Sadness

I've been absent for a while. In early February my Dad was diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer, and we were told if he had chemotherapy that he had 18 months to live. He had his first chemo session on Wednesday 16th March, but 3 days later was very ill and was taken into hospital. It was hoped he'd only be in hospital for a few days and be home within the week. Sadly this was not to be - he went downhill very quickly and passed away peacefully on March 24th. We had his funeral yesterday.

My Dad was an amazing man, he suffered a lot with a neurological condition for 30 years which had caused him immense pain every day. Later he was in hospital for 6 months with lung problems, and in the last 2 year he had had prostate cancer which left his with a catheter permanently, and then he had skin cancer. In all that time I never ever heard him complain. Not once. He never let any of this get in the way of leading a full life, and indeed until November he was golfing three times a week. He always had a joke and a smile, and was simply adored by everyone who knew him.

Fortunately I had been able to fly over to NIreland to see my folks on 3 separate times in Feb and March, as I had a bad feeling about the cancer. I made my Dad a chemo blanket and am so glad I was able to give it to him while he was still here.

I'm absolutely devastated. There are no words to express the feelings of loss and grief. I can't believe he isn't here any more. It doesn't seem possible that he's gone.

Dad - you were, and remain, my hero, you were a wonderful person and I will miss you more than words can ever say xxxx

The Autism Project

Many of you will know two things about me:

1. My son has autism

2. I am running the London Marathon (OMG) in April to raise money for the National Autistic Society (www.autism.org.uk)

I've had to think up lots of fundraising ideas, and my latest one is one of my favourites as it involves crochet. My plan is to get people (including you lot hopefully) to sponsor me actual money and also to crochet some squares for me. Yes, I'm getting people to pay me AND crochet for me - hopefully they will see it as paying to be part of a fun and worthy project :)

I'll somehow gather up all the squares and join them together into some kind of banner (like that above) which I'm then planning to donate to our local autism school in April. It ties in well with the timing of World Autism Awareness Week (http://www.autism.org.uk/get-involved/world-autism-awareness-week.aspx) too.

I posted about this in a couple of Facebook groups this morning, and already there are people making squares for me - how fantastic! These are some of the photos they've posted so far ....

And here are a few I rustled up this morning .....

I am reeeeeeeaaaaaaally hoping to turn this into an international project, and it would be totally awesome if some of you, my lovely readers, whether at home here in the UK, or overseas, could crochet me some squares and also sponsor me. I am more than happy to bear the cost of postage, we would need to work that bit out, but it really would be fabulous to have a project that is truly global.

If you're interested (and I really really really hope you are!) here are the details:

- squares need to be roughly 3 inches by 3 inches (7.5 cm x 7.5 cm)

- you can use any pattern, solid granny, standard granny, rows, anything.

- each square needs to be one colour of green, yellow, red or blue. Any shade. But please feel free to make several squares of each colour if the fancy takes you!

- ideally I'd need the squares by March 17th (St Patrick's Day, easy to remember!)

- I'll email anyone who is interested my postal address

- I'm happy to reimburse for postage

- and the important bit - you can sponsor me at www.virginmoneygiving.com/jilldavidson

I don't really like asking people for money but the National Autistic Society is an amazing charity providing support, information, advice and training for families, like mine, who are affected by autism. Since our son's diagnosis we have turned to them for help,so many times, and the training course we attended, provided by the NAS was literally life-changing.

If you're not sure how this project will work please feel free to ask questions, and I really hope some of you will participate :) 

So - are you in???!!!?? Hope so!!!

Many heartfelt thanks for reading :)

Jillxxxx

Sunlit Sunday : 2016, Week 2

Just a few things that made me smile this weekend .....

♥ beautiful carnations on my coffee table ♥

♥ big green squares finished - 18 of them - starting yellow now ♥

♥ new magazines, and yes one of them is knitting! Shocker! ♥

♥ needle minders arrived in the post ♥

♥ aaaaaalmost finished January motif of magical creatures stitch-a-long ♥

♥ my spring vase cosies are back out ♥

♥ next cross-stitch pattern - for hubby for Valentine's Day ♥

♥ book (which I didn't get) from my Christmas list, on offer at the Works ♥

Hope you found some sunny moments in your Sunday ♥♥♥

Jillxx

Embroidery Grime Guard

Hello dear readers! Yes you are reading the right blog, yes I am writing my 4th post in as many days, what's going on?!! I have no idea!!!

