life in a Northern town Archives - Page 9 of 9

Making progress

June 6, 2009

Once again that wretched lurgy caught up with me and had me relegated to the sofa watching CBeebies (not my choice but great for keeping Little Stitch entertained when Mummy has her nose stuck in a box of tissues).

I’m slowly coming out the other side of it (although Mr S and Little S have now decided to follow my example and become all snuffly). So today I finally made some progress on sorting out the sewing room. So much so that next week I’ll probably be actually able to start making something. Crikey. I found a pair of black twill trousers already cut out and a dress that I’d made, hated and unpicked. I suspect these will be the starting point.

In other news, after the best part of 5 months of wrangling with the Open University about transferring my French course to next year (they weren’t up for it – I was insistent) they have finally agreed to let me do so. I am thrilled. It means I’ll be able to finish my degree with them without wasting almost £1000.

It’s a good feeling when good business sense and a willingness to support a keen student win out over “policy”.

Pieces of Eight

May 31, 2009

Picture courtesy of Google Images

Wow! Black Purl wasn’t kidding when she said this was a toughie. And also my first meme.

The rules are:

Mention the name of the person who tagged you.

Do the lists of 8.

Tag 8 bloggers of your choice.

Let them know that they have been tagged!

So here we go with my Pieces of Eight….

8 things I’m looking forward to:

Marrying Mr S. Sigh…he’s so dreamy!
Little Stitches first steps. She’s working on it.
Adding another Stitch to the family. Come on Social Services…sort it out.
Getting the signed adoption orders for the Little Stitches.
Digging out the back garden, relaying the patio and putting a lawn down. Well, actually I’m really looking forward to Mr S doing it. Did I mention he’s dreamy?
Ripping out the sewing room, insulating the roof, relining it and fitting lots, and lots, and lots and LOTS of storage.
Woolfest and Harrogate…squeeeeeeee
Getting a new camera and learning to use it. (Might have to wait a wee while for this one.)

8 things I did yesterday:

Bought Little Stitch her first pair of “real” shoes. Soooooo cute!
Spoke with Ma Stitches.
Spent the GDP of a small country at Huntley’s butchers. And their wine shop! Oops.
Knitted….I’m making tops for Little Stitch.
Contemplated ordering a new fridge freeze.
Walked in the park.
Barbecued.
Kept out of the sun…I’ve got the first (and hopefully last) sunburn of the year.

8 things I wish I could do:

Play the piano – well.
Sew better than I do. I’d love my sewing to be immaculate rather than just ok.
Speak reasonably fluent French
Speak reasonably fluent Russian.
Run. I’m so terribly unfit. It’s embarrassing.
Have patience. Now!
Make patisserie. See 6. It would help.
Draw. Not like a demented spider on crack.

8 shows I watch:

Grey’s Anatomy.
House.
ER – Why is it over? Why? Why????
Lie to Me.
CSI – obviously Vegas is the best but I can just about cope with New York. Miami is another thing altogether.
Desperate Housewives – when I grow up I want to be Bree.
Project Runway – Project Catwalk is pants but can we please have the Canadian and Australian versions. Please. Is anyone at Sky listening to me?
Come Dine With Me. Mueller yoghurt isn’t an ingredient, people.

So, that’s me done. Now it’s time to pass the baton. I know the rules say 8 other bloggers but I’m just going with these 5 lovely ladies:

Hungry Zombie Couture

Two years

February 16, 2009

Two years ago today, I drove 240 miles in my beat up old Honda from Guildford to Euxton. On the seat beside me sat a basketed and disgruntled Alice cat. In front of me, in a van with a busted gearbox, drove Mr Stitches with all my worldly possessions. It rained every single mile of the way. I cried every single mile of the way.

I’d always said that wild horses wouldn’t drag me North again. Well, that’ll teach me to never say never. Because here I am. The love of a good man achieved what wild horses couldn’t.

The first year was, shall we say difficult. If you hear hysterical laughter at this point it’s Mr S, who probably remembers it much differently than that. But let’s ignore him and move on.

I thought I’d never settle here; never feel at home; never have a life.

