More Blessings

I have been blessed yet again this week and I am humbled by the kindness of my dear online friends. Michelle emailed me tell me to look out for postie and sure enough yesterday he rang the doorbell as he had a package for me. Inside was this gorgeous ornament which Michelle had stitched for me to thank me for my friendship in 2010. As I told Michelle this is just so me as I am rather partial to red! Michelle thank you so much; I will treasure it as I treasure our friendship :) xxx Not only that she sent me The Sampler Girl Wonderful Life from my wish list and I now plan on stitching this over Christmas. Life may throw us some crap at times but it is still wonderful and it is a blessing.

A while ago Ann T ( no blog) kindly picked up a copy of the JCS ornament preview magazine from her newsagents for me after I'd ordered a copy from Magazine Cafe and it was sold out. For all I paid for the mag I wanted to send Ann a little something for doing this for me. I decided to stitch JBW French Country Star from this year's JCS Ornament magazine. Ann received it yesterday and loves it. What I didn't know was that anything with stars on has a very special meaning for Ann so I truly feel I was meant to stitch this one for her. I added a ruched ribbon edging and love how it looks.

JBW French Country Star

28 count Polstitches Hot Potato

DMC Variations 4120

Started 18th November 2010

Finished 21st November 2010

For Ann T.

I have been stitching away on other stuff over the last couple of evenings but can't show them yet. Tonight is Shores but I won't get as much time in on it as our town's Christmas lights are being switched on tonight so we're going to see that. And especially to get us in the mood for the festive season this is what we woke up to this morning ( and yesterday morning!)

Thank you for all your positive thoughts on DH job. I appreciate them all more than you can know xxx

Have a great weekend everyone!

Take care

Hugs

Sally

xxxx

Winter Sheep

Sunday evening saw me stitching furiously away on my LHN Winter Sheep ornament in the hope of getting it fnished but, alas, I ended up putting the final few stitches in it on Monday afternoon. Yesterday morning I got all the supplies out that I needed for finishing it ready to hang on the Christmas tree and here it is :) Not quite how I wanted it to look but, nevertheless, I love it!

Little House Needleworks Winter Sheep

36 count Sand linen

DMC

Started 14th November 2010

Finished 22nd November 2010

Not sure which one to start next. I've kitted up Snowy Pines and Fa La La but then remembered I have Red House in Winter and Merry Skater!

I have been stitching on another ornament but can't show that until it has been received as I'm not sure if the recipient reads my blog or not!

Last Friday and Saturday I had two good sessions on CHS Shores of Hawk Run Hollow and actually got block 10 finished! Fingers firmly crossed that I can manage to finish the next two blocks before the end of the year! Luckily I stayed up later than I usually would ( Abi had been out for a meal with two friends and they came back here) otherwise I wouldn't have got it done!

Finally Barb and I joined each other with brick laying on Monday evening on The Sampler Girl Jane Austen Sampler Stocking. Unfortunately I didn't manage  to put any windows or a door in so it's still rather draughty for the tenants, that is if they have moved in yet! I need to get a move on before more snow starts falling!

Speaking of snow the weather forecast says to expect snow down the north east coast tomorrow so we'll see if we get any. It is certainly chilly! I have got chilled right through and I cannot for the life of me get warm!

Yesterday I received another surprise through the post, this time from Sarah ( no blog). Sarah and I got to know each other through the HAED forum a few years ago. She very kindly sent me Little House Needleworks Sarah Street- Faithfulness from my wish list. As I said in my last post I am truly blessed to have such wonderful friends. Thank you so much Sarah. I will think of you when I stitch this {{{hugs}}}

I'm going to pick up stitching now I think and try and get warm. I hope I'm not going down with something!

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends!

Now I have a wee favour to ask :) Please could you send some positive thoughts/ prayers our way. My DH will soon be finding out whether his job is safe or not. Apparently they are due to find out Friday next week but my DH will be off so won't find out until he returns to work the following Monday. The funny thing is I am feeling quite laid back about it at the moment when normally I would be in a right panic so I don't know if this is a good thing or not! Anyway we would really appreciate your positive thoughts/prayers. Thank you {{{hugs}}} I know there are so many people out there facing the same thing all over the world.

Have a wonderful week; stay safe and warm.

