A New Start & Special Family Occasion

Once I finished a few of my Jolly July starts, I kitted up a new design that I've decided to stitch for santasundayxs and merrymondayxs, hashtags you can follow on Instagram.

This Christmas design caught my eye awhile ago and I was so pleased to see you could purchase the chart as a PDF and then download it, to start straight away.

Little Dove Designs can be found here: 

I'm using all the recommended DMC threads and my linen is 28 count China Pearl Jobelan, which is a very pale grey colour.


Week 1:

Week 2:

Last Sunday we headed up to Havelock North for the day to celebrate a special family occasion, Glenn's parents' recent 50th Wedding Anniversary. 

We had a delicious lunch at Piku, which we all enjoyed :

Then it was onto Birdwoods Gallery & Cafe for a visit to the old fashioned Lolly shop and gardens.

We ended our day out with a trip up to Te Mata Peak, for the best views of around Hawkes Bay. As it was a lovely day, there were lots of other people up there taking in the views.

It's the first week of the school holidays here, and earlier in the week I took a few days leave off work to spend with Hannah as she had her dancing exams. I am so proud of her, with all the extra practices and everything else she had on at school last term, she coped well and everything went fine with the exams.

This coming weekend we're off on a trip south to Palmerston North, for a few days away, visiting my cousin Donna and family.  Looking forward to some shopping too of course!

See you soon xx

This & That

 The end of another week is here and as I don't have a lot of stitching, or any other crafting to share this week I thought I'd post about a few new arrivals and various happenings at our place.

At the end of last week I received a gorgeous, squishy parcel of yarn, from up the road, ha ha, in Napier from Skeinz. They have recently relocated and I couldn't resist checking out their relocation sale. I can't wait to go and visit their new shop, it looks wonderful, and to see all of the gorgeous NZ yarn they stock.

Most of this yarn is intended for gift knitting, including several How Quiet Hat and mitts sets. This lovely pattern is by Helen Stewart of Curious Handmade and is from the 2018 Knitvent series.

Cadbury released this limited edition chocolate last week and we gave it a try - pineapple lumps are a kiwi favourite. We gave it a thumbs up!

Miss H has been an extremely busy girl of late. She auditioned for her school's production show and was given a part in her class's version of Cinderella - Boogierella.  Hannah's whole school performed in the show, 335 children, and they did 3 shows for the community last week. A great time commitment for the teachers, helpers and children, it was a wonderful show, great music and lots of laughs, they all did so well.

Hannah also recently competed in her school's annual cross country race and because of her placing, she was then selected for the inter school cross country race, featuring students from other schools in our community.

It's nearing the time of the year for her dancing exams, they are at the end of the month, so Hannah had a full on weekend of mock exams for jazz, tap and ballet.

 

She absolutely loves her dancing classes this year.

This week, she was away on her school camp for three days, and all the kids had a blast - mud run, raft building, bush walks, toasting marshmellows. It sounds like they had an awesome time.

We've enjoyed some sunny spring weather this week and I have two vases of beautiful spring flowers on my desk at work - daffodils and freesias, so pretty and such a lovely scent.

 Last night my Mum and I, with one of our dear friends Linda, went along to see the Downton Abbey movie.

Being Downton Abbey fans from way back, the movie was so good. The costumes and jewellery were amazing, and we all enjoyed it. Are you a Downton Abbey fan?

See you soon xx

WIP Stitching

Started way back at the end of 2014, Yuletide Welcome by Plum Street Samplers has come out from the depths of my stitching basket!  Over the past few weeks I've been working on the block colour of the bottom border, stitching a bit here and a bit there.

There's really not much to go now, I'm sure I could get it finished in a few nights, instead of flitting off to other projects, or knitting, or crochet!

The Shepherd's Bush Thomas Stocking I started way back at the start of the year is also out again - I just love stitching these designs.

I had planned to stitch three stockings this year, so much for my good intentions :) They are lots of fun to work on.

See you soon xx

Flora McSample's Treats

These two sweet little designs are from the 2017 Flora McSample Treats pattern by Lizzie Kate. 

I stitched these during Jolly July, using recommended threads and 32 count linen.

I used Lady Dots chenille trim in the Brickhouse colour way, which is looking a bit pink in these photos.  There is a 3rd design on there too, a little stocking, which I'm planning to stitch sometime soon. 

See you soon xx

Lizzie Kate Jolly July Finishes

I'm slowly making my way through the little pile of stitching that's been done over the past few months, including these Jolly July finishes:

Lizzie Kate's Noel stitched on 32 count fabric with the recommended threads

Oh Christmas Tree by Lizzie Kate, same fabric above, most of the recommended threads

Joy, from Tiny Tidings XII, and Lady Dot trim, Sizzle pom poms

Thanks for stopping by, have a lovely week!

See you soon xx

August Reads

And just like that, it's the start of September, also the beginning of spring time for us. The weather was just perfect over the weekend for the first few days of spring. It was Father's Day here in NZ yesterday, so we headed out for the day to enjoy the sunshine and to take Glenn out for lunch.

Last month's books were all from my favourite authors:

A Spark of Light by Jodi Picoult had been sitting on my bedside cabinet since earlier the year. It's been quite a few years since I've read a book by Jodi Picoult and I found this very thought provoking. 

Past Tense by Lee Child is #23 in the Jack Reacher series.  Glenn has also read this recently and we both agreed this was another highly enjoyable adventure.

Redemption by David Baldacci is #5 in the Amos Decker series. In this story, Amos Decker is back in his home town and revisits his first homicide case. I just love this Memory Man series. 

Dead at First by Peter James is the 15th book in the Roy Grace series. This story sees Roy Grace investigate internet dating fraud, where men and women around the world have been duped out of their life savings, never to be seen again. I just hope I don't have to wait too long for the next installment in this series :)

So that's what I read during August.  What have you been reading lately? I'd love to hear :)

See you soon xx