And then it was gone .

Went to bed last night with the world still white with ice and snow. what a change when I got up this morning .

   Warmer weather and rain had taken most of the snow away . The rest has gone this afternoon. We now have wind and rain . Lovely !
 
 I didn't quite get my last finish of 2014. The last of the back stitch on this was put in this morning , so an early finish for this year .

   And here is my orts for 2014 . Hoping to have a new container for this year , but my son needs to eat more snowies ,lol .

So ,a quick round up of 2014 , I had 44 finishes , and most of them were squares for LQUK , I stitched 34 squares , 16 sign ups and 18 any child(spare) squares.

 Book wise , I read 85 last year  ,which is down on the last two years , but I did stitch more , so not too bad .

 For this year , my aims are to do more personal stitching, I love doing LQ squares , but have promised to stitch more for my kids , and I would like to get more done on my HAEDs and other projects . Reading wise , I'd like to equal or improve on this years numbers .
 However , I have another plan for this year which could have quite an impact on both of these aims , so we will have to wait and see. I will share more later when hopefully things will start to happen .

 So , I'd like to wish everyone a very Happy New Year , and as someone very special said , may your smiles change the world , but the world not change your smiles .

Cath

Nearly New Year

Hi everyone ,hope you all had a great Christmas. We ended up having our dinner late due to waiting around for other people , so I got a bit fed up , but otherwise it was good.
 The kids received some lovely gifts (so did I) and had a lovely time.
Both kids had new scooters so we went out Boxing Day afternoon for them to have fun . Just in time as later we got a heap of snow ,which is still here and looks like staying for a while as it is very frozen now .
 Both kids have had great fun sledging , they have been wanting snow for a long time .

 A couple of crafty finishes before the year ends .
 I did manage to complete the two scarves , which were given as gifts. Have not heard from the recipient yet , but hopefully they are liked.

 My latest stitchy finish . I have started another one in the series , and am hoping to get it completed before the end of the year , but no guarantees .

  See how deep the snow is ! Luckily I had gotten myself some wellies and the kids new snow boots just a couple of weeks ago . Boy am I pleased about that .

  Sledging fun . This is the only view you will get of my kids until they are much older. I am OTT about internet security things when it comes to my babies.

  Pretty views.

 Ice crystals on the snow.

 So , stay safe if you are out and about in these conditions , our roads are terrible, I am fairly sure that not one little bit of grit/salt has been put down since we had the snow . Hubby is taking me shopping tonight , I don't drive much now with only having the one car , so am not as confident as I used to be .

  I will be back soon with a re-cap of the year and hopes for the next one .

 Take care ,
 Cath

Didn't someone mention Spring?

 I think they forgot to tell everyone .

 This started some time in the early hours of Friday morning, though it wasn't bad enough for the snow day the kids got.
 We went into town in the morning and had a few flurries on and off throughout the day. It started to snow properly around 6pm , and it hasn't really stopped since. Yep , it's still coming.
 The kids went out to play this morning and I trudged down to the local shop for a few bits and bobs, then we went out on the back field for a bit of sledging and snowball fun . Couldn't stay for too long though as the driving wind is very cold , so back home for warm drinks and snacks.
 Think I might do some stitching next.
 Take care everyone .
 Cath

A Snowman

Last Friday ,  I finished up this little stitch

 It is one of Nancys' designs (Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe). When Nancy had her Christmas give away , which was massive , she offered to send out a set of charts to anyone who hadn't won  one of her other prizes. There are more charts in the set that I will stitch as and when I fancy .
 Anyway, as I finished ,I was sitting watching the snowflakes falling , and thinking that I ought to be stitching a snowman . Then I remembered that I had won a kit in a giveaway quite a while ago so rummaged through my bag and found it .

This is Cromwell The Snowman by The Trilogy , I have just finished him .

  I stitched one or two lengths of the white than did a bit of colour to break it up a little. I haven't had much chance to stitch this week really, the kids had a snow day on Monday, then the car has had to go for the MOT and various other things have kept me busy, but I enjoyed stitching him .
 Now , can you spot the difference with the chart ?

