Framing success!

Hi everyone, what a lovely weekend we have had here in the Midlands, warm and sunny. Mom, me and Scamp the dog went a great walk yesterday afternoon along the canal from where we live to a place called Stourton. It took us just over an hour and it was so nice in the sunshine, the countryside and the peace and quiet. We even saw a heron fly out of the bull rushes. My legs ached a little today as I don't exercise much but we will definitely walk there again.

Today I framed my Country Idyll stitching ready for Christmas!!!! I bought a black frame and a cream and black mount and did it all by myself! I am very pleased with the result and I'm looking forward to seeing mom and dad's reaction to it at Christmas.

I have also worked a little more on Rosie the Rabbit, she now has a back and one paw! I want to get this finished by next week. I haven't got a cushion for it yet, I haven't seen one I like, so I think I may end up making one.

Lastly I stitched another small Christmas motif last week from the latest World of Cross Stitching magazine. I used my own colours and some variegated thread. I made it into the card this afternoon, it looks ok but I'm not sure if I really like it or not!!!

Anyway I am off for a soak in the bath now, I have spent hours catching up on ironing this morning and it has made my back ache..... so a nice relax in the warm water should help!!

Hope you all have a good week and I'll try to catch up on my blog reading over the week I seem to have been slacking!!

Ginnie x

A finish, good news and my holidays

Just one more sleep until my holiday....yeah.

But firstly my finish, I worked all week on it, the last little bits always take the longest! I thought I had finished it last night then I remembered the french knots on the bushes. So I finally got it complete today. I love the way it looks and I have completed it much quicker than I first thought. I will store it away now and decide on how to frame it sometime nearer Christmas.

Secondly our good news, Stuart's mom is currently on holiday in Devon with his eldest brother, Carl and his family. She phoned on Wednesday night to say Carl and his girlfriend Jane had got married that day, just a quiet ceremony with both parents and Jane's 2 children and there 1 daughter. They reckoned they would never get married so we were very surprised but happy. Lets hope they have a party on their return. Of course if I had known I would have done them a piece of wedding stitching. I think I will try to do a small something for Christmas, a Lizzie Kate "saying" type one.

And now I am preparing for our holiday. Laura came back from Brownie camp earlier, very tired but happy. I have packed most of our cases and sorted the food etc. Just a bit more ironing to sort and Stuart has to find the fold up chairs! We are going to a place by the sea called Charmouth in Dorset and are staying in a static caravan with my parents too. We went near there a few years ago and loved the area so I am really looking forward to going back. I hope the weather is kinder to us than last year.

Tomorrow is our Wedding Anniversary too (17 years!!) so we are having a fish and chip supper in the caravan, bliss. Then next Saturday before we return we will be visiting my Aunt and Uncle who live in Poole. It is my Uncle's 70th Birthday and they are having a party. I will see my 3 cousins who I see very little of, and finally meet my one cousin's wife!

So I'll be back on my Blog the 16th...... with lots of photos and a suntan!!! Hopefully!

Ginnie x

Weekend break

We had a lovely weekend in Hereford, and the weather was warm but not too hot! We stayed at a lovely little hotel called Brandon Lodge just south of the city. If you ever fancy a short break do check this hotel out as it was very reasonably priced and extremely friendly.

Hotel

In the afternoon after checking in we went into Hereford to visit the Cathedral which also houses the famous "Mappa Mundi" which is the only complete wall map of the world known to have survived from the Middle Ages. It was very impressive. We stopped and had tea and cake in the Cloisters cafe and then returned to the hotel.

Hereford Cathedral

Before dinner I even sat outside in the hotel gardens and cross stitched....... bliss !!

We then had dinner at a lovely pub a few miles up the road called the "Axe and Cleaver" a good ole black and white English pub!! Then back to the hotel for a good nights sleep.

On Sunday we had a large cooked breakfast and then went to Ross-on-Wye for a walk along the river (walk off the calories!!) Finally returning home in the afternoon feeling very refreshed.

Back to normal on Monday........ so here's my stitching updates -

My poppy card is now complete and ready for Becky to write in and present to her teacher next week. I'm sure she'll like it.

Then my progress on Country Idyll - some sky done, some more trees done, the horse is just about complete and then lots of confetti stitches on the wall and the man and girl. I still think I can complete this by the end of the summer!

This week Henry is back out again, I am going to stitch on him now and look forward to watching the 2nd episode of Torchwood at 9pm !!

Ginnie x

A cute puppy square

Many thanks for all your kind comments about the Wedding Row picture. The wedding went well despite the awful weather, it rained really heavy all day here and was pretty cold for June. The bad weather caused a lot of traffic on the way to the church and made Helen 20 mins late arriving !! Dave was beginning to panic !! But they had a great time still. Here are a couple of photos, the one of Helen and Dave dancing shows a little of how lovely her dress and hair was.

And here is their baby, Grace with her grandma. She looked really sweet in her pretty dress, although she looks grumpy on this photo.... probably fed up with having her picture taken!!

