Off to Spain

We're off to Spain tomorrow to stay with our friends who have a holiday home there. It's the first time I've been to Spain and only the fourth time I've flown so I am a little nervous to say the least. I have been very busy sorting out parcels and overseas Christmas cards to post because they will be too late when we're back.

It's all getting very exciting with Christmas coming and today our daughter is coming home from Uni for the night - a chance to go shopping together and the four of us go out for a meal. She is off to Prague for a short break before Christmas with her boyfriend so is also busy - she will be home for Christmas though.

It's very Christmassy on Needlecraft Haven too - lots of new activities and two exchanges happening - Advent Exchange and Ornament Exchange. I took part in the ornament one - opening day was 1st December and it's a secret exchange so we don't know who sent until reveal day - I had this beautiful beaded ornament

and this is the ornament I sent to my partner. I know it was received so can share it but I'm not saying who has it

Finally this is the ornament I have stitched for our friends when we get to Spain. We are all wine and beer lovers - doing many wine fairs together. I thought this appropriate - the saying is suggesting that the bar is always open as 'it's 5 o'clock somewhere' and in Spain it'll be an hour before here at home hee hee

I hope your Christmas preparations are going well - it's a very exciting time of year with so many events happening. Thank you for calling by, see you when we get back from the sun.

Beatiful gift

What a surprise this morning when Postie came - Dusty very kindly promised me a copy of Just Cross Stitch 2013 Christmas Ornament magazine and seeing the parcel was from her I thought that was what it was.

 

I love this magazine so eagerly opened it ... BUT ... this was inside:

 

A stunning crochet table topper

 

Beautiful hardanger ornaments

 

JCS Christmas magazine, Cross Stitch & Needlework magazine
and Nordic Needle Hardanger chart

Such beautiful gifts and such a surprise - thank you Dusty. The ornaments were for my Miss Tree at church (the annual tree decorating) but I am not taking part this year as we are away when they set up and take down, so I'll e hanging them on our tree and using them next year on Miss Tree.

 

I haven't opened the magazines as I am off to Dad's in a minute to do some more decorating so I have them to enjoy later with a coffee. No doubt I will see things to do and want to start straight away.

 

My rotation stitching is going really well and I do think I am doing much more stitching. Here's my plan:

Saturday - Strictly UFO with Julie and Mr Stick on Needlecraft Haven

Sunday - Strictly UFO with Julie and Mr Stick on Needlecraft Haven

 

Monday - exchange piece (whichever I am working on)

 

Tuesday - The Drawn Thread monthly (I am very behind with this)

 

Wednesday - Santa's Village with Miss Barb in The Parlour on Needlecraft Haven

 

Thursday - exchange or gift (again whichever I need to do)

 

Friday - finishing, kitting up, general sorting, anything I fancy or am behind on 

 

I'm on week 5 and have completed my exchange piece for Needlecraft Haven, a gift for our friends we're going to Spain with, half of my Drawn Thread July and started my Santa's Village tablecloth.

 

 

Santa's Village

Drawn Thread July

I have to pop up the attic today to get some craft bits I want so I can finish off a few things and kit up my Welcome RR ready to start plotting that for the New Year.

Thanks for calling by and again thank you Dusty :)  

Fabulous Day - as always

Yesterday was meet up day for Needlecraft Haven members - I cannot believe it's been 10 years since I organised my first meet up (not for NH back then) - they are days that I thoroughly enjoy and yesterday was superb.

We had a goody bag exchange on the theme of Sparkle and Fizz as it's nearly Bonfire Night. I made appropriately named cup cakes which Julie helped me hide raffle tickets underneath. The good y bags were given corresponding tickets - everyone chose a cake and then had the bag that matched their ticket.

Here's all the bags and my cakes - ready for picking :)

Ready to go - Sparkle and Fizz Goody Bag Exchange

My lovely bag was from Lindsay - it has a beautiful sparkly bauble, some great ribbon which I am saving for a special project as it's jut gorgeous, a beaded pen and a bottle of bubbly - drinkable bubbly !! Thanks Lindsay :)

Sparkle & Fizz Goody Bag from Lindsay

We also had a Mystery Book Exchange where we all wrapped a book we have read, loved, found in a charity shop or had had recommended. There were many different wrappings and sizes of books.

Mystery Book Exchange

My book from Tina

I picked the white wrapped book on the right of the table which was Pandora's Box by Griselle Green - Tina's book. I'm sure I've heard about this from somewhere but I can't remember where. It certainly looks another great one to read, thanks Tina.

 

The members of Needlecraft Haven often complain about the adverts being there - unfortunately ;-/ I can't see them, maybe that's because I am the forum owner. Anyway it's $6 a month to have the forum ad-free which members have very kindly been contributing. I decided this time that the raffle money would go towards paying some of the ad-free charges - here's all the raffle prizes everyone donated.

