Weekend Update

It was the 23rd February that i last posted a Dollhouse progress picture, so here's the latest. I know i say it everytime but i'll say it again, i love it! I have a free evening tonight and i was planning on starting one of my pieces for my Pay It Forward but i sat down to start and realised i don't have the floss i need so it'll have to wait and i'll do some more on Dollhouse instead :)

I went to the craft fair yesterday and had a great day. It's a bit of a con to be honest because although they call it "International craft and hobby fair" it's really just one hall full of hundreds of stalls devoted to papercraft (mostly card-making) and another hall for stitching. The stitching hall wasn't spectacular, it was just hundreds of stalls with the same DMC/Anchor/Coats kits at everyone. I did find a couple of great stalls that sold fabric at a great price, another stall with loads of gorgeous beads, another stall with great accessories such as needleminders etc and another stall with great quilts and fabrics. The embroiders guild stand was also great with amazing pieces of work on display. My mum is really into papercraft so she was quite happy with that hall. I can see how it would be a papercrafters paradise. I was disappointed that it was only papercraft in the main "craft hall," i was hoping to see loads of different crafts in there. Never mind, we were there for about 5 hours so we had a good time and most importantly i got stash which always makes me feel good!

Not the best picture but i bought...3 kits (only 2 in the picture as another is a gift i'm going to stitch), 2 packets of beads, lots of clear plastic folders for my floss, some new scissors, a needle holder and lots of linen. I justified the expense by claiming it was my "birthday money," which it was!

After seeing the quilting stalls i really would love to get into that as well. As it so happens, at the next ladies night at our church a lady is coming to do a quilting demonstration. So there you go, it's meant to be!

International Craft and Hobby Fair

Look what i'm going to tomorrow with my mum. The international craft and hobby fair in Glasgow with a whole hall dedicated to "creative stitches!" Should be good. Will i come back with any money though??

Here are some of the special features of the event taken from the website.....

The 'Holiday on Ice' Collection
World's first life-sized Knitted Garden
Elements in Nature - Quilters Guild
Knit & Natter
Up to 150 Exhibitors
Workshops and talks

"Find the latest cutting edge designs and innovative supplies for hundreds of new and established textile and hobby crafts at our exciting Creative Stitches & Hobbycrafts shows this year. With over 120 exhibitors showcasing the latest ranges of paper craft, fabrics, wools, sewing machines and overlockers, patchwork & quilting accessories, books, lace making threads, kits for tapestry and cross stitch, fabric painting, stenciling, embossing and much more, you are sure to find plenty to interest you! "

What i chose...

I have a few weddings this year and a few friends who are expecting babies and i would like to stitch something quick for them. I'd sent an email round at stitching bloggers for advice and got lots of help which was great! Anyway, here's what i decided on Not too complicated and nice and personal as well! It was part of my birthday stash (which i ordered off the internet and gave to DH to give to me!! He did get me flowers as well to his credit!!) Im not going to post everything else in my birthday stash as i'll probably be using it for PIFs and want that to be a surprise but i got some lizzie kate charts, some brittercup designs charts, and some brightneedle charts. Great!! I wish someone could have bought me some time so that i can actually start all these pieces!

Weekend Finish

This is what i stitched at the weekend for the Christmas Ornament SAL. I wanted to do something small, and probably will each month, to get it finished fairly quickly. It's a freebie from San Man originals. I think i will properly finish all the christmas pieces nearer the end of the year. There's some great pieces that people have done, check out the blog by clicking here.

Progress and facts about me

Here's the latest progress on Dollhouse which i LOVE stitching (as you will know by now!).

I was tagged by Jamie the other day so here goes. Five Questions.. and Five Things...Here's how this works:

For the first part, 5 Questions - anyone reading my blog can ask me five questions, either in comments or feel free to email them if you'd prefer. I'll answer them in the blog as soon as time allows.

For the second, Five Things About Me. Here are the rules: 1. Get tagged 2. List five things that have not been revealed on your blog 3. Tag five others.

So....5 things about me.....

