HAPPY DAYS . . . .

After a full recovery by all of us the last week has been just perfect!  A big Thank You to those of you that left get well messages on my last post - really, really appreciated.

My gang of three all went back to school today and I've really missed their company.  Last week was lovely ~ the days have been sunny and warm and that always makes 'Happy Days'.  My twin boys belong to a local church youth group and they have an Easter Holiday Club for the young children and this year Twins I and II were both chosen as group leaders and enjoyed making cakes, candle holders, performing drama and music and having wet sponges thrown at them by the little 'uns.  They celebrated their hard work at the end of the week with all the other leaders with a get-together in the evening with a fish and chip supper.  The normal treat on school breaks is to delay bedtime by one hour but they were both so exhausted from the leaderships that they were more than happy to retire at the normal time!!! (now they may realise just how exhausting it is looking after demanding children)!

DD's bedroom was successfully decorated and is really pretty in pink.  Her big treat for the Easter Hols was to get see her idols ~ Diversity (street dancers and winners of Britain's Got Talent 2009) last Thursday evening down in Brighton.  She has had her tickets since last December and has literally been counting down the days until the big event.  She left midday with her friend and was determined to see them arrive in their tour coach ~ 3 hours later she did and after the show waited for them yet again and was lucky enough to meet several of them and get autographs.  She was on a high all day Friday and when she read on Twitter that they were still in Brighton at a well-known hotel and not leaving until Saturday morning she set her alarm clock early and set off again to hunt them out (what a dedicated fan!!!!)   I was dreading she would get there too late and that they would have made an early get-away so I can't tell you how relieved I was when she rang me midday to say she had met all of them this time and they had each posed with her for photographs!!

And now for me .... with the children all occupied and happy I was able to settle down to a good dose of sewing.  Cluck, Cluck is complete and I'm really happy with it ...

'Cluck, Cluck!!' by The Stitching Shed

stitched on 28count Sand Minster Linen with Anchor threads provided

I was going to frame it and hang it in the kitchen but DH says it will make another nice pillow for the sofa in the Study so I shall find a nice colourful backing fabric and add some heart embellishments.

My fabric for my recently finished Noah's Ark arrived and I have finished that into a pillow, I only added the one embellishment to the front, I was going to add three different ones but it looked too busy ...

'Noah's Ark' by HeartStrings

stitched on 14count Rustico Aida with chosen DMC threads backed with Debbie Mumm Noah fabric and Debbie Mumm white dove embellishment on front

And finally a completion from the bottom of the 'finished' pile from sometime ago ~ Harry Potter!  I knew I wouldn't be able to find the right size frame for this piece so I turned it into a stand up with a star themed fabric and it now stands in the bookcase along with the complete set of Harry Potter books.  I stitched this design from a DMC Harry Potter publication which was only produced in French but was easy to follow, the book has lots and lots of the characters and logos and I would love to add Ron and Hermione to make the infamous trio!  I often think how lucky my children and I have been to actually live the Harry Potter story as it has been told, everytime a new book or film was released we were always there on the day to buy or watch it and with only 2 films left to see now it will be horrible when it's all finished!!!

'Harry Potter' from DMC's Harry Potter Collection

stitched on 14count white Aida with suggested DMC threads

So, what to stitch next?  I can't make up my mind so am stitching a small Lizzie*Kate as a fill-in . . . The Prairie Schooler's 'When Witches Go Riding' is very tempting as is my recent purchase of BBD's 'Midnight Watch' ~ is it too early for Halloween now the Sunshine is finally here ????

And lastly my little sunbathing friend Buttons who's insisting the next stitch should be 'Briar Rabbit' by La~d~Da - it is a gorgeous chart but I've yet to find a fabric I would like to stitch it on . . . .

HAPPY STITCHING . . . .

THE EASTER BUNNY DID NOT COME ALONE . . .

So much to look forward to : sunshine, a chilled and relaxing 4-day break, easter eggs and a visit from the Easter Bunny - only he did not come alone - an Easter Bug came too!!!

