Stitcher's delight

My 'bulk stash' arrived from the US today. Looking back on my blog it was only ordered on 10 September so it took just under 3 weeks to get here. Way to go Stitching Bits and Bobs.

As usual, you can click the photo for a clearer view.



In my haul I have -

Town Square CD
Dancing In the Moonlight - The Stitcher's Habit
Winter Fobs - Heart In Hand
Pretty In Pink - Brightneedle
Garden Party - Brightneedle
Ladybugs and Bumblebees - Country Cottage Needleworks
M'Lady's Strawberries - Little House Needleworks
Moon and Stars - Little House Needleworks
Lavender Hill - Little House Needleworks
Watermelon (with 5 Crescent Colour threads) - Little House Needleworks
Bunny - The Littles - Bent Creek (with beads)
Dance of the Bumblebee - Bent Creek (with charm)
Whale House - Bent Creek (with snapper)
Spring Bird - Heart In Hand
Summer Bird - Heart In Hand
Autumn Bird - Heart In Hand
Winter Bird - Heart In Hand
Valentine Bird - Heart In Hand
Harvest Thyme - Plum Pudding NeedleArt (a freebie)

I think I have plenty to keep me going for a while... but as they say, when it comes to stash 'need' has nothing to do with it! :-)

Glum...

The other day I was horrified to see a mother duck strutting proudly down the side of the main thoroughfare with her two fuzzy ducklings behind her. I tried to convince myself they'd be fine. Tonight I noticed that my worst fears for the sweet duck family had come true. Life can be so cruel.

On to happier thoughts ('cos hey it's nearly Friday, again!)... I've finished four pieces of stitching this week. They were all abandoned pieces, so there was varying amounts of stitching to finish off on each of them. I even did the couched mice tails on The Drawn Thread's 'Cat's Meow'. They're not perfect... and I don't care!! (I do really, but I have to get over it! LOL).

I can't share photos until my new laptop is sorted out, as I don't have the ability to change photo sizes on this beast yet. I would borrow OH's but he is busy working on trying to create me a database for my cross stitching stuff (bless him!).

Well, after being sold a faulty Toshiba, then getting it replaced with another faulty Toshiba (someone forgot to install the modem, duh) OH paid a little extra and got me an Acer - and it is ace! I haven't had a minutes bother with this one, and it has extra features (DVD writer, more memory etc)... so now I am really thrilled to bits.

Will write again over the weekend, with photos!

Would anyone be interested in...

participating in a stitched Christmas card exchange?

No definite dates yet (I'll wait and see if there is any interest first), but sign up will probably end early October, your partner's details will be sent out shortly after and the mailing date will be mid-November. I can either create an online album to host photos of the cards, or people can post them on their blogs (or both!).

If you are keen feel free to email me your details (I'll need your name, blog address and snail mail address). If I receive any responses I'll decide on dates and post more definite exchange details here on my blog in the next few days.

The computer gods must hate me...

The shop replaced the noisy laptop with one which gives me a message saying it can't find a modem. It has the necessary plug, but obviously the Oompa-loompa putting the laptop together forgot the innards.

Thanks for all your recent comments, and especially to Carol for her offer of locating US magazines. Stitchers are a seriously generous and thoughtful bunch. :-) Thanks Carol!

Lisa - I'm really surprised that there were no copies of the JCS Xmas Ornies mag left at Magnetix. There were 3 or 4 when I bought mine at Thursday lunchtime. I am wondering if you may have missed seeing them (as I nearly did), as they were in the front row of the shelf above where all the stitching magazines usually are. If you're not likely to be in there this week, I can always go in to see if I can get you a copy (my email is in my profile).

I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend!

Yay for airfreighted magazines

I thought I'd try my luck yesterday at my favourite magazine store. I knew the JCS Christmas Ornaments mag was out in the USA, so there might be a chance it was out here... and my luck was in!



Roll on Christmas... (not too fast mind you, this year is going fast enough as it is!)

Ladye of the Castle

Finished... (you can click for a clearer version)...



