Three Bottles of Wine

No that's not the amount I drunk last night, it's what I'm giving up in order to pay for the order I placed at Thread Bear on Tuesday, that arrived today. The drop in income that accompanied Husband's loss of job means we don't go out anymore and my one treat a week is whichever bottle of dry white wine is on offer at Sainsburys.

Now it's here it doesn't look much does it and certainly not like three weeks worth of wine. I can't tell you what it's for just yet, but hopefully all will be revealed in the next few weeks.

I have been doing some very secret stitching over the last couple of days, which I will be able to show you in a couple of weeks time. Alongside my secret stitching I have also been working on Love Songs.


If your trying to work out what I've done on it, it is the bit around the piano hinge.

I know it doesn't look like much progress but yesterday was one of those days when there were frogs and knots in abundance. I gave up in the end and had a glass of the bottle of wine that I'd opened for the mustard sauce we had with our pork for dinner last night.

Fitness-wise it looks like I'll be able to get back in the pool very soon. I had a long walk around our neighbourhood yesterday and for the first time since injuring my back had no aches or pain. I had been planning on a pulling on the walking boots and going for a short, flat walk on Curbar Edge today but the forecast sunshine is in fact thick mist and fog, so unless it clears up soon it will be the local streets again. I have to admit two weeks of very little physical activity is starting to drive me nuts, even if it was the correct thing to do.

At Last Some Stitching

Over the last few weeks I have managed to do some work on Celtic Autumn. Each session has been quite short so it didn't seem worth posting pictures but when I looked back at the last picture I posted I realised I have actually made quite good progress with her.


Most of the stitching has been on the swirls on her dress, which means lots of short bits of stitching, so progress seems quite slow at times, but I'm still enjoying her. In fact I'm off to do some more work on her now as the housework is done, Husband is cooking tonight so I have the whole afternoon to stitch, what luxury!!

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.

She Was Screaming To Be Let Out - Honest

At long last I have done some stitching and oh boy did I enjoy it.

Even though the weather has been turning increasingly colder I have been trying to avoid putting the heating on during the day but I was starting to suffer with arthritis. Last weekend it was in my neck and shoulders so stitching wasn't really possible, well not without considerable discomfort. Yesterday was so cold I gave in and put the heating on in the morning so as that house got nice and warm and then spent the afternoon and an hour in the evening stitching. Mind my toes were still cold so I sat sewing with my usual two pairs of socks on (one is a thick pair of walking socks) and a blanket folded over my toes. During the winter a blanket is frequently to be found in our living room often wrapped around me, sometimes even with the heating on I'm still cold. Husband, of course, is walking round moaning about how hot he is. I have always said we live in different climates. One day I'm going to have quilt to wrap around me like you see Amy doing in the TV program 'Judging Amy', until that day arrives I make do with a blanket.

How nice it was to get my needle and thread out. There was never any doubt in my mind as to which of the pieces I'm working on I was going to do. Celtic Autumn has been screaming at me to have some more stitches put into her dress. Last time I stitched on her I used gold braid for the first time and had real problems with it constantly coming off the needle. When I mentioned this on the Celtic Lady blog Valerie gave me a great tip which I was able to put into practice yesterday and it certainly solved my problem. Instead of dreading using the braid I quite enjoyed stitching with it so thank you very much Valerie.



I must have done a lot of stitching with it because Husband commented on how sparkly she looked and he rarely makes any comments on what I'm sewing other than to make a polite enquiry about what I'm doing.

Elsewhere I have decided that there is no way I'm going to get Love Songs finished in time for it to be my sisters' Christmas present so I now have another 12 months to complete it, in time for next Christmas. Even if I did finish it I couldn't, at this moment in time, justify spending the money getting it framed so there really is no point in rushing it.

A Little Bit of Stitching

At last I have managed to find some time to do some sewing. I have been able to sit down for an hour in the morning before work on Thursday and Friday and made some progress with Celtic Autumn.



As long as I stitch on her during the day I'm enjoying working on her. I did try stitching on her one evening a week or so ago and wasn't happy with what I did.

