The Alphabet Club - Detention for Letter "E

"They only met online, but it changed their lives forever"

Yesterday was the first Saturday in December.... 

which means it is time to post for

"The Alphabet Club" (TAC)

Sorry but it would appear that I am late for detention this month... and I have failed in my homework over the last month as I haven't managed to start stitching on Kitty "D" or even "E".  For those of you that haven't seen the kitties so far I have managed to finish the first three in the entirety now...

When doing my research for the "E" post I discovered we actually don't have a lot of slang starting with "E", but I do have two for you.  Both are probably not just Aussie words... but we do use them alot...

Earbashing: nagging, non-stop chatter
Esky: large insulated food/drink container for picnics, barbecues etc.

So seeing as I can't give you lots of "E" words how about some strange Aussie animals starting with "E"?

Echidna - sometimes known as spiny anteaters, belong to the family Tachyglossidae in the monotreme order of egg-laying mammals. Their diet consists of ants and termites, but they are not closely related to the true anteaters of the Americas. Echidnas live in Australia and New Guinea.

Echidnas evidently evolved between 20 and 50 million years ago, descending from a platypus-like monotreme.  This ancestor was aquatic, but echidnas adapted to being terrestrial so they could live life on land.

The echidnas are named after Echidna, a creature from Greek mythology who was half-woman, half-snake, as the animal was perceived to have qualities of both mammals and reptiles.

Emu - the second-largest living bird in the world by height after its relative the ostrich. It is endemic to Australia where it is the largest native bird.

Emus are soft-feathered, brown, flightless birds with long necks and legs, and can reach up to 1.9 metres (6.2 ft) in height. Emus can travel great distances, and when necessary can sprint at 50 km/h (30 mph); they forage for a variety of plants and insects, but have been known to go for weeks without eating. They drink infrequently, but take in copious amounts of water when the opportunity arises.

While I have never seen an Echidna in the wild I have seen plenty of emus!  In the Pilbara town that I grew up in we had a very friendly emu named "Hookey" who used to come to visit us in the early 70's. One of our favourites things to do was put a biscuit on our heads and Hookey would then take the biscuit off our head ever so gently!  Unfortunately as the town grew and more people arrived dear old Hookey was taken away as the new people that came from town were frightened of him.

So that's it for the "E' post.... short and sweet!  Next month hopefully I will have an update on my ABC Chats for you to see.

If you would like to join in the fun of "The Alphabet Club", pop over to Chiara's blog (The Grey Tail) to see what all the fun is about and link up your post for the Letter "E".



Cheerio for now!
Hugs xx

More Christmas Finishes....

Hello again!  Goodness it ended up being a couple of weeks between posts. Work has been stupidly busy the last few weeks and I have been collapsing in a heap every weekend lately and, unfortunately the last thing my brain has been able to handle is facing the computer and blogging!  I have managed some stitching throughout the week but not on Friday nights... so I have nothing to report for the Friday Frolics blog, and I missed FNSI last weekend! (I had every intention of stitching but the office Christmas party had other ideas.... I so should have left early!!) This post is also a slightly late post for IHSW.... oops....

So onto the stitching update!

Surprise, surprise... I do have two finishes to show you today!  Both are "entries" in the Christmas Ornie SAL Blog... October's theme was Angels and November's theme is snowflakes / snowman or a winter scene.

October's theme first:
Remember some time ago I showed you my "Joy Angel" and she was looking bit strange....

Well, she is all finished now and currently on her way to England to be added to the Christmas Tree of Joy that Clare-Aimetu is organising for her local church.  Hopefully the tree will be full of cross stitched ornies from around the world all with the word "Joy" on them in one form or another.

The chart for this design can be found in the Cross Stitch Christmas magazine (1999), the design is called "Joyful Angels Triptych" (Designer Mona Eno).  There are three angels to stitch but I chose this one as she has "Joy" on her banner!  I stitched her on "Waratah" 32 count fabric from Stitches and Spice with DMC and Kreinik threads.  Unfortunately the shine I added to her wings doesn't really sparkle in the picture but it is there!

The second finish that I have to show you is my choice for November's theme.  I love snowmen and had a terrible time choosing which one to stitch.... so in the end I didn't do any!! Instead I went with a Fizzy Moon freebie and shoe-horned this into the wintery scene choice!

This freebie was published in the Cross Stitch Card Shop magazine (issue 92).  I decided to cover the plain white card with a vintage winter scene scrapbook paper that I had and then added a snowflake to fill in the rather large white space at the top.

This card is going to head off to the USA soon... The Birthday Thread Exchange Group that I am in on FB is doing a Christmas Thread Exchange, so I thought it would be nice to stitch a card instead of sending a bought one!

Well, that's all I have to show you today... the last couple of weeks stitching has been all about finishing these two pieces!  Now it's back to my November Halloween piece....

