Is It Monday Again?

I didn't have a deal to show last week and with it being half term I haven't really had much time to blog so here I am with a couple of things made up and a WIP to share:)

First off these are the two treat bags I made for the girls using San Man Originals I Love Treats. I have now passed the chart on to Kay who is a member of the SMO board and mad about Halloween! Unfortunately, as always, my picture is rubbish! They are now filled with a mixture of Halloween chocolates from Thorntons and our local Co-op! I enjoyed making these up although I find it a bit hit and miss working out measurements! Lol!

Once I'd got the second I Love Treats stitched I decided I really needed to make a start on The Cat's Whiskers Heartstrings, which is an absolutely gorgeous design which can either be framed or made into a bourse and I am doing the latter with mine; twice! I always find it difficult to come up with something that bit different to buy DH's aunties at Christmas, as they are both in their 80's, so thought a little bourse would be nice and maybe put some chocolates or perfume in them. So this is my progress on my first one:) This is delightful to stitch and I would recommend this chart to anyone as it's so well presented and the instructions for the bourse are so straightforward:)

So this week I am back to Heaven and Earth Designs Winter ( artist Sara Butcher) and I am hoping to make some decent progress this week. It's ages since I picked her up and I feel quite guilty that it's a year since I started her and I've only got two and a half pages done. I really need to get on with her or I'll never have her finished by the time I'm 50!! Lol! If I am lucky and get my finger out I should finish page 3 this week and maybe even make a start on page 4!

As I said last week I think I can well and truly say now that I am off the chart wagon and I can say that even more so this week! I needed something for the ornament I'm stitching in Simone's exchange and as there is no half decent LNS here I knew I'd have to order it online. Well I couldn't just order this little thing from Sew and So for £1 postage could I so I also ordered the Just Nan Christmas Biscornu! Naughty, naughty Sally! I am so pleased I ordered it though as it is absolutely beautiful and I would love to have it stitched for display this Christmas. Having said that I am not entirely sure that I'd want to put it away anyway! So here's a piccie of my recent chart acquisitions! In the piccie you can Needleprint Sarah Moon's Quaker Sampler, Just Nan Christmas Biscornu and With My Needle Quaker Hornbook.

My final picture is of the lovely Christmas fabric and ribbon I received from Yuko I sent her the La D Da Rose freebie chart when I had finished it as she liked it so much and in return this is what she sent me! I was so touched that she'd sent me these and both the ribbon and fabric are just gorgeous. Thank you Yuko! {{{{hugs}}}} Go have a look at Yuko's blog if you have a minute as she does the most gorgeous stitching and finishing:)

Lisa, Jane, Tracy, Chris and I are getting prepared for our Quaker RR which we are starting in January! I have ordered my chart ( With My Needle Ackworth Friendship Book) from a ONS I have used before but my order is still processing after nearly a week, which has never happened before. I've usually received my order within a few days so I'm hoping that it's just half term that's holding things up. I have contacted them to see if it'll be posted soon as I really don't want to be messing about at the last minute if I find I'm not going to have the chart in time.

I just wanted to say thank you for all your good wishes for Abi. Thankfully the third lot of antibiotics did the trick and she's now just about back to normal. Her voice still goes croaky now and then but she's certainly a whole lot better:)

We had a quiet, relaxing half term with just a couple of days out. Jess went with her friend to Hull on Wednesday so we decided we'd go as well so that we then go to Meadowhall in Sheffield another day and Jess could come with us. We wanted to have a look in the new St Stephen's shopping centre in Hull but I can't say that I was all that impressed really. Yes the shops that are in there are huge and very roomy but there aren't really that many of them. It doesn't look as though it's completely finished yet and there are some spaces to be filled as yet. Friday we went to Meadowhall and there are more shops than ever now! We arrived at 10.30am and left at just before 6pm and were absolutely tired out! We didn't buy much but we enjoyed ourselves looking round and I think the girls got a few ideas of what they would like for Christmas! I did buy DH a Christmas present but he's not allowed to have it until Christmas much to his disgust!

As planned we went to see the film Stardust:) Well I have to say that if you get the chance to go see this film, do! It is absolutely magical and I loved it from beginning to end and would happily watch it again:) I will admit to having tears in my eyes at the end for all it wasn't a sad ending but an incredibly beautiful one.

Just found this Heroes Personality Test on Nicki's blog so had to have a go! We love Heroes in our house and never miss an episode.

