The weather is horrible

that's for sure so no new pictures. Though I do have loads to share. I have received some really great things including some finishes from Deb and a couple of exchanges and something I never expected in a zillion years. But you shall have to wait until the sun shines so I can take some pictures but please do not hold your breath because remember I am in England!

So why am I posting you ask. Well I thought I would show you first of all another picture of Oliver Jake Malcolm Lessell (yes it is a mouthful - the Oliver and Jake aren't named after anybody but the Malcolm is after Danielle's late grandfather Malcolm whom both of them loved dearly) that I took yesterday when the weather was lovely and sunny.

Please click on Oliver's photo to be taken to my biggest giveaway ever
A complete kit by Lauren Sauer called
SUNFLOWER
(if you need the rules just scoll down to the previous posting)

I went on somebody's website (sorry can't remember who) but she had been given this award and I thought it was so lovely that I thought I would give it out to some of my favorite blogs just because I want to. The rules of this are as usual. Please give this award to 6 of your favorite blogs and tell the blog owner why you chose them. Please please do not give this award to everyone who reads your blog.


So here are my 6 blogs:

1. Irene - because your blog always makes me smile and you are one very special person.
2. Nina - because I always love looking at your blog and it really does make me smile
3. Carol - because your stitching is so inspirational and your blog really makes me smile
4. Deb - because you are such a special friend and person and you call me Queenie
5. Deb - because you are so inspirational with your stitching and finishing and I always look on your finishing blog to see what small I would like to stitch next for you to finish
6. Pokua - because I love reading your blog and you are such a generous person with everything you do and do so well and I really appreciate your friendship

Please do not be upset if I haven't chosen your blog. As I went through my blog list I found it really hard but these six people have become real friends through this blog of mine and I really appreciate their friendship and support in everything I do and say.

I would like to thank everybody who reads and leaves a comment on my blog a huge hug and if and when I do receive an award I will share it with loads more bloggers.

So until next time ...

Lots of Love

Patti xxx
Nobody can make you feel inferior without your permission - Eleanor Roosevelt

So until next time ...

Lots of Love

Patti xxx
Nobody can make you feel inferior without your permission - Eleanor Roosevelt

A GREAT giveaway and announcing the arrival of ...

Oliver Lessell
Born: August 4, 2009 at around 5:30 a.m.
Weighing: 6lbs 14ounces

There will be more photos, all photos on here are clickable to make them larger, of him which I shall, hopefully, take this evening even though he has jaundice. He is just gorgeous and is the image of his dad - my James. Even Danielle's parents say he looks just like James.



Here is a photo of the proud parents taken last November when Danielle was only a little tiny bit pregnant.

In honor of his arrival I am having a giveaway. A really special one this time totally in his honor and it is the full kit of Lauren Sauer's Sunflower. The kit is complete and unused and has everything in it that you need to make this beautiful bag.




Now in order to enter for this giveaway you don't even have to have a blog. If you do not have a blog all you have to do is leave a comment on this blog along with your email address. If you do have a blog then to be entered once just leave a comment under this posting and if you put a photo of the giveaway on your blog and link it back to my blog and this giveaway then you will be entered twice.

Sometimes I am so dumb I even surprise myself! Anyway to put a photo and link from my blog to your blog this is what you have to do:

1. Right click your mouse on the photo of the prize or baby - take your choice
2. A new menu will open up and select copy
3. Make your window go to the bottom of the screen by single left clicking on the first button at the top of the screen on the right - there is a box with an underline in it and next to that is a box with two overlapping boxes in it and the third and last box is a x in a red box what I want you to single left click on is the first box - the one with the underline in it
4. Go anywhere in your desktop and single right click on it and then select paste
5. Go to the bottom of the screen and bring back your browser
6. Then the easiest way to put this in your blog is to go into your blog and on the top of your blog single left click on Customize
7. A new window will open and near the top it says "Add A Gadget" single left click on this option.
8. Scroll down and the seventh thing listed is Picture and single left click on this to select it
9. A new window will now open
10. Where it says Title you can put something in or ignore it
11. Where it says Caption: put in something like - A link to Patti's giveaway which ends on September 4, 2009 you can copy and past this in if you wish
a. To copy you highlight the text you want to copy
b. Once it is highlighted hold down the Ctrl key and whilst still holding it down select the
letter C at the same time
c. To paste the text in where you want it just put your cursor in the empty box next
to the word Caption and whilst holding down the Ctrl key once again press the letter V
and Voila it will be done
12. Where it says Link and then http:// highlight the http:// and copy what I have put in underneath this:

https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=35138473&postID=20600015692672321&isPopup=true

