A finish, new stash, books and scissors

It's a beautiful autumn day here in NZ, and we've been enjoying some really nice weather lately. I love the weather at this time of the year, cooler mornings and evenings but gorgeous sunny days. Our daylight savings ended last weekend. Its also the start of the school holidays here, Hannah now has two weeks off school after finishing term 1. We have the Easter break coming up from Friday so we're all looking forward to some down time around home. We might head up to Napier over the break, for a day out, go somewhere nice for lunch perhaps. Other plans include more sorting in my craft room/office and Glenn has been building a new rose planter box as we were gifted a rose from some friends, Compassion, so he'll try and get it finished.

Another work in progress ticked off the list, Green Coat Santa, which I finished over the weekend. Stitched with recommended threads and 32 count natural Belfast linen.

Lovely mail received recently from Helen, That Crafty Kiwi :

I've ordered some linen from Helen for this chart

New Cohana scissors, all the way from Japan. I couldn't resist when I saw these being advertised 

Oh Joyous Day came out of my stitching basket for my sampler choice last week and I spent a few evenings working on this lovely design. 

Some new books bought with some birthday money. A new cook book by Vanya Insull, VJ Cooks, a NZ food blogger, and this is her third book. I just love her recipes, so easy and most of the recipes use pantry staples. 

a new Hunger Games novel, and the latest in a series by local Hawke Bay writers Gareth and Louise Ward. They own a bookshop in Havelock North, which is not far from where I live.

Have a fab week friends, see you soon x

It's now April

Hello friends,

thank you for your condolences, and kind and thoughtful messages, it really means so much xx 

Today I'm going to jump back in and start sharing my recent stitching projects, and what else I've been on working on over the past few weeks.  Although our weekends and evenings after work have been filled with lots of admin tasks, and the process of sorting Glenn's Dad house, shed and workshop, I've been trying to squeeze in as much stitching or reading as I can. Presently I'm trying to get a few older projects completed, some ornaments stitched and I have had one new start, for Easter. I have some new goodies on the way, some Nashville releases and other charts from my wish list, threads and fabrics.  These I'll share when they arrive. I also had a very special delivery, all the way from Japan, with an item I'd been wishing for a long time, so once I get some photos sorted, I'll share that here too.  

I think with all the sorting, tidying and decluttering at my father in law's house, I must have been in the right frame of mind as I've made a small start on the absolute "mess" that is my craft storage/office.  In the past year, this small room has become our junk storage space. I hadn't done any sewing in there for ages, and there's piles of stuff, fabric, etc just waiting to be sorted out.  During the summer holidays, Glenn and I rearranged our garage, moving our chest freezer and fridge to other side, creating space for a new store cupboard to go. Glenn finished making this last weekend and we've been able to move quite a bit of stuff out of the office into there. So now I can get stuck in, when I have the time, go through absolutely everything and rearrange to make it work better. A friend of mine is organising a fabric de-stash sale in June, so that's my goal to have it all done by then as she'll take any of my unwanted fabrics, charts, etc.  Watch this space!

I'm not sure why, because this I love the colours in this design, but I hadn't stitched on this project for ages. I'm using all the recommended threads and 36 count Black Swan linen by Fox & Rabbit. 

Another of my focus projects recently, please excuse the wrinkles, Green Coat Santa by Teresa Kogut. I'd started this mid year last year, could have been during #jollyjuly? I'm stitching this on 32 count natural linen and the recommended threads. 

Lastly for today, here's our handsome boy, we are so lucky to have Diesel x

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

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

Hi friends, Monday again already, the weeks seem to be zipping by! We had a good weekend just been, catching up on the usual around the house jobs, some baking and meal prep for the week ahead, and yay, the first part of the new series of Bridgeton was released. Hannah and I also went to a show on Saturday night, CHB Rising Stars Talent show - it was a fabulous evening of dance, singing and music. Several of Hannah's dance friends were in it and they were amazing.

For the first time in ages, I was able to spend some time at my sewing machine the other day so I've been sorting through my pile of finished stitched pieces, and will hopefully have some photos to share soon. This is a recent finish, I Stitch by Teresa Kogut. This design was given to Patreon club members after the Nashville needlework market. I'm thinking it might be made into a project bag.

Something else I haven't done in ages, is any knitting. One night last week I decided to hunt out my sock knitting. These socks have been on the go for a good two years and I really enjoyed knitting away for a few hours. 

Hannah's 16th birthday celebrations continued with a day out last Sunday. We started with ten pin bowling in Hastings and then over the Napier for the girls to enjoy some shopping while Glenn and I enjoyed a coffee in the sunshine. 

There were lots of people out and about, and after a few hours shopping it was time for a very late lunch at one of our favourite restaurants, Lone Star.

This was Glenn's meal - looked so yum! It was also Mother's day here so I was treated to dessert, chocolate brownie with a strawberry sauce, delicious.

We finished the afternoon with a walk around the Bluff Hill lookout, watching the sun come down.

 Thanks for stopping by, see you soon x

Stitching finishes, new stash and other news

After the past few weekends away in our campervan (still need to share photos from last weekend), it was lovely to be at home this past weekend, catching up on jobs around the house, getting lots of stitching done and catching up on some sleep, lol.

Hannah and I went along to a local production of Snow White on Sunday afternoon. Several of the younger girls from Hannah's dance school were in the cast so it was wonderful to see them perform. The show was really funny and had lots of great songs, we really enjoyed it.

It was held in one of our beautiful town halls - the CHB Municipal Theatre.

Sunday was a rainy day so perfect to spend some time in the kitchen, baking and prepping some food for the week ahead. I made Pappi's savoury scones for lunch, these are so yummy. Recipe can be found here:

Next up was Fay's mumbles, a slice we enjoyed for morning tea on our rail cart trip back in October. 

I've been working on getting through a pile of stitched ornaments and have nearly finished getting them completed ready for gifting.

2020 Wee Santa by Heart in Hand Needlearts

Dancer's Friends by Teresa Kogut.

I received a few charts in the mail recently from Farmgirl Dry Goods, two new and one older Brenda Gervais charts.  All of these are going to be kitted up so I can stitch on these during December and January. Can't wait to start the sampler!

Enjoy the rest of the week, see you soon xx