Happy New Year!

Hectic time isn't it? I have still not caught up with myself but feel the need to do a catch up blog post. I'll probably most likely to forget something though so you might see me posting sooner rather than later.

Well, did you all have a good Christmas and new year? I did. I was very ill though with this Flu bug that has been going around. By the time Christmas day came, I went over to my in laws and collapsed on their sofa. It was all very lovely and nice though although I have to say there was an OBSCENE amount of presents for the children. Way over the top. It is too much to deal with - our house is not that big! Next year I might suggest we go away to a cosy cottage and give the kids just one gift each. It has gotten way too materialistic. Anyhoo, all fun.

My exchange piece finally arrived at Carole's house so she was able to put it on the tree.


Merry Christmas friend by CHS stitched on 40ct Wichelt Sand using a mixture of silk and dmc

I also did a quick finish for dh. I finished it simply so he can take it with him on his travels as a reminder of me! Think Braveheart lol. I think he liked it. Well he said he did but he might have just been being kind.






My Everything The Sampler Girl Stitched on 32 ct Summer Khaki using Caron Waterlilies.

I also made Tracy something as part of her Christmas present.


Sweet Simple Things by The Sampler Girl.

Ruth from the Musing Badger gifted me with the fabric and thread last year and I just think it looks great! It is the first time I have attempted a cushion finish like this and think it's not a bad first job.

Speaking of gifts, Tracy absolutely spoiled me. She gave me loads of stuff including this very special chart form my wishlist including all the threads!!:



She also got me:



Fantastic Silkweavers fabric, BBD chart and these Piecemaker needles which I have heard so much about. I can't wait to try them out. She got me a lovely scarf and toiletries too. Very spoilt. Thank you dear friend. We were just chatting actually about the BBD AotH series and we were both saying how we would like to do them all. Maybe that is something in the pipeline then. That would be a lot of fun SALing the whole series together. I just spent a relaxing couple of days at Tracy's, although she herself was a little unwell, and I was able to get a fair bit of stitching done. I have finished my piece for my very first Round Robin that I am in with Tina (no blog), Clare and Julie. Just the four of us as Julie and myself have never done a RR before and wanted a "safety net". It is being run on a new forum that Clare has set up called Needlecraft Haven and I know she would love you all to join the stitch and chat fun! It was really hard to choose a design that would work ie it had to be a certain size and there needed to be four parts to it. I finally found something which is a bit unusual for me - I wouldn't normally stitch something like this - but I saw potential and so I stitched up my first piece ready to be sent off.


Design from Cross Stitch Card Shop by Lisa Reakes (I think!) Stitched on 32ct Summer Khaki using dmc.

I also decided to get out Mary Wigham. I have nearly finished the first page:


Mary Wigham Needleprint. 25 ct Light Mocha lugana 1x1 DMC

I have decided that I am going to try to aim for stitching a page a month to get this finished within the year. I know I can do this!

Also here is my progress on Winter Whites:


Winter Whites LHN 32 ct Wichelt Star Sapphire mixture of threads.

As usual I have ran out of thread so need to reorder some. I am thinking about doing the words in between the alphabet in a slightly different colour so they stand out a little. Love working on this but it is going to have to be put to one side for a while.

I thought as well you might like to see my dad's progress on I am Half Sick of Shadows:









He has reached the bottom! Not long to go now.

So what is in store for this year? More crochet for a start. I will leave that for another post. I am hoping to start Shores of HRH but need to get fabric and threads sorted for it. Also want to join in the new HAED SAL - I chose Fragile Heart. I also have Hannah Westcombe by Needleprint to start and Helen Bell's Multiplication Table by CHS all kitted up ready to go. I must get on with the Stitch and Pass on as well. Ohhhh sooo much to do!

Well I think that's all folks. Boy I really needed to get that little lot off my chest! Thank you if you got this far down. Wishing every one of my readers and commentors a very special year ahead. xxxxxx

Merry Christmas one and all

There are so many blogs wishing everyone a Merry Christmas I just don't have the time to get round to every single one of you so this is me wishing you a very special day to each and every one of my fellow bloggers. May you be filled with love, joy and peace and be surrounded by family and friends, good food and drink and plenty of new stash to play with. Here's to a brilliant Christmas. I'll be back soon with a proper post. xxx

Everyone else is doing it so why not?

Oh my gosh I am in a magazine!!!

...and a knitting one at that!!



Sue kindly left me a message last night telling me I was in the Jan 2011 ed of Let's Knit p77. So today I went and bought myself a copy as I was intrigued by how I could have appeared in it seeing as I don't knit that much. Okay I have made a couple of pairs of socks and some scarves and half jumpers that never got finished but I am not a "knitter" by any stretch of the imagination.



Sure enough, there was my blog on page 77. They like me!!! Oooh this thrilled me no end. Weird they picked me but hey I'm not complaining. You start to wonder how in the heck did they actually find me? Very strange. There are much better blogs out there than mine but still - it's nice to be liked.

So... I'm not very well. Lack of sleep and generally run down has made me reach for these:



Oh yes, the chocolate is indeed needful. So I just want to console myself and go to bed.. but I can't. Never mind. I'll just be consoled by the Christmas tree.



Till next time peeps, stay warm. xx

Christmas ornaments of the stitching kind.

Yesterday I got some great ornies through the post. Rachael and I decided to do a private ornament exchange this year and this is what she sent me:



Isn't it beautiful? It is her own design. I love it Rachael. Thank you very much.

Here is what I stitched for Rachael who has let me know she has received it now:



It is the JBW design from the Just Cross Stitch Ornament magazine. I cheated and stitched it over two instead of over one! I believe she likes it! Lovely to stitch too.

