Turtle Trot for March

Well this month I have made a bit of progress on the following projects...

A Place we call Home
CCN

On  A Place we call Home I have stitched the 'we' and 'ome' as well as the border to the bottom and right hand side.  I have also done the strange shape to the right of the house and the strange shape to the bottom left as well as the leaves also in the bottom left corner.  It's looking so pretty and I love the pastel colours too.

This is my progress on Midnight Unicorn.  I love stitching this as it is so quick not having to keep on dangling my thread as it doesn't twist like using 2 threads does.

Midnight Unicorn
Durene Jones

This is where Cinderella is at the moment.

Cinderella
Joan Elliott

Blogoversary giveaway edit

Ok....so my comment about winning an iron was a jokey one.  When I said iron/candy theme I was thinking more of an iron theme...for example there might be a skein of Threadworx - Wrought Iron thread.  Do you seriously think I am going to ruin your stitching time by sending you an iron?  I'm not that rotten...lol.  So now you know that you won't have to do something with that pile of clothes now, I hope you feel safe to enter the giveaway via the previous comment.

Blogoversary approaches

6 years?  Seriously?  WOW!

All I can say is a big thank you to EVERYONE who reads my blog, takes the time to comment, supports me through life's trials and tribulations and doesn't laugh at my stitching...or lack thereof :)
Of course as is traditional, this calls for a little something to be given away.  Hmmm...well last year someone (Jo, was it you?) that I do a wooden giveaway as that was the gift for a 5th anniversary.

After looking at what it would be this year, I discovered this year's gift is iron. So leave your name below if you want to win a new iron. Haha...anyone mad enough to do that can come round my house to use it ;)

Ok...so hopefully we all agree that is NOT what we want from a giveaway!  Further examination found that Americans also give candy for the 6th anniversary...this is definitely sounding better now!

Therefore, I will do a giveaway which is iron/candy themed for my blogoversary celebration and if you are really unlucky, I might make you something too!  Rules are:  be a follower, tell people if you want to but I won't be doing the extra chance thing, make sure I have some way to contact you if you win (I have loads of no reply commenters at the moment...do you think I am a mad stalker or something?) and wish me a happy blogoversary!

I will leave comments open until 26th March which I think is my official date and then get a child to pull a name out of the 'Bowl of Doom'.

Thank you!

I just wanted to post a quick thank you for all your support over Cinder-gate. All your comments are very much appreciated but there are a lot of people who are no reply so I can't thank you personally.

image borrowed from: www.chapelbythesea.unitingchurch.org.au

Hopefully this covers it!

Cinder-gate

Well sadly there was no happy ending for Cinderella this time!

I received a phone call from my mum the following morning (must be serious if she is ringing me during the day!), asking what was going on.  I read the facebook messages I had received up to that point, which my mum wasn't impressed with!  She had been phoned by my aunt the previous evening to discuss what had been said.  The day after all this I received several abusive messages on facebook from my cousin which were an attack on me, my character, my stitching and my life in general.  It was so bad that I ended up blocking her on facebook - which took me a while as I have never blocked anyone before!

I phoned my mum to tell her what had been happening and she said she already knew as my aunt had phoned or texted her to tell her how rude my cousin had been towards me.

Anyway to cut a long story short, I am keeping Cinderella so as not to have wasted 2 years of stitching time. My mum wanted to send my aunt the money back herself as she was so disgusted with my cousin's rudeness and attitude but as far as I was concerned it was given to me and so up to me to return.  So a cheque has been written and returned to my aunt along with the magazine so that either she can get someone else to stitch it or she can do whatever she likes with it!

I had thoroughly enjoyed stitching this design and although it would have been hard to see her go, I was prepared for it and happy to send her on to her new home, just not like this.  Cinders is currently on my WIP shelf, where I am avoiding looking at her for the time being.  There is a huge part of me that feels like a failure and that I should have just sent her as she was and let them do what they wanted with her.  I do think that had I done that though, there would have been little/no chance of her ever getting finished.

My plan is to leave her for a few weeks and to see if any more is said by my aunt or cousin and then finish stitching her for my Rachael instead...not as a birth sampler though!

Please feel free to comment/vent/rant over the outcome if you would like to, either comments or via email.

2000 comment giveaway

Justine has received her little gifts for having her comment drawn out of the hat so to speak when I had received 2000 comments recently.  I sent her a couple of Lizzie Kate designs that she liked and made her a little scissor fob.  As she didn't say "Eurrrghhh, what on earth is that?" I think she may have liked what I made her!!  And this is what I sent her, wit a couple of closeups of the scissor fob.  I am pretty sure this is the first time I have made a beaded edging on a design and like how it turned out.

The charts were freebies from here and here. Designed by Sharon Manspeaker.  Her blog is well worth a good read as she has designed many lovely (and quick to stitch) charts.

Theme-a-licious update on February's stitching

Just in case you have been on a completely different planet for the last couple of year, Theme-a-licious is organised by Geeky Heather who gives us themes for our stitching each month.

Hmmmm...last month after taking tips from Jo, Queen of shoehorning themes into whatever she happens to be stitching, I had quite a few things to show.  This month...not so much!

Obviously there is Cinders, who was marching ever closer to a finish...eventually. I will update on the drama that is Cinder-gate in the next few days...

My gorgeous unicorn must count too despite the fact there is currently no evidence of a unicorn! I love this one, it's so easy to stitch with just one thread!

There's my little Just Nan Santa too...not that I am saying Santa is a fantasy figure of course...

And that appears to be it!!  See you next month with hopefully a bit more variety.

Just Nan SAL - February update

I have actually had a start and a finish this month.  I have stitched one of the 3 Santas designs - 3 Star Santa. I really enjoyed stitching this one and it only took me a couple of evenings.  I changed the border a bit. Originally it should have been black and white but I thought it made it look a bit zebra-ish so used the dark green of his gloves instead.  The fabric is either dove grey or pewter jobelan but I can't remember which.

Just Nan
1st of '3 Santas'

February's Stitch from Stash

£0.63

Well yet again it has been a successful month with hardly penny spent by me. I needed some ribbon for the 'thing' I am making for Justine. The lighting is a bit harsh in Hobbycraft and I couldn't decide which ribbon to get so I brought both home for the grand price of 63p!  Must be my cheapest ever shop there!

 I have been very lucky to as Colin bought me both of these, one to cheer me up and the other for Valentine's Day.

I was even luckier when I won Linda's blog giveaway which is a gift certificate for 123stitch.  Sadly it wasn't for $500 so I am trying to narrow it down a bit.  It's quite ironic, once upon a time I would have spent it 3 times over and paid the extra but now I am trying to be 'good'.  It's hard though as there are quite a few things I would like!  Thank you Linda xx

Another surprise from Colin

We don't tend to celebrate Valentine's Day but this year Colin surprised me with this chart.  I have loved this for a long while so it was a lovely surprise.  I was rather worried when I received his email as it had the subject line of URGENT please read!!!!!  I was expecting the worst!

Thanks hubby!!  (Now all I need is the fabric)