Goal Reached Just In Time

Well I Did it!! i reached my goal of completing four pages of my Mermaid this year, yes it is close and i would not have done it if i had not stitched all day during the Christmas holidays but i can now kit up for the HAED BB SAL that starts on Saturday, don't know what i am going to stitch until then, but i know my husband id relieved as i would not put the stitching down, and he was having to make his own cups of tea, aww poor thing lol.

Hope everyone had a good Christmas!

It's Beginning To Look A Bit Like Christmas

My news years resolution should be do finish something i start. As blogging everyday didn't go to plan. But thats Christmas for you.
Anyway i am showing the very little progress i have done on Mermaid, can you see them 20 stitches? No, well honestly they are there!

Took the photo on my new christmas present, well to be honest hubby bought a camera and said it was a joint present for both of us to each other. Now i know i shouldn't be ungrateful but he wanted a camera so got it i didn't want it, yes its better than our old camera but it wasn't high on my list of 'must get', so will i get to unwrap a handbag, purse even some glovers or slippers on christmas day, No as i have it now, yes i am feeling in a very selfish mood tonight, bloody men well it could have been worse, it could have been some tool or kitchen appliance i got.

Grumpy Bev has now left the building, so back to normal service...
The 2011 Weekly Stitch-A-Long Blog is now up and people can join in and i have put on to carry on with mermaid, but i bought this chart from Celtic Rose Needlecraft,


some of you will know that i have stitched Marilyn before in the 2009 SAL blog. So i am not bot sure which to put forward for the blog.

There is also another SAL i am doing on the HAED BB. From the 5 charts i chose Hannah Lynn Fragile Heart, I have got the floss list emailed through to me so i know have to get my fabby sorted out and make sure i have all the floss, as this also starts on the 1st Jan 2011.

Will i finish a design next year, who knows i managed to finish 2 UFO's this year, i am hoping to finish at least one next year, and as for reaching my yearly goal on the HAED BB of finishing 4 pages of Mermaid, well that is looking less likely all the time

Page 3 Finally Done!!

Yes, Yes I know, no update or anything from me for a week, but what a week i have had, who was i kidding that i would be able to update never mind stitch! The last week of school term is mad, plays, Christmas dinner, parties, carol services, mad, mad, mad.
I have been starting work at 5 in the morning, finishing at 3 no breaks, no sitting down nothing, getting home and collapsing for a half a hour not moving, then starting again at home, so when i finally sit down later i have just been like a zombie, and they say men have it hard and we have it easy! when they finish work thats it, fat chance of women being able to do that!!!

OK rant over

Here is Mermmie, i was hoping to get page 4 finished before the year end, not sure if thats possible now, but going to give it a go, on the bright side i did finish page 3 !!!

a finish is a finish right? only another 21 pages to finish lol

as for the advent calender, well i haven't even had time to put it together yet,

Damn You Internet

Yes I missed a day due to AOL deciding to throw a strop and stop working.

So here is Mermmie, and finally her face is done and I am starting to fill in her hair, you know the stitches that have just one colour in, damn they take some time doing. Love her face now


Yesterday we had a Log Roll, i always make them for Christmas Eve when we have the in laws over for tea,

 and today we have....

Mine Pies, NOOOO I detest Mince pies, with a passion, i WILL NEVER make them!!

Said i wouldn't Get Much Done

and today is a ham joint, i made a roast honey and mustard joint for Christmas last and it didn't last very long,now im off to drool over watch Eclipse again with the kids

Won't get Much Stitching Done Today

I started to do a bit of her hair, after i finish with the yellow at the bottom of the page I am going to finish them few stitches in her face, but this colour is taking ages to do.
I am going to Eclipse now though so i will have to give the TV for undivided attention, mmmm Team Jacob or Edward ( both I'm greedy lol)

 Today was a garland, we did have one but it got squashed in the suitcase and didn't reassemble anything so my youngest has now changed it into a wreath for her room , well i think its supposed to be a wreath anyway.

Its Officially Christmas

I decided to make the trifle( minus the sherry, yuck!) yes i changed my mind, but I'm a woman and thats what we do lol, I did get a bit carried away a bit with the chocolate flake, but who doesn't like chocolate!

As i thought, i didn't get much done on Mermmie but still progress it progress.

For the calender we have little biscuits, - if you can make them out, which no i am not making today. Maybe later though lol,

and why is official?   i have seen the Coca-Cola advert today, so Christmas is now here! now if only i could write the christmas cards out, however, it seems my children have bet me to it and used all the cards i bought and left us with  the dodgy ones. Lovely.