I have also made some progress with Love Songs but nothing worth taking a photo for. Hopefully I will make some progress on it this weekend so maybe there will be a picture or two on Monday.

I have given up on Lorna Doone, I just can't get into it and the print is so small it makes reading it last thing at night a real chore. Ruth Rendell's, Inspector Wexford novel 'Not In The Flesh' kept calling out to me, so I have caved in and started that which is much more enjoyable.

Fitness wise I did 70 lengths in the pool for the first time on Friday and my sessions at the gym are slowly getting longer and involving lifting more weights. At last I have also been able to do what I call my 'long program' at the gym. This one involves running on the treadmill whereas my 'short program' just involves walking on the treadmill at different gradients. They differ in other ways as well but that is the difference that had stopped me doing my long program since my ligament was injured. I have deliberately avoided my long program because of my ligament injury but on Thursday I did it for the first time in about 6 months with no ill-effect on my ligament.

A Lot of Driving and Not Much Stitching

It's Wednesday already and I haven't done any sewing for over a week. Time seems to be disappearing at the moment.

Last week I did manage to do some work on Celtic Autumn on Monday although I'm fast realising that I need to work on her during the day as I seem to make more mistakes working on linen at night. I haven't had time to pick her up this week but I might set some time aside to work on her tomorrow morning before work.

I have also done some more work on Love Songs although I had to frog a bit that I had done ages ago as I discovered a mistake, which didn't make me vary happy.

Daughter has returned to University which meant that Wednesday saw us making a trip to London and back and not getting home until 11:00 pm. We took her stuff down and she went on the train as we can't fit her in the car. We also had to pick up four boxes we had stored at a friends house over the summer. Of course we also had to take her shopping to stock up on food etc which was very expensive. It was a very, very long day.

On Thursday Husband decided he'd like to go camping for the weekend so we booked a campsite for Saturday night planned two walks and headed to the Lakes for the weekend. We left at 7:15am Saturday morning and returned at 10:30 pm Sunday night. I reached a significant milestone in my attempt to complete the Birketts (a list of 541 tops over 1000 feet in the Lake District) as I reached the half way point of 271 done, 270 to go, on the last top on the Sunday. The first summit of the weekend was not gained easily and my knees and shins are covered in bruises but we had a fun, if somewhat exhausting, weekend.

Having looked at my list of plans for the month I realise I'm going to fail miserably at most of them but maybe I'll let myself off as I did make the list before I started my new job. This weekend we have said we are having a quiet weekend at home so maybe I'll get to tackle some of the jobs in the garden then. I might even find some time to do some stitching.

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.

A New Start, Progress & Being Led Astray

Yesterday was the new start date for the Celtic Lady SAL and I spent the afternoon working on Celtic Autumn. As with all new starts there isn't a lot to see but I have started with her dress.

I'm very glad I didn't start with the border, which was my original plan, as I found out once I'd started stitching that I'd not got one thread which is needed for the border. It is now on order with Thread Bear which also led to me ordering a chart I simply love.

One reason for so little progress on Celtic Autumn is that I really wanted to get the cross stitch on the bottom part of the piano in Love Songs finished.


I spent the evening working on it and today it will be the back-stitch and onto a new part of the design. Mind I might find it hard not to pick up Celtic Autumn again.

At last we have started to get people coming round to quote for the different jobs on the bathroom no dates yet but at least progress of sorts is being made. I hope we can get it done for Christmas. The joiner, who is going to replace the floorboards for us, is a neighbour and cousin of Husband and his daughter is expecting a baby in 8 weeks. Now it just so happens that I have a nearly completed Beatrix Potter Birth Sampler sat in my study, so you know who's going to be getting that.

I started it years ago and all it needs is a bit of back stitch finishing and the name and date etc adding. I have lost the chart but thanks to the internet located a copy of it, so it will be on order later today from Country Designs, no doubt along with something else as well. If I'm going to spend £7.00 on the chart I might as well order something else to push my order over the £10 mark for another point towards my £5.00 voucher.

