FROM TEARS TO SMILES . . .

Today has been staring at me on the Calendar for the past couple of weeks and I've been sooooo looking forward to it ~ NOT!

  A fun-filled 24 hours attached to a blood pressure monitor which tortures my left arm every 15 minutes by squeezing it to death to take a reading with the thrill of knowing that tonight it will extend to every 30 minutes and go on the whole night long ~ umm! not much sleep I'm guessing!

Good job the next instalment of the Virginia Andrews 'Flowers in the Attic' novel is sitting by my bed (Book 4) ~ although as they are all such tear-jerkers it probably won't help!!!

So whilst I've spent this morning full of indulgent self-pity, Mr. Postie delivered an unexpected package on the doormat . . . .

My dear blogging friend Lesleyanne  http://lesleyanneslifeinstitches.blogspot.com sent me a birthday parcel.  Lesleyanne and I chat often through email and I am so pleased to have met her through Blogging and I guess I must have said my birthday was fast approaching and just look at what she sent especially for me . . .

Oh! it's just gorgeous ~ bunnies and strawberries in my favourite shades of colour and backed with red gingham fabric ~ PERFECT!

The design is LHN 'Strawberries' and Lesleyanne has stitched it on 28~count Mushroom fabric with Crescent Colours floss.

I'm truly touched Lesleyanne by your kindness, it means so much to me and from my miserable start to the day ~ look at me now . . .

Wish me luck tonight ~ what a strange coincidence DH has a big important business dinner tonight and as it won't finish until the early hours has decided to stay overnight in the Big City ~ he'll miss out on all the excitement!!!

Thanks for stopping by

HAPPY STITCHING

xxx

YIOTA'S XSTITCH ~ KIT REVIEW . . .

Last week I received a surprise email from Yiota asking me if I would like to choose and then review one of her many counted cross stitch kits ~ I was really chuffed to be asked and as I've come to a halt with my snowmen stitch I yelled a big 'YES PLEASE!'

Her on-line shop is extensive and includes Victorian inspired designs, popular fine art designs and many other categories such as fantasy, fairies, animals, flowers and much much more and the kit prices are very competitive.

After narrowing my choice down to 3, I finally decided on . . .

The Tree of Life by Klimt

I love this design and know the original painting by Gustav Klimt ~ this is the centre portion of the original painting but is reproduced very accurately.  I let Yiota know my choice and the following day . . . there it sat on the doormat in a sturdy secure envelope clearly marked 'Do Not Bend'.

The kit is extremely well put together . . .

 the chart is presented in black and white on 2 x A3 sheets of good quality paper

 the 14-count Aida fabric (the only choice of fabric but you do have the option of purchasing or downloading the charts rather than full kits) is quite soft and supple and not the hard, course material I remember from the past and the threads are Maderia threads and come pre-wound on bobbins each marked with their shade code (DMC alternatives are listed!).

So, what next . . . . well, start stitching of course . . .

I'm loving it, something different from my recent stitches and I love the curls and patterns of the tree branches.  I find I'm stitching it really randomly as the colour changes are frequent and as soon as I start one curl I'm tempted by another so I'm hopping all over the chart!


So far so good ~ my only criticism is that the thread numbers and symbols only appear in a horizontal line at the bottom of only one of the charts, to make life a little easier I have written them out in a vertical list form on the second part of the chart and also drawn the symbols on the labels on the thread bobbins ~ nothing major but helpful to me!

Go take a look yourself and see all her lovely designs, there are lots of Christmas options and the Victorian snowy street scenes are gorgeous.  You can find Yiota at http://www.yiotas-xstitch.com/

Thanks for stopping by

HAPPY STITCHING

xxx

TWO LITTLE BUNNIES . . .

TILLY & OSCAR WOULD LIKE TO WISH YOU . . .

A

HAPPY

HALLOWEEN

xxx
Please note ~ Nobunny was hurt or distressed during the making of this post and are currently in full sleeping mode after consuming a large reward of carrots & watercress for their perfect posing!!!

HOW~LO~WEEN . . .

Happy Thursday everyone!

It's Half-Term here and as normal the weather is pants!!!

DS's are busy revising German for a forthcoming test next week and DD is writing her personal statement for University applications so a little time for me and this was my quick and easy stitch for this week . . .

'How-lo-ween' freebie by Cherrywood Designs

stitched on 28count 'Shades of Autumn' evenweave with Mascara Weeks Dye Works

Pillow finish (no surprise there!) with Halloween Witch fabric, ric rac and bronze beads

I'm fully absorbed by a 5-book series by Virginia Andrews at the moment.

I read the first one ~ Flowers in the Attic ~ many years ago but never read the following four ~ I'm hooked and by sitting up to 1am last night have nearly finished book three.

The library are ordering them in for me as and when I'm ready for them and they've just rung to say book four is there ready and waiting so guess where I'm off to and who will be burning the midnight oil again tonight?

Thanks for stopping by

HAPPY STITCHING

xxx