Salad Anyone?

Well the trifle didn't get made as the kids had ate all the jellies, and i wasn't going to go 5 miles to the nearest shop to get one, but after a bad day at work didn't really feel like making one.

I did manage to stitch some more on Mermmie, and i want to stitch on her all week. On the HAED BB my yearly goal was to stitch 4 pages of her, and i would like to nearly be there, as after page 4 ( not that i have finished page 3 yet) there is only 1 3/4 pages to stitch and a lot of them are blocks of colour.
I do think though that it looks a lot better when viewing from afar as when your right on top of it you can not make out any of the detail, it wasn't till i took a photo that i noticed the flower in her hair.
Not the best photo since my youngest dropped the camera in the snow. Will not get much done on her today as we are going to my mums for tea for my step dads birthday, and she doesn't like me stitching.

Today we have a bowl of Salad on the calender, hardly salad weather at the moment, as it is still cold. I am off to now thrash my youngest on Wii Fit, and prove that 37 is not ancient!

Busy,Busy,Busy

Yesterday was like the title says a busy day, i did manage some stitching just not on Christmas Dreams, the bed side lamp is much better for stitching and yes i was being lazy Mermmie was at the side of my bed so i stitched on her last night as my legs just couldn't make it down the stairs to get C-D.

After blogging i dug my car out, dug path out, baked the christmas cake, and boy you can smell the alcohol in it, put the Christmas Tree up ( which i hate but not buying a real tree this year) and managed to make hubby a steamed sponge pudding, all this in 4 hours, so today i was hoping that with it being -11 on the car temperature and black ice everywhere that they wouldn't open the school, but alas they have. The head who lives a mile from me had texted to say it took him an hour to get there( its 8 minutes normally) and be careful, I HATE ICE!! as much as snow.So instead of being able to finish the house off and then stitch i have now to crap myself while driving to work, yes i may live in a beautiful place but all the hills make driving bad at this time of year.

So roll on this afternoon, when i am home and can have the fire on and relax because, ice,snow and kids in school just don't mix!

oh i almost forgot today we have Trifle on the advent Calender. Sherry trifle, yes brings back memories of Christmas parties when i was a child in the 70's the women drinking Snowballs, men on the bitter and us kids sneaking some punch that would have but a horse on its back, while Slade and Wizard were playing full blast, never had trifle since then, may make it for tea tonight, that's if the kids haven't ate the jelly...

Let The Battle Begin

OK so the whole advent calender situation had not eased, the buses were cancelled, the roads were dodgy to say the least and the thought of digging the car out filled me with dread, why make work when it will snow again?


So  there was still no calender for the kids and they were drawing battle plans up, offering them a Kit Kat as a substitute  didn't seem to work and i knew they were up to something, They wouldn't even put the little Panetonne in its place on my advent Calender.

it had come to desperation now, where i had to accept defeat and go to the supermarket with the in-laws as my driving skills in the snow are crap.(plus my little focus was still covered and their 4x4 is a lot better in the snow than mine.)

So after spending 4 hours of being pulled to bits, from  'not making the Christmas cake months ago, what kind of wife am i?' to ' why am i putting the tree up too early, christmas eve is much better', and the classic 'my son could have been living in Australia if he hadn't met me and i had got pregnant',  I am finally  home, the kids have their advent calender, the oven is warming up as i am making the Christmas cake today (yes it is late but i was canceling christmas altogether when i first learnt we had to move) and i may even put the Christmas tree up, before all the snow melts and it no longer feels christmassy. The stitching may not be as much to show tomorrow, but i will spending the last day before they re-open the school tomorrow, getting into the christmas spirit.

I just wish a little elf would get into the christmas spirit and dig my car out for me... well the fruit for the cake will have to soak in the brandy a bit longer if i am to get my car out, unless my prays for more snow are answered. I am now off to battle the snow drift I may be some time...

Its the Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

Last year was the first year i didn't get my kids a chocolate advent calender each. I was fed up of the kids arguing over who had been opening their calender and sneaking heir chocolate out. Remember Billy Bob Thornton in 'Bad Santa' and the scene with the kids advent calender? Well that was our house every year.
So to stop the constant battles that took place i bought this advent calender, and there was peace and quiet, no more arguing over missing chocolate, there was just arguing over NO chocolate, it was worse than ever!
Who ever said best laid plans and all that...

