What happened to Spring?

Brrr...it's a chilly Saturday here in Michigan. Mum said it was chilly in Ipswich too. She'd got her quilt out to work on so she could keep something over her legs to keep out the cold. It was the perfect day to run a couple of errands and then stay inside and craft.

I'm still working on my cross stitch. The grey is driving me CRAZY! I can't tell you how many times I've unpicked it and re-did. I'm not sure what the problem is. Maybe it's working on the same colour all the time. I'm determined to get it done so inbetween picking and re-stitching I read a little on my Kindle (the cat seemed to want to sit on me every time I picked up the stitching!).

There will be another LONG stretch of grey framing the top too but (thank goodness) I am almost done with the bottom. There is a lot of backstitch that will create fancy pattern on this grey so will be worth it. It's just frustrating to keep doing it wrong!

I finished up another couple of mini-albums last week. I love making these. I need to lay off for a while as I have a card to make for my sister.

I really enjoy making these little waterfall albums. They are so nice to make. I've been trying magnetic closures and they seem to work a little better.

And lastly, just because she's so darn cute - here's another picture of the dog my daughter recently adopted from a shelter.

Isle of Wight - Five on Friday May 13th

I'm joining in again with the group over at Love Made My Home for Five on Friday. With the warmer weather coming I'm thinking holidays! I should be thinking crafting as there are cards I need to make and things I want to get done to take to Mum when I go home.

However for this week's Five on Friday I'm going to share some pictures from my holiday we took last year to the Isle of Wight. It's a very pretty island. I'd never been there before and I had a really good time. I would thoroughly recommend it to anyone. There is SO much to see. We didn't even get to see everything and, if there weren't so many other places to explore, I'd go back again! I'm hoping looking at the pictures again will help inspire me to get the album done I'd like to take for Mum!

The Needles

This is such a beautiful landmark. We were lucky to have such a gorgeous day when we visited. To be honest, I couldn't stop taking pictures! I love lighthouses and this is just so unique. There is a chair lift down to the beach but I don't like heights so I skipped it (I'm such a chicken!)

Godshill

This is a gorgeous village filled with quaint shops and thatched roof houses. This is the story our coach driver told us about how the village came to be named.


The hill on which the church stands was once used by pagans as a place of worship and legend tells that the building of a church was begun at the foot of the hill but that on three successive nights stones were removed from the site and placed in the place of the present church although no one saw them being moved and for the first two mornings work was restarted at the foot but by the third day it was assumed that God wished the church to be built on the hill, hence the name Godshill.

That hill was pretty darn steep! Mum was still early on in her recovery so we didn't even attempt it.

St. Mildred's Church

It's a very nice village church. Inside is a wonderful display of royal and local memorabilia including a replica of Princess Beatrice's wedding dress. I think what I liked most about this visit was the graveyard. It's a little strange to say this about a graveyard but it was quite pretty. I love old graveyards, some of the stonework is just beautiful.

Osborne House
  
If you ever have a chance to visit this house I would highly recommend it. This is the estate where Queen Victoria died. It is a gorgeous house and grounds. I could have taken lots and lots of pictures (and did). The statues were glorious, so detailed and just stunning.

The rooms inside were stunning - no photography allowed. There were a LOT of stairs though. The guides/guards were very helpful when the stairs proved a bit much for Mum. They led us to a place where we could sit and allowed us to go back down again inside of seeing the rest of the house.



The Boats

It sounds silly but I didn't realise there would be so many darn boats everywhere! We were there the week before The America's Cup so there were more boats than usual, but The Isle of Wight is well known for it's sailing.

No kidding - I have a lot of boat pictures! We went on a lovely boat trip (yup, I braved it!) around the island and closer to Portsmouth. There were just so much to see. The place is packed with history - castles, forts, warships, roman villas. We had a really great time. It was such a nice break for Mum after her treatment, a time just to relax and have fun. Can you tell I'm already excited for this year?

WOYWW May 11th

It's Wednesday again and time for What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday over at Stamping Ground with Julia and the gang. I say it every week but this week has really flown by!

I had a nice visit with daughter on Saturday (previous post) and a nice day out at another lighthouse on Sunday (Monday post). Anyway, you're here to see my desk, so here it is.

I always have to have a space to work but the rest of it feels like a mess. Towards the back is a pile where I keep losing my redline tape. Either there is a black hole somewhere or the paper keeps eating it.You can see a few albums I've been working on. Still can't stop making them. I have to decide what to do with them. I was thinking that perhaps later in the year I'd get with MIL and see if she would fancy trying an Etsy shop. Does anyone have one?

I do have a card to make. My sister's birthday is on the 26th of the month. Both my MIL and Mum liked the cards I made for them so I might try another box card. I think for Mum's 80th birthday I might try one of the exploding box card thingys.