The lovely Redwitch also led me astray yesterday. She has been posting her finishes of the Little Women designs, which I love but haven't been able to find the charts for. She sent me the link to a company where I could order them from so I ordered my two favourites yesterday. To top it all of I gave in to temptation and joined one of the Stash Collectors Clubs at Jayne's Attic. After today the plastic is going back into my purse and collecting cobwebs for the rest of the month.

I've just had to stop halfway through this post to let the man read the electricity meter which means all three bills, gas, electric and phone will be landing on the doormat soon. I can't wait!! Daughter has also managed to miss the bus for work so guess who's going to have stop again to take her!!

I think it's going to be one of those days. Will I actually get any stitching done at all I'm beginning to wonder.

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.

Stash

Saturday saw me making a trip to Bakewell to the Wye Needlecraft Show and then into the Wye Needlecraft shop to pick up the threads for Celtic Autumn and my Christmas Cards. Whilst I was at the show I picked up a piece of hand-dyed linen from the Bedfordshire Embroidery School stand. I was very good and only bought one yellow piece, although I had a hard time choosing which one as I also liked the blue fabric as well.

I haven't checked the silks off against the charts yet but as there was only one silk that wasn't in stock I'm fairly confident I have everything I need to get started on Celtic Autumn.

Thankfully the shop did have the one silk I was desperate for in order to be able to continue on the part of the piano I'm doing on Love Songs. On my last two trips there they didn't have it in stock so there was big sight of relief when I saw it was in stock on Saturday.

Between the qualification rounds for the gymnastics, the swimming at the Olympics and the cricket I didn't think I'd made much progress with Love Songs but looking back at my last post I'm surprised by how much progress I have made. Just as well as this one is on a deadline and needs to be finished by early November if I'm going to have time to get it framed and wrapped in time for Christmas. Not sure I'm going to make it but I'm going to give it my best shot.

I had planned on going to the gym yesterday but between the Olympics and cooking Sunday Dinner I couldn't get there before it closed so I shall definitely be going today before not going becomes a habit.

One Target Met

Today I met the first of the targets I set myself for the month. It was the target I expected to possibly not meet or at least not until the end of the month, which it makes it all the more surprising. This morning I swam 60 lengths and more significantly, for me, the first twenty of those were all front crawl. My ultimate aim is to get my swim back up to 100 lengths and that starts with 40 lengths front crawl so it feels like I'm well over half-way there.

Later I had a trip to the Wye Needlecraft show, I was a little disappointed with how few stalls/exhibitions there were, but by going to the shop in Bakewell I did manage to get the threads and material I was after for my Christmas Cards and Celtic Lady

There has been a bit of progress on Love Songs but the Olympics has started and as the gymnastics and swimming are both in the first week they are getting my full attention. My usual habit is to sew whilst the cricket is on in the background. If anything important happens I can always look up from my sewing and watch the replay, but these are my sports so the sewing will just have to wait.

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.

Progress

I have managed a few hours of stitching on Love Songs over the last few days and made some progress with the white keys on the piano.

I'm not sure if I need a stronger bulb in my magnifying lamp, it's only 20 watts, or if it's just working with lighter colours but I have found it more difficult to see to sew these stitches at night. A bit worrying if it isn't the bulb as there is an awful lot of lighter colours in this piece. I'm hoping to buy a stronger bulb later today.

I have also made some progress with my website and got the walks from our last trip to the Lakes posted.

Wednesday saw me out walking again this time on Win Hill, then along Hope Brink to Hope Cross and returning via Ladybower. I was lucky enough to get the top of Win Hill to myself and I only met a few people along Hope Brink (above). For once the weathermen had it correct and it was cloudy to start with but by the time I was walking alongside Ladybower (below) the sun was out, along with the crowds.

Once again the walk had no effect on my ankle so it looks like I can get back into longer walks over the next few weeks. Just as well as I'm joining a friend on her ascent of Scafell Pike at the start of September. On the down side I now have 4 walks to get posted over the weekend.

