The most gorgeous gift!

Im home from Canada. Just been back a few hours so im shattered and dreading work tomorrow! We got back in record time, the flight was only 5hrs 40 mins. The screen said we were cruising at 975 km/hr so must have been a good tail wind. We had a great time and it was so great spending time with our nephew who had his 1st birthday whilst we were out there. I will post pictures in days to come.

Ive just logged on quickly tonight because i came home to the most amazingly gorgeous gift ever!! It was from Marie for the Stitching Bloggers Birthday Club. It's my birthday on Saturday but i couldn't wait to open it. When i did, i was completely gobsmacked. Wow, Marie made me the most incredible gift and was sooooo generous. I couldn't believe my eyes!! I have taken loads of pictures to show off Marie's incredible work

She stitched this PS design called The Needle's Eye (notice our initials at the bottom)

and finished it like this

and included so many other gifts (sorry about the blurry picture) As you can see there were: DMC floss, Dinky Dyes floss, Madeira silks, a thread cutter (will be great for travelling), scissors, 4 PS charts, an Omnigrid, 2 packs of needles, linen (2packs), cards and coffee! I am completely overwhelmed by Marie's generosity. Ive never visited her blog before so will definitely be checking it out soon. I can not imagine how much time and effort went into this gift. Marie, i am so grateful and will treasure your beautiful gift.

My jet-lagged self is off to chill out for a while. Im fighting the overwhelming urge to go to bed right now because if i do, i know i'll be wide awake in the middle of the night!

Sore Ear

Thank-you for all your encouragement after my last post! In conclusion....i am running the 10k (18th May aaaahhh) and i am going to Canada (on wednesday)!! You're all very persuasive!

Another week has past since my last post. DH left for Canada and is having a great time back home with his family and friends....he's loving the snow and playing ice hockey again! I go this wednesday and im glad im going, if only for a week.

Im not looking forward to the flight because last night i burst my ear drum. I had to be spend 4 hours at A&E. Such a nightmare! My ear is sore and i cant hear anything. Im on antibiotics and painkillers. It will heal and my hearing will come back soon but it hurts!! Needless to say i wont be going to work tomorrow.

I really havent been stitching much recently, just havent had the time. I've only managed to work on my 2 SAL pieces. Ive made fairly good progress on Dear Diary

and only a tiny wee bit on Cirque

I wont be working on either of them now until i come back from Canada. Off to relax for the evening and have an early to bed night!

To run or not to run

I havent posted in over a week! So...what's been happening? Life's been busy.

Firstly, i am trying to decide whether to enter the Glasgow Women's 10k. A couple of women from work are and i would love to get fit and run for a charity but i hate running! Its painful...it hurts my throat, gives me chest pain, headache....give me any other sport any day. All that aside, we did begin training! On Wednesday we went out for 25mins at lunchtime. Thursday and Friday i went out by myself after work. I can run for about 13minutes without stopping at the moment which is pretty rubbish LOL Everytime im out running i think to myself "there's no way im running the 10k" but then i get home and have a rest and feel good for doing exercise and i think "yep, i'm definitely doing the 10k."

In other news, DH is going home to Canada on Wednesday for 2 weeks. All a bit of a last minute decision. Its our nephews 1st birthday on the 15th so he really wanted to be home for that plus the winter weather over here of rain, grey skies, rain, rain and more rain really gets to him! He needs that blue sky and snow! So i'll be dateless on valentines! Im actually thinking of following him over on the 21st just for a week. Then we can travel home together on the 27th. I can't decide what to do (can you tell im bad with decisions). I can't get 2 weeks of work at the moment, im too busy. The annoying thing is you pay the same for 1 week as you do for 2. However, the flights are a good price at this time of year. I'll decide this weekend!

On Wednesday we started a new youth club at our church. We have one on a Sunday but there are too many teenagers coming along now who need something else. So we are running a youth club every Wednesday night which i have to go to straight from work. Its a huge commitment as the youth work is generally left in the hands of 3 of us and we have to drag other people to help out. Seeing as our church has about 40members, its a shame noone else will commit.

So all this has left virtually no time for stitching this week. In fact, the only piece i did work on was my Dear Diary SAL. Here's this weeks progress (basically the house and the grass)This lighthouse really looks like one about 10mins away from where we live. This is the Cloch lighthouse. See the similarities?!Today will be a cleaning / tidying day and then tonight we are going to our friends house for dinner which'll be nice. Have a great weekend!

Winter Quaker

I received word from Mindi that she received the pillow i made her for the SBEBB Winter Quaker. I was tempted to keep this for myself and my DH really liked it too but a deadline was approaching and it had to wing its way to Mindi!It is a chart from the Gift of Stitching magazine May 2007 issue. There is a quaker chart for all 4 seasons. I chose my own colours to make it more wintery. I sent her other goodies too but didn't photograph them. Mindi's blog post about my pillow made me laugh. She said that she wants to come and live at my house coz the pillow smelt so good! It wasn't a scented pillow so maybe my house does smell good....you can never really tell what your own house smells like but i notice what other peoples smells like.

I have managed to work on my SAL pieces this week. Here's some progress pics. Firstly of CdCand secondly of Dear DiaryI don't get much time to stitch so progress is always gonna be slow. But progress is progress!

The weather is pretty wild here at the moment. We have gale force winds and snow is forecast. blaa. Luckily i have today off and dont have to go outside until later tonight. Im hoping it will be more settled by then.

Have a good weekend!