Charlie's first harvest!

Our lovely neighbour watered and tended to Charlie's strawberry plants whilst we were away and Charlie was extremely delighted and proud that there were lovely juicy red strawberries on it on our return! He took great delight in picking off the ripe strawberries, he collected six in total (there looks more in the bowl because he squished a couple into more pieces, LOL) Mark and I had one each and Charlie ate the remainder for his dessert after tea, bless him ♥ (and yes, the one I had was delicious!)

Holiday sewing

I took a couple of pieces with me to do whilst on holiday. There was a lovely window seat in the living room so I spent my evenings there stitching. I cross stitched June's My Little Heart stitch along first, I truly love how this piece is coming together and get excited every month to see the next instalment, LOL! Then i've made a start to a cat with a camera which I think i'll make into a coaster when it's finished. :D

A week in Ayr, Scotland

We've just had a wonderful holiday in Ayr with Mark's parents. We rented a cottage which was part of Blairquhan Castle (if you click on accommodation, then cottages and then Kennedy cottage you'll see our cottage!) It was an amazing place to stay, very peaceful and relaxing. There was a little swing park for Charlie to play on, a beautiful lake where we went to feed the geese and ducks. Also an enchanting secret walled garden. Hughie and I rented out bikes so we could explore the grounds, unfortunately the bikes weren't very well maintained and I had a puncture, it was repaired but it must have had 2 as the tyre went straight back down, LOL! On the Thursday morning we were given a tour of the castle which was very good and the views were stunning! The castle is up for sale at the moment with a whopping £4.85 million tag!!!
If i'm honest the castle was quite remote, which in a way was a good thing but it meant a little trek every time we went out. We had some fantastic days out! A farm park, the Electric Brae (which we couldn't feel, LOL) Dunure Castle, Ayr shopping, the beach, Mark, Charlie and I went to Cambrae Island where we hired bikes and cycled around the border of the island (approx 10 miles) plus we did loads more!! On the way home we took a small detour to take Charlie to Hadrian's Wall.
I've made a picasa collage of the photos as there were so many I wanted to show, i've left it full size so if you click on it you can see the photos in more detail.

Happy Father's Day!!

To Daddy, I love you lots and lots, Charlie xxx

I took this picci this morning (Saturday) Look how Charlie puts his thumb up!! Bless♥

Strawberry update!!

Charlie has been doing really well tending to his strawberry plants. He goes out everyday to water them and enjoys having a look at them! This morning Mark noticed that the strawberries have started to grow! Charlie is delighted, bless him!♥

The *almost* finished house!!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE our Larmour house!! I'll love it even more once it's complete when our family is complete!!♥♥♥

.......and finally!!

It's lil' ol' me!!! The shoes on the chart were a brown colour but i've stitched mine green to remind me of my gorgeous summer shoes {here}
Though technically I am not last as I still have our little girl's window to stitch but I will await news of her before I stitch her. :wub:

Beautiful view

This is the photo I was going to upload last night. I love living on the coast, we're very lucky having a good promenade to cycle along. I see some very stunning views during my bike rides.

15.3 miles

I'd planned allsorts for this blog post but it's 12:50am and i'm too tired but wanted to make a note of the milage I did tonight!! I went to Carnforth and had a coffee with my friends, Tim and Elizabeth. I rode back to Sylvia ans Hughie's via Broadway to leave my bike there whilst we're away on holiday. I took a gorgeous picci across the bay on my return home, i'll try and upload it tomorrow!

Mark / Daddy

Yay, I managed to stitch Mark without having to do any unpicking!! LOL!

(I'm really sorry, my blog just seems to be about my bike rides and cross stitching at the mo!! We're going on holiday on Sunday to Scotland, maybe I can offer some more interesting posts on my return, LOL!)

