Out and About

Where has the Springtime gone!!! For a couple of weeks we had mild, sunny days and the Winter seemed over and done with for another year. But it's back with a vengence with cold winds, dull skies and drenching rain. And the poor people in the North have heavy snow and blizzards to contend with again!!!

(This is the scene from the porch window a couple of weeks ago)
I've been quite tired this week following a busy weekend. After the book launch on Saturday (which was a wonderfully successful, well-attended, well-organised event) we went on to the local hotel and met up with a few friends that my OH had invited for birthday drinks for me (officially on Monday). We had a fun evening, and the fun continued the following evening with a meal out with the children at this hotel. And it's not over yet - the friends we were out with on Saturday, plus a few more, are coming to us for a Shed Warming Party on Good Friday. I'm really looking forward to it and hope the rain that started last night eases off a little by then. We'll have the wood-burner lit in the shed, and the gazebo up on the lawn for extra cover just in case. Then...............on Sunday evening we are going to one of the friends for a ski-holiday-video-viewing evening.

(The table at the end of our family meal. Taken by my DD by accident but I like it.)
All this partying and socialising has meant (and will mean), yet again (spoken with a big sigh!), that no stitching whatsoever has been done for about a week. The possible hour or two I could have had to stitch was taken up with ironing when my friend told me she couldn't do it this week.Grrrrr. I'll hopefully have some shed pics after the party to make up for it. It sometimes takes so long to get around to a project that I'm tired of it before even making a stitch. A few weeks ago I cut up some scraps of felted wool jumpers and laid them out randomly on the kitchen table with the aim of making a cushion. They are still there and I'm now fed up of looking at them (as are the rest of the family although they don't say anything any more!). I also cut out some squares for porch-seat-cushion no 2 and they are also lying there daring me to lose interest in them too!
( A couple of pics of the last stitching I did. Hand quilting a star block for my quilt-as-you-go quilt.)

I shouldn't complain because we're really lucky to have a great bunch of friends that all get on so well together, and I enjoy seeing them and spending time with family, but why-oh-why isn't there enough time to do it all!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Bye for now

Teresa x

Global Earth Hour!

I'm going to be turning off my electricity for 1 hour for Global Earth Hour on Saturday 27th March 2010 at 8.30pm (GMT) to demonstrate my concern regarding climate change. Is your country taking part? Are YOU taking part?

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(Hopefully, I'll be out and won't have to sit in the dark for an hour) Very sorry about that!! That is certainly not the attitude to take! I just hope I remember.

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Will be out earlier in the evening to sing with the Saturday Singers at the launch of a book about our village. We also have a rehearsal at 12 noon the same day followed by singing at, and partaking of, a Lenten Lunch at the Baptist Chapel.
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This Saturday Singers group could get out of hand!! I'm thinking of having a break from Choir Practice after Easter; we break for the summer anyway and after Easter the next important festival (from the choir's point of veiw) will be Harvest in September. I feel I need a break from something. I've had a couple of niggly health issues over the last few months (a swimmy head, and dry skin patches) and think I would benefit from slowing down a little especially as it's time I started training for this years Race for Life and Big Black Mountains Challenge (both of which I've entered)!!! I think I just contradicted myself !!

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Bye for now

Teresa x

Isn't this Blogging World Amazing!!

But you don't need me to tell you that. I know you've all experienced the special connection between bloggers in many different ways, from them simply dropping by for a read to leaving a comment (always thoughtful and often supportive) to giving away thoughtful gifts. The sense of belonging to a special group is so real despite the fact that most never meet each other. I felt this so much yesterday when I received my giveaway parcel from Lis.

Lis from Online Quilting, is currently on an extended holiday in New Zealand, and recently did a giveaway for some crafting goodies from there and, out of loads of entries, I was the lucky winner. But Lis didn't wait to come back to the UK to send the parcel, no, she incurred the extra expense of sending the parcel all the way across the world so I received it much sooner than expected.

