Heart In Hand Exchange

This is the design I chose for a Lizzie Kate style exchange. I chose this one from Heart in hand, called 'heart sampler'.

I changed the colours so it would match the occasions book I was putting it on, and used variegated threads for the larger hearts at the bottom of the design.

I have another exchange to do for a winter/xmas themed mousemat, which i signed up for on the cross-stitching forum. But I think after that I will just keep tot he exchanges on the yahoo group I am on, It seems that all I have stitched this year is for exchanges.

I went to hobbycraft to see if i could find anything nice to stitch, but I wasn't impressed with the selection they had. No coloured evenweave or aida, no aida bands that I wanted, nothing at all to do with Christmas.

I did get my CrossStitcher and World of Cross Stitching magazines today through the post so hopefully there will be something there to inspire me for xmas.

Been Gone So Long

I cant believe where the time has gone, its been over a month since my last post and so much has happened, but I have hardly done any stitching.

What I have done i cant post yet as they are for exchanges but hopefully i can put them up by Saturday.

I did manage to finish off my bit of the RR that I was doing. there wasn't much room left so I put my design across blending two threads.

The other bookmark in the RR, I used variegated threads, for the outside of the design and ht inner part i blended pale blue and orange and it was really different. looks a lot better in real life, than it does in the picture.

The holiday was a disaster, it rained all the time I had my purse stolen, and since I had just come out of the building society with £700, the nice person who decided to take it, must have thought it was there holiday/Christmas rolled into one, anyway we made the best of what money we had but it doesn't go far, so we came home early, very fed up. ( especially since I left my sewing at home, and couldn't afford to buy a kit - in the end i started to read Lauren's Princess Diaries book, which I am now on the second one. How old am I ? lol)

On the way home our car broke down on the motorway so we were stood on the grass verge for 3 hours waiting to for AA to turn up, he had a fit when he saw us. He was told that a=it was man and a car, not car, caravan 3 kids and us, I mean I rang them 4 times to see where they were as they kept saying that they would be there in 30 minutes and each time i told them how many of us there was. we were just lucky that it wasn't raining.

When we got home, I had to take my car for its MOT to find out it failed, so old faithful ( which wasn't so bloody faithful after all since it failed on practically everything) was sent to the scrapyard, and i was without a car for a week, which to be honest felt like a longer than that ( we live in the middle of nowhere, 5 miles to the nearest shop and buses every two hours if were lucky and it cost me just short of £5 to get home on the bus, which took 40 minutes where i can get home in 7, when i am in the car. Can you tell I don't like public transport?)

Anyway I treated myself, well my Dad did gave me a little bit too, he said since I take him shopping every week and to the hospital and doctors all the time, he would help me out and I am now the owner of my very first newish car ( its 4 years old but the newest one i have ever had since they have always been old wrecks).

I love it, and we went away to Skegness at the weekend in it to see what it was like on a run, so we bought a tent( I am now so skint you wouldn't believe it ), packed the boot full and went off camping, the kids loved it better than their main holidays and can't believe how much room there was in the tent, although I don't think I will be going to Skegness for a while, its not the same place that I remember.

So now I have a months worth of blogs to catch up on, so no sewing tonight again, although it might helpme as i am desperate for insipration as i have to get my stitching bug back!

Goodbye For Now

Well I have now got two teeth less, the dentist said that if i didtn tkae these teeth out the infection i have got in my gums( cant remember what she called it) will spread and i would need them all out, nice eh?

So I am now very sore, very fed up and Im not getting no sympathy here at all!!

on the bright side i knew that i would have false teeth at an early age as my teeth are very weak, so its two less to take out further down along the lines, not very nice thing to think about though at my age.

I hope everyone has a nice two weeks as Im off on my hols, we were going to the South Of France but with hubby having a £3,000 car bill, that went out of the window, as well did us going to Scotland.

The relatives found out we were coming up , so we cancelled that, dont get me wrong i love them all, but when you spend all the time visiting everyone, its no holiday for me.

So we are going to the Lake district for our hols, we have only been for a weekend once before, and it rained so hard the entire time we were there we didnt venture out of the caravan( we forgot our coats how daft was that lol), hopefully it wont be like that this time. I am looking forward to visiting all those craft shops up there, so hopefully I will get some much needed stash! lol

Picture Of My First Scarf

Well I found the batteries for the camera, and yes Callum did have them, he's terrible if you need a battery you know where to look, doesn't matter if i buy him a multipack he says you can never have enough batteries, grrrr kids lol

Anyway!! heres the pictures of the scarfs that I knitted. The first one, doesnt look very neat but its the wool , honest!! lol

It was not the best of wool to learnt to knit with as one minute its really thick, the next its thin. But after pulling it all out and starting again, loads of times( I lost count how many- so you can tell it was a lot) I got the hang of it, I just knitted this one, as when I was purling with it , it looked awful, as my plan was to knot a garter knit scraf, but with this wool , nope my best laid plan went astray yet again!!