10 miles

I had said to myself that I wasn't going to cycle this evening as i'm tired and with oscilating aswell have been wondering if i'm over doing it. Anyway, Mark came home early from work today so we went for a lovely walk around Heysham with Charlie. I cross stitched a little when we got home and then got itchy feet to have a cycle!! I was really proud when I managed to knock 1min30secs off my best time to VVV (4.85 miles in 22 minutes exact!) I really went for it and was reaching up to 16mph! I had my usual 10 mins or so break, turned around and then I realised how super windy it was!!! No wonder I rode down so fast!! I really struggled against the wind, LOL!!! I decided to have a little detour on the way home and went via Strawberry Gardens as it's a little flatter and I was cream crackered!! LOL!

Calico's window

I can't believe I did it again on Calico's window!! I'd stitched all of the ginger colour and realised i'd centered her from the bottom, therefore her head was a bit too close to the curtains on the right! So I had to unpick it all and move her 3 stitches to the left! It was a little complicated as the tabby cat design is in the round window at the top of the house where Gizzy is so I had to adapt it to fit into one of the square windows. In the end I made a copy of the chart, cut the cat out and positioned her in a square window so I knew I had her exactly in the middle. I've stitched the whole of the house with no troubles at all and then in the last couple of days made 2 silly errors!! :rolls eyes: LOL!

Charlie's window

I had a little accident whilst stitching Charlie!! I miscounted just one stitch on his face and he ended up with lob sided ears, LOL!! It was too complicated to try and correct so I ended up unpicking it all and re-doing it!!

17.7 miles

Hughie and I had a lovely ride today! We wanted to vary our route a little so not to get bored, LOL! We started off on the prom and headed towards Hest Bank. Got on the canal there to the golf course at Lancaster. I didn't realise you could get off the canal there! It comes out at Caton Road so we crossed the road and joined the cycle path and headed up to Bull Beck. We then just took the 'normal' route back!

12.6 miles

The weather has been very hit and miss again today (what happened to Summer?) I managed to dodge the showers though and went along the prom to Hest Bank then onto the canal towards Lancaster. I mentioned on the 4th of June about seeing the Swan and cygnets, I saw them again today and thought to take a photo on my phone camera, I have to say i'm quite impressed with the quality! Not long after this pic was taken, i'm guessing it was Daddy swan, let me know he wasn't too happy at me getting too close to his babies, bless him!!

I continued along the canal, over the viaduct and came off at the terraced houses. I went down towards the cycle path and joined it just by Sainsburys and took the cycle path all the way back to Sylvia and Hughies.

Visit to Jen's

*I posted this on Saturday but can't have hit 'post' correctly as i've just found it in drafts!!*

Charlie and I went to visit Jen yesterday (Friday) afternoon, I hadn't realised her boys, Daniel and Noah were off school still as they had 2 weeks school holiday so that was a lovely surprise and they did an amazing job keeping Charlie entertained! When we arrived Jen had prepared a lovely lunch for us and I provided chocolate muffins (how naughty am I!!) Jen and I had a lovely natter whilst all 3 boys played really nicely outside. We then had a little walk into town to have a look at Home Bargains! That shop has some amazing bargains! We picked up some puffy stickers for 29p and I bought a nice 'Family' wooden word sign for £1.99. (I took a couple of pics to share whilst in town but I didn't manage to capture one of everybody looking!) Our visit flew by and we left around 5 as I was oscilating at 6:30. We had a bit of a nightmare going home, a combination of Friday night traffic, 3 lots of road works and a detour to Carnforth as i'd heard on the radio there was a bad accident at Lancaster so decided to avoid the area completely!! Hey ho though, I got back just in time for my oscilating appointment so it was OK.
I always love seeing Jen, she's such an inspiring and caring person. I truly admire her and will miss her terribly when she emigrates to New Zealand but I know i'll be visiting some time! (I know you'll be reading this Jen so you'd better warn Grant that he's not safe from Talky2!!!!! Even if he does move to the other side of the world! LOL!)

Gizzy's window.

The house is finished!! Yay!

It's taken me exactly 2 months to stitch (I started on the 8th April but not stitched on it every day.) It's huge, alot bigger than I expected but I absolutely adore it, all it needs now are some occupants!♥ Gizzy is going in the round window, Charlie in the top left window, our little girl top right (but I won't be stitching her until we hear about her.) Then Calico in the bottom window and Mark and I stand in the doorway!!

