One Lovely Blog Award!

Being so new to the blogging world, it was lovely to find out that I have been nominated for this award by rosey175 over at ishkabibble.  Thank you so much rosey, hopefully it will bring a few new readers to my blog!

The purpose of this award is for bloggers to nominate fellow, mostly newer, bloggers that they wish to recognize. The goal is to bring attention to blogs that we think are "lovely" and enjoy reading. We hope others will enjoy reading these blogs also.

In order to accept the award, the nominated blogger must follow these rules:

• Thank the person who nominated you & link back to them in your post
• Share seven facts about yourself
• Nominate 10 other bloggers for the award

Now then seven facts about myself:

1. I have lived with my DH in this house for 18 months and we have practically destroyed it and rebuilt it around us.  The first winter we had rain coming in through the roof and no heating!  Upstairs is now finished, but downstairs is another story.  Do not talk to me about dust.  That is why I do not work on many WIPs at a time at the moment!
2. I love dogs and have two.  Fleur is my eight year old Golden Retriever and Hope is my 4 year old Flatcoated Retriever.  Hope also answers to the name of Dopey, so you can imagine what she is like.
3. I tutor children in English and Maths that are struggling at school.  I love doing this and get great satisfaction from it.  My youngest child is 6 and my eldest is 16. So it's never boring!
4. I live by the sea and don't think I could ever live far from water now.
5. I always wished I had a sister and used to think it unfair that my brothers each had a brother and a sister, whereas I was stuck with just two brothers!
6. I love gardening and can't wait till the house is finished and I can get started on the garden...
7. Finally I hate shopping and avoid it when possible.

And now for my nominations, in no particular order.  I'm sure some have already been nominated before, but I wanted you all to know I appreciate your blogs and the time you all take on them.  Please don't feel obligated to participate, this is just my way of saying 'thank you' to you!

1. Laura at xstitchatoz
2. Jo at Serendipitious Stitching
3. Cathy at Crafty Cat
4. Amanda at Orangery Stitching
5. Emily at xandraal
6. Clare at Aimetu's Stitching
7. Leigh at X Stitch Marks the Spot
8. Jayne at Jayne's Stitching Tales
9. Mrs GraceWorks at The Stampers Stitches
10. Katy at Just a Little Stitchin

And thank you once again Ishkabibble Rosey for nominating me!

Happy stitching everyone.

x

New Stash

My delivery from Sew and So has just arrived and I'm so excited to show off my purchases.  First the necessary stuff:-

I really enjoyed my first attempt at making ornaments but wished I had some cording to try.  As my Mum has decided she would like a few herself, she has treated me to the cording machine (what a lovely Mummy I have!!).  I also ordered some 32 count linen lambswool to kit up some of the new stash and threads to replace those used in this months flower of the month and those I need for the next one I'm stitching.

Now onto the good stuff.  I bought:-

It's my dream to have my own Needlework Shop as the local one's here are rubbish!  But until then I'll just stitch this and hang it in my craft room (or Creative Room as my DD calls it) and dream away....

I'd like the whole set of these, to make up as ornaments.  Oh well, one down...

There's a bit of a Country Cottage Needleworks theme in my shopping, but I do like the idea of having a picture to change over each month and I saw this series and I couldn't resist.  I'm now beginning to think I should have started with June though....

And finally;-

A change to Mill Hill and a Debbie Mumm design.  My WIP, Santa's Journey has hundreds of french knots in it and I mean hundreds.  I've decided to replace them with beads, but I've never attempted beading before so I thought I try an ornament first.  I couldn't resist this jolly snowman.  There are four in the set, so I'm hoping I enjoy stitching him up as I'd like him to have friends!  It's also my first time stitching on perforated paper - I'm a bit nervous about that!

Sadly that is it!!!  First on the list to stitch is May Cottage.  It will go on the rotation with the Flower of the Month as my Mum wants that as a gift for a friend.  Santa will probably go on the back burner for a couple of weeks, but there is no rush for him!

