Christmas thank you

Yesterday was Christmas for just me and Hubby although we did meet my step-dad at our social club for a Christmas drink. Our family Christmas is the 28th when our son, his girlfriend, our daughter and our son-in-law will all be here. 

There is nothing Hubby and I want so we had a £30 budget so we had gifts to open.... we bought each other socks, smellies and books .... that's why we've been together for 40 years. 

We had a lovely Christmas dinner enjoying a bottle of our favourite Welsh wine from White Castle and Maderia wine from Blandy's (we visit them when in Funchal on our Canary Island cruises - link to blog post). 

My lovely friends at Needlecraft Haven spoilt me again this year with super gifts: stitching, chocolates, hand creams, a bag and knitted socks. We may be just a few but I really treasure their friendship, they certainly keep my going in many ways especially my stitching mojo .... thank you Julie, Gill, Mary & Christine.

I've been friends with Brenda in Canada since the late 1990s meeting on World of Cross Stitching forum. My gift has yet to arrive with Brenda although I posted it the end of November. The Canadian post seems much quicker as I received this lovely stitchy kit .... thank you Brenda 

I hope everyone has had a lovely Christmas Day, enjoy the continuing festivities.

Merry Christmas

Wishing all my stitchy friends a very Merry Christmas 🎄 

I have not been blogging much this year, I'm behind on my wine, food & travel blog too. It's easy to say I'll write and read more next year but often the idea doesn't actually happen.

This year I put up Miss-try again at church. I haven't had time to visit the festival this year but I think they've had lots of visitors.

December 1st was Christmas Exchange Opening Day with Needlecraft Haven. I sent to Christine and Gill sent to me. I stitched a snowman designed by Durene Jones, he was fun to do. Gill stitched a beautiful sampler and included some lovely threads and yummy chocolate santas.

We were away for the start of the month, a cruise from Spain to the Canary Islands. The tree had lots of Christmas decorations, as did the ports we visited. You can read about it here. 

I hope you all have a lovely time over the festive season with your loved ones .... Merry Christmas 🎄

It's advent time

December is here and the festivities begin. I love December 1st when it's time for advent.

Every year I buy our grown up children an advent calendar and previous years I have given them a tealight calendar for their homes. This year I bought everyone chocolate calendars and an advent candle to burn each day.

Previously I have bought Hubby beers and chocolates and wrapped them individually to make a homemade personal advent. As we get older we're being a little more health conscious so I bought him a super Lindt calendar and just two beers, one for his birthday and the other for a Christmas Eve.

Hubby bought me a super Boots No.7 Beauty calender. The items inside last me ages and are the perfect size for holidays, it's a great way to add to my beauty box. 

Our calendars sit under the tv ready for us to open a new window every day leading us closer to Christmas Day.

It was Needlecraft Haven Christmas Ornament Exchange opening day yesterday and I received a lovely gift and gifts but although my partner has received hers I don't think she's opened it yet so I'll post again soon. 

My monthly stitching has been changed, this is my new December one that I'm not sure if I've shared. I like the series but it does niggle that there's no capital letters, something I didn't notice until I'd done them all. 

Have fun as the festive season begins, happy decorating 

Mid November catch up

Well there isn't much to catch up really, I have been stitching but it's stitching I can not share at the moment. I actually have lots to get done and I feel time is running away. 

We had a lovely weekend in Wales with our daughter and son-in-law including a trip to the theatre to see Six the Musical. A cast of six actresses and four female live musicians it's a vast moving non-stop show over 90 minutes long. It must take months of practice and huge stamina to do this, we all enjoyed it and would go again.

We've also had a weekend with our friends who live near London. They are also wine enthusiasts and hosted a wine tasting, you can read about it on my other blog - Wine, food and travel with Clare. 

I made some cakes to take to the tasting: carrot cupcakes with walnut topping and sticky toffee cupcakes with mini gingerbreadmen. Everyone enjoyed them, it was nice to bake for a group as lately it's just been for family. 

I'll leave you with my November stitching which I finished a few years ago as a set of 12 but this is the first year it's been out in a frame. I had the frame made to match my other monthly stitching and I change both every month. 

Happy Halloween

 🎃👻🕸 Happy Halloween 🕸👻🎃

I don't have any new stitching to show, October has been a month th of stitching for Christmas. I have quite a bit of urgent stitching to do 8n November but we are also quite busy so I hope I can get it all done in time. 

I have decorated the house with my Halloween ornaments including a cushion our daughter stitched when she was young. 

It's lovely to hang my Halloween ornaments on my tree, many are from exchanges from my stitchy friends. I always see new designs but just never seem to have time, I think my 2026 plans will include making my need busy again. 

I'm not really a spooky fan but I do like the Halloween colours and cute side of ghosts and pumpkins. It's quite a shame when they are put away again, the next set of ornaments is winter but not until December as  officially November is the third month of autumn so my pumpkins and scarecrows will stay out a little longer.

I have new flowers since I took these photos. Hubby buys me flowers every week so our house always has fresh flowers throughout the year, most weeks a simple bunch then extra special ones for significant times. I'm a very lucky lady.

🎃👻🕸 Happy Halloween 🕸👻🎃

Autumn Exchange

Over the last few years at Needlecraft Haven we've changed our exchange this time of year from Halloween to Autumn as we all prefer an autumn themed ornament. 

I saw this design on etsy by The Stitcherhood, in fact Maria has a couple of designs but I liked this best. It was lovely to stitch and finish for Julie who was my exchange partner.

I also made a themed card. I had a print of the rabbit and trimmed round the leaves so I could use a circle cut out card. It was tricky to get the leaves outside the card without ripping but after gentle encouragement it sat perfectly. 

I used some dots left from another design on my stick on foils to edge the circle. I was so pleased with how it turned out.

I forgot to take a photo of my exchange before I sent it, this is Julie's photo from her Needlecraft Haven post. 

The exchange was an ornament, threads, a sweet treat and a card. I included two DMC threads, a sunflower button and some pistachio chocolate along with my ornament and card.

I received a super parcel from Julie, very autumnal. I haven't seen mini gingerbread men before, they will be lovely with one of the hot chocolates. Julie sent two lovely DMC threads and some leaf design ribbon. 

The ornament Julie stitched is lovely, definitely a theme for autumn. There's nothing better than a hot cuppa as the nights draw in. I love bringing the colours of this time if year into the house, the jug on my ornament would be perfect on my sideboard.

Thank you Julie for my lovely exchange ornament and gifts. 

I'm busy sorting my Christmas gifting now and I have some other occasions to stitch for, my needles certainly need to be busy.

Autumn time

I have put out our autumn decorations and Halloween but I'll share those later this month.

A few years ago I saved some of my Chinese lanterns and dried them using silica crystals. I also collected conkers, acorns and fortunes and did the same. They are lovely to get out each year and display them in my leaf dish. 

The candle holders I picked up in a sale on our recent trip to Wales, I love how the light shines through the leaves.

My tealight pumpkin houses have made their annual appearance along with my ceramic scarecrows. The sunflower candle jar looks and smells lovely but I haven't lit it as I want to save it. 

It's looking and feeling quite cosy, the nights are drawing in. 

I have finished one of my temperature table mats, unknowingly I did the coldest nights first hee hee. 

I'll have the Needlecraft Haven Autumn Exchange to post about next time as the 21st is opening day, I'm posting mine soon.