 Look a little closer .

  On the cover picture, his right hand is stitched to look as though he is holding the tree, yet on the chart , he is waving with the tree behind him . I stuck to the chart as I couldn't see why he would be holding a tree ,lol .

 The main problem with looking out this kit , I came across my stash of other charts that I've kitted up , like Bent Creeks' Winter Row ,  and it made me want to get them out . So far , I have resisted ,lol .

 Here is where I've got to with Butterflies , a little more definition to the face shape . Still loving this one .

  I can't wait to get further down , and I'm already planning my next one . I've got it bad .

 Last night brought a few more inches of snow , but it has been melting today, so hopefully it won't be around for much longer .
 I have been playing with one of the fox photos. This is my favourite one.

Isn't that little face gorgeous. BTW , they have been on the front garden again , we had tracks in the snow this morning .

Thanks for dropping by ,
 Cath

A Visitor

I was not at all happy to be woken up at 6.30 am yesterday morning by our neighbour clearing the snow from his drive . So when Hubby came into the bedroom this morning to wake me up, I was ready for throwing something , but all is forgiven , after all , it's not often you get the opportunity to take photos like these.

This little guy/gal was on our drive early this morning , so hubby went out to shoo it off because of the chooks. He was amazed when it didn't run off , so came in for the camera and was even more amazed that it didn't scarper when the flash went off.
 He stood watching for a while and when the boy came downstairs, decided that we should all share so woke up me and our daughter. There we all were , outside , fox watching in our pj's ,lol. but it was worth it .
 We came in and had a warm drink ,got dressed and went back out to take more snaps. He was around for a good couple of hours ,and seemed a little confused. I'm fairly sure it's a youngster , as we have a family living round here ,The kids saw them the other night. so , we're not sure if it was lost or waiting for a parent or what , but they do not normally stay around .
 It has gone now , so I just hope it gets home ok .
 My daughter also took video footage , so I'm going to put that on too .

 Hope you like our little visitor.
 thanks for dropping by ,
 Cath

Weather we like it , or NOT !

Like a lot of others , we had some snow on Monday. The kids thought it was great , apart from being at school and having to have indoor play as they don't let them go out in the snow in case of accidents.
 Anyway , I took them round the corner to the hill after school , and they went sledging for a while , until I got too cold as I forgot to take my gloves .

  Strangely , it was very foggy while it was snowing , as you can see in these pics.

  The following photos were taken this morning , on the way home from dropping the kids in to school .

  The white you can see on the trees,bushes and plants is not snow . It's an accumulation of three days frost and low temps. I think it looks really pretty .

  The forecast is for us to get a lot more snow tomorrow,  so we will see what it brings. My basic animal instincts kick in in bad weather , lol, I just want to fill the cupboards and stay inside . As long as me and my loved ones are safe and warm , I am happy, other wise I get very unsettled.

 Monday was meant to be a stitching day for me , as hubby was at a friends', gaming. With the weather being not so good , I was on edge and couldn't really settle to much , but I made a new start , and finished it on Tuesday night .

This is a freebie by The Little Stitcher, and should have been completed much quicker , but I was busy jumping up and down to check the conditions outside ,lol .
 I have made more progress on butterflies Galore , and also another small new start , but will show them next time.
 Stay safe and warm .

 Cath x

SPRING ?????

Would someone please pass on the meaning of the word to Mother Nature ?

This is what we got up to this morning.

Not sure what time it started , but it was coming strong at 2 am when I got up to my son , and it didn't stop until way after lunch time .

Now ,it is thawing a bit , but it is very cold , so hoping it doesn't freeze as the road conditions were pretty bad today. The netting on top of the chicken run was so heavy with wet snow , it has pulled one of the posts down , and there was a cable down at the end of the street when we went out earlier on.

A sad day for us ,as one of the chickens died this morning. Poor little Bossy was unwell yesterday afternoon , and with the turn in the weather she didn't make it. One thing about chooks , once they get ill, they don't tend to last very long. So we have a sad little boy today as she was his chook , but we will hopefully get a couple more later in the year , when it really is spring , lol.

Cath