Another PHD under my belt

So the completed tunic.  I am for the most part happy with it, but wish the pleats would start under the bust instead at the bust.

And the finished product being worn!

Next project to start.  I am really looking forward to it!

I have completed one more PHD this week, how many did you manage to complete?

I have started the completion of yet another one, this one a small baby blanket knitted in the same pattern as what my Mum used to make out of wool yarn.  So if you would like to stand a chance at getting it for your little bundle of joy, get working on that bundle.

We are off to Australia for the month of August and I am starting to think about what project/s I will be taking with me.  We are hoping to go to Tasmania as well this trip.  Someplace I have never been but I understand they have great cheese there.

Still looking for ideas to create/make/purchase for a fun loving fern.  Send me your ideas or suggestions.  

This week I have managed to lose 1/2 stone!  Yippee!  Closer to that goal of 2.5 stone and therefore closer to that new pair of shoes!!

Have a great week and remember to work on a PHD, spend time on yourself, and enjoy the children/youth in your life.

HAPPY MOTHERING SUNDAY

FIRST to let you know that Mothering Sunday is the same as Mother's Day here in England, and once again no, I did not get anything.  Glenn and the kids have two chances to get this right, and more often than not they miss both opportunities.  Such is the life of an American living in England!

The new Country Kitchen.  Yes, look at all that stuff still needing to be moved for the walls and flooring to go down, but at the moment I have nowhere to move it to because doors have not been hung on the laundry room and therefore are taking up space in my empty room.  It is going to be great when it is finished.  I have decided on a cork floor; now to find it at a reasonable price.  No builders again today (they where at another job all last week) after being assured they would be back today.  Must have run into problems at the other site.  Just got confirmation they did run into problems, rotten floor joints!  Yippee it is just not my house with issues!!!!

Recent purchases and or projects completed!

My latest quilting fun.  Took me 5 min.
Guess you all know what you will be getting for
Christmas this year!

Yes, I have to admit I love to shop!  Went to a Quild day and purchased the Bali Pops!  I could not put them down they just kept calling to me.  Not that I need anymore material in my stash, more like I need to start making items from my stash, but I could not seem to leave these two lovely packages behind.

Up close picture of my smocked back to my nighty.
I just need to cut out the sleeves and then sew it altogether after
I stitch my bullion bumblebees onto the tops of the waves.

My front and back of the tunic I am knitting with Mary.  I know she is already wearing hers, but I am enjoying doing this.

So you might ask what are the other items?  The block is another block completed in my Block of The Month class from 2012!  The art stuff is to do more of the little girl/boy with names or sayings.  The pink bag is because you can never have too many bags-they are like shoes.  When you go out you always need one or two.  Never pass up the chance to buy a bag or a pair of shoes you really like as when you go back in a couple of weeks they will not be there and then you will have missed out on something great!  That's my motto and I am happy for you to adopt it too!

The book was because I could not resist and I missed out with my girls in the baby doll dress making faze as they really did not have one.  Now I have a niece in that stage and thought, "Hey, another chance before my grandkids come along."  Now to find something to make for boys! Any and all ideas taken on board if you think of something I can do for a small, cute, fun, sporty, fern monkey let me know.


Now for the challenge of the week:  Complete one PHD!  What is a PHD you ask?  A PROJECT HALF DONE is the answer.  Now I have several PHD's and I have shared three with you here today, so I know I can not be alone with a collection or pile of PHD's;  so get cracking the week will soon be gone!  Let me know how you get on in your completed PHD.

Lost a week due to dust!

So before the pictures--I have always HATED living in my husband's dream house.  Saying that since it was purchased I have had to make due with every room and attempt to make the most or best of a very bad layout for the last 15 years!  We are finally at the stage of doing the one thing I said would make the house more comfortable for me and a family by giving me a large farmhouse style kitchen/dinner.  So after nagging for 15 years to remove one measly little wall in the house I am finally getting my wish. For those of you who know a little bit about me I am not a very patient or quiet sulker so you might be able to imagine a little of the digs and comments regarding my living conditions.  If I was more like my Grandmother and could I have found the jackhammer, I am sure I would have swung it hard and many times long ago at this very wall to get my way.  But it is here and I am going to share the before and after shots with you.  Bearing in mind it took my builders 3 hours to get the wall down!

The wall coming down-lots to be moved

The dinning room as it is now

The kitchen side of the wall coming down

Crazy Log Cabin.  The sissers patch is only about 2X1. 

After moving all the items from the dinning-room and kitchen I did not want to get broken I decided I deserved a break to do something creative before I lost my workspace.  When Glenn got home we would be needing to move the china hutch, display case, and the dinning-room table; therefore putting an end to my sewing space for the moment!

