Baby Jorgie here at last !!

Our beautiful little grand-daughter Jorgie, was born in the early hours of Thursday morning, 22nd of March. With so many family members having birthdays in March she was sure to arrive on one of them - and she did so on cousin Andy's !!
Mum and baby are both doing well and are now home .... she is a beautiful little girl and her big brother Joseph loves her to bits already ... here are a few pics:

Jorgie Grace Blench - a few hours old

Why does blogger do this !! the pic is the wrong way round and no option to rotate !!

Same problem with this pic ... but this is Jorgie with her dad ...

Ready to go home at last

Smiles all round ! with aunty Julie and big brother Joseph

                                                        With aunty Julie

At last an update!

Been a while since I updated stuff .... so just a quick update for now ...
Anyday now we expect a new granchild - this time a little girl ... this will be a second child for son David .... so hope it won't be long ....

I have started to stitch a Vervaco design of a little baby sucking his/her thumb in sepia colours .... this has been stitched on a cream evenweave and I have some nice fabric so will make this one into a baby pillow ....   then I can start on the birth sampler which is Baby Basket from TIAG ....

I have also stitched another of the Fabby Reilly biscornos - this time it is the buttercup one which will match up to the corn-flower and the poppy ones I did earlier ...

I have also been looking at some Chatelaine designs - which are really beautiful - so had to go and buy a couple didn't I ??  Don't know when I will have time to finish these, but I will have a go and get started on them .... the first is 'The Herbularius' - a medieval herb garden, which  comes in 12 parts but has been running since last August and finishes this July so I am a bit behind !
The second is the anniversary design Martina has designed and will be starting on the first April, again in 12 parts , and is called  'The Fairytale Castle' ...
I will have to take out a mortgage to afford all the special silks and beads for these designs, so have decided that some will have to be swapped for ordinary DMC - but not all ......  :)

Herbularium

 Fairytale Castle

I have also been sorting out some of my jewellery and still have some for sale - so if anyone is interested then please get in touch......

All my jewellery is handmade by myself and uses genuine gemstones and sterling silver ear-wires and clasps ... I have more sets and they can be seen on my webshots page:

 below are just a couple of examples , but more can be seen in my webshots albums here:  

http://community.webshots.com/user/auntyzelda

Just a couple of examples

and now for a couple of pictures I took this morning at the local garden-centre where a friend and I go for coffee and cake every Thursday - this car was covered in imitation grass !!

Last stitching for 2011

I have finally finished the hardanger tablecloth I started some 4 years ago. I am usually a quick stitcher, but because of the size of the project, which left me with a lot of weaving, I could only stitch for around half an hour each time ....  it is difficult for me to hold fabric in hand, and there was a lot with this one !!  So half an hour at a time was enough for me before it became too painfull. This cloth measures 35 x 35 inches square and is ideal for my  crystal table in my little front room !

That's me finished with stitching for a few days ...... in the new year I have decided to start a Loopylou design called Flower Patch, which is a lovely design by one of my favourite designers ....   plus I also have some designing of my own to do for my stitchy group ...

....   and this is the project I will be starting on Sunday ...

A little biscofleur

After stitching biscornos, humbugs etc ....  I decided to have a go at  'alternate'  ornaments ...  I stitched quite a few 'biscobuds' and then decided to have a go at designing a  'biscofleur'  after seeing some on different blogs .... these are made using 15 squares of equal proportion  .... the llittle one I designed is quite small with the squares only being 16 stitches by 16 ....  quick to stitch but fiddly for stuffing unless you have dainty fingers which I do not !!
With thanks to  http://tintocktap.blogspot.com/  for the making up instructions

A happy yule to all my pagan friends for  the coming solstice ...

YULE:

Yule is the darkest time of the year, the time of the longest night where the day is at its shortest.
It is a time of change and transformation, when the days will start to lengthen and like the first beginnings of the return of the sun, life will return and conquer death.

The Oak King slaying the Holly King marks this change in some traditions. Mistletoe, a symbol of fertility, gives us the promise of future fruitfulness and after seeing out the longest night, we greet the now waxing sun and feast as a mark of what is to come.
Decorating with evergreens over the Yule period is an ancient custom, most commonly seen today in Christmas trees and wreaths. Such plants were considered magical and protective in being evidently alive at this seemingly dead part of the year, and so are symbolic of the survival and rebirth of the sun at Yule. An evergreen Yule wreath symbolizes the survival of sun through the wheel of the year.