I'm going to spend time this week working on some small WIPs which I rescued from my stash drawers over the weekend. Some were thrown into the 'too hard basket' (for e.g. the Drawn Thread's 'Cat's Meow' which just has the couched mice tails to do) and some appear to have been abandoned for no good reason. I think some time and patience could see a few of them finished.

OH bought me my Christmas present on Saturday - not only that but I was allowed it then too. Wipppeee... I'm now the owner of a Toshiba laptop! Unfortunately, it emits a very annoying dial-tone type noise from the screen which varies in intensity depending on the angle of the screen. I am quite easily annoyed by noises, but even OH agrees it's excessive and annoying. So this one may go back to the shop for a replacement yet. Boo! I don't want to have to plug myself into my iPod every time I want to surf the net. LOL It was a fantastic pressie, and even though OH probably thinks I'm ungrateful with all the complaining about the noises it makes and how frustrating it is - I do love it.

We're getting high-speed internet installed on 7 October, which I'm ever so excited about. Goodbye dial-up, no thanks broadband... high speed here I come!

Clicky finger

I got a bad case of clicky finger yesterday afternoon and went a little mad at the Stitching Bits and Bobs sale. I try and tell myself that with the cost of the postage to New Zealand there is no point doing things by halves, so away I went. I have on order 17 charts, 1 CD and 5 skeins of thread.

My finger then caught sight of this chart on TradeMe (like Ebay) going for just $2, and gave that a wee click too.



At JEMS in Canterbury while paying for my English stash, the lady said to me "you're going to be busy". Hmmm... if only she knew. LOL. Still if she runs a stash shop she probably does know!

Oopsie daisies

... changed my blog template last night and lost all my links etc. It did warn me changes to the template would be lost, but I didn't realise how much the template encompassed. Hopefully it won't be too long before I get all the links to your blogs reinstated on my sidebar!

I've been stitching away on Ladye of the Castle this week, it's coming along nicely. It's great to have the time to stitch again. I'm looking forward to finishing it though, because I really want to make a start on two kits I bought overseas of places in England which have special meaning to me (The Weavers in Canterbury, Kent and The Mermaid Inn in Rye, East Sussex). Although, we had a little spend today and bought new curtains for the three downstairs bedrooms so I guess I'll be spending a fair bit of time hanging those over the next week or so. I have Mum on standby in case it all goes pear-shaped.

I have posted a photo or two (OK, there's actually nearly 50!) of our trip in my Webshots album, feel free to have a browse. I think you just need to click on the little photo below and it will take you directly to my album.


by rosie_kiwi

Have a great weekend everyone!

All good things come to an end...

I've been back in New Zealand since Thursday... my body clock is beginning to work it's way around to New Zealand time (so hopefully I'll stop waking at 4 in the morning LOL).  So far I'm still happy living in the after-glow of my holiday and haven't succumbed to post-holiday blues like OH.

I've been looking through my 700 or so holiday photos and I just didn't know which ones to share, so here are a couple of randomly chosen shots.

This is the resort we stayed at in Cyprus.  I loved Cyprus... we arrived just as a red sun set in a dusty sky - what a welcome!  Cyprus was hot like I've never felt hot before - but they had great shopping, great entertainment, great food, great people, great weather...

Here's a beautiful Oranguatan at the Singapore Zoo.  (This one's for you Steve Irwin "the Crocodile Hunter" who sadly died today).

This is the house OH and I spontaneously purchased in Rye, Sussex (oh did I mention, in our dreams!?!!).

Here's a rare photo of me with my eyes open, on the beautiful Antrim coast in Northern Ireland.

I will add some more photos to my Webshots album over the weekend.  If anyone is interested I will post a link once done.

Unfortunately, I didn't do any stitching on holiday - but I did raid JEMs in Canterbury, and picked up a few magazines on my travels too - so I was thinking about stitching, if nothing else.

I have briefly looked at a few blogs, it looks like there's been lots of stitching and blogging going on - I have a lot to catch up with!