SNOWMEN AND 80 DEGREES!

Yep, a strange combination!

So, here's a question for you ~ How often do you get 9 solid hours of 'ME' time when the only thing you can really do is CROSS STITCH?

Answer ~ whilst flying over The Atlantic of course!

We left England last Friday for our Christmas vacation here again in Florida (11th time and now definitely our 2nd home!) and over the past few years although I've always packed my needle supplies in the suitcases for the tight security reasons, this year I took a deep breath and thought 'Well, I'll try, if they remove the needle, so be it!' and Hey Presto ~ my innocent face got my trusty needle through security and a leisurely 9 hours stitching produced my last Happy Dance of 2011 . . .

Charmed Flakes 'Deck the Hall' by Hinzeit
stitched on 28-ct Jobelan Bay Leaf with suggested DMC threads

I was struggling with this one a couple of months back, I didn't like the heaviness of the required backstitching or solid line underneath the snowmen so decided to omit both, change the wording at the bottom to the lighter shade used for the snowmen's 'twig' arms and I'm really happy with the finished design! :)  I have the silver snowflake charms to add when I get back home and decide on a finish ~ for now I've put these 3 little fellows in the fridge so they don't melt before I get back home!!!

Temperatures here in Orlando have been a very nice high 70 degrees and are, from today, rising to the low 80's and are a welcome relief from the dull, gloomy days back in England.  Christmas is very pretty out here and the villas are decorated beautifully, the life out here is very laid-back, very clean and very friendly.

 

Yesterday we drove out to my favourite needlework shop ~  Needleorts ~ and on DH's orders, I took my Christmas stocking and with very little difficulty managed to FILL IT!  Ooooooh, a child in a candy store would have been hard put to have a bigger smile on their face at the end of it!

In case you're wondering ~ my 2 best friends are happy and warm staying with the lovely lady who's the nurse at our Vets ~ our house-minders are not really bunny people and I know they'll be spoilt-rotten where they are ~ miss them sooooooo much :(

I haven't had much time to blog read but will catch up as soon as I can and if I don't post again before the 25th . . .

HAPPY CHRISTMAS
May it be peaceful, joyful, warm and full of love

xxx

WITH OR WITHOUT? . . .

Just a quickie . . .

My intentions of building the final snowman of 'Deck the Halls' just didn't happen this weekend and after picking it up this afternoon I've decided I'm not sure if I like the backstitching or not around 'Fa' and 'La'!

So I've unpicked 'Fa' and left 'La' so you can tell me what you think, I just feel the snowman should look soft against the fabric and not have a harsh line around them, perhaps I'm just going la-la!!!

Other insignifant news . . .  I set fire to my oven Friday night and although repairable the part will not be with us until end of this week ~ good job we have a microwave and I've failed my blood pressure test yet again and now have to be fitted with a 24hour monitor to find out what's going on ~ I did tell the doctor about the oven and the indecision on building snowmen but looks like the diabetes is the culprit - dam diabetes!

Thanks for stopping by

HAPPY STITCHING

xxx

'MUM! WE'RE GOING' . . . .

Thank you to everyone who responded to my last Post and has sent me back pieces of my missing mojo!!!

I think I'm basically just a bit down in the dumps at the moment with too many worrying things going on around me but that doesn't make a good post to read does it?  so here goes with my progress on 'Deck The Halls' snowman trio and it's really coming on rather well . . .

As you can see I'm still missing the final 'La' but will make a start on that this evening and then it will just need the wording underneath so a Happy Dance in sight I think!

Last weekend was the Knitting & Stitching Show at The Alexandra Place in London and not having been before I had been counting the days down on the calendar and itching to get there and have a nosy!

My mojo and self-esteem on a bit of a downer I went to bed the night before and thought I just can't be bothered and I get so fed up that I don't have any stitchy friends to go with, I'll go next time!

Well, that was until DS (aka Twin II) woke me up and said 'Mum, WE'RE going, get yourself ready, our train leaves in 1 hour and we're take a picnic!'

Bless him, how could I refuse?

The Palace and park grounds were beautiful (annoyingly I forgot to take my camera with me) but the goodies inside were even more beautiful and in the 4 hours we spent there we only got round half of the exhibitors!

'Hand-dyed' was the order of the day for me ~ when you have no needlecraft shop in existence around you and you have to order on-line the whole time, it's so difficult to choose hand-dyed fabrics and threads so this really was heaven for me . . . .  OK I'm rambling . . . . here's the stash . . . . 

100gsm hand-dyed cotton thread

Hand-dyed 28-count fabrics in Midnight ~ the one on the left is Brittney with silver flecks and the one on the right is Lugana ~ it's amazing how different the same dye looks on two different fabrics!

More hand-dyed sample pieces ~ perfect size for small ornaments

Hand-dyed felt squares in Autumn shades, 2 rustic FQs and ric-rac

Christmas Fat Quarters ~ I think the brown heart one will go well with the snowmen I'm stitching?

And because DS insisted ~ Augustus the Tortoise who comes as a kit and has rather a lot of buttons to sew on his shell when finished!!!

So all in all a lovely, lovely day and all down to my kind and very caring DS.

Thank you DS, I know it was a hard choice ~ needlecraft or football (not!) and we could count the number of men who were there on one hand and you were so outnumbered that we were even using the Men's Toilets BUT it was a special day for me and I've marked it on next year's calendar already so you don't forget !!!! xxx

Sunny days here in the UK but very chilly . . . 

Guess it's okay when you can snuggle up like this!

Thanks for stopping by ~ enjoy your weekend

HAPPY STITCHING

x x x

IT IS AN OWL, HONESTLY!

Well it was nice whilst it was here but now it's gone!

Our mini, mini heatwave has moved on and now we have much chillier days with autumn sunshine and winds blowing all the leaves off the trees ~ just how it should be :)

A mini, mini Happy Dance to share with you . . .

'Night Watch' by Heart in Hand

stitched on 28-count Barely Bronzed Linen with my choice of Sampler Threads

It is quite a cute little finish but my family all struggled to realise that it actually was an owl sitting in front of a pumpkin and suggestions of both a cat and a dog were offered???  I do agree it does look a bit of a mash-up of animals and the fact it looks as though it's wearing a neckerchief and a lot of lipstick doesn't seem to help.  I thought if I finished it with a pumpkin fabric it might help give it some identity, what do you think?

I think my mojo is on the downward slope at the moment and as much as I sit going through all my stash nothing seems to appeal BUT I thought I might tackle one of the charts I purchased last year in America . . .

This is a Charmed Flakes design by Hinzeit called 'Deck The Halls' and although it's a little early for snowmen it seems to be quite an easy design and I do have all the right ingredients to make a start!

If any of you seem to have had a sudden surge of mojo, please check whether it belongs to me and kindly SEND IT BACK ASAP :)

Thanks for stopping by

HAPPY STITCHING

xxx