This is what I am currently stitching, which at first it was really hard to get the hang of it, as i kept putting my needles inbetween the hole in the wool( if you can call it that), but now its coming along really quick ( well not so much now since i am getting ready for the hols)

I haven't got much wool left , so I have bought some plae pink and lilac wool and I am going to knit a cushion cover for Nicole's bed, and have a go at actually following a pattern!!

I have less than an hour to go before Ihave to set off for the dentict and I am now feeling ILL!!!

Roll on tonight when its all over!!

I Wish It Was Tomorrow!

What a day I have had, I have had really bad toothache for weeks, but with me having a severe phobia about dentists( I had 4 teeth took out without anaesthetic, by a dentist who later got struck off for being drunk on the job, he made a mess and cut my gums and jaw, they were a real mess and when I was crying out in pain I was told to be quiet and it was all in my head- I was 11 at the time),

since then I never ever go unless I have to, I have weak enamel on my teeth and they can break apart from just eating a mars bar, so I will have to have false teeth before I am 40, I have been told theres nothing that they can do. My teeth are just too weak, That's what you get with not drinking milk.

Anyway I got the nerve up to go and get it done and I was going out of the house when I saw the caravan keys on the side. I went to put them away and saw the other pair had gone, they were no where to be found, I looked for 4 hours searching everywhere, unpacking everything that I had put in the caravan yesterday even going through the bins, not a nice job.

You see a year ago this week I had my caravan stolen by them nice people known as travellers, we had only had it 2 weeks and everything in it was brand new, even down to the cutlery, we were insured but it didn't cover everything and in two weeks we lost over 4 thousand pounds!!

Well they are back they didn't know I was in and was very surprised to see me, and they made an excuse about doing work for me, or I could buy a knock off leather sofa, I told them not very nicely to get lost and sod off back to Ireland, I rang the police and was told they knew they were in the area and even though I gave them the vans registration number there was nothing they could do unless they caught them in the act, typical!!

So there was no way I would go out without finding the keys, well Fours hours and one cancelled dentist appointment later, they have turned up on the kitchen table, hours after I looked for them there in the first place, since that is where I left them last.

I have no idea where they have been, but I know that they wasn't there before as I took everything off the table.

Now I have rung the Dentist up again and they are letting me in at 9am tomorrow so I will have another sleepless night worrying about the dentist, I'm just having one of those days!!!

How Busy Can I Be????

I cant believe that I have been at home nearly 3 weeks and I have got nothing done!!

No painting the sunhouse and sewing some muslim to cover the windows, no decorating the kitchen and hall, nope nothing... all i have done is run around after the kids taking to them to their friends, having their friends here, it has been a complete nightmare.

I am now in the process of getting ready for our hols, which we are supposed to be off for 2 weeks bit its looking more likely that we will be off for just one, due to the fact that there is never enough bloody money!!

So i spent all yesterday ironing, sorting out all the clothes that the kids have but don't ft them ( you wouldn't believe the amount of clothes they have had a few months that don't fit them now and they are still brand new- that was another trip to the charity shop, i know i could sell them but I take them to Help the Aged, let them get some money for them) and packing.

I have cleaned the cooker( 3 hours i was so fed up) and the freezer, cupboards etc - why I do it I don't know but I do, know I am so knackered I haven't even looked at any stitching I'm just crawling into bed and I'm straight to sleep.

I have though finished the Oriental lady kit that you get free with the cross stitcher magazine, and I did finish my first scarf and I am now knitting another for when I go out at night( Lauren as said she is going to pinch it and use it as a belt to go with her jeans, hmmmm that's what she thinks lol) I will put a picture up of them when I can find the batteries to the camera, looks like Callum has took them for his Xbox remote control ( that will teach me for buying him a wireless one)

I started doing another scissor fob that I am making for an exchange but I haven't picked it up since I lost( Lauren borrowed it, and now she cant find it ARGHHH!!!) my thread heaven and I hate using metallic's without using it, as you know its not the best of thread to use.

I have now got to decide what to take with me to stitch on my hols ( you can bet it will be raining so I will get plenty of time to stitch, might take my knitting with me too, and have a go at decreasing and increasing, and try and make sense of a pattern- he will have a fit when he ses what I am planning on taking lol)

Hope everyone is having a lovely summer

Secret Animal Exchange Reveal

Well I can finally put my first attempt at a scissor fob that I sent for the Secret Animal Exchange.

My sewing machine has finally died on me and it will cost more to get it fixed than it did to buy the thing in the first place so its off to the tip

I ended up sewing the thing by hand, and really my hand sewing is terrible, as it takes me ages to sew small neat lines, my family cant believe that i can cross stitch but cant sew.

To be honest, I can its just that I don't like doing it so I just don't bother unless I have to.

It took me ages to chose a design for the exchange and I stitched it on 25ct so it doesn't look much but if I had done in 2 over 2 on 28ct it would have been far too big, and I didn't want to send it framed in the post as it would have arrived broke no matter how much I had packed it.

