Still here......

It feels like I have have had very little time for Christmas this year, but in reality, I've done loads of Christmas stuff. I've found time to do loads of home made gifts this year. Lots of jams and chutneys, not to mention plenty of baking. 6 dozen mince pies and other assorted seasonal goodies. Today I'm making the meringue for our Christmas day pavlova.

I even found time to decorate the house. Here's mums tree in her sitting room. I even whipped up a very quick crochet tree skirt.Just 5 granny squares joined on two sides each!

And our tree in our messy spot  sitting room. I've managed to get rid of most of the boxes, though as you can see, there still one or two.

I didn't find time to do cards and managed very little in the way of gift shopping. 

Hopefully in the new year I'll find more time to do the things I enjoy. 

Merry Christmas everyone. All the very best for 2013.

Moving in

My husband and I are still in the process of moving into Mums place. Some of you may remember that this is where we started! I was living with mum when we met 11 years ago. We lived at the top of mums house, our bedroom and sitting room were in the loft. Now there is a little more room. We have a bed room down stairs next to mums and the whole of the top floor is our living space. This is just half of that space, the other half is a mess of boxes at the moment, but will become my sewing room.

There is still a lot more to do, we didn't finish clearing the flat yet. The landlord has been very understanding. 

Tomorrow Mum and I are off to Liverpool again for a second consultation appointment with 'The Proff'. We know now that Mum has pre leukaemia. Now she is being monitored and taking a low grade chemotherapy while we wait for the disease to make the next move. That means weekly blood tests and occasional transfusions at the local hospital.

A quick post

Mum is very ill. My saint of a husband and I are in the process of giving up our home to move in with her. We may also have to put our plans to move to NZ on hold. 

Lots of sitting about in hospitals means lots of crochet time. This is the project I took away with me on our long weekend, before all of the other stuff got in the way.

I'm busy working on another one in similar colours. Did I tell you I'm to be a nanny in June next year? My first Grand child will be cozy warm. I'll be back with more news and a crafty update whenever I can.

Missing, but still in action.

Sorry I've not been around. Life is a bitch and got in the way. This may continue for some time...

I'm fine, I promise, just lots and lots on my plate right now. 

I am finding time to crochet though.  ;-)

We're off.

Tony and I are off on our travels again. Just a long weekend this time. I can't go empty handed though, you know me, I have to take something crafty along. I know I dragged the blue monster all over Europe earlier this year, but I decided that this beauty is too big to go with me. With so many different colours I'd have half a case of yarn.

So I've  prepared a new smaller project to take along. I had a poke about in my stash of yarn leftovers and came up with these neutrals, quite different to my other project.

I've even made a start.... :-)

 And it all fits very nicely into a much smaller bag. Which I can't resist showing off. Isn't it great? I brought this home from NZ last time we were there.

Tony raised an eyebrow. He pointed out that I don't really do small and wondered if I was going to be satisfied with such a small project?

See you in a few days. 

Still busy......

I'm still here, but also still terribly busy. I'm doing lots of this....

 But making time for this

 These.....

Some SSCS stuff

 And some more of this.

Must dash. xx

Still here.

Thought I should look in and say hello. I've been very busy recently. Most importantly, I've made a start on my SSCS gift. LOL Couldn't resist including the obligatory teaser photo. 

 My course is going OK, I'm off to get on a plane later today for another day of face to face learning tomorrow. On Wednesday I have to give a micro teaching session. I'll be doing a 30 minute tutorial on how to help a wheelchair user who is choking. My new best friend over the weekend has been Charlie. I also get to watch some of my class mates present their micro teaching sessions. I believe we'll be working in small groups and get to have a half day off. 

 I've also made some progress on my latest crochet creation. Not a huge amount, well I have been busy. There is quite a long way to go on this one, but I don't see it taking as long as the blue stripes did.

Right I'm off to bake cakes. :-)

Busy, busy, busy.

I'm going to be rather busy for the next few weeks, and things may be a little quiet on the blog front. I do apologise. I have two more three day trips to Birmingham, and plenty of homework to be doing. 

