Stash

The postman has been rather busy, visiting our house 3 times today. Most of the stuff was Christmas presents, which I have since wrapped and hidden away ready for the big day, but in amongst the parcels was one for me. Thread Bear have been extremely quick and got the order I placed late on Wednesday afternoon to me already.

There is some more linen, three lots of backing fabric, along with some ribbons and braid which I expect to use over the weekend.

Anyone who is from the UK is surely, by now, aware of the flooding that has taken place in Cumbria. I have both friends and family who I was unable to contact earlier, so forgive me if the Christmas wrapping seems a little early, but it, like blogging, was keeping my mind distracted from worrying about them. I have now heard that my sister and her family are all safe and well, with the children quite pleased that they got to miss school today.

On a Christmas note if anyone, like me, makes their own Christmas pudding and cake be aware there is a shortage of currants, apparently the crop failed in California and so Sainsburys and Morrisons don't have (m)any in stock. It appears that Tesco gets theirs from Greece and so as Son has just bought some for me I can now get my puddings started tonight.

I love the smell of the house when the fruit is steeping.

Xmas is Coming

OK so I accept that for some of you the title of this post will be far too early for mentioning the festive season but I love it. It's the only time I year I enjoy shopping and I've been getting my Christmas plans into place now for the last couple of weeks. Mind maybe one reason why I love the shopping is that I will have it all done by the first week of December, so no crowded shops for me. In fact, if I'm honest, the postman will be bringing most of my shopping to my door as it is largely done online these days.

Anyway back to some stitching related talk. Monday was the date for posting on the TUSAL so I took this photo yesterday of my latest additions to my collection

There aren't many threads added as I was so late posting last month. The few that have been added are from an exchange piece I'm working on.

To be honest I really have had very little stitching time as I seem to be incredibly busy with work at the moment, even more so since I picked up the paid employment I mentioned a few posts ago. Not that I'm complaining. After the year we have had it's so nice that all of a sudden Husband has websites coming in on a regular basis and I'm busy with a variety of different jobs. I've had to register as self-employed but as that would have been on the cards for next year anyway it's hardly a hassle.

Do you remember me saying I had plans to start my own business well I've ended up doing just that it's just not the business I expected to be running. All of a sudden the notion we had of setting quizzes has taken off and so I'm now a professional quiz setter. Along with that all of a sudden I've found myself doing some book-keeping for someone other than Husband and they pay me in money instead of raspberry turnovers!! I'm still hoping to get my original idea of the ground but for now it's simmering away rather than being brought up to boiling point.

As part of my Christmas preparations I made sure this year that I got on the Jane Asher website early enough to order a load of edible Christmas decorations ready for my Christmas baking. last year when I tried to order them at the start of December they were out of stock. I ordered a variety of Christmas coloured sparkles as you can see below.

I was going to show you them on the fairy cakes I made and decorated on Sunday but by Monday they had gone. They clearly tasted alright.

Finally here is my Christmas Ornie Exchange from Angela P. She posted them out early and mine arrived on Friday. It really is very pretty, especially as the fabric is all sparkly.

Cranberry Christmas by Prairie Schooler

She has finished it so delightfully. I just need to finish stitching hers now and hope that the finishing materials I have ordered for it arrive in time before I need to get it in the post next week.

I've set myself a target of getting all my commitment stitching done by the end of the year. The way things are at the moment I doubt I'll achieve it but I shall try. On that note I'm off to grab a few moments of stitching time.

Some Stitching

As I've said in an earlier post there hasn't been a lot of stitching done since I got back from the lakes but I have made some progress with Celtic Autumn.

I have started to work on the letters. For some reason I found them quite frustrating, probably because I'm now having to use my scroll frame and I had them too high up it. I can see a stand for holding the frame being added to my Christmas list. I saw the perfect one late last year but really couldn't justify spending the money on it.

I have also started my Christmas sewing. I know I have plenty of other things to finish but you know what it's like. This will eventually become a Christmas card and having started it I'm wondering how many of them I will actually get stitched this year.

I have also committed myself to a private Christmas Ornament swap with Angela at Hooked on Stitches I must get started on that soon as well. Later today I'm heading out to Alfreton to visit my LNS as I need some supplies but I also want to take the time to have a really good browse around the shop. I hope I don't spend too much!! On the way I shall have to a pass the shop in Heage where I get some of my supplies from. It's really aimed at people who make curtains and clothes but I spotted some lovely Christmas ribbon in there earlier this year so I shall go and purchase some before it sells out.

Finally yesterday a surprise package arrived for me in the post. It contained a cap keeper for my lens cover. Bilbo had read about me losing my wide-angle lens cover when we were at the top of Knock Murton during our holiday. If you want to know why I didn't go back and look for it take a look at the steepness of the hill on my walking website.

