Christmas 2018

 Hello, I hope each and every one of you had a wonderful Christmas - we certainly did. Filled with family, love and laughter, lots of delicious food and drink and a massive amount of rain. I can't even remember the last time it rained Christmas Day here lol.

It feels like the past week or so has gone by in such a blur - end of the year school activities for Hannah, special functions for my work and Glenn's, followed by a family friend's 21st birthday celebrations. Today is the first quiet day for us in what feels like ages!

So back tracking to Christmas Eve, Hannah's annual photo by the Xmas tree, next year she is most definitely going to be taller than our tree lol.

 A few Christmas treats - Tim Tam truffles, chocolate brownie and apricot & marshmellow log.

New pjs' on Christmas Eve, one our little traditions since Hannah's first Christmas

Delivering some presents, in between the showers of rain

Enjoying a glass of bubbles or two, knowing that we're all set and prepped for Christmas Day

As usual, Hannah was awake bright and early to see what was under the tree for her.

We all received some lovely presents.

Then we crossed the road to enjoy breakfast with my parents, brother and niece, and Abby too.

This year we decided to have a low key Christmas and invited my immediate family and Glenn's for Christmas dinner. Another round of pressie opening too!

 This was pretty much the view of the window most of the day until late afternoon/ early evening.

On our menu this year we had hot ham, roast beef, pork and chicken, prawn salad, pasta salad and lettuce salad, new potatoes freshly dug from Dad's garden and baby peas.

And bubbles too :)

Dessert was brandy snaps, ambrosia, Xmas treats, fresh raspberries and boysenberries, cherries, fruit salad, ice cream and pavlova.

So in all a wonderful day xxx


The following day, Boxing Day, we headed up to Hastings to check out the sales. As did almost every other person in Hawkes Bay ha ha.

A few very exciting purchases later, a new washing machine to complete our laundry reno, and a brand new lounge suite!  Wahoo, very much looking forward to it arriving in 6-8 weeks time.

So now Christmas has been, it's time to relax and chill out, enjoying our summer break.

See you soon xx

Merry Christmas 2018 xx

Merry Christmas dear friends,

I hope you have a fun filled Christmas with lots of love and laughter.

Thank you for your friendship this year, and for stopping by here, all your comments really mean a lot to me and I look forward to sharing my stitching with you during 2019.

Take care, and safe travels too if you are going to be out and about. All the best for the festive season and I hope that Santa is very kind to you!

Joyeux Noel

I received this gorgeous chart from Kath last year for Christmas and finally stitched it this last week or so.

Peppermint Twist by With Thy Needle & Thread, stitched on 36 ct Weeks Dye Works twilight linen with all the recommended thread.

See you soon x

From Friends

Two more lovely gifts arrived this week - an addition to my little pillow basket from Kath:

And from Clare, an ornament for the tree, a little Christmas drum.

Many thanks again to these two lovely ladies, I just love both of them!

See you soon xx

Two finishes

Taking inspiration from Priscilla's blog, I recently finished this little design into a hanging. This is for my auntie Stephanie, who looks after Hannah for us before and after school each day. She loves decorating for Christmas and she will love this I'm sure:

"Tis the Season" by Country Cottage Needleworks, colours used suggested by Priscilla.

My one and only red work stitchery this year has been finished and given to my lovely Mum.

This is another cute design by Gail Pan and the variegated thread is a Cottage Garden thread called Kangaroo Paw.

See you soon xx

From Carol

Another  little parcel arrived this week, from my dear friend Carol in the US. I was thinking about how long Carol and I have been friends for and I know it's been quite a few years now, maybe from the early days of stitching message boards and blogs?? Remember the stitching boards - I used to do so many exchanges, round robins, etc, where did I find the time, lol.

Carol knows my love of With thy Needle and Thread designs and this little cutie has been on my to stitch list for ages.  

Finished off so lovely, as always. Of course, Miss H claimed the candy can chap stick ha ha.
Don't you just love the card too.  Many thanks again Carol xx

See you soon xx

New Additions to the Trees

Today's post is about some new additions to our Christmas trees.

I work with some very lovely ladies and they are all very talented with their various crafts, and these skills they share with the clients at our disability service. Each year they make a numerous amount of Christmas ornaments, which helps to raise funds for the following year's activity programme.  I just love seeing what they come up, some get repeated from year to year as they are very popular, and there's always several new designs, which they have sourced from Pinterest or other websites.  

I couldn't resist this cutie for Hannah:

And this Santa, which I've made before myself several years ago:

Hannah made this little stocking all by herself :

This beautiful ballet lady was gifted to Hannah by her Granny & Pop.  Hannah started ballet for the first time earlier in the year. We were very proud when she passed her first exam back in August with Distinction, way to go Hannah!

And lastly, who could resist this cute reindeer with a red nose, which I found recently at the Warehouse.

See you soon x

Fa la la - feeling festive at our house

Our Christmas decorations have been out for few weeks, Hannah wanted to put them out at the beginning of November!! We spent a rainy Sunday afternoon getting the boxes out, listening to Christmas music and fa -la -la -ing away. 

So let me share some of our ornaments and other decorations, some stitched, some hand crafted, some bought, some new and some old, a very random collection but all very much loved and treasured. 

We have two trees in our lounge this year - I keep saying every year I'm going to buy a bigger tree!

This is Hannah's tree, with some of her treasured ornaments.

So there we go, all decked out for Christmas, which is now only 7 sleeps away!

See you soon xx