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.

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!

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)

New wheels

Yay! I finally picked up my new wheels and took them out for a spin today. I didn't get very far as the garage had put probably around a cup of petrol (gas) in the car, so it promptly ground to a hault, nowhere near a petrol station, but thankfully my good friend was off work today and drove over to pick me up and took me to get some petrol. Thank goodness for friends!

Welcome to the new look blog by the way - hope that it is as clear to read as the old layout, I just fancied brightening it up a bit :o)

I'm spending a few days at Dad's as he had a cataract operation on Monday. All has gone well and I'm trying to teach him how to administer his eye drops, which is no easy task at all.... he seems to have managed to swallow (yes, swallow!) more than he's got in his eye so far!

I've nearly finished the page of Snow Princess I've been working on, so won't add any photos until I've got there. I can't not add any photos at all though, so let's see what I can find.... here's a pic of two of my sister's cats Bertie (l) and Kitten (r). Kitten is Bertie's mother, though is absolutely tiny. They both seem to like sleeping on my bed and snuggle up together, washing each other and helping me on my laptop ;o)

Howdy folks!

Yes, things are still busy and hectic and up and down and....

Dad had a nasty fall a couple of days ago. Thankfully he's not seriously hurt apart from a few bruises, but he was very shaken indeed. He had day surgery 2 weeks ago for his fistula in preparation for dialysis. He has one in his wrist. Dad can't feel it, as he has damage to his nerve endings in his fingers, but if you put your finger gently on his wrist... instead of a pulse you can feel something that I can only describe as like little cogs turning in a wristwatch! Well, not the actual cogs, but like their gentle vibration!! Luckily his fall doesn't seem to have damaged the fistula. If everything goes well & the doctors are pleased with how the fistula is, he should start dialysis 6-8 weeks after the day surgery which should be the middle of December fingers crossed. He's so poorly but by all accounts, once he's been on dialysis, even for a few weeks, he should feel much better.

I had a little trip to Bournemouth for 3 days last week on company business. It was the first (and hopefully to be annual) HR Assistants & Officers conference. I also had an extra day before the conference at a course my boss was running on 'Investing in Investigations' which was fascinating. The conference was great - lovely to meet all the other HR staff from the different stores that I'd not met before. Those of us that had travelled some distance stayed at the same accommodation - the lovely Anglo Swiss Hotel. I had a wonderful room which had an enormous bed, plus french doors to a veranda, which if you have a look on the website, is on the main shot of the front of the hotel to the right of the entrance and on the first floor you can see my veranda! I stayed an extra night due to going to the course as well & the next day told all the other HR staff about the wonderful veranda, walk in wardrobe, french doors etc... and then, rather embarassingly, none of the others had these facilities! Lol!! They all wanted a peek at my veranda just to prove I wasn't pulling their leg!!! One of the points of the conference was to decide between us just what we should put into the pack we give to new starters & then make it consistent between all the stores (you wouldn't think it would be that difficult considering there are only 12 stores in the chain!). Well, we had a whole afternoon for this & it was nowhere near enough time and as a result there is going to be a working party to work on it further and I've been nominated! I'm the only HR Assistant involved, so its quite a privilege. We're getting together next month as, whilst December is busy for everyone else in retail, its pretty quiet for HR ;o)

I've managed a bit of stitching, but still no photos as Andy (naughty boy) still hasn't got my camera fixed for me! I keep threatening to get the scanner out, if I can get it to work!! I've put down Forest Goddess for a while as I'm so burned out on her. I've picked up my Dracolair Midnight Hunting again. I've just got the final moon panel to finish in the bottom right corner and then I can get back to stitching on my Duncan draggie! It seems like a very long time since I started on him & I'd love to see him finished more than any of my other WIPs right now.

It's my birthday!

Oh my goodness - how did that happen?!!! Yes folks, today is my birthday. I've had some lovely gifts, including the Mirabilia White Christmas chart, some SMF fabbie and silks from Gill, a little cuddly Eeyore, a diary, some Thornton choccies, tickets to see Ray Davies of The Kinks next week, 'Yellow Submarine' Beatles CD and the promise to get my digi camera fixed from Andy, a gorgeous pink spangly leather make-up bag & lippie from my boss, a nodding Captain Jack Sparrow figure from Sharon and some money from my Dad. I don't feel my age at all. I'm still about 24 in my head I think!

I'm in the middle of a few days off from work at the mo, which I think I really needed. Work is truly exhausting right now! We've just started taking on all our Christmas casuals & I've got lots of inductions coming up over the next few weeks. I've also got a couple of little business trips - I'm going to the Horsham store one day next week for a training day and then on the 31st I'm down to Bournemouth for 3 days for a conference and more training. I really do love my job, though I'm looking forward to it quieting down substantially in mid-November once all the new staff are on board.

My camera is still unco-operative. Andy has promised to get it fixed for me though, so hopefully I'll be able to share photos very soon. I've managed to get quite a bit of stitching on my Forest Goddess in over the last few days, although I'm really getting HAED pangs right now & want to get back into my Polar Bear blues once more!! I want to finish FG though before I move on, so that I can have at least one more finish this year.

