A-Z Challenge - P is for.....

Good morning again!

For today's letter P we have:

Pea soup:
noun - a thick savoury and usually pureed soup made from split yellow and/or green peas
origin - first written account is in 1711 when it was referred to as pease soup

Also:
pea-souper - a thick fog, sometimes containing poisonous gases
origin - 1800s London when people spoke about the thick fog in the city


Charts about peas include:

Pea Souper by Heritage Crafts

Sweet Pea Posy by  Heritage Crafts

La Soupe by Thea Gouverneur

(I tried but couldn't find a chart specifically for pea soup)

My personal Ps include:
premature - Toby was born six weeks premature weighing just 4lb 11oz. He was in Special Care for 17 days before being allowed home. It was tough visiting him for only a few hours each day then leaving without him but I knew he was getting the best care possible.
Planet Rock - the ONLY radio station we have on in our house - and it's on nearly all the time!
Pepsi Max - I have to have my fizzy caffeine fix every day! I gave up fizzy drinks for Lent this year. I know Lent is about sacrifice and will power but never again will I go without my Pepsi!!! ;)


My P finish represents the birth of my premature son who was almost as small as the picture portrays:

Rocking Baby by Vervaco

I had a love-hate relationship with this project - the threads misbehaved, I kept misreading the chart and it all came out a bit drab-looking. But I've grown to like it over the years.


Tomorrow's Q might make you feel a bit peckish!
Rachel x

A-Z Challenge - O is for.....

Hello again!

Only two weeks left of the A-Z Challenge so we're just about on the homeward stretch. For today we have O is for:

Ole (with an accent over the e):
interjection - used as a shout of triumph or encouragement or to mean 'bravo', customarily used at bullfights and during flamenco dancing in Spain and Latin American countries
noun - a cry of 'ole'
origin - derived from the Arabic "Allah" and shouted when a performer reached maximum grace or intensity. At this time they were considered to be showing the power of Allah through their performance.

More recently the phrase has lost the religious connection and is used as a chant (often of encouragement) during various sporting events such as football, WWF and Canadian ice hockey.


I've kept to a Spanish theme for charts today. There are so many to choose from but I have selected:

Spanish Bull by Koekoek

Spain Map by Heritage Crafts

Paso Doble by Lanarte

My personal Os include:
October - both of my children and I have birthdays in October. Hubby feels left out, but he only missed October by three days.


And my O finish... well, what else could it be but:

Owls in Love

This piece went down a storm last year both while I was posting progress pictures and once I had finished and framed it. I know it's only a few months since you last saw it but how could I not show it again today (especially as I've had some new followers since then)?


A mixed bag of Ps tomorrow!
Rachel x

A-Z Challenge - N is for.....

Hello again!

Today's little phrase is N is for:

Henpecked:
adjective - (of a man) to be annoyed, bullied, dominated, harassed, intimidated, nagged, etc. by a woman, usually his wife
verb - (of a woman) to do the above
origin - from the practise of hens pecking each other to establish their dominance over other hens (their pecking order), or of the hens plucking the rooster for the same reason


Oh, how could I not show some chicken-related charts to accompany henpecked?

59 Chickens by Jeanette Crews Designs

A Fresh Approach by Leisure Arts

Happy Hens by Heritage Crafts

My personal Ns include:
nagging - according to my children. But then if they did as they were supposed to do I wouldn't have to repeatedly ask them (i.e. nag) would I?
nocturnal - I'm very lucky and can burn the candle at both ends. I'm very rarely asleep before 12.30am and enjoy stitching late at night whilst the house is silent.


And my completed N piece is :

Celtic Christmas by Lavender and Lace

(it has NOEL stitched on it, hence the N connection)

This was my last finish before I started blogging. I adored stitching her but did make a few alterations to the pattern including a less complicated border and fewer beads. Naturally the metallic gold in her dress was a nightmare!


Sunday tomorrow, so a day off from the A-Z Challenge for you and me. Back on Monday with O.
Rachel x

A-Z Challenge - M is for.....

Good morning!

Today we reach the halfway milestone of this year's A-Z Challenge. Thanks for sticking with me, for looking, reading and/or commenting. Your continued support is very much appreciated.

So, for M we have:

Mayhem:
noun - violent or extreme disorder or chaos (in law it can also refer to deliberately injuring someone so that they are less able to retaliate, similar to maim)
origin - apparently early 16th century from the French mayhem, although only since the 19th century has it been used to describe disorder


It was not easy to find any "mayhem" charts but I did find:

Sorry About the Mess by Dimensions

Kitty Door Greeter by VeeandCo

Wonder Woman by Sue Cook (magazine chart)

My personal Ms include:
morning sickness - I suffered relentlessly with both pregnancies which is why I stopped at two children. I would have loved more but could not put myself through being that ill and hospitalised again. It was all worth though (or so my children tell me!)
musical theatre - I am a massive fan of musicals and musical theatre and, as mentioned yesterday, am particularly fond of ALW musicals. I haven't actually seen many live though; something I must rectify in my ageing years!


