Blog reading

I am about a million miles behind on blog reading at the moment and as hard as I try to catch up, you will all keep posting!!  My plan is to read each day's blogs posts on bloglovin' and then go right back to the earliest posts I still have to read.  So if you get a comment on what you have posted today, shortly followed by one from 3 weeks ago, that's why!! Of course, I could just ban you all from posting - but where would the fun be in that?

Blogoversary givesaway winner

Better late than never!

There were 40 comments on the giveaway and only a few people definitely said they didn't want to be entered.  That meant that 35 people either did want an entry or didn't tell me either way.  Therefore, if they didn't say, I entered them anyway.  I worked on the theory that if they didn't want to, they will tell me when I notify them and I can redraw it.

Do without further ado....

drumroll please....

The bowl of dooooooooooooom...

...the child of doom...(joking Rachael xx)...

...I choose...

...this one!!!!!!

(Yeah, you look a bit TOO excited there Rachie!)

Unrolling the lucky (unlucky?) piece of paper...

...there you go...it's...erm...er...bit closer please Rachael.

...for crying out loud girl, I still can't read it.

That's better! I can see it now.  (BTW, you need to take your nail polish off properly.  It looks like your fingernails are bleeding.)

******Congratulations Rhona ******

Gorgeous gifts from Fantastical Fiction February suggestion

Heather (organiser of the world famous Theme-a-licious SAL) very kindly chose my suggestion of a fantasy theme for February and had mentioned sending some goodies.  As senile dementia has pretty much set in these days (it's too often to be called a blonde moment, that's for sure!) I promptly forgot about it.  So imagine my excitement when a big, fat package dropped on the mat, and it wasn't my credit card bill!

Now in fairness, everything was wrapped up in pretty tissue paper but I was FAR too excited to take photos of them!  It was like Christmas all over again...

Here is a look at the whole package.

The lovely, lovely Six Stranded Sweets.  I love these threads and had the whole set a few years ago.  They have dwindled over time so these are VERY welcome.

3 pieces of very pretty fabric too.  The pink is just gorgeous, well they all are but I love, love, love the pink :)  And look at that...a piece of Sugar Maple Fabric too!!  Loved that fabric!

Lovely charts too.  I will definitely be stitching the unicorn one for my unicorn mad friend - probably next year though as I am doing Winter Unicorn for her this year.  

And more lovely charts.  The birthday fairies are great.  2 of them are already on my must stitch list and I have put a closeup of those below.  I love the June one as she is but the October one I think would look fabulous in Halloween colours.  What do you think???

Thank you Heather for such a lovely package and for leaving it long enough that I'd forgotten about it and therefore had a brilliant surprise.  It was one of those days that needed something nice to happen, and it did :)

Just Nan SAL

Ok...get ready for this one...this is the sum of my Just Nan stitching this month.

Oh....there wasn't any...sorry!

Stitch from Stash - March

The grand amount spent by me this month is...drumroll please...

  £25.87

This month although I got some lovely new stash to fondle, it was mostly courtesy of a 123stitch gift certificate from Linda and birthday presents from family and friends with some threads from a birthday exchange group I am part of too.  However, I did totally cave in to lust and bought Gardens of London (Chatelaine) which is available on April 1st.  I can't wait although I am hoping that Colin is going to provide the fabric or I'm stuffed!!

So...out of a possible £45.00 for the first 3 months (£15 per month) I have spent £26.53 so far.

So in the meantime...here again are all the lovely cards and threads that I received.

Last call for giveaway

Just a final call for the giveaway.  If you would like to enter please click on my giveaway post and leave your comment.  I have got a few nice (well I think they are anyway) bits and bobs to send the winner already but am struggling to decide what sweeties/candies to send that are typically British.  Hmm...thinking cap on methinks.

Our garden/backyard

This is not stitching related and if you want to pass over the numerous photos of our garden and go to read another stitching blog somewhere else, I totally understand :)

Starting by the back door and working round the garden, we have...

...a pot of irises.  Green mesh netting is because the cats STILL don't understand pots are not toilets!

I have no idea what this green variegated stuff is a we have had it for years.  What I do know is that the stuff is indestructible!  Nothing kills it, it's brilliant!

A few of the white crocuses.

This is our clematis that is 'supposed' to flower from June onwards...yeah right!

The only hyacinth that is out at the moment.  It's weird how it's just the one!

Pot of irises with a heuchera in the middle.

More white crocuses.

More of the green variegated stuff with a few crocuses, some irises and the greenery of the first tulips to be through.

More irises.

More crocuses.

Mini daffodils desperately poking through the foliage.

Close up of one of the irises.  So pretty.  It would make a lovely cross stitch without the background ;)

Some yellow crocuses for a change!

