Winter Exchange - Part 2

I'm back again... two posts in two days.... think that is probably a bit of a record for me!

Yesterday I told you about the exchange ornament and package that I sent to Rita as part of the MS Lovers Blog Winter Exchange.

Today I will show you what arrived in my mail box on Friday all the way from Francesca in Florence, Italy.

I am totally blown away by what I received from Francesca.  I am still in shock by what was in the big box that arrived.... I have been completely and utterly spoilt.

Package of goodies from Italy

Isn't this just amazing....  Francesca stitched the "Trimming the Tree" tree skirt for me.... One of my favourite designs and the full design of what I stitched for my exchange.  You can see the little hedgehog at the end that I stitched for Rita.... Think there must have been some sort of intergalactic telepathy going on here!!

I just love this tree skirt!  I love the way that Francesca has finished it off the little ties and the Christmas ribbon across the top.  Just gorgeous!!!

"Trimming the Tree" tree skirt from Francesca

Francesca also included some other lovely ornaments, a calendar and a little stocking full of goodies....

More goodies....
Francesca said in her note that the little stitched heart is a thank you
for the pixie gift I sent her a few months ago...

Also in the packages Francesca included some red and green fabric and some lovely red and green thread....  and in the stocking there were these gorgeous buttons and charms...

Aren't these just the cutest buttons & charms....
The snowman paper clip was attached to one of the packages

And then to top it all off... there was also this lovely Lizzie Kate chart and a reindeer pot holder....

Adorable.....

I am completely lost for words to receive this most amazing and beautiful exchange package from Francesca.  I can't begin to express how I felt when I saw what was inside the box.  I have to admit that I had tears in my eyes when I was opening the packages....  Francesca, you have spoilt me rotten.. and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your friendship and for this most wonderful gift.

I have displayed all these wonderful gifts on the desk with the other Christmas stuff that we have out at the moment.  You will notice that I now have an ornament tree on the desk... Hubby and I saw this when we were out on Friday... and I thought that I must have it to display the lovely ornaments that I received.

Our Christmas display for 2012

Time to go again.... with today being Christmas Eve it won't be long til the man in the red suit comes sliding down chimneys and leaves package for all the little children.

Til the next time we meet Merry Christmas to all

Winter Exchange - Part 1

Hello!
Here I am back again....

I have again taken part in one of the MS Lovers Blog exchange - this time the theme was a Winter Exchange/Christmas ornament.  So with Christmas and the posting date just around the corner I went to my trusty old "Best of Margaret Sherry" bookazine.  This book is full of some great designs so I knew that I would find the perfect one.

It took me a little while to pick the design that I wanted to stitch as I couldn't decide whether to do one of the "Twelve Days of Christmas" or something else.  In the end it was the cute little hedgehogs that swayed me... and I decided to stitch part of the "Trimming the Tree" design.  The part of the design that I decided to stitch was one of the hedgehogs carrying the Christmas lights.  They are all so cute...one day I will stitch the whole design.

Finished ornament
Margaret Sherry - "Trimming the Tree"

Back of finished ornament

To finish the ornament I used a red and green Christmas fabric to border my stitching, trimmed it with some pretty beaded trim, a bell and some more beads.  The backing fabric is a red holly design that I thought would go very well with the beaded trim and the other fabric.

My ornament was mailed off to Portugal with plenty of time to spare.... for a change!  Rita was my exchange partner.  Before stitching my ornament and putting together the rest of the package I spent a bit of time looking over her blog to see what her other interests were besides stitching Margaret Sherry designs.  Rita had mentioned on her blog that she has started doing some scrapbooking so I thought I would put together a package of bits and pieces for Rita to use in her scrapbooking.

Ornament and exchange gift for Rita
MS Blog Lovers Winter Exchange

Included in the package were some Christmas stickers, ribbons, pom poms, buttons, brads, Christmas scatters/sequins, Santa pegs and of course a couple of candy canes!

Rita received the package safe and sound a couple of weeks after I mailed it to Portugal.  I am really pleased that it arrived safe and sound and that Rita adored it!

I have now received my exchange package from Italy, so stay tuned and I will show you very soon the most amazing package that came in the mail on Friday.

Til then, happy stitching

Totally Useless SAL - New Moon 13 December 2012 Update

Well hello again.... yes, I am still alive and kicking!

Here we are again - another ORT report.  This is the last TUSAL for 2012. Hopefully Daffycat will host this great fun event next year.

This month I have managed to get some stitching done... but I can't show you too much as it is all secret still. Once the packages arrive at their destination I will show you the wonderful little things I have created.

The ORT's jar is again full... and lots of very pretty coloured threads have found their new home in the jar.  So where do we find the ORT's and the dragon this month?  As it's Christmas they can only be hiding amongst the Christmas deco's!

Dragon, ORT's and the Christmas deco's
December 2012 TUSAL

This year we have decided not to put up the Christmas tree just in case a certain puppy decides to pull it down on top of herself!  So in lieu of a Christmas tree we have a little tiny tree on the desk with the angels and some other deco's.