Well i liked it, its by Amanda Loverseed, who designs the Cut Thru Designs by Bothy Threads, and being a cook and food i thought it was fitting, i even tried to make everything on the calender ( but failed miserably - it would have been cheaper to buy the chocolate advent calenders three times over) I can honestly say that i would not have been a candidate for attempting to cook an entire recipe book like Julie and Julia, ( i watched it last night while attempting to stitch with the crappy light)

But this year there has been mutiny in the ranks and i was subjected to an ordeal that will scar me for at least a week, they all ganged up on me and i was bombarded with snowballs, till i yielded.
( which to be honest didn't take that long) so yes they are now going back to their calenders with the chocolate that tastes awful in ( unless i buy a Cadburys one then it might be me sneaking chocolate out of them lol)
and we will once again have a house full of the joys of ' WHOS BEEN EATING MY CHOCOLATE!!!'  ringing all through the house, yes Christmas brings out all the joy and love - just not in our house.

So the reason for this babbling post is that i have decided to share my advent calender with you and every day will post the days picture of it, along with what stitching i happened to get done the day before even if it is only 10 stitches - you have been warned.

Now i just have to dig my car out of the 4 ft drift it is currently sitting in, and decide wether i dare drive in the snow, or catch a bus, which come to think of it i haven't seen a bus for a few days- and buy the kids their advent calenders before they sell out( and one for me- but thats just between us)

oh i forgot to add yesterday that this is the chart my hubby bought me to try and cheer me up ( i couldn't start my other new charts as he didn't know i got them lol) it is called Christmas Dreams, but look at all that detail i will still be stitching this when I'm 70!

I have done a little bit of stitching but my room light is terrible for stitching at night really need to make sure our next house has better lighting. So really can only stitch on 28 ct 1 x 1 during the day. Can you believe this is supposed to be a Christmas tree?


Happy Stitching

Bev

Needle over Mind

I have not picked up a needle for weeks now as I have really no interest in anything at the moment, the whole homeless situation has not got any better but worse and even when we had the house fire and had nothing left i still didn't feel like this. My husband even bought me a chart to cheer me up.
The doctor wants to put me on some meds but i hate taking mediation unless i am really in pain ( or have toothache), so to try and pull myself together again i am picking up my needle and seeing if the power of the needle is mightier than the pill...    or something along those lines couldn't think of any thing funnier to say.

Hope i have some stitching to show on Tuesday

Shopping Spree revealed and a few progress pictures

Well I made a start on the baby sampler, as i thought the christening was in a few weeks, but that's been put on hold so there is no rush now, so i will work on it once a month, so i am classing this as Novembers work.

I can also reveal what i bought on my shopping spree ( without even leaving the house)

Yes it is a Mirabilia's  Royal Holiday and Lizzie Kate's Christmas Rules, in the kit for Royal Holiday i got Linen fabric, which to be honest i hate stitching on, so i have ordered some from Silkweaver, I am hoping that it wont take too long to come, as i cant wait to get started on her, but i did start on Lizzie kate's Christmas Rules.

Its stitched on 28ct Ivory Jazlyn, which i love stitching on, definitely my fabric now i want to stitch on.

I have also stitched some more of DOTF, did a few days on it. You can actually see some of the antique white now, the blue is next to it.

Here is a quick update of my mermmie, still not got page 3 finished but i am stitching page four too, i have a pile or ironing that needs to be done, but i cant put her down!

And finally here is what i bought from HAED....

By Randal Spangler, Home is Where The Magic Is... a meer 48 pages of charts, yes this is one serious long term project, and then i bought this...

Vixie by Hannah Lynn. I bought both in colour chart format and i love them, now when they will get started on i have no idea. 

sssh dont tell the hubby lol

I have been on a bit of a spending spree, spending my birthday money early, thats what you get when you cant stitch, hoping to have my christmas goodies by the weekend, so for now here is a little sneak to what i got, now can you tell what i bought?                                      

Sneak Previews

Since I cant stitch i'm going to show you the terrible updates i have made, some are not worth the photo, but i need to finish (or start) the baby sampler as i think its the christening next month.

                                     This is what it is supposed to look like when i have finished

This is what it looks like at the moment.

See terrible, i am hoping that it will spur me on

This is what i have done on Paradisal Bird, since i started it

i don't like it, i don't know if its because i don't like the colour of the evenweave and if it was white it would show more, but i chose this because of the dark greens that are in it, i didn't want them showing through, but maybe if i did a bit on it i would get back into it.

here is the progress i made on Dreaming On The Farm.

 there is 2000 stitches here, but the antique white makes it hard to tell, especially with the gridding, i hope that it washes out ok.

