Last Finish for 2004?

Since I started my holidays I've been working on Roberts stocking by Shepherd's Bush. Over the past few nights I have had some really good quality stitching time while Glenn and I watch dvds, so perhaps I might just get it done by the end of the year in two days time!



not much to go now, just the last two reindeer, stitch Glenn's name and sew on all the charms.

Some Christmas photos

Glenn and I



My niece Zoe



Our Christmas tree

Books, books and more books

This afternoon I finished reading my current book, the Virgin's Lover by Philippa Gregory. It was a really good read, once I got started on it I couldn't put it down. Philippa Gregory also wrote the Other Boleyn Girl and the Queen's Fool, and this one followed on from these two. It focused on Elizabeth, Sir Robert Dudley and his wife Amy. All the way through I kept on seeing in my mind Cate Blanchett as Elizabeth, from the movie "Elizabeth", lol.

I have a considerable pile of books that I'd like to get through over the holidays:

Late Season - Christobel Kent
The Fourth Queen - Debbie Taylor
The Birth of Venus - Sarah Dunant
The Last Kingdom - Bernard Cornwell
Unexpected Blessings - Barbara Taylor Bradford
Fire Along the Sky - Sara Donati
Tell No One - Harlan Coben

When I was in the bookshop the other day I noticed that there is a new Anita Shreve " Light on Snow" and a new Belinda Alexander "Wild lavender", both of which I'll have to remember to reserve at the local library.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas! I hope you had a wonderful day with family or friends, and Santa came to visit. Perhaps you got some new stash? We had a lovely Christmas day. Glenn and I spent some of the morning with his parents and then went to my parents' house for Christmas lunch. There were about 14 of us altogther and we had the traditional lunch - ham, roast pork and lamb, chicken, peas, beans, pototoes freshly dug from Dad's garden, seafood salad, rice salad and lettuce salad. Dessert,which we had about 5pm, was pavlova, fresh boysenberries, meringues, and icecream - yum! Glenn and I had intentions of having dinner back at his parents' house but none of us were hungry by then!

I received lots of lovely presents: Glenn gave me a new cellphone,which I was thrilled with especially since I'd been planning to buy a new one in the next week or so since my other one has nearly died. I also got a new handbag, wallet, jewellery, pj's, some body wash gel and body butter - cool, lots of chocolates, a handmade calendar by my niece, and several other wonderful pressies.

I also got some new stash: Shepherd's Bush Christmas scissor fob which has been on my wish list for ages from my friend K, and my friend J gave me Sweetheart Tree's Victorian Violets, a lovely kit that I hadn't seen before. Both of these have gone straight into my stitching basket to do very soon!

thanks to one of my enabling stitching friends (lol) I found out that Stitching Bits and Bobs are having 25% store wide for a Merry Christmas sale so this morning I deleted quite a few items of my wish list! Now I can't wait for it all to arrive.

I have managed quite a bit of stitching over the past few days too. Lately I've been working on SB's Robert stocking, which is for Glenn. I'd say I'm well over half way on it so think I'll carry on until its done before starting anything new. I'm not sure what my next start is going to be, either the Petal Fairy or Emerald Mermaid. I ordered some fabric from Countrystitch a few days ago for the fairy, Kiwi Illusions Pipi which one of the members on the Mirabilia board suggested. I've been told the mermaid is a quick stitch so I might even start her. We'll see.

It still doesn't really feel like I'm holiday. I guess because its still public holidays here for everyone but come tomorrow I've already had one week off! scary. hope the rest of the break doesn't go as fast!

Not long now....

Yay! Only four hours at work this morning then my holidays start! I'm off from the 21st Dec until the 24th January! At the moment Glenn and I don't have any plans to go away anywhere, just hang out at home. He's off until the 10th January and no doubt will have lots of DIY jobs planned for around the house. I plan to stitch, read lots of books and watch all the DVDs of movies I've missed this year, and enjoy the sun if it ever comes out. You definately would not think it was a couple of days before Christmas here - the weather has been shocking - wet, cold and windy. There's even snow on the ranges!

Christmas stitching

Yesterday I made the very last of my Christmas gifts and what a good feeling it to have them all done except for two projects I need to frame this week. I had decided earlier in the year I was going to "attempt" to make several Christmas presents so in about July I wrote out a list of what I intended to do and made goals for each month to try and get them done. Some months I achieved more on the gifts than others. Here are two that I don't think I've shown on here yet:



This from the Chocolate Lovers pattern by Lizzie Kate and is for a cousin who works at a Chocolate House - what a great job that would be!



this a Shepherd's Bush design, although I'm unsure of the exact name of the pattern.