I wanted to do her a cross stitch too. Not sure what of, but I have to finish the one I'm working on first. This week has been mostly working on the grey. It's taking FOREVER and it is sort of boring. I don't want to stop working on it though as it would be difficult to pick back up again knowing I have lots of grey left to stitch. I made several mistakes on it and had to pick, restitch and then pick some more. Grrrr...

Hope everyone has a great week. Thanks for visiting and for the comments.

Garage sale & walk

Saturday my daughter came up to visit. We went to a neighbourhood garage sale in the morning. It was quite nice. I love these sales as you can park your car and walk around the neighbourhood. It is always packed with people and bargains can be found!

Sadly we didn't find much of anything. I was the only one who ending up spending and all I found was some books and a couple of magazines. The magazines are ones I really like but retail for $14.99 each!

I only spent about $7. Lots to read and look at once it gets nice enough to sit in the garden! My daughter brought her recently adopted husky along with us. She is so well behaved with people. She got so many 'she's so pretty' comments and sat nicely while people including kids petted her. The shelter didn't know a lot about her past but she must be used to kids and car rides (she is SO good in the car I could drive around all day with her lol).

Later we took her for a walk in the nature preserve.

It looked like somebody had been busy in the woods! We found two 'structures'.

Something else we found - when we got home and not so nice - TICKS! Yuck. Yuck.

Lighthouse

It was a beautiful day this Sunday. Usually my middle son comes up for dinner on Sundays but he had to work so we decided to take a trip. We've been visiting lighthouses around the area and today we went to Michigan City, Indiana. The drive takes about an hour and a half but there is also an hour time change - they are an hour behind Michigan time. I had forgotten until I glanced at my phone and saw the time was different from car clock!

We went to visit two lighthouses here. One is the Old Michigan City lighthouse which is Indiana's oldest lighthouse.

This lighthouse is back from the lake a little bit which would explain why they built the second lighthouse.
 

It was a lovely walk out to the lighthouse - the pier was actually a little bit wider than the last one we went on and the water was a lot calmer! There wasn't a lot of room to walk around the lighthouse just a small staircase and a ledge on the other side. Yikes!

This is the look back from the lighthouse. You can see the rocks on the other side of the ledge that you walk along. In the background you can see the beach. The sand was beautiful and golden. There were only a few people out and about despite it being quite nice. I don't think the park is officially open yet.

I don't think they'd cleaned up from the winter yet!

When we were looking at the old lighthouse we heard a horrible sound - sort of a cross between an emergency vehicle and the warning sirens sounding - and realised it was the warning that this bridge was going to open to let the sailboat pass through. I'm not sure how often the bridge opens but it was a bit of luck that we were able to see it. A fun ending to our visit.

Five on Friday May 6th

It's Friday so today I'm joining up with the wonderful group over at Love Made My Home for another Five on Friday. It's a great place to join in Five on Friday.

Mum booked our holiday this week. We're off to Devon! I'm never been that way before and am looking forward to it. As she has booked our holiday I have now booked my trip home. I'll be leaving Jul 22 and getting back Sept 9th. I'll be there to help celebrate Mum's 80th birthday!

I've been thinking about what to post this week - perhaps thinking a little too much! Anyway, trip planning has got me thinking of home and, in truth, making me a little homesick so I'm going to post some pictures of home.

Waterfront

When I was growing up the waterfront at Ipswich was in decline. Once the factories and industry closed down there were just burned out buildings, buildings that were falling down and the whole place was filthy. I grew up in Stoke Park so walking into town we walked past the waterfront. I spent a little time when I was a teen at a snooker club down there. Now it's really pretty, a lovely place to take a walk on a sunny day.

Ipswich Martyrs Memorial

The Ipswich Martyrs were nine people burnt at the stake for their Protestant beliefs around 1515-1558. The executions were mainly carried out in the centre of Ipswich on The Cornhill, the square in front of Ipswich Town Hall. At that time the remains of the medieval church of St Mildred were used for the town's Moot Hall. Later, in 1644 Widow Lackland was executed on the same site on the orders of Matthew Hopkins the notorious Witchfinder General. I find the whole Witchfinder General thing fascinating which probably explains why I kinda like this memorial.

It's in Christchurch Park which was mentioned in last week's post.

Ipswich Blackfriars

There isn't a lot of it left now. I hadn't seen it for years but I knew I had visited it once-upon-a-time so while Mum and I were out for a walk we went looking for it. It was once a Dominican Friary founded in 1263 and dissolved in 1583.  Definitely a hidden gem!

Cornhill

This is the centre of Ipswich. When I was a kid the Post Office was there. I remember spending good times hanging around with my friends and (when I was older) visiting the pub. This is all going to change soon as they are planning to revitalise it.

