Gift of stitching is back..phew!!

I thought I was losing the plot, with this darn cold, when I tried to log into The Gift of Stitching to download the past two years magazines due to my hard drive dying on me. I kept getting this really weird site that was in way anything to do with Kirsten's site. Then I finally found this while checking through google. It is an article that I found posted on Independant Needlework News blog.

Hello everyone,

Well… this is very embarrassing and I’ve been up since 4am trying to fix the problem. Basically our domain thegiftofstitching.com has expired, we didn’t know it was going to and now we have to negotiate and buy it back from a parking domain business that likes to profit out of people wanting their expired domains back. OK, lesson learnt the hard way. Buy this domain back is going to take sometime - up to 2 weeks.

In the meantime we have bought www.thegiftofstitching.com.au and are currently working with the hosting company to get it attached to our account so we can get the website up and running again. This will take up to 72 hours to travel around the world and update all the servers. Hopefully most will see it in the next 48 hours. Keep coming back and press refresh to see if it has started to work.

Once the domain is working for me, I will be sending out extensive emails so all subscribers/retailers/designers so they know what is going on.

Thanks for your patience, I am really sorry this has happened. We are working as quick as possible to get this fixed.

Kind regards,
Kirsten
–
Kirsten Edwards
Editor
The Gift of Stitching
www.thegiftofstitching.com

Weird weather forecast..

Just checking the weather for our area and I seriously think the weather people have gone barmy. There is no way the "real feel of -17 this is correct..

Flowers of spring..

The spring flowers are in an abundance in the front garden - daffodils and crocuses aplenty. The red robin bush is almost in flower, it's absolutely full of new shoots and buds. And the pink rose bush is creating new shoots galore. Everything else is still a wee bit dormant, they take a little bit longer to come into life.

Here's a photo of the daffodils that I picked from the front garden, as well as in the corner of the picture my birthday pressie - a weather station gadget which I am absolutely smitten with. Oh and the meerkat ornament was D's birthday present as he is gaga over meerkats ever since he saw Meerkat Manor and The Lion King's Timon..lol



And here's the bouquet that D had sent to me on Monday - it's a bit squashed as it hadn't long been unpacked. It is in full bloom glory now on the dining table and smells gorgeous.



I think I might sit in the sun on the sofa, this afternoon, and do some stitching while watching a film on the t.v.

40 today..

Well I turn 40 today, an age I thought was a long time away when I was in my late twenties. You know it doesn't feel possible as I don't even feel 40. Wonder if this is how everyone feels when they reach this age.

Have had a lovely start to the day - DH spoilt me rotten as did my inlaws and D's relatives. I have also got an abundance of that 40 confetti everywhere in my house. I think D had a mad half hour and just put it anywhere. I have some on the bed, on the bedside table, in my card and in the present wrapper paper. I even found some in the bath!! And he has got me one of those age badges. Do you know I have never had a badge like that before, or not that I can remember. Isn't that sad!!

Just had the most special surprise delivered. My DH, who is not one for romantic gestures or gesture of anykind really, had arranged for a bouquet of flowers from M&S to be delivered to me.

What a surprise that was I can tell you, I bawled my eyes out and rung him to thank him and told him off for doing that.. What am I like..lol

Just goes to show even the most unromantic person can surprise you.. I mean my Dave is not tactile or anything, he even finds it difficult holding hands in public.. After 21 years of being together he can still surprise me. Ack I have just realised that we have been married for 19 years if we have been together 21 years..omg!!

The end of an institution..

It was a sad day on Wednesday when it was announced that the BBC is going to axe a childrens t.v. programme called Grange Hill. This programme was part of my childhood, I grew up watchng the likes of Tucker Jenkins, Tricia Yates and Benny Green getting up to who knows what while at school. For 3o years this programme has been going and now the powers to be have decided that our schools are too hard hitting and Grange Hill cannot cope with trying to show real life school dramas.

Click on link to find out all about Grange Hill

Ok I know in the scheme of things it isn't that major but hey to this 40year old *well nearly 40* it is the end of a childhood institution.

