Stitching and Finishes and other tall stories :)

Hi every one :) cooo sorry its been so long since the last post ... the kettle has just boiled and there are lots of cake bars and sweeties to share .... 
Well I have been stitching and finishing .... I have managed to get both of my exchanges one for Kate  and one for my secret partner  from "stitched with love blog" done  today ... so I am a wee happy mouse .... all they need now is wrapping and sending and I am three weeks early whoop whoop ...lol ... well they will have to wait until the official posting time as I have Harrogate to go to before then .. just in case there is something to pop in with them ....  sorry girls ...lol
I have stitched up the "stitchers heart" but not added the rick rack yet ....finally made up "Fa la la " by LHN into a wee cushion ... made up an ornie for a friend ;) and got 3.5 motifs done of the casting a spell by BBD ... didn't make it done in time but got a great start for next year heheheheh.
I must have a wee brag here ... well not often I do this ...lol but Hazel from the Friendly Stitchers  entered her Dawn of Spring in to her local WI competition and came first with a gold star .... the picture is on our home page .. click on the link and it should take you there ... congratulations to Hazel for her gorgeous rendition of it and for getting the top prize with it too :)
The weather here at the mouse house has steadily got colder and the leaves have all turned to gorgeous copper hues , DD and I took Master Bentley to the woods yesterday as it was a nice morning and took advantage and got a few photos of Bentley in the woods ... can you believe that he is one tomorrow ... managed to get some cute action shots of him playing in the leaves .....
I have been busy sorting out my charts and threads and fabbie ready for the wee list I want to get from Harrogate ...(only three weeks away now whoop whoop) and having noticed I have grown in numbers of followers ... waves small paw at you all ... hope you are enjoying the cuppa and cake ... when I get back I think I shall have a wee give away  as a thank you :) so please keep an eye out for the grand announcement ...lol
talking of which Heather is having a wee giveaway too ...and also if you want to join in the fun Nancy at the Victorian Motto Shop is having a big giveaway all through December ....apparently if you mention me I will get ten more entries .... well having bought some of her threads and goodies I know how nice they are and wouldn't mind having some more ... soooo if you don't mind ;0)...lol 
I had a brain wave the other day .... yes really I did... and decided what I was going to make for Christmas presents for folks .... sooo today I have had a wee play and voilà the brain wave worked sooo I am one happy mouse and it also means I can send more gifts out than if I stitched them this time .... 
hmmmmm what else has happened .... ohhh yeah we had a wee Halloween party with DD1's friends sooo I will show you some of the decorations that went up .... 
other than that is has been very busy at work as we have had two inductions back to back and another one starting next week .... hence why the lack of posts .... at least now my obligations have been done so I can spend some time chilling and going through my stash pile :)
ok I think I have waffled enough heheheh ,.... kettle has gone back on while I show you the photos :)

Stitchers heart by LHN

and the back

casting a spell BBD so far

Master Bentley 

Having fun in the woods

spot the dog hahahahah

gorgeous colours 

in the day light , see the eyeball cake ??

fireplace decked out

indian jones in the temple of doom (aka the bathroom !!)

yes we really did have black loo roll 

before lit 

and after :)

fa la la by LHN finally made up :)

soooo there you go folks .... another post is done and dusted .... hope every one is safe from those storms that have been over the other side of the pond , been sending thoughts your way that you have got through it with minimal damage ,
take care until next time and happy stitching :) love mouse xxxxxx

An EPIC Blog update !!!!!

Hi every one .... pleased be warned this will be long and photo heavy  as I haven't updated in ages and also DH and I escaped last week to Shrewsbury (UK) for some much needed R n R :)
OK the kettle is on and I have goodies to go with it as well ;0) ....sooo get settled, pull up a bean bag and away we go ....
The postie brought me some lovely gifts from Lee  and Jillann (friendly Stitchers) 
 Lee sent me a gorgeous heart ornament with bullion roses and bling and a dragonfly in autumnal colours and believe me it was well worth the long wait for it to arrive 

We had a Christmas in July exchange over on the Friendly Stitchers and this is what Jillann sent to me , the beads are lovely jewel colours and it is hanging from my stand in my craft room for all to look at :)

I won some lovely blog wins from Maggee  and Pandy . I have started a list of threads etc that I need to kit these up ... unfortunately I forgot to add it to the list I took with me on my hols ... more of that later... I also got some lovely bargains from the bay of evil too hehehe ....  sooo much so that I think I will need to do some pattern culling myself soon ... watch this space :)

While I was on a roll I got out my sewing machine and made up the Summer Garden (travelling pattern) into a wee cushion and just love it even if I say so myself ... I heard from Kaye that the pattern had arrived safely and she has started on it already :) I have also been chosen as one of her winners for a PIF which will be with me within the next year and when it arrives I shall pick three victims erm winners then hehehe .

