Internation Swap

I am taking part in the International swap arranged by Caterina

The rules are very simple, our names are put into a random list,
you post 3 items to the next name on the list
and the person before you sends you three items.

The items are,
1 Christmas
1 Toy
1 Autumn

What a great way to meet new friends.
I am sending my three items to Gonda, from the Netherlands
I should receive a parcel from Flora, from Italy

Blogging is such great fun, I am unable to go out much, yet here I travel the world and see the most wonderful things made by the most talented ladies in our hobby.

I am not able to stand for any time, so I have done nothing to my house, I have been making Christmas ornaments for a swap. My daughter Fliss has had her baby a week early and I have been visiting her, which tires me out, you can see a photo of Samuel here on my other blog, everyone is doing well and hopefully mum and baby will be home later today.

A parcel arrives

On Saturday my parcel from Peggy arrived, I was feeling unwell, due to the side effects of the chemo, so it was very nice timing. I love everything purple so the box was wonderful, another nice storage box. Peggy thank you so much for your kind gift.

The contents are a delight, I have a place for everything, the flowers in the pot have been place in my terrace garden, and nice splash of colour, the bird house I have in front of my beach house, I have loads of birds in this project, so it fits well. The crown, I am not so sure, maybe if I think abit, I might be able to make a scene for it!

As for the chair and the picture, in Somerset house I have the grown up daughter's yellow unfinished bedroom, I have been unsure what details to use, but now I have added these items, the scene is set. The daughter of the house has been to France and has fallen in love with every thing french, her father made his money in shipping, so she is able to bring things back, I will have to study this style, it's not one I have thought about before, but it gives me food for thought, watch this space.

I still am unable to find the dresser for my basement, I think I am going to have to pull all my stuff out from my under stair cupboard, a good reason to give it all a sort, but not this week.

Kev wants to take me away to Exeter later this week for two days, if I am well enough, just to rest, our small hotel has a swimming pools so we could have a lazy couple of days. So fingers crossed I will be up to it.

Swap time

How wonderful all the Chilean miners are now rescued,
it's so good to hear a good news story.
I spent yesterday watching them coming out one by one.

I think this is the 3rd international swap, initiated by Caterina. This year I have decided to join.

This time the requirement will be to make 1 Christmas item, 1 toy and 1 item that reminds me of autumn.

If you want to join in, you have until October 23rd to leave a comment on Caterina's blog.


I have brought these precut flowers for my terrace garden, I hope they will save me a bit of time, and I love the colours on there, Thursday is my mini day, but I am going to visit my daughter today, so mini's tomorrow, I will post the results good or bad later.

Just a Quicky

Just a quick note to thank Peggy, I have won her giveaway, 1st time for me to win, so I am very excited, can't wait for the tiny package to arrive.

It's such fun to see giveawys, I only enter when the item is something I can use in my projects, it's such a good way of bringing every one together, once my followers have reached 150, I have some nice kits ( well I like them) to have as a giveawy.

Coming together

I have done some work on my house this week. In the past couple of months I have done loads of cross stitch finishing a large project, so now I have more time. I wanted to rebuild the basement extension and terrace garden. Firstly I had to find all the components to make the basement. That was fun, I could not find the back wall, it would be easy to spot because I have put bricks on it, I cleared out under my stairs where I keep all these things, not there. I checked out my drawers in the Attic, not there. So in the end I had to make a new back wall.

I need to brick the back wall to make it look like a cellar, I will also make a rack for all the wine bottles. The two barrels will stay on the right hand side. The other thing is I had a large dresser placed in here and yet again I can't find that, I can't believe I would have thrown it out in our house move, it has to be here somewhere. I love the two little candle holders, I brought them at a show last year, there would be no electric this part of the house.

I also cut doors in the main house, leading from the ballroom out to the garden, when I first planned this house I had the room as a dinning room, but then as we do I changed it. I have not done much with the garden, my plans were always to wait until we moved, the plan now is to complete the gardens. I do have a fountain, I have purchased a very small pump to have a water in the garden, but I think this will not happen.I have a tree to make and I want a garden wall at the back. I will put hedges around the garden, and add flowers, with two large displays in the front planters.

This week I want to go through my house tiding each room, moving across the office has knocked over a few items. The lights all work which is good, and as the darker evenings approach, I can have my lights on more often with nice effects.

October

October is Breast Care Awareness Month, we should all try and do something if we are able,
I have had 4 of my 6 chemo sessions, I am very aware of this year of the effects of cancer.
This year I will just help our local Macmillan centre,
but next year, I plan to be a fundraiser.

So spare a moment for lives lost, my own mum,
and to anyone under going chemo or other cancer treatments.
It's hard living with cancer, but more and more of us are living after cancer.