Wow!

I have a few things to say wow about at the moment.....

Firstly wow - what wonderful friends I have in cyber space. Thank you all for such lovely comments on my Titania finish and also your comments regarding the difficult situation with Dad and the sale of the house.

Secondly wow - what wonderful family I have. They have been so supportive and especially this year. They are going to be helping me next weekend to do a mass sort of the house and I'm very thankful for them.

Thirdly WOW - it's a fantastic wow indeed. There's a new man in my life :o)))))) It's not been long, but he makes me so happy and as a result, I'm a very lucky girl indeed.

Have a great weekend folks! xx

Titania - finished at long last!

Finished! I'm very pleased with how she's turned out. I put the final stitch in on 30th September. My only finish so far this year! She was stitched on SMF's Winter Meadow Belfast linen, skin stitched over 1. I also used metallic pink and silver beads to go with the wing conversion. Somehow I have another 8 WIPs on the go and all of them are BAPs, so not sure that I'll be able to finish anything else this year.

Dad is now quite settled in the nursing home. We had a review last week & it looks as if he will be staying on a permanent basis. The next step is to continue clearing and then sell the house which will be very hard. I'm going through a tough time emotionally at the moment, which is why I'm not blogging much right now - haven't got the heart to really. But I'm getting a bit of stitching in each day now though - little and often and I WILL see off those other WIPs eventually! Happy stitches everyone xx

Just one more wing.....

.... and the beads, and a bit of backstitching, but I finally feel that I'm on the home straight with Titania:


Apologies for the fabric creases! I'm hoping to have a finish by the next time I post.

Dad is a bit more settled in the home, but doesn't seem overtly happy. He knows that he can't go home as his mobility problems mean he can hardly walk from the bed to the chair some days. He is looking much healthier than he has done for a long time though and I think this is down to them feeding him the right diet and the correct amount of fluid on his daily fluid restriction (due to dialysis).

Short and sweet today folks - sorry I've not been able to get round to many blogs recently, hopefully I'll have a bit more time to do that very soon. Happy stitching! :o)

Winging it!

Hoorah - I have finally finished Titania's first wing:

I hope she doesn't start to fly as she'll be going round in circles! I love the delicate look of the wings and am pleased with how my conversion's come out so far. I started to add one of the ribbons next to her knee as I'm a bit silvered out for a while! So many other things are calling me at the moment, but if I put her down now, she may not see the light of day again for a while. I managed only three finishes last year and so far this year I have NONE! I have no small projects at all amongst my WIPs, so will have to keep on stitching to get at least one finish...

Thank you for all your kind comments and hugs. Dad finally moved to the nursing home this week after being in hospital for nearly 5 months. I visited him on Wednesday and he wasn't quite sure if he liked it, but I know it'll take a while for him to settle in properly. I've got a nice new flatscreen tv/dvd/freeview combo to take over to him today that we chose for him. He's got a tiny tv provided by the home, but can only receive terrestrial channels on it, so now he'll be able to watch all his favourite programmes and dvds too.

Hope everyone has a happy stitchy weekend! :o)

Silver wings

I've been stitching Titania's long anticipated silver wings. I've had lots of frogs where the colour or type of thread hasn't been right, but I've finally found what I think I'm happy with (which is a mixture of Petite Treasure Braid, Kreinik and Anchor Lame thread!) and the wings are entirely stitched in metallics:

The effect is very subtle, but definitely silver! They will look more defined once the backstitch has been done. There are infact 7 shades of silver, which isn't very apparent, but I know they are all there. Here is a photo of the whole piece:

Both photos seem to have come out with quite a bluish tint. The fabric is greener IRL.

Life is pretty tough at the moment, which is why I'm not blogging much and have not commented on many other blogs - I do keep updated though through Google Reader which is the best blog tool ever! It's all pretty complicated, but Dad has to go into a nursing home and the arguing about funding has been going on and on for many weeks now. I think we've finally found somewhere for him and they're assessing whether or not they can cater for his needs at the moment. It means that I have to sell his house, which was my home all my life until 4 years ago and the house that Dad wanted me to inherit. That will be especially hard for me as so many memories are tied up with that house, including many of my long passed on and much missed Mum. There's so much sorting and things to do and I'm especially thankful for my sister in law Sally, who has been supportive in so many ways. I'm relishing my stitching at the moment, which helps me to escape and unwind for a while. Keep on stitching folks - I'm enjoying all of your beautiful projects.

Feeling fruity!

