Lovely Gifts from Lovely People

Why do two colours, put one next to the other, sing?  
Can one really explain this?  No. 

~ Pablo Picasso ~

Christmas is gone, New Year is on it's way... and I am back again as I promised to show you some pretty gifts that I received in the mail over the last week or so.

The first gift I received was from Anne from Doll's Musings.  Anne had a giveaway back in November to celebrate 3 years of blogging  The prizes that she was giving away were a choice of 3 designs that Anne would stitch, make up and then send to the lucky winners... of which I was one of the very lucky winners. The design that Anne stitched for me was a Blue Ribbon Designs pretty - "Redbird's Rejoice".  It is beautiful and went straight up on the Christmas tree as soon as I had taken a photo of it!

Giveaway prize from Anne

Blue Ribbon Designs "Redbird's Rejoice" stitched by Anne

Anne also included in the package some thread tied up with green ribbon, lovely buttons and charms, a packet of yummy tea, gold ric rac edging, notebook, some gorgeous red fabric and a Christmas ornament kit.

Thank you Anne, and Titus, for choosing me as a winner of your lovely giveaway.  I feel very lucky to have been the recipient of such a gorgeous gift and your lovely ornament is sitting on the tree for everyone to admire!

The second gift I received arrived in our mailbox on Christmas Eve and was from Heather (Heather's Stitching Story) in Ireland.  Heather was my Secret Santa for the MS Lovers Blog Christmas Exchange.

Gift from Heather - Santa ornament (Margaret Sherry design)
MS Lovers Blog Christmas Exchange 2013

Exchange gift from Heather
MS Lovers Blog Christmas Exchange 2013

I was truly spoilt by Heather as she also included in the package some lovely Dragon Floss hand dyed threads from Polstitches, gorgeous Santa ribbon, gold ribbon, bell pull hangers and a pack of pink spotted aida as well as a.... Margaret Sherry kitty cross stitch kit - "Purr-turbed".  This is my first Margaret Sherry kit... I know it seems strange given how much I love her designs, but all the designs I have in my stash are from the UK cross stitch magazines.  Thank you Heather, I absolutely love the exchange gift you sent me and Santa will be on our Christmas tree every year from now on!

Now for a stitching update.... I am currently madly stitching "Puppy Love" so that I get this finished by the end of the year and I am happy to say that I am almost there.  But no photo yet - I will show him off once I have finished the final puppy!

So my friends, until next time happy stitching!

Hugs

It's a sad day....

My last post was part of a wonderful world wide blogging event for a very special lady, however today while my post is for the same lady, it is a whole lot sadder than my last post.

I received an email this morning from a lady called Katie.

Katie is a friend of Cathey's (Pumpkin) and she wrote to let me know that she had posted an update on her blog about Cathey.

Cathey passed away yesterday, and while I didn't "know" Cathey in person, I "knew" her from following her blog over the last couple of years and it does make me very sad to know that Cathey is no longer with us, but she is now without pain. Although, her loved ones that are left behind will feel the pain of not having her around in their lives for a very long time to come.

My heart goes out to Cathey's husband and baby boy, and to her family and friends. A new Angel is now in Heaven and she will be looking down on her loved ones from up above and keeping them safe.

Thank you Cathey for the wonderful posts and laughs, and even the tears, over the last couple of years. You were, and continue to be, an inspiration to us and your fighting spirit was amazing.

Hug and cherish those that are close to you, and remember those that are no longer with us.

(Web image)

 

Posted with Blogsy

Ladies who lunch!

Hello again!

Oh my goodness.. I just noticed how long ago it is since my last post... I have been a very bad blogger so far this year, haven't I??

I have lots of little things to tell you this time around... where to start?

How about I start with what I did on Wednesday - that's as good a place as any to start especially as it was such an exciting day!

So what was so exciting about Wednesday do I hear you ask?  Well, I met up with a fellow Aussie Stitching Blogger!!  Kaye from Kitten Stitching!

Kaye sent me an email a couple of weeks ago to say that she was coming over to Perth for work and was wondering if there was a chance that we could meet up.  As it happened I was taking some time off work this week for some much needed rest and relaxation... and stitching... so the timing was perfect.  We agreed to meet up on Wednesday for lunch after Kaye arrived in Perth, and before her colleagues arrived and they had to start work.

We had a lovely couple of hours together chatting about also sorts of things... and amazingly we found out that we had quite a bit in common - not just stitching and blogging!

