A Post with appalling picture quality.

Not Long Till Valentine's day!
I've been working for an Art Gallery near Newtown in Wales and didn't finish sewing till 1 am, so the pictures were taken in very poor artificial light, because all the items went off to Wales early this morning.


I've had these large blanket/kilt pins for ages and I've indulged myself. I've wanted to make these for a while but couldn't really justify them..what are they? Even I don't know. Large brooches or small wall hangings?


I just wanted to play with the tweed and velvet for its own sake.
(Oh the pictures are sooo bad)
There's an extraneous bit of red got onto this green one.


I wish you could really see this red in all its glory.

Besides these I made some more cuffs to go with the heart brooches.

Here's the coppery gold one.

The Gallery is having a Burns Night and Valentine event so these tweed hearts fill both bills!

Again the colours are all wrong.

(But you're an imaginative bunch so I'm sure you get the picture)

Now, I've been tagged twice on the same day.

Once by Lorie my dear distant friend and supporter, and once by Daisie who is probably the nearest blogger to me.
They were not exactly the same ..one was 6 things that make me happy every day, and the other was 6 things I love.

I'll just choose 6 nice things and invite anyone out there to do the same.

So, not counting the obvious..my family, here goes.

1.Walking round Tarn Hows on a crisp frosty winters day just as its going dark.

2. Eating and drinking in the company of close friends who you can be completely yourself with.

3. Northern Exposure TV series. I watched every single episode and loved every one.

4.Climbing into a freshly made bed into newly ironed cotton sheets.

5. Afternoon tea at Bettys

6.Sitting at my sewing machine with a huge pile of fabrics and threads and sewing.

I won't tag anyone else, but if you want to do it, link to me and tag 6 more...or don't.

Finally..how could I have been so stupid?

I have been reading about Cyber Fiber for quite some time now, and not really cottoned on the the idea that I could send a postcard to be exhibited before trading.

When I finally realised what an amazing job Susan Lenz has done I was so busy that it was quite hard to find the time to join in.

However today I managed to make one.

I was going to design something special, but in the end I decided 'stick with what you know'

And after that I wen to see my Mum for the afternoon.

We watched a DVD of Mamma Mia and had a glass of Baileys!

Simple pleasures.

More information than you need to know.

There will be more words in this post than I am used to because I’ve been tagged by ethel and edna

This means that I have to answer some questions about myself and then find 6 more people to tag.
Are there any volunteers out there?

Before I start, here’s a picture of a surprise in my garden.
I’d forgotten I’d planted the cowslips last year so I was happy to see them amongst the forget me nots.

I have a problem garden. Its shady, sometimes very windy, with a clay soil and its over-run, or should that be overslithered, with slugs and snails. My expectations were high once but as I saw my lupins languish, sweet peas stubbornly refuse to flower, and delphiniums disappear without a trace my optimism faded.

I have heard of people who watch cookery programmes on tv and then suffer from 'Kitchen performance anxiety'. I watch Monty Don and Rachael de Thame and I suffer from 'Garden performance anxiety'

All I can do is enjoy this time of the year when those plants which are happy, flourish in the adverse conditions.

Can you spot the damage?
Flushed with success at the sale of two of my green and orange brooches on ETSY I've made a lot more.









And now for the questions :

The rules of the game get posted at the beginning. Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.
1) What was I doing 10 years ago? 1998....? My sons were 13 and 15 and the older one was not interested in school so I spent a lot of time ‘encouraging’ him to finish his coursework for his GCSE’s.
I was working a lot as a supply teacher, and excited at the prospect of starting to exhibit and sell my embroidery. I was also approaching 47! I remember the week before my birthday I said to a friend ‘I’m 47 next week. Yippee’ in as deadpan a voice as I could muster to illustrate the prospect. Strange how that prospect would seem much more exciting now I am approaching 57!
2) What are 5 things on my to-do list for today (not in any particular order)
Answer these questions and post them on my blog.
Check for comments.
Check for comments
Check for comments. (Can you tell I’m quite keen on comments?)
Go for a walk.
3) Snacks I enjoy: Toast with marmalade, ice-cold chocolate.(But I’m not fussy I’ll force it down if its at room temp.)
4) Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
I’d have to start by getting rid of a lot of it by giving it to all my friends and relatives and respond to appeals I’ve heard now and then which have caught my attention, and hope I could really make a difference. There are so many.
Employ someone to remove all the slugs and snails from my garden then I could grow my favourite flowers.
Get the roof fixed and the house painted.
Buy a big chunk of the local countryside so it won’t get built on.
Buy a laser eye machine with staff for my local hospital. My Mum had her eyes ‘lasered’ which enabled her to drive again but she had to wait longer than she should have for an appointment at another hospital. It changed her life so much for the better.
Buy a cottage in the Lake District with a view to moving there to live. (I couldn’t just upsticks and leave my house..it would take me a while to ‘separate’) But I am aware that Lakeland residents can’t afford to buy houses for themselves, because of outsiders raising the value, so I’d use my money to find a solution because I’d feel guilty otherwise.
5) Places I have lived:
Not many: Penwortham, Near Preston; Strawberry Hill, Twickenham and Teddington, (when I was at St Mary’s College); Twickenham again for 3 years teaching; Penwortham again; Manchester for 6 weeks (in my husbands flat when we were first married before we bought our own house); Higher Wheelton; and finally for the last 23 years, Brinscall.
6) 6 peeps I wanna know more about: There are a lot more than 6.
I am not brave enough to TAG anyone in case they have already done it, and in this early stage of my blogging career I have to play safe, so if 6 people would like to volunteer........?

And finally...next week Issue 4 of

Have you noticed the colour? Its a coincidence. Honest.