Lastly, this is the lovely ornament I received in the TW Board Christmas Ornament Exchange from Rachele in the US

Josh

some of you may rememer that I recently stitched a birth sampler for my cousin's new baby. I recently took some photos of Josh, and this one is my favourite so thought I'd share. So here is Josh, aged 2 1/2 months. Isn't he just gorgeous?

Last ornie finishes for 2004

I finished two ornaments this week - Christmas 2004 by Forget-Me-Not-in-Stitches from the Just Cross Stitch ornaments 2004 magazine. This is for my Mum.



and I couldn't resist stitching this one, Joy by Glory Bee. Its from the December 2004 issue of Just Cross magazine.

Another ornie done

Here is the ornament I chose to stitch for my "doris" group of stitchers annual Christmas ornament exchange. The "Doris" group is a bunch of NZ stitchers consisting of some members from my local stitching group, some whom live in Paraparaumu and Wellington area and Deb from Countrystitch. Back in October we had our first ever stitching retreat weekend and we had a ball. We hope to meet up sometime next year too. So without further ado, here is Believe by Victoria Sampler:

http://community.webshots.com/photo/129980190/225807658uIslHe

(edited to add link directly to my webshots album as I couldn't get the image to show up for some reason or another)

Stitching Blogger's Question of the Week

Stitching as a dangerous sport

What has been your most interesting stitching related injury?

hee hee hee - now this is a good one, lol. I can't say that I've ever hurt myself stitching but have certainly ended up with plenty of holes in my fingers from stitching too much! The worst thing is when the needle goes into a pre-existing hole which just about makes you hit the roof!

Stitching Goals for December, and 2005

Here is a recap on the goals that I set for November:
1. Sue Hillis Design - Victorian Christmas Tree ornament from the 2003 Just Cross stitch Magazine. Done and posted to Sweden
2. True Blue Friends by Paw Printings . All stitched - just needs to be framed
3. An ornament for Mum - Forget me not in stitches ornie from this year's JCS mag, needs to be made up
4. Shepherd's Bush Beehive freebie yes
5. And more on SB's Robert Stocking. no

For December my goals are:

1. L*K Chocolate Lover - Never a day without Chocolate
2. One ornament for an exchange - can't decide what to do, keep changing my mind!

I've also been thinking about what I'd like to stitch in the new year. The list keeps growing daily!! But here are a few of the projects I'd really like to work on:

Mirabila - The Emerald Mermaid
Shepherd's Bush stockings - Robert, Elisabeth, Mary and Sophie
Long Dog Sampler - Mouline Rouge
The Silver Lining - Dream Lover
Lavender and lace - Celtic Autumn using a conversion I found on one of the boards
Drawn Thread - Winter into Spring, Summer into Autumn, the Souvenir Sampler
Shepherd's Bush - Wandering Shepherd, Sophies Roses and several of the 204 monthly musings
Bent Creek - Acorn, Leaf
JBW Designs - Holly Noel

I think this list will keep me going for awhile, lol. I've also been making a "wish list" of supplies, and some more patterns (!!!!) that I'd like to place an order for before the end of the year and my "cross stitch stash diet" starts on the 1st January.

I'm a bad blogger!

It seems ages since I last blogged and I keep thinking to myself, I must blog about that, only to completely forget all about it!! so what have I been up too lately? Glenn and I have just had a weekend away with our business partners, the staff at the joinery factory and their wives or girlfriends to Taupo for an end of the year get together. There were 11 of us in total and we stayed at one of the guy's parent's holiday house. We left Friday afternoon and arrived home Sunday night. It was a great weekend, lots of laughs, and food and drink too!! I had arranged to have Monday off work which was just as well as I had so much to catch up with, especially after being away last weekend as well.

stitchingwise I'm nearly there with my Xmas gift stitching - I've finished several small things recently, which I can't mention incase someone might be reading this(lol), and tonight I started a L*K, Never a Day without Chocolate, which is for my cousin D who works at a chocolate house. The SB scissor fob is done, just needs to be made up which I'll wait to do during my Christmas holidays. I also have the SB needleroll nearly done too.

looking ahead over the next week its going to get pretty hectic - we're got one 30th birthday to go to, another friend's birthday barbeque, my last cross stitch group get together of the year, two Christmas parties, and one Christmas dinner. Whew! The good thing is that this time in two weeks I'll be on holiday for four whole weeks - wahooo! can't wait!

I hope to get the Christmas tree and decorations out sometime this week too, will have to see if my cousin K would like to help me again. Its a bit of a tradition that she helps me put out the Christmas decoartions - started when she was 4 years old and now she is 11.