I have to do another scissor fob for the yahoo group , I chose the design and went and got all of the stuff that I needed for it. my local shop doesn't sell Mill Hill Beads so I went and bought some other seed beads that they had in, I just had to change one of the colours, but I like the new colour I picked.

Hopefully this time it shouldn't take me as long to stitch and put together since I have a better idea of what to do. I want to get it done by next week as I am going off on my hols hopefully, so want to get everything done and posted before then.

Oh and yes I finally succumbed and I went and bought the Harry Potter book, now do I read it now, or leave it for my hols, and can I actually leave it alone and not read the back pages, hmmm what do you want to bet that someone will tell me what happens before I get the chance to read it lol

Handbag And Gladrags Reveal

I have finally changed from AOL onto BT and god you can tell the difference, no more waiting 15 minutes before AOL would start to work, no i switch PC on and its there waiting to me to sit down and surf the web. now i must resist the temptation to buy stash off the net, no Bev... Bad Bev lol

On the stitching from I received my handbag and Glad rags exchange from Brenda and Lauren has been trying to pinch the notebook all morning since its 'cooolll' lol.

I have not managed to get much stitching in so far just did a bit more of my Xmas chickadee, but nothing that you can really see that I have done.

I did though drop everything to stitch the free gift that came in this months Crossstitcher magazine. will post a picture when there's something more interesting to see.

Magent exchange reveal

Nothing much to report, Bieke, got her magnet that i did from an exchange in the yahoo group, and i was really struggling to find somehting to stitch for the size of the magnet.

everything that i looked at stitching was too big for it, even on 32ct.

In the end i chose this ice cream sundae, that i stitch in variegated threads that i bought,I have never had the chance to use them so i thought I would try them and and see what they looked like.

Next time I have to stitch on a magnet i am going to have to stitch on either plastic canvas and stick some magnet backing onto it or find a bigger magnet!!

2 Down. 2 more to go!!

I can finally reveal the handbag's and glad rags exchange that I sent to Brenda in Australia, I had no idea how to finish off my work , since my sewing machine is bust I did want to hand sew as basically its crap!! lol

Anyway was shopping and saw the memory folder, and I thought it would be perfect for her new job. I only posted it on Saturday morning and she got it Tuesday so I was really impressed on how fast Brenda got it.


The right hand side of the design took far longer than the left as i had to duplicate the woman but he other way around, I spent so much time frogging I didn't think I was never going to finish. I was so happy when i finished all the border and put the beads on it, as it seemed to take an age to stitch!





I have only got three more days left to work so I now officially going into holiday mode, you know the one when everything seems to take so much longer, the minutes seem to stop and all you want to do is wish your life away because you cant wait for Friday to come!! Well that is me at the moment, work which is normally so easy is now such a drag, oh well I shouldnt moan( but I am lol) I have never had such a long time off work so six weeks is going to be bliss ( just a shame i have the kids at home lol)


I have finally finished the RR for Margaret's Bookmark and sent that off, only thing is, I think I have done it a bit long, I didn't realise how much i had stitched, I just got carried away, so now I am going to get going with the Christmas chickadee card and try yet again with my knitting.

Cheered me up!!

Well this has definitely cheered me up today!!
lately been getting nothing but bills and more bills ,but I got a knock on the door and I got this from my Mystery Stitcher ( I find out who it is next week)from the realistic animal exchange that I did on the cross-stitching forum.

I love it and it has pride and place in my conservatory so its the first thing people will see, I love the card too, so I'm off for a frame for that to go next to it too.

So thank you very much, to who ever stitched this I love it

One Down 3 More To Go!!!

I have finally finished my RR piece for my bookmark. Though It looks better in real life as the scanner has not picked up the bright colours, as they look dull on the picture.It has took an age to do and i haven't even started on Margaret's yet. Been having some problems on the home front, with MIL (who lives next door) stirring up some problems with me and hubby, so I am feeling a bit low lately. I am sure she would be happy if she split us up. I have resisted the temptation to tell her exactly what I think But it will only cause more trouble, and i will never be good enough for her son, as I am not rich, get drunk with them on a weekend,drink and drive like they do, and wont roll over and do as im told.

I always so though what goes around comes around so i will just have to wait. Really want to say thanks to my sister though, as we have never seen eye to eye on many things but has been a great help this pastweek!!

Oh and the knitting HA!!! i have spent more time pulling the bloody wool off the needle that it has stayed on, i have though finally cracked the purl stitch , as i was having real problems with it but i have just to master how to get it neat because as the moment it looks a tiny bit untidy !! lol

How hard can it be?( yeah right lol)

When I went into my local craft shop I saw a knitted top that I loved, so obviously I thought I know I will learn how to knit!!!
Yes nothing like seeing something and jumping in with both feet, so here I am with my book to learn, since no one i know knows how to knit.

