So what happened to September?

It started off promisingly - a friend and I did a beginners quilting course that we'd enrolled on back in June and were eagerly awaiting. It was held a tiny shop in Canterbury and was great fun. There were six of us on the course which is the maximum the room can hold and we learnt about piecing, cutting and sewing together basic nine patch pieces in squares and triangles.

Here's my first four squares made during that day:



We're booked to go on the second Beginners Course next month which teaches smaller triangles and the 'flying geese' blocks. After that it's a 'finishing' course at the end of november.

I'm already hooked just from this initial course and have about a dozen quilts planned LOL. There's also another 12 courses run at the shop all of which I'd like to do so I'm hoping I manage at least a couple next year. Of course I need another hobby like a hole in the head.

Anyway, after the course I came home picking my in-laws up en route as they came over for five days to see us (well DH), Lia and the new house. Thankfully they weren't staying with us so I was able to hold my temper better than previous visits but it was a relief when they left. I don't understand why they're such hard work. We constantly try and come up with things to do when they're around and they never seem to enjoy it but they never seem to enjoy just sitting around either.

DH finds them even more frustrating than me which doesn't help as I have to put up with them AND him being in odd moods. The only thing that caused issues this time was my refusal to let my MIL wash up and clean. I know that sounds like bliss to some people but having her walk into the house and immediately start cleaning and tidying drives me nuts. I can live with dirty dishes sitting waiting to be washed - they're not left more than a few hours and only if we're heading out or busy elsewhere - and it always makes me feel like she's criticising me by implying I don't run the house the way she would (god forbid anything dirty is left out for more than 30 seconds in her house).

Anyway, this time I was super-woman. I went to work, cooked, cleaned, washed, ironed and looked after the baby. I also haven't slept as well for weeks as I did those five days LOL.

And then, on the day they were leaving what did I notice on Lia? Spots. Only one or two but by Monday morning there were lots and lots and lots...





Chicken Pox!

Nine of the children in her room at nursery had it last week too. I had to take four days off work to nurse her (DH did one day as I had to be in a meeting) and for the first three days she was pretty miserable and kept asking me to wash the spots off for her. Thankfully child antihistamine worked wonders for the itching and by thursday she was on the mend. This pic was taken on friday and as you can see she was feeling a lot better!



So that was most of September gone!

Other good things that happened this month were our new sofas arriving. They're scarlet leather and sooooooooo comfortable but we have been warning friends that they may need sunglasses when they come and visit



We also saw lots of friends we haven't seen for ages and my sister came to stay to help us get started with sorting out the garden. She and my BIL delivered some furniture including a piano which is fantastic. It's in need of a tuning but other than that is in perfect condition and I can't wait to start playing again (yes, that is another hobby to add to the list LOL).

I also held a small stitching GTG - smaller than originally planned as only those prepared to brave the chicken pox came. It was fun though and some of us ended the day off with a trip to Kristina's house which holds all the stock for Lekker Threads. Much stash was purchased and a great time was had by all (except maybe her DBF who was trying to watch TV!)

Do go and check out her site as she has some fantastic items for sale (no affiliation etc, just a happy customer).

So that's it. September is almost over and the shops are starting to display Christmas items so I'm left wondering what happened to the bulk of 2007!

Stitching Project Plan

This is a list of my current projects that I want to focus on between now and the end of the year.

Bent Creek Red Threads
Bent Creek Big Zipper
Cirque des Cercles
Heaven Above
Grandma's Thread Minder
Birds of a Feather Dilly Bag
Sleigh Ride
Santa's Journey Afghan
Be Attitudes Afghan
Cottage Garden 2

All are current WIPs that I love and so deserve attention from me. I hope to get better about taking WIP pictures to get my motivation levels up so I'm going to start by taking a picture of all of them at the weekend so I can compare them all on 31st December. I'd like to think I will have a couple of finishes by then but given there's so much to do in the new house I'll be happy if I've just managed to get a bit further on with all of them.

If I do start any other projects I will keep them small - probably some quick finishes such as ornaments, biscornus, etc.

Also I want to get practicing with drawn thread work too as I have a sampler I'd like to get stitched for my Sis and BIL who celebrate 40 years of marriage next September. I think I should get moving on this now just in case Baby 2 comes along as all stitching plans go out of the window with a newborn in the house!

The Tale of the Paint

The first job on the list for the morning after we moved was a trip to B&Q to get all the paint, brushes, etc required for us to get on with decorating. Our car was still pretty full of stuff from the move but we didn't really have anywhere to put it in the house and, as the bulk of it was my stash, I wasn't putting it in the garage (there's A LOT of spiders in there and I'm not risking one jumping out and attacking me the next time I go on a floss hunt...)

Anyway we bought all our stuff and as we came out of B&Q DH saw the icecream van that was stationed at the exit to attract all the bored and whiney kids who had endured DIY shop hell with their parents. Cue much searching of pockets for enough change to buy and icecream for my slightly less bored and whiney husband.

I purchased the icecreams while he packed the stuff in the car (hey, I was bored and whiney too).

Anyway, the route home involved, unsurprisingly, turning a few corners and whilst turning the fourth corner there was an ominous thump from the back of the car. DH yelled at me to stop the car but in order to do this safely (it's lucky I'm not a nervous driver) I had to turn two more corners.

