The Alphabet Club - Detention for Letter "J"

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

It's time for "The Alphabet Club" (TAC)

Well, it's that time of the month again... the first Saturday of May has now arrived which means that it is time to head for detention and do up a post for the next letter of the alphabet... "J"

There really isn't a lot of "J" words that are unique to Australia... and to be honest I think I am taking a couple liberties with the list below... but here goes!

Jackaroo: a male trainee station manager or station hand (a station is a big farm/grazing property)
Jelly: a flavoured water based gelatin desert (jell-o) - Aeroplane Jelly is the best!!
Jiffy: a very short time eg: I'll be back in a jiffy
Jillaroo: a female trainee station manager or station hand
Joe Bloggs: an average person in the street
Joey: baby kangaroo
Journo: journalist
Jumbuck: sheep (as mentioned in the song "Waltzing Matilda")

I must admit that I struggled this month trying to find something iconic to talk about for "J".. but I did come up with Jaffas!

Jaffas is an Australian registered trademark for a small round sweet consisting of a soft chocolate centre with a hard covering of orange flavoured, red coloured confectionery. The name derives from the Jaffa orange. The sweet is part of both Australiana and Kiwiana.  Through association with this sweet, Jaffa is sometimes used to describe a chocolate-orange flavour.

James Stedman-Henderson's Sweets Ltd released Jaffas onto the Australian and New Zealand markets in 1931.  The confectionery is currently made in Australia by Allen's lollies, a division of Nestlé and in New Zealand by Cadbury. The Cadbury Jaffas are also exported to Australia.

I haven't had a Jaffa since I was a kid... but I do have fond memories of them, especially when we were at the drive-in movies as they were great to throw at the people sitting in front of you!! :o)

Now I am pretty sure that other countries also have Jaffas or something similar.. but I couldn't think of anything else that started with a "J" except Aeroplane Jelly and that's a real stretch for a J word!!

As you have seen over the last couple of posts I have started back stitching on my ABC Chats.  With a bit of luck I will soon have another one to show on the Alphabet posts!

So that's all for today.... it's back to my Stitch Maynia starts now!



Hooroo for now!  Happy Stitching!
Hugs xx



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 "I".  Posting is generally the first Saturday of the month.

April SAL Updates.... May Stitching Goals....

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Hello! Well another month has passed us by... and it went by so quickly that I forgot to post my update/goals on 1st May!

Firstly I have an update on my April SAL's... and then I will list all of my May Goals...

April SAL Update:

**JCS SAL (FB Group) - April: "Very Merry Christmas" (Designer: Medina Originals)  ü

**Christmas Ornie SAL Blog April - Theme: Ornaments & Decorations - "Christmas Bauble" (Designer: Jody Rice / Satsuma Street)  ü

**Halloween Ornie SAL Blog April - Theme: Ghost - "Halloween Portraits - Ghost" (Designer: Blue Ribbon Designs)  ü

**Lainey's Christmas Ornie SAL: posted ü
**Smalls SAL: posted ü

**Stitch Maynia (FB group)
Monthly SAL's:
- Monthly SAL: "April Showers Bring May Flowers" - stitch on any design that contains water and/or flowers:  ü
With Love bouquet - Lesley Teare (Mother's Day Gift)
Snowflower Diaries - Joyful World SAL - February

- Colour-A-Day SAL (24th of month) "Purple Haze"   ü
Started new fairy on Faces of Joan Elliott SAL - stitched all the purple in her wings

Year Long SAL's:
- Year of Starts! (at least 1 start/finish each month): ü
I had three (3) starts and finishes in April (Very Merry Christmas; Halloween Portraits Ghost; Christmas Bauble)

- Brooke's Books Year Long SAL: No progress 
- 2016 Chatelaine Shenanigans SAL: no progress on my Chatelaine WIP.....