Not much progress with Dad's health. He is due to have day surgery on the 26th for his 'fistula', in prep for his starting dialysis. I'm hoping that once he starts dialysis, he will feel better in himself. He's pretty down with all the things that are happening to him. Sadly, his elderly friend across the road from him died on Friday. He was in his 90s & had been housebound for many years. He cared for his wife who was also housebound & had severe demensia. It seems he had a nasty fall when he got up in the night to help his wife. It's so sad. She will now have to go into a home to be looked after properly & she probably won't even realise that he's gone.

I had a nice few days up in Yorkshire at Sharon's last month. Although we didn't go anywhere as she was pretty poorly with morning sickness due to her expecting once again. She also asked me if I would be baby no.2's Godmum & I was delighted to say yes!! I will have to get stitching something special for the new little one who is due in May.

Stressed out.....

I'm feeling quite down & stressed at the moment. Firstly, Dad went for his appointment at the TIA clinic this week to check out about his funny turns that he had last month and they've told him that he has at some point, without realising it, had a stroke. He feels fine right now, its just another thing to add to his medical list of problems - he's had such a hard time of it physically over the last couple of years. I wish there was more I could do for him really, and that he'd move out of his house where he struggles with the stairs to somewhere much closer to the rest of the family, perhaps warden assisted. He's very stubborn & set in his ways though and I know he really doesn't want to move. I went to visit him yesterday & he seems ok. Thankfully he's managed to find himself a cleaner through the local church, which as well as keeping the house clean & tidy, gives him another visitor to look forward to.

On top of that I have had the most stressful day at work this week. Monday I was at Horsham new store inducting around 22 staff for their opening in a few weeks time. Everything that could go wrong did - the digital projector wouldn't connect to the laptop which had the induction presentation on, the air con stopped working and the whole thing hadn't been prepped very well! I was there with my boss, who thought I'd been on the vallium as I was so calm and laid back!! I knew there was nothing I could do about the situation, so just went with the flow & really enjoyed it. Then on Tuesday I went to another store at Winchester for a course on 'Dealing with difficult situations' - quite alot of that in my job! It was great & the trainer was the Sunday manager from our store who I've communicated with lots but hadn't met until then & we got on famously. On Wednesday I went back to my store & just had lots & lots of stress to do with pay. Briefly, one manager in particular hadn't put some payments through for his staff before the deadline for payroll in July & then had gone on holiday. It seems that he has told his staff that this is down to me & had told my boss the same thing in my absence on Tuesday! I have a great memory for detail so was able to tell my boss exactly what happened & she was going to give him a tongue lashing yesterday when they were both in. I am so angry with this particular manager!!! I'm off to Horsham again tomorrow to do more inducting, so I shall just remember to go with the flow once more... ;o)

With all this work I haven't done a single stitch this week - I so could have done with stitching this week to calm me down! When I have got home I've just been too tired. I've got absolutely nothing planned today though, so am going to put my feet up & stitch, stitch, stitch! :o)

Girlie day!

My best girlie friend in all the world came a-visiting me yesterday & we had a really lovely day. It was the first time she'd visited me since I moved last September so it was great to show her around the local area & the house etc. We had lots of chat to catch up on & she showed me what she'd been stitching recently, including one she had been stitching as a surprise for me SeaHorses! I've got a bit of a thing about seahorses & love this design, have done for a long time! Sharon's stitching it on SW Blue Dynasty linen & has added a bit of sparkle to the reeds. It looks fabulous so far - she hasn't got much more to do, so I shall be on at her to 'Stitch!' even more now ;o) She's driven back up to Yorkshire today & I got a text from her not so long ago to say that she'd arrived safely home. I'm going up to visit Sharon for a long weekend in September so am really looking forward to it.

I've still not had much of a chance to stitch, just a few threads here & there, though I have made a bit more progress on Forest Goddess, so will be posting a new piccie soon.

Dad is still not that well. He is now having to go up to the hospital to have an iron drip every 2 weeks as there is a severe lack of iron in his blood. He had a brain scan yesterday which is in preparation for him going to the TIA clinic in a couple of weeks time. I'm going over to see him tomorrow. He's been feeling a bit down, which is hardly surprising, so I'll probably take him out for a bit of lunch somewhere when we go out shopping.

More drama... & stitching too!

Thanks for everyone's well wishes. My tonsils are now back to normal, its my Dad that has had all the drama with his health this week...

He had a couple of funny turns last weekend and then a couple more on Monday, which resulted in him having to call an ambulance Monday night after spending 3 hours unconscious on the floor. The police also attended as the ambulance was delayed & when the paramedics arrived, they thought he may have been suffering from a series of mini-strokes. So I went over to stay with him that night & the next day he had a scheduled appointment with his renal consultant. The paramedics said that we should tell the consultant what had been happening which we did & he thought Dad may have had some 'hypo-glaucomic episodes' to do with his diabetes/blood sugar, which would result in him becoming unconscious etc. So the consultant has given him yet more medication to add to his collection & he has been referred to the TIA clinic which specialises in people that have suffered mini-strokes, just incase thats what it was. I'm more inclined to think it is connected with his blood sugar. I have told him to eat at more regular intervals, not just at meal times & also a couple of people are going to check on him every couple of days or so. Its been a pretty worrying time, but he seems to be ok now & hasn't had any more 'episodes' since.

