A lovely day with friends



The little local station is where my day starts when its 'meet up' day...

 

The train was on time and a short journey of just over 15 minutes is all it takes for me.  I was met by Clare at the other end and we waited for the train to arrive carrying 2 new ladies who were coming for the first time.  Angi and Gill arrived and we made the very short walk to The Abbey pub where we spent our day.

 

There were 10 of us this time in the separate lounge that has been newly decorated since our last time there ...

 

Clare's mum, Lisa and Tina

Clare and Lynn

 

Lindsay, Angie, Gill and Angi

 

and of course me.  To see me, you'll have to hop over to Clare's blog.

 

Wonderful work that we have seen growing on the forum since the last meet up was on the show table.  Lindsay's beading is always so beautiful and fabulous to see close up.

 

 

A morning of drinking something nice from the pub menu and chatting and stitching and soon it was time for a lunch break.  Lots to choose from and with waiter service, it does make the day nice. I had this ...

 

Afterwards it's time for the fun. 

 

A book exchange - if you are a reader, bring a wrapped book you have enjoyed to pass on.  Raffle tickets were given out and drawn for you to go and choose a parcel.   6 books were there this time.

 

 

I chose to wrap and giveaway a book that was given to me by Barb when I visited her last Spring. It was a lovely read and as she was not able to be with us - although we did have a lovely surprise as she rang and chatted with us during the afternoon which made the day that little bit extra special.

 

Angie received my book, which was this.

 

 

and the one I had was from Gill, she also included a beautiful stitched bookmark too. 

Thank you Gill.

 

The raffle was well supported with donations.  I'd knitted an easter bunny and Lindsay had made an easter chick bookmark, 10 prizes in all.

The money raised from the raffle is used to make the forum advert free, this time we raised enough to make it clear for the next 6 months, that will be till the next meet up, brilliant!

My prize was the mint choccies ....

 

We always have a goody bag exchange.  It doesn't have to be stash inside the bag but there is a price value and also a theme to it.  This time the theme was 'Nursery Rhymes'   No obligation to join, but its fun to try and think what to put into it.

 

 

Clare always does something different as a way to decide who gets which bag.  This time she had made gingerbread men for us, each had your name on it and a raffle ticket attached.

 

The corresponding ticket was added randomly to the bags.

 

I had an idea, I would do Baa Baa Black Sheep, I'd need 3 bags though to fulfill the nursery rhyme....

 

 

At the craft club I used the sewing machine and made 3 drawstring bags. I thought the fabric on the bags could be used to back ornaments and the ribbon drawstring also used if the recipient didn't want the bags.

 

One for the master ..... pirate ship fabric and the contents, a bottle of Black Sheep Ale...

 

 

One for the dame....... old fashioned sewing implements adorned the fabric for this one with stash contents to keep her busy lol

 

 

and one for the little boy who lives down the lane......teddy bear fabric bag and  a couple of little sheep chocolate lollipops filled that bag.

 

 

My bag was won by Angi.

 

Lindsay put together the bag I received.  Lots of differing nursery rhymes she chose to use for hers. A great assortment of things which were lovely.  Thanks Lindsay.

 

 

Just for the ladies who have attended the day, you are invited to take part in an exchange after the meet up.  This time it will be a coaster with a summer theme.  5 questions were asked, your name and address put on the card and sealed in the envelope.  You then chose an envelope with your partners details inside. No one knows who gets who, no host for this exchange.  Reveal date is 30th June so quite a while to wait, lots of time to decide what to stitch or make. 

 

 

All too soon the day draws to an end and it's time for home. 

 

Thanks ladies, I had a very lovely day and look forward to seeing you again at the autumn meet up and thanks to Clare for organising it for us.

 

 

 

Happy St Patrick's Day

Today is St Patrick's Day, what better way than to start my post with an update of Irish Garden.

Another quarter iris border added, this time the top right one.

Nature Alphabet now sports L for lavender

That's 3 rows completed, it's gets prettier each week.

