A week goes by...

..and I didn't get much stitching time! For the last week my good friend Annia was staying - we are co-editing an archaeology book on late Anglo-Saxon cemeteries - so we were busy busy busy! We had great fun, survived on the great combination of tea, chocolate and curry, and actually did a lot of work! Because I barely picked up a needle all week, I don't have any stitchy photos to share, so instead here's some photos of a field trip we did to Undercliffe cemetery in Bradford with some of our students (Annia also gave a lecture on post-medieval funerary archaeology while she was here):


Don't blink!





Quaker graves in the foreground



Don't let the stunning blue sky fool you - it was perishing, we narrowly missed a few hail storms...

Tomorrow I fly to Chicago for an anthropology conference, next Saturday I pop down to see Phil, Amanda and Jack in St Peters Missouri, and I get back on Tuesday. I've packed pretty much everything, I just need to select a travelling project... see you all later!

Stitching progress...

Except not on what I was planning on focusing on for March! I am absolutely loving Mira's Waiting for Ships, I don't seem to be able to put it down. This is where I'm up to:



I'd have lots more done, but I don't have that Kreinik yet, so there are lots of gaps! I had planned to 'stitch a little' on this in March - oh well, progress is progress!

I have dome a little on Fantasy Triptych:



I am sure you can all see the difference the bs has made to the centre panel??? Hmm, it's more obvious IRL. I've also started the border. Given there is more border at the top that the bottom,with all of the wood tracery, I think this is probably about 1/4 of the way done. I'm hoping to make more progress with this over the weekend.

I have been going to Louise's to make lace on Thursdays, and that is progressing well (sorry, no photo, but it's just a turquoise blob at present), but I won't be able to make another Thursday this month. I've not touched any other goals yet... Hmmm, they are made to be broken aren't they???

Busy weekend!

wow, this weekend has flown by! Friday night I travelled down to Nottingham and stayed in the flat with Ed. On Saturday he had to work, so I popped over to see my folks - mum is doing amazingly after her knee op. I can tell she's going to be up and about and up to trouble in no time!! I'm also pretty impressed that she's sticking to doctor's orders re: resting and physio exercises. She was busy watching one of my DVDs when I arrived - the latest Jane Eyre by the BBC. I really enjoyed watching the not-quite-a-wedding scene with her!

Later that afternoon I drove back to Nottingham, picked Ed up and we went down to Birmingham to see his folks. Sadly his Dad is getting worse, it's really heartbreaking. There's so little we can do to help. But we had an enjoyable evening watching TV as a family and just chatting - although with Paul it's mostly nonsense. He gets really annoyed if we can't understand him, and recently we've learnt that nodding and saying yes when he's muddled is often the easiest, and nicest way of dealing with the dementia.

We went back to Nottingham Sunday lunchtime, then I came back up to Leeds, and immediately hit the gym. It was a good workout but I wasn't feeling as motivated as on Thursday. I'm hoping to get to the gym 4 times this week - we'll see how that goes!

Anyway, I did a little stitching on Waiting for Ships over the weekend. It looks so odd without the BF, but I'm determined to wait a month and get it while I'm in the States - it will be so much cheaper!



I also took a photo of Fantasy Triptych this morning. I've not stitched on it so far this month, but hopefully I'll pick it up tonight for TW Monday. I'm hosting a stitch and bitch here tonight, so it'll depend on how mad the house feels.. the BSing I have to do looks a little tricky!



I picked Birth Band up from the framers this weekend too - I had to pop by twice as there was some fluff behind the glass, but they sorted it quickly. I was really happy with the combination of mount and frame - they suited the colours perfectly. Irritatingly it was a little dark when I took the photo which didn't do the colours full justice:



Happy stitching everyone

Spring?

Last week it was really lovely and warm, spring was clearly in the air... And now it's freezing. Come on mother nature, get a wiggle on! I want sunshine, not snow and sleet and cold!! Anyway, I thought I'd share these seasonal photos from my garden:


snowdrops


sunset

I'm sticking with going to the gym, but not making it as often as I'd like. Today I did my weekly weigh in (I just use the scales in the gym on a Thursday, nothing formal!) and was delighted to see it was moving in the right direction. I can't remember exactly how much I weighed when I started, mostly because of the blip where I put on weight to begin with, but I'm at least 1.5 kilos lighter. I'm really pleased and it spurred me on to have an extra hard workout today! Anyway, many thanks for the kind words of support - this will be a long journey for me!

