It's a Girl!

I am thrilled to announce the arrival of our beautiful daughter - Ivy Hillery - born November 16th, weighing 8lb 11oz. She is absolutely adorable and we have fallen head over heels once again. :0)
Luckily, it was a very quick labour, 1 hr 11 minutes. 2nd stage was only 4 minutes...she definitely didn't hang around! Lol. I didn't get the Halloween baby that I'd hoped for, but my Little Miss Ivy was worth the wait.
Regards,
Christina

Goodbye Dear Friend

A month ago today we in the Blogging Community lost a fellow blogger and for many of us, a friend too. I felt truly heartbroken the day I found out that Cathey had passed away. I started following Cathey's blog a few years ago and considered her one of my true blogging friends, despite having never met in person. I remember reading one of her posts where she was describing some 'strange' symptoms she had been experiencing. I was smiling to myself and saying to the screen 'you're pregnant Cathey!' Lo and behold, several months later, Junior arrived.

When I discovered that Cathey's latest battle with cancer wasn't going well, I felt, as I'm sure many of you did, totally helpless. I wanted to do something to let her know that, despite being hundreds of miles away, I was thinking of her and willing her to get better. I saw on her wish list that she wanted to stitch Brooke's Book Publishing 'Spring Baby'. I figured that with other things on her mind, she probably hadn't got around to stitching a baby sampler for Junior. So, having never stitched on perforated paper before, I ordered the kit and gave it a go. It took me several weeks as I wasn't really a fan of perforated paper (and I told Cathey as much when I wrote to her!) But finish it I did and got it sent off to Canada at the beginning of September. The post office assured me that it would only take 5 working days. After 2 weeks I emailed Cathey to see if my parcel had arrived yet. Unfortunately it hadn't. :0(. And unfortunately, that was the last email I received from Cathey. I naïvely hadn't realised how close the end was. In that email Cathey had told me that she was pretty much house-bound but wanted to know if I knew the gender of our new arrival as she wanted to buy him/her a gift. Doesn't that just sum Cathey up? I'm so upset with myself that I didn't pull my finger out and get the sampler finished weeks before. I just hope that it did eventually arrive and that Cathey knew how special I thought she was.

Anyway, here are some photos of the sampler. I'm very pleased with how it turned out, even though I  turned the air blue when I was stitching it. ;0) I told Cathey that despite extensive research (via Google!) I'm still not sure if Canadians write the date, day, month, year - as we do in the UK - or if they use the American format. Anyway, I erred on the side of caution and went with the American way.

Anyway, I'll leave it there. As the title suggests, Cathey - I will miss your blog posts, your emails, your updates about Junior, but most of all I will miss you.

I will be back soon with an update of the latest exchange I participated in (it was a good one!) and hopefully, news of our latest addition! I'm 4 days overdue and beginning to think it's NEVER going to happen!

Regards,

Christina

Pumpkins for Cathey!

Happy Blogoversary Cathey - to an amazing lady and a lovely friend! xXx

Home Sweet Home

And so to another round of the Stitched With Love Exchanges. This time the theme was 'Home Sweet Home'. I received a fabulous parcel from Kay (no blog). Kay had obviously gone to the time and trouble to find out some little snippets about my likes/dislikes. She stitched a Halloween design knowing how much I love that holiday. It was so bizarre as only days before I received my parcel I had downloaded this very design with the intention of stitching it before Halloween - no need to now - thank you Kay! :0) I love all of the organza pouches that she used to package up all of the goodies, I will definitely be re-using those. And the fantastic Home Sweet Home sign now has pride of place in our new extension. Thank you so much Kay, I love everything that you sent.

My parcel had to travel all the way to Debbie in Canada. I went with a British theme. The stitched ornie is a freebie. Unfortunately I don't seem to be able to find from where I sourced it, but will edit to include that info as soon as I know. It seemed to stitch up pretty quickly which is always a good thing in my opinion! Debbie emailed to let me know how thrilled she was with the exchange.

I mentioned earlier that we have recently had an extension built. The newly plastered and painted walls have seemed quite bare but up until now I have felt a little reluctant to start banging holes into them! I am starting to overcome this fear and gradually adding bits and bobs around the new room. Below is my latest purchase. They are prints by East of India. I love their designs and have coveted these for months.

