A Great Break

I had a lovely time away on my midwinter break. Kimberley and I headed over to Palmerston North on Thursday afternoon and spent a few days with our cousin Donna, and aunt and uncle, Ivan and Dorrie, getting home early Sunday evening. We spent most of the time shopping, funny that, and also eating out and just catching up. As always, we had heaps of fun and lots of laughs. Both Kimberley and I even found a little bit of time to stitch too - I took Pink Carnations with me and Kimberley was stitching a free kit from one of the latest UK stitching magazines. I think its great she stitches, I taught her several years ago.

I really shopped up a storm, lol. I bought two new pairs of winter boots, a pair of jeans, a skirt, four tops, Bendon underwear, Clarins toner and cleanser, the new Crowed House cd, some lovely soap from the giftware shop where Donna works, a sweatshirt and 3 tops for Zoe, and my favourite purchase was this. We've got one at my work and its so handy. I'd been wanting one for home for ages. It works really well so far, even Glenn has given it a try out :)

On Saturday Dorrie, Donna, Kim and I headed out for the day to visit Otaki, which a short drive south of Palmerston. There are several factory outlet stores there, including Bendon and Pumpkin Patch, which are well worth the visit. We then "spur of the moment" decided to continue on down the road to Paraparaumu to have lunch at the shopping mall there and to stop by to see Kath and her DH Kevin. It was only a quick visit but great to see Kath and the beautiful house that Kevin has just finished building.

After a super weekend away, it was so nice to get home on Sunday night to see Glenn and my kitty :) I bought Poppy a new kitty toy so she spent Sunday night flinging it around our lounge, it was so funny to watch. I wouldn't be surprised though if it goes missing in the next few days - so far she has lost 3 ping pong balls and 3 toy mouses, and we can't find them in the house anywhere, lol.

I don't have any stitching pics to share today as I'm working on a gift for a special friend but Goldie has emailed to let me know that the parcel I sent for our last seasonal exchange had arrived safely. I made Goldie a craft bag for all her stitching projects

and stitched a little Just Nan, Amongst the Roses. I know that Goldie loves Just Nan patterns, as do I, so thought it would be nice to stitch it for her as a reminder of our stitching friendship. I tried out a new technique for the finishing, using Vero's pyramid instructions.

The weather here is pretty miserable at the moment, very cold and we've had lots of rain, but then I guess it is the middle of winter. Still, it would be nice to have a bit of sunshine :)

As always, thank you my dear stitching friends, for your kind and encouraging comments.