So far I only have one taker for my PIF. Sign up here if you want to join in. I will leave it open for a few more days to see if I get anyone else.

I am going to do a giveaway. My daughter was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes on the 22nd November 2005. Unless you have been there, you cannot imagine the impact that diabetes can have on a family's life. Realistically there is not likely to be a cure any time soon. They may be able to do different things to control it but they won't be able to cure it. Many people think that Type 1 is pretty much the same as Type 2 but there are HUGE differences. Many (not all Type 2's) get it due to diet and lifestyle choices. Type 1's DON'T. It is because their pancreas stops working and no longer produces insulin.

On 14th November it is World Diabetes Day. This is to raise awareness of diabetes. They try to light up the world with blue lights - there may be one near you! So in honour of this, I will be giving away a little "goodie bag" of cross stitch bits which will have a blue theme! If you would like to enter the draw for this leave me a comment on this posting. I will do the draw on Friday 14th November. Good luck!!

October review and November goals

October's goals were........

• to complete TOT in time for Halloween. (well a couple of days late but done!)
• complete fancy fiber exchange (done)
• complete autumn/halloween exchange (done - lady didn't bother to let me know if it arrived or not)
• stitch unicorn card in time for Debbie's birthday (not yet)
• at least one Snapper (half done)
• some of Cut Thru Garden Shed (not touched it)

November's goals are.......

• complete 2 snappers
• complete 2 Christmas ornaments (1 for exchange and 1 for my mum)
• stitch unicorn card
• start Historical Sampler design from CS Collection
• catch up with How does your garden Grow?

Halloween update

Better late than never I suppose!!

Luke had a party at Beavers on Friday - officially known as a Monster Ball so no parents were upset at us celebrating Halloween, yes, really!

I said I would do some of the food for the party so Colin and I were cooking and preparing all morning. The picutres are of the cakes and biscuits we made between us. Below are the oranges I carved like pumpkins and filled with jelly.

Luke was a devil and Rachael was a vampiress.

Thank you to everyone who commented on my Trick or Treat Fairy. She is currently hanging on a wall until I can decide on the frame for her. I am toying with the idea of adding some spiders and bats to her but can't decide.
I have finished a couple of small projects in the last few days. Both of them were on my WIP/UFO list so I am really pleased. Firstly there was a blackwork butterfly and today I finished an ornament for an exchange.

Trick or Treat finished

Trick or Treat (Cross Stitch and Needlework magazine - September 2008)

Fabric - Picture this Plus - Monet lugana

Trick or Treat is finished!! This now becomes my first ever Nora Corbett design that is finished. Unfortunately it is 2 days late for Halloween but never mind. Now I need to find the perfect frame for her. She also becomes my 20th finish of the year.

For the rest of the year I am going to try to finish up some old WIP's/UFO's that are on the list and see if I can't start 2009 with less than 40 projects started. Yeah right!!

PIF

I signed up to a PIF that Lindsay is doing over the next 12 months so I in turn need some willing victims. In case you've not done one before the rules are really simple.

If you would like to receive something handmade by me sometime in the next 12 months then leave a comment saying so on this post and by doing so you're committing to do a similar offer on your blog. I'm offering this for 3 people and should I get more than that interested I will get Rachael and Luke to pull 3 names from a "hat".

I will leave this open until Sunday 8th November and post the winning recipients on Monday night. If you want to have a look at all my stitching go to my webshots.

PIF stands for Pay It Forward.

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.