Bonfire Night

Remember remember the 5th November

Gunpowder, treason and plot.

I see no reason why gunpowder, treason

Should ever be forgot

It's bonfire night. I love fireworks. For those of you that don't know, i did a History degree at University....so here's a history lesson.....

On the 5th November 1605 Guy Fawkes was caught in the cellars of the Houses of Parliament with several dozen barrels of gunpowder and was then, along with this co-conspirators, was tried as a traitor for trying to blow up (quite literally) the government. He was sentenced to death by execution by the awful practice of being hung ,drawn and quartered. The following year in 1606 it became an annual custom for the King and Parliament to commission a sermon to commemorate the event. The words " Remember , remember the 5th of November" serves as a warning to each new generation that treason will never be forgotten. The 5th of November is still commemorated each year with fireworks and bonfires culminating with the burning of The Guy. Tradition allows British children to display their 'guys' to passers-by and asking for " A penny for the guy.

I must admit, whilst i love bonfires and fireworks, i find the whole "Guy" burning thing a bit sick.

We had a lovely time at the wedding on Saturday at Stirling Castle. It was the posh-est most Scottish wedding ive ever been too. When we arrived we had to knock on a wooden door to get in, say the names of the bride and groom and then climb through a small trap door. The place was exclusively reserved for the wedding only! Here's some pictures of the castle and the bride and groom.Speaking of wedddings, it was my sisters wedding anniversary yesterday. They've been married for a year already. Here is a picture from their wedding day (i am standing next to the bride).
So it was a busy weekend. We didn't get home until about 3am then we were up early on Sunday coz DH runs the family church at our church and i had kids club to help at. Then i was at work on Sunday afternoon. However, amongst all the busy-ness i did manage to work more on Edgar's RR. Ive got a lot more done than when i last showed a picture on the 21st Oct. I decided just to use lots of LHN charts for this square. Im not going to do it again. It takes me forever to decide what to use and where. For quickness im going to stick to one chart when the next RR comes my way. Here's my progress so far anyway

Thank goodness for Friday!

Another busy week at work is over and i'm glad! Unfortunately i have to work on Sunday but im not thinking about that at the moment. Im going to relax tonight, stitch and watch ugly betty!

Here's my latest progress on my tablerunner after last night's quilting class. I finished the logcabin last night. This is my favourite one so far. Here are my 3 squares lined up on my ironing board. I havent completey finished the fan one yet. The light is bad again (stupid winter weather) but the dark colour is actually green.I now have to start working on joining these ones together. I am enjoying learning to quilt and am hoping for lots of quilting books for Christmas as well as a bigger cutting board, my one is just too small.

No stitching this week but i did receive my names for the SBEBB Winter Quaker and the SBEBB Winter House. Im looking forward to working on those. I did receive these lovely squares today from Donna for the Fair and Square Exchange. She also included a JBW designs chart - thank-you so much Donna!! I love this santa and i plan on making it into an ornament for my Christmas tree.

Tomorrow we are going to our friend's wedding at Stirling Castle! Look at it:Isn't this just the most gorgeous place for a wedding?! Im so glad the weather forecast is good for it.

Have a good weekend!

Rain, Rainbows and a Round Robin

Remember the stash i blogged about it in my last post? It still hasn't arrived! These postal strikes are driving me crazy! It should have arrived Wednesday being sent first class on Tuesday but no sign as yet. So with that in mind i will be posting my RR off (first class) to Lesley tomorrow or Tuesday. It has to be with her by the 12th. I won't have my square finished but i never really planned to anyway. Here is where im up to with it so far. It's LHN's Daisy Lane Cottage. Im hoping to finish the roof and the front door before it leaves me for a few months on its round the world tour!I will be receiving Donna's to work on soon! Here's a link to our RR blog if anyone wants to follow our progress.

Today is has rained all day. We are having a really poor summer. I can remember some hot weather back in April for a few days....maybe that was summer LOL. It has been a much needed quiet weekend. On Friday night i went to see Hairspray at the cinema with my friend. I loved it, John Travolta was really funny. Yesterday DH and i watched Click on dvd and didn't enjoy it that much. Tomorrow is a local holiday and i have the day off work! Woo hoo! DH doesn't as his company only has UK wide holidays. I am meeting a friend for lunch and hoping to go swimming in the evening. Speaking of swimming....i am trying to swim at least once a week but preferably twice. With the rubbish weather ive not been out on my bike much and i gave up my gym membership because i rarely went so i need some other exercise. My mum has been coming swimming too which is good as i probably wouldn't go by myself.

