I am thrilled!!

Hi all, hope you all had a wonderful Easter time and shared it with family and friends like us..
But since then....I am always looking at that 'evil' shop.. in fact I look at it every day incase I find a bargain chart.. you know like a Cut Thro' for 99p.. never found one yet at that price, but look  what I did find.

Two 2010 The World of Cross Stitching magazines.

 

And in the one is that lovely design that June (Butterfly Wings ) stitched

It is so pretty and the individual designs could be used for cards.

I wouldn't  make a cushion but it will suit my other designs that are similar.

 

This super one is by Gail Bussi; isn't it just darling?

I absolutely love it and am going to start it right away.

Although I am stitching Fairies at the bottom of our Garden, I feel I need a change!

 

Not a very good pic but I think you can see it has progressed.
My cat 'Welcome' only needs the whiskers and face back stitch doing but it can wait!
I am tra la la-ing.. I am so happy!
And I lost another 1 1/2 pounds this week.. so I am doubly happy!
And it is a wonderful sunshiny day!

x

 

Pretty spring colours for place mats.

I posted pics of these fabrics a week or so ago and now I have ....

 

..........8 of these.  They all have the sunflower fabric in the middle and then all the other colours surrounding it in different orders,  so they are all different.  Like a log cabin design but some extra side pieces to make them rectangular rather than square.

 

And they have been used already, we had DH's son and family on Saturday and as it was a glorious sunshiny day we sat outside and used these on our patio tables.

 

Sunday we were inside with my daughter and her family and had the tradition lamb roast dinner for Easter Sunday. Pud was a rhubarb and strawberry crumble with home made ice cream. My two grandsons ate well as they are now the size of young men and tower over me, but still not too big for a hug from Grandma.

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend.

We had two very happy and busy days, so now we are relaxing in the quiet of our own home!

I think my food plan went a little ' skewiff '  

Ah well, tomorrow is another day!

x

 

Down to the bluebell woods

 Hello beautiful day and our dusty shoes walking along the path.

 

Hello woods where the bluebells flower, just a short distance from where we live.

Hello me with

smiling fat cheeks!

(I have lost 7 pounds but where from???)

 

Hello bluebells where ever you look

 

 

Hello Nell who loved it all

 

 

Happy Easter all

x

 

I like to be busy!

I have loads to do as we have visitors all over Easter weekend so what am I doing??

Making cushions!

I had this fabric, just 4 fat quarters that I bought from Chelmsford market last summer.

There was just enough to do these two.

These are our kitchen chairs and needed new cushions.

These wooden chairs are hard!

 

And in my stash I have these fabrics, some beautiful spring colours.

I have already started some place mats for us to use over Easter so no time to waste.

 

Happy and Blessed Easter all.. do hope we'll have some sun shiny weather!

 

 

Our annual trip to my home.

We have had a very pleasant long weekend in Porthcawl, the town where I was born and grew up.

This view is of the main prom, which has little cafes that sells the most delish Italian ice cream and coffee.

 

 

But we stay here, in the little village of Newton just a mile from the town.

The beach is dog friendly so Nell was in heaven.

We had some beautiful sunshiny days although there was a sea breeze as well, so quite chilly in the shade.

But we enjoyed the whole time we were away.

I met up with my friend that I have known since we were 8 so a long, long time and my cousin.

Home again now but we shall be back there next year, just to tend the graves and leave flowers for my mother, grand parents and aunts.

Always a bit of sadness when I see my mother's name on the grave. I was two and a half when she died, so I have a limited memory of her, just a vague scene of someone in a bed.

x

 

 

When somebody loves you!

When my DD popped in to see me yesterday she brought me these beautiful roses.

And she was good enough to take the rest of the Victoria sponge we made  home, so I would not be tempted to eat it! It was so lush I could have eaten the half that was left later with a cuppa easily!!

 

 

And this beautiful orchid came from my friend Jenny, who is a whiz with all sorts of plants, orchids

especially. But if you look closely behind the roses on the window sill, there  are two of my own orchids, flowering for the second time!

 

 

These have the most beautiful scent too as well as looking so grand.

 

Not such a nice day today but I am happily stitching.

Happy day to all..

x

 

 

What a difference a day makes!!

It is the most glorious sunshiny day and the bees are buzzing in our damson blossom.

The air is clear and today I could run a mile, well maybe not run, but I could do a steady walk!

 

 

We have these too in our garden, sometimes called the 'Sunshine Flower' although if you have ever had to wait in a hospital waiting room posters with these are all around advising women of their club.

If you don't you don't know what I mean, you never called out to someone who picked one..

'ooooo, now you gonna wet your pants!!'

 

Thank you Lord for each new day.

xxx

A yearning to be young and slim again???

Do you know what it's like to be over weight?
Do you look back at yourself and wonder why you didn't realise how slim and attractive you were when you were young?
I took it all for granted, it never entered my head that one day I wouldn't be as I was then!
Stupid or what.

I first started to put on weight in 1988 when I was diagnosed with an under active thyroid gland.. silly me I thought once I took the tablets to make up for the lack of thyroxin hormone my body would return to how it was!
No such thing.. I stayed the horrible weight I was, although my hair did stop falling out and returned to its shiny healthy look, but my weight didn't tumble down in fact it increased, with little or no effort I put on weight.

I was not one of those people who ate chocolates, or had two breakfasts or ate mid afternoon and then again in the evening. I didn't eat between meals in fact, as it was just after my divorce a lot of my meals were baked potatoes and salad, no spare cash for anything fancy. I knew where you could buy the cheapest sacks of potatoes,  as I had two of my grown up children with me. We got through a lot of potatoes!

So here I am today making a last stand to lose weight. I have gone back to the Slimming World group that advocates low fat food and plenty of fruit and veg..just as the Health minister has just advocated we should eat 7 pieces of veg and fruit a day.. I don't know if I could eat 7 but I certainly eat 4 or 5.

What about you? Have you like me yearned to be young again? I can't believe I am the age I am but the aches and pains that come with old age remind me each day when I get up!

If I lose weight I will say, or should I be more positive and say WHEN I lose weight, so watch this space and if you have any suggestions please leave a comment.. it's a shame we can't stitch while running if we could I'd be slim!!  LOL
Oranges are my favourite breakfast, I could eat them all day!

 

If like me you are struggling to lose weight, do say we could do it together.

OPAM... nearly!

I have worked solidly on this to finish it in March but I have failed to finish it.

 

But only a little bit more to stitch.

A patch on the cat's breast.

The leaves on the little apples on the border.

And the words 'Our home'

All the back stitching.

And the cat's whiskers.

 

So nearly done in the month!

I am planning to stitch my Fairies at the Bottom of Our Garden next, but not to finish it in a month as there is a lot to do as you can see!

Not a good photo, sorry.

 

 

I will be stitching some other designs as well now as I have been looking through ebay and found some super charts. And with all this glorious sunshiny weather the garden is calling me!
Thank you for all your comments about my eyes, what a lovely blogging world we live in!

Happy days to you all