Harrogate, Stash and lots of goodies to boot :)

Hi every one :) ... better warn you in advance this post could be a wee long heheheh ... so grab that cuppa and keep the pot hot, methinks you are going to need it hahahahah .....
In case you didn't know I and a few friends from my group .. along with thousands of other folks descended on the knitting and stitching show at Harrogate this last weekend :)
The preparation for this event started a good few days before making my list for stash I would require to do my crazy list as per last post ..... well I duly wrote this list out three times !!!!! on the final one I wrote on two sides of A4 paper with all the flosses in alphabetical order or number order and the count of the fabric I required or needed ;) on the other and popped it into a plastic wallet and into my travelling stitcher bag :)
The sunshine was duly ordered as last year we had terrible snow storms we were praying that it didn't happen this year and thankfully it didn't :) ... any way Friday dawned beautifully early .. I asked Shelley to text me when she set off from her house to mine so that by the time she had made it to the mouse house I would be up and a wee bit with it ..lol ..... I had the  kettle on for a reviving cuppa for when she got here ... showed her the tidy mouse house craft room  and the list  before setting off to Harrogate .... I was that excited I couldn't remember whether I had put the list in my bag and all the way there I was fretting I had left it at home and how could I get it to me for the show eeeekkkkk ....
We pulled up at the hotel around 11.00 am and I breathed a sigh of relief when I found that blooming list ..lol ... Val and Shelia were already there and Sandra was on route and before we knew it, Karen and Gillie along with a wee Scottish Lady (Ally) that had been whisked down specially for the weekend as a surprise to the others turned up not long after .
We all went down to the show once we had got organised and met up with Frances from our group who we had not "seen " before .... she fits in very well ;) and it was lovely to meet her face to face *waving paw hellooooo again ....
I zoomed round the show as fast as my little legs would let me and found the Sparklies stand and promptly got out my stitching to show Kate what I had done on her fabric ...... Gillie turned round to Shelley and said "shall we go and have a three course lunch and a coffee afterwards and come back to get her in a couple of hours " ... oooo the cheek ..lol 
I managed to get nearly  all on  my list after cutting it up and leaving bits at at Trudy Ann Designs before going to West End Embroidery for the other threads I needed :)
Gillie and I returned late in the afternoon with arms laden with my goodies as she very kindly brought my new lamp back with her ... its hard only having one arm free ..lol
We came down to dinner for 7.00pm and was still there yacking and laughing well passed 10.00pm and carried on till quite late in mine and Shelley's room as ours was the biggest this year ... Ally and Gillie  were stitching on the biscornu I had designed for the bran tub while we were all in  there ... Gillie stayed up till 2.30 am and finished it :) ... considering I gave them the chart well in advance of the weekend you would have thought it would have been done before ..lol 
ok I've had to put the kettle on now ..lol .....
On Saturday we met up with some more friends from the group who had come down for the day along with Fiona  at the Trudy Anne stall and photos were taken by Michelle sooo if you want to have a peek at them go there :)
stash wise I got some backing fabric and buttons and charms and Ally's belated birthday prezzie a lovely piece of fabric from Sparklies ... Kate kindly said she would come to the hotel that night to talk to us all :)
we went back at dinner time for a well deserved cuppa and for the girls to have the hardanger class with Val back at the hotel in her posh sitting room :).... not much was got done, I hasten to add as there was too much hilarity and Karen got a stitch from laughing !!! Although I did take a photo to prove that Ally actually stitches hahahaha .... 
Kate from Sparklies  came back to the hotel before we had dinner and gave us a lovely talk on how she learnt to dye and how she works to get those lovely colours of her fabrics ... she fitted in really well as we were all in fits of laughter after her talk .... we learnt quite a lot and are really grateful she took the time out to meet us and offered to come and do a "class dyeing " session once we could work out the where .... looking forward to it very much :)
we carried on with more chatting and laughing over dinner ... the chuckle muscles certainly got a good work out .....laughing at Karen and Shelley forgetfulness as to what they went looking round the show for that afternoon ..lol... they finally did get what they went for ... good job I did a list is all I can say ..lol..... must mention that Val had stitched us all a lovely biscornu bud for each of us as well as a wee Christmas prezzie that had to go under our tree when we got back home :)
On Sunday we all swapped the Biscornu's before we all split up to go back to normality or at least some of them did .. Shelley and I gluttons for punishment pootled back down to the show to get the bits in we had missed ....  we discovered the "Battle of Prestonpans Tapestry 1745" which took the whole of the underneath corridor up on both sides ... 105 panels of work which took over 18 months from start to finish with bits stitched on by folks who had never picked up a needle before ..... the end result is very impressive and I hope my photos do it justice ....
we also went round the guild stalls downstairs and had a good look at the work the students had put in  and also of the stunning work of the exhibitors upstairs in Hall M ... unfortunately we weren't allowed to take photos there .... but some of the work was exquisite  to say the least :)
Shelley and I decided to take a pit stop and got a drink and a sticky bun to revive us and had a right giggle when a lady stopped us to say to go and prop ourselves up in the corner of the cafe area ...  I said I am already propped up ..lol with my crutch ... she said we looked like we needed to lean against something  .... I looked at Shelley and said do we look that bad hahahahah .....
We finally emerged from the show at 4.30pm !! and made our way home to to the mouse house  and a restorative cuppa or two before Shelley went on her way to her house.......


