Monday 30 August 2010

Did you miss me...LOL!

Thankfully this old chickens head has been re-attached and I am back to my blogging and stitching. I am so looking forward to catching up on what everyone else has been up too and ohhing and ahhing at all those new stitches and wips.
The last few weeks my time has been taking up with working and arranging DD Heathers 18th birthday. She had a wonderful day and got spoiled to pieces with gorgeous gifts from family and friends. Hope you enjoy a little peek into her day.

Pressies from Mum & Dad, including a watch and money for driving lessons.





H loves Yabba the duck from Timmy Time a childrens programme. I couldn;t resist buying one for her.




Birthday pot, I didn;t realise until wrapping that it contained these cute hearts for everyone to write wishes on them



A cute photo when H was about 3 from Gran & Papa




The cards, I just love the cupcake one


Keepsake token



The Cake & Yummy Treats



H & Benji Balloon



Blowing out the candles!

The Birthday cake was made by my Mum, she did a wonderful job and it tasted delicious. It was a great day but oh boy I can't believe I now have an 18 year old daughter and 21 year old son. My mind keeps telling me I'm much too young to have kids this age, I won;t tell you what my body thinks about it..LOL!

Now the stitchy news. I decided at long last to fill up my baskets with some of my stitchy finishes. All these finishes are from freebie designs that I completed at the beginning of the year.


Still on the basket theme I couldn;t resist buying this one last week. My lovely family are always complaining, can you believe it..that my stitching is always lying around all over the house. I thought this would be perfect to keep my current projects together. You also might have spotted it in H;s photos. I used it too make up a pressie off girly goodies. I attached the little wooden heart to pretty it up.






These are a few little designs that I have started working on. The buttons are still to be attached to the snowman piece and I need to find some buttons for the halloween one. I also noticed I forgot to stitch the cats tongue.



Oh and I almost forgot. My regular readers will know how I am always moaning about my finishing skills. Well it;s official I suck...lol.  My finish has to be the cover piece for my book "How not to finish your stitching". This was my entry to the Lizzie Kate freebie creative challenge. My idea was to make a scrapbook to show how "Friendship Grows" through our love of crafting by keeping a record off finishes, exchanges, sal, RR etc. The entrys were all wonderful and the winning piece was gorgeous but I have to say my talents just shone through with mine. It certainly wasn;t one off my better finishes but off the 53 votes I didn;t even get one...LOL!!

Well I'm off to do a bit more blog reading and stitching. Hope everyone has many happy stitches this week. Hugs!

31 comments:

Deborah said...

Your daughter looks like she had a great birthday! The cake was beautiful. Your white basket is lovely. The stitchy pieces are great.

Shari said...

happy birthday to your daughter!!! It looks like she had a wonderful day!!!

Annette said...

Congratz with DD.. What a lovely and fun photo's.. Your stitching pieces are beautifull and I love you new basket...
Your finish looks great from here, you don't want to see mine!!!!!

Erna said...

Lainey ....ask you mum to bake a cake when I'm over lol.Great, happy pictures , gorgeous stitchingbaskets and everything in it....
Huggies and knuffels
Er

Bette said...

It looks like your DD had a wonderful birthday. And I know how you feel about not being old enough to have kids that old. Your stitching is great.

Mylene said...

Belated happy birthday to your daughter, Elaine. Looks like she had a great party!!
Your basket filled with ornaments looks lovely.

Berit said...

I just love white baskets--the sweets look divine, and I don't see anything wrong with that finish! There are some amazing finishes out there. Do you know who has the "worst" finishing? It's the original designers themselves (as a group; you could say 10 names right now that prove that statement wrong). Part of it is the somewhat dull always-framed choice to facilitate trunk shows and traveling, of course, but some of it is just downright not that great. I think it's because they've got the overwhelming work of birthing the design occupying them.

So, what I'm saying is, don't get down on your finishing when the lion's share of the underpar stuff comes from the paws of the pros!

Catherine said...

Wow! Your daughter's birthday looks amazing! That cake is beautiful.

All your stitchy goodies look great too!

Cole said...

Happy Birthday to your DD... I love her cake!

Karen said...

I love your basket of goodies! I liked your album idea and loved all of the buttons and trinkets you used. Think I will have to steal this idea....would be perfect for a stitching journal for exchanges.

The party looked fun....loved all of the cards! They were so well coordinated.

carol fun said...

Looks like it was a wonderful birthday for your lovely daughter! I too don't know how I became the mother of a 20 and 25 yr old - where does the time go?

Your basket of finished pieces is so pretty! What a great way to display them -- I'm off to find a basket in my house to corral some of my pieces.

Happy stitching!

Melanie said...

Happy Birthday to your daughter!!

Awwww, that's too bad about your piece. It looks just fine in the picture. Bugger them for not voting on it.lol

Heidi said...

