My babies...

...had an up to date photo taken yesterday. Mam decided she needed a new one of them, altogether, with no funny faces, tongues sticking out or fingers behind heads as bunny ears. So Monday night I took them along to the beach and took some photos. Came home and uploaded them to the computer, but they were too dark, the kids didn't smile cos they were shivering too much and it was blowing a gale so Kate's hair was blowing all over the place. SIGH!

Last night when Dene and Kate got in from work, I got all three of them to stand in the kitchen where it's stays light for longer, and took a few shots of them. They're buggers for talking instead of smiling...but finally got four. Today I took the memory card to a shop in the market place and picked the best three photos to print off, then took them to show Mam so she could pick which one she liked the best. I think this is the one she chose.

Kathy and the boys will be here tomorrow...can't wait to finally meet her. Woohoo!

Long Weekend SAL

There was a SAL on the HAED board over the long weekend so I decided to work on QS Bubbles as much as I could. I managed 2000 stitches, but would have preferred to have done more. It's not actually as dark as this IRL, but I'm not that good at taking photos of my stitching.

Won't be long now till my friend Kathy comes to visit. She's leaving her house tomorrow and staying at her Aunt's house overnight, before making her way here. Her and the boys are hoping to be here by lunchtime on Thursday. Can't wait to meet her at long last. We chat almost every day on the internet, and we've spoken lots of times on the phone. We're hoping to get some stitching done, but considering all we do is laugh whenever we chat to each other I can't see it happening. We shall see.

We took my kids to the beach last night as Mam wants a new photo of the three of them for her birthday. But it was blowing a gale, the light wasn't right and they were freezing. Thought we might get a better day today but still windy and cold, so will have to do some later on in the house when Dene and Kate get in from work. It has to be done today cos Ian is going back to Newcastle tomorrow.

A HAED finish!

WOOHOO! Finished this today, and I think she looks lovely. Kate has decided it's hers for her newly decorated bedroom. Wonder if she'll pay for the framing for it too then. LOL. It's QS Dragon Fae 1, stitched on white 25 count evenweave, 2 over 1.

Have been rummaging through all my other HAED charts to see what I can start next and have decided on the QS Bubbles. Have already kitted it up - just a few threads missing - so will grid it later and maybe make a start on it tomorrow. Going to do some work on Sue's photo chart for the rest of today.

Finally finished a RR today...

...the one that should have been posted to the next person about two weeks ago! I was going to just send it on undone and get it returned to me at the end to do, but then I thought, nah, sod it, might as well do it and get it out of the way. And at least Kathy will get it back finished, apart from her bit that she didn't do. I'm now doing the next one on the list from the same group, more flowers, and will hopefully have it finished by the end of the weekend and will be able to post it out on Monday. I'm sure everyone will be heaving a huge sigh of relief.

I have also received the next person's Alphabet RR, so will crack on with that one, and another one due is Tina's RR from the Nutty Stitchers, which is winging its way to me from the USA. I think it's penguins to stitch on that one. This Nutty Stitchers RR is almost finished and I can't wait to receive my fantasy bears back, hopefully all done.

I've stitched a bit more of my HAED Dragon Fae quickstitch and that is almost finished now. Then I'm going to concentrate quite a lot on a photo chart I'm stitching for my friend Sue. I've finished page 1 of 34 (I think) and have done 700 stitches of page 2. There's only about 63000 stitches in this, so shouldn't take me longer than a couple of years. ROFL! Just kidding Sue.

Kate and I were out last night, at an Ann Summers party, held in my friend June's daughter's house. Wendy had prepared a few nibbly bits but I was quite and good and didn't succumb. I won a willy whistle in one of the games, which I gave to Kate, as it was her first ever AS party. She really enjoyed herself. I didn't order much, just a couple of notebooks, and Kate bought some jammies and some knickers...like she needs MORE!!!

Dene was out last night too, at some drugs thing with work. He went to St James' Park (home of Newcastle United Football Club) and seemed to have a good night. He got home about 5 mins after we did. Tomorrow night he's off out again, to his boss's 50th birthday party at Newcastle Civic Centre. There's a free bar apparently...he'd better not come home sozzled. And if he pukes he can clean it up himself. LOL!

Nag, nag, nag

I keep being told off for not keeping my blog up to date (you know who you are) so I thought I'd better do something about it before I get nagged some more. LOL!

Since my last post we have been on holiday to Ayr in Scotland. We stayed on the Haven caravan park, which used to be the Butlins park, and to be honest we wish we'd never bothered. The caravan itself was lovely, but the facilities were terrible and the food - we were staying half board - was just crap. However, we did go and visit some nice places, like Robert Burns' cottage, the Auld Kirk, Dundonald Castle and Dean Castle. We didn't think much of the shops in the places we visited and we all came home with money in our pockets. Which makes a change.

Photos:- Top Left - The Auld Kirk, where Robbie Burns' father is buried.

Top Middle - The Burns Monument

Top Right - Brig O'Doon

Bottom Left - Burns' Cottage

Last Monday, the anniversary of my Gran's death, we attended another funeral. This time it was my Uncle Jack's. He was married to one of Gran's sisters and was a really nice bloke. RIP.

As far as stitching goes, I haven't done all that much, although I did finish my square on a RR which should have been done ages ago. I have another three to get done now, but one of them I may send on to the next person on the list and get them to send it back to me at the end so that I don't hold everyone up. I've also done some more stitching on my HAED QS Dragon Fae 1. About halfway through I decided to try the "parking method" which everyone raves about on the HAED message board, and although it takes some getting used to I think I finally have it sussed. I just have to remember to leave the thread where the next stitch will be. I tend to work in blocks of 10 x 10 and it seems to stitch up fairly quickly. Kate has claimed this one when it's finished.

I've also caught up with the 2006 Ozark Sampler SAL. As you can see the effect is going to be that of a stained glass window and I think it's looking quite nice so far. I have a sneaky suspicion that the next part of the chart is out though so I'm still going to be playing catch-up. Sigh!