1. I don't think ive mentioned this i my blog but i love to read (although stitching has seriously affected how much i read these days). I normally read on my commute to work as i have a 45minute train journey each way. I live right opposite my little village library and my family have a good laugh that im on such friendly terms with our local librarian. She is lovely. In fact, i popped in tonight on my way home from work and she had actually looked out some books that she thought i'd like and kept them aside for me! How great is she?! I would love to work in a library, it just doesn't pay enough!

2. Speaking about work, i work for a charity. Most of you will know that but to be more specific i work with young people ("young" being aged 25 and under) and try and get them more involved in their communities and volunteering. I work in a fairly disadvantaged area so the idea is that volunteering will increase their skills and confidence etc etc. I also promote an award for young volunteers.

3. I live in a small village as do my immediate family. My mum and dad are a 5 minute drive away, my sister and her husband are a 1 minute walk away, as are my aunt and uncle. Some people would hate that but i love it.

4. The majority of people i would term my "best friends" live no where near me. I was born in Scotland but moved down to England when i was 6 because of my dads job. Mum and Dad and my sister moved back to Scotland in 2000 whilst i was at uni. As a result my main group of friends are a long way away now! We've all ended up in different parts of the UK but we meet up fairly regularly which is good. Would be better if they all lived in my village though LOL

5. Along with a friend i run the kids club at my church. Its for kids aged 4-12. We pick them up in a minibus. Its on every sunday 1-2pm. I love it but it is hard work. My friend and i do all the planning etc but there are a few helpers as well which we couldn't do without! At the moment we have a really good group and we successfully recruited quite a few new kids when we did a leaflet drop in January.

So thats my 5 things. I hope you're still awake! Now for tagging.....i tag Mercy, Michele, Lizzy, Shannon and Bliss.

Hope you all have a good weekend. Tonight after my weekly fix of ugly betty we're going to my sisters as one of our friends is up from Manchester staying with her. Tomorrow i plan on going to the gym, doing my Christmas ornament SAL and then we're going to our friends for dinner. Sunday is always busy busy!

My Nephew

As promised the other day here's a picture of my gorgeous little nephew Luke. We won't see him until we go over to Canada in May but we're being kept up to date with lots of photos and videos of him. He's so small, just 6lb. His birth was pretty traumatic, the story, which i won't share here, is a great contraceptive for anyone feeling broody LOL.

As for a stitching update...ive finished the first room on Dollhouse. I'll post a picture later in the week. I'm now planning what to do for the Christmas Ornament SAL this weekend. I just joined that recently. It feels a bit weird thinking about Christmas ornaments in February but it'll be great at Christmas time when i have all these lovely ornaments. I'm going to do little, uncomplicated pieces as i dont have much free time. I'm also about to start a SAL with Jamie which im also excited about, i'll write more about that another time.

Dollhouse Progress

Here's my progress on Dollhouse this week. I'm really enjoying stitching this, i just love it. The photo isn't great, the lines look wonky but i promise you they are straight! It's going to take a long time to stitch this piece, this is only one of the rooms (which isn't finished yet) and this has taken hours.

Pay it Forward

Okay, so i signed up to Heidi's Pay it Forward. So here we go....if you want to sign up, the first three people to respond to this post will get some form of "art" made by me. Please post that you want in on this and then email me (cherylthomas3000 at yahoo dot com) with your name and snail mail. Please put in the subject line Pay it forward. Think of it as something to look forward to getting in the mail. I am not sure what it will be. There is a catch, of course, the way this works is that if you sign up, you have to blog this as well and continue sharing (it was orginially 5 people if you want that challenge). Heidi, i reduced it to 3 people i hope you don't mind, i dont have much free time. Oh and if you sign up, be patient, you'll hopefully get something before we reach 2008 LOL!!!

I've had a good weekend. Yesterday we babysat my sister' dog, Barney, for about 7 hours. Man, it was exhausting. He's not trained yet so we had to keep an eye on him and put him on the paper everytime he peed. There were a few accidents. He loves attention so if i was watching tv he would bark or bite my slippers! Everytime i had a sip of my tea he would bark. He really is very cute though. Here he is during one of his quieter moments!I have started stitching Dollhouse! Yeah! I love it! I'm going to post this picture even though there's nothing much to see. I've been looking forward to starting this so just thought i'd mark the occasion with a photo. I've also started stitching a free kit that came with this months crossstitcher magazine. Going back to Dollhouse though...the last few things ive stitched have all been on Aida. I just love stitching this on linen though, it's so much nicer.

