Catching up

I may not have been here , but I have been busy .
 Progress on my HAED

Page 2 completed 13/6

 Page 3 and a bit completed 5/7.

Page 4 and total finish 17/7

Not the best picture , my camera batteries died .
  I love this so much , it was a joy to stitch and I almost feel sad that she is finished.
Now to finish another one before I have a new start.

Flash , loving on Finley

 thanks for dropping by ,
 Cath

Wet and grey

The weather that is , though I was rather soggy myself after the school run this morning ,lol.
Here we are mid May , and it only seems like yesterday that it was February. I can hardly believe that the kids have this week and next week at school before half term , and then it is the last few weeks before the summer holidays. My son's last year in Primary school starts September , wow.
  Enough of that anyway , before I get all misty eyed ,lol .
I finished my last sign up .

 It was kind of hard to get a good picture, it's one of those that looks better at a slight angle , but hopefully it will go down well.

 Recently finished this as an a/c .

 I have started a Jack Russell for my son, but the chart is not pleasant and I seem to have a bit of a mental block when it comes to stitching for my kids. I don't know why but I seem to put it off all the time and find other things to do . Not good!
  I was tidying my shelf the other day (aka looking for something) and came across this cover kit I'd forgotten all about . It was with Cross Stitcher 315 March 2017 .

 Thanks to my mum , my daughter has started watching Babushka on TV , and has got a bit of a thing about Russian dolls , so I stitched this up for her. It took slightly longer than the two hours it said , but not much and I love it .

 I backed it with some felt to protect the stitches as it was very difficult to run the threads under the back to finish off . Other than getting a sore finger from puling the needle through , it was lovely to stitch .

  So , if anyone has one of these kits that they do not want to use , please let me know , I'd be happy to pay up to £2 plus postage . I'd like to stitch more in different colours or even different patterns and make a collection for my daughter. Thanks .


 I'll leave you with a pic of my boy flaked out on hubbys' trainer  ,lol

Thanks for dropping by ,
 Cath

Hello

 So , got the laptop back last week, just been too busy to post ,lol.
 The screen decided to go kaput , so we thought it might be the back light , which would cost £60 - £100 to fix , still cheaper than a new computer. Fortunately the light was fine , just some loose screws and hinges putting pressure on one of the cables was causing the problems . Not so good , on giving it a health check , they discovered that the hard drive was failing , so replaced it . Fortunately we had already backed up all the important stuff . I've had to re-install a couple of things and it was frustrating trying to get back on here , but all is well in the end ....

 Well, with the computer at any rate.

 Thursday before last , we got back from school, kids went up to get changed and my daughter came down to tell me that there were cracks in her ceiling with water coming through , not good. Now, I have never been up in our loft before and truly believed that I would never manage it , but I did . Leaking pipe causing the problem, so tried to put tape round it to no avail . Passing things down to my daughter , who turned round too quickly and banged her her on the stair bannister.
  A massive lump came up in less than a minute and she said she wanted to go to sleep , so mad dash to A&E. Two hours later (pretty good) we could go home with instructions to have the next day off school .
 Hubby got home from work , we had to turn the water off fully as he couldn't fix the pipe there and then. All calm until 10.30 pm , when we heard a thud as part of the ceiling came down.

 Temporarily fixed the next day , with plans to do a better repair this week as hubby is off work.

 Last week was full of stress as it was SATs so my daughter was incredibly wound up. So glad it is over. I am looking forward to getting to relax at some point in the next few months ,lol.

 Anyway , I have still been able to do some stitching , so here's what's been done since last time.

  Lots of Love Quilts squares.

 Really pleased with this one , the theme is Star Wars and space , so I charted a couple of SW planets.

 I had ten squares to post in , so took a picture of all of them together before washing.

 This one is only recently finished .

  I have also made some bookmarks for the kids , but they are in use , so I will have to get pictures another time.
  And , just because ,a pic of my lovely boy Fraser , flopped.

