Summer time!

I love the summer :) ... we live about 10min walk from the beach and try and spend lots of time down there (but often life gets in the way). Lately the bigger kids have moaned and not wanted to go down there when DH has tried taking them for walks in the weekend (signs of growing up!) ... so I took Charlotte down before school finished yesterday afternoon. It was pretty dirty (as in weeds and sticks) at the edge where she'd usually play/swim so we ended up playing in the sand rather than the water - but still fun. She loves it down there - I think it's the freedom of running around with no boundaries and the fresh air :)

I was fiddling with the camera and the settings and along the way got this photo - I love it!



I also finished up an ornament yesterday - ready for an exchange later in the month, I'm feeling very organised! I got out Celtic Summer and stitched on her too, I've missed her - so much so that I think I will stitch on her today as well :)

Pictures!

... firstly, thank you, as always for the lovely comments on my previous entries :)

Just pictures today - I figure you hear enough of my rambling LOL

L*K - When we Love


The Trilogy - Friends Gather


L*K - 2002 Santa


All stitched on Natural 28ct Country French Linen (I had a big piece!)

and a progress picture on the Apache Wedding Blessing - it actually stitches up pretty quickly :)



I've also got a few small PS ornaments to make up, plus DT's Spring Spot to make up - pictures after I've had time to get my sewing machine out :)

50km ... and still walking!

I biked my first ever bike race today - Tour de Waikanae - local to us and pretty flat and easy :) ... I biked the 50km section in 2hr15min, and I'm very proud of myself :D ... definitely not the fastest or near the front of the race - but I did it!

In stitching news - I've finished lots of little things ready to sell on ebay over the past couple of weeks, and haven't really worked on my other big pieces at all. I really need to work out a good rotation that takes care of everything, that, or have an extra couple of days every week!

I'll take photos tomorrow, maybe.

Okay ... here we go -

November Rotation

Sunday - Apache Wedding Blessing
Monday - Ebay
Tuesday - Celtic Summer
Wednesday - Ornament
Thursday - Ebay
Friday - Ebay
Saturday - Ebay

We'll see how that works out ... I have the baby sampler I should be doing too, but I'll leave that for this month or slot it in if I have a quiet afternoon during the week.

... and now that I'm feeling super virtuous, I'm going to go stitch the afternoon away!

No stitching room aka organised mess!

Okay, I've been browsing through various blogs showing off their stitching rooms ... can you say "seriously jealous"??? ... I would LOVE a craft room, all of my own, sad fact is - we have five children in a four bedroom house and it will be a LONG time before that changes. Having said that - be assured, I DO know how lucky I am - I know there are women out there who would easily give up their stitching havens if it meant having a child, I DO know we are very blessed with the healthy, happy five we have ... and the roof over our heads.

Anyway - I organised my magazines this morning, and got carried away and went through a few other things too ... so thought I'd take some photos of my various little "hideaways" throughout the house :)

Link to non-stitching room album

and I've got to say ... all the quilting magazines, all the quilting fabric etc? I haven't actually done a lot of quilting - I'm working towards it and really truly plan to do more as time lets me - but I'm embarrassed at the amount of quilting "stash" I have, when I hardly ever use it!

Also in defence of the mess in our front lounge - it is also an extra TV room for the kids (or us), it's my office for all the work I do from home, has the computer, as well as a lot of my sewing things :)

... and now I've wasted most of the afternoon doing all of that, I'll go stitch for about half an hour before the after school rush starts. I am taking Cameron into Wellington for an Artsplash concert - a combined schools concert, he is in the choir. I'm hoping DH is going to be home in time to take care of the other kids - otherwise I've got to get hold of my sister in the next half hour or so and make sure she can - big son who would usually do it got his cricket practice changed to today at the last minute!

Ever have one of those days?

That would be my day today ... really, you have to laugh!

1. Spend half an hour combing through children's hair after applying special head lice shampoo last night because one has definite eggs (couldn't see any creepy crawlies so I'm hoping I caught them early).

