Wednesday 28 February 2018

Gifted Gorgeousness 2018_ February Update

Just squeezing in my GG for this month - less than eighteen hours before the Mister Linky expires for February!!!!!!!

Only one GG project this month - the Americana design, Party Tarts by Plum Street Samplers, part of their Jack's Sweet Shoppe Series.

This was gifted to me by the gorgeous Sarah (from Sarah in Stitches) when we caught up on my recent stay in Dubai.  Thank you again, Sarah.



As you can see, I have opted to stitch the Democratic Donkey first and then it will be the Republican Elephant.  So cute!

But, just a reminder, 

If you want to learn more about GG, just click on the pic below....



.... and if you want to see what everyone else GGed about this month, please click on the link below:



Gifted Gorgeousness February Link-Up Post


hugs, 

Saturday 24 February 2018

Friday Frolics_Feb 23rd

... if you want to see what I stitched for Friday Frolics this week, 


please click on the image below.....





hugs, 

Guess who is Blogger of the Week?????

Yep, you guessed it?  Little old me!

Thanks for the lovely intro, dear Jo (from Serendipitous Stitching).

Click on the pic below to read my Blogger of the Week post.




hugs, 

Friday 16 February 2018

Friday Frolics ....

... if you want to see what I am stitching for Friday Frolics/IHSW/FNSI this week, 



please click here


hugs, 

Revealing my Secret Stitching Sweetheart...

This is a follow up post to my Secret Stitching Sweetheart Blog Hop post, where I posted this gorgeous heart....



The answer as to who sent it to me was soon revealed....


Yes, this stunning heart was stitched by the gorgeous Joysze from Random Ramblings.  
Thank you so much, my Joysze, I love this heart dearly.

..... and who received my Valentine?


Love Never Fails
The Primitive Hare Freebie
Over-dyed lilac linen
Changes: beaded the word "Love" and changed the key to white
Pink floss is CC Cerise

Well, the recipient was none other than my very dear friend from across the continent, Stitching Noni from Fireflies and Cats in the Garden.

I hope that you enjoyed my heart as much as I enjoyed stitching it, Noni.


If you want to see all of the Secret Stitching Sweethearts for this year, 

please click here


hugs, 




Wednesday 14 February 2018

Weekend Round Up...

.... another busy weekend has come to an end... and, yes, I am a few days late giving you an update on it, as is often the case - lol!

So, what did I get up to?  Lots and lots, actually.

Saturday morning I went for a long walk (longer than we actually planned as we got a little lost at the end and overshot our goal) with some friends along the seaside at Elwood Beach.  See the gorgeous houses and the lovely blue sea.





.... and, of course, I saw a friendly kitty cat along the way to my car.



Saturday night we had a nice dinner with some friends in Southbank and then went to see Dream Lover....


If you look hard, you can just see the orchestra tuning up...



We really enjoyed the show - the songs were fabulous.

Sunday morning was another walk - this time with my Sunday Dog (and Marie), who was down from Sydney for a visit.  Love you Poochie.


In the evening, it was off to IMAX to see the latest Star Wars movie in 3D.  The plot is really the same old, same old.  But after having over forty years of viewing invested in this film franchise - how can I give up on it now.  Anyway, it was fun to see and only one more to go?????


... and, of course interspersed with all of this was being glued to the TV watching this...


My favourite is the Ice Skating (dancing), but I do love watching the Moguls and the Snowboarding, too.

I actually prefer the Winter to the Summer Olympics - what is your preference?

There has been lots of stitching happening, too, but I will save that for my next post.

I hope that your weekend (a distant memory now) was as much fun as mine was...


hugs, 

P.S. Don't forget to visit my Secret Stitching Sweetheart Blog Hop post - are you my Valentine for 2018?



Secret Stitching Sweetheart Blog Hop ...

Yes, it is time again for the fabulous Valentine's Day Blog hop organised by the Blog hop Queen,  Jo from Serendipitous Stitching.

So, Jo has randomly given us a sweet Valentine stitching picture from our Secret Stitching Sweetheart.

We then visit Jo's blog to start the blog hop to find out who has our Valentine picture and let them know who we are. 


Look at this gorgeous heart - I love the fabbie and the specialty stitches.  One very talented stitcher made this.  



Now, I wonder who my Secret Stitching Sweetheart is?

If it is you, please leave a comment below.

If you want to see all of the Secret Stitching Sweethearts for this year, 

please click here

Happy Valentine's Day everyone, 

hugs, 

Sunday 11 February 2018

Sensational Sicily (Part One) ....

What can I say, but that we had the absolute BEST time in Sicily. 

It was quite magical for the seven of us (TraderVic, DSister2, DD and her boyfriend and DS2 and his girlfriend) to spend Christmas in a small Sicilian village with TraderVic's cousins.

There is so much to share with you all but I am going to start with where we stayed.  Obviously, as there were seven of us, it was too many to stay with the cousins. They live in a small village, called Acate, in the south of Sicily, too small to have a hotel or even Air BnB. However -  using Booking.com - I managed to find us a BnB about 10kms away from Acate, in the middle of the countryside.

The BnB was called Casale Rocca Fiorita and it was a centuries old farmhouse which used to belong to the Prince of Biscari (which was what Acate was called until the end of WWII.).

It was just gorgeous and Paola, our hostess, was so very gracious and kind to us.

However, I will let the many, many pics do the talking...

















































































Gorgeous, isn't it?  Thanks for visiting, I do so hope that you are enjoying my travel blog posts - there are still many more to come!

 hugs, 

P.S. Previous Europe Trip 2017/8 posts:

"A Happy Reunion in London.... (London Part One)"


Secret Stitching Sweetheart Blog Hop.....

  Hello my lovelies and Happy Valentine's Day....   ... and this means it is time again for the fabulous Valentine's Day Blog hop o...