Catching up

Hello friends, well, it's been some time since my last post - the winter bugs caught me and I have had a few weeks of feeling not very well, the usual goings on at work, extra after school things on for Hannah, and also, my father in law's house has now been sold, which meant lots of time sorting out household items, the tools and machinery from his workshop, property maintenance and cleaning too. 

This week is the last week of the school term for Hannah, then the holidays start. We are getting excited as our family holiday is almost here - we are heading to the Gold Coast, Australia. It's been five and half years since our last trip to Australia (we had a fab holiday to Melbourne just before the pandemic), so we are all looking forward to some sunshine and some chill out time together.  Of course there might be shopping involved, ha ha.  It's almost ten years since we took Hannah on her first overseas holiday, which was to the Gold Coast, and I was looking back on the photos and things we did on that trip recently, just seems like yesterday! 

But first, we have an exciting event coming up this weekend, Hannah has her very first ball to go to. The dress and shoes are ready, appointments for nails and hair have been booked, on Saturday it will be all go!  I can't wait to see our beautiful girl all dressed up on Saturday evening. 

I was taking some photos the other day of my stitching finishes to get ready for this post and there's a little pile waiting for me to get to my sewing machine for some finishing time. I haven't done any sewing all year, haven't really felt like it, but over the coming winter months I hope to get back into the swing of things.  I'm going really well with my destash in my craft supplies and it would have been completely done if I hadn't been sick for a few weeks.  I'll be back into it after my holiday.  

So here we go, all my stitching finishes from the past few months. 

Cottontail and Company by Scattered Seeds Samplers, stitched on 36 count light mocha linen.

Spring Fling by Brenda Gervais, stitched on 32 count opalescent pink fabric by Silkweavers

Peace & Goodwill by Brenda Gervais, With thy Needle and Thread, stitched on Picture this Plus, 36 count Legacy linen. 

I've also spent time stitching some of my sampler wips too but don't have any progress pics to share of them.

Next up are all the ornaments I've stitched so far this year:

JBW Designs French Country Santa

Christmas Fawn by Satsuma Street

Love & Joy by Heartstring Samplery

Birds that Sing by MommalovesyouGB

Hands on Designs free chart 2024

Hands on Designs free chart 2024

Several months ago I was browsing the Spotlight store website when I spotted this fab little storage tool box. At the time it was out of stock but recently, they were back on the site and better still, on sale, so I purchased one for my craft room.  

It now sits on my sewing desk and contains all my extra scissors, thread drops, thread rings, DMC bobbins and number labels, needle packets and a whole lot more.  

I have been working on a sewing job for a friend, she recently completed 15 little red work embroideries and I offered to finish them for her as they are going to be donated for a fundraising craft event later in the year.  So cute.

Last week I was able to spend a bit of time with some family visiting from Australia, three of my younger cousins. It was so good catching up with them as it had been a few years.  

Out walking with Diesel on a sunny winter afternoon is great way to forget about things for awhile, he just loves his walks on the river tracks. 

Talking of Diesel, we are so going to miss him while we're on our trip but he will be having the time of his life as our friends Bruce and Alison are going to be looking after him, and he will get to hang out with their black lab Meg.  

I'll be back in a few weeks time, middle of July, wow, how the months have been whizzing by this year.  

See you soon x

Three new starts

This month, being my birthday month, I decided to have several new starts. First up, this cute pink fawn from Satsuma Street.

I just love these adorable designs, and stitching on the perforated paper is quite fun.  

Up next, I'm adding another sampler design to my growing collection of sampler wips - Americana Blue by October House Fibre Arts, stitched on 36 count Fibre on a Whim Affogato linen and with the recommended Weeks Dye Works Blue Jeans threads. 

Started during the Easter break, a little chart that has been on my to stitch list for ages, Cottontail & Company by Scattered Seed Samplers. I'm using all the recommended threads and 36 count mocha linen.  

You might remember me chatting about having a major sort through in my craft room/office? I spent quite a bit of time in there over the recent long weekend and made some really good progress, sorted out lots of donations for the local op shop, scrapbooking resources that I no longer want to use have been given away,  a big box of fabrics to give to my friend for the destash sale coming up.  This coming weekend, I'm going to sort through all my knitting yarn, needles and patterns.  Getting there very slowly!

See you soon xx

Satsuma Street cuties

Earlier in the year I bought some of the Satuma Street Christmas designs as I thought they were so cute! Over the winter months I decided to kit up some of the designs, bought some perforated paper and away I went. I thoroughly enjoyed stitching these designs with the bright colours.

Candy Claus

Santa Cruiser

Ring a Ding Santa

Lolly Claus

As you can see, I've cut the designs out ready and will the use the red felt as the backing.  These have been so much fun to make.  

See you soon x

A Merry Pair and Bathroom Update

This was such a fun stitch - such bright, happy colours, and sparkly beads and sequins.  This kit by Satsuma Street was from the Silver Needle's Stitching Circle Club and after quite a delay, finally arrived in the letter box a few weeks ago.  

I think I'll have to buy a few of the other ornaments designs, they all look so cute!

Next time I get a chance to sit at my sewing machine I'll make it into a small pillow using the supplies included in the kit by Lois from Lady Dot Creates - so pretty.

 

As I mentioned last time, we have quite a few renovation projects happening in our house.  We received news last week that our permit has been granted for the new fire place to be installed, not sure when this will be happening.

The other big job on the go is the redo of our shower/toilet and this is major - new ceiling, new shower, new toilet, new hand basin and vanity, and new wall paneling all to go in.  Glenn is carrying out most of this work himself, with help from his Dad, and work to be done by our plumber and electrician.

So here's Week 1's progress:

Several years ago we had two major water leaks happen, one in the ceiling and one in the wall behind the toilet.

Here's Week 2's: some of the paneling in (what a job lifting it in!)

Our new shower was installed Saturday so it's either been showers in the camper van or across the road at my parents. Glenn gets to try it out tonight!

Hannah, my Mum and I went along to see the new Top Gun Maverick movie and we all thoroughly enjoyed it. 

Have a good week, see you soon x