Brill day out and lots of stitching for you :)

Hi Every one :) hope you are all ok and have enjoyed this bank holiday even with the rubbish weather we have had here at the mouse house in the UK ... Happy Memorial Day to my friends across the pond too :)


Ok soooo where to start .... firstly my glasses are ace I can seee youuuuuu ...lol 
Righty ho ... on Saturday  the mouse clan went on a day trip to Mother Shipton's Cave in Knaresbrough .. we packed a picnic and set off quite early for us for a change ..lol I drove there and apart from a few rainy moments we arrived to dry but fresh weather at the park.


we opted to walk down the avenue of trees as to be honest if I had to have used the chariot .. I wouldn't have been able to go (it does state this on the web site) and fortunately I was having a good day on the old pins so we set off . I shall warn you now there is going to be lots of photos :) so grab a cuppa heheheh
We tootled along the wooded walk .. I was admiring the trees and taking lots of photos as I went along .. did I mention I love trees and taking photos hehehehe :)

The photos probaly won't be in the right order but hopefully you will get the picture ..lol 

Steps to go up then down

love those roots

the long walk way 

 

me before we set off

Ok the photos are definitely misbehaving ho hum ..lol  and I haven' t figured out how to change those html that some one said about in an earlier post (sorry name escapes me atm )

top of petrifying well

wishing well

When you get to the end of the walk you have to go up a flight of steps and can look down onto the petrifying well as you go over it ( see photo) .... you then have to go down another flight to the well itself ... It is really an impressive sight with a whole load of things hanging down from the wall being petrified...... you can listen to a talk on it and see things that Famous people have donated to be petrified ... they are mostly in the museum further on ... behind the well is the wishing well .... you have to follow some simple instructions while making a wish and not tell any one what you have wished for 

bottom of the well

cave With Mother Shipton in the background

from there you go to the cave where Mother Shipton was born .... DD1 was amazed at how small it really was .... it certainly was warm in there and seem to be protected from any adverse weather .

looking up

 

well having just previewed this it is really higgledy piggldy ..lol 

hopefully it will return to normal soon hahahah 

hope you are still enjoying the  guided tour of our day out ... you may want to refill your cup now ..lol ...... we came out of the museum and wandered into the town centre where we succumbed to refreshments in the Loft Tea rooms.... you ought to have seen the Paradise Hot chocolate that DH had !!!! and I didn't take a photo nooooooo :(

we spent time wandering round the castle and the memorial site there too 

in the castle grounds

before heading back to the car to rest our weary feet and have our picnic .... we got back early evening and to say I didn't do much apart from stitch the next day sums up how stiff and ouchie I was, but it was worth it :)

Soooo now on to the stitching ... it is with great pleasure that I can announce what I was working on last week as I know Kate  has finally received it :) Unfortunately her partner in one of our exchanges in Friendly stitchers has been unable  due to unforeseen circumstances  complete the exchange .. so I stitched her a pin cushion and sent it on along with a gloriana thread too ... and here it is :0... I also did the wording to the Plum street Sampler chart on the back but in backstitch as there wasn't enough room to stitch it on :)

I have also been stitching on my Romantique SAL ,  Home of a Needleworker too , The Tea Rooms , Poinsetta house , started Fa la la and generally enjoying being able to see again to stitch :)soooo with out further ado and hopefully they will behave themselves are the photo updates .....

for Kate

Fa la la LHN

Poinsetta house LHN

LHN the tea room

LHN  

Romantique SAL

You will notice that I have un picked the swirl at the bottom of the HOAN and re done in the blue as well as satin stitched the cotton reel (thanks Gillie ) and slightly altered the top of the house ... I was afraid I would run out of the blue so changed the boarding to white .. :) and there you have it ... I have almost got the SAL up to date but I have realised I have made a boo boo in the dark purple roses top right I have missed a whole row out on the  second rose up !!!!! soooo I can do one of two things ... frog it or say whoops and leave it ????  thoughts on this matter greatly appreciated :)

I must say that there won't be much stash buying for a while as we found out last week that DH job may be privatised and he could be moved elsewhere or be paid off ????  soooo when I have run out of stash I may be on the look out to finish peeps UFO 's for something to do :)..... please form an orderly queue hahahahah 

right if you have got this far, well done ..lol you deserve a medal (piece of cake do ????)  I shall leave you in peace for a while and give my aching fingers a rest hehehe .....

take care and happy stitching 

love mouse xxxxx

I Have new glasses :) and other stuff :)

