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

A Finish and Yummy Treats

This design has been so much fun to stitch over the past few months. It's pretty well travelled too, having been with me on my trip to visit my cousin, and then to the beach several times as well.

This is Christmas Cuckoo Clock by the Tiny Modernist, last year's mystery Christmas stitch along.

I used all the recommended DMC threads and 32 count vintage grey Belfast linen. 

So happy to have another of my 2024 projects ticked off the list!

It's been quite hot here this week, we've days that have reached 30c plus, so a friend and I went along to check out a newly opened cafe in town, Rubylicious Cakes.  This lemon meringue raspberry cupcake was divine, 

So was this passionfruit ice cream, yum!

See you soon xx

Welcome to 2025

Hello friends and happy 2025 to you, ha ha, just as we hit the last week of January! 

Glenn and I are both back at work after our summer break, Hannah is back to high school for Year 12 (second to last year) for course confirmation later this week and peer mentor training, and then her school year officially kicks off next week. 

The weather here after Christmas was pretty crazy, as you'll see later on my post, lots of rain so some of our summer holiday plans didn't eventuate but that's ok, there were plenty of things to do around home and Glenn made some great progress on painting our house and other jobs.

So here's bit of a round up from Christmas and New Year before I get on with this year's goings on in another post or two.

These dahlia's from my aunty's garden are just so "Christmasy" - I've asked if I can have a tuber or two, they remind me of candy canes. 

Glenn took us out for our annual Christmas eve lunch, this year to a new-ish Indian restaurant in town. 

Christmas Day was such a lovely day, started with a walk along the river trail with Diesel. We had family come for Christmas dinner and enjoyed all the usual Kiwi Christmas treats.

I made a chocolate brownie trifle, which everyone loves, and it's so much better the next day!

Between Christmas and New Year, we easily filled our days with house painting, a shopping trip for the Boxing day sales, catch ups with family and friends, decluttering and lots of stitching, reading, watching Netflix, etc. 

As I mentioned, our weather has not been very summer like, we even had snow on the ranges to the east of town on the 5th January, this is the view from the end of our driveway. My parents even had their fire going, crazy stuff!

More holiday adventures to share in my next few posts.

Moving onto a stitching update - this is the stitching bag I made for our stitching group's Christmas Swap, the design is by Primrose Cottage Stitches. 

I decided to order this year's Book Of Days by Needlework Press to record my stitching and plans. It couldn't travel on its own from That Crafty Kiwi so ordered the cutest needle minder and some fabrics.

The two holiday stitching projects I chose to stitch over the break are both finished - 

Santa & Cardinal Birdhouse by Jim Shore for Mill Hill:

Christmas Magic by Primrose Cottage Stitches, stitched on 32 count natural Belfast linen using the recommended DMCs.

For the rest of my holidays I've mostly stitched on the Christmas Cuckoo House by the Tiny Modernist. I'm hoping to finish it this week then I can move on to some of my 2025 stitching plans. I have so many things I'd like to work on this year, including some red work embroidery projects, which I haven't done for quite some time.

See you soon xx

 Thank you for all the lovely comments left on my last post - I truly appreciate every one! 

It's been a crazy busy time lately but I wanted to share a few pics of what's been happening around here and a few other goodies.

First up, my current stitching projects: this past weekend I started Peace & Goodwill by Brenda Gervais. I'm using the recommended threads and 36 count Picture this Plus Legacy linen.

I'm now up to Part 3 on the Tiny Modernist Christmas Cuckoo House, I'm really enjoying stitching this quirky design. There's a lot of stitching in Part 3 so it might take me awhile!

From Jingle Ball 2024, the Gingerbread House Sewing Book. 

This year's Jingle Ball was held over the recent weekend, and although I didn't participate in any of the designer meet and greets, stitching tables, or virtual meet ups, I still had a lot of fun making a few purchases from the designers including the Jingle Ball Bauble Book, which has ornaments from all the designers participating. I have two other class patterns that I'm still working on: Tiny Modernist's Gingerbread House and Hands on Design's Hashtag Joy, which I hope to get all finished during my holiday break.

Hannah's last performance of the year was held recently. It was such a lovely morning watching all the children. This year Hannah was a student teacher, which she loved, helping out with the younger students' ballet classes.  Hannah and her friends, such a beautiful group of girls, before their performance.

December 1st rolled around quickly this year, and carrying on the tradition since she was a baby, Hannah received some Christmas Pyjamas on the 1st December. 

This year's Christmas decorating was all done by Hannah, so good to have a helpful teenager in the house!

I think I've shared this angel before, it's one of my very treasured Christmas decorations - made nearly 30 years ago by a dear friend no longer with us.

A new ornament made by a friend

Hannah's 2024 Christmas ornament, I couldn't resist buying this sweet glass ice cream ornament for her.

Look how young we are here - I think Hannah is only 18 months old 

Another dearly treasured ornament, given to Hannah by Glenn's mum, the last Christmas before she passed away.  

Our gorgeous girl, before her senior school prizegiving last week where she received a first in class award for Trades. So proud of her xx

Have a wonderful week. See you soon xx