How wrong can you be? Whilst I’ll never love Euxton, I can live here for now. Our house isn’t pretty on the outside, but on the inside we’ve a warm, cozy and loving home. It’s always filled with laughter and often with family and friends. Hot chocolate and Madelaines or tea and scones are always on offer.

But most importantly, I have Mr S. I have no words for how wonderful he is. But he knows. And so do I. Happy Anniversary Mr S.

Slowly losing my mind

February 2, 2009

There’s not a great deal going on Chez Stitches at the moment other than trying to sort out more documentation for the adoption (thoughts of moving goalposts spring to mind) and the accompanying grinding of teeth.

My head is so full of the waiting for our new panel date that I’m having trouble concentrating on much else. On the knitting front, I’ve managed a couple of beanie hats for homeless people and finished the sleeves on Mr Stitches’ French sweater, only to find I have insufficient yarn to complete the neckband. Pick an expletive and I probably used it when I figured that one out.

All is not lost – I can get another ball shipped in and it won’t matter if it’s a smidge out on colour. But really, I could do without it at the moment.

On the sewing front all has ground to a halt. I replaced a couple of zips in jeans over the weekend and roundly cursed myself for procrastinating on that task. How ridiculously easy are they to do? Idiot!

So please bear with me if not a lot happens here for the next couple of weeks. Hopefully (keep everything crossed for us here) normal service will be resumed after the 18th.

Oh, and it’s snowing. Not enough to be gorgeous and photogenic. Just enough to cause havoc on the roads.

Another year over……

December 31, 2008

…and wow what a year it’s been. We had a rocky start to the year with my road traffic accident and Pa Stitches-in-Law scaring the bejesus out of us with his heart attack. And then we sadly lost Uncle James mid year. But as we sat around the table on Christmas Day (just the six of us this year – both sets of parents and Mr Stitches and I) we still felt blessed. We have wonderful family and friends, all have our health, roofs over our heads, food on our tables and a warm bed at night. In the grand scheme of things you don’t need much more.

I’ve been thinking back (as you do at this time of year) over what we’ve achieved. Whilst I haven’t done nearly as much sewing, knitting or embroidery as I’d like to have done (and frankly, who does), we have achieved a great deal:

Renovated the whole house – just the outside and the sewing room to do over the next year (hopefully – but don’t tell Mr S!)
Completed our assessment for adoption – all paperwork is now in and we are awaiting confirmation that we shall be at Panel on the 14th Jan.
Mr S passed his Prince 2 qualification first time out and secured a great new job. Snaps for Mr S.
I passed my Italian despite my complete lack of studying.
I completed a basic pattern drafting course and now have a full set of blocks.
We set the date for the wedding (not long now. Note to self – must lose weight and decide on wedding dress!)

Not too shabby in hindsight. No wonder we were tired!

Anyhoo – despite thinking we had all we needed, Santa took a slightly different view. I think he went down the route of “well, next year it’ll all be about the children” so we had to climb over piles of gifts to sit down in the sitting room on Christmas Day.

I’m not going to bore you to tears with the whole list of goodies, (it was enormous) but everyone was too generous (thank you all) and I got lots of lovely things to support my knitting, sewing and cooking obsessions. I think the squeals gave away my delight. But without doubt my absolute favourite gift (and one that hadn’t crossed even the darkest, dustiest recesses of my mind) was from Mr Stitches (who else?)

Apparently its a bit of a family tradition that eternity rings are given before the wedding and who am I to argue. The picture really doesn’t do it justice but for the record its white gold set with aquamarines and diamonds. The aquamarines are the exact same colour as my engagement ring. He is a marvel. I’m still not over the shock and find myself using my left hand more than usual!

I am a lucky girl.

There has been little crafting going on here over Christmas, mostly knitting whilst watching movies and munching chocolates. This scenario also included Amontillado sherry and/or Bailey’s lattes!

However I have finished the back and am one pattern repeat away from finishing the front on Mr Stitches French Sweater:

I’ve finished Butterick B5125:

This is made up in 100% cotton. The print was imported from the States last year – can’t for the life of me remember where from. The plain is just a quilting cotton from Hobbycraft. Very simple to make up and has a nice retro vibe about the styling.

