Lazy Day

A beautiful sunny day, decided it would be lazy day didn't want to go far, sat by the side of lock Morlick for lunch,

Then we went for a short walk.

After checking there web site to see if they were open we went to the fantastic Potting Shed.

 There were a lot of cars parked a little worried we would not get a seat in the viewing gallery to watch the bird feeding stations, but we were lucky someone was leaving as we arrived.

Not quite sure how many points too allocate this! will have to go for a swim tonight.

1st sighting

How strange in my previous posting I mentioned had anyone seen any Christmas cards then what do I see a few hours later here when we stopped.

They even had next years calendars as well.

Off to Scotland

Our holiday to Scotland has started we have gone a bit later this year as we usually go in June we have stopped off at our favourite services, this is the view from our seating

And the usual coffee minus the tiffin as I am on a diet and we have already stopped at McDonald's for breakfast lost 4lbs last week so need to be good needs to stick to the points!

Yesterday went to the Needlecrafts and Quilt show in Harrogate, I did add to my stash but did restraine myself 

This one included knitting The Tower of London and many of the poppies where knitted.

I believe there is about 16 weeks to Christmas anyone seen any Christmas cards in the shops yet?

This year I have a big birthday Christmas week so I have managed to get a weeks holiday at work and I have booked a holiday so we will be in Austria.

Have you seen the Cats?

We go to York a lot shopping has anyone ever noticed the Cats?

All over the town center you will see cats on buildings.

There are 21 cats on buildings in York. The majority of the surviving examples date from the Victorian era, originally the statues go back too Medieval times and were put up to keep rats away, the black rat once numerous in England (before the Brown Rat muscled in) was a noted climber and would live in house lofts. The Cat statue was also ment to bring luck to the occupants. The Victorians carried on this tradition as a decorative feature. ( Cat pictures from Hubby)

You also find a lot of street performers in York.

Double rainbow

Here on the East Coast just had a quick shower of rain about to take Penny for a walk this is whatI saw  when I opened the door,

I have never seen a double rainbow before.

My cute little Jack Russell.

August nearly over!

This year is going fast, the Bank holday weekend is nearly here, I finished work today and I have two weeks holday with added days off so I am off for 20 days.

The beginning of the month I started off going to the Festival of Quilts at Birmingham, this is over 4 days  I only went for the day unfortunately, it is hard to see everything in a day. I have a couple of quilt workshops coming up so I wanted to get some fabric for that.

Here are some of the fantastic quilts on show.

You also walk around the show and it is spot the celebrity well this is who I found, the fashion designer Zandra Rhodes who has designed a range of fabric.

I have been beading this month, I went to a workshop in Farndale which is hidden on the North Yorkshire Moores.

I was in the village hall in the valley bottom.

Beading with Marcia DeCoster

The 1st weekend this month I was lucky to attend two bead workshops with Marcia DeCoster a Bead designer from the USA, our bead group and a couple of others had arranged for her to come over and teach some classes. She started out in Robinhoods Bay on the North Yorkshire Coast.

Saturdays class was called a touch of whimsy and we nearly manged to finish it in class, I did finish it that evening and wore it the next day.

Sunday Class was called Romantica it was a lariat, I didn't manage to do as much this time.

This above pictures are of Marcia's lariet as you need to make loads of components, before making it up.

We all had a great weekend beading with Marcia.

I have not done much beading this year but the class got me going again so I got a UFO out from a class I did last September with Melanie Potter, most of the others have finished theirs so I thought I should get on with it.

This is what I had done in class last year this is what I have done in the last 2 weeks.

I have also signed up to a mystery week long bead along which starts the 25th July there is some pre beading to be done bezelling some riviols. 

Gifted Gorgeousness July

I am a couple of days late but here is what  I have gifted in the last month and received.

I took part in a Christmas Ornament Exchange with HOE.

This is what I sent to Carol in the USA a Lizzie Kate pattern called Noël.

 I received this beautiful ornament in the post from Gabriele in Australia,  it is from Country Cottage Needleworks stitched in recommended threads, 

At the end of June when I went away with my mother for a stitching weekend I made myself a  project bag using a piece of stitching I had done from Little House Needlework.

I had also made myself a thread Wardrobe which I had seen on a Blog.

I also made myself a matching thread catcher I decided to make my Mother a project bag as well this matched a little bag I had previously made her.

I made quite a few of my thread catchers and gave them away to the ladies we sat with,

One of the ladies sent me a surprise in the post as a thank-you for the thread catcher this is what I received.