New start - fun times

It's been a busy week - well 10 days actually. We took Hubby's Mum and her partner to Cardiff the other weekend to visit Philly at Uni. Nanna had not been to see her in Wales as last year she was too unwell to travel. We combined it with seeing Philly for her birthday (Monday this week - I can't believe she is now 20). We had a great time - lots of giggles.



Philly's snapchat on her phone to her friends
- I think she'd missed me :)
 

Me - Philly - Hubby

  

The three giggling girls

Café Rouge meal for Philly's birthday

The photos were taken on Philly's phone - a little blurry but they certainly show the fun we had.

Back home my February mantle looks amazing this year - lovely cards from and for Hubby, and two from friends. I have two ornaments from previous exchanges, my February Drawn Thread and a beautiful heart glass given to me by a good friend when I left work.

February Mantle

 You can see my gorgeous dozen of red roses in the mirror - DH arrived home with them of Friday and they have lasted so well. I took this photo this morning.

A dozen red roses from my lovely Hubby

Yesterday I did some baking but oil was a bit of a cheat. Aldi stores sell Wright's cake mix for £1.50 which is as cheap as the ingredients. If I need a sponge or special cake I make from scratch but Wright's mixes fro ginger, carrot, toffee and madeira cake are great for a quick bake. You can make them in the bread maker but yesterday I made a batch of ginger muffins - mixed and baked in 25 minutes - eaten in 5 !!

Ginger muffins

Last night I started my August piece from The Drawn Thread. I finished the border on my July piece when we were in Cardiff with Philly. I made quite a good start last night but it's away now until next Tuesday.

July stitched

August started

 The rest of my stitching this week has been on my secret spring exchange which I can't share. But I can share my UFO piece which I work on at the weekend. I am so near the finish with this - Angel Blessings - just one angel face to do and the back stitching so hopefully a HD this weekend.

Angel Blessings

Dusty has received the Valentine exchange and oh my it was so funny. I actually stitched for her what she stitched for her partner !! I stitched her scissor fob over one so it was slightly different as I had to alter a few stitches.

Scissor fob for Dusty stitched over one

Parcel for Dusty - LK chart, choccies, ribbon, thread,
scissor fob and handmade card

Dusty is also the current stitcher on my Welcome RR with Needlecraft Haven. She has so kindly done a little extra and has stitched two letters on each piece. Here's her photo of the pieces she's done.

My Welcome RR

Phew lots of news - I didn't think I had that much to write this time haha. Thank you for reading my latest news and for leaving your comments - I love knowing your thoughts so thank you for sharing them.

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day to all my friends and family - it's a special day for Hubby and I as we were engaged on Valentine's Day in 1986 !!

It's Opening Day for the Needlecraft Valentine Exchange - the theme was hearts and friendship. The task was to stitch a scissor fob for your partner and also send three small gifts on the given theme.

I had great fun choosing my chart and stitching my fob - although I can't share just yet as my partner has not opened her gift. I hope she likes it :)

I have opened mine - it's been looking at me for over a week so I was very, very excited to be able to open it this morning.

My partner was Deb who is new to Needlecraft Haven but is an active member with lots of posts.

I have been very spoilt - Deb sent :

 

stitched a beautiful fob with scissors

an absolutely gorgeous beaded heart brooch

a quilted table mat

an apple scented candle

two quirky hearts

'Amour' by French Country

Weeks Dye Works Begonia

 

scissor fob with scissors

beaded heart

Valentine's Exchange parcel

I just love all my gifts - thank you so much Deb - I will be wearing my heart today as Hubby and I are off to the cinema this afternoon.

Enjoy your Valentine's Day - hug all you loved ones and hold them close x x x

Rotation update

This year as well as joining Stitch From Stash I am also stitching on a rotation along with my friends at Needlecraft Haven. It is certainly helping me stitch more - January was full of finishes and I made good progress on long term projects.

Here's my rotation with an update for each day:

Monday is exchange or gift stitching - this week I started my  NH spring exchange piece. We do chat a little eon the forum about fabric, threads and finishing fabrics but we don't show charts, finishes or say who we're stitching for. Here are the threads for my piece

threads for my spring exchange

Tuesday is catching up on my The Drawn Thread calendar pieces - they are for the mantle each month but last year I stopped at May so I'm trying to catch up. I have early finished July, just the border to go. I did change it slightly as there should be an American flag for Independence Day.

The Drawn Thread - July

Wednesday is one of my favourite stitching days as Barb hosts The Parlour at Needlecraft Haven where we stitch any design from Little House Needleworks, Country Cottage Needleworks or The Sampler Girl.

If you're a regular visitor you'll know I'm doing Santa's Village as a table cloth - a very long term project. I made quite good progress this week on my Poinsettia House, it's stitched over 1 so takes me a little longer.

