Laineys Stitching Hoose

Hugs & Stitches!

2012-01-21T07:56:00.000-08:00

Thank you to each and every one of you for all the hugs and support on my last post. I attended hospital on Friday for some tests. Hopefully I will get the results soon.

I really can;t bare not to share my stitches, it;s only a tiny peek but these are two Birthday gifts and two RAK pieces I will be sending out sometime this year. Another Birthday piece I can;t share as it has the persons name on it and its too early to reveal my Exchange piece....

My final piece is a Lizzie Kate Santa I am stitching for the Christmas Ornament monthly SAL. The link is on my sidebar for anyone who would like to join us or just pop over to see everyones lovely stitches.

I hope everyone is having a lovely stitchy week-end, hugs.

Thank you for being my friend!

2012-01-13T14:11:00.000-08:00

I;m sorry but 2012 hasn;t brought more sunshine into my life but some really dark clouds. Our family troubles still continue and I;m now trying to get my head round being told by my Doctor last week that I need to be seen by a Cardiologist as they have discovered something wrong with my heart. Myself and my family are still dazed and in shock with this news. Though difficult I;m trying my best to relax and rest. I;ve been doing a lot of reading and stitching. I;ve just had my third finish today but I'm afraid I can;t show any pictures as I;m working on Birthday gifts for friends in 2012. I;ve also had a great response to the Christmas ornament SAL I started both this and my exchange blog are helping to keep me occupied. Finally to my dear friends out there who are sending me lots of love and support I can;t thank you enough. An email, a comment, a chat on online I so appreciate them all. Thank you for being my friend!

Back again already, who would have believed it!

2012-01-01T09:36:00.000-08:00

Yes believe it or not I;m back with another post already. Finally over the Christmas and New Year holidays we have enjoyed some relaxing family time. We were all spoiled with so many beautiful gifts and thank you to all my dear stitching friends who brightened my day with all those gorgeous stitched and home-crafted gifts. I hope everyone has enjoyed the holidays.
As I haven;t stitched for a few months I was rather worried as I thought my mojo had gone walk about. I took out two wips did a few stitches in both but just couldn;t get enthused at all. I left it a few days then decided I needed a new project. I;ve started on awww shhhh can;t tell...lol, it;s a gift for someone who follows my blog. It;s sooo pretty and it really has got my mojo back in gear. So much so I;ve set up a blog for anyone who would like to join me in a Christmas ornament SAL. Like many people I always tell myself I;m going to start early and make lots off Ornaments for my tree and gifts for friends and family but Christmas always sneaks up on me and I don;t get any finished on time. Each month I am going to stitch a different theme. I will post my chart, threads and fabric and my progress as I go along. If you would like to come join me just send an email and I will give you access to post. You can join in as often or as little as you like. Go on come play with me....
http://christmasornamentsallyearround.blogspot.com/

StitchedwithloveExchanges also has a new Exchange. Last year had such wonderful Exchanges and some wonderful new friendships have been made. We had such great fun at Christmas as well as the Exchanges we shared recipes, christmas traditions, our decorated homes. Go check out our new Love & Friendship exchange and come join in the fun.

http://stitchedwithloveexchanges.blogspot.com/

I don;t start work for another week and I know I keep saying it but surely I will find some time to do some blog reading, I so miss my friends and all their beautiful stitches. Welcome also to all these new followers I have I look forward to visiting your blogs and getting to know you. Hugs!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2012-01-01T00:01:00.000-08:00

AS WE SAY IN SCOTLAND "A GUID NEW YEAR TO ANE AN' AW' AND MONY MAY YE SEE"

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE FOR THEIR LOVE AND SUPPORT I WISH YOU AND YOUR FAMILYS HEALTH, WEALTH AND HAPPINESS IN 2012!!!

LOVE & HUGS
LAINEY XX

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-16T05:29:00.000-08:00

Still no time for blogging, stitching or all the good things in life. As my friends know Christmas is normally my favourite time of year but even my Snowmen can;t melt my heart just now. I get the most enjoyment from my stitching when I make something for others so I am gutted that I am not able to send out any little Christmas treats this year. I;m hoping that the New Year will bring better things and I will get the chance to pick my needle up again and catch-up with everyone. Thank you to the people who have taken the time to keep in touch with me and give me their love and support. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year. Love & Hugs!

Thank you for the lovely comments but please this wasn;t what I was meaning to say "please don't tie your value to being able to stitch and give gifts! Anyone who knows me knows that none of my family or close friends stitch so I get the biggest pleasure making something to give to others I know will appreciate it. This is also just some of my snowman collection so don;t be offended if you don't see something in the picture you made for me it may be hanging on my tree of displayed around my home I just didn;t have room to display everything.

Lainey;s latest Up's & Downs!

2011-10-21T09:57:00.000-07:00

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!

New Winter Wonderland Christmas Exchange!

2011-10-10T14:19:00.000-07:00

Do you like to stitch for others? Do you want to make some new friends? If you do, pop on over too Stitched with Love Exchanges and sign-up for our new Winter Wonderland Christmas Exchange. As well as making a lovely stitching Christmas themed package for your partner we hope that you will join in some fun activities we will be having as we lead up to Christmas. This will be our fifth and final exchange off 2011. Come along and join us don;t miss out on all the fun. Hugs!

Short but Sweet Post!

2011-09-27T08:09:00.000-07:00

My DD Heather passed her Driving Test yesterday. I made this little Car in her favourite colour green and personalised the number plate with her initials and the date. In typical young fashion she thought it was Cool!!

Hope everyone is having a nice day and thank-you so much for all the lovely Birthday wishes. Hugs.

Give-away Winner & Birthday Thanks!

2011-09-24T11:01:00.000-07:00

We shook, rattled and rolled the bowl and Ned the Gnome chose the winner off my Birthday give-away, congratulatons JustFlo!!! Sorry there;s no email address on your blog hopefully you will come on by and see that you;ve won.

Well another year has come and gone and here I am once again 21! I;ve had a wonderful day and been thoroughly spoiled by my family and friends. Before I share my pics I apologise for the scary lady with the Birthday cake...

This is me with my Mum. She made my Chocolate Birthday cake. DH wanted to count the marshmallows on top to make sure there were 48...lol! My Mum and Dad gave me lots of lovely cash to spend on stash....wooohooo.

My DH Ian took me to lunch at my favourite restaurant the Cornhill House Hotel in Biggar and also gave me more pennies to spend on my much needed stash.

This lovely haul is from my DS Craig. He gave me some early Birthday money to treat myself when I visited a Patchwork store earlier this week. It was a lovely new store with a huge collection off fabric but sadly she had very few Christmas pieces and only one Snowman design. Don't think I will be back in a hurry...lol.

I know this will be hard to believe but I was just lost for words when my DD Heather gave me my present. I came across these lovely purple boxes a few weeks ago while we were shopping and I hinted these would be the perfect Birthday gift. They are really pretty and I love them but its not the boxes its whats sitting beside them. My baby girl bought me a Kindle.......I;ve wanted one for such a long time, I;ve got the best DD in the whole world. Any other bookworms out there please share your favourtie reads.

I am blessed with so many dear stitching friends. I just can;t tell you how much I appreciate the people who take time to leave me a comment on my blog, facebook, drop me an email and chat online. I dont; have any family or nearby friends that I can share my love off stitching and in this past year you have all been a real life line to me. I thank you all for you love and support. Big hugs for all those Birthday wishes I have received today and the beautiful gifts you spoiled me with. Cathy, Erna & Sally your Simply the Best!

Cath made me this beautiful sheepy bag. Isn't it gorgeous! Sweet Cath you know how mad I am about anything purple and my darling sheep thank you so much for my beautiful bag it will be put to great use.

Sally made me this Snowman pillow. Isn;t it adorable! Dear Sally once again you have touched my heart with another Snowman, I love you girl!

Erna spoiled me with all these wonderful goodies and beautiful initial pillow!

I have seen these beautiful stitched pillows on Erna;s blog and secretly wished I had one. Thank you so much sweetie, I will treasure it.

What a wonderful Birthday I;ve had. I have a little RAK to share and some photos from our visit to the Transport Museum this week but I will leave them for my next post. Hope everyone is having a nice week-end. Birthday thanks and hugs again. Be back soon.

At last some Happy news to share!

2011-09-19T14:40:00.000-07:00

Well it is so nice to have some Happy news to post about. It;s a very proud Parent alert as we were delighted when our DS Craig got the news this week that he had passed his exams and in November will be Graduating from the Univeristy of Strathclyde with a Bsc in Architecture. Congratulations Craigie!

I received this beautiful Autumnal bouquet of flowers from my DH Ian today to celebrate our 24th Anniversary. They are so much prettier than the picture. Isn;t the little butterfly on the card sweet. Just seems like yesterday we got married hard to believe another year and we will hear those silver bells, wonder if we;ll make it..lol.

Last week I entered a give-away on the 123stitch.com board to win a copy of this years Just Cross Stitch Ornament magazine. This is my favourite American magazine and since 2000 I have been lucky enough to be gifted, buy or win a copy of this magazine. Because my stash funds have been very restricted this year I was considering using my Birthday funds to buy some new charts and hold off on my magazine. I was over the moon to receive an email to tell me I had won a copy but I couldnt; believe what I was reading when I visited the board to give my thanks. The original give-away was from a lady called Barb who was offering 5 copies to any ladies outwith the US. As people started to enter another two ladies Pam and Mary then said they would also give-away 5 copies each. When the winners were announced the ladies declared that all 32 people who had entered would receive a copy. This is one of the most amazing give-aways I have come across, three stitching angels with hearts of gold.

Be back soon with hopefully some stitchy pictures, new of the Christmas Exchange on Stitched with Love Exchanges and my Birthday give-away. Have a great week, hugs!

Not Much Ado!

2011-09-11T16:04:00.000-07:00

Not a lot to post about this week. This is my Delivering Winter pillow finish. I replaced the stitched snowflakes with some buttons and yes my snowman are a little different from the original. I really enjoyed stitching this, it's one design I would definately do again.

I wish I could tell you this beautiful stitched pillow is mine but sadly no it now belongs to June in the UK. This is the lovely Summer Holiday Exchange package that was sent to her from Colleen in the US. If you would like to see the rest of these beautiful Exchanges please pop over to the Summer Holiday Gallery at http://stitchedwithloveexchanges.blogspot.com/2011/09/summer-holiday-exchange-gallery.html

Hope everyone has a great week and don;t forgot to check out my Birthday give-away. Hugs!

Stitching/Last chance Exchange/Birthday Give-away!

2011-08-28T09:20:00.000-07:00

Apologies for the awful picture. I just need to stuff, sew and add some snowflake buttons and this will be finished. If anyone out there has any of the Homespun Elegance Delivering series for Sale or Trade can they please contact me.