Have a peaceful, happy and cheery Yule!

Back home from Harrogate

Just a little catch-up for those of you wanting to know how the Harrogate trip went ...
Our online stitching group meet up every year for the weekend in Harrogate for the annual Knitting and Stitching show in November ....  always the best of shows and this year it didn't disappoint ...
There were only eight of us this year and when I did the booking for our regular Hotel, I was assured that we would all be together on the top floor .... unfortunately this didn't happen ...  the person who sorted out my booking forgot to put it into the book so we ended up on different floors ....    we were not happy with this and me in particular as I was put into a small room above reception and facing the road - those who know me well will know that for me to sleep I need a dark room and no noise ....  I decided to go to the manager to complain ...  there was nothing he could do this year about putting us all together as the hotel was full, but he did arrange for me to get another room on the ground floor facing the back of the hotel where it is quiet ... he took my case and led me to the room and opened it ..... I was gobsmacked  'bloody hell'  I managed to say ..... what a room !  a very comfy double four poster bed !!  .... a nice bath/shower room and then another surprise, on opening another door he showed me into a private sitting room !!!!   Guess I had been given a suite - was I happy  ??  oh yeah !! 

Spent some time in the show on the Friday, then we all met for dinner in the hotel ....  a nice dinner but have to be honest and say that it was not up to the standard of last year thanks in part to a new chef ....  however, because of the mix up with rooms etc, the manager had promised to put some bottles of wine on the table so I reminded the waiter and he happily obliged  :)
I am not a night owl and neither was Sheila one of our ladies, so we opted for bed before the others - can't say what they got up to without us  ;)
But neither me nor Sheila got much sleep ...  I am a bad sleeper at the best of times, and hotels are not the quietest of places - the usual with people not knowing how to close doors instead having to bang them shut ! Still awake at nearly 3 in the morning, tossing and turning with someone above my bedroom talking loudly until 3.30. in the morning before I drifted off ...  awake at just after 6 - I am an errly bird  lol  ....   met up with everyone at 8 for breakfast which is always a really good one with juices, cereals, fruit and a variety of breakfasts from full English to a sort of pick and mix  ...
Time to hit the show once again .... the good thing about being in the hotel for the week is that we can pop in and out of the show and back to the hotel for a snack and a rest from the stash shopping ! I was going to meet up with a friend and bring her back to the hotel for lunch as she only goes for the one day - she lives in Yorkshire and goes to the show every year with her local Embroiderers Guild ... we had a nice time to catch up and chat and she had even brought me a packed lunch ! brilliant - we have been friends since our school days in Great Yarmouth and both married lads from the North East who we had met while we were in the Army many years ago ... after she went back to the show I attempted to teach a few of the ladies some hardanger ... can I just say that I hope they were able to learn something amid all the laughter - say no more   lol but my posh sitting room came in very handy for that !
Back again to the show for some more stash shopping ! I have to say that after visiting these shows for many years there is very little I really want ( I don't actually NEED anything !) and my total stash came to two hardsanger designs by LoopyLou designs, and two smaller charts with animals on ... plus a few threads ....

Have to say that it is quite tiring going round these shows and me and Sheila opted for an early dinner because there was another booking for dinner and ours would have been a bit too late for me .... after dinner I had a little surprise for them .... I had stitched them all a  'biscobud'   .... and hope you can see what I mean in the picture below ...

Another sleepless night - fireworks out the back after midnight ! then a gale force wind blew up, rattling the windows and banging the doors in the corridor !

Up early on Sunday morning and some of them popped back to the show - well they might have forgotten something  !! I was due to be picked up by my husband around 12.30 and unfortunately had lost my ticket for the show anyway - so just sorted out my case etc and sat in the lounge downstairs till they all got back ....  when we were all together again we swapped our Harrogate Biscornos we had been making the past few weeks before the get together ... this is the one I stitched ....

Some of the other ladies took pics of all of them but unfortunately I didn't - but they were all lovely ...  I also gave them all a leaving pressie wrapped for xmas so if you see anything on their blogs let me know as they are supposed to keep them for under the xmas tree and open them on xmas day !

All in all another nice meet up - it is always lovely to meet them all again and I am sure we will be doing it again next year .... hope I haven'tt bored you all with this long blog !  I shall sign out now .........