Even more spoilt...

.... oh, that lovely bloggy friend, Chiara from The Grey Tail has done it again, as you might remember in my last post I showed you a cute cross stitch pattern postcard she sent me, but then yesterday this arrived from Italy:

Containing lots and lots of goodies:

Look at this gorgeous toile paper.

Inside the box was:

Chiara's favourite Italian cooking magazine, lucky for me TraderVic is fluent in Italian!

Some cat toys for Milo and Furio, a beautiful card (reminds me a bit of a Gorjuss design) and a cute little Xmas ornie which lights up.

A really super cute pincushion:

Some fruit tea which smells heavenly.

And a sweet kit of "Under the Pear Tree" from The Snowflower Diaries":

I am indeed blessed in my friends, thank you my dear Chiara.

hugs,

Postcard and Parrots...

....oooh, I have a finish but I can't show you yet! It is for the Initial Heart swap and my partner is yet to receive her heart from me but I can tell you I am very happy with how it has turned out.  As soon as I can I will post some pics.

I can show you this gorgeous postcard pattern I received from my dear friend, Chiara from The Grey Tail. Isn't it a cute design?

I also received in the mail some Snooty Parrots scissor fobs for me to put on my scissors whilst stitching my Snooty Parrots SAL.

... and lastly, here are some kitty cat photos.  So cute - Furio is all curled up whilst Milo is stretched out to Billy Oh.

Now, don't forget to join in my Grow Your Party Giveaway fun on this post here or visit all of the other partygoers via Vicki's blog here.

hugs,

Happy Australia Day Swap!

The wonderful Jewells organised an Australia Day swap.  All of the goodies had to spell out the word Australia.  I was lucky enough to be sent this wonderful pile of goodies from Sharon Jones (no, not the Jazz singer).  I cannot seem to find Sharon's blog address at the moment but when I do I will add a link to her blog.

Look at the lovely pile of goodies which spell out Australia.

A = Apron
U = Utensil
S = Scissors
T = Tea (Australian Afternoon Tea, of course)
R = Rug for my Mug
A = Anzac Biscuits
L = Lollies - with sherbet - how did Sharon know that I love sherbet?
I = Ink Pens
A = Apple fabbie

and a gorgeous card, of course!

I sent all of these Australia Day goodies to my swap partner, Marcia:

A = Australian ground seeds
U = Untouched Christmas kit from my stash
S = Scissors and Scissors Fob
T = Tin of Shortbread
R = Rose bookmark
A = Address Book
L = List pad with magnet
I = Initial tea light candle and holder
A = Australian Chocolates (from Darrell Lea) and Assorted fabbies from my stash

It was such a fun swap, and easy to put together, too.

Thank you, Jewells for hosting it and to Sharon and Marcia for being my partners.

hugs,

P.S. Don't forget to join in the Grow Your Blog fun on this post here - I am having a GIVEAWAY, but you must comment on the GYB Party post.

Grow Your Blog Party

Today's the day! For the 2014 party and a Mystery Giveaway! (Sorry to those of you who visited me for the party last year, as I have borrowed a little bit from that post!)

For the Grow Your Blog party! 

Welcome to all of the party goers - I hope that you enjoy visiting everyone's blog.  Please follow the link above to see who is partying with me.

For those of you who are new to my blog, I will tell you a few things about myself that is not on my header above:

1. I have had this blog, Kitten Stitching for nearly three years now and I absolutely love it!  I have made so many good online cross stitchy friends who have enriched my life immensely.  Thank you!
2. My dear online friend Ginny, started me on this blogging journey when we "met" when I was searching for a Henry VIII Cross stitch pattern.  Funnily enough, Ginny doesn't blog all that much anymore but we still keep in touch on FB - Thank you, Ginny.
3. Now, talking about Henry VIII - I am mad for the Tudors, so I have several Tudor WIPs and I started a FB group called Tudor Tuesday SAL - if you are on FB, love the Tudors and would like to join, just let me know - here is a link to the FB group.

4. Basically, I am a passionate historian and luckily for me, that is what my job is now.  I work as a publisher of History books for a large educational publisher here in Australia.  It is a great job and I love it - although working full time does cut into my stitching time!

5. As well as stitching, I read a lot - in 2012 I read 120 novels, in 2013 I planned to read 150 but as my mother was very ill last year (she passed away on November 25th) I read far less than this.  So,  this year I am aiming for 120 again - I have already read 11 books this year so I am on my way.  If you are on Shelfari or Goodreads you can see what I have read/am reading there or  you can see what I am reading on my Shelfari shelf on the sidebar of my blog, if you like.  I always read several books at once but my main book at the moment is the wonderful "The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak but more of that in another post.

6. This year (as every year) I am trying to be more organised with my stitching.  I am involved in a number of SALs and PIFs and two exchanges so far.  I find that I am one of those people who the busier they are usually the more they can achieve!  

Now, I thought that you might like to see a picture of me as a young girl, with my sisters:  (Can you guess which one I am?)

Lastly, I promised you a mystery Giveaway for reading this post.  Well, the mystery is that I have not yet decided what the Gifts will be!  Yes, I said Gifts.  That is because I am going to have two Giveaways: one for Australian bloggy friends and one for Overseas bloggy friends.  So, here are the rules:

1. You must comment on THIS POST only, telling me that you would like to be entered in the Giveaway.
2. In your comment, please tell me if you are an Aussie or Overseas bloggy friend and please include your email address and your blog address.
3. The Giveaway closes on Feb 14th, winners' names will be drawn on  Feb 15th.

So, thanks for visiting, enjoy the Blog Party and good luck for the Giveaway.

hugs, 

Hopeless Prognosis!

Aaaggh! That is what the specialist has said about one of my upper front teeth!  It is cracked, infected and it will need to be extracted and replaced with an implant - now the extraction and a temporary crown all has to be done in the next five weeks before TraderVic and I travel overseas.  Oh dear, just what I don't really need!

(and for those of you with less than salubrious minds -as some people have on FB - this is his drawing of my teeth!)


I promise to have a more upbeat post for you next time - lol!

hugs,

P.S. Some good news is that I saw my GP and my blood pressure was excellent - the first time for a long time that it hasn't been extremely high - yay!