We opened the boot to discover that the tubs of paint that DH had carefully stacked in the back of the car had fallen over and the top one had hit the side of our newly purchase mop bucket, opened and dumped a large amount of it's contents around the back of the car.

So we're stuck with paint dripping everywhere, nothing useful to use to clear it up and me having a minor fit regarding the close proximity of paint and stash. Oh and I hadn't finished my icecream either.

We mopped up as best we could and headed home (which was just around the corner) with DH muttering about how he shouldn't have stacked the tubs, how he shouldn't have shopped with the car full of stuff, how the whole world was against him, etc etc etc, and me resisting the urge to say 'but there was more than enough room to put the tubs side by side' (which there was)

In the end the damage was minimal - a couple of unrescuable garden rubbish sacks, the mop bucket (which did a super job of catching the bulk of the paint and ensuring it wasn't a lot worse) and one of my framed cross stitchings.

Swirly Sampler to be precise. DH cleaned it up as best he could but I'm not sure that it is going to be okay. It's a bit damp round the edges and it's difficult to get to all the paint without risking more damp. I've been way too occupied with other things to spend time trying to clean it up properly but thankfully, whilst I did spend time stitching it, it wasn't hours and hours of work.

Yes I am taking it quite calmly but there's nothing I can do. If I'd gone on a total rant we'd have had a huge row (in front of Lia and my parents) and nothing constructive will have been achieved. I've chalked it up to 'accidents happen' but I have learned that golden rule - never let your husband load paint in the car whilst distracted by the thought of an icecream...

Never let your Husband load paint in the car whilst distracted by the thought of an icecream

And other lessons learned while moving house...

• Dulux Once is a misnomer
• Getting three coats of paint on three rooms in three days is possible but not recommended
• Removal men are worth every penny
• Two year olds never fail to surprise you
• No matter how organised you are when you move the phrase 'where's the tin opener' will always strike fear into your heart
• Other people are skanky
• And strange

So we're moved. Finally.

Friday dawned bright and sunny and the removal men arrived half an hour early. Which was fantastic apart from the fact that they couldn't drive the very large lorries up our very narrow street... Many attempts were made (that thankfully did not end in destruction of other people's vehicles) and just when it seemed we were going to have to admit defeat the owner of the offending truck/jeep/huge vehicle in the way appeared and moved the huge thing out of the way.

As I said the removal men were worth every penny of the many, many pennies they cost. My parents were great - they took Lia out for the morning so we were able to get on with the business of emptying the house without having to worry about where she was. The packing up took just over four hours and the unpacking about three. Not one thing got broken (I was hoping it might slim down our mug collection a bit but no such luck!) and although we were tired by the end of the day at least we weren't exhausted as we would have been had we had to do it all ourselves (in fact I'm sure we wouldn't have managed even with all the friends that volunteered to help).

I picked up the keys just as the last few bits were being loaded up and we were told that it would be another two hours before our vendor was gone. We headed round to the new house with me worried we'd have to camp outside the place but there was no sign of her so we just got on with moving in.

Unfortunately she had completely failed to clean anything before she left. My Mum (bless her!) rolled up her sleeves and cleaned the bathroom (although she refused to do the shower, that involved bleach and re-grouting!) and then the kitchen. I got the job of cleaning the fridge which stank due to the crusted milk products on the shelves and also the oven which wasn't pleasant either.

I knew the carpets needed a good clean because I'd noticed when we looked round so I'd booked professional carpet cleaners to come in the following tuesday and thank god I had. Once the furniture had been removed they were even worse than I remembered!

The dirt wasn't 'I've sold the house I won't bother cleaning' it was 'I generally live in squalor because I'm a skanky cow'. Now I'm the first to admit that cleaning isn't the top of my agenda but I don't leave spilt food on surfaces, stains on carpets etc. I'm more of an ignore the dust and mess kind of home owner.

Still, we'd have cleaned the carpets anyway as well as everything else - what bothered me was the need to disinfect and 'deep clean' because she hadn't bothered. I felt bad because I didn't get to hoover round the whole of our old house before we left but I'd cleaned the bathroom and kitchen.

We'd also planned on painting rooms as soon as we moved (before they filled up with furniture etc). Lia's room was an attractive darkish blue, ours a darkish peachy/orange and the lounge had one wall that was eau-de-nil (ish) which wouldn't go with our bright red sofas that are on order...

So brush in hand I tackled the rooms (DH hates painting) and I managed to get three coats on all three rooms leaving just the skirting to do. I've suffered for it ever since as my arm has ached constantly for the last 10 days but it was worth it to see the rooms finished.

So with a thorough cleaning, carpets cleaned and walls freshly painted the house is now almost pristine and is great to go home to.

Lia's been a total champ. She kept herself amused most of the first weekend when I was painting and DH was pootling about doing jobs and she's slept just fine since we moved in - I was worried that she'd have problems adjusting but she's been absolutely terrific. She seems to be happy in the new house and will be even happier when she finally gets let loose on the garden (at the moment it's so overgrown that we'd lose her!)

Unpacking wise we're getting there. We need our friendly neighbourhood electrician to do a bit of work before we can put up our wardrobes and sort out the lounge so a lot of stuff is in boxes. Thankfully the kitchen doesn't need any work so we're living in there for now.

