from Carol

Hello there

Another little parcel arrived this week, this time from my dear friend Carol in the US.  Carol and I have been stitching buddies for many years now and we always exchange an ornament at Christmas time.

This year Carol has stitched a Prairie Schooler St Nick Santa for me, the first Prairie Schooler Santa to hang on the tree.

See you soon x

And the Christmas Decorations are up!

Hello there

This past Sunday Hannah and I spent the morning carting boxes of decorations from the garage and then deciding how we were going to decorate our lounge.

As you know my DH has been working on some house renovations over the past year or so, but at least this year there is a wall behind the Christmas tree! 

This is Hannah's Christmas tree, she put on all the decorations from her box, including ones she's made and ones she has been given.

DH's contribution was put up some new fairy lights on our deck :)

Some of my favourite Christmas treasures include this dolly made by Kath

The new tree with all my stitched ornaments, mostly ones received over the years from friends

Hannah's Nativity set

A little tree for some Mill Hill beaded ornaments

Some more treasured Christmas items, the small angel was made by Kath, embroidered bear was given to me by Mum and the other angel was made by a work friend

This special angel hangs at the top of the tree

Two new Christmas friends given to me last year by Clare

In just over two weeks I start my summer holidays so I guess that means Christmas is now only three weeks away!!!

See you soon x

Ornament from a Friend

Hello there

A little parcel arrived in the post on Saturday morning, all the way from the UK, from my stitching friend Andrea.

I was very excited to receive this gorgeous ornament from Andrea, she has stitched and finished it so beautifully.

This is the lovely card Andrea also sent.

I really treasure receiving stitched ornaments from my stitching friends, and this year we have a new Christmas tree, just for all the lovely ornaments I've been given over the years. Photos to come soon!

Some 2013 Ornaments

Hello there

Here's the first batch of my 2013 ornaments finished and ready to be gifted before Christmas :)

Most of these have been stitched over recent months but it wasn't until just recently that I found some time to sit at my sewing machine for a decent sewing session.

As always, thanks so much taking the time to leave a comment or send me an email :)

See you soon x

Lately

Hello there

Hasn't the last week gone by fast and of course, now December is nearly here there's definitely no chance of the days slowing down!

I've been trying to fit in a bit of sewing whenever I can lately, even hand sewing during my lunch breaks at work. Over the past few months I've been working on some Christmas crafts here and there and now it's time to get them made up and popped into the pressie box.  

This is the ornament I chose to stitch for my lovely Mum, made into a hanging Christmas cracker.

Love Jingles Flip it by Lizzie Kate

stitched on 32 ct cream linen with recommended threads

These little angels, design by Rosalie Quinlan, were made up from the kit I purchased during our Auckland holiday:

Pretty quick and easy to make so I'd like to make a few more sometime.

Last weekend Hannah and I headed away for the weekend to Palmerston North to stay with family and do some Christmas shopping. As always, we had a wonderful time, lots of laughs, good food and company!

I love this photo of Hannah I snapped while we'd stopped for a cold drink and snack at one of the cafes, boy, did it get hot there over the weekend!

We spent lots of time with this lovely lady, my cousin Donna, and on Saturday evening we went for a walk through a new nature reserve being worked on just down the road from where Donna lives. This is going to be a beautiful spot in years to come once all the planting and walkways are completed.

Glenn had a great weekend too, he spent a couple of days with friends on a chartered fishing trip in the Marlborough Sounds, something he'd been wanting to do for a long time, and came home with lots of delicious fresh fish! 

See you soon x

Nordic Holiday ornaments

Hello there

This little set of Prairie Schooler ornaments were stitched during my October holiday break, and I've finally got around to making them into simple felt backed ornaments.

Hope you're enjoying the weekend!

See you soon x

Lizzie Kate Christmas Mystery Part 2

Hello friends

The weekend is almost here, yay, and I'm looking forward to having some quality stitching time and catching up with my dear friend Kath on Saturday. I'd invited my other stitching buddies too but they all had other plans, that's what happens at this time of the year!

I finished Part 2 on this pretty sampler by Lizzie Kate recently, what a lovely stitch and gorgeous colours.

The last part of the sampler is on its way and should be here any day now. I ordered the charts, threads and fabric from Anita at Little Stitches in the US, who always provides such great service!

Have a wonderful weekend whatever your plans might be!

See you soon xx

Plum Street Samplers SAL Part 1-6

Hello there

Have you seen this lovely free stitchalong by Paulette of Plum Street Samplers?  It's been going for a few weeks now but I only decided to start it last week.

What was I thinking choosing black fabric! Ha ha.  I liked the look of the design on the black but it's been really tricky getting a decent photo of the colours. I'm using the recommended DMC threads. There's only a few parts to go now.

See you soon x

Silent Night

Hello there

I've been stitching on the last of the 2013 ornaments for the Christmas pressie box over the past few days.

This ornament is for my niece Zoe.

Silent Night by Lizzie Kate

stitched with DMC threads, 32ct natural belfast

See you soon x

This weekend

Hello there

Happy Monday - how was your weekend? Ours went by so quickly once again, trying to fit in too many things to do and places to go!

here's a few snaps from the weekend:

Some pretty new scissors - the newly released Julia Ginghers. I can't resist these every time a new pattern comes out!

A new Christmas magazine to read  - another addiction of mine, love collecting these every year!

Hannah started junior cricket after school on Friday afternoon and had a great time, even with that pesky cast on! Only a few more days until it's coming off :)

Then it was off to the local A & P Show on Saturday, the girls had a lovely time.

Yesterday afternoon I "tried" to get some nice photos of Hannah to pop into this year's family Christmas cards but no such luck, ha ha.

Glenn planted our new mini fruit trees - mandarin, lemon and lime, and then last night, changed his mind and added some bigger stakes :)

I got out my favourite cook book from last summer, Simple Pleasures by Annabel Langbein, to pick out something for last night's dessert, and went with the one pot apple spice cake, it's just delicious with custard.



Annabel Langbein has a new summer manual out and I picked this up from the local bookshop recently. I hadn't had a chance to try any of the recipes out until yesterday so decided to make the carrot, honey and orange muffins for our lunch box treats this week.

Yummo!  A little bit of cream cheese icing on the top would have gone down even nicer so I'll remember that for next time as I'll definately make these again :)

See you soon x