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.

Post

Two packages dropped through the door both with stitching goodies for me.

One from Thread Bear contained the charts I'm planning on using to make my family Christmas cards from so now I need to start looking out for some suitable material for them.

The second from Country Designs contained the beads and material for Celtic Autumn so now I only need to get the threads sorted and I'll be able to start her. Luckily it's the Wye Needlecraft Show next weekend so I'm hoping to on stock up on everything there. No doubt I'll come home with some extra stuff as well!!

Excellent service from both places as I only ordered the goods on Thursday. Even more impressive when I spotted the error in the order from Country Designs and emailed them about it they replied very promptly, amended the order and have sent me exactly what I wanted.

The mystery of why I can't see as well with the new bulb in my magnifying lamp was also solved. It's not a daylight bulb but an 11 watt energy saving bulb. No wonder my eyes were feeling so tired last week. Another thing to purchase at the show next week.

One good thing about being woken up early by the postman was that it got me to the gym first thing this morning. I left feeling really happy as I was able to increase times, weights and speeds on different exercises, a sure sign that all the exercise is having an effect and I'm getting fitter.