Life is Good when you have stitching friends

Because I had been so looking forward to the stitching retreat last weekend for such a long time, I just knew it was going to fly by :) We had a brillant time together, and I wish we could do it all over again this weekend, lol.

I've got lots of pics to share so will start at the beginning of the weekend. Wendy and I left for Napier when we finished work at lunchtime on Friday and arrived at the motor inn about 1.30ish. Donna, who had been visting a friend having arrived in Napier earlier, turned up not long after us. We unpacked our stitching things and all the groceries -all the essentials for a stitching get together ( see pic below). I had several texts from Kath during the morning, so knew they weren't too far away, and it wasn't long before Kath, Lisa and Pat arrived. Once they had checked in and unpacked, we settled in for an afternoon session of oohing and ahhing current wips and some new stash that had arrived just in time for the weekend.



Donna and Wendy



Pat and Donna, opening the goodie bags that Wendy and I made up for everyone.

We headed out in the early evening for some dinner and found a Mongolian BBQ restaurant. None of us had tried it before so we were all keen to give it a try and it was delicious! Then it was back to our room for more stitching and laughing, boy, did we laugh.

Up bright and early Saturday morning, women on a mission, lol so we could go and check out of the LNS's JJ's. I picked up a few fat 1/4's of Christmas fabric, a skein of Needle Necessities Razzle Dazzle and a Mill Hill Christmas kit. I also found a knitting book full of 66 patterns just for $10.00 since I plan to do some knitting for my cousin Odette's baby.



then it was back to do a wee bit of stitching, have some lunch and enjoy the sunshine before heading out again to visit a friend, Sherelyn, who operates a stitching business from her home called Herilooms.



Kath and I



a dear friend of ours J, who meet up with us for the day, and me

Talk about blow the budget at Heirlooms - but I only bought charts and charms that were on my list, didn't I girls, lol.



Some of the new JBW designs from Heirlooms

I also got several of the heart charms for the Sweetheart Tree needlerolls and a lucky find, the Sweetheart Needleroll pattern that I'd been looking for. Sherelyn's old villa is simply a pleasure to walk around in, and the atmosphere of the entire place is pure tranquility. We had been asked to stay and stitch with Sherelyn but decided to not linger too long since she hasn't been very well lately. So it was back to the motel and while some of the girls got back into their stitching, Pat, Donna, J and I decided to take a walk over to the boardwalk and this was the view



Simply breathtaking!

After dinner out at a chinese restaurant it was time to swap our winter themed exchange parcels. I stitched the January Quaker freebie by Workbasket using one of the new DMC Colour variation threads, and made it into a biscornu.



Lisa received my exchange, which also included some body wash and a "sun" notepad, and I received from Lisa -I was thrilled with my goodies, Lisa is such a talented girl. Look at the rouched ribbon around the flat fold, her first attempt and it came out perfect!





Sunday rolled around too quickly but we had a bit of time to stitch some more as we had a late check out



Kath and Lisa



all the essentials - chocolate, chips, dip and nuts for energy, lol

After having lunch by the sea it was time to say goodbye to everyone and head on home. Glenn turned up not long after I got home, and I think I'll keep him on - the house was tidy, washing done, and he'd made a good attempet at making the bed :)

I've some wip pics to share from the weekend but will put them in the next post.