Once again I was overwhelmed when I received this gorgeous stitched pin and summer goodies from naughty Teresa. As I wasn;t taking part in the Summer Exchange that I organised she being the angel that she is decided to send me a package so I wasn;t left out. Beautiful fabric, buttons and a sweet little sunshine tissue holder. In the previous package I received she had sent a packet of jelly beans and I told her how my DH just loves these. There quite difficult to find here and expensive he usually has a treat at Christmas and Birthdays. You do get fake ones but he won;t eat those. How happy was he when he saw this huge bag. I think he has them stashed in an armoured box...lol.

Today is the closing date to sign-up for the Fall into Halloween Exchange at Stitched with Love Exchanges. So far we have had 26 who want to come play. If your sitting on the fence, go on pop on over to the blog and join in the fun.

Don't forgot to also join in my Birthday Give-away. Thanks to everyone who has entered so far.

Hope everyone stays safe with the nasty Hurricane in the US. Until next time, hugs!

New Fall/Halloween Exchange/Finishes/Give-away!

2011-08-19T07:50:00.000-07:00

Earlier this year I decided to set up a blog for exchanges. The response I have had has been great. The stitched pieces and all the extras that have been sent and received in our last three exchanges have been wonderful. Our new Exchange is called Fall into Autumn. You can choose whether you would prefer to receive a Fall or Halloween themed package and there are 5 weeks between the time you are given your partners details until you need to mail out your package. If you would like to come along and join in the fun visit us on the Stitched with Love Exchange blog.

A little more progress on Delivering Winter.

I took some time again this week to finish off these two pieces from my stitched but not finished box. They were both stitched some time in the past 5 years. Santa is from the Tiny Tidings VI chart by Lizzie Kate and the Cow design is part of a chart from an old American magazine.

As mentioned in my last post I am having a Birthday Give-away. This is what will be included in the package for the lucky winner.

Cross-stitch Fabric

Quilting, Sewing, Finishing Fabric

Ribbons & Buttons

Threads

Charts

Bug Pillow

Complete Give-away

To have a chance to win:

1. For one entry you must comment on every post I make from now until the Give-away closes on Friday 23rd September.

2. Another two entrys will be given if you are a current follower , one entry for new followers.

3. Posting a link to the Give-away on your blog one more entry (indicate if you have done this on a comment).

4. Please leave your email address if it isn;t already in your profile.

5. The Winner will be announced on the week-end off my Birthday Saturday24th/Sunday25th September.

Good luck!

Sunday Stitches & A Give-away!

2011-08-14T07:25:00.000-07:00

I decided to treat myself to a new start yesterday. This is Delivering Winter by Homespun Elegance. As usual my threads, my colours as I have to use what I have in my stash. I;m quite pleased with it so far and it is stitching up quite quickly.

I had another day of finishing this week. This design is Spooky Patch a freebie by Lizzie Kate. I swapped the squares around and replaced the spider and cauldron design with the buttons.

Mr Scarecrow I stitched in 2006 and Mrs Scarecrow 2007 they are both from The Love of Cross-stitch magazines. I knew I would get round to finishing them one day but I didn;t think it would take me four years. Then again there are a number off pieces much older than that in my box waiting to be finished. I shall hopefully get around to doing more soon.

Nia my lovely stitchy friend celebrated her Birthday last month. She was delighted with her gifts which included the Lizzie-kate cube finish, heart ornament and a little cup-cake I made up with some fabric and pins. Do pop over and say Hi to Nia and see all her crafts and beautiful stitches. Next month it will be my turn to blow out the candles on the cake. I am going to have a give-away to celebrate. The winner will be chosen from the people who take the time to comment on any of my posts from today until my Birthday at the end of September. I will reveal whats in the package in my next post. Good luck to anyone who enters. Until the next time, hugs!

A bit of this and that!

2011-08-07T05:15:00.000-07:00

I just had to start this post with the wonderful surprise I received in the mail this week. Dear sweet Sally sent me this darling Snowman that she knows would just melt my heart. Thank you Sally for such a sweet gift. I know we will both get through the tough road we seem to be travelling just now our love, support, friendship and stitches will see us through.

I know it;s only August but my Snowmen are calling to me so I just had to get started on this years Christmas pieces. This little guy is my definition off Be Warm by Shepherds Bush. Even though I had the buttons for the orginal chart I just felt they were too big for this piece so I stitched the hat, added the nose and lots of extra snowflakes. I just love how this pretty trimming turned out and will definately use it again when I can track down some more.

I have to confess I;ve got a bit behind with my monthly SAL. June;s design was a Skeleton that we were doing on plastic canvas but I ran out of thread and had to put it aside. I didn;t finish this one for July until this week. It;s a wonderful freebie design by Berit at http://jauntyfoxdesignsshop.blogspot.com/ As we head into the second week of August the chart hasn;t quite been decided yet but I keep telling myself you will catch up , you will catch up, if you don;t the naughty chair awaits..lol.

Marly had a wonderful give-away for boxes off fabric on her blog. The lucky winners (which was me, me, me) just had to pay for the p&p for all this wonderful fabric. I was so delighted when mine arrived, Marly as you can see had included all these extra beads and a really pretty Mill Hill Kit. Please go check out her blog and say Hi to such a sweet lady.

I only had 7 entrys for this little chart so I just matched everyone up with a coloured bead and got DH to draw one. Congratulations too Tanya the chart will be in the mail soon.

Our little visitor Ned the Gnome is having a great time visiting us in Scotland as you can see he has recently been doing some baking. He has travelled here from his family home in Pennsylvania where he lives with the lovely Catherine and her family. He has his own blog where you can follow his travels. Coming from a stitchers family he knows how friendly and kind stitchers are so he is hoping that you could take a few minutes to go visit him , follow his blog, say Hi and leave a comment.http://nedgnomesadventure.blogspot.com/

Finally for the fellow garden lovers some more flowers from my garden. In this horrible wet and miserable summer we are having it is so nice to look out and see some colour in the garden. The rain has been torrential again the last few days. I do hope August will bring us some much needed dry sunny weather. Hugs!

Some finishes!

2011-07-17T12:13:00.000-07:00

First of all let me thank all those "chanters" out there for sending me some sunshine this week. Sadly though it didn;t last long and we have had more heavy rain and right now there is a thunder storm that wants to join in. I haven;t stepped out the door all week-end but have put my time to good use with some stitching and finishing.

On Saturday I wanted something small to stitch that I didn;t need to concentrate too hard on as I had parked myself in front off the tv to watch the British Open Golf tournament. I found this perfect little chart in my stash and was delighted that I managed to get it stitched and finished all in the one day. I won this chart in a give-away so I would like to pass it on to someone now. Just leave me a comment on this post and if there is more than one person I will draw a name.

My dear friend Colleen celebrated her Birthday last week. This is the little package off goodies I sent her. Like me she loves Sheep so I couldn;t resist making this one for her. I was so thrilled how this finish turned out I just love the sheepy ribbon. I really wanted to keep it for myself.

Finally though I do think these have turned out quite pretty I am glad they are finished. Stitching the same chart twice within a few weeks gives me no joy and as usual I got another chapter for my "how not to finish" book. They had to be ready to hand over to my Mum this week-end and I was quite anxious as I was still stitching them Friday morning and the finishing cubes didn;t arrive until the afternoon. My DD gave me a hand to put them together. We did the lemon one first and as Heather was doing the bow I started on the pink one. As I went to put on the fabric I realised that I had used pink fabric around the lemon one. Thankfully as its mostly pins and a little glue we managed to quickly swap them around. We then got the pink one complete. I was pleased with how they looked and Heather was well chuffed on what a great job she had did on the bows. We were sitting at the kitchen table admiring our work when DH arrived home. He is leaning on the kitchen work-top chatting to us and then he starts laughing. He said did you realise one of the girls had the surname Murpy and the other is Murphy. I couldn;t possible post my reply. Once again the same cube as before had to be pulled apart and sorted. I was so relieved when they were finally finished and handed over. If anyone spots any other mistakes ....NO COMMENT!

Until next time when I shall have a new start or maybe even another finish. Happy Stitching!

Exchanges & Gifts!

2011-07-10T13:02:00.000-07:00

I recently started a blog for Exchanges and I;m delighted to say that our second Exchange with a Tea-party/Picnic theme has been a great success. Please visit our Gallery to see all the wonderful packages sent and received by everyone who took part. For anyone interested sign-ups are open until tomorrow on our latest Summer Holiday Exchange.

These wonderful goodies were from my partner Lisa Isn;t my Watermelon pillow so pretty. I just love the Cottage Sampler chart, cute buttons, ribbon, fabrics and as I seem to be on a baking kick just now I;m looking forward to trying out those cute cookie cutters. Thank you so much Lisa for such a fabulous Exchange.

This is my Tea-party package that I made up for my partner Debbie I included some cup-cake napkins,recipe cards, stitched cube, fabric and pin cup-cake, thread cup-cake, button cake, tea-bag, tunnocks biscuit a mug and tea-tray.

I also received this wonderful surprise Tea-party RAK from Teresa My pretty mat is now displayed under my buttons and ribbons jar. My notepad which will be well used (I;ve a thing about making lists..lol) is on my fridge and I off course will have no problem using up those threads and that lovely kit. Thank you so much Teresa it was so kind of you to suprise me with this.

This is the one of the little Birthday gifts I gave you a peek at on my last post. It has now arrived with my dear friend Erna who said she was delighted with it, though I did have to apologise for the scary faces...lol. As you can see even after many, many years off trying I still can;t do french knots.

Apologise to dear sweet Nia I was tidying out my display basket in the kitchen and I spotted my darling little bunny she made for me and I realised I hadn;t posted him on my blog. Isn;t he cute...ty sweetie. If I ever get any new mindees I;m sure we will be making him a few little friends as it would be a great craft project for the little ones.

Recently I was lucky enough to won a give-away that Edit had on her blog. My photo doesn't do these coasters justice. They are so delicate and pretty. I really don;t want to get them all grubby by using them as coasters. I want them displayed nicely so everyone can see them. These were crocheted by Edits Mum Kati a very talented lady.

Sorry for making this final picture so large but I just wanted to share what a horrible Summer we are having here in Scotland. As I mentioned in my last post we have had a few days of sunshine but on the whole since June we have mainly had weather like this. So this week friends when you are sitting there stabbing your needle through your fabric I want you all to chant send Lainey sunshine, send Lainey sunshine, send Lainey sunshine. I will let you know on my return if it works..LOL. Happy Stitching!

Tuesdays Tales!

2011-07-05T08:20:00.000-07:00

Life is still a bit crazy around here so apart from the sad stuff I have nothing off great interest to blog about. I must say thank you though to everyone for their prayers, hugs and support. We are finally having a few days off sunshine so I thought I would post some pictures of my garden and this years potted plant flowers.

My baking mode has also really kicked in just now. Last week it was another Chocolate cake and Spiced cake. Vanilla slice, Empire Biscuits and Scones are on this weeks agenda.

My needle has been on overtime for the past two weeks as not knowing whether I am coming or going these days I suddenly realised I didnt have a lot of time to stitch two July Birthday gifts. I;ve only given you a sneak preview as the two lovely receipents read my blog. I shall hopefully be able to reveal all in my next post.

