Friday 23 November 2012

A Gift From Barb & A Wee Giveaway

Yesterday I received some lovely post from my dear friend Barb. A while ago she stitched a lovely piece by The Sampler Girl which many of us admired and asked where the design was from. She very kindly offered to stitch some of us it and let me tell you it is gorgeous.

Thank you so much Barb {{{{hugs}}}} I will treasure it always. Barb also sent me the chart of LHN It's Cold Outside which she has recently finished stitching ♥

My blogoversary has been and gone! I always seems to manage to miss it! Anyway I am having a wee giveaway for the Stacy Nash piece I stitched a while ago. I won't use it so would like it to go to someone who will. It's not the best finishing but I hope whoever wins it will like it. If you'd like to be in with a chance please say you'd like to enter. The only thing I ask is that you have commented regularly and not just for giveaways I've had. Please don't flame me for that.

That's all for today.

With much love

Sally

xx

Wednesday 21 November 2012

Christmas All Year Round Finish

I can't believe that I have actually managed to finish my November ornament for the Christmas All Year Round SAL in decent time. OK so it isn't made up yet but it's finished. I seriously need to get my finger out as I have three ornaments to make up before the tree goes up and I need to get them done this week because next week I'll be too busy!

So here's my ornament.


Daffycat Designs Stocking Reindeer

32 count Permin Amber linen

DMC

Started 12th November 2012

Finished 20th November 2012

I also finished this one.

Little House Needleworks Snow in Love

32 count Gander Rose linen

DMC

Started 15th October 2012

Finished 12th November 2012

I stitched Abi a wee gift for her 18th birthday.

Shepherd's Bush Happy Birthday

28 count unknown fabric

DMC

Started 25th October 2012

Finished 6th November 2012

I have had two other finishes and a start but can't show those as they are gifts.

Progress now on my HAEDs. Guardian did not get much done on it as we were out for Abi's 18th on Friday evening and I was shattered when we got back in. Saturday we went to the pub for a quick drink although Abi doesn't drink alcohol :).

HAED QS Holly Fairy is coming along nicely. I have almost finished page 1 and just love how she is looking.  I am hoping to get this page finished soon. Abi wants it finished for Christmas. Yup I'm Super Mum!!!

Final stitchy photo is my progress on LHN Home of a Needleworker ( Too!). All the chatting in the parlour over at Needlecraft Haven means it's slow going but I am enjoying this :)

I  am adding a couple of BBD books to my for sale page as well as LHN Snow in Love chart so please take a look if you think you might be interested.

Next year I am planning on trying to stitch from my stash as much as possible again with just the odd treat. Obviously if I need fabric or threads I will have to buy them as I can't stitch without them! Things are getting tighter as I'm sure you will all know as the economic climate is not improving, prices of everything are on the up but wages are not going the same way! Another thing is I won't be able to stitch and send as many birthday gifts next year. I did cut down a little this year but next year I am going to have to cut down more. I hate doing it as I do enjoy giving. I will still be doing it for a few of my friends though. 

Thank you for all your lovely birthday wishes for Abi on my last post. She says thank you very much and send you all hugs. Here are just a few photos. She insisted that I buy a dress to go out in but I am terrible when it comes to buying clothes. I hate the way I look and just feel that I look old and terrible. However the red number I bought made me feel really good! Not keen on the photos of me though! Abi had a tattoo done on her birthday and I must get a photo of it to show you. I have one on my phone but not got it uploaded onto the PC.

That is all from me for now. I am way behind on blogs and may have to mark them all as read just this time but will see how I get on.

Take care everyone.

With much love

Sally
xxxxx


Friday 16 November 2012

Happy 18 th Birthday!

Today my youngest baby is 18! I can't believe Abi is 18. I don't know where those years have gone but I am so proud of the young woman that Abi has grown into. She is a kind, considerate witty girl who is also amazingly clever. She is very artistic; she takes the most fantastic photos and draws and paints amazing pieces of art. Abi we are so proud of you and love you to bits. Have a fantastic day sweetpea xxxxx

Sunday 11 November 2012

Wash Day and Other Stories

I am still here! I can't believe it's well over a week since I last posted. This last week seems to have been manic. Lots of time spent on the phone to Ebay customer services and worrying about Fozzie who had two visits to the vet. 

