Fairy or Cup Cakes?

An early memory from my childhood has always been coming home from Junior School to a delicious smell of baking. It was in wartime, food was rationed but mum regularly baked 'Fairy Cakes', Scones, Jam Tarts, Cut and Come Again Cake, and other every day recipes. It seemed to me that she did it every day! I've always loved eating .....
I too baked often as the family were growing up but these days I rarely do so.
I notice now that 'Fairy Cakes' have changed to 'Cup Cakes' - whatever the name I know that these, baked this morning, will not be around too long!

Frustrated Again!!

TAST 2010 - 28 Raised Chain Stitch.
My arm has been so painful recently that I have given up stitching for some time - so I'm four stitches behind with the TAST challenge, and another due tomorrow.
This morning the arm felt much better - still OK this afternoon, so I started a small sample of the first Raised Chain.
WOE!!!! After a short time, and just this small amount stitched, I could do no more.
I'm more than frustrated, but I'll keep trying in short spells .....

To pass the time I looked through old photographs and found the one below, taken by our son in the Sahara a few years ago - beautiful girls and lovely fabrics - there's always something to cheer me!

PS I did manage to complete a mini sampler block of the stitch on Friday - see Flickr.

 
Our family rented a "cottage" in Dorset for the nine of us to celebrate my 75th birthday, at the weekend.
My birthday was way back in May but I was not well then. Although the weather was mixed Saturday was fine and we enjoyed
a visit to Weymouth and a lovely lunch at a country pub.
The cottage was spacious, with an indoor pool and plenty of other activities available, indoors and outdoors,so every one had a good time.
We didn't manage to get a photo of everyone at the same time but have a nice varied collection of pictures. Our son Neil and I relaxed on Sunday morning, John took our photo and the others were doing their own thing about the place.

Hot Days

As our return flight from Spain was cancelled at the last minute our stay extended to three weeks - luckily we visit family so we didn't have a lot of additional expense .... but it was hotter inland than we had expected so we had an even more relaxed, lethargic time, than usual.
Like Tasmin and the other three cats we often spent time indoors to keep cool.
It was more comfortable at the coast, fairly quiet at the end of the holiday season, the Med was beautiful, there was a light breeze and plenty of good food and wine to be had.
So we enjoyed our holiday as usual.
The sun doesn't do much for arthritis in my arm so I'm way behind with my stitching challenges - but maybe I'll gradually catch up.
It won't be this weekend though as we are going to Dorset for an overdue family celebration for my birthday, (It was in May!!!)
We should have brought a bit of sun back from Spain .....
PS .... sadly no terrapin in the pond .... just frogs, frogs, and more frogs ....

Haiku 33 - Terrapin

A reminder of many visits we have made to John's sister and husband in Spain.
Sadly earlier this year we didn't see the little Terrapin - maybe he's gone!
Tomorrow we are going again, until 23rd September, let's hope he was just hiding and he'll be swimming around in their garden pond again.
I'm also hoping the sun will be good for my arthritis - it has been very trying recently so I have done little stitching, and have spent only limited time on line - both things I find frustrating!!!
Many thanks to all friends who visit my Flickr stream, for kind and generous comments, and good wishes.
I really appreciate and enjoy seeing all your lovely work and photos and I'm always sorry that I can't comment as often as I wish.

Postcard for Pat

Frustrated ....... by arthritis in my arm ......

and no hand embroidery this week.

So I decided to make a simple machine stitched postcard - a kind of stitch sampler.

Next I embellished it with bits from the scrap box, a lace initial, buttons, Broiderie Anglaise edging with hand dyed silk ribbon, and flower braid.

Not my favourite thing but it passed away a few hours!

It looks nicer than it shows here as the fabric is a pretty pale blue, not dull as it appears.

TAST 2010 - 26

Chained Cross Stitch

In over fifty years of doing cross stitch I never came across, or thought of, using a top chain stitch to add texture or accent.

Adding a chain as a top cross on this silhouette tree has added texture and depth, though it was a bit demanding on my eyes stitching on each square rather than over four as Sharon demonstrated.

I messed the background by using fabric crayons, not good on Aida fabric.

Too late I realized I should have used paint, but at that stage bad would have become worse!

The 'Sunset' pattern is from an old magazine, Cross Stitch Gallery 21, with background effectively done in cross stitch.

I intended doing the background in basic cross stitch, against which the tree would have looked good ......but my arm gave up.

I'm going to take a short break from stitching, if I can, to give the arthritis a chance to settle down ....... I hope!!!!!