Fantastic time at Harrogate :)

 

inside the show

Ally's favourite place a bead stall

Hi Folks hope everyone is snuggled up nice and warm and getting some sneaky
stitching in ..lol.......... I advise getting a cuppa before you read this as its probably
going to be a longgggggg post heheheehh :)

Well here goes ... I arrived at Harrogate Friday morning after a sleepless night
wondering if the snow was going to stop play but thankfully it didn't :) The
only snow I saw was on a car at the start of my journey and that was it until on the way home.


Within and hour of getting there, there was me Karen, Gillie,Elizabeth and Val
so before we hit the show we fortified ourselves with lunch at the hotel :) Our
Phones were pinging on and off with updates of where everybody was on their
journey so we knew we had a bit of time to eat and do a wee bit of shopping :)

So we set off after lunch and hit the show and WOW is all I can say again, even
though I have been before it still has that factor when you get in ... I had my
trusty note book of things I needed to get and with a vague idea of where my
stalls were we pootled off to explore the hidden delights before we splashed out
on our purchases.


As we wandered round oooing and ahhhing and having the odd fondle of stuff  and lady like drool over the silks etc we were joined by Sandra. Sandra and I had a contest going on who would buy the most stuff unfortunately she won hands down hehehe.


I had my travelling stitcher bag with me which was very much admired and oo'd and ahhhd over  by everybody  including Jane Greenoff as I was showing her my Biscornu that I had designed using her program and we caught up with gossip and laughed about the time when Bumbles ate the lemon cake when I was down at her house the other year , Bill was called over to look at the biscornu too  and was really impressed :) ( I've bought her new design program as well )...... The Girls from Nimble Thimble were really impressed with them too and was glad to see me again at the show 

"Tales of a stitching mouse" original design 

 After a few hours of blissful delight we went back to the hotel and met up with
Maureen and Ally who had arrived safely from Scotland , there was no where to go
and sit comfy so we went and crashed out in Ally and Karen's room and had a good
ole natter.
By teatime all who were arriving that day had turned up safely and we all had a
delicious meal at the hotel followed by more merriment upstairs along with some
wine and choccies :)

my small stash haul pin keep is in the middle front

Val had a surprise for all of us she had stitched us all a pin pillow and made us all matching counting pins to go on  it :) Mine is in my favourite colours and goes well with some other accessories I have :)I t did snow while we upstairs all yackking at about 11.45 and I have taken some pics of my car from the bedroom window ..... 

spot the car ..lol

The next day dawned bright and early and we all made it downstairs for breakfast
with plenty of time to come round and get ready for the big day of stash
shopping :)

Friendly Stitchers before we hit the show

By 3ish Shelley , Jo and I were ready to drop and headed back to the hotel for some feet up time and catch up with the rest of the group :0
We had out tea/dinner early and much merriment continued after with me being
introduced to the delights of X factor and Wagner !!!!

By the time I had got upstairs to meet the rest of the gang I walked into the room to apologise for being later and said "ooo choccies" and as I promptly bit into one Ally came out with the immortal phrase " I once went to a Physic
Handbag meeting" needless to say after I had finished choking from laughing and the chocolate, they had to explain what I had missed in the conversation before but unfortunately for the rest of the night Maureen and I would burst out  laughing from seeing faces talking on the handbags etc etc etc and yes we had  had some drink ..lol ;)

Sunday dawned bright but cold and we all had a lovely breakfast before we all had to get ready to go our separate ways , all promising to let someone know they had all got home safely as we had had snow there on the Friday evening and it still hadn't gone by the Sunday.

Needless to say we had a excellent time making new friends as well as meeting
the oldies and I mustn't forget the wonderful cuddles from Isla either :)


Thanks Girls for such a wonderful time and looking forward to seeing you all
soon xxxxxxx and I am starting to save up for next year already so watch out
Sandra heheheh ;)
Off  now to go and snuggle up with some stitching  .... take care every one :)

love mouse xxxxxx

Hi Ho HI Ho Its off to Harrogate I go

Hello everybody :) well we have survived so far with out any snow so hopefully and a fair wind I shall be travelling in my car up to Harrogate tomorrow morning YEAHHHHHHH .