2. Washing machine pipe thingee flew off the taps where it is aimed in the laundry basin and aimed towards the floor instead = very flooded laundry and bathroom and = lots of wet towels to wash.

3. Put the pipe back thinking it is okay, wash towels ... and come in just as washing machine finishes it's first rinse ... to find it's popped out again and the floor is flooded, again ... but not nearly as bad as the first time ... another load of wet towels *sigh*.

4. Come home from bike ride to phone call from a parent asking about cricket, they haven't heard anything yet and registered their darling a couple of weeks ago ... find registration form, with about 20 others that were hidden behind receipted forms in a folder - I can sort of blame the Treasuer, but I should have seen them. Cricket teams have been organised and started last week (I've since got emails back from most of the coordinators to say they'd picked up most of them in the last couple of weeks anyway *phew*).

5. Go to bank to add me as a signatory for the Cricket Association, plus open a special cheque account for rep teams ... to be told I need to do it at the Levin branch where our account is held ... grrrrrrrrr ...

About that time, going back to bed and getting up and starting all over again sounded good!

BUT!

I had a good bike ride, Charlotte is being sweet, the sun is shining ... so it's not ALL bad LOL!

I spent a lovely day yesterday finishing off ornaments - a couple I'd put together and just needed cording put on, and a couple of others I needed to put together -







I'm very proud of my first attempt at a the boxed one (cripes, what are they called?) ... it took much longer than I thought - I glued the cross-stitch and all the fabric onto the individual pieces, and then sewed them together to give it a sewn look ... that sewing was hard work - anyone know of an easy and neat way of doing it? It was worth it - I think it looks pretty darn good :)

My ornament making skills are getting better and better (nice pat on the back to me) - I think these came out really well - and there were no disasters on the way with any of them!

It's nearly 3pm here - time to go stitch for a little while, and then off to the shops to pick up a few things, get dinner ready, fold the 3 loads of washing on the line and then off to the shooting wind-up for the season, I'll take the three middle kids with me and they can have a go at the fun shoot - and leave the oldest to babysit the youngest at home. DH is away again.

Enjoy your Halloween if you're in the Halloweeny part of the world :)

a Whoops ... and busy week!

I'm sure I had two whoopses ... and I was going to blog about both of them, but for the life of me I can't remember what the second was! LOL ... I know I had to frog too much of the Apache Wedding Blessing and I thought maybe that made three ... so what was the second?

Anyway, here is the first whoops ... this hangs just above our TV in the lounge ... how much do you want to bet it is the result of a ball hitting it? or maybe if all the children are innocent, it was the sliding door slamming ... I'm betting on the ball scenario ... although we have no confessors ;)



... and here is a picture on the progress of Apache Wedding Blessing, not really much to show, this isn't going to be a quick stitch, quite fiddly and bigger than I thought -



I notice Picturetrail has thumbnails now! I'm going to have to do a wee play around at some stage with my sidebar and work out how to put some WIP pictures there :)

As for a busy week, I can't really remember what I've been doing - the usual family things, I DO know it's been a really nice relaxed week, no major deadlines to stress over ... just general busyiness :) ... and it's been beautiful weather which always makes everything seem so much nicer.

We had our school's big fundraiser last night - they do a fair/fireworks display for Guy Fawkes night (which is 5th Nov, but I suppose they pick the best Saturday closest to that date). The weather held out and it seems to have gone well - I did my two hour stint at one of the stalls ... and then went home while DH took the kids to the fireworks - he offered, how could I say no? LOL

It's only a few weeks until our next run of birthdays starts, then Christmas ... it's always a couple of busy months for us - birthdays, end of school year, Christmas ... I always feel in control and then all of a sudden am overwhelmed! Charlotte is first on November 19th - she'll be four. I'm still not sure what to do party-wise for her, she doesn't really have a lot of friends (she's always been very shy and keeps to herself, and most of my friends have older children - I'm the only crazy one who kept having them a little longer LOL) ... so I'm thinking of talking to friends of ours - Lisa with five children (sound familiar? LOL) ... her two oldest are best friends with Cameron and Rhiannon and then Charlotte is between her next two - Rebecca and Corey (Corey from the photos who play together a lot) - and seeing if they want to come have a BBQ that night, being a Saturday night - we can have some cake and party food as well and call that her party. I've also got to find a "colourful scooter" ... which is what she's been telling me she wants for a few months now.