Now look what arrived in the mail (yes, an actual mail delivery!) on saturdayHeather read this post on my blog after we had returned from Canada in June! I do miss Swiss chalet. Heather, thank you so much, it did indeed make me smile. You are very kind! Now if could just send me some Maple Dip Donuts from Tim Hortons and some Dill Pickle Lays my Canadian food cravings will be over LOL, just kidding!

I will finish with a West of Scotland Weekend picture. Enjoy the rainbow!

*Edit* Can anyone tell me if there's a DMC with different shades of green? Like the red DMC 115?

West of Scotland Weekends and a Finish

It was a beautiful weekend. Not warm but certainly nice and sunny. Much better than the weather down south where they have been getting terrible flooding.

We were down at my folks house for a bbq on saturday. Here's some West of Scotland weekend photos. The first on the way there, the second on the way backThanks for all the get well wishes. I am feeling a bit better now but still not 100%. Im throwing back the vitamins, echinacea, beechams cold powders and venos cough medicine!

I have a finish to show. This is for my friend who had a baby girl. It's a Lizzie Kate design from the "make it personal" series.

I am going to frame it and will post another picture when i do. In other stitching news i have been busy stitching my fair and square piece for Peg. I wanted to get going on this quickly because by the 12th August Donna's RR should be here and that'll probably take up a lot of stitching time.

Has everyone seen the Cross Stitcher's Lottery blog? Check it out here

Anyway, i can't believe another weekend is over. Mondays arrive far too quickly :(

Crazy Weekend

It's been a crazy weekend here in Scotland. As you will be aware, Glasgow was targeted by 2 crazy terrorist bombers on saturday. My dad came through the airport at lunchtime that day, those idiots drove their bomb ridden car towards the terminal at 3pm. I will never understand why these people are so determined to kill so many innocent people. It was the start of the school holidays up here so it could have been disastrous. Fortunately there were no casualties on saturday, apart from the two bombers, but you can't help but wonder how long it's going to be before it happens again. We would never have expected Scotland to become a target and especially so close to home. The media are alleging it could be because our new prime minister is Scottish but who knows. It's a crazy world, crazy and scary.

On a much lighter note, i've finished gridding the basic outline of my RR and started stitching my square which is LHN's Daisy Lane Cottage.

Ive had very few weekends here at home recently so haven't posted any West of Scotland Weekend pictures for ages. Here's the view of the river Clyde out of our front window the other night

Calling all Canadians....

Well in 6 days time we're off to Canada. DH is happy to be going home :) We're going to be in Ontario and will be in Hamilton/Toronto/Fairy lake in Huntsville. Does anyone know of any good LNS's in those areas? It's so cheap for us Brits to buy over there so it's the perfect opportunity for some stash shopping!! Any help would be much appreciated, if you could leave me a comment or email me that'd be great cherylthomas3000 at yahoo dot com.

In stitching news i have started a new project which is a PIF gift. I love starting new pieces. I seen a blog once called "confessions of a serial starter" and i thought that would be perfect for me! I love starting new things. I really really want to buy (and start) Village of Hawk Run Hollow by Carriage House Samplings but i will wait until we go to Canada to see if i can buy it over there. I have also signed up to the Fair and Square exchange which im excited about and if you're interested, the rules are here

Here's some West of Scotland Weekend photos for you to enjoy. This is looking across to the Isle of Arran

and we were out for dinner tonight with my family and this was the view out of the restaurant window

Bank holiday weekend

This is a bank holiday weekend which means a day off work today! This was great as i had a busy saturday and sunday. Our friends from London came up to stay for the weekend. So i spent friday night and saturday morning getting the place tidy for their stay. On saturday evening DH was playing with his band at a big church event for young folk. They practiced a lot for this and it was worth it because they were great, i was so impressed! Anyway, we took our friends to the airport late last night and it has been great to have this extra day today to relax! DH went to the driving range with his friends and i stitched the afternoon away whilst watching season 2 of the gilmore girls (an american friend gave me the boxset - it's not on over here).

