Siberian Gold - May Progress

I've made a fair bit of progress with the Tigers this month, which is great. Mostly because I haven't really worked on much else and this is an easy one to pick up and put down whenever I have a spare half hour. This is where I was at the end of April.
And here we are at the end of May
The top right quarter is finished and I'm now starting to work on the final quarter of the picture. There is a reasonable amount of background in this section and some of that is done in half cross stitch which is why there has been quite a bit of progress.
It feels good to be on the final page of the pattern, but still a little daunting to have so much space left to fill in. My goal is to try and have this finished by the end of 2010. We'll see ......

Lovely Ladybird

I was hoping to do a post about the garden today, was going to share some pictures of the lovely veggies that are growing, but somehow I managed to transfer my pics to the computer and then promptly deleted them from both camera and computer, ooops.



This little ladybird is the only one that didn't get lost so she's all I have to offer today.



Hope you all have a great weekend.

Local Walking - Box

So a couple of my recent 'out and about' posts have been catch up on bits and pieces done over the last few months that I haven't had time to blog about. There are still a few more catch up posts to come but for now here is something a bit more recent.A week last Sunday, on an absolutely beautiful day I took a walk around about the village of Box.

It started with a stroll through a beautiful water garden, which looked spectacular in all it's yellow and green finery, water sparkling in the sunshine.

The water theme continued as the walk took me along river banks, with attractive old farm buildings, long since disused, reflecting brilliantly in the calm waters.

And I loved this fishing sign all overgrown with a tangle of ivy and vines.

Then it was a push on up hill, with these adorable little calves to stop and smile at on the way up.

They were all busy chomping away on their lunch apart from this little fellow who had his eye on me, making sure I wasn't up to any mischief I'm sure.

The slog to the top of the hill was well worth it, for the beautiful view back down to Box and the countryside beyond.

The fields were covered with hundreds of dandelions all in various stages of decay.

The route back down hill was via a very pretty little bluebell wood.

It was so tranquil in the wood, not another soul to be seen. I figured that this might have been down to a rather menacing looking green man that I saw along the way.

Can you see him too? He didn't give me any bother and was amenable enough to pose for my photo, I think he was a softy in disguise. It's so true what they say about looks being deceiving.

Look he even arranged to leave a beautiful blue balloon on the path just for me. :) A fabulous and unexpected gift.

Birmingham By Day

Back a few weeks ago I posted about I trip I took to Birmingham. I shared my trip to the stitch show at the NEC and a whistle stop tour round Birmingham at night. Here are a few snaps from Birmingham by day.

Here is that Iconic Bullring building in the day light along with a shot of the lovely fountain that stands nearby. I just love all the square shapes.

The Bullring was hosting a CSI exhibition when I visited. I'm a huge fan of the show so I couldn't resist going in and trying my hand at solving a crime.

You got to choose from several scenarios, and I opted to try and solve the mystery of the body in the desert.

If I'm honest it wasn't very taxing and the crime was pretty easily solved, but I had fun none the less wandering round the exhibit hunting for clues and getting lab results :) I went to Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery to see some items from the Staffordshire Hoard on display, which was fabulous, but no pictures allowed of that exhibition. There is plenty for the textile enthusiast to see though, including some fabulous cross stitch designs from China (not easy to take pictures of though).

Also from around the museum I loved this very serene looking Buddha

And was blown away by some of the fabulous ceramic works of Philip Eglin. My favourite was this 'Seated Nude'

Before I left Birmingham there was just time for a bit of shopping round and about the famous bullring markets.

Mini Doll Swap

If you've been following my to do lists you might remember that I was running way behind on a doll swap that was happening over at Artsnthemail. Well I finally got to stitching in the sunshine at the weekend. It all started with a scrap.
A few more scraps, some stitching and embellishments later and a doll finally emerged.

She was quickly followed by two more, here they are all lined up in a row.

Had lots of fun making these, and was left wondering why I hadn't got round to them sooner!!

My faces definitely some improvement but hopefully they will get better with some practise, I never have been any good at drawing.

They are now all off flying to various parts of the world to their new homes, and I feel so much happier now they are done and I've caught up on my swap commitment.

St Giles - Stanton St Quinton

Going back a little while, I decided to start taking my camera out and about with me even on work days. I think I may have already said that part of my job takes me out and about so I'm trying to time some of my lunch breaks so that I get to wander round a few of the local villages I visit.A little while back I took a wander round Stanton St Quinton, I didn't really get much further than the church, its such a pretty place. Look you can tell how long ago this was as the church yard was covered in snow drops.
This church is part of the Living Churchyard project.

Volunteers meet up on a regular basis to help make the church a wildlife friendly place. I loved all the old grave markers.

This one made me smile, looks like whoever was resident made a break for it. If anyone comes across a member of the undead wandering Wiltshire you might want to point him back home :)

There were lots of interesting carvings on the tombs, and the church is covered in fabulous grotesques.

I've since found out that there is a Sheela Na Gig, hidden on the church somewhere so will have to go back to see if I can find her.

Hope you enjoyed coming on a lunchtime wander with me.

Cat Squares

Have begun to think about the cat cushion project again but am a bit stuck as to how to go forward with it. Have a couple of ideas but at the moment am not sure exactly which direction to go.

If you remember while back when I wrote about unpicking the cushion it sort of became a bit of a symbol for me, connected to the unravelling of my old life and beginning to start out on a new phase in the journey of my life.

So now the question is do I want my new life to be bright and bold and full of adventure and new experiences.

or something a bit more muted, settled, comfortable, with time to just contemplate, time to just be and time to concentrate on the things that I already know and love.

Any suggestions gratefully received!!! :)

Pay It Forward

I've decided to join a Pay it Forward which I saw over on Loopy Lou's blog At some point in the future I'll be receiving a handmade gift, yay! :)

In return I need some volunteers to receive something from me and take up the PIF mantle themselves. Here are the rules of the game .

I’ll be sending a package of a handmade gift to each of five recipients and they, in turn, will pay it forward by sending packages to five others under the same rules, thereby continuing to spread the love. The gifts may be very small and need not be expensive at all. There are no deadlines and no need to hurry.....in fact no pressure at all. After being chosen, you can opt to post about the Pay It Forward challenge straight away on your own blog and get the ball rolling or, you can wait until you receive your Pay It Forward gift package from me.

So if you would like to participate, please leave a comment.