And now the way the new space looks!  Curtains up to keep the dust from going everywhere.

Now for the flooring to be decided.  I am thinking poke-a-dots  in bright primary colours, then lime green for the walls with a hot pink blackboard.  Let me know what your thoughts are.













So to the side you will find a link to the photos taken during Aurelia's recent choir tour to Toulouse should you care to have a look and try to find her!  https://skydrive.live.ocm/redir?resid=D3499EE637BC30F7!15382&authkey=!AOmprFmbqTTxyoY.

Look for a new post later today or early in the week showing what the room looks like now and the new purchases for my addictions along with the progress on my Tunic!

A Very Productive Week!

As there has been so much to report this week on the progress and completion of projects, I am only gone to give you a caption under each photo and maybe a roundup at the end of more detail should you wish to read more.

I hope you have all had a great week and thank you for visiting my site!

Under floor heating installed, floor laid and the skirting boards completed except at the doorway.

The mega radiator in the sewing room as you walk in.  

The small window is now painted and the brass handle has turned out looking great!

The marble tiled window seals are in place and grouted today.

The tiny radiator in the laundry room to help dry the clothes.

Small wallhanging using the Acucut and buttonhole stitch

My handsome model (notice no face) with my completed periwinkle shawl

The inside of one of my first lovely handbags

And the outside of the bag.  This is a great size, but not big enough to stick my iPad in and all my other stuff.  Round two with it will make this happen as the size is great, the straps are great and it has enough pockets to make my life easier.








MORE DETAIL:
So the underfloor heating required my help as well as the two builders as they could not get the backing off the tape to seal the seams.  Two hours to figure out how to turn a corner, and after that it only took us 1.5 hours to lay the entire floor.  next came the wood.  This is a wonderful engineered wood with real wood on the top so in the event it gets scratched it can be sanded and then resealed.  Very nice to look at with colours running from dark walnut brown to a reddish brown to a very light cream colour.

The tall radiator is a wonderful addition to the room making it feel warm and cozy.  For those of you like me who suffer from back ache, this is taller than me (5'3") and so I can stand against it and my whole back gets the benefit of the heat.  It has come in handy over the last few days.  I can hardly wait until I can turn on the underfloor heating to see what a difference this will make to my Chill Blains on my toes.  At the moment they are very painful; getting to the point of almost not being able to walk again.  I need to move to a warm country, this one is killing me!

The Laundry room is complete now except for the bi-fold door which needs to be painted on the laundry room side and then stained for the natural wood to show on the hall side.  this will take up to 6 coats per side according to the distructions.

For those of you who know me you will realise I love marble.  In our house in Texas I had a lovely green marble entryway and fireplace surround which I dearly miss!  The window seals have been my replacement for marble although in  a creamy brown colour way instead of the deep rich and lovely green I  adored.  It just can not be purchased here in Britain.

The small wall hanging was started at a workshop to get to grips with doing decorative stitches on my new Bernina.  What a great day and I was so thrilled I went home and carried on with the project to complete the wall hanging.

My wonderful handsome helper who hates having his picture taken and was not all that thrilled to be helping me in the first place kindly allowed me to take one photo of my periwinkle knitted shawl.  This has turned out to be a wonderful project, although it does seem to take longer to do the patterns without much variation in them.  I have been wearing it around my shoulders at night while I knit my tunic or read.

Since my gorgeous green and black bag was confiscated by my lovely Mother in September, I have been attempting to replace it.  This is just one of the many designs I have come up with.  It would be great if it was slightly wider and maybe had a hidden zippered front pocket to hold my wallet.  Maybe they will be incorporated in the next version.

Next week we will start the remodelling of the kitchen/dinning room.  The wall is finally coming down with the demolition starting on Monday.  Hopefully this project will not take 6 months to complete, but more like the 3-4 weeks they estimate it to take.  Colours have not been chosen, flooring to still be determined, but I am thinking heated floors might be nice!  Look for the before and after pictures next week.  Maybe even my blocks for a new quilt I am starting this week along with my smocked nightdress (the smocked section anyway).

Have a great week and I look forward to seeing you next blog.

Let there be Light

The last of my Christmas card to my local friends.  Here in England people give cards to everyone much like Americans give out Valentine's.  Not a tradition I can embrace I must say.  So I decided to give a card that was useful and something I had made, hence the dishcloths all done in fun colours.  Now to make sure they are being used as dishcloths and not as decorative doilies!

