A postcard from Henley on Thames

We have just returned from a three day break in Henley on Thames. Our B&B was in the most gorgeous Victorian Villa, very clean and very comfortable and right by the town and the river.
Alushta Guest House

But our reason for going there was to go to The Chiltern Winery and Brewery. A Christmas present from DH’s son and daughter-in-law. The tour  was very interesting and although we tasted 12 wines, none appealed to me. It was as though they were too thin and green tasting. However, DH did buy a bottle to give to his DS and a beer for himself, said to be the Duke of Edinburgh’s favourite!

 And What a very nice town Henley was.  Lots of very posh frock shops and kitchen shops kept us looking around on the Wednesday afternoon. Then we settled on a bench in the town square and ate our picnic bought from Waitrose, spicy chicken wraps and their scrumptious Lemon Curd yogurts. A feast fit for a King. In the evenings we tried different pubs and restaurants and this morning the  scales say how very delicious the food was !!  LOL

The weather of course was amazingly hot for this time of year with temperatures as high as 28°C.. a bit too hot at night! Nell was left in kennels and all we can say is that she survived. The kennel girls said she was very shy and didn’t venture out of her bed, only to be exercised. She was overjoyed to see us and wouldn’t calm down for us to put on her lead. We did have worries about her, but kennels are safe for her and these are very good ones with grass runs and several girls all with full qualifications to look after dogs.

And we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and have come home relaxed and happy.

Finished shrug/cardi

This is my little shrug/cardi I knitted in August, I am only just getting round to posting a pic of it.

I have worn it when I visited my friend in Cambridge last tuesday. It is quite warm as it is wool so nice on these autumn days. I have three skirts that it complements so lots of opportunity to wear it.

And this I bought from Homebase.  It was such a reasonable price... cheaper than making it myself

Nice isn't it?
I am busy crocheting my ripple blanket and am going to keep at it till it is finished!

Happy days..

Hugs and happy stitchy wishes to everyone.

RAKs arrived....

When Sue offered a PIF earlier in the year, I said I'd love to be a recipient but I would offer a RAK (Random Act of Kindness ) instead of a PIF..

Lesleyanne and Rachael won.

I decided to make these pin keeps. Similar colours but a different designs.. Both are freebies with a slight design alteration by me (erum!!)

I had seen these rose patterned little scissors at my Sampler Guild get together last April ..so made the packet at the back to hold the scissors.. they're so cute  I wish I had bought one for me.
But as there is another get together end of October so I might buy one then.

These are the scissors out of the pocket, I just snagged this pic off Rachael's blog!

I loved making these, there is something so satisfactory being able ot stitch something and completely finish it!

Hugs and happy stitching

Stitching update

This is my Chatelaine Convent's Herbal Garden which I am struggling with.. I am sad to tell you that I am really not enjoying stitching this at all! I still have the very centre pic to finish but as its one over one I can only do this in bright sunlight!

 But I don't like the first few rounds of  colours as I think they are a bit muddy looking.. and because I didn't like the very bright blue fabric I bought I soaked it in hot water and I think the fabric shrunk, so I need my magnifying glass in the evenings... as well as that where do you put the beads as there are no numbers on any of my charts? Have I not down loaded it all?
I hope not as I bought it years ago.. so I am leaving it for a while.
I have emailed Martina via the Chatelaine yahoo group about the beads.

It cost quite a bit to buy all the silks so I don't want to abandon it but at the moment I could chuck it!

This is my light relief...... an easier stitching design.. although this week

I am going to do one block of my BOM.. This will be nice to do and although I find it hard I have realised that I can only do my best and if it isn't perfect it will still be my own efforts!

Why do I put myself through these challenges???

As for my Autumn promises I am on target, just!

Geraniums are potted up, and garden has had some work. I am losing weight albeit slowly and my sewing machine is out ready to use!

Happy Stitiching or crafting all

Happy Days!

My Autumn Promises

Autumn Promises.

1.     Not to buy any more charts.. I am already into the ‘SABLE’ class. (Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy!)

