February's Christmas Ornament

Well, it was the third weekend in the month this weekend, so of course I made time to stitch a Christmas ornament, as I do with Leena every month. This month I’d been hoping to stitch Gabrielle’s Star, the La-D-Da ornament from the JCS 2008 ornament issue, so I ordered the floss (I love stitching with NPI silks as it is charted with), but then only two of the three colours arrived in the packet as the shop was out of stock on the third one. So back to the drawing board, and I thought I might as well get my sister’s ornament out of the way – two years ago she got ‘A partridge in a pear tree’ and last year she got ‘Two turtle doves’ so this year it was pretty clear that she will be getting ‘Three French hens’! I’m stitching the designs from Prairie Schooler’s 12 Days of Christmas design. At least that leaves me without any difficult decisions for her ornament for the next 9 years :)



Stitched on: 32ct Opalescent ‘Dune’ from Countrystitch
Stitched with: DMC as charted

Happy stitching!

Panic Stations!

Oh no, I just realised that I forgot to post photos of the wonderful Prairie Schooler Exchange I got from Chris QUITE SOME TIME AGO! I feel terrible; Chris I’m so sorry, I really thought I had posted it, but I think I must have posted it to the exchange blog and then not my own!

The clue is in the name, so Chris stitched me not only a wonderful mattress pinkeep, but a cute scissor fob as well using a Prairie Schooler design – I absolutely love what she’s stitched, it’s gorgeous :)

Check out the wonderful detail on the side of the mattress pinkeep:


I posted my Prairie Schooler exchange off to my partner a couple of weeks ago (Thurs 12/2/09) so hopefully it will turn up soon – otherwise I’ll be stitching a replacement!

Happy stitching!

P.S. To the person who anonymously berated me for not passing on the blog award I mentioned in the last post – if you’re not prepared to sign your name to your comment, then I’m not prepared to listen. You’ll probably be aghast to know that I have also broken every single chain letter ever sent to me, EVER. It’s my blog, and if I don’t feel like passing on an award, I bl**dy well won’t.

A Surprise!

We came home from Dublin on Sunday evening last week (sorry Edda it has taken me so long to post this – I know I’m very naughty!) – we’d been to see H’s family and help his brother celebrate his 30th birthday. I was very tired and…maybe even a bit cranky…until I found that a mysterious package had been delivered over the weekend. I wasn’t expecting anything, so was delighted to find this:

Edda had sent me a Crazy Exchange, and I love the bourse that she sent – it’s a lovely pattern (it’s Three Emblems freebie by Papillon Designs which can be found here if you're interested!) and Edda’s stitching and finishing is really lovely. Thanks to Edda also for including some lovely well-chosen extras for me. Now to get my head down and work out what to stitch back for Edda – by the Crazy Exchange rules, I have 30 days to ponder, stitch, finish and send something back to her. Needle to the ready!

I’ve also been busy with Paradigm Lost – my new plan of leaving it on the frame seems to be paying off as I’m really rattling forward with it. I am a lazy so-and-so, and often when PL is off the frame, I can’t be bothered to do all the set up and pull out all the bits and pieces I need to start stitching, and instead just pick up something small and easy. So on the upside, I’m stitching more on PL and really hope to meet my goal of finishing it this year. On the downside, my stitching chair and stool are now never tidy because I never put PL away, and I am not getting as many photos, because I can’t get a good shot when it’s on the frame. And which is also why I have no photo update for you...

And, finally, thanks have to go to Angela who nominated me for an award:

According to the rules of the award, I need to name 5 things I’m addicted to, so here goes:

- Acquiring stash – I just can’t seem to help myself. Now, I know I'm not alone in this one...
- Cigarettes – it’s up in the air whether this truly belongs on the list, as I gave up on Sunday evening a week ago, but I’d still LOVE to have one. Or two. Or…
- Driving – preferably with my iPod cranked up.
- Chocolate – yes, another obvious choice, but the truth is that I send H out for chocolate most evenings, and I just can’t seem to get by without at least a tiny taste. Dark for preference, and never Cadbury.
- Me time – I’m a social creature, but only up to a point, and after that I need some space, so ‘me time’ is definitely on my list of must-haves.

I’m very naughty about passing on awards. This one I think has been around and around, so I think it’s safe for me to not pass it on – although thank you to Angela for thinking of me in relation to it, and if you haven’t had it yet, and want to, then by all means consider yourself awarded – if you’ve managed to stick with me this far, you definitely deserve an award!

Happy stitching!

It's a Snow Day!

Well, half a snow day anyway. We woke up to 1/2 inch of snow here in Berkshire so we travelled into work as usual to find that London had had a proper snowstorm - 6 to 8 inches in most places. And, because London is not generally a snowy place, you can imagine the chaos that ensued - all bus services suspended, the Tube only working on the actual underground bits, all the train services from the south and east of the country suspended... I was one of only 8 people who managed to get into the office. So after fielding dozens of calls from colleagues and clients cancelling most of the meetings for the day, and seeing that it continued to snow heavily outside, I decided not to risk getting stuck in London for the night and headed off home around noon. Now, it did take me almost double the normal time to get home, but hey I made it and I'm home about 3 hours before I'd normally be home! So what am I going to do? Stitch, of course! :)

I stitched with the Let's Stitch group for Friday's SAT, and made some great progress on Paradigm Lost - I'm now finished page 6, meaning I'm over halfway done. Hurrah!!! Perhaps a goal of a 2009 finish isn't totally insane?? (For the moment, I am ignoring the fact that it has taken me two years to finish up to page 6...)

Happy Stitching!