Playing catch up

It is definitely harder to find time to do small things these days, but today I have managed to give my cross stitches a quick once over with the iron so I can share them here.

First up is Sailing Mice by Margaret Sherry. I have long loved these little mice and having a baby seemed like the perfect excuse to stitch them. This design is destined for the wall of Annabelle's room. I had been going to frame it while I was on leave awaiting her arrival, but as mentioned in my last post she turned out to be an early bird (just like her Mum and Dad - DH and I are always early for everything - even when we try not to be, lol).



I also finished up LHN's Old Nantucket a while back. I love the colours in this one and the fabric (WDW Cocoa). This was such a pleasurable stitch (you can tell I enjoyed it, because I don't often finish large designs within a year!).



I was making some great progress on my Scarlet Letter piece - Freelove Hazard. That's come to a bit of a halt, but I hope to get back to it soon.



Annabelle has been inundated with love, kindness and gifts from all around the world in the five and a half weeks since she arrived. Last week a squishy package turned up in the letterbox all the way from Cornwall! The lovely and generous Nicola sent Annabelle this beautiful jersey and a card featuring Poppy and Blue! :-) I can't wait until Annabelle is big enough to fit it. Thank you again Nicola for this gorgeous gift!



Annabelle is starting to stir, so I'd better make tracks. Thanks for reading!

Surprise arrival

I have some stitching finishes to share, but I will save those for another post and show you my most recent creation...





Our girl wasn't due until 8 August, but surprised us by arriving three and a half weeks early. I had only finished up at work on 12 July, and things started happening the very next morning. At that stage DH and I had no idea how close we were to meeting our daughter. :-) Although she caught us a bit off guard, we are delighted she is here!

We were finally allowed home from hopsital on the Thursday (which was also my birthday) - and there was a gift waiting for Annabelle from our good friend Kathy. Get a look at these handmade bibs and burp cloths. Aren't they amazing?



I have to confess that I still haven't had the heart to get them dirty yet, and visitors are blown away that someone was so kind to hand make these beautiful gifts. Thanks again Kathy! xx

I hope to be back soon to show you my stitching finishes.

Spring

It's most certainly not Spring here in the Southern hemisphere, but I recently participated in a spring/Easter exchange on the Stiched with Love exchange blog.

As yet, I do not know who my partner was but a big thank you to the stitcher who sent me this wonderful exchange.

A lovely wall hanging -



And a fantastic bunch of extras (a cute bunny chart, the threads to stitch it, ribbons, buttons, fabric and some fat quarters). Talk about being very spoilt.



I haven't heard if my exchange has been received and I know the person I sent to reads my blog, so I won't say who I stitched for at this stage but this is what I stitched and sent -



I am currently stitching a very cute design for my baby, which I hope to finish and share very soon. In my last post I mentioned I'd had some flutterings which I thought might be the baby kicking - now I am in no doubt. DH has had his hand kicked too, which he thought was pretty cool.

I am currently on leave from work and we have just come back from four days up north in Taranaki visiting family. One of the nights we spent away was in a small township called Mokau, and this is the view from the deck of the bach we stayed at - in the distance is Mt Taranaki. Like with all good trips away, it was over too soon!



Hopefully I'll get some time with the rest of my leave from work to do some stitching.

Happy stitching everyone!

Howdy strangers :)

It has been a while since I last blogged, so here I am with an update!

First up some new Just Nan bunny stash arrived recently. I wasted no time ordering them after nearly missing out on the limited edition Christmas mouse at the end of last year. lol.



I also got two small WIPs finished up recently. First up is the stitchery I had started over Christmas. (You wouldn't believe it, but I did actually iron it before taking the photo)! I quite enjoyed the process, but it will definitely take more practice to round corners nicely.



The other design is Lil' Jack and the Kitty from Bent Creek. Even my DH commented what a cool piece this was. I have to say it was the worst kit I have ever used though, as it was seriously short on thread (which wouldn't have been too much of a problem usually, but it was DMC Pearl Cotton 5 which I don't usually stitch with). It would put me off buying Bent Creek kits in future.



I participated in the Hop into Spring exchange recently, and can't wait to show you what was sent and received. Thank you to my mystery stitcher - what a super package. :-) I can't wait to find out who you are to thank you properly.

I am sorry if you have sent me an email in the last four months and haven't received a reply. I had to create a Gmail address to sign up to Nicola's Scarlet Letter blog last year, and it seems all emails started getting sent to that address instead of my main email. I will be checking both in future! :-)

Baby update - everything has been going really well. The only problem I have right now is staying awake in the evenings :-) (hence the lack of blogging and stitching). At the beginning of February I had a midwife appointment and heard the baby's heartbeat for the first time. That was very cool and special! I think I may have felt the baby move a few times, but I am not entirely sure. The baby also has a room full of 'stuff' (clothes, toys etc) already - and DH and I have hardly bought a thing! I haven't managed to stitch anything for the baby yet, but I have some time off coming up and the Easter break so maybe I'll get some stitching for the little one done then.

Hope you have a lovely, stitch-filled weekend!

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Special deliveries

I have been a little absent from stitching and blogging for a while now. I haven't been feeling my best for a few months because I am expecting a very important delivery later in the year! So let me introduce you to my latest work in progress (which I'm calling my little thumb sucker!) :-)



I have managed to put a few more stitches into Freelove Hazard when I haven't been unmotivated/feeling seedy/horizontal/napping. I am so loving this sampler and the over one (now I didn't think I'd ever say that!).