I was really good last night I sat down and read some of my book, but i didn't start any,I thought it would be better when i have more time to my self as the kids last night were a relay pain every two minutes they were playing up, I sent them to bed early and they were still arguing with each other( imagine The Waltons, at the end of the program, but shouting at each other, that was my house last night if you could have steam coming out of your ears then last night that would have been me)

Hopefully tonight I will make start on my first ever knitting, someone said knit some socks !!! not a chance 2 needles will be bad enough never mind 4, so I am going to attempt to make a scarf. There wasn't much choice in the wool shop i went to , as it said in the book to use pure wool for a start, and there was very little in, as it was all fancy stuff which is no good for starting, I wouldn't be able to see what i was doing.

Hopefully It will look like a scarf and not something that a dog has ripped to pieces lol.

On the stitching front, I got all my exchange pieces in the post, so hopefully I will be able to post the pictures of them next week.

I am now doing my RR, I received Margaret's piece yesterday , so after I have finished mine ( which is so fiddly I don't think I will do small Celtic knot again, unless its on evenweave) I will chose a design that fits, (the one i had in mind wouldn't look right on it)
I also made a start on my first christmas card, i normally leave it till the week before, realise its too late and dont bother with it, and every year I say I will start it earlier, and every year I don't. Its Valerie Pfeiffer Chistmas Chickadee, I loved stitching the chicks I thought I would do another!

As you can see theres not much to see really but its a start. I can't wait till next Friday I get 6 weeks off work so hopefully I will get more to time to stitch ( and knit) oh the joys of working in a school!!!

I dont Like frogs ( apart from Kermit!)

When I came home from work yesterday I decided to do some gardening ( I hadn't cut the grass yet and it was beginning to get a it long) the weather looked like it might actually stay fine for a hour so, I'm busy cutting the grass singing away to my ipod( well in a fashion), and a couple of hours later i had a garden fit for the Chelsea Flower Show, Ok maybe not but it was the best it had been in ages.
I shifted all the rubbish that had been kicking about and put it all in my boot and set off for the tip. I think everyone had the same idea as me, the place was packed!! I had to wait for 15 minutes before it was my turn to get anywhere near the containers.

It was when I was busy minding my own business , emptying all the junk from my boot when I saw it. The Biggest Frog I have ever seen. it was sat in the car just staring at me. I had no idea what to do, I screamed so loud when I saw it that people had stopped what they where doing and all staring at me. I just smiled and tried to get the rest of the rubbish out of the car with the toad on top. but it wasn't having any of it. Every time I moved something It would sort of hop( if you can call it that, it had a job to move it was that big) and then i couldn't find it.

I carefully took everything out of the car hoping it had gone in a bag that I had chucked out, but no it was still there, still starting at me with its big eyes.

There was no way I was driving home with that in the car, I was worried it might jump on me, and I would crash the car, sod driving I would be wailing my arms everywhere!! lol

There was no way I was going anywhere near it, so I asked the man who worked there if he could get it out for me, where I was told by him that ' its not in my job description!!'
I muttered a few words about him to myself, I mean what happened to a man coming to a womans aide, bugger all thats what happened.

I did manged to get another man to get it out for me, which he said he would but only because he had big gardening gloves on( I thought men were fearless lol)

it took him ages to catch this Frog, as it suddenly sprung into life, and the man was getting slightly impatient with it, his words that he was using was starting to attract more peoples attention.

when he finally did managed to catch it, he looked quite pleased with himself, and then with the frog in his hands he put it up to my face and asked me if I wanted to Kiss Prince Charming.

I think he thought he was funny, as he was laughing, but I wasn't when it jumped off his hands and into my face. I screamed( even louder this time) and I had slime on my face from it( well it was wet anyway ) it was everywhere in my mouth as well.

By this time the man was rolling about saying the frog was trying to kiss me- well he got something in my mouth anyway but i don't want to even think about, what it was!

The last I saw off the stupid thing was it hopping off down the road with everyone looking out of their car windows at it, with a few of them laughing.
I wanted the ground to open up, I just said thank you to the man and drove off so fast.

oh the humiliation. lol

Bloody Dogs!!

I have had disaster on the stitching front, well a mini one anyway. I haven't posted much as there was nothing to see as i have been busy stitching for the exchanges that I am doing. i have just to finish my last one tonight, then i am sending them all off.

I took photos of them all to put on here when they arrive at there destination, when my mum came up with her new dog that she got from the RSPCA.

Now my mum rarely comes up to see us, and we only live 8 miles away, she is more closer to my sister, and as for looking after the kids well, that is even rarer. she says that she cant look after 3 kids, i mean the youngest is 8 so its not like they don't know how to entertain themselves.

She once came up to see them, and gave each of them 50p, now i know i shouldn't be ungrateful but 50p in one year, well she can afford to give them more, every week, but i guess that is why she has money and i don't!!

anyway .... when she gave Callum his 50p she asked for a kiss, or she wouldnt give him his money. He just looked at her and said..

' its ok i don't need your money that bad!'

now i know i should have shouted at him for being rude, but he did have a point, and theres nothing like kids as to telling it like it is.

