My adorable Etui....

.... would you like to see my Christmas present to myself?

It is a custom-made Etui (decorative, ornamental case for holding needlework items) from L'uccello. I chose the French General Fabrics and then it is made up for me and the lovely ladies from L'uccello fill it with lots of lovely goodies.

Then, of course, I thought it was prudent to add a few little chosen pieces of my own, also from L'uccello.

So,  think that I am pretty set up with my bibs and bobs for 2015, what do you think?

hugs, 

Berry Compote...

... I felt inspired the other day to try my hand at making Berry Compote.

I must admit that I am very pleased with the result - so easy to make and so delicious.

I am pretty chuffed by my photo as well, I am not much of a photographer but somehow I seem to have achieved some sort of magical lighting - lol!

hugs,

Merry Christmas to one and all.....

Have a wonderful Christmas and a safe and happy New Year, to all of you, my dear friends.

I have to tell you all how much I appreciate all of your love, support and kind advice over this year and all of these past years of my blogging.  The online blogging community is indeed full of wonderful warm and caring people.

You are all the most wonderful people I know.

On the stitchy front, last night I thought it was time to pick up this old WIP,  Quaker Christmas II Songs of the Season, appropriate for Christmas Eve, I thought.

This is a Wednesday SAL I am doing with Amanda and Evalina, although it is a long time since I have picked this up or checked their progress on this design.

Anyway, it is early morning Christmas Day here in Oz and I am enjoying the pre-festivities quiet but soon my lovely family will all gather for our traditional breakfast of croissants, pastries and fresh berries.  It will be a rather bittersweet Christmas as by mid-January DS1 and my brand new DIL will be moving to Roma, Queensland for DS1's new teaching job and my DD is moving out to a share house and lastly, DS2 will be moving to Sydney for two years to take join the Graduate programme at a large finance company.  So for 2015 it will be just TraderVic, my FIL, me and one or maybe two cats (DD is not sure if she is going to take Milo with her to the share house or not).

So, lots of time to get my stitching my mojo into top speed, I hope!

Have a great day, everyone,

hugs,

Dear Shirlee.....

.... thank you for being such a generous and thoughtful exchange partner.

My dear friend, Shirlee did a Christmas exchange this year.  It was fun to do some stitching for her and to pick out some perfect (I hope) presents for her.  And I can tell you, she certainly hit the spot with me.  Do you wanna see?

Silly question, of course, you do!  And, of course, I am going to show you anyway!

Gorgeous porcelain buttons....

A stunning mini pillow - beautifully stitched and finished.

... and a set of thimbles that show the Twelve Days of Christmas!

Thank you again, my very dearest bloggy friend, I love each and every gift.

Shirlee has received my parcel but is waiting to open it, so I can show you what I sent her then.

Last night, I actually put my Christmas Stitching aside and did some more Tudor Tuesday SALing.   I stitched some more on The End Crowneth the Work - I am really starting to see some progress on this piece now.

... and I must say a big thank you to all of my followers who commented on the big booboo I had made with the Ring cushion.  Oh, my goodness - the wrong year but now it is right!  I had even shown it to the bride and groom neither who had noticed my error.  But thanks to all of your eagle eyes, everything is okay now - phew!

Anyway, last (half day only, thank goodness) of work for the year for me!  Hurray!

One more sleep, hugs 

FNSI and IHSW round up...

Well, I didn't get as much crafty stuff done as I would have liked this Friday night and weekend (isn't that often the way) as I got caught up in Wedding stuff and Christmas celebrations.  Both of which are fun things to do, so I can't complain.

I did finish the stitching on the ring cushion for the wedding and have chosen the backing fabric (one of my favourites from my stash and I did that cool thing again of just putting my hand in the fabric box and pulling out the perfect fabric - I love it when that happens) and purchased the ribbon for tying the rings to the cushion:

Then, I stitched some more on my Little Sheep Virtues SAL: Love.  I am doing this SAL with  Sarah, Lija and Anne.

Last night we had our yearly Christmas get together with some very good friends.  We sat out on the deck and we were rewarded with this wonderful sunset.

Then, on the way home tonight I saw Melbourne Town Hall, all wrapped up like a Christmas present:

That is all for now, one and a half days left of work for the year and less than three weeks to the wedding!  Yikes!

I hope that you are all having a great lead up to Christmas,

hugs,

Santa Sack Swap revealed....

.... ooh, look at all the lovely goodies that the wonderful Lisa from Lisa V's Lounge sent me for the Santa Sack swap, which was once again hosted by that awesome swap mama, Cheryll from Gone Stitching.

A gorgeous blue pansy sampler - I love pansies.

... and look, it is fully kitted!  Woo hoo!

Some great present toppers and gift tags.

A christmas tea towel. (Now, how did Lisa know that I always have new ones each year?)

A gorgeous pinkeep.

A bon bon!

Two very cute decorations plus some very christmassy red beads.

Thank you, Lisa, I love it all and thanks to Cheryll for being an awesome swap mama.

hugs,