 See you tomorrow Gillie - my SAL stitching buddy.

The bottom border was added to Candy Cane Cottage and this week will see the top border and a few snowflakes complete this one.

Hubby's asked for a new pair of socks. We bought this lovely wool at a local department store over 12 months ago. I think he's waited long enough for them to be started, don't you?

I'm trying out some new bamboo needles as well. If you knit, do you prefer metal pins or wooden ones, we were discussing this at a new craft group I joined last week.

My brothers mother-in-law will be celebrating her 80th birthday next month. She's a lovely lady, very friendly and lots of fun, so I've made her a little bunny to help celebrate her milestone birthday. No champagne bubbles this time, but a nice bouquet of lilac flowers instead.

Looking out of my kitchen window a lovely sight greeted me on Sunday. After waiting patiently my camelia is finally in flower. She's called Brigadoon and was a wedding anniversary present some years ago. Such a vivid pink and the flowers are so large. There's plenty more buds so hopefully the spring frosts will keep away and let me enjoy it for a few weeks as the buds fatten and open up.

Welcome to the new visitors, it's nice to see you stopping by.

Have a lovely week, hope the luck of the Irish stays with you all year....



p.s. This weekend is the Spring stitchers meet up, I'm really looking forward to seeing the girls again!

A Spring lunch ..... for a good cause

Today I had a lunch date with a friend. 

A visit to the local catering college restaurant for a silver service three course meal, proceeds of which were in aid of leukaemia and lymphoma research. 

Research at The University of Leicester in conjunction with Leicester Royal Infirmary recently made a major breakthrough in the treatment of blood cancer.  You can read about it here.  A wonderful discovery for any family suffering this disease.

The meal was, as always at the college, wonderful and 5 star service by the students training for their future careers.

A menu to make your mouth water....

 

The starter of chilled terrine of char grilled mediterranean vegetables set in basil jelly with sunblush tomato pesto....

 

Main course of chicken breast stuffed with apricot and sausagemeat with red wine and woodland mushroom sauce....

 

and who can resist a pudding, there was lovely choice, I chose the profiteroles with warm chocolate sauce.... 

 

 

There was a speaker after the meal, a leukaemia sufferer himself.  He's known as 'the man who wears shorts' for obvious reasons he told us, and yes today he had those shorts on for the meal!  He explained about his journey with the disease and the challenge he has set himself to raise funds.  He's attempting the Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge.  He explains more on his fundraising site.

 

There were some lovely raffle prizes donated and we all left with a little gift as a reminder of our lovely lunch. 

 

I said I would blog today's fundraiser to raise awareness and hope that some people might just add to Paul Ashby's donation page if they felt able to, every penny helps.

 

A walk back through the park in the sunshine was lovely on my way to catch the bus home, the daffodils looked so lovely waving their heads in the breeze.

 

 

We don't know how lucky we are to have our health and I did find myself thinking that I really have nothing to moan about in my life compared to some of the things I heard today.

 

Blessings to you all

 

 

 

Warming up ....

This weekend the barometer was reading fair to very dry... it's been a very long time since it did that!

 

Some spring sunshine and the lone crocus I showed you 24th February now has some friends ....

 

 

Sunshine does lift the mood and make the world seem a happier place in general.

 

Plenty to keep me busy last week ......

 

A stitchers meet up to look forward to later this month and I've made a little prize for the raffle.  A little easter bunny with a choccie treat ...

 

 

She's all packaged up ready to go to her new home, I wonder who will win her?

 

 

Nature Alphabet SAL with Gillie. "K" was added last week and of course today is SAL day so another letter will be added tonight.

 

 

K for 'kingcup'

 

The front façade of Candy Cane Cottage was built on Wednesday when stitching with Barb and the ladies in the parlour at NH. 

 

 

Winnie the Pooh had his border added ...

 

 

and the reverse side stitched and borders counted very carefully all ready to be made into a mattress pincushion for a special birthday gift - that's the fiddly bit and will need to be done in daylight hours!

