Cross-stitch cafe 2010

Ruth_honey

Oooh, sounds lovely! Have a fab time!

Bubbles911

Hi everyone, my angel is coming on nicely, only got 2 more sections of border to do, then the intricate top part and lots and lots of beading! Hoping to have it done within 2 weeks. Im tempted to start on the beading now and mix it in with the sewing or it is going to take forever and I will probably get bored and frustrated with constant beading. Havent made my mind up what to do for the best.

I know a few of us were talking about getting stains out of aida recently and I mentioned I had a nose bleed and managed to avoid the stitching but got some of it on the aida. I have tried everything today to try and get it out but to no avail. Then my mum mentioned she had something that might work that she bought at a craft shop and god it was a miracle worker! Its called Grandmas Secret Spot Remover You put a drop of it on and rub it in, leave it for a few minutes, rub it again then use a flannel to wipe water over it and leave it to dry and now you cant even tell the blood was there! I highly reccomend it.

I also have a little news. I have applied to do a degree with open university! I have always wanted to go to uni but cant afford it and obviously am scared of leaving the house now and a friend mentioned I might be able to get funding so I applied and have. I also get a new laptop because mine keeps missing letters out and is really slow, not good when typing essays and taking courses online. I have a tribunal at the end of the month to see if I can stay on benefit until I am coping better or if they are going to push me onto job seekers (despite the fact my doctor says I am nowhere near being able to work. they gave me 0 points in my medical!). I am really scared about it, my dad said yesterday he didnt think I would pass and I ended up in uncontrollable tears. I keep having panic attacks just thinking about it. If they force me into a job its only a matter of time before I cant cope again.

Simac wrote: »

Thanks Louise, I was going to ask about bookmark interface myself! The kit came with a piece of felt, but I didn’t fancy sewing it on. That’s saved me a fiddly horrible job :T

Bubbles / Shelly, I’ve ordered a pack of the interface that Louise recommended. There is way more than I need for my bookmark, if you like I can send you some? Just PM me your address and when it arrives I’ll cut it into 3 pieces and stick some in the post for you. I think I’ve ordered 1ME x 90CM and I only need the tiniest little piece :rotfl:, even after sending you both some out I’ll probably have enough to last me a lifetime!!!

That is so kind of you to offer, if you wouldnt mind that would be fantastic. Im designing a beer one for my dads birthday.

Dorastar wrote: »

No sewing today

But I am an aunty again woohoo - baby Sophie arrived a few days earlier by c-section 7lb 3oz. Broody moment in full swing but would have to sue someone if I did get pregnant lol!

Congratulations Dora. Im always a bit funny with babies, cos I cant have any I kinda avoid them like the plague incase it tears me apart, I have convinced myself I dont want kids and if I did I would adopt, but there is something that tells me if I smell a babys new smell and touch it little toes that will all fall away. When they are toddlers is when I start to trust my feelings around them. We have a little girl Stella next door (they are like family, the girl who lives there now used to live across the road and we grew up together and her grandma, who I adopted, lived next door in the house she lives in now, anyway Stella is just at that lovely age where everything is new. She is in love with my dog and she comes and shouts bobby! through our letterbox and I take him out and put him in her garden as they have grass and ours is paved and they spend ages just running circles in the garden! Then when they are tired she lies down and he lies next to her and she says kiss bobby and he kisses her face! Anyway her mum is pregnant and as we are close to stella they are probably going to try to hand me the baby at some point so I am preparing excuses to stay clear! That was a long story I dont know why I ended up going into, just when you mentioned broody!

23rdspiral wrote: »

thanks for keeping the list Bubbles :T, and for my party!! i'm sorry i couldnt attend the online one, hopefully next time?

:T i've only had one this year, plus one mess up i couldnt get into, and one i didnt qualify for . i think that a few luxurys are what keep us going, so perhaps 1/2 and 1/2?

I seem to get loads off pinecone, I got 3 in one day last week and I had another one yesterday.

