Mumbles day out

Mumbles is a lovely village here in Swansea, very popular with locals and tourists alike.  I read through the Wiki entry for Mumbles, and I didn’t realise how many celebrities lived there or have properties there, the most famous being Catherine Zeta Jones/Michael Douglas who are regular visitors.  The promenade starts from the Marina area of the city and travels the whole length of Swansea Bay, ending at Mumbles Pier, a total of about five miles or so.  We didn’t walk the whole way, we drove to the village and then walked the rest of the way to the pier.

Here’s two friends enjoying the view

Mumbles lighthouse in the far distance.

Swansea Bay

The city centre of Swansea.  The tallest building you can see there is an apartment building, which has a restaurant at the top which looks out over the bay.  We were going to have lunch there, but neither my mum or I are that keen on heights and as it is the tallest building in Wales we didn’t think we’d do too well up there lol

Mumbles Lighthouse

Mumbles Lifeboat Station which is linked to the pier.  Unfortunately the pier was closed for refurbishment.

Mumbles Lighthouse.

Update

Why is it that any time off you have from work seems to fly by so quickly?  I was off for a total of 11 whole days and yet once I got back to work it felt like I’d never been away.

Phill did not have time off with me, so I split the time between catching up on all the housework that needed doing, and being completely lazy, watching silly films and reading.  A perfect week lol

I did make a trip to the quilt shop here in Swansea, called Red House Quilting.  The shop isn’t that big, but it’s amazing just how much stock they have.  I had some gift vouchers to spend there, and had found a pattern for a quilt that I fancied making, so Linda from the shop spent a long time with me choosing fabrics and as I am useless with colour schemes of any type it was a good job she did!

Here’s the fabrics, which have now been cut up into little pieces and will eventually (I hope) look like this….. which is the picture on the back of the pattern book. 

My mother came with me to the quilt shop, which is in Mumbles, a very popular tourist area here in Swansea.  We had some coffee, some lunch, some more coffee, and some ice cream, all mixed in with a bit of window shopping and a lot of walking!   The photo in the heading of my blog is of Mumbles, and I did take a few photos of my own which I will put in a separate post.

I did manage to get some stitching done while I was off, although not as much as I would have liked.  I heard that a stitching friend was going through a worrying time so made a little gift to brighten her day.  I’ve always wanted to try making a bourse, so thank you to Ursh for being my bourse guinea pig LOL

The chart is from the Gift of Stitching Magazine.  I also made a little scissors fob.  Unfortunately I did not take a photo of the bourse pulled into a little bag, hopefully Ursh may take one when she’s back on her feet and I can borrow it.

 

Apologies for the quality of the photos, they were taken in work just as I was packing them up to take to the Post Office when I realised I hadn’t taken any photos at home.

Wipocalypse update

I haven’t got too much to share in this months Wipocalypse update unfortunately, but today is the first day of ten whole days off work, which are desperately needed, and I’m intending on getting lots of stitching done over those ten days!

During March I worked on Ribbon Sampler and made some good progress. On 1st April Ribbon Sampler went back into the WIP drawer and was replaced by Sampler Aux Bouquets by Jardin Prive. Apologies for the extremely creased fabric!

I haven’t made that much progress yet but will update again before I go back to work.

Kindle experiment

While I was browsing around one of the stitching forums last week I saw a post by someone who had found a website selling bean bags for Kindles/Nooks/iPads etc.

While I thought this was a great idea, when I looked at the site I found that they were charging $23.95 each.  I decided that I would try and make my own version, so after a bit of googling I sat down at my sewing machine and made my first attempt.

I’n extremely pleased with the way it turned out, although I think I would probably make it larger next time (I have the “old” Kindle which is significantly larger than the newer versions).

I’m definitely going to make some more of these, they are so quick and easy to make (if I can do it, anyone can!) and can see them being very useful for mobile phones, iPads, even paperback books.

TUSAL update

I’m killing two birds with one stone in this post, by sharing my TUSAL update for this month and also showing you the reason for all the red threads in my TUSAL jar!

I’ve made lots of progress on Ribbon Sampler, and have now finished three full pages, apart from a small section of the middle page which is satin stitch not cross stitch and which I’m leaving until later on.

March WIPocalypse

Time seems to have flown by since the last WIPocalypse update.  I know February is a shorter month and all, but it really was a “blink and you’ll miss it” kind of month.

Since the last update I have had one small finish, which was Hearts in a Square designed by Claire.

I’ve also made a little progress, although not as much as I would have liked, on Brambles.

When saving this photograph to my hard drive I realised from the other progress pics I have saved that it is just over two years since I started this project!!  I can’t believe it’s that long ago!  However, since Brambles was February’s project and March is has now arrived it was time to choose another from my WIP cupboard, and believe me I was spoilt for choice 😉

Here’s the project which called to me the loudest this month…

Sampler Cove’s Ribbon Sampler and once again it’s been over two years since I started this project.

I think I’d better get off this computer and get stitching!

Computer love/hate

Just a quick post to apologise for not begin able to comment on any blogs lately.  I’ve been fighting with my computer for the last week or so, but have now got it sorted out.  I have to say that I LOVE my computer, don’t know what I would do without it except when something goes wrong with it.  I have been able to read blogs on my iPad but it’s a bit of a pain leaving a comment using that, especially with the new word verification thing Blogger seems to have at the moment.

This weekend I’ve realised that the older I get the harder I find it to keep up with technology.  I used to love tinkering around with computer and electronic gadgets for hours at a time, now I just want to plug it in and for it to work!! 

Anyway, my computer is now working as it should and I will post an update of my stitching later today.  

TUSAL & competition for fun

It’s that time of the month again….TUSAL. Not much added to my container this month, although I am planning on sitting down with Brambles and the Rose this evening, so I can see a few more strands being added before the night is over!

I have read on a couple of blogs about a fun competition being held by Nicola at Stitching by a Cornish Sea ( a blog well worth a visit for the fabulous pictures of Cornwall as well as for some lovely stitching). The competition is to find the funniest sleeping position, both for animals and humans. I knew that I had a few good snaps of Mia, so decided to have a look for them. However, I came across so many pics of her in strange positions I couldn’t narrow it down so I’ve put together a collection of my favourites. There’s quite a few!!

As you’ll see, Mia loves sleeping on Phill’s part of the desk – the messier the better lol!

On Phill's desk

On Phill's desk

In the fish tank

Another finish

A busy couple of weeks for me, and for once it doesn’t involve work!  At the start of this year I decided that I really needed to be making more of an effort to do something when I finish work, not just come home and vegetate in front of the TV.  So in the last few weeks I have been for a meal after work twice, have taken my Mum to Bingo once a week (and we’ve even had a couple of small wins) and have been to the cinema three times, which is something I’ve always enjoyed doing but Phill has trouble sitting still for a couple of hours so we rarely go.

I must say that I do feel a lot better in myself for making the effort and plan on adding more activities to my routine as the weeks go on.

The only down side to this is that there has been less stitching time for me, but I do have a small finish to share with you.  I actually finished it on Valentine’s Day, which is quite appropriate because the design is called Hearts in a Square, designed by Claire.  Pop along to her blog for a copy of the chart, and another couple of lovely designs she has created.

I am hoping to use this design as part of a cover for my Kindle – again if you look at Claire’s blog post here you will see the stunning cover Claire’s daughter Lindashee made for her birthday.

WIPocalypse update

I stitched on Moonlight Garden until the end of January …..

Snuck in a small project to give me a quick finish ….

And started off February with Brambles and the Rose