**Debbie's Ultimate Crazy January Challenge 2016 (DUCJC2016):
Modified to 31 starts & finishes 2016: as at the end of April I have 16 finishes for 2016 of which 13 were new starts for 2016 ü 

Miribilia, Nora Corbett Designs SAL: (Nora Corbett Passions FB group)

ü Mira, Nora Corbett SAL (21 March - 3 April): stitched on Christmas Eve Courier - Prancer
ü Mira Ladies SAL (3 April - 17 April): stitched on Queen Anne's Lace
-  Fairytales / Fairy Tales SAL (18 April - 1 May): didn't take part in this one

May SAL Plans:

JCS SAL (FB Group): "Christmas Test Drive" (Designer: Mosey N Me)

Christmas Ornie SAL Blog May Theme: Reindeer

Halloween Ornie SAL Blog May Theme: Spiders

Miribilia, Nora Corbett Designs SAL: (Nora Corbett Passions FB group) 
- Favourite Colours SAL (2 May - 15 May)

Stitch Maynia (FB group) 
- "Stitch Maynia!" - the original SAL - 15 starts in 15 days in May

- "May the Fourth Be With You" (stitch on a Star Wars theme design on 4th May)

- "Colour-A-Day SAL" - "Stitchers in Red" - work only on the red sections of a design on 24th May

Remember to post for:

Lainey's Christmas Ornie SAL

Smalls SAL

So that's it... another good month of ticks on my monthly goals.... just have to keep the momentum up now!  Til next time...

Take care and happy stitching

Hugs xx

Spoilers Sweetie!!

I so love that saying.... I don't really have any spoilers unless you haven't seen the latest Game of Thrones episode... which in that case, please look away for a second while I do a happy dance!

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Jon Snow is alive!!  

Not that we doubted that he wouldn't be back one way or the other... 

Did we?

Ok... GoT happy dance is done for today!! :o)

Back to the stitching update....

Friday Frolics
Last Friday night I carried on stitching on the Joyful World SAL "February" by the Snowflower Diaries.  When I showed you "February" last Monday it looked like this:

as at 25th April 2016

I stitched on this most of last week so that on Friday night before I started stitching it looked like this:

After Friday night it looked like this:

I forgot to take a photo of what it looks like after stitching on it on Saturday but I can tell you it is almost done!  So expect another finish soon :o)

Stitch Maynia - 15 starts in 15 days
The (now) annual Stitch Maynia event started on 1st May.  This is a FB event on the Stitch Maynia group.  I tossed up whether to do it this year given all the things that I am doing but then I decided to be smart about it... (hard to imagine I know... but occasionally I do have good ideas!)

I am going to be doing 15 starts in 15 days.... (this is the base model mind you - others are doing more!) So my thinking behind this is:

3 SAL starts that need to done this month....
1 start - Halloween SAL theme (Spiders)
1 start - Christmas SAL theme (Reindeers) - also JCS start is a reindeer (2 for 1)
1 start - Star Wars stitching for May the 4th be with you on 4th May

only 12 to go....

ABC Chats - my Alphabet Club stitching is way behind... I have only completed 3 out of a possible 9 cats! (ABC are done... DEFGHI are late - so there is another 6 starts!)

only 6 more to find now....

Joyful World SAL - Jan is done.. Feb nearly done... Mar, Apr and May are waiting to be started... so 3 more possible starts there..

which leaves only 3 more to find!

Not sure what I will do there but I could get an early start on next month's SAL's... or start 3 new Brooke's Books Advent Animals or a Nora Corbett that I am itching to get on the Q-snaps! Lots of choices for the next 3 starts so stay tuned!

I have pics of the first two starts in May below:

Day 1 - ABC Chats - Les Brodeuses Parisiennes - D

Not a great start... after a day of fiddling on Sunday I finally sat down to start stitching around 4pm and this is as far as I got as I had to take Hubby to Emergency... and that was the end of Sunday!  (I must admit I did think about taking my stitching with me as I knew we would be there most of the evening... does that sound a bit mean??  BTW he is ok now.... just had a reaction to the pain relief that he was taking after his knee operation last week)

Day 2 - ABC Chats - Les Brodeuses Parisiennes - E

A bit better progress yesterday on my "E" start... and after some frogging (which you can see the red glow of...) this is what "E" looked like when I put it down last night.

