Tigger's Log Finish!!

Hello everyone!

Apologies for the lack of posts, we have been away on a family holiday to Northumberland, but more about that another time.  I'm very behind on everyone's blogs, so I dread to even look at how many posts I have to read, but I will get to them this week :)

Before I got back home, I managed to get a finish on Tigger's Log, hooray!

And here it is, the design is about A4 size:

Tigger's Log
Stitched on 14 Count Cream Aida

Very glad to have it finished, and thankfully my new frame has arrived from Needleneeds, as the old one had well and truly had it, so I'm straight back onto the Moonlit Waters (yes, still on page 4... )

Tropical Wings Zoo

This week, a friend had decided she wanted to go back to Tropical Wings Zoo with her 2 year old and 4 month old.  I had never visited before, so I decided to tag along.

Tropical Wings is a zoo in Essex, where the main attraction is probably the indoor butterfly house, hence the name.  But I'll get to that later.  We decided to start with the 'furry friends' session.  Here they had a guinea pig and a rabbit in a long run that the children (or adults) could pet.  Next to this was the enclosure for the goats, and the visitors were given food to feed them - they were very friendly indeed.  Up in this farmyard section there were also a number of chickens and other rabbits and we spent a little time looking at these.

Rabbits

Chickens

We started a slow walk back.  The next thing we came across were the Meerkats.  They were having a lot of fun digging holes and looking around with their inquisitive faces.  Always fun to watch.  Just around the corner and the next thing on the schedule was the Lemur feeding.  The 2 year old was a bit apprehensive at first, but you are able to go right inside their enclosure.  They had bags of energy and there were quite a few youngsters jumping around.  When the zookeeper came out to feed them they walked along a rope right in front of us!  There were also some giant tortoises in the enclosure.

Lemurs

The next thing we knew, it was absolutely throwing it down, so sadly we had to give Tractorland (there is also a Diggerland) a miss as they were all locked up.  Instead, we decided to eat our picnic.  We found that there were quite a few areas outdoors for a picnic, both out and undercover. We stopped in the area next to the huge playground - a real shame that it was too wet to go on as it looked like a lot of fun.  There was also a sandpit with many plastic toys.  There are also toilets nearby so this was indeed a good place to stop.

Outdoor Playground

Sandpit

Following lunch, we had a look at the many birds.  There were a wide variety of colourful birds chirping away and we probably spent about 10 minutes looking round them.  Then the rain was starting to get heavy again, so we headed back to the main building.  There is another seated area next to a lovely kids softplay with areas for both the younger and older children and a coffee machine to revive the adults.  According to the website, there is a largish looking cafe, but we didn't stumble across it as we were going round and we didn't need it since we brought lunch with us.  There is also a fairly large shop in this main building selling stuffed animals, toy bugs, books, and snacks.

The 2 year old currently has a fascination with bugs, so next to the indoor play area we stopped in Discovery Kingdom to look at the cockroaches, millipede and other creepy crawlies.

Finally, we definitely saved the best until last - the Tropical House, with its fish pond and butterflies. Absolutely beautiful with lovely flowers and heaps of butterflies fluttering by and a couple of caterpillars walking around.

Overall, we had a lovely day, despite the weather.  There is still quite a lot to do which is inside, although I think we could have made a much longer day of it had it been sunny as there were a few animals we didn't see and the outdoor playground would have been fun - however because of the weather I think it was fairly quiet which was great!  There are loads of signs giving info on the animals which is really useful and the whole place looks really well looked after and neat.  Everything is accessible for buggies and wheelchairs, which makes life easier. If I lived closer and had children, I think it would definitely be worth buying the annual pass that they offer.  I'm definitely looking forward to visiting again!

Sledmere House

A month ago, on the way back from a visit to the Yorkshire coast, we stopped off at a place called Sledmere House.  Since my sister has a dog, we try to look for places that we can stop where the dog can have a nice walk and we can sit down in a cafe.  Sledmere House was a good choice as it was a lovely hot day and we could sit in their terrace cafe.  The food was really delicious and they also had a sweet little shop on site.

Obviously we couldn't go in the stately home with the dog, but we decided that after our lunch, it would be worth paying to go through into the gardens as they seemed quite substantial.  I'm so glad we did, they were absolutely beautiful, well cared for and I though I'd show some of the photos that I took whilst we were there.  Next time I hope to go inside the house, it looks just as wonderful as the outside.  Definitely worth a visit if you are closeby!

It felt a bit like we were going into The Secret Garden

Beautiful things inside

Stunning layouts

so many beautiful roses, the red was so vibrant!

The chapel in the grounds

Beautiful colours in the garden behind the house

Tigger's Log update

Hello everyone...

Hope you are all doing ok... I'm feeling a bit under the weather at the moment so just a short post.

I've been working on Tigger's Log for a while now on and off between other things so I thought it might be time for a progress update.