A little bit of everything

There's this really cool shop near to where i work called Rainbow Turtle. It's a fairtrade shop and i love it. They sell lots of handcrafted items. It's quite pricey but you dont mind because it's really nice stuff and makes great gifts for people. It's my mother-in-laws birthday on Friday and i got her a handcrafted purse and keychain. The picture doesn't show the colours up very well but its a stunning purple colour with beading. Ive started stitching the "summer fun" kit but i won't post a picture of my WIP at the moment as there's not much to see at present. I think it'll take me a while as it is quite a big piece. My heart's not really in it either as i really want to start stitching on Dollhouse which i have been looking forward to starting for what seems like ages! I was waiting for my fabric to arrive and it did yesterday. Yeah! However, i then realised i didn't have all the floss i'll need so will need to order more, so that'll delay my start again. I couldn't decide whether to stitch it over one (like the chart suggests) or over two. After some advice from Mercy, i have decided to stitch it over two. I think i'll get on better doing that. There's so many pieces that i want to start but just not enough time. I work full time for a charity so don't get much time during the week. Weekends have been relatively free so far this year but they soon fill up. I was looking at my calendar today and we have something planned already for every weekend from the middle of April to the end of June. Crazy.

Anyway, any day soon we will become aunty cheryl and uncle matthew! (Elaine, in case you read this, i know we already are to doggy nephew Barney, but it's not really the same!) Matthews brother and his wife were due their first baby on Monday so any day now.... Everytime the phone rings we're expecting it to be them! It'll be hard for Matthew being so far away from them at this time :( but we're going over to Canada on the 26th May so not too long to wait. It would be good if our families all lived in the same place.

Right, im off to watch England vs. Spain football match. I know being born and living in Scotland i should be cheering on Spain and booing England but i don't. I love the England team. We lived in England from when i was 6 until i was 21 and i have an English accent so consider myself part English. The Scottish do NOT like the English though which makes life interesting up here. I'm normally fine once i tell people i was born in Scotland. I used to work with young offenders and they were always nicer to me once i told them i was actually Scottish!! "Braveheart" is always fresh in people's minds!!!!

Framed at last

Well this is how i finished the little duck that i stitched for my friend's baby. I stitched the baby's name and then I was lucky enough to find a frame that was pretty much the right size. I'm pleased with it. I must say though that whilst i really love stitching, i don't really enjoy "finishing." Sometimes i don't know what would look best, other times i'm worried that i'll do something to ruin all the stitching!

Now im off to bed. I have a headache and an early night would do me good!

Before i go - thanks to everyone that leaves comments. I love getting them and reading them!

Lovely Stash

I've read a few peoples blogs today and they all had new stash and i was jealous! However, i just got home and look what had arrived in the mail - some designs that i have been waiting for. "The Tea Room" by Country Cottage Needleworks (very appropriate for me as i drink lots of tea), "Coffee Menu" by Little House Needleworks (very appropriate for my coffee drinking husband who, being from Canada and used to the 'real stuff,' hates British coffee) and "Fruit of the Spirit" by My Mark.

These came from America. I think it's crazy that, even adding on shipping costs, it is still cheaper to buy them online from a US store than it is to buy here in the UK. If any British person reading this knows of somewhere in the UK that isn't costly please let me know! It makes me want to cancel all my weekend plans and just start them all right now. But i won't, because that would be very anti-social!!

Have a good weekend!

The meaning of bezza chezza and other stuff

A few months ago i reversed into someone in a car park. It was highly embarassing. I was just so tired and obviously didn't look properly. I was only going at 5mph but managed to put a dent in both his doors (insurance covered the damage but i lost 2years no claims bonus). Anyway, recently i have been seeing the guy all the time and i just can't look him in the eye. He pulled up next to me in the car park last week and i hid. It's just too embarassing. He was behind me in the queue at the ticket booth at the train station this morning and i was mortified. I don't want him to think im an air head or have the typical "woman" driver opinion. Its probably to late for that eh?! I'll continue to cringe every time i see him.