Keiss enjoy your night, it sounds really special. I wouldnt feel at home somewhere so posh LLB did the decorating! I was on tour once with a celeb I used to be friends with and one day we were staying in oslos most expensive hotel in a suite which had its own sauna, tv in the bath, its own doorbell etc and a butler! I just didnt feel comfortable at all! He kept calling me madam and I kept saying call me susan but he still kept calling me madam and if I went to sit down he would pull out the chair, or open the fridge for me and when I was ready for bed he went and turned down my bed and left me a chocolate mint on the pillow. He asked what time we would wake up so he could be back in the morning to assist us. I felt so embarassed! I am a geordie, I dont feel at home eating anywhere that isnt a run of the mill pub or fast food restaurant! Enjoy it!
[EMAIL="events@gateshead.gov.u"][/EMAIL]

Anyway gonna go do some stitching now.

Keiss_21

Bubbles911 wrote: »

I also have a little news. I have applied to do a degree with open university! I have always wanted to go to uni but cant afford it and obviously am scared of leaving the house now and a friend mentioned I might be able to get funding so I applied and have.

Bubbles911 - Thanks for your lovely post...even with the sad and uncomfortable bits. Glad you feel you can air your uncertainites here...it is good to talk about stuff that makes us uncomfortable, better than bottling it up.

Well done on the OU degree...go for it. Glad you got funding...did you know you can use Tesco vouchers towards OU courses?? Good luck with the tribunal at the end of the month. :grouphug:Huggs to you. :grouphug:

Bubbles911 wrote: »

Keiss enjoy your night, it sounds really special. I wouldnt feel at home somewhere so posh LLB did the decorating!.......I am a geordie, I dont feel at home eating anywhere that isnt a run of the mill pub or fast food restaurant! Enjoy it!

DH and I have always splashed out meal-wise once a year or so, (or less than that when money was even tighter), even when we first started out as students. We go to the pub no more than once a week (and not spend much!) and would have a lovely meal out on May 5th (the day we started going out). We met while we were both at St Andrews University, and there was (and is) a wealth of lovely 3 and 4-star restaurants and hotels to choose from in that old town.

We went away for our 25th Wedding Anniversary a couple of years ago to a rather posh hotel..using Tesco vouchers for the room and breakfast, so "only" had to pay for the meal...a great hotel, though not a very exciting meal.

Will report back on how we get on.

spottybutterfly

Phew, loads of reading since i last posted.

Well i think i've decided to go for the lap frame, the cheepest place ive found it is for £21.80 with SewAlong. I might have to wait tll the end of june when its my birthday for it though. I presume with the smaller one i can still put a large piece of fabric on it so i guess as its smaller there's more versitility.

I'm also going to buy the £9 per M Aida from across town stitching so i'll let you guys know if its worth it. Hope it doesnt have the wonky weveing thing going on that a few of you mentioned earlier.

Bubbles what benefit are you applying for, i receive income support (for having less than £16000 savings and being unable to work). I went for 2 medicals (think the next is at around xmas time) and basically they asked how i was, if i had hobbies, if i could leave the house on my own etc. They also took evidence from my phyciatrist and the form i filled in. I basically was getting sick notes from the doctor before my job ended and i asked what i should do when my contract ended and she said to still get sick notes but i had to send them to some jobcentere place and after a couple of months sick notes they sent me a form to fill in and then a appointment for a medical. During all this i recived financial support. I even got cold weather payments this winter (i gave them straight to my parents as they pay the bills).

Oh also anychance somone could *wink wink nudge nudge* me a chart i saw was in a cross stitch magazine in Tesco. Its Elliott and Buttons (a elephant and mouse), ive been stitching the designs for my nana, but cant justify buying the magazine just for 1 chart.

Oh i think i got a bargain in TK Maxx today, some non-branded skeins of threads 100 for £8 they also had packs of 36 for £3.

