A First

For the last few days I have been working on the Jayne's Attic Monthly Challenge, which was to do one of the freebies from the Papillion Creations and to finish it as anything. I opted to do The Duke's Maxim and finished it as a pinkeep. As Karen has already posted the pictures on the forum here's mine, not only finished but also finished on time.

Pappilli0n Creations

The Duke's Maxim

28 count Millennium Blue Cashel Linen

DMC threads

I finished the stitching last night whist listening to Jonathan Ross. As I'm sure you can imagine, I was holding my breath when it came to putting the last few back-stitches in. If I'd gone wrong, the border wouldn't have matched up, which it does. Even better I finished it in time to not only listen to but also to watch the telly whilst he was interviewing Tom Cruise, whom I have to admit I consider rather good-looking. If I was still at the university I'm sure a poster of him would be on my wall. Anyway I digress, so back to the stitching!

This is my first ever attempt at a pinkeep and whilst it's not perfect I have to say I'm feeling quite pleased with myself. I've also learnt a lot so hopefully the next one will be even better.

Where Has The Week Gone?

Firstly a big thank you to everyone who posted a congrats on the new job.

I've survived the first week at work which in actual fact was 3 days, or more accurately 3 afternoons. I have some idea of what I'm meant to be doing but I'm constantly getting lost using the computer systems I need to use. Thankfully the girl who is currently doing the job doesn't leave until next Thursday so I have a few more days of her rescuing me before I have to survive on my own. Needless to say it is very strange having to go to work after nearly 3 years of not doing so, which followed on from 2 years of working for myself. As my hours are 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm it also cuts right into the day and I seem to have got very little done at home. Did anyone besides me notice the difference I wonder!!

Last weekend was spent in the Lake District visiting friends, family and walking. We should have been camping but with the terrible forecast we abandoned camping in favour of a B & B. We only managed one walk, but as it was one that has been on my to do list for a long time it was great to do it.

For over two years now I have wanted to walk up the nose of Fleetwith Pike (above) and on Monday that's how we started out 7 mile walk that took in Haystacks as well. We didn't leave the pub in Buttermere until 6:30 pm and finally got home shortly after 10:15 pm.

Naturally neither child was in the house, although the evidence of the party they didn't have was. It was just as well it was re-cycling the next day as the glass container was already full, but they didn't have a party!!!

Although they had made some attempt at tidying up there was still plenty for me to do.

Why is it teenagers:

Can fill & run the dishwasher but not empty it.
Fill the bin to almost overflowing but not empty it.
Pile the recycling by the door but not actually take it outside.
Walk past the milk that has been delivered but not bring it inside.
Bring games consoles, DVD's etc downstairs but not take them upstairs again.

I could go on but I'm sure you get the idea.

Anyone with teenagers old enough for parties etc can probably add to it. Or maybe I'm just a complete failure as a parent. Although the conversation I had with my sister and her friends on Sunday night would suggest this is just normal behaviour.

So not only have I started work but I've been trying (and failing) to get my house back into some sort of order. This week I've also had to meet a deadline for a magazine I write walks for and attend a committee meeting for the Quiz League. Needless to say there has been very little time for sewing.

However yesterday I did spend a couple of hours on Love Songs. I also did some stitching on it last week so there is an update below.

Sadly I haven't yet started the JA Sal 'Good Friends Count' or the JA Monthly Finishing Challenge. I'm unlikely to get the second done now but I must get on with the SAL as I'm now two weeks behind.

I have also had two of the Little Women charts that I ordered come today.

I've only posted a picture of one, 'Reading' as the other is planned as a present for someone that I know reads my blog and I don't want to spoil the surprise.

Like plenty of others I have signed onto the Me Myself and I Round Robin and finally decided what type of neighbourhood I'm going to do. For anyone who knows me it won't be a surprise that I've decided on a Lake District village now I just have to design it.

Working has one big advantage, money. I decided after one week (yes I know its only a few hours ) I deserved a reward. I gave into temptation and ordered two My Big Toe Design charts from Jaynes Attic. I have been resisting them since she first posted but today I crumbled and ordered the Quaker Seasons and the Give Me the Cookie charts.

The one major disadvantage of this job is that if I want to get fitter I now have to get up earlier as the only time I can realistically get to the gym or into the pool is first thing in the morning i.e. by 7:30 a.m. So far I have been good and made it to both the gym and into the pool but next week will be the real test.

I'm hoping for a quiet wekend with plenty of time for sewing, gardening and maybe even some walking but first I'd better clean the house before someone does notice it's a tip.