Now to my stitching progress from last week, I finished my Margaret Sherry puppy square for the Stitch for Charity group. Isn't he so cute?

I also did really well on my Country Idyll stitching and although I didn't quite get all the path etc done at the bottom I did get all the back stitch on the car and house finished. I love how realistic it looks, that car door that is opening looks almost 3D.

This week Henry is back out, yeah I hear you say! I have also made another little, small start...... Lizzie Kates - Friends are Angels. I have been wanting to do this for ages and thought "oh well another WIP won't matter" !!!!

On Thursday night we are off to see Chicago in Birmingham, I bought these tickets as extras for the girl's birthday, so we are all really looking forward to it. Jimmy Osmond is playing the role of Billy Flynn, I loved Jimmy as a child so am excited that he is in it.

Happy stitching.

Ginnie x

Country idyll

Hasn't Friday rolled around fast again? This week seems to have flown by and I don't feel I have done a lot of stitching. I promised an update of Country Idyll from last week and here it is -

I love the way this is turning out and I'm sure I can get it done well before Christmas.

I have also completed my second square for the "stitch for charity" group I have joined. It was for the circus theme blanket. I am posting this and the fairy one off tomorrow. I have signed up for at least another 3 squares.... but there is no rush for them so I'll take my time and try to get my other stitching done too!

This week I am back stitching on Henry. I had a urge to stitch part of the border on Monday night.... so I did. I just did the part above Henry's head and then back stitched his name on it. Otherwise I am working on wife number 5 again..... I also started a Father's Day card for my dad, it is a crossword puzzle design out of the latest Card Shop magazine. I'll post a picture of that next time.

I have to go to work in a bit... nearly the weekend though. The weather here has turned horrid and cold again.... roll on the sunshine. Have a good weekend everyone.

Ginnie x

Day out and stitching update

We have had a lovely day out today, we went to Kenilworth Castle in Warwickshire. Although a lot of it is in ruin (thanks to the "Slighting" process after the Civil war) you can see how beautiful it must have been. The weather was ok too, a little rain at first but then it brightened up. The original part of it dates back to Norman times, the part in the picture below was built by Robert Dudley for Queen Elizabeth I's visit in the 1500s. It is great that the girl's love history (well especially Laura) and they enjoyed their visit as much as me!!

This picture is of Becky and Laura in an original Norman window... hard to believe this part was built nearly 1000 years ago!!

We then had a lovely pub lunch out, it was great just to spend time together as a family!

Otherwise over the Easter weekend we managed to get the garden turfed over and I have started painting in the bathroom ready to spruce it up a bit!

Here is my stitching update, Country Idyll is really taking shape. The car is almost complete as is the roof of the cottage. You can also now see the lady getting out of the car. Once again I have loved working on this last week!

You'll be pleased to hear that it is Henry week again, and so far so good..... no mistakes! I have just completed Ann of Cleves face and headwear. I will continue on this tonight but I am very tired now after our busy day!

Tomorrow Laura has her annual hospital checkup. The girls were born 8 weeks early and had regular health checks from birth. Becky was discharged at the age of 2 but Laura has continued to be seen as she has a slight heart problem. We have had to go to the Birmingham Children's Hospital every year to be seen by the cardiologist there. Luckily her heart problem doesn't effect her health in anyway, they have labelled it an "innocent heart murmer" but want to monitor her until she is 16. Not sure what will happen then. The actual scans of her heart show a slight "thickening" on one of her heart valves which means it doesn't close completely so a little bit of blood flows back! Although she is fit and well and it has never got any worse I still worry before each appointment in case things have changed! I hope for peace of mind they still check on her after 16. So it is an earlish start as it is easier to get to Birmingham on the train and her appointment is 10.10am. I will be glad when it is over and so will Laura!!

So until next time.

Ginnie x

Finally framed!

I finally got a bigger frame this weekend to get "Dusky Dreams" framed. I bought it off Ebay for a good price, I wish the frame had been a little darker to match the brown stitching, but I still like it! This was harder to frame as I had to keep it as square as possible.... I think it went ok. I have stood it on the fire place.

Otherwise I have worked on Country Idyll this week. I love working on this even though it has so many colours.... especially greens. But being on a small hand held frame it is easier to work on. I would have done more but I have had either a headache or stomach ache most of the weekend. You can see the top of the little old car emerging and the left of the cottage, showing the tree trunks, is complete.

Today Stuart has been out all day down in Kent for an American Football match, so the girls, mom and I went to the cinema to see The Young Victoria. I love history stuff and costume dramas.... and I loved this, I thought they all played really good parts.

Tomorrow I have booked the day off work and dad and I are going family history researching. It has been ages since we have actually been to a records office to search the old documents so I am really looking forward to it.

If I can get rid of this stupid headache tonight I will work on Pete and Lesley's Silver Wedding card that I started in the week.

Until next time... happy stitching

Ginnie x