SAL progress week 1

So the doggies got dropped off at the framers this morning, and after picking myself up off the floor after finding out how much they were going to cost to frame I left them there for their final makeover.  Thank you framer guy for letting me pay off the framing, and thank you dad for not having "special" birthdays every year :)

So last night I started week one of the SAL, I kitted everything up and printed the chart out ready to go.  I really like the design, Joan Elliotts Dream inspirational word from her Bewitching book.

The writing has a lot of purple and pink in it which are my favourite colours and I love butterflies.  So I managed to get week one of the SAL done last night which was stitching all the letters. 

I used a very light blue aida for it which is really stepping out of my comfort zone of white or natural coloured!!!  I think it looks lovely though

Right, my son is in bed, it is saturday afternoon, I am curled up in the armchair in front of a dvd with my stitching and hubby has said he will make dinner tonight.....BLISS.  Have  a lovely weekend everyone

Seven dogs all in a row

Welcome to my second finish for 2012.....yes, the dogs are done!!!  I sat up till midnight last night and finished them off and I must say I am SO happy with them.  I have totally loved doing this design, I think the difference has been that I have backstitched as I have gone with this one and so it was nice to see each dog take on a life of its own as I went.  So now the boys are off to the framers tomorrow for their final makeover.  I dont usually get my pieces professionally framed due to cost, only if it is a special piece like this one for my dads 70th.  Dads birthday is not until August but I wanted to get the boys finished in plenty of time cause the framing will take a while to pay off!!!!

So what next I hear you ask!  My first SAL starts in 2 days and I just went and got the fabric today for it, I have all the thread, the chart and the beads so I am ready to go....I might even be sneaky and start tomorrow....hehehe.  I was actually very daring with the fabric today, well daring for me.  I am a creature of habit when it comes to my stitching, I stitch on 14 count aida in either white or natural/light tan but today I bought a nice piece of pale blue 14 count, yes, couldnt get away from the aida but I thought I might add a bit of colour to the SAL with the light blue colour.  I will post a pic once I start.

The other project I need to work on is Jacobs stocking for christmas.  I started this last year and I have a goal to get it finished for him for this christmas.  Truth is I have not touched it at all this year so I need to get onto it.  Here is where it is at, I have half finished it.  I love the design but do struggle with doing it on 16 count instead of my normal 14...I shall perservere though

Hope everyone is having a lovely stitchy week, I am enjoying catching up on everyones blogs as well, thanks everyone

My first IHSW and a lovely recognition

Hi everyone, I hope you have all had a lovely stitchy weekend.  This is going to be a big post, apologies in advance!!! 

I just took part in my first IHSW this past weekend, for those of you who have not heard of this before, it is on Random Ramblings.  I have seen a lot of my blogger friends Hermit and stitch every month so thought this month I would join up and see how much I get done.  So here was my picture of my dogs before I started on friday night.  Not sure why they look so brown but hey, it gives you an idea of where I was up to.

So friday night I got 5 hours of stitching in (stayed up till midnight), saturday I got a couple of hours in during the day and a couple of hours in that night and yesterday got a couple of hours in during the day.  I think all up I spent about 12 hours on it over the weekend which is huge considering I am a mum of a 2 year old.  All I can say is YAY for his day sleeps.  So here are the boys today after my weekend of stitching.

I managed to get the white dog finished, the white and brown dog both backstitched and quite a bit of the background done and also started the final dog.....yes, I am up to the last boy!!!  My goal was to have this design finished by the 24th March as I am starting a SAL on the 25th March so I am well on track to get this finished with only one more dog and a bit of background to go.  I am so glad that I chose to do the backstitch as I went on this design as the backstitch has been a real headache....I would have been mighty upset if I had left it all till last!!!  So that is how my IHSW went, how did everyone elses go????

I had a lovely treat from my stitchy friend Margaret this week who sent me a message to let me know that she had selected me as one of her blogger friends to receive the Liebster blog award.  Thank you so much for thinking of me Margaret and sending me this award.  Margarets blog is awesome, she has become a good facebook/pen friend who loves HAED and has recently gone on a mission to aquire as many Miras and Lavender and Lace patterns as she can!!!!

Liebster is a german word meaning favourite, dearest or beloved.  The Liebster is awarded by bloggers to other new bloggers who have fewer than 200 followers, to help spread the word about their blogs and to help them gain wider recognition.

The Liebster award comes with four conditions that each recipient must satisfy when accepting.

1.  Choose 5 up-and-coming blogs with less than 200 followers to award the Liebster to

2.  Show your thanks to the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them.

3.  Post the award on your blog.  List the bloggers you are giving the award to with links to their sites.  Leave comments on their blog so they know about the award.