My stitched prize arrived at Lisa's while I was away so I can now show you what I did for her too :) if you pop over to her's you will see what else was sent by Master Bentley ...lol 

Last weekend before we went on our jolly hols I nipped over to see Gillie to give her a wee hand to sort out some stitching stuff for her to take with her as she moves back across the pond again with WT work .. pop over to her blog for the full tale :)

cooo are you ready for another cuppa ????? 

sooo on to the jolly hols .... DH and I set off on Monday to Shrewsbury for a well deserved week of R n R .... we chose it as DH was based there many moons ago in the army and he wanted to go back and see how things had changed or not ... I was pleased at the choice as it was only 20 mins away from The Nimble Thimble at Llangedwyn and you know how much I love that place .... 

I drove down and the scenery on the way was stunning as the trees were turning from the bright greens to yellowish and  copper colours and you could tell the start of Autumn was here .... 

We found our hotel The Silverton very easily and booked into the most gorgeous room and once settled we took a stroll around the town and spotted a few must go in's and oooo love that building etc etc . We strolled into town over the Welsh bridge and came back via the English bridge :)

I found a wonderful material shop , filled with fabric and notions and I spent a lovely couple of hours on the Wednesday browsing and buying a few goodies as you do ...lol 

The food at the hotel was gorgeous and I had a  hard time choosing what to have each breakfast .... good job we did a lot of walking is all I can say heheheh .... we also went into the Shrewsbury Abbey which was full of children and adults doing all sorts of activities ... it was lovely to see it full ....the sun shone through the stained glass windows and I just had to take a photo of the wonderful arched ceiling above the alter table :)

On Tuesday DH took me to The Nimble Thimble where armed and dangerous with my thread list and fortified with a cuppa from Chris , DH settled down in one of the comfy chairs and waited while I browsed and ooo'd and ahhhed at the goodies there ..... We decided while we were so close I could go back again at the end of the week and  I got as many of the threads on my list as I could that were left on there ....... I have spent the last two and a half days sorting out my charts and putting all the threads in required and cutting fabric and popping in to A4 plastic wallets so that they are all ready to go .... It was much cheaper to get them from there than waiting  for Harrogate to be honest ... saves me running round as fast as my wee legs would take me trying to get them ... soo I can spend more time with my friends and have a leisurely stroll round with them :)

Thursday DH and I bobbed over to RAF Cosford  air museum .... I must admit it was a good exhibition but didn't really match up to the nimble thimble !!!!!

Friday arrived far to quickly and we set off back home via The Nimble Thimble as said earlier .... arriving back at the mouse house early afternoon.

Well I suppose you will want to see the photos now ... shall I make another brew ???

Master Bentley sorry blurry in his halloween outfit

for Lisa :)

Summer Garden made up

progress report

stitched on while I was away :)

a small stash haul from the Nimble Thimble ..lol

Dawn of Spring fully finished while away

from a lovely quilt shop at Whittington

from the fabric shop in town and a charity shop find too :)

Getting there with the Sal with Sally

Ebay wins :)

from the left from Pandy and the right Maggee

Christmas in July exchange from Jillann

From Lee my gorgeous PIF

hotel bedroom

view from one of the windows

this is the library

Shrewsbury Castle

View from the castle keep

one of the lovely houses in the town 

from the Welsh bridge

Shrewsbury Abbey

The Abbey Foregate

Inside the Abbey

and again

and again 

this needs £250,000 for up keep !

gorgeous stained glass windows

just look at that ceiling :)

view on one of our many walks :)

View in the park back to the hotel

OOOOO Roland Rat ..lol

amazing hung from the ceiling 

and another 

Well there you go folks just a wee trip to Shrewsbury and back ...lol ... while I was there I did manage to finish my Dawn of Spring whoop whoop and also worked on the Yellow Bird by La D Da .... since then I have stitched a lot on the Sal I am doing with Sally ... almost done love so we can move onto the next one :)

well I think that is all folks ...lol hopefully I haven't forgotten anything so I shall say t.t.f.n and happy stitching and hopefully see you all sooner with some more stitching updates ... take care one and all :) love mouse xxxxx