Today I wish you.........

Today...I wish you a day of ordinary miracles- A fresh pot of coffee you didn't have to make yourself.   An unexpected phone call from an old friend. Green stoplights on your way to work or shop. I wish you a day of little things to rejoice in... The fastest line at the grocery store.   A good sing along song on the radio.   Your keys right where you look. I wish You a day of Peace, Happiness and Joy. They say it takes a minute to find a special person, an hour to appreciate them, a day to love them, but then an entire life to forget them. Send this phrase to the people you'll never forget. It's a short message to let them know that you'll never forget them. Wishing you a very Blessed Holiday Season and the best in 2012 and....

Nell loved her christmas pressie!

Isn't it lovely to see a present you bought someone being appreciated!

Here's our Nell with her little pillow we bought her and she loved it right away... how did we know?? Well she started to chew a corner but did stop with a firm NO!"

Then she did the thing that all dogs do... she tried to 'hump' it!!!  If you don't have a  dog or never have you wouldn't know they did that but they do...LOL

We do love her and she too will be having a turkey dinner... which is where I am off to now as I am in charge of the cooking this year!
Hope every one has a wonderful christmas time

Chris xx

A Very Happy Dance...

I put the last few stitches in this last week, but Christmas preparations prevented me from posting pictures of it.. Rosewood Manor's Spring Quaker has been a delight to stitch.

Each motif is different and the colours are beautiful. I have loved watching this grow.

I put in my own initial rather than that of Karen Kluba the designer.

In 2012, I have all ready kitted up... Anniversaries of the Heart, a Blackbird design, all 12!!  plus another Rosewood Manor called Quakers and Quilts.. as well as these I have several charts all ready to stitch so watch this space!  I am thinking of joining in a challenge, where you declare what you have to stitch and then stitch like mad all year to get them completed! Anyone know of any or I may start one myself?

                        Chris

Givaway...

If you're a regular blog reader then you'll have come across Gaynor's blog.. she is one young woman..

Having been diagosed with cancer a month or so ago, she is fighting with all her might but also always thinking of others.. She is starting up a help group where she lives in Ireland.

A very courageous young Mum..sorting out her Wips to take when she will be away from her family for radio therapy as it seems it is a 2 hour journey so she will have to stay there. But not to be down about that she is taking her stitching and also doing a givaway.

Do pop to her blog to take part ot just to read her story of her journey with this dreadful illness.
I am praying for you Gaynor every day.

Chris xx

Christmas ornies for pressies

Here are the Christmas ornies I stitched for friends.. all arrived except for a couple of over seas friends, but they don't blog so quite safe to show these now.
I loved stitching them all and doing different ones for each friend.
Stitching progress is good because I am determined to finish my Rosewood Spring Quaker before Christmas or at least before 31st Dec as I have a new large stitching project for 2012.
I also have some socks to finish for Dh and he has said he'd like a scarf.. so I will crochet his in just double crochet, navy and wine colours with a cream stripe.. so keeping busy all the time.
Hope everyone like us has been caught up in the Christmas spirit, we have an Advent Candle which nearly did all 25 numbers when we forgot we had lit it on the very first night, even though it was there right in front of us!! And a  lovely little Musical Tree with little numbered drawers, each one having a little decoration to hang on the tree. We take turns to open the drawers, so there is no fighting over whose turn it is, after all we are adults. We have also bought a very red sequined table runner with matching napkins for the table on Christmas day?!!! Oooo it is getting exciting!
Happy days and happy stitching.
Chris xx

              

A new scarf

The colours are not as dark as this photo shows.
It took just four evenings to crochet and I varied the stitches to make it more interesting.. so it has a twisted double and  twisted treble stitches as well as treble  'V' shapes, single and double in the different rows.
The colours are to go with my new browns, fawns, mustard and cream clothes that I bought as I had dropped a dress size! It has been a struggle to lose those 15pounds and I am carrying on to lose some more!

 If anyone else has struggled to lose weight you will know it is hard work!

                     Chris xx

Comments

Hi All, especially those who leave comments, they are such encouragement.

I do visit the blogs of those who follow me to leave a comment as I know what a boost it is to receive comments... however some of you have your blog settings so that I am unable to leave a comment, even ones that I follow.. Carol I have tried several times.

I can't remember how I altered my settings when I had that bother, but I am sure there will be some of you clever ladies out there who can say how to get around this problem.

Hopefully I will be able to leave a comment for you toooooo!!

 

Chris xx

A happy dance!

This was an easy design, a Bothy Thread 'Poppies,' that I fancied doing with my other more intricate WIPs.. Now finished I have decided to finish one of my other WIPs to get it finished before Christmas.