And look at what she bought/sent!!!! Beautiful fabrics with aboriginal/tribal-inspired designs, a very useful back-pack style bag, a cute little pattern to make a chicken cushion and a lovely personal message on a New Zealand postcard. Then just when I thought I couldn't be any luckier, I found a pack of easy-thread sewing needles in the bottom of the bag. What a generous prize!! Lis is interested to see what I make from the fabric so I'll have to get my thinking cap on, but I've already warned her not to expect anything too soon!! Well.. you know what I'm like! The 'Time for Stitching' in my blog title is more of a dream than anything most of the time. My OH has been away skiing in France since last Saturday and I was so looking forward to the time I would have to devote to sewing. But all I've managed is just 2 hours of hand quilting in total!

Take a closer look at the fabrics - aren't they lovely and unusual. What would you make with them?
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Bye for now
Teresa x

It's Blooming Lovely!!

I want to show the evidence of my labours in the kitchen on Saturday, partly to explain the absence of stitching. Here we have 12 lemon and almond muffins, 14 bread rolls and about 40 ginger biscuits.



And, as promised, here is are some photos of Mothering Sunday goodness. This is the little primula from the church service. Here's the beautiful, colourful bouquet from my daughter and finally the the deliciously scented candles from my son. The flowers are sitting in the porch window along with the primula and the carnations my OH bought to welcome me back from my weekend away last week (top photo), so it's a veritable florists in there at the moment!


Despite a shaky start, it'll soon be the second anniversary of this little bloggy offering. Therefore, I'm planning to have a giveaway as a 'thank you' to all you lovely people who keep popping in and commenting, giving me the motivation and encouragement to keep going. I made a tentative start with my first post on 17 april 2008 but didn't really get going with it until a year later. I enjoy sharing these little snippets of life with you and, despite there not being much stitching evidence, I usually have something newsworthy to post about (I hope!). I don't know what I'm going to include in the giveaway yet. All I've decided so far is that there will be something I've made and something sweet and tasty!!

I'll keep you posted.
Bye for now
Teresa x

Weekend Thrifting & A Room With a View

Well, you couldn't really call it a room exactly but, as my OH pointed out the other day, our porch has probably the best view from the house. It's funny how we didn't really notice it until it was framed by a window. I've taken quite a few photos of this view to show the changing seasons. More recently though, the imminent arrival of Spring (I hope!) has been producing some beautiful sunsets and as luck would have it, that is the direction the window faces.

Winter

Summer

I promised to show the items I picked up from the charity shops in Broadway on my weekend away, so here they are. I'm in complete admiration for bloggers who take photos of themselves since I attempted to take these pictures in my weekend accommodation. I apologise for the poor quality but the items are now firmly bunched up and creased at the bottom of the laundry basket.

This skirt is black and grey and has a lovely shimmery look that changes as it moves.
The top is from Next. I love anything embellished with buttons and this has three different ones at the front.
The gilet had the tag still attached so had never been worn! I've already made quite a bit of use of it while away and am sure it's going to be very useful. (The skirt and top were roughly £4.00 each and the gilet was £6.00, if you're interested)
-Just a little explanation regarding the absence of any decent stitching or shed news around here lately. Progress is being made on both fronts but not enough to be worthy of mentioning or showing. The flooring is down in the shed and while I was away my OH also put up a shelf and got me a basket for my logs. I make sure I do a little stitching most days but sometimes it's only half an hour (and half an hour of hand quilting isn't very much, believe me!!) I even took some hexagons away with me (just in case) and managed to sew a few together.
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Today has been a lovely, sunny Mothering Sunday. I went to a Community Church Service this morning and was given a beautiful primula plant donated by the local garden centre (this has become a bit of a local tradition over the years). In the afternoon my son came home from work (after cooking dinners for lots of other mothers at a local hotel) and my daughter came round with her partner. They gave me cards, Yankee Candles and flowers then stayed for tea (the muffins I made yesterday were gratefully sampled). My daughter and I then spent a couple of pleasant hours sorting out the remainder of her possessions that are left since she moved out. These things always take us longer than they should when we come across items that bring back memories.
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Photos of Mothering Sunday goodies will appear shortly.
Bye for now
Teresa x

A Weekend in the Costwolds

Having a day off work and taking my time to drive to Farncombe Estate in the Cotswolds for my singing course proved to be a good idea. It gave me time in the morning to pack, check emails, write a blog post and catch up with google reader before I left.


