TEA PARTY/PICNIC EXCHANGE 2011

I recently took part in my first ever stitching exchange ~ a Tea Party/Picnic Exchange hosted by Lainey ~ and was thrilled to bits with the goodies my secret exchange partner Catherine from http://bramblewoodstitches.blogspot.com/ sent me.

The exchange was to include a stitched item with a tea party/picnic theme, a recipe suitable for the same occasion and 5 other items . . . . .

I was really good and waited until my secret partner was revealed before opening the tempting bag of treats and when I did just look at what was inside . . . .

Catherine had given so much thought to what to send me ~ she couldn't have chosen better!  All my favourite things listed on my homepage were included ~ a beautifully stitched and framed bunny, a strawberry design pillow, a burgundy gingham tea towel, 20, yes 20 gorgeous shades of DMC threads, 2 adorable bunny fabrics, fruity magnetic notepads and a recipe for a hot milk sponge cake which Catherine recommends eating with strawberries and whipped cream . . . . . very naughty but definitely one to try out real soon!!! 

 

Such a pretty and beautifully stitched pillow with a heart charm attached with little pink beads

How cute is this?  A little bunny with flowers which Catherine took from a Homespun Elegance 'Welcome' design ~ love it xxx

 

Thank you Catherine so much, I appreciate the time and thought you put into my package and I feel very lucky to have been your secret partner.  Thank you also to Lainey for the considerable time and effort it takes to organise us scatty stitchers to follow the rules and get our packages sent out on time.  I'm hoping my secret partner who I sent to will post some piccies soon, if not I'll show some next time.

Thank you for stopping by

HAPPY STITCHING

xxx

THE MAGIC WORD . . .

Remember 'my' big black cloud ~ YIPEE! it's gone away and my run of bad luck has gone with it :-)

The whole idea of wishing for that 'big black cloud' was to give our gardens and flowers the big drink they have been so desperate for to bring them back to life and the South of England has been waiting and waiting and waiting but all I needed to do was just say the magic word ~

BARBEQUE

and hey presto! it rains, not just the showers forecast but persistant non-stop rain the whole of Sunday and most of today!

  Saturday was beautiful and hot

 so I said 'that' word and Sunday was not!

Anyone fancy wet burgers and fries

It's the best I can offer ~ just look at the skies!

Even the bunnies have turned up their nose

Wet grass and carrots, not the best I suppose

But come on guys!  Look what it's done

The flowers are blooming and the forecast is SUN!!!

So now to stitchy news . . .
My last 2 posts have been void of anything cross stitch, I have been doing some, honestly, but ssssshhhhh, hush, hush, cannot talk about it yet ???

So I thought I'd show you this one, stitched in 2008 . . . .

The Coffee Angel by Carolina Country House
stitched on Cream 28-count Evenweave with my choice of DMC threads


The original colours for this one were yellow, orange and green with a black chequered border and not coffee-like at all so I changed them to my taste and altered the spelling of cappucino to the english version ~ is one letter c the american spelling? all our products here have 2 letter c's in the middle?

There are four Angels in this series . . . .

The Coffee Angel, The Baking Angel, The Spice Angel and The Herb Angel


The first 3 in the series I tracked down quite easily, although I've only stitched the 'Coffee' one but the 4th one ~ The Herb Angel ~ was non existent until eBay came up trumps and probably the reason was Carolina Country House had changed to Manor House Collection and now they don't seem to exist at all!

So I was just wondering if anyone else had stitched any of them and if so how they had finished them?
As usual they are not a standard frame size finish, they are too big for a pillow finish and would a wall hanging look strange without a fabric border bearing in mind they all have a chequered border already?
Oh, decisions, decisions, now you know why it's been sitting in the 'Remember Me' pile for over 3 years!!!

DD has just got back from sitting her last exam so it's a well deserved rest for her now and fingers crossed she achieves all she's hoping for.

Thank you to everyone for your words of support and encouragement on my recent doom and gloom ~ you are all the perfect tonic for me!

