Late arrivals/A start & a finish!

Thanks to everyone for all the lovely comments and get well wishes on my last post. I wish I could tell you that we are all better now but sadly no. Ian and myself still have a chesty cough, headache, sore throat, runny nose. Craig is still coughing too and Heathers asthma has flared up. We can;t even get an appointment with our GP so I guess we will just have to put up and shut-up..lol.

Due to all the postal delays with the Snow in December a number of my gift packages/exchanges I sent out have only arrived at their destinations recently. I;m so lucky to have such wonderful friends old and new. I had such fun and enjoyment putting everything together and it makes my heart smile that they were loved by all.

The Snowman cube I made for Cath for our Christmas exchange. I also included a lot of other goodies in the package but I somehow forgot to take a photograph of the completed package.

I also have to send a big apology to Pirjo as I have no photographs off the wonderful exchange package she sent me. It included a beautiful Angel from Brookesbookspublishing she had stitched which I hung on my holly wreath. DH had put it into the loft with the decorations before I realised I hadn;t taken a picture. This is the Christmas exchange package I sent to Pirjo.

I have to confess I fell in love with this little pillow after I put it together and wasn;t sure about parting with it but I just knew my dear friend Catherine would love it. I;m not known for stitching many designs twice but I will definately be doing this one again for myself.

Like myself Sally is a bit of a Snowman lover so I just had to put this one together for her. I;m so glad she liked it and look forward to enabling her to collect more Snowmen.

This gift for sweet Maggie is my favourite Ornament finish off 2010 (even though I was rather embarassed when I saw it on Maggies blog and a button had fell off). Mental note must buy some stronger glue..lol).

Oh dear this flu is really affecting what little brain I have. I also received a really cute stitched card and gifts from Nia and once again I forgot to take a picture. This is the little sparkly penguin Ornie I made for her.

This little package was for another sweet friend Staci whose stitching, knitting and crafty talents just inspire me to want to do better. I just couldn;t resist sending the "sock queen" some socks..lol.

Now onto this years stitching. This is my SAL piece that I mentioned in my last post but forgot (yeah I know again) to post a picture.

These are the thread colours and fabric I have chosen. The colour of the fabric shows up quite well in this picture as you will see in the next one it looks as if I;ve changed the colour.

Not many stitches done but this is my start. It will take a little while to get used to the 32count but I am enjoying this one. The plan at the moment is to work on this two days a week, off course this is not set in stone.

My second finish off 2011 but oh dear it was nearly in the bin. I tried to stitch it too a backing piece off fabric and it was a disaster. Hopefully I've rescued it okay. I thought I might attach it to a pillow or a notebook.

I am really enjoying all the wonderful new starts people are doing in the crazy challenge. It;s introducing me to so many beautiful charts I haven;t seen before. Happy stitching everyone!