Feeling Blah .

My blogging mojo seems to have taken a dive somewhere along the line.

 The last couple of weeks have been so hectic with one thing and another, I am very tired . Lots of family birthdays this month have kept us busy evenings and weekends , with not much time to relax. The kids are taking a while to get back into the swing of school , and are not enjoying homework much at the moment , lol.
 My boy has done very well though , he has been chosen to be a school councillor , received a head teachers award and is now a reading buddy , mentoring the class below him . He turns seven next month , so not too shabby for a six year old.
 My daughter got two prizes from her teacher within a week of going back to school . Very proud of both of them  .

Craft wise , I have been stitching , but nothing to show . One finish is for my give away ,so there will be a reveal later , and two others are secret stitches to also be shown at a later date .

 My daughter is studying the Aztecs this year and wanted some multi coloured wool to do some weaving . I found some out and remembered that I bought it to make a scarf for myself , so got on with it last week.

 Close up to show the lacy pattern .

 After my baking marathon ,the kids wanted to make something too. My daughter had seem something in a comic to make flip flops using rich tea fingers. You are supposed to sandwich two together using icing , but I bought finger creams thinking it would be easier , not realising that they were squared off at the ends. We had a go anyway .
   My daughters' messy plate

 My sons' slightly neater one.

 And some pictures of the daft cats.
   Finley .

 And Fraser .

Hopefully things will get back to normal soon. I am really hoping to get some serious stitching time in this week , but the best laid plans and all that .

Thanks for dropping by ,

 Cath

Balloons

We are very lucky to be on a flight path for hot air balloons. I think they launch somewhere near Crich (not totally sure) and we often see them rising up from over the hills and then they drift closer and closer , sometimes coming over the house , sometimes just wandering past on the horizon.
 I have always loved hot air balloons , and so the kids have also taken a keen interest , getting very excited when they come near.
 Last Saturday saw the lady bird coming our way , so I nipped out to take some pics.

 It came pretty much right over the house , so I got some nice shots .

 It really looks like it has a big mouth , eating the flames ,lol

A great sight just before bed time , for the kids . We get other balloons too , but the lady bird is a favourite.

Thanks for dropping by ,
 Cath x

Leaves and birds.

I've been stitching quite a bit , but it has slowed down with the kids now being off school for the Easter holidays . They broke up on Thursday with Friday being an inset day , and it was just in time , as everyone else in the house is now ill .

My Daughter started with it on Wednesday and had to come home from school early . She went back on Thursday as it was a special assembly day and she was being given a merit badge for good writing work , so we are very proud parents at the moment. She came home with us after the assembly , but at least she tried. She spent the rest of the day snuggled up with her new stuffed donkey as we always get them a little treat if they do well at school, especially if they get awards.

One thing our school is really good with , they do like to reward the kids who do well and attend regularly .

So , she started with a temperature , then the vomiting and now the cough,sore throat and cold . Hubby started with it Saturday and now my Son has got it. Just waiting for me to start , then the world will come crashing down as there will be no-one to run around doing everything ,lol .

I recently saw a lovely finish on a blog that was a freebie ,so I follwed the link and came across this design at http://www.matryoshkabiscornue.blogspot.com/ I loved it , and wanted to stitch it pretty much straight away. With it being such a simple design , it was lovely to do in variegated thread ,so I used some of the 21st century threads I picked up over a year ago at Harrogate. I have a fondness for Oak trees, having grown some from acorns when I was younger ,so this was ideal for me .

I loved it so much , I flipped the design and stitched it again in a different colour way ,lol . I am yet to decide what I'm going to do with them , but I'm enjoying looking at them for now . I've also been back with the birds . Both kids wanted one , but we had to change colours , she didn't want blue and he didn't want pink , lol .

