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,

Online Advent Calendar: December 9th

I am lucky enough to taking part in  Jo from Serendipitous Stitching's Online Advent Calendar.

I am Day 9.

This stitchery is one I did for an exchange.  It was a lovely quick stitch as I stitched and completed it on the train to and from work in just one day!

I thought that you might like to see the sparkly tree and reindeer which graces our foyer at work. 

 

The bigger building next door has the same tree but 10x bigger!  Here I am with one of my work colleagues Kieran as we were on our way to get a coffee at one of new cool coffee places at Collins Place.

 Jo has asked us to share a Christmas tradition with you all.  One of mine is that I always make the Christmas pudding.  The recipe I use is a really easy one and I have made it since Christmas 1983 - that is 30 years!
It lives in the scrapbook of recipes which I have been collecting since TraderVic and I were married in 1982.  It is an Australian Women's Weekly recipe from Christmas of 1983.

Here is my tatty old recipe scrapbook:

The true beauty of this recipe is that it is cooked in an oven bag!  Yes, an oven bag!  It always makes two puddings and once it is made it can be kept in the fridge for weeks.  And if we don't use both puddings on Christmas Day, the second one is popped into the freezer (right at the back) and it will keep there for a whole year!  (Unless we host Christmas in July).

The last really great thing about it is that all you have to do is microwave it for 10 minutes on Christmas Day and it is ready!  ... and it is delicious! Wow!  I really love this recipe!

My dear friend Marie, of Princes Park walking fame, just gave me my Xmas present early this year as it is this awesome snow globe which lights up and snows just at the press of a button.  I shut all of the shutters to take this photo so that you could get a bit of an effect.  Cute, hey?  It is a nutcracker which I just love - thank you dear Marie.

Anyway, I wish you all a Merry Xmas, don't forget to go to Jo's blog to check out the other days of the Advent Calendar  and....

hugs,

Nancy from Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe's Day 4 of Christmas giveaway

Please check out Nancy's blog Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe for her Day 4 of Christmas Giveaway.  You can win lots of floss!

You can enter here.  Good luck!

This is for all of you who love to read fantasy.  One of my colleagues at work, Dirk Strasser, has just had a trilogy of novels called "The books of Ascension" published as an ebook by Macmillan Momentum.  Check out the really cool book trailer by following this link here. (For those of you overseas it may not work as it is on Youtube AU, but fingers crossed.)


hugs,

Christmas is indeed the time for giving...

Now it is Parsley's turn.  She is having a great giveaway of a Stoney Creek book of Snowmen designs - so adorable.

Please visit her blog, Seasons of my mind to join in the fun!  The giveaway closes on Dec 10th.

hugs,

Nancy is doing it again and again and again.....

Update!  Nancy is actually having an Advent giveaway - something each day until Christmas - Wow!

Here are the details of Day 3, which you can enter here.

The Third Day of Christmas Give-away! FLOSS!!!!!!

     Santa thought more floss would be nice as this seems to be a F-A-V-O-R-I-T-E give-away around here!
     I have a few new colors not listed yet....I was saving them for a give-away. These will be surprise colors! Ha ha.....you have to wait to see them.
Lets give a couple stitchers 10 skeins each....200yards!!!!
Same old rules.......you must be a follower and post a comment here. Post on your blog and get 25 more entries....send a friend 25 more entries.
     Drawing to be December 16th. Keep entering all the Christmas give-aways.....lots of goodies going out of here. I love to share and to give back to the stitching community, especially at Christmas. This is my way of showing my appreciation to all of you.
Love from Santa Nancy

and here is Day 2:
Second Day of Christmas give-away!

     The Second Day of Christmas......and always so much fun to give goodies away! Lets see....what can we give away today.....how about the chart of your choice? Browse through my 82 charts in my store if you are a winner.....and pick your favorite!
     Drawing to be December 15th. Lets pick a couple winners.
You must be a follower and you must post a comment here. Post on your blog or send a friend and get 25 more entries.
You need to check back to see if you are a winner...I never have time to track you down!
   Thank you for participating in the Christmas fun!
                                         Nancy

Day 1:
.... having another wonderful giveaway.

She has four great designs to choose from as your prize, with floss!  This is my favourite:

You can enter here and don't forget to tell her that I sent you.

Blessings,

Vale Eleanor....

.......my dear, gorgeous mother passed away peacefully on Monday, 25th November, 2013 at 11.55 am after many long months of illness.

I feel so sad but so relieved that her suffering is at an end.  My dear Dad is very sad but coping so far.  So hard for him to lose the love of his life after 67 years of marriage!

Thank you again so much to everyone for your love, support and prayers - they have buoyed me up during this difficult time.

Blessings everyone,

Thank you to all of my dear Bloggy friends....

I so want to thank all of you for comments and messages of support after my last post.  They mean a lot to me.  I am trying to respond to all of the emails but I am not sure if I am going to be able to get back to you all in a timely fashion. But I do thank you all and I am so grateful for all of your love, support and prayers.

Just to give you an update:

DFIL is coming home (he lives with us) from hospital today - his pneumonia is better but we are still waiting for the test results about the lesion on his lung.

My mother's health is failing even more - each day she is weaker but she is still hanging in there, her will is indomitable!

My procedure went well yesterday - I am feeling a bit shaky after the general and experiencing a bit of discomfort but my doctor seems happy.  I just need to wait for the test results - which I will find out about on Monday week.  So fingers crossed!


Hopefully next post I can share some stitchy progress with you - I have not felt like stitching much, there has just been too much going on but I will back to it soon, I promise.

Blessings on you all,