Tigger's Log
Designer Stitches - D44

I'm not enjoying this one very much as there are absolutely heaps of fractional stitches in it which is driving me a bit crazy but I'm persevering as it's the second time I've started this one... the first must have been more than 10 years ago and it was such a mess when I pulled it out that I did this restart.  Hopefully it'll be over quickly, I'm expecting my Millennium frame to arrive any day now, so I'm looking forward to getting back to my HEAD, Moonlit Waters.

Heartz Completed!

Hello there!

Just a quick post today to show the Heartz designed by Eileen Hoare and stitched in her silk threads.  I've finally completed all of them, only a little bit off the SAL schedule but it's good to have them finished!

Yes, it does need a bit of an iron!

Colours are as follows:

Pansy, Deep Jungle, Antique Gold & Silver, LadyBug
Sea Green, Amazon Parrot, Heather, 'Life, The Universe & Everything'
Galaxy, Ocean, Autumn Equinox, Hazel
Candyfloss, Koi, Robin's Nest, Blackberry

The chart and threads can be found on Eileen's site here:
http://www.threadpickerz.co.uk/

I'm really pleased with the way the designs turned out, and with it being a SAL it has been fun seeing other people stitching the same heart in a different colour.  I can also highly recommend Eileen's silk threads, they have been so lovely to stitch with and the photo really doesn't do the colours justice.  I still have plenty of thread left to play around with too!

Hardwick Hall

Hooray for 2 weeks spent in Yorkshire with the family.  And we were so lucky with the weather.

On one of the days, Mum, Dad and I chose to go somewhere that I've not been for a while, and since I had my National Trust card, I thought it might be nice to go in the house instead of just the gardens for a change.

It seems as though Hardwick Hall grounds have undergone a bit of redevelopment since I was last there.  The cafe has been perked up and serves a delicious range of food - try the Huntsman's Pie if you get chance - delicious!  There is heaps of seating inside and out, so you could also take a picnic if you wished.  Also some really beautiful gardens to walk through and relax in.

Much quieter than the front view of the house...
the side view from the gardens

I was so happily surprised that we decided to go inside the house as well.  From the moment you walk in, there are some incredible pieces of embroidery and tapestry, which I wasn't expecting at all.  Bess of Hardwick must have been one heck of a collector, because it is on almost every wall, and I imagine that was one way to make the stone walls feel a bit more welcoming and homely.  As an added bonus, there was an exhibition on 'Threads of Time' - showcasing 16th century items such as needlework and furniture.

Please find below some photos of some of the things on display - but if you are able to visit in person, I highly recommend doing so - it's wonderful to be able to get up close to such amazing pieces of needlework (and feel completely inadequate with all of my own pieces given the scale of some of theirs!)

Some of the tapestries are also being restored - a hugely costly undertaking but incredible to see the difference and clarity in those which already have been.

Needlework Cushion cover: Silk on fine linen
Centre in tent stitch, border in cross stitch
Embroidered whilst Bess was married to
George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury

The Muniment Room - pretty impressive!!
These contained legal documents showing
who owned which pieces of land.

The Tobit Table Carpet which shows via embroidery
the story of Tobit as told in the Old Testament.
(the bare pieces are either missing
or too fragile for conservation)

Detail in the Tobit Table Carpet

The High Great Chamber where guests
would have been greeted

Gujarati floor cloth, on display only for one week

One of the restored tapestries

At the end, if your mother pushes you into it,
you get to dress up like this.
Stop laughing.

Yesterday

Yesterday was pretty exciting.

Firstly, the decision whether to watch the F1 or the tennis - thankfully, the German Grand Prix was well underway and finished before the end of the first set of tennis.  We did have the tennis on the laptop screen as well so we wouldn't miss any.

But back to the F1.  Poor Mark Webber with his wheel coming off right at the beginning.  I felt so bad for him.  Hubby said he'd have given up at that point, but then I reminded him that it only takes the safety car having to come out for him to catch right back up again and be in with a chance of points.  A good job he didn't give up too, as that's exactly what happened.  I couldn't believe what I was seeing when the burnt out race car of Jules Bianchi started rolling slowly backwards down the track and onto the grass at the other side.  Very lucky there were no race cars flying past at that exact moment.  So a very close fight to the end of the race for the top 10 cars for positions, which made it pretty exciting indeed!

Then the Tennis, and it was so so good.  I found myself shouting at the screen quite a lot which is unusual for me, but so pleased that Andy Murray won.  Each year it seemed like he was getting closer and closer to the title and it was so good to see him finally do it, especially given all the hard work that he has obviously been doing and the maturity he is showing in his games now.  I think everyone here had a good feeling that he was going to win yesterday.

It's been a lot of fun, I could get into watching more sport - it's a shame there are no Olympics to watch this year - I'm quite in the mood for watching a bit of swimming or hockey.

I rounded the day off with a lovely refreshing gin and soda and a nice Bond film and then a sit in the sunshine on the balcony, so it was a pretty wonderful day.

Who else caught some of the sport yesterday?