Poinsettia House

Thursday is again exchange or gift stitching and Friday is time to work on my Round Robin. This week I did my Round Robin on Thursday as we had friends over for dinner on Friday.

There are 5 of us doing the NH Welcome Round Robin - Dusty, Gillie, Lynn, Urszula and myself. I am working on Urszula's at the moment, the start of the roof is my work so far.

Urszula's Round Robin

We had a lovely meal with our friends - we haven't seen them for quite a few years. After two cancelled dates we finally got together, lots of catching up :)

I made baked camembert starter, chicken in tarragon sauce for main and poached pears with chocolate sauce for dessert.

Baked camembert

Poached pears with chocolate sauce

The weekend is for UFO stitching with Julie and Mr Stick. I'm working on Angel Blessing but this week end I'll have to skip as we're off to Cardiff with Nick's Mum and partner to visit Philly for her birthday. I'm taking some stitching with me though - July to do the border :)

I am hoping for another successful rotation week this week - it is certainly a way for me to keep up with all my projects and I'm not rushing to finish for deadlines. In fact I have already stitched and finished this months Challenge set on NH by Christine - but I can't share that just yet.

Please add your comments about rotationing, its always good to read what others think - thank you for calling by at Aimetu's Stitching

February starts

February already - my rotation did not go so well for the last week of January but I did catch myself up.

I took a day out to do the Thank You card (previous post) so I missed Wednesday in The Parlour with Miss Barb and the Needlecraft Haven ladies. I did pop by late on Friday to do a little on my Poinsettia House - it was quiet nice to sit and quietly stitch but I'll be back on Wednesday this week to chat with the girls.

Poinsettia House

Yesterday Hubby and I popped to Leakes to have a browse - it had everything for the home, we came home with some great ideas. A new towel rail for the downstairs loo was our only purchase - fitted and looking good.

Yesterday afternoon was pure pleasure - RUGBY - the start of the Six Nations. The first match was Wales v Italy from Cardiff Millennium Stadium (Wales won) and the second match was France v England from Stade de France Paris. France were in the lead but the boys pulled it back to win by a small margin. Brilliant afternoon of sport and stitching, although I didn't get much stitching done as I was engrossed with watching the rugby boys.

Here's my progress on my UFO - Julie and Mr Stick will be pleased. I finished the top corner, the centres of the trellis and started the bottom corner. I'll be doing a little more this evening too so it should grow a bit more.

Angel Blessings

 I have my Valentine exchange parcel to put together tonight ready for posting tomorrow. My rotation should be back on track from tomorrow which means I'll be stitching on the Spring Exchange for Needlecraft Haven.

Thanks for reading my news - good luck to everyone doing Stitch from Stash with Mel

A difficult day

We handed over the keys today for Dad's house - we're really pleased on how the house turned out but I have very mixed emotions today. I feel very proud that we did all the work but I feel like we've lost Dad all over again.

Here's a few photos to show the work we did:

Hubby plastering the kitchen

New Kitchen

Dad's Lounge

New Lounge with card &
flowers for new tenants

Although it's the end of January Stitch from Stash is in a new month and so far so good. I made a card for Dad's neighbours - I used a chart from a book Mu gave me, an off cut of 28 count blue fabric, ribbon from my stash and card & envelope from my stash - so again I spent £0

Thank You card

These are the two books Mum gave me - hopefully I can use these charts for some projects this year. The card book has some great little designs and I've already used one of the alphabets from the 2001 design book.

My Canadian friend gave me a gift voucher for 123 stitch - the postage to UK is very high so I had the chat sent to my friend Dusty and she sent it on to me. In return I sent Dusty some speciality threads (from my stash) so I have another chart to add to my stash that cost me £0

My LHN chart and gorgeous scarf that
Dusty sent me

I have been busy stitching the thank you card but I did do all the white walls on my July Drawn Thread and I've started the fireworks.

July - The Drawn Thread

Thanks for reading my latest news - I can't believe it's February tomorrow !!

January - Stitch from Stash

It's not quite the end of January but it is nearly the end of this month's Stitch from Stash organised by Mel; its closed to additional participants now but you can still keep up with how everyone is doing. One of my blog pages is a list of all participants - 130 wow - so browse around and see how everyone is doing.

The idea is not to spent any money on stitching or stash buying. This month I have spent .... NOTHING .... £0 whoo hoo.

Here is the list of stash I've used, all the exchanges, the RR, SAL and UFO stitching are from Needlecraft Haven forum.