Anyway happy stitching everyone I'm off to kit up May Cottage
x

Santa's Journey and Flower of the Month SAL

Well there hasn't been much stitching going on recently so I really must get my act together over the coming weeks as I'm really falling behind schedule.  My flower of the month (sweet pea) has only got as far as this:-

I'm a bit disappointed with how the bottom flowers are looking as there doesn't seem to be much definition between the two.  This is making me a bit reluctant to finish it!

On the other hand Santa's Journey has gone from this:

 to this:

If you'd like to see the completed picture then please pop over to Laura at xstitchatoz here who stitched it for the magazine. (Thank you Jo at Serendipitous Stitching for teaching me how to do those links)

This means I only have one more complete page to do and then I can fill in the bit in the middle.  The reason I stopped doing the middle pages is the design is by Maria Diaz and featured in Cross Stitch Collection Magazine Oct - Dec 14.  I didn't have these magazines and couldn't get back issues of them except as downloads.  The problem was the chart was so small when it was printed, I couldn't read it.  When I enlarged it, I lost the clarity of the design and the symbols and I still couldn't read it so I'm stitching it from my computer.  This is fine, except when you come to the next page and I miscounted by 1 stitch.  By the time I realised my mistake I thought I was too far gone to frog it and thought I'd stitch all around and then adjust.  I'm nearly at adjustment time.  Wish me luck!

Anyway, I haven't been feeling too well lately (rotten migraines again) so to cheer myself up, I'm off to look at Sew and So's site.  Let you know what I buy...

Have a good weekend everyone x

Just a little small...

I can't believe it's the middle of April already and I haven't got much stitching to show!  Santa's Journey has had progress made to it but I haven't got around to taking a photo of it yet.  I do have one tiny small to show though.  It came as a freebie in this months The World of Cross Stitching (TWCS) Magazine.

Tatty Teddy

Isn't he cute?  While I was making him up into a card I did finish off two other cards that I'd stitched a while ago and as I haven't got much too show...

The first design is from a cross stitch book that I found at a bootfair about 12 years ago and the other is from an old issue of TWCS Magazine (I'll add the issue number when I find it!).

That's all for now.  Happy stitching! x

My first pillow ornaments!!!

I actually made my first set of pillow ornaments!!!  Here they are:-

The top two are from i) The Cricket Collection and ii) is my Flower of the month SAL;
The bottom two are from iii) a freebie from www.cosmichandmade.wordpress.com/free-charts-2008 (again must learn how to do those links) and finally iv) The World of Cross Stitching magazine.

Now all I need to do is master the 'cording', but I'll save that for the first of my Christmas ornaments!

Have a great Easter and hope you have plenty of time for stitching.
x

Flower of the Month SAL

Phew, finished it with a day to spare. Hooray!!!

Jonquil by Ellen Maurer-Stroh

I've decided to finish this one as a little pillow.  Unfortunately my LNS didn't have any interfacing in stock and (according to the blogs I've been reading as research) I need this as backing as this gives a better 'finish' to my ornaments.  So I've had to order it on-line.  Waiting patiently now (or not so) for the postman to deliver it!!  It's going to be backed with the material in the photo, so hopefully it will look lovely when it's complete.

Looking forward to Sweet Peas next.

Happy stitching

x

Santa's Journey update

Just a quick post, to prove that I have not forgotten about Santa's journey and to show that it has received a little love recently.  Okay, it's only a little bit of love but Easter stitching has got in the way and I have been busy the last few days trying to finish my daffodils for the flower of the month SAL (more on that after the weekend).  Anyway Santa's Journey has gone from this:

to this:-

(Sorry about the wrinkled aida.  I really should iron it before taking the photos!!!!!)

More sky has appeared and you can probably just make out a yellow blob appearing!  That's where I am now!   I've got bored of the sky (as I knew I would...) and have started back on the buildings.  Hopefully this will become the yellow church in time.  Until then it's back to daffodils!  Have a lovely stitchy weekend everyone!