Needlework Fiesta

Hello lovely bloggers :o)

Hope you're all well and happy?

Goodness, May already!  Where does the time go?!

Well I spent some time at the weekend visiting a local needlework fiesta. It was in Brockenhurst in the New Forest.  I took loads of pictures to share with you, and I did wish that several of you lovely ladies who read this blog were there with me!!  I just knew that you would have loved it, and appreciated it!

But anyway, I took some photos for you to share!

Gorgeous felt balls. Someone had been really busy making dozens of these things!

A most beautifully embroidered mirror.

This quilt represents the trunk of an oak tree. It measures 12 x 12". it won the quilting competition!

I did like this one better though!

A beautifully embroidered 'Fay Maxwell' cushion..

Honestly there was just so much to see, and I took dozens of photos.

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My eldest daughter had a friend round to do some cooking at the weekend too.

They made this lemon and almond cake totally between them..bless 'em...

It was delicious. (Yes Jennie, I naughtily had a tiny slice! lol)

And the quilt for my daughters Teaching assistant is still a work in progress.

The trouble is that as my daughter is the one doing the actual 'hand quilting' on it, she is also at the same time finishing off her textile art GCSE coursework. So obviously that was the priority.

But that all has to be handed in this Friday, so I'm hoping that she'll then crack on and get this quilting done.

I also have two more quilts on the go at the moment!  Talk about biting off more than you can chew!

Oh, and one thing I'm excited about is my eldest daughters prom in June. She has said all along she isn't going to go, but we had a shopping trip on Monday, and whilst there she decided to buy her prom dress!! I was so excited that she wanted to go! And her dress is really pretty. I'll show you in a few weeks.

As most of you know, she has epilepsy with seizures day and night. This means that she never ever wears dresses which I think is the reason she didn't want to go to the prom. But this dress (without ANY encouringing from me I promise!) just caught her eye, so I was just so pleased she's decided to take the plunge!

(I will be there hiding a corner of the prom room to look after her, so will make sure she is safe and covered if she has a seizure  -bless her!)

Anyway, that's it for me today.

You lovely people take it easy and don't let this grey weather get you down.

Take care everyone.

Love Donna xx

How we got on....

Evening lovely bloggy people :o)

Hope this post finds you all fine and dandy?

This is just a post to let you all know how we got on yesterday in London.

I've got some lovely thrifty treasures to show you all as well, but I keep forgetting to post them, so I'll show you them later in the week.

Have all yours got half term this week?

Mine have. Isn't it early this year? Who ever heard of half-term during Valentines Day?  I mean how were the children supposed to get their secret cards to each other?  AAaaaaww, a few disppointed children this year I bet...Bless 'em.

Anyway, as usual I digress...

Right. Kings College, London.

After all the tests that my eldest had last October, they still can't pinpoint where her seizures are coming from.  So they want to send her to Belguim.  There she will have something called a spect scan.

This is where someone sits by her all the time, and the second she starts fitting they inject her with a dye.

They then whizz her to the MRI scanner and scan her brain. In theory the dye should show up brighter in the part of her brain where the seizure comes from....

Then we will go back to Kings college, and they'll look at the results from Belguim and if they think they can see where the seizure is coming from they will commence brain surgery....

But we can't go to Belguim until at least late May as they have to get permission from our local NHS Trust, then once that is given, they have to get permission from another area of the Government to take her there......

But the ball is rolling.... So we will wait and see.

That's keeping a very long story short!

Thankyou all for your support and kind words about my daughter. They do mean a lot to me you know!

*****~~~*****

After we had our hospital appointment yesterday, we decide to go and look at a few of the touristy landmarks..

I used to love Kings Road in my younger days.  All the indie shops and cool, trendy people...

Alas, I found it lacking in all these now....much more in favour of mass production I fear.....

I found one shop I liked though ...Good ole' Cath'..

And my youngest daughter legged it down the raod when she spied Accessorize...

Not that we haven't got one in our nearest town or anything ....lol

I loved this old silver double decker...those were the days when you could run and jump on...and off again if you were really naughty! ;o)

'Scuse the bad pictures some of them were taken as we were driving along.

OOoo, you should have seen the Fortnum and Mason store.... The colours on it's frontage were divine, and I loved the musical notes going all the way up the front of the store..

I thought these houses looked pretty with all their pastel fronts...

And this building was called Duke of Yorks Headquarters...

Not sure if it actually is, but it looked impressive anyway, so you got to see it! LOL

And Buckingham Palace.  I always want to paint a huge union jack on Buckingham Palace when I see it!! I'm sure it would make it look more Regal and impressive with red, white and blue blazoned all over the front in a huge flag...Don't you think?  ;o)

And this building I haven't got a clue what its called, but it's at the back of St James Park! I love its roof towers!

And look at these two little chaps doing their jobs...  I did feel for them, they both looked so young...

Harrods is the humungous building on the left...