While reading my friend Catherines blog http://bramblewoodstitches.blogspot.com/ recently she mentioned that Ned the family gnome had decided to go off on a trip. My daughter Heather discovered him in our front-door planter a few days ago, I just can;t imagine the trip he had to get here. He must have been too exhausted to ring the door bell..lol. He is going to be spending the Summer with us here in Scotland. To follow his time with us and to find out where else his travels will take him check out his blog

Lastly for anyone interested sign-ups are being taken at the Stitched with Love blog for a new Summer Holiday Exchange.

Have a good week. Hugs!

The clouds have gathered but the Sun will shine again!

2011-06-19T15:07:00.000-07:00

We are having our fair share off lifes challenges just now. Three family members with cancer, MIL with dementia and other family members are going for hospital tests this week too. I don;t want to get into anymore detail as I don;t want to frighten off people reading my blog. I just wanted to let you know why I haven;t been around as much and I also want to thank my friends out there who have given me love and support. My stitching and stitching friends are helping to keep me sane right now. Here are some stitchy and other up-dates on what I have been doing.

I finally made my April SAL piece into this little pillow. Mays piece has been stitched but hard to believe when you see my new button collection I don;t have the two tiny spider and ghost buttons to finish it off. If anyone can help me out I will send something in return. June;s ornie is also halloween themed but I haven;t had time to start it yet.

My current stitching project is Here I Am by SamSarah Designs. My Mum asked me to stitch a Birthday gift for twin girls. I've decided to do this one twice, different coloured threads on each of them. Another awful picture. The large heart and swirls are stitched with sparkly krenik threads. I will hopefully get a better picture when they are both completely finished.

Last week my DD H and myself had a baking day. We both made the tray-bakes, H made the chocolate cake I made the bran loaf and button cake. It must have tasted okay as there is not a crumb left. If anyone would like the recipes for anything just drop me an email.

My stitching Sister Elaine surprised me with this wonderful package off goodies. While chatting recently I told her I needed some small baggies to put my hand-dyed threads in ( I was expecting a few she sent me 100..lol) and I;ve been nagging her for ages to make me another piece of dyed fabric. How fab are these? As usual the photo doesn;t show the true colours, they are a beautiful pale blue and pale green. The blue one is screaming Snowman and I can really see some Sheep grazing on the green. Elaine also kept asking me what kind of buttons I needed. It;s raining buttons..lol! All shapes, sizes , colours I just had to take a picture to show how many buttons came out of that one bag. Here in the UK I can pay £4/$8 for a little piece of card with six buttons attached. This huge bag cost $6 I was gobsmacked..lol. My DH like Elaine is a huge Green Bay Packers fun and he was over the moon when she sent him a cap from this years Super Bowl win.

Isn;t this Heilan Cow just darling! Sweet Sarah kindly sent me this card and fabric as a thank-you for borrowing one of my Lizzie Kate charts. We both have a bit of a Moo thing going on...lol.

My dear friend Michelle RAK'd me with this wonderful package off fabric. So many pretty colours and just perfect for Ornies. Aren;t stitchy friends just the best.

I;m still plodding along with Willow House. My windows and roof are now done so the house is complete. I;ve also added some visitors too my tree. I have quite a few pieces I need to stitch in July so it;s back to the WIP pile just now.

I hope everyone has a good week. I;m looking forward to watching Andy Murray at Wimbeldon and getting some time to chill out and stitch. Hugs!

A Snowman, A Quilt and some Flowers

2011-05-16T09:13:00.000-07:00

I;m a bit late with this one but here is my April SAL piece. I;ve started to make it into a long pillow which hopefully will be stuffed and finished in a few days. We have decided to swap over from Christmas too Halloween for the next few months. Elaine has a lovely new black tree she needs to fill and I have a very limited amount off Halloween items that I want to add to. We are starting off with LK Spooky Patch. It;s a nice small design so hopefully I should manage to finish this one on time.

I forgot to show these in my last post. Way back in March my kids gave me some stash money for Mothers Day. While browsing I came across this great store on Etsy. I;m always a bit anxious when I order from the States but my lovely charts were here in jig time. Paula is a lovely lady and has a wonderful selection off goodies. http://www.etsy.com/shop/TheCrossIBare Go on, take a look you know you want too..lol.

The Summer Tea-party/Picnic Exchange that I am organising is now up and running. The response was wonderful and there are 27 people taking part. I;m still scratching my head figuring out what I am going to stitch but I can;t wait to see what everyone else is going to come up with.

This is my Mum;s first attempt at a Jellyroll quilt, doesn;t it look fab. She made this quilt for my Dad in his favourite football colours, red, black and white. Dad says it;s the best quilt she has ever made but each off the family members who have a quilt made by Mum think theres is the best too.

Well typically for Scotland our lovely spell off dry, sunny weather seems to have past. It;s done nothing but rain every day for about the past ten days now. As you can see the only ones enjoying it are the plants in my garden. Now don;t be greedy girls I know there will be some out there basking in the sun, please share it with the rest of us..lol.

Well that is my ramblings for today. I hope everyone has a good week. Happy Stitching!

Summer Exchange still time to sign-up!

2011-05-10T08:05:00.000-07:00

Come on ladies the sign-ups for the Summer Tea-party/Picnic Exchange finishes tomorrow. You don;t want to miss out on all the fun. Check out http://stitchedwithloveexchanges.blogspot.com/2011/05/new-summer-tea-partypicnic-exchange.html for all the details. Fingers crossed I can entice a few more people. Hugs!

I'm Back!

2011-05-04T00:13:00.000-07:00

Well here I am I haven't fallen off the planet, I;m still here... Thank you to everyone for the get well wishes, I;m slowly returning to my old-self a new me would have been better but your stuck with the old one...lol. I can;t tell you how much I;ve missed reading all your blogs and drooling over all your beautiful work, be it stitching, quilting, knitting all sorts off crafts. I;m looking forward to catching up with it all.

I;m sure there can;t be anyone on the planet now who hasn;t heard about the little shindig here in Britain last Friday. The marriage off Prince William and Kate Middleton. It was such a beautiful Wedding, everything was just perfect. Myself, Heather, my Mum and my best friend Liz had a lovely tea-party and lunch to celebrate. I had decided at the last minute we should try and find some Wedding hats to wear but when I telephoned my Mum she said she didnt; think she had any. It was absolutely hilarious when her and my Dad arrived. As you can see from the photograph my Mum had come dressed as a Wedding guest. Doesn;t she look the part in her dress, stole, silver hand-bag, shoes, corsage, hat and pearls.

I just loved every stitch of this Homespun Elegance sheepy design, it has to be one of my favourite finishes. As usual it is stitched with threads from my stash and not as stated in the chart.

Sarah at Craftymoo gave me this cute pillow in an Exchange we did. I thought this little ladybird would be a perfect finish for it.

I've also recently been working on my BBD Wip Willow House. This is a before and after picture to show my progress. I'm really pleased how it is coming along, I just love the pretty colours.

My lovely stitching friend Michelle celebrated her Birthday this week. I just had to stitch her a little surprise. The pillow is from a freebie design I came across online and the heart is scented with lavender. Michelle was delighted with her gifts.

I had a wonderful suprise when my postman delivered this package. I was beginning to feel down with being sick for so long and it was a real pick-me-up. The lovely Myra had came across this Sheepy fabric in her stash and said she just had to make this project bag for me. She is such a sweetie, thank you so much Myra I just love it!

Over the past year I have been doing two private Exchanges with dear Cath at the Stitching Chicken and dear Pirjo in Finland. I have had such a wonderful time stitching and putting together all the packages for both of them. They have both gave me the most wonderful stitched pieces and so many bits and pieces to add to my stash but best of all I now have two wonderful new friends. These are the pictures of our final Exchange packages.

The lady-bird pillow and goodies were from myself to Cath.

Cath sent me this wonderful selection off goodies, the little hanging cupcake is so cute and my stitched cube is gorgeous. I just love how Cath has finished this.

Pirjo really spoiled me as well with so many wonderful pieces. I can;t wait to stitch the cute sheep kit and I just have to find a use for the sheep ribbon. My cute little chick pin-keep is so sweet and the two little hanging birds are just adorable.

The two little pillows and bits and bobs was the package I sent to Pirjo.

Last but not least these are the sent and received packages from the Spring/Easter Exchange that I organised. My partner Vicky sent me such a wonderful package. I can;t thank her enough she put so much thought in care into stitching me a purply sheep pillow, lilac evenweave, cute sheepy stitching chart, beautiful needlminder and a darling curly Sheep ornie that I named Vicky and has now joined my flock the ones I have in my in header picture. The whole Exchange was a great success and I;ve now set up a blog for more Exchanges http://stitchedwithloveexchanges.blogspot.com The latest is a Summer Tea-party/Picnic Exchange sign-ups are open until next Wednesday.

Spring/Easter Exchange from Vicky.

My package for Vicky. I really enjoyed stitching the bunny and I was happy with my pillow finish.

Well I hope you have enjoyed catching up with me and even though I haven;t been around much I am delighted to see I have some new followers. I can;t believe I may hit the 200 mark soon. Thank you to each and everyone of you who read my ramblings and take the time to comment it really brightens my day. Hugs!

SIGN-UPS NOW FOR A NEW EXCHANGE!

2011-05-02T14:24:00.000-07:00

Just posted details off a new Exchange. Please check out http://stitchedwithloveexchanges.blogspot.com/2011/05/new-summer-tea-partypicnic-exchange.html Look forward to meeting friends old and new. I will be back with an up-date on what I have been up too soon. Hugs!

Thank you for the wonderful response so far but please if you want to sign-up do not EMAIL me at my own address it must be the Exchanges one at stitchedwithlove_exchanges@yahoo.co.uk.

Thank-you & Exchange photos!

2011-04-19T09:05:00.000-07:00

Thank you to everyone on the recent get well wishes. I am thankfully starting to feel a better now though my energy levels are low. There are some people that I know are waiting to here from me , especially those who have sent me some wonderful exchange packages and gorgeous surprises in the past four or five weeks. I can;t tell you how much it brightened my day. Thank you so much. Stitching friends have hearts of gold.

The Spring/Easter exchange that I recently organised is now complete. Everyone has had a fun time and the stitched pieces and packages were all wonderful. Thank you to each person who took part and for making it a success. I have set up a new blog where all the Exchange photographs can be viewed. Please visit and leave us a comment.

http://stitchedwithloveexchanges.blogspot.com/

I hope everyone has a lovely Easter. Hugs!

Thanks for the compliments on my bunny pillow it is a freebie http://penelopisfreebies.blogspot.com/search/label/bunny%2Fkroliczek

Just a quick hello!

2011-04-05T10:37:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to drop in and say Hi to everyone. Sorry I;m not around I haven;t been keeping well for nearly a month now and at the moment their is no signs of my health picking up. I won;t go in to details but I am going back to the Doctors again this week to see if they can sort me out. I miss reading and commenting on all your blogs and look forward to catching up with you all sometime soon. I have no energy just now to do much else but sit in the chair watch tv and stitch for a few hours and then nap for a few hours. Thankfully my stitching is helping to keep me sane. Hopefully I will be back to my old self soon or with any luck a new me..lol. Take care, happy stitching, hugs!