2.    Make up 2 blocks of my ‘ BOM’ block of the month buy, which cost a bomb!!

3.    Lose at least 12 pounds before December.. should be possible..... erummmm!!

4.    No new stitching starts till I finish one WIPs.. well unless I feel down and then I could just pick one of my charts all ready kitted up??

5.     Work in the garden and get veg plot ready for next year, well perhaps if DH helps.

6.    Do NOT buy any more books, I already have 16 here to read, plus 2 library books and the 2 Reading Group books! This also includes getting free books from the free book shop in Basildon!!

7.    Stitch 4 christmas ornies, these don’t count as new starts!

8.    Make birthday present for my friend Yvonne (B/D December 3^rd)

9.    Make Christmas cake, I usually make 4!

10. Work on ripple crochet blanket, could I finish this by Christmas??

11.  Plant daffodil and tulip bulbs, possibly before the end of September when the ground is not too hard.

12. Lift and pot up pelargoniums ready for the winter.

The photo is the crab apple in my garden; it is always pretty, beautiful blossom in the spring and these crab apples in the Autumn.

Out of my basket came.........

These WIPs.......

Last week, because I have ordered  BBD,  'Anniversaries if the Heart' which is all of charts, the floss for the first three and a yard of linen I felt to  had to justify my expenditure by stitching  some of my WIPs and my UFO!!

So here they are... the first one is a BBD, 'Willow House.'  I couldn't  get the recommended colour of linen, tobacco, so bought a one called brandy and that was a  bright rust colour and I hated it.. so I used this instead.. because I wasn't fussy on the colour it got pushed to the bottom of my basket. But here it is,, ta-da... finished!

Then I stitched another motif on my Rose Manor, 'Spring Quaker,' so that is moving along.(it's the bottom one on the left as you look at it.

'Summer' Celtic Lady had been  pushed this into my UFO basket because I had made a mistake and couldn't find it. But I sat one evening and frogged all of the pale blue section of her skirt and re-did it all, plus a bit more over two evenings. The gold was made easier by using thread heaven, why had I never heard of it for metallic threads before?? It made it so much easier and I happily stitched until I had finished all the blue section and all that's left now of her skirt,  are the greens and some more gold.

And this Bothy Thread called 'Buzzy Days,' is my real UFO because having finished all the stitching, I had the back stitching to do... ugh!But in two hours I have managed to do the leaves and dandelions to the left of the little mouse. I re-did the outline of the mouse, as I had outlined it in black and it was supposed to be a thread colour called stone.

So I am feeling very virtuous as it was really hard to leave my 'Poppies' and also my Chatelaine 'Convent's  Herbal Garden.' to do these other WIPs.

I intend to rotate all my WIPs for two evenings and try to finish one every other month.

I hope I can, as I am dangerously close to be stitching well into my hundreds!!!LOL

I hope you too can catch up on your WIPs...

Happy Stitching

An Anniversary present

On monday evening we got dressed up and went to London to see.....











The singing was amazing and we had super seats, right in the middle of the third row in the circle.
It was our 5th wedding anniversary present to ourselves, booked some time ago by DH.. I even had my hair done and bought a new outfit too..

Had a bit of a hiccup before we went.. we were standing on the platform in Billericay and Mike suddenly said oh sh--. I’ve left the tickets in the car!!!! So off he went arrived back breathless to see the 5:17 train leave!! But we had chosen to go a bit earlier than we needed to take our time in London. So we caught the 5:37 and arrived in plenty of time.. just on 7:00pm  at the theatre. The trains at that time are all fasts so it is only a 30min journey into London.

What is he like????

Any way we had a wonderful evening, fabulous seats so a great view.

A super present  to ourselves although pretty pricy and the fruit trees we bought  ourselves as well were   naughty an extra!! LOL I think we are on a spending diet for the next month or two!! LOL
If you haven't see the show it is well worth a visit. We also would like to see 'Over the Rainbow' as we followed the competition to find the perfect Dorothy each week on the TV..
And we want to go to a Christmas Carol concert and and and  ........ the list could go on and on LOL

Happy Days

Hugs

My first love......

