Custard Anyone?

Thanks to Son we now have rather a lot of custard to eat, in fact we have that much to eat I think we'll need to buy a cow for all the milk we are going to need! Son is an Adult Instructor with the local Army Cadets, the idea that my son is an adult is a concept that I still struggle with but I digress!! Last weekend he was away on a training course and returned on Sunday with a 3.5 kg pack of custard powder, yes I got that right 3.5 kg. Guess I won't be buying any custard at Sainsburys for the next year or so.

The kitchens at the camp were closing that day for an upgrade and giving away all the food that they couldn't use and he grabbed a 'bag' of custard. Not sure how many years it will take us to use it up but if I was to make the whole bag up at once I would need 46.5 litres or 10 gallons and 2 pints of milk and 2.3 kg of sugar. Mind if you think that's bad one of his friends went home with 12 bags of the stuff in the boot if his car, apparently they eat an awful lot of custard in their house!!!

Sewing wise very little has been done during the last week as most of my time and energy has been spent getting the flyers out to promote Husband's business. Thankfully they have worked well and the leads, meetings and quotes are happening at a fantastic rate which is great news.

The other good news is that I have lost weight, not sure if it's the exercise or worrying about loosing the house that is doing it, I suspect the latter. I currently go from thinking everything will be alright to feeling really worried that we will loose the house etc, etc. The reality is that the business is starting to take off and Husband has jobs to apply for so no doubt everything will be OK but I just can't shake off the feeling that we could end up loosing everything. It doesn't help that Christmas is coming, a time of year that I absolutely love but this year I hate the fact that we are having to say to everyone, "Sorry no presents this year". For someone who hates shopping this is the one time of year I adore it as I love choosing and wrapping the gifts for my family and this year I just can't enjoy it as I'm just thinking of whom I'm not buying gifts etc for.

Needless to say my sewing mojo has also disappeared but I have managed to do a small amount of work on Love Songs. Aside from the flyering working on Love Songs is the only target from last week I managed to achieve so I shall roll most of them over to this week.


It felt strange to be working on aida after so much time spent working on linen but my eyes were grateful for the rest, especially as I was often shattered from the hours spent flyering.

Hopefully this week I'll feel a little more inspired and get on with the things that need doing such as starting my Christmas shopping and making my Christmas Puddings. The day I steam my puddings is normally the day I start wrapping my presents so I'd better go and buy some. Mind the turkey is already in the freezer as they were half price at Sainsburys last week so I grabbed one before they sold out!!

A Goals Catch Up & Flyering

Setting goals on a weekly basis is defiantly more successful than setting them by the month. That said I'm still too ambitious with how much I try to achieve so it's not surprising that I didn't do as much as I hoped. I also have to admit that when I made these goals I wasn't expecting to see Friday and Saturday become days spent flyering for Husband's business.

Swim - Twice a week (60 lengths) - Done
Gym - Go three times - Done
Walks - At least once a week - Done
Website - Post last 3 walks - No although I did get one walk posted
Love Songs - Work on it at least once -Yes, I worked on it for two evenings
Celtic Autumn SAL - Stitch on it at least once - Yes, worked on it for two evenings
Good Friend's Count SAL - Finish - No
Christmas Cards - Finish second one - No
Greenhouse - Clear out & clean - No

There will be fewer goals this week because most of my time is going to be spent flyering but as it has already produced several new leads I'm not complaining, although it was pretty miserable flyering yesterday in the rain by myself. Today in the sunshine and with Husband for company it was quite pleasant. Needless to say the goals aren't going to include many to do with getting fitter as the 3- 5 hours flyering each day are more than enough exercise, especially when you consider that where I live is essentially a collection of hills with lots of slopes and steps up to letterboxes.

Next weeks goals are:

Swim - One session of 60 lengths
Walking - Hopefully I'll be out walking on Friday
Flyering - Get them all out by the end of next weekend
Christmas Cards - Finish 2nd one
Love Songs - Stitch on it at least once
Celtic Autumn - Stitch on it at least once

I plan on doing some more work on Love Songs tonight, if I can keep my eyes open long enough, so I'll post some pictures tomorrow.

Blue Sky

With yesterday originally forecast as the only dry day of the week Husband and I headed for Milldale and ignored Dove Dale instead opting for a walk through Wolfscote Dale. We certainly picked the best day of the week and the right location as we enjoyed blue sky, the last of the autumn colours on the trees and a found a lunch-spot where the sun and shelter meant we were as warm as toast.

Reflections in the River Dove

Limestone caves at the entrance to Wolfscote Dale

Even better when we got home I was inspired enough to post all the pictures from the walk onto my website straight away, which is how it always used to be. Mind that did mean there was no stitching done yesterday and it's not looking good for today either as tonight is quiz night and this afternoon we will be starting to tackle getting rid of the 10,000 flyers Husband has ordered to help advertise his website design business.

Letters From America

I arrived back from the swimming pool this morning to find the mat covered in post and two of the letters were from America.

I entered a draw for some floss on Jennifer's site and was lucky enough to win some of her hand-dyed floss.

I haven't decided what I'm going to stitch with it yet but I suspect that it may well end up travelling back across the Atlantic as part of the thread I use for my PIF winner.

At the same time a postcard arrived from Daughter who spent last week in New York and yes her and her friend did plan the trip to coincide with the election. The text message I received at 5a.m. (GMT) last Wednesday from her just after Obama had been declared the President-Elect said that NY was insane. She is of course now home, or rather back at Uni in London, having visited the one place in the world she has always wanted to visit.

