Winner announced & Another day trip!

Congratulations SIOBHAN you are the winner of my mystery package give-away.  All entrys were split into coloured groups and placed in a basket.  My daughter then chose the winner which was Blue, this contained Natalie, Michelle, Siobhan, Tracey and Mary.  All these names were then placed in the basket and my son then chose the winner. Depending on the mood of my tempremental email box Siobhan, I will be in touch soon. Thank you so much to everyone who took the time to enter my giveaway and it was great to learn more about all you lovely people who take the time to visit my blog. It really brightens my day.

Thank you to everyone for the lovely comments on my Stitchy Witch. I have decided to go without the mat.  My needle has been out of action the past few days as I just haven't had a minute to sit down and stitch.  I am late on choosing the SAL chart for May, sorry Elaine, I will do it soon and I need to get into my box and decide on my next project. Can someone add an extra day on this week please.

On Sunday we went for another drive and our first stop was at Threave House & Gardens. The house was built by Wm Gordon a Liverpool businessman in 1872. It was passed over to the National Trust for Scotland in 1948.  The trust has maintaned and developed the 24 hectares of garden. The gardens are used as a school for other gardeners from the National trust all over the uk. As you can see it wasn;t too bright a day weather wise but here are some images from the beautiful gardens.

Our next stop was Kirkcubright, which sits in the estuary of the River Dee at the north Solway shore. This is a harbour town which has housed generations of artists and craft makers. MacLellans castle was built in 1582 by Sir Thomas MacLellan, Provost of Kirkcubright.

After visiting a lovely coffee shop over looking the harbour we then went to Broughton House. This is a beautiful 18th century town house, home of the artist E A Hornel. Over the years I have visited many National Trust properties but I have to say this was one of the best. The house had a wonderful collection of art, ceramics and furniture. You were able to visit Hornels studio and the gallery had an amazing collection of his paintings. My favourite part was when we started to walk up the stairway to the upper floor. All the walls  were covered with Samplers.  I could have spent hours their just looking at them, they were amazing.  They were all stitched early 1800's by children from age 6 - 14.  Even though this was their pastime, it is still quite unbelieveable that children of this young age were able to do such intricate work. Ian had to drag me away as people couldn't get up and down the staircase for me ooohing and aaahhingg..lol. I would so loved to have shared pictures with you all but you are not allowed to take photographs inside any historic houses, castles etc. But I did get some lovely pictures of the garden. It was designed and inpired by Hornels visit to Japan.

The Marina picture above is the view behind the wall of the rear of the garden.

Our final stop was to this beautiful costal landscape in the sheltered Urr estuary. It was so nice to just sit here and relax in the piece and quiet with the lovely view. Hope I haven't bored too many people with my photos as I know some people just like to read about stitching. Be back soon. Hugs!

Giveaway up-date & Stitchy Witch Finished!

I am extending the deadline for my surprise exchange package to Monday.  This is to hopefully catch the week-end stitchers.  Thanks to everyone who has entered so far.

Before I show you my version of Witches Stitch Too I thought I would post a photo of the original version.  I do like the colours in this but I have to use what threads and fabric I have in my stash.  This is one chart that I would be really happy to stitch again so maybe one day I will be able to get my hands on the suggested chart requirements.

WOOHOO!  Here she is my Stitchy Witch all finished and I just love it. My only gripe is blogger not showing the nice crisp photo I took that really shows the lovely colours.  Anyway you get the idea..lol.  She hasn't been properly framed yet, I need to decide whether I want to add a mat or not.  What do you think?

Hope everyone is having a lovely stitchy week-end and I must apologise once again to anyone hoping to hear from me or sending me email it is still not fixed yet.  It works one minute then crashes the next. The joys of computing. Hugs! 

Give-away & wip!

I;ve stitched quite a bit on Stitchy Witch  the past few days.  As you will see from the picture in my last up-date I ripped out the green and cream border as it just wasn't floating my boat..lol.  Even though I am so enjoying stitching this chart my fingers are itching to start something else. But I don;t really like having too many projects on the go at once so I will just have to be patient and hopefully this will be finished by the week-end.

To celebrate reaching my 100 followers I am having a surprise package give-away.   To enter all you have to do is leave a comment on this post telling me more about you, your stitching likes, dislikes, other hobbies, interests etc. I will announce the winner on Saturday 1st May. Hugs!

My Saturday with picture overload!

We decided at the last minute today to have a day out.  This was our first stop off at Dunure Castle just outside Ayr.  I am lucky enough to only live just over an hour from here.

       

We then drove on to visit Culzean Castle. Right next to the car park was a Deer park. This little sweetie was very friendly and stood right by the fence letting everyone and anyone pet it.

There were very few flowers blooming in the walled garden but the colours on the ones you could see were just beautiful.

