Stitch from Stash 2014 Planning

I'm looking forward to the beginning of the Stitch from Stash challenge. Mel from Epic Stitching is running this year-long event and I'm so excited to be taking part.

I thought this was the right time of year to have a sift through my stash and dig out some projects. Do you know, I don't think I'll have to spend much at all this year! I unearthed some real treasures, including some pieces that I have been generously gifted with over the years since I started blogging. Here's my selection of designs I've got lined up, as soon as I've finished my current WIPs of course.

I have no idea which one I will be stitching first. I shall have to see what I feel like :)

I also dug out some cross stitching magazines that I knew I had. Most of my magazines have been organised into files, but I kept these three whole. They've all got lovely designs in them, so I've got plenty of projects to be getting on with!

I am in awe when I see pictures of stunning craft rooms. I keep all of my crafting supplies in various boxes around my room. I didn't realise I had half the stuff I've rediscovered during my sorting out today. Who knew I had 7 pairs of scissors?! 

I wish you all warmest wishes for the New Year. I can see 2014 being a very exciting year for me :)

 

Season of Joy

Hello all! Well, I'm having a fab time in Glastonbury. My mum is spoiling me rotten! I've had all manner of sweet treats and goodies throughout this week. I'll need my running shoes lots when I get home :P

I hope you all shared a wonderful Christmas with the important people in your life. I'm so pleased I arrived in Glastonbury early. I travelled here last Sunday, which was just before the big storms hit. I don't know if I would have made it if I left it any later. I felt grateful that night to be tucked up in my bed, safe and warm from the howling weather. We only had a little damage here, a bit of flooding in the cellar. After watching the news, it seems Glastonbury got off lightly!

On Christmas Day, we spent it quietly at home, watching movies, eating and drinking - it was perfect. I was very lucky to receive lots of presents from my parents, ranging from the practical to the pretty.

My mum's pristine Christmas tree!

Lovely presents for me - socks/cake slice/books/DVDs/mugs/fancy cake wrappers and toppers/napkins and a box of my favourite chocolate Brazil nuts :)

This is the gift I'm most pleased with. The photo has decided to sit the wrong way round, but you get the gist. Mum made me this cushion after I mentioned to her about my back. I sometimes get pain in my lower back and I know it's because I don't sit properly when I'm writing or stitching. Now I have this great cushion to help support it. It was such a thoughtful present.

I couldn't resist buying myself a gift just before the big day. I stopped buying cross stitch magazines when I went to University. Firstly, because I couldn't justify the expense and secondly, because I already had quite a few! But if you can't treat yourself at Christmas, when can you :)

There are lots of charts in this edition of CrossStitcher, as it came with a free booklet filled with retro charts. I must admit, I picked this one over the others in the shop because of the Camper van chart. I do love the old fashioned Camper vans! This is probably going to be my last stitching related purchase before the Stitch from Stash challenge begins. Is anyone else joining in with Mel's new group? I signed up straight away! Not only will it help me save money and stitch up a few things that have been hiding away in drawers, but I might win prizes too! Do let me know if you're taking part as well :) The original post explaining all is here. 

I head back to Winchester tomorrow after a wonderful week in Glastonbury. I will cherish the time I have spent with my family, but I am looking forward to returning to my independent life in Winchester. New stitching projects await!

Best wishes to all, and Happy New Year!!! 

Festive Cheer (picture heavy!)

 Thank you all so much for the lovely comments left on my last post. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season, filled with friends, family and food!

I thought I'd do a picture walk today of all the Christmas goings on in my student house. I'm so looking forward to be spending Christmas with my family, but it's still nice to spend time with my house mates and decorate our house too :)

Here is our humble tree, complete with presents and home made decorations!

I'm sure you will recognise these little ornaments from my previous blog posts :) It's great to finally be able to display them properly. 

Also on display for the first time this year is my framed CCN Gingerbread House.

We had our house Christmas meal on Thursday, seeing as most of us were travelling on different days to get home. We didn't take the traditional route for food. We had a Mexican night! I was on cooking duty, which I love. I take such joy in preparing food for others, that we can all sit around the table and enjoy. I made two different types of chilli and a batch of rice, and we also had home made guacamole and Christmas tree-shaped tortilla chips! Very festive!