Your Score: Matt Parkman

You scored 58 Idealism, 29 Nonconformity, 20 Nerdiness

I don't want to be a chump.Congratulations, you're Matt Parkman! You're a great person: caring, hard-working, and honest. You might not have the best of luck, but you do your best in all areas of life. Your kind and responsible nature is rare, and you should be proud of it. Your best quality: Heart Your worst quality: You may take more abuse than you deserve

Link: The Heroes Personality Test written by freedomdegrees on OkCupid, home of the The Dating Persona Test

That's my blogging for today:) Looking forward to receiving the JCS Ornament issue this week along with Ink Circles Sea Stars from Jayne's Attic then I'll be all set for some reading and drooling over the ornaments and ready for my SAL with Karen in January:)

Oops while I remember I was tagged by Michelle I have to list 7 things about myself. I have done this before so will try and list 7 different things if I can!

1. When I was little I had a dog named Sandy.
2. I love budgies. My Dad used to breed them.
3. I wanted to be a linguist and took French and Spanish at O level.
4. I love Winter.
5. My first job was in a caravan and camping accessory showroom. I hated keeping the caravans clean, especially after my boss and his wife and taken one on holiday!
6. For the first few years I was married I didn't want children. So pleased I changed my mind:)
7. I have suffered from depression twice ( once postnatally)

I won't tag anybody this time:)

Autumn Pinkeep

Lisa and I have been stitching the Prairie Schooler Autumn Pinkeep from The Gift of Stitching and I finished mine last night, although it's not made up yet as I don't have any suitable fabric or pins to finish it off with. I do have some fabby on order so will finish it when that arrives with me:) I loved stitching this little design and am rather hoping that there will be the other seasons in the magazine in the future:)

I think I have to say, to be fair to the other girls, that I am off the chart wagon now! A couple of weeks ago I was browsing The Sampler Guild website and came across the With My Needle Quaker Hornbook chart. I had seen this finished up in a blog and fell in love with it so was delighted to find it. It said on the website that Linda was going to order in the next 14 days but there was about a 4 month wait for them. So I emailed Linda in the hope that I wasn't too late to order and thought by the time it arrives I'll be well and truly off the chart wagon. Well I received an email back saying that she was waiting for the last batch to arrive and she would have extras so she'd added my name to the list! It arrived today and I am delighted with it! I don't know when I shall get around to stitching it but I would like to do it soon:)

It's half term here this week and DH is off as well so we are going out a couple of days and also hoping to get to the cinema to see Stardust:) Hope everyone has a wonderful week. {{{{hugs}}}}

I Love Treats

I sat down last night and got one stitched piece done for the girls' treat bags! Well it wasn't diificult as it's a San Man Originals simple design so it didn't take a lot of stitching:) This is I Love Treats which I won in a contest on the SMO board a looooong time ago. It had the leftover threads with it but I chose to sub them for a couple of DMC flouresents as well the glow in the dark and a GAST. So here's the result stitched on 28 count Sugar Maple Fabrics Howling at the Moon. The scan doesn't show the how bright the colours are though. I will stitch up another one before I make them up into bags.

Lisa and I were chatting on MSN last night and she was saying that if she got her 10 hours done on School of Dolphins she was make a start on the Autumn Pinkeep from the September issue of The Gift of Stitching. I said I'd seen quite a few stitched up and thought it was lovely so she asked if I'd like to join her so I am doing:) We're starting it tonight ( finger's crossed!) so I'm really looking forward to it. For all we've been online stitching buddies for ages we've never actually done a SAL together so this is an ideal opportunity to do one.

We also got chatting about Quaker samplers and I said I'd seen a lovely RR ( and I can't for the life of me remember whose blog it was !) with Samplers and Such Quaker Style Friendship Sampler. Anyway this led us to thinking about some sort of RR with a quaker design and Lisa came up with this fantastic idea of doing one with the With My Needle accordion-style books with Quaker motifs which can be seen here and here The idea would be that each page was stitched by a friend, who could add their initials to the page, other than the back and front which would be stitched by the person the piece belonged to. Each person could pick either of the designs for their RR and pick their own threads and fabric. Now neither of us have ever done an RR before so we would appreciate some advice on how to set an RR up etc if possible. So we would love to know if anybody in the UK ( sorry but as it'll be our first RR we thought we'd stick to the UK for now) would be interested. We would need at least three more people ( that would mean each person stitching two pages) to make it work. Lisa has decided on A Quaker Pattern Book and I have decided on Ackworth Friendship Book The Quaker Pattern Book is stitched one over one on 28 count. The Friendship Book is stitched on 36 count fabric over two but once I get the chart and see what size the book is I will probably stitch on 32 or 28 count. As the Quaker Pattern Book is over one we would say only evenweave fabric if you are going to be stitching over one as linen is awful to stitch on over one! I do hope all this makes sense! We are thinking of starting it in the New Year. If there are no takers Lisa and I will do this between us. Please email me ( it's in my profile) if you would be interested or if you can give us with any tips on how to set this RR up. Any help would be greatly appreciated:)