Well i did have more to comment on but ive fogotten it all now so off to watch Lost and continue to convert the Maderia threads in to DMC.

Dorastar

Thanks for all the congrats for my new niece, Sophie Meaghan 7lb 3oz by c-section (planned cos of high blood pressure) mum and sophie both well and happy.

Still haven't got any stitching done recently - am way too busy with work (bah humbug) and house (more humbug) and kids (lots of fun playing so can't complain)

Am now hanging on in there for the 2 weeks I get off at Whit and then the big [STRIKE]stitching party[/STRIKE] summer hols!

Bubbles911

spottybutterfly wrote: »

Phew, loads of reading since i last posted.

Bubbles what benefit are you applying for, i receive income support (for having less than £16000 savings and being unable to work). I went for 2 medicals (think the next is at around xmas time) and basically they asked how i was, if i had hobbies, if i could leave the house on my own etc. They also took evidence from my phyciatrist and the form i filled in. I basically was getting sick notes from the doctor before my job ended and i asked what i should do when my contract ended and she said to still get sick notes but i had to send them to some jobcentere place and after a couple of months sick notes they sent me a form to fill in and then a appointment for a medical. During all this i recived financial support. I even got cold weather payments this winter (i gave them straight to my parents as they pay the bills).

Its employment support allowance. I got the impression new people cant get income support? Look on the benefits section on here and you will see ESA is stupid with almost everyone being refused.

spottybutterfly

Bubbles911 wrote: »

Its employment support allowance. I got the impression new people cant get income support? Look on the benefits section on here and you will see ESA is stupid with almost everyone being refused.

I'm confused, maybe thats a new thing then, ive been on it 2 years now. But they renewed it last year, where as they could have made me change. I had only herd about ESA when you started talking about it the other day. The amount people get appears to be the same i get on income support so its very likely this is what has replaced the system i went through as there was very little support for helping me find a job i could do from home.

smileyt_2

Bubbles could you get a Welfare Rights Officer from your local council's advice agency to go with you to the tribunal? I used to be a WRO (dim and distant past) and it was part of my job to do things like this. I must admit I hated it because I was terrified; not long after I left I too had a nervous breakdown.

Otherwise, you have to be as savvy as they are mean, I'm afraid. If they ask you how you got there, say how you did but if you were panicky or afraid, tell them that. As far as I can remember from doing Invalidity Benefit/Incapacity Benefit tribunals, you have to tell them how it is for you on your worst days and let them know that the bad days far outnumber any good days, and how unpredictable it is so you don't know from one day to the next how you are going to be. I'm sure someone on the Benefits forum here could probably give you more up-to-date advice.

23rdspiral

Hugs to Bubbles for deciding on the OU!! it might not be the easiest path to take, but it will be fascinating and you will feel so pround of yourself, i'm sure of that! what sort of subject are you looking at?

I'm sorry to repeat myself but are we all/most/anyone still thinking of doing the 'i stitch therefore i stash' but in different colours?

but then, i havent seen a mag with it on the front yet so maybe it isnt out. or maybe you are being good and not doing it just yet? it's just that i'm nearly finished on a 'welcome home' embroidery panel to go into a mini quilt, and after that i will pick up X xstitch again and will need to decide what to do! (patchwork heart, something for my great aunt or the team stitch...)

*Louise*

23rdspiral wrote: »

I'm sorry to repeat myself but are we all/most/anyone still thinking of doing the 'i stitch therefore i stash' but in different colours?

but then, i havent seen a mag with it on the front yet so maybe it isnt out. or maybe you are being good and not doing it just yet? it's just that i'm nearly finished on a 'welcome home' embroidery panel to go into a mini quilt, and after that i will pick up X xstitch again and will need to decide what to do! (patchwork heart, something for my great aunt or the team stitch...)

I haven't heard any more about it - I thought someone said it was in 'Cross stitch crazy' (?) but haven't got that mag yet myself