International Hermit and Stitch Weekend - January

As it was so cold this weekend, it was the perfect excuse to "Hermit and Stitch"!  I've been a little lapse in sharing pictures of Pyramid 4, which has been my primary focus since before Christmas.  Once I've finished this post, I'll make a point of updating my "Work in Progress" tab so that you can see the recent pictures.  However, I'll show you the most recent progress from this weekend!

This was the starting point on Saturday morning:

....and where I got to on Sunday night:

As you can see, not far to go now, so I think I'm going to stick with it until it's completed.  I know I was going to start a rotation, but once this is done, I will start it!

YOTA (Year of the Acronym)

YOTA is a Stitch A-Long (SAL) that is being hosted by Pull The Other Thread.  It's a UFO SAL (hence Year of the Acronym!), so basically any project that has been left by the wayside and unfinished.

I've not really set any firm goals for this year, I generally fail, so rather than set myself up to be disappointed I've replaced them with "loose plans"!

1. Stitch QS Clara - any progress is a step forward
2. Try and finish Pyramid 4
3. Don't be sucked in by too many SAL's! (Note...."Too Many", allows for being slightly sucked it!")

Handily, QS Clara falls into the YOTA criteria, so YAY!  I've not stitched on her yet, so this will be my starting point for the year;

I'm setting up a tab specifically to track my progress for this to make it easy to see how it goes.  I've no idea how much will get stitched, but any stitches at all will be a step forward!

Christmas Stitching & Presents

I haven't made a post yet to thank the people who were lovely enough to buy me stitching gifts this year for Christmas, apologies for all the pictures!

Kim from Sense and Stitchability gifted me the gorgeous Elsa - Kordek from Tilton Crafts

Alicia, The Crafty Princess gifted me not 1 but 2 lovely charts from Heaven and Earth Designs!

Mini Snowflake Daydreams

and A Little Bit of Magic - Spangler

The lovely lady from Pull The Other Thread gifted me the stunning Anastasia - Zielinska, also from Heaven and Earth Designs

The poorly Nikki, who's been suffering from stitching withdrawal after a shoulder surgery gifted me the wonderful chart for  Once Upon a Midnight Dreary - JBG along with the material pack for it that Heaven and Earth Designs also sell!  I suspect she's trying to lead me astray!

I was also lucky enough to receive an Amazon voucher from the lovely Rachel and her sister Petrina, who have a knitting and stitching blog here!  

Hubby, the well trained man that he is, also bought me some stitchy bits too!  I got a kit from Gecko Rouge called Jaunee - Koresh.  

He knows of my love of Angels and my taste in art and picked really well!  I was also fortunate enough to get a voucher for Gecko Rouge from my dear friend Lesli, so I'm taking my time to pick something else out too!  There are several that have caught my eye and deciding is hard!  I've joined the Gecko Rouge FB group and one of the new releases is this:

I keep going back to look at it so this may well be my next purchase!  Although Maleficent, Black Magic Unicorn and Daemon in Rosa are also right there too!

Hubby also bought me my first Gorjuss kit too!  He chose The Fox, which is so cute....well they all are really!

What can I say, but a massive Thank You to all of my lovely friends.  I count myself so blessed to have met so many wonderful people through online forums and blogs.  You make my life so much brighter!

Happy New Year!

Just wanted to wish all my followers a very Happy New Year!  I hope that 2015 brings good things for all of you and your loved ones, with plenty of stitchy time!

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays

Well it's that time of year again and like most other people, I've been crazy busy buying gifts, wrapping them and cleaning and tidying like mad getting ready for guests!

I've done some stitching, although not a lot, but I will share my Saturday SAL progress!

It's coming along slowly, but I'm going to be naughty and hopefully stitch a little on it today as I'm feeling a bit festive!

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays for those that celebrate.

Giveaway Winner!

So I used the useful random.org number generator and the comments in order of posting and the winner of a £10/$15 voucher is........

Linda!

.......and because I'm feeling the Christmas spirit, I decided to pick an extra winner.....