And my finished M project is:

Morning Song by Dimensions
(difficult to get a good picture)

This was my second ever cross stitch start and finish back in 1994. After stitching Midnight Elephant on black I decided to go for a chart on a paler background and, for some unknown reason, on the lower 11 count. Hence this is quite a big piece. I don't know how I managed it successfully, but I remember stitching directly from the colour chart without making a working copy and crossing off where I'd been. My brain definitely couldn't cope with that now!! Nor was I phased by the horrendous amount of backstitching involved; I just did it without a second thought. And no it's not an optical illusion, the inner mount has slipped. :(


Back tomorrow with a "fowl" (slight clue there) N.
Rachel x

PS I've reached another milestone today - this is my 250th blog post!! Wow, not bad for 25 months of blogging!

A-Z Challenge - L is for.....

Hello!

As I mention in my greeting above, L is for.....

Hello:
exclamation - said to begin a telephone conversation or to express surprise, sarcasm or even anger
noun - to gain greetings in the way of hellos
verb - to say hello to somebody
origin - early 19th century from the word "holla" which was used to call attention to something


There are lots of hello-type charts available but I have chosen to show:

Hello Kitty Going for a Walk by Vervaco

Welcome House by Cinnamon cat

Adele by Kordek (Tilton Crafts)

(following on from her recent hit single Hello - get the connection?!)

My personal Ls include:
librarian - my job in both an infant and junior school. I love seeing children read - it's something most do not do enough in the age of computers and screen-related activities. Luckily, I've got two massive bookworms.
Lloyd Webber (as in Andrew) - I am a massive fan of ALW musicals, my favourite being the much under-rated Love Never Dies.


And my L chart is one by Lavender and Lace:

Angel of Autumn

This was a long-term stitch started before I became pregnant with my daughter and finished just before her second birthday. For your information there are 27,727 stitches. So sad that I counted them but this is the chart from which I first worked out my stitching rate.


By the way, some of you are crediting me for making up each day's phrase. I wish I could wallow in your praise but I'm afraid to say I'm simply copying a magazine chart! I doubt I'd be able to come up with these myself, especially considering the cleverness of some that have been and a few that are still to come!


A more challenging M tomorrow.
Rachel x

A-Z Challenge - K is for.....

Good morning again

OK this is an easy one today:

Que sera sera:

exclamation - an understanding that future events are out of our control

translation - from Spanish and translated as 'what it will be will be'

origin- the first written recordings are in the 16th century when English noblemen started using it as their family motto. The Spanish "Que Sera Sera" can be found on a tombstone dating 1559 whilst the similar Italian version "Che Sera Sera" on one dated 1555. The first use the phrase in literature appears in Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus published in 1604 in which he used the Italian spelling with the translation "what will be, shall be".

Also:

Que Sera, Sera - a song written by Jay Livingstone and Ray Evans in 1956 for the musical The Man Who Knew Too Much. It won an Oscar in 1957 for the Best Original Song and was later popularised by Doris Day in 1964. Each verse follows the singer as a young girl, young adult and mother through time as she looks to and questions what the future will hold with the inevitable answer "que sera, sera, whatever will be, will be". The song has featured in many films and been recorded by numerous artists over the last 60 years. And now that I have written about it I can't get it out of my head! Here's a link if you want it in your head all day too!

OK, how difficult was it going to be to find charts that reflected que sera sera? Not that difficult actually!

Que Sera Sera by Nimble Nimble (etsy)

Whatever by BlueTopazStitchery (etsy)

Doris Day by Bluebell Threads

My personal Ks are:
'k'non-existent - I can't think of any!

And my finished K project chosen was:

Koala (from a magazine)

This little chappy was stitched at a time when DMC were having trouble with the continuity of their greys. Luckily, as he contains a lot of blended stitches, I was able to fudge a bit by using Anchor threads as well. Apart from his knee, it's not noticeable. Since then, whenever starting a project, I have always made sure I have enough of each colour to complete the whole thing. Something inside me no longer trusts colour continuity between batches.

Back with an obvious L tomorrow.

Rachel x

A-Z Challenge - J is for.....

Hello again!

For day 10 of the 2016 A-Z Challenge we have:

Jay Walker:
verb - to unlawfully or without regard for traffic walk along the street or in the road
noun - a person who does the above
origin - early 20th century from the amalgamation of the word 'jay' a silly person and 'walk'


I didn't even search for any jaywalker charts, instead just limited my search to the beautiful jay bird:

Blue Jay by Stoney Creek

Jay Fairy by Lena Lawson Needlearts

Stellar Jay by David Bartholet (HAED)

My personal Js are:
Jane - my middle name. It's the name my family have always and still know me by and which I used until I went to university, after which I began using Rachel instead (or as well). I like having two names and, surprisingly, no-one gets confused!!


I had to work at shoe-horning in a J project as (apart from January, June and July Lizzie Kate monthly stamps which I didn't want to show) I haven't done anything J related. So here is a dragon with some jewels which I know a lot of you liked when I stitched him last year:

My Treasure by Dragon Dreams Inc

He was one of my DSDUCJFC 2015 pieces and definitely one of my favourites. I enjoyed every stitch from start to finish, including the Kreinik and the rather stiff lurex fabric!


See you tomorrow with K.
Rachel x