Last posting before the move

I'll be off-line for a few days while our move to Hemsworth takes place. The removal van is packed tomorrow, finishing off and travelling on Thursday, move into new house on Friday. Last bits of sorting and cleaning up is being done.

In my last post from Poole I've put some pics that I took on Brownsea Island back in September, which is appropriate as the nature programme Autumnwatch on BBC this week comes from Brownsea. The first one is of a pheasant that calmly walked past me (at least it wasn't after food, unlike the peacocks), the next one is of some chicks and lastly a piece of wood in a bog covered in fungi.

This is my 99th post so the next one will be my hundredth. I'll have to think about a giveaway for that one (which I haven't done before). But anyway next time I'll post it'll be from Yorkshire.

Bye for now.

Look what I've got!

Idly sitting and flicking through the channels on Sky on Sunday I came across the Create and Craft channel, on which a rubber stamp collection from the English Stamp Company was being sold. It was mentioned that one could design a stamp and I immediately thought of postcards. I've always wanted to have a "Postcard" stamp to put on the backs but haven't seen anything suitable anywhere so this was just the job. Ordered on Sunday afternoon, arrived lunchtime today so I'm very impressed with the service and as you can see stamps very well too. I'm looking forward to making a batch of postcards (when the move is over) and being able to use this.

October Bag and More of the Move

I’ve made the October bag, picture on the left, part of the BQL Bag Challenge (link to blog on sidebar) which took a little while to do with the 30 pinwheel blocks to make. I used bright pinks with black and a pink batik lining and handles. Yesterday was wet and miserable so just the right weather for staying in and getting some sewing done. This is the last bit of sewing for now as I’m packing up my machine ready for the move next week.

I can’t believe that it’s getting towards the end of October and the move is imminent. I’ll be going up to Yorkshire on Thursday this week to sign the papers for the rented house. The removal people will be here next Monday and we leave Poole on Tuesday to move into our new house on Wednesday.

Move getting closer

I finished work last week so now I'm unemployed for the time being. We now move on 28 October, so apart from the continuous sorting out I have taken time out to do some sewing and embellishing.

By chance I had a postcard size-ish piece of black felt with some Bondaweb and a few other threads attached to it. Going through my scrap bag I put on some scrim (in the pink), a strip of crinkle chiffon (green) and silk pieces (orange) with bits of yarn. I ironed the lot down and put some black tulle on top to stop any loose bits moving around . The third pic shows it after treatment with the embellisher. The black circles are from needlefelting from the wrong side. I've got to add some hand embroidery onto this, but that was my fiddling about with the embellisher and a practice for a swap coming up soon.

I've also started on my October bag which I hope may be done before I move but the with little pinwheel blocks (60 of them!) it could take some time. Here they all are after having been ironed on the ironing board. After joining together to make up squares (before being ironed again) I decided to drape the chain pieced "flags" over a cross stitch picture in my living room

On the move, part 3

DH is due to start work In Sheffield on Monday and I have an interview in in Wakefield, so things are on the move. Back up north again tomorrow and I will back in Poole on Monday for my last week of work at the Borough of Poole. More tidying up, more sorting out and sorting out something to wear for Monday's interview. The house were renting and our own house rental have come together nicely so it would be nice if my job got sorted as well as his.

Castlepoint shopping centre in Bournemouth is not a place to visit on a wet Saturday afternoon. Not a space to be had in the car park and got frustrated trying to find one so left there and went to Bournemouth Town Centre. Am I the only one that doesn't like the shoes on offer in any of the shoe shops at present? They're either flat or have very high heels, neither of which I like seems to be nothing in between and every shop seems to have their version of Ugh (sorry, that should be Ugg) boots. Sorry, don't often rant, and I'm getting off topic here.

It was good to see the area were moving to last weekend as up to that point DH had only seen the house, though he'd taken pictures to show me. Whilst out last Saturday afternoon on our trip to Hemsworth we went via Elsecar Heritage Centre where there was a Thomas day on the railway and the exhibition shed had a garden railway exhibition which was really good.

Whilst on the subject of last weekend I didn't put a couple of photos that I took of the plant arrangements outside Sheffield Town Hall. These were made from sempervivium plants and depicted steelworkers - one male pouring molten steel, one female trimming a knife at a grinder - they had names but I can't remember what they were, but they did look impressive.

Trip to Sheffield

As we will be moving to Yorkshire soon DH and I spent the weekend in Sheffield. We stayed in a hotel right in the centre, Millenium Square, in the Heart of the City.

It was a really warm weekend and although the place looked deserted in these pictures in hour it was bustling with people enjoying the autumn sunshine.

The spheres just outside the square represent raindrops and have water trickling on the outside draining into a pool below. There are some coloured lights in the pavement which are reflected in the spheres. The second pic shows DH and I (I'm taking the photo) reflected in one of the spheres with the Winter Garden's arched roof behind us. To the right is the hotel where we stayed.

The next pic shows the fountains outside the Town Hall. Again as it's early in the morning there wasn't many people around. However later there were some wedding groups (from the Register Office at the Hall) gathering to take photo's using the fountains as a backdrop and later children would dash in and out of the fountains and get very wet!

In the square were a collection of fountains running from the Peace Garden into the Square.

We managed to see the Winter Gardens with tropical plants and also the Millennium Gallery. Too late for the Vivienne Westwood exhibition which closed the week before, but we did see the Get Knitted exhibition with the Knitted Wedding and also the cutlery collection. The pics here are of a cactus with a "Feed Me" donation box and the last pic of a monster (which is animated) made out of Sheffield Cutlery.

We found there were quite a few museums and galleries around that I guess once we're moved we may explore. We had found while trying to get to the hotel that there is a Fire and Police Museum, though we didn't time to see this, but the website looks good!

The main reason for going up there was to see the house we'll be moving into at the end of this month, in Hemsworth, between Barnsley and Pontefract. We've got someone moving into our house in November, so the moving plans seem to be coming together.