Happy Halloween

I'm running slightly behind myself today as Halloween is nearly over here. Nothing special planned here for Halloween other than a day off work and 2 episodes of Heroes on the TV. We are only just getting to the end of series 1 here and its almost my favourite program of all time. Just in case you are wondering, it is narrowly beaten for all time favourite by The West Wing, Doctor Who and Black Books.

Anyway autumn has arrived in Scotland. The weather has turned cold and windy. Oh and wet also. I actually like this time of year though as I'm not a hot weather person and at least you can dress to keep the cold out. The only downside is that its dark so very early. At the height of winter, its often dark until 9am and dark again shortly after 3pm.

Inspite of not having anything planned for Halloween, I decorated a book case that I have in my hall. I've got a fair few different seasonal bits and bobs and I change what's on it depending on the time of year.

Here is what it looks like right now.



I heard last week that Carla had received the Halloween exchange I stitched for her.



I had hoped to finish Happy haunting by Shepherd's bush prior to Halloween. I started it at the retreat last year. Here's where I'm at just now.



I did find the time to finish some appropriate coloured socks though



I hope everyone has had a happy and safe Halloween.

Where I'm at

Time has raced by during the past few weeks and I'm afraid my blog has fallen by the wayside. The combination of work, my sister's wedding, general life and the fact that my Ravelry invite arrived has taken up all my time. For the non knitting readers, Ravelry is a very cool social site for knitters, where you can chat to others and browse countless projects and yarns. Its a bit of a time sucker but lots of fun. My user name there is pjmck so if you are a member, please stop by and visit my projects.


The bigggest thing that happened since my last post is that my little sister got married. If you've read my blog for a while, you will know that the wedding had to be postponed as the groom's father became very suddenly and seriously ill. A few days before the new wedding date, we got some superb news as the liver cancer he was diagnosed with, has been successfully removed with no signs of cancer still remaining and his liver is functioning normally. Everyone was so very relieved and happy.

However the day of the wedding was not without drama. The groom's mother had to be rushed to hospital by ambulance on the morning of the wedding and after tests, was found to have had a stroke. Sadly it meant she could not attend the wedding and the groom's father missed the ceremony. He did join us for most of the reception. The registrar gave special permission to film the ceremony and after the ceremony and pictures, the bride and groom took a short trip to the local hospital to see her. My sister said it was a very surreal experience. Its not often you see a bride with a groom in a kilt in the middle of a hospital.


Here are the happy couple plus best man and bridesmaids just after the ceremony. I'm the middle bridesmaid with the dark hair.



And here is the happy couple cutting the cake.



My sister along with my parents on the right and my dad's cousin and his wife with me at the front.


Inspite of the drama, which also included the 4th bridesmaid pulling out of the wedding at the last minute, the day was lovely and lots of fun. My mum made the wedding dress and the bridesmaids dresses and she was thrilled to hear lots of compliments. I applied the beads to the dresses as my mum can not hand sew due to arthritis. Everyone seemed to have a great time and the groom's dad managed to enjoy himself inspite of his wife's illness. She is now thankfully back at home and well on the road to recovery.

At the weekend, I received a lovely halloween exchange from Suzanne.



I've been managing to do a little stitching. I stitched a fob design that I got at the Shepherd's bush retreat last year.





And I managed to stitch a little scissor case design.



I've also been knitting away at more socks









Apologies if there are any spelling mistakes in this post. I finished night shift this morning and I haven't been to bed yet. I'm trying to stay up as last week I completed mucked up my sleep patterns and ended up sleeping during the day on my days off. Which is not so good when you have things to do when you are not working. Plus its a little antisocial when the rest of the world is awake.