Thanks for dropping by ,
 Cath

I know how he feels

Feeling Blah .

My blogging mojo seems to have taken a dive somewhere along the line.

 The last couple of weeks have been so hectic with one thing and another, I am very tired . Lots of family birthdays this month have kept us busy evenings and weekends , with not much time to relax. The kids are taking a while to get back into the swing of school , and are not enjoying homework much at the moment , lol.
 My boy has done very well though , he has been chosen to be a school councillor , received a head teachers award and is now a reading buddy , mentoring the class below him . He turns seven next month , so not too shabby for a six year old.
 My daughter got two prizes from her teacher within a week of going back to school . Very proud of both of them  .

Craft wise , I have been stitching , but nothing to show . One finish is for my give away ,so there will be a reveal later , and two others are secret stitches to also be shown at a later date .

 My daughter is studying the Aztecs this year and wanted some multi coloured wool to do some weaving . I found some out and remembered that I bought it to make a scarf for myself , so got on with it last week.

 Close up to show the lacy pattern .

 After my baking marathon ,the kids wanted to make something too. My daughter had seem something in a comic to make flip flops using rich tea fingers. You are supposed to sandwich two together using icing , but I bought finger creams thinking it would be easier , not realising that they were squared off at the ends. We had a go anyway .
   My daughters' messy plate

 My sons' slightly neater one.

 And some pictures of the daft cats.
   Finley .

 And Fraser .

Hopefully things will get back to normal soon. I am really hoping to get some serious stitching time in this week , but the best laid plans and all that .

Thanks for dropping by ,

 Cath

Prickles , fur and crosses .

Just over a week ago (Friday 19th) me and the kids were walking to school when someone told us there was a hedgehog running around on the road a bit further on .The kids were pretty excited , so off we scurried to try and catch a glimpse of it. It was just entering someones' driveway and going under the car ,so we left it alone and carried on to school .
 On the way back , I saw it again , running along the road , and getting pretty close to the main road. I was very worried as it was past 9 am , and already getting pretty hot , plus I did not want to come back and find it squished on the road . Luckily , I had a biggish fabric bag with me , so I scooped up the hog and put it in my bag and brought it home. Then it had the joy of being put into a cat carrier and left in my daughters' room (the coolest in the house) with a saucer of water and some cat biscuits.

Later that day , we took it and let it go in a field behind the houses where I found it , so hopefully it found its' way home again . It was lovely , as I remember feeding and looking after hedgehogs when I was a kid , so it was nice to relive it with my own children. They thought it was amazing .

On to the fur , just wanted to share a couple of pics of my boys ,lol.

 Fraser having a lazy moment , and Finley giving me "that" look. (He does it a lot .)

Stitching time , yay !

Here's a finish I did for Gaynor I have not yet decided how to finish finish it though .

 And , progress on Rosita. I am almost finished with the first page , but have decided to have a little break .

Still loving this one though , so pretty .

 This is what I decided to stitch over the weekend. It for a charity quilt. The theme is hearts and the person it is for loves purple , and also loves food . I am thinking it needs something else to fill in though , it looks a bit bare to me. Thinking of  putting some smaller hearts around the cupcake , what do you think ?

I have also sent and received packages in the Birds , Bees and Butterflies exchange through Stitched with Love Exchanges , but can't show those yet .

 And, I have posted out parcels to Cucki and Julie. So sorry for the delay in sending out your give away prizes ladies , but I hope you like what you get .

Has anyone looked at the "Pimp your Blog" section ? I am wondering about just having scheduled posts about new blogs rather than having it on the sidebar .

 Thanks for dropping by , not sure when I will be back with it being school holidays , but hopefully soon .

 Cath x

Mermaid , cakes and cats.

First off , Happy 4th July to my US friends , hope you have a great celebration.

