Happy New Year !

I remembered some more bits from last year (seems weird saying that ,lol.)
 Anyway , I little finish for my boy. This only took a couple of hours ,if that. I plan to put it in a key ring for him .

 I also stitched this up with the intention of making a notebook cover for my niece. I fluffed up on the final finishing though , so held it back. I will stitch it again and it will either be a just because gift or for her birthday , depending on when I do it .

 Orts ! I don't join in with the Tusal posts , but do like a show of orts at the end of the year . The kids graffittid my tub , so need another one at some point ,lol.

 Out of the jar .

  And a very special Christmas gift from a friend. Isn't this just gorgeous ? I love it so much and am going to display it on my shelf when i gets cleared of bumpf .

  And these lovely hand made earrings. So precious ,and a totally unexpected gift . For the last couple of years I have run a Secret Santa for my hubby and his blogging buddies (they paint and play with little figures). This year , his Santa also sent me a gift for organising things , how sweet is that. And , they were made by Mrs Claus , very impressed. Hubbys' other Santa (two different rounds) also sent me a big tub of Fruit Pastilles ,lol .

  A little bit of stash . Still waiting to hear about the rest of the threads I ordered. Must chase them up.

 I was thrilled to find this at the weekend . Had to take the kids out to spend their Christmas money and came across this mag . I looked all over for it a couple of months ago and couldn't find it , so it came home with me .

 As always, thanks for dropping by .

Cath

Another Year .

Wow , time really does pass quickly as you get older ,lol .

Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas time . We certainly did . After all the rushing around prior to
Christmas, the event itself was very relaxed and enjoyable . Apart from the lack of sleep that is . My daughter finally settled off to sleep at around 4.00 am , and was up again around 7 .That said , it was a lovely day visiting family , eating a lovely dinner and chilling the afternoon away.

 I got absolutely No stitching gifts .But I did get lots of cash , so you know where a lot of it will be going . Already ordered some threads, and will be searching for other goodies no doubt .

 So , another year pretty much done and dusted. Guess it's time for a quick catch-up and review , then some info about next year.

 A couple of projects not yet shown . I was thrilled to be asked to stitch a square for Sallys' special birthday quilt .

 Sally loves it , and Mouse did such a great job with the quilting .

 My last two squares for LQUK this year .
    The butterfly is my own design , but it changed drastically from the original chart. Still quite pleased with how it turned out though .

  A cute little owl .

  My squares have gone down to the post office today , but it seems I missed the (early) last collection , so they will start their journey on Thursday .

 So , 2013 , well a reasonable year stitching wise .
 I started 42 projects and completed 37. Out of the 37 , 15 were charity squares for LQUK. My main finish of course was HAED Butterflies Galore . Still love it , and still need to get it framed ,lol .
  I also read 114 books, I am down from last year , as my total was 120 for 2012 , but some of the books read this year were biggies ,with one being almost 1000 pages . Quite happy with the total anyway.

 I am sure I have missed things from the end of this year , but if I remember I will add them at a later point .

On to 2014 .
 I don't make resolutions as such, just have hopes and plans .

 Stitching wise , I am going to try something different next year. Something I have never done before and never wanted to do . I am going to try a rotation !
  I started HAED QS Rosita in July, stitched like mad on her for three weeks and have not picked her up since. I really want to get her finished in 2014 and at least start another one , so to try and do this and keep up with other things , I am going to give rotation a whirl .
 The plan so far is for the first week of the month , work on HAED .  second week will be charity squares as I still want to contribute to LQUK as much as I can . Third week will be for other charts/kits that I have , with the fourth week/ end of the month being UFO/ free choice. I have a couple of UFOs , some carry over WIPs and lots of stash so that will hopefully keep me occupied.

  It may not quite work out like this for January as I have a couple of things I need to get stitched up asap.

 My last start of 2013 will be my first finish of 2014. I am stitching the ABCD by La-D-Da which has been a travelling pattern , and I need to get it done so it can go back. Don't want to show a pic yet,for two reasons , one , I haven't taken one ,lol, but also , it is stitching up pretty quickly so hopefully it will be a finish pretty soon.

 Also , 2014 , I am hoping to organise a Christmas in July exchange/secret Santa ,so if anyone is interested ,please bear in mind as I will be posting April ish .

And now ,all that remains is to wish everyone a Very Happy New Year , I hope 2014 brings all that you wish for  and all that I wish for you , health , happiness and plenty of stitching .

Take care everyone ,
Cath x

A couple of thank yous

I am way behind with these , though I have thanked the lovely ladies in person, it seems only fitting to do so in public too.
 First off ,I was a winner in Gaynors' giveaway . Here are my lovely goodies .

 I have to say that Gaynors' charts look really good and are very professionally finished . Thanks again Gaynor .

 And this was in a little package from the lovely Nia ( I am very impressed with myself right now as I remembered Nias' blog address for the link without looking it up )

 Lovely handmade pumpkins , with a little surprise inside the big one .

Thanks again Nia , I love them and will probably leave them out all year round. I still have the mistletoe and lavender bunny that you made on the shelf next to me .

Thanks again ladies , I love my gifts .
Cath

Stitchy bloggers love to share.

  I find it very heart warming that so many stitchy bloggers are so willing and happy to share with others .