I'm trying to unpack at least one box a night at the moment and we should have Lia's room finished by the end of this coming weekend so all her stuff can get sorted and put away. The electrician is coming in early next week which means we should be almost sorted by the following weekend (although DH's parents will be here that week so I'm not sure exactly how much work we'll get done).

The only other saga with the house is that all we received were two back door keys. No keys for the front door or the patio doors. After much chasing the vendor told us that she'd never had keys for the front doors - they hadn't been supplied when she bought the house!!! So not only did she fail to mention this to us, she didn't chase it up at the time she bought the house AND she didn't get the locks changed during those three years.

As I said, people are strange...

Tomorrow!!!

Blimey it's come round fast.

We're pretty much all packed. DH speeded up considerably over the weekend and we've been matching each other box for box for the last few days.

All that's left now are the last minute things that we keep looking at and thinking 'we can't pack that we'll still need it'. The Removal Men are turning up at 9am tomorrow so we'll be up much earlier getting the last bits done.

My parents are arriving this evening and will be round in the morning to take Lia off our hands and entertain her whilst our lives are packed in the vans. She's coping well at the moment and I found a way to keep her entertained while I packed - she's given crayons and allowed to decorate the packed boxes as much as she likes.

We've only had one night of not sleeping this week so hopefully she'll sleep tonight as I can't face tomorrow with sleep deprivation.

We're supposed to be hooked up to the internet at the new house by 8pm tomorrow evening but I'm not holding my breath. I'll be back at work on Tuesday and so should be able to cope for three days without access - it's not like I won't be busy with other things!

One Week To Go

Well we're about 2/3 packed. And most of that has been done by me. DH has absolutely no sense of urgency and I know that in his head there's plenty of time left which is why he lazes around and I pack boxes...

To be fair, I spent a large part of Sunday packing up my books whilst he did the parental duties but it's the evenings where I'm packing 5-6 boxes a night and he's not that are starting to bug me. So I've rebelled and demanded that he packs tonight while I sit on my bum stitching and watching the TV.

To be honest I'm so anal that I prefer to be the one that does the bulk of the packing because then I know where everything is. All I'm asking him to be responsible for is his stuff. I tell you they're not wrong when they say Moving House is right up there with Death and Divorce as the most stressful things life can throw at you - there's a fair chance this house move could result in either of the above!

Having said that I guess I could be accused of not supporting DH in his early forays into packing and so actively encouraged his lack of motivation. The following is a conversation we had on the phone about three weeks ago while I was at my parents:

DH - I've packed the first box!
Me - Cool
DH - Some of the stuff from the office. I've worked out the best way to label the boxes is to use my spray glue and then stick some paper on it.
Me - Okaaaaaaaay
DH - So I put the label on and wrote Office on it
Me - But we don't have an office in the new house
DH - Yes I know but I figured that we could tell the removal guys that when it says office we really mean Bedroom 3.
Me - Here's a radical idea, how about you don't write office on the box but write bedroom 3 instead?
DH - Okay but I'll have to glue another label on
Me - Whatever you think best dear...

Men!

Not only that he decided his next attempt would be the DVDs. It took him almost an hour to pack one box as he had to work out the best way to get the most DVDs in one box...

Still we're slowly but surely getting there, I'm certainly not about to panic that there's too much to do and not enough time.

I've phoned all the utility companies, re-arranged furniture deliveries that were ordered before our completion date changed, organised the family menu for the next week so we take as little food as possible (and I can get the oven cleaned at the weekend) and also organised the carpet cleaners to come in to the new house on the tuesday after we move.

Lia's settled down again which is good. Poor thing has even less space to play in than normal as there's an awful lot of boxes around. Still, most evenings it's home, dinner, bath, In The Night Garden (CBeebies) and bed. Once we get past this weekend it won't be too bad for her as next weekend she'll have a huge amount of space to run around in. Fingers crossed for some good weather so we can take her out to the park a lot.

DH's parents have finally booked their flights to come over and see us. They won't be staying with us, they've booked a hotel, and they'll only be around for five days, one of which I'll be working, so fingers crossed we manage a visit without a row! We're going to take them to the Berkshire County Show which will be something completely different for them. I'm also thinking we could go to Legoland on the only other full day they're with us that I'll be home. That way we should manage to keep them occupied.

Still it all depends on the weather I guess.

Anyway, this weekend I'm seeing a couple of friends which will be a nice break and I'm sure next week will pass in a flash.

Finally - we've Exchanged!

Last minute on Friday. Literally. The cut off time is 4.30pm and I think ours went through at 4.25pm!

We are all set to be moving a week on Friday (24th) which is the friday before a Bank Holiday here in the UK - the particular Bank Holiday that one of the biggest music festivals in the country is held at the town we live in...

I'm pretty sure we'll be okay, the festival is the other side of the town and, apart from a couple of hours panic when my parents (our child care) couldn't find a hotel, it's better than I'd hoped for.

We're now about half way with the packing. We got rid of some of our unwanted furniture this weekend and then promptly spent an absolute fortune in IKEA replacing it LOL. We went with a list of items we wanted but ended up buying a new dining table and desk as well. It was a bit of a nightmare getting it all in the car but one of DH's top skills is packing so after three loads and unloads we got it all in.

We're using this move to replace a lot of the old furniture that I've had for years or we bought cheaply when we had a lot less spare cash. We're also 'inheriting' a few things from my Mum as she's moving in three months so apart from our beds, Lia's furniture and some shelves it's all going to be new. I even found a great unit at IKEA specifically for having my stitching stuff in - DH hates it lying around (I'm terrible at leaving it on the backs of chairs and stuff).