 

 

Sadly, no Irish Garden UFO stitching this week - what a naughty stitcher.  The other ladies did well as per usual, i'll have to stand in the naughty corner!

 

Happy smiles when postie left me with an envelope, a win from Sally's blog. Thank you Sally, i'll pass it on when I have stitched it as per your instructions.

 

 

I hope you had a productive week with lots of enjoyable hours stitching, knitting, crocheting or reading, whatever hobby you chose to do.  Perhaps you were able to get out in the garden in the sunshine if you lived in the UK, it's been a lovely weekend with surprisingly high temperatures.

 

Thanks for stopping by....

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stitch, knit, read

A little crafting happening this past week, would you like to see what's grown?

Tuesday is SAL with Gillie
Nature Alphabet had J for juniper added.  A very simple square this time although I stitched mine on Thursday instead of Tuesday as I had an appointment with a bedtime story and a little lady on Tuesday.

 

It gets even nicer with each letter added.  Each little square is like a mini finish in itself.

 

 

Wednesday is another SAL night with Barb and the ladies at NH.

Santa Village is my project for this year.  Cottage number 8 is Candy Cane Cottage.  This week the roof had its repairs finished (now that I found the thread that was hiding in the safe place - we all have one and its so elusive sometimes!) and we also had a little snowfall.

 

 

Weekend UFO SAL

Irish Garden is my only UFO project.  Jo pointed out, it can't be a UFO as you're now working on it, so it makes it a WIP ..... I guess she's right lol.

 

Lots done this week, as hubby was watching something on the TV all afternoon Sunday that I had no interest in at all, so I was able to count and concentrate on the little fiddly half and quarter stitches and complete the top right quarter flower border and get the trellis panels added too. Two sessions this weekend instead of one, can't be bad, I must have been enjoying it.

 

 

Growing well, although there is no chance that it will be finished for this St Patrick's Day!  There are still two more rows of outer border flower beds to add even when I've completed the centre panels.  Perhaps it will be finished for next years celebrations.

 

 

A little knitting finish too.  An aran cardigan for my granddaughter Isabelle.  The yoke is knitted separately and you add it on afterwards. Quite an easy pattern really, but very effective. 

 

 

I've been curled up in my chair with a good book this past week.  Have you read this one?   The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society  What a title, try and remember that to tell someone else!

 

 

The book description reads ...

 

It's 1946 and author Juliet Ashton can't think what to write next. Out of the blue, she receives a letter from Dawsey Adams of Guernsey - by chance, he's acquired a book that once belonged to her - and, spurred on by their mutual love of reading, they begin a correspondence. When Dawsey reveals that he is a member of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, her curiosity is piqued and it's not long before she begins to hear from other members. As letters fly back and forth with stories of life in Guernsey under the German Occupation, Juliet soon realizes that the society is every bit as extraordinary as its name.

 

It was a lovely read and thoroughly enjoyable.  My copy has now been passed on to one of my Book Borrowers.  It was taken from me on Thursday at a crafting group as the lady in question couldn't wait till tomorrows meeting to start it.  It's an older book being published in 2008 with a very sad tale about the author and her passing away before it was published to the wider world.

 

Mary Ann Shaffer was born in 1934 in Martinsburg, West Virginia. She became interested in Guernsey while visiting London in 1976. On a whim, she decided to fly to Guernsey but became stranded there as a heavy fog descended and no boats or planes were permitted to leave the island. As she waited for the fog to clear, she came across a book called Jersey Under the Jack-Book, and so her fascination with the Channel Isles began. Many years later, when goaded by her own literary club to write a book, Mary Ann naturally thought of Guernsey, and wrote The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel society, first published in August 2008.  Mary Ann died in February 2008, knowing that her novel was to be published in English and in translation in many languages throughout the world. Her niece Annie Barrows, helped Mary Ann in the final stages of the book.

Thanks Gillie for the recommendation, I loved it.

Have a lovely week everyone whatever plans you have for it.