York , Camera and stitching + goodies too :)

Hi every one :) thank you so much for all the birthday wishes again ... and also the lovely parcels that have turned up this week at the mouse house too ... will show and tell more of them later :)
As some of you know DH and I escaped to York for a night and day to get my birthday present of a new camera .... we stayed in a lovely hotel called "The Churchill " which was a two minute walk from the town centre and the York Minster :) Saturday dawned beautiful and sunny but rather BRRRRRR to say the least .... glad I took my winter coat to be honest .... we pootled round the town taking in all the new shops and of course the obligatory visit to the Viking loom ...lol  where I just HAD too get a few bits and bobs as you doo ..lol  before going to the camera shop where I decided on my new toy ... a Panasonic Lumix  DMC FZ62  and I love it .... can't fully use it properly yet but so far so good .... you can really tell the difference from this one to the old one .... will show a few compare piccies to make the point ... heheheh
Right where to start hmmmm ..... Sarah Beth sorry not a writer for a living I  just like talking ...lol ...I try and describe things as I see them so that you all experience what I see ... does that make sense ????
next ..... the goodies .... Mylene  sent me a beautiful fob , soap and some chocolates for Valentines day :) the chocolates almost made it to the day heheheh ....  Pumpkin sent me a lovely Easter chart with a cute rabbit charm and some gorgeous dinky dye thread in purple which for some reason didn't get in to the photo ... think its camera shy ..lol  ...DJ with some help from Astrid  chose a simply perfect chart ..lol The Flowering Crown which says "The Queens needle never sleeps" by Just Nan :) Anne also sent me a wonderful RAK/belated birthday present .... don't care how belated ...lol just love getting goodies in the mail .... heheheh  of a  wee ornament pillow stitched in a gorgeous reddy plum thread with a matching silk ribbon ruched around it along with some other goodies too .... the tea smells divine and I can't wait to try it now I have found the tea infuser :)
As it is the 10th today and the new moon its TUSAL time again and this time my jar is half full whoop whoop .... I have been stitching and have finished one giftie and started another piece for an exchange and I have done quite a bit on that too ... I dug out a WIP the cross stitch kit that Yiota sent me a wee while ago and did some more of that after I had popped it on a frame ...I've worked on the SAL with DJ and babs after the threads arrived that I forgot to get ..lol
this is where you will notice a difference between the old and new camera :)
hmmmmmm what else was there to tell ???
I went for a walk with Master Bentley in the woods yesterday .... it was lovely and peaceful , the air was still and the only noise was the chirpping and cheeping of the chaffinches and the blue tits until Woody Woodpecker joined in .... I actually found his nesting place but this time I didn't have my camera on me  but I know where it is .... the ground was still covered in copper leaves but today they will be covered in the white stuff ... not quite as much as some of my friends over the pond have had ... hope you are all safe and warm :)
Well its nearly time for this wee mouse to go to bed as she has acupuncture again in the morning so I had better get the photos up for you to drool over .... hehehe 

our room

the hotel :)

want one of these 

huge staircase with the paintings on going up to room

York Minster

close up of the window

Side view of the Minster

and another ...lol

the Mount at York

these were taken with the old camera .....  

with the new camera ( have done more to it than this :)

told ya ...lol 

DJ my orchid :)

stash from the Viking Loom

Travelling Pattern Finished :)

Stained Glass Window  kit from Yiota 

from Mylene

from Anne

from Pumpkin

from DJ with a little help from Astrid :)

February 2013 TUSAL

and last but not least Master Bentley :)

So there you have it in a nut shell ... and realised didn't say I had finished the Travelling Pattern from CraftyMoo .... it will be sent on its way this next weekend as I didn't get the snail mail for its next traveller until it was too late .... ho hum .....but will let you know when it has got there so you can follow its progress ....
ok it is now time for this wee mouse to say good night and sleep tight and hope you all have a fabulous stitchy week ooooo and its hermitting next weekend too :)
t.t.f.n :) love mouse xxxxxxx

Birthday cake any one ?:) and some eye candy too :)

 Hi every one :) thank you for all the wonderful birthday wishes and also goodies that have been sent to the mouse house ... you certainly have made this wee mouse smile ... the kettle is on and cake already and waiting for you all to nibble on while reading my waffle and looking at all the lovely eye candy heheheh
Last Friday night we got snowed in again eeek but luckily the sun shone on Saturday morning and by the afternoon all was back to normal PHEW which was a good job really as I got a wonderful bouquet of flowers delivered with a balloon and a teddy called button and some chocolates from DH and the girls :) Luckily on the Thursday my very nice postie delivered some wee parcels from Lynda, Jo,June  and Tricia which I opened up on Sunday ( I did ask did they want me to save them but they said nope ...lol) being as I was at work on the Monday the 28th which was my actual day ... I also had some presents from Chris and Wendy ( no blog as yet) Kath  and Michelle which I opened early on my day before setting off to work armed and dangerous with some cake for my fellow workers ....
anyways I digress as it was my birthday weekend , day, week ,following weekend heheheh .... I actually sat and stitched most of Saturday afternoon and night and also part of Sunday too ... I worked on the Friendship Blooms SAl by Blue Ribbon Designs doing the over one on forty count wording ....and do you know I actually found it quite relaxing ....lol..... now if that doesn't convince you I am mad  heheheheh 
 on the Sunday I worked on the Travelling Pattern "Getting Old " by L*K  and I have almost finished it too  whoop whoop ... there was no pressure to get it done quickly but I like to get them done and on their merry way as soon as I can ...
oooo I also received in the post the chart Dandy Dreams by Silver creek Samplers and Diane even signed it for me too *VBG .... I like the look of her new sampler too heheheh ... I did go into town on Saturday once I could get the car out and got the threads for it .... but am wondering whether to use some hand dyes ... decision will be made once fully decided on the fabric I am going to stitch it on :)
DH and I are off to York this weekend (told you it carried on ;) and hopefully I will be able to get my birthday present while we are there ... I am looking at a bridge SLR camera with a decent zoom and macro lens with possibly multiple frames per second for those quick get the camera  moments .... sooo watch this space :)
having just seen the time I had better get that kettle on again for the last bedtime drink and get those eye candy photos up for you :)