Onto other special deliveries... I recently hit the stitchy jackpot on Nicola's Scarlet Letter blog. Will you look at the size of this fabric 39" by 55" (1m by 1.4m) (even my DH's eyes bulged when he saw the size of it, lol)! Wow, I am going to have so much fun with that! Thank you again Nicola, not only for the amazing prize but coming up with the idea of the Scarlet Letter blog and getting people stitching.



On the same day the fabric from Nicola arrived, some stash I ordered appeared too. It is Violet's Blue by Blackbird Designs. I fell in love with this design as soon as I saw it. I don't think I'll start it anytime soon though, I seem to have a few too many WIPS on the go and need to get some finished up.



We are having an amazing run of weather at the moment. A high is sitting over Wellington and it is blue sky day after blue sky day, and is expected to continue on until mid next week. It certainly makes our nation's capital look stunning.



I think Meg must have been catching a breeze in the woodshed, she lay here quite contented for ages!



Hope you're keeping cool (or warm)... depending on where you are in the world!

Freelove Hazard 1792

My aim for January was to get started on my sampler for Nicola's Scarlet Letter challenge. In the last few days I have done just that and have made a little progress.

Now I have to say when I studied the chart prior to stitching I was slightly nervous about all the over one stitching. It is not my favourite thing to do, and in the past I sometimes haven't even cared for the actual look of over one stitching. However, I have made a start and am actually enjoying it and I love the look of it in this sampler.



While I am here, I thought I would share a couple of other photos. Here is my bunny Charlie. He's a lively, happy little fellow. I am not entirely sure my other bunny Cola is very smitten with him (I think he preferred Tiggy's affectionate and gentle nature, rather than Charlie's "lets play" attitude lol) - but there has never been any aggression between the two boys, and they do get lots of exercise running around their enclousre.



For the flower lovers amongst you. This year in my wildflower garden I decided to plant some old fashioned favourites - dahlias, gladioli, foxgloves, hollyhocks etc. While there isn't actually too much flowering at this stage, my "Uncle Hankey" dahlia has this gorgeous bloom on it. Hopefully the other flowers won't be too far behind.



Hope you are having a lovely weekend and getting lots of stitching time in.

Happy new year

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and New Year. 2013 is shaping up to be a great year, but it is back to work on Monday after two weeks off work. While that is a bit of a drag there are plenty of public holidays to look forward to at this time of year (the first being just two weekends away).

I had lots of stitching plans for my time off work, but they haven't really eventuated due to feeling unwell for most of the break. I did pull out a kit I have had in my stash for a few years and put a few stitches in when I've felt up to it over the last few days. I am enjoying it so far and will finish it as a small pillow when done. It is my first attempt at a stitcheries kit, so I have a lot to learn about making nice curves with back stitch.



Before Christmas my Freelove Hazard sampler kit arrived for Nicola's Scarlet Letter challenge. I hope to make a start on it this month.



Christmas Day was a stinker of a hot day at 33 degrees Celsius (about 91 degrees Fahrenheit). Luckily the other nice days we've had haven't been quite that hot, so we've been having some trips out to different beaches and scenic spots. The water was even warm when we paddled our feet in it!







We took a trip to the zoo the other morning. I won't bore you with all the animal photos, but thought I'd share this baby chimp which was way too cute!



Have a great weekend!

Phoebe's 2012 Christmas ornament

I finally settled on Just Nan's Christmas mouse for Phoebe's 2012 ornament. I was a bit worried about the finishing, and although it's not perfect, it was easier than expected. I was quite chuffed with the result...





I nearly missed out on getting this limited edition kit. I dithered a while, and once I made up my mind I had trouble tracking down somewhere that still had it in stock. Luckily I found an ONS that had it, it arrived quickly and I managed to get it stitched, finished and delivered with time to spare before Santa arrives next week.

Of course, the first thing Phoebe (who is three and a half) did was pull the pin out of it. LOL.

Hope you are enjoying the lead up to Christmas. Two days of work to go before a nice two week break - and summer has arrived, we've had some glorious weather lately. I hope it sticks around.



Merry Christmas!

Freelove Hazard 1792

I am sure most people know about Nicola's new Scarlet Letter Year blog and challenge by now. What a cool idea to inspire others to get stitching and celebrate her milestone birthday coming up in February! (If you haven't come across the blog yet, you can find it - here)

After many hours perusing the internet, I finally decided to stitch Freelove Hazard 1792. I have the kit on order and can't wait for it to arrive.



I didn't want to pick a seriously large piece (Dorothy Walpole for example, which is my absolute favourite) until I finish my Growing Like a Tree sampler.

The Freelove Hazard sampler seems a little more poignant and meaningful regarding the brevity of life after spending Tuesday evening in the A&E ward of the local hospital. My sister was in a serious car accident, and is really lucky to be alive. Thankfully she is not one flower who is going to wither - but hells bells, it shocked everyone to the core. Even though she is going to be OK, it is really difficult to stop thinking about the details and what could have been.

Oddly, my last words to her that morning were 'You should get Dad to drive you today' (I was sick on Tuesday and I usually drive her to work in my car). She said 'Nah, I'm happy to drive'.

As someone has said to me since, you never know what is going to happen five minutes from now and it is so true. So remember to make the most of the days you are given, your loved ones... and your stitching time! :-)