She doesn't make an effort and I get fed up of ringing her all the time, and asking for a sitter only to be turned down or told she's too busy tidying the house or going out, so she cant see us.

So i was surprised she came up, mind you I did find out that she had a purpose to the visit, as she is going on her hols in a few weeks and she wanted me to live at her house for a week and dog sit for her!!.

OK i may be flying off the handle her a bit, but she wants me to sit for her dog, but if i ask her to look after the kids, and i get every excuse known to man!!

Now, ( back to what i was trying to say... lol) she same up and i went to have a nosy around like she does when she comes up and the bloody dog, got hold of my card that i had stitched for an animal exchange. in a matter of seconds it was ripped up, so now i have no card.

I suppose i should have moved it off the table but i didn't think and now i have had to make a quick card up. It took me all weekend to stitch it too, so i wasn't very happy, I didn't even get a chance to take a photo of it either!!

I did get my friendship card from Jenni though, shown above, so I made sure that was well out of the way.

Now the only thing I have to do, is to find a Celtic design that I am doing for my first ever Round Robin. Its a bookmark so the design cant be that big, and the ones i like are a bit too big for a bookmark, need to find some freebie sits that have some designs on them.

after that I really should get a move on the Mirabilia's Middy fairy or HAED's Motherhood. Must resist the calling to start something new!! lol

Oh Please No More Rain!!

Well the rain is back, but as of now its not as bad as it was. Last Monday I finished work only to see this ( Top picture to the left)when I got out, luckily my car was not parked there, i didn't think it had rained that bad, but then again that what you get with working inside, i didn't get the chance to see how bad things were getting.

I got a phone call from the kids schools telling me

to pick them up as the school was beginning to flood, the roads were terrible and it took me several attempts to find a route tat was still passable.
In all a 5 minutes journey took me over an hour. I live in a area high up above, the villages. middle of nowhere really, but the only thing is living at the top, is all the water you have to try and get through to get home.

I was supposed to go to my dads, but he phoned me up as the roads were impassable. thankfully everything is back to normal, apart from the clear up and the mud thats everywhere.

In contrast to other people in this area, we came off lightly some places were flooded 10ft high and the waters are still not receding over a week later

I have been busy stitching for the exchanges that i am doing, so I cant post any pictures just yet. i have to decide what i will stitch next after I have done them, i suppose its depending on the mood i am in. I could really get on with getting back onto the HAED that i am doing. I have noticed that people grid there work. not something that i have done before, but i think that on my next one, i will definitely do this, my eyes cant take the counting stitches on 25 count lol

Friendship Card Reveal

Well here is the Friendship card that I stitched for Sue, who is in the Yahoo group I joined up. I had no idea what you put on a friendship card so knowing she liked Disney I thought I should stick to that, but what do you want to bet your supposed to put something on it lol

The design is called Watercolour Pooh, so its not using bright colours that Disney often use, and I stitched it on 25count evenweave, which I have got used to since I started my QS Motherhood ( which unfortunately has taken a back seat until I get the exchanges out of the way!)

I stitched it one over one, so this way I could make it into a card, and I am getting a bit faster at stitching now, so it didn't take as long as I thought it would.

So now that that one is done I have to get started on the Animal exchange that Lynne set up on the Cross-stitching forum. I have never stitched a realistic animal before and I found it harder to chose a design to do than any other, as it was a limited choice and the other two animals that this person wanted was even harder to find, that would not take me weeks to do.

We did get six weeks to do it in but I have been so busy with everything else I have only just got started on it, and its got to be sent off next week. It's not something I would normally stitch, so the design I chose is not a big. We can make it into anything we want , when it is finished so I didn't want to be limited in what I can to do with it.

Karen just gave me the link where I can find the Chocolate Cake Sampler, so when I get paid I'm going to get that, and hopefully Ice Cream Sampler too (money permitting lol)

I Love These Samplers (I want to Stitch them now!!! lol)

I have just seen this Ice Cream Sampler on Michelle's blog and I love it this is definitely one that I am going to stitch,

Then I saw the chocolate cake sampler too, when I went on the site to see where I could get it from and I love that one as well lol .

In fact I love all of them, and theres a couple of free patterns on the website too so I might stitch them first until I can get my hands on the charts.

So now I have two ( well ok maybe more) that I want to stitch. I am going to paint my Kitchen when I am off work for the school holidays so I am going to have to stitch these .

Now I have just to find someone who sells them in this country, as these will be on the top of my stitching list after I have got all of my exchanges out of the way

( which I have just signed up for another one so thats 5 in total now, why do I do it to myself for lol)

First effort of doing My own Design

Well I finally got my Father-in-laws card finished in time, OK I did cheat a bit, since I was stitching it on a bit of old Aida, I decided not to stitch the white part of the design to save me some time, otherwise I wouldn't have finished it in time.

If I had had more time I would have done it with white and various shades of off white and very pale grey, but as it is, I don't think it looks great but since its my first effort and its not something I would have stitched normally I suppose its OK.





