I may be gone sometime ...

... my world has been turned upside down. I'm trying to work through things but I may be gone a while, in the meantime I will miss my blogging friends ..........

I have been diligently working away on a few things over the last few days but nothing finished yet. I have the day to myself today so after a quick trip to town I plan on getting creative so hopefully today will to the day of finishes.

In the meantime I have recently been tagged by Melinda, Tracey and Leah to share 8 random things about me.

1. I love walking in the rain

2. I really detest doing the ironing.

3. My favourite TV program is the Ghost Whisperer.

4. I try as stay in bed as late as possible on a weekday, so rarely have time for breakfast.

5. My eyes are a funny grey colour, sometimes they look more blue and other green.

6. I really don't like my nose

7. I love Pizza!!

8. Even though it's been three years since she died, I still religiously watch my Mum's favourite TV show, I figure if she is anywhere watching me then the least I can do is make sue she keeps up with the show :)

And just because I don't like to post without a picture here is a snap of some lovely silk threads I purchased in a bargain bundle off Ebay recently.

Hope you have a great weekend!

Beret-licious

My first finish of the year. The new hat is done.

I just love it, it's so nice and cosy, the perfect way to keep me warm during this cold snap we're having.I couldn't quite get the hang of trying to get a photo of me but you get the idea. If I remember I'll get Mark to snap a proper shot later ......

Even though I found the knitting tough going on my hands for some reason I'm tempted to get some more yarn to make the funky wrist warmers from the same book shown in this picture

Resolutions Unresolved.

Well here we are already on the 6th day of the new year and I haven't mentioned anything about resolutions and goals yet. Mostly because I don't really have anything concrete in my mind yet!

I do have a few ideas brewing though. Toward the end of last year I was becoming a bit disillusioned with the creative things that I was doing, but now I realise there wasn't really anything wrong with what I was doing it was just where my head was at, I know now that I was stuck in a bit of a rut so I think I need to challenge myself to tackle some new things this year.

However, that doesn't mean I will be totally throwing out the old, the one thing I do know is that I will be carrying on with Mum's cross stitch UFOs and will also get back to tackling my own pile of miscellaneous UFOs. Starting with Janet's cat which I had promised myself month's ago I would work on.

I will also be cutting back on the postcard swaps. I have lots of books and magazines that I have bought over the years and never got round to playing with the ideas and techniques in them so I will spending time with my books instead of postcard making :) I really want to improve my stitching skills and hopefully this will be the way to do it. I'll be starting by spending a couple of weeks with this book.

I have a few other ideas rumbling round in my head and a couple of challenges that I hope to take part in but I've taken up enough of your time today with my ramblings so I'll chat about those another time.

A new knit

Check this out, I woke up this morning to an almost winter wonderland.

This must be the most snow we've had for a few years. It had already melted quite a lot so the only thing I could think to take a picture of was my car, looks like paw prints on the bonnet!

Thought I'd just share the new knitting project I'm working on. Way back last summer I bought this lovely chart book and the wool to make the stripey beret. Well I finally got it started while we were away at the weekend.
I don't know if it just the cold weather but I'm finding it difficult to knit up more than a few rows at a time as my hands soon start to get really stiff. Oh well despite this and the fact that I'm a slow knitter I'm hopeful that this will come together pretty quickly and I'll have a new hat to wear before the cold snap disappears.

Cornish Charm

I'm back from a wonderful break in Cornwall lots of reading and walking, and a new knitting project started. I hope you have all had a wonderful start to the new year too.

I have lots of emails and blog reading to catch up on but first I thought I'd share a few photos from my trip. On Saturday in spite of the grey skies and sea breeze we went for a walk along the coast path.

We ambled from Carne to Portloe and back almost 8 miles all told.My mushroom risotto back at the Inn where we stayed tasted delicious after all that fresh air!

In contrast to the grey skies of Friday Saturday was a beautiful blue sky day. We drove around for a bit coming across old mine buildings and 'The Nine Maidens' stones. Local legend has it that the maidens were turned to stone for dancing on a Sunday.
At midday we found ourselves at the pretty fishing village of Padstow and of course it would have been plain rude not to partake in a traditional fish and chip lunch (grin).

Our final stop of the day involved some more coast path walking as we went to Bedruthan Steps I had lots of time to partake in one of my favourite pastimes 'Photographing the photographer' Before watching the beautiful sunsetEven the drive home today revealed some surprises as we came across this beautiful derelict church at Bolventor.I have to admit that I couldn't resist risking capture for trespass to photograph this beautiful door and some amazing grave stones.