So it's going to be a manic 10 days. Poor Lia seems to be a bit unsettled. We moved a futon out of her room on Saturday and she's had two terrible nights sleep since then (I'm running on reserve power after about four hours sleep last night). Hopefully she'll settle down quickly after we move but it's going to be hell trying to move and cope with not much sleep if she keeps this up for the intervening time.

Ho Hum

I like to be in control. I'm a very organised person. I write lists. I have a great memory for dates, times, appointments, etc. I'm very rarely late.

To put it another way, I'm not the kind of person who should ever consider moving house...

We're still waiting for our Completion date to be confirmed. We're hoping it's the 13th - yes, just one week from today - which is the date that I thought everyone was working towards but late on Friday our sellers solicitor stated the 28th. This morning I spoke to our Solicitor who has faxed over letters to the other two referencing 13th and now I have to wait to see if it is agreed.

Half my life is packed into boxes. The house is completely upside down. I have removal men booked for the 13th (the fourth date I've given them). I have furniture ordered that will be delivered before the end of the month (to either address but obviously it would be better to have it delivered straight to the new house) and I have no idea when I'm likely to be moving.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

I hate my life being out of my control. I hate walking round boxes, constantly trying to remember where things are. Realising something is packed that I need. Not having a clue how to schedule things because nothing is certain.

We could be moving in a weeks time and I haven't even begun to let the utility companies know. Or the post office. Or the milkman.

To add to all of that Lia has been car sick several times over the last couple of weeks. At least I'm almost certain she's being car sick as she's absolutely fine one minute, chucks up and is then absolutely fine again. I've been cleaning her up and continuing to nursery where she's shown no further symptoms.

It's only happened in the mornings (stop start traffic) so I'm hoping it's not too bad but given my ability to throw up in stationary vehicles (yes my travel sickness is that bad) I'm certain that's the issue. I'm going to move her car seat into the front of the car tonight to see if that helps.

On a less stressful subject I've been back in the family fold twice in the last fortnight and so have had plenty of cuddles with my Great Niece who is gorgeous - here's a pic to prove it...



Mother and baby are fine although my niece is still learning how to live on absolutely no sleep LOL.

My poor sister has had a tough few weeks. She had a big birthday at the beginning of July where she officially became a pensioner, she then became a Grandmother for the first time nine days later and then her mother died five days after the baby was born.

I should say that she's my half sister so we have the same Dad but different mothers (mine is still very much alive and kicking). That also explains the huge age gap as my sister is 24 years older than me (so no, I'm not anywhere close to becoming a pensioner LOL). Still this weekend was quite an emotional one as my sister and I are very close and I spent quite some time with her.

While we're on cute babies here's a pic of my Greek Nephew Lefty...



As you can see he too is thriving. I've yet to meet him in person and won't until sometime next year now as the house move has dragged on so long that we're not going to be out in Greece this year. DH's parents should be visiting us next month as soon as we're settled in the new house.

Stitching wise I've been getting on with Bent Creek's Big Zipper project but haven't taken a WIP picture. I also finished up Luisa's birth sampler:



I may never stitch another Tatty Teddy design as the back stitching is truly horrible! However, my Niece loved it so it was worth the effort. I stithed it on a piece of 'Sparkling Fairytale from Sparklies
and it's as charted apart from I used an Old Willow Stitchery thread for the text and corners to brighten it up.

All of my stash is packed now apart from four not-too-large projects that are my focus pieces between now and being settled in the new house. I'm itching to start Sleigh Ride again but the chart is packed deep in a box somewhere so I'll just have to be patient.

Finally for Even-Star, the bookmarkers are from a Sue Hawkins kit which you can order from her website. Once I'd mastered the kit I just bought more Perle No 5 and kept going...

I Should Moan Here More Often!

Shortly after posting that last update I had an email from our Seller saying that she had instructed her Solicitor to go as fast as possible so we can meet the 6th August Completion date.

Then this morning at 5am my Great Niece Luisa Marie was born weighing 8 pounds 1 and a half ounces. Mother and baby doing just fine.

A Newsy kid of post

In which the news is that nothing much is happening...

House move - still nothing happening. Our seller is the elusive woman and all we're waiting for is her to get on with things. We're ready to Exchange with our buyer but we're waiting and waiting and waiting for the paperwork from our seller. I've emailed her again today to chase but she's not responding to us, the estate agent or her solicitor so there's only so much we can do.

DH is talking about starting to look at other properties but I'm hanging on in there for a while as we've invested quite a bit of cash in this sale and I don't want to just give up.

It's disheartening though as I'd hoped we would be in the house by now - we've already missed two potential moving dates and the third (suggested by our seller) is likely to be missed too.

Stitching - I'm going great guns on documenting my stash (the link to my stash blog can be found towards the top of the right hand menu) and it's certainly focussing me on staying on the wagon!

I've spent a lot of time making bookmarkers from a Sue Hawkins kit. I made a load last year and gave them to all the women that came to our wedding - my English SIL asked me to make some more as her friends had been admiring them so I ended up making another 19! Here's a pic of 15 of them

and here's a picture of one so you can see how they look not all tangled up!