And this was the .....something Mandarin Hotel, which looked most impressive with the door guys hanging out the front :o)

And I couldn't finish without showing you the first patch of crocus that we found in Battersea Park yesterday....

This picture is for you if you've got to reading this far... :o)

Take care all, and have a great weekend now.

Hopefully I'll get my thrify post up sometime soon, then I even have some makes to show you :o)

Just one day at a time...

Love Donna xx



It's Christmas time :o)

Well Hello lovely bloggy people.

Hope this post finds you all fine and dandy?

I've been a bad blogger recently haven't I? Sorry, but I've been feeling a bit like the weather...cold, wet & miserable!  But don't worry, i'll get over it soon I'm sure :o)    It just seems harder this time shaking off those grey days....I think some frost would do me good! You know, one of those bright, crisp white mornings with the sun sparkling off the white crystals...or even some SNOW!!!  lol

Anyway, enough moaning.   I haven't exactly been doing much to tell you about.....A bit of thrifting here and there. I found a fantastic sewing book in the charity shop!

It's called 'The Pictorial Guide to Modern Home Needlecraft'. It's one of the BEST sewing books I have seen! It's fantastic with plain, common sense advice and basic (note that basic word :o) instructions which are just fabulous to understand.

But girls, guess how old it is?

1946!   Honestly though if you find one, snap it up because it's brilliant!

I also found this lovely Wade fluted dish.  The jurys out on wether it's an ashtray or just a dish actually. I really liked the colour, and the prettiness of it, so I'm kinda hoping it isn't an ashtry lol.

Here's a picture our tree at last.  It's so nice to have a real tree again.

But they are jolly expensive this year aren't they?  Some of them were £45.00 plus!!!

Mine wasn't I hasten to add! But it was nearly there I can tell you.

I was thinking of not getting one, and just using our fibre optic one that we have in the hall way.

This picture's looking up the hall towards the front door. With the fibre optic tree on and our retro style outside lights on...

I love looking out at them:O)

Well, have you all finished your Christmas shopping then? We haven't! Have still got some to do on Monday, but the children broke up from school today, so it's gonna be hard shopping with them in tow!

I'm off tailing my eldest daughter round town tomorrow. Literally :o)

Well, her girlfriends want her to go shopping with them, and as you know she has seizures every day, and I can't just shift the responsibility onto a group of 15-16year olds can I? 

So they're all going round together, and I'm following at a distance to be there in the event of a seizure. I know I'm gonna feel a bit strange spying on a group of kids I can tell ya! lol.

My big girl is so good. Bless her. What 16year old do you know that knows she can't go anywhere with out her Mum or Dad even shopping with her friends, and doesn't even moan about it.. Bless her.

I've been trying to persuade my little girl (12year old) to come with me, but she doesn't see the fun in it either ..lol.

Anyway, I'm hoping to get back on here before the big day, as I can show you my finished makes then.

But if not my lovely people,

HAVE AN AWESOME CHRISTMAS!!!

you hear?

And a VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR!

And if I don't speak to you soon, I'll speak to you next year :o)

Take care, and have fun.

Love Donna xx

Tags and embroidery

Well hello lovely bloggy people :o)

Hope this finds you all fine n dandy this last day of November.

Autumns' arrived here in the south/west at last!  We had our first mild frost at the begining of the week, and that old wind has been a bit raw round here!

I've been busy with a few Christmas makes, but I have to admit to being a bit miserable of late!

I've had the lurgy now since we came out of hospital (grrr) and it's just not going!

Still, I thought I'd better get round to doing at least two posts during November, and today is my last chance to get the second one in!    :o)

I've been a bit obsessed with tags of late.  I used to do a lot of 'tag art' when I was in into papercraft in the late 90's early 00's, and I seem to have picked up the habit again with fabric crafting!

I've listed a few in my Etsy shop, but I'm making summery ones at the moment when I get a spare minute, to list in the New Year.

It hasn't stopped me buying some gorgeous paper ones though when I've seen them.

look at these cuties..

I saw these in the charity shop for 20p a packet, and they were just so cute and whimsical i couldn't leave them there.

I think they're probably from the eighties.

The ones below are going to be the ones From Santa this year, so these are well hidden..

And these ones I just loved :o)

And I actually bought the BBC 'Homes and Antiques' magazine whilst in hospital, just so's I could get my mitts on these lovely tags!  lol

I've been doing some embroidery too....

Using some of my old rubber stamps to stamp on some cotton,

Then embroider round the edges and watercolour in the middles....

I haven't got round to watercolouring the middles yet,

But they're sweet aren't they?...

And i've been making some of the things below, but this is just a little peek, as they aren't quite ready yet..

I also keep meaning to tell you I won my fight!!

You probably don't remember, but back in September I told you I was off up the school to start what I knew would be a long drawn out process with the school over my eldest daughters post 16 education (i.e. Year 12/6th form)

She can only go to school part time due to her seizures, and obviously some of that time she isn't there either as she is ill.

