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 organised by the Blog hop Queen,  Jo from Serendipitous Stitching -  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 and you can all play, too!

As I live in Melbourne, Australia and we are ahead of much of the world, it is Valentine's Day already here but not in England where Jo lives, so the link above goes to her blog but once Jo has posted the Secret Stitching Sweetheart Post I will update for you.

In the meantime, here is my absolutely gorgeous Valentine ....

I can't wait to find out to whom this belongs - is it yours?

If you are my Secret Stitching Sweetheart, please leave a comment below.

Love to you all on this special day of LOVE, 

Update: Please click on the pic below to follow a link to Jo's Secret Stitching Sweetheart Blog post to join in the fun of the Blog Hop.

hugs, 

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. 

I was given this very sweet box which is obviously designed to hold stitching goodies. I wonder who the clever stitcher is?  Is it you?

If you are my Secret Sweetheart, please leave a comment below.

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

 

Please click on the heart below...

But before I go, I did want to remind you to check out my 1000th Post Giveaway, 

which I would love you to enter.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone, 

hugs, 

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. 

I was given this very sweet design by a lovely stitcher, I wonder who you are?

If you are my Secret Sweetheart, 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, 

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, 

Secret Stitching Sweetheart Blog Hop...

This is a  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.  

Now, I wonder who my Secret Stitching Sweetheart is?

If you want to play with us, please visit Jo's blog here. 

Happy Valentine's Day everyone, 

hugs, 

P.S. If you want to find out more about Anti-Valentines, click on this link here.

Vinegar Valentines!

lol! I had never heard of such a thing, but apparently, once upon a time, in the Victorian era,  they were very popular!

They were sent anonymously to the lover that you DID NOT want to encourage!

You can follow this link to read the full article.

Wouldn't it be awful to receive one of these tomorrow, instead of a loving Valentine?

hugs, 

Weekend Round up ....

[Sorry, this is now a rather belated weekend round up as it is now Wednesday, but time seemed to run out on Monday, when I started writing this post and who knows what happened to Tuesday? - lol!  Anyway, here goes......]

Thursday evening:

I started my weekend stitching early this weekend (on Thursday evening) as I knew that TraderVic and I were going to a House concert on Friday night, so this week for Friday Frolics ... a languishing Chrissie Ornament came out to play....

Before:

                               

After:

                               

JBW Designs

Santa's Sleigh Ride

28 ct white linen

Mixture of DMC and WDW floss

This piece was started (and never touched again until now) on 6 January last year as one of my pieces for Debbie's Ultimate Crazy January/February Challenge (DUCJFC), you can read about it all on this post.

However, other WIPs were calling my name, so after just one evening of stitching, Santa and his sleigh have been put aside for other projects.

Friday evening:

The artist at the House concert was Scott Cook, an amazing Canadian folk singer and balladeer who gave us an amazing evening of great music.

If you ever get the chance to hear him play, I can highly recommend it.

Saturday:

I thought that I had better get on with stitching my Christmas Ornie SAL piece for Feb's theme of "Snow".  

Last month the lovely Loretta, stitched a great freebie from Plum Pudding Needleart (unfortunately, the link to the freebie seems to have been suspended) for the January Music theme, luckily for me it also fitted in nicely with the Snow theme for February. You can see Loretta's great finish here.

So, this is where I am up to today (after stitching on it both Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday) - nearly done!

                              

... and, of course, this is a DUCJFC stitching piece as well.

Saturday night, TraderVic and I went to dinner in Prahran and then a movie with DD.  We saw "Brooklyn", which we all loved.  Such a beautiful film and Saoirse Ronan was excellent in the main role.

                                  

Sunday:

Well, Sunday was Valentine's Day, of course. So TradeVic and I went on a double date with our best friends, Kim and Gino, to a lovely Italian restaurant, La Camera,  next to the Yarra River at Southgate.  We sat out on the terrace on a perfect Melbourne's summer evening and then had a lovely walk along the riverside afterwards and then found one of Melbourne's many, many cafes for a coffee.

