My update on the Glasgow Rose cat from last week. i did quite a lot - managed to finish the cat and the vase, started now on the flowers. I guess only another 2 rotations and this one is finished.

I have really neglegted my blog in the past few weeks... here is my update on Spring Queen - yes, she is coming along nicely and almost finished. The card is for Beverly from the birthday exchange group. This week, my rotation is the Glasgow rose cat.

I 've had a week off 2nd week of Jan - I was absolutely shattered after Christmas/New Year. Work was so extremely busy and we had only sceleton staff as it is usual I suppose - instead of 10 there were only 3 of us, and often I didn't leave the office until 7 or 8 in the evening (I usually finish at 3.30pm). The week off was bliss - and I managed to get quite a few things done. Finally registered with a dentist (after 5 years!! shame!), Raja had his annual jabs... Hopefully I'm getting someone to come around to have a look at our fence which needs replacing. I feel reluctant to call someone from the Yellow Pages - I know I'm gonna get ripped off with builders and such, as I really haven't got a clue.

Ruby started swimming lessons and I do go regularly again on Saturdays/Sundays. Ruby's lessons - well, I don't know. She is in a beginners class, as she never had lessons, but all the other kids are 3/4 year olds, and lots of the lesson seem to involve simply getting the kids used to water (e.g. splashing about, retrieving balls from the water) -pretty silly for a 9 year old. I payed a small fortune for 10 lessons (each lasting only 30 mins) - let's hope she is eventually learning to swim! oh, btw, I tried to teach her several times but failed, I'm just an awful teacher I'm afraid.

Here is my update from last week's rotation: Monet. I finally took it out of the scroll frame and put it in the Q-snaps in the hope that his could *maybe* increase my desire to work on this project... Not much to see in way of progress, as the design is printed on anyway... It annoys me that often the chart and the print don't mix. It says in the description that you can use your imagination and creativity - well, it just annoys me and I won't be doing pre-printed again (or background printed - whatever!). About 60% done.

This is a card I stitched for Kate's birthday (from the Birthday Club group. it's an adapted design from German designer 'Liebevolle Kreuzstichentwuerfe' (what a name!). There was also a tablecloth which the vase was standing on which I left out (not enough time and I thought the vase in itself was pretty enough. Also, I sittched the flowers in blue rather than black as suggested by the chart - I didn't think black was appropriate for a birthday card, and besides, the blue fits and looks better (me thinks!)

This week's rotation is Spring Queen, and I am making some progress.

I have finished the John Clayton 'Holly' last week - it was fun to do at the end, even the background. I need to find a square frame for it... Sorry for the poor picture quality, I'm still working on 'figuring out my Digi-cam' !
The Christmas stitching has now been put away until December next year, and I started my rotation as planned with the Monet yesterday. I'm doing a weekly rotation, but will do birthday cards on Sunday (as I take part in a few birthday exchanges and would like to stitch cards.

Happy New Year to all!
New Years Eve was a bit of a no-show for us. I wasn't keen to go to Central London for the fire works anyway - I'm not one for big crowds. and I'm 'On Call'... the whole Christmas period working has tired me out so much, I just want to sleep. So I went to sleep about 9pm! Got up again at 11 and waited to see in the New Year, but still wasn't with it. And Nafees has got the flu, so he couldn't even drink!