This was all part of my Autumn promises to finish something and so I am well on the way to keeping those promises..

The garden promises were completed right away, I also completed 8 Christmas ornies for friends.. to be shown when they have all been received and of course the applique book cover for my friend's birthday. I didn't buy anything to extend my already too big a stash but I am afraid I did give in and bought some books..although some were crochet books from 'The Works,' a publishers outlet so quite cheap and in fact cheaper than magazines.
Our home has been very christmassy this last week, with yet another cake cooked, two puddings steamed in the slow cooker (had to buy a new one,  my other went phut!) and me playing Christmas carols for my church's Christmas Carol Service. I must be mad to take on yet something else!! Still it has been a very Christmasy here.

Happy days all

Chris  xx

BE AWARE!!

I have just discovered that my blog has been hacked into!!! A friend emailed me when she was looking at the blogs she was following, only  to see one that she didn't recognise. Then she remembered we had done a sal together... looked for it in my blog and when she clicked on the link I had put,  up came..... not the sal but......


Celebrity Magazine!!  I have edited that post and taken out the link... so be aware..


This has really shocked me and I will be especially careful as to what I write.. In future when I put a link for something I will check back that it hasn't been altered...

                So bloggers take care!


Chris

Lest we Forget

"They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them."
Fourth stanza of 'For the Fallen' by Laurence Binyon (1869 - 1943)

I think he loves me!

Every day mid morning we have a coffee together ( my Dh works from home)  We always stop to drink it together, sometimes when it is warm we sit outside in the garden or in the conservatory. Dh always makes it and I often have this chocolate heart on the top of the frothy milk.
It is has become a thing and I say 'I heart you too!' Corny? Not at all we love each other.
The lovely heart was something he bought for me the other week and gave it to me with the comment, 'something you don't need.' Ooooh I love that man!
We are  very happy together, we live a very blessed life. Every morning and through  every day I say a silent thank you to God for everything.

Chris xx

Goodbye.... to number 24 in Coventry

We are so pleased that the house in Coventry has been sold. we spent all last week there packing up the remaining furniture, ornaments, books, Cds, Kitchen pans, other stuff and cuddly toys!!

All belonging to my step daughers. It has been a nightmare, getting it all packed into crates and boxes in two days to be ready for the van booked to take it all into storage. They had just sorted out their old games and then it was up to us to get it all sorted.

The girls did feel a bit emotional after all it was their home for close on 22 years.. me?? It never felt like home although I faithfully cleaned and polished in that house for the 4 1/2 years I lived there. Such relief to say a permanent Good Bye!! It fact bliss!

DH did 8 trips to the dump and a car load of stuff went to the local charity shop. It was such relief that they agreed to take it all as they distribute it to other shops. I cleaned and cleaned and cleaned! The house looked spectacular and we were very pleased. It was worth decorating the hall, stairs and landing and having a light new carpet laid as it made the entrance into the house bright and inviting.

It took us two days to recover we were so exhausted.

My poor DH had his birthday on the 1st, so we did go to Stratford, but we were too tired to do much there except have a meal in our favourite Italian restaurant.

************

But here we are  now back in lovely home here in Essex.

While we were away the leaves had changed colour on the silver birch trees and the fallen leaves look like jewels on the lawn.

It is wonderfully wonderful to be home!

Chris xx

So what have you done today???

I have done the two socks and one and a half shoes!!!...that's all I have stitched today, the reasons being I have spent the day with the Canvey branch of the Sampler Guild. I have had a lovely day, laughing, chatting and looking at some amazing work. Beautiful stitching, beautiful samplers, and amazing bags and super friendly ladies. And so talented too, I am in such awe of them, but it makes me want to do a lot more..
So I am screaming again, more hours in the day, more time, more time! LOL
So thank you to the ladies who sorted out the lunch (it was a bring and share) made cups of tea and kept us happy all day. I can't wait for the next one.. Next April I believe, roll on April.

Happy stitching all  

Chris xx

Getting back to how it was!

My garden is beginning to look a little like it used.. but so slowly! During the  four years of being in the hands of tenants the weeds had taken over and it has taken a while to clear the tangle of brambles and celandine. The slowness is due to me, it has been difficult. I have been able to plant up a new bit of garden in front of the small trees. I am pleased I made the effort the other week. It may look bare in places but I am willing the perennials to bush out and I will add to them in the spring.

There are still daffodil bulbs to plant, but when we had that wonderful Indian summer, it was too hot! How could it have been too hot in October? I am not worried about getting the last of the bulbs in, when I worked full time I planted them on Boxing day as it was the only day I had free time!