More finshes!

2011-03-07T13:10:00.000-08:00

Lainey has a little lamb, he stitched up oh so sweet, now he hangs up on her wall, baa, baa, bleat , bleat...LOL!

This was a lovely little design to stitch. I can;t quite believe I have finished my March SAL ornie already. Can't wait to see what design Elaine chooses for April.

This was a RAK I sent to lovely Myra (Gr8dames place) I had read on her blog she was hoping to make a patriotic/summer ornie tree this year so I couldn't resist stitching this one for her. I don;t have very many patriotic designs but I found this cute one in an old Better Homes & Garden Christmas magazine. I also have to say after me moaning in my last post about mail being so slow to reach Canada well in 11 years off sending packages over-seas this one has to be a record for me. It was mailed on Tuesday and it arrived in Myra;s mailbox in the US on Saturday delivered in 4 days, amazing!

I also sent this RAK to dear Lois (Of needles pins & stitching things). The little pillow was a design by Annie Beez Folk Art. It;s stitched as a pinkeep on the chart but I wasn;t brave enough too tackle that. I love the pretty colours in this one and may have to stitch it for myself.

I;ve been stitching on my Easter exchange piece today and oh my fess up who was it that sent me that darn frog!!! I had to un-pick the same part three times. It;s nothing difficult either a child could stitch it, guess I;m just having a bad day or really so far it's a bad year right now but that;s another story.

I also want to say thank-you so much too everyone out there who actually takes the time to leave me a comment, I really do appreciate this. Welcome also to anyone who is new to reading my blog and is now following my ramblings. I do hope you come back for another visit. Hugs!

We're Marching through the year!

2011-02-28T12:25:00.000-08:00

Well here we are it;s the first of March already. I was hoping for some lovely signs of Spring but it;s another dull dreary cold day here in Scotland. I long for some sunshine, daffodils, crocuses and baby lambs romping around the fields, roll on Spring...

Don't look too closely at this one as I still have to invisible stitch it around the edges. I;m just pleased I managed to finish my SAL ornie for February on time. For March I have chosen Merry by Glory Bee from the 2008 Just Cross-stitch Ornament magazine. I started on it this morning and who knows I might even have this one finished before the end of the week and not the end of the month.

Does anyone know why the mail takes so long to go to Canada. It bugs me when I pay the extra for Airmail that is supposed to arrive 7-10 days and it takes more than 3 weeks. Anyway at least it didn;t get lost and Heather safely received her Valentine package from our exchange. The design on the pillow was a lovely freebie I found. The buttons are actually all the same colour as the button on the bottom and not different as the picture shows.

Thank you so much to everyone who signed up for the Easter/Spring exchange. There are now 18 people taking part. I hope everyone like me is having a fun time stitching and putting their package together. I;m sorry a few people missed out but I do have an idea for another exchange soon.

I won this gorgeous penny-pocket in the lovely Myra's give-away http://gr8damesplace.blogspot.com/ It was filled with so many goodies, chocolate (mmm..seems to be missing..lol) pretty stickers, pencils,threads, beautiful fabric and a lovely chart. Even though it will drive me nuts I'm hoping to attempt making one of these pretty pockets sometime soon.

Delivering Winter

At Christmas time I saw this Snowman design Delivering Winter on display at Lois's http://ofneedlespinsand.blogspot.com/ blog. I contacted her to ask who the designer was and being the sweet lady that she is she very kindly sent the chart to me. I had been hoping to stitch this on a piece of 4" wide natural colour banding but after ordering Thread Bear came back to me to say they no longer had any and e-bay sent me 14 count instead off 16. As soon as I can track some down it is going to be my next project all for me. Knowing about my little Snowman addiction Lois kindly went through her stash and sold me these other charts. It;s snowing Snowmen again..lol.

They are just about to do the ten year Census here in Scotland and this year for the first time one of the questions is going to be how many people use and understand the scottish language. They have set up this great website where you can hear the different dialects from around Scotland. http://www.ayecan.com/ The nearest to me is the centre button on the map. Enjoy, Hugs!

So much to share!

2011-02-14T04:07:00.000-08:00

Let me start by thanking all you wonderful ladies out there who have responded to my Easter/Spring exchange. I now have 15 who wish too take part. There is still time to join in as the closing date is tomorrow. Just check out my previous postings for details.

Well my stitching over one was quite an experience as the frog continued to stamp all over it but as you can see I got there in the end. It will be 25years tomorrow since I had my first date with my DH Ian so I decided to personalise this one with our initials and the date. I;m so glad I;m not sending this pillow to anyone I had such problems putting it together. I just can;t seem to fathom out the right way to do these tall pillows. Can someone please share a tutorial with pictures off how it;s done

I was so delighted recently when Heather http://heatherstitch.blogspot.com/ and Sarah http://craftymoo-sarah.blogspot.com/ answered my plea for someone to do a last minute Valentine exchange with me. The first two pictures are the exchange that I sent to Sarah.

This is a freebie design that I changed the recommended colours and added a few twists too. I meant to put a label on the finished pillow "please do not fondle" as I basically glued it to death to put together..lol. But as I told Sarah I was so happy with how it looked I was tempted to keep it too myself. I don;t have a picture of the rest of my package but it included Valentine fabric and ribbons, threads, chocolate hearts, heart frame, buttons and a glass heart cube. Sarah has a picture over on her blog if you would like to see.

My exchange from Heather included this gorgeous Be Mine pillow, isn;t the fabric really pretty. I just love the goodies she sent me. It;s so difficult to get any pretty bits and bobs for finishing here so the buttons and cute heart pegs will be put to good use.

Sarah must have realised I;m as mad about Cows as she is, isn;t my Moo Moo darling. I just had to show a picture of the reverse, I love the fabric and cute little buttons Sarah has used. So many wonderful goodies too, I have the perfect chart in mind for the that sweet ladybird pillow. Thank you so much Heather and Sarah you have both really spoiled me with two wonderful exchange packages.

Look at this wonderful surprise my mailman brought me last week. A gorgeous Snowman for me to treasure. Catherine http://bramblewoodstitches.blogspot.com/ you touched my heart with this one you are such a dear sweet friend.

Well they say it;s better late than never but I know she;s such a sweet friend that Maggie wouldn;t mind I was a bit late with her (December )Birthday present. She loves her pillow and the scissors are getting put to good use already. I love this little design and one day I am going to stitch it for myself. Maggie is a keen photographer and has started a blog of her photos, please pop over and say hi http://maggies365daysofphotos.blogspot.com

Now that this one has safely arrived I can show these Christmas goodies I sent to Corinna. Sadly she is not blogging anymore but she is such a sweet lady I;m so glad we still keep in touch.

Finally this is my progress on my SAL ornament for February. I don't know whats the cutest my stitching or Jamie on top...lol!

Hope everyone has a "Happy Valentines Day" and a good week with lots of stitches. Hugs!

Come join Spring/Easter Exchange!

2011-02-11T12:56:00.000-08:00

Well it;s kinda looking like I was just babbling to myself in my last post as so far only 5 people have signed up for the exchange.
I;m forever hopeful and will leave the closing date until Tuesday to see if I can maybe entice some week-end blog readers.
C;mon ladies it;s SEVEN weeks you have just to stitch a little bitty piece. You know it will be fun and I know we all just love it when a stitchy package drops in our mail-box. Details to join are all in my previous post.
Have a nice week-end. Hugs!

SPRING/EASTER EXCHANGE!

2011-02-06T03:14:00.000-08:00

I know that all you ladies are busy, busy, busy with all your projects for the year but I;m hoping that I can get some of you to take part in a Spring/Easter exchange. If you haven;t taken part in an exchange before do come and join in as it is a good way off making new friends and having fun. Okay now for the rules. It;'s been quite a while since I;ve organised anything like this so if there is something I have missed please let me know.

Make and finish a small stitched item with a Spring or Easter theme. e.g. ornament, pillow,needlcase,pinkeep etc.

Put together a package off 5 other items. Now you can include in this whatever you wish and they can be stitchy items/non-stitchy or both. Not everyone has a large stash or access to goodies or the money off course to buy stuff. So your 5 items can be to the value off whatever you wish it to be. It's all about the taking part and having fun. For people that are new to exchanging here are some ideas that you could include in your 5 items.

Stitchy - chart, threads, needles, buttons,ribbons,fabric,scissors,trimming,pins, measuring tape, magazine etc.

Non stitchy - stickers, notelets, chocolate,key-ring,fridge magnet,magazine,candles,scented sachets,etc.

When you are ready to send your package or you receive a package please email me and let me know the date you sent out and recieved. Please also get a proof of posting for your parcel.

Now I know it;s like a kid waiting for Santa but please don;t open your parcel or post pictures to your blog until Easter Week-end. This gives everyone time for their packages to have arrived and a chance to see everyones exchange.

Please also send a photograph to me off the package you send so I can put pictures on my blog over Easter week-end to let everyone see who has taken part.

If you would like to take part please send me an email by Saturday the 13th February at elaine.main@virgin.net (subject line Spring/Easter exchange) with the following information:

Name:

Address:

Blog Link:

Postal preferences:

Also include a little bio about your interests, stitching likes/dislikes and any information that you would like your partner to know about you. I will email the information to your partner and this way it means that it will be a surprise on opening day who your parcel is from.

The mailing out dates will be:

Sending Overseas from Europe/America/Canada/Australia etc - Monday 4th April

Within UK - Monday 11th April

Within US/Canada - Monday 11th April

Well I do hope that I will get some people to come along and join in and I haven;t sat here and babbled on about nothing..lol. I;d also really appreciate anyone mentioning this exchange on their next blog post to try and pass the word around and get as many people to join in the fun.

Hope everyone is having a great week-end. I shall hopefully be back in a few days with an up-date on my stitching. Hugs.

ps..GO PACKERS!!!!

February finish & some other stuff!

2011-02-02T13:40:00.000-08:00

I've had some free time the past few days so I managed to stitch and make-up this cute little guy. He is the January chart from the SAL on the yahoo Oakhaven design group. Februarys chart arrived this afternoon and it looks like it is going to be a really fun SAL. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OakHavenDesigns/

I also did a few more stitches on Mr Cranberry but I had to put him aside this morning as the darn frog came for a visit and started jumping all over him. Trying to pick out stitches over one is noooo fun!

I got a lovely surprise recently when I received an email from Clare http://aimetu-clare.blogspot.com/ to tell me I had won a competition on her blog. She sent me this really pretty kit, I just love the delicate colours in this one, thanks Clare.

Thank you so much to Nicola http://allandale-cross-stitching.blogspot.com/ who nominated me for a Stylish blogger award.
I need to tell you five things about myself so here goes:

I went to Highland Dancing from about age 5 to 16. I won lots of medals and some trophys. I was only a few exams away from sitting my teachers exam but typical teenager I gave it up as I wanted to hang out with my friends and not go to dancing. It's like riding a bike though and even though I would probably cause a hole in the floor I still remember the steps..lol.