Anyway, in between crochet stuff I like to cross-stitch, and I'm working on several cross-stitch projects at once (no surprises there eh ?!), but my largest one is a year long calendar stitch-a-long. I'm on a Facebook page of other people doing the same one and noticed loads of them have these cool covers to cover the edges of their work, where you hold it, to stop it getting all grubby - they are called grime guards. So of course I had no choice but to make one for myself.

I had this fabric in my stash which seemed perfect for the task ....

To hold my cross-stitch when it's a large piece of material, I use q-snaps instead of a hoop. Makes your hand cramp up less than a large hoop, although slightly more fiddly to move around your work. But I do like it for the larger pieces.

I measured around my frame : it was 32", so my grime guard would need to be that long, and I wanted it to come about 2" over the front and another 2" over the back. So without seam allowances I needed a long strip of fabric 32"x4".

My fabric piece wasn't long enough so I needed to make it out of two strips each about 16" long. Each strip had a 0.5" seam allowance on either short end, and a 1" seam allowance along either long edge, meaning my strips were 17" x 6".

I placed the strips wrong sides together and sewed along each short end with a 0.5" seam allowance, then pressed the seams open.

So now I had a continuous loop of material, which I tried over the circumference of my frame for size.

It needs to be a bit loose, if it's too neat a fit it's too hard to get on and off.

I then turned one long edge in by 0.5", and in again by another 0.5", pinned it in place, and sewed all the way round, leaving a gap of around an inch - this will be used to get the elastic in.

I repeated the hemming in the same way along the other long edge. Now I had a nice neatly hemmed loop ready to thread in the elastic. Ok maybe not the neatest hem ever but it's all going to be scrunched in with elastic anyway so it's not a problem.

I used a little safety pin to feed the elastic through, pulled it in quite a way, then secured the end with a knot. I did this on both sides. I checked it for fit and adjusted it a bit to make it tighter, and then sewed the hems closed where the elastic had gone in.

Hurray, my cross-stitch will be grimy no more :)

Jillxxxx

Happy Homemaker Monday

I've been a SAHM (stay at home Mum) for a good number of years, but as a former "career girl" I still struggle with the fact that I'm "just" a housewife. Now, I must point out that I don't go round judging other Mums who stay at home, or thinking they deserve less credit or respect than women who work, it's just a role that I personally find tricky to settle into. I think it stems from the fact that I HATE HOUSEWORK. But doesn't everyone ??? It's Just. So. Repetitive. Plus the fact that at every meal time there is at least one person refusing to eat (never me, but not always a child either if you know what I'm saying ....), and I may not be the best chef but I don't think I'm that terrible.

The lovely Carrie from Northwoods Scrapbook does a "Happy Homemaker Monday" post every Monday (obviously) so I thought perhaps if I join in and embrace the homemaker-ism I will finally start to face facts that a Homemaker (capital H) is what I actually am! (and yes I do know I'm very lucky that we can afford for me to not have to go out to work). So off we go then .....

THE WEATHER OUTSIDE IS:

Surprisingly mild, it's been a very mild winter, daffodils all over the place already!

ON THE BREAKFAST PLATE THIS MORNING:

Normally I have porridge but I've got a horrible cold at the moment and was in need of naughty comfort food so I had chocolate mini weetabix, which is the hubby's favourite, they are dangerous if you ask me, so full of sugar, and you can't possibly stop at one bowl....

AS I LOOK OUTSIDE MY WINDOW:

I really must tidy the garden up, it looks even worse than usual in winter because:

a) I never got round to power washing the patio last summer and

b) the grass has grown more than usual due to the mildness so its a bit unkempt.

Neither of which excuses the completely dead plants at my front door - this is how it's meant to look .....

.... minus the pumpkin, of course. I'm not showing you a photo of what it's like now as you will run away and never visit me again.

RIGHT NOW I AM:

Feeling really rubbish with a stupid head cold that I really don't have time to be having :(

AS I LOOK AROUND THE HOUSE:

One word - laundry!!

ON TODAY'S TO DO LIST:

As you know I'm running the London Marathon in April (OMG) to raise funds for the National Autistic Society, and am fundraising like crazy. I've been blown away by the generosity of people and when I asked for donations for a raffle (do other countries have raffles where you win prizes ?) I received lots of gifts from normal mums like me, nothing fancy, no TVs or anything, just lots of nice ladies' gifts. So today's job was to collect a few more donations from some very kind people. Here's a small selection of what I've been given to date ....