Rhiannon is next on 11th December - she'll be 7yo, I've booked at a new local party place - a fairy themed party with everything there AND supplied - all I'll have to do is send out invitations and make a cake :)

Then Cameron is the 20th of December (turning 10yo), which also happens to be the last day of school, ever since he started school we've had his party last day of school - which is usually a few days before his birthday, last day is very late this year. He wants to take a few friends to Laserforce in Wellington, then back here for the night - pretty easy too ... I feel sort of organised :)

... and once all that is over, I'll hopefully be semi-organised for Christmas somewhere inbetween!

I'm having to think about a new rotation too ... gosh the last one lasted, um, 1 week? ROTFLOL ... I really do need a good one to stick to so I get these obligation gifts out of the way, and enjoy stitching them - plus some ebay things - big son is going off to a cricket camp in December! ... and of course Celtic Summer which I didn't stitch this week because I carried on with the Santa piece (I'll take a picture soon).

Today I plan on getting my sewing machine out and finishing off some ornaments and trying one of those cute little (Eati?) bags.

Have a great day!

Couple of pictures

Firstly, progress on Baby in Hand - I started this on Friday night, and so far it's stitching up pretty fast, this is for an internet friend on my Playgroup board.

Here is the progress picture -



and here is a link to a picture of the kit

In that same ABC Stitch order, I also got the chart that I'm doing for my sister for her Wedding in February Apache Wedding Blessing I'm a bit worried about how long this is going to take me to stitch, when the chart calls for three of colours needing two skeins of floss, it makes me go eeeek! LOL - I've just dug out my fat quarter of Silkweaver's Summer Breeze that I knew I had, I think it is perfect for this chart ... so I'm also going to try and push to have it finished before the end of the December and Silkweaver's close off for their Showcase competition.

Once again, I'm going to have re-work my rotation ... I seem to do that a lot, maybe it's the fun part of stitching for me!

and here is a picture of Charlotte in her new dress, plus the little dress I made for her doll, I'm pretty impressed with myself managing to do the puffy sleeves and cuffs without mucking them up!



Thanks for looking :)

I'm off to pull out threads and play with my stitching now - I have an hour before it's time to pick up Rhiannon and Charlotte from Corey's party, and before the boys come back from cricket practice ... it's lovely and quiet here :)

I've been sewing!

... and made a pretty party dress for Charlotte - it has puffed sleeves and all, I'll try and get a picture of her in it tomorrow, I also whipped up, very quickly and roughly a little dress for her baby/cabbage patch doll in the same fabric - she thought that was pretty cool, I love how you can keep a nearly 4yo happy with such little things :)

Of course, that means I haven't stitched much the last couple of days, or worked (*shhhhhhh* I know that cricket GST form is calling, loudly!). It's a long weekend here, Monday being a public holiday, so I'll do the boring work stuff tomorrow.

My order from ABC Stitch arrived - yahooo! ... I started the birth sampler and it looks like it will be a pretty quick stitch, thank goodness. Pictures, and links tomorrow (I should be tidying the kitchen and getting dinner ready) ... I'd also ordered Mermaids of the Deep plus threads and beads ... now I just need fabric, it's going to be hard not to start that one, but I have way too many Mirabilias started and not finished ;)

Ohhhhh and talking about Mirabilia - she has a new Limited Edition kit out, and I want it, badly, more badly than I've wanted stitching stuff for a while ... I have enough in my Paypal account but I'm supposed to use that for Christmas gifts, oh, the pitfulness of it all ... I'm going to have to splurge, I'm just not sure how quite yet LOL

Okay, I really need to go get dinner etc ready ... DH will be back with the girls from the supermarket and wondering what I've been doing for the last hour!

Carol - I emailed you about Rose Arbour fabric, but it bounced back, I'll copy the email into your comments, probably later tonight :)

I hate waiting!