Have a good weekend everybody:) Thank you for visiting my blog and for all your wonderful comments. I'm going to catch up with yours now:)

Serendipity

Well here endeth my rotation for this round with the last stitches going into Serendipity last night:) This has been an absolute joy to stitch and I would like to thank Yvonne Horn of Papillon Creations for creating this beauty for her newsletter readers to stitch. So I proudly present Papillon Creations Serendipity stitched on 32 count fabric using DMC 550 and 3350 and Kreinik 005. I am very pleased with the way this turned out and love the colours I chose. This is now at the framers ( I'm having a black frame!) as I decided I'd prefer to have it framed rather than make it into a cushion:)

So for the rest of this week I shall just be stitching on whatever I feel like! I picked up the ornament I'm stitching for Simone's ornament exchange when I'd finished Serendipity last night but have now changed my mind and want to stitch a different one! LOL! I'll still finish this one and will either save it for myself or give it away:) Obviously I can't tell you what I'll be stitching! I also want to make a couple of Halloween bags as I bought some Halloween chocolates in Thorntons and thought it would be nice to make treat bags for the girls. OK I know they're past trick or treating now but let's face it who can resist chocolate! The only problem was I didn't have any suitable fabby for the chart I wanted to use so I emailed Jayne at Jayne's Attic to see if she had any. It turned out she had a few but couldn't decide which I would prefer so she sent the ones she had to look at with a bag to return the ones I didn't want in. Now how is that for customer service? Jayne will always go that extra mile for her customers. So thanks Jayne. I've picked what I want and will be returning the others to you this afternoon:)

Anybody looking at The Online Needlework Show? I'm having a look but, thankfully, I haven't seen anything I fancy as yet! Lol! I have put a lot of thought into being on the chart stash wagon and have decided that I'm going to go to the end of October then going to treat myself. I will have done 5 months by then and I think I can be very proud of myself for going that long as I never have done before since discovering online shopping! Lol! I have been so close this week to buying a chart but have stopped myself from doing it:) Wow what willpower! Lol!

I took Abi back to the doctors again last night so she is now on her third lot of antibiotics; finger's crossed that this finally gets rid of the infection. Had she been able to take penicillin it would have cleared it easily but she is allergic to it. Last night was the first night in ages she actually got a good night's sleep so let's hope that is a good sign that she is finally on the mend.

We got our front door fitted yesterday. I was supposed to be going to the funeral of a family friend who lost her life to cancer but, as I wasn't sure exactly what time the fitters were arriving, I had to stay home. The door looks brilliant and we're so pleased with it. It has certainly made the house look better both inside and out!

I hope everyone is having a good week. It's lovely here today. It's rather chilly but the sun is shining and it's a glorious day:)

The You Make Me Smile Award

I have just received the "you make me smile award" from Teejay at The Passion of My Needle and the rules are I have to pass it on to 10 people who make me smile. It certainly isn't going to be easy to pick just 10 but I will do my best:) Thanks Teejay for thinking of me:) You are so sweet:)

Lizzy at A Stitcher's Ramblings From Under The Willow Tree

Becky at Beckybee's Stitching Hive

Julie at Julie's Stitching Journal

Karen at Little Cat Blogs

Juls at A Fairy Princess Dreams

Gill at Chewed Away

Su at Contemplating My Needle and Thread

Karen at Karen's Place in Webspace

Ranae at The Needle and I

Andrea at The Craft Room

There are so many lovely blogs out there it was difficult to pick and I apologise that I had to miss so many {{{{hugs}}}}

Christmas Mystery and The Winner!

I am finally caught up with part 10 of Chatelaine Christmas Mystery IV. I managed to stitch this part with no mistakes so was happy I didn't have to frog like I did last time. The only thing I struggled with at first was the big speciality stitch in the middle of the star as I couldn't see the numbers on the diagram so I had to enlarge it in Adobe and print it out again:) I am still unsure about this mystery but it is growing on me now that my eyes aren't drawn to the little girl so much! Two more parts to go and it'll be done! I can't believe there's only two more parts! So that is part 10 there on the right and below is how it looks all together!