This is my Daughters'

One for my Son , And one for my Sister- in- Law . They are yet to be sewed and stuffed , hopefully some time this week depending on the sickies. I promised my Daughters' friend that I would stitch her a Pokemon , and this is the one she chose . I am thinking of making it into a small pillow . Both my kids chose a dinosaur one , but my Daughter has now changed her mind and wants four Disney characters instead , lol , so busy with them for now .

I have completed the first row of ABC Lessons , but I'll show that another time. It's better to stitch that one when there are no kids around so not sure how much will get done on it over the next two weeks ,we'll see.

Thanks for dropping by ,

Cath

Stash and snails.

Here I am again , though still not a lot going on.

Whilst out shopping for my Sons' birthday presents , we went into Beale's (ex Co-op dept store) , and they also have a small craft/haberdashery dept. I managed to spend some of my birthday money on some new stash , as they had a good sale on some things.

I first saw this kit over a year ago , and really liked it . The colours are beautiful , and to see it at half price , well what's a girl to do but buy it ?

And then I saw this one . I love wolves ,and already have a few kits on my to do list , but again at half price , you just can't go wrong .

I really have been wanting to start this one , but can't just yet . My stitchy bug is intermittent at best and I have other things to do .

I found this book in a charity shop . It has a few charts that I like so I will stitch them and then it will probably find it's way back into the system ,lol.

The success of the bags is continuing . Both of my kids have decided that they want a bag with stitching on too , so when I have been in the mood ,this is what I've been doing.

My son was very easy to please , he wanted snails . This chart is from an old copy of Cross Stitch Collection . Probably from around the late 90s' , but I can't say for definite as I just clipped out the pages .

No , I did not see into the future that my son would be a snail fan , let's just say that I kind of like them myself ,lol .

This was started first as it took my Daughter a long time to make up her mind what she wanted, she was coming out with list of about ten things , probably too much for one bag ,lol. I think she's now settled on flamingos, so that will be the next on the list.

I hope my stitchy bug comes back properly soon , I have so much to do !

Thanks for dropping by ,

Cath

Stitching and Chickens .

Quick update on the new girls , two of them laid yesterday , which was a big surprise .

Theirs are the two eggs in the middle . they are a bit smaller than the others at the moment , but the girls still have to grow to full size .

Thought I'd better show some stitching too , lol. I mentioned a couple of things I was doing for the kids ,well here they are . Two Pikachu (s) .

Mu niece has downloaded some of the original Pokemon cartoons to her laptop , and they were all watching them couple of weeks ago. My 4 yr old, and 6 yr old , and 15yr old niece , lol . They were totally glued to the screen. Anyway , my two like Pikachu best so I got a couple of charts and stitched them up. They need to be finished off , with some felt at the back or something , but the kids like them.

Thanks for dropping by ,

Cath

TGIM

Thank Goodness It's Monday.

No ,the weekend was not much better , lol .

Saturday morning , 3 am saw me up with my Daughter who had an upset tummy. Trips to the loo every ten minutes for the first hour or so , then a bit bigger gap in between . I put the old cot mattress on the floor in her room , with a big quilt , but was not very comfy as from my knees down was hanging off , lol .

At twenty past five , she'd been quiet for a while , so I thought I might get away with going back to bed , when she rolled over and said "Mummy , I think I actually managed to get to sleep for a bit " Gee, thanks kid. My reply was , "Great , now see if you can do it again " , "No , I need the toilet " . So at some point after 6am I got to sleep for a while , only to be woken by my lovely girl turning the night light off , so I could sleep as she knows I don't like having the light on . Bless .

Anyway , up and at 'em , got sorted then went and did the grocery shopping . I normally go Friday mornings , but couldn't fit it in with collecting the car . Daughter was fine ,and stayed so for the rest of the day , so we took the kids to a birthday party late afternoon . Another full and busy day .

Yesterday was our cooking round the world meal with my Husbands' family , so he was in the kitchen making a mess most of the day , while I felt fairly ropey. For some reason I always feel worse the second day after a bad night . Nice meal , but we got back later than planned ,so the kids were late in bed and we just flopped .