I did make a cock up of the name too, I asked my mum in law what the caravan was called and she said 'Patiche', but when I went to take the photo of the caravan I noticed it was called 'Pastiche', so its spelt wrong on the card, thats what you get asking her when shes had a whiskey or two!!

I didn't do my own dad one, since he wouldn't have appreciated it anyway, he still has his Xmas cards in a drawer unopened, so I learn't not to give my dad a card.( I might get the card back out and give it him again this year and I bet he wouldn't notice either lol)

Now at least I can try and crack on with the friendship card that I have to finish and get off in the post by Wednesday.

My New Blog Template and Nice Surprise!!

I was having a really bad day, you know the kind where everything goes wrong.

The alarm doesn't go off, the kids uniform has some how managed to drag itself through mud, since the kids swear they didn't do it, you find out that they have a load of letters that they forgot to give you, and there going on a school trip that I had completely forgot about and you haven't a penny in your purse and they need£5 for the gift shop, (when did it go up so much I was lucky so get 50p- showing my age now!! lol) when all they buy is crap that you put in the bin the next day, because it broke last night leaving a child that makes Linda Blair (The Exorcist) look mild mannered!!

Yep i was having one of those days my garden was a mess and all my good intentions of cutting the grass went when I saw the rain that hasn't stopped all day and night now ( thats what you get with blowing the swimming pool up and filling it with water (which took 4 hours too)

this bloody thing was pissing me off too, if you have seen it over the past few days you may have well seen it change about once every five minutes trying to find a template that I liked!!

So my mood was cheered up no end when I received this in the post from Janien. To be honest I didn't expect it as I had signed up for a bookmark exchange and I thought that it had all fallen through since there had been some people who were behaving stupid and childish.

I have never got anything so nice in the post before!! I love all the detail that has gone into the envelope alone,and never seen one done before, and I am amazed that it actually got here!!

So thanks Janien even the hubby loves it and he normally doesn't make comments on any stitching( if it doesn't involve anything to do with fishing then hes not interested lol)

On my stitching front i am doing my father in laws card but it looked crap so I have frogged it and started again, if it still looks bad its going in the bin!!

On my blog now is a theme that I have designed myself, since I couldn't find one that I liked. the only problem is that I have AOL( which I think is crap but I am stuck with them till August) and then I use Firefox, which is so much better.
The only problem is that on AOL my writing doesnt appear till half way down the page but on Firefox it doesn't happen. If this happens on any body else's could they let me know on here or u can email me, so I can try and sort it out, still learning and it will probably be something so simple but when I asked AOL they said I have to see if its my pc or others too.

all I know is that its really bugging me now!!

Having a Moan!

I have just spoke to my sister and after listening to her rabbit on for half an hour I asked her if she had got her card, as she had still got to pick up some stuff from my mums house since she helped her bring things back home.

'Yeah why?' Now maybe I am being slighly over the top like, but she didnt even say thanks. i just replied that I wanted to make sure she had got it, when she replied that there was no money inside though.

WELL NO!!!! I'm not on loads of money a week !!

OK i know that she didn't have to grovel but a thanks it was nice of you to make it for me would have been nice, ARGHHH family!!!

Oh and after reading Sallys blog and saw that she had changed it( like the design you chose too) i stupidly clicked on the link now i have been sat looking for a new design, ( I get bored easily and since I cant change my man might as well change the look of this, so you have been warned it will change a bit over the months lol)

Not too sure of it but this template take widgets so I might have a go at it( then again it might be back to how it was yesterday in a bit lol)

Engagement Card Finished (in two nights)

This is the card I made for my sisters engagement, I made a cock up of it when you look at the glass at the back you can see that the top of the glass is too wide but since I made it with an hour to spare before her party and I still had to get ready I had no choice but to leave it.

She hasn't opened any of her cards yet, so no idea of she likes it or not, she had better do though, as I still haven't started on any Fathers Day cards yet and when I went to Asda today it was only when I noticed the date that I realised that its next weekend, I thought I had another fortnight to go. So yet again everything that I am stitching at the moment has to go on hold to get everything done!!

Going to get all my ironing done now and then clean the swimming pool out ready for the anticipated hot weather we were told we would get today, just been outside though and its bloody cold and not a sign of the sun, theres no way I'm going in the pool if its cold outside. Mind you it takes about 4 hours to fill it up, so it might warm up then.

Hopefully then if I get everything done today I can sit down and catch up with reading the blogs and answering email to everyone in the morning.

Coaster Exchange Reveal

Well I can finally reveal the coaster exchange pics.

On the coaster that I did to send to Nicola I used Margaret Sherry's Dandelion Clock pattern, then put Nicola's initial on.

I was a bit worried as my hubby posted it for me and just used ordinary post instead of recorded. Its like talking to a brick wall I don't know ho many times I told him, should have done it myself, bloody men!!