                                      And finally this is a piece of art by Brigid Ashwood, which i adore.

 i love the pin up style and have wanted to stitch something like this for years, i can only hope that this becomes available to buy on HAED

I Can't Stitch For A WEEK

I have just had eye surgery and i am not allowed to stitch until at least Thursday when i go back to the hospital for the results of the biopsy and for them to check my eye, i have a patch on ( i took it off as the tape was driving me to distraction but it is stuck back on and now i keep walking into things again!

Since i cant stitch i have been trying to sort out all my blogs that i read as they all went off for some reason, i am sure there is some missing so if your not on give me a holla and i will sort it out, its not like i can do anything else this week, imagine a week off work and i cant stitch.

So here is the progress i made on Mermmie, still didn't finish page 3 but i suppose if i hadn't started a bit of page 4 i would have, i will put a update on Dreaming On The Farm too, as soon as my batteries charge up, and speaking of Hannah Lynn Disney i received my picture yesterday that i won from her Facebook auction! i love it, as i was going to wrap it up and put it away in our new house, whenever and wherever that will be but i couldn't wait, so here is my one of a kind no copies available picture, i may be having a crap time lately but this made up for it.

Hope everyone has a fantastic weekend, I'm off to try and get some sympathy- not that i will get any on this house lol

why can i never think or a catchy title

ok the title of this post if self explanatory as i am now brain dead with everything that is going off at home.

I have completed 3/4 of the page now, but you there is still 16, yes 16, colours left to stitch in the part i have left, that is why i love stitching HAED's so much as the detail is second to none, even if i will never stitch all the charts i have in my lifetime.

However with me getting a bit more nearer in finishing this blasted page done. I have learnt that

A) I really need to grid, i took the gridding out early to see how i went on, as i see people with no gridding but nope it doesnt work for me i keep getting lost, and
B) I REALLY need to mark off what i have done and  not think its ok i will remember, as sorry but i seem to have found that i have the memory of a newt and i am then trying for hours to see what i need to do next, especially in heavily confetti areas as her hair is.
I am sure i have made a hash of it, but it still looks good to me
and ....
C) Check, check and recheck that i am stitching the right colour  and right symbol. I HATE frogging but frogging that  wont come out is a nightmare, so i have had to go over certain parts, can you tell which?


So all these mictakes have took this page an age to do, how come can stitch a page a week i have no idea, maybe i ought to say bugger the housework, now wouldnt that be nice.

Mermmie and Stresses

Well still slow and still not done page 3, but i am still stressed to high heaven, were being evicted through no fault or our own, they company that owns our house want to flatten them so we have till the new year to find somewhere to live. the council says i have more chance of winning the lottery than getting a house so we are going to move into our caravan until something comes up .So if it goes very quiet in the New Year, its because i will have no internet. the kids aren't sure how they will survive life with out the internet.

when i tell them that we didn't even have computer in our house they cant believe how i survived lol

Anyway i  nearly bought a new HAED to cheer myself up but i cant spend money on patterns so i am trying not to look as i know there will  be something that i want lol

so here is this weeks progress, her hair is nearly done, sorry about the picture, our camera really is that bad

page 3 still not done

Life is getting in the way for stitching and this week has been a pretty shitty week at home, and for once its no ones fault, so very little has been done, but i love stitching on my mermmie

little progress

well not much to show really, on the HAED BB i joined another SAL, this time Light Of The World. and where some people are nearly finishing there second page, but life gets in the way here so i only managed about a 1000 stitches.

Also on my DOTF, that has been slow too only 500 stitches in that so not worth  showing that then, and then to top it off i have to start the baby sampler for my nieces christening, which she has now sprung on me will be happening sometime next month

A Near Disaster Averted, for A Happy Dance

OK another finish, yes I didn't exactly stick to the chart as i thought it had enough on it and i didn't want to overdo it and yes it is a week late as my wedding anniversary was last monday but i did it, nearly had to throw it out as i scorched it when i was ironing it, I couldn't believe it the first time i scorch something ironing, and its it a crappy shirt that i wanted to throw out, no its the bleeding wedding sampler that took me nearly 18 months to complete, but after a tip from a friend i finally got it out. You can see it a bit but only from the back.

Now i really want to start HAED's Dreaming On The Farm but i have so much to do, but i think i should stitch what i want to at that moment, so with that i decided to actually sort out my threads, I had boxes filled with threads for different pieces but i didn't want to have to order more, so i sorted them all out yesterday while trying to watch Ugly Betty ( hubby kept turning it over to some war film that he had seen 20 times before- so there was a battle of wills in our house yesterday)

and i couldn't believe how many duplicates of threads i have i mean how many bobbins of one colour do i need?
So the good news is that i don't need any threads for DOTF, woop woop!