Genealogical shenanigans

My wedding sampler is now done. Yay! It was a fun stitch. The chart is all packaged, stamped and ready to be sent off to Jayne. I'll look forward to seeing hers finished later in the year too.



Here is a (terrible) photo of Autumn Splendour, which I also finished earlier in the week. This chart is off in the mail to Tanya.



Kathy and Beatrice invited me to join the Mirabilia SAL. I thought it would spur me on to finish Damask Roses which I started in 2006. I shouldn't need spurring on, it is such a beautiful design. I don't remember the last time I stitched on her, so I am quite excited to be getting back to it.



We were recently tracked down by some relations (some from England and some from New Zealand), and last night they came for a visit. I am very interested in my genealogy, so it was great fun.



They picked the hottest day to come for a visit too, it reached about 32 degrees Celsius yesterday. I like it warm, but not that warm!

Yay, it's the weekend. Enjoy yours!

A stitcher's dream

I walked into a stitcher's dream today. I went to visit my parents, and we were chatting away when my Mum says "Did your sister tell you about the cross stitch stuff? There are three bags full of it, and you can have your pick".

Say what??!!

And it wasn't three bags of rubbish either, there were some top notch kits and charts in the bags.

I chose four kits - a Moira Blackburn sampler, Mirabilia's Rose of Sharon, a native American Indian kit and a wolf design which OH liked.



I especially like the Moira Blackburn sampler, so here's a closeup photo.



I believe the lady is someone my sister knows who is getting married, and was having a clear out. Wow, a big thank you to whoever she is - it was so much fun looking through and choosing what I would like! (And not having to wake up from the dream... lol).

The winner of the Autumn Splendor chart is Tanya of The Scarlett House. If you would like to email me your address I'll get it into the post for you soon (I should have it finished tonight).



Hope you are all having a great weekend, and for those who are back at work tomorrow... I can commiserate. :-)

Home again...

I hope your new year has got off to a good start. 2009 is going great, we just had three days away in Taranaki and had a wonderful time.

Here is a wee glimpse at what we got upto -


I also found some pretty shoes for my wedding, and I wasn't even intending to look - so I am really happy! :-)

I will do the drawing for the chart tomorrow, to give any latecomers a chance to put their names in the hat.

Last post for 2008 and a chart giveaway

While I was waiting on my threads to arrive for Wedding Row (they arrived today), I started Autumn Splendor which Judy gifted to me recently. I didn't actually realise until I was looking for something to stitch that the thread (Victoria Clayton's 'Tigerlily') was included in the chartpack. It is gorgeous and wonderful to stitch with! Thanks again Judy!

Can I interest anyone in the chart once I have finished with it? If so, leave a comment on this post - and if there is more than one person interested, I will randomly pick a name when I get home from up north in a few days.



It has been really hot here, great weather for mucking about in the pool!



Happy new year everyone, and all the best for 2009.

Edited to add:
New year's greetings from Tess


(That's my laptop in the top left-hand corner and my lapcat next to me. Tess doesn't care how hot it is, she likes to be close in all weather!).

Dreams of a lazy Sunday

I was hoping for a lazy Sunday today, as so far the Christmas holiday has been a whirlwind of activity.

It's a gorgeous summers day, and I envisaged a swim in the pool, some nice fresh fruit salad - and maybe even some more stitching. But now we've been invited to a BBQ (such a hardship, lol).

We are going up north at New Year for a few days, so I don't think I'm going to be finding any time to unwind before it's time to go back to work.

Anyway, I managed a slightly better photo of Bent Creek's Wedding Row today. I just have to sit back and wait on the thread now.



Hope you are all finding some time to relax over the Christmas holidays.

Fascinating fascinators

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas. Ours was quiet, but fun. Actually, it wasn't that quiet - my sister got Singstar Abba for Christmas from my other sister. She also bought herself a Wii, so everyone (including my parents LOL) were playing tennis, bowls, karting etc.

