A few finishes, beach weekend and more

Hello friends. 

Wow, what a wild few days it’s been. High winds and heavy continuous rain have caused so much damage around New Zealand. Our main street even flooded during one of last week’s downpours, and several shops were hit hard. My workplace didn’t escape it either — one of our rooms is still drying out a week later. Such unpredictable weather for this time of year!

After all that wild weather, it's meant more time for cross stitching. I’ve actually made some good progress on my current projects, and even spent some time at my sewing machine.  

This little cutie, Sweetly Sayn', was included in one of the weekly newsletters from Primrose Cottage Stitches, I used some pretty Tilda fabric for the backing and some Lady Dot Creates chenille for the trim. 

Another fully completed project, Stitching Quaker, also by Primrose Cottage Stitches. This was stitched during 2025, fabric was 32 count ice blue Lugana and I used the recommended DMC threads.

Cathy from Hands on Designs is offering an ornament club through Patreon this year, and I've joined in on the fun.  This month's ornament is called Sweets for Santa and I'm using the recommended fabric, 32 count raw Belfast, and threads. 

Now for a couple of finishes from my holiday stitching.

Candy Cane Santa by Mill Hill - I love stitching these designs and hope to get another on underway soon.

This next design has a lot of stitches!  Deer Santa by Stitching with the Housewives, stitched on 32 count black Lugana fabric and DMCs. Not sure yet how I will finish this design.

We did get away earlier in the month, heading to Porangahau Beach over Waitangi weekend. It was a wonderful few days, sunny and hot, and we really enjoyed the break.  The fishing went well too so we enjoyed fresh fish, and homemade fries for dinner one night.

We had some very special visitors come out to see us one day, my uncle Paul and cousin Chelsea, from Melbourne. They were in NZ for a family reunion and it was awesome to see them, it's been a good few years since our last catch up. 

Even though it was a cold windy day, we went to Hastings and Napier on Sunday to get out for a few hours and stopped by a cafe I haven't been to in a very long time, Westerman's, this one used to be a favourite of Glenn's Mum.  My coffee and brunch, Eggs Benedict with smoked salmon, was delicious.

Diesel enjoys the cold weather as he gets to snuggle up and snooze the day away zzzzzzzzzzz

Have a happy week, see you soon x