Summer Blog Hop and more gifts

Jo who's blog is Serendipitous Stitching is organising a Summer Post Card Blog Hop. I've received a beautiful postcard from Lynn - Kearnel's Korner 

Pop by and visit both Jo and Lynn - don't forget to leave a comment too.

 

Lynn's message: 

This design is called Peace Inside by Midsummer Night Designs. I loved this from the first moment I spotted it. Our home is out in a country village and we love to sit and watch the birds each morning. Our door is always open to friends and family and we do love to entertain. Being a cat lover, I was thrilled to see a little cat stitched in the piece as well. I've yet to have this one framed but it sits very nicely on a tabletop easel.

This little piece just seems to embody our home and I'm very proud to display it.

And now for my news - here are a few more of the gifts I stitched for colleagues at work.

Dee - who collects headgehogs and I had no idea

Rav & Kat - two close friends

Nadine & Steve - Mr & Mrs

Annabel - who got married last year

The girls in the Office - reply for student questions

 

My gift for the Staffroom - it hangs next to the clock !!

I had a great last day at school - no cover lessons which made a lovely change. Allthe students left at lunchtime and all the staff went to the main hall for speeches and presentations, not something I find easy but it went ok. Altogether there were 16 people leaving so the presents took a while. Quite a few people were retiring (like me, but they were slightly older hee hee) and some moving onto pastures new. A few tears all round but it was a great atmosphere and lovely to see everyone to say goodbye.

 

I was overwhelmed with gifts from individual members of staff; the cleaners had also bought me a gorgeous scarf and Sue had made a beautiful card. here is the mantle full of my cards - I have to keep re-reading as there is too much to take in.

 

Nick gave me a card too - so sweet of him.

 

School had had a collection as had the English Department - I couldn't believe how much people had given as my gifts were amazing; Lots of Cath Kidston items as well as a huge french sign, I'm not sure where it will go but it is beautiful.

 

All my gorgeous gifts

Huge french sign

Straight after school Nick and I caught the train from Nuneaton to London Euston and on to St Pancras as Nick had booked us on the Eurostar for a 3 day trip to Brussels. It was amazing - the whole day was very emotional added to by Eurostar who just finihsed it off perfectly - I have blogged about our travels on my other blog Aimetu's

 

Thanks for popping by - I should have some more exciting stitching news soon - if you'd like to see all the gifts I stitched for my school colleagues they are in my Flickr Album.

 

Overload of HDs and not all stitching :)

I have one week left at work - sad in many ways but very very happy in lots of others.As soon as I handed my notice in back in January I started stitching small gifts for my colleagues. I finshed them all - over 30 - just in time and gave some out on Friday. I tried to stitch something personal to each person and amazingly some were more than perfect.

This is a photo of all the gifts laid out on my table - and each blog I'll share a few more as all in one will be a photo overload.

All my gifts for work

Adele's - and she does !!

Jo - our Librarian

Gillian, Shirley, Claire & Lisa

Louise - who is moving schools
and teaching languages not literacy

I have a few more to give out tomorrow before sports day :) I loved making and giving these gifts.

The other HD is for our daughter Philly - she is currenty out in Mallorca au pairing for a family for 8 weeks but that isn't the HD.

As well as studying at Uni in South Wales she is a Young Volunteer (Platinum) for Sport Rhondda Cynon Taf which involves working at the council offices, arranging sporting events and training for Gold and Silver volunteers. It was their annual awards night last Wednesday- here's her nominations section:

Young Volunteer of the Year
This award is for an individual that has volunteered their time in school or the community and made a significant contribution to the development of sport in Rhondda Cynon Taf. They may help with the administration, developing a website, taking registers or helping with marketing. Applicants must be Under 25 years of age.
Finalists:
Matthew Jones (Gadlys Rovers F.C. & Hirwaun and Mackworth F.C.)
Phillipa Hearnden (Platinum Ambassador, University of South Wales)
Daniel Reynolds (Gold Ambassador, Aberdare High School)

 .... she won!!! We're so so proud of her - I had a lovely tweet from her lecturer saying 'She is an incredible talent and I am so pleased that she is a USW student' (University of Wales)

Philly & Me - leaving for Gatwick last Sunday

And finally we have a large family living in our garden- well in our bird box but not birds. It fell off the wall and before we could put it back a queen bee moved in and has made a hive - the bees have pushed the bird rubbish out.We don't want to move them as they are not causing any trouble and are good for the garden. In the winter they will die anyway and we'll get rid of the box then. Today it is again very very hot and the clever bees have a perfect way of cooling down  - one of the workers sits at the hive door and buzzes its wings making a draught into the hive - how clever is that !!

Buzzing bee

Thanks for reading all my news - I'll blog again soon with some more gift photos :-)

July - how did that happen???

We seem to have slipped into July and I have no idea how .... I guess it's because I have been so busy with various things not just stitching.

Firstly here is my orts jar for June - it is filling up nicely.

June orts

With leaving work soon (and there are now 13 people going at the same time) there are a few 'dos' and the first was mine :-) The English department all went for a drink from work and then enjoyed an Indian meal at a local restaurant. It was a great night and tonight we're out again as another member of our English team is leaving. This time we're going to Frankie and Benny's.

School puts on a musical every summer, thanks to a huge amount of work from Miss Mason our music teacher, the students (as cast, orchestra and crew) and half a dozen other teachers. I was Front of House before the show and dresser during the show. This year we performed The Wedding Singer, Tuesday and last night - the show was amazing.

Last week we took the cast to see the show performed at Leicester by a professional cast - for some of our students it was the first time they had been in a theatre. The cast met them before the show, answered their questions and gave them a few tips. Last night 10 of that cast came to our school to watch the students - this caused many more nerves but the students were so proud to perform with them in the audience. The visiting cast all stood to applaud at the end and came on stage to chat to the students. A superb end to a superb show.

So as you can see with meals out and the show (rehearsals all weekend) I have missed the end of June. I did remember to change the design on Needlecraft Haven - it's definitely a July theme :-) but I forgot to take my Orts photo so I'll have to do that later.

I have been stitching, mainly my secret gifts but the 30th June was Reveal/Opening Day for two Needlecraft Haven exchanges.

In April at the NH Spring Meet Up we set up a secret bookmark exchange. On the day everyone wrote their name and address in a card along with their favourite colour, flower and sweets. We all chose a card and kept the name inside a secret. The exchange was to then stitch a bookmark for that person using ideas from the card or anything else you knew about them.

I picked my next door neighbour Ursh's card and knew immediately what to stitch. She has a birdbox which is on our side of her house so we also enjoy the blue tits that nest there every year. I don't usually use a kit but just loved this DMC one from Sew and So:

Meet-up Bookmark Exchange for Ursh

And it was Lindsay who had my card. Lindsay makes some amazing beadwork and she sent me a beaded bookmark which is just stunning. She also sent some beautiful speciality threads.

Meet-up Bookmark Exchange from Lindsay

The other exchange on Needlecraft Haven is the Holiday exchange. For this we put together a free chart, thread and fabric to stitch it and sent it to our partner by 30th June. The theme for this was holidays - anywhere we've been, would like to go or a general holiday idea. This is also a secret exchange so we do not know who sent the chart. We have to stitch it up by Reveal Day:1st September.

This is the chart pack I received, well just the fabric and thread as the chart is to be kept secret:

Holiday exchange fabric and thread

Well that's about all my news for now, I will soon be able to share my gifts and you'll see then why my blog has been a little quiet this year, something I hope will change once I finish work. Thank you for all your lovely comments, I do enjoy reading them.