PLEASE GO AWAY BLACK CLOUD!

The much needed black cloud has arrived in my village ~ unfortunately it has no rain in it ~ it's just come to sit over MY head and make my life rubbish and it WON'T GO AWAY!!!

Let me explain ~

I've managed to drive the car into the low wall that separates my driveway from my neighbours ~ that part of the wall now resembles rubble and the car has gone to hospital for a respray!  I've only been driving 25 years and even more embarrassing it was frontwards of the drive and didn't even involve reversing!

OK, a lovely 2011 courtesy car to drive whilst we wait 7-10 days ~ only it's a 3 door Vauxhall Corsa and we're a family of 5 including 3 growing teenagers all over 5' and DH who's 6'2" and when he drives it the person sitting behind him is more comfortable upside down with their feet hanging out the sunroof!

Oh, and did I mention it's half-term next week so will need to use the car more than ever.

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Blogger ~ well you all know how irritating that is at the moment?

My grand opening happy dance of The Mercantile was a failure with comments (maybe due to blogger problems or it just wasn't a popular design?) so I have shut my country store down!

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Thought a nice treat for all of us would be a night-time visit to London Zoo which is by advance ticket only ~ Great! the tickets have arrived with age 18+ in the smallest print ever with no refund available so looks like DH and I are off to spend the night with the monkeys alone!

(A zoo that only lets people in over the age of 18???????)

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My neighbour called by Friday to see if I had noticed the smell of gas ~ No, I hadn't until she said!

British Gas have now been out to investigate and found a leakage and guess what: the mains pipe, according to their records, is underneath OUR driveway so come Tuesday that will be dug up ~ well it will match the wall now won't it?

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Summer's fast approaching and I've lots of unworn clothes brought in the end-of-season Sales last year ~ OUCH! those trousers pinch, so does that pair of shorts and that t-shirt is screaming STOP STRETCHING ME!

Goodbye size 10 (temporarily) - OK, I know, only 1 person to blame but here comes the 10,000 steps a day and 5-a-day fruit & veg diet routine again and that = less stitching time!
Size 10 did not come easy for me in the first place, it took losing almost 3 stone (38lbs) to find it and I've always sworn I'll never go back to what I was :(

It's okay Oscar, Mum's had her rant, you can come out . . . .

Tilly, the forecast looks good and the black cloud may go soon . . . .

I know a 'pick'me-up' is what's needed (NO! not a bottle, NO! not another shopping spree) . . . COFFEE, you know, Mum's favourite, but how about coffee with a difference . . . .

My 1st attempt at punchneedle ~ a small Dimensions kit featuring a steaming cup of coffee.

It took me a few attempts before I knew and was happy with what I was doing but I'm really pleased with the end result and am really keen to have another go ~ there are some gorgeous designs out there, in particular With Thy Needle & Thread who have bunnies-a-plenty.

So, that's my life at the moment but I'm still smiling and hopefully you'll come back next time?

HAPPY STITCHING

xxx

A HAPPY DANCE . . . .

A HAPPY DANCE
Dancing shoes on please and join me in the grand opening finishing of The Mercantile!!!

Little House Needleworks 'The Mercantile'
stitched on 28~count Sand Linen with Crescent/GAST/Weeks Sampler threads


I just loved stitching this design ~ the simple blocks of colour and lettering stitch up really quickly and look so pretty when they're complete ~ unfortunately my camera is not co-operating today and the linen colour looks grey in the piccie but as the name 'sand' suggests it is actually a lovely soft golden cream colour.
  I'm not sure how I'm going to finish it yet but do know it's going to involve a lot of stretching!
I think a wall hanging will look good with a fabric border picking out the pinky-red thread which by the way I changed from the suggested 'Clay Pot' (as I didn't have it anyway) to GAST 'Raspberry Parfait' (as suggested by me on my last Post but found it too dark) to Crescent Colours 'Aztec Red' (but more like Raspberry) !!!!


I'm not sure that this is a very popular design as I haven't seen it on another blog but if anyone would like the chart then I have added it to 'My Stash For Sale' page.


I incorporated a Rain Dance in my celebrations and hey presto! two showers already followed quickly by blazing sunshine and very strong winds ~ poor bunnies, I fully expect them to come indoors and be minus their ears ~ no wonder they cuddle up like this when they do come in . . . .

So back in the garden this afternoon after a busy one yesterday ~ my summer bedding is now all planted up and today I'm concentrating on some herbs ~ Basil, Parsley and Mint ~ all favourites of Tilly and Oscars.


DD begins her Study Leave from College tomorrow for 3 weeks despite having sat 2 of her exams already???   She's had excellent feedback from her Tutors and is so capable of achieving good results but her self-confidence and self-believe needs a little boosting so that's what I shall be concentrating on.


Thank you for stopping by, as always I appreciate you spending a little of your day with me!
xxx

MY SHELVES ARE STOCKED . . . .

Yep, my shelves are fully stocked and my Grand Opening Happy Dance is fast approaching!!!

Firstly and more importantly you'll see that my Store is now weatherproof and the roofing is complete.

The biggest heartfelt thank you for this slight delay in building goes to my building supplier dear blogging friend Lois of http://ofneedlespinsand.blogspot.com/ who after seeing my last post emailed me to ask if she could help!