5am Good Friday Twin 2, having gone to bed the night before perfectly happy and well, was violently sick for a 6 hour duration, followed by myself at 9pm that evening and Twin 1 starting at 2am Saturday morning.  I've never known a bug hit so quickly as this one and it really was a rotten time leaving us exhausted and no appetite for choccie eggs or anything else whatsoever.  DH was an absolute angel and looked after the three of us so well and until Wednesday evening was feeling very lucky that he had escaped it  . . . oh no! no such luck, at midnight the bug paid him a visit too.  DD was away at a Birthday sleepover so thankfully she escaped it but Easter ended up being a non-event and this weekend we shall make up for it!

I've not really been in the mood for sewing after the past week's events but as it was Easter and I'm not a chocolate lover, DH bought me this month's The World of Cross Stitching magazine instead which had a small free kit of Lickle Ted so decided to stitch this.

I didn't like the plain white Aida that came with the kit so substituted it with 28count Cashel Raw Linen and used the DMC threads provided.  As it was only a little design I decided to make it into a pillow and used Mary Engelbreit's Bee fabric for the reverse, added a bee embellishment on the twine at the top and added a plant pot button for the the final touch.

Now I can crack on with 'Cluck, Cluck' ~ this design is such fun to stitch and the blocks of colour are fast and easy to do :

This weekend we have the Decorators in!  After postponing them twice now, last month when my Dad was poorly and last week due to the dreaded Bug, tomorrow they start on DD's bedroom ~ she's waited so long for a revamp and has just chosen some gorgeous Laura Ashley wallpaper and matching paint ~ pink, of course!  Carpets and new furniture will follow in a couple of weeks time so whether she'll ever come out of there again , who knows?  GCSE's are fast approaching and the studying/revision hours are long but she's a good girl and knuckles down and gives 100% so a new bedroom is well deserved!  Her friend's birthday sleepover last weekend was Disney themed and they each dressed up as a character ~ as Stitch is her favourite alien she chose Lilo and here she is complete with flower garlands :

A big thank you to all who have viewed and commented on my last few posts, it's so lovely that you take the time to do so and I really enjoy reading them all.

HAPPY STITCHING . . . .

A GIFT OF SUNSHINE!

It's cold, rainy and very non-Spring like here in Southern England so I am thrilled to have received a gift of pure Sunshine :

This lovely award was given to me by Cath ~ The Stitchin' Chicken and I am very touched that Cath chose my blog as one of her nominations ~ thank you soooooo much!  As I am a fairly new Blogger my 'followers' list is not huge and I think most of you on it already have this award so I send a big thank you to all those who read my blog and who take the time to comment on it.  I thoroughly enjoy reading all your Blogs and it is truly inspiring to see pictures of both the progress and completion of your stitching projects that I would normally only ever see as a chart!

Can you believe Easter is almost here?

Where did January, February and March go?

Today was the last day of school term for my gang of three and now they have a long 18 day break (will probably feel a lot longer to me!!!!) and although they are all now non-believers in Santa, the Tooth Fairy etc., the Easter Bunny WILL be making an appearance!  I have been stitching as often as I can in the last 10 days and despite shutting my fingers in the car door last Saturday and spending nearly 2 hours at A&E with thankfully no broken bones I today finished two Easter stitches . . . .

'Happy Hoppy Easter' by Lizzie*Kate stitched on 28count Sand Minster Linen in Gentle Art Sampler threads with purple ribbon & small coloured buttons

The colours I chose were not too different from those listed on the chart but Buttons and I agreed that my 'Burnt Orange' sampler thread was not the colour of any carrot Buttons would want to eat so chose 'Bittersweet' instead, I stitched all the wording in just one shade ~ 'Purple Iris' (similar to the colour of my nails after being shut in the car door) and the carrot foliage is in 'Spring Grass'.  My choice of colours were inspired by the picture below which was a joy of colour to finally see appear in the front garden - not sure what my neighbour was thinking when she saw me planting fully grown carrots in the ground - probably that I was cheating with the vegetable patch!!!!

