Advent calender blog hop

Hi every one :) its that time of the year ... yes you guessed it Advent Calender Blog Hop hosted and organised by the wonderful Jo at http://serendipitousstitching.blogspot.co.uk/........ 
This year we have to write a wee bit about food ... OHHHHH dear  ..lol I bet you can't guess which is my favourite food at Christmas ?????
Yup its the good old Christmas Cake with lots of fruit and icing and not to mention the touch of sherry in the recipe ..... part of one of my five a day you know eheheheheh ....... Since I have been married ( 25 years as of yesterday) my wonderful MIL (the birthday girl from the other month) has made us a round cake and a loaf of Christmas Cake every year .... I provide the fruit and she does the baking ;0 a good combination ...lol and then I get to play with the icing and make it look pretty :)

Ornament stitched for Frances
back in Christmas in July exchange on Friendly Stitchers

Hope you like my Christmas stitching will be back soon with the tales of Harrogate :)

Take care one and all and Happy Stitching love mouse xxxxxx

A wee trip to London :)

Hi every one :) its gonna be a loooonnngggg post ...lol so grab your cuppa's and your dunkers and settle down for some excitement ;0)
Last Sunday DD and I went down to London via Globe Tours, they are building their website at the moment ... we had the front seats and a good view all the way down and the weather wasn't too bad , just a tad windy .... we stopped about half way down at Northampton service station I think  and we decided to have a Mississippi mud pie Mc Furry as a treat .... I went to order it and the young man behind the counter said " do you want hash browns with those ?"  well after I doubled checked as to what he said I gracefully declined the offer ....lol ...
we arrived in London with a few hours spare before our hotel room was ready at the Tower Hotel .... so we pottered around the tower grounds and found the tube station and got some maps and an idea of the prices of tickets etc ..... we then went to the nearest Weatherspoons and had a delightful Sunday lunch/tea  before meandering back to the hotel and checked in .... we were on the 8th floor and thank goodness for lifts ...lol ....
Our room was lovely and the view well it was fantastic .... we looked over onto Saint Katherine's Docks and beyond and looked down on to the Queens Jubilee Gondola ... in fact we didn't shut the curtains all week as no one could see in and the view was just amazing at night as well as the day time .....
Sunday night saw the start of the storm that hit the UK and apart from some minor damage we got off lightly where we were .....and luckily we had booked the coach trip to see the  Harry Potter Studios as the trains the next day were not running ....
The tour round the studio was fantastic and we even tried "Butterbeer" which is definitely an experience ....lol and I want to do it all again ... and again ....
that evening we went to see "Wicked " at the Apollo Theater and the peeps we saw were just amazing singers .... DD wasn't as impressed as they had changed a lot from the book which she had read ...but me... I thoroughly enjoyed it  :)
Tuesday ermmm what happened Tuesday ... ohhhh yeah we got up early and went to Covent Gardens and found .... they weren't open until 10.00am sheesh  sooo we hummed and ahhhd and decided to nip back onto the tube and go to Harrods ... only some one forgot to mention that the stairs down to the tube were equivalent to 15 stories high = 193 steps !!!!!  Any hoooo we got to Harrods in one piece and had a nice browse around without collapsing at the prices of stuff ...lol  and then we decided to go to Hyde Park for a wander while the weather was nice and some how we ermmmm managed to end up towards South Kensington and off my wee map ....lol sooo we did what all good explorers do..... find the nearest tube and get on it back to Covent Garden ... which by this time was open ...lol and we got to go in the Moomin Store :)
Needless to say by Tuesday early evening the intrepid explorers were snoozing ... I only managed to put a few stitches into Miss Peepers!!!
Wednesday we awoke bright and breezy and still foot sore ...lol and decided to stay near the hotel and potter around the shops and have a late lunch before we got back on the coach home and instead .... we walked over the Tower Bridge and down the water front to over the London Bridge and back again !!! then we had lunch ...lol 
All in all it was a wonderful few days away but I was glad I was still off to recover .... and do a wee bit more stitching on things I can't show as yet *sigh on the plus side a new patchwork shop has opened near to the mouse house and I have bought some dies that go in my big shot that cut the fabric into triangles with the 1/4 in seam in and some other shapes too ... sooo I have been playing :) oooo almost forgot to say I got my exchange piece from Jan (photo below) 
Well by now you will be needing another cuppa sooo I shall go and fill the kettle and load up a few of the photos I took ... don't think you want to sit through 792 of them do you ????
oooo and it is also TUSAL sooo I will show that too *waves to Daffy :)

November Tusal

My  Autumn exchange piece from Jan 

The journey begins

The Shard 

oooo there's me ...lol

aptly named "girl with Dolphin"

The Tower 

watch out below

these beefeaters are getting smaller 

seafarers monument in the fore ground  

ooo another beefeater

view from room window

we know all the best peeps you know ... the Queens Gondola 

getting dusk

says it all on the bus ....

compact and beju  Harry's room

The Great Hall

original costumes 

Diagon Alley
(death eaters there as it was Halloween and halfterm)

stupendous model of Hogwarts simply stunning :)

