A Giveaway - Europe & Overseas

Sorry to those in the UK, but we can all buy them over here easily, so it's for my FOLLOWERS who are overseas.

EASTER is the theme:

Set 1: Cadbury creme egg, galaxy egg, Thorntons egg, Thorntons chocolate bunny, maltesers bunny, Cadbury Easter biscuits and not a cross stitch thing in sight!!

Set 2: If I can get another box of the biscuits, it will be the same as set 1 and if I can't I will add something extra in its place.

I will add a pic tomorrow, I was silly and left my camera switched on so no battery until it's charged :(

THANK YOU

To those who left a comment about the maths homework.

What you had to do was colour in one number per question and it revealed a picture of the bell tower, which is where Big Ben is found.

Dead Duck

A woman brought a very limp duck in to a veterinary surgeon. As she laid her pet on the table, the vet pulled out his stethoscope and listened to the bird's chest.

After a moment or two, the vet shook his head and sadly said, "I'm sorry, your duck, Cuddles, has passed away."

The distressed woman wailed, "Are you sure?"

"Yes, I am sure. Your duck is dead," replied the vet.

"How can you be so sure?" she protested. "I mean, you haven't done any testing on him or anything. He might just be in a coma or something."

The vet rolled his eyes, turned around and left the room. He returned a few minutes later with a black Labrador Retriever. As the duck's owner looked on in amazement, the dog stood on his hind legs, put his front paws on the examination table and sniffed the duck from top to bottom. He then looked up at the vet with sad eyes and shook his head.

The vet patted the dog on the head and took it out of the room. A few minutes later he returned with a cat. The cat jumped on the table and also delicately sniffed the bird from head to foot. The cat sat back on its haunches, shook its head, meowed softly, and strolled out of the room.

The vet looked at the woman and said, "I'm sorry but, as I said, this is most definitely, 100% certifiably, a dead duck."

The vet turned to his computer terminal, hit a few keys and produced a bill, which he handed to the woman.

The duck's owner, still in shock, took the bill. "£150!" she cried, "£150 just to tell me my duck is dead !"

The vet shrugged, "I'm sorry. If you had just taken my word for it, the bill would have been £20 but with the Lab Report and the Cat Scan, it's now £150."

If you're smiling, you must pass it on, give someone else a smile too

It's all Black and White

I loved making this card. Simple, yet elegant.

Well the teaching assistant saw my message in reading diary and spoke to Marion about what had happened and asked if it had happened before, so she told her. She then spoke to the other girl, told her it wasn't very nice to do what she's been doing and said that they weren't in the habit of moving people around to accommodate one taking a disliking to another, they had to sit next to each other and be friends. I would imagine that this would really annoy the other girl as she complained bitterly about having been moved to where she is now back in December.

They were reminded as they left to be friends. I know that Marion will be ok with that, she doesn't have to socialise with her at playtime or dinner play and all she wants to do is get on with her work when they're in the classroom.

She had hockey after school, her team didn't have as many players so they were running up and down like nobody's business and she was having a fantastic time. When it finished she came over to tell me I needed to go and see her teacher to let her know whether she could go swimming or not tomorrow - year 4 go on camp and her class are getting to go swimming in their place. Anyway I went in and found her teacher and it was actually me that needed to say yes because they needed me to go with them to supervise by the pool. Of course I would, I'm no stranger to it.

So she was put into one group and Sarah, her swimming instructor, wanted her in Gail's group to tackle the issue of the frogs feet. She can do the arms, body and legs, it's just the feet. Gail said to me at the end it might just be the way her feet are, afterall she taught Sam Hynd, the paralymic Beijing Gold Medal Winner and World Record Holder; it was just his feet that were holding him back and they changed the position slightly to suit his needs (because nobody at the time realised he had a disability) and look at him now.

Marion is getting worked up about it, she's frustrated she can't get it and Sarah is frustrated because it's only the frogs feet that are holding her back in Stage 5. So we've to try and practise on her bed and the pair of them will work with her at next weeks lesson see if they can't do something about it.

I can't do breast stroke, well my upper half can and one leg, my other leg just won't bend the right way. I am not a natural frog!!!

Snow

San Man Originals Snow. I have stitched this in a variegated blue DMC and the hearts are in a pale blue DMC.

Yesterday was back to school day and somebody wasn't too happy, she'd been put to her bed at 9pm and up and down like a yoyo with all sorts of ailments. When I went to bed at midnight she was still wide awake and protesting like mad. I couldn't understand how she could be so awake and I knew I would be shouting at her to get up in the morning. In the end it wasn't too bad, but "I'm tired" was said numerous times, along with "it's your own fault, I kept telling you to go to sleep" and then "yeah well I thought you might keep me off if I stayed awake". Silly girl.

I didn't have a very good night sleep on Sunday, I was still awake at 2am and then woke up at 5am to the birds starting their morning ritual and my back was aching like a toothache. I should have got up then and got myself some painkillers, but I stayed in bed trying to get comfortable. By the time it actually was time to get up I could hardly move for the pain and spent most of the day aching.

She came out of school and asked if she could leave this one and be transferred to another school because the girl who sits next to her has struck again with her nastiness. She blames Marion for a classmate that left at Christmas because they are moving to a different area. Yesterday it was all Marion's fault that this girl's rabbit has died.

You would think after having spent a day being punished and not being allowed out at play and dinner times this girl would learn her lesson, but no. They did a science experiment today and then had to write about it, so my daughter wrote what she could and this girl moaned like mad that she hadn't written enough - since when did the 9 year old get to tell another 9 year old what to do? Marion refused to do anymore saying her work was finished and this girl just carried on.

I wrote in her diary about it, but if she comes out today saying that this girl has done anything, I will be in there tomorrow.