I had another wedding letdown just before Christmas - this time my hairdresser of six years. She phoned me to say she's selling the business and cannot do my wedding hair. Fortunately my OH (being a local businessman) is in the know, and knew that the local beauty salon has a new resident hairdresser. So it all works out perfectly - wedding hair, make-up, nails etc are all being done in one place.

So, I took a run to the bridal shop today looking for hair ornaments. I love feather fascinators, and was lucky enough to find one. I also came away with two other combs. I don't know which (if any) I will use, but at least I have a few things to take with me to the wedding hair trial in a couple of weeks. As my hair is short, ideas are thin on the ground... so I have some hair extensions on order too (OH's friend who owns the beauty salon suggested them, that's great thinking for a bloke!!).

Anyway, I have come to the conclusion that wedding preparations are a lot of stress and hassle, and I can't wait for the big day itself so we can just enjoy it (which is what it should be about!).

Pictured with my hair ornament selection is my wedding sampler. I couldn't get a decent photo of it in it's entirety (due to the wrinkles and the fading light), but I am nearly finished. However, I've run out of thread so have put an order in from a shop in Auckland. Hopefully they're open between Christmas and New Year, so I can get it finished. It's been a really enjoyable and quick stitch.



I am glad you enjoyed all the kitten photos. My Mum is currently fostering all seven of them until they are old enough to be desexed and rehomed. They are so much fun!

Especially for Judy (and anyone else who loves cats and kittens)

Merry Christmas everyone (and remember kittens are for life, not just for Christmas... lol)

On the go...

It sure is a busy time of year, I am so looking forward to my Christmas break which starts next week!

And as if we weren't busy enough with Christmas, wedding plans, birthdays etc - we put an offer on a house we liked at the weekend which was accepted, so now our house is on the market!

I have managed to find a little time to start a new project though. Bent Creek's 'Wedding Row'. Kathryn asked about the colourway I would be using for this project a few posts back, I am using the suggested colours (although I did substitute the Lancaster Red, which I did not have for GAST's Manor Red so I didn't have to buy any thread).



I had some minor surgery on my lower lip yesterday. I was not worried at the thought of injections or incisions, but boy am I feeling anxious about next Monday when I get the stitches out! Do surgeons call it frogging too when they're ripping the thread out?? lol

Hope you are all having a great week!

Drugs bust

I recently entered a competition Judy had on her blog. It was to guess the pattern she was stitching. I recognised it straight away as Kitty Cottage Sampler.

A rather large padded envelope was awaiting me tonight when I got home. Judy is amazingly generous, and really made my day with all the gifts she sent.

Included are four skeins of thread, two charts (Calico Cat and Autumn Sampler), a watercolour print (the colours are amazing) and a leaflet about the artist, a sachet of hot chocolate and some bath grains. Oh yes, and a gorgeous Christmas card which isn't pictured because it is already sitting with the others we have received. Thank you so much Judy!



Oh and the drugs bust comment in the title of this post relates to Judy's package. NZ Customs must have thought the bath grains looked a little suspicious on the x-ray, so not only did they open the parcel to inspect they even opened the bath grains themselves. Bet they were disappointed to find it REALLY was bath grains. LOL. Great to know that they are doing their job though!

Not forgotten

I have had CarolR's Quaker Friendship RR for quite some, so I just wanted to post a pic to show her it has not been forgotten. I love Carol's choice of fabric and thread. I don't intend on mailing it for a couple of weeks though, because I don't want it to go AWOL in the Christmas mail rush!



I had a busy weekend this weekend - first up on Friday night I went to a murder mystery xmas dinner. It was so much fun! I wasn't feeling too great on Saturday though. LOL.



The weather at the weekend was gloriously summery. So we headed over to the Wairarapa (which means glistening waters) to a place called Mount Bruce. There we saw two Kiwis which we watched for about 15 minutes, and a whole load of Kaka (these parrots are far prettier than my photo shows).



Judy wanted to see more kitten photos. I haven't seen the kittens for a while, but you can see more in my Flickr album (there is more from the murder mystery too, if you are game for a look!). I will try and take some more kitten photos soon though, apparently they are already starting to run about and make mischief! :-)