Happy News and Sad News

Last week, Valentines Day to be exact and romantic, Anthony and Nicki got engaged. They plan to get married in 2015, they are both very happy and so are we. This is the icing on the cake for them they are enjoying being parents to Ellie, and are making a very good job of it; she is such a happy contented baby.

The sad news is that on Monday evening we had to have Sparky put to rest. It was such an awful decision to make but he had a flare up of the hepatitis that he went down with at Christmas but unfortunately this time he just couldn't recover. He is greatly missed. Steph is devasted, to try and cheer her up we took her to Easton Walled Gardens to see the snowdrops. They were beautiful in their hundreds.

 

Life has been very hectic the past few weeks and last weekend was no exception. Dawn, Neil and I took the shop to Cottenham  for Textiles In Focus. It was very busy and we had a great time, we caught up with lots of people and the exhibitions were inspiring. Tomorrow Neil and I are off to London for the launch of a new Patchwork and Quilting magazine. Hopefully next week I will have some time to do some sewing.

An Enjoyable Weekend

I hope you all enjoyed the weekend. Neil and I went to Easton Walled Gardens again. It's so nice there even though it's right on the A1. The changes in the garden were clearly visible and the Sweet Peas were just coming into flower, we must go back in a couple of weeks to see them in full bloom. 

Saturday evening we went to Pam's for a barbecue. Pam had made two moussakas (one with potato) and it was lovely. So nice there wasn't any left and that's the best kind of compliment to pay the chef. Caroline (Pam's daughter) was there with her fiance whom we hadn't met before so it was nice to meet him and the rest of his family.

I've finished the green square.

The bag got finished yesterday. I like it now,once I started to quilt the fabric it seemed to bring it all together and I think it's turned out to be a nice fun bag. Unfortunately the picture doesn't show it at its best the colours are much brighter.

Don't think I'll have much time to be creative today but I'm going to try.

Treasures Found

Gosh how time flies. It's been ages since I last posted but I have been very busy. For a start I've tackled box mountain, which has been revealing. I found lots of things that I thought I'd lost including a shawl made for me by my grandmother in the 70's. I think I was about 10 years old and shawls were very much in fashion then. I'm so pleased to have found it, it's a real treasure. I meant to taken a picture to show you and forgot, I'll do it later in the week.

I have found one thing that got broken during the move, it didn't cause me any distress but Neil replaced it immediately! What is it I hear you asking, if Neil replaced it immediately it must be important must'nt it? Well I can assure it wasn't important, it was the lid to my food processor!

We did manage to fit in a trip to Easton Walled Gardens.


Don't the tulips look lovely, red is my favourite colour.

This is my sewing room and the mess it was in late yesterday afternoon.

I'm sharing it with the tumble dryer at the moment. Doesn't it look a mess?

This is how it looked at 10pm yesterday when I was doing some homework.

I've surprised myself with the amount of sewing paraphernalia that I've managed to accumulate over the years. Some of it I haven't seen for a long time, not sure where it's been though. I've got three button boxes and thousands maybe millions of beads but I'm not counting them.

Must go and do some work now I've got a meeting of my City and Guilds group tomorrow.

Easton Walled Gardens

There hasn't been any craftiness going on here at all. I have been poorly and so has Pam. We have both had the Winter Sickness Bug. It's not at all nice, we both went down with it Wednesday evening. We couldn't open the shop on Thursday; we came in on Friday and I'm not quite sure how we got through the day. Thankfully we are now over it and things are back to normal.

On Sunday Neil and I went to Easton Walled Gardens to see the Snowdrops. Because of the bad weather they weren't in full bloom but they were still beautiful.

It made a lovely start to Valentines Day which was made even nicer when I received these. The Tulips are gorgeous.

The card says it all. Neil looked after me so well when I was poorly I don't know what I would have done without him.

We have got a nice week ahead of us in the shop. Ruth Issett will be here for a two day workshop and I am really looking forward to it.

Catch Up

On the way home from Wales on Monday we took a detour and went to Easton Walled Gardens. These are some of the photos I took but they really don't do the garden justice and I can't tell you how beautiful it is, you need to go and see it for yourself - you won't be disappointed. The gardens are just off the A1 going north towards Grantham.

On Tuesday Gina came to the shop to teach free machine embroidery. The following photos are pictures of some of the work produced. Unfortunately I can't put names to pieces of work and not everyone's work is there but some lovely pieces were produced. All the ladies seemed to enjoy themselves and I know Gina did.

Last night I did the Race For Life around Ferry Meadows. Also with me were Stephanie, Pam and her daughter Caroline. We had great fun and are very proud of ourselves because we did it in 1hr 1m 35secs and that was without any training. We are already looking forward to next year :-)