Oh no so not fair

I could cry, I really could. I have been working on 'The Wedding' and guess what...with just 112 stitches to go I ran out of the thread I needed :(

I refuse to order just one thread and I don't know what colours I will need for other projects and so I will not be finishing this one for a little while now well until I reorder the thread I need.

So here is where I got to.

Day 33

Day 34

Day 35

There they are those pesky 112 stitches, taunting me.

Ah, well move on. I started another piece for the Xmas list.

This one is from The World of Cross Stitch magazine issue, 156

Day 1

 Day 2

Without the magic backstitch.

With the magic of backstitch, and some awful French knots. I am sooo bad at them.

I love the way a simple black line really brings the picture to life.

In other news, I have been quite ill recently and to my hubby's delight I lost my voice, I can tell you I wasn't very pleased as I couldn't stitch while I was so ill. There I was all tucked up in bed without the energy to lift my hoop.

I went to a council meeting last night too and as yet my voice is not fully recovered and so I couldn't really speak properly, but my Policeman had asked me to bring up several points and I couldn't let him down now could I? Anyway, after I had struggled to speak for 10 minutes, I covered all the points he wanted me to make and then guess what?? He turned up in his civvies and I must admit he was still quite hot in them but not as much as when in uniform. I thought it was poor form of him and had he turned up just 10 mins earlier he could have saved my abused voice. (* please note I conduct the business between him and the council with complete professionalism and would treat him exactly the same as any one else, this is just a bit of fun. It's always nice to have something pretty to look at. I just wanted to make that clear just in case)

I am looking forward to the weekend, as not only are the children all staying out over night Saturday, but I am also dog sitting for a friend. Her dog Pip and my dog, Benji love each other and can't leave each other alone so that will be fun, well until the tip tapping of paws on floor really starts to irritate.

OK I'm off to find something else to stitch. Speak soon x

Getting Prepared

Jessica has had an accident this weekend :( She was playing in her Grandmas garden when she fell down some steps and did this.

My poor baby, apparently she barely cried, my kids are hard as nails lol.

I also had the shock of my life the other night too, now my pets can not stand each other well Ceefer the cat hates the dog, Benji just wants to play. However in a first ever they spent 4 whole hours like this

I was happy they were so comfortable together.

I have been looking in to what gifts we will be making for the adults in the family. I have now decided what we will be making. I have also been looking up options to help etc. I have found a recipe for home made glue stuff, which I have made up a batch and will see how it works.

One of the gifts (2 people are getting the same gift) require 5 glass bottles and so I have been searching all over for glass bottles as I will need 10 altogether. I need a size 250ml one and so I have been looking on Amazon and Ebay and all blooming over I also went around all my local shops to see if anyone sold something like what I wanted. So after killing 3 hours in this fruitless task all the ones I found were too expensive for my tastes I struck upon an idea. Asda sell bottles of olive oil, in the size that I need. So I have decided to buy 10 from there. Not only does this work out cheaper than buying empty bottles but I also end up with loads of olive oil :D I have decided that this extra oil I will now have will be the perfect gift for some foodie friends, as I am going to infuse them with flavours and put them into bottles as gifts too. (I know I will have to get more bottles but I think I will use the Asda bottles again and use that oil in my cooking) OK OK long winded way of doing it decanting oil from here to there and back again but I know what I mean lol.

So, now in my head I know what is being made for whom and can now get a calendar organised for getting everything done. Woohoo, I'm much more prepared this year than any other year!!

Ok the meeting season has started once again and so many of my evenings have been taken up with council business, (tonight being a highlight for me as it was with a rather handsome police officer, yummy, no officer I don't mind at all that the meeting ran over, now what were you saying before I lost myself in your eyes??lol) but I have managed to get some stitching done too. Here is my day by day updates.

Day 29

Day 30

Day 31

Day 32

This is as far as I have gotten, as you can see it is almost finished now another week or so and it will be done yay me!

It is also TUSAL time again so here it is

Anyway time for bed for me speak soon x

Men... who'd have 'em??

Been very busy since my last post. Thursday I was stitching away, Friday I was baking some cupcakes for the lady I spoke about in an earlier post, Saturday was a friends wedding and Sunday I was making dinner. I have also been stitching today too.

So here is 'The Wedding' from Thursday.

Here are the Cupcakes I made on Friday. 

As you can see, 3 different colours. There is lilac, white and yellow. They were for a baby shower where the sex of the baby was not known.

The kids have loved it as I made extra for them too.

Saturday was rather eventful, as I mentioned we went to a friends wedding. We had a great time and I got very drunk, which I am suffering for now!!

I was dancing away, and used muscles that I had forgotten I had and today they have been aching like mad.

When we got home my OH decided that he no longer wanted to be involved in any of my internet sites and so I have had to remove all mention of him from my blog and my Facebook etc. He did make me very mad with it. So now as far as the internet is concerned, my family only consists of myself and the girls Kerry, Emily and Jessica, as Jade has also asked to be removed. I can tell you this has upset me quite a lot.

Moving on, I made Sunday dinner again this week, we had it rather late as I was too hungover earlier on to get it made so it became a Sunday tea lol. But I wanted to show you my Yorkshire Puddings as once again they were pretty great.

This one as you can see is bigger than my hand and it wasn't even the biggest!>>>

And finally, my Sunday update of 'The Wedding'

Time for me to go to bed, speak soon x.

Two days worth

I have decided to only update my blog every other day just because I wind up spending too much time on the computer, and I want to watch the Paralympics.

