CSC Christmas ornament exchange

I received my ornament today from Meari for the CSC Christmas ornament exchange. It is gorgeous. Thank you so much Meari, I can't wait to get my tree up now.

A little bit of everything!!

Crikey, it is ages since I updated my blog. I have had my mum staying with us for a few days so I haven't been on the computer much. It was lovely to have her here as with one thing and another we haven't seen each other for about 3 years or so. My Auntie Angie, mum's twin sister, looked after Dudley so that mum could come up. He has Alzheimer's among other medical problems and it was too much trouble for his son or DIL to have him. The children were absolutely thrilled to bits to have her here and Luke in particular howled like a baby when we saw her onto the train on Tuesday. We didn't do a lot whilst mum was here but it was nice just to chill and catch up on news.

Rachael was taking her gold challenge in swimming this week. She had to -

• plunge dive and swim 100m using 2 strokes in 2 and a half minutes
• tread water for 3 minutes with her hands above her head
• sculling head first and feet first with a 360 tucked turn
• 10m swim, forward somersault, 10m swim
• 800m swim using 3 strokes, minimum of 200m on each, in less than 25 minutes
• exit from the deep end without assistance

SHE PASSED!!! WELL DONE RACHAEL

I received my fall/halloween exchange from Jackie a while ago but I had to wait until the 27th to open it. The package she sent me is fabulous with loads of lovely goodies and some beautiful choccies. I feel very spoiled indeed. I got my first ever scissors keep too which is gorgeous and won't just be kept for Halloween. Thank you Jackie. (There was a cute little halloween teddy too but Rachael has decided she wanted it.)

I have been emailing my partner to see if mine has arrived with her yet, but there has been no contact at all from her. I sent 2 packets as I couldn't get it all in one and I would have thought they should be there by now. Below is a photo of the ornament I made her. I was going to save it until it arrived but as I don't know if I will ever find out it arrived I thought I would post it now instead.

I also received my Fancy Fibres exchange from Lindsay. I didn't know that Kreinik made silk threads. They feel gorgeous and I have been playing with them all day. There were also 2 Threadworx threads which I have already used to cord an ornament I was finishing. The other thread is a Thread Gatherer thread which I haven't tried before either and feels gorgeous. The blue colour is wonderful too. Thank you Lindsay!!



Colin carved our halloween pumpkin today. It's just a basic one because we have 2 more to do with the children tomorrow. Mum bought the children a decorating kit for their pumpkins. It's a bit like Mr Potato Head for pumpkins so it should be fun tomorrow.

Not much to tell you

Almost all the stitching I have been doing lately is for one exchange or another. So there is nothing to show you until they all reach their new home. I have not made much progress on Trick or Treat lately but here is an update anyway.

My mum is coming up next weekend so I have been frantically turning out cupboards and tidying everywhere just in case she brings her white gloves. We are all looking forward to having her up here as she hasn't been able to come for about 3 years. I have been planning some special meals for her - all her favourite things that she doesn't make for herself.

I am going to have a little drawing in a couple of weeks time so keep an eye out for further details around the start of November.

New Toy

For the last couple of weeks I have been humming and haaing over whether or not to buy a carpet cleaner. Argos have one on offer which is reduced from £140 to £70 so I finally decided to go for it and get one. Of course as soon as it was home I just had to try it out! It's fabulous. I tried just doing a small area to compare it to an area that wasn't cleaned. All I can say is WOW! Are my carpets really that dirty? So now I have a big job on cleaning all the carpets in the house after seeing this. It says that it gets rid of pet odours too so hopefully it might remove the smell of cat as well.

Exchanges

I have gone from not being signed up to any exchanges, to now being signed up for 4. There is the fancy fiber one - on order at the moment, Halloween/Autumn ornament exchange - finished today and 2 Christmas exchanges. The Halloween/Autumn one has been a real first for me. My first hand stitched backing, first cording and first corded hanger. I just hope I have done a good enough job on it for my partner to like it. Once she has received it I will post a piccie.