Grow your Blog Party 2015....

..... Woo Hoo!  It is party time, Grow your Blog Party time that is.

Now, this is the third year, I have taken part in this wonderful, online party, hosted by the lovely Vickie from 2 Bags Full.

I will have to apologise in advance to previous partygoers as I steal a little of previous year's posts for this one.

Welcome to all of the party goers - I hope that you enjoy visiting everyone's blog.  Please follow this link 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:

I have had this blog, Kitten Stitching for over four years now and I absolutely love it!  In it I chronicle the ups and downs of my life (and if you scroll back a few posts you will see that I have had both in the past week or so; the highest of highs when DS1 was married on January 10th and the lowest of lows when my DFIL passed away unexpectedly on January 16th).

This is me, congratulating my new daughter-in-law.

 In many ways, I find writing this blog to be so very therapeutic.  It is strange, even though blogging is a global forum, I actually find it very intimate and  I have made so many good online cross stitchy friends who have enriched my life immensely and give me so much support through the good times and the bad.  I cannot thank each and every one of you enough!  Thank you, to all my lovely bloggy friends.

How did I start? Well, 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.

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.

                                

                         

Oh, and by the way, Henry and his six wives is still very much a work in progress four years later - but I do not want to write about how very many WIPs I have but I can tell you that there are too many!

Basically, I am a passionate historian and luckily for me, that is what my job is now.  I work as a publisher of History (and other subject areas) 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!

As well as stitching, I read a lot - around 100 to 120 books a year.If you are on Shelfari  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 books at the moment are The Goldfinch and The Miniaturist.

This year (as every year) I am trying to be more organised with my stitching.  I am involved in a number of SALs and one exchange so far and the SDUCJC2015 challenge in honour of SoCalDebbie who unexpectedly passed away last year. (I am trying to have 59 starts over January/Feb but since Life has got in the way big time, I am going to have to do it over January/Feb/March.  I usually find that I am one of those people who the busier they are usually the more they can achieve!  

Lastly, I wish to have a mystery Giveaway for reading this post.  Well, the same as last year, the mystery is that I have not yet decided what the Gifts will be!  And yes, I said Gifts, because the same as last year, 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, 

A kitty cat house guest...

As DS1 and his new wife have had to finally fly off to their new life in Roma, Queensland, we have been left with a furry houseguest: their kitty cat, Nobu.  When they are settled into their new accommodation Nobu's pet consultant, Brynne from Jetpets, will organise for him to fly up there, too (now who would have thought that cats would have their own travel consultants?) lol!

Would you like to meet Nobu?

Is there a cat hiding in this wardrobe?

Yes, there is!

Nobu is a very sweet-tempered cat, very friendly and very handsome.

Here he has finally ventured out of the back bedroom and is starting to explore the rest of the house.

DS2 giving him a cuddle.

Furio and Milo have not quite known what to make of this newcomer but apart from a few little hissing episodes from all parties, they are all tolerating each other pretty well.

Not sure how long Nobu will be with us, but I am loving having another kitty cat in the house.  Furbabies are so lovely.

hugs, 

FNSI.....

Well, after preparing myself with a health lunch (and Furio had some yummy Whiskas), Furio and I settled in to do some stitching for FNSI (hosted by the wonderful Wendy from Sugarlane Quilts).

I decided to stitch on one of my SDUCJC starts which was inspired by my dear friend, Shirlee from The Easily Influenced Stitcher, if you follow the link you can scroll down her 2014 finishes page to see her lovely stitching.

This is how much I had stitched before FNSI:

And here is dear Furio all ready to begin stitching:

... and this is where we finished last night.  We ended up going to bed early as there is only so much tennis/soccer/cricket a girl and kitty cat can take (oh boy! Aussie males are just too sports mad - Australian Open (tennis), Asian Cup (soccer) and the myriad forms that international cricket takes now - too, too much).

Portion of aWinter Sampler by Leisure Arts

Stitched on 28 count antique white linen

DMC: 3750 (as used by Shirlee)

Link to freebie.

I should get this piece finished today and then I have some new starts from Pineberry Lane all set up for SDUCJC2015.

Have a great day, everyone, hugs

What is a kitty cat to do....

.... on a hot day?

But find the coolest place in the house and have a little think....

... then do his stretches....

... then have a little nap....

.... and maybe a little bit more....

Ahh! The lazy, hazy days of summer!

Furio says "Enjoy"

hugs, 

TUSAL update (late) and a garden for my DFIL...

Finally, I feel like posting again, it is has been a very rough couple of weeks with some very high and some very low emotions.

I have been doing a little stitching, some starts for DSDUSJFC and even a finish or two and I need to post for Gifted Gorgeousness, Halloween  and my Smalls SALs but those updates will have to wait another day or two, I feel.

I have taken a picture of my ORTs (just to prove I have been stitching) and I wanted to show you the work I did on the small garden near my front porch in honour of my DFIL.  Now, this is quite a big deal for me, because whilst I love a garden and beautiful flowers I am just not a gardener. I have the opposite of a green thumb - a black one! I am good at killing plants, unfortunately!

This month's TUSAL the first of 2015....  Unfortunately, I cannot show 2014's full coffeepot full of ORTs, as when we were getting my DMIL's china coffee pot ready for the funeral yesterday, TraderVic washed them all down the sink!  My fault for using her coffee pot as a TUSAL jar last year! lol!

Now for my new garden.

Pretty new front door mat:

I bought that lovely green pot just to put this rose in which was gifted to us. I also bought the tin chicken in honour of my DFIL. He used to keep chickens for many years before he moved in with us.

He loved these sorts of plants.

... and isn't this a gorgeous fuschia?

Anyway, that is all from me today, I will try to post some stitching progress pics, next time.

hugs, 

Sorry....

.... I am not going to be posting for a few days as we have had an unexpected death in the family.

We are all very devastated after the joy of last Saturday's wedding.

I can't write anymore about it.

Blessings to all,  hugs, Kaye

Oh Happy Day!

Yesterday, despite some major dramas (one of the bridesmaids being stuck in Taiwan as she couldn't get on the plane as she had forgotten to get a Visa for Australia but luckily my wonderful, niece, Jade stepped in with less than 12 hours notice!) and concerns re the weather - 50mm of rain and a severe storm warning was predicted, neither of which happened, thank goodness, my DS1, Alex, married the love of his life, Joy.

It would have to have been one of the most wonderful days of my life and I know that TraderVic feels the same way.   We had less than two months to pull it all off but somehow we managed it!

So, here are the photos (in no particular order), warning, this is pic heavy!

My dear friend, Lisa was the marriage celebrant - she made it such a special and intimate affair.  We have been friends since our DS1s were at 3 year old kinder together (her DS1 is the groomsman with the Ned Kelly-like beard). Hard to imagine that they used to take baths together!

Amazingly, the girls all bought their dresses separately with the only instructions that they be fuchsia pink and longer rather than shorter. Two were bought in Taiwan and my niece bought hers at 3pm on the day before the wedding!

My nephew, my DS2 (who was Best Man) and my niece.

As Joy's father was too ill to leave Taiwan, TraderVic was proud to give her away.

DD looking proud and gorgeous.

How happy does DS1 look?

See the zombie hand? Maybe I have been watching too much "The Walking Dead"?

Gorgeous cousins.

 My cousins taking to the river.

My DIL's friend, Peter, came from Taiwan to do a reading and later a speech at the wedding.

So, off to get the house back in order (so maybe still no stitching today - so sad!) as we had an After Party here last night, too!  (Yes, we are suckers for punishment!)

hugs, 

P.S. If you want to see more photos, just check me out on FB (link on my sidebar).