I have almost packed , finished off some bits and pieces that needed doing before I escape tomorrow and I shall be off for a long week end of stash fondling , silk drooling (ladylike of course) and lots of chatting and laughing with the girls from the friendly stitchers who are coming from all over the country to the International Halls at Harrogate for the Knitting and stitching show :)


I spent last week going through my stash and organising my charts and kits etc into designers and putting them into plastic folders neatly labelled for future reference along with the speciality threads that they needed, that I had got at the show last year and sorted out my anchor threads to go with them ... after converting them from DMC .. I was a very busy mouse ...lol . 


Not only that but I even wrote them all down so that I know what I need at a glance and exactly what I have got so I don't double buy ..lol


I also managed to squeeze in a bit of stitching and some designing but all will be revealed after I get back :) 


So I have just got to pack my clothes and my wheelchair and am sorted :) At least I am guaranteed a  seat this year heheheh...... so while the mouse is away please behave yourselves heheheh.

my blog win

I received my wonderful blog win last week as well I came 4th in a blog give away  on Kathys blog to celebrate her "punkins" 7th birthday and here is my prize..... aren't they lush :)


Right I'd better go and finish getting ready and to all my American friends HAPPY THANKSGIVING to you all :)
take care and I shall squeak soon with lots to tell and show and I've got to take lots of pictures for DJ as requested ...
by for now and happy stitching
love mouse xxxxxxx

Being organised ..lol

Well I have been given a  bit of useful info from Gillie on how to put my favourite blogs on to my side bar ... Thanks babes :) SOOOOOO if yours is not there yet do not panic am still getting to grips on finding them ..lol , have them saved on my blogs list on my main google page just not got round to getting them copied and pasted but I will dooooo honest:)


Ok there were a few things I had forgotten to put on my last post so hopefully that will be rectified in a few mo's. I have to say that since Halloween I have been poorly with the dratted *cold* and have not been well at all so I have been languishing in my craft room armed with a blankie and tissues and been doing a bit of stitching so  I have got all my commitments done and dusted for the exchanges etc on friendly stitchers I can't show you the latest one as the owner won't get it till we go to the Harrogate Knitting and stitching show in two weeks time :)




Firstly I forgot to show what I sent to DJ for her *big * birthday I shall be kind and not mention the age hehehehe but if you bob to her blog tickled pink you will find out ..lol ......so here is a picture of what I sent 

For DJ 

Beaded scissor fob for DJ

Right that's that bit remembered ...lol , then I also have been making some cards which I forgot to show you , told you I was trying to be organised heheehe (just wish i could figure out how to put the pics where i want them ..lol

Made for an 80th birthday 

    If I have put these one's up before sorryyyyy ..lol  

Then what else mmmmmmmmmmm thinking here heheheh...... oooooo yes while languishing I decided to have a go at doing a simple logo design for the friendly stitchers and sat down at the computer and with the help of the Jane Greenoff  designer gold stitch program I have  achieved this heheheh soooooo here is the stitched result .... I found some 24 count evenweave that I had bought a while ago when down at Jane's having a stitching retreat and thought mmmmm voila I shall use this ... it took me only a few hours to stitch up and then I made it into a pillow cushion .... I had to make a pillow insert for it as it was such an off the cuff size so I had to rummage round in my material stash to find some cotton to do this.... unfortunately it is not quite big enough to give if a plump fullness I was after but hey ho it is for me and now I have worked it out, if any body want's something similar  I have the "I know what to do now " ...lol  sooooo here is my first attempt :)

First attempt at designing

so there you go :) If I had done it on a smaller count of fabric it would have been much smaller all round but I like to make a statement heheheheh ;). 