so there you are.... the tales of the Harrogate weekend ... the stash will be shown in a wee while .... I just have to tell you of the kindness of a fellow blogger Karen  who sent me the box for "Casting a Spell" as we over here cannot get it ((((HUGE HUGS)))) to her and many thanks ... I shall have a lovely display for Halloween next year :) 
I also received a lovely parcel from my secret pen pal which arrived over the weekend with an adorable mouse , some mouse backing fabric, a wee mouse button and a beautifully stitched mouse and tape measure scissor fob with matching scissors (pattern is from the brooke books alphabet freebies)  and some lovely autumn fall sweeties ... which taste just like our fudge over here yummmmmmmm ......Thank you soooooo much, they are  all gorgeous *VBG can't wait to know who you are so I can thank you by name ..lol :)
And today Teejay popped over to the mouse house with my calender girl goodies .. she got the thread as they reminded her of me .. Jolly Joker and steaming needles are amongst the names heheheh 
so endeth this huge blog update ..... three cuppas later I get to the end heheheh .... I must admit I am still recovering from it as I didn't realise but I have an upper respiratory infection so it was no wonder I sounded like my bellows had bust when I laughed hahahah.....



ok folks I will love you and leave you to drool over the photos of the weekend and my stash and goodies  ...

Calender Stash from Teejay :)

My pudding had same both nights it was soo yummy ..lol

Hardanger class in Val's suite 

My Biscornu design stitched by the girls to swop

the length of the tapestry  !!!

my biscornu bud stitched by Val :)

Royal Hall Harrogate

gorgeous goodies from my pen pal ... my mouse is adorable

the box from Karen with my chart :)

Jane Greenoffs stall at Harrogate 

My small stash haul 

my backing fabric haul

so there you go hope you have all enjoyed the write up and I shall leave you in peace for a wee while ...lol .. take care and happy stitching one and all :)
love mouse xxxxxx

ISHW Craft room and a finish or two :)

HI every one :) soooo pleased it was international stitch and hermit this weekend .. I could actually get my petite derrière in my chair legally and stitch hahahahaha with the odd cuppa or two (that goes with out saying really hehehe)


I am also really pleased to say that I have got both my ornament exchanges finished finished and are all ready and packed to go the post office tomorrow and be on their merry way across the pond  and on time tooo PHEW heheheh photos will be shown once they have been received safely :)


here at the mouse house earlier on this week the weather has been glorious sunshine and sooo mild for this time of year .... I have had the back door into the craft room open while I have been merrily sorting and putting stuff away and I can finally say I'VE DONE IT !!!!!..... can you see this happy dance ???? 
three weeks later the room has had a spring clean, a lick of paint and a whole lot of sorting done ...... 
the best comment was from a friend ,when moaning about stuff not going back in he said it was like digging a hole then trying to put it all back ... it won't go in no matter how hard you try ...lol


I promised Cindy that I would get Afternoon tea out and work on it this weekend as she was getting Gillie to nag me at Harrogate (this Friday whoop whoop) soo last night I worked on it for 4 hours ... as its over one ... it doesn't look much ... I was sorry to have to put it down as it was late and bed time for me .....  have taken photos as proof !! 


Cindy, Shelley and I were talking on FB the other night and we got round to how many pieces we had stitched on this year and finished ...  well I got my little book out and counted 1,2 miss a few 45 ,46...... eeekk I had finished 46 stitched pieces and have 9 more on the go *KERPLUNK ..lol
I have had to take a photo of the book too ..lol they are a suspicious lot ..lol


As you know I am going to do the crazy January challenge 2012 again as I have thoroughly enjoyed doing it this year and as we are going to Harrogate stitching show on Friday till Sunday .... I have this afternoon got together a list of charts I wish to do from my stash pile next year .... this could be subject to change if I can't get the threads/ fabric notions etc to do them at the show ..... do you want to know then ?????


