RAKs received .

I have heard that four out of the six RAKs have been received ,so I can show a few pictures .

I made these two bee keeps , the chart is a freebie from The Drawn Thread . One I sent to Becky , and it got to her really quickly .I'm glad to say that she loves it. If you haven't visited Beckys' blog before ,please do so . She does some gorgeous stitching , amazing finishing and she is a lovely person to boot . The other one went to my friend Dawn who fosters two beehives , lol . I made two little pillows using a Lizzie Kate freebie . One was sent to Hazel , and one to my new blogging friend Bernadett . In a comment , Bernadett said that she is unable to buy evenweave where she lives ,so I sent her a few pieces of fabric as well. I'm hoping the other two have arrived safely , but will have to wait and see.

And , I received a gift myself through the post .

A while ago , Bonnie ( morethanjustcrossstitching.blogspot.com ) (blogger won't let me put in a link here for some reason ) had a little competiton on her blog to find the deliberate blooper in a picture , and I won . I received a lovely hand care kit ,which I may just use tonight whilst in front of the TV , lol .Thanks again , Bonnie . Just need to let people know that I have changed my comment settings to disallow anonymous comments , as after removing word verification I started to get some trash messages.

Thanks for dropping by ,

Cath

RAKs revised .

I have changed things round a little bit with the RAKs I will be sending out. As hubby is unable to work and I have not yet managed to find a job , the pennies are being watched very closely and it is looking like it will be that way for a while , so this morning , I posted out six RAKs while I still had a bit of my own spending money. I am still hoping to send out more this year , but it depends on a lot of things . So, some of them will hopefully get to their destinations within a couple of days , the others will take longer . I will show pics as soon as they are received . Meanwhile, if you are a follower and not already on my list , but would like to be , please e-mail me with your info . Thanks , Cath

Comment

Just a quick post to say that I have turned off the word verification on here. I must have a quirky way of looking at things as I have have left a few comments on blogs and had no problems with the new word verification , but I know lots of other people have , so I have turned it off for now. I am having problems with the blogs I follow though . Some are not being shown on my blog reading list , and I can't add the new ones to the list on my sidebar . I asked on the blogger forum , and no reply as yet . I don't think I am the only one with this problem though , so hope they sort these things out soon . Thanks , Cath

No stitching .

Hi folks .

I have not been doing much stitching again the last couple of weeks . got some RAKs finished , but not yet sent out and stalled a bit as I have been reading and had too much on my mind to settle down with needle and thread .

So , I thought I'd show some other pics instead .

The other weekend, just as the snow hit us (although not very much) we decided to go to Hardwick Park and watch the water birds skating on the ice . We didn't stay long as it was really cold , and set off home just as the snow started to fall.

It was really strange watching the geese ,ducks and swans walking on water ,lol.

This is the big pond , and apart from a very small patch right at the other end , it was totally frozen over . The kids were very excited to find fox paw prints in the snow on our drive . The view from the front garden . We also had another small sprinkling of snow a couple of days later , not worth bothering about , but the flakes were proper snowflakes/star shapes ,which I haven't seen for a lot of years.

That's all for now . I'll be back soon with some pics of a lovely giveaway I won from Barb . Thanks again Barb X

Orts and ends.

Just realised that I did not update my ort pot for last year. I don't participate in the TUSAL , but I do like to keep track of my bits and bobs.

So this is my orts from last year . Now ,I admit that not all of them are from last years stitching , at one point I was clearing up a bit and dragged all the bits of thread out of the cover kits that I'd stitched etc, so there are some stragglers. But, I also filled a box with usable bits of thread , whether I will actually get round to using them is another matter ,lol .

Got some more bargains just before Christmas , with these two kits at 1/4 original price. My kind of stash. I went out for a couple of hours me time the other day , and picked this up from one of the charity shops. I have the first one already, and there are some nice charts in here . My kids have already picked out a few. This year I am hoping to do more things for them , as they have been very patient and understanding while I have been stitching for charity. I also called in at my LNS and picked up some fabric. A friend recently gave me these rolls of lace , they are a bit stretchy, but look really pretty so I'm sure I can find a use for them ,lol . And this is my newly started ort jar for this year . I am busy stitching away , but can't show anything at the moment ,as I'm working on some RAKs. I have four stitched,and two of those are made up , and now I'm working on the fifth . I'm really enjoying it ,and it's nice to stitch what I want when I want .

Thanks for dropping by ,

Cath

Catching up .

Hi everyone .

On Thursday 5Th Jan I got myself a serious case of Stitch Butt. Both kids were back at school , school went back the day before but my boy stayed off for the first day , still recovering from his poorly ear . He had a type of abscess behind his eardrum which eventually burst , leaking blood and pus for a few days , but thankfully he is now back to his usual mischievous and cheeky self .

Anyway, my first day of peace was spent in stitchy bliss , well mostly , I had a lot of back stitch to do ,lol .

So , I got myself a finishThis Tatty Teddy has now been sent to Love Quilts UK , to be included in one of their named quilts. Not usually the sort of thing I like stitching . My only other Tatty was my daughters' birth sampler ,and I have to admit to making the back stitch up as I go along as the charts do my head in. I enjoyed it , but I'm glad it's finished .

I also wanted to share this lovely sunset from the other day. We are getting a few nice ones lately,as it has turned colder . Frost all day for the last few days. The sunrises are really pretty too , but we don't get a clear view from here .

I have been doing a little more stitching. I've started a small project which will hopefully become one of my RAKs, but it's slow going . Not a hard chart , I've just been distracted. I have been spending some of my Christmas money on books , so have been reading a lot. I've missed being able to buy new books so picked up quite a few . Luckily Asda have been selling some off for £1/£2 so I've gathered a few from there as well as a couple of others and also got one for Chrimbo from my hubby , so that was the first read of the year . I've just started number six, but think this might be a little harder going as it's been translated from Swedish, but we'll see.