So without further ado here's the a wee bit of finishing from last Sunday. Let's just say my sewing machine very quickly went away after this! In the words of Craig Revel Horwood from Strictly Come Dancing "It was a disaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaster darling!" I managed to prick my finger and bled on it, thankfully on the wrong side of the fabric, then when I had it all sewn up and turned it the right way I had sewn the backing fabric on back to front! I looked at it and thought OK it doesn't look so bad so I'll quit before things get worse! Sewing machine may be coming out again this afternoon! Anyway this is Carriage House Samplings Wash Day which has been sitting in my finishing pile for a few months now. I am actually quite pleased with it so maybe not quite the disaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaster I thought!

So what else have I been up to? Well I was hoping finish LHN Snow In Love last Monday but it didn't quite happen. I ran out of the red I needed to finish the wording so fingers crossed I'll get it finished tomorrow. Barb has made a start on the wordplays and once she's finished January I'll be starting mine. So I may have to do another ornament in the meantime. 

I can't show you what I stitched at craft club on Tuesday. I had a finish but that is a gift and all will be revealed after Friday. I did stitch on another piece but again that is a gift. Tuesday and Thursday evening were HAED QS Holly Fairy nights. I'm now onto black again after stitching her eye and getting down to the bottom of the page on that bit. Love how she is looking.

I have been in the parlour with Barb and the ladies at Needlecraft Haven. I really must get my WIP pic put up on there before they think I have forsaken them. The house isn't quite finished yet but I'd got a bit bored with it and wanted to stitch something else so moved onto the wording!

I finally finished page 9 on HAED Guardian and made a start on page 10. Yay! The more I stitch on this the more determined I am to keep going and actually finish it. 9 pages down, 21 to go! I have stitched a little bit more but didn't get a photo taken.

I had some lovely post this week from my dear friend Michelle. She is beating the Christmas rush and posted out a birthday card and gift as well as a Christmas card and gift. I don't have a photo as I have put them away to resist temptation! Thank you so much for thinking of me Michelle {{{{hugs}}}}

HAED had a 35% off sale the other week and I had to be good as funds are a little tight as we've had a lot to pay out lately what with one thing and another. I kept telling myself that I had plenty to stitch and there would be other sales so it wasn't a big deal. However when Michele upped the sale to 50% for 36 hours  ( then for longer when all the traffic crashed the site!) deep down I was a little disappointed that I couldn't take advantage of it. So imagine my surprise when the lovely Claire RAK'd me with this cutie from my wish list :)

This one is History of Chocolate Storykeep. Thank you so much again Claire. Later on in the evening I was RAK'd again by my surrogate sis Lisa with this beauty from my wish list.

This is Mini The Forgotten and this piece calls to me so much. Thank you so much again Lisa. Looking forward to when we can do our SAL of this but don't worry if we have to postpone. I understand {{{hugs}}}

Later on I was RAK'd yet again this time by the Christmas Elf :) I have a sneaking suspicion who she is but I can't be 100% sure. This one is Santa Claus at the North Pole Stocking. I can't tell you how much I want to start this right now but I'd never finish it for this Christmas so I think it'll be a project for next year. Whoever you are thank you so much.

I felt so humbled and undeserving of all these lovely gifts but amazingly it did not stop there. I was in bits over my Ebay problems then with Fozzie being ill and my lovely new Facebook/ stitchy friend, Karen, sent me this one to take my mind of it all.

This one is Home is Where the Magic Is Storykeep. Isn't it gorgeous? I would love to be in this house with the snow falling and all my lovely stitching/ crafting friends there with me. Thank you so much again  Karen{{{{hugs}}}}

I will be passing on the kindness these lovely ladies have shown to me at a later date as I've sold some bits on Ebay. I thought my account may have been compromised after I stupidly clicked on a link in an email from them which I very quickly realised wasn't from them at all ( very clever as it was about an item I had listed) so I ended up having to ring their customer services three times to get it sorted as the first two times they were pretty useless! I cannot believe I was stupid enough to click a link and I still so cross and upset with myself as I have never done it before. I'm still in two minds what to do with account at the moment. Has anyone used Etsy for selling charts etc?

We will remember them.

Well that's it from me for today. If my sewing machine comes out and I get any finishing done I'll be back in a couple of days hopefully!

Take care everyone.

With much love

Sally