February Stitch From Stash & Barb's Birthday.

It's that time of the month again where we report whether we've been good or bad lol! I did have a bit of an extra spend this month on top of the thread and fabric for my ornament auto so that is not good! I will explain later!

So here is my report.

Month: February.

Amount spent: £16.36 ( fabric and thread for CCN ornament,  3 charts )

Earned: £2 for teeny finish

Balance carried forward: £30.73

I am happy with that.  Lol.

Last month I saw the new Lizzie*Kate flip its and they just called to me with the frame of mind I have been in so I had a work out and knew I could manage them ( the first release is 3  charts ) and stay within my budget. I paid for them on Friday and will have them when they arrive with my ONS. They won't be getting started any time soon though! 

So I am sure you are wondering if I actually managed any of those near to finishes this week. Well yes I did! 3 of them but before I show those I have to show you something else! Last Sunday was my very dear friend  Barb's birthday. I stitched a sheep and a flower from Little House Needleworks Soft and Sweet and mounted it into a Tim Holtz pocket watch and here it is :).

Sheep from Little House  Needleworks Soft and Sweet.

32 count vintage country mocha linen

DMC

Birthday gift for Barb.

I am so happy to say that she loves it! I must admit that I loved it too!

So my other finishes now.

Blackbird Designs Spell of the Moon

32  count Weeks Dye Works Tin Roof

Classic Colorworks, GAST and DMC.

I love this! Just love the owl! Not sure how I will finish it. I will have to have a root around in my finishing stash to see if I can find anything that will do!

Tomorrow I'll be starting a Blue Ribbon Designs ornament which has owls! I'm a little  behind Barb now but we will be doing different Halloween pieces so it doesn't matter.

I was worrying a little that I wasn't going to get my March cottage finished in time but I don't know why as I didn't have that much to stitch so here it is. I just need to get it ready to hang.

Country Cottage Needleworks March Cottage

32 count natural opalescent linen

DMC.

All ready to start April on Tuesday! I just need to cut my fabric.

Final finish is, of course, this one.

Country Cottage Needleworks Dear Santa

32 count Light Exemplar linen

DMC & GAST

This was such fun stitch!

So I now have the charts for Dear Santa, Angels and Spell of the Moon for sale so do email me if you are interested :).

I did not quite manage to get Beerenherz im Winter finished but I am not far off now. I just love this design so much. 

Snowy Reindeer on Frosty Forest is coming along quite nicely. I think realising I am so close has spurred me on to try and get more stitched on it. I think I could finish it for Easter.

A little progress on September's Morning Glory next.

I almost forgot about a little more stitching on LHN Blessed :)

Finally my lovely robin. I was chatting to my surrogate sis Lisa, who I am SALing with, and I decided that my aim is to try and finish him by my late Dad's birthday next February so I have just under a year to get him done.

I do have another piece started. I'm taking part on the Four Seasons SAL on Needlecraft Haven but can only show my stitching on there until reveal day which for the Spring one will be 31 st March :).

Do you remember the SAL I did with the lovely Shirlee last year? We stitched Lone Elm Lane Snow Angel. Well it has been languishing in my finishing pile since and  my plan was some sort of a box finish . When my DH and I were Christmas shopping we popped into Hobbycraft so I could buy a paper mache box but I changed my mind and bought a wooden stitching hoop instead and this is how I have finished it.

I am not 100% happy with it but then again I doubt myself constantly!

I have also, finally, finished CCN The Tea Room so that I can hang it.

Again not 100% happy with it!

I still have several pieces to finish off. I get some done then add more to the pile lol!

Thank you for reading and for all your wonderful comments. Knowing you are all interested in what I do and your lovely comments keep me blogging.

Until next time.

With much love,

Sally xxxx

Friendship & Blossoms

Hello from a slightly dull east coast of England. Apparently we are in for a few days of showers so umbrellas at the ready folks!

I have a few finishes to show as well as this wee gift that I stitched for my lovely friend Michelle for her birthday. I am happy to say that Michelle loves it. I used Homespun Elegance Friendship & Blossoms but rather than stitching it in one piece as charted I decided to do the top half as the front and the  bottom half as the back of a hanging pillow.

 Homespun Elegance Friendship & Blossoms

28 count vintage country mocha linen

DMC

Started 5th April 2014

Finished 25th April 2014

I popped the final stitches into this.

Country Cottage Needleworks The Tea Room

30 count R & R Irish Creme linen

DMC

Started 4th March 2014

Finished 2nd May 2014.

Thank you Mouse for the loan of the chart. As soon as I've finished Needlework Shop I'll get both charts back to you :)

After many months I have, at long last, finished Snow Angel. I have been stitching along with Shirlee on this and I was rather jealous when she finished hers a few weeks ago. I found that if I was very careful after my dizzy do I could stitch for a little bit so I got it done.

Lone Elm Lane Snow Angel

40 count  Newcastle Sand linen

DMC

Started 1st January 2014

Finished 2nd May 2014

Shirlee and I are starting our next SAL tomorrow which will be LHN Warm Winter Woolens. I had planned to stitch it on 32 count vintage country mocha but I don't have enough left so rather than order more just yet I'm going to use 36 count WDW Straw that I had left over from LHN Song of the Seasons.

The week before last I finished Day 7 of 12 Days of Christmas so Barb and I will be starting Day 8 on Friday.