On Wednesday I got my coaster from Cassie. Its the first exchange that I have done so it was really nice to get something in the post, that was not a bill.




So thanks Cassie I love it. I have now signed up for another one of Cassie's exchanges and two more besides. think I will have to get these done now before I am stitching 24/7 to get everything done! lol

Back from the Holiday and so much to do

Well I have just come back from a weeks holiday and I have so much washing and ironing to do its unbelievable, How can you go through so many clothes in one week!!??!!
To make matters worse the bloody washing machine has broke down, so I am having to take my washing to my mum-in-laws, no big deal since i live next door to her ( yes I know what your thinking as i keep thinking it myself!! lol), but i have to do it in between her own washing and she has also been on holiday and i can only do it when there in, so at this rate i will get it all done by the end of next week!!

The holiday was great, crap weather, until it was time to come home, like it normally is, and we didn't really do anything, went to see the local tourist spots, went to to see Pirates of the Caribbean , At World End, swooned at Johnny Depp( which he looks so much better in the film than he does in real life), and did some stitching.

First I Stitched the Lickle Ted chart that you got free with The World Of Cross Stitching magazine, for my daughters friend. She has just come over here to live from Thailand so even though shes not having a party Nicole thought it would be nice to give her something.

Then I started my motherhood QS, can just make out the womans face now, but unfortunately that will have to take a back seat for now since I have a Friendship card to make ( what the hell do i stitch for that?) and my sisters engagement card to do for this Friday, yes I know I left it a bit late, so hopefully I will get back on track with it by the end of next week ( ok probably not know i have said that lol)

God I hate coming back form holiday its just so hard work lol

Happy Dance Chorus Line Finished!!!!!

Wow I have finally finished the Chorus Line. I started this last November, then I lost my stitching bug, when I finally got it back I was so sick off seeing it in the drawer that I put it away. I made myself finish it though before I start QS MotherHood, which will be my first HAED.

It was really strange when I picked up the Chorus Line again, since I had been stitching on 28ct evenweave, one over one, and then when I went back onto stitching on 14ct Aida it felt like I was stitching on Binca.

The backstitch was a real pain in the arse, as I am not a fan of backstitch, it takes me ages to do, and even though I wanted to get it done by Tuesday I didn't finish it till Thursday. That will teach me to say that I am going to finish something on a certain day, It never goes to plan in my house.

Just got to get it framed now and hubby says that I will have to paint the kitchen now since the picture I am replacing it with is a different size and it will show the muck, cheeky sod!!! lol

I also got the ipod that I have wanted since it came out ( well the nano version anyway)
its a present from my dad to me for all the running about I do for him,taking him shopping, hospital, bank etc, he cant drive and has emphysema ( you wouldn't believe how many times I have tried to spell that before I got it right) but he still smokes like a bloody chimney!!
He bought me the hot pink version since my daughter has the silver one so we wouldn't fall out when they got mixed up lol

So I'm of to see what music i can download onto it, then at least I can listen to my stuff( and not Kelly Clarkson and Girls Aloud- which the girls have on constantly!!), might have a go at putting a podcast on it too, since I missed The Apprentice this week(arghhhh I have just seen who got fired this week when I went to put the link for it on here, oh crap!!)

Update on the Chorus Line

Just a quick update on the Chorus Line that i decided to finish on Friday night, before i start a bookmark for the latest exchange that i have signed up for.
the first picture shows how much I got done Friday night and the last is what I have done so far.

I have just got to finish the branch then start the dreaded back stitch, hopefully I will finish it for
tomorrow night

Not a great picture as I tried to use the scanner this time and see what difference it made.

Madeleine McCann

At the top of my blog I have put a link for the blog that they are running for any information on the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

The aim of the campaign is to raise awareness of Madeleine's plight across Europe, as their are countries where her disappearance has not been covered by local media.

If you click on the link it will give you a link you can put on your blog for people to see.

This is every parents nightmare, and even spreading the word on a blog may help, as every effort no matter how small must be made!

If you go the the sky news web page they have also put a poster up of Madeleine showing an abnormality with her right eye, so if the abductors change the colour of her hair it will still be possible to identify her.

My First HAED (s)

I have just bought my first HAED, so my fingers are itching to get started. The fabric has just arrived with my kreiniks that I bought off eBay. ( I really need to find a cheaper source )

OK to be truthful, I have bought another Head both by Selina Fenech, and both are Mermaids. My Hubby says I am obsessed with them.

Hmmm free and not having to put up with nagging men, yep!! ( what you bet that mermen are the same - he has just walked past seen what I wrote and his comment was " You do realise they don't exist?" Some people have no sense off humor! , Sorry Dear lol)
Anyway I know the Motherhood is a QS, so I might do that one first before I start the Mermaid Series, just to make sure I have not bought more than I can chew. ( besides I still haven't got all the threads for the Mermaid Series, so decision made. Good job really because it would have took me ages to decide, as I love them both. I would have needed up having to go letting the kids decide and that could have turned into another battle.