HI Everyone :) as you can probably tell from the title I have some brand new shiny bronzy red specs ..lol
For the last few weeks I have been having really bad headaches and had put it down to the stormy weather we had been having ... feeling tired etc etc until I went to get my yearly check up at the Drs for my meds and she said mmmm when was your last eye check .. you know you are supposed to go every year ...Whoops .. I muttered something along the lines of actually just going up now to book and when I left I did just that .....
needless to say after being thoroughly examined I needed to have much stronger glasses and also use eye drops daily as my eyes are very dry .... soooo this last week I didn't do any stitching at all :(
but I did do a BIG tidy up and sort out of the sewing room so I shall show you where I spend my days when not  doing other things like meeting up with fellow stitcher's etc ...
My DH muttered those immortal words "oh I can see worktop " when I said I had been busy !!! so there you are ... my tiny , tidy stitching room:)

View from door into room

looking from the kitchen in

Since next door has put up their extension we don't get as much sun coming in so it is much safer for me to have things out on display .... the black box is Gillie's I over locked her some fabric and she bobbed over on Saturday to come and pick it up and stay for dinner and lots of tea drinking and enabling went on as well ..lol I love it when friends come over :)


I have been searching for some photos to show you of some "sewing" sewing that I used to do many years ago .. I used to have my own small business making wedding dresses, costumes as well as bridal flowers etc .. yeah I know I have said" not bad for a beginner" with my cushions etc but I know there are far better seamstresses out there and I can always learn more tips and techniques on how to do stuff .... In fact it is because Lynn of  http://happinessiscrossstitching.blogspot.com/ that I have dug these out  as we have been talking about her doing a blog for dressmaking and I said I would be one of her first followers once she had set it up :)
so just for you Lynn .. oh go on you can all peek ..lol

My work about 12 years ago

I am the one in the cream dress and also with my DH in our Sealed Knot Finery and yes I made his suit too with the slashed sleeves :) The photo shoot was at Wortley Hall near to us 
I don't do anything on this scale any more as it is too much for me now but every so oft I do a bit and I do enjoy making up the smalls and playing with ribbon and lace and bits and bobs ...... I think you can tell that from my collection on my back wall ..lol


So there you have it  a sneak peek into my world at the mouse house ... and now I can see much better I shall be stitching up a storm ..lol..... I have got something on the go, which I can't show you at present  but all should be revealed by the end of the week ...
okay dokay its time for a cuppa so I shall squeak to you all soon :)
take care and Happy stitching love mouse xxxxx

Busy old week :)

Hi every one :) sorry to have been so quiet but I was trying to post what I have been up to when the world of blog land collapsed on Wednesday nooooooooo :(
so this post could be quite long winded ... with a few photo's and I suggest you get your cuppa now hahahahah 

The Sampler Girl chart 

ok where to start mmmmmmm .....Monday tea time as getting ready to go to Bakewell on Tuesday  I was reading a post and remembered that Denise one of the ladies I was meeting on Tuesday always wanted to have a cup of tea with Gillie and I ... I promptly went into my sewing room .. pulled a chart out, a few threads and frantically started stitching.... yes I was mad ..lol ... I finished the said item and 8.11 am the following morning just before I got ready to set off .... and here it is :) I did the Sampler Girls chart a little tea if you please and stitched the hearts in red ,white and blue to remind her of her trip to see us erm I mean of coming to England ..lol
So to Tuesday .. I set off in good time the weather was nice and the journey down to Bakewell was a little eventful as I came of a junction early due to problems of road works and had a slightly different route than what I had driven before ho hum all in the adventures of a stitching mouse .......

Bakewell, Derbyshire

Bakewell is a lovely town and has a beautiful river that has trout in it so here is a view that I took :)
We all met up at the Wye needlecraft shop at eleven and went for something to eat and drink before we went back to the shop to browse and add some things to our baskets .... I must admit we weren't overly impressed with the hand dyed threads as there were a lot of empty spaces .... but ho hum 

stash :)

I did manage to get some gingham linen for a chart that I won the other week from barbara :) when I find her blog link will let you know .... it is very late here and I want to get this done while I remember heheheh  soooo here is my stash haul :)
We had a wonderful day Denise , Gillie and I and we rounded off the day going into the Lavender Tea rooms at Bakewell .... this is well worth a visit if you go there 

inside the tea room 

tea for three

 We had the most wonderful afternoon tea with a lavender bun , a cream scone and a Fabulous cup of tea in proper china tea cups in the court yard and boy did it go down well ..lol ... I can't post photos of us as I didn't ask permission of the ladies DOH !!! but I can show you the cream tea ......The inside of the tea rooms were full of china , pictures and the toilet was well worth a visit just to see how it was decorated ..lol .. they really did have taste as there was a sampler on the wall too ..:)
We had a fabulous time and was sorry to have to say good bye at the end of the day but we needed to get back to our homes and yep I had a detour on the way back too !!!! road works 

lavender cream tea

Wednesday DH and I went to sunny Lincolnshire on a mission to pick up some Fire engine doors from DH 's friend as they were needed for the weekends 999 show at the Doncaster Air Museum ..... 

