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!

A lovely afternoon

It's been a beautiful day here in England today, well, down in the south anyway! I've had a house warming shared lunch with most of my immediate family today - 2 of my sisters, their children / husbands / wives / partners. 14 of us squeezed into my little house, but thankfully I also share the garden and am able to use the large conservatory at the back of the cottage. It was lovely to share lunch together - everyone contributed something and I was busy baking lemon & lime cupcakes at 10pm last night in preparation...

Then my niece Ellie (you can tell we like baking!) made a beautiful 'Country Cake' decorated with cows, sheep and flowers! She is such a clever girl. I love all the little details, the fence, the flower stems, everything! :o) It tasted pretty good too. We polished off most of the food, but there's still a little cake left over which I may take into work with me tomorrow.

I seem to have lost my stitchy vibe at the moment. It could be that I can't see the tv from my only armchair in my little house (I like to stitch and semi-watch films). I can't site the tv anywhere else and don't think I can move the chair anywhere close by. I can see the tv from my bed, so may stitch temporarily sitting on my bed for now. In the summer I'm looking forward to sitting in the conservatory and stitching there. I have an urge to pick up my neglected Taj Mahal WIP at the mo.... Have a great week folks!

Clumsy Clot :o(

I really could kick myself sometimes you know! I've managed to damage the USB port on my digi camera so now I am unable to upload my pics to the PC. I think I may have wrenched the lead out too harshly last time I was using it & the piece inside with the contacts in seems to have been pushed over to one side. I just hope I can get it fixed without too much expense :o/ I am a little heavy handed at times which I guess is a little unusual for a stitcher! Somehow I can manage to do these dainty little stitches with my clumsy hands ok, but with other things I sometimes seem to be a one-woman trail of destruction! Whoops.

Thanks everyone for your really lovely comments about my photo :o) Does wonders for a girl's esteem! Gill, lol I really giggled at your comment about Pete saying I looked like you :o) And Faith Ann, your comment was very sweet, thank you.

I had planned to share piccies of what we got up to last weekend when Andy's mum came to stay. I guess I'll have to share them once I get my camera fixed. We had a lovely time at Weald & Downland Open Air Museum on a beautiful spring day. There's lots of historic buildings that have been dismantled from their original sites which were due to be destroyed for redevelopment. They are then re-erected at the museum for future generations to explore. Andy's taking his class there on a school trip soon so wanted to explore before the big day. I'd been there several times many years ago, though my last visit was in 1990. Despite that, I remembered my way around pretty well. Andy managed to pick up lots of useful info for the trip & we had a delicious lunch too! Homemade soup with rolls baked using flour from the mill on-site. There are also lots of farm type animals around the museum. It's lambing season, so we saw lots of sweet baby lambs who were basking in the sun! They also have shire horses and having been obsessed by horses ever since I was small, so I made a beeline for them :o) They are gentle giants indeed. One of them even gave my hand a kiss!! Awwwww.

I've had a busy week. As it's the Easter holidays I only needed to work 3 days this week & one of those I spent at Tonbridge store (in Kent) helping with HR files. I work 4 days a week & my predecessor works the other 1 day plus she is a newly promoted HR Manager at Tonbridge store. She needed some help with the filing system so asked if I would assist her. It was very interesting to see another store. It's around a third the size of mine & all on one floor. I don't envy her commute every day though, around the M25. I'm much happier on my little bus which trundles along by the sea :o)

I've just finished making some chocolate cornflake Easter nests. Anyone want one? ;o) Yummmmmmm! Needless to say I made a bit of a mess & had to lick out the bowl I melted the choccie in afterwards. Guess I'd better go check on them before the Easter bunny finds them... Happy Easter everyone!