I'm also a part of Chooky's SSCS so have some secret stuff to be getting on with. ;-) I was shopping for a few supplies yesterday. I'm all set to go in the evenings. (I refuse to do homework in the evenings, had enough of that as a teen. Besides, I work shifts, so plenty of peace and quiet during the days)

Can't have a post without pictures, so here are some more images of my latest crochet creation. The colours are still not perfect. that's green, not black! 

 I'm hoping to still get in a little time to work on this, just so I have pictures to post here. I have to say, I'm really enjoying working on it.

In case you hadn't guessed, the pattern can be found in this new book of mine. 

Time to go do a little homework. I have to plan a short teaching session. Any subject I wish. I did think about something stitchy, but there are a few blokes on the course. So I settled on Choking, I get to work with Choking Charlie. Handsome dude isn't he? LOL  (How would you help a wheelchair user who was choking? After you had tried the back slaps of course.)

Gone Training.

I'm off to Birmingham today after my shift at work! I thought I should pop in with a quick update photo before I go.

The colours in this picture are even worse than last time. I promise that when I get home I'll play about and get a decent image.

A day off?

A day off work that is, but very little time to play.

I have my partner details for Chooky's SSCS. So I'll have to get all secret and busy now. But I'm sure I'll find time for plenty of crochet too.  Can't have a post without a picture, so here's a quick progress report. I have been tidying up the ends as I go, but I ran out of steam last night and left just those two squares on the end. I have to say I'm enjoying this join as I go method. I know I haven't done a great deal of crochet, well certainly not granny squares anyway, the few I did were joined later and I really wasn't happy with that method, so I'm chuffed to have learned joining as I go. :-)

Once again the colours are not right. No bright sunshine though, today is very grey and overcast, so the flash went off.

I'm off to Birmingham again on Monday to start a teaching course. Over the next two months I have to attend a class room for 6 days of facilitated learning!! I'll have several assignments to write and a micro teaching course to plan and present. I'm really not looking forward to it!.

Better go, I have loads to do today.

Finished!!

Here you have it. My completed blue granny strip blanket.  It looks fantastic, I'm sooooooooo chuffed with it. :-) It drapes beautifully and is very heavy and cosy. It only took 5 months to complete.

I barely stopped to draw breath and allow my hook to cool, before starting on a new project. This basket of beautiful colours was begging for my attention.

So I obliged. I have to say, it's a beautifully bright sunshiny day here, and the colours are a bit off no matter what I do!! I'm sure somewhere along the way I'll get a more accurate image. 

I don't need to be psychic to see I'll have a lot of ends to tidy in my near future

How did this happen?

I went upstairs yesterday with the intention of getting all Christmassy and doing something secret. So how come I ended up playing in my Figgy scrap box and making a half dozen of nine patch blocks?

I finished putting them together this morning, before finding the setting squares, now I just need to find something to make setting triangles. I'm sure I have some more buttery yellow somewhere.This little bunch of scraps is on it's way to being a crib size quilt I think.

Contemplation

I finished putting my zig zag blocks together today. I can't decide if I want to add a border or not. In real life hanging at the top of the stair, it looks finished and ready to quilt and bind. But seeing it here in this photo, it looks incomplete.

It can hang for a day or two, while I contemplate.

Onto the big blue crochet monster..... I started to add borders last night, got about half way around, with the first round.

Back to normal....

Tony went back to work today after his week off and the public holiday yesterday. I loved having him around a doing stuff with him, but I have to say, it's nice to have just me home again. :-)

I return to work tomorrow. I tagged my break onto my rostered long weekend. 

So what did I do with my me time today? I spent an hour or so up in my play room this morning. My design floor is bare and my cutting table has two piles of blocks waiting for me to trim them before making up rows. It was lovely to play up there for a while.

After a great swim I met up with a girlfriend, we came here to my place where sat with a cuppa and put the world right. We hadn't seen each other for a few months so it was nice to catch up. She couldn't get home as her house is 'inside the course'. The Grand Prix races are held on closed public roads. While we chatted I put another couple of rows into my crochet blanket. I believe I'm into the last colour repeat, just 5 more rows and I'll call it quits.

Although I went for a swim at lunch time, Tony and I will be walking when he gets home from work, so dinner is a chilli which I have slipped into the oven to cook slowly. It should be delicious by the time we get it. 