Once I knew that Kaye was coming for a visit I wanted to make a couple of little gifts to give her when we met.  I wasn't sure what to stitch so I went through some of my stash and came up with a little Stitcher's Journal which was a nice quick stitch.  I also decided to give Kaye a card that I had stitched previously and was just waiting for the right person to give it too.

Stitcher's Notebook - World of Cross Stitching
Country Diary Card - World of Cross Stitching

On Tuesday I wanted to try my hand at something completely different and I thought I'd have a go at making a sun-catcher and a scissor fob out of beads and crystals.

Sun catcher & beaded scissor fob

Kaye with the gifts I made for her

How's this for thinking alike... Kaye wrapped her gift to me in orange tissue and I had put a bit orange ribbon bow on the box I gave to Kaye!!

And look at what gorgeous pretties were in the orange wrapping....

Gifts from Kaye

Aren't they all so gorgeous?  The charts are delightful and I think I might just have to look at stitching one of them very soon....  I love the scissors and the cute little bunny with his butterfly....

Thank you Kaye, your gifts are lovely.  I had a lovely time meeting you for lunch and catching up in person.  I hope that we can get the opportunity to meet up again.

I am going to leave my other updates for tomorrow... that way you will have to come back and visit again!!

Until then, happy stitching
Hugs

Thank you...

Mental note to self - don't let the cat step on the laptop keyboard while typing a post..... whole posts can just disappear!!!  And to make matters worse the auto-save happened at the same time so I couldn't even salvage what I had sitting in my drafts from earlier today when I started typing!!  So let's try again....

Today's post is one big Thank You!  Thank you to everyone who has commented on my last post about the passing of our beautiful Daisy dog.  I have tried to personally reply to you all, however a couple of you had "no-reply" on your comments and I haven't been able to locate an email address for you.  Both Hubby and I thank you all for your lovely heartfelt comments, thoughts and hugs.

It has been a very sad week but we managed to survive the first week without Daisy.  Each day gets easier.. although coming home and not having a big bouncing puppy waiting for you is still heart wrenching and can be a struggle.  Daisy's ashes were returned to us on Friday - while it's not the same as having her here with us we both feel that her spirit is still here in house.  I am sure that I have felt her here many times over the last week and I felt her presence very strongly just before the door bell rang on Friday when Lawnswood returned her ashes... Very strange I know....

Now I also have some other Thank You's as well.  Remember I mentioned in a previous post about the exchange that went a bit awry?  Well, since receiving my replacement exchange pressie from the lovely Valerie a couple of weeks ago I have since received another 3!  Lovely pressies have arrived from Claire in Belgium and Francesca and Laura in Italy.  I wonder what my mail man thinks with all these international parcels arriving for me?!?

Pressie from Claire - Dulcinella's Chaos

Pressie from Laura - con le mie manine

Pressie from Francesca - Violetta: a cross stitch lover

I have such lovely friends on the MS Lovers Blog and I thank you all so very much for being so generous.  The gifts are all lovely and have certainly put a smile on my face.... especially this last week.  Thank you :o)

Before I go, I just remembered that I haven't mentioned the postcard exchange that I recently did with Shannon from A Bit of This and That.  Shannon sent me this lovely postcard from your home state of Michigan.  Doing a postcard exchange was great fun.

Thank you Shannon

Now for a quick stitching update.... I haven't done a lot of stitching this week but what stitching I have done is all very secret squirrel stuff for the MS Lovers Blog summer exchange, so unfortunately I can't share this with you just yet!  Once it is finished, mailed and has arrived at it's destination then I will share.  I am hoping that what is in my imagination for the final finish actually works.... otherwise I will be in trouble!!

Well dear readers, that is it for this week.  Hope you all have a wonderful week and for those of you in the UK, enjoy all the wonderful celebrations that are taking place for the Diamond Jubilee for our fabulous Queen.  An amazing achievement for a great lady!

Til next time, happy stitching

Top o the morning to you!

It's St Patrick's Day today - 17th March.  All around the world today is the day that people will be "wearing the green" and will be Irish for the day! 

March 17th is actually the date that St Patrick died in 461....  St Patrick's Feast Day has been celebrated by the Irish since the 9th and 10th centuries, and over the years St Patrick has become the patron of Ireland.  Since those humble beginnings St Patrick's Day has grown to become an international event with parades and parties and lots of "green beer" being consumed all over the world.

The Irish have a number of blessings and sayings for all occasions, and I have found a lovely blessing for friends that I would like to share with you today.

