A week away, Leibster Award and the best laid plans of mice and men

A Week Away

Its been two weeks now since my blog was updated, and I have missed updating it and catching up with blogs from fellow bloggers. Also I had no stitching and no internet, apart from what access I had on my mobile phone and trying to catch up on emails with it was slow and laborious.  For the first week, we all went away in the motorhome which everybody enjoyed.....especially our dog Evie.   However, unlike previous weeks where we had warm sunny weather, it had turned cold and wet again.  Leaving Steve to get the heating working, whilst I got the water heater to work, we kept hitting problems.  After half an hour of Steve moaning and groaning about he wanted to take said motorhome to the nearest garage dealer and trade it in, I realised MY mistake.......I had forgotten to put the gas on!  After that it was a warm and cosy inside along with lovely hot water from the tap.  The only downside when we returned was the amount of washing I had to get through which still meant no stitching.

Leibster Award

After my last post I was so thrilled to find I had been nominated for a Leibster Blog Award by Debbie at http://lavender2debbie.blogspot.ca/ and from Linda M at http://stitchinginsurburbia.blogspot.com.  Searching the internet I discovered that the aim of the Liebster Blog is to recognise exceptional up-and-coming blogs for those with 200 or fewer followers.  However, what makes it special is the recognition a fellow blogger has given your blog.

When receiving this award there are four conditions:

1 – Choose five up-and-coming blogs (with fewer than 200 followers) to pass on the award.

2 – Show thanks to the blogger who passed on the award by linking back to them.

3 – Post the award on your blog, list five bloggers you are giving the award to with their site links and leave a comment so they are aware.

4 – Share five random pieces about yourself that people do not know about you.

I would like to say a big thank you to Debbie and Linda for this recognition, both are fellow stitchers and their stitching is exceptional and well worth a look.

Fellow bloggers to nominate

http://lynscreations.blogspot.com  

http://midgescraftycorner.blogspot.co.uk/

http://nansneedleworknotions.blogspot.co.uk/

http://nataliebwilson.blogspot.co.uk/

http://talesfrommyneedle.blogspot.co.uk/

Five Random things about me

1 – I was a single parent to my son, until I met and married Steve.

2 – I am left handed, yet throw things with my right.

3 – I learnt French for two years in evening school before studying for my Social Work degree.

4 – I love watching who dunnit murder mysteries.

5 – I still live in the same street I was born (apart from a year living on a holiday camp with Steve and 6 months in rented accommodation......in the next road).

The best laid plans of mice and men...

Often go awry.  After a final completion of my cushion for our friend Michelle who got a promotion at work, I started on another design for a new baby with the plans to printing off the design and starting the stitching last night......until we had a missing young person, or a person who needed to be returned to us after saying he was staying at premises which had been deemed as inappropriate.  After a several hour standoff where it was constant telephone calls to and from the local authority and police, the said young person returned home (accompanied by the local police) at about 2 am this morning.  So, my plans to get the next one stitched up was scuppered due to all the telephone calls to his local authority and the police.  Unfortunately this not only resulted in a very late or early morning, and being woken early by a 6 year old staying with us, it also meant writing up a report for the social worker today, along with the inevitable telephone calls tomorrow with the new working week.   Oh well, I suppose there is always next weekend.  

The final piece



One good thing (if it could be thought of as good)  was it gave me time to have a look at a book I borrowed from our local library which shows how to stitch over 200 decorative stitches including embroidery and needlepoint.   For any body who is interested its called Stitch Step-by-Step by Maggi Gordon and Ellie Vance and I will add a book review page on my blog of it. 

Finally, with regards to my current WIP, it is continuing slowly.  After completing all of the black stitching on page 4 of the chart its now confetti time which takes the longest.

                                     

On this note I bid all my readers old and new happy stitching.

Copyright, Upcycling, Junior crafting and Easter madness

Copyright

Since my last post, things have been really busy here in the Wilson household.  It’s been a struggle to keep up with the various emails from stitching groups and from friends.  One topic that has caught my attention however, has been the debate around copyright infringement.

The original article, written by Nicole at Northern Expressions Needlework (http://northernexpressions.blogspot.co.uk/), discussed the perils designers face with regards to designs being copied and passed on to other stitchers.  Nevertheless, a debate has been sparked between Nicole and Laurylyan from Perles de Soies (http://perlesdesoies.wordpress.com/2012/04/01/what-is-right-what-is-wrong/). 