In typical British bank holiday fashion....it rained today. This was so annoying as it had been so beautiful recently whilst i've been stuck in that hole of an office at work. So my West of Scotland weekend photos were taken out of my windows LOL. Out of the kitchen window: and out of a bedroom window

this is not my garden, it's my neighbours, but i just love that blue/purple bush in their garden.

Now for a stitching update....i wanted to post a picture of Cirque des Cercles because i finished 1 of the circles (1 down, many many more to go!!)There's a bit of a shadow on the photo.

Today i decided to go back to Dolhouse. I feel like i haven't stitched on it in ages but the break was much needed. It's one of those pieces that require thread changes all the time and i get fed up of it sometimes. The break has been good though as i've enjoyed working on it again this afternoon. I'll post a picture later in the week.

Yesterday i was showing my friend all my WIPS and stash whilst our hubbies played on the Wii. She thinks it's hilarious that i love it so much and took great delight in teasing me. She's quite crafty so i thought she'd be interested but she didn't seem to like anything much at all and thought it was a boring hobby. I grew up with this friend, isn't it funny how you can be such good friends with people that have totally different interests? I guess sometimes friendships are more about the things you've experienced together in the past and that's our bond rather than similar hobbies etc.

On a completely different note...for anyone that read my post the other day entitled "a history lesson," the SNP won the election in Scotland by 1 seat :( I was so disappointed. At least they don't have a big majority. Im hoping no other party will join up with them because that way they will never pass a bill to have a referendum for Scottish independence.

Drum roll please...

Ta Da.....I started cirque des cercles. Sorry about the terrible picture. I left it on the couch yesterday and came back to find my DH sitting on it so my fabric needs an iron! I am stitching it on a cream Belfast linen 32 ct over 2 with 1 strand of silk. I'm loving stitching with silk by the way. I'd highly recommend it! It'll be hard going back to DMC :) Im really pleased with the colour i chose.

Now for some West of Scotland weekend pictures. Look who we found eating the flowers the other morning

and here's a cute picture i took out my friends window today, these were in her back garden

Ive been at my friends hen weekend. We had a good laugh. On friday night we had a Karaoke night and then last night we dressed her up as a bride and went out for a meal and then onto a line dancing place. The line dancing place was surreal, it was full of very serious line dancing enthusiasts all kitted out with their cowboy hats etc. I never knew places like this existed in the UK, especially not in Glasgow. We had a great time, it was such fun and everyone in there, whilst a little strange, were so friendly and made a big fuss of the bride to be. I am now totally exhausted and wish i had a day to recover before going back to work again but unfortunately i don't!

West of Scotland Weekends

It has been a beautiful weekend and it has been so warm. On Friday i got away from work early and went to my mums and sunbathed, stitched and slept the afternoon away in my shorts and t-shirt! Yesterday we went on a 10 mile bike ride and then i went with some friends to see blades of glory at the cinema in the evening. After church today, more sunbathing at my mum and dads house whilst DH washed the cars! A great weekend. I love the sun! Enjoy my West of Scotland weekend photos :)

West of Scotland Weekends

West of Scotland weekends takes on a wedding theme this weekend! We were at our friends wedding yesterday.

Here they are closer up. The groom is from Indonesia and after their honeymoon they are moving out to Indonesia to run an orphange together.

So on the wedding theme, i have a new start this weekend. Lizzie Kate's "make it personal" and i am stitching "Joined in Love." This is for my friend who's getting married in June. I'm stitching it on 28ct raw cashel linen.

West of Scotland Weekends

It was another beautiful weekend here in the West of Scotland. Here's some pictures of my house.................LOL wish it was but it's not!!

And some pictures up at the farm on the way to our friends house on Saturday evening. The lambs were so cute! Some friends of ours actually live in the cottage in the second picture below.

West of Scotland Weekends

Mary Kathryn does "Rocky Mountain Wednesdays" so i thought i would start "West of Scotland Weekends."

You might not be able to see it but we got married in the church on the hill in the far distance. The day was like this so you can imagine what lovely wedding pictures we have!