Elsewhere on the fitness front the gym is having no effect on my ankle and when I went swimming yesterday morning it felt more like runny syrup than treacle so that's better.

Thanks to all who have posted comments over the last week. Nice to know someone is reading my blog.

Sunday - Shades of Grey & Rail Roading

More progress on the fitness front as today I was able to return to the gym, no running yet but otherwise I was able to do my short program without any ill effect on my ankle.

The afternoon and evening were spent on Love Songs and I almost got the black keys finished. Each key has four different colours in it so they were quite fiddly. I seemed to spend more time threading my needle than I did stitching as it wasn't possible to park and stitch. I had to eventually stop stitching when I realised I'd got two back stitch stitches in the wrong place and had to unpick all the back stitch in that key. My eyes were getting tired. These aren't all of the keys, there are six more but I won't get around to them for a while yet.

My Celtic Lady chart arrived on Friday and Hazel has sent me a link to the different colour variations so I also spent some time looking at them. I think I'll probably stick to the colours in the chart as all of the variations involve more orange and brown colours and there are plenty of them in Love Songs. As I'm hoping to do her on linen I have practised using the rail roading technique (which I saw in a Jane Greenoff book) when I was doing the keys on Love Songs. It certainly slowed me down but seeing how flat my stitches appeared it was worth the effort.

Thursday - Saturday: Busy, Busy, Busy

Wow where have the last few days gone? Thursday and Friday were spent celebrating family birthdays. Thursday was Husband's birthday and then on Friday it was my daughter's birthday and yes she did like her Eyeore.


Thursday was also a significant day for me as at long last I'm able to get back out walking after nearly two months spent waiting for my ligaments to heal properly. I had a quick walk, above Hathersage, exploring a path below Higger Tor that I haven't been on before. The views were pretty awful as there was a really thick heat haze but it was very warm and the crowds were out near the river. When I got home I hurriedly made some Chocolate Chip Muffins so as that we could stick a candle in one and sing Husband Happy Birthday before we went out for a meal to celebrate his birthday


Amy had requested a coffee cake for her birthday so Friday was another baking day but this time it was take-away (Amy's request) instead of a meal out. I had also reached that stage in my reading where I simply had to keep on reading, so it was a quiet evening in reading. I finished The Vows of Silence the next morning straight after breakfast. I always enjoy Susan Hill's books, having been introduced to her as part of my A level Literature course and this book was no exception. Although it's a crime thriller it was actually the story around Cat's family that held my attention this time. If you haven't read it it's well worth reading but do read the others in the series first.


I had planned on getting my front garden straight on Saturday but it was far too hot to work outside so I did some work on Love Songs instead. I had hoped to get the black keys finished this weekend but got distracted by the 20/20 cricket final which was so good it made me put my sewing down so as that I could watch it in full.

Love Songs & Celtic Autumn

Yesterday was a busy day as I had a job interview in the afternoon and had to cook 'Sunday dinner' as well. I know it was Tuesday, but Sunday Dinner has always been the children's favourite meal, this Sunday everyone was busy and it was impossible to find a time when we could all sit down together so it was cooked and eaten on Tuesday instead.


In the evening I did however manage to find some time to work on Love Songs. I started this piece mid-June, after finishing Eyeore. It is going to be a Christmas present for one of my sisters. I have had the chart for years (it's discontinued now) and originally planned on doing it on linen but as it was my first big piece with the magnifying lamp I wasn't sure how my eyes would cope so played it safe and went for 14 count aida. As you can see I have some way to go yet but I'm pleased with my progress so far.



















I shall be working on it again tonight and hope to get some of the black keys finished.

For a long time now I have been looking at the Celtic Ladies and debating whether or not to do one and now I have the perfect excuse. I came across Karen's Celtic Ladies SAL and asked if I could join. Karen has said yes so after much debate I have decide to stitch Celtic Autumn.




Isn't she gorgeous? I'm ordering the chart today and she is most definitely not going to be done on Aida. I'm itching to start her.