They live right near an RAF base and the Typhoon planes kept going over our heads ... I tried to capture these but I only got dots ...lol  I will try harder next time heheheh

Thursday was spent taking DD2 to the dr's as she had a very bad ear infection and had to have the ear packed with antibiotics as well as going on them too ... so that meant a bit of too-ing and fro-ing as she was staying with her other half.... so I was mum's taxi service again ..lol 
while I was there go myself booked in and sorted out .. why not hahahah 
Friday mmmmm can't remember friday ..lol 
Saturday ... DD1  dd's friend and I went to a Mind Body and Spirit show .. it was very disappointing as they had moved venues with out us knowing and also there wasn't any of the stalls that DD wanted :( and they didn't have a new body or mind for me either :( hhahahah 

PIF from Tricia

OOOO but when I got back home the post man had been and left me a lovely packet all the way from Tricia  which was my PIF from her .... she stitched me a really cute scissor fob and attached it to some really wee scissors and included a snowman chart as she didn't want me to be upset as she hadn't stitched me a snowman ..lol and she put in a teabag :)
OK so if you are still with me not long to go ..lol

stash from Tricia 

Sunday I went to Manchester to see Karen and drop off her un official birthday present which she loved and I spent a lovely day yackking and drinking tea and getting lots of cuddles of Freddie (Karen's new furbaby)..... I got home from there after driving through fog and rain about 8.30 pm shattered :(


SSSSSoooooo you can see why it was a  busy old week and hopefully it will quieten down this week as got lots of catching up to do stitching wise not to mention trying to tidy the sewing room up as have been having a sort out and re arrange and so far it looks like I just had a whirling dervish in there ..lol
so there you go folks ... well done on keeping up hehehehe 
so I shall leave you in peace and take care and happy stitching till next time :)
love mouse xxxxxx

As promised :)

Hi Every one :)
Hope all my over the pond friends have had a lovely Mothers day :) 


Before I forget .. I have to mention two brilliant give aways .. don't really want any one to peek as I would love to win them but *sigh  here goes ..lol


1) Kathy at http://www.shawkl.com  is having a three prize give away :)
2)Carolyn at http://carolyn-justonemorestitch.blogspot.com/ is having a quilting fabric give away :)


Right so that bits over as promised :)
This weekend has been a funny old weekend , I seem to have got no where fast ... I did manage to get the stitching finished on my Midsummer Stitch and Show competition on my group the friendly stitichers on Saturday morning  soooo I shall show you what I have done :)

Midsummer Stitch and Show designed by mouse :)

Its amazing what you can make with a bit of glue , ribbon, a finding etc and a small wooden bowl found in an antique place in my local garden centre :)
The design is one of  a set of three small biscornu charts that I have designed for the group ... I have done more designs but "The Mods" chose this one to use for the competition .. :)
I have been really enjoying the designing side of the craft but I don't think I will ever stop stitching :)  ....
 I stitched my piece on hand dyed linen from Silkweaver and used Crescent Colours Belle soie  Sweet Lavender I think it is ...  and for a first attempt at doing one like this I am really pleased at how it has turned out :) OOO the long pins came from a craft shop that is only 5 mins away from me .. only does scrap booking and carding stuff though which is a real shame .... 
The rest of the weekend has gone in a blur .... was going to get some stitching done . .. I was going to treat myself to a new start but  it didn't happen ... I have sorted out lots of parcels of goodies for folks so hopefully they will be on there way tomorrow   all being well ..... and I managed to make a couple of birthday cards too :)
and that's it .. nothing else to report ... the weather hasn't known whether to be sunny or pouring down so I haven't been able to get a bit done in my small garden :(
So I shall leave you all for now and go and pop the kettle on for a last cuppa :)
take care and happy stitching :)
love mouse xxxxx

ORTS and more :)

HI Every one :) hope you are all well in the blog land , no sniffles or hay fever ??? this is the worst time of year for me for that but fortunately the tablets are keeping the worst at bay :)

recipe inside 

all my goodies :)

well I have lots to tell :) I received my delicatessen exchange from Outi   the other day and have only just got round to posting about it ... sorry Outi ... I received some yummy  chocolate and a beautifully stitched little book with a house mouse recipe inside :) as well as a couple of charms and a chilli glass drop and a lovely knitted doily (which apparently is a dish cloth ) it is way to nice for that and shall be displayed :) and some red and black napkins just perfect for those summer barbecues :)

stitched cover on the book

Oooo train of thought has just gone of the track .....