Stitching wise, I'm afraid the blues have finally got me! I'm all blued-out. So I picked up Titania again for a while:

And then yesterday I was very naughty indeed & started another Mira! Can you guess what it is yet? ;o)

Feeling poorly :o(

I have not been a well girlie the last 14hrs or so. I seem to have picked up a real nasty tummy bug. On Weds I had to take my Dad up to the hospital for a blood test - nothing to worry about, they just needed as fresh a sample as possible! But I noticed lots of signs saying that there was an outbreak of a stomach bug doing the rounds so I wonder if I've picked it up from there. It's doing my diet the world of good anyway! I feel a little better this morning, as I'm sat here on my PC in my pyjamas, wrapped in a blanket and with my Bagpuss hot water bottle draped across my tummy!! Any hugs would be appreciated though :o)

I'm not planning on going anywhere today, just incase I feel bad suddenly so as I did all my housework yesterday morning I can really put my feet up today & get to work on Titania. When I had flu in January after I had just started her I managed to work solidly on her for a couple of days, so maybe she is my healing fairy!

Dad kindly bought the new Harry Potter dvd for me on Weds as a thank you for taking him to the hospital & things. I haven't watched it yet so will probably watch it later on today. I liked the film when I saw it in the cinema, but not as much as its predecessor - The Prisoner of Azkaban is my fave film (and book too) so far. The new film had too many parts of the book missing for my liking... just where was Winkie the house elf I ask you?!!! ;o)

The new Mirabilia has been released - Bliss Fairy. She is very pretty & will make a lovely companion to Petal Fairy. I don't like her quite as much as Petal which is one of my fave Mirabilia designs, but she is very sweet & I know I will stitch her.

This & That.

I've been a bit quiet the last few days. Unfortunately it's not because of my hectic social life! Not much has been happening really other than going to work & coming home again. I've been working a bit on Mabel & I now have around half an elephant. I'm hoping to do some more this weekend & will probably post my progress next week.

Thanks to everyone for their lovely comments on my Celtic Spring HD! I was so pleased to have a finish as I haven't had one in over 6 months so it was good to share it with everyone. :o)

I'm off to see my Dad today. I go over around once every 2 weeks or so. I do worry about him. He went to bed the other evening & had left the gas on for the grill! He woke up to an awful smell of gas & realised what had happened, but I dread to think what might have happened. :o( Anyway, I shall take him shopping today & out for lunch somewhere & just make sure he's ok.

I've been taking a little nostalgia trip these last few weeks. I'm not sure whether I've mentioned it before, but I'm a huge Beatles fan. My mum brought me up on their music & I guess its in my blood really! My aunt was in a group in the early 60s called The Honeys & they went on the Beatles first UK tour when Helen Shapiro was headlining. They were quite prolific songwriters even at that early stage & my aunt remembers them writing lyrics on empty cigarette packets! I used to regularly go to the Beatle conventions in Liverpool each August & have met lots of Beatle connected people, although have never met any of them personally. I did go to Paul McCartney's farm once in Sussex, although he wasn't there at the time. I did get to see his sheep though! And now he lives just up the road from me in Hove which is quite surreal!!! Well, Andy has a bit of a soft spot for the Beatles too, so we've been ploughing through my video collection watching all sorts of things that I haven't seen in years. We watched the film 'Help!' a couple of weeks ago which is my fave of their films. I just love the bit when their house is being invaded & John Lennon picks up the phone saying "Get me the home office - he's wrecking my home!" Tickles me every time ;o)

More drama than you can shake a stick at!

Yes, my life likes to throw in more drama than most at the best of times. Last weekend we had lots of drama with my Dad. He has various illnesses/conditions - diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol etc. and has been on umpteen varieties of medication for years. Within the last 18 months they've discovered that one type of his long term medication has made his kidneys deteriorate quite rapidly - basically they will fail one day but we don't know when. He had some tests done with his GP last week & the readings were way off the scale, so I found out last Friday that he would be going to hospital the next morning to the renal unit for further tests. I was really worried as I couldn't go with him - I was working & as I'm in a new job there's no way I could get the day off as I was going to be the only one in on my department. So bright & early Saturday morning as I was getting ready for work, Andy got up too & told me he was going to drive over & take my Dad to hospital as he knew I was so worried about him going on his own. What a sweetheart he is! My Dad has been rather frosty towards Andy since my moving in with him & I was a bit concerned about him being rude to Andy but my 2 boys got on ok. They even went & had lunch together afterwards! And it turned out that the GP's readings were totally inaccurate which was great news. Dad's kidneys are still failing but it's not quite as desperate as we'd thought.

I've been a good stitchy girl & started beading my Celtic Spring. I've not had alot of time for stitching this week, but have a couple of days off next week, so fingers crossed I should be HDing before much longer. ;o)