12 Days of Christmas in Blogland - Day 7 - a Giveaway

Vicky from Readings and Stitchings is having a Giveaway after de-stashing her sewing room - you can check it out here - it closes tomorrow, New Year's Day.

Otherwise not much to report - just having a quiet New Year's Eve day and then off to a BBQ with some friends tonight.  This afternoon I am working on Mary Wigham' s Sampler.

Tomorrow the UCJC starts - check out my UCJC page to see what I am planning to stitch first.

Happy New Year everyone,

Hugs, Kaye xoxox

12 Days of Christmas in Blogland - Day 6 - Stash Empire Building

Not a lot of stitching done so far today but I have had a good day:

1. Had a sleep in
2. Organised our visas for our March U.S. trip
3. Had a very nice lunch out with friends
4. Watched some Dr Who episodes in the afternoon
5. Spent a couple of hours blogging and doing some online ordering of cross stitch stash (will post about it when they arrive)
6. Finalised my UCJC projects
7. Went for a swim and swam my 20 laps
8. Cooked a yummy dinner - Linguini with Veal Stroganoff
9. Now, I am just chilling out with DH and writing this post ... then I think that I will do some stitching on Mary Wigham - I haven't done any on her for a while
10. But before I go, I must show you my latest stash items which arrived from 123 stitch yesterday:

I am doing a SAL with the 6 Fat men in March - so I am getting organised and the others I chose just because I like them,

Well, off to stitch now.

Hugs, Kaye xoxox

P.S. Don't forget to check out my 12 Days of Christmas in Blogland Giveaway and the other great giveaways listed on my sidebar.

K

12 Days of Christmas in Blogland - It must be a record!

I think it must be a record - I have two, count them, two Happy Dances today.  In one day, I stitched these two sweet kittycat designs, which was a freebie from The Sampler Girl. (Thank you).  I made one for Furio and one for Milo.  I have tried to make the stitcheries look like each of my kittycats.  What do you think?

Furio and Milo 

Freebie Design from The Sampler Girl

Stitched on 25 count Lugano

Olde Willow Stitcheries Hand-dyed Threads

Quaker Colours

This now brings my finishes for 2011 to a whopping 6!

Now, don't forget to check out my 12 Days of Christmas in Blogland Giveaway on my sidebar.

Hugs, Kaye xoxox

12 Days of Blogland - Day 4 - A Happy Dance

.... I was right - today is Happy Dance Day - I finished La Belle Etoile.  Hurrah!  Finish #4 for 2011.  I am hoping that by being part of UCJC and WIPocalypse and the SALs I will be doing that 2012 will have finishes in the double digits.  Now, wouldn't that be something?  Anyway, would you like to have a look?

La Belle Etoile

A Threadbasket SAL

Stitched on 28 Count Praire Green Wichelt Linen

DMC threads

After finishing this, this morning I felt at a bit of a loose end (despite having WIPs coming out of my ears - lol!).  Luckily, I found this website Should be Reading and on W.. W.. W.. Wednesdays she asks these three questions:

 What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

So, here are my answers:

 What are you currently reading? "Mockingjay" Bk 3 of The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
• What did you recently finish reading? "Catching Fire" Bk 2 of The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
• What do you think you’ll read next? Hmm, not sure - whatever takes my fancy, really.

I can really recommend The Hunger Games trilogy if you like reading Young Adult fiction.  In an earlier life I was both a teacher-librarian and an English teacher so I acquired a taste for reading that genre of fiction.  This series is  really interesting science fiction- fast paced and imaginative.

Love to hear what you are reading currently, 

hugs, Kaye xoxox

P.S. Don't forget to check out my 12 Days of Christmas in Blogland Giveaway on my sidebar.

12 Days of Christmas in Blogland - Day 3 Let's have a Giveaway!

Hello lovely bloggers, 

Today is Day 2 of the 12 Days of Christmas in Blogland and so I thought it was time for a Giveaway.

If you would like to win this lovely kit (it contains chart, fabric and all threads) by Mar Bek "The Angel's Prayer", please comment on this post only to enter.  I will post internationally and if you would like to post about it on your blog,well, that would be very nice. I will draw the winner at the end of the 12 Days of Christmas in Blogland - on January 6th (the last of the 12 days is January 5th).

It has been a very quiet day today - I have nearly finished La Belle Etoile - I am hoping for a Happy Dance tomorrow, but in the meantime, I found this stitching from last year - I had forgotten that I had finished it, as you can see it is not even ironed! - it is part of Mill Hill's Christmas Village series - "The Toy Shop"  I must get it framed, although I do have a number of the other designs - maybe a quilt?  What do you all think?

Anyway, off to watch some "Treme" with DH - whose back is slowly getting better.  Thank you everyone who has sent good wishes his way.  Thank you also to everyone who sent kind wishes our way about our stormy day.  We really got off very lightly compared to many other families in Melbourne.  My thoughts and prayers go out to all of them. You can read about the Christmas Day storm here, if you are interested.

Hugs, Kaye xoxox

12 Days of Christmas in Blogland - Day 2

... how did everyone's Christmas turn out?  Ours was very nice, at my DS's house.  My DBIL cooked up a storm.  My favourite was the prawns in zucchini flowers panfried in tempura batter - scrumptious!

