Flowers, food & friends

No WIP pics to show as i've not picked up a needle for over a week although life should now return to some sort of normal now that Amy is back in her own place again. A phone call Friday to say all was finished and she could move home so a busy weekend for us all cleaning the place and emptying boxes. The new bathroom looks wonderful, it's just a shame that the brand new toilet has sprung a leak (something to do with the moulding process when it was made) and the shower is not sealed down the side (plumber came straight out and sorted that). The new loo has to be ordered and should be installed before the end of the week then we can all put this horrendous time behind us.

These little dianthus beauties bring a smile to my face, they are a new variety of seed that DH bought just for me.

The recent sunshine has opened them up lovely although there is no scent to them. The reason he chose them is their name, they are called 'bagpuss' and he knows my love of that little chap LOL

The first of the cucumbers in the greenhouse are ripe and ready to be eaten too, so juicy and tasty and so much better than shop bought ones.

There is nothing better than cucumber sandwiches on the lawn for tea, typically british with a nice cup of Earl Grey tea and a nice piece of cake .... sheer heaven on a plate!

Postie came yesterday with a brown envelope addressed to me. I knew for sure i hadn't ordered anything recently. Seeing the address label on the back i knew who it was from but wasn't expecting anything from Karan. Inside was this lovely little surprise parcel, aren't those little froggy sticky notes so cute and i love the bunny chart. Thanks Karan for the lovely surprise, it certainly made my day!

Thanks for visiting, hopefully my stitching mojo will return this week and i'll have something 'hobbyish' to show you next time.

Our weekend ...

In our house the weekend officially starts Friday afternoon as DH finishes work around 3pm. This week wasn't a good start though, i had been a very bad girl and shared my cold germs, well if he will insist on his goodnight kiss, then he has to suffer the bad - i did warn him when i was all snuffly. He was feeling very rough (his other health issues don't make for a happy chap when germs are about). An afternoon/evening on the sofa under the fluffy blanket and spending most of the time dozing was all he could manage

Saturday was the day of the local school fete. I was eager to go as i used to be school governor there and its been ages since i met up with the staff. The weather was great, a lovely sunny day and DH decided a breath of fresh air might just do him good too. A short walk and we could soon hearing the drumbeat and the singing of Emmanu'-El Apostolic Gospel Academy it was a great sound and the school playing field was certainly buzzing with lots of the children dancing to the beat. They are entrants in this years Choir of the Year too.

We wandered around and had a go on a lot of stalls, the children and parents were all having such fun. The local police were in attendance and also the Lord Mayor. Returning home DH headed for a snooze to replenish energy levels. Not long after the doorbell rang and i was surprised to see the local councillor at the door. She presented me with this handcrafted fairy doll, i put my name against one of the name choices and when the envelope was opened revealing the answer i had won. Lots of work has gone into this by a local lady. The name i chose was Beth as thats Amy's middle name!

The loveliness of the day soon turned sour. Originally we had been told the work at Amy's was supposed to be finished Friday and her belongings returned Saturday. She phoned me before she started work at 2pm in tears, what a mess at her place. The carpet was still wet from the cleaners and yet they had still delivered all her things that morning when no-one was there. She'd had no confirmation that everything was complete and wasn't scheduled to leave the hotel till Monday morning just in case there was a delay. The repairs are still not finished either! A very irate phone call to the manager on duty at the housing place and he was soon on site to meet me and dad (as Amy was by now in work) to see the state of things. A lot of her stuff had been damaged in the move in/out too. Not a lot could be done as it was the weekend, so we agreed to meet again 9am Monday morning. After lots of discussions with the various departments dealing with this, Amy is still in the hotel until next Sunday and she is to receive compensation for the damage. Yesterday afternoon this basket of flowers arrived here for her as an initial apology for the damage, very pretty but we would have preferred them to have taken more care with her items. She has also had to move out of the executive room at the hotel into a standard room as they were all booked this week, she is not happy and stress levels here are still well above normal!! Everything has been photographed and documented since the beginning of the whole fiasco, so hopefully she will be well compensated in the end.

Sunday DH was still not feeling well, he dozed most of the day, then watched the Grand Prix. I needed something to avert my thoughts and try to stay calm. Decision made easily, this months Christmas ornament would be a quick finish and perk me up. I chose another Shepherds Bush, this one is 'In a Stable' from the JCS 2004 Ornament issue. Simple finish, inspiration lacking this time.

Thats how our weekend shaped up, i hope you had a good one, time for me to do a blog reading catch up and see what you've all been up to. Thanks for taking time to visit.

Playing hooky???

The lovely sunshine seems to be playing hide and seek this week and we're having a lot more rain. The flowers blooming in the garden after last weeks beautiful sunshiney days are taking a battering with the heavy rain. Yesterday evening DH rescued our first bunch of sweet peas and brought them into the house for me. That man knows the simple things that bring a smile to my face, I wish you could smell the lovely scent they're giving off.

LOOKIE what i've been having a go at. I've been trying my hand at crochet. I was directed over to Lucy's blog - Attic24 and WOW what a super blog it is, a treasure trove of information. She also has a ravelry group too. Resistance was futile and i caved in, found a suitable size hook amongst MIL's old things and dug out the oddments of sock wool i had left over and gave it a try ... i think i am hooked on a new hobby. I've decided to carry on using this wool for a while and keep practising making these little granny squares, then i'll make a little blankey and i can practice the joining up skills too.

Someone else in this house is not impressed with the rain showers. You could almost hear the little tiger roar this morning at DS when he got out of bed to leave it as was, it looks like he got his way and made himself right at home all nice and comfy. It sure is a cats life in this house!!

Happy Birthday Mum

Mums birthday gift was was stitched, sent out and arrived in time for her birthday on Thursday. She lives in a senior citizens complex and the bungalows are quite small, but when we went last time i noticed that she had a vase of flowers sitting on a saucer so as not to mark her old wooden furniture. This gave me an idea, i'd picked up in the LNS sale bin some time ago a large coaster that would easily be large enough to put a vase on top. It took me ages to think of a suitable design to put inside, she has many stitched items that i have done in the past, but i finally decided on the free hardanger design Starstruck from Polstitches Designs. This is a fabulous design for anyone wanting to try out hardanger and the diagrams are really good. Fabric is a 28ct blue linen(no name on it) and the threads are Polstitches own dragon shades Perle 8 & 12 in sky blue. Mum loves blue so it was a hit and she thought it was a perfectly brilliant and useful gift.

This week i decided to focus my stitching time on Grand Marquoir and added 3 more motifs. The more motifs that are added the harder it becomes to choose a different colour. You would think with having a full set of DMC it would be easy, but i spend way too much time looking through boxes and changing my mind each time, i'm so pleased i didn't stitch it all in the same colour and love how it's growing.

Work did commence at Amy's place on Tuesday and we have been summoned to a meeting at 10am tomorrow morning with the manager for an update of the situation. Amy also has her scan tomorrow afternoon, but unfortunately, i wont be able to go with her as i have somehow caught a rotten summer cold and i dont want to enter the hospital full of germs, so DH will be going with her instead. I hope we don't have to wait too long for the results - thats the worst bit. My brother is healing well too and his check-up at the hospital this week went well.

The sun is shining today after a storm last night, the birds are singing in the garden, and life is looking much brighter in our neck of the woods, anyone want my cold, i am happy to share it with you.....