Catching Up

It’s hard to believe how quickly the weeks are flying by—it’s already December! It’s been a few weeks since my last post, and now there are only two weeks left until my summer holidays begin, with Glenn starting his break at the same time.

The last few weeks have been filled with a trip away, work activities, school prizegiving, hot days, family visiting and as always, lots of stitching.

Glenn and I had a weekend in Auckland recently, this time for the Lenny Kravitz concert, which was awesome!  We spent the weekend with my brother in law Paul and sister in law Jude, and had a fantastic time.  

I always enjoy trying out the seasonal drinks at Starbucks - this was a peppermint mocha frappe,  much needed after an afternoon of walking up and down Queen Street, shopping and finding things Hannah had on her Christmas list lol.

We had a great flight coming home and the views coming into land at Napier were stunning.

You know summer is here when strawberries start appearing - yummo!

Beautiful iceberg roses at my aunty's house

A treat bought back from Auckland, a new Glasshouse Fragrance candle, Naughty & Nice, 

Hannah has now finished high school for the year, and she has had a very successful year. She received awards in Trades, Life skills and also, from her Hair & Beauty course.  Another milestone achieved recently when Hannah passed her practical driving test (restricted here in New Zealand). Hannah has her final ever dancing show to perform in coming up, which will be very emotional for her, as she is finishing all her classes, after all these years.

Last weekend we headed along to the annual Christmas Farmers market, and had a lovely time browsing all the stalls of handmade goodies and trying out some new food trucks.

These soda drinks were absolutely delicious, especially as it was super hot day!

A little parcel arrived recently from Helen at That Crafty Kiwi.  I ordered some Cedar River linen for the Daily Reminder chart by Brenda Gervais.  This is going to be one of my summer holidays projects.

Couldn't resist the 2025 Wee Santa from Heart in Hand :)

Another recent purchase came from a shop called the Yarn Bowl in Australia, and this cool little container is called a Notion Nook, for any little stitching or knitting notions.

Now for some stitching, Candy Cane Santa - I just love working on these designs

A small bit of progress on Garden of Quilts by Lori Holt 

I'm looking forward to the 2025 Jingle Ball getting underway this coming weekend. This year I purchased two of the classes and I haven't managed to start either class yet, maybe they'll be holiday projects?  You get thirty days to view the class videos so I'll be sure to watch so I can make sense of the finishing instructions.

Looks like we're for some hot days coming up over the next week, forecast to hit 30 C over several consecutive days, which will mean our swimming pool will be getting a lot of use!

Have a fun weekend, see you soon x

Several finishes, knitting, beach trips and more

Hi friends, lots of stitching and putting the final touches on previous stitching finishes has been happening lately. The craft sales event I'm donating some items to is now only a few weeks away. I gave myself a deadline to have everything finished by the first Friday in November.  Whew, I made it! Now I can get back into some of my own stitching projects and finish a few gifts.

These ornaments were fun to stitch and make up.

Lori Holt - Vintage Christmas sampler, a selection of the little squares. 

Little House Needleworks - Gingerbread Cookie, one of my all time favourite ornament designs, which I think I've stitched about four times now.

Lori Holt - Vintage Christmas sampler, a section of the design.

Stitching with the Housewives - Santa's Pals

Finished earlier this year, the 2024 Christmas Stitch along by the Tiny Modernist

Stitching with the Housewives - Claus Christmas, stitched in late 2024

Cottage Garden Samplings - Christmas Parade, stitched in 2024

I also knitted up some booties over a couple of nights. Pattern can be found here

We did make it out to Porangahau Beach late last month for four days.  The weather had been terrible all week, and there had been wind warnings too.  It was pretty much windy the entire time we were there but we still had a good couple of days with our friends and enjoyed the break.

Last week we decided to go out to the beach after work on Friday afternoon, this time we went to Pourerere Beach.  The weather was the complete opposite to our previous trip - sunny and hot, just perfect. 

It was a very relaxing weekend, I read one book, read half of another, and watched a couple of movies. 

Glenn was happy with his fishing efforts, and Hannah and her friend enjoyed several swims in the sea and going boogie boarding.

This past week has seen the first of the roses in my garden bloom - I always like to see which one is first. This year it was "Courage", the rose given to us by friends when Glenn's dad passed away earlier in the year.

The gorgeous smelling Freesia was next, 

When we got home on Sunday,  the stunning Blackberry Nip was out too, just divine.

This coming weekend, Glenn and I are heading to Auckland with my brother in law and sister in law for a concert.  There might just be some time to start some Christmas shopping!

See you soon x

All sorts

It's been a few weeks since my last post - the weeks seem to be rolling on by so quickly, and it's now only a week until the end of October, crazy! I thought I'd do a little round up of what has been happening around here, including some more finishing and a new start.

Hannah and I have both been unwell over the past fortnight, nasty viral infections, and both of us ended up with ear infections too, I've never had one before, not very pleasant. Spent a small fortune on doctor appointments and medications lately!

Remember how we lost half of one of our big trees in the high winds a few weeks back? Well, this led to all the trees along this fence line being chopped down.  Glenn decided to redo the fence, his brother Paul gave him a hand to replace all the iron and the fence posts.  Last weekend we replaced all the topsoil, and then replanted this garden with new hedging plants, Grisilinia geckos, which will eventually grow to about to about the height of the fence. Lots of work but hopefully from now it will be easy maintenance of this garden.

I'm slowly getting through the finishing pile, all of these designs were stitched earlier this year.

Cottontail and Company by Scattered Seeds Samplers:

Peace & Goodwill by Brenda Gervais:

Spring Fling by Brenda Gervias:

All is Calm by October House Fibre Arts:

Next up is a bunch of little kits from the Ribbon Rose in Auckland that arrived recently, which to stitch first? I also got some thread snips, they are so handy to have by the sewing machine.

A friend gave me this beaded fob she made for me, so cute!

I couldn't resist purchasing Lori Holt's new chart last week, Garden of Quilts, and I have made small start.

This is the lovely stitching folio my friend Clare gave me last year for my birthday. 

Pretty threads, all Classic Colourworks

The fabric I'm using is Weeks Dye Works 36 count Rhyolite linen.

I'm looking forward the 2025 Jingle Ball in early December, and this year I have purchased two of the classes, yay, PDF charts, as kits are not available to overseas stitchers. The good thing is if your class pieces are not stitched in time for the finishing classes over the weekend, you have 30 days to view the class, and each class also comes with instructions. I still haven't finished my 2024 classes yet, lol. 

This coming weekend we get a four day break thanks to two public holidays, Hawkes Bay anniversary tomorrow, and then Labour Day on Monday. We're heading out in the campervan for our first trip of the season to Porangahau Beach.  Friends will also be there with their campervans so it should be a fun weekend catching up with everyone, fishing and lots of walks along the beach with Diesel.  The forecast for later today and this evening isn't very good, but hopefully from tomorrow on the sun will be out.

See you soon x