Back of Prince Albert's memorial 

Squibbelllll

Tower Bridge at night 

Cooo look a new start ... Miss Peepers by LHN 

she had just said she was engaged to Thomas Becket
hence the pulled face ..lol

And there you have it in a nutshell ....hope you have enjoyed your wee tour .... its back to work for me tomorrow and hopefully next time you call, there shall be some more stitching to show you ....

take care one and all and have a wonderful stitchy week :) love mouse xxxxxx

A Hermitting Finish :)

Hi every one :) grab a chair a cushion and your drink ... my cuppa is sat at the side of me *slurrrppp ahhhhhh lovely ..lol .... hope you are all sitting comfortably then I shall begin :)
This last weekend was a Hermitting one, hermitting was dreamed up by Joyze to give us a real reason to sit on one's derriere and stitch ... not that I need one ;) but hey it works for me heheheh and this hermitting I was determined to actually get some stitching done and I did and not only that but with a finish to boot YOOOOO HOOOOO * VBG 
I actually finished the Needleworker by LHN using the recommended threads bar two as one didn't show up on the fabric I used which was a Sparklies  called slightly rosy (not slightly nutty which I had been calling it ..lol) and the other coz this mouse likes to stitch with gold needles :)
It was also perfect hermitting weather cold and wet sooo apart from the odd wee bit of h***w**k I did manage to get lots done :0)
I have been working on some secret stitching which will be revealed later on in the year and I finished one part of it ... decided what I am going to stitch for DJ's birthday which will be errmmmm late but hey that's ok as she knows this and it makes the birthday celebrations last much longer ...lol. I have also managed to almost get half way with the second of the ABCD by La D Da so it won't be long till you get it Cath :) and my Autumn Exchange piece has made it to its new owner so I can show you what I stitched for my partner Jan ... in fact I love the design so much I have started it for myself in a slightly different colour way as I couldn't make my mind up which I liked best ...lol. For Jan  I stitched hers on some 28 count marbled evenweave using a thread that Innkfreak dyed herself and it was lovely to stitch with called sage bush :) and the other is with the same fabric but with a threadworks  thread . I shall show you both although I haven't got far with mine ....
Work wise you will be pleased to know that my wee apprentice has started this last week and she is settling nicely so hopefully soon my work load will get less (well not if my boss has anything to do with it ...lol) and I shall be less tired on an evening and I can get some more stitching done instead of mouse napping in the craft room ....lol 
Master Bentley as asked me to let you know he loves his balloons and doesn't mind if he pops them ... his latest game is with a helium filled one which we anchor with one of his toys and he bops and bops and brings it down to play with ... he really is quite good at it ... I managed to take some as Edgar says some "craptastic " photos of him playing but I am sure you will get the gist of them ....
As DH is "retired " now ... read this as never in ...lol my walks have been none existent on a weekend with Bentley but he enjoys going with his "grandad"  and telling me all about it when he gets back in .. soggy wet and a wee bit muddy with a grin on his face ... he is at present snoozing by my feet ....
Next week DD1 and I are off to London for a few days , we are going to the Harry Potter Studios , seeing Wicked , hopefully if the weather is nice the Zoo too but if not the Tower and to do a bit of shopping ... not managed to find a stitching shop near  by yet but I am working on it heheheheh .... 
right after all that waffling another cuppa is on the cards ... I shall load up some photos for your perusal :)

Needleworker by LHN finished :)

popped into a frame I found to give you an idea :)

ABCD by La d Da

Friendly stitches Autumn Exchange piece for Jan

back view 

other thread way for me :)

 Well the kettle has boiled so I shall make us all another brew and pass some cookies round as I am sure by now you are all ready for another ....  thank you for keeping this wee mouse company  and I shall be bobbing in to see you all soon :)
take care and happy stitching , squeak to you all soon :) love mouse xxxxxx

A new bright star in the sky

As many of you know on Friday morning we woke up to the news that there is a new star in the sky .... our beautiful , brave  stitching friend passed away after a long battle with Cancer which she nicked named the Harvard Graduate ....

I started following Pumpkins blog way before the cancer returned and stitched a few wee ornaments to help raise awareness and sent them to The Attic over the pond as they have a big  fund raising event every year and I wanted to do a small part in helping to find a cure.

We then heard the wonderful news from her that she was expecting Junior and she proudly showed off the nursery that her and Mr Pumpkin had done for the wee one's arrival ... I stitched a hanging ornament to match and stitched his name on it and as far as I am aware it is still hanging there for him to look at ... and I kept sending letters every few months (and got some back ..lol) and our friendship grew as these things often do, with comments on each others blogs as well and I hoped that one day I would get to meet this funny brave girl and have some stitching time with her .... 

well I will have to wait a wee while for that to happen now .... and as I said in my Pumpkin Patch day post ... the cottage is ready and I hope that she will have the kettle on ready and waiting so that we can have some stitching time in front of the fire .....