White rice and veggie chilli (sweet potato, spinach, peas, onion, kidney beans)

Meat chilli in the slow cooker (beef mince, pork mince and bacon)

After we were thoroughly stuffed from our delicious meal, it was time for presents! I received such a wonderful gift from my house mates. It was so thoughtful and perfect for me :) 

Isn't it charming? It's a wooden suitcase that's been decorated to look vintage. It's just so pretty and I love it! But even better, there were more goodies inside. 

A DVD from my wishlist, two vintage style coasters (I collect these) and an X-men comic. 

I feel truly lucky to have been given such a gorgeous gift. Big thank you to Kathryn and Lucy!!

I feel spoilt already and the big day isn't even here yet. I'm travelling tomorrow. I've got my tickets and booked seats so it should be fine, but you never know with our railway systems. Fingers crossed I make it to Glasto in good time. Yes, I am taking my stitching on the train :)

Best wishes and Merry Christmas,

 

December Update

Hello my friends! Goodness, what a busy month December has been. I've been swamped with assignments for most of the month. I'm glad to say they were all handed in on time and to the highest standard I could achieve. Fingers crossed for good marks! I'll find out after the Christmas break.

When I was spending my days chained to my desk, there was nothing I liked more than packing up all of my work at the end of the day and heading to my stitching chair. Although I haven't been blogging much, my needle has still been flying! I've got a finish to share :)

 

I finished Paws for Thought. This charming design was gifted to me from Cath. As it was mostly block stitching, it was the perfect stitch to relax with after a long day.

As soon as this one was finished, I couldn't resist diving into my stash! Another chart Cath sent me caught my eye. My grandmother loves sunflowers so I think this will make a perfect gift for her.

 

I like the shades used for the teddy bear, it's keeping things interesting.

 

I've spent this first week of holidays preparing for Christmas. I absolutely love this time of year. And now that I'm no longer working, I can go home for Christmas! Yippee! I shall be spending a week in Glastonbury with my parents and I'm so looking forward to it. Tonight, I'm having a meal with my housemates and we're exchanging gifts. I wonder what I'll get? So exciting!

I hope all of your Christmas preparations are running smoothly. I'll be back soon to share pics of our decorations :) I've seen some gorgeous trees on blogs recently, just lovely!

Best wishes,

 

 

200th Post Giveaway Winner!

Oops! I'm a day late with announcing the winner, but I'm sure you all know by now that I'm useless at sticking to schedules :P

I had 17 lovely commenters on my giveaway post and the comment the number generator selected was number 10. That comment was left by . . .

The Inspired Stitcher!

Congratulations to you, lovely lady! Please email me your mail address and I shall post the parcel as soon as possible :)

I've been very busy lately with writing for assignments and planning for Christmas. Even my stitching has taken a back seat! In two weeks, it will all be over and I can enjoy a restful holiday season, needle in hand :)

 

Best wishes to all,

Festive Fun

Wow! Thank you so much for your kind comments and well wishes on my last blog post. And thank you also for your blog reading tips, I've added a couple to my reader :) There is still time to enter my 200th post giveaway, just leave a comment on this post here.

As I've possibly mentioned before, I'm making a lot of my Christmas gifts this year. In between days filled with reading and writing, I decided to have a day off to play with my craft stuff. This is my creative mess!

 

As well as cutting fabric for a few presents, I also managed to finish up a couple of decorations for my own tree. They just needed sewing up and adding some ribbon. I can't wait to display these on our Christmas tree! First up is a Prairie Schooler freebie I stitched up awhile ago, now complete with "Merry Christmas" ribbon and cute heart buttons.

 

And I added ribbon and a pin to this other little design (I'm sorry, I can't remember the designer!) so that it will now hang neatly on the branch :)

 

I shall take pictures of all the completed gifts when they are ready to be wrapped and share them all. I'm really enjoyed making some special presents for the people closest to me :)

Have a lovely weekend!

 

 

200th Post Giveaway!