I'm astonished at the abundant amount of fruit in my garden. I remember my landlady mentioning before she went back to Madagascar that I would be inundated with apples and that there were pears, rhubarb and blackberries, but I've also found wild strawberries, raspberries, blackcurrants, gooseberries, artichokes and potatoes! I'm also growing tomatoes, peppers and aubergines in the greenhouse and the tomato vines have little green babies that have just appeared so I'm very excited about those too!

I'm not a lover of goosegogs as we like to call them, so my sister relieved me of a huge tub of them this morning, but I'm going to pick some raspberries later to go with some strawberries I already have in my fridge.

The cooking apple tree is absolutely smothered with delicious looking fruit and I can't wait for the blackberries to

ripen so I can make my favourite pud - apple and blackberry crumble. ;o)

I've been avidly watching Andy Murray's progress through Wimbledon and he has just this very second beaten Ferrera in the quarter finals, so is on his way to the semi's! I went up yesterday to see the ladies quarter finals on Centre Court and we were very thankful that we had shady seats as the temperature was unbearably hot yesterday.

I always go with my SIL who has been going for many many years and is very adept at spotting tennis players and famous faces, well I managed to spot one of my own yesterday - Ainsley Harriott was sitting 5 rows in front of me. I did toy with the idea of giving him the contents of my picnic bag and asking what he could do with it in 20 minutes, but decided to resist that particular urge!! For those readers outside the UK, Ainsley is a celebrity chef/presenter on Ready Steady Cook. I couldn't get a photo of his face, but did get the back of his (very shiny) head!

Time for strawberries, cream and a drop of Pimms

Yes, Wimbledon is here once more and I'm enjoying a couple of weeks away from work. I'm going up on Tuesday with Sally, my SIL, to Centre Court. Our seats are right at the back, but at least we'll be in the shade and we will still have a great view. We always take a picnic with us and I always try and pack in something extra special, so I'll be scouring Sainsburys on Monday for something nice.

Dad has been in the rehab centre at the hospital now for a few weeks and it is simply awful. I'm sure it's made his level of confusion worse and even the move itself hasn't helped matters. They put him to bed at 7.30pm and for a man who has problems sleeping, this isn't good. It has been agreed that Dad needs to go for some care for a while. Initially we thought it would be residential, but at the meeting we had to discuss his case, they thought nursing care would probably be better. There's a chance if it's nursing care, that he will get full funding. Otherwise, I will have to sell his house (and my home for 35 years) to meet the costs if it turns into a long term placement. I'm really not sure whether or not he will ever be well enough to go home, but all we can do is hope and pray. I'm still waiting to hear about the funding and as soon as I know, we will be able to view places that have vacancies.

I've been doing some stitching and have actually been working on a Mirabilia! I really reached burnout a couple of years ago with my Miras and haven't really wanted to pick any of them up for a long time. But I had an urge to work to Titania and here's what I've been doing:

I've stitched most of the coral sash and have just started the bottom part of the dress. You may remember that I wanted to stitch her with silver wings and have been looking at silver metallics that might be suitable for this. I noticed that someone else recently stitched a purple Titania with silver wings, however, those wings had some blue in and I wanted purely silver. I'm not sure whether using purely metallics will be a little overpowering or not, so I'm playing with a few ideas at the moment. The fabric looks a little bluer than IRL. It's SMF's Winter Meadow Belfast linen.

I've also been doing a spot of baking and as it was my friend's birthday, yesterday I baked a Cherry Bakewell cake:

And delicious it was too! I got the recipe from Rosie's blog - Baking Cakes Galore, which has lots of mouth watering recipes on offer. Happy stitching everyone!

Wildlife

Yes, I caved and let Catkin outside after a week and since then we've had a live baby rabbit (who was very cute!), who Catkin dropped and then it hopped into my trainer to hide! I took it back outside in my trainer and released it again. Then yesterday and today, we have had shrews. Yesterdays didn't survive and the one today doesn't look too healthy, but I guess it's to be expected living in the countryside and keeping a cat.

Dad is still in hospital. He's now not going to the rehab centre, but is going to a rehab unit at another hospital, which is closer to his house. They're just waiting for a bed to become available, so hopefully it won't be too long now. I saw him yesterday and he seemed quite well.

Not any stitching to share, but I will share a few piccies. These are some gorgeous flowers my DB and SIL bought over last week, when we had a lovely walk out in the sunny weather and then they came back for some delicious homemade fishcakes!

This was the view we had on our lovely walk into town - I honestly believe there's no better walk into town anywhere else!

And this is one of the pretty poppies growing in my garden - I love them and have never seen any like it before.

Happy stitching everyone!