Sunsets

Looking out of my Mum's kitchen window she has the most glorious sunsets. They are so beautiful and colourful.

Technically, I guess it will be six because mostly I miss Mum. I can't wait to see her again. We visit each week, once by phone and once by Skype, but it isn't the same. We have virtual hugs but not real ones. It's especially hard this weekend as it is Mother's Day here in America. I am counting the days until I see her again and we have another adventure.

WOYWW May 4th 2016

It's Wednesday again - already - so it's time to join Julia and the gang over at Stamping Ground for What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday. I always have a great time visiting different parts of the world and looking at different desks. There are so many projects going on and so much variety!

This week my desk doesn't look a lot different from last week. Instead I decided to (gasp!) show you the slowing growing pile on my floor. It is paper left over from other projects. I have to use it for something soon (this isn't the only box!). It's only part of the floor - I really wasn't quite brave enough to photograph the rest.

Projects this week? I finished a card for my MIL as American Mother's Day is this weekend. I sent one for my Mum in the post. I send her one for both Mother's Days.

I made the envelope with the envelope punch board. Another adventure as I hadn't used it for a long time and I completely forgot how to use it. Thank goodness for Youtube lol. I made another album too but I think I'll save that for another post as I don't want to make this too long.

Last but not least my updated cross stitch picture. I hope everyone isn't tired of seeing it but posting it each week is definitely keeping me on track!

Thanks for all the visits and lovely comments! WOYWW is a GREAT group to be a part of!

Gardening Adventures

It's a beautiful sunny day today and I couldn't just stay in all day so I decided to start tackling the weeding. I admit to not being much of a gardener. I don't have plants in the house as (cringe) I tend to kill them. Last year as I knew that I was going to be quitting work I thought about having a small veggie plot. Even though I'm not much of a gardener I know that there is nothing like freshly picked veggies.

Last year was hit and miss. Rabbits and deer ate my lettuce. I'm not sure which as I saw both in the garden. The plants were pulled up by the roots so my thinking was deer. So disappointing. It was growing well. I haven't decided if I'm going to try it again this year. Can lettuce grow in a pot? I did warn you that I wasn't much of a gardener!

I can tell I'm getting old.  My back hurts from bending over. Lol. I got one plot done. It's a start.

BEFORE

AFTER

I'm not quite sure what happened but I found these while gardening. I did grow onions last year but cleaned out the patch before winter!

It's supposed to rain tomorrow but Thursday and Friday are going to be nice so I will probably tackle my little herb patch. Things there are definitely growing!
 

Genealogy

My dear Mum turns 80 in September and I'm trying to put together a special present for her. I thought about stitching her something - but I do that quite often. I want something different and (perhaps) unexpected. I am so thankful to still have my Mum. She's a strong woman who taught me lots of good traits. I am so very proud of her.

When she was diagnosed with cancer just after my trip home late 2014 I realised she wasn't invincible and she is growing older. It was quite a shock. She's always been in really good health and could walk anywhere. I was usually the one puffing to keep up with her! Luckily with treatment she is on the mend, slowing down a little, but a lot better than she was.

Anyway, the last time I was home we talked about family and history. I have always loved hearing her stories of times passed. She got out some birth certificates she had and we played around a little with trying to look back on our family history.

I've decided that I'm going to try to put together some sort of family history for her. Perhaps pull it together with scrapbooking and journal making.

Genealogy isn't easy. The people on telly make it look REALLY easy!

They seem to have no trouble finding a relative. When Mum and I first looked we weren't even sure her Dad's name was her Dad's proper name! His surname is Rowland. On his birth certificate it is spelled Rolling. And that was just the start! A lot of the names I'm coming across are spelled wrong. There are lots of 'leaves' to follow but how do you know they relate to the person you're looking for? It's a great big maze.

My husband's aunt's hobby is genealogy. She is very good at it. She goes on trips all over the country (America) and finds 'hidden' ancestors. Therein lies part of the problem. None of my relatives are in America (only me!). They are all in England. I joined the UK version of Ancestry. Yup, there are different versions.

It is fun. I find myself spending hours on Ancestry.co.uk following those little hints. I can easily get lost for a few hours at a time! But it is also quite frustrating. I am going to keep going. I have time. Her birthday isn't until September and I won't be leaving for England until July/August. I won't let frustration get the better of me but sometimes I wish I could just magic somebody from Who Do You Think You Are? to come do it for me!

GREAT news!

Mum's tests came back all clear! Now it's time to plan the holiday. I am so pleased and relieved. So is she. She did have some bad news the other week as her close friend, who is 85, has just been diagnosed with Lymphoma. Although not the same kind of cancer as what my Mum had she is hoping to be some hope and comfort to her friend.