Unfortunately, though, we had a huge thunderstorm in Melbourne, in the late afternoon/early evening.  Flash flooding, huge hailstones and thunder and lightning.  I came home from dropping one of my mother's friends home to find this had happened to my  Christmas Grotto and Christmas Tree:

You might remember that a few weeks ago I posted it about it raining in DD's bedroom - while this time it was pouring!

So, today the all the Christmas decorations ended up being packed away.  I know, I know it is too early but it was just easier in the end after the storm.  DH is still in a lot of pain with his back so it was a very quiet day despite being DS2's 19th birthday.  Traditionally we have always gone out to dinner and a film for his birthday (Boxing Day being such a quiet day) but because of DH's back we bought Chinese takeaway and watched "Rise of the planet of the apes" which DH had being given for Christmas by DD's BF - wasn't he thoughtful (the BF I mean)?

Anyway, I made lots of progress (despite spending five hours doing DH's ironing - this was my Christmas present to him - we decided not to exchange proper gifts this year as we are off to the U.S.A for a month's holiday in March,  and we will probably buy lots of souvenirs, etc.) on La Belle Etoile - so even though I didn't get it finished by Christmas Day, I should get it finished before the end of 2011 - fingers crossed.

Before today's stitching:

 My progress today:

There are some fabulous giveaways listed on my sidebar - so please check them out and watch this space as I am going to have a Giveaway for the 12 Days of Christmas in Blogland - I will post about it in the next couple of days (once I work out what it will be! lol!)

Hugs, Kaye xoxox

Christmas Day - Day one of 12 Days of Christmas in Blogland

Merry Christmas to all of my stitching friends in blogland.  I hope that you and your families have a wonderful Christmas Day.

Today is my first post for Evalina's 12 Days of Blogland (see badge on my sidebar) so I thought that I would post about our fabulous Christmas Eve tradition which we celebrate every second Christmas Eve (every other year, the family friends whom we share this tradition with are in Hawaii visiting relatives).

So, every second year the two families who have known each other since the two babies of the family (my DS2 and his counterpart) were 18 months old come together to celebrate Christmas Eve.  Last night we had BBQ lamb and pork, roast potato, honeyed baby carrots and asparagus. Then pecan pie and eggnog.  MY DD also made Christmas cupcakes.  We had such a fun time chatting about old memories and enjoying each other's company.  Here are some photos of the evening:

DH (with his bad back - can you tell by the way he is standing?) regaling the young ones with a story about the history of the dining table.

Christmas cupcakes made by DD

 ... and for something stitchy....  Here is the Christmas Stocking I made for DS2 many years ago:

Front

Back

Also, I am so excited - I won a runners up giveaway from Shirlee.  What a lovely Christmas surprise!  Thank you Shirlee.

Well, must go and do some last minute wrapping and, of course, some stitching.

A Merry Christmas from me and my family to you and yours.

Love you all, my stitchy friends.  Your support, friendship and blogs have meant a lot to me this year.

love Kaye xoxox

Christmas traditions

I am up early this morning, Christmas Eve, enjoying a cup of tea and the cool morning air.  Relishing this moment of peace and quiet before the busyness of the day begins.  I know that today is going to be a hectic day and probably not all that pleasant as DH has hurt his back and is in a lot of pain, which naturally enough makes him short-tempered and a bit grumpy.  And as we are having visitors tonight to celebrate Christmas Eve and drink egg nog, he probably won't get enough time to rest it properly.  Also, unfortunately, whenever someone is unwell my DFIL (an 85 year old Sicilian) who lives with us feels the need to be sicker and worse off than anybody else - so he has already started with "I have a lump as big as  an orange in my stomach and a sore leg" - literally moans and groans all day. Plus, of course, I have a million and one errands to run and it is going to be a hot and humid 32 degrees today!


So, I am visiting my stitchy friends and I was checking out Shirlee's blog, Farmhouse Ponderings and she was displaying her latest finishings and mentioned that she filled it with walnut shells.  This made me think about nuts and reminded me of one of the traditions we had when I was young.

When I was a child I always knew it was Christmas because my mother would put out a big bowl of nuts in their shells - brazil nuts, walnuts, almonds, etc and the nutcracker. We used to love cracking the nuts - nobody seems to do that anymore.  Everyone just buys fancy flavoured nuts now.


So, I was wondering, what traditions did you used to have as a child?  I would love to hear if you have time to post today or tomorrow.

Merry Christmas everyone, 


love Kaye xoxox


Later in the day.... errands all run (only took five and a half hours!!!!) and now back to some blogging as we wait for our Christmas Eve guests to arrive.  I have just joined up to 12 Days of Christmas in Blogland - check out the link on my sidebar.  This is being hosted by the lovely Evalina.  Thank you for such a great idea.


K xoxox

Advent Calendar Day 22

Today is my turn to post for the online Advent calendar organised by Jo of Serendipitous Stitching.  Such a clever idea.  Please go to her blog to check them all out.

Here are my Christmas photos - what word does my quilting spell?

Why NOEL, of course.

Every second Christmas we host a large family gathering (my younger sister hosts the alternate year) where my DH bbqs a pork belly and we have it with all the fixings.  Then it is plum pudding and sometimes ice cream plum pudding to finish.  We have a lovely time.

Merry Christmas to all my fellow bloggers.

Kaye

P.S. Don't forget to check out the giveaways on the right hand sidebar.