Being a bit of an old Moo myself I love Cows. From left to right meet Moozart, Moocho Amour,Disco, Hugs and Smoochies and Babe in Toyland.

I;m also a bit of a hand-bag collector. Now these ones in the photo aren;t mine and I don;t mean designer bags, just any old bags. I love hand-bags.

I love to watch movies. These are just a small peek at a few of my favourites. We have over 500 DVD/Blu-rays in our collection. So there is nothing I like better than watching a movie while I stitch.

I rarely have the time these days but I do love to Bake. One of my earliest childhood memories is sitting at the kitchen table and licking the remnants of the mixture for this chocolate cake with a big wooden spoon from my mothers baking bowl.

Well I hope you enjoyed learning a few more things about me. I;m supposed to nominate five bloggers but I would just find it impossible to choose. So I nominate anyone who reads my blog. I know some people don;t like to do these awards but I hope there are some people who will accept this award as I love to learn more about friends and new bloggers.
See ya soon, hugs

Nataly is having a wonderful Valentines Day Give-away go check it out..http://natalysneedle.blogspot.com and say Hi.

Short & Sweet!

2011-01-29T08:21:00.001-08:00

Not a lot to post today. I;ve been busy working on my two Valentine exchange pieces. There both stitched, so it;s on to the fun part now trying to make them presentable. Sorry no piccies until after the 14th as both recipients are bloggers.

A little up-date on my Cranberry bird. I know it;s not much but as I tell myself every stitch counts..lol.

This cute little Ornie is a result of a change of plans. Regular readers will know that I had started stitching I;ll always be a Wildflower by Sam Sarah Designs as this years SAL with my stitching Sis Elaine. It wasn;t really working as a SAL so we have now decided we are doing Ornies from the Just Cross-stitch Ornaments magazines. This little guy was my choice for January.
Hope everyone is having a nice week-end. Hugs!

Valentine exchange & stitchy up-date!

2011-01-18T06:15:00.000-08:00

I may be a bit late but I would really like to do a Valentines exchange this year. It would be the usual stitched piece and a little package of stitchy and valentine themed goodies. If anyone is interested in joining me can you please contact me at elaine.main@virgin.net

Having had this nasty flu virus for more than 3 weeks now I have been feeling a bit down. At the week-end I received the most wonderful pick-me-up package from my friend Maggie. She sent me the most gorgeous purply goodies, ribbon, fancy trim, scissors, cute Snowman chart and off course what brought the biggest smile to my face was this darling Snowman. Isn;t he just the cutest!!!

Three babies that I want to stitch for this year so I started this cute Lizzie Kate design last week. As you can see I am hoping at least one has a boy..lol.

I very rarely stitch over one as I just find it too stressful and being old off course my eyesight isn;t what it used to be. This design is Bluebird by Blackbird Designs. I couldn;t find any suitable blue thread in my stash so my bird will be Cranberry.

This is my Willow House (Blackbird Designs) wip that I started last year. I;ve been doing some work on the roof and windows in the past few weeks. I really love this piece and I am determined I will finish it this year.

Well I imagine my DH Ian will be muttering words like these tomorrow as he celebrates his 50th Birthday. It just seems like yesterday many of us were turning 40 and in a blink of an eye oh my it;s now 50. He is having the day off work and we are planning on going out to lunch with my parents. Family and friends will be coming over in the evening for a little celebration.

DH hates getting his photo taken but I will try and sneak some pictures of his day.

Oh and before I leave I have to mention that my stitching Sis Elaine has started posting on her blog again. Please, please go visit and leave a comment nagging oh no did I say that..lol asking her nicely to keep up-dating her blog. She does such wonderful interesting posts about her family, stitching and other stuff. http://shutterbuglady.blogspot.com/
Happy Tuesday. Hugs!

Late arrivals/A start & a finish!

2011-01-12T07:39:00.000-08:00

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!

Christmas & New Year catch-up!

2011-01-05T11:16:00.000-08:00

Well Christmas and the New Year holidays are now over and how glad am I as our festive season was awful. My DH became very ill on Christmas Eve and by late evening on Christmas Day my son Craig and myself both joined him. All three of us had the flu and spent the next ten days in bed. Apart from us all still having an annoying chesty cough we are thankfully getting better.
The week leading up to Christmas little Leon had some fun doing these crafts. He got so excited decorating the Gingerbread people. He was in floods of tears as the icing on them wouldn;t dry quick enough so he could eat one.

This is our table all set for Christmas dinner and the centre-piece our Christmas cake which is a very rich fruit cake that my Mum makes each year and my DH decorates.

On a quick visit to the local Supermarket I couldn;t resist purchasing Chilly to add to my every growing Snowman collection.

A very close friend always includes a Snowman for my collection in her gift each year but oh my I was just gobsmacked when I opened my parcels this year. Aren;t they all just darling.....

I also got treated to all these wonderful stitchy bits and pieces from Santa (Mrs Claus actually chose them all herself though..lol) As regular readers of my blog know I don;t quilt but I couldn;t resist this book for some inspiration to finish off my stitchy pieces. There are some beautiful projects in it.

I have been doing some stitching the past few days but I can;t show as it;s a Birthday gift for someone who reads my blog. Once I can find the threads in my stash this is going to be my first SAL piece for 2011. My stitching Sis Elaine and I have decided that our SAL won;t consist of us doing the same chart but a SAL where we encourge each other to work and finish our project. Our charts that we choose will be ones that we have had in our stash that for years , you know the ones that you always says you will get around to stitching one day. Well here goes my first piece is I will Always Be a Wildflower by SamSarah designs. I am also hoping to do some other stitching in between so will only post my progress at the end of each month on this one.

Once again I am playing catch up with blogging, emails etc. Looking forward to seeing what you have all been up too the past few weeks. Be back soon. Hugs!

Gifts/Friends/Christmas

2010-12-22T05:54:00.000-08:00

Well a few days to go before the man in the red suit arrives and I just can;t find any time to sit down and stitch. I still have a few gifts to wrap and I need to start planning and buying the last bits and pieces for Christmas dinner. I always find Christmas day so hectic. We get up early open our gifts, grab some breakfast then visit my brother and his family and then its off too my Mum and Dads. More coffee, tea and gift exchanging then it;s back home to start preparing dinner. We sit down to dinner early afternoon, stuff ourselves silly, have a little rest and then there is a mountain of clearing up to do. Next we spend a few hours playing family games, more tea, coffee and snacks and you are just ready to sit down and relax and then you realise it;s bedtime. The day has come and gone in a flash. I much prefer Boxing Day as it is a totally chill out day. No one ever visits so we spend the day in our pyjamas watching tv, playing games, listening to music, stitching, reading , just whatever we enjoy. Not much cooking either as we have always found in years past that so much is eaten on Christmas day , you don;t really want lots of food the next day so we always just have a buffet. Roll on Sunday..lol.

I always get the most enjoyment from pieces that I stitch and give-away for exchanges, gifts, etc but while in my finishing mode recently I decided to keep these two for myself to hang in my home this year. Dear Santa I stitched many, many years ago but never got round to doing anything with it and the buttons have also been in my stash for a while and I had no idea how I would ever use them. Isn;t it cute..lol. Snow is a Shepherds bush piece that I stitched right at the beginning of the year. When I came across this fabric in my stash I just knew it would make a great pillow. Who would have believed that as I get near to the end of the year I would actually be happy with some of my finishes..lol.

There has been so many delays in the mail with the snow this December that I didn;t expect any of the gifts I sent out to arrive. Suprisingly this week a few have got through. A little scissor gift, chocolate santas and a stitched pillow for Michelle (http://stitchcraftplace.blogspot.com/) and a JOY ornament, candy cane chart and chocolate scottish snowman for Siobhan (http://bluehenhollow.blogspot.com/). Two sweet ladies that I am blessed to call my friend.

After a long day shopping in Glasgow yesterday I got a lovely suprise when I arrived home and found my exchange box from Cath. Once again she has spoiled me too pieces. Look at all these gorgeous gifts. Oh no I;ve just realised that I haven;t included my beautiful snowman that Cath sent. As I hung it up in my living-room right away I forgot to include it in the photos.

I will just treasure that beaded scissor keeper. This is only the second one I have owned. My friend Elaine sent me one a few years ago but last year it broke and I really miss it. Cath just puts so much thought into these exchanges, she knows what a sheep and snowman nut I am. I just couldn;t stop laughing at Shaun the Sheep, the kids want to steal it but they;ve been told hands off and what about my Stitch pal monkey, isn't it adorable and he is purple!! I have an area in my hall-way where I sit my stitching box and baskets so my darling little stitchy pal will sit there. The Oh Joy stitched ornament is one that I had on my list to stitch myself. I love the thread Cath has used to stitch it and she has even finished the back with some tartan fabric. It;s now hanging on my tree. Thank you so much for everything Cath.

I;ve been so spoiled this week as I also received this lovely card and pin cushion kit from Michelle. I had recently been admiring these pincushions on line and was wishing that I had one. Thank you so much Michelle. I can;t wait to try it.

Another wonderful surprise that arrived in my mail this week was these gorgeous goodies from Staci. I have oohed and aahhed all year at all the beautiful creations she makes and I am so touched to receive these gifts. The heart is so pretty and is now hanging on my tree. Thank you so much Staci you are a dear friend.

As this will be my last post before Christmas I hope the Christmas season fills your home with joy, your heart with love and your life with laughter. Merry Christmas Everyone. Love & Hugs!

Snowmen Alert!

2010-12-13T03:37:00.000-08:00

This post is for all you Snowmen lovers out there. I just know I can;t be the only one with this little addiction. These are some of my favourites from my collection. I only get to bring them out at Christmas as I don;t have the room to display them all year round. I started collecting them ten years ago , some I have bought myself , others were gifts from friends and family. I;m still on the look-out for this years addition. Enjoy!

On the stitching front I have been up to my eyes in glue and invisible thread since mid November. I;ve lost count of the amount of finishes I;ve attempted to do. Some I;m happy with some I;m not but I do need the practice and I am feeling a little more confident now about trying to do some more. Hopefully in the next few days I will get the chance to pick up my needle again and see if I can remember how to stitch. I need to get my December SAL chart done and I;m determined to stitch at least one Ornie from this years Just Cross-stitch Ornie mag.

Hope everyone is having a good week. Hugs.

Snow, Snow, Snowman!

2010-11-30T05:33:00.000-08:00

Nothing much to blog about today. Our morning has been spent building Buzz (two year old Leon picked the name) the Snowman. I;m still not doing any stitching, any free time I am working on making up Ornies. I need them finished soon as I have soooooo many more Christmas designs I want to stitch.

