Short & Sweet!

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!

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!

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!

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!