For those of you who asked I've taken a picture of my Just Nan wall but as you will see I have no room for more, as there is a wall unit in the way, so may just have to sneak round to the next wall!!! There are not that many there but what there is there is proof of how much I love her designs! I do prefer the band samplers to the others that she does and hope to do more of them in the future, for all I only have two more in my stash at present:)

I have had two nights stitching on PC Serendipity and love this middle part! I have had to frog a couple of times because I did some of the speciality stitches in the wrong colour, then last night I did some in the wrong direction so had to frog again:) Then I realised I'd frogged the wrong ones so I cursed a little and DH said he didn't know why I bothered stitching as I seemed to spend as much time taking it out as I do stitching! Just shows how much notice he takes and I truly think he thinks my hobby is a waste of time. Yes well Mister it's better than slobbing in front of the TV every night and falling asleep! Sorry just feeling that way out today and I may end up fighting with myself!

Now to the winner of my Rose flanged pillow! This morning I wrote all your names on paper and popped them in a tin and picked out a winner and that person is.............................................. LYNN Congratulations Lynn! I think I have your address so will get the pillow in the post to you sometime this week. I do hope you like it:) I do wish you all could've won but I will be doing something similar for my blogoversary in 29 days! LOL!

As you may notice by the banner at the top of my post today is Blog Action Day. I had actually forgotten about this until I saw it on Nicki's blog. We really must try to all do our little bit to save our Earth as every little bit can help. We can help by turning the thermostat on our heating down a little, recycling as much as we can, switching off lights when we leave a room instead of leaving the house lit up like Blackpool illuminations etc etc! We only have one planet so let's do our bit and keep it beautiful for our children's children and all future generations:)

It's half term here next week and I think the girls will be very relieved! Jess has had a very busy time in 6th Form and will be glad of the rest, although she will, no doubt, have homework and studying to do, and Abi is still trying to fight off this throat infection. She does seem a bit brighter in herself but her voice still hasn't come back so I just don't know what we're going to do. She finished the further 3 day course of antibiotic yesterday so will give it a couple of days then I think she's going to have to go back to the doctors. It's so hard to hear what she is trying to say and I often get it wrong much to her disgust!

It looks like there could be an end to the postal strikes here but I won't hold my breath! There are still some wildcat strikes going on in London and Liverpool and guess where some of my HAED charts went? Yep London! I don't think Tina has got them yet and I don't think the lady up in Scotland has got hers either. Keeping my finger's crossed that they arrive safely very soon.

As always thank you all for taking the time out to come visit and read my blog:) {{{{hugs}}}}

Spring in the Air

No I don't mean spring is in the air here, although I guess I will be in the southern hemisphere!( Thanks Gill for pointing that out. Don't know what I was thinking of) Lol! Last night I put the finishing touches to Just Nan Spring in the Air so that's another one off my goals list and my rotation. I loved stitching this one; mind you I am rather partial to Just Nans as you would realise if you saw my Just Nan wall in my living room! Lol! It is stitched on Sassy's Fabbys COTM French Yellow ( I think!) using DMC and the bead pack for the chart. I've darkened the scan a little so that the bunnies show up better. They do show up more in real life thankfully. I'm now looking forward to starting my next JN next month:)

So tonight I'll get part 10 of the Christmas mystery done and then make an early start on Papillon Serendipity. I seem to be finishing everything at once but it'll mean I have a couple of nice new starts for the next round of my rotation! Paula do not worry Guardian is not disappearing completely. He will be back out but maybe not until after Christmas now!

Thank you to everybody for their well wishes for Abi. Her tonsils are very swollen, but there is no puss coming out of them which is good, and her throat is still red and swollen too so she has to have another three days of antibiotic and see how she goes. She's not eating properly and is really tired but I am keeping my finger's crossed that the extra three days will see this damned infection off. I did ask about the GF but the doctor said it's unlikely but if it does it won't be serious. I know it won't be serious but the last thing we want is her being that ill again and missing loads of school. Oh well!

Right I shall go and stalk for postie! LOL! Not even sure if he's been down our street or not!

Thank you for continuing to visit my blog. {{{{hugs}}}}

Slight Trip Up and Other Stuff!