 Yesterday saw me finally starting my next Heaven and Earth cross stitch design. I have chosen to do QS Rosita , and she will eventually look like this

  This is where I am at the moment , after a couple of hours yesterday and about the same so far today . I think I have done roughly 600 stitches , hey , only another forty seven  and a half thousand more to go. This is my biggest ever project so far in my stitching life , and I am a little scared of not completing it. But, with all the other charts now in my stash , I'd better !

  At the moment, I'm leaving my chart next to the stitching area , so I don't have to look at that big expanse of empty fabric .

  See, puny .

  Before I sat down to stitch today , I was busy in the kitchen . The kids' school is having a Coronation Fayre tomorrow, and each class is doing a stall. My daughters' class is having a cake stall , so I volunteered to make some cakes for them .

  Frosted cupcakes and chocolate crispy cakes. I do not know any kid that doesn't like crispy cakes,

  My boy has been a little clingy lately, if I'm in any room for any length of time , he is there with me . He lay in the kitchen while I was cake making , and when I sat down to stitch , he decided I had to stay put for a while.

  You can just see Finley laying on the carpet , but Fraser had to lie on me and hug my leg. Gotta love the boys .

Thanks for dropping by ,

 Cath 

Birthday Cuddles.

Yesterday was the boys' 3rd birthday ,and for the first time in ages , they were snuggled up together,

 Finley didn't really get a choice in the matter , though. Fraser just climbed on him and that was it.

  Fraser spent most of the day suffering with a tummy ache , so maybe that's why he felt the need of a brotherly hug . I only feel a little bit sorry for him , as it was probably self inflicted. He has a terrible habit of eating things that he really shouldn't .
  Luckily , he felt better by tea time and was able to enjoy his saucer of chicken as a birthday treat. The kids insist we have to celebrate ,lol.

  I have managed a few sessions of working on Butterflies over the last couple of weeks . Probably around ten hours give or take . This is where I'm at now .

I've spent about four hours on it today , and though I know I've done quite a bit, it feels like not a lot to show for it . There are lots of odd single stitches and fiddly bits now I'm on the last leg .
 There is no organisation in the stitching any more , I just choose a symbol and try and do all of the stitches in that colour . Of course ,as soon as I start the next colour , I find one or two that I missed previously ,lol.
 Still hoping for a finish soon though.

SPECIAL REQUEST
 If anyone has stitched LHNs' Needleworker chart and no longer wants to keep it , I am interested in buying/trading for it . I love the chart but am not keen on CC threads so would want to choose my own.
 Also looking for LK Promise Me , but will probably buy that anyway as I want to stitch one each for my kids .
 Thanks for dropping by ,
 Cath

Brrrr ,it's cold !!!

And I have been made up with cold for over a week now. It is just not funny. I've had enough. With last week being half term too , it made for a pretty boring week for the kids. Most of the time , it was too cold/wet /miserable to do anything. though on one of the finer days ,we went for a (muddy) walk around the local park . I was pleased with a couple of my photos .

  Love this one of the gull flying, it was pure luck as I've got lots of other shots that are all fuzzy or missing bits ,lol .

  Some idiot had thrown prawn crackers in for the water birds to eat.

  And i realised that I haven't shown any recent pics of my boys. It has been so cold ,they have had to resort to snuggling up together, lol .

 I've made a fair bit of progress on Butterflies . This is where I got to before moving the fabric up on the frame .

  Here's the before :

And the after .

 This is where I am now . Not done any for a few days with having this rotten cold and the kids being off. Got the shopping done today , so hopefully tomorrow will be a stitch day .

 So , last week I managed to finish of this cat . It was started in 2011, and was originally meant to be a charity square for a quilt , but the quilt got made earlier than the deadline and so this got left  .

 I quite like it , and think it may well end up going in my sons' direction ,lol.

 I like to have a small easy to pick up project on the go as well. At the moment I'm stitching a small All Our Yesterdays cover kit , but it should be done fairly quickly.
 Thanks for dropping by ,
 Cath