April's Daisy is almost finished. It is full of mistakes but never mind. I do need to frog the rabbit though as it is too far over compared to the border.

Another one almost finished is CCN Frosty Forest Racoon Cabin. Just the border, fence and racoon's eyes to do.

Lo How A Rose is going better now I have frogged the DMC that was the old shade colour.

Finally The Needlework Shop is being slowly built. I think I must have those builders who stop for a cuppa every half an hour! I shall be in the parlour with Barb and the other ladies over at Needlecraft Haven this evening cracking the whip to get more built.

Thought you might like to see a few more of my photos. While my DH was on holiday a couple of weeks ago I rather naughtily bought myself another camera. I had been toying with it for a while as I wasn't 100% happy with the bridge camera I had. Anyway I had seen this beautiful,  retro looking Olympus that looked just like the OM10 film camera  my DH used to have and after much deliberation, online reading, telling myself no etc etc I went for it. Two days later we were on our way 70 miles to where I'd bought it to exchange it as it was faulty!  So I am now a compact system camera owner ( lighter than a DSLR but able to change lenses ) , which is what I originally wanted but talked myself out of, so no longer have that super zoom at my finger tips that I had with my bridge camera, and so far I am happy with it. I am getting used to having to change lenses when I want to zoom further than 42mm but it does feel like I'm havingto learn all over again! My bridge camera has been traded in for a good price so I don't feel so bad about having a new camera. These photos are a mixture of my bridge camera and  my lovely new Olympus.  Unfortunately I haven't been out with it for over a week.

With my old camera

 The following are with my new camera

It was a long weekend here with May Day on Monday. Not a deal was done as Abi has been full of cold since Monday last week. I felt like I was going down with cold then Thursday I got up out of bed with the room spinning rather unpleasantly.  After getting myself extremely upset and sobbing like I haven't sobbed in a long time I managed to get myself to the drs and was prescribed some medication. Friday I succumbed to the cold that had been trying to say hello all week.  I think the dizzy do was the final straw. Jess has been home for the weekend;just 4 more weeks before she's done with university and home for the foreseeable future.  Fingers crossed she graduates on 14th July.

That's it from me for today. I need to go the cemetary today to take some flowers then onto the shopping outlet near there to get a birthday present. I don't feel like it but needs must and I am sure the fresh air will do me some good.

Until next time take care everyone.

With much love

Sally xxx

The North Wind and Other Stories

It has been a wee while since I last blogged. Unfortunately I have found it to be a bit of a chore and I have read before of several bloggers feeling that way. I will continue to blog at least once a month to keep up with my stitch from stash and I will try and get back to regular commenting as I know I've been very bad of late. I hope this won't mean I will lose visitors and commenters but it's for my own sanity and right now I don't think my sanity is good! I have founds things very difficult of late, I go to bed and my mind goes into overdrive so I cannot get to sleep then when I do I don't have a good nights sleep. I have felt unwell for a while now but my blood tests came back fine which, as silly as it sounds, was disappointing as I just want to know I'm not going mad! I haven't said much on my blog as it is, after all, a stitching blog. I miss my Dad terribly and still cannot come to terms with never seeing him again and I often find myself thinking I just want my Dad. I know he will always live on in my heart and in my memories but it hurts so much still. I have even found that my stitching is not really making me that happy and I'm forcing myself to do it, possibly because I'm stitching Snow Angel and haven't been enjoying it and having the thread shade problems on Lo How A Rose put me off. However this week has been better with my stitching and I can see the end of Snow Angel.

So since I last blogged I've had two finishes. The first one being this :)

Little House Needleworks The North Wind

28 count Polstitches Clouds

DMC

Started 29th January 2014

Finished 2nd April 2014

In place of this, as it's a SAL in the parlour over at Needlecraft Haven I started CCN The Needlework Shop.

My other finish is The Little Stitcher 12 Days of Christmas Day 6 which I am SALing with Barb.

And here are Days 4 and 5 ready to display.

Ooooh and my 12 lovely Little Sheep Virtues ready to hang when I feel up to getting on steps to hang them how I want. 

My Monday SAL with Barb is CCN Frosty Forest Racoon Cabin. It's steadily growing. Barb is stitching the LHN Calendar Girls.

CCN The Tea Room is coming along rather nicely. I think this is the only thing that has kept my interest up as I just love it.

I didn't stitch on April's Daisy last Sunday as I had some secret stitching to do but here is where I left it the Sunday before.

Finally the dreaded Snow Angel which is my SAL with Shirlee. Shirlee has finished hers ( I'm so jealous! ) but, as I said, I can finally see an end to it. I do still have quite a bit to do and am hoping to have it done by the end of April then Vonna, Shirlee and myself are starting LHN Warm Winter Woolens which I am very much looking forward to.

The other week I received a lovely RAK from my lovely friend Michelle. She had been to a stitching show and sent me these gorgeous fabrics and trims. Aren't they beautiful? I have to find something to use one of these on soon. Thank you so much Michelle xx

I can't end my blog post without some photos. I hope you don't get bored of seeing these as I mostly take them at the mere. I love it there and feel at peace when I'm down there. I am thinking of upgrading my camera sometime this year as, although it's a great camera, I don't have the scope to do certain things and the aperture setttings are  not brilliant on it but I shall see!

Until next time take care everyone and have a wonderful Easter weekend next weekend. My sister was saying the newspaper says we are going to have freezing weather and snow. I will believe it when I see it!

With much love

Sally xxx