Hugs

Sally

xxxx

I am Blessed

To have such wonderful friends:) You may remember I was one of the extremely lucky winners of Mylene's blogoversary draw and look what arrived from her today:) Mylene couldn't have picked a better ormament to send me as I absolutely love it! I am on a real LHN ornament kick right now so this is just perfect. Thank you so much Mylene {{{hugs}}} there is an an email on it's way:)

Postie also brought me a surprise from Chris :) Chris just stitched LHN Be Merry- Belle Pepper and saw I had the chart on my wish list so she sent me it:) Thank you so much Chris {{{hugs}}} I really want to start it now but it will have to wait a little while yet! Email on it's way to you too:)

On the stitching front the only thing I have to show you is some secret stitching I have been doing which has now been received by my surrogate sister! Lol! You may be wondering who that is? The other week I'd had a bit of a to do with my sister and I was very upset about the way she had spoken to me and just her general attitude towards me. I was chatting to Lisa on MSN about it and she said she'd be my surrogate sister and I was more than happy to accept her into my family :) Anyway she is a wonderful friend who listens to all my troubles, she makes me laugh when I am low, and she is a special surrogate sis lol! So I decided to stitch a little something up for her just to say thank you and to cheer her up as I know she's been feeling a bit down lately. I know she loves the Cherrywood Design Studios East Sleep Stitch designs so I chose the pincushion to stitch. This was just so lovely to stitch and rather than the corded finish I decided on a beaded egde. Lisa received it today and she loves it :)

Cherrywood Design Studios Eat Sleep Stitch

28 count Silkweaver FOTM Sparkling Cider opalescent Lugana

Started 11th November 2010

Finished 18th November 2010

Gift for Lisa

I have started another secret stitch and have a couple more to do yet so the finishes I can show may well be few and far between for a while!

Shores is going well and I am hoping to get a good evening on it and finish block 10. Hopefully I'll finish LHN Winter Sheep tomorrow evening SAL-ing with Barb and Lesleyanne then Monday it's my Jane night with Barb and that mansion! Lol!

I can hardly wait for the LHN December SAL starting 1st December! Chris and I started this December SAL a couple of years ago and I'm so happy that we are keeping it up. Hopefully I will do better this year and actually finish it in December! This time we have Lesleyanne, Lisa, Claire and Hazel joining us.

Oopps I almost forgot the SB rolls! I couldn't photograph them in the baskets as you just couldn't see them all. I think I need a different way to display them! So I lined them up on a white background and took photos of them that way! So here they all are! I stitched all of these except for the Stitcher's one which I received in an exchange :)

Thank you so much for all your lovely comments that you left for Abi on her birthday. She says thank you sends hugs to you all :)

I really need to get caught up on blogs but will do that another day now as I need to get off my butt and on the Wii Fit Plus! My weight loss appears to be at a standstill and is slowly rising again and I can't let that happen. Someone lent me a Zumba DVD and I tried the "tutorial" bit of that yesterday afternoon. I was so unco-ordinated it was bordering on the ridiculous! I will keep trying though in the hope I get better at it. I was shattered when I'd finished though!

It's going to get rather chilly again here in England so wrap up warm! I hope all my American friends are enjoying Thanksgiving preparations and have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday:)

Hugs

Sally

xxxx

Blogoversary Draw Winner!

It's the end of the week and time to draw a name for my blogoversary giveaway:) There were 28 entries ( thank you to all who entered). I use a random generator to pick a name for me.

There were 28 items in your list. Here they are in random order:

1.20 Ellen

2.19 Michele B

3.24 Jane

4.5 Elisa

5.14 Miss Yaya

6.2 Patty C

7.23 An Itch to Stitch

8.10 Michelle

9.17 DonnaTN

10.31 Peg C

11.18 Lisa V

12.28 Tina

13.8 Christine

14.7 hazel

15.37 Mbroider

16.15 Claire

17.34 Lindsay

18.30 Lisa

19.26 staci

20.33 Mylene

21.16 Catherine

22.32 CalamityJR

23.27 Wendy Carole

24.9 Valerie

25.12 Lynda

26.13 Stitchspice

27.22 Fiona

28.40 Lisa B

Timestamp: 2010-11-19 12:40:41 UTC

The winner is comment number 20 Ellen!!! Ellen please email me your address and as soon as I get something stitched up for you I will get it in the post. Please be patient with me as it may be after Christmas now but there will be something winging it's way to you to soon:) Congratulations Ellen!

