Lately

Hi friends, just a small update today before another week passes by! The weeks seem to be zipping by so quickly right now. 

My work has been rather busy lately as we are getting ready for a big move to a new premises. After being based at the same place for over 25 years, we are on the move soon to a bigger premises and this ticks all the boxes for our service - right in town, accessibility, more space and lots of parking.  We are fortunate that we have lots of people volunteering to help us with the move and clean up at the old place but it's still lots of work and I'll be very relieved once we have unpacked and set up everything in a few weeks time.

Stitching wise, I'm working away on a couple of things right now, newer starts including this cute design. First part done. I only work on this on the weekends and sometimes don't even pick it up but its such a fun project.

I'm also continuing to pull out older projects from last year or longer to get finished. 

This recent finish, made into a small thread bag, is Needle and Flax by Teresa Kogut. 

The zipper pull charm was included in a gift from my friend Elizabeth. 

I had a wonderful time last Saturday catching up with my dear stitching friends - it's been quite awhile since our last catch up. We had a fab time, chatting away, sharing belated birthday gifts, showing previous finishes and new things, lots of laughs and a delicious lunch together.  I was able to start a new ornament project, 2023's Santa by Prairie Schooler.  

I'll finish today with this cute photo of Hannah and Diesel, we love our good boy so much.  Lately he's been enjoying lots of walks by the river through the mud and puddles - have to say, I enjoy them too, even in the rain!

See you soon xx

A few finishes

 

Thanks so much for the lovely messages and birthday wishes for Hannah - she had a wonderful birthday and keeps saying, I can't believe I'm 15, me too, where did those years go! 

I have a few completed Christmas stitched pieces to share today.

First up, Rudolph and Friends by Brenda Gervais, stitched on 36 count vintage mocha linen using the recommended threads.

Hope by Liz Mathews, which is a freebie you can find here, scroll down the page. 

Stitched with DMC 221 on 32 count linen.

Christmastime Mystery stitch along, which was a free pdf pattern from the Fat Quarter Shop last year. 

So happy that my finishing pile is starting to dwindle, still a few things to go though.

See you soon xx

A few days away

This past weekend we had a little break away to celebrate Hannah May's 15th birthday. It was just what we all needed, although the weather was pretty rubbish.

After a cancelled flight Thursday evening, and an overnight stay in Napier, we were up at silly o'clock to catch our flight to Auckland.

We arrived to discover that trains into the city weren't running due to an electrical issue but eventually they started up again, so we finally made it to our motel mid morning so we could check in and drop our bags off.

We spent the rest of the day at Sylvia Park shopping centre as the rain was bucketing down on and off again.

After an early dinner I think we'd all crashed out to sleep by 9pm. Up bright and early Saturday morning, we spent a few hours walking around Queen St, before the rain set in again.

The Auckland Sky Tower, just up the street from where we were staying, was lit up for the King's Coronation.

We enjoyed a lovely dinner out for Hannah's birthday.

Then we found a new treat to try, croffles, from the Wafflers.

Can you spot a snoozing Diesel in the background of this photo? Well, he had a super fun time at my brother and sister in law's, hanging out with his mate Buddy, their black labrador, and he came home completely knackered from all the fun times and walks they had. 

We finished our lovely weekend with birthday cake for Hannah - she just loves sprinkles, so this cake was just perfect for her, and delicious too.

See you soon xx

April - three new starts & new goodies

Over Easter weekend I started three new projects and I am thoroughly enjoying each one. 

First up, my birthday start was This Happy Morning by Plum Street Samplers and I've chosen to stitch the dark version.  I'm using the recommended threads and Black Swan linen by Fox & Rabbit.

Next up was the 2022 Collector's Heart by Heart in Hand, I love these sweet little pillow designs. Fabric and buttons included in the kit.

A fun project to work on over the coming winter months is going to be this lovely chart by Primrose Cottage Stitches. So cute and the booklet is amazing, so easy to read the chart.

I received some lovely crafty birthday gifts from a couple of my friends - cute fabrics for project bags and DMC threads.

Patterns of my wish list from Misty at Luminous Fiber Arts.

More pretty fabrics, dishcloth cotton and yarn for making handwarmers, and a small Nurge stitching hoop. My friends at work have gone crazy for Nurge hoops and we all stocked up from our local sewing shop so are currently waiting for the next order to come in.  

One of my friends also made me this gorgeous project bag - the stitched piece is by Cosford Rise Stitchery.

See you soon xxx

Friday Finishing

I have a small container that is slowly getting filled with finished stitched pieces as over the past few months I have had very little time at my sewing machine. This often happens over the summer months. I hope to start working on these and get myself up to date with a few things.

Good Friday it rained here most of the day and once I'd completed a few chores around the house, I pulled out some pieces, some finishing supplies and popped on some floss tube and managed to get these three little projects done. They were all stitched during 2022. 

First up, Cannot Count My Day Complete, which is part of a free pattern by Lori Holt and can be found here: 

Stitched on 32 count vintage mocha Belfast linen with DMC 3328

Letters to Santa, which was a mystery stitch along by the Fat Quarter Shop. 

Stitched on 32 count chalkboard linen with the recommended Weeks or DMC threads:

This little red work design is by Marg Low. and the reindeer button is by Barb of Theodora Cleave buttons.

Three down, many more to go!

See you soon x

 

 

Our Easter 2023

I hope you had a wonderful Easter weekend, we thoroughly enjoyed our four day break. 

The weather was pretty good, although we did light the fire one evening for the first time this autumn.  We spent time with family, celebrated my birthday, which fell on Easter Sunday this year, worked on some projects at home, and looked after Diesel after his operation last week, and generally enjoyed being around home. Hannah is now on school holidays for the next two weeks.

Of course we enjoyed some Easter treats!

New books bought with birthday money - Nicky Pellegrino is one of my favourite NZ authors.

I'm looking forward to reading Pip Cameron's new book, filled with lovely recipes and stories about life on a high country farm in the South Island.

I think these could be the last of my blackberry nip roses unless they flower again before winter, they smell divine!

We had a Jamieson family dinner catch up on Friday evening and enjoyed a delicious roast dinner and for dessert I made Brownie Trifle, this is a firm favourite now. This time I used boysenberries as well as strawberries, so yummy!

One of my friends made a chocolate banana birthday cake for morning tea, yum too!

A few weeks ago, I bought a new car and my nieces gave me  this little dinky toy for a bit of fun - my car is just missing the pink stripe, I thought that was hilarious!

Now Glenn has finished our bathroom renovations, he's moved onto his next project, the outdoor deck area. Over the weekend, he removed the trellis work and has relined the outside walls. 

Next up is to reline the inner walls and then the walls will be painted. Umm, what colour?

Last week Diesel spent the day at the Vets to have his neutering procedure. Asides from being a bit groggy on Thursday evening, over the weekend he was back to his happy self. He has his own Easter bonnet to wear for the week until the stitches are removed.

I spent a bit of time sewing and finished off a couple of projects, which I'll share next time. I didn't get any Easter stitching finished this year, I had a couple of patterns kitted and small starts made on these though so I think I'll work on these over the next few months, ready for next year. 

I had three new cross stitch project starts too, so I'll share them later this week, and also spent several happy hours sorting and reorganising amongst my charts, fabrics and threads. A friend recently gave me a whole pile of assorted linens and some threads so they were added to my stash too. 

See you soon xx