In the background you can see a little pillow that I recently received in the mail from Valerie from Fee le point.  Is this just lovely?!  I love this little stitched scene, and look at all those little buttons and bits and pieces that Valerie also sent.  Just gorgeous - thank you :o)

Gift from Valerie

I have something else to show you as well.... a stitched card all the way from Anne in Canada.  Last month I showed you the card that I sent to Vilma in the USA as part of the Margaret Sherry Yahoo Group Christmas card exchange; and this is the card and calendar that I received from Anne.  Thank you Anne - a gorgeous card, so sparkly :o)

Gift from Anne
Margaret Sherry Yahoo Group Christmas Card Exchange

This weekend is also IHSW.  This month I forgot to sign up.... oops!  But I have managed to actually get some stitching done... but I'm not going to show you as I was finishing off my last secret stitching for the year.

Well dear readers, that's it for another ORT report and IHSW update.  See you all again next year... Pop on over to Daffycat's blog if you are interested in keeping in touch with what is going on with the 2012 TUSAL, and don't forget to drop in on Joyce's blog to check out who joined the IHSW for the month.  Next year we will hopefully be doing this all again.

Til the next new moon in January 2013, happy stitching and may your collection of ORT's begin again!

New Moons - 2013

11 January
10 February
11 March
10 April
10 May
8 June
8 July
6 August
5 September
5 October
3 November
3 December

Totally Useless SAL - New Moon 13 November 2012 Update

Hello again!

Wow, another long absence between posts.... and again no excuse!  I have been stitching and reading blogs even if I haven't been leaving comments... sometimes I do a fly by read and promise myself that I will come back later and leave a comment and of course time goes by and then I don't get back to comment!!  So I must say sorry to everyone for not leaving lots of comments, I promise to try and do better ;o)

So what has been happening around our little ole' place....

I finished my Christmas Card for the Margaret Sherry Yahoo group Christmas Exchange.  I also made a little needle book and some Christmas pins to send to Vilma.

Margaret Sherry Christmas Mouse
MS Yahoo Group Exchange - sent to Vilma

Needlebook and Christmas pins sent to Vilma

I also had some birthday cards to finish off for the Craftbubble Birthday Exchange, but I completely ran out of time for stitching the cards, so I had to buy cards for the last 3 birthdays for this exchange.  But I still felt that I should make something for the lovely ladies... so I spent a couple of hours putting together three little pin cushions.  The cat panels were the perfect size for a pin cushion.

Pin Cushions for Craftbubble Crazy for Kitties Birthday Exchange

I suppose I had better show you my TUSAL photo for the month of November.... after all that's why we are here!

This month the Dragon has an owl for a friend.  The ORT's have a few more threads in the jar and some lovely purple ones on top from the little bit of stitching that I have been doing on Spring kitty - MS Cool Cats number 3.

TUSAL November 2012
Dragon and Owl

This weekend was also the IHSW - but not much stitching has been done in this house over the weekend.... hubby and I have been way too busy sorting out the house.... we are on the move... but more on that later.

Before I go I must leave you with a photo of Mitzi..... I went looking for her earlier today and this is where I found her...

Mitzi in Felix's basket with Felix's mouse!!

When we were cleaning up today I put all of the cat's toys in the top basket so that they wouldn't get sucked up by the vacuum cleaner.  And of course Miss Mitzi, who just adores the cat's toys, found them.  She climbed into the top basket via the bottom one and selected her favourite orange and white mouse - the same mouse that just so happens to be Felix's favourite one too.  I am sure that she thinks she is a cat most of the time!!

Well dear readers, that's it for another ORT report and IHSW update.  See you all again same time next month... Pop on over to Daffycat's blog if you are interested in keeping in touch with what is going on with the 2012 TUSAL, and don't forget to drop in on Joyce's blog to check out who joined the IHSW for the month.

Til the next new moon on 13 December 2012, happy stitching and may your collection of ORT's keep growing!

New Moons - 2012

13 December

Crafting Mojo has returned!

Hello again!

Just a quick drop in post to say hello and to let you know that I am still on the planet Earth and breathing....
Most of you probably think I have dropped off the planet seeing as how I have been very quiet on the blogging front lately.. but no, I am still here!

As I have previously mentioned, not a lot of crafting has been done around here... but Friday I did manage to get hold of my little crafting mojo and hang on to it for a couple of hours and actually get some stuff done!

Firstly I made some more counting pins with some of the new beads I bought recently.  I tried out a different glue this time - Glossy Accents.  So will be interested to see if they hold as well the beading glue that I normally use.  I decided to use some red and green beads so that I can have some as Christmas gifts.

New beaded counting pins

I also managed to finished off my next kitty card for the Craftbubble birthday exchange.

Finished kitty card for CB Crazy for Kitties exchange

Last weekend was the IHSW and while I didn't manage to get a lot of stitching done I did actually get around to starting my card for the Margaret Sherry Yahoo group Christmas card exchange that I am taking part in.

Christmas Mouse
Designer - Margaret Sherry

I finished stitching this little mouse on Friday as well.  I now need to turn this into a card... which I will try and do this afternoon all things being equal!

I also have to start stitching my next Margaret Sherry design for the MS Lovers Blog Winter/Christmas ornament exchange.  Design is all picked out and threads are all ready to go... just need to start stitching!

Now before I go I will leave you with a picture of the most delightfully yummy blueberries that we picked this morning!  We have been having fresh blueberries for the last couple of weeks but this is the biggest haul we have had so far... yummy!

Fresh blueberries from the garden :o)

Well, that's it for now from me!  I must go and do some crafting and get my next card finished so that it can go in the mail this week.

So it is bye bye from me, and bye bye from Mitzi.

Til next time, happy stitching