Baby news is that we had our 20 week scan last week. Yikes, half-way! The baby passed with flying colours and is measuring 50th centile in all areas but estimated weight (34th centile). Looks like it could be another small baby - Isaac was only 6lb 5oz. Iris was 8lb 1oz. Somewhere in between would be nice!

The body part on the left of the scan picture is a leg and not confirmation that the baby is a boy! Apologies for being so crude, but we have had many comments about it! lol. DH did however see 'something' on the screen that would suggest we're having another boy, but we didn't ask the consultant to confirm the gender so there is still an element of surprise (although we have painted the nursery a bluey grey today!). 

And finally, despite the fact that I have hundreds of charts in my possession I have added to my stash this week. I am a huge fan of etsy and I happened upon a new designer called 'Satsuma Street'. They are based in the USA but deliver charts as a PDF file. I received mine within a matter of minutes. I purchased 'London' and 'Tokyo' both for $10 - unbelievable. I think I'm going to stitch and display them as shown. I love the simplicity of the hoop - the design is colourful enough.

London

Tokyo

I'll be back soon with LOTS of Halloween stitching. I seem to be stitching my way through last years JCS Halloween special! ;0)

Regards,

Christina

A Quick Catch-Up

Hello all! Yikes, I don't even want to work out how many weeks/months it has been since I last posted. All I can say is that I have a valid excuse reason. Well, I think it's a valid reason! ;0) More on that later...

It seems ages ago now, but I received a fabulous package in the latest 'Stitched With Love' exchange. The theme was 'Hop into Springtime' and I had requested an Easter exchange. My parcel came all the way from Ildi in Hungary. Isn't the stitched bunny SO cute? The flower pegs are gorgeous, but weren't in my possession for very long. As soon as Iris set her eyes upon them she had claimed them as her own. They are now pegging up her latest art creations in her bedroom. Ildi wrote that this was her first exchange and she worried that her stitching wouldn't be up to the required level. It ABSOLUTELY is Ildi! Your parcel really brought a smile to my face. Thank you so much once again. :0)

My parcel travelled all the way to Judith in Germany. My mum had been busy knitting Cadbury Creme Egg chick cosies to raise money for the Toddler Group that Isaac and I attend, so I had to include one of those. The stitched hanging ornie is a freebie from Alexandrina's website that I have stitched many times and I never tire of it.



All packaged up and ready to go...

I mentioned that my mum had been busy knitting for Easter. Here is another Easter goody that she stitched for the mini-people in our family. She knitted them in three different colour ways - purple, pink and blue. The pattern is from the very talented Julie over at Little Cotton Rabbits. They are so adorable. Oh how I wish I could knit. I could probably have a go at knitting a scarf (as long as I only used knit or purl) but I mean PROPER knitting. The type of knitting my mum can do. You know, read ANY pattern, cook dinner, wash the pots, watch TV AND knit, all at the same time!

Apart from exchange stitching, there hasn't been a lot of activity on the stitching front. I did however, stitch and finish (blimey, a first for me!) a Christmas ornie. I'm thrilled with how it turned out, although it's much larger than I thought it would be and took significantly longer than I'd hoped! When will I learn to look at stitch count? It's a freebie chart that I'd never seen stitched before and I'm afraid I don't remember where I found it. Possibly Pinterest??? If anyone would like to stitch it, I'm more than happy to forward it on. Apologies, I hadn't realised how terrible this photograph is. I think I'm going to blame a) bad lighting b) sticky fingers on the lens!

And now to my excuse for being a bit M.I.A lately. Baby number three is on its way!!! Yikes, three children aged 5 and under, how will we cope?! Seriously though, we are thrilled to bits and feel very lucky/honoured to be adding a new person to our family. This is my fourth pregnancy (sadly we lost a little girl, Martha, during pregnancy in 2010) and it would appear that morning sickness (aka 24 hour sickness) does seem to get better with each pregnancy. Well, it has for me anyway. This time though I am SO tired. SO VERY tired. But I am not complaining, just stating a fact. The baby appears to be super healthy and that's all that matters. This is the baby at 14 weeks. The consultant asked if we wanted to know gender. NOOOOOOO! I wasn't even prepared for the question at 14 weeks! But then that got us thinking...why was it so obvious at 14 weeks, when most sonographers will only give you gender at the 20 week scan? Hmmm, I wonder...! Just for fun, let me know if you think boy/girl.