OHHH yes DOH ..lol

orts and a bag :)

I have been following lots of blogs showing their Orts off  every month and as I couldn't fit any more into my little ort bag I thought I would show off mine heheheeh..... the last time I emptied this was for DJ's birthday in October when I stuffed her Humbug I made with them :) so with out further ado ta daaaaaa..... 

don't they look pretty :) mmmm think I have been doing a wee bit of stitching there hahhah ... my little bag sits on my light at the side of me so I can just pop them in there when done :)

I am just putting the finishing touches to a competition piece for the Midsummer Stitch and Show on my group Friendly Stitchers....  and then I shall pop it up hopefully by the end of the weekend :)

I went and got my hair done again by DD and now am sporting a shorter do , a lovely dark colour with a red undertone  and they straightened my hair  which is lovely but not what I am used too ..lol  

My mums sewing box and my treadle machine

After I went to do a bit of stash shopping and got some lovely wider ric rak to add to my growing collection :) sooo I can for see some more stitching coming on ..lol I have a few bits in mind to stitch soooo watch this space :)

while having one of those days where I had to get something down from the attic ... I sent DD 1 up there and between us I managed to get down what I remembered was up there...lol

 and as you can see from the photo which I think is above this waffle I brought down my mums sewing box complete with old bobbins and lots of stitching bits inside soooo I decided to stage a photo and put it on my treadle machine :) I remember the box was used everyday when my mum was alive and had her "salon " the  treadle machine we have had for oodles of years and my dad finally said I could have it a few years back so it has pride of place in my lounge :) while on the travels in the attic I found some of my mums old tool collection I think for rug making .. I didn't manage to get them down but shall do in the near future and let you have a peek :)

Right the kettle has been, on the brews have been made and passed round to Ally , Shelly and Nancy who have been keeping me company tonight on line :)

I  shall say toodles for now and will squeak to you all again very soon :)

take care one and all and happy stitching :)

love mouse xxxxx

Cushions galore and a bit more ..lol

HI Every one :)
ooo what a glorious weekend we have been having :) a lovely start to May today toooo ... sun has been out all day but has been a wee bit breezy but I have been in doors playing with my sewing machine and getting the finishes finished yipppeee :)
as you can probably tell from the title I've made some cushions ..lol and I've really enjoyed getting out the fabric and notions and having FUN ...lol 
I was asked where I had got my daisy fabric from and it was from www.sunflowercornerquilting.co.uk not sure if they are still trading as I went to a huge quilt show at the Malvern show ground a few years back and got oodles of fabric from there which I am using now ..... I knew it would all come in useful hehehehe.
I have also finished two of the three boxes I had totally, again thanks to LynnB's instructions , AND there's more heheheh .... I've finished one of my official UFO's  the amazing grace biscornu stitched with the threadgather's silk on silkweaver fabric soooo with out further ado here is the photo with them all on and done :)

close up of the UFO finished 

All this weekends finishing :)

I am soooo pleased with how they have all turned out not bad for a beginner hehehe :)
I was asked as well how long I kept the fabric in the tea and coffee solutions ... well to be honest I was watching the Royal Wedding sooo I think it was about 30 mins each time .. I just kept nipping in and checking if the colour was about right ..lol 

Herbal tea dye

the Herbal one was Tesco's own herbal berries tea looked fantastic while it was in there ... but once taken out and rinsed clear it came out a very pale pink but it is a nice colour even so :)
If I have shown you these next bits before blame it on the sunshine we have been having heheheh .. but here is my scissor fob from Sandra  it is soooo cute with the wee mouse on it :) 

from sandra to me 

back of fob

made by me :)

 OOO yes Sally I got the boxes from my craft shop "the craft box" which is about 5 mins from me in the car .....they were £9.99 or there about's for the three boxes ..... and finally I did some other cards last week which I forgot to put up DOH !!! so ta da ..lol
After all  the excitement I think I shall just go into the craft room and go eeekkkkk a bombs dropped in it hahahahah .... I am such a messy worker when messing around with fabric and such like .. I need more working and cutting out space than I have got at the moment as I have to spill out into the kitchen when doing stuff ..... ho hum keep me out of mischief for a few hours sorting it all back into the correct place it should be ..lol 
so I think this is it for today's waffling .. the kettle is going on and I shall be daintily sipping while deciding what next to do .. any suggestions ???
happy stitching and squeak to you all soon .. hope you all enjoy the rest of your bank holiday 
happy stitching love mouse xxxx