Another purpose behind leaving early was to stop off at the town/village? of Broadway on the way there. It was indeed a beautiful place as I had been told with all the buildings constructed of the distinctive sandy coloured stone of the area. I took a few photos in the sunshine but they didn't capture the real beauty of the surroundings. The first place I came to when leaving the car park was a cafe and since it was quarter to two and I hadn't had any lunch I popped in and treated myself to a cream tea. It was a pleasant enough cafe but with the air of a canteen which was a bit disappointing. I was, however, fascinated by the two-in-one condiment set on the table (I feel it's important to be fascinated with something when you are sitting in a cafe on your own!!). The top half had a knob to open/close the holes for the salt and the whole thing turned in the middle to grind the pepper from the bottom. A very neat design I thought!


During my browse around the various little shops and boutiques afterwards I was lucky enough to bag a few bargains from the charity shops (I'll post about these again) and made a mental note to come back again and make a day visiting the area with my OH.

Then I came across another cafe....................a more traditional, cosy, quaint cafe....................with mouthwatering homemade cakes in a display counter.....................and as it was AT LEAST an hour and a half since my cream tea AND I had been disappointed with it .......................... Ipoppedinforcarrotcakeandpepeperminttea!!! Did I say that fast enough for you not to notice? Oh well, it was worth it and I was on a sort of holiday!


Farncombe Estate Education Centre consists of various buildings, some old/some new but sympathetically designed to complement the rest, scattered about on a steep hill and connected by a meandering road for vehicles and steps through the trees for people (someone on my course counted the steps to our accommodation - 240 - one way - could have been 220 but my room was on the 1st floor!!!!). At least I was able to get some exercise during the weekend too!

There were 17 other 'students' on my course (ranging in age from 19 to 70s) which was designed for singers of all ages and abilities who wanted to increase their confidence for singing. For the inexperienced the aim was to show them that anyone has a 'voice' (and by the end of the course most of them had found theirs!) and for those who had done some singing, to be more confident in their abilities thereby increasing the quality of their singing. There were many reasons for attending the course - most common was to increase confidence but a few had been bought the weekend as a present and seemed very dubious about the whole thing. The weekend was packed with various 'sessions' interspersed with meals, tea-breaks and sleeping, and covered breathing, confidence, accepting compliments, dealing with criticism and much more including performing.

The feedback session before lunch and departure on the Sunday was very moving. The various ambitions for future aims ranged from singing around the house or in the car to singing the hymns in church to singing at a son's wedding. The youngest member of the group - a young woman of 19 who had very bravely come on her own - moved a couple of us to tears with her comments at the end, saying that she had wondered what she'd come to when she first walked in (an old people's home, someone had remarked - he he) but that she'd thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience, believing that she'd achieved more than if it had been a group of people her own age. She had a fantastic voice but no idea what she sounded like. At the Saturday evening singalong someone had recorded her singing and she could hardly believe it was her. She may be one to look out for in the future because the tutor was going to put her in touch with a friend of his in the music business.

My room

They were a fantastic bunch of people and there wasn't one person who didn't fit in. The time seemed to go so quickly yet felt like a week. I didn't realise how tired I was until I got home and sat on the sofa with a welcome cup of tea made by my OH (he'd also bought me some flowers). I think he missed me!!

The view from my accommodation

Bye for now

Teresa x

It will soon be tidy.....!!!