I have also bought The Gift Of Stitching Magazine, since I have heard rave reviews about it. God all this stuff I keep buying, I need to pack my job in and go and stitch full time to get anywhere near half the stuff done that I want to stitch.

On the coaster front, the bloody thing still hasn't arrived so I emailed the woman and she said they couldn't track it so I would have to wait another two days to receive another. I wish it would hurry up, because I also bought some thread Heaven, and I am not stitching no more on the blackwork sampler until I have some, as it is really annoying to stitch with them light effects threads, oh you live and learn.

First Exchange Finished

I have just finished stitching my coaster that I am doing for an exchange. I will put the picture of it on when I have sent it out.

We had to put the other persons initial on it as well as anything else that we thought off.

I stitched it on 28ct Linen, and its the first time I have stitched on 28ct, It was OK but I was doing it one over one, so I could fit all of the design onto it, so it was hard going stitching on it when the light was fading.

By night I couldn't see it properly ( i really must get a day light bulb and a lamp for it, but the ones you can buy wouldn't go down too well with the hubby if I bought one for the room).

I had to improvise the design a bit and change a colour as it was supposed to be stitched with 2 strands blended so I just chose another colour.

Hope the other person likeS what i have done. I am just waiting for the coaster for it that I bought off eBay for it. I paid for it over 9 days ago now and still no joy if its not here by Wednesday I will have to email her.

It is my first exchange and I have signed up for my first RR too on the Cross-Stitching Forum
I have been told that they can get addicted, it will be nice to get something in the post apart from bloody bills.


I went to see WILD HOGS THE MOVIE this weekend. It was hubby's birthday (35- the old git lol) and my sister bought him a couple of cinema tickets so he chose to see that, I didn't think I would like it but i really enjoyed it. I was great to see the new trailers too, Shrek The Third, Pirates of the Caribbean - At Worlds End, Die Hard 4 !! Cant wait to see them!!!

My Latest Pottery Finishes.

Well i have finally brought home some of my things that I made in my pottery class. I have only been going for 7 weeks so I am not that good yet, as I am just playing with it. Some people who have been there a couple of years have made some really good things that you would pay money for. The bowl was made in my first lesson and we just had to get the feel of the clay and play about, so its pretty crap really, might do as an ashtray lol

The sunflower, well thats what its suppoeed to be lol, was fun to do .It was like being back at school, although I didn't get it as neat as I would have liked

I ran out of time, and the week after when i went I had forgot to spray it with water to keep it moist, so it was too hard to play about with it ( I have learn't my lesson not to that again!)

But painting the colours onto it was a real pain.

You would think they would look like the colours as they do now, but no. The Yellows looked nothing like it, and orange was a kind of pinky colour, so I had no idea what they would look like when it was glazed and fired again, which is kind of annoying, at least when your stitching you know what colours your using.

With my last piece that I did, the vase. It was supposed to be a lot thinner than it has turned out, but that the thing with the clay, you have to let it go where it wants to. Its not just a piece of clay wrapped around neither.


I have made it from coils that looked like sausages all piled up on top of each other. Then I had to smooth it out with my thumb, i have spent many a hour smoothing it all out, but to say its my first real piece I was really happy with it.

Although for some strange reason the colour inside the vase has gone a different colour than what it is outside. No idea why that has happened.

Mystery Sampler Not Going Well

I have been so busy what with gardening, and housework and all the kids ( you know pick them up from here, take them somewhere thats never near) that I have not done a lot of stitching which is really annoying me know as I have loads that I want to get done.
On Saturday Nicole had a birthday party to go to and since it was at the other side of town I decided to wait there, ( there was a football match on and the traffic was horrendous!) and take my stitching. This way I would get some peace and quiet and be able to get going. We arrived a couple of minutes late which was not bad considering the traffic and the police kept blocking the roads. So I took Nicole and got in the car, and i could have screamed. I had left my bag ( I use the DMC Travel bag) on the kitchen table. So I waited there ( I didn't take any money so I couldn't even buy a magazine) and began counting all the cars that went past ( yes i was that bored) and then played on my phone until it died its death. ( I forgot to charge it up)

By the end of the two hours I was really peeved. I did contemplate on going home and fetching my stuff but by the time I would have got back she would have been coming out. I won't do that again in a hurry!!lol

I have been doing a bit of stitching from the Martina Wiehenburg Mystery Sampler, and so far its not going as well as I would have liked. Its my first real project on Blackwork so I decided to use Aida for it and I now wish I hadn't used the Light Effects Threads. they take so long to do and are always knotting up. I have bought some Thread Heaven to see if this will help, but at the moment it is making stitching really slow.

We will be getting the last page of this soon and I am still not anyway near half finished. The piece that is unfinished in the photo has took my nearly two nights to do, so I will be glad when I can change onto another block!!

Some people on this group have posted some pieces that are nearly finshed and they have used linen and hand dyed fabics which look really good, but Im glad that I choose Aida for this, even though its not as nice. I think I may well have given up on it if not!