Yet on another note I have had a happy evening going through a lot of my old childhood programmes on You Tube. The likes of The Tomorrow People, The Ghosts of Motley Hall, Pipkins, Pinky and Perky and Animal Magic. Oh those were the days..

Shoot me now...

I don't believe it - ooh why does this sound like a Victor Meldrew (One Foot in the Grave) moment, hmm!!!

Well the third thing has happened - they say things happen in threes and this was a biggy. My 300gb external hard drive has died!! I don't know how as it was working last time I used it , one minute it was working happily and the next "dead".

As you can imagine I am not a happy bunny, especially as I had a lot of word documents and emails saved on there. I also had over 8gb of music which I had downloaded onto there.

But the most annoying thing is that I had over 2 years (2006 and 2007) worth of "The Gift of Stitching", which is really made me mad as I didn't burn them onto a cd at the end of each year. But I have just looked at their website and you can purchase a year's bundle of back issues for $18.00. So I shall have to buy the two years bundles - $36.00. And this time I will make sure I copy them onto a cd. So now I have to creep to D to see if he will let me borrow the CC, although I think he might be a bit hesitant especially as I have the laptop payment on there at the moment.. Oh well at least I can download the back issues as a whole bundle so that is something I suppose.

Is this it now - they say things happen in threes and this has certainly been the case recently.

I don't do things by half..

About a week or so ago I stupidly managed to damage all the nerves down the right side of my back.. And you will never guess how I did this? Well even I can't believe it - I got a pint of milk out the fridge and was putting it back and then voila! One gods awful scream later and I was in the most excruciating pain imaginable. I was in that much pain I had to get D to come home from work early and get my neigbour opposite to help me get dressed. I even thought I would have to go to A&E but after speaking to my lovely Dr and then D picking up some strong prescription painkillers I managed.

As you can imagine this laid me up for over a week and just as I was starting to get feeling back and able to do things, albeit in a limited way I go and get this bloody awful sickness and diarrhea bug that is going around the UK.

How I got it I have no idea but believe me I do not want it again. This is the same bug that D had back in end August/early September of last year. Now why I couldn't have got this then I don't know but nope I get it now. I haven't even been near anyone that has been ill so I have absolutely idea how I got it. But this has laid me up since Monday and I have managed to lose half a stone in weight since then.

Poor D has even had to cook his own dinner when he comes in from work at night, bless him he hasn't complained but it can't be any fun as he gets in from London at 7ish, then has to cook a full dinner for himself and then even has to walk the dogs at 9pm. Hopefully by next week he will be able to pass the cooking back over to me to do as per normal. Still saying that I haven't even felt like eating anything - I mean there are only so many Rich Tea biscuits one person can eat when that is all they can keep in. And I have lost count of how many glasses of water I have drunk,, and here's me who doesn't even like plain water..ugh!! That's how D knows I am not well as I am willingly drinking water.

I have just had a cup of tea with a smidgen of milk and right now I can feel my stomach starting to gripe. Oh well still not ready for tea just yet, or I should say milk/dairy products.

Fingers crossed that I am feeling better at the weekend as we are having dinner with D's parents and I'm not sure I could face sitting there with everyone else tucking into a lovely roast dinner and all I have is a couple of rich tea biscuits. :-(

Snow

This is what we are supposed to be getting but as of 2.30pm today bothing has materialised.

Had a strange experience today but in a good way..

I have to tell you all about this strange experience that I had today. It was a kind of surreal moment but it brought tears to my eyes in some way.

I was sitting on the sofa watching t.v. and I could see some birds playing in the rather bedraggled forsythia bush that is touching the front window. When all of a sudden I saw a flash of red. I looked closely and a beautiful robin came hopping out of the branches and sat on one of the outside branches and looked straight at me. This may not be a strange experience to some but it is when another robin suddenly comes from nowhere and sits right next to this robin. The proceeded to look in the living room window for a good 5 mins. Then with a bob of their heads they flew off. What really was strange is that we have a resident robin in the back garden but in all the years we have lived here we have never ever seen one robin round the front, let alone two.