I wonder who Susanna was?
There is a planning notice up which says that the building will likely soon be converted into residential accommodation, wouldn't it be amazing to have a garden of the dead? .... such a beautiful thought.

I hope you enjoyed just a taste of my new year getaway.......................

Yellow

In the spirit of tying up all loose ends and getting ready to move on into the new year. I thought I'd share the final set of postcards I made in 2008. This time for the Artsnthemail Something Beginning with Y swap.

As I'm sure is pretty obvious Y is for yellow! I used the same technique for the green stripes card a few posts ago.

So far I'm signed up for 2 postcard swaps in January adding up to just 4 postcards to make. The branch of the embroidery guild that I belong to is also doing a postcard challenge this year which I would like to participate in but I really am going to try and keep the postcards to a minimum and explore other things this year.

Welcome 2009

Happy New Year to you all

I was hoping to write a super interesting post (grin) about all my fabulous plans and goals for the coming year, but dh is whisking me away to Cornwall for a few days for a wonderful New Year get away, so plans and resolutions will have to wait a few more days.

I have scheduled a quick post for tomorrow so things won't be totally quiet here.

Goodbye 2008

WARNING: You might want to skip this post it's long and full of self centred reflection, lol!

I can hardly believe that the last day of 2008 has arrived, where did it go? The last few years have been a roller coaster for me and this one has been no different. I think my own health problems earlier in the year left me in a state of lethargy and I never really recovered. The year has passed me by without me really having the time, energy or inclination to really take part in it.

But here we are on the cusp of the new year and I can feel myself waking up again inside, opening up to the potential of new beginnings. I'm always optimistic and full of excitement for the things that the new year might bring, although I have to admit that my excitement these days is tinged with caution as for the last few years life has put some big pot holes in the road for me to contend with. I guess we can only plunge head long into it and see what life will bring over the next 12 months.

For the last year I have been keeping a list of some of the things that I've done in my sidebar.
As I will need to wipe the slate clean and start afresh tomorrow I thought I'd transfer all the details into a post so as not to lose the information entirely.

Projects I've completed in 2008

• Four Bags
• Two Art Dolls
• One Hundred and Twenty Nine Postcards
• One Fabric Page
• One Padfolio
• One ATC
• Four Cross stitch kits
• One mini wall hanging
• Two Cushions
• Three CD samplers
• Seventeen 12 inch quilt blocks
• Twelve 8 inch quilt blocks
• One Long Stitch kit
• One embroidery kit
• One double bed quilt top

Movies I've watched at the cinema in 2008

• Charlie Wilson's War
• The Kite Runner
• Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
• In the Valley of Elah
• Alien Vs Predator: Requiem
• Cloverfield
• Juno
• Vantage Point
• 10,000BC
• The Cottage
• Nosferatu
• Indiana Jones
• In Bruges
• Wanted
• Incredible Hulk
• Hancock
• Wall-e
• Journey to the centre of the earth 3D
• Batman: The Dark Knight
• The Mummy 3
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars
• Hellboy 2
• Saw V
• Quantum of Solace
• Body of Lies
• The day the Earth stood still
• Twilight

Books I've read in 2008

• The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
• The Jester by James Paterson & Andrew Gross
• The Book of Lost Things by John Connelly
• The Memory Keepers Daughter by Kim Edwards
• The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters by G.W. Dahlquist
• Chasing the Dime by Michael Connelly
• The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara Trilogy by Terry Books
• Gladiatrix by Russell Whitfield
• Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
• New Moon by Stephenie Meyer
• Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer

I guess that list is not bad considering I feel like I've been asleep for a lot of the year, now it's time to wake up ............................

Stripes

For an upcoming 'Stripes' swap at Artsnthemail I was able to recycle a couple more cards from the pile which is great! That pile of cards I pulled out will soon be shrunk to nothing

I only had three swap partners in this one so just one extra card to make. I pulled out some green fabric scraps and added some hand stitching and a couple of embellishments.

I joined all the strips of fabric together and left all of the raw edges showing. I have used this technique before a good while ago and really like it so I think maybe some more raw edges will be a feature of my work next year.

I couldn't write a post on Stripes without showing you one of my favourite Christmas presents this year.

Aren't they great!

Leaves

Over the last week or so I have been working hard to complete the majority of my postcard swap commitments. Next year I will be cutting back on the number of swaps that I take part in. Although I still love this mini art form I think it's time for me to play around with some new things. I've no doubt postcards will still pop up from time to time though!

I had 5 cards to make for a 'Leaves swap' These first two I managed to 'recycle' from my pile of old cards.