But they still said that she had to get the full monty in exam results in order to get any 6th form education with them.

(in my daughters case, this would have meant getting 100% in her exam marks, where as other children without any special needs only have to get about 55%.)

Well, after a bit of a battle, they've said she can go in the 6th form!! Which to us is brilliant news! 'Specially as the nearest colleges are about 40 mins away depending on traffic!

They've said she can much earlier than we anticipated, which we think is great, as we were expecting to fight right up until next June if need be!  So that is a real worry off our minds I can tell you :o)

The last thing we would want is for her to leave school next year, and sit on her bum isolated from everyone!  Goodness, I couldn't let her do that now, could I?

Anyway, it's all sorted now as far as me and the Head of 6th form are concerned.

I'm not supposed to tell anyone yet (you won't tell anyone though will you ;o) as she is going to be the exception, so I felt a bit of a fraud when I was talking to one of the deputy heads the other day about her post 6th form education, and he was saying how they won't take her !

Still, it's not my job to tell him now is it?

And we haven't told our daughter yet either, as she is taking her mock GCSE's at the moment, and we don't want her to think (not that we actually think she would, but you never know;o) that she doesn't have to try 'cos she's already got a place!

I have to admit to feeling a tad guilty telling you all, but I do know a few of you are so caring and I'd sure want to know if it was you ;o)

Anyway, that's it for me oh, 'cept I  promised to show you all this..

Aaaaww...

My youngest daughter has been re-cycling and making Christmas things.

this is her snow globe...

Made from:

An old coffee jar, a christmas picture printed off the internet, some polystyrene and glitter.

She's made something else too, but I'll show you that in the week :O)

Right, I'm off now to get three advent calendars as I forgot them.. I know, how un-organised can you get lol.

Take care my lovely people. You've cheered me up having a yack :o)

Love Donna xx



Strange goings on :o)

Good Morning dear bloggy people :o)

I hope this post finds you all fine n dandy this Sunday morning :o)

Autumns here at last!   I love the crisp, cool, frosty mornings, but again this weekend is an extemely strange, warm morning for late October.

Just take a look at the contents of these photos for October in East Dorset..

Ok, ok, only joking!  ;o)

The above photo is from last year, but i just thought I'd remind you all of the gorgeous snow we had last December before we go on...;o)

Now, the one below is real! Taken this week in my garden..

It's my native hazel bush that I've grown from a nut..

See it's dying leaves..just a few left..?

Well, look closer, and you'll also see on the bush at the same time

some new buds, and catkins!  -Along with the dying leaves!

What's going on? These catkins aren't supposed to appear before next spring. Does this mean we will have no buds next spring?  As the frost will soon kill them off.. :o(

And also in my garden last week..

Look, my forsythia with it's autumnal leaves, and it's January flowers!!

Forsythia flowers normally appear in January *before* the leaves come on the branches, but as my leaves are curently dying, so my flowers are appearing!

I also have strawberries coming out now..

These type of strawberries are usually out in July/August.

But my dahlias are just pretties..

and they can come out until November apparently if the frosts aren't too bad :o)

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Remember my half finished hand warmers from my last post? Well, I finished them,

and have crocheted 3 more pairs since then, but unfortunately I haven't photographed them.

I've been busy making more bits for my Etsy shop too.

*Pin wheel brooches*

*Christmas cake picks*  I've made all sorts of these..snowflakes, butterflies etc..

*Pentagon christmas crochet bunting*

And *zip brooches and hair grips*

Although I have to say I've been somewhat of a 'slacker'  (as Jennie would say;o))

in the listing of products in my shop.

I mean I *still* haven't listed the makes I made during the summer holidays!

And in a couple of weeks my eldest daughter is going for a short stay in Kings College hospital London, so I'm not sure whether to list now, or now wait until we come out!

Honestly, sometimes I do make life hard for myself :o)

I also haven't forgotten my recipe from my last post for the quiche/tart.

I've taken some lovely photos for it, and I shall get the recipe up on a 'stand alone' page as soon as I have time.

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This weekend has been all about tidying. As I'm staying at the hospital with my daughter I need to get everything ship shape at home so that hubby and the other two children don't have to do much whilst I'm gone.

And I have some custom bunting to make for a 40th birthday too, which needs to be done before I go.  But I'll tell you more about that in a few weeks.

Well, anyway, that's it for me today.

I have loads to write about, as I haven't had the heart to blog these past couple of weeks ..I don't know why. I mean I've been about, just didn't feel much like posting. And I think sometimes when blogger is going wrong and you can't comment and stuff, it all gets a bit frustrating!  Maybe I just give up too easily lol.     Do you ever get like that?

Well, have a lovely Sunday everyone. And if your children are off school this week for half term like mine are, have a gorgeous autumny time won't you?

Take care all of you,

Love Donna xx