In response to both blogs, I have to agree with Nicole.  If it was not for designer’s we stitcher’s would not have the opportunity to spend our time enjoying the pursuit we do.  Yes, some stitchers can be creative and enjoy designing, then again, for stitchers like myself who do not have the time or the creativity to design our own patterns or charts this can become detrimental to our hobby.  More and more designers will stop designing due to the copyright infringement of their designs.  Nonetheless, this topic, I feel, will continue to rumble on for the time being with many mixed views.

Upcycling

My cushions, momentarily, have come to a halt whilst I await more material to stitch my designs on.  After searching online I found a good site here in the UK where I was able to purchase aida on a roll at a very competitive price.  The company, Superstitcher can be found at http://www.superstitcher.com/default.aspx and ships to the UK and rest of the world with competitive shipping rates. 

Although this part is not upcycling, whilst waiting for my delivery I have spent a happy hours trawling around the local car boot sales purchasing curtains to use for material.  By purchasing cheap but making sure the quality of the stock I have brought is good this has helped my start-up overheads.  If anybody is interested in crafting by upcycling materials one good blog to follow is CraftGossip.com (http://recycledcrafts.craftgossip.com/) which provides different crafting ideas on a daily basis



Some of my car booty curtain stash



Some of the material already cut into my templates

My best purchase however, had to be my beads which were on two hair bands which I got for 40 pence and the pink and blue lacing I got for £3.00 for the two and the voile for 50 pence each. 


It was amazing how many beads were on here and totall unique



Some of my other car booty haul

 I have managed to make one cushion with some of the material I purchased for mine and Natalie’s sewing day.  Whilst I have often cross stitched wedding samplers for other people, I never got round to doing one for Steve and me.  So I decided to spend some time making one for Steve and myself to commemorate our wedding; albeit almost 12 years ago.   Another cushion which is work in progress is for a friend of ours who recently got promoted at work. 


At last, apart from our marriage certificate, something to remind us of our small but lovely special day



Current cushion in progress


I also picked up a few more items for other cushions, especially for births.  The amount of different charms etc available now provides a wider range.

In regards to my cross stitch of the kids, that is slowly progressing. 

Unfortunately I had been experiencing bad earache, which made stitching and going online impossible.  However, after a couple of weeks of being in pain and miserable I found out that the bad news....it was not earache that was causing my misery.....but toothache!!! Thursday was spent plucking up the courage to get an emergency appointment at the dentist and having a back tooth painfully extracted. 

Whilst I can tolerate most things, when it comes to the dentist I must be the biggest wimp going and had to have Steve with me for moral support, yes even at 40 years old my husband had to come in with me.  All I can say is I am glad he supports me in whatever I do or end up having to do.

Junior Crafting

Crafting has also extended onto our youngest daughter Victoria.  Whilst my step-daughter is quite crafty, Victoria has discovered card making and spent a happy afternoon making an Easter card for her sister Natalie.  At the moment she is not sure about progressing into cross stitch, especially as she was finding sewing at school a trial, especially when it came to threading her needle......however she enjoyed a mini lesson on the sewing machine.

Victoria busy at work



Victoria with her finished piece



Easter Madness

The Easter holidays are now upon us and the first week of the kids being off school have passed.  Yesterday Steve and I went to collect the motorhome from storage to prepare for our first trip out this year this weekend.  It’s typical, recently we have experienced warm sunny weather and just as we start to prepare for our first outing.....the weather has changed big time!!!!  Hopefully the kids and our Labrador Evie will enjoy being away from home but I foresee yet another week of no internet or stitching, however I am sure I will survive it after the past couple of weeks.



Evie sunning herself whilst away in Wales



Finally, I wish everyone a Happy Easter and happy stitching.

Mother's Day

This weekend Mother's Day was celebrated over here in the UK and I was spoilt rotten by the kids and Steve with flowers, chocolates and a bottle of Baileys.  All day long I didn't have to lift a finger. 