Lois had 2 skeins of 'Wood Smoke' and sent them both to me as they were so different in dye colour to try and make a match ~ Wow! they certainly were different but luckily one of them had a section of colour that I could use and I think it would be really hard to spot any difference ~ thank you Lois so much, you are very kind, I can't imagine how frustrating it would have been to have ordered online ~ it could have taken a lifetime and a second mortgage until I struck lucky!

My plea for some rain though has not happened and we are now talking possible drought situations here in the South of the UK ~ already! and Summer's not even arrived yet!  A couple of small showers last weekend meant my planted tree next to the Store could grow and look it's reached full height and even has lovely green leaves!!!  There's a couple of shrubs to plant next to it which are in a colour I don't have or think I would like and as that same colour also appears in the tree I am going to use a nice fresh Raspberry Parfait and that will complete the border eventually as well.

So that's almost it, I have the words Post Office to stitch, a blackbird to visit in the new tree and a couple of optional stars in the top right-hand corner.  My daily essentials are stocked ~ pots, pans, flour and sugar to make delicious goodies and keep our men happy, soap for them to wash their hands and keep us happy, fabric and pins (a must), shoes (every girl's weakness) and most important COFFEE BEANS!

Lastly ~ Elixirs ~ an unused word in our modern times (unless you are keeping track of Lord Voldemort's quest for eternal life in the 1st book) but for those who are curious :

• ELIXIR (noun)

The noun ELIXIR has 3 senses:

1. a sweet flavored liquid (usually containing a small amount of alcohol) used in compounding medicines to be taken by mouth in order to mask an unpleasant taste
2. a hypothetical substance that the alchemists believed to be capable of changing base metals into gold
3. a substance believed to cure all ills


Number 3 for me please and I'll need enough to share with the rest of the world!

Thanks for stopping by and sharing a little bit of your day with me.
HAPPY STITCHING
xxx

EASTER RAKS, HAPPY DANCES AND BUNNY HARMONY

HAPPY MAY everyone, not sure where April went but it came and went very quickly!!!

It seems a long time since I celebrated and shared a Happy Dance with you all and the postal service is the main culprit!  I sent a couple of Easter packages out well before the big occasion, one to Barb which arrived as it should have but the other took over 2 weeks and missed Easter altogther?

I was so pleased with Barb's bunny pillow and wanted to send her something in return so decided on Little House Needleworks 'Lavender Hill' along with the required DMC threads and as I know she has a very big soft spot for sheep some chocolate ones were perfect from the Easter Bunny! (sorry forgot to take a picture but I'm sure most of you know which chart I'm talking about).

My second Easter package was to Annette http://annette-werkjes.blogspot.com/ in The Netherlands and that was the one which would have arrived quicker if I had set off on foot!  Annette's blog is lovely to follow and she has the most adorable children, little Noah and baby Kira, she is superb with needle and thread and makes the most gorgeous items for her home and children.

  I thought this would look nice in baby Kira's room (it's never too early to fall in love with bunnies) . . .

It's only a small design from the CrossStitcher magazine stitched on 28count evenweave but I thought it was sweet and I stitched the flowers to match the lilac fabric.  The Easter Bunny took Noah a little parcel of chocolates which I hear from Annette he wanted to eat all at once (whoops!!!)

A second Happy Dance is Beatrix Potter's 'Benjamin Bunny' finished in my usual pillow style.

I couldn't find any buttons to match and as it was the Easter weekend and all the shops were closed I decided to stitch small cabbages instead !!!

A strange choice maybe? cabbages? but I wanted the colour to match the fabby on the reverse . . . .

Ahhhh, so sweet and if I get fed up with looking at the cabbages I can look at this side instead!

I started my next stitch over the Easter weekend but because I was waiting to hear when my RAKs arrived so I could share them with you, this first photo is a little out-of-date . . . .

This is Little House Needleworks 'The Mercantile'.  I can't remember the last time I stitched a building of any sort and as my bunny stitching has been multiplying at great speed I felt it would make a nice change.

It's a lovely design of a Country Store and I'm building it with Gentle Art Sampler threads, most of them as listed but substituted a couple of them with shades almost the same and I'm really enjoyed it.

This second photo shows it to-date but alas I've run out of wood for the top of the store and my usual supplier has a message on her website saying she's away until middle of May ~ there are other suppliers in the UK and I hate to sound like I'm penny-pinching but when you can buy a skein for £1.20 with minimum postage cost when others charge £2.06 and an excessive standard postage cost not matter what the item, it seems silly not to wait.

I've just planted a tree (left of the store) and am keeping my fingers crossed that it will grow and reach full height as we've had no rain here in the South of England for over 4 weeks ~ my flowers and shrubs are suffering already from lack of water and we're only in May!

Thank you everybody for all your good wishes for the happy bonding of Tilly and Oscar.

As you will see from the pics below there is happy harmony between the two of them and they are now inseperable ~ it's lovely to watch them together and they're great fun to be around.

I have to admit that I did worry if Tilly found her true mate then would she still be my best pal too?

Yes, yes, yes she loves me too and our lovely cuddle times are just as they always were.  Oscar has come on leaps and bounds and is a real character, he is soooo nosey and periscopes all the time to get a better view of everything, he has gained great trust in us and now knows he lives in a loved and safe environment - how did anyone ever subject this dear little bunny to such cruelty???

Thank you for stopping by and all your lovely comments, it's a great treat to read them all and I appreciate you taking the time to do so.

HAPPY STITCHING

xxx