A Wish for a Friend

Wishing you a rainbow

For sunlight after showers-

Miles and miles of Irish smiles

For golden happy hours-

Shamrocks at your doorway

For luck and laughter too,

And a host of friends that never ends

Each day your whole life through!

While trawling the internet for St Patrick's images I also found a great fun website devoted to St Patrick's Day - http://stpatricksday.com/

I hope that everyone enjoys St Patrick's Day no matter what you may be doing.

May your day be touched by a bit of Irish luck, brightened by a song in your heart, and warmed by the smiles of the people you love

Til next time,

Friends... where would we be without them?

Happy Monday to everyone!  This little post has been churning around and brewing in my poor addled brain since Friday, and I have finally been able to find the time to sit down and put it down on paper - so to speak!  On Friday something happened to spark the intial thought and then today something else happened that crystallised the thought pattern and I knew that I had to do this post.

Last week was a very busy week for me at work - one of the other Secretary's where I work was off sick.  Generally what happens when V is off work is that I look after her boss and keep things ticking over for her - which I did again last week.  No problems, always happy to do this (that's coz I'm such a nice person).  However, last week my job was busy as Monday was a public holiday and as I don't work Fridays (normally) I only had 3 days to do all my work in.... no problem - can do my job with my eyes closed - sort of.  The fly in the ointment was that V's boss was going overseas on business so her job was actually very busy.  So what do we have at the end of the week - a very tired and worn out Noni....  I also ended up working from home on Friday morning and then went into the office Friday afternoon - see I told you I was a nice person!!

This week will be more of the same except that V's boss is away so I can hopefully catch up on my work and get V's work under control - yep, she is still off work sick this week (she is not a well bunny at all).... so I am multi-tasking / multi-functioning again this week.... oh well, that's what I get paid to do, so I'm not complaining....

Sorry, the point of this post wasn't to rant on about work and how busy I am, nor how my brain has decided to start short circuiting.... I actually wanted to say how wonderful it is to have such caring friends...

On Friday morning I was feeling none too flash and not looking forward to going to work in the afternoon, when I got a lovely boost in the mail.  There among all the bills and other non-descript junk that gets put into the letterbox was a lovely card all the way from Emily in Florida *Emmie's Ramblings*.  It put a real smile on my face and gave me a much needed boost to get on with the day.... thank you Em, it was really sweet of you to send me the card to say hi, and it did make my day.

Emily's lovely card

Today was another day at work surrounded by masses of paper; emails coming in at the rate of a thousand knots and the phone ringing off the hook and that lovely red voice mail light flashing at me every time I put the phone down or came back to my desk....

....But what did I find on my desk one time I returned after I had been running up and down stairs delivering docs - a nice hot cup of tea!  Do you know when I saw it my brain went - "what, didn't I drink that this morning... I'm sure I did!"  Then I saw the note from Sally *Bizzi Hands* saying that she had made me a cuppa....   It really was just what I needed at the point in time - energy levels were running on empty - I had only had one cup of tea all day (I don't count the cup I have when I first get up - that is mandatory) and I was starting to feel the need for lunch (it was 1.30pm) so to see a lovely hot cup of tea sitting there waiting for me was a real treat - thank you Sally, what would I do without you to keep me sane?!?

Yep, this is what I look like when I need a cup of tea!
Image found on the web

Friends - what can we say about Friends?

"Friendship is the golden ribbon that ties the world together"

When this idea for a post starting brewing in my brain, I had a look on the internet for some quotes and sayings about friends.  Of which there are so many!  There are so many places that we meet people and make friends.  Some people are friends for a very short time and some become life long friends.  Some friends are in our lives to help us through difficult times and then they or we move on - these friends are often our Guardian Angels in human form.  True Friendship can spring from the smallest of moments as does True Love. 

I count my blessings that I have such lovely friends - whether they be people I know and speak to personally in the "real world" or be they people that I have met via blogs and online forums and speak to online and through emails.  All of these people have opened their lives and hearts to me and others around them.  Friends are there in the good times and the bad... friends laugh with you and cry with you - and they are there to give you the hug that you need when things are getting on top of you.

I am lucky to count my husband as my best friend, and my family as friends as well - not everyone in the world has that luxury.

With everything that is going on around the world at the moment we are need our friends more then ever, and hopefully we can reach out with both hands and tie that big golden ribbon around everyone else that needs a friend right now.

Yesterday brought the beginning, tomorrow brings the end, but somewhere in the middle we've become the best of friends.

Til next time,