Grey days and socks

It was Mother's Day yesterday and I hope that for those that were celebrating that you all had a wonderful day. My children treated me to breakfast in bed and entertainment in the form of a song and dance routine that they performed while I was waiting and to top it all off they cleaned up afterwards can't get better than that!

These are the wonderful cards that they made for me the girls cards have removable vases of flowers that double as book marks rather clever I thought and very handy too.

The weather however has not been so nice very grey and cold here, the above pic is what we have 

been getting weather wise for the last few days it's just plain dreary! No rain but just this grey fug hanging around, where oh where has the sun gone?   It's so cold we still have the heating on high and dug out the scarves today brrrr as we had to head out for a visit to the dentist a trip I never look forward too but all was ok for all of us today phew!!! We stopped off at the supermarket on the way home for some essentials and they had some rather sad and pathetic looking daffs reduced to pennies. The kids wanted to rescue them so a couple of bunches came home with us we did have to toss a few but the rest after a couple of hours in water have started to perk up and they are a lovely splash of colour in this grey spell we are in.

Aren't they lovely.

Please excuse the state of my kitchen table it is worked hard in this house, not just for meals but also for crafting, homework and game playing. One day I will strip the top and re finish it.

Sadly I don't have an update to show of my sampler house as I have only managed a couple of rows so I will wait till I have a bit more stitched before sharing a progress picture. However I have not been idle, oh no indeedy not look at what I have been up to.

What is it? Well it's meant to be a sock .....or at least the start of one. I have no idea what possessed me, I have never knitted socks before in my life and have never had the urge to either! We were in Dundee on Saturday as hubby had to get something and while waiting on him I wondered into a wool shop that was next door.....and before I knew it I was standing outside with a brown paper bag with some sock wool and circular needles in it oops! I picked a nice simple pattern from Ravelry the pattern is called socks on a plane by LaLa knits. The pattern is straight forward to follow and Iam amazed I've got this far Ive made many mistakes and those circular needles are a pain in the neck they are sooo darn springy but Iam having fun...at the moment. I am not sure about the wool I liked the mix of colours when I was in the shop but not so keen on how it's knitting up it's all rather too splodgy and reminds of tie dye which I was never overly fond of.  Oh well I wonder if this sock will ever end up as a pair?...

The sampler house WIP

I've started a new project, The Sampler House from With Thy Needle and Thread. I really like Brenda Gervais designs, I've seen a good few of her designs stitched and finished on other peoples blogs. They have inspired me to purchase a couple which I've kitted up and there waiting to be stitched. I've picked The Sampler House to stitch first for no particular reason and I am sticking with the recommended threads and linen. So far I am really pleased with how it's turning out I love the muted colours against the darker linen.

The picture above shows the pattern cover photo against the recommended linen it's a lot darker but I really like the colour.

I've been enjoying a cup of tea with my stitching in my favourite spotty mug, with the sun shinning and the kids at school it's been a peaceful way to spend the afternoon.

This is my progress in the last couple of days!

Spring!

It's officially spring today though somebody forgot to tell the little corner of Scotland in which I live, it's been very windy with lots of rain oh yes and very grey. It has been sooo windy that my daffodils have been nearly flattened, poor things are looking very battered and sorry for themselves. The only bit of colour left in my garden is this little pot of tete a tete. The rain had stopped and the sun was almost shining so I quickly nipped out and snapped this pic, got back indoors and it's raining again.

I decided to stitch a quick little project to celebrate the arrival of spring with this pattern from Snowflower Diaries. It only took a couple of nights to stitch from start to finish and I had all bar one of the threads already from stitching Spring Bunny Love. 

I hope wherever you are that your first day of Spring is a colourful one.

Spring Bunny Love Stitching Done

I can hardly believe I am writing this but it's true I have completed the stitching for my Spring Bunny Love, yay I've finished a piece of stitching - my first for 2014 but hopefully not my last! There were a few technical hitches such as having to unpick and re-stitch the entire upper body of the girl bunny. I wasn't happy with the position of her ears, don't know why but it was annoying me so unpicked and moved them over a stitch, much happier now. The body had to be done again as I wasn't happy with a dark stripe that appeared within the stitching, not stitching in straight lines helped solve that wee problem so I've got happy bunnies now which makes me happy!

The bunnies eyes are stitched with black silk thread as I could not find for love nor money my black DMC threads that I know are around here somewhere. I've searched through boxes and bags of supplies, spent a frustrating afternoon hauling out old needlework kits to see if there were any black thread remnants  ( does anyone else keep all there old threads and kits together or is it just me I wonder?) but no luck. They will be hiding someplace ready to reappear when I least need them. Anyway the bunnies now have lovely shiny black eyes, not that it shows up very well in the photo the light here is poor today and my photography skills are not the greatest either.

I wish I could take better photos the colours in reality are much brighter and not so dark as they appear in the above pictures. Although I've completed the stitching there is still the finishing to be done which if  I am honest with myself is not one of my favourite past times. However my aim for this year was not just to get the stitching done but to properly finish each piece off  so with that I am off to look for my tin of trims and see what backing fabrics I have ....  let's just hope they are not in the same place as the black threads!

WIP Spring Bunny Love

Well it's not been a particularly productive week on my Spring Bunny Love but I have managed to get a few stitches done. I like how the brown of the bunnies is turning out, this is the first time I've ever stitched with overdyed threads and I really like the look. I've got a Teresa Wentzler sampler on the slow go that mixes thread colours for a similar effect but it's sooo much easier to do it this way.

I hope that next week I will have a bit more done but I've a busy week at college and the sun is shining yeah!! If it stays shining I am going to have to clean my windows I hadn't realised how bad they had got till the sun came out ...oops!

Bits and pieces

Hubby surprised me yesterday by offering to take me to the Creative Stitches and Hobbycrafts show at the SECC Glasgow. We went to the one in Birmingham last year which was a massive event and there was lots to tempt me, so was quite excited to go to Glasgow this year. It wasn't as big, I went with a list and only got one thing off it. However that didn't stop me buying some little bits and pieces.

I got a new pair of scissors, a thread cutter, some cord and buttons for my next project but must finish my current one before starting it.

And some more buttons ....just because I liked them!

I also got these charms the bees are for another future project.

There was a constant buzz in both halls and it was soo busy in the creative stitches hall you could hardly move. My girls and I really enjoyed looking at all the displays our favourite out of all them all  had to be The Giant Textile Books especially the dragon! Today is catching up with housework and fingers crossed maybe some stitching too.

A new project

I've started a new project, just a wee one but it's easy to take with me to stitch while waiting on the kids during their swimming lessons so Iam hoping I can get it finished soonish. It's called Spring Bunny Love by Maja from The Snowflower Diaries she has some gorgeous designs and I've already spotted another design I'd like to stitch!

Please excuse the state of my needlework.

Those thread colours are just sooo scrummy! They are by Nina's Threads.

It's a start!

After being a lurker for a number of years I've taken the plunge and decided to start my own blog. Ive enjoyed reading and being inspired by others however during the last year have not spent as much time with my needle and thread as I would have liked. I learnt from my gran how to sew, cross stitch and knit. I love trying different crafts but always come back to my needlework. Iam hoping that this blog will keep me inspired to complete something this year.....fingers crossed!