How time flies

The past month has certainly flown by!

Not least of the events to occupy my time has been the return of the mouse. It managed to access the linen supply so I've been doing a lot of laundry. I imagine our neighbours must be thinking that we've gone 10 rounds with Norovirus... However, the mouse has been dealt with once and for all, and there are no signs of any 'family' or 'friends' so, I'm hoping that that particular pantomime can now be put to rest.

A more worrying event though was the disappearance of a pattern that I posted to a customer at the end of December. To date, it has still not arrived so my faith in the postal system has been thoroughly shaken. Surely there must be a contingency plan for snow, Christmas rush and wild cat strikes? Other countries around the world cope with such events so I really don't understand how it all went so terribly wrong in the UK. At the end of January, I was still receiving post that was dated from the middle of November so I'm not convinced that it is safe yet to send anything else through the post.

I feel as though my business is being held to ransom because the only financially reasonable options offered by Royal Mail do not guarantee on time delivery. Even recorded signed for delivery gives no guarantee. Special delivery gives a guarantee but is priced well beyond what most people would be willing to pay. Are there any other viable solutions out there? If you think so, please e-mail me so I can check them out!

Another event of note has been the recent down time of our ISP service. Gales in the region, over the last several days, played havoc with local exchanges. We were off-line from Friday afternoon until yesterday afternoon - the longest time ever with this particular ISP. There has been the odd occasion when our service has vanished into the ether for several hours, usually attributable to scheduled maintenance, but it has never been down for this long. The timing was absolutely classic... my husband was finishing off his dissertation over the weekend and needed the internet for literature searches. I have aged about 20 years as a result!

My exhibition at Gibside has now finished so I am looking for other venues at which to show my work. My income tax return has been submitted so I can now concentrate on getting ready for the Pins and Needles show at the end of March. I will be attending the Morpeth Gathering as well at the end of April so there is much to be done. Must crack on here but I will post again as newsworthy events take place.

Exhibition at Gibside

Today, I was contacted about a last minute cancellation of an exhibition that was to go up on the walls of the tea room at Gibside National Trust. So, my stitched models are going on exhibit from tomorrow until 7 Feb., 2011. The framed pictures are for viewing only, and the patterns still need to be purchased direct from me. However, it is exciting to have yet another venue for exhibiting my work. Despite having just had them on exhibition at Saltwell Towers, there are a few things to be done before tomorrow so I shall sign off for now.

Snow Day

Despite the fact that I work from home, this has even become a snow day for me! Our drive was rapidly becoming impassable, and food was getting scarce, so I spent a large portion of the day shovelling. I nipped out for a grocery top up between snow showers so I think we'll see ourselves through the next few days of predicted snow showers. I'll have recovered enough by tomorrow to get on with my Gibside design then.

Meanwhile, I'm really enjoying the atmosphere that the snow creates. Our back garden looks beautiful, and has even been visited by a fox. It took off before I could get the camera ready but I am keeping an eye out for it in the meantime. I'm certainly not short of inspiration at the moment - just energy after several hours of hard labour on the end of a shovel.

This is the first real shovelling that I've had to do in over a decade. Having emigrated from Canada, I was more than happy to hang up my snow shovel. It sets the right atmosphere for Christmas and New Year but, to me, it feels a bit too much like work outside of that. The law over there insists on people clearing the walks and paths within a reasonable length of time. Trust me when I say that that gets rather irksome when you are shovelling after the third bad storm in the space of one week! The plow always managed to leave a 5 foot high by 5 foot deep snowbank composed of solid ice at the end of the drive after each pass too.

I was never keen to drive in the snow over there either, despite snow tyres and snowplows. And I'm even less keen to do so here because of the lack of them! So I'm quite content to stay put, take pictures of the snow in the garden, shovel at a sensible pace, and nip out for groceries when the road is clear enough to drive safely. I'll see about getting other snow pictures for new designs when the weather settles a bit more. Next time I'm out there, I might even make a snow angel...

New Year Inspiration

Happy New Year everyone!


I am off to a good start for the New Year so I am hoping that the momentum will continue. My Spring at Cragside and Saltwell Park designs are now on display in the cafe at Saltwell Towers. They will stay there until January 29th. Saltwell Park looks gorgeous under its blanket of snow so I can highly recommend a visit even at this time of year. By the way, I've had some inspiration for two more designs featuring Saltwell Park thanks to the weather and the Enchanted Parks event that was held there in December. Those will become available later in the year when I display more of my work at Saltwell Towers in December of 2010.


I have also spent some time at Gibside National Trust in order to capture the atmosphere created by the recent snowfall. A new design featuring the Chapel is definitely on the horizon, and there may even be a second of the Banqueting Hall to follow hot on its heels. I have been talking with Lynn Huggins-Cooper who runs the Gibside Arts Organisation in the Stables at Gibside. Before too much longer, I hope to have my charts on sale there and will probably be demonstrating some cross stitch and blackwork techniques from time to time. I will list the dates as I firm them up.


So, it is all go at the moment. I hope that the New Year is bringing you as much excitement as it is me, and that I'll see some of you at Gibside during the year.