Now me being me had a lovely thought when I saw these two robins, and I would like to think that they were possibly my mum and my nan come to let me know that they are looking over me and wanted to wish me Happy New Year! It may have been utter nonsense but I have a gut feeling about this and we do get strange things happen, for example seeing a squirrel in our garden for three days then totally disappearing when my cat Barney died a couple of years ago. Bearing in mind we have never seen a squirrel in our garden in the 14 years we have lived here, and have not seen a squirrel since.

I had a lovely warm feeling once the robins had gone, although I will admit I did have a wee cry to myself.

Who's a special little polar bear???

Knut, the polar bear that was born 5 November 2006 celebrates his first birthday today. He's a wonderful looking bear now, weighing in at a whopping 17 stone. It's so hard to believe that animal activists wanted him destroyed because Knut was going to be hand reared by his keeper. But because of world attention etc, Knut did indeed get hand reared by his owner and he has turned into a lovely polar bear, although he could do with a wash as he is definately not the lovely white fluffy baby he was once :)





And I promise there will be some stitching updates posted very soon, well once I have finished some stitching that is..lol

A pretty little plant..

I finally found out what this little plant is called - "Hoya Bella" I inherited it from Mum's while I was sorting her house out before the funeral. It's a really sweet little plant, but knowing my mum's penchance for the weird and wonderful I had no idea what it could be. Then it flowered, wow is all I could say..the flowers were wonderful. So armed with a picture of the flowers I then went to hunt it down in my mother in law's flower books, and this weekend I found it..woohoo!!

May I present the year old addition to our family:

One very old cat..

Pussywillow, a semi feral cat has reached the grand old age of 26yr old. She is still sharp in mind and eyes according to her owner Lin Brown. She survived a fox attack four years ago, and is still going strong.

Apparently a healthy cat can live to 18yr and some cats do live to 20yr but living to 26yr is almost unheard of. Pussywillow may have even reached the Guiness Book of Records by living this long.

What a lucky cat she is.

Full story can be found here: Pussywillow

What a lucky cat..

This lucky 13yr old cat has certainly landed on his feet.. He is now an honoury PC at Kings Cross Station catching the mice.

For full story go here: PC Tizer recruited to patrol station

Christmas comes early..

I can't believe it, the other night (31st October) I actually saw the first Christmas advert of the year. It was for Argos Direct, and they were telling you not to worry about rushing around in the hustle and bustle of the shoppers and just order all your Christmas presents online and have it delivered to you at your own convenience. I mean seriously it was the end of October, heck November hadn't even arrived by then!! I swear Christmas comes earlier each year, either that or I am becoming a "Scrooge" - Bah Humbug!!!

A small meme for your enjoyment..

I shamelessly stole this meme from Barbara

1) Go to Wikipedia
2) In the search box, type your birth month and day but not the year.
3) List three events that happened on your birthday.
4) List two important birthdays and one death.
5) One holiday or observance (if any).

Three Events:-

Pennsylvania Hospital, 1st hospital in the United States, opens.
University College London is founded under the name University of London.
Nelson Mandela, a political prisoner for 27 years, is freed from Victor Verster Prison outside Cape Town, South Africa.

Two important birthdays and a death:-

Mary Quant, English fashion designer (b.1934)
Leslie Nielsen, Canadian actor (b.1926)
Frank Herbert, American author (d.1986)

One holiday:-

National Inventors' Day in the United States.

I borrowed this from the Guardian..

Bong! News at Ten is back. Again

Is Sir Trev the only newsman worthy of our trust?

Copywrite - John Plunkett

I have got my diary out to check the date. Yes, it's 2007, and yes, Sir Trevor McDonald is about to return to ITV1 to present a resurrected News at Ten. No offence to Sir Trev, but isn't he a bit of an analogue bloke in a digital world?

You can see why ITV chairman Michael Grade might want to bring it back. News at Ten is one of the great TV brands (although it remains to be seen how much it has been damaged in its absence).

Ever since the 10pm bulletin was first axed back in 1999 - yes, it was that long ago - ITV has struggled to fill the slot. Remember Mr and Mrs with Julian Clary? Not many people do.