Recent cakes made by the children

We have had a lot of celebrations in our house recently.  Usually I get a home made cake on my birthday but this means that Colin gets the leftovers for his birthday the next day.  So this year we agreed that I would have a shop bought mini Cadbury's cake for mine so we could make Colin one.  This is what he got.  It's a chocolate base with vanilla butter cream.  On top are mini eggs (bet you didn't guess that!), twirl, fudge and chocolate buttons.  It was rather tasty!

Then last week Colin had an interview.  Do you remember how he was made redundant from his company last year and although he got a new job it was temporary and a step down from his previous position?  Well, the company finally admitted it made a mistake and advertised his post as there had been an upturn in business.  To be honest, there had never been a lack of work for them and we had always said it would be re-advertised eventually.  Anyway, cutting a long story short, he applied, they interviewed him and last Thursday night at 6pm they phoned to say it was his!!!!!!  So we rushed out and got the ingredients needed to make him a celebratory cake.

Milky stars, malteasers and chocolate buttons decorated a vanilla sponge with vanilla butter icing.  3 Congratulations champagne bottle candles completed it.  We decided to surprise him and all hid in the hallway with party poppers when he came in from work at 8.30pm.  It was hard work baking and decorating a cake in that time and I was worried that the butter icing might melt as the cake was still slightly warm. It was DELICIOUS!  Well done hubby :)

Read this if you need a laugh

Well if you remember, a while ago I finished a Lizzie Kate design as a travelling pattern.  Here it is...

I decided I would like to finish it as a small pillow with patchwork as the fabric border round the piece.  So I took these fabrics...

...and did this with them.

Too big for the design so let's cute them into quarters again and make each patchwork square 1cm when stitched together.  So as you can see, you end up with this...

...which then you take and sew together on your machine and it ends up looking like this...except it shouldn't!

So I bet you can guess what I am going to say now.  Does anyone know of a good tutorial so that I can learn to do it properly or failing that can explain to me how to do it properly, in words of one syllable.  Now if that pathetic attempt at patchwork doesn't make you laugh, nothing will.  Even I laughed when I took it away from the sewing machine!  Heeeeeeelp!!!

Be my friend!

If you have never paid a visit to Pickle Barrel Designs, you should!  She is having a giveaway at the moment for some of the recent new charts.  If you would like a chance to win, the rules are simple.  I introduce you and you visit the blog too, sign up and leave a message.

Click here to enter

Birthday stash and giveaway stash too

First up is all the lovely stash that I received for my birthday. There is a chartby The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery and another by Papillon Creations, 2 Just Nans, a Lizzie Kate Santa, one of the Snow Belles, a JBW Christmas Tree one and some fabric - Icicle by Crafty Kitten which is big enough to stitch the other 8 Nora Corbett reindeer on.

I also received my threads that I ordered with my gift certificate from Linda.  Thank you Linda.  They are shown with the chart and fabric which I already had and I can now get cracking on this...soon :)

WIPocalypse update

Another rubbish update on these

Cinderella?  Yes, I was plugging away with her slowly, but have lost the love for her at the minute.  I am feeling a bit of an itch to stitch her though so hopefully there could be progress on her next month.

Around the World, Cut Thru Stable, Honeysuckle Courtyard and Santa's Village are all sat next to me, on the bookcase, gathering dust!  I did actually put a couple of stitches into Around the World.  I won't give you a spot the difference, just where I am now! This is part 7 I think.

Papillon Creations
Around the World in 80 Stitches

Birthday fun!

At the end of last year, Cath from The Stitchin' Chicken organised a birthday thread exchange.  Last Saturday it was my turn to be surprised with the lovely cards and threads I received.  I was very good and gave them to Colin to put away for my birthday.  I was spoiled rotten as you will see!  In no particular order...

...from Gaynor.  She wrapped the threads in the pretty fabric and made the card herself.  It is so pretty!  Thank you Gaynor xx

...from Vicky.  Two of the colours were on my 'need' list which is impressive as there was only 17 to start with.  Thank you Vicky :)

...from Mary Jane.  The thread is called Peoria Purple which is also where Mary Jane lives - Peoria not purple!  How cool is that?  Thank you for the gorgeous threads and the lovely message in the card. It's nice to know someone gets 'it' xx

...from Cath.  Lovely coloured threads that matched the colours in the card...now that is dedication!  Thank you Cath, they are great! xx

...from Valerie.  Some more gorgeous colours of DMC.  Loved the card too.  Thank you Valerie! xx

...from Lonneke.  Another gorgeous handmade card.  It is so cute Lonneke.  I will look out for a little frame for it I think.  Lovely threads too.  Thanks Lonneke :)

...from Donna.  Another lovely card, chart and gorgeous threads.  The thread in the middle is a brand I have never heard of but it feels so soft.  Thank you! xx

Last but by no means least...from Nicole. She sent me some lovely, bright cheery threads to combat the miserable weather.  It must have worked as we had lovely weather all this week!  Thanks Nicole :)