Still here!!!

I am still here, just rushed off my feet! I've been meaning to post for over a week, and even took photos ready to share, but just didn't find the time. Work has been busy (it always is!), but this semester I'm also busy advising an archaeological excavation - which means a long day once a week driving to site (2.5-3 hours), advising, excavating (if I get chance) and having meetings before driving home - 13-15 hour days, which do leave me a little tired for a few days afterwards. Not that I'm complaining - it's years since I've worked on an excavation, and I am loving it!!

The other thing that's kept me busy is planning our trip to the US in April. Yesterday I finally got our flights booked (and from our local airport at a not too bad price, which is unusual - usually I have to drive to Manchester). The bad news is a 6am departure, which means we should be at the airport by about 3am... thank goodness it's only 15 mins away! My conference is in Albuquerque, and this seemed a good opportunity for a road trip to see some of the SW. So we are flying to Vegas, visiting the Grand Canyon, Mountain Valley and the Mesa Verde, then Santa Fe and Albuquerque. Ed's coming along for a 2 1/5 week holiday... hopefully he'll find things to do in Albuquerque while I'm working. Any tips on places to visit (and needlework shops especially) gratefully received!!!

I also joined weight watchers. 2 weeks in (I weigh in on Mondays). I lost 3.5 lbs last week, and now my (admittedly always baggy jeans) are so loose I can take them off without undoing them. I don't think they are decent enough for anywhere other than in the house now!! Hopefully my smaller jeans will start to fit soon - most now do up, but are a little snug!

Anyway, with all that going on I've not done a huge amount of stitching, but I have done more than these photos, which I think I took last Saturday:


Fantasy Triptych - I've been working on the background today, and will go back to it as soon as I have posted this


Postman Pat - worked on this during the week (a little) - he has a face now!

In my last post I said I'd share my latest 2 framed projects:

Elliot and Buttons Wedding Day - for Jane and Keith. I really love the way the 'aged' silver frame sets this off


You were hatched birth sampler for Jamie and Matt - again I'm delighted with the framing job

I'll take new photos of FT and PP when it's light - I forgot today. But they are coming along brilliantly. Neither will be as far along as I hoped at the end of the month (ie bedtime!), but both are much further along than at the start.

Happy Dance!!!

Just a quick post to share my Happy Dance! - this birth sampler is based on 'you were hatched', with a little bit of 'needle guardian' thrown in for the personalisation:



A huge thank you to Lindsay, who very generously gave me the chart for you were hatched, and the necessary skein of dinky dies.

I tried out the new John James needles, and loved them. But I'm too tired/busy for beading, so didn't get very much further with Waiting for Ships. Anglea asked which fabric I am using. WFS is stitched on PTP's 'fathom' cashel linen - I saw the fabric while in the States a few years ago, fell in love, bought it then hunted down the 'right' mermaid pattern. It just yelled 'mermaid' at me the moment I saw it... I was actually looking for something to stitch Dracolair's Phoenix on at the time!

I've pulled out Barbara Thompson's Peacock Firescreen again, as I wanted something easy to stitch during my conference (1 day to go.... only 140 delegates. Hopefully I didn't forget anything???).

Summer stitching, summer gardens

I can't believe it's 2 1/2 weeks since I last posted! Well I can, I've been very busy, but all the same...

Thankfully it's not just work that has kept me occupied, I've also taken some leave - it's proving pretty difficult squeezing my holidays in to a busy summer, but if I don't take them before term starts in late September I'll probably lose them! So I've been working long hours to be able to fit the holidays in!

I've also found some time for stitching, but not as much as I would have liked. I usually stitch every day, but there's been a few recently where my bum has hit the sofa and I've barely had the energy to channel hop...

Anyway, I took these pics before my last break, in the hopes I'd have chance to share them before I went away:




I've actually done a little more on both since I took these - I took you were hatched away with me, and spent about an hour or so working on the border one evening. I picked up waiting for ships again last night, and have had some quality stitching time today, listening to the test match (I'm still in shock that we got so many runs...) - cricket for the non-Brits out there! I'm hoping to hare another progress pic tomorrow, when I've got a little more done.

