THE MAGIC WORD . . .

Remember 'my' big black cloud ~ YIPEE! it's gone away and my run of bad luck has gone with it :-)

The whole idea of wishing for that 'big black cloud' was to give our gardens and flowers the big drink they have been so desperate for to bring them back to life and the South of England has been waiting and waiting and waiting but all I needed to do was just say the magic word ~

BARBEQUE

and hey presto! it rains, not just the showers forecast but persistant non-stop rain the whole of Sunday and most of today!

  Saturday was beautiful and hot

 so I said 'that' word and Sunday was not!

Anyone fancy wet burgers and fries

It's the best I can offer ~ just look at the skies!

Even the bunnies have turned up their nose

Wet grass and carrots, not the best I suppose

But come on guys!  Look what it's done

The flowers are blooming and the forecast is SUN!!!

So now to stitchy news . . .
My last 2 posts have been void of anything cross stitch, I have been doing some, honestly, but ssssshhhhh, hush, hush, cannot talk about it yet ???

So I thought I'd show you this one, stitched in 2008 . . . .

The Coffee Angel by Carolina Country House
stitched on Cream 28-count Evenweave with my choice of DMC threads


The original colours for this one were yellow, orange and green with a black chequered border and not coffee-like at all so I changed them to my taste and altered the spelling of cappucino to the english version ~ is one letter c the american spelling? all our products here have 2 letter c's in the middle?

There are four Angels in this series . . . .

The Coffee Angel, The Baking Angel, The Spice Angel and The Herb Angel


The first 3 in the series I tracked down quite easily, although I've only stitched the 'Coffee' one but the 4th one ~ The Herb Angel ~ was non existent until eBay came up trumps and probably the reason was Carolina Country House had changed to Manor House Collection and now they don't seem to exist at all!

So I was just wondering if anyone else had stitched any of them and if so how they had finished them?
As usual they are not a standard frame size finish, they are too big for a pillow finish and would a wall hanging look strange without a fabric border bearing in mind they all have a chequered border already?
Oh, decisions, decisions, now you know why it's been sitting in the 'Remember Me' pile for over 3 years!!!

DD has just got back from sitting her last exam so it's a well deserved rest for her now and fingers crossed she achieves all she's hoping for.

Thank you to everyone for your words of support and encouragement on my recent doom and gloom ~ you are all the perfect tonic for me!

HAPPY STITCHING
xxx

SOMETHING DIFFERENT . . . .

This is a non-cross stitch, non-bunny and thankfully (after my lost post) a non-eventful post!

I thought I'd share with you my DS's (aka Twin I, aged 13 3/4 !!!) Works of Art.

He's always loved drawing and is an avid reader of the Terry Pratchett novels and as it's Half-Term this week and he's having a break from his Playstation 3 he's combined the two and Hey Presto . . . .

'Rincewind'

An artist at work!

'Gak' ~ a work in progress

'Gak' completed!

'Evil Harry Dread'

All 3 of these characters are from Terry's novel 'The Last Hero' and are pencil drawn and coloured with artists' tone & blend pencils.
Perhaps not drawings us cross-stitching ladies would hang on our walls next to our stitched Samplers!!!
but we will frame these with clip-art frames and when they are hung in his brick-wall effect bedroom they will look great!

Beautiful sunny weather here in the UK but very windy too!

Have a great weekend everyone
HAPPY STITCHING
xxx

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.

*

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!

*

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???????)

*

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?

*

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