I put through an order with ABC Stitch over a month ago, one of the things was a Birth Sampler kit that had with the details to expect a 4-5 week wait due to ordering it in, so that's fine, I've waited patiently for those four weeks ... but about 9 days ago (I think on a Saturday so it probably wasn't sent until the US Monday) they let me know they were sending the order to me next business day ... I've been checking the post box for the last few days, hoping it will be there - I'm so impatient! LOL ... I shouldn't be - there is the birth sampler I'm doing for an internet friend in there, plus the chart for my sister for her Wedding in February, both obligation things that I'm going to have to knuckle down and stitch pretty quickly ... I should enjoy the no obligation stitching for a while! LOL

Meanwhile, I'm still pretty busy and not stitching as much as I'd like - next week should be quieter, I can't wait! I've got a couple of pictures though -

The L*K Santa I'm doing for ebay -



and the Urn I'm working on for Rose Arbour - the last couple of weeks I've managed to do most of the greenery, which isn't so bad considering I've only managed a bit of time here and there on the Tuesdays.



Today it's back to Celtic Summer for the day :) I'm planning on doing some sewing this afternoon (if I have time ... more on that later), so will probably only get a couple of hours on CS this evening, after I've been for my walk.

I had planned a nice quiet day today, some cricket cheques etc to send off after our meeting last night, and maybe some quick housework, but then the rest of the day to sew, or whatever. So what have I done? Taken Cameron to the doctor - poor thing has a fungal rash of some sort right, well, where he won't let his mother look! but he was good at letting the doctor have a look and hopefully the cream he has got will make it better, we bought some OTC stuff late last week but it just hasn't been getting better, poor thing. I've been to the empty Post Box (darn it! LOL), picked up a few groceries, taken the opportunity of having Cameron home to get his and Charlotte's hair cut ... and now it's 11.30am and half the day has gone! (of course I'm sitting here now, when I could be doing other things too LOL).

... and lastly, just because they're so cute - Charlotte and her friend Corey :)

Busy, Busy, Busy ...

Ugh, I hate it when I don't have enough time to stitch!

Firstly - thank you for all your lovely comments on my progress picture, you are right Carol I am loving Celtic Summer, but now I've put her down for one day a week, she'll be going a bit slower!

No progress pictures today - I haven't stitched a lot in the last few days at all, work has been busy, so no time to stitch there, and because I've been busy there I also haven't been able to sneak in my soccer or cricket work and are having to do that at home.

Saturday night when I should have had more time I was too tired. When I get really tired my hands get "sore" and don't work - does this happen to anyone else? They feel like I imagine restless legs feel, not sore as such, but too big and strange feeling - kwim? or not LOL

Anyway, what else have I been doing? Saturday morning I went for a bike-ride, then off to help with cricket registrations, home for lunch and then Rhiannon off to her gym competition. She did okay - "stuck" her handstand which was the biggie for her this time, didn't fall off the beam ... but did land on her bottom when she swung off the bar, I *think* her coach forgot to move the beatboard back so she knocked her heels on it as she landed and landed with a thump - instant at least 0.5 reduction :( - but the WONDERFUL thing about my girl is that she jumps up with a smile, carries on, and then skips to the next apparatus ... no head down glooms for her :)

Here is a video of her floor routine - bit small, and a bit far away, sorry!





Sunday I went into work - can't say no to weekend overtime! I ended up being there from 10am-3pm which is basically the whole day gone, I did stop at Spotlight and bought some fabric to make Charlotte a couple of dresses, I'm fast coming to the realisation that my time for making pretty dresses for the girls is running out, Rhiannon isn't interested in homemade clothes anymore :( ... and it won't be long before Charlotte is at that age too ... so pretty dresses this summer, here we come! LOL

My wonderful DH gave the house a really GOOD tidy and vacuum while I was out and about, plus caught up on all the laundry ... I'll keep him :) - it is wonderful this morning getting up to a still clean, tidy, house and knowing I can get stuck into some work without looking at the mess thinking I should be doing that!