I’ve also finished my first jersey top and have started birthday gifts for next year – but haven’t done the pics so will revisit them next year. I’ll also start thinking about projects for the New Year and getting the new look blog up and running (it’s a work in progress at the moment).

So for now I’ll say goodnight and wish you all a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year. May your dreams come true. See you in 2009!

Ramblings of a fevered mind

December 8, 2008

I CANNOT get rid of this bug. It’s driving me slowly round the bend. I sound like I’ve inhaled too much helium and I feel like roadkill. And all the time there is in my head the constant litany of things that need to be done and projects I want to complete.

Frankly, not much of anything is going here on except lying around eating cake.

In the last week I have:

finished the back of Mr Stitches French holiday sweater, and cast on the front;
made a further arm and leg for the doll I’m making my great-niece for Christmas (I’d rather stupidly only cut the poor creature one arm and leg initially)
baked two batches of cupcakes for friend’s birthdays
tidied the workroom
started stitching birthday cross stitches for next year (too organised, but they do take a while to complete)
had a lovely supper with Rick and Julia (just the loveliest people – and Charlie is besotted with Julia and pined for her all day Saturday after they left)
spent 4 hours trawling the Internet trying (unsuccessfully I might add) to locate the last few Christmas presents for the difficult family member (you KNOW who you are!)
made the Christmas pudding.

All fairly mundane and innocuous and uneventful. Indeed. Except for the making of the Christmas pudding.

Now I realise that Stir up Sunday was last weekend, but I couldn’t stir myself, never mind a pudding. So this Sunday I gathered Ma and Pa Stitches-in-law in person, and Ma and Pa Stitches via webcam, and commenced the annual ritual of the Making of the Christmas Pudding.

Normally this is a charming event which heralds the beginning of the fun of the Christmas festivities. We all gather together for tea and cake. We all stir and make a wish.

This year didn’t go quite according to plan.

Firstly, the webcam software was doing weird things, taking 30 minutes or so of Mr Stitches’ genius (and some inventive cursing) to resolve. As he was busy with this I was measuring ingredients into a bowl.

And attempting to make breadcrumbs.

Attempt number one resulted in the catch on the lid of the food processor snapping sending the lid and the bread within spinning into the air and across the room. It’s amazing how much breadcrumbs look like snow when you’re laughing till the tears flow.

So out came the blender. In went more bread. On went the switch. Out came a horrible noise and a huge puff of black and pungent smoke. End of attempt number two and much more hysterical laughter.

Third time was the charm. The blender worked and lo, there were breadcrumbs that we could use. And (if you ignore the exploding packet of suet) Seasonal goodwill was restored.

I just wonder if virtual stirring counts?????

Today is no better. I’m writing this at 12.52pm and all I’ve done is some post, some emails, two loads of laundry, and put the pudding on to steam. I’m supposed to be making Christmas cards, but then they were supposed to be done yesterday.

And I’m feeling flatter than a pancake as Social Services have closed submissions for the 7th January Panel date, so the earliest we’ll get now is the 14th January, and this won’t be confirmed until the New Year. The only blessing on this is that they are focusing on getting children through the system, which can only be a good thing, and we really don’t mind waiting if it means they are safe and happy. But a date would be a good thing.

So enough of these ramblings….I’m off to think about doing something. I shall report back when I have done so. I wouldn’t be holding your breath!

The 44th President of the United States of America

November 5, 2008

How do I envy the American people this morning?

Here we are frustrated by a stagnant Government who refuses to face the people, knowing how we feel, and what the outcome will be. However, when we do get the opportunity to have our say, how few of us will actually excercise that right? And, to be fair, our choices are not exactly inspirational.

Yesterday in America was a different story.

A compelling candidate.

Voters taking to the booths in their millions, queuing for hours whatever the weather to do so.

And a landslide victory for change and hope.

What’s not to envy?

And let’s not forget the historic aspect of this election, with Martin Luther King’s Dream being realised.

So, today, I am thrilled to see that ‘change has come to America’, and pray that soon we get, and take, the opportunity to bring change to our country too.

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