Ylva's crafty corner

So, this is how far I've come after 3 days. I have not been stitching that many hours per day compared to what I normally do, but I have still got quite a bit:)

 This is when my car was washed by the spray from the waves lashing the barrier... And last but not least this is the update on my lovely Chardonnay... This is what I will be working on today as I am refusing to leave the house...my dog is having a rest day...she is not happy about it, but tough!!! She'll live:)

SUNDAY 28 th :  Dull and grey, with persistent and heavy rain accompanied by F7 to gale F8 N’ly winds. Across Orkney and Fair Isle these could touch severe gale F9 at times. Down the east side of Shetland winds may ease F5-7 for a time. Sea state –  West of Shetland very rough, with a 4 to 5 metre NW’ly wind-swell. East of Shetland moderate to rough, later becoming rough to very rough, with a 2 to 3 metre N’ly wind-swell increasing 4 to 5 metres. Around Fair Isle and in open Orkney waters very rough to high, with a 5 to 6 metre NW’ly wind-swell. MONDAY 29 th :  Cloudy with outbreaks of rain across Shetland at first, otherwise a brighter day with showers. F6-7 N or NW’ly winds – occasionally gale F8 across Shetland at first – easing slowly through the day. Sea state –  Very rough to high easing rough by the afternoon, with a 4 to 6 metre NW’ly wind-swell decreasing 3 metres. The above text was taken from The Orcadian (local newspaper) this morning...had to get up an...

Ok, so to start with we are supposed to have gail storm winds here this weekend, so hubby has prepared to stay at the hospital over the weekend as he is working long shift all weekend. At the moment (as you can see on the pic) it is cloudy, windy and getting choppy. So, I feel quite fortunate that my Siesta frames arrived so I can start working on my canvaswork...see below... I am looking forward to framing it already...love the colors and everything:) Ok, lastly I had to take a picture of our stairs up to the loft. The Sky installation guys (Orkney born and bred) had never seen stairs like them, but said whoever built them was very clever. The reason for this is that they are quite steep, so if they were normal stairs it would be difficult to find the step below or above as they would be pretty much on top of eachother. Just see what I mean... So, I guess that is it for today...now I am gonna climb up those amazing stairs to check my issues of Inspirations as I have had an...

 Mr Comfortable...for some reason he NEEDS one of the corners in the sofa in the evening...he will stare you down until you move out of his way...  Just check out how he's got the claws in my knee...NOT comfortable at all...  Check out his curly tummy...which you are NOT allowed to touch...he is very sensitive...lol Now, this is VERY unusual...having Pearl and Darwin on the same sofa seat, and Darwin sleeping instead of hissing and running away. It only happened as he was already asleep when Pearl came and plonked herself...although, I think he was so comfortable in his prawn position that he refused to give in...

So, when we lived in Preston we did everything to stay at home in the weekends when hubby was not working, as that was quite rare. If we had to go shopping we were both fed up, easily annoyed and tired after only a few hours out in town... Since we got to Orkney things have changed massively. We have been out fishing, gone to Kirkwall to windowshop (not much money) and been to the county fair. This weekend just gone we went fishing on Saturday (NOT successful and VERY windy), and on Sunday we started with going to the sandy beach close by walking with Tara for around 90minutes (with hubby collecting cockles and looking for razor clams), then we went home, I took a shower and hubby prepared sandwiches for himself. Then I gave him a ride to St Mary's village to do fishing, turned around and went to St Margaret's Hope to an exhibition of embroidery and knitting. The exhibition showed pieces from two lovely and talented ladies. It was nice to see that women in Orkney do embroider...

So, I have been able to do a little bit of stitching since I went offline...I have not only been lazy...lol Made a little purse...not sure what I will be doing with it, but I am very pleased with the outcome, including the inside fabric:) And then a tiny finish for a card...just gotta finish it off... At the moment I am just playing with learning new stitches (including refreshing my knowledge of blanket stitches...forgot how easy they are) without any real goal...I need to really sit down and decide on what to do...not very good at being spontaneous and creative...I do need to see if I can decide on something proper...lol I have been looking online at all creative people and their projects...and I am soooo inspired and jealous...I have also ben looking in magazines and books, and it makes me want to do something more freestyle, but to actually decide on a design is NOT easy...I think I am going to pick a picture, change it into a pencil drawing with just outlines, and go from...

Ok, so here I am in Orkney...took just over 2weeks to get online again...we were planning to use a 3 dongle we have, but unfortunately there is NO 3 network at all here...and we both have Orange/T-Mobile mobiles and that network is just BAD here...so we had to go and get broadband...we ordered on the 2nd August, supposed to get the hub on the 9th, and of course it did not arrive...called the provider who promised it would arrive on the 10th...which it did NOT...called again, they PROMISED it would arrive on the 11th...it did not...called again and was told the order did not go through and we would have to reorder the hub...it finally arrived today after we threatened to cancel the order completely due to the messing about... So, below are some pictures from Orkney...the stoney beach is just 5minute walk from the house, and the sandy beach is about 5minute drive from the house. The animal pix (apart from the pets of course) are from the county fair on Saturday...there are two pix from...