Must be time to get moving for the day ... hopefully I'll have more progress pictures sometime this week!

I can't believe a week has gone by!

That's what happens when the kids go back to school!

Hmmmm so what has been happening in the last week? I really can't remember, so it can't have been to earth shattering.

I have a couple of pictures to share though, that has got to be good.

Firstly, my progress on Celtic Summer -

This one is much truer to the colours. She is now my Wednesday night stitch, which will hopefully work well!

and, um, remember I said I'd work on her ALL of last week, well, I got distracted with one of the Ornament RR's I'm in ... and stitched that instead. I'll make this one a link because there might be people who still want to be surprised when it comes to their turn to stitch it.

The first one in this album

I've also stitched on Sampler Gameboard and Rose Arbour this week - but there isn't really enough progress to bother showing it. I'm really hoping to finish Rose Arbour this month though - even if I take a few days and stitch solidly on it.

I've also set up another blog, really to keep a record for me, of my dieting and biking endeavour link to Dieting and Biking Kiwi (I hope that works, blogger seems to be having some issues right now). It's pretty boring really, I'm trying to keep good track of what I eat etc ... but if I think other people are looking it might keep me on track more! LOL

Kids are arriving home now, so time to go ... I need to find my next ebay thing to stitch and get that kitted and ready to go, get some soccer/cricket work ready to go, in hope that it's a quiet night at work tonight - hasn't happened for a few weeks though!

Shhhhhhh ... can you hear that?

It's QUIET! Big boy is still on his skiing holiday, middle three are all at a soccer holiday programme and littlest one is at my sister's, playing with her 2nd cousin ... oh the bliss! LOL

So very quickly, because I plan on stitching for an hour or so ... should go for my bike ride, should carry on cleaning ... but too bad ... I'm going to enjoy the quiet and stitch!

Here is an updated picture of Celtic Summer ... didn't do one after Tuesday because I hardly touched it - was busy with the kids, house etc all day, and then very busy at work that night too. Had a lovely stitching evening yesterday though and got some done.



Not sure what work will be like tonight, it's likely to be busy - there is a big project on at the moment, with lots of transcription tapes from meetings ... very boring, but someone has to do them I suppose!

Righty oh ... I'm off to stitch :)

Pictures!

Don't you love school holidays ... I've had time to write in my blog a few days in a row! Of course, I have one 11yo sulking in his bedroom, he's been holding this grudge since about 2pm yesterday ... as I have told him, this has nothing to do with the original telling off now ... it is all to do with him needing to move on - which is up to him *sigh*. I have two little girls fighting over one ball ... even though there are a few other balls they could play with. Talking about balls though ... Rhiannon's record for getting the ball into the basketball hoop is now nine in a row ... I'm beginning to think I might be dreaming about her playing soccer rather than netball! LOL

Anyway ... on to the pictures ...

America by Little House Needleworks (I love their designs, more and more all the time!)


A small RR finish - from one of the many books I've got ... I don't have a lot of Autumn patterns at all really, I found it hard to find a nice one.


and last, but definitely not least - an update on Celtic Summer, I don't think the colour is very good in this photo - it looks too bright, the fabric colour is more of a muted blue.


I might try and update CS daily this week ... I'm hoping to get lots done!

Sheesh ... now Charlotte has come in, in tears, because she wants her training wheels back on her bike, be assured - she doesn't need them, she is riding her bike like a pro ... she gets some very fixed, silly, ideas sometimes.

I think I need to take them all out to the park or something, it's a beautiful day, so I might just do that - they obviously need it!

How about an October rotation?

I'll "just" say October ... because my rotations don't seem to last long! LOL

So here goes ... I've been thinking about this :)

Week one (Mon 3/10 - Sun 9/10) - Finish RR - then Celtic Summer all week.
Next three weeks -
Monday - Drawn Thread, Gameboard Sampler
Tuesday - Rose Arbour (I should finish her this month!)
Wednesday - Celtic Summer
Thurs-Sun - ebay

Hopefully I'll get through a few pieces that way :)

I finished America yesterday, and also did lots of finishing. A few ornaments, but I can't show them yet, because they're not completely finished ... I spent the day doing all the machine sewing and glueing, I now need to do all the cording and hand-sewing to finish them off - so far, so good though :) Also finished Heffalump into a cute little hanging pillow, Charlotte loves him :)

I'm going to sit and watch last week's Desperate Housewives now and finish the RR I'm stitching - so I'm all ready to sit and vege in front of the TV with Celtic Summer tonight, I can't wait! It seems like forever since I've been home on a Monday night.