As for August travels... the weekend after I went to Edinburgh Eddy and I decided to take the Friday off work, and visit RHS Harlow Carr, just outside Harrogate. Given how much we love gardening it's a bit shocking we'd not been, given we've been living 45 mins away from Harrogate for 5 years! Here are some photos:









We had lunch at Betty's (very traditional English tea shop with excellent cakes), had a good meander, and on a whim bought another apple tree when we left... not that we know where to plant it yet. It's in a very big pot getting lots of water for the time being! When we went apple tree shopping at Easter we really wanted a bramley apple, but having a small garden we wanted M27 (dwarf) root stock. After lots of searching we read in a book that you don't get M27 bramleys, so got another apple tree instead (bountiful - another cooker, but a little sweeter, apparently). Anyway, we should have known that the Royal Horticultural Society would have M27 bramleys... and there it was with 20% off. Sadly we had to pick the smallest tree (we only have a small car) and it was the only one without apples on, so we'll have to wait until next year to get fruit!!

We've been eating lots of veggies out of the garden recently - potatoes, onions, carrots, broccoli, artichokes and green beans have all done brilliantly. The peas didn't produce much, and we got tomato blight. We have picked the unaffected green tomotoes and plan on making a chutney, using my friend's 'not mango chutney' recepie. My rose garden has been looking fabulous too, this photo was taken a couple of months ago, I don't have a recent one as I only ever think of taking a photo just after I've dead-headed and there aren't many blooms!



Happy stitching!

Quick photo

I managed to leave work earlier tonight - before 7!!! So once I'd got my things straight for the early start tomorrow, I settled down in front of Enigma (the movie) to stitch before heading to bed. I love stitching to Enigma, as it has a great soundtrack, and is a film you can follow easily without watching!!

Anyway, I just wanted to share this photo of you were hatched before I go to Edinburgh:



They're coming along for the journey, hopefully I'll be able to fill in the gaps, if my planned shopping trip works out!

How does your garden grow???

Well, with all the rain we've had recently, very well indeed!! Here are some photos of our veggie garden. If you remember we only built the raised beds at Easter:


The raised beds...


Front to back: potatoes, carrots, parsnips, fennel and purple sprouting broccoli


Artichokes.. I counted 30 heads today, but some are smaller than my finger nail!

We are eating our favourite artichoke dish - artichokes and peas (it sounds better in Greek) for tea tonight, the first of the artichoke harvest. Sadly we've not grown enough peas!

Life has been very busy over the last few weeks, especially at work. Last weekend my old school friend, Leanne, came to stay. Given we first met when we were five, it's amazing we still have stuff to talk about! We went shopping, had a lovely dinner cooked by Eddy, then the next day went to Harrogate - and had afternoon tea at Betty's. Yum!

This week I was in Norwhich for 2 days, then worked late Thursday, and last night I went out for Pizza and to see Harry Potter to celebrate Nivien's birthday... so I've not done much stitching. But last Sunday I did start You Were Hatched:



I'm missing a couple of colours (HOW????), but will buy them when my next credit card bill is issued!

Here's a photo of Waiting for Ships, which I was working on the week before:



Last time I posted a photo of her it was May!! I've made quite a bit of progress since then.

Happy stitching x

A Lovely Suprise!

Unusually, I was working from home today. I was very surprised when the postman rang the doorbell - I wasn't expecting anything. It was a large envelope from Lindsay of Caring Stitcher.

A while ago I was asking for ideas for a birth sampler with a TW dragon theme. Lindsay offered to lend me her copy of 'you were hatched'. I opened the envelope, and there it was, complete with a little note (lovely card - very pretty!) and the required dinky dyes 'Fantasy Blue'. The real surprise came when I read the notelet - Lindsay was GIVING, not lending, me the chart. I actually had to text her to make sure I'd got that bit right!!! Thank you Lindsay, for a very generous gift - you really made my week!



I was very tempted to start kitting up the project immediately, but like a good girl I finished the work I needed to do. Just before going over to Louise's I popped over to Patterns online to buy Needle Guardian (I need an appropriate alphabet, right). What do you know, the dragon scissor fob wandered into my basket too....

My school friend Leanne is staying this weekend, so tomorrow after work I need to clean. A LOT (it's been neglected)... maybe I'll be able to get started on Sunday!