 

Donated raffle prizes

Thanks to everyone who bought tickets we have enough money for 5 months ad-free membership.

 

I had a really lovely day - thanks to Julie, Lynn, Lindsay, Rachael, Tina, Maggie, Jane, Lisa and my Mum for making it another great Meet Up - it will soon be spring and another chance to meet and stitch.

 

I did do some stitching but not lots - I mended the edges of my hardanger tablecloth which has unravelled a little in the wash and because it was Saturday I did some of my UFO Angels.

 

I have stuck to my rotation really well this week - I have done quite a bit on my next exchange - started my July Drawn Thread piece - plotted my Santa's Village tablecloth and worked on my UFO. Finishing Friday was very successful this week as I finished the cup cakes for the meet up hee hee

 

As well as cakes for us I made the pub staff some Little Ghosts as it always seems unfair to bring cakes in for us and not them - especially as my son was on shift yesterday. Here's their ghosts and a close up of my sparkly ones.  

 

Little Ghosts

Sparkle and Fizz

 We had a great day yesterday - I hope you've enjoyed reading about it - and if you're a Needlecraft Haven member why not join us in the spring :)

And we're off .....

I started my rotation this week and it's going really really well. I can't share my Monday and Thursday night's stitching as it's from an exchange but I can share my other night's work.

Tuesday night is The Drawn Thread and I started my July piece - I am very behind with these. I will be altering this chart slightly as it focuses on USA Independence Day. Here's my start:

The Drawn Thread - July

Wednesday Night is usually spent in The Parlour on Needlecraft Haven with Miss Barb and friends. In the past I've stitched 'A Place We Call Home' as this room is for Little House Needleworks, Country Cottage Needleworks and The Sampler Girl designs.

I have finally started my Santa's Village by Country Cottage Needleworks. I am very late because I haven't had time to plot it out - I can hear you asking why? well my plotting is finally done - any ideas


Santa's Village - plotted out

I'm making a table cloth but it certainly will not be ready for this year so Miss Barb I will be in The Parlour every week next year :) I have now finished in all the ends and am ready to start stitching next Wednesday. It took nearly a whole day to measure and plot, then finish in ends. One problem was my first choice of tape measure - can you see what's wrong??? It now lives with Stig (of the Dump) !!

So confusing

It's been exchange time too on Needlecraft Haven - Autumn Exchange and Spooky Exchange. My partner hasn't posted up about the Autumn parcel I sent yet so I won't share the photo this time. However I can share the gorgeous exchange Jane sent to me - the exchange was a stitched coaster, some speciality threads, something to pamper and a little treat. I love the teapot card Jane send too.



Autumn Exchange from Jane

I haven't received my Spooky Exchange parcel yet but I know it's on it's way. I sent to Barb and had great fun stitching this for her; I know she has opened her parcel so I can share the photo. Have you seen the Freddo chocolates with popping candy in? They were a great idea for Halloween so I popped a few in the parcel for Barb's grandchildren.





Spooky Exchange with Freddo's

Spooky Exchange for Barb

I finally arranged for my old bike and some of Dad's old tools to be taken by a charity - http://www. krizevac.org  They take bikes and tools and refurbish them for use in Malawi, The tools were very old and needed a lot of attention but this gives work for some of the villagers and then the refurbished tools are of course very useful. Again repairing bikes gives someone work and the bikes make a huge difference to peoples lives - being able to go to school because you have a bike and it was too far to walk is a huge step forward.

 

The charity rang to arrange a collection time and a lovely chap arrived as agreed and was so pleased with the items which I thought were beyond use. I'm very pleased I contacted them and I think Dad would be happy knowing his tools had gone to good use.

Here's my Orts Jar for this month - you can see some orange from stitching the exchange pieces - I wonder is red and green will dominate now as I move into Christmas stitching.

 

31st October Orts jar

Finally here is my Autumn/Halloween Mantle - it's looking quite full this year. I'm going to leave it up a while as I'm not sure what November items I have.

 

Autumn Mantle

That's all my news for now but I will be blogging again quite soon as tomorrow is Needlecraft Haven's Autumn Meet-up - I love these days.

Thanks for calling by today and reading my news :)

Rainbows, a butterfly and Angels

We've had a lovely weekend in Wales at our caravan with our friends - you can read about it at Aimetu's. we did have sun but also rain and over the weekend saw 4 rainbows - I managed to catch this one on my phone although it was pouring down on me as I took it :(

Rainbow over Barmouth Bridge



We did have some sunny moments which not only confused us but the local wildlife - look at this beautiful butterfly that settled on the car basking in the sun.

