Finishing off!

I have a been getting the finishing touches on several pieces of work completed which has been my objective these last few days as I have finished my exchanges.. so its been back stitch and beads on work.. I can't decide whether to frame my little 'Mice and Blackberries' or not I shall have to think about it.

My 'name' piece of work has turned out rather nicely and I am pleased with my queen stitches although it took me a while to get the long legged cross stitches quite right and I had to do some frogging! but it is going to look very nice tied onto my pink basket, can't wait to show Elaine who is coming for a cross stitch session next tuesday.

Tomorrow I shall take pics of everything finished or not. I can't decide what to do next I have got that lovely peachy biscornu to do so I might do that or the freebie Sew Pink..

I shall look at both tomorrow morning and decide then! I won't be able to do much during the day as I have to get the back garden sorted!

These were my summer pots.... I should be photographing my winter ones but they are still being planted!

Being Good!!

I desperately want to start that freebie name which is a needle keep or make it into a flat fold, but I have spent some time framing these two Helen Philip samplers. So I feel I have been good!

I love doing samplers like this as it is rows of different stitches and patterns... the winter one was the one I requested in the Cross stitcher magazine and I was inundated with pages and one women sent the whole magazine!! These have been finished for ages! I found the frames on some cheap pictures and they are just the right size and a fraction of the cost at Hobby Craft.
I have also finished my Christmas Exchanges and have little pressies to send with them, so I am going to sew the beads on my 'Mice and Blackberries' and look for a frame for that at the weekend too. I can then start that name!
Mike's new boss is delighted with the Program he has written and was wowed by the Report which he did too, into which he incorporated drawings and data pages so I have some clever husband!
And of course he cooks, what more could a woman want!
And I have a second reason for feeling I am being good as I have filled in my Tax Return at last!!!

FFFrriday, tomorrow its the weekend

I have such a lot to do I don't know where to start... I still haven't done my Tax Return!

I have nearly finished my cross stitch exchanges and want to do that name flat fold, I found on Victoria's Sampler Site. one for Yvonne and Rosalie and of course I have my christmas cards to make. And it would be nice to do one for Elaine and Debi in my reading group as they both sent me lovely cards and phoned and sent emails.

Elaine's was that lovely poodle painting which was Boysie when he was young before he started going grey!

Its been very quiet here today, we were up early and no dog to come up on the bed with us as we were drinking our tea at 5:30 again!! Mike wanted to finish this 'job' as he did none on Wednesday. As we were up so early we have put off going to the cinema it would have been a waste of money because I would have slept all the way through the film as I usually do!

Both of us have had a few tears as we sorted out his bed and food bowls. I have put his lead and pretty blue collar in the coat cupboard, the police gave it to us.

I keep seeing him trotting down the garden path after Mike, but only when it was dry he didn't like rain. Mike and I have laughed again at the fact that the poo bag disappeared that he had in his hand when the car hit him... I am just so grateful Mike has only got bruises.

These are my christmas goodies! I bought the fabric on line and have used some already for a flat fold . I will be using some on my ornie and a biscornu so exciting for me!

I am so pleased with my christmas biscornu which is for Sue in our TOF exchange I think I will make myself one! Its so red and green and pretty. When it's received I shall post a picture.

Sunny here but cold at the moment!

Best get myself off this butt magnet and do something!

I think we are off to see Mama Mia tonight which will be good for us as we need to get out more!

Boysie

Yesterday was not a good day… we were up early in the morning as I was determined to get my Tax Return done . So by 8:30 I had everything done, I even showered at 7! And we had tidied round, I finished hanging up my winter clothes and swapping jumpers for tee shirts in my drawers and dusted and etc in the bed room as Mike said he would vacuum up there later. I even had washing on the line. Then before he settled to do his ‘work’ and I was going to log on and say good morning to my group he decided to take the dog around the block…
At 9:10 there was a knock at the front door and I thought it was him having forgotten his key, it was a paramedic. I looked at her saw the ambulance and thought opps I have forgotten a hospital appointment. It just didn’t register seeing her…..But no, she assured me right away Mike was alright but he had been knocked down by a car mounting the pavement and Boysie sorry to say had been killed outright.
We were at the hospital all morning, got home about 12... Mike has a badly bruised leg, he was saved by a hedge as the car pushed him off his feet and into it.. Our little dog didn’t have a chance..
So we are very sad and have had a few weeps, the house is very quiet although he didn’t make a lot of noise he had to sit where ever we were. Its going to be hard to tell the girls especially Emily as she adored that dog..
The blessing is that Mike wasn’t too badly injured, so we are grateful for that..thank God. That's all I was concerned about but I am going to miss my little dog.

