Pinkeep PIF

Im sick. I have a terrible cold and i can't stop sneezing and coughing. Who gets a cold in July?! Me obviously. I have managed to work all week but this morning i called it quits and phoned in sick. I hate taking sick days but ive been getting worse, not better, so it's time to relax i think. I have never felt like this after camp before, must be getting old LOL

I heard from Michele that she received the PIF gift i sent her. Im glad you like it Michele. I made her a pinkeep.

The chart was a freebie called "The Three Emblems" by Papillon Creations. I really like this chart and hope to stitch it again sometime. The backing fabric is just a red material so i didn't take a photo!

I received the name of my next partner for the Fair and Square exchange. I will be stitching for Peg. Peg, i'm looking forward to it! I think i will start looking today for something to stitch for her.

Im off now to lie on the couch and take it easy all day. I intend to stay in my pyjamas all day. Last time i did that the window cleaner arrived and seen me through the window! Very embarassing. Maybe i'll keep the curtains shut LOL

Back from Exmouth

I had a great time away. The weather wasn't great but it didn't matter, we had so much fun! I have come back so tired that i had to take another day off work! Three nights out in a row just finished me off, i must be getting older ;) We slept in late every morning, stayed out late every night, drank too much, ate too much....the usual girly weekend. On sunday we had a relaxing 3 hours at the spa and then walked to the beach later on. Here's a photo of me (on the left) and my friend at the beach Here's another photo of us out one night


The only bad thing about being away...i came back to way over 100 feeds in my google reader. It's going to take a long time to catch up that's for sure!

Now for a stitching update. Here's the latest on Dollhouse. I finished another room last week.
I bought a little bit of stash the other day. The Kreiniks were reduced from £3 to 99p which was great seeing as i needed them anyway for the next PIF gift i'm about to start working on. I also bought some metallic DMC, i've never used this before. It doesn't feel very nice. I love DMC115, i bought it for a freebie i wanted to start and now i can't remember what it was LOL
On a final note, I was tagged by Rowyn, Noreen and Christine whilst i was away. I have to tell you eight things about myself that you might not already know. Here’s how to play:
1. Each player starts with 8 random facts/habits about themselves
2. People who are tagged write a blog post about their own 8 random things and post these rules
3. At the end of your blog you need to tag 8 people and post their names
4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment and tell them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

So here goes:
1. I love drinking tea. Maybe im addicted, i don't know ( or care ;) )
2. I love doing laundry!
3. My favourite TV shows at the moment are: the apprentice, ugly betty and desperate housewives
4. I go into bookshops, type the books i want into my mobile phone and then order them at my local library (for just 20p) which is right opposite where i live.
5. I am very impatient
6. I have been married 4 years in September
7. I was born in Scotland and live in Scotland but i have an English accent.
8. I love sleeping and love a good 10 hours a night (if only time would allow though!)

Now i tag: Mercy, Donna, Michelle, Itching to Stitch, Karen, Carla, Juls and Paula

PIF Finish and wips

I finished a pay it forward gift recently, this one was for Jamie. It is a Lizzie Kate design called "life's a stitch." I am very proud of it as it's the first "finishing" i've done besides framing. As you can see i made it into a hanging ornament and used a green fabric for the backing. I really enjoyed making it.

As per usual, Tuesday was SAL day with Jamie. Unfortunately i was working from 10am - 8pm on Tuesday so i didn't get much done at all. You can see last weeks progress here and here's this weeks

I have made some good progress on my Lizzie Kate wedding piece this week. I should be finished this soon

This weeks progress

As you will know by now, tuesday is SAL day with Jamie. I've never done a SAL before, until now, and i'm really enjoying it. It's good motivation and it's fun to see what we've both stitched. We both started in different places and have stitched different bits of the menu so far, i find that interesting too! Anyway you can see last weeks progress by clicking here and here is this weeks progress

I thought i may as well post pictures of other progress i've made. Here is Dollhouse

And here is Lizzie Kate's "Joined in love." I'm 99% sure that the couple im stitching this for don't read this blog so it should be fine!

I have also recently finished a PIF gift and i'm looking forward to posting pictures of that as it's the first finishing i've done other than framing. I'll wait until the recipient receives it though. I must admit between coffee menu, this lizzie kate piece and my pif gift i'm fed up of stitching letters! I think that's why im not keen on anything with the alphabet in it!

Pay it Forward Gift

This morning i received a lovely PIF gift from Mercy! I stole the picture from her blog as the batteries in my camera need recharged after last night. Isn't it lovely? A beautiful scissor fob. The little butterfly has "created for you" inscribed on the back! This is my first ever gift from a stitching blogger friend and I love it, thank you so much Mercy!

I had a a great night at the awards ceremony last night. I loved it and was totally star struck all night by all the celebs! I think i embarassed my young person as i kept making him go and get autographs of famous people so i could go with him and take photos! I thought i'd be more star struck by the TV celebs but it was actually Scotland's First Minister that i got star struck by, he was so friendly and nice. Mind you it is coming up to elections here in Scotland so that may have been why! I think im getting old when i'm more star struck by politicians than i am by soap stars LOL.

I'm so glad it's Friday, i have had such a busy week. Have a great weekend!