9.75 miles

Wow! 3 days in a row on my bike, LOL!! I did VVV and back tonight!

16.8 miles

It was a gorgeous day for cycling, just right, not too hot to cycle but pleasant enough for T shirt and shorts!! (yes I got my legs out!! LOL!!) Good job we went when we did as it's rained constantly since!! We need the showers though, hopefully it'll clear the sky a little! Today we cycled to Glasson Dock and back, I was so proud of myself I more or less kept a constant 12mph! Normally I keep to around 10mph and have bursts of 12!!! LOL!

4.5 miles :chuckle:

I know!! 4.5 miles is pathetic to what I normally cycle but it's on and off rained here today and I needed to get my bike back to Mark's mum and dad's for my bike ride with Hughie tomorrow. So I braved the rain to cycle down to their house! I suppose I deserve a little pat on the back for actually cycling it though as I could've just asked Mark to take it down in the van, LOL!!!

Saturday scrapping!

I made this paper layout earlier this evening which went quite well and i've spent the last couple of hours faffing with a digi layout that I just can't get to 'come together'!!! I think i'm just going to have to leave it now and come to it again with a fresh mind tomorrow!!

A good shopping day!

I've been itching to go to Barrowford for a few weeks, there's a shop there called Patchwork Chicks and she stocks the most gorgeous fabrics. I was going to go yesterday but Charlie was a little under the weather so I thought it wasn't fair to take him there with me so we stayed home. So today Charlie stayed home with Daddy and I went off on my own! It was such fun being able to browse, I hardly get to do that these days!! LOL! Since I went last she's started stocking a lot more habedashery type things and i'm a sucker for ric rac and pretty buttons!! I could have easily bought every button in the shop, they were all gorgeous! I love my new Tilda tin♥, i'm going to store my new shiny threads that I bought from Topaz in it. Talking of Topaz that's where I went after Barrowford! It's in Oswaldtwistle and only a few miles from Barrowford so it would have been rude not to call! They had bargain tables set up outside, the chappie was giving out carrier bags and we were told to 'stuff 'em', LOL! There was some really good bits, a folder full of peel offs (none used) sticky dots, punches, stickers, tapes, page protectors and loads of rubber stamps but I was good and didn't pick any of those, although I did look!! ;) Imagine my absolute surprise when he said £8.00 to me!! All that loot for just £8.00!! BARGAIN!!

So cute, all my family came out to wave me off ♥♥♥

I love how she uses brown paper bags for packaging! (at Patchwork Chicks)

Such pretty buttons♥

My £8.00 loot!!

I'd have paid £8 just for the sparkly thread!!

18.2 miles

I'm slipping! this is the first time i've been on my bike all week, i'm going to blame it on Charlie's b'day celebrations and Bank Holiday, LOL!! I wanted to do a longer ride tonight so decided to go to Carnforth, firstly along the prom and then along the canal! :D I had a special moment on the canal when I saw 6 cygnets with their mummy and daddy :wub:

A rare find!

I was delighted at work yesterday to discover one of the rare 20p coins! It is estimated there are only 50,000-200,000 of these coins in existance! You imagine how many 20p coins there are circulating the UK, that really is a very tiny amount of the rare coins and I found one :D
There was an error at the Royal mint where the date didn't get put onto these coins! Here's an article about it! I am over the moon I found it, these coins are raising alot of money on Ebay so I called my manager in as I thought it was just too good an oppurtunity to miss to raise some money for charity. He decided to keep the fundraising within our store and has suggested a sealed bids auction! How exciting! I will, of course, be placing a bid! LOL!
One comment my manager said was how much he liked working with honest people like me, he said many people would have just simply swapped the coin and he'd have been none the wiser, I replied that I handle around £15,000 - £20,000 in cash every day when i'm at work and I appreciate being in such a position of trust. My thoughts are that no amount of money could have paid for the respect i've earned through this :D and if fate is on my side perhaps i'll own the coin anyway! but if not i'm not going to be too sad about it.