I have no stitching to show today but thought I'd blog just quickly:) I have almost finished Just Nan Spring in the Air and should get the last few stitches and beads done tonight providing I can stay off this darn PC! Once that is done I'll finish off part 10 of Chatelaine Christmas Mystery IV before moving onto Papillon Creations Serendipity. If I finish that before the end of my rotation I'll probably go back to the Christmas ornament as I'll have had a good rest from stitching on the linen then:) Then I'll have to sort out the next round of my rotation but I'm thinking of making it a short one this time and making it mostly small stuff other than the two HAEDs. Speaking of HAEDs I am taking down the poll now and there is a winner! LOL! Putting together the results from the HAED forum and the poll on here the winner is.................... ( drum roll please!) Winter! Yes I know there will be some of you who will be disappointed that it's not Guardian ( waving at ya Paula!) but he will be coming out to play again in a while. I'd like to get a fair bit done, if I can, on Winter as it's nearly a year since I started her and I've not even managed three pages yet which is rather bad! I think I have just had too much on the go which is why it might just be a good idea to have a smaller rotation for a while! I'm certainly not giving up on the rotation as it's worked really well for me:)

Thank you to everybody who has entered the drawing for the pillow in my last post. I'll pick out a winner on Monday:)

I ordered my fabby for Just Nan Queen of the Needle yesterday from Polstitches. I looked at a few before I decided for definite to go with Dusky Rose. It should be OK for the design. God knows how long it'll take to get here with the postal strikes ( I won't get started on that!) but I'm hoping it won't be long:)

Well I have had slight trip up on the chart wagon:( Only slight and I do feel a bit guilty but when I explain I know you lovely stitchers will agree with me! LOL! In my obsession mission to get the Needleprint Beatrix Potter Quaker Sampler ( still no luck {sob}) I found myself looking longily at the Needleprint website and fell in love with the Sarah Moon sampler. Well it was sold out so I thought there's no way I'm waiting until December then not being able to find it anywhere so off I went to Needlecraft Corner, found it on there, emailed Drema to see if she still had, which she did, so I have ordered it. Again I don't know how long it'll take to get here with the postal strikes ( can you tell I'm miffed about the strikes?!) So it's only a slight trip up and well within reason I think, don't you? LOL!

I am a wee bit worried about Abigail at the moment. I took her to the doctors last week as she had a really bad throat and had lost her voice ( it's been heaven! LOL!). Anyway she was given an antibiotic and the practice nurse said she should be getting better in a couple of days. Well she has now finished the antibiotic and is no better really so I'm taking her back after school. Those of you who knew me pre-blogger days on MSN Spaces will know that she had glandular fever a few years ago ( she was only just 10 so was rather young to have this) so I am worrying that this could be a recurrance of it, although it is doubtful I guess after nearly three years. Perhaps the infection is just being stubborn but I need to put our minds at rest and rule out the GF rearing it's ugly head again. Please keep your finger's crossed for her.

Well time I went and fetched my washing in I think. It's looking a bit dull out there. Thanks for reading:)

My First Flanged Pillow and a Contest:)

Yesterday morning I decided to try my hand at making a flanged pillow so out came my material, thread, sewing machine and stitched piece and here is the final result:) I am really pleased with the way this turned out for a first attempt and I will certainly use this finishing technique again. I used The Big Book of Finishing for the instructions and it was much easier than I expected! So, as promised a while ago, I am offering this finished piece to say thank you for visiting my blog:) If you would like to have a chance of winning please add a comment to this post saying you would like to be added to the draw and I will pick a winner in about a week's time:)

My Christmas ornament for the exchange is on hold at the moment as I'm stitching on 32 count linen and it's driving me mad! Now I remember why I dislike linen and prefer evenweave! I stitched on it for two evenings and became very frustrated so thought I'd leave it for a day or two before picking it up again. So last night out came Chatelaine Christmas Mystery IV so that I could make a start on part 10 which is another star. I actually managed to stitch all the silver of the outline of the star and have it meet which is a miracle as that didn't happen with last month's star!

This week in my rotation it is the turn of Just Nan Spring in the Air which I am really looking forward to. I may even have another finish if I get my finger out and nothing stops me stitching! Next week it's Papillon Creations Serendipity and I may get that finished too so the next round of my rotation will be all change:) Helen and I are hopefully starting our SAL on Just Nan Queen of the Needle on 19th November and stitching it on Monday evenings so I'm really looking forward to that. I haven't got my fabric yet but have chosen a Polstitches one called Dusky Rose so I'm going to order that on Wednesday when the postal strikes are over for this week. Only about another 7 weeks and I will be off the chart wagon too and I can treat myself to a chart or two ( or three or four!)!