Until then I know we will keep her in our hearts and celebrate her life every year .... and I will light my candle for her 

“If ever there is tomorrow when we're not together... there is something you must always remember. You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. But the most important thing is, even if we're apart... I'll always be with you.” 
― A.A. Milne

with love from a heart broken mouse xxxx

A few stitches goes a long way and other tall stories :)

Hi every one :) hope you are all well and doing lots of stitching ??? Maggee grab a comfy chair and your cuppa .... its gonna be a long post ...lol... but there is cake too ... lots of it to keep you all going hehehehe....
well apart from the Pumpkin Day post for Cathey which was wonderful to see all the pumpkins springing up every where ... I have been rather quiet which I know is unlike me ...lol but there has been a couple of good reasons ....
1) been poorly with an upper respiratory infection and when I laughed it sounded like my bellows had broken, fortunately antibiotics have made things much better :) and ...
2) last weekend there were four large celebrations going on .... We at the mouse house threw a surprise 80th birthday party for my MIL and it was also my youngest DD's 21st birthday last Thursday and to combine it all we celebrated our 25th Wedding Anniversary (slightly early I might add) but while all were there why not ....and my DH retired from his "normal job" and is loving being at home at the moment except that he is never in ...lol 
Ally came down from Scotland to be with us from the Friday till the Monday which was lovely and she helped with all the chaos  ...lol we were frantically making flower pompoms right up until the last minute  not to mention we were both blowing up balloons and getting the room ready ... I did manage to get a photo of one of the tables ....
There was 80+ of us and we all had a fabulous time and got some gorgeous presents and my MIL has forgiven us ...lol  She was like a social butterfly going round to see every one and thoroughly enjoyed herself ... PHEWWW ... she says we can throw her a party any time but not to be secret again ... we said next time we threw one for her she will have forgotten that bit ...lol 
While Ally was here we did manage to get some stitching done ... in fact Ally surpassed herself by finishing one RR on 36 count and almost got another one done while she was here too .... I managed to get the ABCD by La D Da finished and started on the second one ... sooo it won't be long before its on its way to Cath and back on its way to Peggy :)
I reversed stitched the Sheep on Curly Q this last week and re stitched a bit more in the right colour thank goodness ...Sally  has finished hers but I don't think mine will be done that quick ...lol  .Thursday night I managed to do a tiny bit more on the Needleworker ..... I think the weekend was catching up on me ....and instead of stitching I was cuddling Smokey Chris's cat and nattering to her and Bev....
Saturday saw me stitching away merrily on the Autumn/ Halloween exchange piece for my partner Jan .... I can't show you yet of course but hopefully soon as I am wanting to get it into the post for her next weekend all being well ....Today I worked on it some more in between doing the gardening as it was a gorgeous day and I wanted to start trimming things back and generally tidying things up for winter ......My neighbour had the same idea so we spent a pleasant afternoon with the secateurs ..lol and a  cuppa too .... 
I managed to remember to take a photo of my TUSAL too Phew ... so I shall bob that up later  on too ....
Well Autumn has finally appeared at the mouse house ... the trees all around are changing their hues from green to gorgeous reds and russet browns .... interspersed with scarlet berries and orangery rose-hips... in fact on the pootle with Master Bentley I was trying to figure out the DMC numbers of all the colours on them .... sad I know hahahahha it was like the confetti stitches on a HAED ....and no Cindy I haven't done any more but I did show Ally it ...lol  ...
Things are hopefully going to calm down abit at work as we have two possible apprentices coming for a trial run tomorrow to see if they can cope with what I have to do on a daily basis ... hopefully one will make the grade and I can get on with stuff that has been put to one side while I concentrated on the important now stuff .... so please send positive vibes for me tomorrow :)
In a couple of weeks DD1 and I are going to London for a much needed break on my part at any rate .... we are going to the Harry Potter Studios and also to see Wicked and if the weather stays nice we will be going to the Zoo  as well :)
Then it will be almost time for Harrogate again ....  haven't got a list this time as I have got everything I need.... said no stitching mouse ever hahahahaha...
Ok I shall bob the photos up while I  make another cuppa for every one ....

Gillies RR

My Flower on Gillie RR

Ally's RR 

My wee bit 

 love those french knots ..lol 

table decorated with the paper flower pompoms 

one of MIL's many flowers she received 

rather large cake for us all 

Ally and Bently High Fiveing :)

MIL 

See Ally did stitch ..lol

ABCD by La D da done on Sparklies slightly nutty
with Highland Garden Gloriana silk thread

whoops more goodies 

Curly Q looking a wee bit better 

and more cake 

Bentley and his new passion Balloons and yes it is in his mouth

getting there slowly 

ABCD done again on Sparklies Glacier Fabric
stitched with Blueberry Gloriana Silk thread
and yes I am stitching it backwards ...lol

TUSAL :)

OOOO seeing the photos reminded me that I actually got two RR's done for when Ally came so that she could take them back with her ... one was Gillie's Funky Flowers and I did the right hand pink on and the other was actually Ally's RR where I did the wee bird house ... cooo fancy forgetting I had stitched on them *DOH ....
OK I had better get this post finished otherwise you will be here until tomorrow reading it heheheh .... hope you all have a wonderful stitchy week and I shall catch up with all your posts soon :) 
take care one and all, love mouse xxxxxxx