ok.... deep breath.... and go 

1. flower patch.... loopy lou designs
2. souvenir sampler .... the drawn thread
3. scissors .....cherry wood designs
4. needle ... as above
5. winter band sampler ....LHN
6. Melicent Turner sampler.... LHN
7. ladybugs and bumble bees....  LHN
8. the north wind doth blow.... LHN
9. pumpkin Cottage ....CCN
10. summer splendor ...LHN
11. bloom sampler ....threadworks
12. bushel and a peck .... La D Da
13. Cranberry sampler ... the Sweetheart Tree
14. there is a garden ... Purely samplers
15. a sampling in the square .... Blue Ribbons

as well as doing the Cottage SAL by CCN  and one or two smalls too ..... I have also been doing a wee bit of designing for my group the friendly stitchers but that wont be released till next year .... 

soooo  all I need to do this week is go through my stash and check what I need to get and all being well this will be the list :)

ok Cindy and Shelley here are the photos for you hahahahah......  DOOOHH I forgot to mention that I worked on Winter Whites this weekend too and worked with whisper thread for the first time too on the sheepies ..lol and my finish was Fa la la by LHN :)

here you go now ..lol

poinsettia all ironed :)

view from my chair

the gallery :)

outside onto my garden

to the left stitching to the right card making etc

Fa la La finished (LHN)

Afternoon Tea Haed 

Winter Whites 

Whisper sheepies

my book of remind  me to do 's ..lol highlights are the ones finished 

please excuse the hand writing .. usually updating when I remember and have to get it down quick..lol..... sooo I hope you have enjoyed the insight into my wee room and it is still tidy hehehehe 

right I had better get this on to the blog land as I have peeps waiting to look ..lol 

off to go and make a last cuppa before bed 

take care and happy stitching :) 

love mouse xxxxx

still recovering ..lol

Hi every one :)
sorry my usual blog post is late but as you can tell from the title I am still recovering from the party and the re decorating of my craft room ..... we still have bits of Halloween still up that we haven't got round to sorting out like curtains etc ... need to find a dry day to get them washed and back up so we are still stuck with the shower curtain up and the black ones in the room ooo and not to mention the red light bulbs which surprisingly are quite nice really hehehehe.


The kettle has gone on for you Joyszeroo :) want a fiendish fancy or a scary lemon n lime jaffa cake bar to go with it ????


My little piece of sanctuary is now sporting a wonderful calming buttermilk cream colour on the walls and shiny white window sills ..... it really didn't take that long to do the painting ... its all the sorting out and reorganising that's the problem ..... after a week and a half I just had to sit down and  out some stitches into my Winter Whites ..lol
How is it that when you take stuff out of a room .. get rid of some of the furniture and some craft magazines (card making one ) tidy up things into the correct boxes and reorganise that you suddenly find it won't all go back in ?????
there must be a answer to this sooo all suggestions gratefully received heheh 


The weather at the mouse house as you have already guessed has not been very conducive to going out and about until today when DD1 suggested we go for a walk in the woods near by and I could take some pictures yipppeee ... soo armed and dangerous with the camera DD1 , DH and I went for a pootle round stopping every few mins for a hang on ... ooo look at this and ooo look at that mushroom ...It was absolutely gorgeous in there with all the fall colours and as we walked round leaves were silently raining down on us ... the only sound was of the blue tits chirping and the rustling of a squirrel up a tree  every so often .......I must admit it was the very tonic I had been looking for as it blew all the cobwebs away and I feel sooo much better than I did .....


I have done some stitching as mentioned on the Winter White .. not much progress but better than none at all and I've also stitched my ornament for my partner on friendly stitchers just need to decide how to finish it .. I've also started my ornament for Patty C  which I hope she will like, but obviously I can't show you them as yet ..lol The next on the stitchy list is the biscornu I've designed for the Harrogate bran tub exchange which will be revealed in two weeks YIPPPPPEEE ooo can you tell I'm getting excited to go ..lol..... I've still got to do my list yet as I need to sort out the crazy challenge pieces for 2012 and make sure I have everything for them and if not I will get them at Harrogate *VBG and then I've to make an Autumn Needle book as an angel stitching for one of the members on Friendly Stitcher's who was let down by her partner .. soo I need to get sorted for that one asap too :)


well I suppose I'd better get those photos up I can show you heheh  drum roll please hahahah 

The book case sorted

Winter whites LHN

mushrooms at the woods

adventure playground

entrance to the woods

some sort of hips ???

anther mushroom

looking back

one on a tree 

ooo its mouse ..lol 

love this one :)

and another type

and found some more pretties 

I hope you all enjoyed your walk in the woods as much as I did today and I shall now go and put the kettle on again and go and get my needle warmed up and get some more stitching done .... thank you for all your lovely comments back channel too, checking if I was ok etc ... take care one and all and happy stitching to you too :)
love mouse xxxx