New cross stitch for a new year

I saw this chart and loved it right away so bought it back in November 2014.  Yes it was just pages from a magazine but it was only pennies.... I have all the threads bar two and 32c linen so I have started it already... only a few stitches. With these horrible winter days I can sit and stitch happily in the warm.

Yeh... happy days stitching away and looking out at the blustery wet weather.. but not as bad as Maine where today the news said it could be as low as -35 C brrrrrr.
And Scotland where they have very high gusts of wind, so our water logged lawn is nothing in comparison.

Roll on spring.. we do have one snowdrop in flower and lots more to come, as I bought 500 in the green last year. Just the thought of them all in flower makes my heart sing!

Hope it's not too cold where you are or indeed too hot as S. Australia has 45C and the threat of fires.. here in the East of England we are blessed with not too harsh winters and lovely sunny dry summers..
Happy days and happy stitching all.

xx

I feel so proud...

In 2014 I quilted, cross stitched, knitted and crocheted.  Quilting included three double bed sized quilts. I am improving each time I sew a new project and am happy with hand sewing or machining. As well as all these I managed to read 90 books and of course grew my veggies and tomatoes,  so a busy year.  I didn't achieve my dream weight but I am 10 pounds less than I was this time last year, so this year I am trying 100% to lose this weight!
DH is helping and so far for the last 6 days I have walked 20 mins or more. It's not hard to do, so it's a habit I want to get into to!!

Happy New Year to all my followers and indeed to all the super peeps out there in the blogging world.
May 2015 be Happy, Healthy and Blessed for you all.

XX

Happy Christmas All

   Hope everyone has a very Happy Christmas and that you are able to share this holy time with your family and friends..

 

Chris x

Christmas is coming!!

I have been very busy making things for Christmas.

This is a quilted runner for our side board.

 This is on our table not the side board because the side board is full of presents waiting to be wrapped!

 It's not such an orangy red but you can see the design. A nine square block in the middle and then surrounded by strips. I can't wait now to get the side board 'dressed' with this and all the little Christmassy things we normally put out, included our angel and then in the centre our Christmas cake, which always takes pride of place. Of course it isn't iced yet, a pleasure still to come!

And I have made another After Eight Box. It looks the same colour but it is a totally different colour.

I am half way through a crochet shawl for my daughter in charcoal grey, Yes dark grey, Of all the beautiful variegated yarns she could have chosen, she wanted dark grey. I will have finished it by the end of this week, hopefully!

Happy Christmas to all, there are  only 11 days to go!

XX

 

I haven't been idle!!

I knitted this little shawlette from yarn I bought at Yaledale.. its on a hanger not on me as I am having a bad hair day! (I have an appointment tomorrow with my magic girl who makes me look 10 years younger with my hair crafted!!)

 Very bright colours and just garter stitch but very effective with the multi colours and the dog tooth edging. Sorry I can't remember where I bought the pattern from

 And I have made this After Eight box.. I have the materials to make another one which I will do this week.. just a little present for my friend and a little extra for my daughter.

Christmas is just round the corner and I seem to be on top of everything...... except this morning I have realised that the crochet shawl that I am making for my daughter is on a too small sized hook.. grrrr shall I undo and redo??? Probably because it isn't lacy enough. So I shall be busy over the next week to get it done!

Hope everyone is having a happy pre-Christmas time and is not too rushed to find time and look at the beautifully decorated shop windows and sigh!

xx

 

YEH... A Reprieve !!

Just been to my slimming group and I haven't put on 4 only 2.5!!! How'zat??

 

 

I feel I have been reprieved and so I am making soup for lunch ready for when my lovely DH arrives home.. yeh, yeh, yeh.. I am so happy!

This is a new week and last week has gone. I can't change that, but I can make a change this week!

Thank you, thank you, thank you for all the encouragement and comments

My heart is singing and I will do my walking video this afternoon.

It's a wet day here with a miserable drizzle, but I don't care, because I am back on plan and raring to go!

 

xx

 

What is this thing called weight???