I'm off to hook some more before Tony gets home.

This and that.

I called into the little co-op last night to grab some milk, and spotted that they had fruit selling cheap again. So I picked up a half kilo of blueberries! It's a good thing mum brought me some empty jars yesterday. LOL The first order of business today was more jam. 

 Well it's not really walking weather is it? Nor is it motorcycle racing weather either. But getting back to walking. Tony and I did just over 7 miles yesterday. :-)  It felt really good.

 Mum came for dinner last night. Not one of my usual massive roasts of beef though. I made my own corned beef. I've had 'real' corned beef when I was in NZ, but never seen it here in GB, I've only ever seen the tinned stuff here. So I routled about on the WWW and came up with a recipe/method. It was delicious and smelled fantastic before I had even cooked it. Everyone who tasted it agreed, so I'm sure I'll be doing that again.

 Remember mums fur baby Ailsa? She has grown a lot. And she is much better behaved that her new friend. Skye, is 10 weeks old and what a pest! She wants to chew everything.

 I'm not sure that mum needs two dogs, but that's what she has!!

On a crafty note, I took the blue blanket upstairs and tried it on my bed this morning. Look, it's nearly finished. I would happily add a couple of border rounds now, but Tony has asked me to keep on adding rows to cover the pillows too, then add a very thin border. Either way, the end is in sight. :-)

No walk today, the swimming pool is closed for the public holiday, so I think we'll be having a day at home.

Festival Memories.

I can't have a blog post without pictures, so amid my ramblings I've included some images from the Festival of Quilts at Birmingham. I do have details for these, if anyone wishes to know more about them besides how good they look, just comment and ask. :-)

 I've had a week off work, so has Tony, we've been busy doing things together. Last weekend was my baby sisters wedding, just outside London. She had a beautiful day, wall to wall sunshine and 30 degree heat. We Manxies are just not used to that sort of temperature.

Having Tony off work has been fun, we've been out for dinner a couple of times this week. Firstly to the local Italian restaurant and last night to an Indian restaurant. 

 If the weather had been a little better we would have done plenty of walking, but alas, only a couple of short walks. We did however get plenty of swims. Now I love swimming and can plod up and down the pool for hours. Tony on the other hand gets bored after 45 mins. LOL So ends up sitting on the side waiting for me.

 I've done some baking and plenty of jam making. My freezer is full of goodies and I have a good stash of preserves. I think my brother has probably eaten all of his share already. I have suggested he make his own, but as he says, he just begs and pleads at either me or mum and he gets!

 The house got a good clean up. Tony even vacuumed the stairs for me yesterday. A job I avoid as I end up with a very bad back!

 In the evenings I've been busy with my hook putting more rows onto my crochet monster. I think another 15 - 20 hours and it should be ready for the border rounds. :-)

 In fact I'm so convinced I've already pulled yarn from my stash and topped it up with new purchases in preparation for my next crochet project. Yep! Another biggie. Lots more colours involved this time though.

I haven't done much with my latest quilt though, having completed only a few more blocks. I have been plotting it's quilting design though. Back to basics with some straight lines! LOL

 I saw this one and thought of Chookyblue.

 This fortnight the island is buzzing with extra motor bikes again as it is Grand Prix week. The lesser known cousin of TT week. There are more classic bikes here and the races are often used as a proving ground for the TT.  It was through their visit to the island for the bikes that I met Janice and her husband Mick. They will be back here this time next year to see the Grand Prix races. Hopefully Tony and I will still be here.

 We're still waiting and stuck in limbo. We know the branch will be closing and Tony will be made redundant, we just don't know when. The first few people have already been laid off! Some people have decided not to wait and have found other jobs and left already. Being in IT has advantages, they have to be there to the very end, but when will that be? Apparently not later than 31st December 2013. But it could be sooner.............

 Well, it's a dry day, so we're off for a walk. Better make the most of it as the forecast says wall to wall rain tomorrow!!

Although we have been incredibly busy, we both agree that we feel very relaxed and had a great week off. 

I do hope you enjoyed my memories of the festival. As I said at the top, if you want more info, just ask.