New pretty things!

Hi everyone! It's so nice to be back in the swing of blogging again. I've been slowly doing the rounds and catching up with blogs. It's so lovely to leave comments again too :) I'm making my way through all of the blogs in my reader which is a truly enjoyable experience. Your needles certainly have been busy!

I had a wonderful time out in Southampton with Lawrence at the weekend. We had lunch out in Pret a Manger, which is one of my favourite places for a quick lunch. One of the best parts of the day was a trip to the giant Fabricland! I got a metre of the green and gold design, which I'm going to use to finish up Venusaur, and two half metres of the other gorgeous prints. Aren't they pretty?

I've managed to squeeze in a fair amount of stitching time this week, in the evenings of course. Lottie's New Scooter is coming along marvellously and it such an easy project to pick up in the evening. Thank goodness for Aida! 

In other news, I was picked to be Overall Performer at work this week. It was really lovely to be recognised for the hard work I do there. As my reward, I got to leave half an hour early and got to pick something from the incentive box. Some of you may remember that I've come home with things before from the incentive box, so it was a real treat to pick something again. I came home with this darling mug in a tin set. The only thing wrong with it is the tiny chip in the mug that you can see (just!) in the picture below. There is nothing at all wrong with the tin. I've just got to decide if I'm going to use it to store sewing bits or food bits!

I've got deadlines this week and other Uni commitments so it's busy as always round here. But then at the weekend, me and Lawrence are going up to London to go and see The Lion King in the West End. Lawrence's mother got us tickets for Christmas :) I can't wait! We're also going to visit the National Portrait gallery and have lunch at Carluccio's to make a real day of it :)

Hope you're all having a wonderful week,

 

Stitching For The Ones You Love

My heart was genuinely warmed by the beautiful comments I received on my last post. I've had so many much-need interweb hugs! Thank you all so much for your kindness. I know I am not alone in losing a furry friend and it was so comforting to have such friendly comments to read. Thank you again for taking the time to make me feel so much better :)

 

I have a finish to share! I thought I would get in another progress picture, but I couldn't stop my needle flying. Here is the finished Venusaur . . .

 

 

The end of this project is in sight. I'm picking out some backing fabric with Lawrence when we go for a wander around Southampton tomorrow and then hopefully I can do this finishing early next week. Then Lawrie will have the completed set displayed in his dorm room. I'm so pleased I've been able to complete this requested project for my lovely boyfriend. I'll be sure to take snaps of all three of them together!

 

When the last stitch in Venusaur was complete, I was eager to start the next project as soon as possible. I picked up an inherited kit from my sister. It's bad really, but I bought this kit as a present for Char's birthday. At least it's found it's way back to a good home! I plan on framing this one when it's all done.

Here's my small start on Humphrey's Corner Lottie's New Scooter . . .

 

Yes, I did buy this particular kit for my sister Charlotte, even though Lottie is not her favourite nickname, which is why I call her it :P Little sisters are wicked aren't we? :P

 

I hope you've all got a lovely weekend planned. I had a lovely trip out with my mum, she bought me lots of food goodies and we had dinner out at Buddy's Diner. I had ribs and they were delicious! Lawrie's taking me out for lunch tomorrow, aren't I a lucky lion?

 

Have a wonderful stitchy weekend!

 

 

 

 

The Greatest Friend

I'm so sorry to follow such a joyous post about lovely giveaways with some sad news. My mum rang yesterday afternoon to say that my beloved pet, Tiptoe, has passed away.

I love this photo!

We first brought Tiptoe into our home in 1996, so I was only four. Every since I can remember, he's been a presence in my life. I wrote about him for a school project that first spurned my wish to be a writer. He's been through all the house moves and all the changes and I can't quite believe that he won't be there when I next visit my parents. 

 I'm glad he got to spend his last few months in Glastonbury. My parents have a huge garden down there so he had plenty of places to roam. I take comfort in the fact that he was a very old cat and that he passed naturally, not through a devastating accident. He was sick beyond repair and putting him down was the kindest thing to do. He's not in any pain any more.

I will miss my black and white companion terribly. He was the best pet a girl could ask for.

 

The Birthday Stitch Surprise Round-Up!

I have been so looking forward to writing this post! I have completed my year of monthly packages and I've put all of the pictures in one place. So, let's have a recap :)

January's parcel went out to Mouse at Tales of a Stitching Mouse.



February's package was destined to Fiona over at My Stitching Corner.

March's parcel was to Lesleyanne at Lesleyanne's Life of Stitches.

April was Catherine at Bramblewood Stitches.

May went to Pokemon fan Emma over at EveningEmma.

June wasn't a birthday gift, just a parcel for Terri at DixieSampler.

July's parcel went to Teresa at Teresa's Heartfelt Stitches.

August's parcel was for Peggy Lee at Kentucky Sampler.

My month! September's parcel went to Cath at The Stitchin' Chicken.

October's gift was sent to Elisa at Old Ragged Threads.

And last, but no means least, we have Lynn's parcel that was meant to be for November, but silly old me was so late that it turned into a Valentine's themed parcel for February instead! Thank you for waiting for patiently Lynn! 