My lovely flowers brought from my son, Benjamin

The cushions I made as gifts for my mother-in-law and my mother had different results.  My mother in law, on receiving her gift turned to my husband and said "I told you I wanted some bulbs for Mother's Day".  Steve's response to me was that even if we got something she wanted, she still wouldn't be happy.   For my mother the reception was completely different where she ended up in floods of tears.  How I miss my own two children being young.  I used to love them coming home from school on a Friday all secretive until they would run into the bedroom on Mother's Day waving handmade cards, which I have still kept.  Now they are teenagers and well into pre-teens its more shop brought.  I did get a lovely card from one of our young people living here saying for someone who is like a Mum to me.  Nevertheless, I had to laugh as she posted it at the same time as posting her mother's one who is currently staying in London.......by Monday she was upset my card hadn't arrived, until I got a message posted from Royal Mail to say I had a letter waiting for me at the post office and requesting £1.12 ($1.78) to release it.......when I went to collect it, it turned out to be my Mother's Day card from her.

On the cushion front, I would like to say a big thank you to everybody who participated.  The response was overwhelming and with plenty of positive feedback.  There were a few points people had made which I have accepted and reflected on and can use in my design.  I do appreciate that England and USA spell mum differently which I hadn't explained on the survey.  An amazing 88.9% said they would purchase this gift for other people,  90% said that they thought the cushions had the right balance.    Ideas were also given for cushions incorporated honouring our heros who are fighting for our countries (taking into account the international context of my readers), cancer survivors, and I loved the idea of the tooth fairy pillow and have got ideas going in my head. 

This weekend brought loads of post, one in particular was Jane Greenoff's designer programme which I purchased on ebay.  I have to admit it did take a bit of getting used to when making a design.  Sometimes I  began to wonder if pencil and paper was still the best way to create designs or spend some time getting used to the modern technology.  I ended up designing a backstitch and cross stitch design with mine and Steve's names on it too with our wedding date on.  By Sunday evening I had sewn it ready to cut the next load of material for a cushion. 

I also went shopping at the weekend and spent shed loads of money on materials and other items which my step-daughter told me to buy (and a few extras Steve was unaware about).   Its now got to the stage Steve knows I am safe in a clothes shop as I don't spend much, however, give me a craft shop and all spending limits go out of the window.   I now know I am better off ordering online as I stick more to a budget.


Some of the material purchased.  Victoria has her eye on the ballet shoes for cushion material



My new toy, a cutting board and a rotary cutter which is a lot easier than using shears

Monday morning and back to early mornings with the weekly school run and after the weekend rain I was greeted with a sharp frost on my car windows.  It always seems to happen when its my turn for the 40 mile round trip to the school one of our looked after children attend.   However, later on the day turned into a lovely sunny day.  My step-daughter also came down to see us on Monday afternoon and  I spent a few hours with Natalie teaching me some more tricks of the trade she had learnt on her degree.  One of the things we made were fabric flowers.   For those who are unsure of how to make them and wish to learn how to make the flowers I have set up another page on my blog which shows step-by-step ways to make them.

With regards to my cross stitch at the minute.....I have not had the time to pick it up and will have to resume it soon.  I have to admit, whilst I have enjoyed the buzz of learning and making something different, I have missed the buzz of seeing my cross stitch develop.  I think I am going to have to try and rearrange my days and nights to fit in my current cross stitch and cushion making.

Well, thats about it for this week, once again, many thanks to everybody who participated in my survey and I am beginning to get ideas for my very first giveaway, which more will be revealed soon.  Hope all my readers have a great week and happy stitching.

 

Cushion Crazy, Work in Progress

This week has seen me going cushion crazy in preparation for Mother's Day which we celebrate in the UK in March.  I am hoping that both my mother and Steve's mother enjoy their gifts.

  Whilst making these, Steve got to suggesting I look into the popularity of cross stitch cushions to make for sale, especially now my years of studying are over with no possiblity of any social work vacancies on the horizon and everything is peaceful within the household (for once).   Looking online and talking to local craft stalls in the town centre I feel this would provide me with the opportunity being able to combine my hobby with a sideline, especially with both Steve and myself at home.  Due to this, it has meant my current work in progress has had to be put aside and I am feeling withdrawal symptoms, especially as I was getting so excited over my progress since January. 

This also leads me on to asking if readers to my blog would not mind, I would appreciate a few minutes being spent answering some questions which can be accessed by clicking on this link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/BTKJSDV. 

