ANZAC Day

Today is ANZAC Day, where Australia and New Zealand remember our war dead. It is a day off work but always quite a sombre one.

Here is a (very bad) photo of my Long Dog sampler (click photo for a clearer view). I am over half way now, and am loving how this is turning out.



I've been reading up a bit about Monarch butterflies, and I think I've incorrectly referred to this as a cacoon... when it is actually a chrysalis. I read that as they get closer to emerging the chrysalis changes colour, so I checked on mine today and it has gone quite a bit darker. When I look closely I can see patterns reminiscent of wings (check out the second photo)... oh how I would love to know what's going on in there and how it all takes place.





To finish off, here's a photo of my big fella Giggsy. He doesn't know how to use the cat door, so he's enjoying being inside for an afternoon snooze.

If you wait long enough...

I've wanted this book for years. I think I first saw it nearly 9 years ago when I was living in England. It was quite a costly book (as they are), and I've finally scored it after all this time for just NZ$3.50 (roughly GBP1 or US$2) on Trade Me. Apart from a grubby mark on the dust cover it's in brilliant condition.

As usual you can click the photos for a clearer view (I'll work it out one day)!






My fabric arrived today for the Hello Neighbour RR, so I'll be able to get cracking after the weekend (we have visitors arriving tomorrow). Hope you all have a good one! :0)

Prairie Schooler freebie finish and a garden surprise

I had seen this cute design on a few blogs recently, so decided to stitch it for myself. The colours are prettier in real life, it's just my finishes always seem to happen just as the light is fading for the day :0) You can find the freebie here



As for the garden surprise. This is the bigger of the two caterpillars just yesterday afternoon...



... and just 24 hours later, it's cacooned!



Sorry to those who don't like looking at the caterpillar photos. You wouldn't want to see the large version of the photo above, it's so clear you can see it's little hairy legs. LOL! Anyway, it will be a lot better looking when it re-emerges (oh how I hope I'm not at work when it happens!).

Hope you're all having a good start to your week.

Autumn finish

With Autumn well and truly here (brrrr it's been cold at times), I decided to stitch 'Alphabet Tree' from Blue Ribbon designs in an Autumnal colour. This freebie is still available here, along with two other lovely ones if you're interested.



Global warming has my garden very confused. I'm sure my Dahlias should have stopped blooming long before now!



I haven't mentioned it lately... but only two caterpillars remain (a big one and a little one) on my Swan plants. They all disappeared after I went out and bought three extra plants for them to eat.

Anyway - I'm not sure if you can tell in this smaller version of the photo, but this caterpillar looks like it might just be starting to make it's cacoon. Either that or it has a bad a case of the dribbles!



Hope you're all having a wonderful weekend!

If only every day were a stitchy stash day...

Not one, not two... but three envelopes full of stitchy stash arrived yesterday!





I think it'll keep me stitching for a wee while!

Thanks for all your comments on my last post :0)

This and that...

Hope you all had a lovely Easter. The weather was supposed to be wet here, but every day has been beautiful and warm (although the mornings and evenings, not so... they like to remind us summer is long gone!).

I decided to stitch up a little freebie I found on Deborah's blog. It can be found in her post dated 28 December 2006. I had a piece of Rose Petals fabric from Countrystitch left over, and a skein of pink and purple Tentakulum (German) space dyed thread which was just perfect for the fabric. I think it came out really sweet (you can click for a clearer view).



I also worked on my Long Dog sampler and finished another band.



My sister came around too, and we did some scrapbooking. Neither of us were feeling very creative, but we did manage to finish a page each. Well almost, I still need to put some journalling in the wee plastic envelope and seal it up.



I hope you all enjoy the rest of the Easter break, and thanks to those who signed the WWF petition. :0)

Calling on nature lovers...

The WWF are organising a petition to ask the New Zealand government to take urgent action to protect the Hector's and Maui's dolphins (by way of banning set net fishing etc). These little dolphins live only in New Zealand waters, and are very rare... there are only about 100 Maui dolphins, and a few thousand Hector's.

So far there are only 1500 signatures, so if you have a moment to spare please sign the petition
here



Thanks
x