Yesterday I also got my HOE Christmas Ornament exchange through from Margaret. I love it! Thank you so much. Again I think it is from this years magazine. Margaret even stitched my initials on the back. Very sweet.



I'm still waiting to hear that my HOE has arrived at its destination.

So I will leave you with my first mince pie of the season. Marks and Spencer rich butter ones with Bailey's cream. Mmmmmmmmm

Thanks for all your lovely comments on my last post. Need to make more!

More hooky playtime!!!

Woop!!!! I did it. I can't quite believe it but I really really did it. I made one of Lucy's hooky ornaments and she only put up the tutorial today! Mighty proud of meself I am. Just took an evening to make and assemble and I just LOVE it. As soon as I saw them I knew I had to get my Rico wool that I ordered, so on Friday I contacted Lisa from First for Yarns to see where it was. I ordered it in October!! Big delays, she said. Oh no! I got to have that yarn. So without even thinking anymore about it, I picked up a bit of Stylecraft and Hayfield Bonus (all I have left of my dwindling pile) and began a practice ornie. But lookie!! How good does it look? Well I think so ;-). Here are a couple of pictures and if you want the instructions to make one for yourself then head over to Lucy's blog.





Right I'm too giddy with excitement now. I'll never sleep! xx

Playing hooky

Just a quick post because I am super excited that I can make these:



Beautiful star garland that I found on Corn Poppy Girl's blog who had the tutorial link for it here.

And these:



Sweet snowflakes from the lovely Lucy at Attic24. They do need a little blocking and stretching but was too excited. Just had to post them.

xx

Better get a cuppa..

Sorry for myself cakes

...it's going to be a long post.

I have so much to share but recently been in such a blogging slump, I just couldn't get my head around posting. I have been visiting mind you and getting lots and lots of inspiration.

So, SNOW! You want snow? I'll give you snow! And tons of it. Why we chose to live here I just don't know. We live in the Peak District of England. It is beautiful, hilly, rural and very cold come the winter. As we're quite high up and also in a valley, we kind of get the brunt of the bad weather. We were warned. We knew Northumberland and Newcastle had had it bad and that it was heading our way. You just never realise how much until you wake up seeing this:





Oh yeah it is magical, and Christmassy and silent. Have you ever noticed the silence when it has snowed like this? It's like no-one comes out. It's a still, still world for a time. But it is also a pain in the behind especially when the school doesn't close. But it did, today. Thankfully. DD was up at two in the morning throwing up till dawn. Bug. Yuk. So today has been a stay at home day. I ventured out and got my car going just to keep it ticking over and then proceded with two other neighbours to clear our road of snow so at least we can get in and out. It is still snowing though so may get covered over in no time.

So... last week I got a wonderful surprise in the mail. Cathy had a giveaway for some beautiful tatted things her mum had made and no... for once .. I didn't actually win. But I did mention in the comment how I would love a tatted bookmark for my bible and last week, these arrived in the post with a rather special note. I can't tell you how much they cheered me up Cathy. Send my thanks and appreciation to your mum. I absolutely love them.



Today brought another special gift from Berit. Can you believe that Berit was giving away this??



She had almost finished the design but decided not to keep it! So I got the nearly finished (and rather well stitched) design, the chart and the threads and beads! Wow. I love it and am going to finish it off as soon as I get the time. Love it. Thank you Berit. Really needed that little boost today.

What else? What else? Oh yeah... I have two TWO finishes!!! I told you I would. I told you!!

Right, here's the alphabet sampler by La D Da. Loved stitching this and it worked up so quickly. I don't know why I left it for so long in the wip pile.




Stitched on 32 Sassy's Creamy Cocoa with NPI silks.

Next and here's the big one!! Here is, finally, a major TA DA!! Cirque des Cirque. I had a love hate relationship with this one. I started and restarted it several times. First I started it with beads and that wasn't right. Then I had a go with metallic threads, that wasn't right either so by the time I just got round to plain old stitching it, I'd had enough of it. And so I struggled and struggled. Then Rachael set up and Ink Circles SAL this year and I took up the challenge and finished it within the year. No more lingering in the wip pile for you matey. Done. These photos are very accurate of the colour of fabric and threads. I have had a job all year getting the thing to photograph right but it never came out well. These are pretty accurate. You have all been so great with the encouragement to finish this and keep on with it so THANK YOU all for that. It worked. ;-)






Stitched on 32 ct Mulberry linen with Thread Gatherers Silk n Colors silk in Spring Frocks.


I have also had a new start today although it doesn't look much right now. I am doing an SAL with Lisa on Winter Whites by LHN. Tracy bought me this chart last year for Christmas so it seems rather appropriate to do it now the opportunity has arrived. There are some others doing the SAL too with other LHN winter designs and I look forward to seeing their progress.


LHN Winter Whites Stitched on 32ct Wichelt Star Sapphire

It was dd's 8th birthday the other day and we had a little celebration for her. We decide to have a simple pizza and film night for her and some of her friends. I made the cake! Smartie flowers. I saw this on Adamento's blog and shamelessly copied it :( Looks okay though hey? Tasted pretty nice too. And you can see the beginnings of my red room but its still not finished yet but you get the warmness of it though.





Lily is pulling a face in this one! What great friends. They all had a good time.

Now, is there anything left? Well, I am doing my first ever RR starting in January bu tI think I will leave it till then to post about it. There are only four of us doing it and we all know each other so hopefully it should run really smoothly. No, I think that is about all I can manage. Thank so much for your kind comments from yesterday. I was feeling a bit sorry for myself. Happy stitching this December! xxx