I was doing so well and then??? What happened??

I found a few pounds, well more than a few.. 4!

Where did they come from, what did I eat that was so bad that it stuck to my tum and bum.. when we were away we ate sensibly and my gain was just 2 and then suddenly it turned to 4.

If you stack packs of butter,  4lbs is 8 packs and looks  huge! I want to curl up and drink hot chocolate and I would, but we don't have any. I dared say, because DH is so lovely he would pop out and buy some.  So I won't have lost 2st by Christmas, and if I don't get myself under control it won't even be 1 st.. Today I have been for a blood test to check my thyroxin dose, I have been sleeping a lot recently so it could be that... or it could be white bread with butter and cheddar cheese?

So many things happening around the world and all I can think of is how big 8 packs of butter looks.

Before I eat anything I look at it suspiciously and think

WTMMF?

(Will this make me fat?)

Disaster!!

xx

 

 

Weekend away in York

We have had a super weekend away in York. We stayed in a super B&B. Our huge room overlooked the garden so we watched some squirrels playing rough and tumble one morning and the birds on the feeders.  The B&B, although not in the city centre,  it was on one of the many park and ride routes with buses every 10 mins. Breakfast was yummy too!

 It is a beautiful city with a  myriad of tiny streets so even with a map, and a sat nav app on our ipad we often found ourselves walking in the wrong direction to get back to the bus stop! Lots of different shops and I visited Duttons for Buttons, which my sewing friends have raved about, but I was a  bit disappointed! My little shop I go to in my home town in Porthcawl had a better selection of buttons! But we did get quite a few Christmas presents and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

 

On Sunday we went to Even Song at the Cathedral and it was so lovely, the choir singing, the organ and the atmosphere quite beautiful.

 

An amazing heavenly end to our weekend .

If you have the chance to visit York, do go, it will be worth it.

XX

 

 

 

 

Poppies in the Tower of London

We were in London yesterday evening so decided we would go to see the poopies.

It was raining and although we got wet, it was worth it.

Of course it was dark but the poppies were lit and with the rain they were shiny.

It was an amazing sight.. I thought of my grandmother's brother Will.

 

 Private William E Harris, 21691, in the Welsh Regiment, 2nd battalion..

His death was recorded as 28:10:1918.

He had gone all the way through the war and was killed in Flander's Field.

His photo in uniform was always hung in the living room, and my grand mother always shed a tear at this time and probably a lot more at other times too when she remembered him.

Sad times for a lot of people.

Dh and I always go to our town War Memorial on the 11th November.

There usually is about 20 people there.

 

xx

 

 

 

Southend picnic in the rain!!

On Wednesday we had a delightful day when Dh's grand children visited us for the day.

Little three year old wanted to go to the seaside for a picnic, so we did in the rain!

Yes the huge bum is me bending over helping to make a sand castle in the rain!!

 

She enjoyed herself so much, that her joy over ran onto us all and although it rained, we had such a happy time.

Can you see behind us the sea creeping closer and closer?

We did leave the beach before it swamped us although we had to tip toe through the waves. Little Miss had on her wellies so she was ok!

Here is Dh et moi under the umbrella

He is wearing one of those ponchos you can buy to keep dry.

We left the beach and ate our picnic in one of the shelters, watching the waves break upon the shore line.

I wish, all the time we lived in Southend and always look up houses for sale there.

We could afford quite a big house there and near the front; but here we have a house that has had everything done to it to make it comfortable for us and it is near the local shops, with regular buses to town, and Brentwood, Chelmsford and Basildon and with a fast train link to London, so it would be unwise to move unless we had the same there. Possibly as we get older we might not be driving so we have to think of that.

But Wednesday was magical, the joy of that little girl spilled over and we had such a happy day.

 And here she is eating her ice cream while we drank hot coffee in Rossi's, the Italian café on the front.

We had ice cream too, because we love love love it and that's where we always end up when we visit Southend.
Hope all you have had a happy child filled day  too during half term!!

XX