I've also just completed Bent Creek's Snowbound stitched on a piece of the sparkly blue fabric I dyed at the Weekend GTG. I changed the colour for the snow from DMC 644 to WDW Whitewash but other than that it's as charted. Apologies for the truly awful picture, I'll try and get a better one during daylight hours

I'm currently stitching on a Tatty Teddy birth sampler for my Great Niece which is almost done - I'm just doing the backstitching which, as anyone out there who has done one of these desgins will know, is just awful!

The baby is now officially 9 days late and my Niece is showing no signs of producing anytime soon. She's had one 'stretch and sweep' and is due for another on friday if nothing has happened and an induction on Monday if the baby is still not willing to come and meet us. My poor niece is not only huge and fed up but July is birthay month in our family and she's desperately hoping that the baby doesn't end up sharing a birthday. She's missed her Mum's, her sister's is today, my brother (her Uncle, obviously) is next tuesday and her Dad is the 27th. Her BIL's is also today.

It's a family joke that we should all avoid having babies born in July or December but my niece obviously just forgot how to count. For me I have my Sister, Brother, Younger Niece, two BILs, one Step Sister and Two Nephews in July as well as the children ot two of my close friends. And of course Great-Niece whenever she decides to appear. December is DH, Elder Niece, English SIL, Step Sister and Two BILs.

I'm now determined that I'm going to have my next one in July just because it's a family tradition LOL.

In other less interesting news we bought new sofas (so we need to get in the new house by the end of September!) and we're looking to find a desk - we think we've found one but as we've only seen it in a catalogue we're going to see it IRL this weekend.

I'm eagerly awaiting the final Harry Potter book this weekend. I read the first book soon after it came out (but not soon enough to have a first edition to sell for loads of money) so was a fan before all the hype. I'm only really determined to read it asap because of all the spoilers that will be floating around. DH has promised to do childcare for the weekend (luckily he's not a reader) so I can immerse myself.

We saw the latest film last weekend and really enjoyed it. DH hasn't read the books and hasn't liked the films that much up until now but was really positive about this one. I've read a lot of comments about how much was missed out or changed but there is never, ever going to be a film of a book that is able to stick totally to the text so for me, as long as the essence of the story is the same, then the two should be enjoyed as completely separate entities. If you spend all your time looking for what's missing you're going to enjoy it less and less.

So that's about all the news from here. At the moment we're treading water until the house move is confirmed so I'm getting on with stitching as much as I can as I know there'll be much more to take up my time once that really gets moving.

A Pretty Picture

We were at a friends wedding at the weekend and my little tomboy was all dressed up!

The Good, The Bad and the Downright Frustrating...

The Good:

I love tennis. This fortnight of the year is always bliss for me as the BBC have great coverage of Wimbledon with their interactive service and DH knows that he has no chance of watching anything else. Not only that the IBM scoreboard that can be accessed through the Wimbledon Site is even better this year so even when I'm at work I can keep up with games in real time.

The Bad:

The weather. God it's awful weather here in England and whilst we thankfully live away from the worst of it, the news is full of awful pictures and stories and four people have died due to floods so far.

The Downright Frustrating:

Solicitors and Estate Agents! We've ground to a halt with our house move due to our Sellers Solicitor not having answered a request from our Solicitor first made on 1st June! We've been held back for four weeks for the want of one response - everything else is in place. Now it looks like we won't be moving till mid August, which is so frustrating. I've asked the Estate Agents to put our desired moving date of 16th July to the other two parties but given our seller needs a rocket up her a*se to do anything I can't see her agreeing.

Damn, damn, damn...

In other news I've started cataloguing my stash with the idea that seeing exactly what I have written down will scare me to not fall off the wagon. It's working so far as I'm shocked at the amount of fabric and threads I have (I've had a list of projects for a while so that's not too much of a surprise).

One final piece of niceness for this post is that the wonderful ladies who joined me on the Stitching Weekend were incredibly generous in their thanks (I did the organising) and I got four Flower Fairy Lili of the Valley Cross Stitch Kits and a £25 gift voucher for Lekker Threads!!! To say I was stunned is an understatement. I've said it elsewhere but it's worth saying again, thank you to all of your for your generosity. I used the voucher to buy four more charts and some red threads for a redwork design I want to start so my projects list has increased yet again (but at least I'm not out of pocket)

A Cracking Good Weekend

The weekend before last 17 women descended on a group of holiday cottages on the Staffs / Derby border called Dove Farm Cottages for a long weekend of stitching and nattering at it was one of the best weekends I've had in a long time.

We're all members of an online community and have met up before in smaller groups but we took a gamble that we could all survive a weekend in each other's company and it was a good gamble because we had a fantastic time.

Firstly the cottages are amazing. Clean, well equiped and in the middle of the most gorgeous countryside you can imagine. Not only that they have alpacas, one of whom was kind enough to have a baby shortly before we arrived - if you go to the website I linked to above and click to read their blog you'll see some pictures of Cocoa. We had various plans to steal him but we figured as we want to go back next year we'd better leave him behind.

As well as forays to Wye Needlecraft and a local Patchwork shop Kate from Sparklies did us proud with a floss / fabric dyeing class and I can safely say I haven't had that much fun for years. I regressed to childhood and behaved like a two year old - the immersion dyeing was good but the sponge dyeing was terrific fun. And yes, I'll admit to it being me that named a fabric colour 'basically bonkers' but in my defense Kate used the description for me first so she should take the ultimate blame.

