Humble Pie

Quite unexpectedly I found myself spending yesterday evening reading Gordon Ramsay's autobiography 'Humble Pie'.

I had absolutely no plans to read this book, in fact, when it was released a couple of years ago I had absolutely no interest in it at all. Yesterday however I visited our local library and took out a few books, of which this is one. I only went looking for an autobiography because the selection of novels was so pathetic. To be fair to the library it is far too small for a town the size of which I live in and is trying to move to bigger accommodation. I guess if I want to read a particular book I'd better reserve it on line first.

Yesterday evening a change of plans meant Husband was cooking dinner and as it was tea in the cricket I picked the book up just to look at it. It was such a good read that, accept for when I did the washing up, it wasn't put down again until I finished it about 6 hours later. The cricket wasn't that exciting anyway so I didn't miss much there!!

Now you might not like Gordon Ramsay as a chef, you might well find his swearing offensive, but read this book and despite that you will be full of admiration for the bloke. Whenever I read an autobiography I'm always a little sceptical about how different events are portrayed, because, obviously, your only getting one side of the story, but this book can't fail to leave you full of admiration for the author. His childhood wasn't great, he worked damn hard to get where he is today and he wasn't afraid to make sacrifices. If he's well off now, make no mistake about it, he deserves it.

As you might have guessed with my nose stuck in books I've not done any stitching this week. I'm really fed up of being stuck in the house and want to get out walking but first of all with my back and now with the snow it's just not happening. However today my exchange arrived from Thread Bear so I now have the Cirque Des Triangles chart, which I will hopefully start later this year when I've finished Love Songs.

I don't want to have too many big projects on the go at once so I shall try to be good and not start it until then. That's quite easy to do at the moment as I need to get the linen and threads first. Under our present financial circumstances they will probably end up being birthday presents which isn't until the end of June. I guess that gives me an incentive for finishing Love Songs by then.

Just in case you've missed the post earlier this week I'm running a PIF, for more details click here.

All Things Yellow

Yesterday I managed to fit in a couple of hours on Celtic Autumn. I finally took the plunge and started some of the stitches using the braid which is new to me. Not sure that I'm going to enjoy working with it as it seems very fiddly to use and it was for ever coming out of the needle. Maybe I should use a needle with a smaller eye but then threading the stuff which is difficult enough already would become even harder

Regardless of the trouble I had with the braid I'm finding this an easy piece to work on and still enjoying it. However I'm going to reluctantly put her aside for the rest of the week and do some work on the JA SAL that I have done nothing on yet.

Yesterday whilst I was killing a bit of time and following a link on the computer I finally found a good reason to stitch one of the Ink Circles designs. I quite like these designs but couldn't see the point of stitching one if I couldn't think of a home for it. Whilst I was on the Ink Circles website I came across one of the designs used as a footstool which is something I have wanted to do for ages.

I have decided I'm going to add the Cirque Des Triangles design to my wish list and I will probably do it on a dark, possibly black, linen with gold or orange thread, which means it will fit in with the colour of our settee. Its quite appropriate as if I doddle I tend to create patterns out of triangles so I think I will enjoy this far more than doing the circles.

A word of warning to anyone planning on buying an orange/reddy coloured 3 piece suite - DON'T. The suite was purchased by Husband before we lived together and as it was in far better condition than mine moved in with him. When we had the house extended and hence the living room decorated it took me months to find the right colours to go with it. The wall behind the settee looked like a display area for Dulux as I'd bought that many different colours and shades before we finally found the one that worked. If ever we sell the house and the new owners strip the walls they are going to be amazed at how many different coloured squares they will find on one wall. Actually thinking of that I wonder how many threads I will purchase before I find a shade that goes with the settee!!

I think I have also finally decided on which of two kits I would like for Christmas. As they retail at £70 plus each it has to be a Christmas present as even I can't justify spending that much on a cross stitch design everyday of the week. A few months back I fell in love with two Thea Governeur designs, one of St Petersburg and a Tutankhamen design as well.

I've been tossing around between the two but the St Petersburg one has won this round. Mind that doesn't mean that old Tut won't make it onto a birthday or Christmas list later on.