Watch out!

I've just edited this to hopefully get the clips to work!

I've finally found a way to upload video clips onto the internet :) ... I tried it out today -

Clapping Games! (did you do these as kids ... Rhiannon is crazy about them, if her and her friends aren't perched on the bars, they're clapping!).









Hopefully they'll work!

The promised shooting show-off post!

First of all - thank you for the lovely comments on my stitching, like I read on everyone elses blogs ... comments really make us happy :) ... I should also say while I'm talking about comments - I try to sit down once a week or so and make sure I leave comments where I can ... but life gets in the way - you can be assured I read, and continue to be inspired by lots of stitching blogs!

Wow - it's Saturday, and I shot on Monday ... where do the weeks go!

Monday night was our Closed Champs (as in just for our Association clubs - 3 clubs in all, rather than "Open" which is open to anybody in NZ). I really couldn't be bothered going, as you will no doubt be able to tell from my whining, life has been extra busy lately and a night at home sounded better! But, knowing that it was my last chance to catch up on my Club Champ scores, I thought I should go.

(Club Champs are just our club - total of 25 cards/targets through the season).

Sooooooo ... got there, found I needed to shoot two cards to finish off my club shoots, Roy who is the other Master grader in the club, needed to shoot one. He was 101 ahead of me ... so it was pretty close, although all he needed to do was shoot a good card and he would have beaten me. I saw his score before I went down to shoot ... he shot a 96! (not good ... and believe me, I've shot a few like that this year ;)) - so I knew to beat him, and win our club champs, I needed at least a 98 and a 99 - not easy, but do-able.

Well, guess what? I went down and shot TWO 100's *dancing dancing* ... I was pretty darn pleased with myself!

So not only did I definitely win the club champs and the Master grade - I also won the Closed Champs too (including beating my "best friend" Liz who shot two 99's, and came 2nd - no wonder she hates me LOL).

... I'm sure most of that is gobble de goop ... but it means I did GOOD :)

In other news ... I've hardly stitched at all - work has been busy, including not finishing until about midnight last night (usually finish at 9pm on a Friday night) because I was typing an incredibly boring (and urgent) meeting transcript.

I think DH is taking the kids down to the beach later so I can do some work in peace ... if I do it fast enough I'll sit with my stitching and catch up on a couple of programmes I taped last week - Desperate Housewives, and my new favourite, Afterlife - an English programme sort of like Medium - but much darker.

Hopefully I'll have a happy dance of America to show off tomorrow :)

Some pictures - at last!

Spooky Row by Bent Creek - stitched on 28ct Chocolate Country French Linen
Taken out to try and fix my blog settings

Heffalump - free kit from Cross Stitch Crazy - I picked up the magazine yesterday and thought he was just so cute, that I'd stitch him straight away, rather than putting the magazine away and forgetting about it (my usual way of doing things LOL) - I'll make him into a little hanging pillow and put him on the girls dresser - Charlotte loves him :)


and a WIP of America by Little House Needleworks, this will be another one for ebay - I love the chart, but obviously I'm not American so it really wouldn't suit a wall here ;)


and in stitching updates - I haven't worked on Celtic Summer this week - I thought I'd be finished America and was going to stitch on CS for a day once I had ... but I'm still going on it. I should finish it over the next couple of days, then I've got a RR to stitch (a small one) ... then I'm thinking I might dedicate the whole week to Celtic Summer next week ... I'm giving myself a "vacation" - I'm hoping to have all important soccer/cricket stuff out of the way, it's school holidays, and most of all I'm tired and feeling burt out. So I'm planning a week with "just" kids stuff and my stitching ... oh, and deep cleaning DS1's bedroom - he is skiing for the week, so I'm going to get stuck in while he is away!