It was late nights, too much food and not much stitching but we shared WIPs and HDs, wish lists grew and Sparklies sold about half it's stock. I did manage a small HD (pic to follow) but generally I was laughing too much to be able to stitch - 'I can't get it in the hole' was the recurring shout over the three days and yes, we were talking about needles...

One of the great things about the cottages is they come with a Seminar room big enough to house 18 people (the maximum who can stay in the three cottages) so we were able to all sit together and chat and stitch. Having said that the weather was wonderful for us and we did spend a lot of time sitting outdoors.

Anyway, we're booked again for next year and I can't wait. I'm currently trying to work out how to schedule a pregnancy around the chosen weekend LOL

Where does the time go?

On Friday 1st June my baby was 2!

Not only that the previous Sunday was our first wedding anniversary.

Here's some pics of the birthday girl:

Meeting the horses

Jumping with Mama and Grandad

I'm so grown up!

We've actually had a week away from home - four days in Brussels and then we spent some time with my family and celebrated Lia's birthday with them before heading home and having friends to stay for a couple of days. All in all I'm glad of the rest now I'm back to work LOL.

Brussels was great fun. I spent too much money but as it's more than likely our only holiday this year I don't care. Plus the budgeting will be tight after we move so I thought I'd make the most of the gorgeous toy shops and kitchen shops we found before I have to feel guilty about spending money. Lia did very well out of us, we found two amazing toy shops where I could have bought one of everything but limited myself to a set of plates, bowls and a cup, a doll, a wooden shape puzzle, a set of stackable boxes and a small dolls house. Yes I know that's a lot but most of it has been put away for her to have between now and Christmas. Plus I used some money that the Greek relatives sent for her birthday so it wasn't all from us.

She also got spoilt with presents from others. Greek Yaya sent a set of wooden animal dominoes - not like the game, animal shaped pieces that you line up in a row and knock over. I'll take a picture when we get them home (we left most of the stuff at my parents), my parents gave money for new curtains and furniture for her new room, my sister and niece bought several sets of Early Learning Centre HappyLand toys and other relatives gave money.

I also bought a few things in Brussels for our new kitchen as it was hard not to. I know we've not exchanged contracts yet but we're still heading in the right direction and I'm so excited about the space I'll have that I want to fill it with pretty new things.

Talking of the house move, the surveys have been done and all is progressing as it should although our Vendor seems to like to take her time over things. She's had two jobs - engage a solicitor and fill out some forms. Both have taken her two weeks (and that's consecutive, so four weeks in total). However, now that's done we should be able to gee up the Solicitors to get on with the sale. Our hopeful completion date is now 16th July

Coincidentally, not only has my brother already moved house this year my Mother and Step-Father are now going to be moving too. They're buying a new-build flat not far from their current house but as well as downsizing to a more managable size for two septagenarians they'll be right next to a bus route instead of a mile up a country lane.

The only downside to them moving is that now my Mother is attempting to get rid of all her junk (sorry, unwanted items) onto me. I made DH promise not to say yes to anything while we were there and I've told her she'll have to wait until we're in the house before I commit to having anything. Don't get me wrong, there's things I'm more than happy to have but until we actually live in the house we won't know for sure what we need.

I'm starting to worry about packing. How come we manage to accumulate so much junk? I'm quite glad we'll be budgeting hard in the new house as I need to use up the Stash I have before getting more (both stitching and papercraft) and I'll have to stop bringing more into the house. I'll also be gaining a new hobby of gardening so there'll be less time to devote to my other hobbies, not more.

We had several long talks about what we want from the next few years and we've got three long-term goals:

1) Pay off as much extra on the mortgage as we can
2) Do a loft conversion in the new house to make a fourth bedroom
3) Have the holiday of a lifetime to Kuala Lumpur, Oz and Disneyland

And of course, baby number two is the next work in progress after the house move.

We're lucky in that we should be able to knock several years off our mortgage by overpaying. We can't afford for me to now work right now but with me working we have spare for overpayment. I'm hoping that I may be able to drop down to part time at some point so packing extra cash into the mortgage now is a good plan. The good thing about us overpaying the mortgage is that the money comes off the capital and interest but sits separately so we can get at it if we need to.

As for the loft conversion, we need to get it priced up and then work out how long it'll take us to afford it. It's not necessary straight away but we'd like to be able to do it in around five years (cue laughter!)

Finally, the holiday is something that will be done when the kids are old enough to appreciate it so again, we're looking six or seven years in the future at least. I've always wanted to go to Oz (and was close to booking a ticket before finding out I was expecting Lia) and DH loved Kuala Lumpur when he was there in 2005 and wants to go back and take me. I added Disneyland as, if we're going that far, we may as well come back via LA and really finish off the kid's holiday in style

So, with all of those things PLUS a second baby there'll be very little spare cash floating round the Family V. This means I'm going to bow out of the 50 project challenge and go full time onto The Wagon. I've talked about it before but now it's essential. I'll just have to use birthdays and christmas for stash acquisition.

So that's you caught up with us. I'm away on a jaunt this weekend leaving DH to look after Lia for four days - it's a weekend GTG of stitchers (around 20 of us) which should be great fun. After that I'm back down staying with my parents as I'm booked on a four day course in London and they will have Lia for the days. It's useful as it means DH gets a break after exhausting himself as a sole parent.