This next one changed as I was making it. I found an article in one of my issues of Workshop on the Web by Pauline Parker entitled 'Scorched Autumn'. Pauline had made lots of wonderful leaves layered in sheer fabrics, machine stitched and then burned back with the heat gun.Well I managed to layering and stitching part (I used a white outline for the stitching as my original inspiration came after seeing a pile of frost coloured leaves on a recent walk). Unfortunately I just can't seem to find my heat gun anywhere at the moment for the burning part.

Never mind I like how the card turned out anyway.

Finally I made two cards in the same design. I used chain and stem stitch to make the simple outline of a leaf.

I do enjoy making individual cards rather than a whole set the same but it does take longer to put a set together in this way.

Siberian Gold - Part Fourteen

I had hoped to spend a little time each day stitching on this this week but of course that never happened. Yesterday I had a pretty much free day though and thought the perfect way to remember Mum would be by working on her project.

As this is the last post of the year for this one I thought it would be fun to remind myself of what this looked like back in August when I first picked it out of the pile.
Wow even I have to be pleased with how far it's come. This is a reminder of what it was like on the last outing.This is the now.
It's really difficult to see the progress I think just because the colours I'm working at the moment are so close to the background fabric.


I think you might just be able to see from this close in shot the white stitching at the end shows the very edge of the picture which gives an idea of just how big this is going to be!

I'm going to stick with the rotation thing as I think it really does push me to achieve as much as I have time for in the week. That being said I don't think this one is going to get finished until the later half of next year. It would be nice to be working on something else by the time next Christmas comes, lol.

Haven't decided what I will be working on this week. I have a couple more little embroidery kits that I've bought during recent months so I might pull out one of those .....

More each year ...

Do you remember my graduation day, Mum? Happy times before you become ill....I miss you more with each passing year.

Christmas Presents

However you may have celebrated or passed the day yesterday I hope you had a joyful time....

Happy Christmouse

I just want to wish everyone who celebrates a very Merry Christmas!The mouse is a little something I stitched last Saturday while in front of the TV watching the Strictly Come Dancing Finale. He was a free kit from a magazine and will likely get sent as a card next year or I may turn him into a little tree ornament, haven't decided yet.

Mark and I will be celebrating the day on our own, bliss! It's something we have planned for a few years but one thing and another always happened and we have never managed to be alone. So we will be making a good cooked breakfast and then off for a long walk, before returning home in the evening to make a turkey dinner, yummy!

Happy Christmas to me

One thing often leads to another as the saying goes.


In this case my hunt in the yarn box for the trimming to finish my Zebra cards led me to finding this kit which I remember buying in a sale in January.
Well you know how things go, one project interrupts another and I never did get round to making anything with the kit. When I found it again I thought now would be the perfect time to knit this up just in case I'm tempted by something else in next months sales, lol!

It was quick and easy and in less than a couple of hours I'd made myself a new scarf. It's tricky trying to get a photo of yourself!

Even Mark struggled with blur in the greyness of the days that seem to be the norm at the moment. Oh well I think you get the idea.

I enjoyed doing some knitting for a change and I just love the colours so I couldn't be happier with my Christmas present to myself :)

On another note my week off isn't turning out to be as pleasurable as I had hoped. One thing after another seems to be going wrong at home at the moment and no matter how hard I try to keep the smile on and in the Christmas mood I can't keep the blues away. Yesterday I had to have a plumber out as we had water dripping through the ceiling, that isn't good at anytime of the year but a couple of days before christmas ... could the timing be any worse?

Z is for ....

As hard as I try to keep things tidy I'm just a naturally messy kind of person, lol! However just recently I have really been trying to put some effort into getting organised. As part of this tidyfest I have started to sort out all of the postcards I've collected over the last few years.

When I first started postcard making I used to make an extra in each swap to keep for myself. However I soon realised that with my collection growing so rapidly I realistically didn't really have the space to keep one each of all the I made as well so that stopped.

As part of my sort out I've come across some of my old cards and will be making every effort to recycle them in up come swaps and maybe some giveaways.

One card in particular jumped out at me. Perfect for the final letter of the alphabet swap that I have been taking part in.

I still haven't made my Y cards yet but while they were in mind I went ahead and made a couple more Zebras, so another swap gets crossed off the list :)

I had to raid my yarn box for the eyelash yarn for the edges and that led me to another project but more about that tomorrow .....

Creative Paper Quilts

What a perfect way to start my week off, the perfect little package in the post on Saturday.

Inside was this beautiful ATC

and Terri's wonderful new book

not only that but a wonderful message inside, just for me :)

I have been following Terri's blog ever since I discovered blogland. If you haven't visited yet your really should she makes such wonderful pieces. I'm looking forward to having a good read of the book and picking out some projects and techniques to try, there is certainly plenty in there to inspire.