Happy New Year!!

Just wanted to post on the first day of the year. Hope 2007 is a great year for everyone! I aim to try and make it the year I take control of my life (in a good way) and achieve something positive.
Hope it brings you all that your heart desires!

Apples

Thought I would share a pic of my recent finish. I love these thread pack designs and have now completed two (the other one is Pear). I have Berries to do and then I will need to treat myself to some more..lol

Update at last

I've fallen a bit behind with blogging - too much going on at present I'm afraid. On the stitching front I finished Apples the CC/LHN collaboration and have returned to a WIP "Kingfisher in Flight " to do a little stitching on before Christmas. After Christmas I hope to make a new start but not sure what it will be yet.
As for other things Emma is doing OK - she has been very under the weather but went to school for a full day today - I went in to see her teacher who was rather more helpful having received a letter with practical advice from the consutlant psychiatrist. Hopefully things will improve but I've learned to just take one day at a time!
Will try and blog again soon but sooo busy at present!! Just like everyone else I guess!

Mystery SAL completed

As I mentioned I have completed the Mystery SAL 2006 from Heirloom Embroideries. I am eagerly awaiting the start of the 2007 SAL as I find Carol's designs so enjoyable to stitch and also feel that I am learning new things and improving my technique as I stitch them . Her instruction has enabled me to stitch things that I thought beyond my abilities.

Trying to be optimistic

Well we spent most of the afternoon at the hospital yesterday - the psychiatrists view is that Emma is moderately depressed ie not in any immediate danger. the advice was to see how things go with the measures the school are putting in place for Emma and get her to attend her counselling sessions and then review the situation in the New Year. If there is no improvement then we may have to consider anti-depressants as a last resort although there are other types of therapy available which she can access via her counselor or a psychologist. So I am trying to be optimistic about it all.
This means that I will go back to work on Monday but will take more time off if needed - luckily I still have lots of annual leave left.
However I still need to finish painting the hallway - so instead of messing about on here I should go and get started..lol.
I haven't forgotten about the stitching pics - will try and do them tomorrow.

Feeling drained today

after quite a stressful time. I had to go with DD and the counsellor she is seeing for a meeting at school to see if they could offer her some support as she is finding school life very difficult at present due to her low mood and other things. Well the counsellor has been off so the meeting was arranged on the last minute, she picked us up to drive to school and about 5mins into the 15 min journey her car had a puncture. We missed the meeting and then had to wait an hour until the head of year was free again. The meeting was quite productive though and I hope that it will help Emma when she returns to school next week.
We have to go and see a psychiatrist at the local childrens hospital tomorrow - I'm hoping that they will be able to offer some advice on how we proceed from here!
On the stitching front I spent an hour or so this afternoon working on "Apples" the LHN/CC design
while watching Stargate SG1 and Stargate Atlantis which I recorded last night.
Yesterday I finished stitching and beading the Heirloom Embroideries 2006 mystery SAL and also started making up the biscornu from the same designer. (Pictures to follow soon I hope!)

A stitching finish!

Today I completed "Autumn in the Square" by Just Nan which is the final piece in this seasonal series. I intend to frame these and display them as a group - but that may be after Christmas, something to look forward to after the decorations come down!

Bad time

I'm not sure if I picked a good time to start this blog as I'm going through a difficult time family wise at the moment. My DD who is 15 on Monday has some problems (which I don't really feel able to share at present) and I am extremely worried.
As a result I am not getting a lot of stitching done although I have been knitting - a hat and scarf for me (using Colinette wool) and handwarmers for DD ( wool from The Natural Dye Studio which I found on Ebay- they use only environmentally friendly plant dyes and the wool I bought is British and spun by them). I haven't knitted for years but am quite enjoying doing small things - next project is a pair of socks. They will be for me as the rest of the family laughed hysterically at the thought of hand knitted socks..lol.
Autumn in the Square is almost finished however and I will post a pic in the next few days.
On a happier note we won £100 on the lottery on Wednesday - we always split our winnings (usually just a tenner) so I have £25 to treat myself. I'm thinking of getting some LHN charts in the Thanksgiving sale at Down Sunshine Lane and I've signed up for another monthly club at Jayne's Attic for Carrie's Creations threads.

Return to blogging

Well I haven't blogged for an absolute age but seeing as a few people I know are using Blogger now I thought I would revive my neglected blog.
I'll try and post whenever I can but that may not be often!
In stitching news I made a new start today - the LHN/CC collaboration kit Apples - very pretty colours so far but it's quite small so I will post a picture when I have completed it.
Need to play around with this blog and cheer it up a bit but not tonight...lol