No stitching yesterday, Son occupied the living room in the afternoon to watch a film with a friend and then I was too shattered and in too much pain to want to sit and stitch during the evening. I have somehow managed to pull a muscle in my side which meant every time I moved my arm it was agony. I suspect it was caused by a combination of doing a different set of exercises at the gym and hoovering upstairs yesterday afternoon. As it only came on in the afternoon I reckon the hoovering must have aggravated it. Sadly as I managed 60 lengths in the pool this morning I can't use that as an excuse to get out of cleaning downstairs so I'd better get on with it but at least once that's done I have all afternoon and evening to sew.

The PIF Winner Is .........

As Robin Titan was the only one person to sign up for my PIF she will be the recipient of some of my stitching in the next year. Robin has asked if she could pass the PIF forward in the form of e-books as she doesn't sew so it will be interesting to see how that works.

If anyone else wishes to sign up and feels they have missed out because they haven't visited my blog over the last week get in touch as I'd like to honour the PIF and pass on 3 stitched gifts rather than just the one.

Filling in the Gaps

A change of location for my stitching yesterday so Husband and Son could watch the first Star Wars film, i.e. episode 4 meant that I got more stitching done than I expected. Partly because Husband spent the evening watching two episodes of Cold Case that I'd already seen so I carried on sewing. Normally I sew in Husband's chair so pack up sewing if we watch TV in the evening.

I worked on Celtic Autumn and whilst she has grown a little most of my time was spent filling in the gaps on the yellow part of her dress.

The big gap between the yellow and purple parts of her dress will remain until I'm close to the end of her as that is a large section of white and I like to keep white until the end to try to stop it getting grubby.

I have also been working on some Christmas Cards but I can't show them yet. I picked a piece of linen to work on that I have had for years and so had no idea what size it was, other than very small. Having stitched the first card I measured the number of stitches yesterday and it's 30 count. Is there a 30 count? I counted the number of stitches per inch several times and each time I had 15 stitches stitched over two so that must mean there is a 30 count or am I counting wrong? Anyway one thing is for sure working on such a small count makes my eyes ache after a while but I love the way the tiny stitches look so perfect.

Not sure what will jump into my hands later today.

Goals

Setting myself monthly goals isn't working as I'm tending to find that unexpected events like impromptu holidays throw all my plans out of the window. Also since Husband is now working from home my routine is fast disappearing. In an attempt to get back into the habit of achieving things and so as that I can account for the current lack of routine in my life I've decided to make weekly goals/targets instead. Here are this weeks goals:

Swim - Twice a week (60 lengths)
Gym - Go three times
Walks - At least once a week
Website - Post last 3 walks
Love Songs - Work on it at least once
Celtic Autumn SAL - Stitch on it at least once
Good Friend's Count SAL - Finish
Christmas Cards - Finish second one
Greenhouse - Clear out & clean

With my recent bouts of arthritis and two days of doing nothing last week due to a really bad migraine my fitness regime has suffered a bit of a set-back. Also with Husband now working from home I'm finding getting up early enough to go for a swim or to the gym before it gets busy very difficult. I gave myself a good talking to this morning and dragged myself down to the gym before breakfast and plan on going again tomorrow before breakfast.

As Sunday dinner is cooked and eaten and Husband's washing up, the rest of the day is going to be spent working on Celtic Autumn and watching the Strictly Come Dancing results show. Nothing against John Sergeant but I really hope he goes today as it would be a travesty if one of the other celebs went when he really was doing little more than walking around the dance floor last night.

PIF Reminder

I was lucky enough to be drawn in Rachael's PIF last week and so now make the same offer on my blog.

The closing date is this Sunday so if you would like to recieve something hand-made by me in the next 365 days please sign up at the link on the 3rd November. The only condition is that you Pay It Forward by making the same offer yourself.

This PIF is open to everyone.

1/8th Completed

All of my stitching time over the last week has been spent working on Celtic Autumn and I can see some real progress with her. I was getting a little bit fed up of the fiddly bits in the yellow so opted to start on the purple part of her dress which gave me plenty of long stretches in one colour. Despite getting on so well with her I was still surprised to find, when I worked it out last night, that I'd finished 12.5% of her already.




I think she's going to have to go onto my roller frame soon as I don't want to risk crushing the braid in the hoop I'd also like to start putting the beads on so as that I don't end up with them all to stitch on at the end and I don't think they would survive being caught in the hoop.

She's going away now until the weekend and I'm planning on finishing Good Friends Count and getting some more stitches into Love Songs.

PIF

I have been chosen to be one of the lucky recipients of Rachael's PIF. This is the first time I will have taken part in a PIF and having seen how beautiful Rachael's work is I can't wait to see what she makes for me.

I was a bit nervous about taking part as I have to make the same offer in return on my blog and I've never actually given any of my stitching to anyone outside of my family.

If you would like to receive something handmade by me within the next 365 days, please comment on this post to say that you are interested. I will then draw 3 names out of a hat on Sunday 9th November (GMT). If you are one of the chosen three then in return, please post the same offer on your blog.

This PIF is open for everyone!

I have been working on Celtic Autumn over the last few days although i had to frog two rows last night after I spotted I was a stitch out on one row and found a knot in another row. After I have put a few more stitches in her tonight I plan on taking a photo of my progress and then putting her a way for a few days whilst I work on something else.