Now for an explanation. Some people have asked me about the title of my blog. Bezza chezza. When i started this blog i wasnt sure what shape it was going to take. Originally it thought it'd just be for friends and family. I have a group of best friends that ive known for years. We all live in different parts of the country now but continue to meet often. These are the "bezzas" i.e. best friends. I get called bezza chezza sometimes so i called my blog that. However, my blog took on a stitching theme and i decided not to promote it to my friends because none are even remotely interested in stitching! I keep joking that i'll convert them all one day. So there you go, the meaning of bezza chezza.

Talking about stitching....i started the "summer fun" kit last night but im not enjoying it. Ive made a mistake somewhere (the chart is very faint and complex) and i cannot figure out where i went wrong which is so frustrating. I'll come back to it when i feel more motivated for a challenge!
*8pm update - figured out where i went wrong with some help from hubby. Lots of frogging :(

Finish number 2

Yeeahh! I finished my second baby piece. Im going to stitch the baby's name and birth date when she's born and then maybe frame it. What do you think? Ideas welcome! Grown up stitching here i come!!

A Finish and a WIP

A finish! "Noah's Ark." It's not the best picture but it'll have to do. This is for my sister-in-law who is due her baby soon. Im just waiting for the baby to be born now so i can stitch the name and birth date on before i frame it. The rain drops and the animals eyes are beads. You can't really see from this picture but the beads are a nice touch, especially for the rain drops.

This is the progress i've made on "nice weather for ducks." Hopefully it will be finished soon and i can start stitching some "grown up" pieces!! I have a few lizzie kate and 2 brightneedle designs waiting. I'll have to make a list soon!

Dollhouse

I absolutely love the Dollhouse by Brightneedle. I think it is so lovely! I have admired it on other people's blogs and am following blogs of those that are stitching it to see how they're getting on. On Sunday i ordered the chart from a shop in England. I was woken up by the postman knocking at the door to deliver it on Tuesday morning. I was so excited! The chart was all wrapped in beautiful tissue paper with a ribbon around it. I opened it so carefully and you'll never guess what? It was the wrong chart!!! Gutted. They had sent me the Needlework shop by Brightneedle (which is also lovely but not what i was hoping for!) So, i had to send it back to them. Then they phoned today to say Dollhouse wasn't in stock after all and i will have to wait whilst they order it in! Very annoying. It's not like i have time to start it at the moment anyway, so i don't really mind, it was just a bit disappointing! I'm looking forward to starting it though (one day) as it'll be nice to stitch something i really love rather than all the pieces i've been stitching for babies! I have 3 pieces on the go at the moment all for friends/family that are expecting a baby. The pieces are cute but nothing like Dollhouse!

WIP no.3

I bought this today in a sale and will start it tonight. For another friend who's having a baby - very soon!

WIPs

I love this beach hut one. Reminds me of Shoreham-by-Sea where i go camping every year. One of my favourite places! I'll start this next.

For my friend's baby. I have until July thank goodness!

Love and Cross Stitch

Someone spoke about this in church this morning and i thought it was nice so i'll share it here. We were thinking about showing love to people that are hard to like, let alone love, and we were challenged to 1) think about that person 2) find one thing that you admire/find positive about them and 3) give them 100% encouragement/praise for that thing. The 101% method. I'll try it at work tomorrow with the person who really bugs me!

I finished my cross stitch. It looks really cool. Im very proud of it. I started it a year or so ago, forgot about it and picked it up again at the beginning of the Christmas holidays and got it finished. Its a pressie for someone so i'll wait until i give it to them before i post a picture of it. I went straight to the craft shop (don't laugh!) and bought my next one to start for Becky's baby! I love my new hobby even if im being ridiculed for it by certain friends who shall, for now, remain nameless. Although i must find somewhere cheaper to buy these cross stitches as my local craft shop is a rip off!