Hello 2011

Hello all! I've been very preoccupied recently with family gatherings and dinners out with friends to celebrate the turning of the year. I had a very relaxing New Years Eve with my boyfriend and a few friends. It was perfect :) Now I'm ready for 2o11. I always like making resolutions at the start of the year, and even if I don't manage to stick to them, it's still nice to have them. My personal resolutions for this year are :
1) Work hard for good grades for Uni.
2) Have more picnics
3) Take more film when on outings.

And onto the more stitching related ones, this year I'd like to:
1) Complete an LHN design (I keep seeing them on fellow blogs and I really want to do one myself)
2) Host a giveaway
3) Take part in a small exchange (my sewing knowledge is too small to take part in a challenging exchange, yet)
4) Work on my fairies design (I really can't let it hide away for another year lol)
5) Stitch something for a RAK
6) Complete the ornament a month challenge (I would love to have more cross stitched pieces to display when next Christmas rolls round)
These are things that I would like to do throughout the year and I will celebrate my first bloganniversary this year. If that's not reason for a giveaway I don't know what is!

I'm very late in counting up my finishes for this year, but I've only got 11. That's pretty good for me, even though I know fellow bloggers can do five times that amount lol. My biggest design finish of the year was Charlie's Ark which is the piece I first started blogging about. I'm hoping to do many more finishes this year, in lots more finishing styles.

In other news, I did a fair bit of stitching over the Christmas holiday and this is where I'm up to on The Foxes. The girl is just starting to grow and the foxes are all finished, apart from the backstitching. I'm going to keep this design for me and frame it; it's already got a place on my wall waiting for it :)


I got a fair bit of Christmas money and I was thinking of purchasing my own sewing machine. I'm sewing more pillows than ever before, but I rarely get to use the Singer sewing machine we have now because it's very precious to my mum. I was thinking of getting a small but reliable machine of my own so I could get it out whenever I wanted rather than wait for my mum to get out the Singer. What do you think? And do you have any suggestions for good sewing machines? Any advice would really be appreciated :)

We're back at school now and I'm lucky not to have any January module exams this year. There's no let up on the coursework though, and the next Drama performance is in a couple of months. No worries though, I've still got plenty of time for stitching :)
Hope you're all having a great week,

I am still here!

I apologise for being absent from my blog for much of December. I've been using the holiday season to spend time with family and friends, catch up on the school work and eat far too much of course! I hope you're all having a wonderful festive season and got everything you wanted for Christmas.
I have been stitching quite a lot and will be showing progress as well as a few finished pieces when I return in January. I'm hoping to start an Ornament a Month challenge like the ones I love reading about on fellow blogs. We'll see how that goes.

Happy New Year to everyone!

Little Steps

Yet another busy week of work - both school and my job. I haven't had much time for blogging or stitching which gets me down a little. I can't wait for the Christmas holidays for some time to relax but we've still got another week to go. I'm sure everything will be fine in the end, just got to battle through!
I did manage to finish my first Lizzie*Kate piece this past week, complete with miniature buttons!

I really enjoyed stitching this little beauty and will probably do it again in time for next time. I'm turning this into a pillow when I get a chance, and speaking of pillows, I've started preparing my Twilight pillows . . .

I do all the tacking etc. before Mum gets the sewing machine out to save time. It's an old Singer that used to belong to my grandmother, so I'm only allowed to use it when Mum's around, just in case :) What do you think is the best homemade gift? Home baked things are always good for me, particularly from a friend of mine who made me a special cake just because she thought I was looking a bit down. Thanks Georgina!
On a side note from stitching, my University application was sent off this week so I will hopefully be offered places soon by my chosen Unis. Exciting!
I hope you are all having a lovely (and more productive than me!) week and I'll check in soon.

Winter Stitching

Last week consisted of too much coursework and not enough stitching. Add another 18th Birthday celebration and I had a very busy week indeed. I managed to get in all my work though and I've got used to the routine of my new job. I have, as promised to myself made a start on Be Naughty . . .

I'm sorry about the quality of the picture, I'm not quite sure why it came out all blurry. I hope to finish this one very soon, so I can "finish" it in time for Christmas. Onto to further stitching news, I've been working well on The Foxes.