We certainly don't hang around...

As I mentioned in my last post we have decided to move house. It's something we've been talking about for quite a while now but have been putting off for no real reason so we decided we should just go for it as there seemed to be a lot of 'signs' telling us we should.

So the last 10 days has been:

Thursday 3rd May - Decide to move
Friday 4th May - I go to a couple of Estate Agents to arrange them to come round and value the house. I am given the particulars of a house.
Saturday 5th May - The house is valued and we are left to decide what we want to do. We view the house we have the particulars of and offer the asking price. We then put ours on the market
Tuesday 8th May - Our offer is accepted. Estate Agents get the details of our house together to send out
Wednesday 9th May - A sold sign goes up on our 'new house' and a For Sale sign goes on ours. We have two weeks grace to sell otherwise the vendor can put their house back on the market
Thursday 10th May - The particulars of our house are mailshot out
Friday 11th May - two viewings of our house, two offers. I also have two quotes from removal companies
Saturday 12th May - we arrange our mortgage and accept one of the offers on our house

Monday 14th May - I resist all urges to collapse in a heap as there's so much to organise still...

Not bad for 10 days work! We only viewed the one house and it's so perfectly what we want that we didn't bother with anything else. It has a huge lounge and kitchen downstairs and three bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs. The garden is 150ft long and there's enough parking in the garage and next to the house for about six cars. Oh and it's next door to a Primary School.

Hopefully today the Surveyors will call and we can organise that asap. There's no chain so we should be able to move quickly - we're hoping the last week of June as that fits perfectly in our schedule.

We've already started the great 'pre-moving-de-junking', for people living in a tiny house with no storage space we certainly have a huge amount of junk. DH is doing a bootfair this weekend and then there's charity shops and freecycling for stuff we can't sell. We're also using this opportunity to get rid of a lot of furniture and the guy buying our house is interested in some of it so that's great (and nice and simple).

I have to say, the idea of packing is daunting to say the least. We have a huge amount of loft space in the new house but not many built in cupboards so we're having to think quite carefully about what we are going to have where.

So that's us. People on the move. You can expect many boring updates regarding the status of everything for the next few weeks as I'm incredibly excited about it all and have a need to share LOL.

Cut Thru Igloo HD

Just a quick post for now to show off this finish:



It's a bit manic at our end as we've decided to move house and things are going way quicker than we expected so I'm rushed off my feet with a million and one things to think about.

Totally Spoiled

Last Thursday was my birthday and I've been totally spoiled for the last four days.

I try not to work on my birthday so I booked Thurs and Friday off to make it a nice long weekend. No such thing as a lie in when you have a toddler so I was up early Thursday morning opening cards before DH went off to work. Lia and I then headed to my parents as we'd arranged for them to have Lia for the day on Saturday and I wanted to make sure she was settled in before leaving her for the day.

My Mum was good enough to buy me one of the new Michael Powell designs - Greek Village 1 which I had asked for as well as giving me some cash to spend in London. I also saw lots of family and had a nice, if quiet, day.

The main excitement was all arranged for Saturday. DH and I met in London in the morning and the first thing we did was go on one of the London Walks - we've done some of these in the past and really enjoyed them so it was nice to do our first since becoming parents. The weather on Saturday was absolutely perfect - lovely and warm for walking about but not too hot that you just want to flake out. After the walk we went to a food market near London Bridge which was amazing, the smells were enough to fill you up. Unfortunately for us we couldn't buy anything as we didn't want to carry it around London for the rest of the day but we did have a good lunch...

We then walked back from London Bridge to Covent Garden (crossing over on the Millenium Footbridge) which was quite a walk! Covent Garden Bead Shop was the destination to spend not only the cash my Mother had given me but also some of the money DH's Mother gave too (although DH wouldn't let me spend all of his mother's gift there as he'd never get her to understand how I could spend all that money on beads...)

We continued to walk around that area for about two hours - stopping for a drink in a nice, amazingly uncrowded, wine bar and then heading to get another part of my birthday gift from DH's Mother - a case for my new Ipod which was itself my gift from DH). I know I moan about my in-laws but they're good with gifts - they just send cash and I can get whatever I want!

We were booked to see Mary Poppins on Saturday evening so we were wandering around near the theatre looking for a place to eat and squabbling over what we wanted when we found a lovely little Moroccan restaurant just around the corner from the theatre. The food was very reasonably priced (£53 for both of us - three courses, wine and coffee) and it was really good. No I can't remember the name but DH got their card so I'll post it later as I'd definitely recommend it.

The final treat of the day was Mary Poppins which was amazing. I will admit that by this point we were flagging a bit given the amount of walking we'd done but the energy of the show made it impossible for us to not join in with the clapping and shouting.

So that was birthday treat and it was truly a wonderful day.

Sunday we had to drive home from my parents (a 2 hour drive) but we went to a French Market that was in town before we left and got some great food for our lunch (a picnic in the park). Last night all three of us were totally exhausted so we just ignored the housework that needed to be done and vegged out in front of the TV (well DH and I, Lia went to bed).

In addition to the above my other birthday gifts were:

Michael Powell's Cottage Garden 2 (the last part of my gift from MIL)

The Cat's Whiskers - Birds of a Feather Dilly Bag, Grandma's Thread Minder, Alyssum Scissor Pocket and Spring Fever - all of which are shown here.