My second Easter completion is one of the charts bought at the recent Olympia show:

'Easter Blessings' by Lizzie*Kate (contains 3 different charts) stitched on 28count Cashel Raw Linen in Gentle Art Sampler threads and flower/heart embellishments

I've found it really difficult to choose my next project but finally decided to stick with the Spring theme and have just started the 'Cluck Cluck' kit I bought recently at Olympia.  I haven't stitched this designer before but the thread colours are so gorgeous and I know it will look great hanging in my Kitchen when it's finished.

The kit came with white Aida and it looked really stark against the soft muted colours so I am stitching it on the Minster Sand Linen I used for the Happy Hoppy Easter and I think it will give it a much more country rustic feel! 

I wish you all a very Happy Easter and hope the Easter Bunny is kind to you!  My strict routine of 10,000 steps a day and a careful watch on cholesterol levels mean NO eggs of any sort for me (how boring!) but you know me . . . . . a cappuccino and I'm in heaven!

HAPPY STITCHING . . . . .

S.O.S.

I'm now going to sound like the very novice Blogger that I am . . . . .

Firstly I really appreciate you lovely ladies who have opted to follow my Blog, I have only been going for 1 month and the response I have had is fantastic!  I have recently been nominated for a Sunshine Award, something I never expected so soon  and am very grateful for it but I am unsure if I have the right to accept it?  I believe to accept it I would need to nominate 10 further people for the award and as I don't have lots of followers (yet!!!) and I think most of the ones I do already have this award, would it be the correct thing to do?  Also I have to add links to their names . . . . HELP! I haven't got a clue how to do that?

Secondly, I am struggling with abbreviations . . .  I have worked out that W.I.P. is 'work in progress' but keep coming across SAL, RAK, PIF, LNS, UFOs . . . how useless am I? L.O.L!  All help appreciated!

Now about my visit to the Stitch & Craft Show last Saturday.  DD (not very creative with needle & thread but loves a day out) and I set off early to London complete with food, drink and my shopping list in preparation for what might be a long, busy day . . .  MIGHT? LONG? BUSY!  I'd never seen anything like it and my DD looked at me horrified at the prospect of battling through the mass of people to fulfil my shopping list and after 2 hours suffering from sore feet and bruises from elbows, bags and shopping trollies we waved the white flag!

I knew which stall I wanted to shop at and thankfully it was there ~ a lovely lady with a huge assortment of charts from all my favourite American designers so here's the new Stash ....

'Stitches of Love' kit with rusty heart buttons  *  'Midnight Watch' chart by Blackbird Designs  *  'Cluck Cluck' kit by The Stitching Shed  *  'Coffee Crazy' chart by Lizzie*Kate  *   'Cuddly Bunny' Stitchlet kit by Mouseloft  *  'Happy Bunny Bunny Day' chart by the Trilogy  *  'Easter Blessings' chart by Lizzie*Kate  *  2 pretty Fat Quarters  *   28ct Cashel Linen  *  2 skeins of overdyed floss by Needle Necessities  *   a 'Buttons' jar from East of India  *  6 assorted buttons for W.I.P.s   * and finally by kind delivery from the Postman that same day : 'Snowy Pines' kit by Little House of Needleworks . . . . PHEW!

Now I see my new stash in pictures and words, yes it was worth it!  But poor DD was celebrating a friend's birthday the following day and was invited to go Paintballing at 9.15am early morning some 15 miles away. This involved a 7 hour duration of being dressed top to toe in what resembled the SAS outfit of black armour, black helmet, black goggles and a heavy paintball gun (DD loves 'pink', 'shoes', 'handbags' !!!) ~ when she finally got home she was exhausted and to add to the previous days sore feet and bruising she had even more purple patches and resembled a dalmation dog - we laughed together, opened a bag of cookies and picked ourselves up again with hot chocolate and cappuccino!

HAPPY STITCHING . . . .