Change of plans...

In the end I didn't go to my parents last night, I'm going shortly. The plan was for Eddy and I to stay in the flat in Nottingham last night, then go over to my folks today, but Eddy's flu came back with a vengence and I was tired after work - so I stayed at home overnight, and really enjoyed the extra stitching time - I didn't go. to bed until 1am!

Here's a photo of Waiting for Ships (I did a little more this morning):

A big difference from the photo I took for this post. I don't think I'd picked it up in between either!! Irritatingly I seem to have lost 2 spools of Krenik Braid. I'm sure this was fully kitted up, but can I find any 829 ~8 braid anywhere in the house??? If I'd not ordered Jane's wedding sampler already I could have just added it to the order, but I did that on Thursday and I'm loathe to pay postage again. Grrr.

I also took a photo of my new lace project, sea monster. As you can see it's quite small. Yes, those are pin heads. This is after 2 evenings work, although both were a little less productive than some!


Right, better head off to the car...

March goals

I've been so busy the last few weeks I've hardly had time to post. Mostly work unfortunately! I'm away again this weekend, so thought I'd post my goals in good time. Mum had her knee replaced on Monday, so I'm off to visit her - it's also her birthday on Saturday. She's doing really well and will be coming home tomorrow - she's doing so well she's taken the doctors by suprise - she was fit enough to come home today, but all the paperwork wasn't in order! We really expected her to come out on Monday, although we did know if she did well she'd be out tomorrow. I'm so pleased she's getting around so well, and proud of her ability to do all her physio exercises to levels that exceed expectation!

Yesterday I was in Reading for a meeting, but took the opportunity to see my good friend Jane and meet her baby, Molly Emma, for the first time. Jane's cat is also called Molly, I wonder when they'll let her know she was named after the cat... Anyway, we laughed over the idiocy of my plans for the Las Vegas picture - I took along all that I'd done, plus the 8 pages of chart. Seriously, I do wonder about my sanity some days... Anyway we picked out a different wedding sampler, Wedding Day in the Elliot and Buttons range by Anchor. I ordered it today, and hope to start next week.

Today I hit the gym in earnest (thanks for asking Dani!), I needed to work of the cake consumed yesterday! I did just over an hour in the gym, then went for a short, relaxing swim and enjoyed the steam room and Jacuzzi too. Sadly this left me ravenous, I seem to have eaten all day. Hopefully not too badly - there was lots of veggies and fruit in there! I'm not getting to the gym as much as I would like at the moment - work keeps getting in the way, and I've also been away most weekends. My plan is to swim tomorrow morning and have a proper workout on Sunday when I get home - which will be a total of 2 swims and 2 gym visits this week, and a vast improvement on last week when I only made it in once! I was a little lighter when I weighed myself today... but given what I've eaten this week I suspect it won't stay off. On Monday Chrissie asked me if I'd lost weight, so maybe I've toned up? (unless I'd chosen to wear especially flattering clothes that day!)

Anyway, goals. This is my recap for Feb:
1) finish the centre panel on FT - done the xs, will tackle to bs on Monday
2) finish birth band - yes
3) finish ornie and start another small - yes, started and finished J'taime
4) work on Waiting for Ships - not yet but taking it away for the weekend.
5) work on Peacock Firescreen - a little tonight
6) start new lace project - yes, I must take a photo...
7) pick out a new wedding sampler for Jane - yes, we chose this one

That's pretty impressive, as the list was ambitious to say the least! I also worked on Eeyore's problem a little.

March goals:
1) bs centre panel and do xs of border on FT
2) continue with my lace
3) start Elliot and Buttons Wedding Day, and make good progress
4) sort out chart for birth sampler for Jamie's son, possibly kit up
5) stitch a little of waiting for ships
6) stitch a little of Peacock firescreen
7) stitch a little of Eeyore's problem

Treats!

I forgot to share a photo of this lovely tape measure which my mum bought me when we were shopping last weekend. It's from Monsoon, home of all things lovey (and expensive...)



Thank you mum!!

Today I had a lovely treat too. When I joined the gym I got a voucher for 50% off at the beauty salon. I decided against using it for something dull and treated myself to a half price back massage this afternoon. When I got there, they had had a cancellation for a body scrub, and not wanting to waste the ready-prepped scrub, I was treated to a free salt scrub on my back - lovely!! I now feel wonderfully chilled out and relaxed, so am off to find a DVD that suits my mood - very lighthearted. The Princess Bride is winning at the moment...