I am so glad I'm not a child in this day and age. They get nastier every single day.

Blooming Cactus

At around 4pm today my ex-husband turned up unexpectedly. When I saw him standing at the door in my head I went "oh s**t". He didn't stay long, we didn't let him in the door. He had brought up her Christmas card and his excuse was that Meike (SIL) had lost it. He couldn't stick a stamp on it and post it before Christmas himself??? Inside was a gift card for Asda (not Game as I had specified). He also gave her a tshirt he'd bought in Kenya (on one of his many visits to Africa now he has a wife there) aged 8 - she's nine years old and is very long in the body, so this will last all of a month if she wears it at all.

So we're off tomorrow to spend the gift card before it goes wrong - her words, not mine.

She's not been too well, I took her to the doctor on Tuesday and she has a throat infection plus a viral infection in her mouth and loads of cold sores on her lip, which is down to the throat and viral infections poor thing.

I don't have any stitching or crafting to show, so I thought I'd show my cactus which is blooming again after having bloomed back in November. It's actually so heavy with buds I've got it propped against the wall and the other pot to the left. Once it has finished I will repot it into the pot I bought back in October for it, but had noticed buds so couldn't do it then.

Garden Time Card

I love this card, excellent for a gardener.

Last night when I put my daughter to bed she had the start of a cold sore. Of course because she seems to eat the stuff I didn't have a tube of cold sore cream to hand. Personally whenever I get one I use aftershave to eradicate it as I find the cream just makes it ten times worse and last ten times longer, aftershave dries it out.

My Dad leaves a toilet bag here just so he doesn't have to lug it back and forth whenever they come to stay. For some reason my Dad took his aftershave and left an aftershave gel (not the same when you want to use it on a cold sore). He has since been told off by Marion and promises he will bring one next time and leave it behind.

When I got her up this morning, telling her more than once that it would take longer to get to school with the snow underfoot she just made her usual groaning noises. She then came into my room complaining of a sore throat and when I looked up at her that cold sore had doubled in size and spread, it had also made her lip and chin swell up. Her throat was red when I looked too, so took the decision to keep her off school and go out to get some cold sore cream asap. The swelling has disappeared on her chin, her lip is still swollen and looks really nasty and she's been having hot and cold sweats all day which I think is all related to the cold sore itself.

She's very restless and hasn't had a full hour sleep. No school tomorrow, but hopefully Wednesday she'll feel more like it. She doesn't like missing school. They break up on Thursday for half term.

SNOW

At 2.50pm it started to snow and by 5.30pm it was 3inches deep.


Naturally she wanted to go out and play in it, she was having great fun and refused to come in. Eventually she did for her dinner, but wolfed it down so quickly because she didn't want to miss any time in the snow.


At 9pm she reluctantly came in and asked if it would still be there in the morning. All I could say was hopefully, as Jennie had already said her snow had washed away with the rain.


I did a little tea dyeing yesterday, I saw a cute little freebie, but didn't have any of the colour fabric I wanted so thought I'd try my hand at it. I don't think it's come out too badly for my first attempt.

Dance

Just a little something I stitched up while I was waiting for the washing machine to finish. It turned out smaller than I thought, but I realise that this piece of aida band must be 18 count. I'm going to make it into a card, I have a peel off that will go perfectly with it so I just have to work out how I'm going to do it.

After realising that I had bought the stuff weeks ago, I should really put the wormer liquid on the back of the cats necks. Rascal was fine, he was too busy worrying about whether his food would still be there if he took the time to breathe let alone bother with me doing something awful to him.

His Mother on the other hand was less than amused. She hates the flea stuff, she hates the worm stuff and she makes herself look like she's been tortured after it's been done. Today was no exception, as soon as it was done she sank her neck into her body, constantly blinked and walked sideways as though she was about to be attacked. She then fled past me and demanded to be let outside (this from a cat who would prefer to be lying on the rug). Once outside she became the little con artist and limped to show anyone who was walking about, but apart from the new neighbours everyone knows what she's like. She has mastered this technique, which is mainly used begging to be allowed back in. Her name is Cheeky - suits her down to the ground.

I have been out and bought them a tin of tuna to get in their good books again!!! Until next time lol

Pop, Boom, Sparkle

When I was looking for a chart I came across this one with the threads and chart by SanMan Originals, so decided to stitch it up. I remember stitching it once before, so I must have had a second chart pack.

Stitched on 25ct linen - I don't like it, I really don't like that fabric.

Boy with Sheepdog

Another card I have enjoyed making and I loved making the teabag folded star.

It's funny how some things come so easily to me, shown once and off I went without looking at the instructions and first finished (not that it was a competition).

We had to go in after school yesterday and speak to her teacher about a girl who is 2 years younger, very spoilt and extremely rude and nasty. She's got a thing about whoever Marion is playing with, they shouldn't be her friend and she'll do anything to turn them against her and so yesterday at dinner time she got 2 friends to squash Marion, then grabbed the hood of her coat and pulled tight so it was tightening up against her throat. My daughter didn't do anything about it at the time - I know I can totally relate to it, I was bullied at school and I can still remember the headmaster telling me it was my fault. I hated school.

Her teacher listened to her and then asked who the child was and that's when I was looking directly at the teachers face, she rolled her eyes as if to say 'not her again', but she told Marion that she would speak to the class teacher and get her to speak to the girl about it. She also told her to just stay away from the girl and tell her to go away if she tries to come near Marion in future.

I told her this morning to make sure she just says that her teacher has said she's to stay away, it might make the girl think twice. I've also said that if she tries anything like that again, she's to scream and run off to find a dinner lady or teacher and if she can't scream just run to the safety of an adult.