January Celebrations and a New Year of Stitching

The past week and a bit has been full of wonderful celebrations.  On the 3rd I celebrated my birthday with my wonderful family and friends.  Usually I don't do much for my birthday other than a quiet dinner, however, this year I felt it would be good to get everyone together to celebrate. It actually became a joint birthday party with one of my hubby's friend from elementary school.  His friends and my friends were a bit too encouraging with the drinks.  At one point in the evening, I suppose I decided to sing La Bamba.  I don't remember this!! Oh dear!

My auntie and me

Then we celebrated Christmas on the 7th.  We had a lovely service then ate lots of turkey and all the trimmings.  That first week of January always goes so quickly yet it is nice for things to get back to normal so to speak.  We still need to take down our Christmas tree but we are both dreading the process. Going back to work was a bit of an adjustment.  I enjoyed seeing the children but didn't like getting up at 5:30am again.  I am not a morning person, whatsoever!! 

On the stitching front, I started my new sampler, worked on WIP's and started a few little stitches. I also received a few gifts from Nia, Shirlee, and Vickie.  Shirlee made me the most darling little PS ornament.  She finished it perfectly and I placed it on my tree right away so I could enjoy it for a little while.  Thank you so much Shirlee! I will treasure it always.  This is my first stitched Christmas ornament from a friend.  A very special gift indeed!!

 Dear Nia sent to me a sweet little chart to stitch called Love Birds by Crescent Colours as a thank you for sending her a Tatty Teddy chart.  It included the luscious Belle Soie silks! I had never tried these silks before. I am now quite the fan!! Thank you sweetie!! I'm so excited for her baby Lourenco to be born.  He's going to be one well dressed baby!!

I started stitching it on Friday night on 32ct Platinum Belfast linen.

Vickie sent me some lovely homemade pins and a beautiful card.  I forgot to take a photo of the card! Oops!  Thank you my dear.  I will use these in my finishes this year!!

I also sent Vickie a little gift too.  I stitched it awhile ago when I saw the pattern and thought of her.  We have become sisters in Christ so I thought it fitting to stitch her this.  It's a freebie from Feathers in the Nest.  I stitched it on 40 ct. legacy linen with various silks. (I will have to email Jennifer for the link as it seems to have disappeared).

For one of my oldest and dearest friends, I made a Blackbird Designs Box for her.  Since she has received it I can show it now.  I used a pattern from BBD's Flowers of the Field book using the recommended threads and a mystery linen.  I painted the box a pretty robin's egg blue and finished it with Victorian Motto's chenille trim.  I am glad she loves her box!!

Another Christmas gift I stitched up was for my sister.  She requested a monogram awhile back and am happy that she loves her "C"! This is for you my darling sister!! I stitched it on dove grey 32 ct linen with DMC ecru using a pattern from Sajou. 

Now onto my new start, JCS 1707 from the Scarlet Letter.  I started it on New Year's Day, made a mistake, frogged it, then restarted again last night.  Not much to show though.  I am using NPI, DMC and AVAS threads on 36 ct. Newcastle linen in cream, the same as Hannah Brassington.  I just love that linen so why not stitch on it again!!

Teeny tiny start from the upper left hand corner.

I also made some progress on my WIP's.  I stitched a beet on Shakespeare's Peddlar's Magic Garden 5 stitches off so I hope I can fudge the rest of the pattern. I just don't have the heart to rip out the beet.

A wee bit of progress on Knotgarden and Teabath fairy.  I didn't take a photo of TBF for the progress is barely visible.  

If you got this far, congrats!! Thank you all for your wonderful comments on my 2013 stitching.  I haven't responded to all of your comments nor visited all of your blogs but I hope to make that happen soon.  I have a wee bit of work to do for school so that will have to be finished first.  I have noticed lots of people posting daily with their crazy challenges and WIP's.  I decided to not be a participant in any of the challenges this year.  The reason being is I have a hard time committing when I'm working plus all the health issues we are trying to deal with.  My hubby had a test on Friday so we are waiting for the results tomorrow.  I am praying everything will be ok.  Please send a few our way as I know you all will.

Take care!

Anne

Oh, here's a foggy photo of our New Year's Eve walk to the river.  It was so magical and romantic since we were the only ones by the river!

Two BBD Finishes and IHSW

Hello everyone!

I actually have some stitching to show all of you.  Last week, my hubby and I went for a 3 day camping trip to Porpoise Bay.  It was wonderful there.  So warm and not too busy.  I brought one of my BBD WIP's with me to stitch and I had to buy an internet pass to look up how to do a buttonhole and chain stitch! Buttonhole stitches are actually quite easy once you get the hang of it.  I finished the design a couple of days ago and am rather pleased with the result.  

Here is Buttons and Pins, stitched on 40 ct. Light Examplar with the recommended GAST threads.

My hubby suggested I try doing a twisted ribboned edge.  I will see how that works out once I get it sewed together.  I also finished a very sweet little BBD last week.  I started it in Prince George and it's for a very dear friend.  I will be making it into a box for her as well.  It's from the Flowers of the Field booklet, stitched on 36 ct. Vintage Buttercream with the recommended threads.

 love that dark bluey grey in this.  Such a pretty design.

For IHSW weekend, I stitched only on Hannah and just for two nights.  I really tried staying up late stitching but my  eyes got very wiggly and I was making mistakes.  Must not stitch at night!

I'm feeling so close to the end I just want to press on. 

 

 The box for Life's a Stitch needs a few more shiny coats on it before I can add the design.  I hope to finish the box and the pillow tomorrow if all goes well.  

That's all for stitching.  What I'm really excited about is that I started from scratch my very own curry!! I followed a Masterchef Australia recipe, called Desi Murgh Chicken Curry.  It was delicious but took me about 1 and 1/2 hours to make! I've always wanted to cook a proper curry and now I understand the process a bit more than I had.  

Yum!!

Here are some photos from our little bike trip.  Enjoy!

I'm obsessed with close ups as you can see.  I would love to save up for a really good camera with a micro lens, but that's 1000's of dollars....sigh.

Last but not least, a shot of my favourite summer bush flowers: hydrangeas.

I hope everyone is staying cool as I've read quite a few people's blogs that there are heatwaves going around.  We have been so fortunate with our weather.  So please take care! Sending you my thoughts and hugs!!


Anne