Not been up to much apart from stitching, the girls have gone off today with MIL to a fun day, I am waiting at home for my uncle to arrive, gonna get the house cleaned up and do some stitching in peace while I have the chance lol.

Here is where I am up to,

Tuesday night

Wednesday night.

I think you will agree it is looking good. I am hoping to get it finished within the next week. I am setting a deadline of 9th September to get it finished.

Well a girl can hope can't she. 

Well off to do some housework, speak soon xx

Double update

I haven't done much on 'The Wedding' over the last two days as  (this section has been removed as it mentions my OH)  and Jade have been doing 'their bit'. It almost killed me letting them take over, I was not a happy bunny lol. Here they are giving it a go.

Thing is  (this section has been removed as it mentions my OH)  really got into it and continued for a couple of hours, while I sat twiddling my thumbs.

Here is the result at the end of Friday

And this is it at the end of Saturday

As you can see, there is more of the white at the top done (that's all I would trust  (this section has been removed as it mentions my OH)  to do without supervision lol.  (this section has been removed as it mentions my OH)  managed around 150 stitches in 2 and 1/2 hours)

We took the girls to the cinema on Saturday to see Top Cat, they do a family special film where it costs just £1 per person (of course if you are like me you will sign up on line and get yourself a further 10% discount)

The younger girls loved it, Jade not so much and I fell asleep half way through.  (this section has been removed as it mentions my OH)  was my pillow lol.

When we got home from the cinema we were greeted by these

Jessica liked the yellow one Emily liked the orange one. We made flags with them here are the girls doing just that.

 

 In other news Kerry has finished her cross stitch. She is very proud of it and I must say for her first one she has done very well. 

Can't wait for her to give it to Jade as she is so excited about it. 

I have also joined a group that takes photos of their waste jars, so you will see the label TUSAL and a picture like this.

For more information about what this is about then go here to read up more about it.

Anyway off now to cook a Sunday dinner! woohoo getting excited about it how sad am I?

Speak soon x

Family cross stitch day

The girls and I have been working together again today on our cross stitches, I love how my hobby has sparked their interest too.

Here they are ready for bed still stitching away. In fact they were so excited to get back to their stitching that bath time was a breeze they wanted to be in and out as fast as they could.

Jessica is 'finishing' a project started 3 years ago by our former lodger. I won't be finishing it off and so I gave it to Jess. She wants to get up early in the morning to finish it off.

Emily is putting colours on in her own style. You can see at the top in the green she is getting the hang of doing the actual crosses to make up a stitch. Once she understands this part I can move her on to an actual chart so she ends up with a finished 'proper' picture.

And last but not least, Kerry is doing a butterfly as a gift for Jade, who is coming over on Wednesday. She is really wanting to get it completed in time for the big arrival.

In fact all the girls  (this section has been removed as it mentions my OH)  are excited to see Jade again. It's strange not to see her everyday. 

As for me, my stitching had had to take a back seat, as I have been helping the girls with theirs. Though Kerry is now getting really good at threading her own needle, I still have to help her occasionally. Jessica however, needs her needle rethreading after virtually every stitch lol. Emily just needs hers doing at each colour change.

Here is how 'The Wedding' is coming along.

This is a closer version of the one on the right.

I still haven't had any guesses for the 'prize stitch' here it is again for guessing. Just put your guess in the comments box!

Jessica is going to my Mum's for a couple of nights tomorrow, wonder what we will end up doing without her. The way it's going they will just want to stitch all day lol. Speak soon xx

Another Sunday another family bike ride

As it is Sunday, we all went to MIL's for our dinner. Once again we rode our bikes, we started off as a family but soon became two parties as Emily's front tyre got a flat.  (this section has been removed as it mentions my OH)  took Emily home and sorted out her tyre. They arrived 15 full minutes after us, ha ha slow coaches. At least we got the ride home all together.

I was looking through some of my stitchy stash that had been squirrelled away. I found some great stuff, and am excited to get going with it again. Here is what I found.

I also found some finished stitches that I had forgotten about have a look at these.

I can't remember who I did these for originally, so I will have to think of someone to give them to and get them cleaned and framed up.

Nice when you have a find like this, don't ya think??

Once I found my stitchy stash, I got started straight away on this one.

First person to tell me what this will be when it is finished gets to have it!!!

Get guessing in the comments box!

No update on 'The Wedding' as I was busy with the prize stitch, I will do some more on it tomorrow though I promise lol.

Off to bed now for me, speak soon x

Long walk home

I took the girls to my mums yesterday, thinking we could walk it home and give the dog a good run while we were at it.

Never again lol to be fair the girls did fantastic walking the 3.4 miles it took us. Here we are walking

This is the route we took, like I said they did very well.

We stopped off at MIL's for a rest stop and the girls ended up playing for an hour outside with their cousin Harvey.

With regards to my cross stitch, I have finally finished the polar bears, here is the final result.

I have also made a start on 'The Wedding' here is my preparations I have set out my area to stitch, I have also put masking tape all around the edge to protect it from fraying (left), you can see on the right how large this piece is as you can compare it to an A4 piece of paper. Below is the whole 9 page chart. Each of those pages are also A4. 

I have also had a day of stitching (well a little more than a day) on it too here is where I am up to.

It doesn't look like much but there is around 500 stitches there, so it will take me a while to get this one done. Though I do have a little help as I am getting the kids to do some stitches too so it really is a gift from the family. here they are doing a couple of stitches each.

 I will get Alan and Jade to do some at a later date too, in the meantime I'm going to get some more stitching done speak soon xxx