Right, time to head out to my LNS.

Don't forget to sign up for my PIF which is two posts down and closes on Tuesday.

Christmas

Well I hope everyone had a good Christmas ours was a little mixed, started out well and sadly went downhill for Daughter from early evening onwards.


After a late start to the day we eventually managed to drag Son and Daughter out of bed so as that we could open the presents.


In amongst the many presents under the tree were several books and Cd's for me. One of which was an Osmonds CD which has the two albums Crazy Horses and The Plan, it was a surprise gift from Husband and I'd forgotten just how good they were. Nice to know my first taste in music was actually quite good lol!! My brother had got me a book voucher so I have also ordered The Tales of Beedle the Bard, Nigella's Christmas and the second book in the Martin Edwards Lake District thriller series.


As you can see there were also several cross stitch related presents, including from Husband the Thea Governeur kit St Petersburg, which I'm itching to start. My dad ordered me all of the Celtic Lady charts thinking I'd missed out Celtic Autumn from the list so I'm hoping I can swap that for Cirque Des Triangles when Thread Bear opens next Friday. The Little House Needlework's chart was from Daughter.

Husband's speciality is wrapping presents up in strange ways and this 'spade' was for me but it had absolutely nothing to do with gardening and most certainly wasn't a spade. In fact it was an add-on for my digital mapping and only the bit at the bottom was the present the rest was cardboard.

Once the presents were all opened it was time to start thinking about the dinner, which went without a hitch, a big relief after Monday when my oven had packed up.

In the evening I was meant to be picking up Daughter's boyfriend put he then decided not to come over, so of course we had tears and then the next day he very kindly broke up with her.

Then as if she wasn't having things tough enough yesterday somebody broke into the 'crew-room' at MacDonalds, where she works, and stole her (favourite) bag with her I-pod, Blackberry, purse, keys and favourite make-up bag with her (naturally) expensive lip-stick in it, think Chanel and Dior. Whilst her purse, keys and cards were found and later handed into a local police station we have still had to stop all of her cards, lock her phone and replace the front door lock. Tomorrow we are going shopping for a new Blackberry for her and I think after the rough deal she has had I might even stretch to replacing one of her lipsticks for her and a new handbag. You may of course recall that I hate shopping and shopping during the sales is definitely not how I want to spend my time but in these circumstances I'll try my hardest not to moan when Daughter, who's number one favourite past-time is shopping, is dragging me all over Derby tomorrow.

What I haven't yet mentioned is that the week before Daughter came home she had a more expensive I-pod pinched from her handbag whilst she was Christmas shopping on Oxford Street and of course her friend died a couple of months ago. I really wish I could stop all of this happening to her, I feel so completely useless at the moment. She is feeling so low that last night she opted to spend the evening with Husband and I watching TV in the living room rather than be in her bedroom!! Thankfully she has plenty of friends who are also supporting her and keeping her company so hopefully the smile will back on her face soon.

Today in an attempt to stop me putting anymore weight on during Christmas I dragged myself out of bed early and headed for the pool and managed 50 lengths. I haven't been for a while due to the fact my swimming costume had become very, very baggy and needed replacing, which I finally got around to doing yesterday. One of my goals for 2009 is too reduce my weight by at least 3 stone and to get much fitter, so not gaining any over Christmas is a good start, I think.

My Oven Blew Up

Yesterday (Monday) when I had 8 people for dinner my oven packed up. Having put the pork in the oven to cook I went and sat down to talk to my guests for an hour. I returned to the kitchen around 5:30 pm to put the potatoes in and thought; "This oven isn't very warm!" Felt the pork, which was warmish and got a little worried, removed it from the oven, cut it in half to find it was still raw and that yes my oven had stopped working. The pork was hurriedly moved to the top oven to cook and Husband was dispatched across town to his Fathers with instructions on how to cook both lots of potatoes.

Now no doubt you, like me, are now thinking; "What about the Christmas Dinner because there is no way the turkey will fit in the small oven?" This is one of those times when having a Husband who knows everyone comes in useful. Before disappearing across town Husband rang his cousin who immediately diagnosed the problem as the element having gone and confirmed that he would be round first thing tomorrow morning (today) with the replacement part. Not sure who was meant to be first on his list for visits that day but I suspect he was very late for them. I'd apologise but it wouldn't be in any way sincere as I was more than a little worried I'd have no oven for Christmas Day.

Thankfully I now have an oven that is working. I'm sure you can imagine my relief.

Dinner, although an hour or so later than planned, was enjoyed by all and my guests eventually departed at 10:30 p.m. to drive home. Husband and I finally sat down at 11:00 p.m. having just finished the washing up.