Sam's portion of Chicken and couscous

I was in the mood for a taste of something exotic the other night and decided the place I really enjoyed once I got there was Morocco, so I went through my recipe books and came up with this Moroccan Chicken dish that can be done in the slow cooker.  I have to say it was absolutely gorgeous, easy and reminded me of the many lovely meals we had while in Morocco.  If you would like to go somewhere wonderful, I can highly recommend Morocco.  They also love kids there!  Aurelia was treated like a little blond princess, we hardly ever saw here when we went to eat as the chef's would come out and whisk her into the kitchen to feed her what ever she saw she wanted. 

And for the main attraction.  We have lights in the sewing room!  Not just any lights I have 8 powerful spotlights to adjust to just where I need them to work on my projects.  4 on a dimmer switch so if you are watching TV you can still see what is going on with a lightly muted light.  They are wonderful.

New This Week

So a quick update of what has been accomplished this week on the home front as well as the craft front!

 Pillow made by Alexis for her Art Teacher who is going on maternity leave on Monday.  She has done this all by herself.  She did Great!  My stash of material is slowly being eaten away be her desire to do many projects, soon I might need to go shopping for more inspirational pieces of lush material to work with.

Close up of the blanket stitch to add detail to this receiving blanket.

My contribution to the Art Teacher's upcoming small bundle of joy!  My favourite thing for small babies is a flannel receiving blanket to wrap them up in and just have around all the time.  In the past I have crocheted a beautiful edging on a single layer of flannel, but did not have the time to do this so used this quick mitred corner quilt with two layers of flannel.  It measures 40X30 printed and 40X50 for the solid colour.  It took me just over an hour do complete from start to finish.  Not bad for a lovely gift for a new baby.

My impulse buy at the yarn shop last week as ended up
being a scarf.  

 

Note to other crocheting out there.  English instructions are not the same as American instruction.  The above was written in English and I did the American equivalent!  Turning this scarf into twice the length it was meant to be, but it is still lovely to wear and the feel is great!  Maybe I will do another one using the correct definition of the stitch.  English dc is American sc!

And now the House:

The TV end of the room painted in the final colour and you can even see the ceiling colour too.  A slight pink tint to it.











The other end with my accent wall painted "Cat Black" It has a brown-eggplant tint to it, not true black, but it matches the ironwork on the old stable door into the living room.  The window sill will be painted the same colour as the wall to make it a feature as well.  Then slate or marble on the window ledges and glass shelves to go into the window recess.  The room is finally almost done.  We now estimate it being completed next week.  Lights to go up on Wednesday.  Radiator to be delivered on Friday.  Then on Monday Radiators to be installed including new ones for the hall upstairs, the girls rooms, and the new one for the laundry room.  Tuesday will be floor insulation, the electrical coil for the underfloor heating.  Wednesday will be the wood floor on top and the skirting boards.  Then for the room is complete and ready for me to start moving the dinning room furniture into it so we can start the demolition work between the kitchen and current dinning room.  Unlike Grandma, I have not had to resort to taking a sledgehammer to the wall I want removed.  However, I have threatened it many times and if I had followed in her lovely shoes I would have had a large country style kitchen-dinning room a lot sooner!

Just as a reminder of all the snow we got last week, well it is all gone and we are back to traditional rain, rain, and yes more rain.  Temperatures are back up to about 9*C (46*F).

That's all for this post.  Have a great week and remember to take one step closer to completing some of your unfinished projects.  One step a week and they will be done in no time.

SNOW DAY!!

What is a SNOW DAY you might ask.  Well, when it snows in England the whole country comes to a standstill and it only takes about 2" of snow to do it.  So today after receiving about 4" of snow overnight:  schools are closed, husbands work from home, builders walk the 1/2 mile up the lane to continue work on our house, and the kids go out to play in the snow!

What does English snow look like you might ask?  Look no further as I have supplied you with pictures to ease your troubled minds.

Front of house

Front Garden

Middle Garden

Back of house

 KIDS AT PLAY IN OUR YARD AS WELL AS OUT IN THE COW FIELD.

Never to be outdone, Sam has built a ramp and managed to get a lot more air than this during his time on the sled.

So why are kids home, snow and snow and more snow.  It has snowed most of the day today.  The weather expects it to continue for the weekend.  Hopefully by Monday school will be back on!

Lest we forget, we must walk that 1/2 mile one way to the store and carry what little supplies they still have in as today I was planning on going to the shops!  Pantry meals for us for a couple of days.  No bread, milk, eggs, lunch meat, or ice cream left in the shops.  I did manage to get some yeast and so will be making our bread for the rest of the week.  Luckily I got eggs and milk on my way home last night from the school run!

Happy Snow Day to one and all!!  Go out there and enjoy the snow with your kids!