I have had the best time putting all of these parcels together and receiving such lovely thank you notes in return. It's been a joy to bring just a little bit of happiness into each person's day. I hope my packages has made each of you lovely ladies smile :)
I'm not repeating The Birthday Stitch Surprise this year, but I will be doing a series of giveaways. The first two I have in mind are Easter and my third blogaversary! Look out for those :)
I've got more posts lined up, including a great progress shot on Venusaur, I don't think it will be too long until it's finished :) My mum is visiting tomorrow and I can't wait. I haven't seen her since before Christmas so it's going to be so wonderful to spend lots of time with her :)

Best wishes to all,
 

The Third Installment

Hi everyone! Thank you for the lovely comments on my last post. I'm so glad the chicken is finished, it's freed up my stitching time to work on other projects, like this guy. I'm on the final part of stitching a trio of Pokemon designs for Lawrence. I've finished Charizard and Blastoise, which you can see here and here if you'd like :)

Now I'm onto the final one, Venusaur. This is what it looks like currently:

And this is similar to what it will look like eventually:

Lawrence has said he's so excited to finally have the completed set. He'll have to wait a little longer yet, but it was sweet of him to say :)

This is the project I'm working on in the evenings at the moment. I'd love to have a big chunk of time where I can set up my stitching and stay there for hours, but sadly, my time is taken up by things like studying and working. I'm thoroughly enjoying Uni though. I'm doing a module this year on Children's Fiction, which is something I really want to do in the future. I have to work hard, but it's worth it :)

I haven't been doing as much blog reading as I'd like, due to the annoying fact that my internet keeps crashing whenever I try. Maybe the internet doesn't like blogger? I love blogger and all my lovely blogging buddies!

Hope you're all having a great week, best wishes.

 

The Kindness of Community

Hello everyone! The snow is at last starting to melt here on the hill. But now there's talk of flooding, will the weather ever just settle? Probably not :P

But snowy days do make for perfect stitching times. I've had a couple of evenings this week where I've finished my Uni studies, rushed home in the biting wind, pulled off my snow flecked coat, put on the kettle and settled in my chair with my stitching. I now have the most perfect stitching chair that I will have to share in a later post. My housemates all know that that's where I sit in the evenings and they don't dare to take up the space! At last, I have my own stitching chair! I always love being nosy and seeing where others stitch so I'll be sure to show you my cosy stitching sphere soon.

This post is dedicated solely to the kindness of Cath over at The Stitchin' Chicken. After seeing my post about running out of thread before finishing my chicken project, Cath offered to check in her stash for the matching thread. My lucky starts shone as Cath had just enough thread from a leftover kit to send to me. She sent the prettiest card along with the thread, as well as two magnetic bookmarks that make perfect needle minders. Thank you so much for your generosity Cath! Thanks to you, I can now proudly share my finished chicken . . .

Cath must have an affinity for helping cross stitched chickens in need :P

This is the first project I've finished for my sister. I've already picked out the backing fabric and will be making it into a pillow, ready to give to her when she visits in February :)

I do so love playing a role in this lovely community of ours. I'll be putting together a series of giveaways throughout the year as my way of giving back. Look out for them!

I hope everyone has a lovely weekend. I've got two days of work, but only short shifts. Plus I'm going to the Farmer's Market on Sunday morning which is always a lovely experience.

Best wishes to all,

 

Inherited Projects

I cannot thank you all enough for the warm comments and kind wishes you left on my last blog post. It made me smile so much. Thank you again for taking the time out of your day to make me happy!

We're having a snow day today in Winchester :)

Winchester is made up of hills, big and small. Although it wasn't too bad this morning, the continual snowfall has made the roads really quite bad. Uni staff can't travel in so today's lectures have been cancelled. I've been doing a bit of the work they sent through via email, but I'm sure they'll be plenty of time for stitching this afternoon ;)

I wanted to show you some of the projects I've been working on recently during my blogging break. I didn't start them, they were given to me by my sister. She came over for lunch at the beginning of December and bought a big box of cross stitching stuff with her. She said she didn't have the time for the hobby any more and would I like the stuff? Of course! Silly question :)

She donated masses of threads and some lovely fabric, but also in the boxes were a few unfinished projects. I thought I'd finish them for her and finish them into things to give back :) The first design I set to work on was this chicken print, from a copy of one of the stitching mags, not sure which one!

My sister had only done the outline of the chicken, so I had quite a bit of stitching to do. It was quite nice to stitch on simple aida again. The beady eyed amongst you might have realised this piece is not quite finished . . .

That tiny little section at the top needs filling in with a red that I don't have a match for. I will go out and buy the right colour eventually. Don't you just hate it when that happens? I've got some lovely black fabric with white spots, just like the central panel and I'm going to make it into a cushion. One day!

The other project I've pulled out was the simple ballerina hippo design. It's also from one of the cross stitching magazines. My sister counted wrong one day and instead of figuring it out, she put it down and didn't go back to it! I'm sure we've all been there ;) This is also on aida so it shouldn't be too long before I can get this finished. 

I've still got the Solo project and the huge farmhouse design on the go. Maybe this will be the year that it's finally finished? We can but try :) I have one more project to show you, but that can wait for another day :) 

I hope you're all staying safe and cosy wherever you are. We had a snowball fight earlier so now I'm warming up with a big mug of tea and blog reading :) 

Best wishes to all,