Anyway, I must go. At 9pm, it is way past my bedtime. I want to thank each and every one of you for your blog posts and cross-stitch creations that have got me through the last 10 weeks. I have been stitching vicariously through all of you! 

Regards,

Christina x

Wow - Two Posts in One Month (and the shortest month at that!)

Looking through the cross-stitch album on my ipad I noticed a couple of finishes that I hadn't yet posted about. Below is an ornie that I completed back in October for an annual Breast Cancer Research auction that my sister hosts. I adapted a freebie that I've stitched many times.

Gingerbread Freebie found here

reverse

Apparently it sold for a good price, so perhaps next year I will stitch a few more!

*************

Next up, I wanted to show you a recent purchase. My Goddaughter is mad about owls and when I saw this little guy on Caroline Rose Art etsy page I HAD to buy him for her. But oh my goodness, it wasn't easy! Caroline had made twenty owls and they sold out within minutes of her putting them in her etsy shop. Luckily I was a fast 'clicker'! When I received him I was thrilled to bits - Caroline is obviously a very talented seamstress and a perfectionist at that. How am I going to give him to my Goddaughter?? He looks so cute on my bookshelf...

As a little thank you to Caroline, I stitched up this owl freebie, adapting the colours so that he looked a little like Oscar (yes, I've already named him...). 

Freebie found here

reverse

Well, that's all I have to show for the moment. I have been doing lots of stitching for Easter but I will show that next time.

Regards,

Christina

A Little Late - Christmas Ornaments in February!

Wow, February already? January passed by in a blur, didn't it? I intended to post about this ornies back in December, but (obviously) never got around to it. I think it's fair to say that these finishes are not my usual style, but they were made with the recipients in mind and they seemed to be very well received! They were all stitched on 32ct Natural Linen with lurex, for that sparkly touch!

Who doesn't love Kermit?!

Gingerbread Freebie

This next ornie was stitched for my mum's birthday on January 21st. It's the first time I've used grey fabric and I've got to say - I love it! The snowflakes added to the bottom were from Mouse - a lovely added extra in my Christmas exchange parcel. 

'Let it Snow' Stacy Nash Primitive Freebie

32ct Dove Grey Belfast Linen

And finally, as a Christmas treat I received this lovely ornament from the very talented Lainey. Her finishing is SO neat. We all know that Lainey has a soft spot for Snowmen and I'm so thrilled that I now have my very own Lainey Snowman creation! Thank you Lainey, he looks fab on my ornie tree! :0)

I'll be back soon with more finishes...

Regards,

Christina

First Post of 2013 (The titles will hopefully become more creative...)

Wow, did I really not post AT ALL in December - my favourite month of the year?! Unfortunately I succumbed to a terrible chest infection in the middle of the month and it practically ruined Christmas for me. :0( It lingers still, but I am at last on the mend so I won't dwell on it too much...

Although I didn't write a post in December I did enjoy reading all of your festive posts and they really got me into the Christmas spirit. I really love to see how others decorate their homes at Christmas time. 

Just before Christmas I participated in the Christmas round of the Stitched with Love exchanges. My exchange partner was Jacqui (no blog). The ornie I stitched for her was an old favourite (freebie) of mine from Alexandrina's blog. I love triangular finishes but I think I age a few years each time I complete one! Jacqui emailed to let me know how much she liked everything I sent and how much she has enjoyed using some of the 'bits and bobs' included in the package. 

Beautiful pins from Nataly's Needle Creations

I was very excited when I received my parcel. Do you see the spotty envelope in the photo below? How cool is that?! I was fit to burst and I hadn't even opened the envelope! lol. The stitched ornie is just beautiful - and so me. It went straight on my Christmas tree. The added extras are just my taste too, they will be put to very good use when I start experimenting with different finishes this year (my New Year's resolution is to be a bit more adventurous with my finishes!). The ribbons are so pretty and introduced me to a new website for purchasing good quality ribbon. Just in time to stock up on stocking fillers for family and friends. Oh, and I was even more excited when I found out who had sent the parcel - none other than Mouse herself! ;0) I've admired Mouse's finishes for many months. You really spoilt me Mouse - thank you so much - it was a lovely Christmas surprise. 

Ok, well I'll sign off there. Being out of blogging practise means that this post has taken me hours to put together!

Regards,

Christina