YOOOO HOOOO am back :)

HI every one :) have you missed me ???? make sure you grab a cuppa or two and a dunker this is going to be a lonnnnngggg post with lots of pictures :)
As you all remember I was setting off to sunny Glasgow last Wednesday .... well it was sunny until I reached the border hahaha then it poured down soooo much I couldn't see the road in front...... apparently that was Scotland's way of saying hello ..lol . 
The scenery was fabulous and the heather was out on the hills and it looks soooo soft to touch from a distance but don't do it close up as it prickles  hehehe 
I set off from the mouse house at 9.30am and arrived in one piece around 2.30ish and after a wee bit of ...woops that bit of motorway isn't on the sat nav.... I found Ally's pad and parked up ..... then the fun started we had to unload the rather full boot up 3 flights of stairs eeeeekkkk ..... luckily one of her neighbours "Q" came and helped with everything and then the kettle went on :)
The rest of the day was spent yacking , drinking tea and doing a show and tell as well as giving Ally her PIF (photo later) and meeting the famous miss Minnie May .
Thursday we went up to the shops for a pootle round and to see where Ally volunteers at the PDSA as well as getting some of Jim's gorgeous "tablet"...... we stopped of to partake of some refreshments at a local cafe and I was impressed with the Scottish snowball .. being used to the tunnocks one's here  and of course I had to partake of one with my cuppa.... well a girl has to keep her figure up hahahahah and yup I did take a photo ;)
Friday was spent stitching as the weather didn't know whether to be sunny , thunderstorms and lightning or just normal !!!! sooo I spent my time stitching on the Romantique SAL and almost finished it there (just done the last bit today) while Ally did some more on her crocus cushion ......
Saturday we had arranged to meet up with some fellow stitchers at Largs which is a wee coastal town about  an hour away from Glasgow..... the weather was kind to us and the road was fabulous to drive down  with a hill of 10% going round a steep bend or as I called it "hell fire corner" !!!! we managed to find a parking space after we almost joined the queue to get on the ferry to Millport I think it was ....and strolled along the promenade to Nardinis to partake of one of their famous Ice creams and meet up with the girls .. as Ally and I were first there we had some lunch of delicious home made lentil soup and a sandwich before we had the Ice cream and you've guessed it I took a photo of it hahahaha
the rest of the girls arrived and we spent a couple of hours yacking and doing a wee show and tell .... Maureen had left hers in the car ..lol  Dee showed us her Drawn Thread Alphabet and it was Gorgeous and soooo neat on the back too well you just have to have a peek don't you hehehehe..... 
We decided to have a stroll round the town to walk off the ice cream and bobbed into a few shops and grabbed a few bargains too ... Laurna bought a beautiful pink checked type of Twiggy Hat .. wish I could remember the name of the designer and wore it while we were there later on when the weather got a wee bit cooler as we strolled on the sea front .... stopping every so oft for me to take pictures of the views etc as per usual :)
it was great meeting up with the girls and spending a short time with them .. we will have to have a longer stay next time as we had all travelled quite a way to get to Largs ,we decided to set off back before it started to rain and get dark ....
Sunday dawned another lovely day but as we were shattered we decided to have a stitching day again ... for all those who know ally please make sure you are sat down for the next bit of waffle ..... are you ready ???? please don't have a slurp of your tea just yet as .......... I taught Ally how to sew on the machine and the over locker and yes I did get evidence hahahahaha .......now you can slurp and pick yourselves up hahahah ....... I had a look at Ally's lovely antique hand machine and after a wee bit of mmmming and ahhhh ing we managed to get it to sew but we need to find some better needles as the ones I had brought with me were too rounded they needed to be flatter (she has got a picture of the machine on her blog .......http://allysstitchinglife.blogspot.com/) ..... so if you get chance go and bob over and see it :)
while the over locker was out I went round all her fabric in her basket soo that it was all neat and no frayed edges and also her WIP basket soooo I know exactly what she has got and how far she has got with it too ...lol........ after tea I worked on my Autumn Challenge pattern for the samplermakers group and it felt like a "Blue Peter " moment as I was armed with coloured pencils and prit stick heheheh ... and I quite like the end result ... hopefully I can get it stitched in time :)
On Monday we went to a business meeting re Ally's soon to be new shop (fingers crossed all works out) before we went onto the gardens where Ally spends a lot of her time tending her plants ( I came home with a couple ) and went round the secret walled garden which was absolutely lovely and I can see why she spends so much time there :)
Just popping to put the kettle on .... who wants one ???? be right back :)
right were was I ??? ohhh yeah  Tuesday we went to the "Millicast " shop for DH as its his birthday next week and he wanted some tanks from there and as it is only 10 mins walking from Ally's pad I thought I'd better go heheheh ..... when we got back we had a well deserved cuppa before settling down to some more stitching ..... Ally is doing Blackberry Jam by the Sweetheart Tree and was struggling with the Scotch stitch on the Gingham fabric and so I helped her get back on the straight and narrow and now she is well pleased as she is now almost halfway done with the piece ...seee I do come in useful heheheh.... I did the restart to my Winter Whites by LHN and worked on that for the rest of the night with Minnie purring beside me  :)
Wednesday was spent at another meeting and pottering round the shops again and browsing through charts and magazines and getting stuff ready for my homeward journey the next day which I have to say was dreadful as there were two accidents one only 500 yards in front of me which stopped us on the motorway for an hour and the other which had the other motorway I needed to get  onto blocked off and I had to do a detour across the moors luckily given instructions by a lovely local lady (unfortunately there was loss of life at this one :( 
I finally arrived back home to the mouse house after a 9.5 hour drive totally exhausted and first thing I did was make a brew  and have some cereal as not had anything to eat or drink since 12.30 and it was now almost 8 pm .........
Well if you are still reading this you deserve a medal ..lol  and I shall now say the photos are almost here .....
there is one more thing to say.... Anglea (http://hookedonstitches.blogspot.com/) has received the personal exchange piece I did for her YIPPPEEEE I can now show you that as well :)  

Finally the bit you've all been waiting for the photos which I shall let speak for themselves .......
take care and thanks for putting up with me waffling ..lol
love mouse xxxxxxx

Minnie May

River at the back of Ally;s

Snowball :)

Really friendly Locals

glass houses 

Beautiful memorial 

yep Ally using the overlocker :)

Largs 

Chunky Fudge YUMMM

The girls admiring the view

Still largs

Ally's PIF and others done for her :0

The potting shed

Secret Walled Garden

Inside the Garden

Passport and my pocket money

Angela's Cushion 

Winter Whites LHN restart

Poinsettia House LHN

Romantique SAL