I need that holiday NOW!

Evening all - just a quick note in between ironing (ugh:(( ) and packing for our cruise.

I am really glad to see the end of this week. A few weeks ago we had to replace the lock on our garage door as I broke it when trying to open it. On Thursday this week we went out - and some b*****d had tried to break into it! They had broken off something in the lock which meant we couldn't open it with a key and had to call out a service engineer/locksmith. Needless to say they didn't have a spare lock in stock - one should be arriving on Monday! Guess when we drive to the airport hotel?? Monday!! Luckily we are staying there before flying out the next day, so it doesn't matter if we get there late.

Last night our cable TV, broadband and home phone went dead just before 10pm. We headed off to bed and read a bit more of our books. This morning it was still off! So after a variety of phone calls we eventually discovered that it was a district fault (not just us thank heavens) and the tv came back about 1pm and the internet about 3.30pm. But we still have no home phone. Luckily we both have mobiles, so we're not completely isolated! But guess when they are coming to investigate?? Yep! Monday afternoon!!!

All I can say is that I will be glad to lock the door behind us on Monday night. Surely nothing else can go wrong between now and then?

Oh no! Now my daughter wants me to make Minnie Mouse ears for Jessica to go to a fancy dress birthday party before we go!! I was hoping to finish a dress that I'd cut out and not even started to sew for me - but if I hunt around I might be able to find some black felt?? Wish me luck!

Anyway, dinner calls, and I doubt that I'll get time to post what I've been working on this week, so I'm signing off for now - be back on March 16th from Singapore, so check back then?

Love
Sandie

A PROPER finish!

Well, I've finally made it - my christmas stocking is well and truly FINISHED!!!

I put the last stitch into the actual cross stitch in September, and it's taken me this long to figure out how I was going to make it up. It's completely lined with the same fabric (pale blue) and I put in some wadding so that it's quite nice and "squishy" too.

We are going to collect Erika and Jessica on Friday morning to bring them to our house overnight. One of Erika's best friends lives nearby and she is celebrating her 30th birthday. Her husband has arranged a surprise party for her, so Erika is coming down for that. On Saturday Tony will be coming down to collect them and take them home, so we'll only have to make the trip once. But while they're here I think I'll give the stocking to them so that they don't go buying one for her nearer to Christmas. It also means I might get a nice photo of her with it! Grandma perks eh?

I think that at the moment it's almost as big as she is!



So as this is the first time she's been here since she's been crawling, I'd better get moving and clear the decks of anything she's likely to try and get into! Been a long time since a "crawler" has been here so it might take a while!

Good luck everyone for YOUR finishings!
Sandie

Christmas comes early - again!

This week has had a bit of an explosive nature! Yesterday (after we got our weekly shop) I put a potato in the microwave for lunch. I turned round and a few seconds later I heard a change in the usual noise it made, so I looked back - and there were FLAMES coming from the internal wall!!! I immediately turned it off, and after waiting for it to cool down I opened the door to discover a hole in the wall of the oven! After cleaning it, I tried again, but the same thing happened. So we had to go out again in order to purchase another one! We've recently replaced our kettle, now this - I wonder what the third item will be? I just keep thinking what might have happened if I'd left the kitchen and gone upstairs or something?

Earlier in the year, I entered a competition online to win an extreme knitting kit - something I've never tried, but wanted to. Weeks went by and I hadn't heard anything, so I assumed it had gone to someone else. But the other day I had an email to say that the original person didn't meet the requirement (to live in the UK!), and I was the runner-up. I expected a small package, but instead this ENORMOUS box turned up! These were all inside! The plastic bags at the back contain 2 more kits to make the knitted bags (2 already made up). There's a scarf (made up) and a cushion pack so I can see my knitting skills are going to be challenged even further.

I started knitting years ago, I even have a knitting machine in our shed but the size of these needles has to be a challenge to manipulate! I'll have to finish the couple of mini projects I have started already otherwise I'll be very confused when I pick up one or the other! I've just finished a jacket for Jess knitted from an Elizabeth Zimmerman pattern (look her up if you don't know her work - it's fantastic and so simple to make the pattern fit the size you want - she explains how to alter a jacket to fit a baby, child or adult!)

My cross stitch hit a bit of a brick wall too recently. So much so that I've joined an on-line SAL! I've always resisted before, thinking that I don't like to be told what I'm stitching and when! But this is TOTALLY different! Measi's Musings is having a stitch along with a difference -

• After years of involving myself in round robins and being so overloaded by projects I was committed to do, I’m committing myself to a year of project stripping before the world is supposed to end – my own little Works-in-Progress Apocalypse (or… WIPocalypse for short). The feedback I received when I made my first post was quite encouraging, so instead of a solitary thing,I’m now starting a stitch-a-long for the idea!

So later on this month I will make a list of the projects I'm hoping to clear-up next year, and will be making regular updates on my progress (or lack of it!).

Meantime the progress on my Flower Fairy (for the quilt) and my Egyptian piece have both been slow. So slow that there's not really a point in putting up a photo. Maybe by next week I'll have more progress to show. And I've just bought the fabric for the christmas stocking - so look out for progress on that soon too.

November has always been a busy month for birthdays in our house, so I've been spending a couple of afternoons making cards for them. I've got up to the beginning of December, but I'm going to have to keep making a few more - then of course there's the christmas cards to get moving on!

Today is my daughter's 33rd birthday - I just wish her all the love and luck in the world.

In the meantime the nights are drawing in, the evenings are getting colder and I'm going to have to find my daylight bulb to put back in the lamp so that I can carry on sewing.

I hope your week has been less eventful than mine, and hope you'll keep sewing.
love
Sandie

My letter in Cross Stitch Crazy

Got my copy of Cross Stitch Crazy today (issue 149). And my letter and picture of GD's birth sampler are in it!

It's not a brilliant picture of the mag, but you can see the sampler and the letter is above it. Have to scan it and keep a copy of it for when I do her scrapbook for her first birthday.

It's been cold and very wet here today, so tomorrow I think it's curl up and stitch time!

A GREAT week this time!

Hi all
On Thursday this week I heard that I've won £120 of DoCrafts goodies in a prize draw. They were posted out yesterday, so when they get here I'll post a picture of them all.
Then on Friday I had a phone call from QVC. I've had an on-going battle/discussion about my Slice die-cutter which is 18months old and had developed a fault with the card reader. When I contacted Making Memories (the manufacturer) they told me I'd have to pack it up, send it to US and pay for them to investigate if there was a fault before they'd tell me if it could be repaired. As it was out of their warranty I was prepared for it in some way, but wasn't too keen on the costs involved in shipping it to the US but they didn't have a way to investigate the problem here in the UK! When I contacted QVC, they contacted their distributor, and QVC have agreed not only that they will take it up with Making Memories, but they are sending me a BRAND NEW machine (complete with a hands free kit) at the original price!
Maybe I should go out an buy a lottery ticket today too!
My egyptian piece is coming on; I've been working on it slowly this week.

And then I finished this cute topper for a card - my first 2011 finish!



Hope everyone else has a good week
Sandie