Teresa Wentzler's Sun Dragon

Michael Powell's Snow Series - Church Window Chart (you can get the charts from US shops but UK shops only have the kits)

A Mon Ami Pierre's Nine Red

All that and I still have some money from my FIL to spend but I'm going to a LNS this saturday so that will probably vanish there.

See, the post title is true - I have been totally spoiled!

Babies, babies everywhere!

As you know from previous posts, I'm an Auntie to a little Greek nephew, well finally here's a picture:

You can tell he's Greek - he has sideburns already!

I'm also an 'Auntie' to another new baby who arrived on 11th April weighing 7lb 7oz and is a sister for my Godson. Here she is at just two days old:

And just so he's not left out here's the proud big brother who is two and a half:

I've had a wonderful weekend - I was due to go 'Up North' (ok Oldham - but that's very north for me LOL) for a Stitchers GTG this Saturday (14th April) which coincided nicely with my Best Mate (who lives up that way) being due to produce her baby on the 7th April. However the little tyke had other ideas and wasn't ready to come out - I was beginning to worry she'd not bother coming out to see me so I gave her a good talking to about how sensible it is to keep on the right side of Auntie Joy-Joy and she obviously took it to heart and popped out just in time.

I'm quite seriously broody so spending the weekend cuddling a brand new baby hasn't helped me get over it at all LOL.

Back to the stitching GTG - Rach was kind enough to open up her house for a few of us to get together and natter - I even managed a few stitches (but not that many). It was a great day and I finally got to meet another Stitchers little boy who, whilst still technically a baby at seven months old is rather a big boy! Still, I got some cuddles and that was the main thing.

Oh and thanks to Rach's DH who did us proud - cups of tea were served, he laid out lunch for us and was even brave enough to come out to the pub for some dinner at the end of the day (I think the lure of beer was the deciding factor).

Before I sign off I just wanted to say thanks for the nice comments about my Peacock Chair (here and on the BB's) and to say to those worried about the finishing, it's not that bad - honest! I'm a real novice when it comes to finishing things so if I can do it, anyone can.

A Peacock Chair

So here's my finished Peacock Chair in all its glory. I've spent most of this Easter weekend doing the finishing which has really helped me learn patience as there's an awful lot of work to do to finish this off!

Anyway, no more waffle, here's the pictures

The finished stitching:

The first part of the finishing:

All the pieces completed:

The finished chair from the front:

The finished chair from the back:

Single Parenting

DH left for ten days in Greece yesterday so I'm single parenting at the moment. This is only the second time I've done it for more than a day or two and the last time Lia was only five months old so it's a while ago.

I wasn't bothered about it as I'm more than capable of looking after her on my own, but what has caught me out is her constant requests for Daddy. He left last night before her bed time so when I put her to bed she kept asking for him and this morning when I'd gotten her dressed she ran into our room calling for him and then looking confused when he wasn't in the bed.

She's too little to understand if I try to explain he'll be gone for a while so I guess I'm going to have to deal with her looking for him every day. Thankfully we're off in a couple of days to spend Easter with my family so that should distract her a bit. She doesn't seem bothered that he's not around - I think it bothers me listening to her more.

So what else is going on? Well the sleeping in a real bed is having mixed success - we've got a stairgate across her door and she tends to get out of bed and lie down in the doorway next to the gate. A couple of times now we've found her there asleep and have put her back in bed - the first time I did what any normal parent would do and took photos before moving her. LOL

Oh and that's Gung-Gah she's got with her...

She doesn't cry, she just gets up and sits by the door. We deal with it by going up and telling her to get back in bed (which she does) and then leaving. Nine times out of ten she's up and out of bed again within seconds but there's no way we're going to sit with her to keep her in the bed as that will just result in a whole different set of problems.

When she's really tired she stays put but as she's still napping during the day she's often not quite tired enough. It's difficult as she still needs a daytime nap so I guess we'll just keep on till she learns. At least she's not wailing and complaining.

In other news my nephew is home with his parents and seems to be doing well. I still haven't seen a photo but DH has promised to send some asap now he's out there. I've spoken to my SIL a couple of times and she seems to be adjusting to life as a new Mum. I think she's finding it hard because she's used to there being a yes or no answer to everything (she's a lawyer) and the one thing you realise when you're a parent is that there is never a right or a wrong way to do things, you just have to make a decision as to what is best for you and the baby and go with it.

Still, he's less than two weeks old so there's plenty of time for her to adjust.

I'm still waiting on news of two more babies. One was due on 30th March and one is due 7th April. The latter is my godson's baby bro or sis and I'm so excited - somehow it is much more fun when you don't know what's coming out.

In stitching news, I'm working on Cat's Whiskers Peacock Chair. The kit arrived on Friday and I spent Friday night gridding the fabric and making a start on the stitching. I love this design and my new found confidence for finishing things is going to be tested to the max with this one.

I have two other Cat's Whiskers projects that I want to do too - Grandma's Thread Minder and The Birds of a Feather Dilly Bag and there just aren't enough hours in the day to do everything!

I've made good progress on Dimensions' Sleigh Ride:

Unfortunately all my big WIPs - Sleigh Ride, Noah's Sub and Cut Thru Igloo - have loads of blue so I get bored with them quite quickly. Still, at least I don't feel bad about focussing on the Cat's Whiskers designs instead