..... well after my DH and Nell and even stitching.. is gardening!!
Here, where the garden has been sadly neglected in the four years when the house was leased, it is begining to take shape... but in spite of starting late in the summer I have been able to plant a small veg patch.

The beans are making good progress and we are looking forward to eating them with our own potatoes which we have grown in potato bags.. I have never done this before so it will be interesting to see how many we get. If you ever watched Alys Fowler  in the Edible Garden, when she tipped out the pot of potatoes she had grown and there were only a few... you'll remember her saying' I am a bit disappointed' We hope that won't be us!

The tomatoes are wow! I just grew some old seeds, in my propagator. I didn't even look to see what they were. So when we were travelling back and fro from Coventry to here, the seedlings came with us, so it's amazing they survived.

I decided to plant them outside, because we had already booked weeks away and I knew they wouldn't survive in the green house.. I grew pounds and pounds on the allotment in Coventry  so I was  confident they would survive here. (Well I hoped!!)

Courgettes are growing so are the squash. I shall leave a few to grow big to have stuffed marrow, one of our favourite meals.

My herbs are doing well too, just look at my parsley. I also have corriander, mint, chives and today I bought thyme and sage...I still have to plant those.

And behind the beans you can just see my carrtots in pots, the one is in my chimney. Up 60cms off the ground as carrot flies can't fly that high!!

Still lots to do but I am very proud of this small patch as it wasn't planted till the middle of June, because we were so busy trying to get 'box free' in the house. Still loads to do, but we are enjoying living here, in fact I can honestly say we are extremely happy here. It is a lovely home.

We have damsons galore from my little tree bought six years ago from 'Woolies'...and with the rain in June they have grown bigger and are so sweet to eat. For our 5th Wedding anniversary 29th July, we bought ourselves a victoria plum and a bramley cooking apple tree. So we are looking forward to pies next year!

Hope you too are as blessed as us with a garden to brighten your days.

Hugs

PS....

This weighs 13.4 ozs!! Nearly a pound, just a few marks but smells wonderful, we are having it tonight for our sunday tea with ham salad!

 

Summer Exchange

Clare on Needlework Haven forum had the idea for a summer exchange. The idea was that you sent a free chart with the all materials to your partner. The design had to be stitched while you were on holiday or perhaps stitched in your garden at home.

This what arrived for me from my secret partner.

Opened up, this is what was inside that pretty little bag.

Strawberries design and to be made into a biscornu.

The conditions of the exchange was that you had to provide a pic of you stitching it on holiday.

So this is me squinting into the camera on our one very sunny afternnoon in Skipton.

And here it is finished. I sewed it up at home as I stitched it all in Skipton, well else do you do when it rains??

A great idea Clare...Hope you all have some happy stitching days on your holiday and in the sunshine!

An award

Elisa,   (Old Ragged Threads) gave me this award a few weeks ago, thank you Elisa... but what with holidays away and things around here with family I nearly forgot!!
So now I have to tell you 7 things about me.
And offer the award to 15 peeps! How could I just choose 15 from all those of you that leave me such wonderful comments?  So.....
.....I am offering it to anyone follows my blog and leave comments.

7 things about me??

1. I am quite a serious person and listen to Radio 4 rather than music programmes.
2. I love and follow 'The Archers' on the radio and have done for 40 years!! Yes I am that old!
3 Talking of age, a present to myself on my 60th birthday was a small butterfly tattoo on my left breast, just out of sight!LOL
4.I play the piano. just got back onto playing regularly.
5.I am very good at keeping secrets.
6. Girl friends are very important to me and I have a very close one, that I have known since we were 7 years old.
7. Although Billericay in Essex is my home now and I love it here, home was Porthcawl, South Wales and I have thought about moving back there, to be by the sea.

Do take the award and I let me know so I can see what your 7 things might be.

Happy Days.

Hugs