Before I go I have to show you what my hubby made for me the other day.....

A new project bag!!! The orange embroidery doesn't really show up in the photo... but the front side is "Keep Calm and Stitch" and the back is a kitty! Love the purple batik fabric :o)

That's it for today.... see you again real soon!

Happy Stitching
Hugs xx

Smalls SAL April 2016

Hosted by Stitching Lotus

Today is posting day for the Smalls SAL hosted by Stitching Lotus.  This is my first posting for this SAL... I have always watched from aside while people posted all their Smalls for the month and now I have decided to join in the fun.

During April I finished the following Smalls.  You have seen then all in previous posts so I hope that you don't mind seeing them again.

"Christmas Bauble"

Designer: Jody Rice (Satsuma Street)

Cross Stitch Stitch #208

Stitched for Christmas Ornie SAL Blog

Started: 5 April 2016

Finished: 6 April 2016

Stitched on plastic canvas with DMC threads

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"Halloween Portraits - Ghost"

Designer: Blue Ribbon Designs

Just Cross Stitch - Halloween 2015

Stitched for Halloween Ornie SAL Blog

Started: 6 April 2016

Finished: 6 April 2016

Stitched on plain 28ct Linen with DMC threads

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"With Love"

Designer: Lesley Teare

Free Gift - Cross Stitch Card Shop

Mother's Day gift for my Mum xx

Started: 7 January 2016

Finished: 15 April 2016

Stitched on 14ct Aida with threads included in free gift

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"Very Merry Christmas"

Designer: Medina Originals

Just Cross Stitch - Christmas 2015

Stitched for JCS SAL on Facebook

Started: 19 January 2016

Finished: 23 April 2016

Stitched on 32ct Belfast "Camofudge" from Stitches & Spice

with DMC threads

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That's all folks.... see you next month..

Happy Stitching!

Hugs xx

Purple Haze and more!

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Today is Anzac Day... 

a day when we remember those wonderful men and women

who fought for the freedoms that we take for granted today

I have a bit of a stitching update for you today... and another finish :o)

Finish #16
"Very Merry Christmas" - Medina Originals
Just Cross Stitch Christmas 2015 magazine

Very Merry Christmas - Medina Originals
JCS Christmas 2015

Very Merry Christmas is my finish for the JCS SAL on FB.  I stitched this on 32ct Belfast "Camofudge" from Stitches & Spice.  Unfortunately I couldn't get a good photo that shows the true colour of the fabric.... the progress photo below is a bit closer to the true colour of the fabric.

Sadly I had an email from Noami the other day to say that due to ill health she is closing down Stitches & Spice.... such a shame.  I love her fabrics - hopefully she has enough in stock so that I can get some more of my favourites before the doors close for the last time!

Stitching Update:

Joyful World SAL - February (Snowflower Diaries)
I managed to get a little bit more stitched on the bottom row of "February" over the weekend

February - Joyful World SAL
Snowflower Diaries

Next up is a long forgotten WIP... "Faces of Joan Elliott SAL".  I haven't stitched on this since September last year.  I decided to pick this one up again yesterday for the Stitch Maynia Colour-A-Day "Purple Haze" event. (Colour-A-Day is where one day a month you stitch only that day's colour)

"Faces of JE SAL" - purple haze stitching

For "Purple Haze" I started the fairy in the bottom right hand corner... the Holly Fairy (I think she is called).  This is all the purple in that fairy done now!  Update photo of the whole piece is below:

Well, that's it for this update... time to get back to my stitching again.  Not sure what I will work on today - it might be my Chatelaine WIP or maybe back onto the fairy or Joyful World...  Spoilt for choice at the moment!

So til next time... happy stitching
Hugs xx