Fully Finished, Gifts and more

The end of January is here already, and what a few days its been here in New Zealand. On Friday night, Auckland and surrounding areas experienced unprecedented rainfall over a couple hours that caused an epic deluge and severe flooding.  It was surreal watching on tv the flooding through the international airport, the Auckland Zoo, Eden Park (where Glenn and I went to the Guns and Roses concert in December), family homes, schools  and work places. It was absolutely chaotic and a state of emergency was declared.  Schools due to open for the new school year this week are to remain closed through until next week and people have been asked to stay home and not travel anywhere unless they need to.  Tragically four people lost their lives and millions of dollars of damage has been done.  More heavy rain is forecast this week for the region and further down the North Island.  My thoughts continue to go out to Aucklanders, especially those hit the hardest by flood damage. 

 Also, we now have a new Prime Minister, Chris Hipkins, after a resignation from our current prime minister Jacinda Adern. This year is an election year so it will be interesting to see how things go there. 

Now to some stitching. Late last year I stitched several small pojects that I didn't get fully finished. I was able to work on these during my holidays.  

Joy & Good Cheer by Brenda Gervais, stitched on 36 count vintage mocha linen using most of the recommended threads.

 

Merry by Mojo Stitches, I think the fabric was 32 count natural linen and I used the recommended DMC threads. 

Heart in Hand's 2022 Wee Santa - I love the colours in this design, stitched on 32 count vintage mocha linen and recommended threads.

The 2022 charms were purchased from Ali Express, must order some for this year.

I received the following charts and felt fabrics as part of my Christmas gifts from Kath, so sweet:

The next two photos are of gifts received from my friend Elizabeth, she is such a talented stitcher. 

Last week's sampler out of my stitching basket was This is the Day by Plum Street Samplers - the fabric looks quite washed out in these photos, it's more golden in colour.

Weekend baking is back on the agenda now we're back at work,and I like to make a few treats for my parents and Glenn's Dad. Forgotten Fruit muffins are a great way to use up fruit and this time I had some peaches that had started going a bit soft, yum!

Have I shared that Mr D is now six months old and what a character he is!  He is such a bundle of fun, so stubborn at times and makes us laugh. He's become my shadow, everywhere I go, he's right there -when I'm brushing my teeth and doing my make up, putting laundry on, etc. He does the same with Glenn and Hannah too.  

See you soon xx

Stitching this month

During my January holidays, I spent a bit of time sorting out my current stitching projects, putting away threads, patterns, etc from finished projects and making some plans for this year - things I'd like to stitch including long time wips or new projects. I also got a few end of the year stitched projects fully finished and several others ready for finishing - they just need trims sewed on, etc. 

So I made bit of plan to get some time in on a few unfinished samplers in my stitching basket - even if its only a few hours, and this was the first project to be picked out, Winter Rose Manor by Brenda Gervais, With thy Needle and Thread.

I did have a new start just before I went back to work. This lovely chart by Teresa Kogut, Needle and Flax, was on her Patreon for subscribers just for the week so I'm really pleased I spotted it and got it downloaded and printed off.

Another long term unfinished project, In My Garden by Blackbird Designs, which was part of the Friends Stitching Circle by the Silver Needle a few years ago. This is nearly done but I had to put it away for now while I wait for some extra thread to arrive in the mail.

Zzzzz, Diesel snoozes away most evenings next to me while I stitch. 

Sundays I've been stitching on my current Shepherd's Bush stocking project, Lois. This should be completed this coming Sunday. I've have plans to stitch at least three more this year for gifts.  

That's me for today - let me know if you have any special stitching plans for the coming months.   I've also stitched the first few of my 2023 Family and Friends Christmas ornaments, and have other charts I've all ready to go with fabric and threads. Photos to come.

See you soon x

Advent Swap, a new start and new goodies

My friend Clare and I continued our annual Christmas advent swap in 2022. We don't have a set plan so we can pick any gifts for each other to include in the swap.  I always start collecting things at the start of the year as I also do a swap with a work friend, and then add throughout the year.

Once again I forgot to get a photo of Clare's gifts but here is the stitched ornament I made for her, design is by Heart in Hand.

These are all the lovely treats I received from Clare.

I was also received this gorgeous Santa as part of our stitching group secret Santa exchange.

The beautifully stitched and finished ornament I received from Clare.

Art & Frame in Christchurch had a new shipment of needle minders arrive a few weeks before Christmas so I couldn't resist this cutie:

 

I've had this Birdhouse design ready to go for ages so decided to get it started prior to going on my summer holidays. I'm using Cosmo thread and the design came pre printed in the kit.

I picked up this cute little tin at one of our local shops, thought it would be the perfect size for storing threads, my handcream, etc in.

This year I decided to purchase the Book of Days, a journal by Needlework Press for stitchers to record all my stitching progress and plans.

Of course, it couldn't travel alone from Stitch Witches, all the way down south in Dunedin, so I added a few other goodies - fabric for an up and coming project when the pattern arrives, a Lori Holt needle minder and a tiny pair of Kelmscott scissors.

Lastly for today, the dahlias in the gardens at my work are all out right now and look just gorgeous right now:

See you soon x

Happy New Year, & December round up

 Hello friends and Happy New year to you - I hope you've had a great start to the year so far.

Glenn and I are both back at work this week after the summer holidays - but we had such wacko crazy weather (lots of rain), some of our holiday plans didn't eventuate and we ended up having a staycation mostly at home. We did get away in the campervan between Christmas and New Year's and that was a heap of fun, more on that to come!  Hannah still has a few weeks left of her break before the new school year starts in early February, this year she is Year 10.

So here's bit of a round up from later in December as I didn't get back here before the Christmas break.

Annual visit to the local Christmas house - two Santas this year!

End of the year dancing concert - Hannah received all her dance exam certificates - passed with distinction so we were super proud of her.

The super cute ornament she received from Miss Deb, her lovely dancing teacher.

Girls lunch out after we finished the last of Christmas shopping.

Continuing our family tradition of Glenn taking us out for lunch on Christmas eve:

Yes, our Christmas tree was attached to the top of the fire so a certain little doggy couldn't get the ornaments off!

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas - we certainly did, filled with family and lots of fun and good food together.  This year we had my aunty, uncle and cousin from Melbourne visit and it was wonderful spending time with them to reconnect as we hadn't seen them in person since our trip to Melbourne back in December 2019.  We also had Zoe and Dylan stay with us Christmas eve so that was super fun having the girls together, opening their presents.

Time for the family photos fun!

This year we had brunch at my parents' house and then dinner at our house, finishing with dessert about 9pm! ha ha.

After Christmas we headed to Te Awanga beach, near Havelock North, for a week's stay in the campervan. Our friends were there too for the week so we had a fab time, lots of walks, swimming in the estuary, fishing (no luck sadly), reading and chilling out, our days were easily filled.

We arrived home on 3rd January and it pretty much rained for the rest of our break, asides from the odd day. I did quite a bit of cleaning and sorting out, even the oven got cleaned, and Glenn pottered around finishing a few jobs too. There was plenty of time for catching up with friends, watching Netflix and reading lol.  

Next time I'll have an update about what I've been stitching, new projects, advent swaps and will share the some Christmas stitching, new stash and gifts. Until then, take care and happy, happy stitching xx