Vonna and Michele B asked to see my SB needlerolls in their basket so next time I post I will have some pictures:) They are actually in 2 baskets as they won't all fit in one! I'm very proud of my collection and I love them all.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Hugs

Sally
xxx

Another Roll and Somebody is Sweet 16!

It's a beautiful sunny day here today albeit rather chilly but it's one of those days where you feel glad to be alive and that is just what I need!

Plus 16 years ago today I gave birth to my second gorgeous daughter Abigail! She is blossoming into a beautiful young woman with a kind heart and wonderful soul ( OK I'm biased!). Yes she can be grouchy and moody but can't we all! Lol!

Happy Birthday sweetpea:) Hope you have a wonderful day!

I have a finish to show and I absolutely adore this one! This is my roll for this month. I can't believe that's nearly Chris and I's second year stitching these SB rolls. I think I have two more in my stash ( Christmas Candy and Pansy) and two more to get yet which I'll buy sometime next year.

Shepherd's Bush Antique Heart Roll

28 count Jayne's Attic Colour of the Month Sweet Pea

DMC

Started 9th November 2010

Finished 12th November 2010

As usual now I'm going to show you my progress on my two WIPs. I do hope you aren't getting bored seeing these. First up is CHS Shores of Hawk Run Hollow. I am loving this block so far ( no mistakes- yet!) and hope to get another good couple of nights on it this week. I know Lisa had a good session on PS.

Last night was my Jane night with Barb. As the weather is getting chilly and the first snow is falling ( not here but on the stocking!! Lol!) I thought I'd better get a shift on and try and get the roof finished and start bricking up the walls. No windows in yet though and the walls aren't finished either!

Sunday evening was LHN ornament night with Barb and Lesleyanne and this week I made a start on Winter Sheep. Oh this one is so damned cute! I do love sheep! He's legless at the moment though. I think he has had one too many festive spirits! Lol!

I now have Snowy Pines in my stash to stitch thanks to Barb who sent me her chart when she had finished with it. Thank you so much Barb. Hope you received the email I sent you yesterday :)

Right time I was off here to get some housework or stitching done. What shall I do??? Lol!

Thank you for all your lovely comments on my gift for Lesleyanne and also to those of you who have entered my wee giveaway. I will keep it open until the end of the week so don't forget to leave a comment on that post only if you'd like to enter.

Take care and stay warm!

Hugs

Sally

xxxx

Small Token For Lesleyanne & A Giveaway

A while ago Lesleyanne very kindly sent me some charts that she had finished with that were on my wish list. I wanted to send her something for her kindness so I decided to stitch up this little beauty. I just love this design as the colours are so pretty and it has hearts and a bird in it! Lesleyanne received it yesterday and loves it so I am absolutely delighted:)

Blackbird Designs Small Token

32 count white fabric

DMC

Started 28th October 2010

Finished 6th November 2010

For Lesleyanne

I had hoped to also show my SB roll but I haven't quite got it finished! I was going to finish it off once I'd done my ironing this morning but went out instead to take BBD Their Song to the framers. I just got in when I received a text message from Abi saying she needed her stuff for textiles so off I went again finally getting in and sat down just in time to have some lunch! So no finishing off the roll for me yet today! So I will show it sometime over the weekend!

Tomorrow is my 4th blogoversary ( how did that happen???) so I think it's time for wee giveaway:) If you would like to receive something stitched by me then all you have to do is leave a comment on this post saying you'd like to be entered. I'm not going to ask you to jump through hoops, post it your blog or be a follower. All I will ask is that you are a regular on my blog please:) I have no idea what it will be as yet and I do ask that if you win please be patient with me:) I will get something stitched up as soon as I can! **** NOW CLOSED****

Thank you got all your lovely comments on my last post. I don't really want to go into details so will just say it concerns my Dad and my sister with one thing and my eldest DD with the other!

It's certainly been a very windy, chilly week this week. We've had high winds here and at times it's been rather scary.

Right off to get that roll finished! Tonight is Shores night and I'm SAL-ing with Lisa. She'll be stitching on her PS sampler:)

Take care everyone.

Hugs

Sally

xxxx

Frosty Flakes

First off I just want to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who left lovely comments on my Christmas Mystery IV finish. I think they have now spurred me on to make it up into something even if it's only out for a few days over Christmas! I am torn between a wall hanging and a table runner type thing and will have to have a look for some suitable fabric and trim when DH is on holiday in a few weeks time.