Today was extra nursery for my Son , but got a call mid afternoon to say he wasn't feeling well , so I went and picked him up , only to go back half an hour later for the end of school. He was fine as soon as he got home , so not too worried , though he has gone to bed early tonight ,lol.

Anyway , some stitching . Here's a pic of Dandy Dreams which I took Saturday morning .

I stitched on it a bit on Saturday , though Friday saw a frog come visiting , so had to unpick and redo a lot that had been done on Thursday . Also done some today , so more progress than this now .

And , just remembered I didn't show my end of year ort collection , so here it is . The pot is getting some more bits in now , so see how I go .

I also thought I'd share a recent pic of my boys . Still cute and cuddling . Thanks for dropping by ,and thanks for the lovely comments ,

Cath

Is it next week yet ?

I am really ready for this week to be over .Even worse , today I keep thinking it's Friday . Wishful thinking I reckon.

I don't seem to have had a minute to myself this week ,and the stress levels have been quite high.

Monday I planned to visit my Grandma , as I haven't seen her since way before Christmas , with us all being ill etc . Then my friend who is having a rough time at the moment asked if I'd go for a cuppa , so I gave in and went for a chat to give her a bit of a break . Lunch time was spent at nursery , having lunch with my Son , his friend and friends Mum and little sister. The nursery offer an extra session as the government said the kids should be allowed an extra 2 1/2 hours a week , and that was the only way to fit it in . Not a problem ,and quite a nice relaxed hour and half.

I'd decided to nip into town straight after , and when I came back the road was blocked off. So I nipped round the back roads to come out further up the hill , to find that I couldn't get near home as there'd been a bad car accident not far from the end of our street. No people or ambulances were around , it had apparently happened 1 1/2 hrs before I got there , but the police were waiting for the forensics guys to turn up .

Still not heard anything about the people in the vehicles, but the car and van were a total mess , so not looking very good . Anyway , I parked the car up and walked home only to walk back past later to collect the kids . Had to tell them what had happened as we had to walk past it to get home , and they both got quite upset. My Daughter was really worried about the people and I still can't tell her what happened to them .

Tuesday , I went to visit my Grandma in the morning , then spent the afternoon catching up on the jobs I didn't get done on Monday . Then Wednesday I had to take my car for the MOT . Drove over after taking the kids to school , dropped it off , then walked back into town to catch the bus (about a mile or a bit more , and I did it in 15 mins-, not bad ) back to the bottom end of the village then walked up home. Only to go out 45 minutes later to walk to school and fetch my son from nursery .

Phew , I'm worn out from just writing it , lol .

My car is still at the garage so after taking the kids to school , walking down to the doctors then back home , I finally got to sit and stitch today .Hooray !!!

I hadn't planned on showing pics of Dandy Dreams , as I didn't think I'd done much , but after looking at my last progress pic , I've done more than I thought . Anyway, I'll save that for next time . Instead , I'll show some little bits I've stitched for the kids . (Not recent finishes by the way)

Thomas for my train mad boy .

Kipper , doing a little jig .

Kipper again , jigging the other way . Don't you just love it when they both want the same thing ?

I reversed the chart and girlied up the frame for this one , lol.BOTD Fairy Girl . The frame fits it perfectly , not bad for an off the shelf from Wilko's .We just added sequins and glittery stickers ,as you do .A Somebunny cover kit .And my Daughters' birth sampler . I loved this , but ended up making up the b/s as I went along and the chart for it wasn't great.

Still not done a birth sampler for my Son . I've got a Popcorn one , just not sure it's boyish enough . I'll have to make my mind up soon and get one on the go for him .

Thanks for the comments . I've been a bit slack posting them myself this week with all the aggro , but have tried to catch up bit today.

My car is now all sorted after having some work done , so off to collect it tomorrow . A reverse of the trip on Wednesday . At least I'm getting plenty of exercise ,lol .

Thanks for dropping by ,

Cath