of the second act brought spontaneous clapping as Clara the little girl in the story arrived on a huge swan that flew slowly across the stage. I think I clapped the loudest!! (Sorry no pics of this, which is a shame as it truly was amazing!!)The music alone was mesmerizing but it was all so beautiful I can’t thank my husband enough for such a wonderful present.

We ate in the theatre restaurant first and need I say how melt in the mouth it was, so a perfect start to an unforgettable evening.