Quick post: Two Happy Dances....

I have had two happy dances - lovely!

1.   A geisha for my Joan Elliott Round Robin:

Oh boy, she has been a hard slog but worth it, I think!

2. Then another Train Stitching piece (thank goodness for travelling to work on the train, it gives me a good chance to work on my Smalls) - this is 'Girl things' by Pine Mountain designs.  It is stitched on 16 ct aida and is a ready-made cushion cover - I just need to make the pillow form.  It is going to be a surprise gift for someone - so Shhhhh!

Not too late to sign up for the Travelling Treasures if you are an Aussie blogger - you can sign up on this post here.  I will choose the lucky recipient tonight or tomorrow morning.

Thanks for visiting,

hugs,

P.S. TraderVic has just informed that we will be without internet for a few days, so I may be MIA from blogging until the end of the week. So sorry everyone.

Friday Night with Friends and lots and lots of other stuff too....including more giveaways

Wow!  I think that this might be a long post, so hang onto your hats as off we go......

(Some cool giveaways at the end of the post so please feel free to scroll down, if you wish)

I am finally starting to feel a sense of normalcy again after the passing of my mother and the funeral.  I still cannot quite believe that she has gone and every now and then I have a little cry but I will get there.  I am just so grateful that she is no longer in pain and as I keep saying, so thankful for all the support of all of family and friends - both offline and online!  (Who would ever have thought that sort of statement would make sense when we were young?)

I received so many lovely cards, good wishes via messenger, FB, comments and lovely flowers and gifts!  Thank you all so much.

Here is a pic of my latest floral bouquet to arrive at my home from one of my ex-colleagues and friends who is now one of my authors, too. (These will feature again a bit later as they are the backdrop for my rather late TUSAL update)

So, I am getting back into my stitching routine, thank goodness.  This past Friday I was able to actually take part in Friday Night with Friends!  Yay!  I actually had a Finish! Double Yay!

I had a Happy Dance for my next fairy, The Ladybird Fairy for my Joan Elliott RR:

She actually pops a lot more in real life.

I still had some stitching time left in the evening so I moved onto a stitchery I have been doing off and on for a while but I am not sure that I have shown it to you before (actually I have - 22nd July is when I started it - you can read that post here, if you like).  It is called Troubled Waters and is part of the Bad Neighbourhood series  by Ink Circles.  I am using some wonderful Australian silk threads to stitch this piece.

Here are my latest progress pics:

Gorgeous colours, aren't they?

I finally got around to taking a photo of my TUSAL - this is two month's worth:

Train/Hospital TUSAL:

Home TUSAL:

This year's TUSAL in its entirety:

Not sure what I am going to do with my ORTs (I still have the last two or three years as I never quite know what to do with them).  What do you all do?


I finally got around to starting my Saturday SAL "Fall Welcome" by Diane Arthur.  It is a SAL I am doing with my very good SAL buddies Linda and Debbie.  They started a few week's ago but as I have been so distracted with everything else I have only just this weekend had a Saturday free to start!  Not much progress but at least it is something!

Then on Sunday night I actually got back to stitching some more on Santa's 12 Days of Christmas (PS) SAL, which I haven't touched in weeks.  This SAL is also with Debbie and Linda.

Before pic:

My latest progress (unfortunately there was a bit of frogging happening!):

Lastly another THREE Christmassy Giveaways:

 Caitlin from Naughts and Crosses is having a giveaway of one of her designs, it closes on Friday 13th December, please tell her I sent you.

This is the design I would choose if I am lucky enough to win!

and

Kim from Wisdom with Needle and Thread is giving away some gorgeous Sweetheart Tree Nutcracker patterns - I adore nutcrackers, see my last post for my nutcracker snow globe - so please tell Kim that I sent you.

Missy from Missyllaneous is having a fabulous giveaway of two lovely pairs of scissors for the winner plus a gift certificate for the winner's friend - how cool is that?

Please tell Missy that I sent you.

Well, that is all for now.

hugs,

Quick Stitchy update....

..... So sorry, no time this morning to catch you up on my lovely long weekend in Ballarat but I thought that I should prove that I have been stitching!


First up is Ladybird Fairy for my JE RR, now you might remember all of the trouble I had with Medusa  
Lavender Fairy last round?  Well, Ladybird Fairy is stitching up a dream!  This is less than a week's stitching with no stitching done over the long weekend as I was away!

This is my current train/car stitching - Silent Night, Holy Night by CCN.  This one is coming along quickly, too.

I also stitched on Mary Wigham over the weekend but I have no pics as of yet - I will give you an update on her soon.

Have a great day,

Blessings,

A happy dance and finally some progress on Cut Thru Castle....