Righty righty ... need to get in the shower and get moving, I have a list of things to do, plus the grocery shopping - all before 11.15am when my sister drops off her two boys while she goes to work.

Ohhhh I've forgotten to do my show-off post about shooting ... I'll do that later!

Trophies, Fudge, Budget Birthday, Biking, ... Insanity!

Still no pictures, later, I promise! I've finished Spooky Row ... just got to get my act together and take a photo ... I'm now stitching Little House of Needlework's America ... also to sell, it's funny, I love this design (love most of her designs ... including the new one!) ... but I'm not American - so I'll enjoy stitching it anyway! LOL

Now on to the title ...

Trophy

I won a trophy yesterday! Well, okay David AND I won a trophy. We had our Junior Soccer Prizegiving yesterday, three sessions ... and with all our tribe, we have children at every session - makes for a long day. Sadly, none of our kids picked up prizes - they have four, Sportsperson, Player's Player, Most Improved and Player of the Year. As always, it DOES make me sad that our kids, like David and I, are "ghosts" ... they do a LOT of work, but are never the stars - kwim? But that is also life ;) . Okay - to the point, each year they give out a trophy to the most valued contributor to the club for the season ... the President is standing up there saying how they're giving it to a Mr and Mrs this year for all the work they do, the Mr has won it before, but not the Mrs ... and I'm sitting there thinking gosh I wonder who that is and they call out our names, I can admit to being VERY genuinely surprised. A lot of the stuff I do is the admin work that I get paid for, so I always feel that the true volunteers should get the accolades ... but then again, when I think about it properly, DH and I do do a lot of work besides that :)

Fudge

I made 30 containers of fudge yesterday for the BBQ our 10th Grade team is having to raise funds for their tournament away in a couple of weeks ... I'm all fudged out - but it worked! Now hopefully it wil sell too :)

Budget Birthday

Because funds are rather low right now, I had to use a wee bit of imagination for DH's birthday on Friday ... so I made him a cake and made up a collage of photos for him. DH is a HUGE Birmhingham Football Club supporter, so I went on the internet, found the logo for the club ... and ta-da!

By no mean's perfect, I'm definitely not an expert cake decorator (and Charlotte helped ;)) ... but DH was impressed, as were the kids. I was at work Friday night when he got home, but the kids got him to call 5mins before he arrived, got the cake out, put candles on, turned off the lights and surprised him with a big Happy Birthday and popping streamers as he walked in the door - got to love those kiddoes of mine, sometimes! LOL

We also did him a family portrait, he is always making little digs about how he'd like a good family picture on his desk, especially including me (because I hide from the camera) ... so this is what I did for him -


He loves it - reckons it's probably the most "natural" looking photos of his family he's got LOL!

and Biking

As you can see by my ticker, it hasn't moved for a couple of months ... in fact I should change it and put the pounds I've put back on :(

I was talking to a friend yesterday who mentioned that at Bookclub on Friday night another friend had mentioned they are trying to find a fourth person to do the Lake Taupo biking relay, and they mentioned my name. I came home thinking about it, thought I should just ring and DO IT ... and as I was thinking it, Fiona rang me to ask about it - so hey, must be fated, right? It is a 40km ride, and two months away, so I need to get back on my bike and start training ... not sure what I've got myself into though! LOL I have biked 40km - a few months ago I was riding 22km a couple of days a week and did that circuit twice a couple of times ... but here it is FLAT ... biggggg difference ... I'll have to find somewhere with hills and do some training. I'm really hoping with a good goal I'll get back into eating properly too and lose the weight I've put back on, plus some, before the summer.

I think that is all ... get an idea that I've been busy this week? It's school holidays for two weeks now ... I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to them! I'm planning on working pretty hard at getting some cricket (like setting up the account system) and soccer stuff out of the way and then spending the second week not doing any work at all (except the absolutely essentials that always pop up). Stitchingwise - I plan on finishing America, then working on Celtic Summer on Tuesday, then some RR's.