The creme egg season

I went to the quilting demonstration on Monday night. It was great. She had the most amazing quilts on display. I wish i'd taken some pictures so that i could show them. My favourite one was all different purple colours with loads of beading and fancy stitching. It would take me years to make! I'm really quite interested in taking this up but still not that confident on how to go about it. She said i could go to her house and she'd give me some lessons so i might do that. It's just having the time for all this!

Not much stitching this week as i've had something on every night after work. I am nearly finished one of the PIF gifts i have been working on but now have loads of satin stiches to do and i'm not enjoying that bit. I only just discovered buying stash on ebay. I wish i'd done it before, it is much cheaper. I seen the lizzie kate "make it personal" charts for half the price i bought them for the other week. I'm definitely going to check ebay out in future before i purchase charts elsewhere. Last night i ordered some wadding and some foam boards. Nothing very exciting but useful for finishing.

Now for something completely different. Here's one of my favourite things about this time of year. The cadburys creme egg. Hmmmm. I love them. I'm not a huge chocolate fan, i have more of a savoury tooth than a sweet one, but this is my exception. They are only in the shops for a few months every year around easter so that's my excuse to indulge!

Today i am meeting my friend for lunch. She is another one of my friends who has just had a baby. I must be at that age because i can't believe the number of friends i have with babies now. Everyone's always like "ooh you're gonna get broody now" and i thought i would. But you know what? If anything i've actually been put off! I can't believe how much some of my friends have changed. I am so not ready for that. I like being able to do things at the last minute, i like having a great social life, i like not having to plan ahead, i like talking about things other than babies....don't get me wrong, i definitely want children one day, just not yet! Thankfully my group of best friends ("the bezzas") aren't at the stage yet so i will need to see them more often to keep my sanity LOL (actually 1 is due in August but she's like 32 so i'll forgive her, but 2 are single, 1 has a boyfriend and 2 are married). Anyway, i'd better go and get ready to ooh and aah over another baby.............i love it really :)

What i've been up to...

Didn't realise i hadn't posted all week. This week just flew by. No stitching pictures to share today. I have 2 new projects i've been working on this week but i cant post any WIP pictures as one's a PIF gift and another is a surprise gift for another blogging friend. I finished the surprise gift yesterday as it's just a small piece and i hope to finish the PIF gift this weekend. So you'll have to wait for a few weeks to see those. I didn't work on Dollhouse at all this week. I did get a load of stash during the week but it was only floss so i won't bother posting a picture.

Today we have a completely free day and evening. It doesn't happen often so i love it when it does. We slept in late and i'll probably lounge around in my pjs for a while. Might have to do some overdue housework today and i'm thinking about washing my bedroom curtains as well. Last night we went to our friends house for dinner which was lovely, tomorrow is mother's day here and also my little cousins baptism so we have a family thing on all day. Should be good.

Here's some pictures of my sisters dog Barney. I havent shown any for a while and like having photos in my blog. He's just had his hair cut!

Have a great weekend everyone and happy St Patricks day if you celebrate it. It's quite big over here. I can never understand why St Patricks day is so "big" and all the other days (St Andrews for Scotland, St George's for England) aren't a big deal at all. 1st March (my b,day) was St Davids Day (Wales) and it was barely mentioned, hmmm...wonder why??

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!

I love blogs

I was a bit sceptical when i started this blog in the new year. Wasn't sure why i was starting it/worried it was a waste of time etc etc but can i just say, i love to blog and read blogs! I think it's great that i get to "meet" lots of new friends from all over the world. I find other people's lives fascinating, I think that's why i work in the social work sector!

I have recently discovered Google Reader. It's such a great way to read blogs and saves a lot of time. I'd recommend it to everyone. Im not a google employee or anything, but it's well worth promoting!

I got this through on an email today so thought i'd share it, made me laugh anyway

You know you're living in 2007 when........

1. You accidentally enter your password on the microwave.
2. You haven't played solitaire with real cards in years.
3. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of 3.
4. You e-mail the person who works at the desk next to you.
5. Your reason for not staying in touch with friends and family is that they don't have e-mail addresses. (*so true*)
6. You go home after a long day at work you still answer the phone in a business manner.
7. You make phone calls from home, you accidentally dial "9" to get an outside line. (*i do this all the time*)
8. You've sat at the same desk for four years and worked for three different companies.
10. You learn about your redundancy on the 11 o'clock news.
11. Your boss doesn't have the ability to do your job.
12. You pull up in your own driveway and use your mobile phone to see if anyone is home.
13. Every commercial on television has a website at the bottom of the screen.
14. Leaving the house without your mobile phone, which you didn't have the first 20 or 30 (or 60) years of your life, is now a cause for panic and you turn around to go and get it.
15. You get up in the morning and go online before getting your coffee.
16. You start tilting your head sideways to smile.
17. You're reading this and nodding and laughing.
18. Even worse, you know exactly to whom you are going to forward this message.
19. You are too busy to notice there was no #9 on this list.
20. You actually scrolled back up to check that there wasn't a #9 on this list. and now you're laughing at yourself

Hope everyone has a great Valentine's day. We went out for a meal last night as we're busy tonight and tomorrow night.

Before i go, for anyone interested, i still have space left on my pay it forward!

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.