from Lynda 

can't wait to start this 

ooo oooo a balloon

my beautiful birthday flowers 

from Jo

from Chris and Wendy

From June

closer view ... just me ...lol

from Michelle

conspiracy to get me to knit ..lol 

chocolates , button and my flowers

from Tricia 

Friendship Blooms SAL Blue Ribbon Designs

Travelling Pattern  Getting old by L*K

Birthday cake :)

ok I think I have remembered everything to catch you up on .... hot chocolate any one ???
well I have drawn a couple of names to help me celebrate my birthday, by me stitching a wee present for them too .... and with out further ado .....
Calamity Jr and Dani can you both email me with favourite colours and designers so I have a idea what best to do for you .... email is in the side bar :) and hopefully in the next few weeks a unbirthday present will be on its way to you :) 
thank you again for spoiling this wee mouse :) take care every one and happy stitching until next time the kettle boils :) love mouse xxxxx

Snowy weather + hermitting perfect :)

Hi every one , glad you could make it through the snow to the mouse house , kettle is on and I have hot chocolate on the go for all ... slurrppp , oops ..lol still some left honest ;)
well as you can sort of tell from the title that the mouse house has been invaded by the white stuff falling from the skies and as I am typing this at 10.18pm exactly it is still coming down.
The good news is I got a snow day off work as my lovely boss rang me at 6.45am just as we were setting off not to bother coming in as it was so bad , soooo I had a stitchy day at home whoop whoop ...
I managed to finish off the making up of Margery's Valentine Exchange piece over on Friendly Stitchers so that is ready to go in the post this next weekend phew ... looks cute if I say so myself .... not sure if Margery does pop in to have a peek so I won't show you until I know it has arrived at her house safely :)
I have lots to tell and show sooo please bear with this wee brain of mine ...
firstly my little giftie to Pumpkin arrived safely at her house and I am pleased to say that she loves it  PHEW ..lol , as I told her it was one of those charts that I saw at Harrogate that just said to stitch it for her ... so I did ..hehehe , I stitched it on 28 count white evenweave with a threadworks thread and the patter was Lizzie *Kates "Cherish yesterday " I think is the title ..lol , in fact I love it so much I may just have to do one the same for me too :)
The Travelling Pattern from Sarah moo arrived the other day from http://lanybleu.blogspot.co.uk and I have picked the colours I am going to use for it and started it this evening after tea, the colours I am using are not the recommended ones just similar colours as I didn't have any it used ..and there is too much month left at the end of the money this month heheheheh.
I must thank everyone who popped over to see Diane from http://downbysilvercreek.blogspot.co.uk she was really pleased to see you all and as a wee RAK she is sending me "Dandy Dreams" as so many came from here to there .... that is going to be my next new start once it arrives here  (((HUGS)))
DJ, Babs and I are stitching as a SAL "friendship blooms " by Blue Ribbon Designs on a Tuesday night , DJ is way ahead of Babs and I ..lol so if you want to see more progress bob over there ..lol , Belinda(BRD) hasn't been well for the last few weeks so I hope she is feeling better now :)
any one want another hot chocolate ???
Master Bentley DH and I went for a lovely snowy walk in the woods on Sunday morning , we met up with some doggie friends and Bentley had a whale of a time running through the trees with his pals ....I of course took lots of photos and sorry to say they ran so fast most of them are blurry but you get the picture ... I bought some new snow boots and had to take a photo of them as they are really cosy and I didn't fall over once whoop whoop :)
I have been making sure my wee feathered friends have had lots of seeds out and fresh water every day , I managed to get a couple of photos of the blackbirds and the pigeon but my little robin didn't want his taken today :(
I am slowly catching up with every ones blogs and hope by weekend to have popped in for a cuppa with all of you .... I have booked marked the party blog blog and will be going for a sneak peek as soon as I can , as I love to meet lots of new folks :)
well I had better get the photos ready and then scoot of to bed as I shall be up early again to hopefully get into work tomorrow ....

snowy wood walk on Sunday

how far I have got with the SAL

craft room back to normal whoop

my new snow boots

snooooooowwww

chase me :)

just loved the colour combination with this shot :)

my front garden at 6.15 am this morning eek !

birdies watching the mouse :)

after hermitting weekend :)

my family of blackbirds :)

whoops on the window ledge

watching the snow coming down

started the Travelling Pattern 

just for Pumpkin :)

and got a wee bit more done :)

forgot to say that the mouse house is now really toasty as the very nice gas man came and took my floors up and sorted out the blockage :) so now as well my craft room is back to normal yeahhhhhh :)
hope every one else had a lovely weekend and will catch up with you all again soon ... don't forget I shall be picking a couple of peeps to share my birthday with me next Monday.... so far a stitched item is winning :)
take care one and all and happy stitching :) love mouse xxxxx