The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

The Good:

I was very fortunate to recently win not one, but two giveaways.

The first was from Tactile Fabrics through Plum and June's blog - I got a beautiful bundle of delicious Art Gallery fabrics. These look as though they have a higher thread count than most quilting cottons and feel gorgeous.( I am a little worried though, as my daughter has been eying them up)

The Second giveaway was from Sarah of Pings and Needles - my comment on the Turkey Hat picture was her favourite ( I think she was being kind!) and Sarah sent me three lovely FQ's of chocolatey brown fabrics - yum - low calorie too.

The Bad:

It started when
1) My hairdryer died and had to be replaced,
2) Then the dining room light fitting fizzled and died too
3) Followed by our lovely (but rather expensive) coffee machine (hopefully due back from being (expensively) repaired next week)
4) But the final straw? (And I really rally hope it is the final)The washing machine died completely last week. The new one is being delivered today - anytime after 7 am....

And The Ugly?

See 4) above!

Constructive Destruction

We have the tree surgeons in today for much removal of old and battered conifirs and a dead juniper tree. This was the scene from the back door about an hour ago before they started:

It's not looking much like that now!

Half Term Visits

We had another flying visit up North during half term, and finally got round to taking the children to my all time favourite National Trust property - Cragside.

Despite being a very large house, it actually feels quite comfortable, and liveable in. There were lots of patchwork quilts on beds:

And I liked how all the needlework was left out in the (ladies) sitting room

The autumn colours outside were beautiful too - much more vibrant than we have seen at home. Cragside is in Northumbria and I suspect that it is just colder enough to bring out these colours as the leaves turn and fall.

I just wish we had had more time and could have done some of the walks through the Estate.