No Not November!!!

Well here we are November already!!! I feel as though we sped through October and went straight to November. The first half of the month flew in as I got caught up Reading this great collection of Novels by Shayne Parkinson.
  

New Zealand farm life in the 1880’s is hard and twelve-year-old Amy dreams of a life beyond the boundaries of her small community. Although snug in the warmth of her family’s love, Amy wants to be a teacher and experience the excitement of living in a city far from the isolated valley she calls home.

When losing her mother shortly after her birth, Amy and her older brothers are raised by an adoring father and strict, but loving Granny. Six months after Granny’s death, Amy is adjusting well to managing their home alone. When her father returns from a business trip with a new wife in tow, Amy and her brothers are shocked, but determined to make the best of it. Unfortunately Susannah finds farm life less than appealing and generally makes life miserable for all, especially Amy. Two and a half years later, Susannah’s younger brother comes to stay for the summer and Amy makes a choice that will change her life forever.

I;m not normally a reader of Historical novels but within a few pages I was totally hooked. I read the first four books in the series within two weeks. You can download the first one from Amazon for free if you have a kindle.

Also in October we had some lovely visitors from the US. Close friends off my dear friend Catherine came to Scotland for a holiday. On their last day they came to our home for a visit and then we went out for a meal. We had a great evening with such a lovely family. I made this little pillow as a reminder of their visit to Scotland and Catherine;s friend who stitches brought me the "October Word Play" chart by With Thy Needle and Thread. I love the chart and started stitching on it the very next day. This is my progress so far.

I took part in the Animal Antics exchange at Stitchedwithlove. Butterflies were my partner Marcy;s favourite. This is the stitched piece and goodies I sent.





I received this wonderful package from Beth. I was truly spoiled and how darling is my sheepy pillow that she designed just for me.  

Finally before I leave I thought I would have a proud Mummy moment and share these photographs taken recently of my DD Heather. One of her projects at University was for her to match up with a friend and take some shots for a magazine cover. These are some of the ones her friend took off Heather. My favourite is the head shot looking through the leaves.

I shall hopefully be back before the man in the Red suit arrives. Happy stitching!

 

Christmas Give-away not to be missed!

Nancy is having the most fantastic give-away. There will be wonderful prizes every day from the 1st to the 25th of December. Don;t miss out on this fabulous give-away from such a generous, kind hearted lady. Details can be found here Good luck to everyone!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!

Stay safe in the Storm!

To all my dear friends in the U.S. you and your familys are in my thought and prayers. Stay safe in this nasty storm. Hugs!

CHART SALE!

I;ve had a major clear out of my charts this week. For anyone interested their is a link on the right hand side of my blog. I;ve got a busy few days so don;t panic if you don;t here from me until the week-end. Thanks for looking.

CHRISTMAS EXCHANGE SIGN-UP!!!

Yes ladies Santa is busy checking his list so it;s time for the Christmas Stitches Exchange over at

 http://stitchedwithloveexchanges.blogspot.co.uk/
Come along and join in the fun. As well as the joy of stitching for someone and putting together a little package of extras you also get to make some wonderful new friends. This Christmas we will be sharing recipes, our christmas traditions, favourite stitches and some other fun stuff. Sign-up is open until this Sunday the 14th October. Go on, give it a try, you know you want too..lol. Hope to see there, hugs!

Celebrations & Holidays Part 2!

Loch Leven  & Loch Leven Castle

The day after our Anniversary celebrations we headed off for a much needed weeks break. We returned to the lovely apartment near to Loch Leven in Perthshire that we had previously stayed in July. It was very relaxing week with some lovely trips to Aberfeldy, Dundee, Perth,Pitlochry and Dunkeld.

This is the beautiful town of Dunkeld We had a delicious sample of home baking and coffee in the Cafe and I purchased my Poppy Jug (photo in previous post) in "Going Pottie".

Another day we visited the city of Dundee In many towns in Scotland you will find buskers singing in the street. As you can see one of the shoppers was really enjoying the music. A young man was also doing this sand art outside one of the stores. The detail was amazing.

Half way through our holiday I celebrated my birthday. Ian had brought some of my cards with him so I could open them while away. Family and friends gave me money as they knew I needed a new camera. After a lot of deliberating I finally settle on the Lumix TZ27. I also got a nasty surprise on my birthday. Stupidly I didn;t switch the light on before going down the steps from the bedroom to the living-room. I missed one and fell right to the floor. We both got a nasty fright but thankfully I didn;t break anything. My back and hips were very sore for a number of days and I;ve got some lovely bruises but I;m okay now.

When I came home I was overwhelmed with these gorgeous gift from my dear stitching friends. They all know me so well. The stitched pieces are just gorgeous!!! Sally made me this adorable little Lamb, Lesleyanne a beautiful Noel Snowman, June my gorgeous purply trimmed Snowman and Cath made me not one but two more beautiful Snowmen and another darling sheep for my flock. Thank you so much to you all for spoiling me so, the stitched pieces and wonderful treats will be treasured.

Finally if your still with me. My stitching mojo has been waining a bit again but during the Olympic games I did finish my "Delivering Posies". I;m quite pleased with the colours but it wasn;t until I was taking a photograph I noticed my bird has a row missing from the top of his head. Guess I;ll need to fix that.

I really don;t know who to blame for this but it wasn;t my fault..lol. I was so sure that I would stick to stitching but I was out shopping one day and saw some wool and I thought of all those lovely knitted and crocheted pieces that I keep seeing on your blogs I gave in and bought some. I was going to knit but I came across my old crochet hook first and yes its very old hasn;t seen light of day since I was a teenager. I prowled the Net until I found some instructions and a free chart and oh dear I;m hooked..lol. I did some squares to remind me of the stitches and then made this skinny scarf. I also bought some more wool and a book while on holiday. Well I couldn;t go into a craft shop and come out with nothing.

I hope that you have enjoyed my ramblings. To my dear friends I;m so lucky to have you in my life thank you again for making the past two weeks so special. Thank you also to everyone who takes the time to come visit me here. Even though I have many followers I don;t seem to have as many visitors as I used too so I really appreciate those that take the time to come by and say Hi. 

Hugs!