13. Once again all you have to do is highlight it with your mouse and single right click on it and copy it by pressing the Ctrl key at the same time as the letter C and then paste it into the space that originally said http:// by holding down the Ctrl key and the letter V at the same time
14. The last thing it wants is a photo and you know where to look for that don't you?
Of course you do - you have saved it on your desktop and all you have to do is find it. If you can't then make sure you are looking at thumbnails and then you can clearly see the photo you want and just select it
15. Now just left click on Save at the bottom left of this window
16. Then click on Save again in the mail area of
16. When you go back to your blog the first thing you will see on the right hand side is a photo which if you click it will take you exactly where you want to be - well not you exactly but the people who read you blog.

If you have any problems at all with it please do not hesitate to write to me at pattimyself@me.com and I will help you more. Don't be scared just print out my instructions after all I used to teach people how to use computers for a living so I do know what I am talking about at least I think I do :-)

Now if you haven't already guessed this giveaway ends on the September 4, 2009 exactly one month to the day that Oliver was born.

Good luck everyone and may the most deserving person win via the thing that I am so fond of using cause it's easy - you know that selector thingy!!!

So until next time ...

Lots of Love

Grandma Patti xxx
Nobody can make you feel inferior without your permission - Eleanor Roosevelt

Sorry guys I have nothing much to report. No stitching sorry because anything I have been stitching, which isn't much as I'm still not well (or proper poorly as they say in the U.K.) so the little I have stitched is for exchanges and not to be seen on here - at least not yet. So in answer to Melissa's questions here are my answers:

1)Why do you stitch? Because I just love it and always want to stitch practically everything I see that other people have stitched and I'm just addicted to it and I just can't sit and watch TV so I stitch whilst listening to it. It has been my saviour for the past 11 years or so since I finished university and needed something else to do whilst sitting. Look everybody is good at something and my best thing is sitting. I have MS so not a lot of choice there really.

2) On a scale of 1-10 with 1 being least important and 10 being most important what is your cross stitch passion level?

Ummm are we comparing this to my passion over my grandchildren. If we aren't then it's a definite 10 - otherwise I guess just a 8 becasue they are my 10 and I have even taught my grandson to stitch and he is 9 and my granddaugher who is 6 got really frustrated when she couldn't do it and cried. So I hugged her and told here maybe when she was a wee bit older we would try again.

3)If you're only option for cross stitch supplies and patterns happened to be the major chain craft stores would you just walk away from the little X? Kiss it goodbye?

I never, well practically never shop in major craft stores. We only have one and that is Hobbycraft and the stuff it sells is very basic. Like I think the highest count linen they do is 32. No hand-dyed anything. And the only Cross Stitch shop we have locally is called Mavis and the stuff she sells is so old it is in need of a Pension! See I told you so - I just looked and it was founded in 1935 and I am totally sure that some of the kits in there are that old!

4)Also are you so passionate about cross stitch that if indeed your only option was the major chain craft stores, would that inspire you to create your own cross stitch pieces because you have to stitch and you've stitched your way through the whole of Dimensions catalog--because you must stitch and the thought of life without a relationship with the little X leaves you feeling empty?

Hopefully major chain stores will never be my only option because if they were I would just have to find another hobby like maybe quilting.

5)Finally what do the cross stitch magazines on the market offer you? Do they relate to you as a cross stitcher? Do you look at them and think to yourself, who do they think buys this magazine? I guess what I'm asking, when you see the current cross stitch magazines do they make you feel like they know their readers or do you find it's more of the same? What could they do to be ambassadors for the art of cross stitch other than putting a sampler on the cover with "F-U" on it? What are we missing on a PR level that could change the opinion of cross stitch itself?

I never buy the magazines anymore. I used to love SANQ but don't even like that one much anymore and it is really expensive here in the U.K. Pounds for Dollars yet again.

6) And finally, finally, do you do other crafts and if so what are they and why do they pull you away from cross stitch?

I was going to do patchwork and quilting but I love cross stitch too much to let anything pull me away from it I think. It really is my passion but if I couldn't get the charts and supplies anymore then I would probably do that as I love the fabrics so much.

So until next time ...

Lots of Love

Patti xxx
Nobody can make you feel inferior without your permission - Eleanor Roosevelt