The reason I'm showing you all the shameful piles of clutter around the house is because it looks like I'll soon be relaiming the space and getting things tidy again!! The flooring has arrived for The Shed so everything can be moved that's going in there. Above is the mess at one end of my bedroom. The cupboard behind the screen is going, as is all the junk that is hiding a vey nice wooden ottoman.
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The next photos are my spare room (used to be daughter's). The wooden table is going along with everything on it and the piles of junk at the end of the room.
I haven't got a photo of the kitchen table but that is just as bad if not worse than these - and it's ALL going. We'll be able to eat regularly at the kitchen table!! The last time was Christmas but it didn't stay clear for long.
I will show 'after' photos when it's cleared up and of 'The Shed' when it's organised.
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Anyway, this was going to be a quick post but my connection is playing up and it's taken ages to load these photos so what I really popped in to say was, I'm off for the weekend on a residential singing course at this centre. I've been looking forward to it for ages so, my bag is packed, the sun is shining and I'm off.
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See you soon
Bye for now
Teresa

Dewi Sant!

I wandered, lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vale and hill

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host of golden daffodils...............

William Wordsworth (of course, who else!)
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While at school, I once illustrated this poem for an art project. I put a lot of time and thought into it and was pleased with the finished result. The teacher wasn't quite so taken with it though and I didn't earn a very good grade. I was reminded of this as I saw this solitary cloud through my window at work today and also, of course, of daffodils, seeing as today is St David's Day and the daffodil is the official flower of Wales. So I hope you all had a wonderful St David's Day! If I had a photo of daffodils I would've put one here too, but they are about a month overdue this year due to the cold weather we've been having.
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I did, however, enjoy a special St David's Day menu when I was taken out for lunch yesterday and since the lovely, thoughtful Wayside Wanderer has shown an interest in hearing what was on the menu, I will elaborate a little. If you are from the UK or Wales in particular you will know all about this. I wish I'd taken my camera and could show you as well as tell you because the food looked as good as it tasted!
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The starters were Leek and Potato Soup, Haddock Salad, Goat's Cheese and Beetroot Salad and one more dish that I can't remember (A leek is also an emblem of Wales but I don't know if there's any connection with the other ingredients apart from the fact that they are local). I had the Goat's Cheese salad - it was slightly warm, delicious and not too fillling before the main course.
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The choices for main course were Roast Beef with Yorkshire Pudding (a traditional UK Sunday lunch), Lamb Shank with Rosemary (Lamb is also associated with spring and Wales), Glamorgan Sausage on a bed of cabbage in a creamy sauce and once again I can't remember the 4th choice. I had the Glamorgan Sausage which is the vegetarian choice and is like a rissole with a tasty leek filling (Glamorgan is a County in Wales).
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Then came the deserts - Bara Brith bread pudding with liquor ice-cream, Welsh cake tower with clotted cream and local strawberries, choice of ice-cream or Welsh Cheeses and biscuits. Bara Brith is Welsh for fruit cake, Welsh cakes are small, round, flat cakes that are traditionally cooked on a Bakestone. One thing I was surprised about was the strawberries being described as 'local' - I don't know how anyone could grow them in Wales in February, even in a greenhouse or poly-tunnel!!
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We were at the hotel for more than 3 hours, finishing off with coffee in the lounge bar. It was just what I needed - very relaxing - sitting and chatting - and not having to worry about cooking or washing up. While we were there my DS requested Cheese and Potato Pie with Baked Beans for dinner tonight. It's a favourite from his childhood that we haven't had for a while and seeing as it's very quick and easy, I'm happy to oblige. If you're not sure what this is it's basically mashed potato with grated cheese added then more grated cheese sprinkled on top and melted/browned. You can also add gently fried onions to the potato if you like. Not the healthiest of meals but good old comfort food during the cold weather and nice to have once in a while.

Bye for now
Teresa x