Stitching Update and Some Finishes....

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Hello!  Long time no speak.... It was still January the last time I managed to post on my blog... and now it's February!  At the risk of sounding like a broken record - where is time going????

January Stitching Update:
As I mentioned in my last couple of posts I have been doing lots of little stitching starts for various January challenges.  So how did I go in January do you ask....

**Cross Stitch Crazy 2016 (FB group) - 15 starts in 15 days: ü

**Debbie's Ultimate Crazy January Challenge 2016 (DUCJC2016) - 31 starts for January (will inc WIP's): well... I managed a total of 21 starts and then decided to concentrate on finishing a couple of those starts... so this challenge will carry over now to Feb - maybe! :o)

**Stitch Maynia (FB group) January SAL update listed below:

- 2016 Chatelaine Shenanigans SAL (Start a new Chatelaine or stitch on a Chatelaine WIP): didn't stitch on my Chatelaine but that's ok as this is a year long SAL!

- New Year, New Start! (Jan 2016 - start something new!):  ü

- Year of Starts! (12 monthly starts): ü "Snow Mates" was my Jan start/finish

- Brooke's Books Year Long SAL! (Stitch one of Brooke's ornaments/characters/designs each month): no stitching on my Brooke's Books WIP's in January.

JCS SAL (FB Group) - January: "Snow Mates" - Blue Ribbon Designs ü

Christmas Ornie SAL Blog Theme: Music - Durene Jones' Christmas Chorus ü

Halloween Ornie SAL Blog Theme: Winged Creatures, Crows etc  - stitching Joyful World SAL - January design as it features a crow (not Halloween... but shoe-horned in!) - almost finished

So... onto stitching pics!  In my last post I showed you starts 1-14 for January - below we now have starts 15-21...

Gift from a fellow stitcher

Freebie Cross Stitch Crazy - finished!!

This start is also a small finish..... :o)

stitched in one afternoon/evening and becomes Finish #1 for 2016!! 

Another small freebie - Cross Stitch Crazy

Freebie from Cross Stitcher magazine

Freebie from Cross Stitch Collection
this has been in my freebie box for years.......

Freebie from Cross Stitch Crazy or Cross Stitch Card Shop??

Freebie from Cross Stitch Crazy

So that's all the new starts so far for 2016....

Finishes:

You saw Finish #1 earlier in this post (Cherries Notebook) but wait, there is more....

Here are Finishes #2 and #3 for 2016!

"Snow Mates" - Blue Ribbon Designs
Just Cross Stitch 2015 Ornaments Magazine

"Snow Mates" is the January ornie for the JCS SAL FB group and was my start #9 for the January challenges and is Finish #2 for 2016.

(I don't think that I have mentioned the JCS SAL in a post yet... so in a nutshell it is a Facebook group where we are all stitching ornies from the Just Cross Stitch 2015 Christmas Ornaments magazine.  We took a vote on what 12 ornies we would like to stitch for 2016 and the top 12 won! Each month during 2016 we will all stitch the same ornie that month.  If you don't like a month's ornie you can take a wildcard and stitch another ornie from the magazine for the month. Great plan, hey!)

"Christmas Chorus" designer: Durene Jones
Cross Stitch Card Shop #93

"Christmas Chorus" designed by Durene Jones is my Finish #3 for 2016.  This little cutie is my January entry for the Christmas Ornie SAL 2016 - theme was Music.

February Stitching Plans:

Stitch Maynia's February SAL is "We Love Stitching" (Valentine's theme/or stitching anything we love - can be designer/design/fabric/etc - as long as we love it!)

JCS SAL (FB Group): "Winter's Eve" designer The Prairie Schooler

Christmas Ornie SAL Blog Theme: Snow - "Snow Mates" is my February entry and that is already done! ♥- ü

Halloween Ornie SAL Blog Theme: Mummies and Monsters

So that's it for this marathon post..... hope I didn't bore you too much with my rambling!  See you all again real soon for the next round of TUSAL, Alphabet Club and GG posts that are all due in the very near future!

Take care and happy stitching

Hugs xx

TUSAL & Stitching Update

A new year, a new moon and a whole lot of new ORT's to collect!

ORT's December 2015 / January 2016

The picture shows all the ORT's from the last TUSAL pic to the other day in the small tin... the big tin is all of my 2015 ORT's.   I managed to collect quite a few last year... let's see what happens in 2016!

Stitching Update:

As I mentioned in my 2016 stitch goals post I am again doing the January challenges and a couple of other SAL's this year.  Below are the pictures from the last 14 days of stitching starts.

As you will probably notice most of these are little starts from my collection of magazine freebies... which means I should have lots of finishes this year!

Before I go, I must apologise as I haven't been around blog visiting for ages - I just don't seem to find the time at the moment but I am working on a plan to organise my spare time (what spare time!) so that I can fit in blog reading again......

Thank you to everyone that visits my blog and thank you for all the lovely comments everyone leaves.... I noticed that a lot of you liked my mention of Fantales from the "F" post so I think it might be giveaway time soon with the prize being "Fantales"! :o)

Be back soon with start #15 and more info on the previous starts as they become finishes....

Til next time, happy stitching

Gifted Gorgeousness SAL 2016 - Update #1

Yes, you guessed it!  GG is happening again this year..... I am hoping that this year I will finish the last couple of 2015 GG WIP's that I currently have on the go as well as have some new gifts to show you as the year progresses.

For today's post though I do have two gifts that I received over the last couple of weeks and a recap of two stitching gifts that I sent out after the December GG post.