Other work in progress

When clearing out my sewing basket, I came across a small quilt  I started back when Victoria was about 6 years old.  My intention was to make it for her dolls pram, however since she is now past the age of dolls and prams it will have to wait until grandchildren arrive in years to come.  I suppose this will give me plenty of time to get it finished.   I love the brightness of the colours.  I have to admit, after studying for four years I have missed the creativity of sewing and cross stitching.  I also feel slightly guilty for not continuing with my current work in progress, especially as I was making good progress on it. 

Reading 

I have also returned to reading, especially non academic books.   I am currently reading A Mother Like Alex -  based on an inspirational woman who adopted seven children, fostered an eighth child and is guardian to a ninth child.  What is even more inspirational is that seven of the children have Downs syndrome, one has a life-limiting condition and another child is autistic.  Alex decided at a young age that she did not want to  marry or have children of her own but instead fought bureauracy to adopt children with special needs which, at that time, in 1984 adoption was not an option for single women, let alone adopting children with disabilities.  This also coincided with a program I was watching last night also about young people with Downs syndrome and their transition to adulthood, the worries faced by the young people and their parents towards living in independence and the lack of support given within their care to help them achieve what other young people may take for granted. 

People often say to Steve and myself that we must be special to foster the children and young people over the past 10 years, but we only have them for a period of time.  Sometimes the young people we have had living here move on into independence, adoption or due to the harshness of life, just cannot cope within a family environment. To me the special people are the Alex's of this world who have devoted their whole lives to providing a  permanent loving home for young people who would have been regarded as 'unadoptable' and helped to change the discrimination these young people would have received had their life course been different.

On that note, I have no other snippets to add to my blog for this week, please feel free to leave any comments.   If you could spare a few minutes of your busy time to look at my survey and to answer the questions I will be so grateful, once again the link is http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/BTKJSDV.

The beginning of March Madness

Cross stitching

I haven't had the opportunity to post for the past couple of weeks.  Life has been hectic to say the least.  Stitching wise I have continued and succeeded to complete my step-daughter's legs and am almost at the start of the Christmas tree in the corner.  As I usually like to sign my end results by stitching my initials and the date of completion I will be leaving the bottom corner free until the end.  I also couldn't belive the amount of confetti stitches needed for Natalie's legs.  I did get rather worried when shades of blues and purples were called for until I had fully completed them.

Mother's Day and a new crafting idea

This month also sees Mother's Day over here in England and I have started on making a cushion for my mum in cross stitch and backstitch.  This is also something I have been talking to Steve about, making little individual celebratory cushions with a view to selling them at craft fayres, especially whilst I am currently job hunting and have time on my hands.  At the moment, I only have the heart to cross stitch, however I am contemplating doing the heart with beads.  Any comments towards my cushion idea will be appreciated.

My new toy

Steve treated me yesterday to a new sewing machine whilst we were out clothes shopping for us and the kids.  We went into Norwich for the day and went to Hobbycraft (http://www.hobbycraft.co.uk/).  Whilst my stitching friends have places such as JoAnnes in USA we do not have that over here.  I have to admit I do love that place and there are crafting ideas from model planes, trains and cars etc, art work, candy making, cooking, scrap books, cross stitch, tapestry etc, and could have spent a fortune in there but stopped short of seed beads and the sewing machine  luckily the cashier took pity on me and gave me a flyer to use for 10% off on my next purchase telling me to fill it in quick and she could use it there and then.  I now just have to find some time to have a play and get used to the machine and see what stitches I can do.....57 apparently.  



Other things done this month have seen me complete the second day of my Young People, Drugs and Alcohol course.  It did end rather abruptly through as we were evacuated from the building with a suspected gas leak.  Fortunately we had all received our training certificates and I was able to get home in time to meet Steve at the stables with our daughter for her horse riding lesson.  I am still applying for jobs at the moment but due to budget cuts over here there are no social work vacancies around at this moment in time.  Hopefully something will change.

Check this out

My step-daughter has started updating her blog.   You can check out some of the wonderful art and creative designs she has fantastically done  on http://nataliebwilson.blogspot.com/.  After taking time off from her blog she has started to update it with some of her art and stitching which gives us both the chance of keeping updated with each others work.  I also have the pleasure of some of Nat's artwork at our home as shown below and one of her wonderful mice which she has created individually along with her range of rabbits however the qualilty of the photos does not do justice to her art work.