JA Monthly Challenge & Love Songs

With 16 days of watching the Olympics and a few days off for depression it will be no surprise that I didn't get the JA Monthly Challenge finished. I completed the stitching on Friday but I haven't yet had a chance to make it into the planned pin keep. I need to get to the local fabric shop and buy some material for the backing, a job I plan on doing later today. As the reveal day was Saturday I haven't posted any pictures of my progress but here it is below.

Day One - 5th August

Border Detail - 5th August

Day Two - 26th August

Letter Detail - 26th August

Hearts Detail - 26th August

Day Three - 27th August

Day Four - 29th August

Bird Detail - 29th August

As you can see it actually stitched up relatively quickly and if I hadn't got side-tracked I'd have easily have completed the whole thing. I'm hoping to make-up the pin-keep later this week.

On Friday I started on Love Songs again but ended up unpicking everything I did. It was just one of those times. I sat down to stitch for an hour before The Tudors and ended up knocking over a drink, getting knots in my thread and then just as I thought I'd finish for the evening I found a second knot at the back of my work. To get rid of it I ended up taking out everything I'd already stitched. Thankfully Saturday and Sunday were more successful and I'll soon have finished the bottom part of the piano.



Sunday had been set aside to do the Jayne's Attic Good Friends Count SAL but the first set of instructions never arrived and I'm still trying to find out what happened to them.

Today is the start of the Celtic Lady SAL so I'm definitely going to be working on that as I've been itching to start her. However I shall be good and go to the gym first as my fitness has suffered enough during the last few weeks. Thankfully as the scales proved I haven't actually gained any weight, instead I've just lost muscle tone, which is why I have felt so fat lately. Yesterday's trip to the gym also showed that, whilst I have lost some of my fitness, I'm not back to where I started from in July, which is good. Even better the rest has allowed my ankle to recover properly. Now if only the forecast would improve I might make it up Scafell Pike on Saturday.

Awards Come Flooding In

Well the weekend started so well and ended with disaster.

On Friday and Saturday I was nominated twice for the I Love Your Blog award by Elisa and Redwitch. Thank you both so much.

The rules are as follows:

1. The winner can put the logo on their Blog.
2. Link the person you received your award from.
3. Nominate at least 7 other Blogs.
4. Put the links to those Blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message on the Blogs of those you've nominated.

My nominations are:

Jayne - The View From Bag End
Becky - BeckyBee's Stitching Hive
Hazel - Quietly Stitching
Karen - Little Cat Blogs
Stephanie - In Stitches
Helen - Stitchery Nook
Rachael - Rachael's Stitchabilities

The first two blogs have been picked because they are the ones that inspired me to start my own blog. I know Becky's is possibly the most visited cross-stitch blog about but it is an absolute inspiration. Without Jayne's blog I would never have even got involved in the world of blogging. Whilst her main blog is gardening related if you check out her other blog, The Other View From Bag End, you'll see that she too is very handy with a needle and thread.

Hazel's is included because she has given me so much advice in translating the acronyms used and explaining how SAL's etc work. So it is nice to be able to say thank you.

The rest are blogs that I enjoy looking at and haven't been nominated for the award recently. There were one or two others I was considering nominating but they have recently been given awards, so, I decided to give the awards to blogs that hadn't had one recently.

Much of the weekend was taken up with the Olympics, catching up on my website and housework. I had planned to spend Monday evening stitching and was just taking a load of washing downstairs, to put on before I settled down to stitch, when disaster struck. As I walked into the dinning room I noticed a strange pattern on the table which I quickly realised was rather a lot of water. The shower in the bathroom had leaked. This isn't the first time and we have known it needed doing, but our temporary fix has now packed up, so we are going to have to bite the bullet and get it sorted.

To explain briefly, when we had the extension added three years ago the work loosened the bathroom tiles, eventually (2 years later) the shower started to leak through the back of the tiles via the loose grouting. In addition the day before we got married (three years ago) Husband was cleaning the bathroom and dropped a glass saucer into the sink. The saucer was fine, but it made a hole in the sink, which as it's fitted into a run of units and a rather expensive worktop isn't a straight forward replacement job. Despite all of this I did still marry him the next day!!!

Last week Daughter also managed to drop hair dye all over the bathroom carpet and I can't get it off. To put it mildly the bathroom needs a lot of work doing on it. We have been putting it off for a whole host of reasons but now we have got to get it done.

I am really not looking forward to it as I got so fed up of workmen in the house when we completely changed the layout of the house and had a two storey extension added. The original 6 months and it will be finished before we got married, ended up dragging out for 2 years and way past our first wedding anniversary. Whilst I can now say it was worth it and as nice as the various workmen were, I hated the lack of privacy and the constant stream of people in and out of the house. This is the main reason I've put up with the frankly, very grotty but clean, I hasten to add, bathroom for so long, but now needs must.