I know that some of you ladies in the States will have their tree and decorations displayed by now, please post pictures on your blogs as I love to see them,especially any Snowman collectors. I can;t wait to display mine. If I had a bigger home I would display them all year long. My Mum always adds to my collection every year but last year I think she forgot that my space is limited. I have no idea where this guy is going to go. I also haven;t a name for him yet so I welcome any suggestions.

Hope everyone has a good week. Will try and get back soon. Hugs!

Happy Thanks-giving!

2010-11-25T03:06:00.000-08:00

HAPPY THANKS-GIVING!

To all my friends who are celebrating thanks-giving today I want to wish you and your family a wonderful day.

Love & Hugs

Lainey x

Stash/Stitching & Friends!

2010-11-21T12:10:00.000-08:00

Sorry I have been M.I.A for a while life has been busy and I just haven;t had time to get online as much as I would have liked.
I hope everyone has been stitching, patchworking and knitting as I am looking forward to catching up on all the new projects and wips. As some of you know I have been clearing and sorting out my stash recently. Even though I;m blushing furiously I thought I would post a few pictures of my little collection, minus six boxes of magazines, a crate of fabric and two boxes of finishes...lol. Now I must ask am I in the minority or majority off untidy stash collectors? Please post some stash pictures on your blogs, even those that I will be green with envy with who have not just a neat pile but a stash room to die for.

As my followers know I don;t really enjoy finishing but when I came across my huge pile of stitched pieces just sitting there in boxes I knew I had to get my butt in gear and do something. So the past few weeks there hasn;t been a lot of stitching but I have managed to finish off one cube and seven ornaments...woooo hooooo!!! The cube finish you will see later but I can;t show the ornies as the recipients all read my blog, well I think they do...lol.

The one piece I have been stitching on is my November SAL. I got to choose this month and I decided on this cute Santa by Heart in Hand. The chart was given to me by my friend Corinna. Sadly she doesn;t blog anymore but I know she still reads them. Thank you dear Corinna for passing forward this darling Santa. I have so enjoyed stitching him and once he is finished I too will pass on the chart. If anyone would like to have the chart leave a comment on this post. All I ask is that once you have stitched him please pass the chart on to someone else.

A few weeks ago myself and DH had the most wonderful week-end when Erna (http://scotlandandstitching.blogspot.com/) and her DH Ron who were on holiday from Holland came to visit us. Thanks to blogging Er and I got to know each other and have now become wonderful friends. We have been emailing and recently started chatting on messenger. It was so lovely to be able to actually meet her and Ron in person. I;m sorry I didn;t take more photos of our meet up but we were just all enjoying ourselves too much. Er and Ron arrived at our home in the morning and we had coffee and cake and exchanged some gifts we had for each other. Er also brought some gifts for my lovely neighbour who is Dutch himself. Sadly I couldn;t take Er and Ron to visit as he is very ill but him and his wife were very touched by their gift. Never one to miss an opportunity to visit my favourite place to eat we took Er and Ron to the Cornhill House Hotel for lunch. The weather was very kind to us and it was a lovely drive to the Hotel. Everyone really enjoyed the meal and my tablet ice-cream and caramel sauce was just too die for. My DH said he should bring me here more often as when that sweet is placed in front of me it;s the only time I shut-up...lol. After lunch we visited the local heritage village of New Lanark. We had a walk around a craft fair that was on and Er decided to buy a lovely hand-made Scottish themed card to take back to her Mum. As she went to pay for the card I turned around and she was talking away to this women in Dutch. It was too funny she came all the way to Scotland buys a card and the lady who serves her is Dutch...lol. Sadly not long after we returned home Erna and Ron had to leave to drive to their holiday cottage. On speaking to Er she said they had a wonderful weeks holiday here in Scotland and Ian and myself can;t wait until they can come back for another visit. They are both such lovely people that we are now delighted to call our friends.

Elaine & Er

Beautiful gifts from Holland minus the biscuits that were all eaten...lol. The pictures underneath are from the gorgeous stitchy book that Erna brought me. I thought you might like to see inside.

The Cornhill House Hotel where we had lunch.

A few images off New Lanark

Hamish Haggis

Our Scottish gifts to Ron & Erna, Whisky, Shortbread & stitchy stuff.

Well once again blogger has been a nightmare to create this post. I still can;t upload more than one photograph at a time and have had to resort to the old edition. It is such a pain. I hope everyone has had a great week-end and maybe it won;t be too long until I come back with some more thoughts and blethers from my wee hoose. Hugs!

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-30T09:33:00.000-07:00

I am really enjoying the exchanges I am doing this year with Pirjo and Cath. As you can see they have both spoiled me with a wonderful selection off goodies in our Autumn and Halloween swaps. Our next swap will be Christmas , my favourite stitchy theme. I have started stitching and shopping for both exchanges already.

This is my Autumn package from Cath. Sorry the picture isn;t great. My gorgeous gifts were lots of stitchy fabric, notebook,hankies, sheep, two stitchy items, purse, sweets (Ian has already pinched a packet..lol) and a really cool shoulder bag.

I just had to take a close-up of my sheep. It is just too funny and soooo cute!

Cath has stitched me two wonderful finishes. I haven;t seen the cute Plumpkin design before and I love the ribbon edging on the Lizzie Kate. Thank you so much, I just love everything, you are such a sweet friend.

Pirjo has also sent me this amazing package off Halloween goodies. She has stitched me this beautiful pin-keep with more cute sheep. There are so many gorgeous purply goodies, candles, halloween fabric and she has included another lovely piece of hand-dyed stitchy fabric. Thank you so much Pirjo , you are another dear friend who has spoiled me with another fabulous package.

This is my Halloween package along with a few Scottish goodies that I sent to Pirjo. I included some Black evenweave,glittery mediera threads, witchy and bright orange fabrics, cute light-up pumpkin, halloween chocs, tartan napkins,notebook, ribbon and key-ring.

My Witch for Pirjo;s package was a freebie design that I found in my stash, sorry I can;t remember who its by. As usual I altered a few parts and colours to suit myself but I was very happy with the way it turned out.

As I have mentioned before we don;t decorate our homes for Halloween but thanks to my stitchy friends and doing a few pieces myself this year I now have the start of a great display. I hope everyone has a Happy Halloween. Hugs!

New Finishes/Exchanges/Gifts

2010-10-23T13:21:00.000-07:00

I managed to find some time this week to finish off these two Halloween pieces I recently stitched. Not may people decorate their homes at Halloween here in Scotland but there are so many cute designs I couldn't resist stitching a few.

I forgot to post this picture in my last post of these gorgeous gifts I received for my Birthday from Cathy. I just love the purple tones in the bracelet. Thank you so much Cathy.

This is the pillow and goodies I sent to Cathy for our Autumn exchange. The pillow design is from Heart in Hand Wee Autumn. It was a very cute stitch and I am glad to say Cathy is delighted with it.

I sent this little RAK to Nia a few weeks ago. I thought she might like this new Christmas special magazine and some DMC threads to complete her collection.

I got a wonderful surprise this week when this wonderful package of goodies arrived from my dear friend Elaine in Wisconsin. How spoiled am I with all those pretty Halloween fabrics and cute buttons. I couldn;t stop smiling when I also unwrapped three of my favourite things. The gorgeous Jack Sparrow, a darling snowman and the most adorable little cow ever. Aren;t stitching friends just the best. I am also so delighted for Elaine as the gorgeous Pumpkin design published in the magazine in the picture was designed by herself. Congratulations Elaine ,I can;t wait to see many more and thank you so much for sending me such sweet gifts.

I have been really busy this week and once again I am way behind on emailing and blogging. I decided last week-end to clear out my stash cupboard which is part of the built-in-wardrobe in my bed-room. Good idea at the time but hubby then decided we should just go ahead and clear out the whole cupboard. A job that I was expecting to take a few days is now going into its second week. No time to stitch or read , I just don't know how I am going to survive..lol. Hope everyone elses needles are busy , busy , busy and I look forward to catching up on my blogging once again and seeing all those new finishes. Hugs!

Finishes & Blogger problems!

2010-10-15T00:47:00.000-07:00

Well here I am again and I;m hoping that this week is going to turn out better than last week. My DD Heather was very poorly with her asthma and both Ian and Craig had a viral infection. Normally I am the one who catches all the colds and bugs but oh joy how lucky was I to have three of them sick at the one time. Thankfully they are nearly all on the mend. It did give me a chance at the week-end though to stitch, stitch, stitch and I had a day off work yesterday so I gave myself a kick in the butt and got some finishing done. I completed my Autumn exchange piece for Cath and will post a picture when she hopefully has received it sometime this week.

This is my September Stitch-A-Long finish. The design is a freebie by Erica Michaels. As regular readers know my finishing is always a challenge for me but I am quite pleased with this one..lol.

This is Octobers Stitch-A-Long finish. Now this design is from Lizzie Kate, sort off..lol. I was stitching this last Saturday night while watching Strictly Come Dancing and X-Factor. I was so engrossed with the tv I didn;t realise I had stitched the words Trick, Treat,Tree, Fence and the House all out of place. I didn;t want to start ripping so I just added a Cat, Spider, Bats and a Moon.

Fingers crossed this post will work as I have been trying for hours for the past few days to make a post. For some unknown reason after I upload one image, do some text and go back to upload another the browse button just won;t work. I;ve tried lots of stuff but nothing seems to fix it. The Help area for blogger is just useless. I finally found someone suggesting on a forum that I try going back to the Old Editor. If this doesn;t work I;m gonna be the one sitting on my naughty chair..lol. Hope everyone has a great week-end.Hugs!

Go check out the fabulous Give-aways!

2010-10-05T12:16:00.000-07:00

So many wonderful bloggers are having fabulous Give-aways. Please go check them out.

JEN at Confessions of a Serial Stitcher

SARAH at Craftymoo

MICHELLE at Michelles Stitchcraft Place

CARIN at Stitches by Carin

CAROL at Stitching Dreams

Give-away Winner & Stitching!

2010-10-03T08:57:00.000-07:00

Thank you to everyone who has joined in my give-away. Joey giraffe was very excited to help choose the winner.

Pretty colours, who will win shaking the jar is so much fun!

Who will win, who will it be, hurry up I want to see!

Michelle, Michelle, Michelle it;s YOU, can I come in your package too!

It;s just not fair, Lainey says no,she;s not going to let me go!

I tried my best but it;s not to be, so I guess it;s now good-bye from me!

Congratulations Michelle I will mail out your package later this week. I really appreciate everyone who takes the time to leave a comment on my ramblings. I have selected the 5 top people who regularly leave me a comment and a little thank-you package will be going to the winner. I want this to be a surprise so I will announce who it is when they receive the package.

This is my SAL piece for September. Just need to add a button and then it will be added to my finishing pile. I;ve got so many now and it takes me so long to make them up into an ornament, pillow, cube etc I;ll need a few weeks off work to get them done. I;ve also got side-tracked again and should be stitching another autumn piece but I;ve started another Halloween one. I really need a kick in the butt..lol.

I read this book on my break last week-end. It took me a few chapters to get into it but after that I couldn;t put it down. A good thriller with a twist in the tale. Rachel Lupton is a new author who I will definately be adding to my book list.