HAPPY STITCHING
xxx

SOMETHING DIFFERENT . . . .

This is a non-cross stitch, non-bunny and thankfully (after my lost post) a non-eventful post!

I thought I'd share with you my DS's (aka Twin I, aged 13 3/4 !!!) Works of Art.

He's always loved drawing and is an avid reader of the Terry Pratchett novels and as it's Half-Term this week and he's having a break from his Playstation 3 he's combined the two and Hey Presto . . . .

'Rincewind'

An artist at work!

'Gak' ~ a work in progress

'Gak' completed!

'Evil Harry Dread'

All 3 of these characters are from Terry's novel 'The Last Hero' and are pencil drawn and coloured with artists' tone & blend pencils.
Perhaps not drawings us cross-stitching ladies would hang on our walls next to our stitched Samplers!!!
but we will frame these with clip-art frames and when they are hung in his brick-wall effect bedroom they will look great!

Beautiful sunny weather here in the UK but very windy too!

Have a great weekend everyone
HAPPY STITCHING
xxx

PLEASE GO AWAY BLACK CLOUD!

The much needed black cloud has arrived in my village ~ unfortunately it has no rain in it ~ it's just come to sit over MY head and make my life rubbish and it WON'T GO AWAY!!!

Let me explain ~

I've managed to drive the car into the low wall that separates my driveway from my neighbours ~ that part of the wall now resembles rubble and the car has gone to hospital for a respray!  I've only been driving 25 years and even more embarrassing it was frontwards of the drive and didn't even involve reversing!

OK, a lovely 2011 courtesy car to drive whilst we wait 7-10 days ~ only it's a 3 door Vauxhall Corsa and we're a family of 5 including 3 growing teenagers all over 5' and DH who's 6'2" and when he drives it the person sitting behind him is more comfortable upside down with their feet hanging out the sunroof!

Oh, and did I mention it's half-term next week so will need to use the car more than ever.

*

Blogger ~ well you all know how irritating that is at the moment?

My grand opening happy dance of The Mercantile was a failure with comments (maybe due to blogger problems or it just wasn't a popular design?) so I have shut my country store down!

*

Thought a nice treat for all of us would be a night-time visit to London Zoo which is by advance ticket only ~ Great! the tickets have arrived with age 18+ in the smallest print ever with no refund available so looks like DH and I are off to spend the night with the monkeys alone!

(A zoo that only lets people in over the age of 18???????)

*

My neighbour called by Friday to see if I had noticed the smell of gas ~ No, I hadn't until she said!

British Gas have now been out to investigate and found a leakage and guess what: the mains pipe, according to their records, is underneath OUR driveway so come Tuesday that will be dug up ~ well it will match the wall now won't it?

*

Summer's fast approaching and I've lots of unworn clothes brought in the end-of-season Sales last year ~ OUCH! those trousers pinch, so does that pair of shorts and that t-shirt is screaming STOP STRETCHING ME!

Goodbye size 10 (temporarily) - OK, I know, only 1 person to blame but here comes the 10,000 steps a day and 5-a-day fruit & veg diet routine again and that = less stitching time!
Size 10 did not come easy for me in the first place, it took losing almost 3 stone (38lbs) to find it and I've always sworn I'll never go back to what I was :(

It's okay Oscar, Mum's had her rant, you can come out . . . .

Tilly, the forecast looks good and the black cloud may go soon . . . .

I know a 'pick'me-up' is what's needed (NO! not a bottle, NO! not another shopping spree) . . . COFFEE, you know, Mum's favourite, but how about coffee with a difference . . . .

My 1st attempt at punchneedle ~ a small Dimensions kit featuring a steaming cup of coffee.

It took me a few attempts before I knew and was happy with what I was doing but I'm really pleased with the end result and am really keen to have another go ~ there are some gorgeous designs out there, in particular With Thy Needle & Thread who have bunnies-a-plenty.

So, that's my life at the moment but I'm still smiling and hopefully you'll come back next time?

HAPPY STITCHING

xxx