Charts

• Creative Moments winter and summer welcome banner charts (for RR)
• Joy to the World - Lizzie Kate

Charts for Welcome RR

Fabric

• 28 count fern green (Meet Up Exchange and Monthly Ornament)
• 28 count country blush (Valentine Exchange)
• 28 count ivory (Joy to the World)

Thread

• DMC white or B5200 (Birthday Exchange)
• Kate's Kloth perle, DMC variegated & Maderia Glissen Gloss (in lue of postage for overseas friend)
• DMC colours as required for charts

Finishing

• Brown organza ribbon (Meet Up Exchange)
• Green 4mm ribbon (Monthly Ornament)
• Green Christmas fabric (Monthly Ornament)
• Floral fabric (Meet Up Exchange)
• Christmas fabric (Joy to the World)
• Pink ribbon (Valentine's Exchange)
• Embellishments (Valentine's Exchange)
• Metallic cording (Joy to the World)
• Stuffing for Joy to the World - orts from 2013 

Stash used for Meet Up Exchange
and Monthly Ornament

Stash used for Joy to the World

I cannot show my Valentine's Exchange piece as it's a secret until Valentine's Day but all the items to stitch it were in my stash as were the gifts we have to send.

I can however show my other finishes.

Monthly Ornament Exchange
 Sheep Day : The Little Stitcher
online free chart

Meet Up Exchange for Tina

The chart was a Christmas gift from Mary
I've stitched this for me and it's
stuffed with my orts from 2013 !

I have also used my stash to set up my RR, stitch on my Santa's Village, my Drawn Thread and my Angel Blessings UFO - here's my progress.

Mrs Claus' Cookie House is now finished
I'm doing the white at the end
of stitching all the designs 

Next house started
any ideas which one?

Welcome RR - summer

Welcome RR winter

Border and trellis completed
Angel Blessings UFO

I quite surprised at how much I have stitched this month as we have had a busy time and the first week I was unwell and did hardly any stitching. I am also surprised finding enough things in my stash to complete my projects and exchanges - just shows what's in those boxes !!

Good luck to everyone else taking part - and huge thanks to Mel for organising such a fun idea.

Thank you for catching up with me and my first month of Stitch From Stash - and for your thoughts and comments.

Mrs Claus Cookie Shop

I've finished my first Santa Village chart - well sort of !!

I am stitching the village on a tablecloth - 18 designs altogether so some will be stitched twice. I am stitching it as a SAL in The Parlour with Miss Barb on Needlecraft Haven every Wednesday.

It's over one and I'm not stitching any white until I have done all the designs as I think this will be a very long project - I'm also not stitching the bottom border until I've done a few more as I might change it's placement.

Anyway here is Mrs Claus' Cookie Shop - my first finish

 

Mrs Claus' Cookie Shop

I have been busy stitching the Valentine Exchange for Needlecraft Haven which needs to be posted late next week. This time we're making a scissor fob and have to include a few goodies. I have used my stash for the fob but I may have to buy a few items for the goodies.

This year I am hoping to read a little more - I've already read a couple of books one on my Kindle and the other a book I had in the Meet Up Book Exchange from Tina.

 

A Family Affair - Mary Campisi
Pandora's Box - Giselle Green

 

 





I am currently reading two books - Longbourn by Jo Baker (this is the Needlecraft Haven January recommended book by Ursh) and The Gingerbread Man by Maggie Shayne (on my Kindle).

 

I can't read books in the car but if we're on the motorway I can read my Kindle. We went to London on Saturday so I managed quite a bit of reading until the light faded (I have an original Kindle which isn't back lit)

 

London was as good as ever - we love the city. It was The France Show at Earl's Court - we missed this last year as we were snowed in !! Ruby stayed at the kennels for the week end as Friday night we went to The Abbey to see Jordan Williams perform - Buble Tribute.

 

We went down early and had dinner before he sang - he was ok and the atmosphere was great. The Abbey are putting on more live acts with the new owner - some are not our style but maybe a few more like Mr Buble will be there.

We left quite early and arrived in London with plenty of time to enjoy a full English breakfast in a lovely café.

We didn't need any lunch !!

The France Show was great we've lots of holiday ideas - we have a special summer this year as it's our 25th Wedding Anniversary so we're planning a few trips and special moments. There was so much to see; ferry companies, tourist offices from many regions. food, wine, clothes, bags, investments and shows. We didn't stay for Jean Christophe Novelli but we did watch the Can Can girls.

 

Oh la la

After the show we went for a walk to the River Thames - hubby says we walked 4 miles but it was at a lovely strolling pace. There were lots of house boats on the river, all shapes and sizes - some very luxurious, some in need of a bit of love.

 

Hubby at Albert Bridge

Our route back to Earl's Court took us along Chelsea High Street and all the 'posh' shops including Christies. We popped into Heals for a look and found a new brand of coffee pods for our Nespresso machine and Hubby treated me to these ...

 

Ruby and Ed slippers
for high days and holidays

They are gorgeous and quite expensive (original price £40 although they were in the sale) They will be for high days at home and when we go away, so their first trip will be to Cardiff next month. I just love them !!

 

That's about it from me - I have a few more bits of decorating to do at Dad's but not much - the new tenants move in soon. I'll blog all about the house sometime in February.

 

Thanks for calling by, I love reading your thoughts and comments, thank you x x