But a glance at the last few weeks' schedules suggests they are still having a problem, with the likes of Don't Call Me Stupid and Police, Camera, Action! padding out the 10pm slot.

These are probably not the sort of ratings winners ITV bosses had in mind when they axed it all those years ago, and the channel is regularly walloped in the ratings by Huw Edwards' 10pm news bulletin on BBC1.

News at Ten will also get beaten in the ratings, but at least it will free up the network to play some half-decent comedy, drama or documentaries in the 10.30pm slot. Providing they can find the commissions, of course.

But the bulletin's return will also bring with it all the scheduling issues that prompted the channel to axe it in the first place. What will happen to ITV1's successful 90-minute dramas such as Rebus and its season of Jane Austen adaptations?

A 30-minute break for the news at 10pm? Eugh. An 8.30pm start? Watershed issues. Move the 10pm bulletin? It's "News at when" all over again. And what about when the football - an increasing part of the ITV portfolio - runs over?

Still, as Channel Five's Chris Shaw noted on this website six months ago, bring back News at Ten would be "exactly the kind of loud, splashy statement Michael Grade would love to make. It would be confident, bullish, and underscore his determination to bring back the glory years of ITV."

It may also serve to shift attention, for a moment at least, from the devastating fallout from the Deloitte report into ITV's premium phone line abuse.

Now Grade has finally made the move, all he has to do is fit the rest of the ITV primetime schedule around it.

News at Ten's return also caps a triumphant return for the 68-year-old newsman, only two years after his "last ever" bulletin.

Is it me, or is there something faintly depressing about the fact that the nation - or at least, that part of it that watches ITV News - appears only to trust Sir Trevor to read the news. What's his secret? And why haven't any other newsreaders got it?

A reality engagement - can it get any worse!!!

I have just read on The Daily Mail online that Chanelle and Ziggy (or Chiggy) from the last Big Brother 8 are now going to get married a-la Posh and Becks style..and Chanelle possibly thinks she could be pregnant. Ye gods can it get any worse. This couple are as volatile as a volcano, and are on and off like a light switch. They have only known each other for 5 months and they are already declaring undying love for each other, well she is to him. I'm not sure about him, he doesn't look that pleased to me:



This sounds very similar to another reality couple that met on a celebrity Big Brother the other year. Well she was a normal person off the street type girl and he was from a boyband. And guess what? They got married and split up after a short amount of time...

Oh well I suppose they have to fill the papers with something other than news..

The world has gone weird!!

I was having a nosey on the BBCi website and came across this picture:



Apparently this poor dog is modeling a rain coat and a rescue jacket, designed to be used in emergency situations, at a Security and Safety Trade Expo in Tokyo, Japan.

Now I wonder if either Bear or Jet would be able to wear something like this, and do they do it in pink?

Ugh @ Royal Mail..

And it still continues. Royal Mail are holding the country to ransom, as per usual. This is getting ridiculous, how can one company do this. Well it seems that RM can..

I am not going to go into the whys and wherefores and my feelings on the RM strike, but one thing I will say is if they worked in any other environment then they would not be allowed to do this. I mean if my D left work early because he had done his job he would not expect to be paid for the time he was not at at work, yet this is one of the points that RM are striking over- they want to be paid for going home early. Hmmmm

Now I am off to try and post a parcel while the strike is on one of its days off, until Monday of next week. Fingers crossed it gets delivered.

A sad day..

Today has felt so unreal.

After waking up to an email from a very close friend S to say that her mum was in hospital and would I send positive vibes. I get a phone call to say that she is now in ICU on a ventilator and the Dr's think she has a blockage or something in her abdomen. So of course I wait by the phone for the day. S rings me, I ring S and get updates that way.

Then tonight I make that phone call. How I wish I hadn't. Sadly S's mum S has passed away. OMG how can this be I ask myself, she only went in with stomach pains and coughing up blood. S has been like a mother to me since my mum died last year, and here we are nearly a year later..

My thoughts are with S and her family.

*it doesnt help that S's mum also has the same initial..ahhh!!*