At last the rain stopped… – I hope! Even though we had a fabulous time visiting our friends, the weather was horrid. On Saturday when we went to a neighbouring town for lunch and a look-around, it started raining cats and dogs. We of course, were lucky enough to get caught in the downpour. It poured. Down. In buckets. While we were cowering under our umbrellas, their two daughters (5 and 2) went wild. They jumped into every puddle with their bright little wellingtons, twirled their tiny umbrellas to watch the drops fly, walked in every water drain and ran around as if rain was a once in lifetime thing. Grown-ups just see miserable weather and kids see a fantastic opportunity to have fun. *sigh* Getting older is a bugger!

My apologies, but there are no weekend pics. Everything was dark and gray and I doubt anyone wants to see pics of sheets of water! The rain didn’t let up and we had the pleasure of driving all the way home in the pouring rain. 

Stitching is coming along slowly but surely. I’m hoping to finish Faith tomorrow and before I start something new I must assemble my two PIF’s and the MailArt envelope. Yep, they’re still not finished - finishing things off is a mission for me!

Yesterday I received some fantastic goodies in the mail, among them my monthly LHN Scipture Thread pack and a beautiful PIF from Harmien!

Harmien made this beautiful basket for me, and I love it. She is one seriously talented lady! The photos doesn’t do it justice - she has much better ones up on her blog. I was very excited when I opened the (beautifully wrapped) parcel and was overawed when I saw what she sent me. For those that don’t know, I have a serious thing for LHN/CCN charts. You’ll never say it when you see how many designs I have stitched, but it’s the unstitched charts you don’t see that confirms my addiction! I have just the perfect spot for this precious basket in my craft room. Of course, it won’t be used.  It’ll just sit there to be admired!

Something else I want to share is this little heart I received from Gaby a while ago. Isn’t it pretty?

Speaking of mail, Mary Kathryn received the scissor fob she won in the little competition here on the blog a while ago, and you can see it here.  I of course, forgot to take a pic of it before I mailed it off.  Seems I can’t really grasp the concept of a camera – either I forget to take a pic, or forget the camera alltogether.

I’ve done a bit on MBT Faith, and the bigger it grows the more I like the look of the thread. I used an online thread calculator to see how much thread I’ll need for it and it claimed that I’ll need three skeins of 5 yrd overdyed. Errrmmm, I’ve basically done a third on it and still have more than half of the first skein left. When I used the calculator I *knew/suspected* that it’ll most probably calculate thread for a piece filled completely with stitches, but if you have no clue of how much thread you need to begin with, even buying double the floss is no problem… – as long as you don’t buy too little! Everyone knows what a pain it can be trying to find the same colour from the same batch.

Well ladies, I hope you all have a great weekend. We’re visiting friends out of town this weekend, so it’s yet another long drive for us. (Last weekend we had a total of ten hours driving time, and this weekend it’ll be eight.)

…that it’s been a week since my last post?!?  I wish I could fill the post with magnificent stitching that I’ve done since I last posted but alas, I can not since I didn’t do much.

Since my last post I did a lot, just not a lot of stitching! The first and foremost was getting my new laptop sorted. It took me the whole of Thursday to transfer files from my little baby to this monster.  It was a royal pain, but now it’s done and I’ more than happy. Just hope this teaches me to get a new laptop quicker next time and not wait for this one to fall apart like with the IBM.

Last weekend we visited both of the Good Husband’s grannies. We spent the weekend with his mum’s mum, and on the way back popped in to visit his dad’s mum.  His maternal gran is a picture book grandmother: plump, cuddly, glasses and a little rosebud mouth. His other grannie reminds me of my maternal grandmother: tall, fit, can’t sit still and ready to tackle anything. I adore both of them and it was fantastic to spend some time with them.

I have some pics of Halle (of the little church square) but they are from February and not the weekend as I forgot the camera again. I’m starting to think I should have the camera surgically attached!

I finished a second little PIF on Friday and hope to assemble it and have it in the mail with the first before the weekend. On Friday I also started a project that will be a gift when finished – Faith by My Big Toe. I’m using GAST Highland Heather thread and I quite like the way it looks. I was planning on doing it in earth tones but just couldn’t find the right thread.

Of course, when the new Harry Potter arrived on Saturday we weren’t home so the whole of Monday was spent reading.  The Good Husband is reading it at the moment and seeing as I’m one of those people that have Foot In Mouth Disease when it comes to movies and books, I’m not allowed to even say ‘Harry Potter’ without getting dangerous looks from him!

Okay, time to stop nattering!

Yes, I know. That is a stupid heading, but I just couldn’t resist!

Even though I enjoyed stitching the Chickadees, I’d be lying if I said that I’m sorry they’re finished! All I can say to that is ‘fractional stitches’… Here is the last of the little cuties!

I’ll post a pic of the finished coasters as soon as I’ve washed, ironed and assembled them. Warning: like everyting else needing to be made up… - it may not be soon!

After debating what to start next, I realised that I should get a move on with my Mail Art piece for Lorraine before I start making grand plans.  I chose Lizzie*Kate’s Snail Mail Snippet (it was a freebie when one bought the whole 2005 set) for the envelope and have finished that this morning.  I’ve made a start on one of my PIF’s but will share a pic of that, along with the MailArt when they have been received.

My apologies for not reading/commenting on your blogs for a while. I got a new laptop but am still battling with the old one at the mo.  All that needs doing for me to use the new one is just to move my files/folders over, which I have just been too lazy to do.

I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend. We had a really fun weekend and we’re having marvellous weather for a change!

As you know, we went to Bamberg on Saturday. Just as we get onto the Autobahn, the Good Husband says: Do you have the camera? *shock horror* Me: I forgot the camera! Damn… Him: No problem, we can just turn around and go get it. Me: Are you crazy, that’ll take at least 15 minutes. Him (while doing 180kph and not slowing down): Yeah well, you need pics for your blog, right?  It’s no problem, we can just turn around quickly.  Me: No, it’s okay. Too far now…

Yep, too far – if we turned around when he first mentioned it, it wouldn’t have been far and I would have had some new pics! Fear not, as it happens I have lots of nice pics that I took on previous visits so here are some ‘old’ new pics.

What would a Saturday be without a bit of crafty/stash shopping? Got some of the (what I thought to be Graziano linen) checked fabric at the stitchy shop, a couple of meters of different coloured ribbon and the two cutest sheep buttons you’ve ever seen! They’re really… -  well you know, cute as a button! The checks on the fabric is 2cm square (3/4″) whereas Graziano has a half inch check, and this isn’t linen but a mix of some sort.  I know that when I went there first and saw the fabric, that it was called Palermo,. As time went past I sort of started assuming that it was Graziano. The mind is a wonderful thing – makes you remember exactly what you want! (I souped up the photo for a better view.)

So here we are – another post and another chickadee. I only have one more to do (made a good start on that) and then you’ve survived the chickadee invasion! Like the organised person that I am (*wink wink*) I already made a list of what’s next on my list to stitch. Of course, after buying the checked fabric that list is now obsolete because I have fabulous plans and visions for the new fabric!