Darcy has a face!

Yes my Darcy photostitch finally looks like it's getting somewhere. Since I stitched part of her eye she just seems to have taken on a life of her own. As I'm sat at my frame stitching I don't see the progress as much but standing back and looking I can't believe how fast she's now coming along. OK I'm not working on her as much as I should as I keep getting sidetracked but Thursday mornings are still reserved just for her as well as a couple of evenings a week. This is my progress so far taken Friday night.

I've also been working on my Beau Bands SAL as well. For those who don't know this is designed by Abi on my Friendly Stitchers yahoo group. I'm nearly at the end of Part 2 and have Part 3 all printed out ready to go. My favourite stitch on part 2 has to be the knit stitch, fiddly but looks wonderful.

Other stitching I can't show yet as it was part of an exchange and I don't know if it's been received yet. I've also been working on my gift SAL which is finally looking like I can see the end. 123 Stitch has had a sale on so I couldn't resist ordering a couple of the Sue Hillis pirate designs.

Obviously I also had to order the fabric to stitch one of them and some Wichelt Lambswool fabric to stitch another chart I have to make the post to the UK worth it.....gotta love the sales :-)

I've finally remembered to take a photo of my TUSAL vase. When I first started this I kept forgetting to put my orts in as I'm so used to just throwing them away when I put my stitching away...nearly got the hang of it now so it's rare I forget.

My reading challenge is doing well, I've got 3 of the Monica Ferris stitching mysteries sat at the side of my bed...thank you Sheffield Libraries!  Still waiting for my next installment of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, think I may have to buy this book as I've been on hold at the library for months now!  Our DS1 Peter is also doing the reading challenge and is doing better than I am....now ok his books are a lot smaller but he's only 5 and it takes him a while to read a small book. We've been up to the library this morning and got him another 3 books.....I pick harder books for him to read than school gives him! He loves reading so I'm encouraging it like mad.

CHATSWORTH HOUSE

At the end of April it was my birthday, DH was working and the kids in school so we didn't do anything special. On Tuesday as both boys were in school DH decided we should do something special so we went off to Chatsworth House which is in Derbyshire (about 30 minutes from where we live) If you'd like to visit the official Chatsworth website just hit the post title and it'll take you there.

Jane Austen fans will know about the house. Jane visited the house in 1811 and used the house as the basis for Mr Darcy's home Pemberley in my favourite novel Pride & Prejudice. It's a beautiful house and the gardens are magnificent. DH of course took his camera so we got some lovely shots, although not as many as we would have done due to our DD Darcy getting bored and wanting to see the "duckies".

Chatsworth House from the East

When we arrived we had a walk around the grounds so Darcy could stretch her legs and see the sheep which were free roaming the surrounding fields. She loved that and happily decided that "Diddles want sheepy"  Finally when the house opened in we went, luckily on the day we picked the Florabundance Festival was still happening so flowers adored the house everywhere much to Darcy's delight.  Here are a few photographs of both inside Chatsworth House and the surrounding gardens.