In another part of the walled garden there was a large range of palm plants and this little hut.

The gardens and grounds are so extensive that we got lost at one point and accidently came across this wild garden area containing these sculptures. I just loved the tree with the bird , squirrel and butterfly.

These last pictures are of the beautiful castle and its grounds.  We didn;t have time today to go inside but will go back sometime over the summer to do this.  But I do know that there is a flat on the top floor that in 1945 General D Eisenhower was invited to accept a lifetime tenancy as a gesture of Scottish thanks for Americas support during World War II.

Before going home we decided to travel further up the coast where we sat at the harbour and had something to eat and then we sat at the seashore where I did a little stitching on Stitch Witch and Ian went off with his tripod to take more of his photographs.  So, if anyone out there was looking for me yesterday you now know where I was..lol. 

I will try and come back later today with an update on my stitching piece.  I'm hoping to get at least a few hours stitching in the afternoon.  Hugs!

Gift/WIP/No Email

I am so delighted and relieved that Corinna has received the above package I sent her. Corinna recently sent me my first ever BBD chart and few other pretty charts that I had admired on her blog.  Touched by her kindness I just had to make her a little thank you in return. The spring tulips were a treat to do as this was the first use of my new dyed threads. I found the little birdie ornament in a local craft store and knowing that Corinna loves to stitch birds I thought she might like this too. I get so much enjoyment making up these little packages but I nearly created a disaster with this one.  After mailing it off another friend  then mentioned to me that I shouldn't have included packs of garden seeds as the customs may be suspicious open it and destroy everything.  I was so mad at myself for being so stupid as I had visions of my pillow being thrown away and my little birdie broken to bits and poor Corinna receiving a box with empty chocolate wrappers..lol.  Thankfully though it all arrived safe and sound.  Dear Corinna was delighted with her gifts and she has planted the seeds in her garden already. 

Sorry about the quality of the picture.  I;ve only managed a few hours on my Witchy Stitch in the past few days so this is my progress so far. I should have mentioned in my last post that the chart is by Homespun Elegance.  I am just enjoying stitching this way too much as I really don;t want to put it down and do something else.   But I have a piece that I do need to finish before Saturday.  The stitched part was done weeks and weeks ago but I just keep putting off the next bit as it is something I have never attempted to make before and as regular readers will know it will be another chapter for my book How not finish off your stitching..lol.  Get those prayer mats out ladies, I will need all the help I can get.

Apologies to anyone who has contacted me by email in the past few days and are wondering why I haven;t got back to them.  My email has gone kaput.  Hubby has spent quite a few hours trying to fix it but no luck so far.  Elaine, Erna, Corinna, Siobhan,Shari,Catherine,Cath,Lisa,Debbie  I will be in touch as soon as its fixed. Hugs!

The coming of three - a finish, a wip, a new start!

This is my finished Spring has Sprung SAL piece for April.  Still have no idea how I am going to finish this one and it is my turn to choose the chart for May.  I;m not quite sure what kind of chart I associate with May, maybe if they don;t get the flights back up and running I better look for one with a plane and volcano..lol.

I picked up my Happy Mood wip at the week-end and as you can see got a bit more into it than before.  My little moo cow is looking kinda sweet now.  I just wish blogger would show the colour of the fabric properley as it really is a nice yellow colour.

Thank you so much to everyone who has taken the time to visit my blog and leave me comments.  I was so amazed to see so many people have visited on my last few posts.  I really do appreciate it.  I am also delighted to see that in the short time I have come back to blogging so many people have signed up to follow my blog.  I might just have a giveaway if I reach the hundred mark.

I have recently just re-opened my facebook account.  I am not really a big fan but one of my dear stitchy friends has gotten lost in their and even though I have done everything to entice her back to blogging the only way I know that I can find her now is by going to facebook.  So if there is anyone who wants to add me to their facebook please do.

A few people have commented or asked me to see pictures of Heathers prom dress but I won;t be able to get any until we go for a fitting sometime in mid May.  We are now entering the next phase of our challenge, buying the shoes.  We do have the colour down to silver but no sparkly bits, no showing of feet or toes.  We don;t mind a little heel but not too high.  Oh joy I just can't wait for this next shopping trip..lol.

Oops I nearly forgot to show you my new start today. My son took one look at it and said What an appropriate chart for you to stitch Mum and yes I do get my broomstick out occasionally..lol.

I have had this gorgeous piece of hand-dyed fabric in my stash for a few years now and when I came across it last night I knew it would just be perfect for this.  Using this fabric and also not having the weeks, gast,cc the chart recommends I am using my Dye is Cast threads. 

I just started this afternoon and I am just loving it, this is a lot of progress for a slow stitcher like me. I so wish I didn;t have to work tomorrow so I could just stitch, stitch, stitch. Take Care. Hugs!