Well once again my week-end is nearly over and I haven;t done a great deal of stitching. I've got lots of housework and paperwork I need to catch up on this week but I must make some stitchy time or I will go insane..lol.

Happy Stitches everyone. Hugs!

Long post- you might just need a cuppa and try not to fall asleep!

2010-09-29T12:31:00.000-07:00

Well here I am again on a very wet and miserable day here in the west of Scotland. Thank you so much to everyone for the Birthday wishes and gifts. Being away from home it didn;t really feel like my Birthday on Friday even though I had my cards and presents to open and a cute little tatty teddy cake. Hubby bought me a gorgeous purple bag, scarf and gave me some stash cash. Family and friends gave me a lovely silver necklace, ear-rings, a watch, chocolates and cash. I've been thinking about buying a kindle. If anyone has one I would love to hear how they like it.

Pirjo sent me this wonderful package of Birthday goodies. The little pillow and fob are beautiful and the hand-dyed fabric is gorgeous. Thanks Pirjo you have really spoiled me.

I also got a lovely surprise when I came home and discovered this Birthday gift from Maggie (Blackcountrywench). I was so touched as I haven;t known Maggie very long and she was so kind to send me such wonderful gifts. All my favourite things fabric, buttons and off course purply threads and a purple birthday card. Thanks Maggie, you are a dear friend.

As well as it being my Birthday on Friday DH and I had a wonderful long week-end break. We travelled up to Dundee on the east coast and spent Thursday night in a lovely hotel. Friday morning we drove further up the coast to our holiday apartment in a little fishing village about an hour from the city of Aberdeen. This is only about the third time in 23years we have stayed in a hotel so it was a real treat. After settling in to our holiday apartment on Friday afternoon we went for a drive to the coastal town of Stonehaven. It was cold, dry and windy and we really enjoyed just relaxing in the car on the shore front watching the waves crashing on the shore. The waves were amazing and we decided to walk along the harbour wall so Ian could get some good photographs. Now this was Ians highlight of the whole week-end and he is still laughing about it yet. I;m not great with heights but we climbed up the very high harbour wall and walked along to the end. I was walking a bit behind Ian and I saw these huge waves coming in, concerned wife that I am I shouted to him to be careful that he was going to get soaked. He saw the wave coming turned around and put his hood up on his jacket. Off course I didn;t have a hood on mine and I am so busy making sure he is okay this wave came up and completely drowned me. I got soaked all the way down one side of my body right through to my under-wear. DH was in hysterics and has laughed about it for days. He says he just still keeps seeing the look on my face when the water hit me. Our afternoon was then cut short as I had to get straight back to the apartment to dry out. I expected my Birthday to be showered with presents not water...LOL!

Tay Bridges - Dundee

Characters from the Beano comic (famous childrens comic)

Caird Hall - Dundee

The waves at Stonehaven and on the harbour wall before my drowning!

This is our lovely apartment with the views from our living-room window. It was really cosy at night with the coal fire.

On Saturday we visited a few National Trust castles. This one is called Castle Fraser and dates back to the 15th Century. Sadly I didn;t get any photos of the front of the castle as there was a Wedding on and we were restricted where we could go in the castle. It;s very difficult to see but the lone figure is a piper in full national dress. We were able to see a number of guests and most of the men were wearing kilts. As we were going around the castle we were watching for the Brides arrival but because we were so high up it was hard to see. We came across a room with a peep hole it was so funny an English lady was on the floor looking through to the Great Hall to try and see the Wedding party. She was so excited. We gave up waiting on the bride and as we exited the Castle I walked out in front of Ian turned round to see where he was and a minute later he appeared laughing. He said if I hadn;t been in such a hurry I would have seen the bride as he had to stand aside on the stairway to allow the bride and bridesmaids go past. I couldn;'t believe it after all that time I missed it...lol.

Our next visit was too Drum Castle the home of the Irvine family for more than 600 years. The Castle has major architectural features from the medieval, Jacobean and Victorian periods. The earliest part is the Tower built in the 13th century and the small chapel dates from the 16th century. I was quite disappointed as neither of these castles had many tapestries on display.

On Sunday DH went off for a few hours with his camera and I put my feet up to read my book and do a little stitching. I had planned to do lots of stitching over the week-end but I got so engrossed in my book I didn;t do much at all. In the afternoon we went to Montrose and walked out too the Scurdie Ness Lighthouse. The views were amazing. I had such a great relaxing week-end I didn;t want to come home on Monday. We left mid-morning and just took our time driving down the east coast. We stopped in St Andrews, did some shopping, had lunch and then we spent a few hours in Anstruther, another lovely fishing village. We arrived home in time for dinner and were delighted to find the house still in one piece. This is only the second time we have left the kids themselves and thankfully they managed not to kill each other..lol.

Before I go away anywhere I always get onto google and check for any needlecraft stores that I can visit. As you know they are a dieing art here in Scotland but I did manage to find one near to Aberdeen. It was a wonderful Aladdins cave of patchwork/cross-stitch. My Birthday cash was burning a hole in my pocket so I just had to buy something.

I also found a few Scottish bits and pieces and chocolates in some of the local shops, perfect for exchange and gift packages.

Are you still with me, have you fallen asleep..lol. I've also been lucky enough to have the Stitching fairy wave her magic wand over me recently. I did a wonderful trade with Pirjo and she very kindly exchanged a gift certificate for 21 of my charts. Wasatch Needlecraft were having another wonderful sale so I was able too spoil myself.

A friend also mentioned to me about checking out Etsy and I was delighted to find these three charts. I think I might just have got a bargain here as I only paid $17 which included the p&p here to the UK.

I also won one of Angleas beautiful finishes (Hooked on Stitches) on a give-away she was having. I;ve admired all the gorgeous stitching on her blog for many, many months now so I was over the moon to win. Being a fully paid member of the Big pantie girl band it was just perfect for me.

Finally I have a finish to show. I made this little piece for Cath at The Stitchin Chicken to celebrate her Birthday on Sunday. As usual I was challenged with how to finish it and I did intend attempting to make one of those lovely tall pillows that I have seen recently on many blogs. But off course I didn;t have a big piece of fabric to work with and I realised in the process I had cut it wrong. Thankfully I managed to rescue it into this little wall hanging and Cath emailed me to say she loves it , so thats what matters.

Well for anyone who is still with me I hope you enjoyed my chatter today. I promise I won;t go on as much the next time. I probably won't have anything to post about for weeks now..lol. Oh no I forgot about my give-away. I will announce the winner in my next post. Thanks to anyone who took part. I;m looking forward to catching up on everyones blog and stitching pieces. Until the next time. Happy Stitching. Hugs!

Stitching & A Birthday Give-away!

2010-09-16T04:31:00.000-07:00

I hadn;t planned on it being so long between posts but I was without internet connection for nearly ten days. How lost was I, by the second or third day I was beginning to feel that someone had cut off my oxygen..lol. The only good point about it all was I got to stitch, stitch, stitch. I did my August SAL piece, two exchange pieces, two halloween pieces and a christmas ornie.

This little cutie is my August SAL piece.

I've just realised I forgot to stitch the pom-pom on the hat..duh...The original chart has words above and below the cat but I didn;t like the way they looked so I am on the look-out for some tiny stocking buttons that I thought would look cute hanging to the right off the cats paws.

I slightly altered this Lizzie Kate by stitching a spider instead of the candy corn.

I am waiting on some buttons to finish this one off.

Sorry can;t show my two exchange pieces until they are received in October. I have some Fall stitching to do next. My first piece will be Fall into Autumn by Erica Michaels. This is our chart for Septembers SAL and my other one will be for an exchange package. Hopefully when these are complete I will get back to stitching my christmas ornies and I might even find time to get a few stitches in my BBD Willow House.

I have been so lucky in recent months and have won quite a few stitchers give-aways. I was so pleased to win Maggies two Plum Street Sampler charts. I fell in love with Rubie Owl as I followed her stitching this one. Hopefully one day I will be able to get the fabric and threads too complete this gorgeous chart.

I am going to be celebrating my 23rd Wedding Anniversary on the 19th and my Birthday on the 24th off this month so I thought no better time to have a give-away. This one has a bit of a girly theme. The winner will get If the shoe fits chart by Sue Hillis,girly themed fabric,shiny beading,ribbon and roses,pretty tape measure,heart pins, hand-bag mirror and a Lizzie Kate pillow that I have made. To enter just leave me a comment on this post. An extra entry will be given to any of my followers and anyone who mentions my give-away on their blog. I am going away next week-end so the closing date will be Wednesday 29th September and the winner will be announced the following week-end.

Hope everyone is having a good week and has many happy hours of stitching. Hugs!

GIVE-AWAY!

2010-09-12T10:44:00.000-07:00

Bette is having a lovely Give-away to celebrate her Birthday this month. Please pop over, enter and say hi.

Hugs
Lainey

Did you miss me...LOL!

2010-08-30T11:40:00.000-07:00

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!

New Stash & Stitching

2010-08-10T10:22:00.000-07:00

Oh am I loving my post-man. In the past few weeks he has brought me the most wonderful packages of goodies. Let me start with this beautiful pillow that I won from a give-away that Carol was hosting. Her stitching and finishing are just beautiful, go check out her blog and see for yourself.

My second package was from my new exchange that I am doing with Cath and what wonderful new goodies I have to play with. Cath couldn;t have chosen more perfect for me. How adorable is my stitched sheep and needlebook. I have never had a needlebook before it's just gorgeous and stitched so perfectly in my favourite colours. DD Heather thought my cow bag was sooo cute and tried to acquire it for herself but she was told paws off thats mine. Thank you so much Cath, I just love everything.

My final package and oh wow what a bundle of joy was from my dear friend Erna. I knew she was sending me the Just Cross-stitch Ornament issue 2009 and I had told her knowing my luck it will probably arrive while I am preparing for Craigs birthday and I won;t have any time to look at it. Well the day before Craigs party I was run of my feet preparing stuff. I hadn't heard the post-man at the door and I was running through the living-room rushing to the loo Craig said oh Mum theres a parcel here for you. I looked down and there is this lovely big package and I;m like oh my I really don;t have time to open this but it was just sitting there going Open me, open me please...By this time I'm about (don;t mean to offend anyone ) peeing my pants with excitment and off course I was on the way to the loo..lol. Decision made I grabbed it and run up-stairs. Now not a pretty site but there was me on the throne trying with all my might to open this parcel. I pulled, I tugged, tried biting the cellotape but OMG I could not get it open. I;m talking to it, having a few choice words for Erna, it just wouldn;t budge. I had no option but to give up. Erna blamed the lady in the post office but I reckon she;s got a secret fetish for cellotape...lol. After all the buzz of the week-end I finally got the chance with a big pair of scissors to open my package. I was so overwhelmed with all these beautiful goodies. I;ve never seen any Dutch or French magazines before and even though I don;t understand a word I really enjoy drooling over all the beautiful stuff inside them. I;ve now got some wonderful new fabric, beautiful threads and some cute buttons for my christmas stitching. Thank you so much Erna, your such a sweetie.

