A day to be thankful....

We are fast approaching the end of November and today the folks in the US will be celebrating Thanksgiving, I hope you have a wonderful time with your loved ones today and thank you to all who stop by and read my rambles.



It seems only a couple of days since I was writing my last post, but another month has passed me by.  I've been reading that a lot on crafters blogs this year.  I do have a little excuse though.  I've been nursing that lergy that's been doing the rounds.  The awful cough/cold germs have been residing here with me for almost 2 weeks now and I've spent a lot of that time asleep under the comfy blanket and single handedly keeping Mr Kleenex in business!  I hope you escape it, its not nice at all.  I'm feeling a lot brighter today and have just uploaded some pictures from the camera onto the computer so thought I had better stop by and share them and give you a quick 'wave' hello.

My hubby is a great supporter of my hobbies and I recently accompanied him to a model train exhibition in support of his.  I wasn't feeling to thrilled to be going, but got such a surprise, there was the most wonderful exhibition called Bramble Bottom.  This little railway is run by mice and other woodland creatures all with moving parts.  If you click the link you can see a youtube video of the little creatures in action.  I could have watched them all day.... got to have been a lady enthusiast involved in this I think.

 

A little more forward planning for the festive season has been happening.  A couple of outfits for Isabelle's Christmas doll complete her new wardrobe with some woolly undergarments to keep out the winter chills and a nice dress, also a pair of flowery pj's.

 

 

There has also been a Christmas Fayre at the local community centre and the Book Borrowers were asked to have a stall.  We all contributed to it and I knitted up 15 little stockings filled with chocolates.  We did well and made some money to buy us some new books in the new year.

 

 

A little stitching.... Reindeer Stables is finished, but I still have quite a few to do over the next few months, so a finish of these will be for next Christmas now. I'll continue with them in the parlour with the ladies over at NH in the coming months.

 

 

I've also enjoyed SAL'ing with a lot of you doing the Plum Street Samplers mystery over the past 9 weeks. A little finish on that this afternoon.

 

 

A big decision has been made about a certain project I had languishing in my workbox.  Yes, it was the HAED.  I started at the beginning of 2007.  I was gifted the chart and fabric by another stitcher who was at the time an avid HAED stitcher and thought I might enjoy trying it.  I think it was Cathey's passing that made me finally reach a decision about it.  After a lot of thought and pondering I decided that I was never going to enjoy this one and i have never thrown away any stitched project at all and thought perhaps someone else might like to finish it off.   It would go to it's new home with everything. 

 

 

I asked the ladies at the meet up earlier this month if anyone wanted to give it a home but no one was interested so I offered it on the forum and was very pleased when a lady asked if she could try it.  She had wanted to have a go with a HAED for a while and liked the design.  It went off in the hands of Royal Mail and I will admit to skipping out the post office when I knew it was on its way to a new home.  It arrived safely and she loves it, so i'm happy.  That just leaves me with one UFO project that I will endeavour to get done during 2014, I do actually like that one lol.

 

A nice new chart arrived with me this week too, a win on Riona's blog.  A very beautiful stocking design with some lovely speciality stitches from Calico Crossroads, thank you so much Riona.

 

 

Well, that's the latest pics from the camera and a round up for November I guess.  How are you all doing with your festive preparations and crafting of those little gifts that people so love?  This weekend sees the start of Advent and that means we are nearing the man in red coming down your chimney, I hope you have been good!

 

A good blog reading session is planned over the coming week, I need to catch up with all your news, I might not leave a comment on each and every post you've made but will certainly be stopping by to see what great things you have all been up to.

 

Take care

love and best wishes (germ free of course)

 

 

 

Remembrance Sunday

This morning I have been listening to my local radio as they broadcast the Remembrance Sunday service from the local cenotaph in one of our lovely city parks.

I was thinking how a time for remembering has changed so much over the years.

My generation all know a family member who was conscripted into the services to do their 2 years national service, such a lot of men saw active service and sometimes their memories were recounted to you, sometimes not as they struggled themselves to forget what they had seen.  You were brought up remembering your forebears especially on this day, the second Sunday in November each year and you learnt about it a lot in your history lessons.

With the onset of the computer age and media we remember those who are serving each and every day more so now as news of the conflicts are brought to us via the news service, be that on our phones, ipads and computers and into our homes through the news on the television screens.  Some of the sights you see are just so dreadful you can hardly imagine the traumas the young soldiers today face each and every day.

We see our servicemen brought home to Royal Wooton Bassett, a town given the honour of being called 'Royal' in honour of our war dead that return there from overseas and make their journeys to their families so they can lay them to rest.  The streets are lined with people who just want to pay their respects to those men and women who served Queen and country.

Earlier this week the younger royals Prince William and his lovely wife Kate hosted the Poppy Day event at Kensington Palace whilst Prince Philip and Prince Harry made the annual visit to the Field of Remembrance at Westminster Abbey.  All of these men in the royal family having first hand experience of the forces.  Today saw the Queen herself honouring her subjects at the Parade and Service at the Cenotaph in Whitehall, featuring a main service followed by a March Past of both ex-service men and women and civilians in Horse Guards Road.

Not only in these modern times do we have the Royal British Legion raising funds for our soliders with the annual poppy appeal but we now have the charity Help for Heroes that does all kinds of fund raising in all kinds of countries and carrying out all manner of things to provide our wounded and lost servicemen and their bereaved families with the help and support they require.

Today there is no prejudice, you can be any nationality or faith and we should all come together to remember.

God Bless you All xxx   

Saturday was the meet up!

Not a good start to the day, it was drizzling with rain when I awoke and the sky looked very black.

It improved as I ate my breakfast and when I arrived at the station in plenty of time for my outward journey......

 

the train was then running late, no idea why.  I did arrive at my destination in plenty of time though and was met at the station in Nuneaton by two friends.  We walked to the pub... yes, the pub..... we sit in the private lounge away from the rest of the drinkers lol

 

There were 10 of us this time

 

and lots of lovely stitching and beading work on show

 

The theme for this times goody bag exchange was 'sparkle and fizz' 

 

Clare had made little cupcakes and under each was a raffle ticket and as you picked a cake you received the bag corresponding to the ticket you chose

My bag came from Jane and was full of lovely things. 
Thank you Jane. x

 

We are all avid readers and have a book exchange too. 

The books are wrapped to hide their titles

I chose the pink one, front left, which was from Clare. 

Thank you Clare. x

 

The Needlecraft Haven forum sometimes has adverts on it and this year it was decided that the money from the raffle would be used to stop them appearing. We raised enough for about 5 months of advert free forum time.

 

Lots of lovely donated gifts in the raffle ....

I won some lovely Chapstick in a pretty tin, these will be so useful with the upcoming cold weather.

 

There was lots of chat and fun and even quite a bit of stitching going on.  I took Part 3 of the Jardin Prive with me and managed to finish it off over the weekend after I got home. 

 

Thank you Lindsay, Rachael, Clare, Tina, Lisa, Jane, Lynn, Maggie and Clare's mum who came along with her quilting, for such a lovely and enjoyable day, I look forward to seeing you all again in the spring.

 

I've been naughty this afternoon and had an hour adding this weeks little shepherd to the Plum Street Samplers design, I don't normally stitch in the daytime but when I printed it out earlier it was such a little bit that I thought go on, get the needle out do it lol. 

 

 

I hope you all had a lovely weekend spent with those you love and care for.