Time for a shower ... then typing in 150 cricket registrations :) (lucky DH is running the BBQ!)

No stitching pictures

I haven't had a very successful stitching week this week. I stitched a little bit on my Celtic Lady on Tuesday, but only got some of her hair done, so I won't bother taking a picture - Tuesday was just wayyyyy too busy, I stitched while I caught up on a couple of Desperate Housewife episodes in the afternoon, but then I had a McDonald's fundraiser to help at (for Cameron's soccer team) and straight from there to Levin for a cricket meeting, DH was away, again, so between all that I had to get kids home and semi-organised ready for biggest brother to get to bed, the rest of the week hasn't got much better!

Work is really busy right now - it's a bit sad that that has been my little bit of "quiet and space", and suddenly that's not happening either! LOL ... I don't mind too much, I quite enjoy it when it's busy - but my stitching is suffering ;)

I've also had a cold all week, so between soccer meeting Monday night, cricket meeting Tuesday night, preparing the accounts, correspondence etc for both of them, and then of course the work I always have after a meeting, not being particularly well, all the usual kids stuff ... needless to say I am hanging out big time for the school holidays to start next week! Life should be slightly quieter, maybe.

I have been stitching Spooky Row - and am nearly finished it, hopefully I'll have a happy dance picture tomorrow :)

Today is DH's birthday - Happy Birthday DH! ... I'm going to try and make a cake that looks like the Birmingham City Football Club's logo this morning, to surprise him - I don't think it will be "too" hard, but I could be fooling myself!

If it turns out okay, I'll take a photo ;)

Oh! and how could I forget ... I *had* to do an on-line stash order (hmmm nearly two weeks ago now) ... I ordered a birth sampler kit I've promised to do for an on-line friend, wedding sampler chart that I'm going to do for my sister who is getting married in February ... and of course I couldn't *just* order those, so I ordered Mermaids of the Deep and the goodies to go with it as well ... I can't wait to start this one, I'm hoping Carol and Katrina will let me join in with their SAL :) ... although, I haven't heard anything back about my order yet, but it is noted that the birth sampler takes 5-6 weeks to order in ... so I'm picking I might have to wait for a while longer *pount*.

TGIF!

Dancing Sunflowers

Yay! A happy dance :) - The Drawn Thread - Sunflower Sampler, stitched on 32ct Lugana - Ivory. I still have to put some black beads on - I tried using the normal size, but they really have to be petite ones, so I need to buy those, take off the big ones I tried, put on the petite ones and then it is *really* finished. I left out the signature row, because I plan on selling it. It will be hard to give away, but its all in the aid of sending a couple of the kids to sports camps, that will be very good for them :)

Here it is!



I've got another busy week, in fact the next four weeks are going to be busy ... I'd much rather be at home stitching *sigh*. I have meetings tonight and tomorrow night. A McDonald's fundraiser tomorrow night, so I'll be rushing from that to the cricket meeting, and just to make things more frantic DH is away again tomorrow night, and Thursday night. Thursday night is my work night so it means lots of organising to make sure kids get to the right places at the right time and get picked up and taken home. I hate asking people to ferry my kids around, but it has to be done - hopefully I can repay the favours.

The next few weeks I'm working Tuesday nights as overtime, so I can see my Celtic Summer Lady suffering slightly!

We've also got the last few weeks of shooting - club cards to catch up on before the end of season and a couple of small rep/champs things.

All I can say is roll on summer ... when life *should* get a bit quieter!

Meanwhile I'm stitching Bent Creek's Halloween Row this week - hopefully it will be a pretty quick stitch too.

Carol (and others :)) - the reason I'm only stitching CS on the Tuesday is that I really have to do some stitching for ebay to raise some money ... I still stitch things that I like and plan to do for myself one day, partly because then if they don't sell I don't mind keeping them LOL, and also I just love stitching, I'm definitely a "process" person ... so as long as I'm stitching things I like, I still enjoy stitching them - even though I'm a bit sad to let them go.

Okay, Monday morning ... time to get the show on the road for the week!