Loon update and manic decorating week !

Last week spent more time on the Loon & Chick ... Only have the water left to add. I have just started the water on the left. It is looking good....


Well DH & I have had a week off work. Started last Friday with a night out at the theatre watching Sherlock Holms - the final act. It is a one man show based on Sherlock looking at his life after attending Dr Watson's funerial ... It was very good.

Saturday morning we were off to visit with DH's parents for the weekend. Had a good weekend completed some more stitching .. even the next Ornie in the RR I am in ...

Monday afternoon we headed home and our final night in our own bed for a few days.

Tuesday morning started to clear the bedroom. We planned to get the room decorating finished. Started it when we first moved in, but then found we could not get finished as we needed to have the room clear. Thus most of the bedroom contents ended up in my study or the living room or the kichen.

The walls went well. They had been done the first time so we were really only giving htem the second coat =)

Then we opened the pot of gloss which we had bought for the room & had been using as a door stop .... EEEeeekkk Maroon ... yuk What were we thinking. We both agreed that we thought the paint was a chocolate brown colour .. OK so off to Focus Do It All ... after a bit of rangerling we bought the Focus own brand.

BAD MOVE !!!! The focus paint was HORRID ... took ages to put on, if you tried to brush it the paint came off again ... AAARRRRHHH hhhh .. but we stuck with it . Next morning YUK !!!! The colour just did not work.

Thus Wednesday found us taking the unopened Focus paint back to get a refund. I suggested to DH that we drive to Ikea near Wembley as they have a day-bed which I thought would work for my studio (which has to double as the spare bed room) ... OK so on the way we stopped off at B&Q , picked up some Dulux paint .

DH enjoyed Ikea, if fact he wants to go back. The day bed was great. You can pull out the side and you have a double , there is storage below.... This is it - prefect .. So DH said right lets get it now.

Yes we have a truck ... but NO even a flat pack day-bed does not fit into the back. We drove home with the two matresses and flat packed tired down on the back !!!!

Where do you store a flat packed day bed ??? Well all over the house and in the garden shed. Ooppss ... So DH says that we need to look at getting my study decorated before changing the furnature over.

So Friday we get the final work done in the bedroom and start to dress it. Putting the curtains back up, shelves on the walls and pictures =) GREAT ... a real bed at last....

Saturday - Started to take my study apart. We took the old flop out sofa bed to the dump along with a few other items. DH helped me start puttng some of the pile of magazines onto EBay. Took ages !! Then we took a mad dash to B&Q for paint for my room ... Ended up buying paint from the New England range and 1829 range for the wood work. Errmmm my room at last will loose the chicken freeze (the last owners had it decorated for their kids)

A Long Weekend

Its holiday weekend - four days at home. Thus I have been busy creating more machine embroidered bag. These are aimed at people. It was quite a challenge to someone else's colour likes. The pink and blue ones are for two ladies I work with. They saw someof my other work and said they liked it ... They help me out so I thought I would create them something special.
They were both confused as last week I asked their favourite colour but would not tell them why.


Pink was amazing to create. It is not my colour at all and I was amazed that I had enough different piece of fabric in pink shades. I did buy a ball of fluffy pink wool but everything else came out the scrap box !


This one is made of leather... although not the thick heavy stuff. I was amazed that the machine was able to machine though the thickness. The button holding it shut came from my friend D whom will be given this piece. He has always helped with my art, sat a listerned to my crazy ideas , given his opinion and visited my show....



This one was based on peacock blue as a colour selelction. I have added elements of gold and green too ....

I also got round to finishing the birth sampler for my Niece's new baby. We are visiting them in the next week. DH said he would help me find a frame too ! It is by Sisters & Best Friends... I thought it was very modern which I hope K likes !!


So what else have I been up too over the last three days ??

Got into the garden, added an extra border by the green house digging in extra farm muck before planting out two rubarb roots. Got going on with the cutters, giving some of our larger bushes a bit of a hair cut !
Also set up seed trays in the green house for peppers, sunflowers, corgettes , brocolli, lettuce and spring onions =)

Saturday evening DH took me out to a great Italian in the village. It was a bit of a celebration as I had recieved a lot of good feed back at work from senior managers at work and been told that a extra reward would be in the pay packet soon =)

The rest of time has been taken up with relaxing with my cross stitching and the TV or radio !

Hope everyone has had a good weekend !

Gold Work Finish

Here is the gold work mushroom from last weekend. It was started at the Stitch Show ... The stitching was finished by last Sunday, but it has taken me until today to get round to taking a photo !

Good fun ... strange using gold work materials. The metal breaks your couching thread so easily. You really need to the bee wax to strengthen the thread.

I think I may be trying again.

Another Finish !

This is a needle purse , Sweet Baby James by Indigo Rose. It was a limited edition kit. I have made a couple of changes... First stitched the date the oppersite way up to the pattern. This means when you open the needlepurse you can read the date. Then changed the top edge of the pocket so it reads XS SH and BD , to mean Cross Stitch, Sharps and Beading !!!



The kit comes with three wooden needle holders...