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,