4.  Share 5 random facts about yourself that people dont know about you.

So, my list of recipients is as follows

1.  Kathy she does some beautiful work, love her blog

2.  demeter83 Absolutely stunning work and a beautiful blog

3.  Rowyn A fellow kiwi stitcher, I love how much detail she puts into her blog

4.  Thoeria Gorgeous work and lovely blog

5.  Danielle A beautiful blog, love all the updates.

I must say that there are two blogs that I totally love and would so want to give the award to, if only they weren't so popular!!  I still want to give them a mention

Katrina I love your blog, such gorgeous updates and yes, again a fellow kiwi

The Manbroider My dear friend who is an amazing stitcher and proves that men can cross stitch too!!!

And finally, the 5 random things about me

1.  I am dreadfully claustrophobic, I cant even sleep in the bottom bunk on a set of bunk beds!!

2.  I am addicted to reality TV, especially cooking shows.  I love to cook but cannot bake to save myself.  Last week I made my first ever batch of cupcakes which actually turned out pretty well, as you can see below.

3.  My hubby and I first met in 1993 but he does not remember us meeting.  We then did not meet up again for another 9 years!

4.  My father taught me to fly light aircraft when I was 5 years old.

5.  Although everyone considers me to be a girly girl my favourite sport is car racing, especially V8s and stock cars.  My dream is to one day drive a stock car in a demolition derby and crash the heck out of it.

So everyone, that is me and that is my update from the last couple of week, thanks for hanging in there through this blog, long as it was.  Looking forward to hearing everyones updates :)

Decisions Decisions

I recently saw the Joan Elliott Cinderella design that she did in Cross Stitch Gold and decided that it was totally gorgeous and I had to have it. Finally this week the issue arrived in NZ and I grabbed it. Isn't she gorgeous. The only thing I kind of wished was that her dress was a nice pretty pink or purple colour.

And then Joan went and did this conversion. Totally stunning, now I dont know what version I want to do!!!

Joan put the conversion on her facebook page so if you are wanting to change the colours over to the pink here are the conversions

Blue to Pink: 826 to 961, 813 to 962, 827 to 3716

Purple to Lavender: 3746 to 553, 340 to 209, 3747 to 210

Man, I have no idea what one I like better, I like the pink one cause I love pinks and purples but I like the blue one too cause of the vibrant colours. What's everyones thoughts on their favourite one?

Not a lot of stitching done this week, ok no stitching done this week. Today is friday though so I usually settle down and stitch on a friday night while watching American Idol. I will post what I have done over the weekend in a couple of days. Have a wonderful stitchy weekend everyone :)

A reflective post and a special purchase

As you may have picked up through this blog I am a mum to a busy, active, and totally adorable 2 year old.



We are so blessed to have him in our lives. After 6 years of infertility and struggling to have a child of our own we finally went down the avenue of adoption and our scrummy little man is our blessing from that. We were told we had been chosen as his parents when he was 3 weeks old and got to bring him home at 5 weeks old. I have always felt in my heart that he is my child in every sense of the word, but there is a piece of me that acknowledges the huge sacrifice that his birth parents (especially his mother) made so that our family could be so blessed. We are in contact with his birth parents and see them about 3 times a year for a catch up. I know that his birth mother still struggles with the decision that she made to give him up, even though she knows it was the best thing for him and that she struggles to look after herself day by day without adding a child into the mix. I feel a very special bond with his birth mum and I have wanted for so long to do something for her to let her know how much her sacrifice has meant to me as a mother. This week I found exactly what I have been looking for on 123stitch and bought it straight away to do for her. I plan to stitch it twice, one for her to give to her for christmas and one for my son to hang in his room with a photo of him with both of his "mums". I hope they both treasure it.


The poem on it reads
"Once there were two women who never knew each other
One you do not remember, the other you call Mother.
Two different lives shaped to make yours one.
One became your guiding star, the other became your sun
The first gave you life and the second taught you to live it
The first gave you the need for love, the second was there to give it
One gave you a nationality and the other gave you a name
One gave you the seed of talent, the other gave you aim.
One gave you emotion, the other calmed your fears
One saw your first sweet smile, the other dried your tears
One gave you up, it was all that she could do
The other prayed for a child and God lead her straight to you
And now you ask me through your tears
The age old question through the years
Heredity or environment-which are you the product of
Neither my darling, neither, just two different kinds of love"

I havent got a lot of stitching done this week, managed to get the backstitching done on the right hand side of dog 4 and dog 5 has legs and a scarf now. I have set myself the goal to have his design finished by 22nd March so that I can start the SAL, it might take a few hours of evening stitching but I should get it done :)

Have a wonderful stitchy week everyone, I have been doing lots of blog reading this week and your projects are fantastic, thank you for sharing your amazing talent with the blogosphere :)