Happy New Year, A Winter Wonderland, a WIP, and a finish

A Happy New year to all the lovely visitors to my blog, may 2010 bring forth, health and happiness and peace to everyone.

The above picture is of a gift from a lovely stitching friend DJ who lives in the USA. She was working so hard before Christmas putting in all the hours God made where she works, and yet she still found time to make and send me this gorgeous little ornament. Isn't it cute!!

For days the weather forecasters have been saying we were going to have snow.....normally living by the sea we very rarely have snow, but this year is an exception. The rest of the UK have been suffering really badly with snow and freezing conditions. This morning was our turn, and we awoke to a smattering at 5.45am with regular falls later on, so much so that the schools have closed as teachers couldn't get there, and with my husband being told by his boss that he would rather him stay at home with pay than drive and have an accident. Of course neither of them complained. My son was eager to go out into the cold as he has never seen much snow at all. We have more snow forecast for later on today, and freezing temperatures tonight, so it may be everyone home again tomorrow.

After having a cup of coffee we decided that we would all go out in it, so after clearing the path by the drive, and having a snowball fight; we went for a walk. I thought that I would share with you some of the pics that I took whilst out.

DH & Son

DH not looking too happy at having his pic taken

Sub tropical plant in Garden

Teasels in the snow

Wild Dog Rose hips in the snow

Snow Angel

The next pic is of a small stitchery quilt that I did for a present for my DS and his family as part of their Christmas present to hang in their hall of their new house.

The next pic is of a stitchery which I did for myself which was intended to be on the wall for Christmas, but with everything that was happening before Christmas I never got to make it into a small quilt pic. I will finish it into a quilt pic, as soon as everyone has gone back to work, and school.

The stitchery was supposed to be in redwork only,but I thought it would look much prettier in a few colours. I worked the piece in DMC thread with Krienik metallic filament and Spirelli metallic thread.

The pattern is a freebie, and can be found at http://thepaintedquilt.blogspot.com , thank you to Kaaren for this lovely little Stitchery.

My last pic is of the WIP that I am doing, I have been stitching this for the past two evenings whilst watching the TV. I thought that I would do it in white on the Dark Coffee Belfast 32ct that DH bought for me, along with some new gold needles, that he put in my stocking for Christmas. It seems to be more apt colours for this time of the year.

NB :I think that most of my pics I have posted this time will enlarge if you click on them.....if you have found previously that they wouldn't I have now found out that I was reducing the size of them too small, and therefore they wouldn't open up to a large size. Sorry for this previous boo boo.
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Info for those US genealogists out there!!!!

If you have European ancestors who migrated from Europe to the US from the middle to late 1800's until 1914. I have recently discovered that if they left Europe from the Port of Hamburg, they will not have sailed directly to the USA, and will have arrived in Hull, England first before travelling by train or carriage the next day to Liverpool,England and then going on to the USA.

In Hull Records Office they do hold lists of passengers, occupations, dates etc of all the passengers who arrived there to be migrating to the USA.

They would have stayed in a lodgings house on or very near the quayside before they continued their passage to the USA.

WIP, Swap and cakes for tea.......

Sorry to all the lovely people who normally follow my blog for not writing last week, but last week is best forgotten as far as I am concerned.


The picture above is of a WIP that I have nearly completed.I have altered it in places to suit me, and have stitched different colours to which the pattern stated. The pattern is a Mystery Sampler ( a freebie)which I found on http://pagesperso-orange.fr/anne-les-petites-croix/ . It has a good variety of speciality stitches which I found quite absorbing, and a change from just doing cross stitch.

The vase of flowers is a mixture of the many Aquilegia we have growing in our garden together with what I call popcorn grasses.I was so upset because the wind had been very strong for the past 3 days, and that along with the rain had been beating their tall stems all down onto the lawn.


The above picture is of the scissors case and fob which I stitched as my part of a swap to Irene in the Netherlands.Now that Irene has received her swap I thought you may like to see what I made. The swap was through one of the groups that I belong to Yahoo Group bbinteractive. The link can be found at the top left of my blog. The stitching was done on a 28ct even weave linen with a French Navy pure silk lining. I sent a little card which I made. I cross stitched a hedgehog on perforated paper, and decorated with a frame then made it into the card.

For many years I used to bake cakes, biscuits, pies etc, but up until the recession I am afraid I haven't been as good as I should and have been buying ready made.Today though I thought this must change.Not only is the price of some shop bought cakes ridiculous,but you really cannot trust exactly what is going into them. I feel so strongly about the fact that some unscrupulous manufacturers are putting hydrogenated fats( causing heart disease), into our food that I thought it was high time I went back to making my own goodies. I was trained in catering before I made the great decision that, that wasn't what I really wanted to go into job wise when I first started work; and eventually ended up being a window dresser for a large high street fashion store for while before getting married.

The pic above is of a Victoria Sandwich Cake which is sandwiched together with Damson Jam, and lightly dusted with icing sugar over a doily; which I made this morning. This is the start of me making and baking my own again.

The teacup in the picture is my favourite vintage teacup, of which I have many. This one is made by Royal Cauldon. This cup makes any cup of tea taste wonderful.

This is my favourite Picture for May, it is taken on Dartmoor, and when I took it I was surrounded by Bluebells. The scent was heavenly.

Going greener...Not only in stitching

Having had a' bit of a week' last week, it was nice to see the sunshine arrive in our little part of the world on Sunday. Although D husband had other ideas I was able to nudge him up the garden with me to clean out the greenhouse. In it we had a collection of Cacti which I had inherited from my D Daughter when she went to live in Goa, I am really not into Cacti even though some of them produced the most beautiful flowers for one day or so in the summer. I therefore had decided that they were taking up valuable space, and that they had to go in order that I could get my vegetable seeds under way, and in particular my tomatoes. This year I am going to grow them in the greenhouse, along with cucumbers, so that no matter what the British weather throws at us we will have luscious tomatoes all summer.