Butterfly in the sun

I have been stitching the Spooky Exchange piece for Needlecraft Haven - It's posting time this weekend so I need to get it finished. I love doing exchanges but it does mean there is no sharing for a while. After I have stitched this I am going to start rotation stitching again; here's my plan so far:

Saturday - Strictly UFO with Julie and Mr Stick on Needlecraft Haven

 

Sunday - Strictly UFO with Julie and Mr Stick on Needlecraft Haven

 

Monday - exchange piece (whichever I am working on)

 

Tuesday - The Drawn Thread monthly (I am very behind with this)

 

Wednesday - Santa's Village with Miss Barb in The Parlour on Needlecraft Haven

 

Thursday - exchange or gift (again whichever I need to do)

 

Friday - finishing, kitting up, general sorting, anything I fancy or am behind on

 

 

That's my plan and hopefully I can start it sometime this week. I have done rotation stitching before and I think I do get more done - it certainly gives more variety and therefore interesting things to share.

 

I did not do any Strictly UFO stitching this weekend as we were with our friends but in the week I did finish the outer pink on all the border - it's growing well :)

 

Angel Blessings

Thanks you for calling by - I hope you enjoyed my short update :)

 



Cathey - so sad

I'm very sadden this morning to read Cathey of Pumpkin Patch & co has passed away - I only new her from blogging but her positive attitude, thoughts for others and continuous upbeat always made me smile.

At the end of last month I was honoured and pleased to put up a Pumpkin for Cathey on Aimetu's Stitching - as did many, many more bloggers - a very small thing (organised by Daffy) to show our love.

I pray for Cathey's family and many friends - and also that soon, please soon we will discover a way to prevent the devasting threat we all face.

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/48389 is a petition to ask the UK Government to put more research into pancreatic cancer - if you are UK based please read, sign and spread the word - If you are overseas - is this also a forgotten side of cancer in your country?

Rest in peace Cathey - God bless.

I've turned orange ....

... but it's only my blog, I haven't been using fake tan or been out in the late summer sun too much. We are having some lovely autumnal sun here just lately which is good because it means Hubby and I can do the front garden at Dad's. I have a second coat of paint to do on the fence but it's looking so much better.

New fence at Dad's

I posted a photo of how the garden used to look in my last post - you can see the fence was falling down. I need a good dark covering now as not all the wood is the same so looks odd at the moment.

Sunday I had a lovely morning - Mum and Keith invited me to their church as Lubeck Boys Choir was singing at their Benefice Service. They were amazing especially when singing unaccompanied. That evening they were singing in Coventry Cathedral and that would have been amazing with the massive interior and acoustics as the were just brilliant in Witherley Village Church which is tiny in comparison. We had a shared lunch for the boys and took along my chocolate Guinness cake. It didn't last long - what was interesting is the boys take on English food as the ladies took typical buffet food (egg sandwiches, sausage rolls, quiche) and of course the German boys were unsure to start with what everything was - even our crisps have different flavours to those in Germany. It was a great opportunity for us to hear them sing and a great opportunity for the boys to experience typical English food instead of restaurant food.

I did some baking this week again - two things, both cake!! I made this

Schokogugelhopf

It's an Austrian cake taken from The Hairy Bikers Big Book of Baking - they cooked on at the top of the Grossglockner in Austria - it's the highest mountain and one we've been to the top of with my Dad and the children when they were very young.


..... I'm back - but you didn't go anywhere I hear you say ... well I did, I've just spend half an hour finding old photos :) so here is Dad with the children at the bottom before we travelled up and the other photo is Michael, Philippa and me at the top of the Grossglockner in 1999.

Philippa, Dad and Michael at the start of the Grossglockner road 1999



Philippa, Me and Michael at the top of the Grossglockner 1999

I think where I'm standing with the children is where the Hairy Bikers were to cook their Schokodgugelhopf. Nick and I would love to go back to Austria - maybe 2015.

Finally a little stitching - I can't share much as my HD this week has been the Autumn Exchange piece for Needlecraft Haven The forum is quite chatty at the moment which is lovely to see - it is such a friendly place, I am so lucky to have such great members, they make it a very easy and very pleasurable forum to host.

My other piece is an UFO which was an RR with Needlecraft Haven. Julie and Mr Stick are in charge of keeping us motivated to complete our UFOs and because it's Stricty season we are stitching whilst watching on Saturday and Sunday. For anyone of my overseas friends this is the link to BBC Strictly Come Dancing.

We're on week 2 and this week I added some of the pink flowers to my border. I do have trouble as I have a pair of glasses for stitching/reading and another for the tv and driving. SO I stitch whilst the talking bits are on then swap glasses and watch the actual dance - I can see without my glasses (or by peering over the top of my reading ones) but I miss the detail on the gorgeous costumes.

Angel Blessings

Tonight Hubby and I are going to see French Can-Can at Bedworth Civic Hall - oh la la. I'll tell you all about it next time, thanks for popping by today, it's always lovely to read your comments.