New Routines

I've been quiet here I know - a combination of time away from the house and some changes I've been make to the way I live life in general.  

Last weekend we went to St Ives, we had a lovely trip.  The picture above is from last Friday, sunshine and Pimms on the beach .....  life is really good some days :)

Hopefully I'll settle in to my new routines soon and carve out some regular blogging time for myself.  I have lots to post about and hundreds of blog posts from you guys to catch up on, busy, busy, busy.  Hope you all have a fabulous weekend.  It's really hot and sunny here in the UK, unusually so for the time of the year, so if you need me you'll find me in the garden this weekend making the most of it.      X

Happy Anniversary

Dave and I will be busy today celebrating 2 years of putting up with each other. I love the life we have together and wouldn't change a thing right now.

We have been spending some time over the last few weeks tidying up the garden, the picture is a lovely lavender plant that Dave bought me at the weekend, my absolute favourite plant to have in the garden.

What ever you are up to today I hope you have a good one. Thanks for popping by, I appreciate you all taking time out of your busy days to read my ramblings......

I'm Back

I'm back from a wonderful week in the lovely Lake District. I have lots to share with you both creative stuff and pictures of the beautiful Langdale valley where we stayed. But for now I only have time to pop by and say a quick 'hi' I have all the holiday laundry to do, a million blogs to read, a man coming to fix the garden fence and hopefully fingers crossed I'll also be making a trip out to pick up my much missed sewing machine Jemimah today!

Don't put off until tomorrow...

...what can be done today. I've been procrastinating the last few days. I've a pile of stitch projects waiting to be gotten on with that have been left languishing by the machine and I've been telling myself I'll get to them tomorrow. Well tomorrow came yesterday and what happens, well my sewing machine decides to give up on me.Power cut out in the middle of stitching. I've tried all the basics, changing the fuse etc but she just won't come back to life so off to the repairer she goes, she'll be out of action for at least a week :(

On a good note though I received this beautiful handmade card in the post today from my friend Beth. This bit of loveliness arrived at just the right time to bring me a smile when I was in need of one.Thanks Beth, you have great timing!! :)

Must try harder

Well I think I told you I had a lazy weekend, I didn't realise quite how lazy until I went back in to the sewing room today. I've reconciled myself to the fact that being a domestic goddess is just not in my genes but I could have sworn I remembered spending some time on Sunday tidying my work space.............but I mean really what part of this room did I think was tidy? ...........this little lot is stretching the definition of tidy even for me!!! But I think I had a bit of a revelation, my weekend wasn't spent being lazy but being in denial.Yesterday I had occasion to be hanging round in the park for a while, waiting for some minor repairs to be done on my car. I was just hanging out enjoying the fresh spring breezewatching the clouds roll by and also doing a bit of readingAnd I realised this is exactly what I needed, some fresh air to blow the cobwebs out and wake me up a bit.

As many of you already know I have suffered a couple of periods of depression in recent years and I think that maybe over the weekend I was beginning to go down that slippery slope again. But I'm determined not to let myself get carried along on that ride again. I mean really there is so much to be grateful for in my life, just sometime I need reminding to concentrate on those good things and not dwell on the things that are out of my control. So concentrate I will. If any of you see me frowning here feel free to give me a shake :)

My Space

Being back at work after a couple of weeks off pleasing myself and doing my own thing is hard. But when the going gets tough - which is usually when I run out of energy at about 3pm - Among other places I dream of being here.My little sun lit corner on the sofa, curled up with my stitching.

Where do your dreams take you?

Cute

I was feeling a bit down yesterday. After spending a good many hours working on the last piece in chapter 4 of the city and guilds, it turned out to be a big horrible mess :(

While I was typing up what I'd done and where it all went wrong Dave disappeared to the shop and came back with a pressie to make me smile again.cute and made of chocolate - 2 of my favourite things :) But not only did he bring 1 ....there were 4 of the little cuties!As of now I'm still thinking they are way too cute to eat, but give it a day or two and the call of chocolate goodness will overwhelm me and they'll be gone as quickly as they arrived ;-)

Happy Easter

I don't have any picture of little chicks so you'll have to make do with some ducklings instead, taken on a lovely walk in the sunshine by the river today. I will be back blogging properly soon - I promise. X

Taking time to smell the flowers

I'm back from Amsterdam, and have to say I had an amazing weekend. I was a bit worried about spending time in a strange city on my own and navigating myself around without getting lost, but I was worrying for nothing and had a brilliant time.

Here I am among the tulips - what an idiot I must have looked trying to get a picture of myself!!
I will be taking a few more days to get back in to things before I start blogging again in earnest, but I have lots of things to share with you so hopefully the posts will come along regularly. In the meantime why don't you sit back and relax with me, maybe join me in a cocktail or two?Cheers!! X

Celebrate with me

2011 has started on a really positive note, I'm feeling so happy at the moment but the pessimist in me is wondering when the bubble is going to burst.There are still a couple of potential clouds hanging over us at the moment, so I'm sure we'll be experiencing a storm or two in the future but hopefully these things will get sorted in the next few months. In the meantime I'm going to keep riding the happy wave and celebrate every day that brings happiness and smiles. Cheers. xxx

Welcome 2011

Hello 2011.

Are you celebrating the New Year in style?

I know I already told you yesterday but I'm going to say it again I have big plans and dreams for this year, hopefully you will feel like sticking around and sharing the journey with me. I really appreciate those of you who take the time to read my ramblings and maybe leave me a comment here and there.

I'm not going to say too much about travel plans and the adventures I'm dreaming of for this year. I'll wait until things are booked as I don't want to jinx anything and although some money has been put aside for trips you never know what's round the corner, what emergencies may crop up to stand in the way of dreams but I'm really hopeful that things will be really good.

In the meantime I can tell you about some of the smaller plans.

In March I'm off to Amsterdam for a long weekend. I'm going to be let loose in the city on my own for 3 days. I've been given some wonderful books and info leaflets about the city so will begin planning in earnest now to make the most of my stay.

Creatively I will continue working on Siberian Gold and also I have a cross stitch kit that I bought in the lakes last year that hasn't seen the light of day yet, so that will definitely be coming out to play.

Finishing my Nan's quilt for Christmas made me realise how much I'd been missing quilting so my first big project of the year will be a quilt for Dave.

I have many more ideas bubbling away in my head but I think that's a good start for now don't you?

Happy New Year to you all