My parents, who were 2 of the guests, having dropped my aunt off, called into Tesco in Coventry on their way home to find that it was very busy at MIDNIGHT!! They only called in to get the last minute bits for Christmas Day because they were passing and it would save them getting up early today mind they did expect it to be quiet, but no, apparently they were queuing at the tills. How mad is that!!

Well I doubt I'll be posting on the blog tomorrow,as there is plenty to do in preparation for the big day so I'd like to wish everyone a Happy Christmas.

My First Exchange

I took part in the Stitched Christmas Card Exchange on Jayne's Attic and today was the day for opening our cards. As I know Ursh has opened hers I'll post the pictures of the two cards.

This is the card I stitched for Ursh and its the only card I actually got around to stitching this year. Try as I might I couldn't get all four sides of the border to line up with the edges of the card. Next year I'm setting myself the target of one Christmas card and gift tag a month.

Prairie Stars
Prairie Schooler
Linen 32 ct

This is the card I received from Angi whom as far as I know hasn't got a blog. Isn't it pretty and I picked up a few tips from her as well. I shall be on the look out for all the gold bits she has used inside the card and on the front of it for any cards I do in the future. It also has lots of beading on it which is extra useful as I've got to start the beading on Celtic Autumn soon and as you may know I've not done any beading before so now I have an example to follow. Thank you Angi it's lovely as are the two little pins you sent with the card.

No sewing today. Husband and I were at Sainsburys for 8:30 to do the big Christmas shop and that was after a night when I had less than 4 hours sleep, no reason for it, just one of those nights!! We have also put the tree up this afternoon which involved an interruption to buy new lights as the old ones had finally given up the ghost. Fortunately I'd made the meat pie before we started so it was then just a case of putting the pie, croquet potatoes and jam tarts (spare pastry always turns into jam tarts) in the oven before I collapsed onto the settee to watch Strictly Take Two. Later we will be watching the original terminator on Sky although I suspect I'll actually be asleep on the settee long before it finishes.

Go Tom Go.

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!!

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.

Lists & Christmas

I have always been a bit of a list maker, usually of jobs to do but they do come in other forms as well. I have some lists that I keep permanently on my computer which I print off as and when they are needed:

1. A list for all the items we need when we go camping.
2. A list of everything we need when we go on a walking holiday that isn't in a tent.
3. A list of everything I need to buy for Christmas.
4. A list of possible birthday/Christmas presents for me.
5. A list of everyone to whom we send Christmas cards, with addresses. Very useful when you can't remember what someones child is called and haven't got the card of them yet.

It is of course that time of year when (well mine does) thoughts turn to Christmas. I start to prepare for Christmas once Son's birthday is over. Remember I hate shopping and it is always my mission to have all my Christmas shopping done by the first week of December. My sister-in-law isn't a list maker and Christmas always seems to be a big surprise to her and she ends up shopping for everything in December and then she wonders why she hates Christmas!! A few years ago, because she doesn't like driving into Derby, I took her in to finish her Christmas Shopping in the last few days before Christmas. It was manic, she couldn't get what she wanted and the shops were full to over-flowing, never, ever, again, in this lifetime will I be repeating that experience.

After 20 odd years of organising Christmas I know what food to buy so if it's on offer in Sainsburys and preservable it gets bought and stored away for the big event. Last week it was the Quality Street (reduced), the week before Terry's Chocolate Orange (3 for 2), one each for the kids and one for me when I'm wrapping presents. I reckon I save a fortune just by looking out for the various items early and only buying them when they are reduced. Mind maybe my Christmas list making does have one downside as both Son and Daughter have for a long time when opening their presents in the morning gone through them putting aside the items they know appear each year in favour of the ones they can't account for. Also if any item doesn't appear it is likely to be noticed. They are 20 and 19 and will still moan if a tub of Haribo doesn't appear but I am hopeful that this year I might be able to stop buying them selection boxes.

The one problem with making lists of jobs to do is that invariably they get half done but then new jobs come along so you either end up with two lists or making a new one. This at times can get disheartening because you don't get the delightful feeling of completing the list. Anyway this week I came up with a solution which I am amazed it has taken me so long to think of. I now have a To Do list on a spreadsheet on my computer. By using strikethrough I can still look at the list and see the jobs being completed, add new jobs as and when they need adding and if its one of those jobs that needs repeating remove the strikethrough. As my computer is on all day it's great for when your doing something and remember that job you have been meaning to do for ages and keep forgetting about, a quick entry on the computer and the job isn't forgotten. Mind maybe it's sad that one of the jobs on this list is to update my Christmas List but there again as everyone knows I make lists they always start asking around now what I want for Christmas so maybe I'd better get it done.

A sewing update will follow. I plan on watching the Olympic Parade either with my sewing or if I'm feeling good I'll do the ironing first, cross it off the list and do some sewing this afternoon.

Must remember to print out the walking list as we are heading to the Lakes again this weekend!!!!!