Thank you

Thank you so very much for all your lovely, caring messages. We truly have a fantastic support network of stitchers in cyberspace.

I’m still feeling sad about Bobbi, but I now have my other gorgeous girl Catkin here with me. Dad is still in hospital and it’s been agreed that he’s going to go into a residential rehabilitation centre for several weeks, so I didn’t think it fair on Catkin to be left alone, with just the neighbour popping in to feed her twice a day. She’s a people cat and would get very lonely, so I have bought her back with me. I’m going to try and keep her in for two weeks and then only let her out when she’s hungry. I’m right in the middle of the countryside, so it wouldn’t take much for her to get herself lost! We’re on day 2 of incarceration and she’s already tried to escape through the inch gap I left with the top window open for ventilation! She seems to have made herself very much at home already though and the area is a wonderful place for a cat to explore.... I just hope she doesn’t try and catch too many rabbits or birds :o(

Dad is going to receive intense physiotherapy in the rehab centre and the occupational therapists will also work with him so that he can regain some mobility. The idea is to encourage and support him to be able to do more for himself, so that he is less worried about returning home as he will be able to look after himself more. We’re meeting at the hospital tomorrow to discuss when and how it will happen. Andy and I went over to look at the place on Saturday and I was pleasantly surprised. Very clean, nice accommodation with very friendly staff. There’s also a large lounge/diner with an enormous TV which I know Dad will like very much! There’s only a dozen residents of the rehab centre which seems to indicate they receive plenty of care and attention. I’m sure that it’s going to be a really good experience for Dad and I hope that he will be able to return home afterwards.

I have been doing a little stitching, so will share some piccies with you. Firstly The Guardian:

I've also been working on Taj:

And here's how the whole thing looks right now:

I'm hoping to finish my first Taj side soon! Happy stitching everyone :o)

Hi everyone. Life has not been good recently in any shape or form, so I’m afraid this isn’t going to be a particularly happy post and I apologise now.

Dad had a nasty fall at home at the end of March. He fell and hit his head on the wall, losing a lot of blood (which I had to try scrubbing out of the carpet for days without success) and ending up with a 3” cut at the back of his head, requiring stitches. Thankfully the neighbour popped in to see him and found him sitting on the sofa with blood pouring out of his head. Had he not come in to see Dad that evening, I really think he could have bled to death. He had amnesia and has had memory problems ever since. He was in hospital for 3 weeks and for the last few days was in a ward where he received appalling treatment (my subsequent complaint is currently being investigated) and so he discharged himself. He now receives care 3 times a day and the district nurses also come in daily to monitor his blood sugar levels. But here we are 3 weeks later and he is back in hospital. He’s had a really nasty bout of gastroenteritis and the doctors have been very worried about him, but today they seem to think he’s on the mend and should be home within a few days. Work have been very understanding and I’ve been able to take a few days leave when I’ve needed to. I’m also now working flexi hours, enabling me to have every other Friday off, so I can go and visit Dad weekly, rather than every other week. It’s been a very worrying time and Dad is far from well. His brother, who had similar health problems, passed away a few days after Dad went into hospital, two weeks after I’d taken Dad to see him – they hadn’t seen each other for nearly 20 years. Needless to say, we’re very glad that we went when we did. He went rapidly downhill in the last few days, poor thing, as he’d seemed in reasonably good health when we saw him. I also lost a good friend I'd met at my last job around the same time, who was terminally ill with cancer. She’d fought a brave battle and was a fighter right until the end.

It’s also not been a good time for kitties. Joy – the cat I’ve been looking after at my accommodation – was blind in one eye and last week, it suddenly went from being gungy one day to very sore and bleeding the next. Poor thing had an eye tumour. I contacted her ‘mum’, Becky, who is studying at uni, and she returned home and took her to the vet. She was 18 and it was likely that the tumour had spread to the area behind her eye, so Becky made the brave decision to have her put to sleep. The same week, my sister had to have her cat Bertie put to sleep as she had suddenly developed a large mass inside her.

Then today, I had to say goodbye to my beautiful baby girl, Bobbi. She’d not been eating and was drinking lots of water. She was skin and bones, poor thing, which happened very very quickly. So I made the best, but difficult decision to have her put to sleep. I feel so sad. I knew her from when she was a week old. She sat in the palm of my hand and mewed at me, before her eyes were even open, her beautiful golden eyes. She loved sitting in the garden in the sun and in the wintertime, loved to be curled up next to the fire. When she was happy and contented she would purr deeply, curl her tail around her legs and suck the end till it was soggy, like a child sucks its thumb for comfort. I will never forget her.