Soon be time to hit the road again

Next month also sees us getting ready to go away in our motorhome, especially for Easter.  Last year we took the kids touring for the six week summer holiday and travelled to the counties of Somerset and Devon in the west country before heading back this way to Norfolk then down to Kent before stopping off in Essex and Norfolk again.  The kids loved the freedom, along with our dog, Evie and cannot wait until we are away on our travels again.  Only thing is I will be restricted on how much stitching I will be able to take away with me, however once again all the extra exercise will help me to lose more weight again.

Well thats about it at the moment, hope you enjoyed reading my blog and any comments will be appreciated!!



A mixed week

After a disastrous start last week with the hot chocolate incident, as described in my previous blog, I did think things were going to get better.  The next night saw me continuing on my cross stitch, only to find that some of the confetti stitches in Natalie's leg had been done in the wrong colour, thanks to my dyslexia reading the numbers around the wrong way.  However, after unpicking the stitches out and re-stitching I have now seen more progress and have almost finished her legs.  This progress has been even more remarkable as the kids have been off school for the week due to half-term holidays and the usual comments of being bored and don't know what to do have been in abundance......they soon found things to do when I asked if they wanted to do some housework to keep them occupied so I could continue stitching. 

This week also involved tidying out my sewing box, due to my brother staying here from London and wanting buttons sewn on two of his jackets.  Inside I found a stash of cross stitching kits that I had brought years ago with the intentions of doing.   At the minute I have one UFO (intended for Father's Day a few years ago too) on the go of 3 Labradors, however I find it difficult to work on two projects at the same time, part of me wants to get as much done of the photo but the other part of me says this one won't take as long and get out of the way.    





On the job hunting front, I did get an email from a job vacancy I had applied for to say that I was on the shortlist. Considering the amount of qualified social workers who have lost jobs over here in England due to budget cuts I did not think I would get that far.  However, the local authority emailed me later on this week with bad news....it appears the job is no longer being advertised so its back to the drawing board.  So I am now contacting various agencies and uploading my CV onto sites in the hope that I can pursue a career in social work with children and young people. 

To enhance my future career prospects I attended the first day of a two day course entitled Young people, alcohol and substance misuse, what should I do?  which was really interesting and full of information and am looking forward to attending the next part of the course on the 28th February.  This is the area I would like to specialise in with young people, ensuring they are aware of the risks they take both legally and health wise.  With the recent tragic death of Whitney Houston this course also highlighted that we shouldn't judge people taking substances as we never know their own insecurities or past events such as learnt behaviour from parents, domestic violence etc that has led them to become dependent or even down to peer pressure to fit in with others they socialise with.

Hopefully the more courses I can attend, both in my fostering and Newly Qualified Social Worker perspective will reap the benefits in the long run.    The downside will be less time on my cross stitch.  Time to relearn those time management skills we were lectured on at uni so I can achieve both .

Aargh....

Today any plans I had to continue with my cross stitch has gone totally out of the window.  For the past two weeks Steve and I have been decorating our dining room, and whilst he is quite good at wallpapering, we have learnt how to laminate a wood  floor.   Today we decided to try our hand at hanging a new door (with no carpentry skills between the pair of us, and me saying it looked easy to do).  Since we moved into this house almost 12 years ago the dining room door never shut properly or had a door handle.  After 6 hours of cutting the door down to size, trying to work out what way the hinges have to go on the door and putting the door onto the door frame, we have a new door with a proper door handle on it.  Which we thought was not bad for our first attempt.  After that my plans were to get dinner done and then sit down and then start stitching some more......However, plans never go how you want them.   Whilst carrying the empty cups through into the kitchen from the dining room en route to getting dinner ready the cup with the cold remains of my hot chocolate slipped out of my hand and emptied all over the kitchen.  You would not believe the mess.......hot chocolate on the floor, the walls and over the cupboards and worktops......half an hour later and......looking up to the ceiling hot chocolate had even splattered up there.  So cross stitch has been abandoned for tonight, instead I have the cleanest kitchen in town, every cupboard door has been washed, the walls and the ceiling.  Biggest surprise was whilst the cup landed on a stone floor its survived to be used on another day.  However, lessons have been learnt, never try to carry more than is possible, never have kids coming into the house  asking why is the kitchen in a mess,  why did I decide to splatter everything in sight with hot chocolate and why is dinner not ready and what is for dinner!!!!  Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day and I will be able to sit down and continue cross stitching.