Merry Christmas!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!