Thea!

Congratulations both!  If you want to drop me a message and let me know what store you'd like your voucher for and the email address to send it to, I'll get it sorted ASAP!

I'm so sorry I couldn't give you all a little something and I really appreciate all the support and comments you've left for me in the last 3 years.  Thank you all very much!

I've been naughty......

I've not posted my progress on the Saturday SAL for a couple of weeks....I know, I'm soooo naughty.  I may also have splashed out on a few charts from Love Thy Thread, as sadly as of tonight they are no longer in business :(  I had to get them before they disappeared!  There were so many I wanted but felt that being this close to Christmas I had to be brutal.

 

Mermaid

Bumblebee

  

Snails

Autumn Leaves

Rose

Alley by the Lake

These are my "catch-up" Saturday SAL pictures!  I have been stitching each week, just slacked and didn't write a post!

I've also stitched a bit more of my Pyramid too!

I do have a general "hope", rather than a plan, to finish it next year but the main thing is that I'm enjoying stitching it and I'll stick with it for now until I feel like a change! I may switch back to some kind of loose rotation next year but I'm still trying to figure out how it will work.

Oh, if you do manage to read this post today, you still have time to enter my giveaway, click here! There is also a HAED 50% off sale and a last chance to grab any of those Love They Thread charts you may be wanting!

Saturday SAL, Sales and Giveaways!

It's coming up to the Holiday season and I love Christmas.  It's funny, I never used to be that fond of it once I got past around the age of 8, but for the last 10 years or so it's become my favourite time of year, I love shopping for gifts, the bright lights, the Christmas Markets, the dark nights and the songs.  I have a number of overseas friends and a Secret Santa to shop for, which means that I have to have a number of gifts ready to posted by the beginning of December, although it may seem like ages away, it really comes up so quickly!

I'm loving stitching on the Candy Cane Christmas design and although I didn't get a lot stitched, it really was enjoyable!

I had planned to stitch a bit of colour rather than more red, but it just seemed right to carry on with those colours for now!

Love Thy Thread have got a sale on at present, a whopping 40% off!  Go on, have a look....I dare you!

Nancy at Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe is running her annual 25 days of Christmas event, please drop by and have a look, you never know, you might even be lucky enough to win!

To finish off, the photo I took last time of Pyramid 4 was terrible, the colours looked really washed out, well I've taken a slightly better one that shows the vibrant bright colours!

Also, just a reminder.....if you haven't entered my blogversary giveaway please do so!  For all the details click here!

Blogversary Giveaway

As it's been 3 years since I started blogging in my little corner of cyberspace, I figured it's about time I did a giveaway as I've not had one before.  As people have such varied likes and dislikes, I've decided that rather than dig out a load of stuff or purchase some items, why not give away a voucher, then the winner can choose their own prize!  It'll be for £10/$15 (or equivalent local currency).  I'm not one for rules really but a few might be helpful:

1. Please be a follower of my blog (please click the Google follow thing if you haven't already, Bloglovin followers are also included).

2. The voucher must be for a crafty store that allows me to purchase online vouchers

3.  Please post a comment on this post so that I know you would like to be entered.

I'll leave it open until the 30th November 2014, as I know sometimes people get a little behind on reading, that should give a fair chance for everyone to enter.

I'm Late....I'm Late.....

Anyone who knows me in the slightest knows that I am often late!  I've been away for a while visiting family and I got back then had a cold!

I did manage to stitch a little on the Saturday SAL piece, although not as much as I wanted.

As you can see, I finished the "M" and I moved on down to the "C"!  I'm hoping next time that I might get to play with some colour!

Since I got back, I've switched to stitching on Pyramid 4 - Marchetti (HAED).  This is where I'm up to now:

It's not a great photo as the light has been terrible due to the weather, but at least it gives you an idea of where I am.

If you've ever noticed the little widget thingy on the sidebar, you'll see that I missed my Blogversary!  Well I've decided to have a slightly belated giveaway.  I'll make a post after this one with all the details in so it's easy to keep separate!