I had him for nine years such a tiny little thing.He slept on my bed all those years before I met and married Mike 2 years ago, so I am missing him quite a bit. A tiny little toy poodle, he only weighed 7 pounds, so hit by a car he didn’t have a chance. Boysie had to sleep right up against my back and if I turned over he used to jump over me and settle down again in the small of my back. My daughter used to say ‘yuk’ when they stayed and she saw him there in the mornings, so I dared tell her that the cat was under the duvet by my legs, all three of us slept together for years!
Mike had some shaky moments off and on all yesterday with flash backs as he could see the car coming towards them on the pavement but couldn't get out of the way. He was saved by the hedge as the car pushed Mike into it and it stopped the car going further.

But we have had a laugh as well, as the paramedics cut the leg of his jeans, and fortunately it was an old pair that were baggy on him where he has lost weight, but we left the hospital with that leg of his jeans tucked in his waist band as it was flapping around, looked really funny! They cut the arm of his fleece too, but I shall sew that up as he can wear it in the allotment..
We looked a sorry sight both hobbling along together.. so a sad day.

We shall get another dog perhaps in the spring another little poodle.

Memories!

Wouldn't it be lovely to look out at this instead of the drizzly rain today.. this is how I remember Tuscany that year I went with Linda it was glorious.

I have lots of lovely holiday memories from different parts of the world...

I think I am dreaming of holidays gone because we have decided to maybe not have a break in November after all.. we shall see how this work of Mike's pan's out. He is working at home again today which is nice for me, although I am upstairs sorting out summer and winter clothes. I am throwing a lot out that are out of date and I haven't worn for a while.

I have several lovely blouses that are too tight so I am keeping to the diet for the rest of this week! It is such a shame that I have some super clothes that just don't fit me, some of them new and never worn! Gosh that reminds me of Sabrina when I told her I had clothes in my wardrobe I had never worn, quick as a flash she said...' everybody has, so don't worry!'

That's what friends are for to boost your morale !! I could do with a few around here!

A real Autumn Sunday

We had another lovely day together yesterday. Dinner at Binley Carvery which was delicious, we both had beef and a pud! Then came home for coffee and relaxed!
It was all so Autumny! Lovely smells of trees and leaves and warm and cosy at home...

Mike then decided to start his 'work' writing a program and I spent hours looking at different cross stitch, craft and fabric sites all afternoon! So I must get some things done today. I have finished my Mice and Blackberries pic and only have the back stitching to do, so I am going to leave that and start my Christmas ornie for the Xstitch exchange group.. then I have my christmas biscornu for TOF group so I best get my butt off this butt magnet and move!

A DAY OUT

Absolutely tipping down here today!

Yesterday we thoroughly enjoyed our drive to Buckingham. The Head Stone on Great Aunt Alice's grave looked very nice, gold lettering although at the bottom of the grave was a small name tag with her second married name so we took it off as she gave strict intructions that she was not to have that. We put some chrysanths on the grave and thought it all looked very nice. Its two years since she has died age 95 years so a good age.
Then back in the shopping area; I had a lovely lunch of bacon and stilton cheese salad… and Waitrose has opened up there instead of Budgens, so we came home with a baked American cheese cake which is not SW but oh so yummy! And some other yummy stuff from the new deli shop.

Then we drove down to Biscester Village outlet, but as it is new there were lots of places not open yet. Loads of Chinese and Japanese people there and other foreigners, it was crowded! I bought a super Radley bag reduced to £48!! Red, it is gorgeous and I can’t wait to buy a new navy coat to go with it! The photo includes the fabric draw string bag to store your bag in and the carrier bag... isn't it gorgeous? I love it!!
Disappointingly the Cath Kidson shop only had a selection of her goods and when I asked why the girl said they only have the stuff that doesn't sell in her shops! So I have bought it all on line as the postage was only £4.95 for all of it!
We really enjoyed our day and when we got home Mike did steak and salad and of course we had some of the cheese cake, it just melted in your mouth.

But all that walking, albeit slowly I was in bed by 9 and sleeping, but at least I kept going, must admit though walking back to the car was very painful.

Letter from Jenny

Here she is 2 years ago!!She was 60 on September 25th and is coming here next year,I am going to try and do a quilt to show her that hers has inpsired me to try! I look at it on the little settee in the conservatory it is so beautiful and clever and it was so lovely of her to make its for us, I can't believe that she will be here next year!

Whoppeee!

A day in the garden

I had my first real gardening session yesterday. It was a perfect Autunm day, sunshine and a bit of a breeze and someone had a bonfire going so the smell was in the air. Mike had cleaned out the green house so I potted up the pelagoniums and then I cleared some of the south border so I had had a lovely afternoon gardening at last!! I pulled out the summer bedding nicotiana and antirrhinums and just turned the soil at the border edge of one border so about 8ft of border! I felt so pleased that I could and it looked as though its been done too.

Mike ‘Autumn weeded and feeded’ our small bit of lawn and we were admiring it, because when I arrived here two years ago it was a foot high tumps of grass!

So I am getting better!

We had a lovely SW meal of SW chips, egg, beans and sausage and I feel as though I had eaten a feast and enjoyed it!

Lunch time we had corn on the cob grown by me! And very nice it was too!
I felt it was the sign of things to come with Mike not working full time, it is going to be so nice, we can do what we like when we want to!