When people were saying it was too hot I kept quiet after last winter’s snow, the longer it is, before winter sets in suits me best.

My little shed has had a new coat of paint and looks as good as new. The nastursiums bordering the flower bed were all planted this summer, just so I could have some colour. We have sat out here each day for morning coffee and afternoon tea and when it gets chilly we will sit in the conservatory and look at it all, just a small piece of heaven..

A book cover!

I started this on tuesday and last night put in the final stitches.
It's a note book cover for my friend's birthday in December, so I am pleased to have got it done well in advance. She doesn't blog or even is that interested in computers so quite safe to show it here. I make her some thing every year and I saw this in a book and had a go!
The applique work was quite hard to do, well fiddly and I had two goes at the cat!
The note book its self is a 'catty' one with a different cat in each page. She loves cats

 Hope you recognised the suffolk puffs as the flower heads!

To make this now was all part of my Autumn promises, so I have now completed 5 of them, but failed on promising to not buy a book! It was 'The First Wife' by Emily Barr, who is
was my favourite author. This latest book was rubbish compared to her others, very disappointing.
Ah well at least I helped W H Smith's monthly profit as I haven't bought a book at the full price for some time.
I am now on my Christmas ornies.. 3 down 7 to go!!
Thank you for all the lovely comments about my ripple blanket, they are very much appreciated and a spur to try new things.
Happy stitching everyone..

My September finish.... A mammoth task!!!

I have finished my ripple blanket!! Wa-hooooo I decided it would be my September finish of one of my projects and here it is.

Each row took me 45 mins to crochet so quite a few hours have gone into this but I am well pleased with it.

Since then I have made the granny square cushion to go with it. The joins aren't too good at each corner so I am going to put a crochet flower and button on each. I also intend to do a crochet border to finish it off.

It does look cosy on the little settee in the conservatory, I just have to keep Nell off it as she likes to sit out there in the sun.

When I have crocheted the border, I am starting my birthday  present for my friend.

Cross stitching has had to take a back seat for a while but I will soon be back to it as I want to stitch some more Christmas ornies. I think I have five more to do.

Its only 11 weeks away!

Happy Stitching everyone.

Hugs  

South Pacific

Yesterday I had the most amazing day.. I attended a singalong of the show South Pacific. It was thoroughly enjoyable and I will certainly be signing up for another one I enjoyed it so much. There were about 80 plus people there and the two women who teach these days were wonderful, so talented.

If you fancy a singalong here is the original film and Mitzi Gaynor, wasn't she wonderful....

South Pacific - A Wonderful Guy (Sing-along) - YouTube
	www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMO72_TF9JY You +1'd this publicly. Undo 14 Aug 2007 - 3 min - Uploaded by rafizztube "A Wonderful Guy" sung by Mitzi Gaynor from the musical South Pacific. Sing-a- long version.

	"A Wonderful Guy" sung by Mitzi Gaynor from the musical South Pacific. Sing-a- long version. Just Click on the title and sing away and Enjoy!!! Hugs

What you can do when you're retired!

Yesterday when DH had a phone call to say his work meeting was to be put back a week... we decided to take advantge of the wonderful weather 29°C and off we went  to Southend, and there were more people there than we have seen in the summer months! People were swimming and the beach was crowded! We went to Rossi’s for ice cream and the queue was so long DH waited for 10 mins! I managed to get us a seat in the outside area and it was lovely, sitting there in the sun and eating ice cream! Nell loved it too as we always give her a bit! We walked along the prom and although there was a strong breeze it was warm,  just like being abroad!

Then we sat on a bench and watched the sea come right in, the seagulls riding the waves, people walking past and the enjoyed the warm sunshine.

Something that amused us and several other people was an altercation between two drivers. One pulled out of the parking space (they are all in the middle of the road) and so a car coming along had to stop to let him out, then the car driver that stopped, tooted his horn and gesticulated as if to say move along... wow if he did. The other driver stopped got out and started a fight, his wife was trying to get in between them and stop it. We were absolutely gob smacked so were several other people walking past and as they got back in their cars, a woman watching said to us.. 'you can see it all in Southend!'  LOL What a laugh, but so silly of both the men. When we went to drive off, a car gave way for us and was quite happy for us to drive off in our own time, thank goodness!

We got home about 5:30 and got our evening meal right away, cold lamb and SW chips and peas and it was gorgeous, we were both hungry! Then when we sat down to watch TV I went to sleep, didn’t even feel myself go! I missed Eastenders and I woke about 9 but dozed and went to bed at 10 and we have both slept all night. Just shows what fresh sea air can do!

It was such a lovely afternoon, just what you can do when you’re retired!