See you again soon.... have a great week!
Hugs xxx

Mini Finishes on Show!

Nope... sorry.... no Frolicking was had on Friday.... we went and watched Daniel Craig in Spectre.  I just can't go past a James Bond movie - they are always so good for a laugh, and this one proved to be a right giggle in places! :o)

So I may not have stitched on Friday night.... but I did get some stitching done over the weekend while watching the cricket match between Australia and New Zealand.  I know I should have actually gone to the cricket seeing as it is on at the WACA at the moment.... but then I wouldn't have been able to stitch, especially seeing as Saturday was a whopper of a hot November day - 40 deg C! Hottest November day in years and then we finished up with a couple of wonderful thunderstorms that night. Unfortunately one of the thunderstorms happened right when everyone was signing Happy Birthday to Prince Charles... oops....

Now as my title suggests I have finishes to show.... and I am very pleased to show you my finished Cats and Mice...

First up I want to show you my ABC Chats from Les Brodeuses Parisiennes...

When I last showed you these gorgeous little beauties on my TAC post I had just started on "C"

ABC Chats as at 7 November 2015

Now "C" is finished.....

ABC Chats "C" finished 15 November 2015

I also finally got off my backside and ordered all the missing threads that I needed to finish off "A" and "B"... so that's all three done and dusted!  Right now my TAC ABC Chats afghan looks like this:

ABC Chats as at 15 November 2015

Aren't they so cute?  That is 3 down.... only 23 more to go!!  I must try and make a start on "D" before the month ends.... but somehow I don't think that will happen as I have some other deadlines looming that I must get stitching for!

I have also finished the final mouse from the set of 3 Margaret Sherry Christmas mice that I started way back in January!

Now that they are all done I will try and get around to finishing them into a bell pull or something similar...

So that's it... Cats and Mice finishes..... it does feel good to be able to finally show something that is finished!

Til next time, happy stitching
Hugs xx

Gifted Gorgeousness SAL 2015 - Update #11

This month's post is very much the same as last month.... a bit of déjà vu happening here I think!!

Moutons de Saisons "Printemps et ete" - Collection Tralala
Gift from Kaye from Kitten Stitching.  The original post of when Kaye gave me these charts is here.

Tralala Collection - Mouton de Saisons

Moutons de Saisons "printemps"
The last time you saw the cute "printemps" was last month...

"Printemps" - 15 Oct 2015

Because I love this piece so much I kept it out and kept stitching on it in between other pieces, and I am very pleased to show you that a considerable amount of progress has happened, including a frog and restitch of the brown line at the bottom (I misread the chart due to the fold line and stitched it as brown instead of green!)

"Printemps" - 15 Nov 2015

Again another déjà vu moment as this is all I have to show for November's GG post!  Hopefully December's post will be a bit more interesting and exciting!

Meanwhile, don't forget to visit Jo's blog for the link ups to see what everyone else worked on this month!

I do have some other stitching to show you including multiple finishes.... so stay tuned for that post tomorrow!

Til next time, happy stitching
Hugs xx 

If you're not sure what this particular SAL is all about.... Jo from Serendipitous Stitching hosts this SAL - the link to my post late last year about the SAL is here.... but essentially this SAL is about stitching charts/kits or using fabrics & threads that we have received as gifts, won in giveaways or anything that is intended be a gift or giveaway prize... or anything else that you can loosely use the word "gift" for!!  If you wish to sign up for this SAL, click on the button below or the button on my sidebar and you will be re-directed to Jo's blog.

TUSAL November 2015

web image

As I write this post I am watching the BBC News while they report on the terrible events that occurred in Paris overnight.  When we first heard the news this morning I just couldn't believe what I was hearing.... and now I can't believe what I am seeing.  My heart goes out to everyone in France.... I know the French people are strong and they will survive these horrible attacks, but I fear there are dark days ahead...

My TUSAL post today will be short as I am struggling with the words....

TUSAL Nov 2015

Today's picture has the ORT's sitting in amongst the poppies with my Paris snow globe.  As the new moon date was Remembrance Day (11 Nov) and my garden is full of orange Californian Poppies I planned to take my photo out in the garden today... Typically the remembrance poppy is red... but my red poppies didn't re-grow - one day I must get some more red ones in the garden!  I decided to also add my Paris snow globe this morning after the terrible news of what happened in Paris overnight....

Stay safe everyone.... Paris and France we love you and are praying for you...

Hugs xx

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If you don't know (or haven't heard) about the 2015 TUSAL, Daffycat is again hosting the fun Totally Useless SAL (TUSAL).  Essentially we stitch and save our ORT's (Old Raggety Threads) and every New Moon those of us participating in the TUSAL post a picture of our ORT's jar, and then leave little msgs for Daffycat on her blog to show that we have been stitching and have posted our wonderful pics.  Please head over to her sign up page and join in the fun!

New Moons - 2015
11th December