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!

Our Silver Wedding!

Hello everyone! It's so nice to have a post about something nice for a change. The last few weeks have been great and Ian and myself would like to thank everyone for the cards, gifts and kind thoughts on the occassion of our Silver Wedding. Our wonderful son and daughter organised a lovely day for us both.

We started our day with lunch at our favourite restaurant in the Cornhill House Hotel. Tablet ice-cream with caramel sauce my day was complete already..lol. When we returned home Craig had decorated the house with a few banners, balloons and this "small" one he had been hiding in his bedroom for two days.

Family and friends joined us in the evening for a small buffet with champagne and two beautiful cakes.

Craig and Heather had a local cake maker do this one. Purple is our favourite colour. Isn;t it beautiful.

My dear 75 year old Mum made this gorgeous cake for us too. Though it looks black in the photograph it;s glitter that's on the cake.

                    

We received so many beautiful cards and gifts. A number of people also gave us money and we bought the glass vase and poppy pottery jug while on holiday. We;re hoping to use the rest of the money to buy new doors for our newly decorated living-room. Ian and I were also both so touched when we received this beautiful stitched pillow from June and Ron. The stitched piece at the top of the post, I did start weeks ago but sadly with my limited stitching time these days I didn;t get it finished on time. Thank you again to everyone who made this day so special for us.

I will be back in a few days time with another post on our holiday, my birthday  treats and maybe even a little stitching. Hugs!

Silver Wedding!

IAN & ELAINE

I met my DH Ian on a blind date at a super-bowl party. He is my best friend, my rock and I love him more than ever. Our journey has been full off love, laughter and some tears along the way. We have two beautiful children and today we will celebrate our Silver Wedding.
I'm off to the hairdressers and then we are going to lunch at my favourite restaurant. Family and friends will visit tonight for a little celebration. Looking forward to a great day.

My September Song - Me Time!

Life is still full on in the Main household and as well as our continuing every day stresses we have some happy events to look forward to this month. In a few weeks time my DH Ian and myself will be celebrating our Silver Wedding and a few days later I have my birthday. I;m looking forward to these events and a short holiday we will be having but once again I;m struggling to cope with everything that is going on here. I;m going to try and take as much time as possible for myself in the next month to re-charge my batteries. I will miss  you all especially my dear friends who keep in touch and give me so much love and support. I'm looking forward to stitching, reading and spending some time with my DH. Don't panic if your reading this and you have just signed up for the Fall into Halloween exchange. I'm going to have that up and running in the next week and then I will be able to have a break from the exchanges too.

Miss you already, will be back soon, hugs!

AUTUMN/HALLOWEEN EXCHANGE TIME!

Halloween and Autumn two favourite themes that many of us stitcher;s love. Ghosts, ghouls, pumpkins, fallen leaves, squirrels, acorns all sorts of wonderful pieces to stitch. If you enjoy stitching for others, receiving goodies in the mail and making new friends then come along and join in the fun. Details on signing-up for the Fall into Halloween exchange can be found at  www.stitchedwithloveexchanges.blogspot.co.uk  

This theme was a great success last year when nearly 30 people took part. Go on, join in , I;m sure you won;t be disappointed. Look forward to seeing friends old and new.

Lainey   

Winning ways and stitches!

 I WON! I WON! 

It is so nice to have some good news to post. I was shocked recently when I opened my email and discovered I had won the lovely Vinniey's amazing give-away. If you haven;t already seen Cottage Garden Samplings gorgeous designs please visit and wish Vinniey good luck with her new business.

Well what an amazing few weeks it has been for an armchair sports fan like myself. Every spare minute I;ve had I;ve been glued to my tv jumping up and down like a demented woman..lol. This has to be one of the best Olympics I have been able to view. The GB team has been amazing! I can;t believe the closing ceremony is upon us already but I;m sure the Paraolympics that begin in a few weeks time will be just as exciting. Go team GB!

As you can see I didn;t win my event for stitching and finishing my Olympic project. I found my mojo for a few days but it ran off to London and never came back...lol.

Apologises for the poor photograph but I forgot to take one before it was framed. This is the Wedding present I was asked to make by a family friend to take to their nephews wedding in Ireland. Like a few others I was concerned how it was going to turn out with the wedding colours being black and white. I used a silver grey evenweave with DMC and krenik threads. I was very happy with how it looked but personally I would chosen a mount board for the finish. I can;t wait to hear what the bride and groom think of their unusual present.

We recently had a British themed exchange on my StitchedwithLove exchange group. It was only open to residents in the UK. My dear friend Edit was disappointed not to join so we decided to do a personal exchange. Edit sent me this lovely Hungarian-Spanish package. Edit;s pillows are always so beautifully finished. The stitching and blue fabric are so pretty. I was so thrilled when I saw this lovely white fan. It took me back to my childhood. For many, many years I had a spanish doll and a red fan displayed in my bedroom. Thank you so much Edit for a wonderful exchange.

This is the package of British/Scottish goodies I sent in return. Thistles are one of my favourite flowers and this is the third time I;ve stitched this framed  design.

For anyone interested their is a new Animal Antics exchange at StitchedwithLove. Details on the blog Hope you can come join in the fun. 

Thank you too everyone who has sent the prayers and wishes for Ians Mum. Finally after six doctors looking at her x-rays and chopping and changing their minds they decided she hadn;t broken her hip after all. Her pain meds have been altered and she seemed much brighter and alert while in hospital but in the past few days she has become very down again. As a family we feel sheltered housing is no longer meeting her needs and she would have a much better quality of life in a nursing home, the fight goes on....

Finally thank you to everyone who took part in my give-away. It was great fun reading all those answers to the questions I posed. 

CHRIS AT TOT HILL FARM STITCHES

Congratulations Chris your goodies will be winging their way across the Atlantic soon.

I hope everyone is having a nice week-end. I look forward to this weeks news and stitches. Hugs!