Saturday 1 March 2014

St David's Day

Diwrnod yn hapus dewi sant - Happy St David's Day to all my welsh friends. My daffodils have come out with perfect timing and I'm wearing my welsh dragon necklace.

Daffodils for St David's Day in
my grandmothers vase
This year I am cooking meals for special days/festivals so tonight we have potato and leek gratin with lamb meatball and homemade bread, followed by homemade welsh cakes. We brought back from Wales a cream liqueur for my Dad and he did not open it so we may do the honours tonight after dinner.

I have put up my mantle for March although it will change throughout the month as there are a few things/special days happening. At the moment it has my daffodils, candle burner, March (The Drawn Thread) and my smoking dragon. You burn incense inside it and the smoke comes out it's nose as if it's breathing fire.


March Mantle
 
As it's a new month we have a new Christmas Ornament Challenge on Needlecraft Haven which also means the gallery for last month's design is open. Last month Christine chose a beautiful reindeer design from Steekjes & Kruijes van Marijke - you can find the design here. The finishes are amazing, so many different ideas; here's my ornament.
 
February Challenge 2014
I have also finished the Poinsettia House on my Santa's Village tablecloth - well all but the white but I shall do all that at the end as it will be a long project. I took it to Julie's when I went for a coffee on Friday; she was amazing how big the cloth was and how small the designs are as I'm stitching them over one. We laid it on her floor to show the dimensions, Julie is either studying it very hard, or she's camera shy!
 
Santa's Village tablecloth
Poinsettia House
I have also finished my part of Ursh's Welcome Round Robin - her design is Birdhouse Welcome by Lynn Norton Parker. I'll be sending it onto Dusty next and Ursh will pass Lynn's onto me. I chose the second house as I loved the two hearts and it seemed appropriate for Valentine's month.
 
Ursh's Welcome Round Robin

It's been a week of birds and flying things really - we had an unexpected visitor in the garden on Wednesday - luckily Ruby did not notice. It stayed for quite a while before disappearing. It's very unusual as we live in an urban area - although one has visited before a few back.
 
Can you spot it?
Mr Pheasant happily roosting on the fence

The other flying thing happened today - Hubby !! I bought him a helicopter flight around Silverstone for his birthday back in December and today was flight time. We drove down early and were a little wary as there was thick fog everywhere but as we arrived at the race track the fog vanished with blue sky everywhere. The flight was only 5 minutes but he thoroughly enjoyed it.
 
 
Ready to go
 
All aboard

Pilot's view
Looking down
Afterwards to went into Towcester and had a lovely breakfast and a browse around the shops. It certainly was a beautiful sunny day. Now we're home it's time to start cooking.
 
Before I finish though I must add a thank you to Julie and her Hubby as when I popped over they donated a bottle of wine for the 100 Wine Tasting Challenge I'm doing for our scout groups 100th birthday - you can read all about it in my Aimetu's blog.
 
I cannot believe but my blog will be 8 years old at the end of this month - I will be having a giveaway for my blogiversary later in March, it will be from my stash as I am doing Stitch from Stash so watch out in my later blogs this month.


9 comments:

  1. Great challenge finish Clare and your tablecloth is going to be gorgeous. We get lots of pheasant around here but I've never had one come into the garden, only seen them in the fields

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  2. These daffodils look gorgeous. They definitely say: It's spring!
    Great stitching projects. What a great idea to stitch the houses of Santa's Village on a table cloth. Very creative.
    You were so lucky that the fog went away and you could enjoy the helicopter flight.

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  3. Hope hubby enjoyed his flight, it certainly was a lovley sunny day for it.
    Congrats on 8 years blogging, that's an achievement.
    Your mantle looks very lovely.
    The tablecloth is huge and stitching so teeny tiny lol.

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  4. Gosh that table cloth is going to be so pretty and all the stitching so dainty.. love the daffodils.. and I like the way you have finished the monthly challenge.
    Happy stitching
    Chris

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  5. Hi Claire! I'm your latest follower :) Love your little Christmas ornament, nicely finished!

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  6. Hey! Hello! I'm your follower now. I love to meet new friends. Your finished is beautiful!

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  7. j'ai lu votre com sur le blog de Mii, aussi je vous fait un petit coucou
    amicalement
    rose

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  8. Hey,
    Un coucou de France,
    de si belles broderies
    courroné d'un vol en hélico!
    Sympa ,j'admire beaucoup.
    Doux week end
    MC

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  9. Your challenge piece is lovely Clare and I love your tablecloth. That is going to be an amazing piece!

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