Having mopped up and put the chairs out to dry I really wasn't in the mood to sew. Today I plan on working on the Jayne's Attic Monthly Challenge which I doubt I'm going to get finished in time for the reveal day on Saturday. The stitching I'll get done but finishing it into something is unlikely. We will just have to see how I go.

Needless to say the Olympics has completely undone all my good work fitness wise so today I'm also getting back into the gym but first I need to contact everyone about their awards.

I am That Mad Person

With so much of the Olympics on in the middle of the night have you ever wondered who actually bothers to watch it then, apart, obviously, from the family of those competing? Last night it was me, up at 3:30 a.m. to watch the Women's Gymnastic Team Final. In my opinion it was well worth it and will no doubt be repeated for the other women's finals. I must be getting old as I simply can't bring myself to get up in the middle of the night to watch the men's finals, they have to wait for the repeats. Sexist I know, but middle age appears to bring a modicum of common sense with it.

Under normal circumstance I'd also watch the Swimming Finals live but the I.O.C. caved in to pressure from American TV and moved the finals from the evening session to the morning session so as that it would be on at prime time in America. Like many, many swimmers I think this is wrong. To me part of the charm of the Olympics is the fact that, depending on where it is located, you might have to watch at weird times of night. I well remember screaming at Steve Redgrave at midnight when he was on his way to winning his 5th gold. We live in a very well detached house so me screaming at anyone at odd hours in the morning is only going to wake up Daughter, whose bedroom is above the living room. There is definitely something wrong with the world when age-old traditions are changed because of TV companies.

Yesterday I did make it to the gym but couldn't actually do my full routine as I had a time limit because I was due at a family funeral in the afternoon. I hadn't realised, but the time I went was during a GP Referral session so the treadmills and bikes were full of people doing gentle exercise but the weights were free, which made a change. Hitting the gym at a time like this certainly makes you think, as so many of the GP Referrals are there after they have suffered a heart attack. Not a fate I fancy for myself, especially as I plan on living to 130.

With everything else that was going on yesterday turned into a no sewing day. Today I plan on doing some work on the Jayne's Attic Monthly Stitching Challenge and if I can ever wake up properly, going to the gym.

A New Start

With enough housework done on Saturday to mean the house was more than clean enough for me and no-one in the house for most of Sunday, Monday and Tuesday have been days spent doing exactly what I want.

Monday saw me making quite a bit of progress on Love Songs. I did some of the back stitch on the piano and as always I always find it so satisfying as all of a sudden the stitching comes to live and seems to have another dimension to it.

I have also started doing some of the ivory keys but, as usual, they don't show up very well in the photograph.

On Tuesday I started the Jayne's Attic Monthly Challenge. I have decided to do it on linen which is a first for me. I was a little concerned that I wouldn't be able to see the threads well enough to work out where my needle should go but I quickly picked it up. By the end of the day I had got both borders done and they matched up which meant I hadn't made any mistakes. No photos of this piece as it shouldn't be revealed until August 30th.

Elsewhere I have managed to get two more walks onto my website which only leaves me three behind. I'm catching up, all be it slowly.

Fitness-wise I have reached the can I really be bothered stage. The novelty of being good has worn off and as I'm still terribly unfit and it's hard work it would be very easy to stay in bed. Yesterday I had to drag myself to the gym in the afternoon having stayed in bed when Husband went swimming. I had intended to go down to the gym when he went swimming before work but told myself my shoulders were too sore from the swim the day before. This morning I did drag myself down to the pool, but again it would have been very easy to have just stayed in bed. At least today I knew that I get tomorrow off, I do 5 days of exercise than one day off. On the positive side I know that I am getting fitter and although it might be my imagination the waist band on my skirt does seem a little looser.

Getting Involved

No sewing yesterday as Husband was ironing whilst watching the cricket so I couldn't get to my sewing chair. Instead I spent far too much time browsing the internet and signed up to 'Jayne's Attic Forum'. I was then a little naughty, as I planned on being a silent reader for a few days, but saw the 'Good Friends Count SAL that was starting so signed up for it before I'd introduced myself. This morning I spotted the August Challenge so voted on that. I really liked the design I voted for and could see it as a pin keep, which I really fancy having a go at, so I hope it wins.

In between browsing Jayne's Attic I started getting up-to-date with my website which is only 7 walks behind!! Not being able to get out walking on a regular basis has meant I've not been keeping up with my postings but now I'm fit(tish) again I need to catch up fast. So it's another computer day for me today.

Early yesterday saw me back in the swimming pool for the first time in months. I only managed 50 lengths and it felt like I was swimming through treacle but at least that too is progress. Mind my arms are aching today!! I'll settle for my easier routine in the gym later and hopefully a walk tomorrow which give my arms the chance to recover.