Where to start? First, I have to say that your finishing is wonderful and I love that scrapbook page so I think that your entry must have just been overlooked. Or they all needed glasses! Love your basket of finishes! I keep my things spread everywhere because the two trays and two baskets I have, which are huge by the way, do not hold it all. Yes, I know that is sad but true.

A very happy belated birthday to your beautiful daughter. And tell you mum that the cake is gorgeous!

Hugs from Holland ~
Heidi

Lesleyanne said...

Happy belated birthday to your daughter. It looks like she had a fantastic day. I have never seen a birthday pot - what do you do with that? Love the presents she got especially the 18 photo frame. You cannot be the worst finisher in the world, that my title, trust me. Your bastket of stitching is beautiful - lovely colour. I love the white one too. Love the snow days and trick and treat finishes.

Lois said...

Good to see you posting again! Looks like your DD had a wonderful birthday. Great pics! It's scary how our children get to be so old so quickly!

Two cute new starts. Love your basket of finishes and well done on having a finishing spree. As for your L*K entry, it looks just fine, you definitely deserved some votes.

Annie said...

What a great birthday celebration. Love those photos.

Your basket of stitched freebies looks so nice. A great way to display those little pieces.

I think your LK cover looks great. You know how contests are.. .people lobby their friends to vote for them. It's marketing skill that wins, not really a stitching/finishing skill.

Carol said...

Heather's birthday celebration looks like such fun--what a lovely girl she is!! And that cake you mother made--amazing! Wait until your oldest is approaching 30 like mine is, Elaine--then you'll really feel old...

All of your little stitched freebies look so cute grouped together. I still am amazed at how generous designers are with their talents in giving us so many lovely free charts!

I think your LK cover is very cute--I would have voted for it :)

Vinniey said...

Happy belated birthday to your beautiful daughter. Looks like she have a great birthday party. Beautiful gifts and impressive birthday cards, especially the cake from your mom, it's so so gorgeous! I love all your finishes on the basket, all of them are so sweet in pink.

Your LK entry piece is looking great, Elaine. :)

Edit said...

Happy 18th birthday to your daughter!!! It looks she really had a great day :) And those cakes... Is there any left? :)

Your basket looks so nice, I also love baskets and just try to find a reason why to buy one more :) I have one now for biscornus only, so I misght need one for my stitching things and for other finishes and... ;)

And your LK piece, I think it looks very nice and I sure would have voted for it!

cuori e perline said...

wow! Wonderful birthday!
wow! your basket is wondeful!
annamaria

♥ Nia said...

Happy birthday to your daughter!! :D
That pot is so cuuuuute!! A birthday whishes pot.. I wish I had one of those!! LOL!

Baskets are always nice and useful! That wooden heart is gorgeous! :)

Don't feel bad about the LK challenge, that doesn't mean that your finish wasn't pretty!

I'll write to you soon ;)
Have a happy week!!

Blu said...

Happy belated birthday to your DD. Looks like a great time. That card with the girl in that poofy dress is gorgeous!
Love the wooden heart! It's so pretty.
Cute, cute finishes.

Brigitte said...

I love baskets, any sort of baskets, filled with stitchy things. I have three or four of them in my study and I feel them with whatever I have finished. I love yours with the little pillows, they are just gorgeous.
Elaine, I *love* your scrap book so much, it's perfectly stitched and crafted and the idea behind it is just wonderful.
Your daughter sure had a fun day. Each of the pictures shows it. Happy belated Birthday to her!

Pam said...

Happy birthday to your daughter. It looks like she had a great day! I thought your scrapbook was really cute. It's a great idea, anyway. Very creative!

Meadows08 said...

Looks like your DD had a wonderful birthday. Your mom is quite the cake decorator! Great stitching too. As for finishing, keep practicing! I think your scrapbook idea is very creative.

Sally said...

Happy Belated Birthday to your DD. It looks like she had a fantastic day.

Love your finishes and I think your scrapbook idea is brilliant.

Love the baskets. I have a few small ones dotted here and there but not any like yours. Love them with handles on.

Maggie said...

Happy (belated) birthday to your daughter!
Looks like it was a wonderful party!

I love baskets :-) i have one too for storing stitching - love yours with the handle!

I think your finishing is great:-) I'm not very good when it comes to finishing but i keep having a go and hopefully one day i'll get it! as for the scrap book page, i thing its wonderful, very creative:-)

Siobhán said...

"How not to finish your stitching". You crack me up! I think it looks great! I am terrible at it but this year I am trying to do a bit more of it myself. Love the stitching pics, too!

Happy belated birthday to Heather--looks like she had a great day!

Giovanna said...

Many happy returns to your lovely daughter!
Can't see anything wrong with your LK pinkeep - I can do much worse than that, lol! Love your filled basket, must get one for self too...

♥ Nia said...

Have a good weekend sweetie :)

Wendy said...

happy annniversary, and a happy birthday !
I´m back to !
haven´t seen evrything, sorry, but I´ll catch up really soon, I´m getting a bit sleepy now......