All sorts of things

Hi friends,
Another week’s flown by and we’re right in the middle of winter here in NZ. At this rate, spring will be sneaking up on us before we know it!

I finished this fun project, Spring Quaker by Primrose Cottage Stitches during my holiday break. I used DMC threads and the fabric is an ice blue Lugana that I've had in my stash for a very long time. I think this will be made into a little thread bag, when I eventually get to my sewing machine!

I visited my local sewing shop the other day and found some new Lynette Anderson Christmas fabrics had come in.

I also got some supplies to make a new stitching folder or bag, and a handful of needed DMCs.

Andrea, the owner, gave me this very cute Tula Pink bag, 

Can you believe Diesel is now three years old!  He's just such a joy, loves his food, walks along the river tracks, a good snuggle, and lately, enjoying laying in front of a roaring fire. 

I've been enjoying some baking and meal prep lately.  These scones are so easy to make, and go well with a bowl of soup on a winter's day.  

One of our favourite's for lunches, VJ Cook's Banana and choc chip slice, a good way to use up bananas. Minus the choc chips the other day as we'd run out!

I've been reading a lot lately, and this is my latest read.  Steffanie Holmes is a NZ author and was a local girl during her high school years, a few years behind me at college. This is the first of her books I've read. 

Lastly for today, a few photos of our beautiful girl from the evening of her school ball.  Hannah looked stunning and she had a fabulous evening with her friends. 

Her shoes for the night were actually my wedding shoes - I knew I'd kept them for a reason, ha ha.  

Have a happy week, see you soon with some of the Jolly July stitching I've finished xx

New stitching starts and poor Diesel!

Hello friends, each year I look forward to joining the Tiny Modernist's mystery Christmas stitch along, which gets underway on the 1st September. Parts are released each month leading up to Christmas. 

This year's design is a Christmas Cuckoo Clock - looks like I'm in for a lot of stitching on this one!

My fabric choice is 32 count Vintage Grey Belfast linen, which I was able to buy at my local sewing shop, Curtis Fabrics.

My stitching so far

I also decided to start this sweet design on the weekend, the threads in this design are so pretty.

Spring time here in Central Hawkes Bay means it's the annual Spring Fling time, with various events being held throughout September and October. This Saturday's event was a market held at one of our local parks with lots of stalls, food trucks, and entertainment. Hannah and I went along with my friend Sherryn, and we had a lovely time strolling around in the sunshine. So many people out and about.

 

Hannah had her annual dancing exams over the weekend too, jazz and ballet, and she was very happy how they went.  

We went along to our local movie theatre Saturday night to see the new Beetlejuice movie, which was bit of a laugh, quite cheesy. I was a teenager when the first movie came out, I don't know how many times I would have watched it. I also used to love watching any movie with Winona Ryder in it.

Glenn has made a great job on getting the small deck done off our laundry.  The boxing part to the left of this photo will eventually be a small garden.

Poor Diesel, he was so unwell late last week, which was very worrying We'd noticed a few days earlier he seemed really lethargic and snorting a lot, and then on Friday morning, he was making some loud "coughing" noises. I was able to drop him into our vets on my way to work Friday morning and after a thorough check up, Glenn was able to collect him after lunch, three lots of medication and lots of $$ later, it turns out he has an ear infection again, skin irritations and congestion. After lots of care and attention, and the medicines kicking in, this week he is a lot better and will go back to the vets on the weekend for another check up. 

See you soon x

Stitching in July and more

Hello friends, 

this month I've been Jolly July stitching, a Christmas design stitch along that has been running each July for a few years now.  

My first choice is Claus Christmas by Stitching with the Housewives, this design has been in my stitching basket since it first came out. I'm using the recommended DMC threads on 32 count black linen.

 

The second design I chose to start is the Green Coat Santa by Teresa Kogut, a Patreon chart released back in July 2022. My fabric is 32 count natural linen and I'm using the recommended threads.

Priscilla and Chelsea's latest little series is so cute - I had to add these to my July stitching bag. 

We are very excited as a family friend and her husband are expecting their first baby, a daughter, in a few weeks time.  I started knitting a few little hats a few months ago and also two little cardigans.  If you ever need a baby knitting pattern, do check out Mariana Lazy Daisy's blog. I have knit so many of her lovely patterns over the years. 