                                                    

                                                     

                                                     

Tuesday:

Well, not much happened on Monday, so let's skip to Tuesday (work during the day) but then lots of fun in the evening, as I went out on a girl's night with my dear friends, Heather and Franca for dinner at The European and then to see the marvellous Dawn French in Thirty Million Minutes.

The food at the restaurant was absolutely delicious, this is lamb ravioli, with sides of heirloom carrots with dukkah and labne and a witlof, pear and walnut salad - yummo!

                              

                              

                             

Dessert was Peach Eton Mess......

                              

Waiting for Dawn!

                                           

                                    

So, I would have to say, this past weekend was a corker! 

Wishing you all a great rest of the week.

hugs, 

Secret Stitching Sweetheart Blog Hop.....

This is a  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.  

Now, I wonder who my Secret Stitching Sweetheart is?

If you want to play with us, please visit Jo's blog here. 

Happy Valentine's Day everyone, 

hugs, 

P.S. If you want to find out more about the historic origins of Valentine's Day, click on this link here.

Update:  My Secret Stitching Sweetheart piece can be found at the lovely Astrid's blog.  Happy Valentine's Day, Astrid.

... and my Valentine is the lovely Leonore from Needle, Pen and Sword.

Secret Stitching Sweetheart...

.... Bloghop!  

This is a Valentine's Day Bloghop organised by the Bloghop 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.  

Now, I wonder who my Secret Stitching Sweetheart is?

If you want to play with us, please visit Jo's blog here.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone, 

hugs, 

P.S. If you want to find out more about the historic origins of Valentine's Day, click on this link here.

Secret Stitching Sweetheart Blog Hop and Travelling Treasures

Happy Valentine's Day each and everyone of you, I hope that you have a fun day with someone you love.

Me?  I am giving TraderVic what he wants - I have promised to sit and watch his beloved Tigers play a footy match tonight. Romantic, hey?

I am taking part in the Secret Stitching Sweetheart Blog Hop run by Jo from Serendipitous Stitching. Each of us taking part in the blog hop is given a Sweetheart photo at random, we post it on Valentine's Day and then we visit each other's blogs looking for our photo and make a comment when we find it.

Such fun!  Here is the gorgeous heart pic I was given - I wonder who was the talented stitcher who made this?

You can check out all of the fun at Jo's blog Serendipitous Stitching.

Now, it is time to tell you all about the Travelling Treasures.  This is a treasure trove of stitching goodness which is travelling around Australia.  You can read all about it on Debbie's blog Sweet Little Cottage - where it all began last March - or you can click on the Travelling Treasures pic on the top right of my blog.


So, I was lucky enough to win the Travelling Treasures from Melanie of Pinnylea Creations.

Now, the idea is that you take a few gifts from the Treasures and add a few and then pass it on.

So, here is what is in the Travelling Treasures - lots and lots of goodies.

I am taking two items - this handy thread catcher and this gorgeous wall hanging.

.... and here is what I am putting in....

Fat Quarters from my stash in sunshiney yellow:

A Heart scissor fob:

Two Cross Stitch patterns -  Birdhouse Row by Diane Arthurs and Cat lessons for People by Lizzie Kate:

Some sweet buttons from The Friendship Tree:

... and three skeins of my favourite hand-dyed thread from Cottage Garden Threads:

Now, to be eligible for the Travelling Treasures you need to live in Australia and have a blog (or a friend with a blog who will post for you) and just comment on this post to let me know you are interested.

I will keep this open until Tuesday, 18th Feb and announce the winner on Wednesday, 19th Feb.

Good luck everyone!

Don't forget to  to join in the fun of my Grow Your Blog  Party Giveaway, entries close on Feb 15th, you can join in the fun on this post.  It closes tomorrow - when I will reveal not only the winners but what the actual gifts are! lol!

hugs,

P.S. TraderVic's beloved Tigers are winning so far (it is half time) and look at the gorgeous Prairie Roses he bought me and he even remembered my favourite colour!

P.P.S. Tomorrow's post will also feature a Happy Dance and a further update of what has been happening in my life lately.

P.P.P.S The Tigers just lost - oh well, it was only a practice match!