I have had another two small finishes but I can only show one for now. This one was such fun to stitch and the snowman is just so cute! I love the colours in this and can't wait to get him hung on Christmas tree:)

Little House Needleworks Frosty Flakes

36 count Edinborough Sand Linen

DMC

Started 31st October 2010

Finished 9th November 2010

This Sunday I'm starting Winter Sheep ( I want to call it Peace on Earth!) which I am looking forward to! The Frosty Flakes chart is now for sale ( or trade) on my For Sale page.

Friday I started block 10 on Carriage House Samplings Shores of Hawk Run Hollow. I really need to get a move on with this and try and finish it by the end of year. If I don't I don't feel that can start the Blackbird Designs Anniversaries of the Heart series in January. So not quite sure what to do. I may see how this block goes then stitch another evening on it or the odd afternoon. For a change I've taken a photo of the whole thing. When I stitch on this Lisa stitches along with me on her PS sampler so can't wait to see how she did on it:)

Monday evening Barb and I started roofing on our mansions on TSG Jane Austen Sampler Stocking:) Still loving this even though the mansion is huge but it may not take as long as we both think it will! lol!

Last night should have been UFO night but I'm not going to take part again until the New Year. I have so much I want to try and get stitched over the next month or so that I thought I'd give myself an extra evening. So I started Shepherd's Bush Antique Heart Roll which is stitching up beautifully. I'll wait until I've finished it to take a photo. Not sure what to stitch tonight! I will probably finish the roll if I can.

I spent some time yesterday sorting fabric and threads for things I want to stitch before the New Year so let's see what I can get done! Lol! It's funny but I look through my fabric box and think no I'm not going to use that then I think why not it's there to be used! Lol!

I am so excited to see that I have one of Mylene's lovely ornaments in her blogoversary giveaway! It will be an honour to own something stitched by her:) Thank you so much Mylene!

Finally I just want to send {{{{hugs}}}} and thanks to Lisa and Barb. Things have been very stressful lately and I have had sleepless nights and cried. It's not fully resolved yet but hopefully it will be soon. Both these dear friends have listened to me on MSN and via email and I appreciate it so much. Just wanted to let you both know how much that means to me and thank you for keeping me as sane as I can be! Lol!

It has been so cold here this week. We've had high winds, rain, hail and some places have even had snow! I think Winter is on the way! Thankfully the wind has dropped considerably but it's due to return later in the week.

Right off to catch up on reading and commenting on your lovely blogs! It's my blogoversary soon so look out for a wee giveaway:)

Take care everyone!

Hugs

Sally

xx

Put on Your Dancing Shoes........

and do the Happy Dance with me, albeit gently! Lol! After almost 4 ( yes 4) years the everso slightly dreaded Chatelaine Christmas Mystery IV is FINISHED!!!! Wahoooo!!! This is the piece that made me swear blind that I would never do another mystery again and at one point I didn't think I would ever finish it. Now don't get me wrong there are parts of this that I love but there are also parts of it that I hate and now it's finished I'm not entirely sure what I want to do with it! I don't feel that I can warrant spending pounds upon pounds to have it framed so does anyone have any suggestions? Lol! I do actually need to find my files for this and see whether I want to add any wording to the big ribbon at the bottom. I know there's something written on it but I can't see it clearly enough on my print out. Anyway enough of my waffling; time for some photos!

Chatelaine Christmas Mystery IV

32 count antique white evenweave

DMC

Delica beads

Crystals

Started 26th December 2006

Finished 3rd November 2010

Sunday evening I made a start on Little House Needleworks Frosty Flakes. I am loving this! The snowman is so damn cute!

Monday was Jane day with dear Barb and the Jane Austen Sampler Stocking. I think we are both on the verse which should stitch up quite quickly then it's the house! I do love this piece and can't wait for it to be on Jane wall. Even though it's a Christmas stocking it'll be staying up all year.

I am looking forward to my stitching for next year as I have a good few SALs and it's always so nice to stitch along with others as passionate about our hobby. I am now SAL-ing with Valerie on the BBD AotH so am really excited about that :) Joining Barb and I in the SB SAL are Colleen and possibly Julie and Colleen is also joining Lisa and I on the stash wagon lol! Laura is going to be joining Chris and I in our SB ornaments SAL :)

Right that's me for today! Off to post my finish on Stitch and Stash to keep Mr Stick happy!! Lol!

Have a great week everyone.

Hugs

Sally

xx