 I understand that some don't , and some can't , but those that do and can make the blogging and stitching world such a nice place . Often , it is just a chance comment that sets the ball rolling .

 Recently Melissa asked a question on her blog about what everyones' favourite colour of silk was . I replied that I have so far never stitched with silk , and Melissa very kindly sent me some to try .

  Look at the lovely colours . I still haven't decided what I'm going to stitch , but I need to use at least one of them soon.

  The other week , I sent a chart to Julie as I thought it might be useful for her show stitching . It was a free chart that came with a magazine , and not something I would have stitched , so no big deal. Julie then sent me some threads as a thank you . How nice is that .

  I just love being part of such a caring and sharing community .

  And , I finally have a bit of stitching to share.
    This is a charity square I have been working on for a couple of weeks . Not much stitching time and even though it isn't massive , it has seemed to be a bit of a slog . I am pleased with how it has turned out though.
 The chart was a freebie I found on line . It didn't say who the designer is , but the initials cgb are on the chart .
 I had to change it though , as I couldn't tell the symbols apart and I also added the bottom heart as I wanted seven for my rainbow .

Thanks for dropping by ,

 Cath

A must show

Just wanted to share the lovely gift my hubby got me for our wedding anniversary.
 It's not something I would buy for myself , but I love it and am savouring it as it is for now .

It is a gorgeous lavender scented (with real lavender flowers ) candle in a tea cup . So pretty.

If you like the idea , please go along here and have a look what else they have.

Back to Butterflies ,

Cath

I am such a lucky person...

to have such lovely friends.

I was very excited to arrive home last week from a visit to my mums' and find an unexpected parcel waiting for me from my friend Barb .
 I just managed to stop myself from opening it long enough to take a pic ,lol.

 Just look at the gorgeous pillow Barb made for me , it is truly beautiful , and so me ,lol.

 I am not sure what count the fabric is, but let me tell you ,those stitches are  tiny .

 With a pretty bow and heart on the back.

 Thank you so much again, Barb , I will treasure this pillow .X

 I have finished another charity square , different colours this time .

 And , here's the two together .

I have started my third and final one ,with different colours again , but one day this week is going to be devoted to Butterflies , now the kids are back at school.

Once I've finished on here , I'm off to give the bathroom a good going over ,lol .

Thanks for dropping by ,

 Cath

End of year catch up.

Hi everyone. Hope you all had a good Christmas . Thanks for the good wishes , we had a lovely time. It was different but good. We went to MIL's and I cooked dinner there at tea time instead of lunch time , but we had a relaxing day and the meal turned out great, which made my day as it was weird being in someone elses' kitchen ,lol .

 I have so many things to catch up on , hope I remember them all , so in no particular order :

 The scarves , I ended up making four as Christmas gifts , all done in time and well received .

 I didn't remember to take a pic of the other one before wrapping , but you get the idea. It was soft mossy greens in colour way , and a little shorter .

 I sent a couple of gifts to friends ,
 For Lainey

  For Barb.

This is what Lainey sent me , gotta love the birdies .Lainey kitted up the bird chart for me , so this will be started soon hopefully .

  From another stitching friend , Dawn . The kids have already chosen which birds they want , so I'll be doing a robin and thrush first .

And this is what I received from my lovely friend Bernadett . A gorgeous shawlette that she made herself , isn't it beautiful.

Picture , calendar (Bernadetts' own design) and lovely brooch

And she made my kids a couple of lovely hats ,

Owl brooches ,

and also two gorgeous ornaments with their initials on, which I don't have a picture of .
 A big Thank you to my special friends , as these were the only gifts I had to unwrap . Me and hubby didn't buy for each other with money being very tight , and I got cash from family , so having these gifts was a lovely thing for me.
 I will be spending a little of the cash on the HAED sale , wish they would stop tempting me ,lol .

 I also sent a RAK to Peggy Lee , but can't find a pic right now , and sent a little gift with Barbs' prize from my magnetic bookmark/needle holder giveaway.

 Thanks for dropping by , I will be back soon with a year re-cap and hopefully some goals for next year and anything else that I've probably forgotten ,lol.
 Take care ,
  Cath

More gifts .

Lynn has now received her giveaway package , so I can show what I sent her .

  I also sent this little pillow to my lovely friend Jane . Jane has had a rough few months with family worries ,and I wanted to let her know that I was thinking of her . Jane loves her bunnies ,and also liked her pillow. ;D

  It was my dear friend Laineys' birthday in September too , and I sent her a variety of ornies that I'd made over a few months .

  I also sent some other little sheepies , but you can see them on Laineys' blog .

 And , here is what Lainey sent me . I was very excited to get two lovely parcels from the postman .

  Inside the big flat one was this lovely cat print. My daughter has tried to snaffle it up to go in her bedroom , at the moment it is at the side of my seat in the living room.

  A lovely picture that Lainey stitched for me .

  A gorgeous kit , I love this so much I am on the look out for the others in the series .

 And lots of other lovely goodies .

 Well ,that's about it for now , I'll  be back soon .
 Thanks for dropping by ,
 Cath

PS, don't forget , there is still time to enter my giveaway for he magnetic bookmarks/needle holders . just scroll down for the chance to enter and leave me a comment on the relevant post.