.... This is probably around a quarter of what I have, a very kind friend gave me all her old jewellery stock from when she was a Virgin Vie Jewellery rep, and another lady gave me 4 bottles of champagne! I can't thank them all enough :)

CURRENTLY READING:

I've just bought 2 second-hand crochet books, I love crochet books - even if I don't make anything from them I love flicking through them for inspiration. 

ON THE MENU THIS WEEK:

I'm gearing up for a Five on Friday post of slow cooker meals, so that's the inspiration for this week's dinners :)

Monday - Quorn paprika - here it is cooking ....

Yum! It's just Quorn pieces, onion, sweet corn, peas, carrots, peppers, veg stock, tin of tomatoes and a load of paprika. We have it with noodles and I stir in yoghurt at the end.

Tuesday - sausage caserole - been a bit lazy and bought a sachet for the sauce, but if it gets them all to eat it .... Served with new potatoes and carrots

Wednesday - 3 bean chilli - actually it's one type of bean (cannellini) and chickpeas but that doesn't make for a snappy title lol. Served with rice, I use Uncle Bens express sachets of rice. Maybe not as good or cheap as just cooking rice but better than reaching for the takeaway menu.

Thursday - prawn curry - a Jamie Oliver recipe but I add the prawns in at the end, don't fancy the thought of prawns festering in the slow cooker all day :-/ Again served with rice.

Friday - enchiladas - recently I found a great slow cooker recipe for this, it's fast becoming a family favourite. Served with guacamole and wholewheat tortillas.

I love my slow cooker, I am far more inclined to prep dinner at 10 in the morning when there are no whingers around, than after school when everyone is tired and grumpy. If anyone has any healthy veggie slow cooker meals (fish allowed) - send them my way please! And come back on Friday to see if I made all the week's meals in the slow cooker as planned!

WHAT I AM CREATING AT THE MOMENT:

Couple of things. I'm working on a bed blanket for a customer order, it's green and yellow squares in a checkered pattern with farm animal type things appliquéd on every other square. I'm pretty sure I've shown you the squares before ..... can't wait to finish the green ones, they've gone on forever ...

The squares are pretty dull, but I'm looking forward to doing the animals, they will be fun!

I'm also working out some little designs for some dinky little teabag tags .... more on that another day!

NEW RECIPE I WANT TO TRY THIS WEEK:

Well technically the sausage caserole is a new recipe as I haven't used a sachet before, and I've just realised I didn't check if it was veggie, remind me tomorrow someone ....

TIP OF THE WEEK:

Keep a pad and paper in the car .... I had to put a five pound note through someone's letterbox today and I forgot to bring an envelope with me, I had to go and buy a card, just for the envelope, as I didn't have time to go home, and I didn't want to put the fiver through the door on its own in case the dog ate it or something!! I'm sure I could have fashioned an envelope if I'd had some paper ..... maybe I should include an origami book too ??? But look how jolly a card I bought - sending it off to my Dad tomorrow (in another envelope of course lol)

Linking in with Sandra from Diary of a Stay at Home Mom for Happy Homemaker Monday :)

Til next time,

Jillxxx

Sunlit Sunday : 2016, Week 2

I've been doing a lot of catching up on everyone's blogs this weekend, apologies to those I haven't visited yet, I'll get there I promise :) Anyway whilst visiting Amy at Love Made My Home I noticed her Sunlit Sunday post last week, linking up with (Karen of My Little Home and Garden). Karen is hosting a link up thingy - no idea what the proper term is, sorry! - the idea being you look for the sunny moments, literal or figurative, in the week. After a rough couple of weeks (Dad ill, more on that another time), I reckon I could do with a reminder to sit up and notice the good moments in life. So this is my first Sunlit Sunday. I missed week 1 so this is week 2. But hey, who's counting.

In anticipation of writing a Sunlit Sunday post I dragged the family out for a walk, and where better than Basildon Park (Basildon Park which is where Amy works :) And no I am not stalking her!!!

I've posted about Basildon Park before, we love it there, it's a National Trust property and is open all year round. There wasn't any actual proper sunny sun but it was very mild, and there was lots of running around to be had. Seeing as it's been so mild generally this winter there were lots of flowers in bloom, (maybe some are in bloom normally at this time of year, I am not a great gardener!), but still they looked lovely. And then of course we had lunch in the cafe including scones and tea :)

Rather than waffle on I'll just show you some (ok a lot of) photos - enjoy :)

I hope you enjoyed my first Sunlit Sunday :) Thankyou Amy for the inspiration and to Karen for organizing it! You can check out who else is joining in at Karen's Sunlit Sunday

Til next time, have fun looking for your sunny moments :)

Jillxxxxx