By the way don't be sad for the cacti all thirty odd of them. I listed them on http://freecycle.org/ and gave them away to a home, and to someone who would appreciate theThe rest of the garden is going to be redesigned this year. We have been here now for seven years this year, and after having to start my garden from scratch in the beginning as it was like a wilderness, I think it is time for a change. Not only that,but in England now the powers that be are encouraging people to try and grow their own Veggies and fruit. Well we already do that but not on a very large scale, so I have decided that the round lawn has to be moved, and the shrubs and put into either the front garden, or to be arranged somewhere else. That way where the lawn has been, and is virtually virgin soil can be my new vegetable patch.

These are some of the pics of the plants in my garden last year.

Clematis

Aquilegia

Spring.....Dutch Iris

Calla Lily

Rose: Dawn Chorus....has the most glorious scent

Voodoo Lily

Lavender

Australian Bottlebrush

Spring....everything not out yet.




Blue Angel Wings

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Still on a Green Note

I got to thinking last week apart from all that we have done to be "green with our electricity", I cast my mind back to when I was a child and thought about what my Mum used to have in her house that was different today which didn't use electricity but was so useful. Do you remember those carpet sweepers that you push along to pick up the bits? I really thought this would be a great idea to get one so that when I had finished stitching I wouldn't have to get the vacuum out just to pick up the ends of threads etc., and it would also be eco friendly. I hadn't got a great deal of money to spare this month, so I put a "Wanted" on http://freecycle.org/, and 'voila', some dear soul had one that I could have. So I am now saving money in electricity bills, and it takes less time to pick up bits.

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Stitchers Heaven Group SAL......Finished part three of Alla Turca

Stitched in French Navy DMC 311 on 28ct evenweave linen

My WIP at the moment

I have quite a few freebies stored in my stash on the PC and yesterday I wanted to do a small for me. I decided on this beautiful little Quaker Scissors Case pattern which was offered back in March of 2006 on http://www.carinne.ht.st/ for personal use only.

I have cross stitched it, and have decided to line it with some contrasting patterned silk that I had in my stash, yet to be finished, but here is the pic before finishing into the scissors case.

It was one of those evenings.......Argh!.....

Last night was just one of the worst evenings for a while. Having two sons of very differing ages is very stressful sometimes. One wanting to act older than the other, and the other just plain irritating because he has been used to living in his own place, but now returned home.

As usual I collected the youngest from school in the car in the afternoon. He came out in a good mood for a change and said that he had, had a good day.Oh! thanks heavens I thought, as some days he comes out acting like the whole world is against him, or that some other child had done something to him that has agrevated him. He's at that age you see....( an inbetweenie) a month to go before being a teenager. When we get home and go through the usual ritual of having a drink getting changed etc. , he decides that he is going to see his friend who is mother lives very nearby. He gets his beloved BMX bike out and off he goes, and shouts back to me that he will be back at 4.30pm.So then I decide.....Mmmmm a bit of Stitching might not go amiss, as the big son is out.... 10 mins goes by.........No Such Luck.

Big son comes in, blusters through the door, huffing and puffing because he has just had a strenuous Badminton game. He promptly plonks himself down at my computer, and decides that he wants to make a new blog, and doesn't know how to go about it. Bang goes the stitching since he keeps saying Mum how do I do this, and how do you do that. I give up the thought of ever trying to stitch, and besides it is now 4.00pm and I should really think about what we are going to have for dinner as hubby usually gets in at 5.00pm or thereabouts. Not that he is worried as to whether he has dinner on the table when he comes in or not.....bless him.....he's just the most easy going man I have ever come accross. He is a Libran and very easy to live with.

4.30 comes and goes and young son hasn't come home.....4.45 comes and I start to worry since you hear all sorts of stories in the news. I couldn't get him on his mobile and I was worried, as it said he was unavailable. Then I get a call to say Hubby will be late...no probs. Eventually young son rings on home phone to say he's sorry but he had to go to the friends Dad's house which is miles away,and that his friends bike was broken and he had to help him home, and that he would be home in 10 mins. ............Not!!!! 20 mins later at 5.50 young son comes in, new jeans ripped on one leg up to the knee, and said he caught the hem in the bike chain........Urmmmm!

After dinner, elder son got on Hubby's nerves, and we went out to get a breath of fresh air. Came back and thought Ah! I will now do a bit of stitching as everyone had settled down doing their own thing....... But no........ they had remembered it was Pancake Day.......... Now I was going to lose it, as I detest having to stand there and make numerous amounts of pancakes while they stand there with their plates waiting for another, and another. By this time I was getting to the point where I felt I was being deprived because I really wanted to do stitching, and had wanted to do so all day, but to no avail. Eldest son offered to make them, but he is just so hopeless at doing any cooking without making a mountain of washing up, and mess in the kitchen I said no thanks. Hubby came down from having a shower, and said he would make them. Bless him.

Don't you just love your kids!!

I then got my chance............ Stitching .....Yes!! I got out the SAL that I am doing with Yahoo Stitchers Heaven Group, the pattern is Alla Turca by Pelin Tezar. I wanted to get on with it as I am behind most of the others in the group, only not having completed part 1 yet, and most of the stitchers have finished part 2.

I suppose I had stitched about an inch of the design on the right when I realised I was 1 thread out way back, and had to pull out all I had done. I suppose that's the trouble with stitching at night, and when you are not at your best.

This is my WIP so far on the Alla Turca SAL