We recently travelled to Wellington for the weekend to catch up with our friends and to go along to their baby shower. It was a lovely afternoon, lots of delicious snacks and drinks, and fun baby shower games.  Hannah and Glenn did very well at one of the games and won me a bottle of wine ha ha.

The rest of the weekend was spent mostly at the mall shopping, and we enjoyed a lovely meal out with our friends.  A trip to Wellington is so much quicker now you drive through Transmission Gully, it was just under three hours from home to our motel.

It's school holidays right now here in NZ so Diesel has been enjoying hanging out with Hannah, lots of snuggles together as its been quite cold some days.  Here he is, waiting patiently and watching out for either Glenn or I to get home from work, so cute.

Diesel will be two years old this coming Friday, he's just such a joy, he brings us so much fun and laughter.

Have a fun week, see you soon xx

And just like that, it's July

How did it get to be July already, the last few weeks seem to have just whizzed by and here in New Zealand we're now fully into winter with some chilly days but also sunny days which help to keep the winter blues away.

I'm getting through my pile of stitching to be finished ever so slowly, ha ha.  This design by Primrose Cottage Stitches was my choice for April's ornament.

Then for May, I chose Winter Blessings by Plum Street Samplers.

Each week I pick one of my sampler projects out of my stitching basket to focus on, and then over the weekend I'll pick up something "small" to stitch on. Lately it's been these cute designs by Satsuma Street, Lolly Claus and Candy Claus.

 

They have been a lot of fun to stitch, I haven't stitched anything on perforated paper for a long time. I have several others in the series to stitch over the coming months.

Finally, I finished these socks which I'm pretty sure have been on the go for over two years! The yarn is by Mondim and I used the Basic 4ply Sock knitting pattern by Christine from Winwick Mum. 

My knitting mojo has well and truly returned as I've also been doing some knitting for a friend having a baby in August.

We try and get out walking with Diesel as often as we can, and this past Sunday was fairly warm while we walked by the river. We have several good tracks to pick from.

Of course, Diesel doesn't hesitate to jump straight in the water! 

This was my recently pile of library reserves. I've been reading a lot lately, taking my book to read during my lunch break, otherwise I'd have my lunch and go back straight to work.  

Have you read anything good lately?

Now I'm off to kit up one or two new projects for Jolly July, have a happy week.

See you soon x

Now it's June

Hello friends, it's now officially winter here in New Zealand and where I live, on the east coast of the North Island we've had some settled weather, a tad cold but mostly sunny days and not a lot of rain lately. This morning we had a boomer frost and it was only 1 c when I left for work. Brrr, out came the handwarmers!

This past weekend we enjoyed a three day weekend thanks to King's weekend on Monday 3rd June. We had no plans except for the usual jobs around the house and I was able to get outside for a few hours on Sunday in the gardens, get the vegetable gardens tidied up and the lawns were mown. There's still a few vegetables growing in the garden - lettuce, silver beet, and the winter seedlings are in too - spinach, cauli, brocoli and cabbage. Glenn worked on his latest project, a small pergola coming out from the deck by our laundry door and also spent a day out cutting firewood. Hannah enjoyed a few nights' away at her friend's house, and I also spent a few hours with my Dad, popping up to Hastings to collect some painting materials, having a coffee at one of the local cafes, and visiting his brother, whom we hadn't seen in a few months. Other exciting news this week, Hannah now has her Learner's Drivers licence so her driving lessons can begin! This was the theory test and she can sit the practical, or restricted licence at the end of the year. She was so very excited!

Now for some stitching news - I recently came across this little freebie chart by Teresa Kogut, you can find it here as well as some other great freebie charts.

I used the recommended DMC threads and the linen is a piece by Fox & Rabbit, which I can't recall the name of.

Last week's sampler project out of my stitching basket was This Happy Morning by Plum Street Samplers, I couldn't get an accurate photo of the colours. I started this back in April 2023 and I'm using the recommended threads and Fox & Rabbit's Black Swan linen.

I feel much better about being able to get some finishing done recently, the little pile of things to work on has been growing! 

Here's a couple of Hands On Designs ornaments - from Oh Christmas Three, a pattern I bought during the 2022 Jingle Ball.

As it's been awhile since I last shared a photo of Mr Diesel so here he is, enjoying a spot of sunshine recently. 

This lovely boy brings us so much joy and laughter. He loves a good snuggle, and will cozy right up to me at night when I'm stitching, and snore away quite loudly, it's so funny.  He's going to be two years old next month.

Enjoy the rest of the week, see you soon x