WOYWW 619 - the wanderer returns

Greetings and salutations, lovely deskers. Welcome back to another round of WOYWW, hosted by the lovely Julia over at Stamping Ground.  For all the deets check here, but do have a read below first!

I have been somewhat AWOL for the last four weeks.  Sincere apologies. Life kind of got in the way, not least with the ailing health of my father in law which culminated in him passing away on Easter Sunday, the 4th of April. 

Bill had Alzheimer's, and was heading into the last stages of it.  He'd got to the point where he - like small children are wont to do - would spit out any tablets he was supposed to be taking, or would hide them in his mouth and throw them away.  This wasn't good for a man on heart medication, but became a much bigger issue when he needed antibiotics for a urinary infection.  He ended up in hospital on IV antibiotics, and did rally, but then as is all too often the case developed pneumonia.  As he had a DNR in place, he was allowed to slip away in peace with the nurses making him as comfortable as possible.  His funeral is on the 21st April.

Now, those of you who know my family (or indeed have seen on FB), will know that my in laws are up in Liverpool and we are down in Cornwall.  So there has been a bit of to-ing and fro-ing, and there will be next week.  Poor Miss B is at Uni in Exeter, too, and her dissertation is due in on the 28th April.  I believe she's applied for an extension, as Granddad was a special man in her world.  

RIP Bill

We've also got a camping trip coming up, a social with fellow reenactors in preparation for the re-enactment year slowly gearing up.  The dogs need breaking in to the whole concept of tents and campfires so this should be interesting!  It'll be good to meet up with our Domus Lunaris family, and a few others we know.  I'm sure I'll have some photos to share later!

Anyway - you've not come here to see me witter on about family news.  To the desk!

Oh dear.

Yes, not much has been done this month.  There's been a bit of stitching but not overly much.  Well, I say that...

In my last blog post I mentioned that the March Mayhem didn't go according to plan?  It failed miserably.  I finally finished off the sassy spider...

He now has a hanger. 

And started the next Mill Hill Kit....

And that was it.  Can you tell what it is yet?  LOL

I also finished the Hardanger!  Suggestions on what to do with it, please... It's too small for a tray cloth, too big for a scissor keep.  I could frame it but I rather suspect it's going to end up languishing in a box somewhere.

The Peppermint Purple SAL has moved on, but is still behind...

The Moose on the other hand has moved on a fair bit...

and Siren's Lament has had some notable work done on it!

The last round of Myth & Magic Stitch Wars really took it out of my team - it was stressful (but fun) and has left us debating continuing.  It doesn't help that FB isn't geared up for that sort of thing and was very glitchy, so the organisers are now trying to move it off FB and onto other platforms but we're not sure it'll work.  

It's Mr B's birthday on Friday, and I've made something for him but can't share it here for fear he'll see it.  I mean, he rarely looks at my blog, but this would be the one time, ya know?  I’ll share it next time!

I shall love you and leave you here.... Happy Hopping!

WOYWW 612 - Rudolph Eve

Hello, deskers!  Welcome back to WOYWW - that weekly roundup of all things deskish, hosted by the lovely Julia.  Details can be found here if you'd like to join in, or want to go on a bloghop round the desks.

This week is more of the same (stitching, not crying!) with a random card thrown in for good measure...

The desk itself has had a bit of a tidy up, but there's a load of stuff sat on it ready for tomorrow's Rudolph Day, when I shall make a couple of Christmas cards, and maybe work on one or two other things.  I have Thursdays off at the moment (which will switch to Mon/Tues/Thurs/Fri mornings off from next week.  Flexi-furlough, don't you know.

One of the other desks had a bit of a tidy up too.  It had been piled high with fabric and assorted oddments.  Now it has been cleared, but there's still quite a bit on it.  I've got a couple of projects on the go there, and also some stitchy stash waiting for me to film a flosstube where I can show off my recent haul.  There won't be much more purchased going forwards though!  Time to rein in the spending a little.... heheheh.

So, updates:

Siren's Lament

Mr Christmas Moose

Peppermint Purple's 2021 stitchalong - not much done to it but YAY! Patterns!

Also found lurking and needing love is this hardanger piece I started goodness knows how many moons ago (the needle had rusted into the fabric), and is worked from a pattern from an old Jane Greenoff Cross Stitch magazine.  I have no idea what issue number it is... I did try to find out when the magazine was last in print and know it was going until at least 2005, but couldn't find out any concrete information.

Next month is March Mayhem - a group on FB of stitchers who broke away from May-nia which was another group of individuals doing a crazy challenge stitch wise.  I think there may be a competition to see who can do the most new project starts, or how many WIPS you can be working on at any given time!  My foray into this world of craziness is that I'm going to do "March Mill Hill Mayhem".  Nicely alliterated, I thought.  But basically, I'm going to try and do as many Mill Hill kits as I can in the next month.  The idea being to do a bit of stash-busting and get them stitched and up on our craft tree this Christmas.  And Halloween.  We have a Halloween/Samhain tree too.  I have 5 more Halloween Mill Hill kits to do.  And about 16 Christmas ones.  Best guess is that I might get a quarter of them done if I'm lucky but if I persevere, maybe half.  Which will be ten more than I would have otherwise.  Apologies for the glare on the top three.  

So, back at the beginning of this post I mentioned a card, and I alluded to it last week when I said that I never thought I'd be kicking off my non-Christmas card making with this particular variety of card, but here it is.  

Needless to say, it was sent to Doug.  Forgive me if I don't tell you all I wrote in it, but the night before I wrote it, I was binge-watching Criminal Minds and they start and end the programme with quotes.  One episode ended with:

"Death ends a life, not a relationship", Mitch Alborn.

That quote has stuck with me, and I put it into the card along with our own sentiments. How very true.  

And in recognition of the lovely Shaz, I'm going to add a finishing funny:

Perfectly describes this household currently...

Happy hopping!