I love my little blog. Truly, I do. It's provided me with a means to not only share my love of cross stitching, but so much more. I've connected with people all over the world, some who I even consider as friends. I've also experienced kindness online and every single comment makes me beam. Thank you so much to my lovely readers. I can't believe I've been blogging since 2010! Where does the time go? I've been through so much since then, two jobs, moving to Winchester, going through University and tonnes of other stuff. I'll be blogging way past graduation, don't you worry about that :)

Just as a small thank you to my lovely followers, I'd like to offer a giveaway. This will be a little parcel of Christmas themed goodies, because it's my favourite holiday! Leave a comment on this post to be in with a chance of winning, and let me know your favourite blog. One that you always check up on every time you go online. I'm always looking for new stitchy blogs to add to my reader :) There is no need to post about my giveaway on your own blog, but thank you kindly if you do.

Entrance will close on 30th November. Best of luck to everyone.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading my little corner of the blogosphere. It really means an awful lot to me :)

Best wishes,

A Project Walk (Picture Heavy!)

I'm so excited to finally share this post. I've been stitching on this project since May, and it's my largest project to date. It was first bought over ten years ago as a present for my eleventh birthday. It's taken a long time for this novice stitcher to finally get good, but I've done it. Yes, Farmhouse is finally finished! :D

But you'll have to wait until the end of the picture walk to see the final pic ;) Needless to say, I'm overjoyed to finally have this project finished. It means I can move on to other exciting things, like Christmas stitching. I'm planning to have Farmhouse professionally framed and give it to my parents for Christmas. My mum has hinted more than once that it would look lovely in their country kitchen, and I must say I agree.

So, let's begin the journey at the very first few stitches . . .

 

Carol's favourite little black cat first makes an appearance!

 

 

 I just had to stitch the darling collies first, they're my favourite breed of dog and what attracted me to the design in the first place.

 Lots more animals join the farm :)

 

Thank goodness the border matched up first go! I can't tell you how relieved I was.

 

And here it is. Presenting, in all its crinkled glory, Farmhouse!!

 

 

The chart was literally in pieces by the time I'd finished, but at least I got it finished :) I can't thank you all enough for the kind words and encouragement I've had for this project. One of my motivations for finishing it was so I could share it with you all! Thank you so much :)

Now onto new and exciting projects! But first, I have my 200th post coming up and I'm thinking of a giveaway? Stay tuned!

Best wishes,

 

So close . . .

. . .  and yet so far! Farmhouse is so close to be completely finished. I have finished the backstitching on the centre panel and all of the animals I've stitched so far. I've also finished the border, thank goodness it match up on my first attempt! Just got to finish the geese, back stitch them and then that's a wrap! I thought I would save a picture of that project until the big reveal, I'm hoping it won't be a long wait :)

As well as Farmhouse, I've also made a little progress on my darling kitty kat stitch . . .

 

In other stitching news, I've inherited another project! The mother of one of my housemates kindly donated a box of her unfinished stuff to our house. We all got a share of threads and ribbon, as well as a couple of projects to finish. I got a Winnie The Pooh bookmark that I've nearly finished, and this lovely Popcorn design.

 

I think I will complete the remaining stitching and backstitching, then finish it up properly as a thank you for a generous gift. Here's hoping she will like it :)

I hope you've all got a lovely weekend planned. I'm spending the rest of the afternoon studying, but I'm visiting Lawrence tomorrow which is always great :)

Best wishes,

The First of Many

Hello everyone! Gosh, third year is definitely living up to its reputation of being tricky. I do have to work hard, but I like to reward myself with some stitching time at the end of the long day :)

I'm trying to make a lot of my present this year, so I thought I'd share the first one. This was for my housemate who is very young at heart.

 

This is actually the third David Tennant I have cross stitched - all gifts. The suitcase is from Cath Kidston, which my housemate wanted so that she could use it for storage. And the little wrapped parcel is Chocolate and Caramel flavoured coffee :) I'm pleased to say my first stitched gift this year was a success. I'm sure they'll be lots to come, especially in December!

 

I also have a Farmhouse update to share. I've started on the goats, which are all unfortunately scribbled in biro. I am managing to see the chart though, I'm just taking my time. I've been doing more backstitching on the house itself, as well as working more on the red border. I'm still on track for finishing this one this year :)

 

Right, that's enough from me. I've got some serious reading to do before my next lectures!

Best wishes to all,