Lainey;s latest Up's & Downs!

Well here I am at long last with another post. Life is rather crazy for me just now but I will tell you more about that later let;s start with all the good stuff. My dear friends have been spoiling me with more wonderful Birthday gifts and Exchanges.

My wonderful friend Maggie who is such a dear and listens to all my moans and groans sent this lovely package all wrapped up with the fabric and ribbon. The gorgeous chart came with the threads and I loved him so much I have him all stitched up already. I would like to say how much I enjoyed the chocolates but I made the mistake off leaving them open in the kitchen where DH sits at his computer. I went to take one and yes you;ve guessed they were gone.

Michelle also spoiled me with this darling Snowman ornament and pretty card. She is such a dear always sending me little surprises and treats in the mail.

  

Dear sweet Nia also spoiled me silly with all these gorgeous treats. The beautiful stitched card, fabulous fabric cupcakes and wonderful buttons, trimmings and threads. What wonderful Birthday treats I have had thank-you from my heart to each and everyone.

My Chicken mad friend Cath celebrates her Birthday two days after mine. I thought this little guy would be perfect for her, she loves it!

In recent months I have made a lovely new friend Teresa. I RAK'd her with this little pink pillow, sweet treats and other bits and bobs. I;m glad to say she was delighted with everything.

I set up this private Exchange with my friend Tanya many many months ago. I;m normally very good at sending out these Exchanges but with everything thats being going on around here for months now I just fell behind. Thank you Tanya for having such patience with me. I so enjoyed stitching this little birdie pillow. It was a freebie I came across online. Tanya make so many beautiful pieces I can;t wait to see what she does with the orange bird fabric. 

This is the amazing collection off goodies Tanya sent to me. I was just gob-smacked when I opened this package. Isn;t my Halloween pillow so cute and how darling is that sheep! I just love the American theme fabric and all the other fabulous pieces.

I was so excited when I discovered I won this Halloween Book on Ma Teakettles give-away. My friend Elaine who just loves Halloween had been telling me all about it and I had seen so many people talking about in blogs. It;s not often I come across a stitching book that I want to stitch all the charts in it. Karyn not also gave me the book but some lovely threads, fabric and those cute Halloween mallows that I;ve had to hide as everyone here wants them open. Thank you so much Karyn I just love my book and if it wasn;t for such kind and generous people like yourself us stitchers outside the States would never got our hands on so many lovely stitchy things.

I;ve been spending my Birthday pennies like mad and I was so pleased to discover that Karen at Millenia Designs was having a sale in her threads. These are Olde Willow hand-dyes I;ve never used them before but I couldn't resist when they were only 0.57p each.

I also treated myself too these two charts from Paula on Etsy.

My final shopping spree that I can share today was with Thread Bear. Some fabric, trims and off course two lovely Snowmen charts. No guesses to which one my needle will get to first.

Well if your still with me I have to tell you it's been many years since my postman has been as busy as this and I have received so much stash. Thank you from the bottom of my heart to my dear friends I;m truly blessed to have you in my life and I just can;t tell you how much your kindness meant to me at this difficult time myself and my family are having. Sadly since we got more and more involved in my MIL;s care many many ugly things have come to light and the week-end of my Birthday we opened "pandoras box" to find many more serious problems that are reverberating through the whole family. I;m one of those women who was born with the worry gene and all this stress is now starting to affect my own health. Though I may not have the time I would like to post on my blog , comment on others, answer my emails please don;t stop emailing me and chatting to me online. The help and support of my dear stitchy friends may sometimes bring a tear to my eye but it also brings a smile and brightens my day. Big hugs to all!