Catch you soon .

Take care ,

Cath

Year of the RAK

Hello again . Back so soon ? lol I have kind of decided to send out some RAKs this year, hoping for one a month , but I am not holding myself to anything . So ,here's the thing , I have some names and addresses and some of my followers are on the list , but are there any more out there who would like to be included on my potential RAK list ? If you are interested in maybe receiving something made by me , please send me an e-mail (in my profile) with your details if I haven't already got them . Please don't be shy , just jump in . Thanks , Cath

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!!!!

Hope everyone has had a good start to 2012 .

Ours could have been better , my little lad is not very well again . He had a rotten throat just before and over Christmas, just got over that to start with earache. Not sure if it's infected or not , so we may be going off to the doctors' tomorrow if it's no better.

No stitchy goodies for me this Christmas , me and hubby only got each other a couple of token gifts with things being tight , we mainly spent on the kids , but I did get some money from other family members , just not sure what I'm going to spend it on yet ,lol.

So , I have a few finishes to show now that they have been received .

A friend asked me to make her a scarf a while back , then asked if I could make a hat to go with it . I'd started to knit the scarf in chunky white with pastel flecks , and she asked for cream , lol, so I decided to do both. The colours are not obvious in these pictures though .

These were my first attempts to make adult sized hats , they could have been better , but thankfully my friend liked them both .

I also stitched her these little kitties as part of her Christmas gifts . A also got around to sending out (rather late) my blogoversary gifts to Dawn and Jane , and both have been received . I knitted a little red and white stocking and made beaded scissor fobs. I also included a pair of scissors (not shown) . Sorry I was so late ladies ,things have been very up and down here of late . A few people were wondering what I was going to make with those knitted strips , so here it is , a paper chain scarf , just to be different ,lol . I had almost enough strips left over to make two smaller ones for the kids , just need to knit a few more strips . They thought it was cool . I have to show you a lovely gift I did get for Christmas . My best friends Mum - in - law made me this lovely scarf after I admired one she'd made for herself .

This picture really doesn't do it justice , it is gorgeous, and in my favourite autumnal colours too . Love it. Lastly , this is what I'm stitching on at the moment , hopefully a finish soon . So , looking back at my aims for last year , I managed to complete a massive...... one. Ah well, the best laid plans and all that .

I completed 67 stitched pieces , 40 of which were for charity.

I knitted 4 adult size scarves , 4 kids scarves , 2 teddy scarves (got to include them , lol ) , 2 adult hats , 8 baby hats , 8 pairs of bootees , 1 teddy and 3 stockings.

I also read 100 books.

This year , I just want to stitch and enjoy my stitching . I would like to finish my WIP/UFOs , but we'll see .

Thanks for dropping by ,

Cath

What does Wontoo smell like ?

You gotta love kids who ask questions like that , right? Yesterday , my son was telling my daughter that on New Year , before the countdown , they had to say Happy Birthday to his teacher as it is his birthday at the New Year. I was only half listening as my daughter started singing Happy Birthday , but then she piped up , " Mum , what does wontoo smell like?" What ??? "What does wontoo smell like ? , You know , you look like a monkey and you smell like wontoo! " After eventually picking myself up off the floor , I explained that it was actually, one too . But , it kept me giggling for a lot of the day . Just now , the kids are watching films on TV. Charlotte's Web has just finished , Muppet Christmas Carol is coming on and five minutes after that finishes, The Polar Express is on the other channel. My daughter asked what is after Polar Express , and hubby said "A rest." The reply ? "Can we watch that too ?" Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year , I will be back soon with a few more show and tells . Thanks for dropping by , Cath

Catching up and some thank yous

Hi everyone , I've been meaning to post for the last couple of weeks, but time is getting the better of me .

My hubby has had a positive diagnosis of Genetic Haemochromatosis ,and has started treatment at the hospital. He has to have a unit of blood removed every two weeks at the moment , and we are hoping that it will start to bring his iron levels down. It is very early days , so no real change with his symptoms as yet .

I will have to be tested to see if I'm a carrier of it as the kids will have automatically inherited one faulty gene from their Dad , so they at the least will be a carrier. If I am clear then it won't have any effect on the kids, but they will have to be aware that it could be passed on to their children should they have any .

I have been stitching a bit , done a tiny bit more on the snails ,

and started a new project but I will show that next time when hopefully I will have done a bit more .

I have also been knitting , and have a plan for these .

I made this, basically to see if I could and now I'm not sure what to do with it . I've had an offer of a good home , so we will see , lol. she just needs a nice scarf of some sort.

On to the Thank yous .

First to Becky who very generously sent me a bag full of tins and boxes to aid my finishing . I am looking forward to finding some smalls to add to these. Thanks again Becky .Then to Chris who passes on her charts when she has finished with them , and very kindly sent me this happy little snowman , again something to look forward to . Thanks Chris , I love him. And , last but not least thanks to the lovely Nia who sent me this lovely Christmas card and bunch of everlasting mistletoe . Nia , you brought a smile to my heart , thank you sweetie.

If you haven't visited any of these lovely ladies blogs , please do so .

I am seriously hoping to get back into the swing of crafting and blogging , but probably not until after Christmas now. The presents are bought , but not wrapped , most of the cards are written , but not sent , one nativity done , the other on Wednesday, then discos and parties . I am not joking , the kids have a better social life than me , at five and seven ,lol.

There are a couple of lovely giveaways listed on my sidebar , please have a look .

Thanks for dropping by ,

Cath