Yay!  Medusa Lavender Fairy is finally finished!  As you know I struggled so much to stitch her.  She seemed to take forever or maybe it is just that with my family situation there was just no real time to get into it (she is definitely too high maintenance to be Train Stitching).  But now she is done, I love her!

.... and, drumroll please, I actually got back to my Cut Thru Castle for my Cut Thru SAL which I do with loads of other people.  You can check out Debbie's SAL page for pics of everyone's work if you click here.

Before photo:

After photo:

Lots of background going on here, although there is something funny going on with it - it might have something to do with the fact that I was scared witless watching the new season of "The Walking Dead" with TraderVic and DS2 and his girlfriend while I was stitching.  It is a bit hard to be accurate when stitching with your eyes shut!

Just to let you know, the situation with my parents continues to be a great worry.  There is a lot to organise, Mum's health is still precarious although she is not in hospital and my Dad is deteriorating as each day passes - he is losing his memory daily.  It is so sad to see.  (On top of all that, my DFIL who has lived with us for the past 15 years (87 years old on Thursday) is so jealous that my parents are getting so much of our time that he has been playing up to get attention - it is like having a toddler again!)

The company which I work for are being marvellous!  They are so supportive.  Every week for the past  five or so weeks I have had to take at least one sometimes two Carer's Leave days and there has been no questions asked.  They have also asked one of the other publishers to help me with my workload.  I am incredibly lucky as in dealing with nursing homes and all the other institutes you need to,  it all needs to be done during the week.  So, I am very grateful.

I am also so grateful for the wonderful support I have been getting from my friends - online, at work and everyone really - it has really helped.

Anyway, enough rambling,

Blessings on you all,

Late October TUSAL and a Happy Dance

Oh dear, I am late again with my TUSAL update but anyway, here it is!

Home ORTs on the left, Train ORTs on the right.

I have had to swap to a a crystal bowl I was given as a wedding guest, over 31 years ago now.

Here is my progress on Medusa Lavender Fairy - nearly there, just a few stitches missing, the glittery backstitch and a few more beads and I am done. (Unfortunately she is too precious and it is too hard to bead on the train or whilst hospital visiting otherwise she would be well and truly finished by now!)

.... and a Happy Dance - now this is going to a stitchy friend so I have tried not to give away the other initial.

I really, really love stitching this design - I can feel a giveaway coming along!

Blessed Be,

Just to prove some stitching has been happening....

Yes, despite the many long hospital visits to my Mum, looking after my 94 year old father, endless phone calls/emails/texts/FB chats to family and friends about what is happening with my mother and the many crying jags I have (it is very hard to see your mother in pain like this and she is not herself with it - yesterday as I was trying to feed her lunch (which she must eat to get her strength back up) she accused me of torturing her, being very cruel and told me that she wished I had never been born! Very hard to take with any equanimity.)  BUT I HAVE BEEN STITCHING!

Would you like to see?

The last time you saw Medusa the Lavender Fairy she looked like this:

Now, she has wings, a neck and one shoulder:

I don't know why but I am really struggling with this piece.  Maybe it is the three shades of flesh-coloured thread which are really difficult to distinguish?


Now for my train stitching.....  I have started a second version of FRIENDS, I am enjoying this so much - it is such a great piece to stitch on the train.  I am changing some of the colours around,  as you can see.  I can see several more of these in my future.

Still on Train stitching, I had a Happy Dance, I finished Bienvenue....

I am actually pretty chuffed by this one - everyone was so supportive of my colour choices and I do think that is has come up pretty well.

Have to dash now - train to catch, stitching to do!

Blessed Be,

IHSW wrap up

As usual, I had quite a busy weekend (I did something very special on Sunday with my Dear Friend, Marie but I will tell you all about that in a post later in the week) but I did manage to be productive for IHSW this month as well.

On Saturday I framed "Friends" to give to my friend at work for her birthday today:

.... and now Medusa Lavender Fairy has all of her hair and if you look very closely you can see the start of her wing on the left hand side!

I hope that all of you had a successful IHSW - I look forward to checking out all of your blogs.

hugs,

FNSI update

I stitched some more on my Lavender Fairy for my JE RR for FNSI.

Now, she looks like Medusa rather than a Noh mask or maybe a Noh mask with Medusa hair?  I will be glad when I finish her hair - getting rather tired of all the brown - lol!

Hopefully she will beautiful once she is done!

IHSW this weekend, too  - I am planning to work some more on Lavender Fairy AKA Medusa and FINISH my "Friend" stitch plus some probably some other bits and pieces of stitching  - whatever takes my fancy.    How about your IHSW plans?

hugs,