This was an extra cake that I had in the freezer from baking I did beginning of July. I iced it up last night and when I looked in the fridge this afternoon there were only two slices left. People were moaning the icing wasn;t as good as usual , don;t think it stopped them eating it though..lol.

This is my little snowman I have been working on. The freebie design has some love-hearts and stitched snowflakes but I think I might just use snowflake buttons on mine as I am eager to start another ornie. Happy stitching..Hugs!

GIVE-AWAYS!

2010-08-07T04:21:00.000-07:00

Another three generous stitchers Magee, Julie and Fiona are having fabulous give-aways. Please go check them out.

http://stitchingdevotee.blogspot.com/

http://crossthatleg.blogspot.com/

http://peacefulthreads.blogspot.com/

Birthdays & Stitching!

2010-08-06T02:25:00.000-07:00

Okay fingers crossed the slideshow above has worked. As you will see last week-end my son Craig celebrated his 21st Birthday. It was a wonderful week-end full of fun and suprises. We had a party on Saturday night with family and friends and on Sunday we had a celebratory dinner at our favourite restaurant. I am so glad that Craig had such a fun time but oh boy are Mum and Dad exhausted. It has just been non-stop and we get the pleasure of doing it all again when our daughter Heather celebrates her 18th birthday in three weeks time. Not great family planning but I blame the awful winters we get in Scotland...LOL.

I didn;t quite make the deadline to finish my SAL piece for July but as it was quite a small design I was only a few days late. This little seaside lady is another freebie design and if you look closely you will see that I was in such a rush I glued one of my seashells upside down. I can;t believe it is time to stitch August already, this year is just flying in. It has been a real fun SAL though and I am looking forward to see what chart Elaine chooses next.

Over the next year I am doing a personal exchange with Cathy this is the first package that I have sent to her. As usual the little pillow gave me a few headaches putting it together. I had to glue the trim to death to get it too stick, so it;s fall apart date may be soon..lol. Cathy was delighted with it though and thats what matters. I had such fun putting this together and I am looking forward to our next exchange in October.

I am still playing catch-up with everything and in my next post I have some wonderful new stash from my dear friend Erna, beautiful give-away prize I won,gorgeous goodies from Cathy and with any luck a few more stitching finishes. I have started another Christmas ornie and my Lizzie Kate challenge piece. My plans will probably change but I am hoping to sit back relax and stitch this week-end. Why don;t you join me? Hugs!

Great give-away!

2010-08-01T08:49:00.000-07:00

Kim is having a wonderful give-away for either stitching or quilting goodies. Please go enter and say hi.

HAPPY 21ST BIRTHDAY CRAIGIE!!!

2010-07-31T08:51:00.000-07:00

I can;t believe it is 21 years since we became parents for the first time. Our darling son Craig Ian Main was born at 7.59pm on Monday 31st July 1989. Please join with us on wishing him a Happy 21st. Hugs Lainey & Ian.

Hello again!

2010-07-24T16:53:00.000-07:00

Only stitching I have done this week was to finish off this lovely Noel freebie design. As usual my blogger doesn;t show the true colours. The fabric is a mid chocolatey brown and the threads are a wine and beige colour. I am so behind on my stitching this month that I forgot about my monthly SAL I am doing with my dear friend Elaine. It was my turn to choose this months chart and with only 7 days left I haven;t found one yet. I think I may be spending some time in the naughty chair ..lol.

Thank you so much to the lovely Michelle who responded to my plea to trade for some fabric. She totally spoiled me with a lovely bundle of fabric in exhange for the cute snowman beaded kit. Please check the other kits in my last post and my stash blog to see if I can entice anyone else to trade with me. Laineys Stash Room

Thank you also to everyone on wishing me well with my employment situation. For those who don;t know I work from home as a Registered Childminder. Sadly on Wednesday Conor who has been with me for four years will be leaving. I will then only have two year old Leon in my care but he is supposed to be going soon as well. I guess it;s the way of the world just now and I do fear there will be much more unemployment to come for many in the near future.

I'm not quite sure how much stitching and computer time I will have in the next week. My baby boy Craig turns 21 next Saturday and I am spending most of my free time trying to put together a photograph album for him as well as trying to arrange a family party. I expect my withdrawal symptoms to kick in soon..lol. Enjoy the rest of your week-end. Hugs!

Stitching/Fabric plea/Gardening!

2010-07-17T06:34:00.000-07:00

My postie brought me a lovely treat this week when I received this darling little bag that I was thrilled to win in Nia's recent give-away. It will be just perfect to carry my stitching projects in when I go out, so much prettier than the plastic bag I use just now.

I haven;t had a lot of stitching time this week but I decided to put my BBD piece aside and start on my Christmas projects. The Snowman is by the Prairie Schooler. The original chart doesn;t have a nose but I am going to add one and I think I might use beads for the snow-flakes on and around the tree. The second piece is a freebie at Des Couleours Points that I am hoping to finish up this afternoon.

Okay I am gonna have a pity-party now..lol. I am needing some 28,32 count evenweave (white,cream,light colours) but as it is looking more and more like I am going to be unemployed soon I can;t afford to spend any more money buying new stash. So, I have some kits here that I am hoping someone may be willing to trade for some fabric. Also as I am sure you will understand due to the postage rates I can only trade at present with anyone in the UK or Europe. Fingers crossed there is someone who can play at my party..lol.

This design is called Winter Cheer and is a Hardanger piece which measures 9" x 9". Now I can;t explain why the fabric is missing as I don;t do hardanger but the pack contains the threads and chart.

Hopefully there is a Rugby fan out there who may want this one. It is by DMC and the design measures 9" x 7".

This pretty pillow is by a company called CeWeC. The fabric included is a cream colour and the threads are all full skeins of Anchor. There are no size details I can find but I think the fabric is 20 count and the design measures 14" x 15".

A cute little Snowman beaded kit. Sorry no details as it is all in French.

Lastly a lovely Tatty Teddy baby kit. Finished design is just a little over 6" x 6".

Even though the weather hasn;t been great this week a few more plants in my garden are blooming. The red Lillies are just gorgeous and are the ones I have used in my blog header picture. Well I am tempted to just sit here and read some blogs but I do need to go stitch if I want to finish my ornie. Hope everyone is having a great week-end. Hugs!

Nothing much happening.

2010-07-09T15:16:00.000-07:00

Nothing much happening here really it has been a quiet week for me. I've only been working three mornings so I have had quite a lot of time to stitch. I am nearly finished an exchange piece and have made quite a bit of progress on Willow House by BBD.

I am looking forward to going through my charts and books this week to select which Christmas designs I will be stitching this year. Christmas is my favourite theme to stitch, especially snowmen, I could quite easily stitch nothing else. This year I decided I would be good for the first half of the year I wouldn;t do any Christmas themed stitching. Now, I can;t wait to get started.

Patti is having a surprise give-away. Please pop over and enter http://tapestry-of-dreams.blogspot.com/2010/06/secret-giveaway.html It is fun to read what everyones dream gift would be.

I have no great plans for the week-end. I am looking forward to watching the British Grand Prix (Go Jenson!) and the Final of the World Cup (Go Holland!) while I stitch, stitch, stitch. Hugs!

HAPPY FOURTH JULY!

2010-07-04T07:45:00.000-07:00

HAPPY FOURTH JULY!

To all my dear American friends, hope you and your family are having a wonderful day.

A finish, a start and flowers!

2010-06-29T09:45:00.000-07:00

After missing the deadline to complete I resisted the temptation to toss this aside and spent my week-end finishing it off. It is such a cute design. I think it would be great finished off framed with school type buttons around a mount board.

I started this a few weeks ago to help keep my sanity during the run up to Prom. The chart is Willow House by BBD that was very kindly given to me by my dear friend Corinna. Keep an eye on my posts as I will be passing forward the chart when I am finished. As usual I am stitching it with threads from my stash and as anyone who has already stitched it will notice I have made it into a portrait piece instead of landscape. I am loving stitching this and wish I could work on it all the time but I need to do an exchange piece, a challenge piece and a few gifts. I really shouldn;t moan at least my stitching mojo is intact..lol.

We have had some wonderful sunny weather recently and it sure has helped the flowers in our garden. Roses are one of my favourite flowers and I have these four growing under my living-room window. Hubby Ian actually thought that the winter weather had killed them off , how wrong was he, they are just gorgeous.

My pots that I filled a few weeks ago are really coming along as well.

Hugs and happy stitching to everyone out there in blogland!

Trying to catch up!

2010-06-25T05:01:00.000-07:00

Help! I need a vacation, I feel like that old headless chicken running around the yard. The Farmer really needs to shoot me..lol. Life has just been so hectic lately. I just want to have time to sit down and do nothing, even my stitching has stressed me out this week. One of the teachers from our local primary school who taught Heather when she was 6 is retiring today. Heather decided at the last minute to try and get some of her previous classmates together to sign a card, buy some flowers and surprise the teacher with a visit from some of them this afternoon. Well of course being me I got it into my head that I would just have to stitch a little something. I loved this design when I saw it in this months Cross-stitcher magazine but sadly I gave up stressing myself out last night trying to get it finished on time. I will keep working on it until its complete as I am sure there will be someone who would like it.

Magazine Image

I can now reveal the give-away prize package that I sent to Siobhan. I was very anxious tackling something to send to Siobhan as her finishes are always so stunning. As my regular visitors know I always get myself in a tizzy when it comes to finishing a stitched piece but even I was pleased with how this one turned out. I reckon I would no longer have the dunces cap, teacher might even give me a silver star...lol.

Stitched Area

Interior

Completed

The other items I included were a little stitching kit I made up with the Dear Friends chart by Elizabeths Designs, scottish thistle pin and cute cow/sheep tea towel, fabric/quilting notebook and a little doggy frame for Duffy, Siobhans adorable doggy. As usual I had wonderful fun putting this all together and it is even more sweet when it is for a friend.

Finally I had to say good-bye to my darling boy this week. I have taken care of four year old Oscar since he was 11 months old and his older brother Jacob for a year and a half before he went to school. It breaks my heart when my little ones have to leave. I bubbled all my way through making up a photo album on Sunday afternoon. I;ve always managed to keep my feelings in check on the last day until everyone leaves but I felt a right fool at nursery school on Wednesday morning when I started sobbing. I know they will keep in touch but I am sooo going to miss my boy. I received these beautiful flowers, wine, chocolates and a lovely card from Oscar and his family. I know it is my job but it is so nice when a parent thanks you and appreciates all you have done in caring for their child.

Heather was amazed at all the lovely comments everyone has left on her prom photographs, she can;t believe that people she doesn;t know would take the time to say such lovely stuff. Hugs and thanks to everyone.

I am going to have a few free days next week so hopefully I will get a chance once again to catch up with all my stitchy friends out there. I so need to catch up on my blog reading and emailing. Hope everyone has a lovely week-end. Hugs!!