My 1st Blogoversary Winner and 200 followers Winner are.....

The winner of my 1st Blogoversary giveaway is..... drum roll, please....

FAITH OF FAITHFULLY STITCHING

Congratulations, Faith, you have won:

In what form it is finished is still a mystery - you will find out when you open your package (plus there might be an extra surprise !)

... and the winner of my 200 followers giveaway.... yet another drum roll....

GRACIE OF NEEDLES, PINS AND DRAGONFLYS

This is a mystery giveaway, so Gracie, you won't know what you won until your gift arrives!

I would like to say thank you to everyone who entered and to all of my followers old and new - your friendship and support over the past year has been wonderful.  I have enjoyed making so many new online friends.  Aren't we so lucky to have the internet to bring us all together?

Faith and Gracie, if you email me your snailmail addresses I will send you your gifts.

Happy Stitching everyone, 

hugs,   

Four more followers in four days?????

Hi everyone,

It is my 1st blogoversary in four days - my hope/aim was to get to 200 followers  by that time?  Do you think that I can make it?

Don't forget to enter my 1st Blogoversary Giveaway - also, if I do get to 200 followers - there will be a second drawing of a mystery gift for a second winner.

Good luck everyone.

hugs,

A Happy Dance and Stash Empire Building

  

I would firstly like to say a big Aussie hello to my new followers - Welcome to my blog, I hope that your enjoy visiting me here in Eaglemont, Victoria.  It is so lovely to make new stitchy friends from around the world.  

I am getting excited - only 8 days to my first Blogoversary - who would have thought that I would still be going strong nearly a year later! Please don't forget to enter my Giveaway - I would love for you all to have a chance to win!

I have had a pretty good stitchy week this past week and long weekend (it was the Queen's Birthday Public holiday today).  I have a HAPPY DANCE.  I finished my second version of "here lie my needles".  I am really pleased with it - the variegated thread has turned out well, I think.  Sorry, the fabric is actually a dusty pink but it hasn't quite turned out like that -  not sure why.

"here lie my needles"
The Sampler Girl free pattern
28 count Dusty Pink Linen
Threads:
Cottage Garden Threads: Raisin
Olde Willow Stitcher Quaker Colours: Medallion Black

On Saturday, I went to visit my LNS, Lazy Daisy and, of course, I had to engage in some Stash Empire Building:

1. A kit for an Australian cushion  - I am going to do the Home Sweet Home version.  I do not normally like AIDA but on the stitched sample in the shop it looked fantastic.
                                      

                                         

2. Then I saw this sweet little French birth sampler - I couldn't resist as one of my friends at work is having a baby in about a month.  I am stitching it on 28 count Natural Quaker Cloth, which is gorgeous to stitch on, using Weeks Dye Works Garnet. It is stitching up really quickly, as you can see from the last photo in this set.  This is only three days stitching:

                                      

3. I had ordered this great design from Diane Arthurs, which I am going to stitch using Waterlilies variegated threads.

 4. I also picked up a Little House Needleworks Christmas Ornament and a Cottage Garden Needleworks May Cottage of the Month.

5. Then I couldn't resist this Needle book and Scissor Keep from the Stitching Girl - I am going to use the soft pastel colours.

6. This is the reason I went in the first place:  to kit up this cute design from a magazine - I have been planning to kit this up for ages.

 I have chosen a soft lilac fabric (sorry, I just do not seem to be able to get the fabric colours to show up right) and here is the floss toss.

7. Another impulse buy:  a kitty cat key ring to stitch.

8. Couldn't resist these cute scissors - a steal at $5.00!

9. Lastly, I bought some more Cottage Garden Threads - some for me and some to send to my stitchy friend Shirlee.

Noah's Ark is beckoning, so have a good evening everyone,

hugs,

Royal School of Needlework and Pinterest

.... I was bloghopping this morning (getting my mind in gear for work - lol!) and I discovered this video on Mary Corbett's blog Needle 'N Thread.  It is a fascinating short video about the Royal School of Needlework situated at one of my favourite places in the world: Hampton Court Palace.

The other part of my post today was about Pinterest.  I have been reading/hearing more and more about it as I read all of your blogs and I am hoping that someone could explain it to me.  Is it worth getting involved in?  A lot of people seem to be using it, to "store" those items of interest they find on the web and photos and such.  Is that right?  If you use Pinterest I would love to hear more about your experiences of it.

Well, all geared up to do some work now.  Don't forget to join in my 1st Blogoversary giveaway, just click on the picture on the left of this post.

Have a great day everyone, 

hugs, 

I am a winner!

Thanks to the lovely Jo of Serendipitous Stitching, I am a winner of a fabulous Yiota's Cross Stitch design:

ANNE HATHAWAY'S COTTAGE

I am so lucky, thank you, Jo.

hugs, 

P.S. Please don't forget to enter my 1st Blogoversary Giveaway on this post here.

The Silver Lining 2....

The second silver lining of being sick for over a week was that I got lots of stitching done!

12 Days of Santa Before photo:

 12 Days of Santa After photo:

Cinderella Before photo:

 Cinderella After photo (I actually have done more than this but I cannot get Blogger to load the photo!)

And of course, I finished this for my GIVEAWAY:

Now, please don't forget to enter my 1st BLOGOVERSARY GIVEAWAY on this POST HERE.

Off to do some stitching now,

hugs,


Edit:  I managed to get Blogger to allow me to post my most recent photo of Cindy's progress, as you can see I have started the castle in the background.

The silver lining: number 1....

Well, the silver lining of being sick for over a week was:

1. I watched the whole first series of "Hart of Dixie" (DD gave it to me to watch). It was great viewing for a sickie, a lot of fun with some sympathetic characters (and some great eye candy, too).

I have rather a soft spot for Alabama as I have actually been there (not something that I thought that I would ever do living so far away in Australia).  Our friends from Nashville took us on a day trip there to visit the Air and Space museum at Huntsville when we were in the U.S. in March.  I remember that I was so impressed by the quality of the roadside stops.  In Australia, they are usually pretty rough and ready but this one was beautiful and had even won an award!

Isn't this public bathroom block impressive?  I certainly think so - I just loved everything about America!

Now, don't forget to comment/post/join in my 1st Blogoversary Giveaway, you need to comment on this post, if you want to win this:

Have a good Saturday everyone, 

hugs,