Maybe this piece is a little too Autumnal, but because of the girl's cosy hat, I think I will continue stitching on this through winter. It might have to take a back seat for the Christmas stitching though. Talking of Christmas stitching, I was very disappointed with my latest issue of CrossStitcher magazine. I was hoping that it would contain some nice card designs or ornament ideas but the ones they featured were so simple and basic - not what you'd expect from a Christmas issue. Luckily, the Internet has provided me with many freebies that I'm looking forward to stitching up soon.Do you have a favourite magazine around Christmas time that you just have to have?
The snow has just arrived in my village, but not too much. I expect it will become heavier in the next couple of days or so. Stay safe and keep warm!

Mysterious Fog . . .

Hello all, hope you're all settling into the colder season with plenty of warm woollies and cups of hot chocolate. These two things sum up my past week! Schoolwork has calmed down a little bit, only two more pieces of coursework to go. My first thing I have to share is the bizarre fog we had a couple of days ago.

Now, fog might not seem remarkable but this photo was taken at 4:30pm! This is the first time I've seen fog last for so long, does this happen much where you live?
Onto the stitching news, I ordered some new stash again. I do try and keep my spending to a minimum so I buy one lots of stash each month. This is November's batch and it was only a little one.

The Crescent Colours "Black Coffee" is going to be used to stitch one of the Britty Kitty designs that I got in my last stash enhancement. The others are DMC and will be used for the two Lizzie*Kate designs I also purchased. I'm starting on this one this evening . . .

Yep, I'm getting underway with my seasonal stitching, I think it might be my favourite thing to stitch. Thank you so much for your comments about what to stuff your pillows with. I have ordered some polyester stuffing that should arrive in the next week or so. I think it's great that a relatively new stitcher like me can have access to the wealth of knowledge from stitchers in blogland. So thanks again!
I'll be back with a new start and a progress pic on The Foxes, which I have been working on this past week. I hope you are all having a lovely week, plus it's Friday tomorrow! :)

Project Finishes

This past week was really manic for me, which is why I haven't got round to blogging at all. There's coursework due in and University applications to complete, as well as starting my job this weekend. I do enjoy all areas of my life, but sometimes they do get in the way of each other :) I have been making time for stitching though, it relaxes me after busy days. My Twilight stitching is all done, just need to get the sewing machine out and transform them into pillows . . .

Can I ask, what do you use to stuff your pillows/ornaments with? For my previous ones, I used cut up bits of wadding so they were soft to the touch, but I would like to use something harder this time, like for pin pillows. Any advice about what you use and where I could possibly get the same product would be much appreciated :)
In other stitchy news, look what I finished!

This only needed a bit more beading on it, so I finished it up one evening. I didn't really like the big red stars on the top band so I replaced them with the year instead. This was my first Mill Hill finish, and I did enjoy it, but I think I would like a break from beading now! Mum said she's going to find a frame for it so we can display it at Christmas.
Speaking of Christmas, is anyone else already excited? I love Christmas time, especially in our village. There's carol services and decorating the green, all sorts. My next stitching project is going to be something Christmas themed so that I can hold my very first giveaway for Christmas. Look out for it!
I hope you are all having/had a lovely weekend and keeping warm in the autumn weather.

Autumn Projects

Half term is over now and it's back at school. But it's not boring because we're having a fancy dress day tomorrow! To raise funds for the Christmas Fayre, younger school pupils are allowed to wear their own clothes but because we get to do that every day, we get to dress up. Our challenge for this day was to dress as something beginning with "C". My idea (and I hope I will be the only one) is to go dressed as a Christmas Tree! I've got my costume all ready and I'll see if I can get a decent pic to share with you all :)
Onto stitchy news, the Twilight project is nearly complete with only one and a half squares left to go. These are really simple designs so stitch up quite quickly. Then I will move onto to making them into pillows.



I was working quite a lot during half term on The Foxes which is starting to take shape. You might be able to see from the picture (they should be clickable) that the little toadstools are shimmering. You combine one strand of floss and one strand of glitter to make them sparkle. I've never used this technique before and I really like it. So here's where I'm at on The Foxes.

I start my new job next weekend, but this weekend I'm going to a fireworks display and then to a party. Homework will have to wait till Sunday!
I hope you're all having a lovely week,