Then finally I move to the being organised bit and my 2nd cuppa of the day :0 ..... I decided last night that as I was feeling much better and a wee bit braver I would tackle the *to get list* for Harrogate sooooo  I settled down in my comfy chair and got to work ........ I opened the first drawer and thought mmmm ...went and got some plastic A4 document holders and some sticky labels and started to organise my charts into designers and went oooo forgot had this and ooooo keep that one out and so on and so forth ..lol Till about 10 folders later I had organised that drawer !!!!!! My DH just shook his head when he saw all the folders ..lol and I said I've only done the one drawer heheheh ...... soooo today dawns bright and sunny and I shall go back in and tackle all my Little House Needlework charts now as most of them have the specialist  threads , so need to check what else I need so that I can get some more of them done, as I do like these charts :)

Ok if you have go this far I am impressed ..lol you deserve another cuppa... go one you know you want one and while we're at it a sticky bun as its almost elevenses ;)

Right I have waffled enough so I shall scurry into my craft room and go and get some more done t.t.f.n. and happy stitching or crafting which ever you are deciding to do today :)

love mouse xxxxxxxxx

All sorts of everything

Hi Folks well all I can say is it has been very busy round here ,,, some very low bits and some good bits and some even scary bits too ......

my beloved  Bracken

I will firstly get the low bits done as I'm still very saddened by the loss of my dear furbaby Bracken my beautiful springer spaniel who we had had since he was 9 weeks old and he was my constant companion till we had to let him go to the rainbow bridge to be with his son Monty at the grand old age of 14 years and 3 mths old ...... this picture was taken just around his birthday in July this year ....


we then decided it was time to move so we have put the mouse house up for sale as it seems far to big now and I'm rattling around on it on my own during the day .... we have decided not to get another furbaby as my heart is broken into a thousand pieces and I am not really fit enough to deal with a pup :(
So  we have put the house onto the market to see if we get a sale to down grade to a smaller property literally down the road, so keep all fingers crossed  that we manage it :)


On the stitching front I have made a humbug for Denise in our stitching exchange on the Friendly Stitchers  so here is mine to her and her's to me .... 

mine to Denise

Denise's to me

I have then been busy getting things ready for the christmas ornament exchanges and also making an ornament for the Ward where one of our members of the Friendly stitchers spent a lot of her time on before she sadly passed away just before her birthday. Alison Joy was the original wielder of the Wet Noodle before passing it over to me ,earlier on in the year . She will be sadly missed by all those who knew her.

Alison Joy ornament

A group of us from the friendly stitcher are going to the Knitting and stitching show at Harrogate at the end of the month, we are making a weekend of it and staying in a hotel near by and I am looking forward to meeting some new faces and stash fondling and the occasional purchase or two ..lol ..... we have decided to do an ornament swap so being the good little mouse mine is all done and finished ready for it :) It has already been oooo'd and aaahhh'd over and I wan'ts it ..lol  so here it is :)

Harrogate swap

And now onto the scary bit ...... DD Jo decided this year she wanted to throw a Halloween party and went all out with the decorations and food and drink..... we all got dressed up and had a FABULOUS time  so here are a few pics of the night beware there is a squeamish one !!!!

my beautiful kitchen

the three amigo's

think I need to dust in here !!!

and here ..lol

bubble bubble

My bath is finally not this colour !!!

actually the loo roll :)

Scary prisoner

OOOO thought you might like to see the latest "Do" done for me by the youngest DD :)

side view

from the back

So this is it for now folks I am busy working on my UFO's and hope to have an update on the Celtic Autumn for you soon as well as my dragon and also doing a few exchange pieces in the meantime....

so I shall bid you tootles and will squeak to you all soon, hopefully with more news on the moving front and definitely on the stitching front.

take care one and all 

love mouse xxxxxx