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 :)