Waiting for ships...

I had a lovely quiet weekend. Did some errands, watched Eddy make blackberry jam (all I did to help was wipe up afterwards!), ate lovely food, much from the garden, and stitched.

Mostly I stitched to Lord of the Rings. I didn't quite make it through all 3 extended movies in a weekend (a secret goal) as at 11.15 last night I decided to give up and go to bed. So I've got about 1/2 hour of Return of the King to watch tonight. I would have managed it, but Eddy and I thought we ought to watch 'Gran Torino' which was the latest lovefilm DVD to hit the doormat....

Anyway, with all that move watching, I had some serious stitching time. I was hoping to finish all the xs and bs on waiting for ships sometime this month... but I did it yesterday...



Then I started the beading. I've had my eye on some John James needles for a while, and was waiting for my last credit card bill to be issued before buying any... this morning I put in a humongous needle order (hey, it's free P&P if you spend £10...) mostly because they get recommended so highly but also because I really like the sound of short beading needles. Especially given WFS uses 6 packs of petite beads....

August stitching, September goals

Well, it's quite a while since I last posted. I've been away twice, to Hampshire (pics and funny stories in a later post) and for a wonderful day at Champney's Spa with Eddy's mum - as a treat for looking after Paul, who has demetia. I have to say I take the 'job' of having to drive Margaret to fun days out very seriously indeed!! Our next planned treat is the Harrogate knitting and stitching show in November.

Anyway, other than that I've been exceedingly busy at work. I'm never, ever organising a conference again. Especially not when trying to finish editing a book (amongst other things). Ususally us academics get a break from teaching (not a holiday!) in the summer, and a chance to catch up on research and admin... well not for me this year!! My stitching time has taken a serious hit, and I've really not followed my goals, just stitched what I wanted, when (if?) I felt like it.. as a consequence I only met one of my (very modest) August goals:

1) finish you were hatched - nope
2) work on waiting for ships - yes
3) work on fantasy triptych - nada

On the plus side, WFS has seen some serious stitching recently:



So, goals for September.. I need to be careful here, as I don't expect this month to be much better

1) finish you were hatched (I should manage it, there's not much to go other than BS and the dedication)
2) work on waiting for ships. I'd like to finish the bs, but we'll see
3) start a birth sampler for Hugh, who was born on the 20th August
4) stitch on something else

and a non-stitchy goal:
5) blog more than twice this month (I'm already half way :))

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!

Edinburgh

I had fun in Edinburgh, although had a few snags here and there! Work went smoothly, analysed a very, very interesting skeleton, which I hope to do more work on in the future... I had a migraine on Friday though, which really wasn't fun. I felt really nauseous, was 3 flights of stairs away from the nearest loo, and really needed to get lots of work done. The museum staff were wonderful though, and although we were kicked out of the store at 1pm (it closes early on a Friday) I got lots of useful stuff done.

On Thursday the archaeology store closed at 4, so I went for a wander. Sadly the LNS was closed when I got there at about 5pm, so no new stash (thank goodness says the visa card), but I had fun walking about and got a few nice photos:


The Royal Mile, with the Firth of Forth visible in the distance


Edinburgh Castle (from the back!)


These stands are for the Edinburgh Tattoo, but they reminded me of a Quidditch tournament...

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!

It's nearly August? Seriously?

Hmmm, maybe August will offer us better weather...

I'm also astonished to realise I never set goals at the beginning of the month, so I'll do that for August now. First, did I manage my June goals over the last 2 months?

1) finish Elliot and Buttons Wedding Day yes!
2) do the finishing on my Top Secret Project Finished this on Monday
3) work on FT yes, knight panel coming on nicely
4) work on at least one more WIP yes, WFS has had a lot of attention
5) work on at least one of my lace projects a little bit, but not much in 2 months!
6) maybe a new start? yes, you were hatched

Maybe I should set monthly goals and review them after 2 months more often!!

As you can see, I finally did the finishing on my top secret project. I finished it as a pin keep, and it was the first time I tried it. I am blown away by the results... I'll share a picture as soon as I've shown Eddy, posted it, and got notice that it's been received... by someone who reads this blog! I was so pleased with the results I really wanted to keep it, it's a good job they are really special friends!

I'm off to Edinburgh for 2 days tomorrow. Sadly for work, not pleasure, but I've just been told that the Museum store I'll be working in closes at 4pm. Soooo, what does a girl do on a late Thursday afternoon???? Yup, after a quick google search I found a needlework shop in central Edinburgh, and best of all it's just down the road from my hotel. This will allow me to pick up the missing DMC I need for YWH (he looks odd with gaps in), and have a good browse. I really hope they don't have half-day closing on a Thursday...

I come back Friday evening, then it's off to Birmingham to see some friends and Eddy's family for the weekend... it'll be a whirlwind!

Anyway, I need to set goals for August. Given work is AWFUL this summer (I left at 8pm last night, and worryingly this is gettign to be an all too frequent occurence), I'll keep it short and sweet:

1) finish you were hatched
2) work on waiting for ships
3) work on fantasy triptych

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