First up is this beautiful gift from Nadine (Jocodine).  Nadine sent me this gorgeous Tilda Christmas Tree that she made - in each of the little packages and boxes there was a charm or button.... it is just delightful.  The Tilda girl even has a kitty!  Thank you Nadine... I absolutely love it :o) ♥

Tilda Christmas Tree from Nadine

The second gift I received was part of the Christmas Card exchange that I mentioned on my Christmas Finishes post.

Package has the kitty seal of approval!

Included in the christmas package Mary sent a little Flower Owl kit which I have already started... so hopefully that means I will have a little GG finish next month!

Now a quick refresh... below are the two gifts I sent out in December last year......

Gift for Claire

Christmas Card for Mary (FB Thread Exchange Group)

Well, that's it for the first GG post of 2016.  I really enjoyed seeing all the GG posts last year and I know that this year will be even better.  If you pop over to Jo's blog and read her January GG post she has listed some fab stats on the 2015 GG SAL.

Til next time, happy stitching

Jo from Serendipitous Stitching hosts the Gifted Gorgeousness SAL.  The GG 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.

The Alphabet Club - Detention for Letter "F"

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

2016 is here..... and I missed Saturday's Detention!  Oops!! 

But as the old saying goes - better late than never!  So here goes, it's time for

"The Alphabet Club" (TAC)

I must hang my head in shame.... no update on the ABC Chats again this month..... so they still look the same as they did last month.... I am now 3 letters behind in my stitching on this one (ooh... 3 new starts for the January challenge!!)

So.... "F".... what did I find that we Aussies like to say beginning with "F"?

Fair dinkum: true, genuine
Fair crack of the whip: ease up; don't be too hard on someone - give them a fair go
Fair suck of the sav!: exclamation of wonder, awe, disbelief ("sav" is also slang for a savaloy - type of hot dog sausage) 
Fairy floss: candy floss, cotton candy
Flake: shark's flesh (sold in fish & chips shops)
Flake out: fall asleep, tired
Flat out like a lizard drinking / Flat chat / Flat out: extremely busy or travelling very fast
Footy: Australian Rules football
Fremantle (Freo) Doctor: the cooling afternoon breeze that arrives in Perth from the direction of Freo (we Perth-ites call the Freo Doctor our saving grace on a hot summer's day)
Freo: short for Fremantle in Western Australia (best place for coffee and fish & chips by the beach!) and the adopted home of AC/DC's Bon Scott!! (his grave and memorial statue are located in Freo)
Fruit loop: fool, silly...
Full as a goog (or boot): full of food after a big meal or drunk (boot)

Food beginning with "F"... well on this occasion I just can't go past one of my favourite lollies:

It's the tales for movie fans that make it famous.

Fantales - a favourite Australian food, the delectable bite-sized treat is made up of chewy caramel coated in milk chocolate.  It's renowned for it's yellow and blue wrapping scribed with movie trivia, a marketing move that has endeared the treat to DVD groupies and movie goers over the years.  I grew up with these... and I still love them! Yummy :o)

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 "F".

I will be back over the next couple of days with a January stitching update.... happy stitching



Cheerio for now!
Hugs xx

Happy New Stitchy Year

Wow, where did 2015 go - it seems like every time I blink lately another day/week/month went by - I think I will have to stop blinking! (Dr Who fans will get the reference!!)

I thought today would be a good opportunity to look back on 2015 with regards to my stitching goals and tick off the achievements and move the unfinished ones onto another year!

As frequent readers will remember I signed up to do some crazy stitching challenges in 2015, the two main ones being;

*Debbie's Ultimate Crazy January Challenge 2015 (DUCJC2015) - 31 starts for January
*2015 Crosstitch Crazy Event - 15 new starts over 15 days in January

The original post on my 2015 plans is here. I also set up a page on my blog to try and keep a track of all the stitched pieces/WIP's.  The starting bit was easy enough... but the finishes... well that's another story!!

As well as the 2 Crazy challenges I also stitched throughout 2015 for the Hallowe'en Ornie SAL blog, the Christmas Ornie SAL blog, the Gifted Gorgeousness SAL and the Alphabet Club.

So what are the numbers involved?  Well....

New 2015 starts: 37
Old WIP's: 7
2015 Finishes: 20 (inc 3 x ABC Chats & 4 x Sneak Peak Halloween motifs)
2015 Final Finished Objects (FFO's): 5
WIP's left: 24 (inc ABC Chats as 1 item for the time being)

So what's in store for 2016?

**Cross Stitch Crazy 2016 - FB group - 15 starts in 15 days

**Debbie's Ultimate Crazy January Challenge 2015 (DUCJC2016) - 31 starts for January (will inc WIP's as well as the new starts above)

**Stitch Maynia (FB group) - a number of different SAL's throughout the year
    January SAL's listed below:
   - 2016 Chatelaine Shenanigans SAL (Start a new Chatelaine or stitch on a Chatelaine WIP) - I have a Chatelaine WIP already
   - New Year, New Start! (Jan 2016 - start something new!) - easy peasy....
   - Year of Starts! (366 daily starts or 52 weekly starts or 12 monthly starts) - 12 monthly starts is the plan here
   - Brooke's Books Year Long SAL! (Stitch one of Brooke's ornaments/characters/designs each month) - already stitching the Advent Animals

So as you can see plenty to be going on with......

Before I go let me leave you with a picture of what I have been stitching on for the last week or so.  I was hoping that this would be a last finish for 2015 but things haven't quite gone to plan... but here he is at the end of 2015 - Nora Corbett's Christmas Eve Couriers - Prancer.

Nora Corbett's Christmas Eve Couriers - Prancer as at 31 Dec 2015

So close and yet so far!!  Isn't he beautiful?

I hope that everyone has the most wonderful stitchy 2016....

Til next time, happy stitching
Hugs xx