I have now got the HAED charts I have for sale listed on my for sale blog but there are only three left now:)

Just want to say Huge congratulations to Yorkshire man James Toseland for winning the World Superbike Championship yesterday:) his last championship before moving to Moto GP next year! He comes across as being such a lovely bloke and DH and I are delighted he won. Just need Lewis Hamilton to win the Formula 1 championship now:)

That's all from me today but I thought you might like to see some sketches my daughter's did before I go:) The first one is one Abi did of Lara Croft.

And the next one is by Jess and it's Captain Jack Sparrow:)

Bye for now:)

A Birthday Present and Ramblings

I have finally finished the gift for my friend's birthday but, unfortunately, not in time to get it in the post before Royal Mail start their latest round of strike action so it won't go in the post now until next Wednesday. I loved stitching this piece. As you can see it's LHN/ CCN Bee Pinkeep from the January issue of The Gift of Stitching but I have finished it as a simple ornament. It is stitched on an unknown Sugar Maple Fabric using DMC. I added a bee button to the top left as Abi noticed that I hadn't added the yellow bits to that bee and as I'd stitched it all up I couldn't stitch them! Jess found this highly amusing for some reason! I also added one of my little Made with Love charms which I had forgotten I had!

As you may have noticed I have set up a poll in my side bar. I am having a hard time with HAEDs at the moment and have hit a real low with them recently. I really don't want to stop stitching them all together but I feel that if I carry on with two full sized and a quick stitch I will just go off them completely. Now I have a lot of HAED charts in my stash and I'd hate not to stitch them ( although I have gone off some of them but that's another story!) so I have decided to cut down to one full sized and one quick stitch. So the poll is simply which full sized one do I continue stitching so please vote and help me decide:) The two to choose from are Winter which you can see here and Guardian which can be seen here Thank you for taking the time to vote:)

I am waiting to see if I can sell some of the HAEDs I have decided I will never stitch and as soon as I know that I can I will add them to my for sale blog that I have set up. Well it's a for sale and wish list blog so I'll be transferring my wish list there and be giving DH the link to it! LOL! Well a girl can try can't she!

Now I have a question to ask all you bloggers out there but I think I may be unlucky. Is there anybody out there who has a spare Needleprint Beatrix Potter Sampler chart ( not the companion one) who would be willing to sell it for the normal retail price please. I have seen lots of lovely WIP pics of this and love it. I really wish I had seen it when it was still available as it is now OOP and searches of ONS have proved fruitless.

Tonight I am going to make a start on my ornament for Simone's Christmas ornament exchange. We get our partners tomorrow but I have already picked out the one I'm going to stitch ( Unfortunately not out of this year's issue as I still haven't got it), have sorted fabric and threads so am ready to go! Obviously I won't be able to show it yet but I'm excited at taking part in the exchange.

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog and I hope you continue to enjoy visiting:) {{{{{HUGS}}}}}

It's Finished!!!!!!!!!!!

Yay I have another finish and it's a bigger one!!! Yes I finished Chatelaine Summer Afternoon yesterday so I am one happy bunny:) It seemed to take me ages to add the beads on the last band so it's a good job I beaded as I went along with the rest of it or I could have been sat there ages! I have even finished it up, added a bell pull, made a tassel and hung it with Chatelaine Winter's Eve in my bedroom:) I have taken a piccie but it really does NOT do it justice. I do wish we could afford a better digital camera as I just don't seem to be able to get a decent photo of a complete piece with this one but it gives you an idea of what it looks like. This is before I did the tassel. I also took some close-up pics.

So that's 2 down and 2 to go of the Chatelaine seasons! I did enjoy stitching this for all I did get a bit fed-up of it towards the end and it's really pretty in real life. I will see if I can get a better photo.

That's another slot in my rotation free. Not sure what I'll fill this one with. Possibly the Winter Sampler from Cross Stitcher; I think it was issue 181 but not sure! It's on my goals for this year and as we're into October I guess I better get a move on, although I've done well anyway:) I also want to get on with Christmas presents for DH's aunties ( they are getting a bourse each) and some other stuff.

The birthday present for my friend is coming along OK but I ran out of one of the threads last night so had to work round it. I should, finger's crossed, have it finished tomorrow afternoon then I can get it made up and posted. I believe Royal Mail are striking again in a few days so I want to get it off a bit earlier. Then I might make a start on a Christmas ornament for the exchange I'm in. I wanted to wait until my JCS ornament mag arrived but it could be ages yet:(

I hope you've all had a good start to the week and it continues that way:) Hugs to you all!